#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 2.18: Bloomberg qualifies for NV; Protester rips Bloomberg; Top issues for Black women voters

Episode Date: February 25, 2020

2.18.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Mike Bloomberg qualifies for NV debate; Virginia protester rips Bloomberg's actions as Mayor of New York; Black women detail their top issues during the NCBCP Unity 2020 Black Campaign Launch; Black college swimmer sues for wrongful arrest; A 6-year-old girl was committed to a mental health facility without her parent's consent #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 Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. self. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two 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 two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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 one taser incorporated on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Today is Tuesday, February 18, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Mike Bloomberg vaults to the lead in number of polls. Also, he has a security spot in the debate tomorrow night in Nevada. Also, Senator Bernie Sanders, though, he also has a double-digit lead across the board nationally as well.

We'll talk about what is happening on the Democratic side for president. Questions are still being raised about whether he's a racist or not. We'll talk to the protester who raised the issue at the Virginia Democratic Party Gala. And what issues top the list for black women voters. We'll show you the questions being asked

of all the Democratic nominees, but also Trump, and we'll tell you who did not even answer the questionnaire. Amy Klobuchar. The National Texas Southern University Alumni Association, they're asking that President Dr. Austin Lane be reinstated and the Board of Regents be removed. Illinois Governor Pritzker is calling for a police probe after a black college swimmer sued for wrongful arrest.

And in Florida, a six-year-old girl was committed to a mental health facility without her parents' consent. Always Florida. It's time to bring the funk on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find. 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. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's on for Royal. It's rolling Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah

He's punk, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Well, the Nevada debate tomorrow night got really much more interesting, of course, initially. Senator Bernie Sanders, Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Amy Klobuchar, as well as Mayor Pete Buttigieg, those five qualified for the debate.

Now there will be a sixth former New York mayor, Mike Bloomberg. And trust me, every candidate plans on going after the billionaire who's already spent more than $350 billion, excuse me, million dollars on his campaign, says he will spend up to a billion to win the nomination. Mmm, this shall be interesting. Now, of course, all of this has been changing the game. If you look at now the polling data, it shows that Michael Bloomberg with 14.2% of the national vote,

behind Joe Biden at 19.2%. On top is Bernie Sanders at 23.6%. And so we also, of course, look at what's happening not only with that, but also look at various states. So, for instance, Mike Bloomberg is not on the ballot in Nevada. He's not on the ballot in South Carolina, the next two states voting. He will first appear on the ballot on Super Tuesday. But what this means is that this debate will actually be more of a national debate

because it will be his first time up against all of the other campaigns. Let's talk about their apparel, not a Cleo Monago. Political analyst, also Kelly Bethea, she's a communications strategist, and Malik Abdul, Republican strategist. All right, folks, so what's interesting here is that some people are trying to lower expectations,

saying, well, his first time out. No, ain't gonna fly. Not gonna fly. There's no way in the world a Bloomberg campaign agrees to be in this debate. Will they qualify on Tuesday? Debates on Wednesday. He's not been preparing for this debate. Cleo, but he better be prepared

because every candidate on this stage is going to throw everything at him. I've been told the Biden camp, they are gearing up to go after him hard. Senator Bernie Sanders has already made it clear he's going to go after him hard as well. But I think the one person out of all of them who really, really has an opportunity to really, I think, stand out, Senator Elizabeth Warren. Well, I imagine that Mr. Bloomberg is preparing.

He has the money to get coaches, to get writers, to get speech, the people that can write speeches and get him prepared. The man is preparing. He's probably with an acting coach as we speak. So I don't think he's gonna- Not an acting coach. Well, you know, it's all an act.

You know, as far as I'm concerned, it's all an act. But he's probably preparing, and I mean, he has a few dollars, you know, to get himself ready. I'm sure that he's studying his candidates, and he's gonna show people that money talks. Clearly it does. I mean, he just came on the scene and he's already above over half the people

running for president according to the polls. So we will see what happens. Kelly? I just feel like this is going to end up being a battle of the billionaires. And it's unfortunate because the whole point of this entire process is that Americans' voices are heard. All Americans, not just the ones who can afford...

Oh, really? In theory, yes. Oh, theory, okay. That is the point. And what's happening... I'm sorry. And what's happening right now is something that, you know, frankly, we've looked down on other countries for doing. You see these, you know, high-end politicians who are, you know, career politicians who have loads of money,

who just saturate the field with, you know, their imagery, their campaign stuff, and not letting everybody have a shot at being, you know, in leadership. And that's the whole point of a democracy is so that... No, really. That is the point. Actually, no, but actually it's not. I mean, the reality is, um, big-money people have always had the advantage over it. And the reality is, if you can't raise money,

uh, you're not gonna stay in. You look at the fact that the percent of Bernie Sanders has a massive grassroots campaign, uh, average donation around 19, 20 bucks. The reason he's still in the game is because he's built this grassroots infrastructure. Other candidates who haven't done it, who have not been able to do that,

they're not doing well. But we can go online and show rich folks who've actually run who've had an advantage. When Jeb Bush ran in 2016, I mean, he walked into the campaign with daddy's infrastructure, fundraising infrastructure. George Jeb Bush ran in 2016, I mean, he walked into the campaign with daddy's infrastructure, fundraising infrastructure. George W. Bush, same thing.

He walked in. So it's not like we haven't seen this before. I'm not saying we haven't seen it before, but at the same time, I feel like the stakes are a little bit higher because... For who? For everybody, frankly,

because right now, especially on the Democratic side, everybody, for the most part, is like anybody but Trump. And in doing that, you kind of have a situation where what we have right now, where you have candidates like Bloomberg, and I'm sure we'll talk about this later in the show, that a lot of people don't necessarily want, but because of the money that he is pouring into this, it looks like he might actually, you know, be a true contender, because he is saturating the field with his dollars.

Yeah, but also, but let's just be honest, the reason Bloomberg is in the race is because of the weakness of Joe Biden. The reality is, if Joe Biden, uh, had not shown the level of weakness, Michael Bloomberg would not be in the race. That's why he jumped in. And so you have that.

You have this belief that Bernie Sanders is too much, being a socialist, that basically Trump is going to win 35 or 40 states if Bernie Sanders is actually the Democratic nominee. Then, of course, you have the billionaires who are not particularly happy with Senator Elizabeth Warren. But the reality is, if Vice President Joe Biden

was a much stronger candidate beginning of January, Mike Bloomberg is not in this race. Have you heard about the Greenwood Initiative? Yeah, I've heard about it. That sounds on paper very, very black and impressive. Yeah, but also, but it's not substantial.

First of all, no, it's not. First of all, he lays out that he wants to create 100,000 new black-owned business. Okay, that sounds great. Okay, so you also, you're like, hey, that sounds great, but the reality is there are 2.6 million black-owned businesses right now in the United States. 2.5 million of those only have one employee. They're doing an average revenue of $54,000.

The problem is not we need more black-owned businesses. We need more black-owned businesses with scale. That's what we need. The question I would have for Michael Bloomberg is like, okay, how many black-owned businesses have you worked with with Bloomberg, your company? See, and that's the issue that we have is scale.

Access to dollars. And so that's what you're looking at. But again, for all the people who are upset with Bloomberg, it really has been really about the weakness of the top. You look at a Sanders in terms of all you look at the numbers, 28, 30 percent. OK, people saying who can beat Trump? Sure, you've got these these hypothetical matchups showing that Biden and Sanders can actually beat Trump in the fall.

But those are polls. We know how those go. But what you're dealing with now is, it's very simple. Big money people. He spent a hundred million of his own money running for mayor of New York. This should be no surprise to anybody that he'll spend his own money. Yeah. And so the interesting thing to me about this is that, you know, we have someone it's almost like the juxtaposition between the AOC wing of the Democratic Party. And now what we're looking at with Michael Bloomberg. I'm not convinced yet that Michael Bloomberg will be able to buy himself his way to the nomination. I didn't realize until you mentioned that is that he's not going to be on the ballot until Super Tuesday.

Which is pretty shocking. And I just think from just a political... Because he decides too late. That's why. And I think from a political lens, you know, those of us who follow politics, the possibility of a candidate coming in and not being on the ballot,

you know, not really having debated and getting the amount of support that he has purely because of how much money he's been able to throw into the race, I started thinking about what could happen. And I know people will disagree, but I started thinking about what would happen if we eliminated the Electoral College. So someone like, well, just think about it, someone like Michael Bloomberg, well well you can just appeal to your California your New York your Florida your Texas markets and don't have to worry about campaigning any in the other place not sure I true not true cuz first of all you actually look at existing map most candidates Republican Democrat don't campaign in those places they don't they don't they don't let's

just be honest they do not go to not go to the Dakotas. No, no, no, no. Take those two off the map. They don't go to Idaho. That's three. They aren't going to Wyoming. That's four. They aren't spending a significant amount of time. If you're a Democrat, you're not spending time in Kansas.

Because you know that's going red. Outside of Iowa. So the reality is, you only have maybe, maybe eight to ten states where both candidates actually campaign. So even if you take away Electoral College, even right now with Electoral College, okay, for all the numbers, they're really only campaigning in eight to ten states. They're campaigning in Trump didn't go to California. He's like, I can't win California.

So, you're going to New Mexico. You're going to Colorado. You're going to Florida. Arizona. You're going to North Carolina. Arizona. Georgia. You're going to North Carolina. Ohio. Wisconsin. Michigan. Michigan, Pennsylvania.

That's 11. You're going to 11 states. So right now, even with the electoral college, 39 states, they're off the books. So to me, electoral college or not doesn't change anything. The bottom line is you still have to be able to appeal to voters. I think what's really happening here is, look, for Democrats, it's fear. It's this massive fear of, look, I mean, look, I was talking to some black activists today,

people who I thought would not be Bloomberg. They said, nope, that's the only person who can win. I was like, wow. And I'm talking about these are hardcore, on the ground, community activists. And they said he's the only one who can beat Trump. But I think it shows the power of money, wealth, and opticals. For example, we all know that he's been peddling Obama in his commercials. The implication is that Obama is going to be supporting me. And that's

what it looks like. And even though a lot of people, I mean, all of this back stuff, which is all true that you're breaking down, a lot of people are not considering only going by the opticals. And which is why a very smart Bloomberg put old footage from a hundred years ago, well, two or three or four or five years ago in his, in his campaign to make it look like I got y'all Charles Blackman with me. And Obama has not come out and said nothing against his footage being used, which implies that he endorses Bloomberg.

I don't think that's an implication that he endorses Bloomberg at all, because you still have six people running. Well, you're being logical, but you're being logical. Nobody else has used an image of Obama in their campaign but him. Not even Biden. A lot of people don't use logic.

They're using opticals. It does. It gives... I see the optics. It gives the impression. Yeah. Right. Obama said that was great.

But here's the reality. That's what you do in politics. Right. Bottom line is, you look to gain an advantage. I think what is really interesting here, when you look at all of the stuff that's happening here,

is literally this fear. But on the flip side is it being here. And the Sanders people will tell you, oh my God, absolutely not. We don't believe it. You got Democrats in Texas who are nine seats away from taking control of the Texas House. They say, if Sanders is the nominee,

don't even waste our time. You got some Senate Democrats who are saying that if Bernie Sanders is the nominee, oh, no way in hell Democrats have any shot of retaking the United States Senate. Now granted, Bernie supporters will say, oh no, he can win in places with white voters, but here's the problem.

No Democrat since 1964 has gotten more than 39% of the white vote. Now, do y'all trust white folks that much? Where you actually think, no, seriously, where you actually think that more than

39% of white Americans are going to pick Bernie Sanders over Donald Trump? Anybody? I think it depends on where you are. No, no, no, no. I didn't say where you are. I'm talking about 39% of white people in America. No Democrat has gotten more than 39% of white votes since 1964.

So I'm trying to understand this whole idea that Bernie Sanders is going to flip places that Trump won. Yeah, now that I don't think is going to happen. What I found interesting about the entire debate is that if you look at the Bernie supporters and I think it will see whether or not it actually comes back to bite Democrats but you have this, the Bernie

contingent. The passion is behind Bernie Sanders. If you look at any of the candidates and you say, well where's this the Bernie contingent they're very pat they the passion is behind Bernie Sanders if you if you look at any of the candidates and you say well where's the passion the passion is before Bernie Sanders what I'm wondering and we'll see what happens is what happens then if they said okay because it does seem like there's an effort to push Bernie Sanders to the side no it's not an effort when I was perception wise though let me let me explain to you why I say that.

If you look at the comments, unrefuted comments from Barack Obama, you know, making these overtures to Bloomberg, you know, if you look at some of the other things that are happening out there, it does seem, it could be just, you know, hyperbolic reporting,

but there are reports out there that people are trying to push Bernie Sanders aside, even consistent with what you're saying about... Okay, nobody can push Bernie Sanders aside because he's running. Right. What you have is you have people who want to counter Bernie Sanders,

but that's also politics. And so all the Bernie people who are desperately looking for a conspiracy need to calm the hell down and focus on simply running. At the end of the day, if you've got five or six candidates and your guys got 20, 30 percent, you're going to win nominations like Trump did in 2016. The issue still here is this here. For those people who do not want Bernie Sanders to win, it's very simple. Are they going to, after South Carolina, go to

Klobuchar and say, time for you to go? Go to Stiles and say, time for you to go? Are they going to go to Warren or Buttigieg and say, it's time for you to go? Or are they going to say, we need to have three choices?

Because it will be time at that point. Because if you're Sanders, math is math. Right. If I'm getting 30 and the six or seven of y'all are sharing the 70, I'm going to win. I'm good.

I'm going to rack up the doggone delegates. Because this is about a March 2 delegates. That's what's going on here. And so I think that's really what's at play here. I just think what is interesting is that... is that you... The fear of Democrats, they're literally looking like Republicans in 16.

Yeah. I think they're actually a little bit more unorganized than the Republicans in 16, because at least at a certain point in 16, Republicans rallied around who they wanted. Yes, that's what I mean. What I mean is, he got the nomination. What I'm saying is about this fear,

this fear of, you know what, we're just gonna overlook everything this dude has done, everything this dude has said, because we wanna win. But if that's the case, then they should be doing that with,

personally, I feel like, if they're gonna overlook anything, I feel like they should not do that with... Personally, I feel like if they're going to overlook anything, I feel like they should not do that with Bloomberg. Oh, they're overlooking it. You know what I'm saying? All of it. But my thing is, of all the people to overlook, Bloomberg shouldn't be that one. Why?

Because, at least in terms of the black vote, it's just... First of all, he just became a Democrat two days ago so like same you know i just don't think that i feel like the democrats are trying to play out of the playbook of the republicans of 2016 and it's not going to work for the democrats because we're not as for lack of a better word organized or one track minded i won't use the word organized what i'll say is that Democrats are not as ruthless as Republicans.

There we go. There it is. If you listen to New Yorkers talk about Bloomberg, and I got an earful because I just wasn't sure. Even if you're looking at his elections, I mean, he hasn't really won by a large percentage of the vote, his first and third. Guess what?

You win by one or you win by ten, it don't matter. You won. Final comment. What's tragic to me is that, and this is not new, but again it raises his head how corruption and money can defy reality

or defy racism because Bloomberg has been very racist. His policy has been racist. We know about stop and frisk, etc. And despite all of that, from what it looks like, having Obama next to you in some old footage can move your points up. Now, if that's

really what's going on here in terms of the relative popularity he has, this country is in sad shape. He's not getting the points because of Obama. He's getting it because Democrats say anybody but Trump. And I do not care.

Same thing when Republicans said, okay, fine. If it's going to be Trump, we will overlook his comments about women, sexual lawsuits. Anybody but Hillary. Multiple marriages. It was like, she ain't winning. And that's the game Democrats are playing right now.

But they're still making a choice, though. He still has to win the nomination, though. The difference is, they made that decision after he won the nomination. Democrats are making it in the primary. That's what I found to be interesting. Now, this weekend, of course, Bloomberg spoke to the Virginia Democratic Party,

and as he took the stage, let's just say he had a slight interruption. Cheers, Swecker, for inviting me here tonight. What about another round of applause for her? Okay. That sign said he protects racist systems. Joining me right now is the woman who posted that sign, Jasmine Leeward, co-founder of Richmond for All. Jasmine, how you doing?

I'm doing well. How are you? Doing great. How did you get so close to that damn stage and put that sign up? Well, it seems like $150 a pop, you know. There you go. I just kind of walked up, said what I had to say.

What happened after they grabbed you and then tore your sign down um i'm not sure what happened to my sign but um the security guard escorted me out i walked i almost went out the wrong door he was like you can't get out that way i said thank you asked him how his night was going he He said it was going all right. And told him to have a good weekend. He said same. And I met my fellow friends outside. Why did you put the sign up? I put it up, honestly, because I was really, really tired.

I do organizing work here in Richmond. And I've met a lot of people and I've met a lot of people. I've heard a lot of stories. And we have a serious poverty issue here in the city. And it's often marketed as if, you know, this is the best place to be if you're Black. And I was just really exhausted. And, you know, we had been fighting for a long time, a specific deal that we just found some closure on on Monday that would have exacerbated gentrification here. And

I'm usually not a foreground person. I like to stay and work in the background. And it really did come to that for me of, you know, just being fed up with the way things are, being hurt by the people I see who are suffering just due to racist systems. And so I just knew I had to do something. The exact words didn't come to me until a little bit before the event.

But, you know, with Richmond for All and with my friend on the inside who was there, you know, I was able to say what I had to say. Are you shocked, surprised, bothered by just the sheer number of black endorsements that Michael Bloomberg has received and by the lack of critical analysis with regards to his record, his stop and frisk, his comments about redlining housing in New York as well? I'm not shocked. I am not. It's kind of, for me, just a testament to how this system has been built. A lot of times, black women running for office, black folks who are looking to really make a positive change are met with the barrier of funding. And, you know, we tell ourselves stories about what that money will or not do when it comes to the choices we make.

And it may be that you may not bend towards one person's will because they donated thousands of dollars to your campaign, but it is quite possible that you won't speak out when they do wrong. And that is equally as harmful. So that, it does not surprise me. I am not upset, but what I wanted to do was give people the opportunity to hop off a train that was going in a very bad direction. Who should they be hopping the train off for?

That decision is up to them. I really am thankful for all of the work that has been put into the Movement for Black Lives Policy platform that lays out the groundwork to really make systemic changes, both at the local, federal, and state level. That's what I think all candidates should look to if they want to have a vision for Black lives that benefits Black people. When you look at this race, obviously Bloomberg is going to be in tomorrow's debate, but he's had events, but he really hasn't had town halls. He hasn't taken questions from people.

Hasn't done many media interviews except for major national platforms. What should be asked of him? I think the question, how does he feel like his platform measures up with the platform that's been put forth by the movement for black lives? And let him answer for himself. Well, hopefully that happens. I know we are trying to make an effort to talk to him as well. And so we shall see. Jasmine, go ahead. Yes, I'm sorry. I don't want to interrupt to him as well. And so we shall see Jasmine Leeward.

Go ahead. Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't want to interrupt you. Go ahead. To be clear, I feel like all candidates should be asked that question. Absolutely. All right, Jasmine, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. All right, folks. You think this is going to happen more to Bloomberg? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that it's clear, at least that's what it looked like on the videotape,

that it was, you know, not a rash decision but a quick one in terms of putting it up there really quickly. I think that, you know, Jasmine is the catalyst for more to come. I feel like this will definitely be more planned, more organized moving forward, because, frankly, it needs – the word needs to get out that he is not necessarily the best candidate for black people or people of color in general. And New York has been trying to tell us forever by way of, you know, tweets, social media blasts, what have you.

And frankly, it's getting drowned out by his money. And the only way the message can get out is stuff like this. And I applaud her for being courageous enough and fed up enough, frankly, to have her voice heard. Roland, I think more and more in this country, because of a relatively weak force of black, collective black people having optical power

and political power in this country over many generations now, is that blackness, if you will, is losing gravity. And people are more interested in the proximity to power, the proximity to power. the proximity to power. I believe the support that you just mentioned that Bloomberg has gotten from all these black folks is exactly what I'm talking about.

Because one thing that's good about him, if you think anything's good about him, and this is not my perspective, this is what I think people are seeing, is that he is rich, he's wealthy, like Trump, and he has Obama in his commercials. Not like Trump, he's actually rich and wealthy. Well, but people don't know that.

Some people think that Trump owns the oceans and all kinds of stuff. But the point I'm trying to make, though, is that there's a lot of black people who are more concerned about proximity to power and being closer to power and possibly emulating power, which in this country symbolically is white, and are more concerned about proximity

than they are black-specific power. Because how can you be concerned about black people in particular and support a man who was about redlining, all the things that you went down the list with the sister a moment ago that were basically anti-black and he still gets black endorsements. Blackness is losing its gravity, if it had any in the first place. I mean, for example, when Obama was the black president, there was no gravity that was increased for black people in particular by his presidency. And I think that was a powerful change

in trajectory in terms of perspective when he didn't do that. So a lot of people are saying, forget this black stuff, I want to be with the powerful people. Well, I think what is really happening here is there is such a disdain for Donald Trump.

The Democrats are making the exact same calculus Republicans did. Whoever and whatever needs to be done to get him out, that's who I'm rolling with. So they think that, so what you're saying is that they really do think that Bloomberg for real is better than the rest of the people. Because if it's simply, let's get Trump out, they have to make the right decision with his contender. No, they actually believe that the other people who he's running against are not strong enough to beat Donald Trump. Compared to Bloomberg.

Yes, and they think that, what folks are saying, I mean, look, Joe Biden's black support is cratering. You look at right now, he was leading by a huge margin in North Carolina. He's now down one or two points behind Bloomberg and Sanders. He was on top because of black support. His black numbers in South Carolina have crumbled. Okay?

Black people also ain't crazy. They're like, your ass came in fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire? Uh, let's see who else is still around here. So what you have people saying is, I think what's happening to Bloomberg is they don't think Sanders can beat him. They think he is, by being a socialist, he will guarantee a Trump victory. They think Biden ain't even gonna survive March Tuesday.

They think, hell no, Klobuchar pulling that 0.5% from black people. Buja pulling that 2% black people. Then you got Elizabeth Warren, who's stuck right behind Bernie. That's why I argue Elizabeth Warren, out of all the candidates, has to crush it tomorrow night and then crush it Tuesday in South Carolina. We saw what happened with Amy Klobuchar after New Hampshire. Of the late deciding people, she picked up at least one-third

of the people who decided in the final 48 to 72 hours who they were going to vote for. I still believe there is a small window for Elizabeth Warren to catch fire and actually begin to pick up. But if she does not do it,

if she sort of fades like she has in these various debates, game over. I think Edward South Carolina, she has to get out because the number's simply not going to be there. Final comment real quick. Very quickly. I think for me, this is just a study in race and how we view race because if Bloomberg, I actually believe that you're right,

proximity to power matters, and I actually believe that you're right, they feel as if he's the best person that could beat Trump. But if the things that we people are kind of accepting that, well, yeah, that was racist, but he has to beat Trump. And I just think that that's a very interesting dynamic and conversation to have about, you know... Tragic.

And it really is. It's no shock. I mean, they did the exact same thing in 2016. Let's go ahead and put this on the table. Black folks don't trust all these white folks. Let's just be real clear, okay? No, no, no, no, no, no. Follow me here.

For all the talk, I said it earlier. Since 1964, no Democrat has gotten more than 39% of the white vote, okay? Of the total electorate, this election will be the first time, likely, that less than 70% of the total electorate is white. 16, it was 71 or 72%. This year, it's probably going to be 68 or 69%. What that means is more than two-thirds of the people voting for president are white people.

What black people and Latinos are saying is we don't trust y'all white folks. Okay? So we got to make a decision about the best white person who can beat that white person. And so you know what?

We see this racist SOB so we're going to take quasi over racist. And so, you know what? We see this racist SOB, so we gonna take quasi overracist. Black people have had to make these calculations for centuries. This ain't new for black people. What black people are actually saying is we don't trust y'all white folks. Because 53% of white women,

y'all picked that vagina-grabbing, sexual harasser, multi-married, serial adulterer. Racist. And guess, so it's interesting. We want black folks to say, well, no, you should reject Bloomberg, because it is.

But I have watched white conservative evangelicals offer up every possible excuse of why they love Trump. And you're right. I have seen them. Do you need me to show the tweet where some dumbass literally posted a yard sign

that said, God bow downs to Trump. I do remember that. That was crazy. There was a black woman on MSNBC. Let me repeat that. God! Yo, the sign said, God bowed down to Trump. So if you're wondering why black people are making a political calculation, that's what white folks been doing

since the beginning of time. But we're not supposed to do that, though. Oh, well, guess what? Well, guess what? We can't afford not to when that's the problem. Well, white folks also ain't supposed to be racist. We see how that has gone. We can't afford not to.

We come back. We'll talk about the Black Women's Roundtable and their questionnaire and the kickoff to Black voter outreach for the census and the 2020 election next to Roller Martin Unfiltered. To me, there are no greater patriots in America's long history than the Black citizens who are willing to die for a nation that was denying them their rights. Mike Bloomberg is the only Democratic presidential candidate that has a real plan to fight for those sacrifices that have been taken for granted for far too long.

And I've got to think it was in hopes that their service and sacrifice might redeem those rights for their children and grandchildren. Introducing the Greenwood Initiative, a bold new plan to help black Americans create generational wealth. One, we will help a million more black families buy a house.

Two, we will double the number of black-owned businesses. Three, we will help black families triple their wealth over the next 10 years to an all-time high. Mike will get it done. Visit mikeforblackamerica.com to learn more. There are concrete proposals that we can afford and that we can get done, and we will. I'm Mike Bloomberg, and I approve this message. Paid for by Mike Bloomberg 2020. We are unfiltered. YouTube.com forward slash

Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications

so when we go live, you'll know it. Martin! You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real.

As Roland Martin Unfiltered support the Roland Martin Unfiltered. Support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. There can be no true black political liberation without religious and cultural liberation. Minister and academic, Garrett Wilmer. Here we go. All right, whatever. Come on. Are you looking to enhance your leadership

or that of your team in 2020? Join our newest online course and mastermind group, How Successful People Think. Dr. Jackie Hood Martin will be your guide as you learn timeless leadership principles to apply to daily living. The offer expires February 28th. To register or start the online course,

go to www.livetolead.com forward slash Leesburg, www.live, L-I-V-E, number two, L-E-A-D.com forward slash Leesburg. All right, folks, so today was a kickoff of a massive black voter outreach campaign, not only for the 2020 campaign, but also for the U.S. Census.

Joining us right now is Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women's Roundtable. So, Melanie, explain to us what UNI Campaign is. Of course, we live-streamed the event this morning, so explain exactly what it is. The National Coalition was put together, I just say it's a black table of organizational... organizations,

organizational leaders, uh, to work together to try to maximize our impact when it comes to voting or the census, in this case, both this year. Uh, so we have... It's called... I call it the Unity 2020 Vote and Be Counted campaign. And so we came together today to launch that campaign from a national perspective, but also to release our voter guide. And of course, this campaign is not tied to a party or a candidate,

but it's really about just reaching black folks across the world, across the country, to get them to register and to vote. Yeah, maximize our resources, because none of us have, not one organization alone can do this by ourselves. And so this is a table, this open table, everybody come together as much as possible. Find ways to partner with the work.

We've been working for a year and a half. Thank you, Roland. You've been in those strategy meetings over the past year and a half. And so today was just that way of going ahead and pushing our first stop, will be South Carolina, on the ground for the Super Tuesday. Super Tuesday comes right after that. It's been three weeks' worth of no sleep, so y'all forgive me.

It's all good. Trying to pull this off. But today was our day to get that out. And part of that was to share what we were going to be doing over the next 60 days because at the end of the day, this election year, we also have to deal with the count. And the

other thing our organization decided a while, a long time ago, that we weren't going to sit back and wait for somebody to make the decision about who the candidates are going to be. We actually organized in the primaries to make sure Black folks have something to say about who the candidates are gonna be, we actually organize in the primaries to make sure black folks have something to say about who gets nominated to whichever party.

One chases after it, the other one doesn't right now, but the reality is we wanna make sure that we have a say on who becomes the nominees and then ultimately who becomes the president of the White House. Folks, here's an excerpt from today's event. So phase one of the Do Too campaign, I mentioned, is about making sure that we get our folks counted and get our folks turned out to vote.

And the idea of unity is not unity for uniformity, but unity so that we can maximize our resources and have as much impact as possible in a climate that is pushing against the wind of folks being able to participate and together but also to be able to be a hub to make sure that we elevate what black leaders from from local to state to national as much as possible is what the National Coalition in its 44-year history has attempted to be,

and that's be an umbrella organization to also share what everybody is doing as much as possible. Now, in addition to that, the Black Women's Roundtable had their Voter Guide 2020. Here, go to my iPad. I've been posting this image on social media. Where's Amy? Melody, you said there were three candidates

who y'all reached out to? Yes. Phone calls and emails, and three candidates did not return the questionnaire. Who are those three candidates? Senator, um... Congresswoman... Tulsi Gabbard?

Uh, Senator Klobuchar, and then also, uh, one other Republican. Tulsi Gabbard. Senator Klobuchar. And then also one other Republican. Donald Trump. Donald Trump. And then one other. The name escapes me. First of all, ain't no other Republican who's running. We had one.

I mean, you had William Whale. You got Joe Walsh. Joe Walsh just dropped out. And then De La Fuente responded. Who? We had one De La Fuente. Who was that? A businessman out of California. What he running for? President. His life. Oh one De La Fuente. Who was that? A businessman out of California.

What he running for? President. His life. He's running for president. I don't even know who that is. He's running for president. But he responded. So of the top candidates, Donald Trump did not respond to the Bunker's Roundtable questionnaire. No, he did not.

Y'all called and emailed? We called. We started back in January. We called. We sent emails. We made phone calls, trying to get the people who were in the Republican Party that some of our team members knew to try to get a response. We are nonpartisan, so we're not trying to tell them about who to vote for. We just want to have the information so that people can help make the informed decision.

And so... This is something, Roland, we didn't just start this. Right. I started this. Right. I started this with Dr. Hyde back in 2007. And we do it every four years. And we work with A. Philip Randolph Institute, National Council of Negro Women. This time we partnered with the Black Voters Matter,

with Latasha and Cliff and them. And we actually, even though it's focused on black women, we had brothers to look at it to make sure that the questions we were asking impacted the whole community and so and also We wanted to make sure we leverage that power that we that we do have to make sure that we're Leveraging the power not just at the ballot box, but to make candidates tell us what you're gonna do

How you're gonna address the issues that our community is concerned about and cares about and And with the questionnaire, as you said, it's not edited, so whatever the answer is, that's what's posted. Right, and you can go up there. And the thing was, Roland, we also developed these questions based on our research, you know, informed research. You know, Dr. Avis Jones, the weaver, our good sister, she's also a bad researcher, for those who may or may not know.

And so she's our editor. We do an annual report on the state of black women every year that we release in March. We partner with Essence Magazine every year to do research about what black women want from the president to the Congress every year. We do exit polls during election time. So that two years' worth of research helped us inform what the questions ought to be. And then also then shared it out with a lot of our friends and

colleagues who weighed in to make sure that we were able to have a... We had 99 questions. Right? And that was more than we normally do. But there's so much going on that's impacting our community, especially issues around justice and injustice, that we had to go a little deeper with some of those questions.

What does that say, though, if you're doing a Black Women's Roundtable, if a candidate won't even take the time to even respond to the questionnaire? So fine, if you don't want to answer all 99, answer the ones that you want to answer. And some people didn't answer most, though, answered every question because the questions were... They couldn't run away from the questions. And if you have a strong platform,

then it shouldn't be any difficulty to answer those questions. And most people... We're going to do some analysis and deal with that as we move into the next few weeks on those responses. But it's there for folks that just, hey, you can look, go down, look at the subject matter,

look at some of the, and then see what everybody responded to on that particular question. You can hopefully find something in there that's important to someone in the black community, or others for that matter. Folks, you can go to, this is the website. First of all, go to my iPad. I'm showing you what it looks like,

the Black Women's Roundtable, the 2020 Election Voter Guide. The site is bwrvoterguide2020.info. That's b-w-r-v-o-t-e-r-g-u-i-d-e 2020.info. And so again, you'll see exactly all the information that's right here, all the candidates whose photos are listed, including those who did not. So you see right here, Tulsi Gabbard,

and her page is pretty much empty. She couldn't answer anything. Same with Amy Klobuchar. Her page is empty as well. Yet if you go to Senator Bernie Sanders, then you'll be able to see actually his responses to the whole deal there.

So, what's up? So you talked about going to South Carolina. What's happening? What are y'all doing in South Carolina? What's happening there? We're having a power to sister vote town hall meeting on February 27th, two days before the vote. What's happening there? We're having a power to sister vote town hall meeting.

When? On February 27th, two days before the vote. That Thursday? Yeah. What time and where? 6.30 p.m. at the International Longshoremen Building in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Partnered with National Action Network, Essence, and APRI again. And it's all about coalition.

That table I'm talking about is we find ways that we can work together. And also support each other in the work. All right, then. Okay. We certainly appreciate it. Again, folks, if you go to the website, please, if you look at this here, what they

have is they have the question, and then they break it down by the responses from each one of the candidates. So you see under Workplace and Income Inequality, you see Joe Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, De La Fuente, Sanders, Steyer, Warren, and then you have the next question down

here as well from the various candidates. And so again, go to bwrvoterguide2020.info for more information. Melanie, we appreciate it. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, Roland. Going to break. We'll be back on Roland Martin and the Filter. Mike Bloomberg is the only Democratic presidential candidate that has a real plan for Black youth in education. It's called the Greenwood Initiative. We'll make public college tuition free for all

low-income students. We'll forgive college loans for students who were exploited by failed for-profit colleges. Mike knows investing in our teachers is investing in our children. We'll also recruit more Black and Latino teachers as we did in New York City because studies show they can make all the difference. And we'll also invest much more in heavily historically Black colleges and universities

because many of the HBCUs are struggling. And the first step to achieving generational wealth is taken in the classroom. We'll incentivize state and localities to create financial literacy classes. Mike will get it done. Visit mikeforblackamerica.com to learn more. There are concrete proposals that we can afford

and that we can get done, and we will. I'm Mike Bloomberg, and I approve this message. Paid for by Mike Bloomberg 2020. Want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show

by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com for slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications

so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, now, we certainly don't expect Donald Trump to actually fill out that questionnaire, but what the hell are you doing with you, Amy Klobuchar, and Tulsi Gabbard? Tulsi, I think she pretty much knows she's not gonna win. Why she would not respond. Actually, and I think that the president

should have responded, too. Um, but why Amy Klobuchar didn't respond? I can't... First of all, Amy Klobuchar has been awful when it comes to black people. Awful. Okay, we've been contacting her people, our national communications director. Jackie, give me his name.

I almost asked to say his name. What is it? Is it Tim Hogan? That's his name? Tim Hogan, national communications director for Amy Klobuchar. We've been emailing him and calling since mid-January. No response whatsoever. None.

Zero. Zilch. I think responding... Now, you're the communications director. Your job is to communicate with me. That's one. I've been reached out by other black journalists and other media folks as well about that.

Rashawn Robinson, Color of Change, let me tell you what they did. They reached out to her. They wanted her to participate in their podcast. of Change, let me tell you what they did. They reached out to her. They wanted her to participate in their podcast. They said, let's do it at our offices. Her staff told them, no, that's too far away. Okay, so Color of Change

booked a hotel room near the U.S. Capitol in order to do the podcast. She cancels. Well, I don't think they know what to say. And they don't feel like blubbering and making up some stuff. And I don't think they have the infrastructure. Infrastructure meaning

black literacy, if you will, to respond in very clear ways to black issues. So they won't look stupid. And they don't got a token yet. I can't, because all you gotta do is get a token. That's what everybody else do and let them do it. I feel like it goes beyond that. But they don't, they're't look stupid. And they don't got a token yet. I can't, because all you got to do is get a token. That's what everybody else do, and let them do it. I feel like it goes beyond that.

But they don't, they're not prepared to, and they don't know what to say about black issues. Amy Klobuchar cannot stand in front of people, Kelly, and talk about how, oh, I can win in red states and win in places where Trump won. Boo, if you can't win black people, if you can't even talk to black people, ain't no way in hell you're going to be in the general election.

And my thing is, I was alluding to what Dr. Manago was talking about, but I remember, what was it, last week or a couple weeks ago when Amy Klobuchar was on The View and Sonny Austin interviewed her, and so... Lit that ass up? Yeah, so I'm just, if that was any indication as to how she interacts with other black women, other black people in general,

then it would actually be wise of her not to interact with any more because that interview was very clear that she does not know how to respond to the to the discrepancies in her record and the the blunders that she made as uh as a prosecutor because i believe sunny austin was talking about uh this major case out in minnesota that she was a prosecutor of and there was a huge blunder with that in terms of you know know, racial bias and, you know, the whole nine, and she just didn't have

sufficient answers for it. And, you know, there are no good answers that could have come out of her mouth, but at the same time, somebody should have prepped you well enough to prepare for something like that, and she just wasn't prepared. So I can only imagine what it would be like for any other outlet of color, uh,

and having her on there. Mel, the only black endorsements she touts are some small mayors in Minnesota. Um... I think what she's doing is exactly what Sanders did in 2016. Now, granted, he had some black support, Colonel West, Killer Mike, others.

He did a couple interviews with, like, Ebony and some other people like that. But for the most part, Bernie Sanders ignored black people and black media in 2016. Yeah. His largely white campaign was focused on Iowa and New Hampshire. I think Amy Klobuchar's people figured we ain't got no shot, but they only focused on Iowa and New Hampshire. The problem is, you did well in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Now all of a sudden, you now want to come talk to black people. But the thing is, you're still late. And look, one of her press people, C.J. Warnke, reached out to us only after I publicly put them on blast. But they still have not really responded with, okay, here's a date, here's a time, we're going to do this. Again, other black journalists at mainstream outlets have been trying to reach Senator Amy Klobuchar. She has not responded. And so I'm going to call Amy Klobuchar out every day. I'm going to put that image of Where's Amy

on social media every day. In case y'all missed it, here it is. And we're going to put that out every day. So I honestly think that this is i'm i'm surprised that she did not respond to the questionnaire and i think this is political malpractice on her part because at a minimum and we know how this stuff works i mean we're political we know how this stuff works you can find one black and i won't use the word that tokyo i will not i would not use that word but you can

find one black person that's what token means to be able to answer some of these questions no no no no no well see but she did but but what my point is is that she didn't put forth that and you don't even respond now see that's the see that's the worst part. Melanie told you. That's a little insulting. Melanie told you. They had 99 questions. If you only want to respond to 10 of the 99, five of the 99, one of the 99, and I'm sorry, if you running for president and a black women's round table, calls your ass and emails your ass,

knowing full well that the one group that votes at the highest percentage out of all groups in America for Democrats are black women, and then your ass a woman and you still don't respond? Damn you. If it were the Farmers Association

or something like that, she would have responded. But black women's round table. Yeah. You a white female Democrat. Fine. Don't respond to the black part. Respond to the female part. But Roland, the whole rule work is under

black. She's not prepared to have that conversation. And if she writes anything, she might be held accountable for what she writes, which means she's going to have to get prepared to act like she can act like she can act like. She can talk to black people. And she ain't got enough infrastructure to do that. So she said, look, I ain't going out like

that. I'm just going to ignore it and roll and talk about it. And my thing is... Don't talk about it. You really have a red date. He really is. But at the same time, you're talking about... I understand that it is called the Black Women's Roundtable, but those 99 questions

weren't specific to black women. Of course, it's centered around our issues, but if you really think about it, our issues are American issues. We just happen to be at the forefront of those issues. Today is dream day for you. No, it's not. Leave me alone.

But anyway. You should get a pillow and a bed so you can finish falling asleep. Let me stop. One day. But anyway. One day. One day. But anyway. But I say all that to say, like Roland said, it's clear that she doesn't care because all

99 of those questions didn't just say how do you feel about black people? How do you feel about black women? How do you feel about black men? It was under black. They would have called it the women's round table for women only or women, women, women, women. She probably would have said a few things. And that's my point. she would have called it the women's roundtable, you know, for women only, or women, women, women, women, she probably would have said a few things. And that's my point. The fact that it said black,

she didn't even go into it. It is utterly disqualifying for you, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, to even remotely think that you are going to get a Democratic nomination because of how you have treated black media, black journalists,

and Black Women's Roundtable. There is absolutely no excuse that can be made. And in fact, what you should do, Senator Klobuchar, is you should go to your campaign headquarters and say, who is the idiot who took the emails and the phone calls

from the Black Women's Roundtable and did not bother to mention it to me and my campaign manager. The second thing you should do is go to your national communications director and fire his ass. Because there's no way in the world I would want a national communications director

who gets email requests and phone calls to do interviews and he don't even respond. That means he ain't communicating. So he clearly ain't doing his job. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. And so I'm real clear, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and I want you to know, I'm real good at calling people out. I'm real consistent. And I'm going to call you out every single day that you ignore black people. Y'all know how silly this thing is? Y'all, I'm going to give you this one here. The Washington Post did a story. They called me for it. I was asleep yesterday.

I was crashed after the NBA All-Star game. They did a story on Amy Klobuchar. Y'all, I am not lying. Why did the Klobuchar campaign this week ask the DNC for a list of black churches in South Carolina? Stop it. Anyone of y'all comment if y'all want to. I'm a dreamer, so apparently I can't say much. Why?

You think it might have anything to do with not responding to that information? Or attempting to find another door or angle to get black people somehow in their conversation or in the presence of other black people on their terms. Because the women's questionnaire was on their terms. Them reaching out to these people, they're designed to do what Trump does.

Because Trump reached out to folks that he wants to reach out to on his terms. He creates a container for the dialogue. This is the headline. Klobuchar... Go to my iPad. Klobuchar scrambles to turn her magic moment into something more. Uh, Anna, Linsky, Jenna Johnson, Holly Bailey.

Uh, and again, they reached out to me. I could not, uh, do the interview, but they did grab, uh, my tweets. Uh, and they did grab my tweets. And they posted, you see, they posted right there. Y'all, right there, where's Amy? So appreciate that Washington Post. Y'all, I'm gonna read this paragraph.

She struggles especially to connect with African American voters. And black activists say she has made little effort. The campaign in recent days had to ask a former Democratic official for a list of black churches in South Carolina which votes a week after Saturday's Nevada caucuses. That mean that she go to South Carolina, she ain't nowhere in the hell to go. She ain't tried. That's what it mean that she go South Carolina. She ain't no way in the hell to go.

She ain't tried. That's what it says. She hasn't tried. In order to get a directory, did you have to go to DNC to find something like that? I mean, I can actually see that. You know somebody who works there. Hey, do you have a list? So I can actually see that.

But it's easy to kind of find it out with Google. That's what I was getting ready to say, though. You mean to tell me that this whole time you ain't had one person in South Carolina? That's what I'm saying. I mean, that aside. That's a bigger story. You ain't have one staffer. I ain't say you have a whole team.

Right. I know you put all your money in Iowa, New Hampshire. But you ain't have the common sense to say we might want to put one person on the payroll in South Carolina. Columbia. You know, there's plenty of places. That means that you have completely ignored

South Carolina. Maybe she shook that she was in a relationship with the HBCUs either, apparently. No, no, I'm just saying that for you to ask. Maybe she shook that she lasted this long. Okay. Well, she's going, I'm just saying that, I mean, for you to ask. Maybe she shook that she lasted this long. Okay. Well, she's gonna go after, I mean, she's on her way out anyway, but go ahead.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I mean. Well, I'm gonna help on her way out. But, but, but, but, but, but again though, my problem is, you go on Mad Owl and she asks you about your low support among African Americans.

And then you sit up there and talk about, oh, how I've been the leader in the Senate against gerrymandering and voter suppression and blah, blah, blah, blah. But you can't come talk to black media. Nor have surrogates. Who can? Tokens. You can't answer no questions.

You can't answer, like, black girls in South Carolina. Isn't she new to this? Isn't she new to running for president? She don't got all her... So is every... Her trick bag ain't got black in it. Stop.

She haven't had it. You had to have talked to some black people when you ran in Minnesota. Well, not that many. Prince died. No, no, no. Wow. Wow.

Look, I have spoken in Minneapolis, St. Paul a number of times. At the Urban League event. No, no, no. I've spoken there more than once. You got a black woman who's from Congress in the CBC from your damn state.

She's Porter Sanders. But the point is, the Attorney General of Minnesota is Keith Ellison. I'm sorry. So what's your point? Two people out of the other three that's in Minnesota. My point is, I would think your ass would have enough common damn sense to have hired one person, one black person, and say, yo, get me some info.

That's all I'm saying. Is that all you're saying? That's all I'm saying. No, that ain't all I'm saying. That's all you're saying right now. What I'm saying is, Senator Amy Klobuchar, I'm going to call you out every single day. And every day

Tim Hogan don't return a phone call or email, I'm going to say his name. And what she's going to do is come up with a black... If she does anything at all, is come up with a black script to make you happy and do some black stuff

and state who she really is. She gonna get a script. She tried doing that on The View and failed. All I'm saying is this here. You cannot win the Democratic nomination if you don't talk to black people. And you can ignore South Carolina all you want to. But boo, if you try and win in Texas,

or Arkansas, or Illinois Illinois or North Carolina, I can go on and on and on, you gonna have to talk to black people. Now, if you a white Republican, hell, Amy, you can get away with ignoring black people. Only 1.35% of them even watch Fox News. So, let's just be real clear. You might want to come holler at us.

I'm just saying. But don't be popping on black characters on Sunday not knowing where in the hell you're going. Because black people are going to get you the side eye. And one of them ushers is going to sit you in the back. They're going to say, we don't know you

because we ain't seen you. What she need now is an interpreter so she can know what you just said. Now she know what I said. Talk to black people. Booze and ushers. Quickly. We don't bite. Quickly.

Well, speak for yourself. Mike Bloomberg is the only Democratic presidential candidate who understands that wealth creation and the current racial wealth gap is linked to past racism and has a plan to address the impact on black America. The crimes against black Americans still echo across the centuries and no single law can wipe out that slate clean. The time has come, I think, to fully commit ourselves to acknowledging our history and righting our country's wrongs.

And that's exactly what I will do as president. It's called the Greenwood Initiative. One, we will help a million more black families buy a house. Two, we will double the number of black-owned businesses. Three, we will help black families triple their wealth over the next 10 years to an all-time high. Mike will get it done. Visit mikeforblackamerica.com to learn more. There are concrete proposals that we can

afford and that we can get done, and we will. I'm Mike Bloomberg, and I approve this message. Paid for by Mike Bloomberg 2020. Hi, y'all. The TSU National Alumni Association is calling for the university's former president, Dr. Austin Lane, to be reinstated and the board of readers to be removed. More than 100 alumni attended a meeting over the weekend at Pilgrim Congregation of the United Church of Christ to plan how they would move forward.

The group is calling for removal of the TSU regents, replacing current regents with individuals who have undergraduate degrees from TSU, rewriting the TSU Board of Regents bylaws to reflect Southern Association of Colleges and Schools recommendations, also to reinstate TSU former president Dr. Austin Lane. reflect Southern Association of Colleges and Schools recommendations also to reinstate TSU former president, Dr. Austin Lane.

His drama's been going on for so long. The time now, the board voted to fire him. He is responding. So, we'll see what happens with TSU. Law enforcement officials have recovered the body of missing Fort Valley State student Anitra Gunn.

The body was recovered in Crawford County near the Peach-Crawford County line. Anitra has been missing since Friday, and police were offering a $5,000 reward for information on her location. She was a 2016 graduate of Westlake High School in Atlanta and was currently a senior agriculture major at Fort Valley State University.

This is a developing story, and we'll keep you updated as soon as we get more details. Also, folks, Illinois Governor Jamie Pritzer is calling for a police probe after a black college swimmer sues for wrongful arrest. Jalen Butler, a member of the school's swimming team, was stopped by the local police officers on the team's way back from competing in the Summit League Swimming and Diving Championships in South Dakota. The bus pulled over for a rest stop, and he and his teammates exited the bus to stretch. Now, he was the only black swimmer on the team. Several police cars with flashing lights

pulled up in front of him. He knew exactly what to do. He instantly stopped, put his hands up, dropped the cell phone that was in his hand, and dropped to his knees. He was approached by police officers with firearms raised. The suit states that the officers shouted things at the college student, who was unarmed at the time, like,

get down and don't fucking move, stay right there. Now, at least one defendant had his knee pressed into Mr. Butler's back, and at least one defendant was pressing down on his neck, according to the suit. Another defendant was squatting down in front of Butler. He put his handgun against Butler's forehead and said, if you keep moving, I'm going to blow your fucking head off. Minutes after they placed Butler in handcuffs

and had him lie face down on the ground, police officers realized he was not the suspect they were looking for, according to the lawsuit. However, the suit states that the officers did not immediately let him go afterwards, and they told him instead he was being arrested for resisting arrest. Governor Pritchard tweeted,

I'm deeply troubled by what I've read about how Jalen Butler, an African-American athlete at EIU, was mistreated by law enforcement in East Moline. It's unacceptable for any young person to feel unsafe and disrespected anywhere in this state, but every day, too many young people of color live through it. I urge a thorough and transparent investigation of what took place.

In a statement, Rock Island County Sheriff Gerald Busto said, on Monday, January 27, 2020, the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office was served with a lawsuit filed on behalf of Jalen Butler against East Moline Officer Stays, Hampton Officer Bush, and Rock Island County Sheriff's Deputies Pete Pena and Esquini, alleging excessive force stemming from an incident on February 24, 2019. Prior to filing the litigation, the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office was unaware

that any incident or use of force had occurred. Upon receipt of the lawsuit, a preliminary fact filing was conducted, which determined that deputies Pena and Esquini arrived after Mr. Butler had already been detained by officers from other agencies. Having only brief interaction with Mr. Butler and other officers, leaving shortly thereafter

to continue the manhunt for a fugitive in the area that was in the process. At this time, I'm confident that the allegations against Deputies Pena and Esquini are without merit. Y'all, they all dressed in swim team uniforms.

But the black dude, I don't want him to get jumped. Well, this is a cliche. Y'all, they all dressed in swim team uniforms. Right. But the black dude, I don't want him to get jumped. Well, this is a cliche. You've heard it before. You're going to hear it again. What comes up for me, because this is such a redundant part of the United States landscape, is what are we telling our people, our young people, in regard to these kind of incidences?

Because I'm not sure enough of us are letting our kids know that it's the system that's corrupt and it's not us who are the problem. Harvard just did another study that looked at how black people feel about themselves and each other in terms of white bias in this culture and found that a lot of black people have a white bias. How that's relevant to this

is that sometimes even when we're victimized like this, we might file a lawsuit or get angry about it, but we don't contradict the implication of black inferiority with a counter-narrative that scolds the people that does this to us. So our self-esteems aren't being risen back to where they belong. Even when we get justice, we don't necessarily get mental health or psychological justice,

which must come from other black people. So I guess part of what I'm saying is that black people need to, when they see these kind of incidents, is prepare to talk to their children, because black boys and girls, but particularly boys, are going to hear about this incident, hear about what happened to this brother, number 55 million. I mean, there's Trayvon, there's Tamir, there's so many.

I mean, thankfully he's still alive. We need to... Theyavely's still alive, but we need his spirit to be alive, too. Absolutely. This stuff kills black spirits, particularly when it's so redundant and so perpetuating. So if I didn't make any sense previously in that comment, black people have work to do in terms of making sure

that black children don't buy into the implication that something's wrong with us and be clear about something being wrong with them, the system, when these kind of incidents occur, it's not happening enough. The fact that he went right into survival mode and he had done nothing wrong. Did absolutely nothing wrong.

He wanted to live. Well, he wanted to live and he was just being a kid. You know, like he was just doing what any other swim team member would have done in that situation in terms of, like, because they... My understanding from reading the article is that he got down off the bus to stretch,

but they were taking selfies in front of the, uh, buckle your seatbelt sign. So he wasn't doing anything that his team members weren't already doing or whatever. And the fact that he was singled out like this just because of the color of his skin is just absolutely disgusting. I do wonder, I do have to ask this because I wonder,

okay, so the sheriff said, we just heard about this a year later. So I wonder if they filed anything. Right. Internal affairs, anything along those lines a year ago. It seemed like it. Clearly not. My other concern is... Probably didn't think it was an abuse of power. I mean, you know, abuse of force.

They're not going to tell on themselves is the issue. It's true. But my other concern is how did the coaches handle the situation outside of just saying, hey, you're wrong. Like, you have three people pinning down this young man. That's my point. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, if this happened, if you're wrong. Like, you have three people pinning down this young man. That's my point. That's what I'm saying.

If this happened, if you're the university, okay, my point is, prior to a civil lawsuit, I need to see something from the university or from the team or whatever notifying the DA or the Attorney General Affairs or something

against speaking up on behalf of this young man. And if the university didn't, I got a problem with that. I would be happy seeing video footage of his teammates screaming at the cops, saying, you got the wrong person or something. Or body cam footage, if there were any body cams. Or something. But you actually made the point I was getting ready to say

about the university's response. You know, where is the university's response. You know, where is the university's response? Because clearly, and this wasn't an off-campus incident, he was with his team and his coaches. And so you would think that the university would have a response to that. But for him to automatically,

and people need to understand this, so whether it is in Chicago, Baltimore, D.C., or whatever part of the country this was in, black men, black boys, black people often have to go in survival mode in ways that white people are not. That's just a fact.

And so he's at this school, the only black person on this team, he's not dealing with all the drugs and crimes and, you know, things that are stereotypically associated with the inner cities. He's somewhere off in... Whiteland. Yeah, what Cleo said.

But that's literally where he is. And so he's in this white space, and immediately, unlike any other person on his team, he was the one who had to go into survival mode. That's just a problem. Think of the trauma that does. Speaking of the trial, in Florida, a six-year-old girl was committed to two days

to a mental health facility without her mother's consent after allegedly throwing a temper tantrum at school. The child was allegedly given antipsychotic medications at the center, also without the permission of her mother, Martina Falk. She's now demanding answers from officials at Love Grove Elementary School in Jacksonville for their handling of the incident. Falk Reginald Reeves said a mental health counselor

was called to the school because Nadia was reportedly having a tantrum and throwing chairs. The counselor evaluated Nadia, who has ADHD and has been diagnosed with a mood disorder, and determined that she needed to be committed under the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, commonly known as the Baker Act. The Baker Act gives social workers in Florida

the power to initiate involuntary holds on children as young as two without the need for parental permission. According to Reeves, Falk was not called and informed about the incident until after Nadia had been committed to the facility. Here's the girl being escorted out of a school by police. Thank you. Yeah, I got a by police. You have a police car?

Yeah, I got a police car. You want to ride with me? Yes. You're going to be good? You're not going to throw nothing around like you did in there, are you? You're going to be nice to me like you've been? Good deal. There is no way in hell

you commit a six year old girl to a mental facility for two days and you don't even bother to call the parent. That is an abomination. Well, Florida is an interesting place, as we know, but they do have the Baker Act.

And the Baker Act says, indeed, they can do that, even as young as two years old. Why was it? Here's what I'm curious. What was the impetus for this act? That she was supposed to... No, no, no. What was the impetus for passing this act? I mean, what took place in 1971? So that's my deal.

But you can't tell me some little white parent be perfectly fine with their kid going to a mental health facility and nobody calling. Well, not just going. Like, what the hell do you do when you show up at school and you go, where's my child?

Where's my daughter? Oh, baby, she gone. Yeah, she was medicated. She wasn't just admitted. She was actually medicated. And I guess maybe that's part of, I don't know if that's part of the Baker Act where you can medicate kids.

Yeah, it is. Oh, okay. It is. Everything that was done is actually by the book. It's legal. It's legal, by the book, completely straight-laced. And that in itself is the problem. Like, how do you take the autonomy away from a parent

when, one, the parent doesn't even know what happened? Right. But also, this is a child. This is a baby. And you're taking the autonomy away, the little bit of autonomy that the child has, and the full autonomy that the parent has to protect this tiny human, this child.

And by this point that we saw in the video, she was calm. She was calm because everything had happened already. And then the other thing was that the school wasn't the one who made the call. It was another entity or agency. The social worker. According to the law, a mental health professional must be the one who made the recommendation. Right.

But that is still just... We're just referring six-year-olds to mental... And in fact, it said examinations, it lasts up to 72 hours. So three days. If the person is deemed medically stable, yo, that's crazy. That's crazy. Well, Florida's losing place.

I mean, this may seem irrelevant or abstract, but when they took Trayvon's body, it was three days before they even told the family anything about it. And so they have some interesting laws there that seem to seemingly impact black people disproportionately like most negative legislation does. Again, it's absolutely crazy. But yeah, anytime you see a crazy story, the first thing I think is Florida. It must be Florida.

All right, y'all. Some sad news. Good time start. Jan Dubois has passed away. The folks at TMZ.com reported that her family had not heard from her and went to

look for her, and she was found dead in her home. Of course, in Glendale, California. She had not complained of any ailments or anything along those lines. Appe had not complained of, you know, any ailments or anything along those lines. Appeared to be in good health.

Remember, she was just on the remake of Good Times that was just a live show. She was on it. She was actually there. It was a few weeks ago on ABC. Of course, she also sang the theme song to Good Times as well. And so Jan Dubois had three children.

She survived by those three children. And she also won two Emmys for her voiceover work on the cartoon, the animated show, The PJs. And so, certainly, rest in peace, Janet DuBois. All right, folks, we got to go. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Don't forget to support us at Roland Martin on a Filter by joining our Bring the Funk fan club.

Please go to RolandMartinOnAFilter.com. You can pay via Cash App, PayPal, or Square. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. And what we do, bringing the news and issues that you care about that are most important to our community that get ignored by lots of other people, such as Amy Klobuchar, not talking to Black people. You can moan all you want to. He is serious.

I'm dead serious. I'm telling you, she drops out. No candidate, no candidate, no candidate that running for a Democratic nomination that relies on black people going to get away with not talking to black people. I'm going to call you out. Amy, please call this man out.

I don't care who you are. I don't care who you are. I don't care who you are. But you ain't got to just call me. Don't let me give the list of the black journalists you haven't called. Call all of them. Why have, why, OK? Why hasn't, why hasn't she, why hasn't she rescheduled

the podcast with Color Of Change? It was scheduled, they canceled. I know Angela Rice been trying to get a, get a, uh, you for a podcast. You cannot evade. No response. I know BuzzFeed News has been trying to reach you. Called Darren Sands.

Yo, Amy, I'll do roll call on you. BuzzFeed ain't even black. I'm just letting you know. I'll do roll call if you want me to do roll call. My advice to you, don't have me do roll call. Because it ain't going to end well. See, y'all, that's why we do what we do. Because other networks won't have the guts

to call out a sitting 9th and 8th sender for ignoring black people. Because we do. Because we're unbought and unbossed. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Howl! Thank you. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. 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 them. 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. 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. This is an iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.