#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 2.6 #RMU: Trump pimps pastors at prayer breakfast; Tom Steyer talks; TSU prez fires back

Episode Date: February 16, 2020

2.6.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump pimps pastors at prayer breakfast; Tom Steyer talks; TSU prez fires back DOJ to investigate MS prisons; Kweisi Mfume wins Rep. Elijah Cummings seat; New advocacy group formed to fight gerrymandering in Virginia. PBS documentary looks at the life of "Hollywood Architect", Paul Williams; DNC wants an do-over in Iowa; Pelosi explains why she tore up Trump's "manifesto of mistruths" #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.

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1 tsk vanille 1 tsk vanille 1 tsk vanille 1 tsk vanille 1 tsk vanille Hey, folks, today is Thursday, February 6, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Donald Trump shows his ass at the National Prayer Breakfast. Pippin Pastors talking about faith. Yeah, I got something to say about that. That fake Christian. Also,

Nancy Pelosi fires back at Donald Trump saying she didn't just tear up his speech. She didn't call it state of the union. She called it a state of his mind. And he lost his mind. We'll play that for you. Also, Kweisi Mfume is going back to Congress to fulfill the term of Congress,

the late Congressman Elijah Cummings. We'll talk to him right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Also, the president of Texas Southern University fires back the Board of Regents after they voted to fire him. We'll tell you exactly what he had to say. Also, I talked with Tom Steyer about his chances. He says that essentially we've got to focus on people of color when it comes to winning the nomination.

So the hell with Iowa and New Hampshire. That's essentially what he said. And also, a documentary airs tonight on PBS that honors one of the greatest architects you may have never even heard about. We'll talk about Paul Williams. Folks, we look forward to that. And so we got a jam-packed show.

It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling.

Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. With Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah.

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. After a number of inmates have died in Mississippi prisons, the Justice Department announced that they are opening a civil rights probe into the state's penitentiary system. The department's civil rights division says it will examine conditions at four Mississippi prisons, including the state penitentiary at Parchman,

where a prison riot broke out in December after an inmate was killed. Since December's riot, 15 inmates have died in Mississippi prisons. Officials say two of the deaths were apparent suicides by hanging, and many of the others are thought to be gang-related killings. Well, that's according to the officials. The Mississippi Department of Corrections says 29 staff members have also been assaulted over the same period. Joining me to talk about this is Sharon Brown

of the Mississippi Prison Reform Coalition. Sharon, how you doing? This is Danielle Holmes with the Mississippi Prison Reform Coalition. Sharon, how you doing? This is Danielle Holmes with the Mississippi Prison Reform Coalition. Okay, Danielle, how are you? Doing great. So, first of all, obviously, look, you guys had the protest more than a week ago. Then, of course, the governor then comes out and says, hey, enough is enough.

Now you have this announcement by the Department of Justice. It seems that all the attention y'all have been putting on this is paying off. Well, we thank God for the pressure that is being applied. And now individuals, lawmakers are beginning to pay attention. But as it relates to the Department of Justice and our now sitting governor, Tate Reeves, this information isn't new to them, right? The conditions at Parchman are decades of systemic issues that have gone unattended. And so while many may deem this as a small victory, as we would declare it, it's nothing new. And the Department of Justice has known for years the condition of Parchman. The SPLC has filed a lawsuit,

has asked the Department of Justice to investigate. The MacArthur Center for Justice here in Mississippi has asked the department for an investigation. And now when the inmates have courage, those that are incarcerated, had courage enough to begin to expose their situation, and now the world knows the conditions and the inhumane and cruel and unjust treatment

of those incarcerated. This is now what we're getting bits and pieces. It's still not what we're demanding and asking for, but, you know, we're just not happy-go-lucky today because the Department of Justice has decided to launch an investigation because they've been sitting on this information for years. Obviously, because they have to now actually visit there,

they're going to have to see those conditions, you know, but we'll see if Mississippi tries to clean those things up. But all those videos that have been shot are going to play a huge role in a collection of evidence as well. Absolutely. Well, we're certainly going to keep covering this story. And look, y'all have done a great job thus far and we'll certainly keep that up.

Thank you so much. All right, one of my panel here in D.C. We, of course, are joined by Erica Savage-Wilson, Savage Politics Podcast. Of course, Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, and Recy Colbert, Black Women's Views. And so, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, and Recy Colbert. Black women's views.

And so, look, this is where pressure matters. This is where shining the attention plays a huge role in what people need to understand. Protest has purpose. Absolutely. And for those people that say that it doesn't matter, this is a great example why.

And then also thinking about inmates who actually had cell phones so that they were able to capture the video footage. Could you imagine that a population of mostly black and brown people reporting abuses, talking about different things that are happening and not being believed if they've not been believed for decades? When I think about parchment, I think about its proximity to Angola, which is essentially a large plantation. And I think about Parchment, I think about its proximity to Angola, which is essentially a large plantation. And I think about the black bodies where they are still reenacting moments of slavery where you have a white man mounted on a horse, ensuring that those people that are incarcerated are doing the work, which is still picking cotton. They are working the land.

And so I know Tamika Mallory and her Justice Coalition has been doing things around this. And this is another reason why it is important to engage in your local politics. We're talking about a Republican governor of a state with a significant black population. People have to understand that their engagement matters on the local, state, and federal level

because they need to see governorship at that level, executive level, that's reflective of the people that reside within that state. Absolutely. I agree with everything you said, Erica. I would just add that, well, continue along that vein. These young sisters in particular, I think about Rekia Lumumba, who graduated from Howard Law School, whose father was the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, at one time, whose brother is now the mayor. I mean, these young sisters are working electoral

politics, but they're also organizing outside of it. And, of course, that's a Mississippi tradition. Mrs. Hamer was beat mercilessly in one of those prisons. In fact, Parchman, you know, I think about Kwame Turei, Stokely Carmichael, incarcerated there. I was in Chicago, finally, on Friday night, the night before Black History Month kicked off, having a conversation around black history. And a lot of people in Chicago express

concerns for what's going on in Mississippi because that's the reverse migration pattern. Some of these youngsters down there who are now being treated this way, these young brothers in particular, actually it's a reverse migration. They left Chicago going back down there looking to whatever they're into or not into, but they should not be treated that way because their bodies are counted toward electoral politics. They're counted for forms of representation. But at the end of the day, Mississippi is too black to allow these white supremacists to continue to hold elective office.

We got to register to vote. We got to go in here and break the back of this. That's right. Right, and actually Mike Espy, a black man, is running for U.S. Senate. Obviously, that doesn't necessarily solve the problem at the local level, but that's an example of how representation matters.

And, you know, in the Senate they have jurisdiction over the DOJ in some regards. Don't clown me, but this actually issue came up on Love & Hip Hop in New York, don't clown me, but this actually actually came up on Love & Hip Hop New York, right? Yes. And this kind of awareness that's being brought to

with social media and reality TV, that's bringing awareness to it to a different audience than what would necessarily just be engaged at the local level. But the thing that's just most jarring is the trauma that's being inflicted on these people and, by extension, their families. Yes. You know, you can't just throw these—you're not just throwing these people away in a cage, locking them up, never to be seen again.

They're going back into their communities with the sexual abuse that they're being, you know, being traumatized with, with the violence, with the nutritional aspects of it. Their families are suffering, seeing this kind of trauma. Some of these people have kids. Imagine what kind of—you know, it suffering, seeing this kind of trauma. Some of these people have kids. Imagine what kind of, you know, it's like there's so much trauma that is just spilling out from this situation. It's not, they have a constitutional right to not be under cruel and unusual punishment.

Their families have a right to not endure this kind of suffering as well. So that's another part that we have to keep in mind. Absolutely. All right, then, of course, and we'll keep following that. All right, folks, let's talk about what took place in Baltimore, where there was a primary to fill the term for Congressman Elijah Cummings, who passed away. A former congressman, Kwaizun Fume, who left Congress to become president and CEO of the NAACP. He won that. He joins us right now. Congressman, first of all, Kweisi Nfume, congratulations. Well, thank you very much. Good evening and good evening to your guests there.

So, first of all, for people, there's a lot of things happening here. So there were some 24 people running. Now you advance to April 28th, where there are going to be two elections on April 28th. There is. It's a strange confluence of events, but when Elijah left us, the state constitution dictates that the governor,

within 10 days, name the dates of a special election. He named February the 4th as the primary and April 28th for the general election. The interesting thing, though, is that April the 28th is also the date of the presidential primary in Maryland, and it is the date also for the regular election for the two-year term in Congress so that persons in our congressional district will actually vote twice after voting for a president and other slots. When they get to the congressional seat, they've got to vote to confirm the results of two days ago.

That's the general election. And then while they're there, they have to vote also to nominate someone for the two-year term in the primary election. So on April 28th,, they have to vote also to nominate someone for the two-year term in the primary election. So on April 28th, you're running against Kim Klachek. She's also been on this show, who got on the Republican side to fulfill the remainder of the term from April through November. Well, actually through the next Congress, Congress between Elijah Cummings, and then on the same day, you have the actual primary for the next two years,

and a lot of the people who you just defeated on Tuesday are actually going to be running against you again. Yeah, it's almost history repeating itself. When I was asked by Merle Evers, the widow of Medgar, to leave my congressional seat and to step into trying to help the NAACP, which was $4 million in debt at the time, I thought about it. I prayed on it. I decided that I would step out on faith. I called Elijah and asked him if he would run for the seat. He decided to run, got elected, and gave us 23 great years of service. But interestingly enough, in that special election, like this special election, there were 23 candidates that he had to

run against. And the similarities are striking, but it's the process, it's what you have to go through to constitutionally qualify. And so we're gonna have another election on April the 28th, but in the seventh congressional district, as you just stated, there will be two elections for voters. And of course, one of the folks you beat, she came in second to you, Congressman Cummings' widow, Maya Rockamore Cummings, and she also says she is going to be running again on

April 28th. Democrats hold a four to one advantage in this congressional district. Many believe that you are essentially a shoo-in to beat Kim Klachek, who really got some attention when she shot this video of some trash and housing conditions in Baltimore. And Donald Trump, he then pushed her video out there as well. And so what argument are you going to make, obviously, why you should return, or you should fill the remaining terms, remaining month of Congressman Cummings' term, as well as winning a two-year term well i i believe that you place strong leadership with strong leadership and in this case uh elijah's sisters are with my campaign his daughters as you know endorsed someone else who who may or may not be on the ballot, but his sisters are with me, and he's been

a friend for 42 years. My real issue here is that we've got to find a way, me, meaning we in the 7th Congressional District, to look at everybody and to determine what's best. I don't take anything for granted. Every time I hear the word shoe and I run away from it. I fought for everything in my life that I've ever had since I was walking the streets of Baltimore as a member of a gang and running around homeless without a high school diploma or anything else. So for me, it's fight for what you believe in. And I'm going to do that.

I think in terms of Ms. Kosick and I, the contrast is clear. She's an ardent supporter of Donald Trump. I am not. She believes that there are certain ways to govern from a perspective that is closely aligned to his. I do not. She, in my opinion at least, will have an opportunity to go before voters and to make her case. I've been making my case all my life in this city. The people know me. I know the community, and the community knows me. And I think at the end of the day, Roland, people are going to vote their gut. They're going to vote their heart. They're going to vote what they know to be true. And they're going to vote for people who they see as persons who've always been with

them. All right, then. Well, Kwaizini and Fumey, we certainly appreciate it. Good luck. And I'm sure we'll be having you back on and others as we get closer to that election. Okay, thank you, sir. I appreciate it. All right, thanks a bunch. Got to go to a break, folks. When we come back, we're going to talk about redistricting as well as in Virginia.

We'll talk about Donald Trump acting a complete fool at today's National Prayer Breakfast. All that next, Roland Martin Unfiltered. You wanna 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.

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as Roland Martin Unfiltered. Support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, join Dr. Jackie Hood Martin as she engages others to think like a leader. Are you looking to enhance your leadership or that of your team in 2020? Well, you can join her newest online course, a mastermind group, how successful people think should be your guide.

As you learn timeless leadership principles to apply to daily living, the offer expires February 28th to register, go to www.livetolead.com forward slash Leesburg. It's L I V E number two, L E A D.com forward slash Leesburg. Folks, voting rights advocate, Phillip Thompson and former Virginia delegate Michael Futrell

have formed the National Black Nonpartisan Redistricting Organization ahead of the Virginia legislature's vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that would end gerrymandering in the state. The ballot measure would transfer the power to draw both congressional and state districts to a 16-member commission composed of eight legislators and eight citizens. Philip Thompson joins us right now to discuss this. Philip, glad to have you here. Obviously, gerrymandering has been a huge issue. We've seen this in North Carolina. We've seen it in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, all across the country. But you've also seen it where you've

had ballot measures. In Michigan, they had one. And then the Republican legislature tried to essentially say, well, we can ignore that from what the voters decided. And so, I mean, that's sort of some of the games Republicans have played across the country when it came to these constitutional amendments. Well, and that's why our effort right now is focusing in on attempting to get in a constitutional amendment, to get this as a constitutional amendment where no matter which party comes in they can't mess with the vote They can't change the district and they can't change the process and so we jumped the big hurdle today

With some of the legislation where you know some of the opposition to this Constitutional amendment came from the congressional the Virginia Black Caucus. Why? Well, I mean, everybody has their ideas. I think they were feeling like there wasn't enough African-American representation. But I don't know how they would reach that part based on how the commission would be structured. Right.

First of all, it's going to be eight legislators and eight citizens. Who picks the citizens? A group of legislators would pick citizens. They would propose citizens. And one of the concerns is that with this is that if they couldn't, if the commission could not come to some sort of conclusion, then it would go to the Supreme Court. So Senators Lucas and Locke, two African-American state senators, proposed some implementing legislation that would set criteria for how this could be reviewed, how the process would move forward. That it seemed today the House kind of jumped in on and supported the same legislation. issue, which is extremely important, where these people that are incarcerated in towns

outside of where they're from are being counted as citizens of that town for census parts. And now we've got the legislation that's kind of working in tandem to deal with the nonpartisan gerrymandering and also with the prison gerrymandering. So I think we're making progress, but we've got some votes coming up. Constitutional amendment was passed last year. It went through, I think, 39 to 1 in the Senate, 85-15 in the House of Delegates. So now there is a move,

since the Democrats weren't in control, that some of them are waffling a little bit on this. And what we're trying to do is provide an African-American voice a move since the Democrats weren't in control that some of them are waffling a little bit on this. And what we're trying to do is provide an African American voice on this is important because the Constitutional Amendment for the first time includes language straight out of the Voting Rights Act and puts that into the Virginia Constitution, which we think is highly important. So again, to your point, you have Democrats who are saying that the original proposal,

which came under Republicans, is flawed because it did not have language dealing with minority representation. And now you've got Republicans who are saying, well, Democrats are really scared because now that they're in power, they really don't want to sit here and change districts. There is some concern in that direction that people feel like now that they're in power, they can, one of the concerns here is having legislators pick the people who they want to vote for them and what we tell African Americans you know that I think some of them are fear because some of their districts are heavily minority they're packed and so now these districts could be their minority representation could shrink

where they have to run now I live in Northern Virginia all of the african-american representatives in Northern Virginia have to run in non-majority African-American districts. And they compete. I live in Loudoun County. Our head of board of supervisors is black. And even the vice chair of the board of supervisors is black. And Loudoun County is nowhere near a majority. See, this is the—look, I remember having Cornell Belcher on my Washington Watch show years ago.

And we talked about this here. And this is something that black elected officials are going to have to deal with along with black folks. And that is if you if you want to talk about how do you maximize power? So you have some people who say, oh, we maximize power by being able to have a number of black elected officials. But that's really not how you maximize power. You maximize power by being able to say, if you're able to disperse black voters, that means that black voters, to your point, are not packed in one district,

but we could actually potentially impact two, three, four, or five districts. And look, bottom line is, you're still probably going to have somebody who's black elected. But again, what you're showing is that what some of the black folks want is a guaranteed victory. And it's a level of selflessness. I remember when Texas did this here.

When Republicans came in and redid the districts, they basically created this black district. Ron Wilson, who was a state representative, he thought he was going to get that. He aligned with the Republicans. They kicked his ass in the election. That's how Congressman Al Green won. But he got destroyed. Then lost his state seat after that.

So what they did was they stripped black folks from two or three districts that white Democrats got elected in, packed them in a black district, and people were like, oh, we've created a new black district. Yeah, but the Democrats were in the minority as a result. And so are you seeing that tension in Virginia? There is that tension, but I point to what happened with the congressional districts in Virginia. A long time we had one congressional leader, and that was Bobby Scott, elected black congressman Bobby Scott. And Bobby Scott's district staked from Richmond down to the Tidewater area in a very meandering way. So all the black people in that one district? Well, when that district was challenged and found to be unconstitutional, then they changed the districts, and then what did we get? We got a second African-American congressman, Don McKeachin.

So you can see where that can benefit if you cut the districts correctly. We make up 20% of the population of the state of Virginia. Minorities probably total make out about 35% to 40% of the population, and we don't have that kind of representation in the House house of delegates in the state senate any questions i i have one around um the redistricting so you talked about when i looked at um the platform that there would be eight citizens this is through one virginia 2021 correct okay um and so that leadership circle you're part of that leadership circle as well?

We work with One Virginia 2021, but our organization, we're starting to branch off nationally because we're seeing this issue on a national basis. Okay. Okay, good. And the reason I brought that up is because when I looked at the leadership circle of One Virginia, I noticed that there was someone who was formerly the founder of the Tea Party Federation and just wondering that gerrymandering is something that affects all of us by and large. What is the balance of power there in ensuring that whatever is put forth with this commission, that it does accurately reflect an expansion of power? The president of one Virginia 2021 is a longtime Democrat. She ran for lieutenant governor in the state of Virginia.

She also was the chief of staff for, she worked for Joe Biden. She worked for Senator Kaine. So she's a longtime Democrat. So it isn't a completely Republican organization. And if you go to their board, you'll see it has a wide variety of individuals in there. There is some concern with that, no doubt. And there's some suspicion in one, Virginia 2021 is not very well received by some black legislatures. And myself and Delegate

Michael Fletrell in coming to work for them have been told that we're working for the wrong people. But my concept is that if we as African-Americans don't even things out, and even to work for them have been told that we're working for the wrong people but my concept is that if we as African Americans don't even things out and even to the extent we're supporting blindly supporting Democrats without you know working across the board we're going to continue to be the people that they show up to every to the last two weeks of the campaign ask for our votes get our votes and they disappear and that's a concern that we have in this same vein I'm thinking about North Carolina, back with the Shaw versus Reno Supreme Court cases, Georgia, Georgia versus Ashcroft, thinking about, as you say,

Ron, this fifth, I think it was the fifth congressional district. I think that's the one Julian Bond and John Lewis thought would make this majority. But at least as I recall from the case law, there is no constitutionally, well, there is no, Supreme Court hasn't decided what constitutes black political voting strength. I remember Senator Dale O'Connor saying exactly what you said. Wouldn't you want it to be distributed out? Stop packing these districts. My question, I guess, relates around to how you're tying this to the Voting Rights Act, particularly in its weekend.

Could you anticipate a challenge to the redistricts from folks who are interpreting black or minority voting strength as having a packed district? I mean, could you see some of these black legislatures going to court and say, you have diminished voting strength since the court really hasn't established which

of those two options becomes voting strength? Well, if you look at originally when the voting right act acts came into came into being one of the most important elements of the voting rights act concerns was that we had a lot of people that were um doing certain things from a standpoint of of diluting african-american votes absolutely and then with the voting rights act we started to see more people come in and put more people into African-American votes. So that's been a major issue. Well, how does that translate into voting strength,

is what I'm saying? You're saying just political participation is what you're gauging it by, how many people are actually in the process, how many people vote, how many people do that, rather than how many black people are elected. Well, the process has to be, it shouldn't be how many black people are elected,

it should be voting strength. Sure. And that's what we're going for with this redistricting bill. You will set districts by what the interests are. Because there are a lot of African Americans that have the same interests as their white counterparts. That's interesting. And if you look at people in Richmond, Because there are a lot of African Americans that have the same interests as their white counterparts. That's interesting.

And, you know, if you look at people in Richmond, might have a whole different interest than somebody down in Tidewater. But if you've got a district that snakes from Tidewater to Richmond and you clue all them in, are their interests getting addressed? Tidewater may be traffic. Richmond may be something else. And that's what we're trying to work for. All right. We'll certainly be watching to see what happens there. And,, Jared Bannon is a huge issue all across the country. So, Phillip, we appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. All right, folks. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez is calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately re-canvas Monday's caucus vote after days without a final count and growing concerns about inconsistencies found in the data. He tweeted this, quote, enough is enough in light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan. And in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a re-canvas, which is basically a double checking of the vote.

Iowa officials have made it perfectly clear they will only do that if a candidate asked to do so. This is what Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, said, quote, Should any presidential candidate campaign in compliance with the Iowa Delegate Selection Plan request a re-canvas, the IDP is prepared. In such a circumstance, the IDP will audit the paper records of report as provided by the precinct chairs and signed by representatives of presidential campaigns. Now, here's the deal, folks. Today is Thursday. The caucus was on Tuesday or Monday night. Ninety seven percent of all have been reported. Where the hell are the three percent? Y'all, it's Thursday. And here's the deal. Pete Buttigieg, he gave a victory speech that night. His lead is.1% over Bernie Sanders. Both of them are tied with delegates, but Sanders is claiming victory because he got 6,000 more votes than Buttigieg.

It's all kind of drama taking place. Frankly, frankly, Recy, Iowa, to me, is irrelevant. I say the presidential campaign starts with New Hampshire. Well, I think it's relevant in the sense of fundraising, because right now, just the news was out today about Elizabeth Warren. She's canceled $500,000 in ad spends because she

didn't get the fundraising boost that she needs. So there are legitimate implications out of the IRA. Right. But the results are kind of water under the bridge right now. The damage has been done for some campaigns and the boost has been, you know, essentially realized so much for P. Buttigieg in particular. So I think that this move from Tom Perez, I think it's more of like a cover your ass type of move, but it really undercuts him because most people don't understand the distinction between a state, you know, party running the elections versus the national convention and people. It was trending hashtag Tom Perez resigned. And so I think as a leader, he should have instead of undercut the results, he should have tried to restore, you know, faith.

But see, here's the problem, though, Greg, that there are inconsistencies. You have individuals who are reporting who took screenshots of the actual paperwork and posted it on Facebook and Twitter. And they're seeing different results being reported by the Democratic Party. They're saying, wait a minute, this was actually our caucus here. So I think what Perez is actually saying, you need to do a recanvass to go back and double check because you have these inconsistencies that are out here. And that's why I'm saying, hey, y'all about irrelevant. The fact that here we are tomorrow is Friday and three days later. And not only that, only one hundred and seventy thousand people turned out.

Right. But OK. Yeah. Yeah. And Sanders won that popular vote by six000, at least where we are now. I agree with you. I think, well, I mean, I think that Perez is trying to cover his ass. Here's the problem, though. The rules that are in play now were put in place at the insistence of the Sanders campaign in 2016. And so I think a silver lining in this is that it is revealing

what was probably already there and always there. And since the Republicans have no interest in counting all votes, what we now are having a conversation about is the integrity of the voting process. This might be the way we get to that conversation. Only other thing I would say is you're absolutely right. New York Times is reporting in the hour since we've been here and since we came to the set. They've they've reported at least 100 errors. They've reported to the Iowa Democratic Party.

And the party is beginning to—I mean, you got votes for Tom Steyer. You got votes for—what's the brother from Massachusetts? Deval Patrick. Deval Patrick. Andrew Yang. Exactly. And so the number of delegates, just because Pete Buttigieg has a one-tenth of a percent lead, that's in the delegates.

That's not the number of people who showed up. And it's a three-step process. First of all, you come in, you declare who you're for. Then if you're not viable, you drop out. Then you move to the second. Then you move to the third. Which is all, for me, totally BS. It's BS.

I'm sorry. No question. But the crazy thing about it, they've got to report each tally at each number. And they're doing it by hand. There's no way. It's very unprofessional. Exactly. There's no way you would not uncover errors. So finally, I

just say that, you know what? This is all right. I agree with you. Son is going to be hurt by it. Buttigieg did what he needed to do because he's dead in the water after the next white primary. He hadn't gotten enough. Seriously. I mean, he can't go to South Carolina. He can't go to Nevada. He did what he had to do. But Warren, Warren may be the

loser of this ultimately in terms of this whole thing. And look, Erica, the greater issue here is that only 170,000 people turned out. That's 70,000 less than who did in 2016. Democrats should be asking where in the hell is the enthusiasm? What the hell? Where do people go?

Right. And I think we've been calling for that even though we're not a part of that 90% white out in Iowa. So I think we've been calling for that, even though we're not a part of that 90 percent white out in Iowa. Right. So I think the larger piece is exactly what you all said, in that there should really be a call for this pageant of Iowa to be over with. Watching the coverage of this Senate impeachment trial was so interesting because there was such a rush to move from that impeachment trial to Iowa so that these people could go and have coffee at their favorite place, talk to people, just get back to that sense of Iowa

and seeing what's on the minds of Iowans. And a lot of what the little coverage I did actually dabble into is people were still undecided. There were some people that were still making up their mind on the day of the caucus. So honestly, this is, I think, more than enough reason to do away with this and to really get to the meat and potatoes of what we're going to be doing. But you also still have some also some issues that are going on. First and foremost, if you are Joe Biden, you are were like all hell.

He is he is not pulling well. He's not pulling well in New Hampshire. And that means that he is going to have to do well in Nevada and South Carolina. Now, what we're seeing is that, and later, folks, in the show, you're going to see my interview with Tom Steyer. The lady's pulling that out. Tom Steyer is actually in second place in South Carolina and is pulling around 24% among African-Americans. That's what's happening there. So if you're Joe Biden, if you're Joe Biden,

you have to really get through the next two, and you gotta hope you go on a run, because I'm gonna pull up in a second, a polling was released in North Carolina. Again, he's up big in North Carolina, driven by black people.

Black voters are driving those numbers in North Carolina. But what's also interesting in North Carolina is that Bloomberg has shot past everybody else to go to second among African Americans in North Carolina. And so when you look at those Super Tuesday states, the question for Biden is

are you going to have the money? Right, because now we're looking at donors dropping out. Yes. Because donors are freaking out and they're all going crazy. And Biden does not have the same, I mean, the same as people announced, they raised $25 million in the last month. Average contribution was $19.

He doesn't have a small donor base. No. No, he doesn't. I mean, go ahead. Well, I said this in my video earlier this week. Joe Biden got a Kamala bailout because the donor said, cut off Kamala and let's go to jail. That only gets you so far.

And right now, the donors, I read an article today, they're saying, well, let's see what Michael Bloomberg is talking about. He's definitely a cheaper bet for them because he's got himself fun. Right, because he's not doing donors. Right, but if they stand on the sidelines,

then that doesn't hurt Michael Bloomberg. That really, really puts Biden in a situation. He might not be viable just for financial reasons alone, not even having anything to do with the polling. He needs something very decisive to happen very quickly because it looks like he's collapsing to the donors.

And people talk about black vote, black vote. How can it looks like he's collapsing to the donors. And people talk about black vote, black vote. How can you say that he's not doing well with the black vote? Well, Steyer is on his tail in the black vote in South Carolina. Bloomberg is on his tail in North Carolina. There are other polls that are coming out that says Bloomberg and Steyer are gaining. Greg, questions here is that if Biden all of a sudden goes through New Hampshire, let's say comes in third and fourth. Probably. All of a sudden, now you got Nevada. Now the question then becomes, are black folks in South Carolina going to say,

uh, sad eye for Joe? I mean, look, if all of a sudden black folks start, uh, Joe, you looking, if he does not, first of all, he has south carolina now yeah he he's he's not gonna win the next two no if joe i'm gonna say right now if joe biden does not win south carolina and i'm talking about winning south carolina by at least five points it's doa right well that's supposed to be the firewall i mean i hear you you. It's intriguing when you raise the money complex. If they're going to pull the money from Biden, and we all heard a few days ago John Kerry being overheard.

Oh. You know, this billionaire class of Steyer and Bloomberg, and I'm thinking about there are a lot of black folks who they're trying to pull into their operations. Yeah. I don't think black folks are any more or less informed than any other American voter. So what that means is low information voters who are voting based on TV ads. So it's easy for a Steyer or a Bloomberg to carpet bomb television and have people say, well, I'm a voter.

Because, as you said, what black voters are most concerned about is defeating Trump. Precisely. And so Joe Biden. If you look weak. Look, and it's not his first rodeo. Joe Biden ain't never got no votes from black voters are most concerned about is defeating Trump precisely and so Joe Biden if you look weak look and it's not his first rodeo Joe Biden never got no votes from that bird third time. He's wrong No question and Barack Obama rescued Joe Biden from obscurity And so I think you're raising something that is very important to understand It will be very easy for Joe Biden to collapse if black voters decide, dude, I think Bloomberg can beat Trump. Now, here's the problem. Sanders is not going away.

I don't know. I mean, you still got it. Right. Look, first of all, Bloomberg is banking on Super Tuesday strategy. Yes, he is. So you're not going to see if Bloomberg is viable when it comes to votes. Right. Spending money means nothing. At the end of the day, can you get votes? As simple as that. Can he win on Super Tuesday? Deval Patrick using the same strategy. I'm just not seeing it.

But here's the thing that also I think that we also have to look at. First of all, it looks like Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is soon about to endorse Bloomberg. You've already had D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser induce Michael Bloomberg, huh? Michael Tubbs in Stockton. Tubbs, you also have, of course,

you also have Steve Benjamin in Columbia, South Carolina, who endorsed Bloomberg early on. Treat. But here's the thing with Joe Biden. And I'll be real clear. Joe Biden got to stop sitting on his ass. No question. Come on, energy.

Come on, energy. What else can he do, though? No, no, no, no, no, no. Here's what I mean. Here's what I mean. Here's what I mean. I've sent repeated emails to folks saying, get Joe Biden on this show.

Ain't happened. Now, let me be clear, y'all. Blue Judge has been on this show. Yang has been on this show. Harris was on this show. Castro was on this show. Warren has been on this show. Sanders has been on this show.

Beto was on this show. Stars on this show. Sanders has been on this show. Beto was on this show. Star's on this show today. Now, all I'm saying, this ain't just me. Where's Joe Biden on black radio? See, I don't understand. Look, dude, if you ain't got money, you might want to take advantage

of free media. I don't understand why on Sunday before Iowa, all the campaigns, they let Buttigieg hit every Sunday morning news show. So I don't know what, and see, Joe Biden is doing these events. He did several events in Iowa. He didn't take questions, all sorts of stuff along those lines. I think it's testy.

But it's sort of like, dude, what are you doing? And I'm serious. I mean, he is going, yeah, I get it's testy. But it's sort of like, dude, what are you doing? And I'm serious. I mean, he is going to, yeah, I get it. You 77, but here's the problem. He's 77. Sanders is 78. You ain't lying. Warren is 70.

And if you had to compare the three of them with energy, Biden ain't doing well among those three. He is going to have to do more. And what Joe Biden is also going to have to do, why do you want to be president? I mean, you hear Buttigieg talk about, you know, vision outside of Washington, D.C. You hear Warren talking about going after the oligarchs.

You hear Sanders wanting to upend the entire system. You hear all of that. Has Joe Biden actually clearly articulated, this is why I need to be president other than I was Barack's guy? No. And I think that these signs that we're seeing now are things that we saw even before,

like he officially announced. That for me, I've always seen this as a low energy candidate, so to speak. And so there wasn't any fire. There wasn't any pistons that I was kind of expecting out of Joe Biden. I think that what we're left with with Bloomberg is that he's got a plethora of money.

If you pay attention to like MeTV, he's running ads all throughout the night. He and Tom Steyer on those networks. You're also seeing that they're actually doing something different with the folks that they're hiring. They're putting them up in nicer establishments. They're paying them very well.

And so whether or not a person can compete with that, it's still about the person that's running for president. You can compete with that. No, no, no. You can compete against all that. Because first of all, the voters don't know nothing about all that. But you still have to say this. This is why I should be president and I can beat this guy here.

If you don't if you if you go back to Hillary Clinton. One of the struggles for her still was articulate the message, not ready on day one. Right. No, right. Why should we entrust you the presidency? That's where Biden, he has to do that. And now, here's the deal. When you were finally leading in the polls, okay, you can sort of get through debates. The next debate is Friday.

Yeah, brother. Joe Biden got to smoke it. He can't. He's not going to. He's not going to. No, he's not going to. No, no, no. He can. Now smoke it. He can't. He's not going to. He can. Now remember. How can he do it? Remember the vice presidential

debate after Obama bombed against Mitt Romney in that first one. Biden came out smoking in the VP debate. Now some people thought he would live too high on caffeine. But no. If I'm Joe Biden, I'm coming out hard. I'm coming out hard. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to stop this

bullshit language of if I become president, I can get along with Republicans. I think he believes that, though. He really believes that. That's not an act. Okay, but that don't play in primaries. Elder statesman. But here's the deal, though. No, no, no. That's a general election line. And I think he's running a general election strategy. Well, you can't win. You cannot, Joe. You cannot win a primary with a general election strategy. And I think that's what he's finding out.

I mean, in fairness to Joe, I'm not endorsing Joe, but I think he has articulated his vision, which is the soul of the nation is at stake here. Now, is that persuasive? No, not really, because people care about health care. They care about tax. They care about the economy. So what are you going to do specifically

that's going to contribute? But actually, if you go back, we had John Ward on here, and he was talking about his book that dealt with the feud between Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy. Actually, that's what Carter

used after Watergate. Right. No, it worked. The problem is, the problem is, Biden has to consistently make the point about moral clarity, principles, values. See, here's the deal. You got Trump who's going to say, damn all that,

it's all about the economy. Gallup has a new poll showing significant people saying they're better off with their incomes, everything along those lines. So you have to say, so while he's over there going, forget all the crazy stuff I say, forget me cussing today, forget everything else, economy, economy,

economy. No, but you have to say this man is evil, this man is corrupt, this man is a liar, this man can't be trusted. We have to return where you actually respect the President of the United States and the president respects the office itself. Well, I'm going to say something

controversial. You can make a higher, a higher standing, but I'm going to say something unpopular and it's something that nobody really wants to admit. I think this impeachment stuff is damaging Joe and his ability to make that strong moral clarity thing. Now, I am not saying in any way, shape or form because they're bringing up his son. They're bringing moral clarity thing. Now, I am not saying in any way, shape, or form. Because they're bringing up his son. Because they're bringing up his son. They're bringing up, oh, this corruption, this, any other. People look at the headlines.

People aren't in the weeds. And so sometimes Joe's insinuation is enough. And so Joe has done a very ineffective job, in my opinion, of pushing back on the actual stuff they're putting out there. He just says, oh, well, you know, Trump is scared of me. And this is why they're doing that. And he's very defensive about it. And Hunter Biden gave that awful interview.

And so he's really damaged a little bit on his I am the moral authority. It's hard to do that when they say your son's making money off your name, your brother's making money off your name. You raising something that's very important. When you said it, it made me think about it as well, in terms of Bloomberg, the two billionaires

are really the best poised to destroy Donald Trump. I'm thinking, as you were talking, I'm thinking Bloomberg beat Trump. Because see, what Bloomberg's gonna say is, you're a fake billionaire, I'm not, and I'm gonna roast you. One of the most effective things Bloomberg's doing right now is weakening Trump with these attack ads. And I mean, to roast you. One of the most effective things Bloomberg is doing right now is weakening Trump with these attack ads.

And, I mean, they are high-slick production. And he has promised that whether he wins or not, Steyer, of course, is the one who started the impeachment thing years ago. Yes. And Sanders, of course, outsider. Warren, an outsider, but kind of outsider-lite. If he's digging into the black vote in South Carolina, it may be very well because this billionaire billionaire who doesn't need anybody's help might be convincing black people

This is the guy who will ball up his fist and finally somebody punched this guy in the face This is a New York Brawl and that and that I think at the end of the day And this is what I said in 2016 You if you're running against somebody who has no decency, morals, or values, there is no such thing in, you know, whether some things we can go. I don't care what Michelle Obama had to say. Right. Well, no, no. I mean, I get it. It sounded great when she said, when they go low, we go high. Yeah. Okay. That worked with Obama. That worked when Obama ran against McCain and ran against

Romney. You're going against an evil, despicable narcissist who will say or do anything. That's right. And when you are in a street brawl, you can't say, well, no, we got to fight fair with our fists. No. If there's a two-by-four

sitting right next to you, you grab it and knock the hell out of them. If there's a pipe, if there's a trash can, there are no rules in that fight. The only rule is somebody gonna lose, somebody's going to win.

And James Carver made that point the other night. We all talked about power. And this is where and I don't care what all of you uber progressives say. I really don't, okay? Because Carville is right. If you look, if you just look at, I'm going to use the Congressional Black Caucus as a perfect example. There are CBC members who are from

lockdown, ain't nothing going to happen in black districts. They can say whatever they want to say. But you got folks like Sanford Bishop. You got folks like Colin Allred. You got folks like Lauren Underwood

who are African Americans who represent districts. In her case, 2% black. Johanna Hayes, then the Connecticut. Same thing. They can't run like Maxine Waters can. They can't run

like Al Green can. Because the district is different. Right. The fact of the matter is, for all these uber-progressives and AOC and, you know, and I get all of that. And guess what? The reality is the Democratic Party has a larger tent than the Republican Party. Sure. You cannot be a moderate or a liberal running in the Republican Party. You cannot be a moderate or a liberal

running in the Republican Party. Anywhere in the country. You cannot. You can be a conservative or moderate or liberal in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party, the only reason Nancy Pelosi is

Speaker of the House is because you had moderate to conservatives, moderate to left, center left, center left, moderate to center left folks, and then you had left folks who were all in one party. Sure. So this battle in the Democratic Party, to me, is stupid because you have to recognize that. Guess what? She can't vote for some stuff because of how her district is made up. But he can. But AOC can. And so the Sanders people have to understand and stop the bullshit attacks because everybody can't be like Bernie from Vermont.

It's very true. And that, to me, is the thing that people don't understand. And so you have this constant fight. Well, these corporatists of the Democratic Party, but the corporatists of the Democratic Party are in the same party as the far left. And the corporatists also won seats that made it possible for Pelosi to be Speaker of the House and for those on the far left to actually have more power than they were in the minority.

So when James Carville says this is about power, what he's actually saying is Republicans duke it out. But after the primary, they say, now, I still don't like you, but I don't like them more. So we're going to ride. Now, we may not like each other. We're going to ride. Democrats want to get engaged in this purity thing where, no, I'd rather lose. No, because Tea Party has learned that. Tea Party people are saying, well, I'd rather lose. No, because Tea Party's learned that. Tea Party people were saying, well, I'd rather lose, and Republicans said,

fool, if we lose, we in the minority. Democrats had better learn it's about winning. So how do you, I mean, so if Sanders ends up being the nominee, and he puts at the bottom of a ticket somebody like a Stacey Abrams or Kamala Harris, if Sanders is the nominee,

do you see the Democratic Party coalescing behind him? No, and that's what I'm saying. That's the problem. The problem is Democrats have to... They got to understand a national election is totally different from a congressional election. And here's the deal. And if I find the stat,

if you actually go back and look at the winning record of our revolution, zero. The winning record of that coalition that AOC is in, zero.

Like, all these far-left groups, dude, they went zero in every election. I'm thoroughly unconvinced that we are going to be able to predict what's going to happen if for no other reason than, you know, the United States, I would say this often,

it's really not a country. They have too many interests. And so, if Bloomberg were the nominee, if Biden were the nominee, and the Democrats, I think the Sanders strategy seems to me is the Jackson strategy from 84 and 88. You grow the party. Now, if voter turnout is low, for example, in the Iowa caucuses, it seems that then the Sanders people overperform. And I'm not endorsing or campaigning for Sanders.

I'm just saying that I think we're on the verge of something now that either is going to be a transformation in this country or Trump is going to win again. And it's going to be a fracturing in this country that will not allow it to come back together. But again, the issue that I'm looking at, I'm trying to get people to understand is that you have to look at your tent and then say who's in it. Yeah.

Again, I go back to power. At the end of the day, you either got power or you don't. If you're in the minority in Congress, all you can do is give speeches. You can't do jack. Democrats can't stop nothing in the Senate. Nothing.

So the deal is, how now do I operate? So you gotta start from, the first thing is, we gotta win. See, I can sit here and make a series of demands to all the candidates. The first thing I got to say is, hell, one of y'all got to win. Because I already know he ain't talking to me.

Now, if I hold my powder and one of y'all win, I can ride your ass every day. It's true. But you won. And I got a better shot at getting more of what I want with you than that dude. True. So it goes back to winning. True.

And that's the thing that I think people got. So there's some people who get hung up on just No, no, no, no, no, this is where we are You know, in terms of, no, it's about The principles, and I'm going, yeah But it's also about winning And Republicans, the one thing I don't care what nobody says

Y'all can tell me, I'm choosing The lesser of two evils, y'all can say Whatever y'all want to say, I'll pull up in a second See what y'all saying on YouTube and Facebook. Here's what I know. Republicans care about one thing. Winning. That's right.

They can't stand Trump. They don't like Trump. But he's there. And they're going to ride like Martin Lawrence. They're going to ride his ass until the wheels fall off. The wheels are very close to falling off. But they don't care. Because their whole deal is, we don't know how long this is going to last.

Not much longer. But we're going to sit here and rule with an iron fist. I agree with you. And Democrats would rather sit here and engage in ideological back and forth. And I'm like, but you ain't won. Are you saying that, I mean, I'm just trying to understand this. When the largest group of voters in this country are the ones who don't vote,

are you saying then that we must, thinking pragmatically, view the country as it is rather than the country as we would like it to be? Because the Democrats, I mean, the Republicans don't have a tent. They've got a narrow little white supremacist patriarchal slide that is enforced by this regional electoral college-based thing. They lose the numerical majority

every year. By that logic that you're articulating, I'm not disagreeing with it. I'm saying if that is the vision, that we have to shrink this experiment, this settler state to this notion of pragmatism and winning, it seems that among the candidates now, it may only be the billionaires,

Steyer and Bloomberg, who can really wage the war. Because any other coalition you're talking about is just... I don't know. Here's the deal. For me, what it comes down to is I'm not wasting my time in any of these polls. My whole deal is Bloomberg has to prove he can win.

See, you can poll great right now. Sure. Again, let me remind people, the polling data showed that it was four people who were tied at the top in Iowa. Not the unreleased CNN poll. No, no, no, that last one. That last one. As you get closer, they do get closer. Right. No, but what I'm saying is for all that time, all we heard is that Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg were anywhere between 21 and 24. Okay? Mm-hmm. It comes out Biden's around 15% in Iowa.

The point I'm making is I don't care about the polls. Mm-hmm. I need to see you win. Right. So I'm not making any judgment on Bloomberg until I need to see if he can win a state. Mm-hmm. See, Rudy Giuliani ran the same strategy. He didn't have Bloomberg's money, but he said,

forget the first few states, I'm going to focus on Super Tuesday. He got his ass waxed. He focused on Florida, got waxed. That's true. So, again, Bloomberg has dropped more than $100 million. What happens on Super Tuesday if he does it with North Carolina or Florida or Texas or Ohio or any of the Super Tuesday states, what that shows me is you got a lot of money,

but you didn't win a state. You still got to prove to me you could actually win. But the point I'm making is all these people, I am following people who are saying, I will never vote for Pete if he wins. I will never vote for Sanders if he wins. I will never vote for Sanders if he wins. And I'm sitting there going, but here's the problem. That is a problem, brother.

Right. Here's the problem with that. Only two people are going to win. Come on. And y'all can sit here and say, but I can't stand. No. I get all of that. Tell them about the judges again, Roland.

I'm going to play it in a second. Today, Donald Trump thanked Mitch McConnell and said, we put through 191 judges. Yesterday, after they acquitted Trump, McConnell came to the floor, we're going to

move five more. Again, though, all I'm saying is I can be pissed off with a candidate and their followers. But I do got to say, but I hate you and your followers more. That's right. Because guess what? One of them is going to hold the keys to the kingdom. And one of them is going to have all the power.

And so that's when Carver was talking about power. Y'all, this just boils down to power. Just not feelings, power. And giving Trump four more years of power after the crazy that we've seen these last three? I don't even want to know what that looks like. No, sir. I'm just saying, while everybody's going through these campaigns. No, sir.

I would say pull back on some of that. I am not, because argue for your candidate, but the real issue here is I'm telling you, the plan that they have if he wins four more years is beyond diabolical. No question. They... I'm going to repeat this. I'm going to play this soundbite in a second.

Matter of fact, y'all can cue it up. They've already pushed through 191 federal judges. Five more on the docket. By the time the election comes, probably it's going to be 220 or 230. If he wins four more years, I need y'all to understand, at the end of eight years of Trump,

if they control the Senate, he will have appointed 500 federal judges and they are purposely picking white men between the ages of 35 and 45. White men make up 31

to 36% of the United States. Nearly 88% of all of the Trump federal judge nominees are white men. One Latin X. Zero

African Americans. If you want to say make America white again, make the America federal court system white again and not just white. Far right-wing, anti-civil rights, anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-environment,

pro-business, right-wing, white federal judges. That, folks, is what you're voting on. We've got to go to break. We'll be back on Roller Martin Unfiltered.. We'll be back on Roland Martin on the field. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. Every man prays in his own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.

Composer and band leader, Duke Ellington. Let me go ahead and say this. All y'all dumbasses on YouTube right now talking about, oh, they're cheating Bernie. That reminds you what Greg said. The rules, Bernie's people fought to keep the caucuses. They fought to keep the caucuses. Okay?

So I need y'all to shut the hell up with all that BS about who's cheating. Because see, that's also part of the deal. Any of you dumbasses who are advancing this whole deal of, oh, they're cheating Bernie, do you know what you're doing? You're doing the work of, oh, they're cheating Bernie. Do you know what you're doing? You're doing the work of Donald Trump. You're a surrogate of Donald Trump. That's what you're doing. The reality is the next state, New Hampshire, is a primary. All right? The polls show Sanders is leading. So what then happens? If Sanders wins, do the other campaigns say they got cheated? Y'all see how this works?

So y'all run around talking about he got cheated in 2016. No, he didn't. He ignored black voters. That's what happened in 2016. I told you I got receipts. Whole bunch of black media he didn't do. He learned his lesson after 2016. Why is he doing better? Because he had more

outreach to black folks in 2020. But if y'all keep running around with that language of, oh, so-and-so getting cheated, you sound like Donald Trump and the Republicans and the Russians are looking at that and they're going to run with it, just so y'all know. Today, Donald Trump did the National Prep Reference, and guess what? He had the audacity to pimp all those stupid pastors who were sitting there, who tolerated and laughed at his silly ass. This is what he had to say about Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney. ...through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people. They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong but they

put themselves far ahead of our great country. Weeks ago and again yesterday, courageous Republican politicians and leaders had the wisdom, fortitude, and strength to do what everyone knows was right. I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say, I pray for you, when they know that that's not so. So many people have been hurt. And we can't let that go on. And I'll be discussing that

a little bit later at the White House. If you are a pastor or a person of faith who sat in that room and said nothing as that fake-ass Christian had the audacity to question somebody else's faith,

to question whether or not somebody actually prays for them, then shame on you. That to me, and we all saw the doctor series on Netflix called The Family. See, so we know the real truth behind this national prayer breakfast. The real truth behind this national prayer

breakfast is nothing but a political front. This is not a real national prayer breakfast. This is a breakfast for conservative interests, pimping God, pimping the faith for their own political reasons. Right. And what went to them? Because the Bible talks about there being blood on the hands that you can't wash off.

And so I'm really, I'm afraid for them because we are all mortal beings. And the other thing, too, is that there are millions and millions of people that are being led to believe that the way through faith is through power, is through the pockets of people. My father is a pastor, and he reminded

me of something when we were talking about, like, what do these things mean to just kind of give some balance around the intersection of politics and faith. And, you know, he told me, he said, E, this ain't nothing different. This has been going on since before the time and after the time of Christ. What I will say is something that the bishop,

Dr. William Barber, provided in the clarion call that he gave at the emergency convening at the CBC. And if you didn't, if you were not there, you need to go back and watch Roland Martin Unfiltered. They were there, live streamed it. And he talked about this being time to get your ass up. And he did not say this exactly, but get your ass up and start fighting. It is not time to lay down. It is time to turn down the volume on entertainment because we can see where people's interests actually lie

that do have power. They have become drunk with that power. And so it is time that people become activated. And that is not just through voting, but it is also through becoming civically engaged. So these conversations that we're having when we're talking about the courts and how there is a consolidation of power that is happening before our eyes as people are dancing their days away, that there is an understanding that we all, not just here on this platform, not just rolling to provide the information, but we all have a part to play in saving what's left of our democracy. No, that's absolutely right, Erica.

And, you know, watching Trump at the White House today, his victory lap speech was really something that could have been delivered by Andrew Johnson in 1868 after he was acquitted in the court. Listening to him, and then, as you say, with this prayer breakfast, which we know what it

is, I'm reminded that two years before Johnson was acquitted, in 1866, in Pulaski, Tennessee, Nathaniel Bedford Forrest and his group formed an organization called the Ku Klux Klan. And the core of the Klan belief is their interpretation of Christianity. They are protecting America from the hordes of blacks, and they wanna put women back in the kitchen.

This is the Klan philosophy. That prayer breakfast could have been a Klan rally. And those ministers, if you're a white nationalist minister, you in the Klan, as far as I'm concerned, ideologically, because that's what we saw at the White House. Only other thing I would say is this. I was looking for Ben Carson. I didn't quite see him in there.

And Tim Scott, Trump shouts out from the podium. And I saw one other brother in there, so let's assume there were three there everybody else in there was white these people are Ideologically committed to one thing and one thing only is won't say power But their power is read through race and white male miss their Christianity Excludes all of us that Jesus Christ was here today be in an internment camp or he'd be sitting here with us talking about fighting or he'd be saying what Reverend Barber is saying. Let us not mistake these people for any type of Christian. Don't worry, brother.

I'm not praying for you. I'm praying against you because you are, in fact, as David Walker said in 1829, the devil. Yes, he is. And anybody with you is a devil. So let's be clear. That's right. That's right. That's right.

You know, Trump is a complete degenerate. No question. I mean, he is a serial sexual assaulter. Yep. He is corrupt. He's a criminal. He's surrounded by criminals. All of the GOP are his co-conspirators.

Yes. So how dare he sit up there and lecture anybody, or like you said, question anybody else's faith, who certainly through their works have a much better product than what Donald Trump can point to. Speaking of the Klan, they don't even need hoods. They got presidential medals of freedom at the State of the Union.

How about that? We've got a lot of issues that are going on and it's all out there in the open and people are asleep, not woke. They need to wake up. We have to turn down the volume on entertainment. You cannot Instagram this. You cannot Facebook Live.

You cannot laugh this away. This is an existential crisis, and people have got to get up off of their asses and connect with some type of civic engagement, with understanding. If you don't understand, that's fine. But thinking that these things are just going to go away, these people have their foot on our neck.

If you did not, were not born during the Civil Rights era, welcome to the Civil Rights era of 2020. And let me just ask, why don't we, and I'm talking to black people now, why don't we channel some of that energy that we have against each other? And ripping each other apart. Now I'm not defending Gayle King.

But let's talk about Gayle King. Ooh, that came for Gayle King. And Gayle King, you know, she came for somebody she had no business coming for. But why don't we direct some of that energy, some of that outrage, some of that, everybody's heard about it, but has everybody heard about the Mississippis,

what's happening down there? does everybody know what's happening no there's so much an immigrant a person who was a mistaken identity was shot in the face my god two people so we're not directing our energy we know everything like you say entertainment you know the shaver a baller all that stuff I watch it too don't get me wrong but we're not where we have that swell of energy is at each other. It's at each other. And not at the people that are doing the most damage to our communities and our society. Well, I know one person who's had enough of Donald Trump,

that's Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She addressed why she tore up that pathetic speech of his on Tuesday night. Yes, ma'am. You often counsel your members to be dignified in their response. Yes. Did you step on that message by tearing up? No, I did not. No, I did not. I tore up a manifesto of mistruth.

It's very hard for us to get you to talk about the issues that we are working on, HR3, infrastructure, and the rest. He misrepresented all of that. It's necessary to get the attention of the American people to say this is not true and this is how it affects you. And I don't need any lessons from anybody, especially the president of the United States, about dignity. Dignity. Is it OK to start saying four more years in the House of Representatives? It's just unheard of. Is it unheard of for the president to insult people there who don't share his view as well as to misrepresent, present falsehoods. Some would use the word lie. I don't like to use the word lie about what he is saying. So no, I think it was completely, entirely appropriate.

And considering some of the other exuberances within me, the courteous thing to do. Damn, Roland. I mean, when you say 330 million people in this country, looking at the State of the Union, I'm so glad you said what you said about Rush Limbaugh. I'm watching these two ex-frat boys who went to the same prep school, Georgetown, two stolen

Supreme Court seats, smirking at each other. And then John Roberts, who wants to be, oh, the institutions are so important. John Roberts couldn't even shake Donald Trump's hand. Because guess what? You left this captive bag with Citizens United, but now you're seeing coming down the aisle.

You're going to reap what you sow now, Roberts, because you've realized your institution may have been damaged beyond saving. We are, you're right, this is an existential crisis. Well, and then, of course, they're so mad at her. And she's like, I'm sorry. beyond saving we are you right this is an existential crisis well then of course either they're so mad at her and she's like I'm sorry yeah I tore it up you know and then all these people hold them all we we need to go after her yeah but it's this this is the same clown who wouldn't shake her hand yeah right so

that's why I'm like I don't want to to hear nothing from none of y'all. Talk about what was classless and stuff along those lines, because this man has none. He has no sense of decency. And to her point, she also in that same news conference, she said, you don't give the president your medal of freedom at the State of the Union. She said, we don't come to your office doing congressional business. So you don't come to our office doing that. But rolling to the point you were raising, how you answer this, does what she did the other night, and I'm just saying, playing devil's advocate,

literally, does what she did the other night hurt Conor Lamb, for example, in Pennsylvania, in those Trump districts that these moderate Democrats... No, no, here's why. I think Nancy Pelosi, at some point, you got to go ahead and do what's right. And what's not what's popular.

And I'm going to go ahead and I told y'all when I interviewed Nikki Giovanni on this show, and because it's unfiltered, I can go ahead and say this. In 2000, when they were at the Tavis Smiley State of the Black America panel, and then it was her, I think Stanley Crouch, and I think Charles Ogletree was moderating. They asked Nikki Giovanni, he said, Nikki, why do you love Tupac so much? And she said, point blank, somebody got to call a motherfucker a motherfucker.

That's what she said. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That comes up. That comes a point where you can no longer say, no, I'm going to do the dignified thing. I'm going to go ahead

and these are our customs. These are our rules. Her whole deal was like, you know what? No, I'm good with this here. Somebody needs to go Nino Brown on this fool. I mean, that's it. He's holding up the Washington Post,

the very same media that he condemns and lamb blasts on a daily basis, puts people's lives in jeopardy. You're talking about the trusted travel program has been essentially suspended in the state of New York. Now, when we tie journalists into that, we've had journalists that have traveled to other countries that have had difficulty getting back in the country

that have been accosted and that have had, that have experienced difficulties by custom and border patrol agents. So when we tie that all together, the Washington Post that has democracy dies in darkness has on their front page Trump acquitted?

What the hell? And this is what he's using in his bullshit press conference. Yes. Right. And again though, so what you're dealing with here is this is Nancy Pelosi saying and then she said, I'm not using the word lie, but that's also to me also part of the deal.

That's also part of the con. Because the media wouldn't do it. Finally, I remember when Jake Tapper hosted a whole hour on Trump's lies, I'm like, took y'all almost three years. And that's what I'm saying. I mean, I went on ABC this week in 2017 saying, he's a liar.

No, no. We don't really know the motive of the person. We all know the motive. The motive of a liar is to lie. But see, everybody want to dance around this. And I just think she was like, you know what? I ain't here. She said it.

We ran the lies yesterday. Hey, Republican, Black Republican Angela Stanton, she was all loud and wrong. Mad when I walked through all of the lies. I walked through all the lies he said. She couldn't refute it. See,

something's either true or it's false. I think it's so much obsession with protocol and pageantry and you had Donald Trump cussing and fussing

in his press conference today. But see, that's why all announcers of the State of the Union. Oh my goodness, that was a powerful speech. The optics. Because here's the deal. Y'all need to understand this here and there's a reason why y'all don't see me on those networks because see, I'm just way

too real. Right. Y'all need to understand this. Les Moonves, the former head of CBS, said in 2016, Trump may be bad for America, but he's great for CBS.

He was talking about this. Last report showed that this Fox News is going to make $1.32 billion in profit. CNN, around $780 million. MSNBC, around $761 million. That, folks,

they want the reality show. Right. That's what I need y'all to understand here. So when y'all are watching the analysis, so I'm gonna give y'all an example. I was on CNN, and this was the first day Eric Erickson, they had put a press release out how they had signed him to a CNN contributor, and the first night he was on was a State of the Union.

And I never forget, he was sitting at the table over there. I was sitting over here next to David Gergen. And so Eric started talking and he started saying Obama didn't say this, this or this. And I was like, what the hell? Now, Wolf Blitz and Campbell Brown were moderating. Y'all did nobody,

nobody check them. I was sitting here shaking my head, and I think it was Wolf and Campbell, like, oh, we're rolling, Eric, rolling this agree with you? I said, I'm sorry, Eric. Obama said

this small business in Arizona, this small business, this small business, you just said he did not mention small businesses. I'm sorry, what speech were you listening to? Immediate fact check. Right. See, what they want is,

they only, to your is, they only, to your point, they only want to focus on the pageantry. Trump was resolute. He played to the audience. When it came to the Tuskegee Airmen, you didn't hear any of these people on the networks go,

y'all know this Trump sat there, had a young black girl and her mom there said he was going to give her a scholarship. But, folks, he tried to cut $1.9 billion from the Pell Grant last year. See, that's called instant fact check. But, see, they operate and live by the optics. So Trump knows that. So Trump's like, I'm going to give y'all ass a show.

I'm going to give Rush the medal. I'm going to give y'all ass a show. I'm going to give Rush the medal. I'm going to have a little black girl. I ain't going to salute a soldier. I'm going to have one come out and surprise his wife and kid. He used all of the television tricks. And the response was amazing speech. Trump was at his best. You did not hear them go, lie. And the response was amazing speech. Trump was at his best.

You did not hear them go, lie. Right. Lie. You didn't hear them go, play this, lie. Play this, that's a lie. Play this, that's a lie. Had they done that, had they immediately said, y'all, we about to play for y'all, 17 statements that Donald Trump just gave in his speech

and 17 were lies. Yeah. See, that changes the whole deal. Right. But they only care about the optics. They do. And that's why, sorry to cut you off, but Pelosi played that moment well

because instead of it being a nice little panel about how- She said, y'all want an optic? Boom, got it. opt in boom boom so now they're well did you step on your message our my message is donald trump sucks he's a liar and he fools all of you guys every time and you fall for the bait so she gave him a different set of bait and so now change the subject because we didn't hear about all those you know normally it would be they love to stretch it out two or three days story now the two or three day story becomes her ripping up the stupid ass speech nobody even cares about. So, win for Pelosi. But by tearing it up, she immediately was saying, I'm sorry, she said that was a state of mistruth.

She didn't want to say lies. It were lies. But folks in the media don't want to go there because, again, it's like it's messing up the whole deal there. That's what you're dealing with there. So, hey, y'all, I also take Southern University President Dr. Austin Lane and said he did everything with integrity and honor as president of the University of the Nation's second-largest HBCU and that he will be back in 30 days to address allegations made by the Board of Regents.

Here he is surrounded by supporters. An investigative board. The board is mismanaging and trying to make sure that they do my job. It's my job to do what I do with my deans and with the provost to make sure that if there are any items that are uncovered, that's what we bring to the board. We get millions of allegations that come into the university all the time, but they have to be uncovered. Allegations are allegations until they're found or uncovered. That's when we bring it to closed session, and they know that. We've done it my whole entire time of being here. UNCOVERED. ALLEGATIONS ARE ALLEGATIONS UNTIL THEY'RE FOUND OR UNCOVERED. THAT'S WHEN WE BRING IT TO CLOSED SESSION AND THEY KNOW THAT. WE'VE DONE IT MY WHOLE ENTIRE TIME OF BEING HERE.

SO I'M NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING THAT'S GOING TO EMBARRASS MYSELF, MY FAMILY, MY SUPPORTERS THAT ARE HERE TODAY, MY STUDENTS, MY FACULTY OR MY STAFF. YOU WON'T FIND ANYTHING THEY SAID TODAY THAT LINKS ANYTHING TO ME. WE'LL BE BACK IN 30 DAYS WITH MY ATTORNEY TO DISPUTE EVERY LAST ONE OF THE THINGS THAT said today that links anything to me. We'll be back in 30 days with my attorney to dispute every last one of the things that they mentioned in there, including that James Douglas. I don't know where that came from. That threw me for a loop. I don't know what they're talking about with that. But it's clear that they've been spending the last four hours trying to negotiate with me and my attorney here for a buyout that we would not accept. Why?

Because we didn't do anything. So we'll see you in 30 days. And he also, folks, released a statement today as well. First of all, he had a news conference today laying out how the board has violated their own procedures, all the things that he has done for the university, also shown how they have been out of order. And so he laid all those things out in this letter. And also his other piece, the accreditation folks are going to be coming to TSU's campus next month. And he says that, quote, the board is out of compliance per sex during their most recent bylaw change that allows them to hire and fire all employees. This is a direct violation of the standard and one that typically causes a university to lose accreditation and so trust me he is

not simply laying back the TSU Board of Regents still refused to talk publicly about this they made this move and many people are asking the question well is the Republican governor Greg Greg Abbott, he appointed most of these people. Is he behind this? Because is he mad at Austin Lane? Because he had the Democrats have a debate on TSU's campus. And remember, they also would not let Senator John Cornyn speak to the graduation because there was going to be tremendous blowback from students. You got to ask the question. Are Republicans in Texas trying to control one or two public HBCUs in Texas at Texas Southern University? Yeah.

Uh-huh. Don't think we're not going to stop talking about it. We will. One more thing, folks. Tonight on PBS, there's going to be a documentary airing about a black architect who designed

homes in Hollywood that he could not live in. It's an amazing documentary, first of all, of Royal Rogers. She's the wife of Jonathan Rogers, the founding CEO of TV One, I've known. Royal has been working on this documentary, y'all, for not just

more than 10 years, almost's almost approaching 15 years. The Royal Kennedy Rogers and Kathy McCampbell Vance. It will premiere tonight on PBS SoCal as part of Black History Month. And it chronicles the life and work of Paul R. Williams, the African-American architect, behind more than 3,000 famous homes and sites, largely in Los Angeles. Here is an excerpt. The Academy Awards ceremonies at the pantages theater once hollywood discovered paul williams he acquired a nickname architect to the stars tyrone power lucille ball jesse arnaz, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck.

All the movie stars had Paul Williams houses. They're the most unique homes in the city. The unique style of a Paul Williams home made such an impression that some clients recalled them even after they've moved on to other houses. We had a wonderful life there, and we later learned William Holden lived there. All of the who's who of Hollywood at that time had frequented that house.

Tonight, Frank is seeing his finished two-bedroom Japanese modern house for the first time. How are you, Ed? Good. One commission brought Williams the national exposure most architects can only dream of. Well, this is the combination dressing room, Ed, and bedroom with my unique-looking fireplace with the Chinese red. I'm sorry you can't see the colors.

Frank Sinatra has, in a sense, come to Williams to find out, how do you live like a movie star. He understood the value of having your dream home. And I think that's why so many people went to him, particularly movie stars and people in the movie industry, which is so much about fantasy and sets and being able to have whatever you want. Unlike a Frank Lloyd Wright who designed something brilliant and you bought into it or not,

he believed it was important to listen to his client, and his value as an architect was determined by his ability to please that client. As an African-American architect in the 20th century, he did not have the luxury of telling clients my way or the highway. He would ask them questions about how they lived. Are you the type of person who entertains frequently, who needs a room for your housekeeper as well as your mother-in-law? People moved from Los Angeles from all sorts of other places,

and I think they wanted to import a little bit of where they were from and what they associated with. And he was so adept at so many different styles of architecture. Great Tudor houses, great Spanish houses, great Monterey Colonials, great Georgians. I mean, he did them all. Hollywood's Architect will air on PBS stations nationwide throughout the month of February. So be sure to check your local listings to see when it airs in your city. Wow, and I would have, you know,

happy Black History Month, I would have thought that the great architect of that time was Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the Guggenheim Museum, which is, you know, beautiful in its own right, but to know a Paul Revere Williams, I'm looking forward to watching this tonight. Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny. They talked about that, and I'm sure they talked about it in the documentary as we were talking, as we were watching, the Golden State Life Insurance Company building he did, and it had art, Hale Woodruff, the great Charles White. It was full of art. I mean, this was like a landmark.

It's on a historical register, but this man was a genius. He had three honorary degrees from HBCUs, including one from Howard, because he was the model for a lot of black architects. Wow, I cannot wait. Well, again, and so congratulations to Roy. I know literally she's worked on this for almost 15 years.

Yes. And I'm sure Jonathan's like, thank God it's finally done. And so looking forward to watching it. And then we're going to chat with Roy, I think, on the show on Tuesday. All right, folks. As I said to you earlier today, I had a conversation with Tom Steyer. Let me take the panel first off.

I had a conversation with Tom Steyer today about his run for president. And we talked specifically about what his plans are for African-Americans when it comes to housing, education, HBCUs, and also black business. Let's hear what Tom has to say. Tom Starr, glad to have you here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Roland Martin, it's great to be with you. It really is. All right, let's talk first about the Iowa debacle. Just got to get your thoughts on the fact that here we are three days later, and we still don't know for sure what the final results of the Iowa caucus.

Look, this is a dream come true for Donald John Trump. This has been for anybody who doesn't realize that Trump can get reelected, then they should pay attention to the last three days. It started with the Iowa debacle, the next day was the State of the Union, and the next day was the Republican cover-up and sham trial resulting in a 52-48 vote not to remove him from office immediately. He's had a great three days. And for every Democrat who's paying attention, you have to realize we need a presidential contender who can beat him because otherwise we're going to lose. Well, let's talk about that. We look at

the results in Iowa. You did not do so well. What do you attest that to? Was your focus really on that state or were you looking at some of the other states? Look, we got we were the last people to get into Iowa. It's heavy on organization. We got it. We said we'd organize. We'd show up everywhere. And we did. I'm here in New Hampshire right now, Roland. Roland, but we can see that whoever is going to be president is going to have to put together a diverse coalition of Democrats. And that specifically means that whoever is going to be the Democratic candidate is going to have to be appealing and speaking directly to the African-American community and to the Latino community. And if whoever the candidate is can't do that,

then we won't have the kind of diverse coalition in November of 2020 that can beat Mr. Trump. And so I think every single conversation about this election has to start with the fact that the Democratic Party is a very diverse party. It is going to be led in terms of decision making by communities of color. And that has got to be considered in looking at every single candidate who wants to represent this party. Well, sounds to me like what you're saying is that with Iowa and New Hampshire being overwhelmingly white, more than 90 percent, that Iowa and New Hampshire are not representative of the voters across the country and definitely not the Democratic Party? Well, let me say this.

I believe that voters in New Hampshire have got to be thinking about what I'm talking about, Roland. You and I both know that I'm doing very well in South Carolina. I think I'm in second. I get 24 percent of the black vote well in South Carolina. I'm either, I think I'm in second. I get 24% of the black vote specifically in South Carolina. I'm in third place, I think, in Nevada, but moving up every single week. I do very well with Latinos. And so the question people have got to be asking, and that I want to point out, is I believe that the kind of coalition that I'm putting together in Nevada first and then specifically in South Carolina is the kind of coalition that's going to be necessary in November. That, in fact, this is going to be a turnout election, in my opinion. And if whatever the Democrat is, is not speaking directly, is not connecting with the African-American community and the Latino community.

If we don't get the kind of turnout we need, Trump can get reelected. We've got to face that. That's just the fact. Well, to that point there, when you talk about turnout, I mean, you look at the numbers in Iowa. 170,000 turnout. That was down from 240,000 in 2016. I mean, those were dismal numbers with the number of candidates you actually had in the race. As I said, if you look at the last three days, anyone who doesn't realize that Donald Trump can

get reelected isn't paying attention. We need a candidate who can attract a diverse coalition. We need a candidate who can go after Mr. Trump on the economy, Roland. Look, Trump's running on the economy. He says it every single day. He's a big liar, and he's lying about this too. But he says he's a great candidate for the economy and for jobs and for growth. He's lying. But whoever the Democrat is has got to be able to go expose him

and expose that lie, show that actually he was a failed businessman and a fake, and that when it comes to the economy, he's terrible for the American people. Look, I spent 30 years in the private sector. I can take him on on this stage. I can go toe- in the private sector. I can take him on on this stage. I can go toe-to-toe. I can take him down.

You can't win this with two years at McKinsey. You can't win this as a career politician from Washington, D.C. To beat him on the economy, you actually have to know the economy and you have to go after him and be comfortable and happy to go toe-to-toe with him

and expose him. And that's what I can do. We've got to do that, Roland, or we can't win. He often talks about, obviously, low unemployment. He's always touting lowest on record African-American unemployment. One of the issues that I keep raising is that when you look at some of the other factors out there, he doesn't want to talk about. He touted in the State of the Union the unemployment rate when it comes to black youth. I keep making the point also that you hear him say nothing about the low black home ownership rate. And so in terms of what specifically is your agenda, We talk about home ownership among African-Americans. That's where most Americans are getting their wealth creation from.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about some of those very specific things that African-Americans are talking about. And so what is your housing plan specifically to address black home ownership at its lowest rate since 1968 when the Fair Housing Act was passed? Yes. So, Roland, let's take a step backward, because I think, as you know, I believe that policy has got to come out of narrative and history and truth. And as you know, we don't need to get into it right now, but I'm somebody who believes in two things. Reparations, I'm for reparations. and two, I would start a commission on race the first day of my presidency to retell the more than 400 years of the African American experience in the United States to get into the legalized constitutional injustice,

discrimination, and cruelty, but also into the contribution of the black community over centuries, not just in building the United States, but in leading the United States from a moral standpoint. But let's talk for a second about homeownership. And let me talk for a second. First, let me start with what I've been doing. I don't know if you know this, Roland, but my wife and I started a nonprofit community bank 15 years ago. We didn't do it because I was running for president. We did it because we could see that banks in the United States redlined communities and didn't support specific people. So it's a mission-driven bank. and its mission is economic justice, environmental sustainability, support

businesses owned by women and people of color. We're regular banks, red line, that's where we go. If they won't do it, we will do it. It's over a billion dollars now in terms of housing in the last three years, we've supported over 8,500 affordable housing units. So I have a history specifically of going into black communities with a bank that's now over a billion dollars, started from scratch, where we put in all the money. It'll never come back. It was put in in a way that can only be used to make more loans or be given away. And this bank is specifically dedicated to going into underserved communities,

specifically black communities in our home state of California, in Oregon and in Washington. But let's talk for a second about homeownership and why African-American homeownership is historically low and why black people have been cut out from the basic engine of American family wealth generation, which is called homeownership through mortgage. You buy a house, you take out a big loan called a mortgage, you pay down the loan, the house appreciates in value, presto, family wealth. That is the basic way Americans have built their family wealth for generations. And it's been, African American families have been prevented by, from doing it because banks have refused to lend in African American communities, called redlining. And there's a history of it. I've actually studied it. I've gone and looked to see what it looks

like. It was absolutely, you know, they were unapologetic and unashamed. They did it openly. So what would I do to address this? If you look at our housing plan, we have 7 million too few affordable housing units in the country. We can talk about how we're going to build those, and I have a plan for it. But in terms of African-American homeownership, we're talking about and we need to, this is why we need to do a solution-based commission on race. I'm talking about subsidized down payments for families that have been shut out because of discrimination and racial prejudice, have been shut out of the housing market for generations. We're talking about giving specific assistance to redress something that has been a historic injustice of dramatic proportion.

But your critics would say that's a quota. Agree or disagree? How do you respond to your critics who would say, hey, that's a quota. Yes, that's a race based remedy. OK, let me say this. Roland, you and I both know that in virtually every policy area in the United States, there is an unspoken, huge racial issue. Housing. Yes. There's a huge racial issue, which is black people have been discriminated against from getting home mortgages for generations. Education. Yes. Criminal justice. Yes. There's a huge racial issue, which is black people have been discriminated against from getting home mortgages for generations.

Education. Yes. Criminal justice. Yes. So let's be clear. We're going to take race explicitly into consideration to redress racial injustice that explicitly disadvantaged and discriminated against black people. Uh huh. I'm not apologetic about it. Something wrong was done. That's why I want this commission to go through the facts of the last 400 plus years. Something wrong was done. Multiple wrongs were done. We didn't just get here. People did things that were wrong, like redlining black communities and refusing to make mortgages in them. Yeah. We didn't just get here we're talking about reparations as in repairing damage done tell the story start with truth

solution-based to talk about how do we repair it and then how do we move on if we don't tell the truth and repair it how do we move on how do we be the just society that we claim we want to be or that we claim that we are. So yes, I'm not scared of saying we're going to take race explicitly into consideration because race has been taken explicitly into consideration for hundreds of years. When you mention education, let's talk about that. Obviously, we have many presidents who say they want to be the education president. When we still look at the numbers in terms of black student achievement compared to white students, there's still a huge problem there. There are people like me who are supporters of

school choice, who believe in charter schools. I believe that there should be multiple options for parents, not just a sole option. I don't believe there's a panacea. I don't believe there's one way to educate a child. And so what does your education plan look like, specifically when we talk about African-Americans? So when we think about education, Roland, let me give you some background on me and some background about how to think about it, and then let me give you the policies. So first of all, my mom taught in the public schools in New York City. After she retired as a teacher in the public schools, she taught prisoners at the Brooklyn House of Detention. My brother Jim, who's a year older than me, graduated early from high school so he could go to work in the New York public schools with my mom before he went off to college. He has been an advocate for at- African Americans as a means not just for

prosperity and success, but also for mobility and justice. And the other thing I've been hearing since it seems like I was in the cradle is that you can't get to kids early enough. I mean, I'm for universal preschool. I'm for subsidized child care because I know two things. One, that the number one statistic correlated with success in America, however you define success, is third grade reading comprehension. So I know you don't get third grade reading comprehension in the third grade. You have to be way early. But where you are at that point is going to determine an enormous amount about the rest of your life. And if there's one thing that we need to do above all, it's to break this school to prison pipeline. We need to be early.

We need to spend whatever it takes, really, to support those kids as early as possible to get them in a position to succeed. So when you ask me what's my policy, my policy is to be early. My policy is to, we spend at a federal level $70 billion on education. And at a federal level, we spent over $700 billion on defense. And that number has gone up by more than $100 billion since Donald Trump became president. So the increase in the defense budget in the last three years is more than the total budget for education at the federal level. And I look at education, that is our, literally, that is our future economic prosperity. That's our future success because we depend on the productivity and excellence of American citizens to succeed. But also, if we're not devoting the money and resources to give specifically African American kids a chance to live up to their potential,

to go wherever their talent and ambition and work will take them, then we are legislating inequality for a generation. Absolutely unacceptable. So my point on this is we have to be really early and we have to change our priorities, not just in terms of supporting teachers, paying them better, also supporting them much more broadly and supporting the kids much more broadly, not just with teachers, but with mental health professionals, with nurses, with librarians. The payoff for this in justice and in success is so dramatic for our society. It proves to me exactly what I was trying to say earlier.

Yeah, Mr. Trump gives tax breaks to rich people and big corporations, and that's his way of juicing the economy. It's a total fraud. It's a short-term thing. It's a sugar high. It's destructive in the long term. It's not just that. He doesn't do what it takes to really succeed as a society,

which is to invest educationally in young people and to make sure that we're taking race into account to reduce generations of underspending on black kids. Well, what you're also seeing, what you're also seeing is frankly a secretary of education who, look, a federal judge had to admonish her when it came to ignoring an order as related to the people who are trying to pay back loans from these for-profit colleges. I mean, the Obama administration really went hard

after for-profit colleges. The Trump administration has let them off the hook and allowed them to run rampant. I guess when you have Trump University, that's exactly how you operate, so that should be no shock to people.

And so that's also one of the issues. He also touts, first of all he lied when he gave a speech saying how he saved hbcus that's a flat-out lie and so uh let's talk about historically black colleges and universities in terms of your plan uh when it comes to assisting those hbcus so roland i i i hope you know but if don't, I'm about to tell you anyway, so you don't have to worry about it, that I have a plan to support HBCUs at a level that is multiples of what has ever been done or what's ever been proposed. And again, I believe policy comes out of narrative. So let's just remember, historically black colleges and universities were created because it's illegal for black kids to go to the mainline colleges and universities.

And so they were created, some of them before the Civil War, to be the one ladder to success down south for black kids who had ambition and drive and talent. And they've worked. They've produced over half the black generals and doctors and teachers and judges and engineers. And they're dramatically underfunded. They have high tuitions because they don't have big endowments. They have high tuitions because federal funding has gone down by 42%. I'm talking about putting $125 billion

into the HBCUs over 10 years. I'm talking about rebuilding, reviving, growing the whole system because they're there for a good reason. They've worked. They're incredibly important to the kids, but they're also incredibly important to the communities where the institutions are located. It's a huge success story and is being allowed to starve to death. Mr. Trump talks about how beneficent he has been to the HBCUs. We're talking about spending on an annual basis a one-time $35 billion move to get them revived, rebuilt, and tuitions down, and then $10 billion a year to make sure that we're growing a system that has true impacts, true growth, true strength,

and really is built into the communities in a gigantic way. He's talking about, if my numbers aren't wrong, $386 million. We're talking about 30 times that on a going-in basis and 100 times that on a one-time basis. So really what we're talking about in terms of HBCUs, I was talking to you about reparation, repairing the damage, looking at history to tell the story of what happened, and then having a solution based on that history to repair what happened and to go forward justly together. That's my plan on the HBCUs, and it's just an example, Roland. When we look at also black business, a huge issue, the housing foreclosure crisis that took place beginning really in 2007 exacerbated that. Remember in 2013, 2014, the Wall Street Journal had an article

that talked about $23.09 billion in small business loans being handed out. The previous year, African-Americans only got $385 million of those loans. There was some effort trying to fix that as well. That also is an issue. I've talked with business organizations. When Donald Trump came into the White House, he returned to bundling. First of all, Obama's folks were trying to break up a lot of these large contracts to allow for African-American businesses and other minority businesses to be able to compete for those. Trump came back, put them together. So really only the large companies could actually go after those dollars. You look at the federal pension fund. It's a $1 trillion plan. BlackRock controls more than 50 or more than 50 or 60 percent of that. They wrote the rules for it.

African-Americans are only managing, my understanding, about 100 million or so of that $1 trillion. But if you look at the wealth of African-Americans, it's really the public workspace. And so I've been saying that that's also inequality there. You've got African-American money managers out there who should be a part of that $1 trillion pension plan. And so as someone with a obviously business background, we look at the 2.6 million black owned businesses in America, 2.5 million only have one employee. They're doing fifty four thousand dollars in annual revenue. And so Trump touts the increase in black owned businesses. But they're actually doing half of the revenue they were actually doing when we had 700000 fewer black owned businesses.

So let's talk about black commerce, black-owned businesses. And so I mentioned three or four things there. Speak on those issues and sort of how you see what does a Steyer presidency look like when it comes to really providing serious and real economic opportunities for black-owned businesses. So, Roland, I told you, we started a bank 15 years ago. A mission to support businesses owned by women, black people, and Latinos. Because the mainstream institutional bank world was shutting those people out. We were going after, we were trying to redress directly in the marketplace IN THE MARKETPLACE, THE KIND OF INJUSTICE AND PREJUDICE YOU'RE DESCRIBING. AS PRESIDENT, I WOULD WANT TO

HAVE THAT KIND OF COMMUNITY BANK IN EVERY COMMUNITY TO MAKE SURE THAT IT WAS POSSIBLE. THE SAME IS TRUE, THE NUMBERS YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT ARE TRUE IN VENTURE CAPITAL AS WELL. ALL OF THE VENTURE MONEY GOES TO WHITE MAIL. IT'S SHOCKING TO ME THAT THE BANKS THAT ARE GOING TO BE Look, the same is true. The numbers you're talking about are true in venture capital as well. All of the venture money goes to white males. It's shockingly low numbers of women, of black people, of Latinos. Shock numbers that are like 2%. I was in Las Vegas last week, and I was talking to a group of African-Americans and a 75 year old gentleman was irate that they had just rebuilt.

They just built Raider Stadium. You know, the Raiders moved from Oakland. They just had this multibillion dollar contract, you know, construction site. Taxpayer financed welfare for rich billionaires. Yes, 1% of the construction dollars went to black-owned firms. 1%. And he said, what do you do? I said, look, you were asking me about quotas,

well, let me make a point. This is the old boy network at work. And so you're asking me about quotas. This is a 99% quota. It's just not called a quota. If you don't call me about quotas. This is a 99 percent quota. It's just not called a quota. If you don't call it a quota, all of a sudden it's OK. But what we're looking at, I'm telling you, I want to put new and different people in charge. I'm for a living wage. I mean, we can talk about that, what I'm willing to do to fight for a living

wage, fight back against corporate corporations that are screwing working people. I'd love to do it, but there's something else. I want new people in charge of organizations in terms of power and money. I'll tell you this, Tom. I'll tell you this here. Yes. There's a quota right now. It's just not called a quota. It's called. I'll give you this one. I'll give you this one. This actually looked, look, I sat in the treasury department during the Obama presidency and I was told point blank, we're in a private lunchroom. I was told point blank that firms led by black people and other people of color outperform white firms on the management of TARP funds. I then said, okay, does that mean they're now going to be able to manage more money? And nobody said anything.

And I said, I don't understand this. If you outperform other people where I come from, you should then be able to manage more dollars. And I was very frustrated, even with the Obama administration, by saying, hey, you're over the Treasury Department. It shares along with the White House. This is a perfect example of black firms and other minority firms busting their butt and doing better and still not being able to get access to more dollars. And that just made no sense to me. Roland, I'm telling you, people want to use the Q word quota if African-Americans move ahead.

They never use the Q word when it comes to white control of power and money. And that's all we're talking about here. And we're talking about an old boy network that is ensconced and that is deliberate and that has got to be broken up and called out. That's what I'm saying is, look, in almost as, I mean, I don't mean to be funny, but good grief, in virtually every policy area in the United States,

there is a huge unspoken racial aspect to it that people won't talk about except to kind of try and denigrate black people for trying to get ahead, for pushing for change. And somehow that's unacceptable. And I don't even understand the logic, but it's a definite attack. That's what quota is.

Quota is like you're getting something you don't deserve. That's the argument. You're not only saying, not only are you not getting something you deserve, other people are getting stuff they don't deserve. That's really what's going on here. If we don't talk about race, if we don't do a formal commission on race, how does this ever come out? Because how do we ever get to a point where people realize we need these solutions. Something has been done that was wrong. And if we're going to actually move forward you have to tell the story. I mean Roland one of the things that I've always been inspired by was the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa under Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tudor.

But it was still the truth. It starts with truth. You don't get to reconciliation without going through truth. But here's the deal, though. I agree with you 100%. But you know what, though? They had the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That was important. But one of the issues that South Africa is still dealing with is the fact that whites make up 9% of South Africa and own 72% of the land.

So black South Africans are still dealing with the history, the legacy, yes, of that white supremacy. And the reality is in this country, we don't like to use the phrase white supremacy. And the reality is in this country, we don't like to use the phrase white supremacy. Even if you say white privilege, here's the problem I have with white privilege. People think white privilege, frankly, Tom, are guys like you with money. And I say, no, no, y'all don't understand.

You could be broke and white, have white privilege, but it's that word privilege. I just think that in this country, people are running away from these issues. But I got to ask you this here, because here's also what I think is a fundamental issue right now. And I've been saying this for now for 10 years and love to get your thoughts on this. I believe that Donald Trump I've been saying for 10 years that we're living in this world of white fear and white minority resistance of where we're going, of demographic changes. I believe, Tom, that Donald Trump is pressing the buttons of that white fear.

And when you look at what's happening here, I believe there is a fear of the demographic changes with Latinos. By 2043, a nation will be majority people of color. And I think that's what's driving a lot of this angst. All the media said, oh, economic anxiety. Hell, black folks have economic anxiety. But I really think it's just this fear, this fear of the nation changing and being black. I have a different view of the flag of the national anthem than, frankly, a lot of people who were raised who were white. And so when you hear our values are changing, what it means to be America is changing, what they're really saying is we no longer going to have a country that's seen through the eyes, the prism of largely white men. And that is what is freaking people out. And Trump is seen as their savior.

Just want to get your thoughts on that. Roland, is there any doubt? Of course, you're right. Are you kidding me? What do you think immigration is really about? It's fear of non-white people coming to the United States. That's what Trump's arguing about. This is racism by a different word. He's talking about, he's not talking about anti-immigration, he's talking about anti-immigration by non-white people. As I like to say, there's no wall on the

Canadian border. So of course that's true. But let me say this, Roland. I'm from a majority minority state right now called California. I think it's great. That's where we're going. Great. In fact, this is the United States. This is the Democratic Party. I'm going to have to go, but I want to end where I started, which is this. This is not only the future. This is the now. This is where we are. As a party, we have to embrace exactly what you just said and recognize it's great. That's who we are. We're better for it. We're a better country. We'll be more just.

Our diversity, in fact, will be a cause for celebration. Getting past this white supremacy is great. And that's what I'm running on. I'm sitting here literally going, if we don't embrace what you said, if we don't embrace the diversity of America and the diversity of the Democratic Party, we're going to lose. If we don't take Trump directly on this issue, beat him on the economy, show up, embrace our diversity. Everybody show up together to beat it, to beat back what he's saying. We're going to

lose. And that's exactly what I'm running on. I completely, I wholeheartedly agree with what you're saying. And I think it's fantastic. That's where I am. Tom Steyer, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Roland Martin, thank you for having me on your show. I really appreciate you. All right. This is an iHeart Podcast.