#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 2.13: AFSCME Prez talks Black political engagement; Obama Library battle; Warren campaign in trouble

Episode Date: February 16, 2020

2.13.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: AFSCME Prez talks Black political engagement; Obama Library battle draws attention to how gentrification will hurt low income residents of the city.; Trump plans to install judges that could gut the Voting Rights Act; Rev. William Barber is rallying voters in North Carolina; Oregon man complained to his boss about discrimination and was arrested; After serving 25 years for a double murder, a man is freed by an undisclosed letter + We'll take a look at some really bad airplane etiquette. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Are you looking to enhance your leadership or that of your team in 2020? Join Dr. Jacquie Hood Martin as she engages others to think like a leader. Register and start the online course today! www.live2lead.com/Leesburg #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. 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. Thank you. Martin! Today is Thursday, February 13th, 2020. Up next, a Roland Martin unfiltered exclusive interview with Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME, about building political power year-round and not just at election time. We're also going to talk about health care

and why unions have their own view about Medicare for All. Protesters blocked the entrance to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office to draw attention to how gentrification will hurt low-income residents of the city as the Obama Presidential Center is being built. Yes, they want a real initiative to take care of the community, even though it's Obama. On the tails of his impeachment victory, Donald Trump is planning to install federal judges who could vote the Voting Rights Act. No shock, he's already been doing that.

Also, Reverend William Barber is rallying voters in North Carolina, but early voting begins today. An Oregon man complained to his boss about discrimination and ended up being arrested. After 25 years in prison for a double murder, a man is freed by an undisclosed letter. Also, an example of some really bad airplane etiquette. Trust me, when I show you this video,

who I would love for somebody to act a fool like that if I'm flying and I recline my seat. Y'all might have to call an air marshal. And who else is now backing Mike Bloomberg? The money is flowing left and right. I'll tell you about the latest black endorsements and what that means. It's time to bring the funk and roll the market on the field. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the miss, 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 believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. He's right on time and he's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's bunk, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Martin! Thank you. Thank you. Să ne urmăm. Thank you. I'm Martin. Martin! Today is Thursday, February 13th, 2020. Up next, a Roland Martin unfiltered exclusive interview

with Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME, about building political power year-round and not just at election time. We're also going to talk about health care and why unions have their own view about Medicare for All. Protesters blocked the entrance to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office to draw attention to how gentrification

will hurt low-income residents of the city as the Obama Presidential Center is being built. Yes, they want a real initiative to take care of the community, even though it's Obama. On the tails of his impeachment victory, Donald Trump is planning to install federal judges who could vote the Voting Rights Act. No shock, he's already been doing that.

Also, Reverend William Barber is rallying voters in North Carolina, but early voting begins today. An Oregon man complained to his boss about discrimination and ended up being arrested. After 25 years in prison for a double murder, a man is freed by undisclosed letter. Also, an example of some really bad airplane etiquette. Trust me, when I show you this video, who I would love for somebody to act a fool like that if I'm flying and I recline my seat. Y'all might have to call an air marshal.

And who else is now backing Mike Bloomberg? The money is flowing left and right. I'll tell you about the latest black endorsements and what that means. It's time to bring the funk and roll the mark on the filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the miss, 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 It's on for Royal It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rollin' Martin

Rollin' with Rollin' now He's broke, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now I'm Martel. Political engagement shouldn't be a thing we do just around presidential elections. I've been saying that, folks, for a long time. This must be a constant thing. In fact, if you actually read Dr. King's book, Chaos of Community, Where Do We Go From Here,

he literally said the exact same thing. He wrote that in 1967, that you have to have year-round engagement around the issues that matter. Well, AFSCME has partnered with Black leaders organizing for communities to encourage building power year-round. Joining us right now is Lee Sonners. He visited Wisconsin to talk with some of the organizers there. Here's some of that video, and then we'll come back and chat with him. I'm here in Milwaukee on my way to meet Angela Lang from Black Leaders Organizing for Communities. BLOC is a dynamic grassroots organization that is all about building long-term

political power with a new vision for civic engagement. Let's see how they do it. BLOC launched in November of 2017 with the idea that we were going to not wait for a candidate, we're not going to wait for a party, we're going to educate our folks ourselves, we're going to empower people, we're going to do year-round civic engagement, we're going to make sure people understand the power that they have within themselves to make a difference in this political system that often excludes us. And you're actually using, and I think you call them ambassadors. Yes.

Who go around and knock on doors and listen, not only talk, but listen to the folks that open up that door and want to talk about the issues that confront them. We knew that we wanted to do things differently. So ambassador, it's kind of just a canvasser with a twist. People see our really aggressive ground game. They see that our ambassadors are deeply trained. They're not just, you know, being transactional. Can you vote for this candidate? Yes or no. It's deeper conversations. It's more meaningful conversations. We were able to do over 227,000 door attempts just in 2018 alone. That's the importance of having number one a year-round program, where you don't leave,

where you don't pack up and leave and then wait until the next election, where you have a presence in the community at all times. So right now we're in the 53206 zip code. A lot of our ambassadors live in the zip code and live actually in the surrounding areas. And this zip code is home to the most incarcerated zip code in the country. And so that's why it was important for us to make sure that we had an office space that was here. Even though we do our work all across the Northside, we wanted to show a little extra

love to 53306, just given its challenges. And since you're in Milwaukee, you have some ambassadors I'd like you to meet. That's great, let's do it. Well, I did a lot for them. Me coming from the streets, selling drugs, going in and out the penitentiary.

It really opened my eyes back up, like, damn, you know, I'm really hurting my community when I can be helping my community. Let's not cry here. Black is the change. I have a term that I use, and it's this is what the change look like. And the change is me. I've been with fighting, but it was the wrong fight. Now I'm in the right fight.

Block changed me because I was never into politics, and now I'm more down than ever. ¶¶ Well, we won in 2018, right? Scott Walker is no longer around. I mean, that's a good thing. But we also know that that fight and that struggle never ends. We have a proud and rich history with the civil rights movement.

Dr. King was closely involved with our union, and some of you know this, in 1968 when he went to Memphis, Tennessee, those sanitation workers were represented by AFSCME, Local 1733. And everyone in this room knows the story. He ultimately gave his life supporting those sanitation workers.

Dr. King understood the connection between economic rights, labor rights, civil rights, human rights. You're doing the work that Dr. King believed in every single day that he gave his life for. You're reconnecting with your communities. You're knocking on doors. You're not only talking with folks and sharing information with them, but you are listening to what they have to say.

Nobody can do that better than you, because you're from here. We're building a movement, block by block, in Milwaukee and across the country. People understand and know what you are doing. How many politicians have come in wanting to talk to you? OK, a lot. If they're talking to you and they're making those promises and commitments Then you've got to hold them accountable. And if not, then you kick their ass. I mean simple as that. Excuse my friend He's my friend. I

Mean you got that you got the hold them accountable With that I don't want to keep you any longer. You're supposed to be knocking on doors this afternoon, right? But I just want to say thank you on behalf of the 1.4 million members of AFSCME, and let's get the job done, okay? Let's get the job done. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, folks, joining me now for an exclusive interview is Lee Sonners, president of AFSCME.

So, Lee, glad to have you here. Before I talk about that, I got, obviously, all this political drama is crazy. The election was going on, Iowa, New Hampshire, now you got Nevada coming up. A lot of people, they really upset with Bernie's people attacking the culinary union because they want to endorse him. When you were at the CBC Leadership Summit,

when health care came up, you talked about that, and there's all this sort of back and forth, Medicare for all. But a lot of union folks who are going, wait a minute, hold up, we busted our butts for the health plans now. What do you make of just how this issue has now become so contentious with Democratic candidates and

labor unions who historically are supporting Democrats? Well, this is my response, Roland. I think that we've got to stay focused on what's happening. And all of the Democrats are coming up with programs either to build upon the ACA, Obamacare,

or to talk about Medicare for All and single payer. All of those things that would be beneficial for working families. Whether it's having health care affordable for families or providing health care for all across the country. And we're one of the few industrialized countries that don't do that. Right. Okay? Now, you look at the other side.

And the other side is they want to tear ACA apart. No, they want to abolish it. All of its benefits. They want to abolish it. They want to tear it apart. They want to abolish it. And they want to start from scratch. And you don't even know what they're talking about because they don't have a plan.

But have they offered anything? They have no plan. So my point is we're a union that supports Medicare for all. But our members support affordable quality care for all and health care for all. Now, you've got to sit at the table and talk about how you get that done. Right. You've got to sit at the table and talk about how you get that done and what you improve and how you can improve upon what exists currently that has gone a long way to improve health care in this country. I don't want to get into a battle. We can do that later.

But right now you're faced with two industries. You've got to win. You've got to win. And you've got a clear choice. Somebody that wants to go backwards and take healthcare away from you, reduce the kinds of benefits that you've been getting that ACA called for, or you build upon that program and talk about how we can improve the system. And I had to remind people that when you saw the polling numbers of the people who were against the Affordable Care Act, it was not all people who were against the Affordable Care Act. There were people who were progressive who actually wanted something bolder than the Affordable Care Act.

The problem is when you were watching television, they kept lumping it together versus saying, OK, old folks, here's the percentage of people who do not support the Affordable Care Act. But here are the people who actually support it, but they want something as larger. That's why when you saw a majority of Americans not supporting the Affordable Care Act, it was Republicans kept saying, see, majority of Americans. No, no, no. That's not what that number was.

And that was something that kept yelling at the screen with these media people who were not saying. So you're seeing this play out right now among Democrats where you have people who have differing views on, yes, is it Affordable Care Act? Is it public option? Is it Medicare for all? So the reality is you're actually on the same side. It's just a matter of what can you actually get past?

And how you get there, how you get there. And again, we've got to keep focused. I mean, and it's real clear what's happening. You have folks that want to take away the progress that was made with ACA versus folks that want to build upon it or improve it to include more Americans at an affordable rate. You also, to me, but you also can't have, you cannot have Sanders people or anyone else

attacking the culinary union because they have a differing view. Of course not. To me, that does not help anybody because at the end of the day, you can sit here and be all for your person, but that means nothing if your side loses. And the campaign came out and said that they did not mean to confront those culinary workers because let me tell you something, they spent a lot of time, blood, sweat, and tears developing

that healthcare plan that they all rely upon. So you can't attack them by saying, you're wrong and you've got to accept this. I mean, they believe in this plan, but you can work with this. You can work with them. Don't attack them. I mean, we've got to be on the same page at the end of this process. Right. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Let's talk about this initiative here. I mentioned in the intro, again, if you read Chaos Hope Community, King understood you cannot achieve results if you pop up, then it goes away, then you pop it back up. movement that's not only registering people, not only getting to the polls, but as I keep saying, the election is the end of one process, the beginning of another. Once you vote, if your person gets in, now you've got to

make sure they do what they said they were going to do, and if your person didn't win, you're still a constituent. You know, we had to look at this because to be quite honest with you, we did what we are so much against right now in the past, where we would parachute people in maybe two or three weeks before the election, knock on doors and expect people to react in a positive way to us,

and then we would leave right after that election was over. So what have you built? Right. There's no foundation there. Well, actually, what you did was you actually had this great, this thing in your hand that you just went, okay, so all that door knocking, all those names and addresses and e-mails and numbers

and all that sort of stuff, it was kind of like, okay, it's over. And then you had to go back and rebuild it. Start over again. Start over again. But the beauty of Block and other organizations, because we're doing this in other cities across the country through what we call our For Our Future program, where we actually work with existing community organizations,

people who live in those communities. Right. We send them to a pretty good, a pretty strong training program, and they get on the doors and they talk about the issues that people care about. Not only do they talk about the issues,

but they listen to what folks have to say when they're knocking on those doors. And they are doing this year-round. That's the Ella Baker model. They're doing this year-round. Well, that's the Ella Baker model. Ella Baker's whole deal was she did not believe in,

she disagreed, where she and King differed a whole lot. She disagreed with parachuting in. Her deal to SNCC folks were, trust me, they don't have a lot of education,

but them black sharecroppers, they know what they talking about. Go in, listen to them, and say, what do y'all want to do? You know, we had a session, and you saw it on the video, where we sat with a number of the block,

and they don't call them organizers. They call them ambassadors. Mm-hmm. Okay? And I learned about their history. Some have been incarcerated. All of them had some very tough lives, okay? But they got and they grasped what block was doing, and they wanted to be a part of it,

and they understood the connection that they could make with their sisters and brothers that were living in the same community, but you had to reach out to them. And you continually have to reach out to them. It's not every six months. It's not once a year. You've got to contact them directly

so you develop a program around that. Block is not about going in telling somebody how to vote or who to vote for. Block is about educating and mobilizing and organizing their communities so people, number one, have a chance to voice their concerns around the issues that impact on them and their families and their communities,

but then they can act upon it because they're organized. Well, this also does though, is with this, to me, I think the value is that you remove a candidate or a party from this. So you're not turning people out to support a candidate or support a party. You're defining the issues that people care about. And then when the election comes, who then lines up with those issues? That's exactly right. Exactly right. And people might ask the question, well, why is AFSCME so engaged in this, you know, public service union? Because

the people that are being talked to rely upon public services in their communities, and they want to see strong public services. So there's a connection, just like there was a connection when Dr. King would always say economic rights, civil rights, labor rights, human rights, they're all connected. They don't stand alone. They're all connected. And what we do is bring all of those rights together and talk with folks so they can make up in their own minds what needs to be done in their own respective communities. Let me tell you, when you give people those tools and you listen to what they've got to say, they make the right choices. When I was in Ghana, I was there

with Desmond Meade and Sheena Meade behind Amendment 4 in Florida. And one of the things that Desmond said was that here they had this whole infrastructure, all these people who were surrounding, obviously, Amendment 4, but then they were able to then send their people out into those public housing complexes, into those community centers, into those neighborhoods, and same thing, talking about the issues, and then they begin to impact other elections.

And again, and that, even when you go, so when you use the word organizer, okay, the root word is simple, organize. You cannot change something where it's just sort of haphazard and it's every now and then, yes, you have to actually organize people, you know, house by house, you know, street by street, block by block. I mean, this ain't rocket science. And I think what happened was I think for so many political campaigns, they got so caught up in, run the TV ads, run the radio ads,

uh, and, yes, send folks in two, three weeks out, and then you wonder why people are disengaged. You know, and it doesn't work, and we've got proof that that doesn't work, that that model doesn't work. If you look at 2016, before this program, before Block was in place, or before we had any other programs in place, in 2016, folks in the black community,

the voting percentage was way down. Right. Way down in 2016. Block started up, really, from For Our Future, after 2016, and then turning into Block. In 2018, the community was engaged, the community was organized, and they were educated. And I will say this, if it wasn't for block,

we may not have won the governor's race in 2018 in Wisconsin. Right. But there was a clear choice. There you go. Right? And they knew what the issues were. They understood those issues,

and they voted based upon the education And they knew what the issues were. They understood those issues. And they voted based upon the education that they had received and what they believed in and what they thought would be beneficial for their own communities. So that just proves that this works, and we're going to continue to do it. I got a column today, a couple more questions for you. I got a column today, my email. Henry, go to my iPad. From Latino Decisions. And the headline is called Apathy in Texas.

And in this piece, they talk about the fact that you have two million eligible but unregistered Latinos in Texas. Now, the reason, and they say in here, based upon the numbers or whatever, what it would take, they say it probably will take an investment of about $40 million. But what they talked about was how you're going to have to organize them.

As they say, it has to be a census-style effort. And they say, Voter registration groups on the ground in Texas tell me it costs between $10 and $30 to register each new voter. If we assume a $20 average, roughly $40 million is needed to register the $2 million remaining unregistered Latinos. Now, here's what's interesting. As you're describing, Block, 2012, Obama beats

Romney. I'm waiting to go on CNN, and then Congressman Chris Van Hollen, now senator, he's over the re-election campaign for the House Democrats. And I bring up, at the time it was 2.1 million eligible but unregistered. I bring up

900,000 in Georgia. And I say, look, there has to be a massive investment. You're going to have to move people in and build within communities. And pretty much it was kind of like poop-hearted. And I said, dude,

that right there flips the state. I said, you don't have a single Democrat like this statewide in Texas. I said, if you look at the numbers, you take a 70-30 split, I said, you don't even need the 2 million. If you only do half

of this, Republicans win in Texas by around 250,000, 300,000 votes. I said, you don't even need the two million. If you only do half of this, Republicans win in Texas by around 250,000, 300,000 votes. I said, you do half of this, you flip the entire state. But that's the kind of long-range thinking that people are going to have to use. They're going to have to get out of this, the next campaign thing and go, no, you have to look at this thing as a long-term plan and not just the next election.

And let me say this. We are not declaring Meaning My Union ownership over this program. We want more people engaged in this. We need more resources so we can have these community organizations coming up so we can mobilize the folks in those communities to do exactly what you said. And we know that it makes a difference. All you have to do is look at what happened in 2018

in communities that were educating and mobilizing in this fashion. We've got to do the same thing. We can't turn backwards now. We've got to do it for 20 and 22 and 24 and beyond. That's the way that you truly engage our communities across America. All right, then. Where can people get more information? They want to look it up? Where do they go? They just need to look up block or they can get in contact

with our website, AFSCME.org. And it explains what we're doing and what we're trying to do with the number of programs that we're investing in, and we're asking people to take a look at it, and if you've got some resources to help out with these programs, because that's the way that we can win. News Hollanders, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me, man. Gotta go to a break. When we come back,

we're gonna talk a number of things. Mike Bloomberg, black endorsements, we're gonna talk about presidential campaign, all of that next, Roland Martin Unfiltered, back in a. All of that next. Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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-♪ Martin! -♪ -♪ You are not judged from the height you have risen, but from the depth you have climbed. Abolitionist and autobiographer, Frederick Douglass. Hello, I'm Dr. Avis, and this is Black History Month. Now I know at this time of the year we typically look back at those important historical figures that have made a substantial dent in American history

or world history or specific occurrences that relate to our advancement as a people. And as important as that is, particularly since our history is left out of most school curriculums, I think at this time of the year, we should also be very intentional about learning a little bit about those individuals who made a difference that aren't in any history books. Each of us have people in our families that paved a way for us to achieve what we have achieved today. When I think about my family, I think about the stories I heard of my mother's parents who organized the community members in their space in Virginia, their little rural town in Virginia, to get all the black parents of their day to pool their money together

so that they could buy a school bus and then take turns driving that school bus to get their children to school each day because when my mom was a little girl the segregated state of Virginia did not provide transportation for black school children school children and I know that we all have stories like that and so to celebrate black history month this year I'm going to challenge you to take advantage of the rich history that is in your family today. Talk to your mother, talk to your grandmother, talk to your dad, talk to aunts and uncles.

Find out those little-known stories that made a big impact in all of our lives that ultimately created the living history that we still exist and celebrate to this very day. Thank you. I've been walking With my face turned to the sun Weight on my shoulders A bullet in my gun Oh, I got eyes in the back of my head

Just in case I have to run I do what I can when I can while I can for my people While the clouds roll back And the stars fill the night That's when I'm gonna stand up Take my people with me Together we are going To a brand new home Far across the river

Can you hear freedom calling Calling me to answer Gonna keep on keeping on I can feel it in my bones I'm gonna stand up Take my people with me Together we are going to heaven and on. Far across the river, I hear freedom calling.

Calling me to answer. Gonna keep on keeping on. I can feel it in my bones. That, folks, of course, was a great video there from Tyler Perry. I saw it on his Instagram page and his Twitter page, and so I had to go ahead and play it. And so I was actually coming into the office, so I texted him. I said, yo, I'm playing that video.

I said, because that was just a really great video. I really love the end, take someone with you. And a lot of people criticize Tyler Perry. People talk about, oh, you know, why is he the only writer on his shows? But trust me, you see that video? It's a whole bunch of people with his plays, with his movies, with his studio, who he's actually employing. And so I just really, really love that video. And so that's why I wanted to go ahead

and play it for y'all. All right, folks, Chicago residents staged a sit-in outside the office of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's office at City Hall this week, demanding a meeting to discuss preserving affordable housing near the site of the Obama Presidential Center. Organizers are demanding 30% set-asides

for affordable housing stemming from new development and for all redeveloped city land to be 100% affordable. Joining me now to talk about this is one of the organizers, Ashley Giles-Perkins of Black Youth Project 100 Chicago. Ashley, how you doing? Hey, how are you doing? So here's what's interesting. I remember when, this has been going on for quite some time, and I remember reading a story out in the Sun-Times on Chicago Tribune where some of the Obama people were not too particularly pleased by saying,

well, it's all these different organizations, you know, who do we sign community agreements with? You've got the Woodlawn Association. You've got others there as well. You've got another group, of course, who's been fighting the center completely. They don't want them to touch Jackson Park, do this Tiger Woods golf course and all that sort of stuff along those lines. And so with all of that, how are y'all trying to ensure that you're having sort of one voice, one mind in terms of dealing with this,

as opposed to having this group and that group and this group, that group, that group, all vying for this project or this agreement? Yeah, I would say that there is one group, and I would call us the, as the coalition members, is the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition. And that is made up of, I'd say, six or seven core groups. And then there are the allies, so other people that have signed on to the platform. So I got involved with the campaign through Black Youth Project 100. I'm one of the Chicago chapter members. And we are in conjunction with organizations such as Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, there's STOP, South Side Together Organizing for Power,

West Side Justice, and a lot of other organizations that have been meeting, I'd say at this point, for five years. Right. This is the group that put together the original petitions. This is the group that helped to get the referendum on the ballots. This is the same group that has been meeting monthly, if not weekly, to write the ordinance and through the work of nonprofit lawyers,

such as Chicago Lawyers Committee, be able to introduce that to city council where it's been sitting now since July. Folks, so here, go to my iPad. Folks, this is the website called Community Benefits Agreement, CBA for the area around the Obama Center. This is the website. Community Benefits Agreement, CBA for the area around the Obama Center. This is the website.

As you heard Ashley talking, I clicked Coalition right here, and you'll see it. You see allied members right here on the website. Alliance of the Southeast, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Bronzeville Regional Collective, Chicago Jobs Council, Chicago Rehab Network, Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago Women in Trades, Community Renewal Society, Friends of the Parks, Indivisible Southside, Metropolitan Tenants Organization, Reparations at UChicago, Service Employees International Union,

Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Southside Chicago, Democratic Socialists of America, Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement at UIC, Wolfpack, Woodlawn Baptist Church, Woodlawn East Community, and Neighbors, and of course, you know, BYP 100 as well. And Ashley, what was interesting to a lot of people is that here you have President Barack Obama gets his start as a community organizer in Chicago,

and they're doing this. And, as a matter of fact, I just saw that he's going to be, you know, he was last in Chicago in October. Pretty much doesn't live in Chicago anymore. I mean, in fact, was there in October, is going to be back this weekend, moderating a panel with three NBA players.

This will be the first time since he's been there since October. Have y'all been surprised at the unwillingness to sit down and do a strong deal, knowing full well that he was one of the very folks who was doing this work before he became president or before he was state senator? I wouldn't say surprised. I think that there were a lot of the organizers, a lot of the people that I've learned from are older. They are seniors and they are part of these tenant associations and they live in buildings

where they don't have a lot of autonomy. And they are often displaced much easier because the entire building, you know, you can displace hundreds of units at a time if you shut down an entire building, you know, you can displace hundreds of units at a time if you shut down an entire building or raise rents in an entire building. So a lot of the seniors were always kind of had a been there, done that attitude. People that were displaced out of Bronzeville, people that had been displaced from Hyde Park and Kenwood that are now in South Shore or now in Woodlawn were prepared to come up with this Plan B option. Ideally, we would have wanted an actual community benefits agreement with the Presidential Center

and the foundation. But what ended up happening is it's actually going through the city now, going through as an ordinance that is going to be fueled by the aldermen and alderwomen of the city. And so people were prepared to do that because in the past, developers have been unwilling to negotiate and honestly don't have to legally be beholden to the community. So we would hope that leaders like Obama and others would stand up. And I'm sure if he put his hat behind it, it would have happened. But they were actually pretty resistant and said very clearly that it wasn't necessary, that he trusts the Obama presidential,

the foundation, they're a nonprofit, they're for the people, they're familiar with the area and that essentially a community benefits agreement just wasn't necessary. And so no one in the coalition believed that. And so we were ready to organize and move people in different ways, such as the referendum, which passed at 80 and 85 and 90 percent in these wards where the people are most impacted. And that's it. And look, I mean, I get I totally understand their position. Hey, trust us, trust us. But look, I spent six years working in Chicago. I ran the Chicago Defender, had a, first of all, a midday show, then a morning show on WVON radio. And the reality is black folks in Chicago have heard a whole lot, trust us, trust us.

Correct. And then when it happened, folks got left out. And so I get the sense from these community groups, they're saying, damn that, put it down on paper. Correct. Put it in writing. Yes. What's next? Well, there was an action this week, essentially the coalition, we are in an escalation stage right now. We introduced this, as I said, back in July. And to date, it has never been on the agenda in the housing committee. There's no way for it to ever reach the floor of city with the housing chair, going through the area, walking him through the history, having them meet with residents and look at historical sites and landmarks that are within the region that would be impacted. We have been meeting with

different groups. The city has been having meetings that we've been either invited to or maybe not invited to attend at all. And so at this stage, we have shifted to the mayor, who we believe has a lot of say-so in what can get happened and what can't happen. The city has responded with their own ordinance that they have introduced. It was going to be called up until the meeting that we had on Tuesday during the sit-in. There was a sit-in just this past week in front of the mayor's office at City Hall, and essentially residents just demanding to be heard, not really in support of this city ordinance. There's a lot of things missing from the ordinance. Some of the most crucial things, such as different set-asides, some of the things that they did put in, like tenants' right of first refusal is nice on paper, but if people don't have funds for it, it's not as effective.

We really feel that city land should be set aside affordable. We believe that some of the terms that the city is using, affordable is an air quotes. And really, when you look at the median income of the area, it's $23,000. And the city has set their base at $40,000. That's already a huge gap. And for that to be the minimum, and then for them to base rents off of that price, it's already affordable for people, unaffordable for people who are currently living there. And we know from some of our coalition partners, such as Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and Chicago Teachers Union, this impacts students as well. Students that are homeless, students that are beholden to what happens in their neighborhoods because they have

families that live there. And so we're just really escalating because this is immediate. It's winter time and people are being displaced. All right, Ashley Giles Perkins, BWOP 100 Chicago, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Yeah, thank you so much. All right, I wanna introduce my panel, Erica Savage-Wilson. She of course, with the Savage Politics Podcast.

Also Dr. Greg Carr, he is the Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, Reese E. Colbert. Black Women's Views. Alright, folks. Let's do this here because actually I want to combine the discussion with Lee Saunders and AFSCME and this discussion.

This is what organizing is supposed to be about. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, they're going through their aldermen. They have a specific agenda, specific requests, and that's how you try to get stuff happening. I mean, at the end of the day,

the city officials are going to put forth their own thing, and that's going to pass or not pass based on the pressure that these folks put forth, but I think this is a prime example of the importance of actually having skin in the game and getting in there and trying to advocate in a number of ways, not just protesting,

but actual partnerships with elected officials. And look, bottom line is, their whole deal, this whole idea of, you know, trust us is like, nah, I mean, it might be Obama, but nah, we ain't playing that trust us game. No, and Obama knows better than this. He made his bones in so-called community organizing. But the history of this country is the history of urbanization and suburbanization. I mean, post-World War II, you see

decisions by city planners like Robert Moses in New York to say, we'll work in the cities and live in the suburbs. That's when they plow through many of these urban areas with the highways that displace many people and create these things. And now they've decided to reverse the trend. Now we're going gonna live and work in the city.

There is no plan in urban planning for the people that are being represented here. And the only thing they have to fight back with is their bodies. BYP has done some remarkable work over the years. They're in Baltimore, they're other places. And it's wonderful to see this tradition in Chicago open up for a new generation.

Because 60 to $100,000 a year is not affordable housing for people who are struggling day by day and look Eric about lines is here I said this consistently Anybody wants to question that I got receipts I said point-blank just because Obama was elected does not mean and certain things will get done We have to push those things and I think that for far too many of us We we were the only ones who stayed at the inauguration parade for eight years.

Everybody else left. We were still just in awe of a black first family. And the reality is there were things that African-Americans did not advocate for and push President Obama to do like other groups did. What these black folks and others in Chicago are saying is, look, we love you. That's great.

The idea of this presidential center, they see what's going on. It's going to be development all around it. They know it's going to mean housing. It's going to mean businesses. This whole idea, and look, I'm a golfer. I played at Jackson Park. It needs to be improved. So to have Tiger Woods coming in

talking about, hey, I'm going to develop in the city this 18-hole championship course. People who are golfers there, especially a lot of the older golfers, don't want to be priced out having to pay 80, 90 bucks a round. So you have to figure out what do you do for those folks as well.

But I'm with them. No, you got to put this on paper. We ain't just going to sit here and play the trust us game. Absolutely. And then we also have to look at, too, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act, right? That opened the door for Opportunity Zones. So you had governors that said,

listen, we're designating 25% of our lands to whomever would like to come in with their capital gains tax and make an investment, right? So what I love what these groups are doing, because this does show the power of grassroots organization. This does show the fusion of that also with protests merging together for people who are about doing the work as you, when you spoke with Mr. Saunders.

And that's what's important. You know, people thinking that Twitter, social, all these other platforms is a form of activism, seeing what these young people are doing, seeing what black is doing, that is actual activism. It is a seven-day-a-week job that actually is embedded in the community and it informs people.

And what I found interesting about all of this as well is that when you're talking about being priced out, I'm thinking about that gentleman that was interviewed a few weeks ago when they were actually excavating the homeless from K Street, who said that, listen, if you don't have 80K, you cannot afford to live in D.C. Exactly.

In this piece that you sent us, Roland, you're talking about there was a line that said lower income people being folks that are making 60K and below. Exactly. For 60K to be considered lower income, there is definitely something for everybody to do in this moment in time. And I'm just going to continue to say it every day. Everybody, welcome to the civil rights era of your time. There is a lot of work to do. Come on, Eric. And a lot of feet and a lot of hands and places to go.

And that's why what ASP is doing with Block is important because, again, you know, and people say, okay, you say this sort of stuff, but no, look, I've taken the time not just to listen to a speech or see a quick video. I go beyond, you know, the Black History in Two Minutes videos that Skip Gates is doing.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I've actually taken the time and said, no, no, how do you study the movement? Like literally reading... Y'all, if y'all go to YouTube, I want you to go... I want you to go and watch my interview with Dr. James Lawson. With Dr. Lawson, who was the one who...

they were behind the Nashville movement. And what he said was this here. He said, we spent three months solely discussing why we were doing this. Then they spent three months discussing what we wanted to do. Right. Come on.

Now, today, groups get together, and within an hour and a half, a website's already up, a Twitter account's already been opened, and then all of a sudden, we can call this person, we can line here, let's throw this event, all in the first hour and a half. But the reality is, you have to be thinking long-term, and that is the thing that when you study these movements, when you study, okay, what are we going to do on Saturday,

but no, what's going to happen on Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, then the following two weeks? How do we now get allies? How do we now build this? And I'm telling you right now, if they are not doing what they're doing, you're going to see massive expansion on the south side of Chicago.

But I need people to understand also when y'all... Because I think also part of the problem when y'all hear South Side is you have to understand this as well. See, you have... See, this is why I need a whiteboard. This is why I need a whiteboard. So what you have is you've got...

You've got downtown Chicago right here. You've got Bronze Chicago right here. You've got Bronzeville right here. Then you go from Bronzeville to University of Chicago. Okay, some of y'all missed that. Downtown Chicago. Bronzeville. All this is Southside, then you skip over to University of Chicago.

So you have all of this massive development around University of Chicago. You're like, what did I just come into? And then you start saying, okay, so what's in between Bronzeville, University of Chicago, and then what's

beyond University of Chicago, and then what's beyond University of Chicago, and then how does stuff look? Mm-hmm. And that's what's happening here. So what they don't want is, they don't want this Obama Presidential Center to actually, essentially, be connected to the University of Chicago,

and all this other stuff in between gets left out. Right. They want, because if you study you study and just Jackson jr And this is again the Britain look I don't care what nobody say I spent time with him the brilliance of Congress and Jesse Jackson jr O'Hare Airport, right The reason he was fighting for that third Airport on the south side of Chicago Because he understood how that airport drove development

in a 50 mile radius. Exactly right. That's what O'Hare did. This presidential center, world leaders will be coming in. Oh, no question. Where will they be staying? Where will they be visiting?

Where will they be eating? All those things that go along with it. Thousands upon thousands. You look at the Smithsonian Museum here, National Museum of African American History and Culture. Yeah. I mean, the most visited Smithsonian Museum in the nation's capital. Yeah. I can guarantee you when this presidential center is done, it's going to be huge amounts of traffic. Where are they going to sleep? Where are they going to eat? All the different things on those lines.

And these folks are saying, don't price us out. We don't have a whole bunch of $200,000 and $300,000 and $400,000 condos. And then now you're basically forcing us, we've got to go to the south suburbs to go to Harvey and all the rest of these places in the area. That's what they're fighting for. I lived in Bronzeville. I had a condo in there for a couple years

before I moved out here. I saw that it was redeveloping. I saw white people walking their dogs on the street. See right there. When a white woman is jogging alone, your neighborhood has changed.

No, I'm just being... It was still a transition. It was a brother. We had a home there for 40 years who told me that. He said, Roland, my neighborhood has changed. I was like, why? He said, white women are jogging alone. I was like, damn. But that's where the wrinkle comes in

because on the opposite side of this activism that you have of people not wanting to be left behind, you have homeowners. That's right. And they want to cash in, too. They don't want to have their property values depressed. And I'm not defending them. I'm just saying this is the reality. This is the other side of the coin.

And that's what makes it that much more challenging to try to convince homeowners that this isn't a zero-sum game, that it's not a, well, you can, if things are affordable, then that means that I lose. So that is the big battle. And that's the battle that the aldermen are going to have to do and the city is going to have to go through. So that's what always makes these sorts of things challenging. And what ends up happening is the homeowners don't necessarily win. And the people that are looking for affordable housing don't win, the developers win. They're wealthy people who aren't even in the neighborhood, and they come in and they get... they cash out. Which is also, Greg, what I, um... what I also wish, and this is... and I've said this, I remember when I did

the State of Black America, uh, uh, discussion for the National Urban League with the unveiling of their report for Howard Theatre two, three years ago. Um, I sit on the stage. I'm tired of talking about gentrification. Mm-hmm. I said, I'm literally tired of talking about it. I said, the question is,

when are we going to see folks create black real estate funds... Yes. ...that can then, like, if we know... We know... Mm-hmm. Okay, what's available. Mm-hmm. I know, we know, okay, what's available.

I mean, there was a brother, there was a husband and wife in Atlanta. They did a crowdfunding campaign. I think it was called the Tulsa Real Estate Fund. And I'll pull up in a second. It was a crowdfunding campaign. I believe they raised $9 million in seven days. Wow. And the whole point of that was to acquire...

Uh, yes, it's called the People's Fund. Uh, the People's Fund, um, he, you, um... And I remember that because, uh, I was like, yo, and that was what it was. They were like, yo, we can either keep talking about gentrification... Right. ...or we can say how we pull black dollars to start buying our own land, our own communities, great.

Yes. No, that's critical. And we may have missed the mark, maybe too late in some places. Detroit, for example, where you see them basically colonized downtown. But you're raising something, and when you were talking to Brother Sanders earlier,

you mentioned Ella Baker. That's critical to understand. Ella Baker really enters this conversation in the 1940s through the Urban League and then through SCLC, organizing people to control their own destinies. But when you talk about something like this, and Reese is into you say that, because the black community is no longer

that segregated community where we moved as one because we had a collective agenda. I mean, Horace Caton and St. Clair Drake wrote a book that's very important. In fact, they really kind of start urban sociology for black people in some ways around their book Black Metropolis, which is the history of Chicago. But it was segregated then.

When you mention the fact that you've got black property owners that are like, wait a minute, hold on, because I'm getting ready to get paid. What you're seeing is a class fracture. And so, Roland, when you mention that, when you talk about Ella Baker, or when you come forward and talk about those two million unregistered Latinos in Texas, these young people now and these other people in coalition are turning toward the dispossessed because what the dispossessed have is numbers.

It may be that they can't make a real coalition with these black folks who are now looking to profit not because, you know, because they don't want them to help, but there is no collective identity. So I guess what I'm saying is in turn, when you talk about what you just brought up

in terms of this community kind of ownership and taking possession, it's got to come with a consciousness that somebody like a Jim Lawson helped people understand. Community land trust. Cooperative ownership. This isn't about individuals owning real estate because that's still a model of profit.

Otherwise, finally, what's going to happen, what's already happening in Chicago is what has happened in Detroit, what's happening in my hometown in Nashville, what's happening here in D.C., they will displace the poor into the suburbs and continue to use them as a reserve labor force to service jobs, but what will happen there

is those ghettos, those hoods, are going to be reproduced outside the city limits. And that's not even speculation. That is what has happened in Europe. That's what's happened in Latin America. That is the future of urbanization, displacement. Right. Absolutely.

And just throwing, when you said individuals and moving as collectives, that has to be something that we have to really come into a consciousness of. That is what it is. Because if though, and just going back to the teaching piece if there is not something that people are willing to connect with to understand that there

are things that have already happened that we cannot catch up with yeah but when you talk about the fun that is what we're seeing these conglomerate groups under opportunity zones which is gentrification on steroids coming in and buying up communities to say that these are poor communities, we're going to come in and we're going to create a community whereby people who live here will have a better quality of living at the fine tune of $1,000 a month for rent. But they're making these decisions with little input for the community. So I think that the two things that have to happen is that the individualism has to die, that that collective piece has to raise together. And then that there also has to be an appetite for the model of teaching so that people understand that these things do not happen at the same speed of technology, that they take time and the more that we hear things the repetition

understanding the language then we can move at a place where we actually do um see some gains absolutely all right folks uh going to a break right now we come back we'll talk about mike bloomberg picking up huge endorsement today from a black mayor in houston we'll discuss next in roller mart unfiltered you want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital

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www.livetolead.com forward slash Leesburg. That's live, number two, L-E-A-D.com forward slash Leesburg. All right, folks, today, Mike Bloomberg announced that Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is endorsing him for president,

will be leading his Blacks for Mike group. In addition, he's national co-chair of the Bloomberg 2020 Infrastructure Council. This is a graphic that the Bloomberg campaign put out. I know that cities are ultimately made up of two things, people and places. And to be truly a successful city, we need to invest in both. A key to that effort is finding partners who are willing to work hard alongside us. And I found that partner in Mike Bloomberg.

In addition to that, Joe Reed today, of course, who heads the Alabama Democratic Black Caucus. They are a very powerful group there in Alabama. He also today announced that that caucus is also endorsing Mike Bloomberg. He spoke to that caucus recently and is backing him as well want to go to my want to go to my folks here so my panel here so here's the deal so here we are the audio that had been out there Michael Bloomberg talking about stopping frisk xeroxing copies and sending around slamming people up against the wall drops on Tuesday next day day, he releases support from three black members of Congress,

Gregory Meeks, Lucy McBath, Stacey Plaskett. Then, of course, on Wednesday, we hear about him blaming victims of the financial crisis in 2008... On redlining. On redlining, which actually just made no sense, and it was completely disproven. And then a group of pastors who had met with him on Tuesday

dropped a statement condemning Donald Trump's tweet about Bloomberg, and then accepting his apology. And then, of course, now with the redlining comment. And so what do you make of this, all of a sudden, Recy, this mad rush of a sudden, Reese, this mad rush of just everyday African-Americans, groups and politicians who are not even addressing anything about stop and frisk.

Right. Addressing nothing about any of these issues who are like, damn that, Bloomberg is the guy. I think they can count. They'll get mad. And Michael Bloomberg is viable. He is very generous in terms of funding political campaigns and different causes. And he's increasingly becoming more of a contender in this.

And so this is politics. People have to pick their poison at this point. And people might be mad at that, but that's what I see with the field that's left. And so I think that each person has their baggage. I think that Michael Bloomberg's baggage is deplorable, but can he get past that baggage given the financial resources that he has, given the staff that he has, given the data operation that he has? Likely, but I did hear him on MSNBC today and I was appalled at his, you know, response. I'm like, you have all these smart people working for you, you have all this money,

and you cannot competently answer these questions about these comments in a press conference? I don't think he's going to be good off script. I would have expected him to do a speech and, you know, lay it all out there, and he doesn't seem to be, you know, going that direction. So I think that, you know, depending on how he handles it, it'll be more of an issue than not.

But he has so much money. I'm driving into work at Russ Parr, and you hear three, you know, Michael Bloomberg ads. You know, he's acknowledging his white privilege, and then he's talking to... You know, he has all these things working in his favor. And if you're going to hitch your wagon to somebody at this point, then why not go with the person who has money?

I know that's cynical of me, but I'm just acknowledging the politics of the moment that we're in. Uh, but, Greg, what's interesting to me... it's literally... no addressing of it at all. I mean, it's like, okay, I'm in, I'm in. And-and the thing is, if you begin to break this thing down,

um, and-and look, let me re... First of all, I'll come at it, but if you begin to break this thing down, and look, first of all, I'll come into this. If you begin to break this thing down, I get you're not sure. But two states have voted. Just two states. Sure. Bloomberg's not on the ballot. He's not going to be in his first debate until next week

because the rules were changed. He's going to be on the stage February 19th in Nevada. Then six days later, February 25th, the CBC debate and CBC Institute debate, Charleston, South Carolina. He has virtually done no interviews. No. Is not doing community groups.

No. Not doing town halls. No. Not having to answer to the questions. So the rest of these candidates who we've judged, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar,

Tom Steyer, am I missing anybody who's still in? Bernie Sanders. You look at who's dropped out. Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Beto O'Rourke, on and on. They all went through the meat grinder. Not so much on race.

Not so much on race. No, no, no, no, no, no. But they all went through the meat grinder of having to do interviews, having to do town halls, having to go before a group. He's like, yo, I'm flying 30,000 feet. I'm just going to drop. And folks are like, yo, I'm flying 30,000 feet. I'm just gonna just drop. And folks like, okay, I'm down with you. Yeah. Why shouldn't he, though? I mean, I agree with you, Reese, everything you said. I mean, Michael Bloomberg,

the party is turning its lonely eyes to Bloomberg. What do we mean? I mean, you know, Buttigieg is done. He passed the two white primaries. He's not gonna put a dent in that black vote. Klobuchar, I think they're trying to keep viable. MSNBC should sign on as an unofficial member of their campaign, her campaign to kind of see if they can get her

passed. Warren is hemorrhaging. She took bad advice. I think a lot of those Obama advisors would hurt. Gave her bad advice. Sanders' support is solid and it could expand. He's beginning to make some inroads in the black. He's around 20% now, a little bit above the national polls. And he's making some inroads.

But here's the thing with Bloomberg. Bloomberg is relying on American politics. As you say, this is real politics. We're talking about low information voters. We're talking about mayors that he basically bought over the years. And so I'm a big fan of Mike Bloomberg on one point. He's attacking the hell out of Trump.

And if he would, Mike Bloomberg needs to write that $40 million check you talked about with Saunders and register these voters in Texas. If you're serious about defeating Trump, because at the end of the day, black people understand better than anyone in this country, this man got to go. And we really don't care whichever one of you it is. And what I think we're beginning to see finally is some of these black politicians who have been, you know, subsidized by Bloomberg over the years are trying to get ahead of where they think

the Democratic Party is gonna be because whether it's stop Bernie or whether it's beat Trump, people are nervous now. Joe Biden is basically out of it, and Bloomberg is sitting there understanding that people now watching debates, Bloomberg gonna get on the stage in Nevada and embarrass himself. Why? This is not a guy who can debate

on a stage and come across with anything like that, in my mind. But also, let's just be clear, a very rich dude who runs his own company, he ain't used to being challenged. No question. And it's coming to your point about that news conference, you can tell he was, I'm gonna pull up a little bit in a second, he was kind of perturbed, you know, Erica.

In fact, before I do that, we mentioned the redlining. This was the video where he was talking about the issue of redlining. Check this out. You've made some reference to the elements that led to where we are today. Could you go a little bit deeper and tell us from your perspective, how did we get here? What are the root causes of the crisis? You can go back I would say it probably all started back when there was a lot of pressure on banks to make loans to everyone. Redlining if you remember was the term where banks took whole neighborhoods and said people in these neighborhoods

are poor, they're not going to be able to pay off their mortgages, tell them your salesmen don't go into those areas. And then Congress got involved, local elected officials as well, and said, oh, that's not fair, these people should be able to get credit. And once you started pushing in that direction, banks started making more and more loans where the credit of the person buying the house wasn't as good as you would like. Since Erica, bottom line is it's simply not true and again it drops on Wednesday and some folks, alright cool I'm endorsing. Right, and I think the other piece that we're seeing is the

failing of the Democratic Party. Had the Democratic Party been making a more substantial investment in its base, which are black folks, period, I'm not using the term PLC, I am saying

black people because that is the base of the party. Had the Democratic Party been doing that work, I don't think that we would see the level of desperation and the openness to really accept what is considered to be, well, our best chances. Because one of the things that strike me is that for us, there is no plan B. Trump has to go. He is at 188 judges and they're pushing, his supporters are pushing for more Ninth Circuit court, Ninth Circuit judges to be appointed. You're talking about he just today, well, Senate McConnell just today sent up someone for the tax circuit.

I mean, like, we're talking about every institution, all areas of protected are being attacked and being filled with people who don't particularly like how black people have gained a level of power, who have been able to fight through a lot of the things that we've been denied over a 50 year period. We're seeing that pretty much eviscerate in the matter of one term of a said president. So, looking back at it, Bloomberg cutting the check really says Democratic Party, where the hell has your investment been?

The whole two-week get-out-the-vote, coming to the church, introducing somebody, buying them chicken and telling them this is come on come on that playbook was played out years ago this was interesting though if you look at the combined spending of all the candidates they've actually spent about the same as bloomberg what i'm trying to understand i'm listening to white states no no no no no i'm saying no no no when i say when i say combined i'm talking about, right. I mean, all things have gone to a campaign. But as I listen to these Democrats like, yeah, he got the money to do it,

I'm like, Obama raised a billion too. Yeah. Hillary raised a billion as well. So this idea that, I mean, they make it sound like, man, we only got about 50 million, so I don't know how we're going to do this. It is as if you can't raise money. It is as if folks are like, hey, let's turn to a dude who's a billionaire. And look, I totally get it.

First of all, there are numerous other races where rich people have run. They put their money in. That's what he did in New York. Hell, you had Calvin Butts, Abyssinian Baptist Church, who was going to endorse William Thompson, the mayor of New York, who said it publicly. But Bloomberg gave Butts Development Corporation a million dollars for their programs,

and Butts then turned around and supported Bloomberg. Yes, sir. Civil rights groups were quiet as all get out, okay? All of them. All those black civil rights leaders in New York City, they were all quiet. Preach. When Bloomberg changed the rules to seek a third term.

The city charter, brother. A third term. A third term changed the rules. Third term. And was running against a black man. Come on. Come on. Huh, I thought we cared about black power.

But here's what Rishi said. Come on. Come on. Huh? I thought we care about black power You cannot let somebody Do this and answer nothing because he's going to have to answer. Yeah if he wins a nomination Yeah, cuz don't think for a second the Trump people are not going to hit him on stop and frisk. Yeah. Are not going to hit him on redlining. Yeah.

It's going to come up. Yeah. But I think, though, that you have the problem, the reason why his money is such an appeal, you have to blame the candidates. Because the candidates

are the ones that say we're not going to take PAC money, we're not going to do big money donors, we're not going to do wine caves. Okay, so then now you raised $12 million. He dropped $250 million. So people are like, well,'re not going to do big money donors. We're not going to do wine caves. Okay, so then now you raised $12 million. He dropped $250 million. So people are like, well, I'm going to go with

the person who has the money. They're not thinking about the cumulative impact of everybody. Obama and Hillary, they had a different fundraising mentality than what they're expressing now. Remember, Obama, I'm not going to take pack money. Then it was kind of like, okay, all right. I mean,

people talk about you can't, you got remember Obama, I'm not going to take PAC money. Then it was kind of like, okay, all right. I mean, look, there are people who talk about you can't, you got to take the money out of the politics, but the reality is the money's in the politics. And like I said to Lee, you also, you got to win, Greg. At the end of the day, you got to win.

Again, and it's difficult because again, we're talking about low information voters. We're talking about low information voters. We're talking about carpet bombing on television. Right. And so, you know, I'll go back to Bernie Sanders. Sanders is an irritant in part because he's building an infrastructure where he's got these smaller dollar donors that are giving money. But you have to expand the base, the electorate.

If the Democrats are really going to win, if Bloomberg is serious about getting Trump out of the paint, Bloomberg is not going to win the nomination. I don't see that happening. In fact, there are going to be many states where he's going to poll less than 15 percent. In Democratic rules, you've got to go 15 percent to get any delegates at all. Sanders is not in danger of polling below 15 percent in probably any of these states, which means he's going to be one of at least two people above 15%. If Buttigieg doesn't get out, if Klobuchar doesn't get out, if Warren doesn't get out, if Biden doesn't get out, and if the two billionaires stay in,

Bernie Sanders is the only one who's going to consistently be one of the two top two finishers. I'll say this. If Bloomberg is serious, then his money needs to go where his mouth is, move some of that money to voter registration, expand this base, and whoever wins,

Bloomberg, you stay at the table. Now, you're absolutely right. First of all, he's already said... That's what he said. Even if I don't win, I'm gonna try for another billion. Well, that's what he said, but... Well, first of all, the reason I do believe that,

because if you look at the amount of money that he spent in 2018, when you look at what he spent in 2016, I mean, it's there so i i think so i so i take about his word there but greg you said earlier you said that you think warren is done first of all i was watching i don't know i just don't see i was watching the young turks last night and they were critical of her with those obama advisors saying that's what she messed up yeah but she was she sort of switched but but he but here though the reason I don't think she's done, I think what has to happen is Elizabeth Warren has to, if you look at New Hampshire, the number of people who voted for Klobuchar after the debate.

Oh, no question. See, this is where you've got to decide how am I going to shine. That's right. You've got to decide, how am I going to shine? This is where, if you look at Senator Harris, in terms of when she hit Joe Biden, when those numbers went up, the problem is, the next two debates, eh. So you take Warren. So what happens? Redlining comments, Bloomberg drops on Wednesday.

Warren's people drop this today. The federal government will subsidize a mortgage for you. But if you lived in that house, the federal government discriminated against you and made it almost impossible for many of these people

to be able to get mortgages. That is a part of our American legacy that we need to address head on. And we can't just pretend it didn't happen that we need to address head on. And we can't just pretend it didn't happen because it continues to have effects today. Homeownership is the number one way that working families, middle class families, build real wealth. And so it's no surprise that starting long, long ago, America subsidized the purchase of housing for white people. But they discriminated against the purchase of housing for black people.

The consequence of that? Generation after generation after generation. A lot of working white families had a chance to build wealth and a whole lot fewer black families had that chance. And that kind of housing discrimination went on in this country into the 1960s. And even today, the consequences of that are still felt. The gap between black homeownership rates and white homeownership rates today are actually higher than they were when housing discrimination was legal in America. So here's my housing plan.

We need to make investments as a country in housing to bring down the cost of housing for middle-class families, for working families, for the working poor, for people with disabilities, for homeless folks, for all kinds of people. We need more housing. So I got a plan for about 3.2 million new housing units and about a million and a half good jobs to build that housing. But it's got a special section in it that addresses this ugly history of redlining, the one that's still felt today. And it says, you know, if you live in a formerly or lived in a formerly redlined area and have never had a chance to buy a home, or if you got kicked out of your home during the mortgage crash, we're going to make first-time buyer assistance available to you

so you have a chance to buy a home to get in the game. Because America needs to face up to the things we've done wrong, and we've got to start taking some steps toward making it right. Hey, that's a nice video. But no, no, no. But here's my point. First of all,

obviously two and a half in the video, the role it plays. But again, when I look at the two moments where you have to do a contrast,

I think warns people to say, Liz, Liz, you damn that unity shit. Forget all of that kumbaya. Right. Go damn that unity shit.

Forget all of that kumbaya. Right. Go on that stage and take all their asses out. And offer the contrast because I've been in the President Elizabeth Warren. I've had her on my shows. I've been there with her speeches. When she breaks down these systems and the inequality,

when she's talking about how we got here, she's more effective to me than Sanders is or anybody else I've heard. She's the smartest candidate in the field. I think the problem has been she disappears in these debates. Oh, yeah. If they don't call on her, she's a woman. Yeah, but here's the deal, though. To me, you don't have to get called on.

Look at the last debate. It's too hard now, yeah. No, no, look at the last debate. Tom Steyer didn't wait for the moderator to bring up race. But that's not Warren's style. But guess what? She needs to work on it. It is.

Guess what? She needs to work on it. No, actually, hold up. That is Warren's style. No, that is her style. Okay. But when she ran for the Senate, they were like, no, you can't come across as pushy.

No, pull a video of her getting Tim Geithner's ass. When she was over the... When she was over the... So my whole deal is, yo, you gotta go for broke. You gotta go for broke. And to me, if she does that

February 19th, and comes if she does that February 19th and comes back and does it February 25th and make it perfectly clear that, look, you got Biden down there, you don't know who the hell going to show up. You know Bernie going to do his usual yelling. Right. My deal is there's still opportunity here.

I go back to 1992, Erica. Bill Clinton lost the first six primaries before he won Georgia. Then lost the next seven before he wins South Carolina. He won three out of the first 14 primaries. I don't buy this whole deal that it's over no matter how much money you got.

Your thoughts? Absolutely. And I think that this is... I think people are tired. So we've had the impeachment. There's been, no matter how much money you got. Your thoughts. Absolutely, and I think that this is... I think people are tired. So we've had the impeachment. There's been, so to speak, there's been a framing of loss after loss after loss. And so, to your point,

if Warren comes out with the fight that's already in her, people are going to be able to connect to say that that is my candidate, that is someone that I can work with. To also include that I don't know how many people can actually relate to a billionaire who can relate to that level of wealth. And even with the people who are black

that are endorsing, that's gonna be for their own reckoning, right? And she's got a say in debate. Right. No, you're wrong. Absolutely. Just like when she turned to Buttigieg, sorry, when she hit him on that answer he gave. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Look, you're running for president. Absolutely. Just like when she turned to Buttigieg, sorry. When she would hit him on that answer he gave, I'm sorry.

Look, you're running for president. I am sick of all these people saying, oh my goodness, Democrats have a circular firing squad. I'm sorry. If I'm running against the three of y'all, let me let y'all know. I'm taking your ass out one by one. In fact, I'm going to try to throw a grenade

and take all three of y'all out at one time. But that's the brand that she created. Oh, I'm not going to attack other Democrats and all this other kind of crap. She pigeonholed herself into that. I feel like she tried to take her shot when she came after Bernie. And she said, you know, she had the whole woman speech all teed up and stuff like that. And all people focused on was her wagging her fingers at Bernie Sanders afterwards. I think that now she will look desperate.

I mean, you know, does she need to fight? Well, hell, if I'm desperate, I'm going to look desperate. Well, yeah, but... But she has to go. But here's the deal. Like, for instance, I'll give you an example. Next debate, February 19th, Bloomberg's first one. But wait, wait, where are you getting this from?

Because what I've seen, he's not a part of the debate. Are you sure that he's in the debate? All right, hold up. No, they changed the rules. Okay. Okay? And I've already talked to's not a part of the debate. Are you sure that he's in the debate? Hold up. No, they changed the rules. Okay. Okay. And I've already talked to the Biden campaign. Okay. They plan on going after him in the next debate. Okay. He'll be there. Yeah. So here's what's about to happen.

Here's what's about to happen. You're gonna have this debate. Uh-huh. You've got Crime Bill Joe. You've got Bernie who signed the Crime Bill. Right. And voted for it. You've got Bloomberg and signed the crime bill. And voted for it. You've got Bloomberg at Stop and Frisk. New video.

You've got Buttigieg and issues with his police department and black people. And the fire department. That's four. You've got Prosecutor Amy. That's five. And you have Republican Warren. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Amy yeah, that's five You have Republican Warren

No, wait wait you got those out there receive No, see on the other end you have two people right you're gonna have Warren and Steyer who do not have any criminal justice So my deal is yeah somebody has to say, hey y'all, I ain't one of them. Guns about it. You're going to have to make that contrast. And that's the only way. Okay, Klobuchar,

who gets to talk to black media. Right. I know your campaign is texting me as we're sitting here on the air. And I'll be calling when I get back. Uh, she's back on morning join. But you should have been returning our e-mails when Jackie Clark, my booker, was hitting y'all in middle January.

Should not have taken me having to call you out on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. But I appreciate y'all reaching out to me now. And we'll be talking. But also, let me be clear. No candidate, surrogates, or campaign officials can come on my show until the candidate comes on. That's for you, Joe. And we'll be talking. But also, let me be clear. No candidate, surrogates, or campaign officials can come on my show until the candidate comes on.

That's for you, Joe. That's for you, Amy. That's for you, Mike. That's how we roll. What I'm saying is, with this debate, you have to go there. But she also doesn't have the competency when speaking about it.

So her range is very, very little. Wait, wait, wait. Specifically about Warren, about criminal justice. Because I don't know if you guys saw, she did a roundtable with formerly incarcerated people. And she did not... Their clip that they managed to put together, it wasn't even that good.

She talked about housing, these same 3.2 million housing units she talked about for redlining, the same answer she gave for criminal justice. She has a very limited range on the topic. No, no, no, no, no. Here's the piece, though. Here's the piece, though.

Actually, because what I was about to say even before you said the competency piece, actually, the smart way to talk about criminal justice is to connect it to economics. Sure. Because, see, because... No, no, no, no. Because follow me here.

What people don't understand is that here, because of the welfare bill signed by Clinton, you couldn't... You come out, you can't go to public housing.

Exactly. You can't get student aid. Mm-hmm. See, I... So, again, this is where... This is where... This is where Warren or anybody else,

y'all free advice, has to say, America, y'all may not realize this. We should stop talking about, oh, rehabilitation, when the fact of the matter is they can't move into public housing. They can't get student loans. They can't do this. Talk about a whole deal with banning the box. If I'm her, I'm staying in my economic lane. But I'm connecting, I'm staying in my economic lane, but I'm connecting economics

to criminal justice. Economics, housing. Economics, education. To me, Greg, that's where, if you're like, hey, I'm going to let y'all sit here and fight all the police chiefs or whatever, but I'm going to tie it to economics. It's difficult because I watched

the last part of the debate, the New Hampshire debate over on Connecticut Avenue, Politics and Prose, and listening to this white audience, like two black people out there, they were convinced that Klobuchar won that debate. No, but they weren't alone.

But to your point on Warren, Warren gave the best answer on the effect of economics on structural racism. Of course, Buttigieg had nothing to say. And I'm listening. No, no. I mean, we could walk through it sentence by sentence. And we're walking through.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Warren is head and shoulders the most intelligent candidate on that. And she understands the policy implications of economics, as you said. She tied it again to, I mean, what we saw in that commercial, that's the reparations argument. But my point is that Greg, her problem was, she only had that moment. No, I agree. And that was the

you gotta have more than one moment. All I was gonna say was, this crowd that's listing these people, and they're going back and forth, it wasn't so much that they were listening to the policy. People are responding to personalities. Precisely. And so therefore, Warren has been consistently very effective, in my mind, is what she's

saying. But you're talking to low information voters who watch Super Bowls and stuff like that. And that's why Bloomberg can even be in a conversation with him. No conversation happening. Because ain't nobody listening to who's the smartest. They voting on the guy they want to have a beer with. All I'm saying, Eric and Reese, is this here. When you step back and I think, first of all,

like I said last night, Democrats need to calm the hell down. Okay? It's only two states that are voting. Really, it's only one because Iowa has no clue what the hell they were doing. And what you can't do is, if you're a candidate, you can't get so caught up

in the minute-by-minute data whole piece because here's the deal. Campaigns shift and change on a dime. Because even with all of the money Bloomberg is dropping, it may reach a point where that also turns off voters.

Yep. See, it's all these different variables here. And I just think that if you fall into that trap... Look, look at Tom Steyer. Erica, nobody... Nobody... I can't find nobody who would have said by the middle of February,

Tom Steyer is polling second among African-Americans in South Carolina. Wow. Well, he's been camped out there. No, no, that's my point. But again, my point is, it don't matter he being camped out there. The fact that how are you connecting?

What are you saying? What is of interest? Yeah Those are the things that again that I'm sort of looking at how people respond Bloomberg is gonna Bloomberg is gonna come drop his millions if I'm debating Bloomberg. I'm gonna use money against him Oh Because and that's just what I was saying before about I don't know how many people can connect to a billionaire. So with Elizabeth Warren, people are looking for, after all of these L's, so to speak, that the country has experienced with the rise of this regime, people are looking for somebody who don't have shit to lose. So Elizabeth Warren is a person that I can relate to. She's had a job. She's been a single mom. She's been to school. She's had a single mom. Come on now. She's been to school.

She's had to pay her way through. I'm looking for, as it gets closer and closer to time for me to make a decision, somebody who's more relatable. So I absolutely agree with you. Along with Tom Steyer and folks like Mike Bloomberg, these are people who, when you start to look at their track,

you knew that they were going to run for president because they were setting up, oh, I've got this whole impeachment thing that I'm running against Trump. Yeah, I'm registering people or I had this gun reform. It all those roles lead to now. This is what I want in return from you. But when people, even if they're not policy blunts, somebody talking in a language which includes me and this is a message that is repeated over and over.

That is how we learn by repetition. That is the person that I want to go to the ballot box and check the box for. Everybody else that's jumping off for a check or whatever it is that they're getting, that's their own reckoning that they're going to have to face. I think, though, with... And I made this point last week.

The problem that Warren has is money. That's the same problem that Biden has. It's very true. Warren had to record a video to ask for $7 million in the next 11 days. Meanwhile, Amy Klobuchar is saying, oh, we made $3.5 million just off of the debate. And so she's really struggling to try to convince people to stay on board with her. She created this litmus test of grassroots this and no big money donors, and so she's kind of put herself in this box.

It doesn't, you know, you can have a great message, in my opinion, that was Kamala Harris, but if you don't have the money, you cannot compete. And that is, and to be clear, everything, the reason why Tom Syr is gaining, number one, he stole Kamala Harris' data, or his campaign did, in South Carolina specifically,

and he's basically replicated everything that Kamala Harris said. He did a black woman panel with a bunch of black women he probably paid to be there. And he's parroting her message. Her message, all this stuff about, oh, we're going to invest in HBCUs and all these things. These are the same exact things that Kamala Harris said. And that message is resonating, but unfortunately she didn't have the funds to put that message out there the way other people did. Here's why I will disagree with that. It's because of this.

When you're on the stage with six or seven people, you have to have moments. And the reality is this. First of all, let me be real clear. The moments that Senator Harris had in June and July And the reality is this. First of all, let me be real clear. Yeah. The moments that Senator Harris had in June and July didn't mean Jack then.

Why? Because people weren't voting until eight months later. Right. Yeah, there were two votes. What I'm saying is, if you take the fact that right now, voters, voters, 25%, 30%, 35% have made their minds up yeah oh no so again I'm a you I'm a use Klobuchar for what it is her the role that she played in the last debate yeah was on a Friday they voted on a Tuesday that's true so well so what I'm saying is this here. That's true. I might not have any money, but if I walk into a debate...

She can change the game. That's what I'm saying. If she has it in her. And that's what I'm saying for Biden. He has to do that. They said that the last debate. Well, I know what they said, but he still got to do it. Can he do it?

No, I think he can. Really? Look, here's why. I go back to the debate in 2012 when Obama sucked against Obama. That's true. Obama didn't want to be there. It was his wedding anniversary. He didn't want to prep.

He didn't give a damn. The campaign, they knew it. That VP debate, Biden's ass was ready. Now Now granted, that was eight years ago. That's good. Where is that Biden ass? Where is that Joe? What I'm saying is this here. What I'm saying is when you are up against the wall, two things are going to happen.

You're going to wilt or you're going to fight. But she also put out a memo to her supporters that had, oh, this is where all my people are weak at. These are where all my competitors were. Where was that energy on the debate stage? You had an opportunity to do that. First of all, every campaign has that. Yeah, but I'm just saying, she doesn't keep the same energy. You have to, that's my point. My point is

you have to translate that. You have to show people. What Klobuchar did was I am going to fight." -"Yes." -"I'ma contrast with you." -"Yes." I did this build, this build, this build. It was her tone. It was energy. It was all of that. And also, it was consistent throughout.

You cannot disappear in a debate. You can't. How are you factoring in, how's everybody factoring in the party in this? The reason I ask is because clearly clearly Klobuchar was not competitive She sees the moment, but she's being carried by mass commercial media It seems to me that this this split between the so-called progressives and the centrists the party doesn't want Sanders the party can tolerate Warren but it seems to me that the clustering is really Sanders and Warren versus the rest of them.

I don't know, but I'm saying... Here's a piece. The funding, the fundraising... I don't think it's party. I think, first of all, what happens with media is whoever's the shiniest object, the latest thing, that's why the whole deal with clomentum, whatever the hell they call it, you know, whatever... Not clomentum. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was a phrase that came up with, you know, it was a phrase that came up with at the New Hampshire. No, but again, but again, what it boils down to is it boils down to performance. I'm going to use the analogy,

I'm going to use the analogy of the NFL combine. Okay? You can be, you could have been a marginal football player. You could have been an okay football player. Then-hmm. You could have been a okay football player

Then you go to the combine Yo ass run a four point two eight First of all that alone all of a sudden Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, then all of a sudden you go to the vertical leap. Mm-hmm All of a sudden you go to the shuttle drill. Yeah. Then you go to the bench press drill. You have seen athletes who are marginal, okay, decent ball players go to the combine. That's true.

And go from a sixth round to the first round. That's true. Show up. Because the combine is built for a certain deal. It ain't really about, forget the film. It's really just, oh, my God, because the NFL is in love with the physical attributes of a player. But that's true democracy. Everybody gets to run.

The clock ain't going to lie. You say ball don't lie. Debates are the same way. The debate is. But you got to get to it, though. You got to get to it. That's the real point. They can't find Pamela before she can even get to it though. You gotta get to it and you got by the family

She could even get to this But also and this is where they did but Senator Harris also has to accept also because it's not Warren failed Mmm, Senator Harris was for Medicare for all then. She's like, okay. No, I'm not no, that's it. Okay See, you're right. You're right. She never recovered. You're right and then as Warren where did war screw? That's right Warren made the taxes. No, that's it. That is it. You're right. You're right. She never recovered. You're right. And where there's Warren. Where did Warren screw up? Warren didn't want to admit the taxes. No, no, no. The medical help here. No, she actually put a number on it. That's what she did.

What has Bernie done for eight months? We had, look. We had, look. Y'all need to watch this tape. We had, we had, I had Brianna Joy Gray on last night. Sure did. And, well, you know, you know, it's sort of hard. No, it's by design.

Right. You don't put numbers on some stuff. You let the concept and the idea. The last debate. How are you going to pay for it, Bernie? Look, y'all, Medicare. Right. It was like, his ass ain't even here.

You're right. She fell into the trap of, they were hitting her so much, she was like, I gotta give him a number. No you don't. She didn't want to admit that she was going to raise taxes, so she came up with this elaborate thing to try to...

Wait a minute, last night Breonna said on here, the experts say we might have to raise taxes around 4%. Of course we will. But guess what. Last night, Breonna said on here, the experts say we might have to raise taxes around 4%. Of course we will. But guess what? But that was Breonna Gray saying it. That's what I'm saying. Bernie was like, I ain't even going to address you. How stupid are people? That's all I'm saying.

How stupid are people to understand that if you pay 4 or 5% more in taxes, but now you have no subsidy for, you don't have to pay anything for your insurance. I mean, people are so dumb to your point. Don't put no numbers in it, because people are too dumb to understand.

Because you already said, no information at all. The moment you say, utter the words, raise taxes, boom. So, she was so smart, she was dumb. She's a policy wonk, though. She's a policy wonk. though. She's a policy wonk.

The art of the game is knowing when to answer and when not to answer. And that's the deal. But here's the other problem that we're seeing. And we're seeing this show up in these non-endorsements and these double endorsements,

which aren't even endorsement, people are so afraid. Either they're either afraid of being wrong and picking the wrong person so they're paralyzed with fear, or these candidates have played so nice with each other that people aren't really seeing the distinction because for me as a person

who follows stuff closely, I'm thinking okay, well I look at second choice voters for Biden, it's Sanders. And I'm like, what, well, I look at second-choice voters for Biden and Sanders, and I'm like, what the... You know, or second-choice people for... Because people are not distinguishing themselves enough, and so everybody is tolerable, and it depends on these flash-in-the-pan moments, if you can build one.

It depends on fundraising, if you have the money to flood the ads. But people are just not... They just aren't... Nobody has really presented that compelling case to be like, boom. Yeah, but it's because... Okay, let me go back.

Let me go back to why you must study history. Y'all, in 2016, there were only two candidates. Martin Mallory don't count. It was Hillary Clinton. It was Bernie Sanders. If you go back to Obama in 2008, there were three candidates when they got to Iowa. Obama, Hillary, John Edwards.

You didn't have six, seven, eight, nine. Now, let me use the Republicans. Trump was able to win because there were 16. That's right. Because he didn't need 16 candidates. First one to drop out was Scott Walker, Tim there were 16. That's right because he didn't need or 16 candidates first One to drop out was Scott Walker or Tim Pawlenty Scott Walker Scott Walker template able to first you to drop out right? What you know wisdom said Oh Midwestern governors, you know, mr. Wisconsin, Minnesota. Oh, they're gonna be the nominee first you to drop out

He benefited because I only needed 30, 32, 35%. Right. The rules is when to take all. So when people say, oh, Trump's base. Nah. Okay, when you have a base, you don't need 50%. No. So guess what?

Sanders is actually benefiting. Oh, yeah. No question. From there being the multiple number of candidates. For now. And so this is my point, if you're a Warren, if I go, because not only that, you got a caucus in Nevada.

If I am able to swing, if I'm able to really swing the debate, I potentially could shift 5, 10, 15,000 votes. Yep. Yeah. That, you can go literally from fifth

to third or second yeah just like on the shift but but you got to perform and i think and that and that's the real issue there and so i dare say the next debate all eyes will be on how bloomberg performs all eyes will be on obviously biden. But I still believe the person who, if you look at her record, if you look at where she is in policies, the person who I still believe can make a real move, y'all, Amy polling at.5% among black people. Amy who?

Right. Right. That's right there. Right there, Erica. She DOA in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Right. That's right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right have to prove he can win. Yeah. There are 11 states voting on March 3rd. He can't win one or two, Erica. No. Erica.

No. With that amount of money, you're going to have to win, boo, four or five to show me you're a real candidate. You can't win two. Right. Listen, and black folks are pragmatic. Yes. And that is what I know about black voters.

For all of these people that have signed on to Bloomberg without his accountability for the harm and the trauma that he has inflicted on black folks for generations, there's still a reckoning. So this is going to be interesting to see. Alright, y'all. When your

mama weigh in, you get your ass in line. No question. That's even the case for Snoop Dogg and his So, uh, when your mama weigh in, you get your ass in line. No question. That's even the case for Snoop Dogg and his durag. Snoop Dogg, y'all, has apologized to Gayle King for the words that he spoke after her interview with Lisa Leslie asking about Kobe Bryant.

This is what he dropped on Instagram. Yes. So with that being said, Gayle King, overreacted. I should have handled it way different than that. I was raised way better than that. So I would like to apologize to you probably for the language that I used and calling you out of your name and just being disrespectful. I didn't mean for it to be like that. I was just expressing myself for a friend that wasn't here to defend himself.

A lot of people look up to me, and they love me, and they appreciate me, so I want to let them know that. Anytime you mess up, it's OK to fix it. It's OK to man up and say that you wrong. I apologize. Hopefully we can sit down and talk privately. Have a good day. All right, I said on Monday I was sick of this story,

and it needed to end. Praise God. Snoop's mama, thank you. I mean, thank you for it needed to end it praise that snoops mama. Thank you I mean, thank you for cuz this had gotten this ridiculous. Yeah, I have an adult son His throat would have been in my hand I know that would have been in my hand this hole on social media people not being able to control their emotions He's got not a hand like disagreement is one thing but to go as far to say that you're going to threaten somebody for their safety. Snoop is almost 50 years old.

Get your entire, that was entirely too much. And to me, that added more angst to what Miss Vanessa Bryant and her family are going through. They've not yet buried Kobe and Dear Gigi just yet. So I don't think that kind of like... No, the funerals are taking place. The funeral took place February 7th. Okay. Okay.

But so they'll, what is that, a public memorial that'll be happening on February 4th? So I mean, like that is a whole nother event of grief that she has to continue to go through. So, you know, at this moment, social media bandwagons, there has to be some conscious of thought happening here. And I'm very glad that the same woman who said that she believes Snoop to be a minister did get him together, because I would have jacked my son off. Greg, this is why

you gotta have grown-ass people, black people, who weigh in, who can say, yo, let me holler at your ass. Right. Well, Roland, the days have changed. I mean, you ran the Chicago Defender.

There was a time when black public spaces controlled by black people had real authority in black communities. Now you've got hip-hop artists, rappers, who made names for themselves by calling women every type of name, who were celebrated not just by black men but by black women in the hip-hop industry, who were celebrated not just by black men, but by black women in the hip-hop industry, who are now looked to for their opinion

as if those opinions matter. On the other side of the ledger, you have folks like Oprah and Gayle who are really, in many ways, inventions of a white corporate media who found people who could appeal to a demographic beyond their base, white women primarily. So this is all a mess to begin with.

I mean, and so when you see it, you say Snoop's mom come in, I'm glad you said, because my mom would have done the same thing to me. The irony of it finally is that you have someone like what Snoop does, Brother Brodus does. He communicated in a moment out of impulse. But the irony for me looking on social media

was how many people co-signed him. And I'm not just talking about men. I'm talking about him. And I'm not just talking about men. I'm talking about women. And I'm not even talking about men and women. I'm talking about boys and girls, teenagers and 20-somethings. So what came out was, Gail, why you ask that question? Here's Lisa Leslie sitting here. So I think the whole thing is a mess,

but it comes down to the fact that our media platforms have to be controlled by us, have to be things that we give investment to for authority, and whether it's the Defender or Roland Martin unfiltered we got to stop looking at entertainers to be some kind of moral barometer but how we should be talking to each other I just don't know we reason and I just thought it would really just disturbed me the most was when I saw it was trending hashtag I stand with Snoop and the because it was this sort the hashtag I stand with Gayle. And I'm like, you have black people dragging the other black person? I'm like, I said, why don't we have hashtag I stand with black unity?

Because that's what we need to be doing in this time. You know, Snoop, he took things too far, as well as other people that jumped on the bandwagon. I still don't think that, you know, the way that Gayle handled that in that sensitive time was appropriate. But I don't think that it warranted all that it went to. And so the thing about it is it's always about, the problem is we always have to pick sides and we have to pick them viciously and be vicious towards each other. And there's a contest when we need to be more united, period. I appreciate that, Snoop. Apologize because hopefully that

will make people understand that we don't have to always be at war with each other. But this is also why you have elders. That's right. Well, he's 50. He should be an elder today. No, no, no. He's not. No, no, no.

Follow me here. Follow me here. I said this to y'all. That's true. That is very true. I said this. When you're in Ghana, when you're in these different places, the king

gets permission to speak from the elders. He the king, but they're the elders. Part of the problem for a lot of us is it don't matter he's 50 because even though you're 50, there's still somebody

who's older than you. Yes, that's true. And so, some of y'all call them godfathers or whatever. There's a reason why there are people who pick the phone up and say, -"Let me holler at you." -"Yeah." Oh, no question. The problem is, and let me be real clear, first of all, you gotta have people

who command that level of respect. But then you also gotta have people who also have been trained that you of respect. That's right. But then you also got to have people who also have been trained that you do respect elders. Thank you, though. And that's exactly how that happens. And so, you know, I've had some... And I remember when I posted a video

when I was stepping in my kitchen and I had some young alphas who came after me. I was like, okay, first of all, who the hell are you talking to? Number one. Right. I said, you don't tell me what the hell I can do, Steppen,

because your ass just joined. Right. No, and I made perfectly clear, which is why, again, you have these spaces. So when you go to AKA conventions and Delta got their Delta Deers, we got spaces set aside.

Only 50-plus-year alphas can sit. It's like, no, that's how... So our community has always... That's right. Yeah. ...fully embraced elders. Institutions, that's right. Institutions for that reason.

That's right. So no matter what you do, you get a line, an elder says, let me holler at you. Yeah. Let me holler at you. Yeah. And we got to always remember why you got to line, an elder says, let me holler at you. Let me holler at you. And we got to always remember why you got to have elders. Folks, real quick, Michael Fessler of Portland, Oregon said police officers unlawfully surveilled

him and then falsely arrested him after he complained to his boss about racial discrimination. Wesleyan police began investigating Fessler in February 2017 after Fessler raised concerns to his boss, Eric Benson, owner of A&B Towing, that he was being racially discriminated against at work. Fessler said the discrimination included boss, Eric Benson, owner of A&B Towing, that he was being racially discriminated against at work. Fessler said the discrimination included coworkers

calling him racial slurs. After he raised his concerns, Benson contacted his friend, Westland Police Chief Terry Timmons, and persuaded to look into allegations that Fessler had stolen from the company. With the approval of Westland Police Lieutenant Michael Strattley, detectives Tony Reeves and Michael Boyd

used audio and video equipment to watch Fessler while he was at work, according to a lawsuit filed by Fessler. Mm, ain't that something. Y'all, go to my iPad, please. Remember the homeless dude, formerly homeless dude, Donald Trump, asked to stay at the State of the Union? Well, Associated Press has this story asked to stay at the State of the Union? Well, Associated Press has this story. President Trump said the State of the Union speaks that a homeless vet turned his life around

thanks to a company using the administration's Opportunity Zone tax breaks. But the man never worked at a site taking advantage of the tax breaks. Y'all, you read this story here? They were lying the whole damn time. Just straight-ass lying. And just, as a matter of fact, the guy,

where the business is, the area doesn't even qualify for the Opportunity Zone tax breaks. Shock and awe. Rowley, you've been in this business a long time, brother. Have you ever seen a moment in American history where the lie is the preferred thing? Lie about literally everything. I didn't call Barr. You called history where the lie is the preferred thing. Lying about literally everything. I didn't call bar.

You called bar the minute you saw the scene. I mean, just liars, man. Right. Yeah. This is crazy. This is crazy. All right, y'all. Did y'all see the video of this asshole on a plane?

Got upset because this woman actually reclined her seat. Well, she was like, OK, you know what? Let me record this for you. Turn the audio. He's going to say something. All right. Now, what's interesting to me is a whole bunch of people, this has been a real issue. People have been upset saying she was wrong and he's wrong.

People say it's disrespectful to recline your seat. I've heard people say, oh, I've almost had laptops broken when somebody reclined. Y'all, he was watching a video on his damn phone. Yep. On the TV tray. Yep. Okay, seriously. Now, he was in the last row.

His seat can't recline. Okay, let me be real clear. When you sit in that seat or certain exit row seats, your seats can't recline. That's the result of those seats. Guess what? Be early enough and book your seat. I'm sorry.

I disagree with these people who say, I should be able to recline my seat. If the damn seat reclined, I'm reclining my seat. And this whole deal, I need to ask you permission for me to recline my seat. And this whole deal, I need to ask you permission for me to recline in my seat, no! It's not. That dude, first of all, he did it because she was a woman. Oh, yeah.

Because ain't no way in hell... You were sitting there. ...he would try that with a dude. Well, y'all were sitting there. He went and tried that with a black woman. And the airman apparently gave him drink tickets and apologized to him. Really?

Yeah, that's what I read. I don't know. They would have had to call an air marshal because he would have got his ass whooped. Yeah, I would have had somebody be aggressive with me, and all it took was really a turnaround and a look. Oh, yeah. Yeah, though, that's... Actually, that's a form of harassment. It is. And I wish that she would have been able

to just turn around and confront him around that. Um, I'm glad we see it on tape, but that type of, um... that type of, uh... I think kind of like poking and prodding really does warrant somebody asking for something to happen in the reciprocal. Oh, yeah.

What say it, say it. All I wish about... Lord! Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, but, you know, it's interesting. These planes, I mean, it's capitalism at work. I'm sure there's a branch of psychology where they study this. As they've taken these seats out and made them smaller,

and then they still have the recline function, you're creating a situation where it's almost impossible to be comfortable. I mean, I'm a person who, you know, maybe this is how I was raised, but, you know, I expect to be uncomfortable on a plane. So if it's a middle seat, if somebody reclines back, I just expect that, and I know that I'm going to get off on a plane. So if it's a middle seat, if somebody reclines back, I just expect that, and I know that I'm going to get off in a minute. But if you're getting on a plane thinking

that you're going to be comfortable, you're in the wrong form of transportation. They have shrunk those seats over the years. First of all, they've shrunk the seats, and they've actually added more seats. Yes. It's a revenue deal. But it's sort of like the people who have this belief

that the bin over there is their being Fool with flight attendants. No, you can't move that you can't The day I was on and his woman was like I was she was trying just to bash you like, you know be careful I have some fragile and What she realized it was a black male flight attendant who was a fan and he went Fragile items are not supposed to be in the bins crazy ass white people. Move that shit. Wait a minute, because he was like, he goes, no, Mr. Martin, your bag will be on the plane. I love that.

And so this white woman, she was like, oh, she was like really upset. He said, no, no, no. Fragile items don't go in the bin. Yeah. Lord have mercy.

I was cracking up. I love that. And the other passages, the other passages, it was, it was, and actually what made it worse was, so I had an aisle seat.

It was like row three or four. So, I get on, and some white woman in my seat... Uh-oh. And so, she stands up, and she says, well, you know, I'm here with my... I don't know who was sick or whatever. You know, can you switch? And I'm looking, and I'm like, uh...

Hell no. That's why I get like, uh, hell no. That's why I get up. I mean, there's a reason I request the IOC. You stressed it out. Uh, hell no. The reason I request the IOC is because on those planes, I can lift the handle up, so I ain't tight. So I turn out and out, I got leg room.

Well, another brother who watches the show, he's like, no, no, no. I'll go ahead. He gets out of bulkhead to go sit in that aisle because I want to sit on the window. So I sit in this aisle seat. But again, I ain't got to... I purposely picked the aisle seat.

But what was a trip was that literally, these people have this belief that they're not... No. And they believe that if I put it in, it't be shifted a move right and he's like no We making room for other bad. No, my man was like hey, this is shared space That's right. Oh it was I mean it was a trip but again some these people act a fool on these planes And lose their ever-loving mind. I'm telling you.

Yeah. If I recline a seat... Help him roll. The air marshal will reveal him or herself. Because somebody going to get straight cussed out. Yeah. And it somebody going to get straight cussed out. Yeah. And it's going to be, push this seat one more goddamn time and see what happens on this side. All right, see what happens.

Hey, look. Oh, look. There will be bass in my voice. There will not be treble. I'm just letting y'all know. OK? I'm just letting y'all know. I'm telling you. Hey, player, try that. OK? That's all I'm saying. All I'm just letting y'all know. Okay? I'm just letting y'all know. I'm telling you.

Hey, player, try that. Okay? That's all I'm saying. All I'm saying. We're going to end the show with this here. Reverend William Barber, they, of course, had their Memorial Mondays anniversary. It took place in Raleigh, North Carolina over the weekend.

Reverend posted this speech, and I said, you know what? I got to go ahead and do this here, and so we're going to play this. But before we leave it out, tomorrow I am going to be out. I'll be in Chicago for NBA All-Star Game. There'll be a guest host because today is actually my wife's 55th birthday. Happy birthday, Rick.

And so I got it hooked up real simple because, you know, bottom line is I can give the same gift last ten years As a trip to all-star game so nice. I'm a guest of the NBA. It's all good. That's why she's happy about it So, you know, that's why it's perfect. That's how y'all do that Everybody ain't able, I'm sorry. And I damn sure ain't gonna apologize for it. Nobody replying on that flight tomorrow. I ain't gonna apologize for it. Valentine's Day ass whipping. And I ain't gonna apologize for it.

So y'all see, I took this video before I left the house. Yeah, seriously. That's not a 55-year-old. Birthday queen crown on her head. Oh, got the crown. Girl, I know. I was like, what? I said, what the hell?

Let me tell you how ignorant she is. Why did she go to breakfast with my niece to order off the 55 and over menu at IHOP? Just to do it. But she realized that you get free breakfast on your birthday at IHOP. Oh! She got it.

So I know. She got it. So they got it. Now, that's funny. I ain't get the hell up early to go eat no damn 55 and over off the menu at IHOP at 8 o'clock in the morning. Lord, Emory. Because my ass 51.

So I ain't, I ain't, I ain't. Oh. If you think I'm going to go. She was robbing the cradle, right? If you think I'm going to go to IHOP to go eat breakfast early, hell, I can go to IHOP, eat the 55 meat at 7 at midnight. I ain't doing no 8 o'clock in the morning. So, Daniel Hill, Mark's birthday. I'll be

in Chicago for NBA All-Star Game back on Monday. We'll have a guest host tomorrow. We're going to end the show with my man, Reverend William Barber dropping the hammer when it comes to what we got to do to organize and mobilize to vote these thugs out. I'll see y'all. Ho!

If I was at my home church, I'd tell you slap somebody a high five. And tell them I'm ready to fight. I'm tired of crying. I'm tired of mourning. And I'm gonna fight with love. I'm gonna fight with truth. I'm gonna fight with marching.

I'm gonna fight at the ballot box. I ain't gotta hurt nobody. I'm gonna fight with marching. I'm gonna fight at the ballot box. I ain't gotta hurt nobody. I ain't gotta crush nobody. But everybody, it's time to vote. It's time to intensify and embolden your agitation. Turn to your other neighbors and neighbor, agitate, agitate, agitate. Turn to your other neighbor and say, neighbor, since they fear us, let's make their fear real.

Let's go to the balance like never before. Do I have a mobilizer? Do I have a witness? Is there anybody in here that's going to do what you got to do? Turn to your neighbor and say, neighbor, neighbor, neighbor. It's fighting time. It's standing time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah

raise your hand if you're gonna organize now grab grab that hand and say, you better not be lying. Grab it, say you better not. Say you better not be lying. Say you better not be lying. Hold that hand, hold that hand. Say you better not be lying. And tell them, say I may not even like you sometime. Tell them, say I may not like you sometime.

But this year, we gonna put all that aside because it's time. It's time. It's past time. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? 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 starts that 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. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast Season 2. This is an iHeart Podcast.