#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 12.9 RMU: Lamar Johnson case; Cruz: Russia didn't hack election; Dem Senators Vs Stephen Miller

Episode Date: December 22, 2019

12.9.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump impeachment hearing update; Sen. Ted Cruz says Russia didn't hack election; Sen. Kamala Harris, others are calling for Trump's senior adviser Steven Miller to be fired; We'll take a look at the Lamar Johnson case out of Missouri and other wrongful convictions; The killers of Amber Guyger witness Joshua Brown have been indicted; Turkey Leg Hut suit has been dropped #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. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Monday, December 9th, 2019. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, impeachment in the House Judiciary Committee. They're back with their second impeachment hearing today. Lots of drama today, as one can expect. We'll have the roundup, including

Congresswoman Val Demings making it perfectly clear. Y'all know Donald Trump withheld the aid to Ukraine so they can investigate the Bidens. Why Republicans want to keep lying? Dumbass Ted Cruz said Russia didn't hack our election.

It also was Ukraine. Really dude, really? We'll talk to Terrell Starr, who's a Russian Ukrainian expert. Yeah, the truth hurts Ted. Also a group of senators led by Senator Kamala Harris are calling for Trump senior advisor, Stephen Miller to be fired because of his bigotry.

Hashtag we tried to tell you also remember the story out of missouri lamar johnson one uh black man been in prison 25 years prosecutors say he didn't commit the crime so why are they continuing trying to keep the brother in jail we'll discuss that also the killers of amber geiger's witness joshua brown have been indicted will give you those details and remember uh, colonizers are gentrifiers. That is the folks who were trying to sue the popular restaurant in Houston, the Turkey Leg Hut.

Hmm, well, after the owners got their hands on that email, which I read on this show exclusively, guess what? The lawsuit is now being dropped. We'll talk to the co-owners of the Turkey Leg Hut right here. And for the first time, the four reigning queens of beauty pageants are all black. Y'all know how black excellence works.

Plus, remembering the legacy of the first black feet to a psychoanalyst, Margaret Lawrence. It's time to bring the funk. I'm 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. Let's rolling. I know he's rolling Martel now. Martel.

According to an Innocence Project report, blacks are seven times more likely than whites to be wrongfully convicted of murder and three times more likely than white people to be wrongfully convicted of sexual assault. Such is the case of Lamar Johnson. In 1994, the ACLU believes that the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office committed gross prosecutorial misconduct in order to convict Lamar of murder.

They knowingly presented perjured testimony, fabricated facts to negate Johnson's strongly corroborated alibi, and buried the fact that a prime witness against him was a paid jailhouse informant. He'll talk about what's happening with that case. And the bigger picture is Samil Trivedi. He's the senior staff attorney for the Criminal Law Reform Project at the ACLU. So we had you on a little bit ago. And so what has changed thus far?

Has anything happened thus far? So Lamar Johnson, joined by the circuit attorney of St. Louis, and I can't press how significant this is, joined by Kim Gardner, the woman who should be prosecuting him, has decided that his overwhelming innocence is so clear that he ought to be given a new trial. So they filed this new trial motion in the district court.

It is now up at the appeals court. Having lost in the district court, the district court said, I don't care about this new evidence of innocence. I don't care that he's been proclaiming his innocence for 25

years. It's just too late. So they're letting a technicality get in the way. So we are going to St. Louis on Wednesday, December 11th, for the appellate hearing, where we're gonna tell the appellate court, first of all, this technicality should not stand,

that we have greater issues of justice at play here, and the trial court has all the authority it needs to overturn this decision and give Lamar Johnson a new trial. Now, is this state or federal court? State court. And typically, appellate courts on states love to really give a lot more leeway to the DAs.

In cases like this, you had really greater luck in federal courts. That's typically true. And it may be true here. We're also up against the fact that the attorney general for the state of Missouri is siding with the courts and against Lamar Johnson, so much so that the courts actually kicked Kim Gardner, the prosecutor, out of the case. And she had to rejoin as sort of a third party. And so that tells you the kind of obstacles that we're up against in the state court system of St. Louis. The deck is fully stacked against Lamar Johnson. But we still think we have the right argument and justice is on our side. But again, as we discussed last time, it is stunning to have a prosecutor review the evidence and say,

this man should not be in prison. And these folks are saying, oh, too late, forget that. I mean, they would rather have an innocent man that would rather spend money, thousands upon thousands of dollars, to incarcerate an innocent person than to do what is right

to say free an innocent person. That's right. For hundreds of years in this country, we've allowed prosecutors to use their quote unquote discretion to throw young black men like Lamar Johnson in jail. The second that, oh by the way, a young female African American district attorney gets elected in St. Louis and tries to use her discretion to do the right thing, all of a sudden everybody's lined up against her. And these are the sort of things that is happening with these progressive DAs across the country,

but especially women, black women. We've seen this, of course, in Baltimore. We've seen it in Chicago. We've seen it in Florida, numerous states where these things are happening. Then what you have is then you have the attorney general of the United States. Then you have Donald Trump, both of them standing below before law enforcement officers and making it perfectly clear that progressive DAs, they are in essence the scourge of the earth. And I want to point out the double standard. Just today, Bill Barr, with his handpicked investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, said, I can't believe that they brought this investigation on the thinnest of evidence, right? So when it's his guy, an old white man, getting persecuted, he wants to uphold high standards

and a high standard of proof, right? But when it comes to commenting on these democratically elected female women of color who are using their discretion to do the exact same thing, to stop the over-prosecution of young black men in their jurisdictions, he has a lot different things to say. And so, hearing is on Wednesday.

Yep. How long do you expect it to take before the appellate court rules? These things take time. So what's important here is that we keep up the drumbeat of pressure. So tomorrow morning, the Color of Change is going to release a petition with tens of thousands of signatures supporting Lamar Johnson's case. Also at the appellate court level, the Innocence Project, the ACLU, hundreds of law professors in the field of legal ethics, nine post-conviction scholars,

and dozens of former prosecutors and current prosecutors themselves have signed on to briefs supporting this petition. So that's who believes that Lamar Johnson is innocent and deserves a new trial. On the other hand, all we have is the state of Missouri in the way. Who is going to be arguing the case on Wednesday? So it should be Lamar Johnson's counsel at the Midwest Innocence Project, as well as his individual attorney, Lindsey Runnels. And as I said, Kim Gardner's office has come in as a third party, so they will argue it.

And on the other hand, it's the attorney general in Missouri. Again, this is why we also make clear elections matter. And so we certainly appreciate it. Samuel, thank you so very much. Thank you. I want to bring in my panel right now, Avis Jones DeWeaver, leadership strategist, of course, Cleo Monago, behavioral analyst, as well as Johanna.

Glad to have you back. You've been gone a while. Thank you. Yes, LeBlanc, she's been traveling all across the world, so you're gonna get all the frequent flyer miles in. Avis, to this point with this case here, this is why I keep telling people elections matter.

On yesterday, i was flying back from st louis uh i spoke at tennessee state's graduation on saturday morning spoke to the alphas in st louis epsilon lambda on saturday night we're at the airport and a young brother comes up to me he works at the airport and he says um mr martin i gotta ask you I didn't vote in 2016. You did a commentary where you called people like me dumbasses. Do you still feel that way? And I said, yes. Even more so.

I said, yes. So let me explain to you why. And I understand Cleo's, his point is like, oh, be more affirming. I'm like, no. I said, why call you dumbasses? I said, what's the most important thing you care about? And he mentioned a particular issue. And I said, do you understand

that there is not an issue that you care about in your life that a politician does not impact? I said, if you're driving down a street and you're pissed off about potholes, do you understand if there is a city official or a county official who is responsible for the roads? I said, if you want a stoplight or school crossing guard, I said, political people have an impact. In this case here, the state attorney general, if you had a state attorney general who cared about justice, then that's who you could vote for. They voted, they elected a progressive DA there in St. Louis.

And the folks there have been fighting this sister, trying to steal her authority. In fact, Wesley B Bell, now she's the county DA, right? She's the city DA. Wesley Bell's the county DA. You got two African-Americans who are district attorneys, who are the DAs there in St. Louis. And they have been fighting them like dogs. Absolutely. And so when you talk about who you elect as the governor, same thing. But it's not just a Democrat thing. It's not a Republican thing. Democrat as well. You've got Republican governor in Maryland, Larry Hogan, who has ordered the Democratic DA to take cases away from Marilyn Mosby, claiming she somehow can't prosecute him with no evidence whatsoever. And so the reason I am critical of these idiots out here who will tell you

not to vote is because they're full of shit. Lamar Johnson, let me go in and let me real clear. And some of y'all listen to these dumbasses. Some of y'all watch their YouTube channels and you follow them on social media and you hear these people saying, oh, you should not vote. Lamar Johnson has sat in prison for 25 years. And finally, black folks in St. Louis elect a black woman district attorney who comes in and investigates and says, this man is innocent. And yet it is the attorney general who's stopping that man from coming out and is fighting the district attorney.

Avis, that's why. I don't give a damn how you feel about any candidate. The reality is this. Somebody's going to win. And it's more than likely, if there's a progressive district attorney or a progressive attorney general, it's more likely to stand to say Lamar Johnson should get out and that black man should not be sitting in prison. And that's why voting matters.

Absolutely. I mean, it could not be more stark. The situation that we have right now in St. Louis is absolutely egregious. And you're exactly right. It's not just St. Louis. We are seeing cases across the country where progressive prosecutors are trying to do the right thing, are trying to push for justice for all of us and not just the few. Right. And the minute that they do, they are hitting these brick walls by people at the state level, oftentimes the attorney general or the governor that's trying to usurp their power. So this is why it's so important that we vote and that we vote everywhere, up and down the ballot, all right, such that when we take control, we can use our power in a way that we can actually shift the power dynamics in this nation. The reason why they're trying to usurp this power

is because that's what they understand that it is, okay? This is one of the first time in our history where we've had so many progressive prosecutors who are actually looking for justice and not just throwing people in jail. And they're trying to usurp that. They want that power to remain in the hands of the same people who've had it for centuries,

and they're trying to push back. And if we can stop them, we need to. And the way that we stop them is through our vote. And Cleo, on that point that people don't understand. And I've been saying this that and I tweeted to a bunch of journalists today. We look, we can't expect these other news shows to do it. We have to connect the dots. And so I wasn't just chastising

Homeboy. I asked what do you care about? Because I needed him to understand that there are things that you walking around caring about but you need to understand that politics plays a role in it. And then he said, well

but if I vote, I've done my part. I said, no. That's the end of one process and the beginning of another. Then you've got to say, one, if my person wins, do what you said you were going to do. I said, but the person you voted for doesn't win. You're still a constituent. And you can still make demands of the person.

So what should be happening in Missouri, that attorney general should be inundated with phone calls and emails and folks targeting his office and protesting as well, saying, how dare you? He should not give a speech anywhere in that state where he is not met by protesters saying, how dare you keep this black man in prison?

Well, people who deny the importance of voting could be called DAs. In this case, it means dumb, you know, the word you always use. People who are apprehensive to vote, I don't think it's a good idea to call them that. But you did something I think is strategically important. You asked them what they cared about. Right, but I do it all the time. I tell people, I say, pick one thing. Because there's something you care about.

But to act as if, man, nothing is ever going to change, no. But strategically, I'm getting back to your strategy, which is different than just calling people dumbasses for not voting. You asked them what do they care about. Right, I do both. And that you, well, I know you do both, but I'm talking about what happened on the air. It's like, you dumbass. But anyway, the point is that people don't feel cared about. And when you ask them what they care about, sometimes they're, first of all, their initial reaction is shock. Somebody asked you what I cared about, particularly a lot of black men.

They've never been asked that. So part of what's important to create a conversation to get them to transform from cynicism is to tap into what they actually care about. But I want to get into the larger issue of the systemic concerns around breaking precedent. The attorney generals and all these essentially white supremacists do not want what you're doing to happen because it might change the precedent from their control.

Precisely. It might take the precedent from them being able to lock up a brother as long as they want to because that's what they want to do because they want to disarm black people and stay in power. And they don't want that precedent changed. So regardless of how ridiculous it is, they're going to push back. It's not the same thing as what's happening with the Republican Party and Trump and the life crazy stuff. They want that to stay in place. They can break laws, lie, use the United States' money to try to pimp Ukraine.

No, they can do all that they want to and not show up to court, even have to subpoena and be illegal and wrong as hell. You can call that dumbass, if you will. It is. But they're trying to keep a president going. And I want people on the street that you might run into to understand that we need to change the president by being involved. But I'll close with this.

We have to do work simultaneously around getting us to learn to re-care about each other as a people. Right. Because I used to go to St. Louis. And I remember when I went to Ferguson, I asked them because they had the power in terms of numbers to vote for whoever they wanted to be in power in that city. A city that was 67 percent black. And even after the death of Michael Brown. Right. The folks who still didn't go vote.

And that's not because they were dumbasses. That's because the whole concept of power and being relevant and in control of their destiny didn't compute. I literally asked them because I said, why didn't you vote? You were in power here. You have the numbers here. And they would go into a catatonic state. It's a very interesting culture in St. Louis. But it's not just St. Louis.

There's black people who are not voting all over the country. But St. Louis is a good example of taking it one step further than the vote and running. Wesley Bell came out of the fire of Ferguson and ran for something, and for too long voter suppression and other tactics by the white establishment have made people think particularly people of color that spot is not for me and what these progressive prosecutors show is that spot is for you right that we can have those positions of power so when you talk about what you care about yeah go vote on it

but then go run on it but the piece on only people accountable is still important. Absolutely. I mean, because there's some black people who are physically black and psychologically white. Oh, look, I'll tell you right now, there are black people who have mobilized against Jackie Lacey, who's a DA in Los Angeles. She got to go. Okay. But Jahan, here's the thing that also, again, that's a part of this stuck-on stupid perspective for me. And, again, the people out there who some of y'all are following who are telling you don't vote, I'm telling you they're foul

and they're sick. You got people who are saying, well, leave the top of the ticket empty. Why? Because here's the piece. Because you got people out, follow me here. They're literally saying, well, we've survived worse and so we don't get this, this, this.

Well, it don't matter if Trump wins. That's happening. They're getting paid. They're saying that. But here's the thing. Right now, Donald Trump has already appointed one out of

every five federal judges. Now this case is in state court. Let me give y'all the Ruben Hurricane Carter case. That case, by the Lord, they took Hurricane Carter case. That case, by the Lord,

they took a shot in the dark and went to the federal level. Based upon the technical aspect of the law, that federal judge should not have heard that case. That federal judge should have thrown out the Ruben Hurricane

Carter case. But the federal judge said, y'all continue. He was released because a federal judge heard the case. Yeah. Well, I keep telling these fools, don't listen to these crazy folk. If you say, well, I don't agree with this, this, this, you literally are giving Donald Trump the potential. I need people to understand this.

They are going to older conservative judges and telling them you need to retire. They're going to judges 65 plus saying, why don't you consider retiring so we can appoint somebody 35? What's on the ballot in 2020? If he wins again, he potentially could appoint upwards of half of all federal judges in America who will be there for the next 40 to 50 years. Don't listen to these fools who say

leave the top of the ticket blank. I think that for most Americans, the notion of the federal court system is a novelty. People don't think about how it impacts every aspect of your life, right? So I think it is critical for elected officials and churches and church leaders and grassroots organizations to start talking about the judiciary

and the role that it plays in shaping the lives of people all across this nation. But another thing that I want to discuss is that, you know, when it comes to people of color not, some people of color not wanting to be fully engaged in the process of electing officials, you have to think about it. Some of them are, it's justified, right? Because let's look at how far have African Americans as a group, how far have we really gone?

In the year 2019, we were talking about increased poverty in the African American community. We're talking about incarceration. We're talking about environmental issues. We're talking about high HIV and AIDS rate in our communities. Some of the issues that we were talking about during the Civil Rights era still exist. So to some people, it's kind of like,

does my vote really matter? Is voting just an emotional thing for me? Or does it really impact my day-to-day life anybody anybody who thinks that it's the same today as it is then needs to think about what no they need to think about what would life be like if you didn't have those changes see for some people they haven't seen like significant changes we have to understand where they're coming from oh no no no i understand where they're coming from i think a lot of times we don't even want to hear that that narrative but the point in reality

here's my problem with that questioning the system every day here's my problem with that narrative the reality is i can show you significant changes now i could sit here and say oh well my goodness if you look at if somebody says right now that that the home ownership rate for black americans today essentially the same as it was in 1968 but i can also explain why i can show you what happened in the 1970s, in the 1980s, in the 1990s. Then, of course, the housing crisis in 2007. And then laws that were changed. Glass-Steagall. I can also show you the federal housing changes that actually led to that. I can go through all those different things. But what I will not suggest is that, well, it's the same thing because the reality is this here. Redlining

in 2019 ain't the same as redlining was in 1965. And so, that's why I'm still saying connecting the dots is vital because to Cleo's point, I could sit here and say, yo, I'm good. I got a nice life

where I live. I'm traveling, whatever. But I got to give a damn about Lamar Johnson. I got to give a damn about the brother Reed in Texas. I got to care about. And so I got to be thinking about, wait a minute. I need to ensure that there are people who are put in place in power who also give a damn about them. If I go, man, I don't really see this thing changing, so I'm going to sit here and put my hands in my pocket, she ain't the DA in St. Louis. Wesley's not the DA.

I got a better shot at Wesley being the DA in St. Louis because I voted and Crashler being the DA in Philly because I voted. And let me also remind you, it was a black DA who took a bribe who went to prison in Philadelphia who was replaced by a white DA in Philly. This ain't about who's black. It's about who's right. And I can say I got a better shot because of Mosby. In Brooklyn, they had a better shot because of Kenna Thompson. Aramis Ayala, the first black defense attorney, said, I am not going to prosecute death penalty cases.

What I have to do is I've got to step back and say, hold up, if I'm walking around saying nothing has changed, guess what? If that man walks out of prison because it's right, that has changed.

And that's 25 years. And the point I'm trying to make is that we must not dismiss those feelings, right? And again, it is, you know, the church and various media outlets have a very significant critical role to play in terms of educating voters, right? Because you have to look at it, in the year 2019, if a child were to be born in poverty in the year 2019,

that child would be more likely to die in poverty than ever in the history of this country. So to some people, it's as if has things really gotten better? At the end of the year, a lot of families... If a child was born in poverty in 2019, if a child was born in poverty in 1919... The likelihood of that child not staying

in poverty is very slim. No, if that child was in poverty in 1919, 1929, look, America's a capitalist society. Of course. In a capitalist society, they need broke people. Of course. And they push that. And so the reality is, here's the other piece we've got to own up to. We could have, poverty would actually,

LBJ's anti-poverty programs were working. They were actually working. But what happened was, it was middle-class white folks who said, I don't want my money to keep going to these folks who somehow can't work. And they were actually working. When Republicans say, oh, we've spent all this money and these things were failing, no, things were working.

The problem that we've had in this country, and of course, we're not dealing with a Today Show, but you just had Washington Post drop the story. Almost a trillion dollars spent in Afghanistan and this nation has lied to us and nothing has really changed there. What we have to do, and again,

this is to me how basic it is and Avis, we had this in the 60s. And Cleo, we've discussed this as well. Black communities had citizenship education training. Of course. They had classes. They had workshops.

They were walking folks through. What I'm saying to people, we got to make this thing plain because if we do this, and here's the piece, I don't know what white folks are going to do. I don't know what Latinos are going to do. I don't know what Asians are going to do. But all I'm saying is this here. If black folks do this,

somebody is going to win. Absolutely. And the thing is, it's not even to say that, I mean, come on, things can roll back. If you think it can't get worse, wait and see what would happen, okay? Why do you think that there's this court packing scheme that's going on now? It's specifically to roll back civil rights. It's specifically to roll back women's rights.

And especially mass incarceration, criminal justice. Exactly, criminal justice advancements. It's specifically to do that. So to sit here and cross your arms and act like, well, it hadn't gotten better, well, hell, it can get a whole hell of a lot worse, okay? Number one. Number two, I want people to really realize what's going on here.

There's been a lot of money spent to suppress our votes. Yes. A lot of money. Millions upon millions upon millions of dollars. And if you look at what happened in the last presidential election, what demographic did the Russians most likely target?

Guess what? It was us. Do you think there's a reason for that? There is a reason for that. The last thing I will say is, when you're hearing these people on YouTube talking about how you don't need to vote, I want you to ask yourself, where the hell are they getting their money from.

Because I'm telling you, a lot of these people that have black faces are getting them rubles, are getting money from folks who don't want you to vote. Okay? Not everybody that looks like you is for you. They are getting paid somehow

and it ain't from selling CDs. Cleo, John is right. absolutely, in terms of, again, the reason I asked the brother, I wanted to hear what he had to say. Because one, I wanted to hear what the issues he brought up there. But what I would tell anybody, I don't care who you are. I don't care. Look, I sat on News 1 now,

and I disagreed like all hell when Eddie Glaude said the same thing. Eddie Glaude sat on that show, and he was articulating, hey, leave the top of the ticket empty, because Hillary ain't done this, this, this. And I'm sitting there going, bro, I'm telling you what this man going to do. And then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, what in the hell has been unleashed?

The bottom line is this here. I'm trying to get people to understand. They can't walk around, Cleo, talking about, man, it's a damn shame what's happening to these brothers in these prisons and what's happening in these court systems without understanding that judge likely was elected, that DA was elected. The elected DA hires those DAs in their office. And then those appellate court judges in many states are elected. The state Supreme Court positions

in many states are elected. And so what you do at the ballot box is gonna determine what happens when it comes to mass incarceration and criminal justice reform. Final comment, welcome to my next story. I know what you're saying is absolutely true. I also know that, for example, we were going to be talking about poverty and the lack of economic prosperity among black people compared to other

groups. In a capitalist society that's constantly promoting bling bling and blah blah blah blah blah, you know, bling bling related things, people who are working class and poor are made to feel perpetually self-conscious and inadequate in this society when you have a sense of yourself being inadequate and you watch people like yourself being beat up by the cops or murdered for going on 100 years or so it looks to them regardless of these technical realities that you just mentioned, Roland, and that you mentioned, it looks to them like things haven't changed because Tamir died, Sandra Bland died, Michael Brown died. We can go on and on with all these people that keep dying, and it appears that nothing has changed based on what trauma does. See, that's why I think it's important how we approach things, because trauma can disorient you.

And these people who you're referring to who tell people not to vote are speaking to emotions. They're speaking to their emotions and saying it's terrible what's happening to us and voting is not gonna matter and they get caught up into that because they're cynical anyway. When somebody says nothing doesn't matter that makes sense to their trauma which is why when we approach people we have to do what I call trauma deflection. We can't re-traumatize them by making them feel bad about who they are. Again, I think one of the things you did was really powerful with this, brother, is that you said, what do you care about?

And I ask people what they care about all the time, and most of them are black. And the first time I ask them, they usually don't have an answer because they've never, they're just surviving. And when you're in survival mode, you're just trying to survive. You're not looking at issues of care in the big picture. And we should. I mean, everything you just said about the importance of voting, I know for a fact voting makes a difference. That's why I ask the people in Ferguson, why are you not voting? But they let me know why

they was voting once they got out of the catatonic state. Because I don't think it matters because I don't think I matter. And we got to make people realize they matter so they can vote. And also who you vote for plays a role in those mental health services. See, and that's the piece. All the things when people say we need this,

this, this, it determines on who has power. So they'll certainly keep us updated on what happens in this case. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you for telling the Lamar story. Alright, thanks a bunch. Alright folks, we're going to go to a break when we come back. we're going to talk about colonizing to gentrify. Hugely popular black-owned restaurant in Houston,

the Turkey Lit Hut Club, beats back their nearby neighbors who were plotting to shut them down. They were lying to the courts about why they were doing it, but they were actually trying to shut them down. We'll talk to the co-owners they were doing it, but they were actually trying to shut them down. We'll talk to the co-owners next right here on Roll 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. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered?

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Amber Geiger's murder trial. Police say it was a drug deal gone bad. Now Mitchell, 20, Michael Diaz, Mitchell, 32, and Thaddeus Charles Green, 22, were all indicted by a Dallas County grand jury on Thursday. The Mitchells, who were related as uncle and nephews, were captured and are being held in the Dallas County Jail on $500,000 bail each. Green is at large and considered armed and dangerous, according to the Dallas Morning News. Brown, 28, was killed in Dallas on October 4th, just days after he testified in Geiger's murder trial for killing Botham Jean.

A Dallas PD is asking that anyone with information about the shooting or Green's whereabouts ask to contact Detective Jacob White at 214-671-3690 or jacob.white at dallascityhall.com. Jacob.white at dallascityhall.com. All right, let's talk about a story, folks, out of Houston, and that is the Turkey Leg Hut. A lawsuit filed against the Turkey Leg Hut in Houston over its smokers has been suspended. The legal battle that has been going on for the past couple of weeks ended with the plaintiffs saying they will not pursue further legal action for now.

Hmm, why is that the case? with the plaintiff saying they will not pursue further legal action for now. Hmm. Why is that the case? Joining me now to talk about this, the co-founders of Turkey Leg Hut, Nakia and Leanne Price. How y'all doing? Doing well. How are you? All right. So here's the deal. So all of a sudden they're dropping their suit.

Is it all because y'all got the hands and your lawyers did on that email that they sent out where they even stated what their real reason for why they were trying to shut y'all down i believe that the their initial shot value was the fact that you know they they they caught us off guard. Hold on one second. I'm having some audio issues. The audio dropped out there. All right, guys, let me know where the audio back. OK, keep talking. All right, so what do we have the audio guys? Okay. All right. So not quite sure what happened with the audio there.

Yeah. I can't hear you guys on y'all end. So, so do this here in the control room of y'all kid, work this out and then we'll go right back to them. And so folks, so let me unpack this here. Okay. The Turkey leg hut opened in Houston about three years ago along a road called Almeda Road in Houston's Third Ward. Now, this is, of course, a historic black neighborhood where Texas Southern University is, my high school, Jack Gates High School. It is one of the most historic black neighborhoods in the city of Houston. So they opened this restaurant on this road, Almeda Road, where a lot of black businesses located. KCOH Radio, longtime voice of black Houston, located on that street as well. Turkey Leg Hut then opens and it takes off. People are sitting there going there and getting their turkey legs. Unbelievable response from the public. Well then, in that particular area, gentrifiers moved in. It's near the Texas Medical Center, it's near downtown, and so what then happens is they start complaining

about the owners of the Turkey Leg Hut. They complain about the traffic, they complain about the noise, they were complaining saying, oh the smoke from their smokers. Thousands of people. You go to the turkey-legged hut, folks, I'm talking about the line is sometimes folks waiting one, two hours to get in. Hugely popular.

Okay. So then, of course, they opened up a place called Daiquiri Hut. Oh, they didn't like that. They complained about people parking. And so the owners bought literally several parking lots nearby to accommodate the traffic. Still not good enough. And so you have a residential neighborhood that's literally right next to the restaurant. Now, Houston has no zoning laws. That means in Houston, hell, you could be in the restaurant and have a big house right next to it. That's what you actually have there in the city of Houston. So these folks moved in and then began to complain,

trying to shut this restaurant down. Now, I think we got the owners back. So I'm gonna check with your audio. You got me? We can hear you. Can you hear us? Okay, cool. All right.

So you were making a point. Again, they were coming at y'all, throwing all these different reasons out. But this email, they wrote in the email that the intent was to get y'all off, quote, our corner. Wow. That's correct. But that could not be the stated goal. Right.

And they said in the email, we can't say that, but that's the goal. Correct. What was the response from the community? Because obviously this restaurant is hugely popular. And, you know, what was that response? Well, trying what they were trying to do to y'all because they initially got an injunction where you couldn't use your smokers from what, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.? That's correct, yes. So the initial, you know, temporary restraining order was we couldn't use the smokers from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. There after we filed, when we received that email is when we filed an emergency hearing for the restraining order to be lifted.

And during that time, they raised the bond. So the bond went from $500 to $24,000. And then they lifted the hours of operation from when we could smoke turkey legs. And they only did it from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for those hours of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. And then what happened is that they did not come up with the $24,000 bond.

And so because they didn't come up with the $24,000 bond, the restraining order was null and void. Lynn, first of all, with a lot of people, again, not understanding, that essentially what y'all were dealing with is what black people are now dealing with all across this country.

We've seen this in Oakland. We've seen this in Harlem. We've seen this in Chicago, in Los Angeles. I mean, all these areas where black people have lived for decades. Customs, things are doing. All of a sudden, white folks move in.

I mean you had, hell here in DC, y'all turned the go-go music down. Then you had some white folks who moved in next to Howard University and literally said, they should turn this into a park so we can walk our dogs. I mean, so this, what y'all experienced is what black business owners are experiencing nationwide. Almost normality now.

It's crazy. It is. First of all, I think it's beyond crazy. And you've had to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers to fight this as well. It's beyond thousands and it's crazy, crazy, man. And so what is next? Do y'all expect them to retool

and possibly come after you again? I think at this point in time, I think they're a little embarrassed about that email coming out and us knowing their ultimate goal. I think at some point in time, you know, it's always been something since we've been here. So they couldn't get us with the noise. They couldn't get us with the parking. And so you came up with the smoke.

So my question is that if and when you come back, what will it be? What will it be for this time or next time? And of course, as a part of that, y'all have taken action to address some of the issues. Of course, y'all have bought a number of parking lots in this area as well. And so seven. Yeah, seven. And so anything y'all plan on doing moving forward to still address some of these issues when it comes to smoke or whatever,

so what are your plans? So the plan is to, and the plan has always been to enclose the pits. You know, the pit area as it stands right now, they were built to the health department specifications. And then, you know, when they started to receive complaints, then, you know, what we had built wasn't good enough. And so now it's, you know, they want it fully enclosed,

whereas before it was fine just the way that it is. That's how we've been in business for two years without something like this happening. And so the plan going forward is to do, like we said we were going to do, which is enclose the pits, fully enclose the pits, have the exhaust fans put in, and that's really it. I mean, the smoke has to go someplace, so it's still going to go up,

but it's just going to have a different, I guess, exhaust fans of how you redirect the smoke. From a community standpoint, have y'all been pleased with how black folks have rallied around y'all? And look, a lot of your white customers, too. You know, they got a muzzle

on my mouth, so I can't say too much. So, I can't say what I really want to say. I told them my exact words verbatim how you start off your show. They don't want it like Washington on Alameda. Did you hear me? I heard you. They don't want it like Washington on Alameda, and I'm going to leave it at that.

We're going to let the attorneys take care of it because that's my standpoint. Y'all want 50,000 people on Alameda with their hands in the air. So, you know, they don't wantameda with their hands in the air. So, you know, they don't want that. But the community has been awesome. They've been awesome. The support that we receive has been very – it's been unreal. It's crazy to know that we have that many people who stand behind us and what we're trying to do at every turn.

We have 14,000 reposts in one day on WeSo. We support Turkey Lake. 14,000 reposts, and that's not even all the ones I saw. Those are the ones we just saw on our page. But, you know, like I tell everybody, it's not like, you know, it's different strokes of wood that you can use for barbecue pits. And if you're really a barbecue pit master or you're really cooking your backyard

certain woods give off certain smoke we use the best of the best mesquite mesquite is a heat wood it's nothing that has large you know abundance of smoke out there but kundal is a different flavor but we use mesquite the same wood that the average person uses in their their pit on the daily so you know this is just crazy to think that you would say it's toxic, you know, on any level, you know. And obviously I'm showing some video right now when I was, of course, at your place in September. That's why I look. It's way too much food. That's why I couldn't get any.

I purposely did not get any when I came by for Thanksgiving. I got to spread that stuff out. And I beat you. Yeah, he's like, fix you something. No, no, I'm good. I'm good. I'm going home. I'm going home.

I'm going home to get a salad. I'm going home. Not going to do it. Not going to do it. I'm trying to tell you, OK? All right, Cleo. Go to Houston. It's very real, Cleo.

I'm trying to tell you, Cleo. I've been to Houston. No, Cleo, you've been to Houston, but you ain't been to Turkey Leg Hut. No, I haven't. I'm trying to tell you, okay? All right, Cleo. Go to Houston. It's very real, Cleo. I'm trying to tell you, Cleo. I've been to Houston. No, Cleo, you've been to Houston, but you ain't been to Turkey Leg Hut. No, I haven't. I'm trying to tell you, Cleo. But I'm going. Okay, all right. Cleo, what rock you been under?

You ain't been to Turkey Leg Hut. Rocked us on the East Coast. Trust me, they know about it down there. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, look, it has been been again, it's been a battle. I really do believe that again, I make this point

that the reason we really cover this story as well because we've been covering this. This thing happened in Oakland where a black church, they had choir rehearsal. Inside the church, white guy calls the cops and said they making too much noise.

Wow. And wanted choir rehearsal shut down because he felt they were making too much noise. Roland, what y'all don't know is that you hear about the smoke, but you don't even understand how this has been ongoing. Like, the harassment that we've received from everything has been crazy i think you know we had the police called on us about a dog barking not even that the distributor that brings our wood at 12 o'clock at night yeah somebody called

him out because he was unloading the wood in the back on a pallet and they said it was making too much noise wood Wood. Yeah. It's been, it's crazy. We haven't even, you know, we haven't divulged everything that we've been through because I feel like, you know, at the end of the day, God has our back. But it's been, it's been a roller coaster to say the least. Yeah. They don't know I'm ready to ride it. I like roller coasters.

I love it. Baby, this is legit. Put me in the front row. Let's ride. Well, we certainly are glad to see how this ended up. But I'm quite sure they'll be back. And so Nakia and Lynn, good luck and continue with the success with Turkey Leg Hut. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch. Go to my pound here. I mean, again, this is what they have had to deal with, again, is exactly what black people are confronting all across this country. Here in D.C., Shiloh Baptist Church, they are trying to get them to move. Saying, look, the parking on Sundays is just too much. I mean, white folks are

moving into traditional black neighborhoods in Harlem well they have been beating on the drums for decades oh no there's too much noise y'all can be playing drums on Sundays well when I brought I secured some property in Baltimore that's right next door to a well-known white-run restaurant that's right next door to a well-known white-run restaurant. That's what I would say. And while we were doing renovations, somebody called the police to stop us from what we were doing and to check to see if we had permits. Luckily, we had permits, but I asked the cops, who called?

What we found out was that the people next door wanted to buy our building to expand. And they were mad at me. I'm just breathing in and out, buying property. I'm not trying to mess with nobody. But they took it personally that I bought the property. And I went in their restaurant one time just to check it out, and they said I couldn't come in.

I was not allowed in the restaurant. What? So I know what they're talking about. I know how white folks can be when they want to control an environment and black people let them do it you know when it comes to racism there's always an element of jealousy mm-hmm that we often don't talk about you look at that thriving community it was ultimately burned down where you know there were banks, prosperous schools.

Hospitals. Hospitals, you name it. It was a prosperous community. A bus system. Exactly, which was ultimately burned down over a frivolous allegation. And what it boils down to ultimately was jealousy. But see, jealousy is a neutral word.

It ain't just jealousy. It's black people defying the myth of their superiority in their face. And they're emotionally defying the myth of their superiority in their face. Yeah. And they're emotionally invested in the myth of their superiority. That's why Trump is president, because Obama and Michelle defy the myth of their superiority. And they said, we got to fix this and bring a fool in here to change that trajectory. And it's not just as innocent as the term jealousy.

There's other stuff in here. It's a lot more nuanced than that. You don't murder and kill people just because you're jealous. There is an element of jealousy when it comes to racism and white supremacy. But the thing here is... The thing here is, Avis, and of course I got my hands on the email. They literally said

we want them off our colonizers. Well, colonizers be colonizing. That's really...izers be colonizing, okay? That's really... They be colonizing, okay? Colonizers be colonizing. That's what happened there. It's this sense of...

It's ours. You don't belong. It's this... I'm here, so now everything is mine. It's this Columbus syndrome, right? That once they're there, they've discovered it, and it's now theirs. And they can now tell other people what to do

and what not to do. It is, you know, I would be interesting to see what sort of mental illness is that, right? Because I see that as some sort of mass illusion, like you've mentioned, this issue of this false sense of superiority, but there's also this huge sense of entitlement that seems to be embedded in a culture that thinks that just because they can come to a space 50 years,

100 years, how many years late, that all of a sudden everyone and everything has to bend to their will. Once again, colonizers decolonizing. They've been doing it for centuries and they're doing it now. You know, in the case of Turkey Leg restaurant, you know, what was meant to harm them actually has, in a sense, helped their business. Because I knew nothing about Turkey Leg until this story came out.

And now I want to go! I want to go hop in water the whole time. I want to visit them, but what's happening is when it comes to gentrification, as we all have said, you have folks going into communities that have established traditions and cultures and norms, What's happening is when it comes to gentrification, as we all have said, you have folks going into communities that have established traditions and cultures and norms, and they want to change it overnight.

And it doesn't work that way. And I also understand, like, if you purchase a piece of property anywhere, you want to protect that investment. I get it. You want the cost of your property to rise, not to decrease. But you cannot think that you can enter a community that has norms and cultural practices to just change it overnight.

I think that is problematic. Not them. But that is what we have seen. Yeah. These people have the mentality of a serial killer. A serial killer is not concerned about the reality of your reality they subjectively want what they want and they'll do anything even if it leads to murder at the ending of your life or in this business any of your of your existence or your business to get what they want and often and

i'm being redundant to make a point serial killers are driven by a psychopathological inferiority complex and these people in my opinion have an inferiority complex. And these people, in my opinion, have an inferiority complex. Black people bring an energy, a majesty, an artistry, a cultural stamp, and something that nobody else brings. And I think it raises anxiety

around inferiority complex in these people. So they overdo everything, including gentrification and scorched earth because they have to compensate for just being white and mediocre around the magnificence of a lot of black people. They can't handle it. You know, I would be curious to see as these communities

are becoming more and more gentrified if there is training in place for buyers to understand the norms and the cultural practices of these respective communities. We need to stop letting them gentrify. We need to value black communities that is true that is true but unfortunately we live in a capitalistic society where money talks right let's just be honest yeah but here's vision talks no no no but but

this whole look this whole idea of training uh let's just be real clear okay when it comes to these folks here they ain't trying to be trained that's's true. That's right. Okay, look, we said the same thing about cops. We ain't got to be trained to deal with white folks. Thank you. It's called common damn sense. Well, one of the things that I... And that's the problem here. And what's bothersome here,

and look, I'm telling you, I'm from there. When I say hugely popular, thousands of people coming through each week. Yet in Austin, where they have that popular barbecue restaurant, you don't see folks saying, let's shut them down. See, and so the problem is not, oh, it's hugely popular.

It's black. And it's black folks who are coming through there. And it's black folks who are sitting here there and it's black folks who are sitting here i can take you to montrose which is a largely gay area in houston they got bars clubs they got parking issues they got folks drinking i can go to the heights i can go to all kinds of places here but this is different because also this is historic third ward that they now want to call, like... When I say understand how they're doing it, University of Houston, just understand,

University of Houston's in third ward, okay? Like, literally. If this is TSU, University of Houston is two blocks that way. My high school is right across the street. Do you know what they call that place? University Place. Okay. Okay.

Scott Street. University of Houston. Yates TSU. Y'all in Third Ward. What they've tried to do, where this area is, even rename it. They tried to rename Harlem. So that's also the deal.

See, this thing goes deep. This ain't about training. What they want to do is is they want to completely eradicate all sense of blackness. Like locusts. So we're going to rename this place. We're going to move all the folks out who were here. You go to Miami.

Read Luther Campbell's book. And when you go to a basketball game in Miami, you are on hollow basketball game in Miami, you are on hollow ground that black folks, Bahamians, built. They moved all those black folks off of what is now downtown Miami and pushed them into Liberty City. And that's why they say it's our corner. Let's get back to what black people can do about this. Because the moment I said to you a moment ago

that we need to value black communities and do a pushback on justification. And you mentioned that this is a capitalist country. But let me tell you what the brother did who owned the building that we have in Baltimore. A lot of people want that building because it's in a prime area. While y'all talking, I'm showing some of the food

in Turkey Leg Hut. But y'all go ahead. The brother who's pro-black and afrocentric who owned the building didn't he want maybe i'm saying too much well i'm gonna speak in code he wanted somebody i don't know how do i say this okay okay i'm gonna say it he there were all kinds of people who don't look like us who are trying to secure that property because it's a prime piece of property. And he needed to sell it, but he waited. And when you walk in there, you see, when you saw the

final call, you saw Malcolm on the wall. I mean, I knew this was a black man who owned this place. And he held out, and he held out, and he was literally in tears when I told him that I was going to build a black wellness and cultural center in the same space that you've been blacking, because he's a civil right. He's a person.

I don't want to give too much of his business. We got you. We got you. But the bottom line is that he held out, which he was strategically held out to somebody black, was able to come along and secure that building. We can do that. I do understand that. Gotcha. If I don't comment.

The need to preserve our black communities. And value them. And value them. I do get that. But at the end of the day, when you have someone who can barely make their mortgage, see, this person you just talked about, it's probably from, it's very privileged

to where they were able to hold out. The average person can't hold out. You come to someone, you say, I'm giving you 100 grand for a house that may be worth like two, three million, two years down the line, they're probably going to take it and move on, right? Because the average person just does not have the luxury

to just hold out. Super quick solution. Super quick solution. Super quick solution. When I first moved to D.C. as a graduate student, I lived in a cooperative. It was a community land trust that had purchased the land that that property lived on because they saw at the time

that this part of the city was flipping. This was around the U Street area before it's now what it is today, right? And so they purchased that land to suppress, to make sure that that housing there was still affordable. I bought into that cooperative as a graduate student to this day, completely black-filled building in an otherwise white community.

So what I'm saying is that we need to think of creative ways that we can hold on to property and maintain some level of blackness. And here's the piece. The reason they were able to afford to fight the lawsuit, because black folks supported them. Yes. That's why. All right, folks, going to break. We come back. What the hell wrong with senator ted cruz and these republicans like no evidence ukraine was involved but they just want to convince us ukraine was involved we go talk to terrell star with the root yes see this is why we also unlike the other shows out there the run around time by it hot that they cover black stuff y'allrell Starr is a black, Russian, Ukrainian expert. That's why we do Real News.

Next, a robot unfiltered. If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive. Poet and author, Audre Lorde. All right, folks, hashtag HBCU Giving Day School, Tennessee State University, of course. Yes, I'm rocking their hoodie. I was a commencement speaker on Saturday. Had a great time. Thank you very much, Dr. Glenda Glover.

And so more than 600 students graduated. And so we had an absolute fabulous time. If you go to my Instagram page, you'll see some of the photos we took, of course, with some of the graduates. Only alphas get selfies. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Remember this Kappa wanted a photo.

He got mad because he didn't want a selfie. I'm like, dude, I'm trying to move the line. Like, literally, like, everybody want a selfie? No, I don't want no selfie. I'm like, well, we ain't taking a photo. I'm like, I don't understand guys who, and I'm going to go ahead and say it, you got dudes out there who think it's gay or feminine to take a selfie.

I've dealt with this in other cities. Guys like, man, I'm trying to tell y'all. Man, I ain't taking no selfie. I'm like, bruh, do you know a selfie and a photo is the same damn thing? I take a selfie in three seconds. I am not trying to stay in here and wait for y'all to get y'all camera right.

It ain't matching right. I was like, whatever. I ain't doing all that. That's why I take selfies. I take selfies with men and women. Snap, snap, move the hell on so we can go. So, Tennessee, y'all want y'all to support Tennessee State University, please. Pull the graphic up, please.

Please, if you want to give to them, they're doing a great job down there. Support them at www.tnstate.edu. I'm trying to tell y'all, that's a real thing with these dudes when it comes to selfies. It's true. I'm going to head on to another topic because I'm telling you, they really pissed me off with that uh i don't know what the hell that's all about no they dumb asses you should have said it cleo all right y'all yesterday uh on meet the press uh talking about one idiot senator ted cruz y'all do y'all understand how this man how don trump just made up stuff about this man and his wife and his daddy,

and this fool still support him? Man, rotate. Do you believe Ukraine meddled in the American election in 2016? I do, and I think there's considerable evidence of that. You do? You do? Yes, and Chuck, let me say. Senator, this sort of strikes me as odd, because you went through a primary me say this is you know senator this sort of strikes me as is odd

because you went through a primary campaign with this president he launched a birtherism campaign against you he went after your faith he threatened to quote spill the beans about your wife about something he pushed a national inquirer story which we now know he had a real relationship with the editors of the national inquirer no but senator but Senator, is it not, is it, let me ask you this. Is it not possible that this president is capable of creating a false narrative about somebody in order to help him politically? Except that's not what happened. The president released the transcript of the phone call. You can read what was said on the phone call.

And the Biden's, and you yourself You can read what was said on the phone call. And the Biden's? Let me point out a game. You yourself thought the Biden part was troubling. Chuck, let me point out a game that the media is playing. You know, a question that you've asked a number of people is you've said to senators sort of aghast, do you believe that Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the election? Now, that in a court of law would be struck as a misleading question. Of course, Russia interfered in our election. Nobody looking at the evidence disputes that. But what the media is pretending is, look, on the evidence, Russia clearly interfered in our election. But here's the game the media is playing. Because Russia interfered, the media pretends nobody else did.

Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election. The sitting ambassador from Ukraine wrote an op-ed blasting Donald Trump during the election season. Do you know why he did that? That is unusual. What did Donald Trump as a candidate say about Ukraine and Crimea during the election that might have inspired the ambassador? So you're saying they had disagreements with Donald Trump and they wanted Hillary Clinton to get elected. OK, so they wrote an op-ed. I'll tell you, a Ukrainian parliamentarian.

That is the difference. What you're saying is you're saying a pickpocket, which essentially is a hill op-ed, compared to Bernie Madoff and Vladimir Putin. All right, y'all. Joining us right now is Terrell Starr, of course, a Russian-Ukrainian expert with TheRoot.com. Yes, a black a russian ukrainian expert with the root.com yes a black russian ukrainian expert uh terrell how you doing it's all good thank you for having me all right man first of all for the black folks who don't know how many times have you traveled to russian and ukraine to make you an expert just because you know somebody watching like how in the hell he's sitting in an expert well i have a master's degree from university of illinois where i was uh in russian east european

studies first black person to get a master's degree then i have a master's degree in journalism that focused on eastern european affairs and back and forth to the region i primarily go to ukraine i go an average of four times per year and i will be in Kiev next Monday as a matter of fact Well again y'all I'm talking about when I say He's there. Trust me. He's there Always hanging out there. And so the Ukrainians loved love them. So let's talk about this whole deal man Ain't many bros in Ukraine. True. Nigerians, though.

Plenty of Nigerians. Really? Well, at least you got some company. You got some company when you there. So, absolutely. I have the blackest parties in my apartment. I'm downtown. You can come visit if you want to.

Now, the Nigerians love when you come back, huh? So, let's go ahead and let's talk about it. First of all, man, look, I mean, intelligence community, I mean, all of these people have said, y'all, you're falling for the Putin okie-dokie.

I mean, are you even embarrassed to see these idiotic Republicans advancing this whole deal that Ukraine was involved in this election? I mean, how hilarious is it to watch folks like Ted Cruz and Senator John Kennedy make fools of themselves? You know, I was trying to think about how I was going to respond to this because there are so many angles of what's wrong and what's

screwed up about this. But the irony of Ted Cruz making this false allegation about Ukrainian interference is that there was one point where Eastern European countries, former communist bloc countries, i.e., you know, former Czechoslovakia, which is composed of, you know, Serbia and Albania, and then you have the former Soviet blocs like Georgia and Ukraine and a number of other nations that were part of that 15-unit bloc. They could rely on Republicans to be the party that was tough on Russia. That is what they were

known for. The zenith of that really occurred during the Ronald Reagan presidency when he stared down Gorbachev and when he made that famous speech of tear down this wall. So he was the, so through Reagan, the Republicans were the epitome of the party that would be the protectorate of the states once they broke free of communist and Soviet, of black leadership. Now, going back to Ted Cruz, he's specifically talking about a column by

former Ambassador Vitaly Vitaly, thinking about his name, his name is Vitaly Chaly. And the reason why he wrote that column was because Trump said that, A, I would recognize Crimea, which Russia annexed, as part of Russia, not Ukraine.

He also said that he would consider dropping the sanctions, which prompted, rightfully so, the ambassador to America, the Ukrainian ambassador to America, saying, excuse me, are you literally telling us that you are going to sit by you know our former our number one ally to say that it's okay that putin literally illegally annexed our country and you're going to drop the sanctions that obama dropped which forced the russian economy to contract by more than two plus percent. So that's what he's talking about. So ultimately, the Republicans and Ted Cruz are gathering their evidence and their so-called

witnesses via Rudy Giuliani from the same place that Trump gets his presidential appointees, from the bottom of the barrel, from the bottom of the garbage disposal, because that's how useful the evidence is. Because when you go to Ukraine, you know, I have people talk to me about Trump. Once we go off record, and I obviously wouldn't say who these people are, but they look at me and they say, Terrell, what's going on over there? Or they'll say, Terrell, did you look at what your president said next?

And to be quite honest with you, they catch me off guard and say, I don't know. And then it's something else that he said. So basically in the Ukrainian Rada, he is perceived as a joke. And so are the people that Rudy Giuliani are using as his witnesses in this sham documentary that he's creating when he goes over there. Well, it is absolutely nuts.

Not only that, again, Ukraine expected the United States to be friends, but they now know what's going on here. They know that Donald Trump will sell them out whatever Putin wants, he gets, and they literally are parroting Soviet intelligence

talking points. Literally. It is. And so here's the irony of this, Roland, and everyone needs to recognize this and joe biden actually needs to do more um speaking up for himself in this particular regard joe biden was president barack former president barack obama's envoy to give during the tail end of obama's second uh term in office and the charges of ukraine being a corrupt nation in regards to uh in regards to financing listen it's it's all true uh the country

has been known to uh to leak for an aid like a sieve that that's what we do know what's also true is that anti-corruption activists have been working for years, for the past 20 years, to hold their government accountable. In fact, the country, in the span of 10 years, has had two revolutions. The Orange Revolution, which I was right across from in Georgia after the Rose Revolution that happened there. And then also you have this Euromaidan that prompted the war that's in eastern Ukraine to this day. Joe Biden was the envoy that Obama sent to speak to the Ukrainian Rada and demanded that they work and that they improve on measures that would curb corruption. And they responded, along with the West west along with other western

countries because it wasn't just joe biden it was also the uh it was also the anti-corruption activists that were on the ground there and i know some of them um they pushed their government and so joe biden also was considered to be the person to crack the whip on nato countries to say hey we need to increase these sanctions or push them harder, because it's not just America's side that works. Ultimately, if you don't have the European Union, if you don't have Brussels in cooperation, then singular U.S. sanctions are not going to be as effective. So it was Joe Biden that's largely given credit for that.

That's the irony in all this he's creating a lie that the bidens actually were manipulating trying to use ukraine as a proxy to uh to work against trump but listen prior you know in the midst of all of this it was joe biden that was actually working on serious democracy building that's his reputation there not not not lies that Senator Ted Cruz is discussing. All right, then. Well, Terrell, man, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you.

And we'll come back to you when these hearings keep going on and we keep hearing crazy stuff by the GOP. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Anytime. All right, folks. Of course, they had today's impeachment hearings, and so we got some of the video, some of the craziness that happened there.

Row it! So, Mr. Goldman, let's get to the facts again. During the phone conversation on July 25th with President Zelensky, President Trump was narrowly focusing on his own political survival, using his public office for private and political gain. The truth matters. Then we heard counsel for the Republicans say the president's concerned about foreign

aid because you could kiss it goodbye, assuming that's referring to anti-corruption. But let's look at the facts of the July 25th call. I happen to have read it just recently, which sharply illustrates the president's willingness to abuse the power of his office for his own personal benefit. The memorandum of that call is on the screen in front of you, and it shows that President Trump says, and by the way, right after President Zelensky spoke about defense support and the javelins, I would like you to do us a favor though. So this is a president's own behavior in words. Mr. Goldman, what was that favor? The favor was to investigate a debunked conspiracy theory

related to Ukraine interference in the 2016 election. So the investigative committees received evidence from multiple witnesses who testified that President Trump was provided specific talking points in preparation for the July 25th call geared toward protecting the American people's national security. Is that correct? The talking points certainly were part of the official U.S. policy, and they included anti-corruption efforts and national security efforts, yes.

And those talking points were provided to help the president effectively communicate official U.S. policy interests during calls with foreign leaders. Is that right? That is correct. It's a routine process that the National Security Council does, but the president generally is able to use them or not use them. Witnesses said the president's not required to use them. What was so startling here is that he not only veered off from them, but that he went to his own personal interests. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to get us back to the undisputed facts of the president's abuse of power. Mr. Goldman, as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, when you prosecuted drug conspiracy cases, was it standard practice

for drug kingpins to try to beat the case by distancing themselves from the conspiracy and blaming their accomplices for the crime? All the time. Conspiracies have different layers, and the top layers make the bottom layers do the work so that they're further removed from the actual conduct. Okay. I'd like to ask some questions about the president's role in what Ambassador Bolton referred to as a drug deal did the testimony and evidence compiled by the Intelligence Committee established

the fact that with respect to Ukraine Rudy Giuliani was at all times working on behalf of President Trump yes mr. Giuliani said that President Trump said that to a number of other individuals. And then those individuals, Ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Volker, also said that. Thank you. And on May 9th, 2019, Rudy Giuliani, on behalf of his client, President Trump, spoke with a New York Times reporter about his planned trip to Ukraine. And on that trip, he planned to meet with President Zelensky, he said, and urged him to pursue investigations relating to the Bidens

and to the debunked theory that Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Isn't that correct? That's right. And Mr. Giuliani told the reporter that his trip was not about official U.S. foreign policy and that the information he sought would be very, very helpful to his client, meaning it would be helpful to President Trump. Is that correct? Yes, and if it's not official foreign policy, it would be helpful to President Trump's personal interests. That's correct, and there is no doubt, Mr. Goldman, that investigations of the Bidens and the 2016 election meddling were, in fact, not about U.S. policy, but were about benefiting Trump's re-election, correct? Yes, and even the Ukrainians realize that. Let's focus on the aid to Ukraine. Mr. Goldman, Congress allocated on a bipartisan basis 391

million dollars in military aid to the Ukraine, is that correct? Yes, and it was signed by President Trump into law. Does the record establish that the military aid to Ukraine is in the national security interests of the United States? Absolutely. The investigation concluded that President Trump compromised U.S. national security by withholding vital military assistance and diplomatic support. Is that true? Yes. President Trump and his defenders claim that he withheld military aid out of alleged concern with corruption in Ukraine. Let's explore this phony justification. Donald Trump first spoke to the President of Ukraine on an

April 21st call, correct? That's right. President Trump never used the word corruption on that April 21st call, true? That is true and the readout from the White House after the call did say that President Trump talked about corruption. That readout was inaccurate. In a May 23rd letter, Trump's Department of Defense concluded that Ukraine met the anti-corruption benchmarks required to receive military aid from the United States. True? Yes. And if I could just take a second to talk about that because that's very important and this goes back to what mr. Collins was talking about with Vice President Biden there is absolutely

conditionality on aid in routinely in all sorts of different ways but it's done through official policy and these anti-corruption benchmarks that you're referencing here was a condition of Ukraine getting the aid. But in May, the Department of Defense, in conjunction with the other interagencies, certified that Ukraine was making the necessary progress on anti-corruption efforts to merit the aid. And yet the aid was not released, correct? The aid was subsequently held. It was supposed to be released. DOD announced the release, and then President Trump held the aid without explanation. Mr. Goldman, based on the evidence and testimony that you have reviewed,

is there any reason to believe that the president cared about corruption in Ukraine? No. The evidence really supports the fact that President Trump views corruption in Ukraine to be synonymous with the two investigations that he wants. What the president did care about was a political favor from the Ukrainian government, and that is why he withheld the military aid. True? He told Ambassador Sondland himself that that is the only thing that he cares about.

Alright, y'all. Anybody else just find the Republicans pitiful? First of all, they open up three seconds in, they start interrupting Nadler, trying to throw monkey wrench into it, I mean, all kind of stuff. And it's pretty sad to sit here and watch

and try to say, well, no, you didn't investigate this. It's beyond... They will literally... When Trump said, I could kill somebody on Fifth Avenue and my supporters not care, they proven it. Absolutely, yeah.

They proven it. When all this is done and when his ass is thrown out next year, none of them will be able to have any credibility or any criticism, Lindsey Graham, all of them, for the next president.

Not now, white conservative evangelical. better come at me and open a mouth with morality and character and values after what they none of them I'm a sit back this was gonna happen they gonna say something I'm just going to have some baby powder on my hands. Or a fly swatter. Just swat. Because they, it is clear and undeniable. And they like, no, the sky is absolutely purple. You know, in spite of mounting evidence that shows there is grounds for impeachment,

we have to look at, ultimately, what are we trying to accomplish or what the Democrats are trying to accomplish, right? The Democrats essentially are trying to impeach the president, which I think will happen in the House. But ultimately, based on our Constitution, the Senate has to do its part. And under the leadership of

Mitch McConnell, I just don't see that happening. I just don't see a conviction. Hold on. One... I don't see that. But that has nothing to do with the other. So, for instance... Well, you need a conviction, though. No, no, no, no, no. That is incorrect. Let's be clear here.

There are two chambers. Because the ultimate goes to get him removed. No's be clear here. There are two chambers. Because the ultimate goal is to get him removed. No, no, no. The ultimate goal is to hold him accountable. Okay. Here's the problem, and there have been some Democrats who... Nancy Pelosi, that was her initial logic. Here's the problem with that.

Facts are facts. Democrats right now control the House. Republicans control the Senate. Democrats have passed more than 300 bills. They just passed H.R. 4, dealing with the Voting Rights Act. They passed more than three... So many. Huh?

So many bills. No, but they passed 300 bills. McConnell hasn't done. So, if I use that logic, well, it's a waste of time passing a bill. No. The House, according to the Constitution, has its duty. The Senate has their duty.

In the history of this country, there have been only four. This is the fourth impeachment inquiry. Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and now Trump. Johnson survived conviction by one vote in the Senate. Impeached in the House, survived conviction. Nixon resigned before there was ever an impeachment vote in the House.

Clinton, impeached in the House, survived conviction in the Senate. So the reality is, in the history of America, no president has actually been thrown out. But it does not mean the House still does not do its job. He has to be held accountable for what he's doing because, Avis, he will do it again. Absolutely he will do it again. So even if the Senate does not convict, the House still must do its job. Absolutely. But I want us to unpack what the Republicans are doing. Their histrionics actually has a strategy behind it.

Now, the reason why we have Fox News is because after Nixon, with his merry way, conservatives said, we don't want to ever come that close to having a president be kicked out of office again. And so they've developed a propaganda wing that includes Fox, that includes all these crazy radio shows, that now includes all these even crazier digital shows that they have on the right end. And so really what we're seeing in terms of the histrionics right now in these hearings is that the Republicans are just creating talking points, right, that their right wing propaganda arm can use in order to rebut the facts, to confuse, to conflate, to make people believe a reality that's not real, okay? This is

a propaganda system that's happening right now. And this right here is a fundamental threat to our democracy when we can create such confusion that we're no longer recognizing what facts are facts and instead taking fiction as potential facts. And Cleo, Democrats have to do this when the people who were saying, well, they could lose in November. That doesn't matter. Here's why. Because if you don't do it, there is without a doubt, this man has Giuliani in Ukraine right now. Absolutely. He doesn't give a damn.

He need to be in jail. He doesn't care. And so you also have to do it for the next president who tries to do it. Because this is where Democrats, unlike republicans are saying you must be responsible to your position in the country and not your party and not some fool absolutely it's very important that democrats continue and that they hold them hold them responsible and accountable and get an impeachment and you're right you can't um that's because he's impeached doesn't mean he's going to be thrown out. But it's important, and I just wanted to reiterate

what kind of the spirit of what, what's your name again? Avis. What Avis said is that, I have a lot of, plus I'm an old man. But anyway, it's important to understand that these histrionics are indeed histrionics, and they're indeed trying to lay out a perspective that's going to confuse everything. But it's also important to understand that it can work. Yes, absolutely. You know, that white supremacy is so invested in its own self,

in its own power, that it'll do anything it can, no holds barred, scorched earth, to continue to stay in power, even if it means lying with a huge bullhorn and have people actually buy into it who agree with the idea of white power, whether it's wrong or right. We have to understand that lying does not matter as long as the lies are effective and powerful so people can stay in a white supremacy

survival trance. Jahana, there have been people who I've had work for me who I didn't want to fire. But I had to. Because had I not fired them, what would the message have been

to the other employee? Oh, hell. He don't tolerate, do what you want to do. This is what Democrats have no choice. Well, I understand, but I think a lot of folks out there are saying that this could potentially be a waste of time because ultimately the goal is to ensure that President Trump, for some, does not get reelected, right, or does not serve another term.

And I don't think under these proceedings that will stop him from serving a second term. Now, through voting, through proper voting and in such, he may not be able to get reelected, but through these processes. But that means nothing. The Constitution was set up that way. The Constitution was set up that there is a mechanism

and that's also why high crimes and misdemeanors were not defined in the Constitution. It was set up. Also, when they say, well, it's supposed to be uh bipartisan no it's not no it's not no it's not it's not yep the constitution is set up to say this is how you are to hold a president accountable if someone does something that is at such a level that you do not wait for the election. That's why it's there.

So when you have the Trump people like, this is unconstitutional, it's actually in it. And it was a... And this was the prime reason why that particular caveat was put into the Constitution because the framers understood that you might have someone in power

that's so corrupt, that is so power-hungry. Emolument clause. Exactly. All of that. Exactly. That it might be a need to remove that person prior to an election. And when you think about a situation right now where the election itself is being tampered with, why are you going to wait for an election when the guy is trying to get the election tilted in his behavior?

Are you concerned that if Trump is made to look like a victim based on being impeached and having the Fox and all the Republicans supporting him, that he might get the sympathy vote? Of course. That's your concern? Yeah. It's one of the concerns.

Well, it's the Democrat's job to message But it's deep that you could. Well, it's the one who credits job to message But it's deep that you could be a crook and get caught and get the sympathy vote But here's a piece though. Here's a piece though. That's the people pleading. He the victim said before he ran absolutely But he won I mean today but he won today today The inspector general released the report on the FBI's action when it came to investigating the Trump campaign and his own Attorney General goes I disagree with the IG the person the person who Bar was put in charge to investigate further goes I disagree with the findings offers no reason why just well I disagree so so again that

requires this administration, this dude, does not believe in the law. He doesn't. The Constitution was written precisely for this thug. Precisely. Because it was written to say, if you have a president who cares about nothing, law, I can do what I want.

Ruler, whatever. Congress, y'all supposed to investigate the executive branch? Kiss my ass. Sound like Trump. Subpoenas, go to hell. That's it. This is not a monarchy. The Constitution is in place so we don't have a king.

Dude has... We don't have dictators. He has said, quote, I can do whatever I want. That's why he has to get impeached. You have to send a signal. No, you can't. He can cry as a victim, but the bottom line is this here. It's still the other party's job to put a candidate up who can beat him and turn their people out.

But he cannot be allowed to do whatever he wants to with impunity and somehow think it's all good. Hey, folks, for the first time, America's top beauty pageant, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, Miss America and Miss Universe have crowned a black woman as their winners at the same time. That's a very big deal if you know your pageant history. In her acceptance speech, Miss Universe, Zozabini Tunzi of South Africa, talked about what her win means to black girls worldwide. I grew up in a world where a woman who looks like me, with my kind of skin and my kind of hair, was never considered to be beautiful. And I think that it is time that that stops today.

I want children to look at me and see my face, and I want them to see their faces reflected in mine. Thank you. That's one gorgeous sister. Happy to see that she won and took place at Tala Perry Studios as well. So she wins a joint owned by her brother. That's how it happened. All right, folks, we finally remember the legacy of Dr. Margaret Lawrence, who passed away at the age of 105. Despite facing the widespread

discrimination, she became a renowned pediatrician and child psychiatrist. As a senior at Cornell University in the 1930s, Margaret Lawrence had a nearly perfect academic record and expected to attend the university's medical school. But she was the only black student in her class and she was denied admission. She applied to Columbia University's

College of Physicians and Surgeons. She was accepted on the condition that she would not protest if white patients refused to be seen by her. She agreed and became the only black student in her class of 104 who graduated in 1940. She would still face discrimination, often being mistaken for a cleaning lady. But she went on to become a renowned pediatrician and child psychiatrist and the first African-American female psychoanalyst in the United States.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Lawrence's family and friends. All right, folks, we got to go. We family and friends all right folks uh we uh we got to go we certainly appreciate all of you who are watching the show we want you to support uh roland martin unfiltered uh what you waiting for i'm talking about the king the queen the miss universe this is for the celebrate yes more demonstratively okay i got you but uh we gotta go i mean we've been talking about everything else for the last hour and a half so you should have mentioned earlier that you really want to talk about Miss Universe. Congratulations, Tonsi.

Congratulations to her, and her win is not just for South Africa, but the entire continent of Africa. And more specifically, her win shows black girls, especially little black girls, that you have a choice to either wear your hair natural or to wear your hair in perm or press or whatever you want. So at the core of it all, it's knowing that as a person of color, I have a choice.

Now, she ain't a person of color. She's black. She's black. She's black South African, right? But she's a symbol for black people all over the world. But yeah, you're right to make that distinction because in South Africa. Because she's Asian. She's Latino.

Right, because she beat Miss Puerto Rican. No, because in in South Africa you have black South Africans. Yeah, I've colored So it's good that you made that distinction very very rolling Martin, but nonetheless the point I was trying to make is that seeing someone like her She's beautiful. She's gorgeous She has won this title is is significant for girls of color all over all over this world in particular the continent African is significant for girls of color all over this world, in particular the continent of Africa. The black ones. The African ones. Like I said, support RollerMart on thefilter.com by going to RollerMart on thefilter.com.

Join our Bring the Funk fan club. See, why is this important? Because there's a whole bunch of people out there who talk all this stuff about they got shows and they talk about, no, they talk about black people. We talk to black people. We talk to black people. We talk with black people. We put on black experts, black guests. We bring on lawyers and doctors and people on those lines

because we want to see the best of ourselves. And so there's a difference between this show and a whole bunch of others that know exactly what I'm talking about. And see, I don't waste my time talking about other folks' shows. Do you? That was the subject of my speech at Tennessee State.

Do you, okay? I'm not gonna waste any time sitting here, going off about y'all, because you know why? We got business to cover. We got really important stuff. And so that's what I focus on. And so for anybody who wants to debate me,

you at least gotta be relevant. At least. At least. At least. So that's why we do what we do. We cover the news. That's how we do it. Because there's some people

who are real journalists and there's some people who are not. RolandMartinOnfiltered.com Support what we do. Bring the funk. I got to go. And also, if you ever try to question somebody's blackness,

don't go there. Because you don't really want that heat. You really don't. This is RollerMart Unfiltered. I'm a RollerMart shade. No, no, it's unfiltered. Because my shade is also unfiltered. It's rolling my, I'm a rolling my shade. No, no, it's unfiltered. Because my shade is also unfiltered. It's rolling my smoke.

My shade is also unfiltered. Yeah. Tennessee State. HBCU. What are you wearing? If you show your face to your audience. Holla! We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

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