#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 3.30 #RMU: State gov's COVID-19 fight; 200k could die; Virus deaths result from lack of leadership

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

3.30.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Tribute to Rev. Joseph Lowery; Rev. Barber: COVID-19 deaths a result of the lack of leadership; Coronavirus crisis update: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo leads the charge in battle against the outbreak as the infection rate and death rate climbs. #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Monday, March 30th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, the latest on the coronavirus as more states order their residents to be sheltered in place, including Maryland and Virginia. We'll give you those updates.

We'll also have some of the top black experts talking about coronavirus and what this extension means for you and what it means nationally. Also, estimates up to 200,000 Americans could very well die from the coronavirus. Stunning, stunning number. Of course, we'll discuss the ineptness of Donald Trump and how he is pimping this virus for his ego and for ratings. Also, folks, we'll pay special tribute to the late Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowry,

who died late Friday night at the age of 98. He was a dean of the Civil Rights Movement. We'll hear from Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., Reverend Dr. William Barber, Janice Mathis, National Congress of Negro Women. We'll also talk with a number of other people, including Melanie Campbell. And we will show you when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, and something special, a digital, a virtual eulogy that will be done

by Congressman and Reverend Emanuel Cleaver, longtime friends of Reverend Lowry, who also was very close with Congressman Cleaver's father. All of that next right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' Yeah, yeah With Uncle Roro, y'all

Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's broke, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's broke, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's rolling, Martin. Now.

Martin. The White House is currently having a live news conference regarding the coronavirus task force. We're not taking it live because, frankly, Donald Trump has been prone to lie consistently in these various news conferences. He's also now using them for the purpose of ratings and building his ego. If Dr. Fauci and other experts come to the microphone, we'll take that. But we're not going to play the comments because Donald Trump consistently has lied when he's been at the podium. And we'll also, of course, discuss with our panel his attack yesterday on another black female journalist, this time Yamiche Alcindor with PBS. Now, folks, as of today, there are 156,818 reported cases of COVID-19 in all the U.S. and three U.S. territories. At least 2,871 patients with the virus have died.

That's more than 1,000 people since our show on Friday. 5,220 people have recovered. Now, governors all across the country are doing their best to stop the spread of the coronavirus. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been leading the charge and having his daily briefings. And so this is what he had to say today. The soldiers in this fight are our health care professionals.

It's the doctors. It's the nurses. It's the people who are working in the hospitals. It's the aides. They are the soldiers who are fighting this battle for us. You know the expression save our troops troops, quote unquote. In this battle, the troops are health care professionals. Those are the troops who are fighting this battle for us. We need to recruit more healthcare workers. We need to share healthcare professionals within this state and within this country. As governor of New York, I am asking healthcare professionals across the country. If you don't have a health care crisis in your community, please come help

us in New York now. Lawmakers and officials all over the country have made business shut down, have made businesses shut down to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But mayors also have been doing their part. Unfortunately, in Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves issued an order overruling them. We talked about, of course, that last week with Mario King, the mayor of Moss Point, Mississippi. Now, the problem is the numbers are growing in Mississippi. A rapidly growing rate of coronavirus infections

has Albany, Georgia under siege. Its main hospital is so overrun with sick and dying patients that nurses at one point have been told to keep working even if they tested positive themselves. In New Orleans, the convention center is being turned into a coronavirus recovery center. In Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker

and health officials announced that known coronavirus cases count have climbed to 460 by 461, including eight more deaths. The first one person who died, African-American woman, her sister over the weekend, died from coronavirus as well. A few hours ago, the mayor, excuse me, the governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, issued a shelter in place for that state.

Then, of course, you had Ralph Northam, the governor in Virginia, who did the exact same thing as well there. Roy Cooper, North Carolina, also taking action. And so governors have understood what's going on. I remember Donald Trump, but his whole announcement, how he wanted to have churches open by Easter Sunday. Well, that was stupid. Then he finally said to the experts. And so now they now push everything back to April 30th.

Dr. Fauci and others, Dr. Anthony Fauci and others have been saying this is what needs to happen. But what we're also now hearing is that as many as 200,000 Americans could die from the coronavirus. Now, yesterday's news conference, Donald Trump was trying to move the goalposts. Now, all of a sudden, the White House wants to tout that initial report that said as high as 2.2 million people could die from the coronavirus in the U.S.

Now they're saying, oh, well, if it's as high as 200, we did a great job. Nice try. We're simply not buying it. Let's go right now to Dr. Suzette McKinney, CEO and executive director of the Illinois Medical District. Dr. Leon Madugo, president elect of the National Medical Association. Glad to have both of you. I want to first start with you, Dr. McKinney. What we're dealing with now is, again, you had Donald Trump playing games with moving these dates around. Governors have said, look, this is nonsense. Now we're seeing more governors ordering shelter in place because until you have far more testing taking place in the country, you cannot get a

handle of this coronavirus until that happens. That's correct. And thank you, first and foremost, Roland, for having me on the show today. I really appreciate that. And I also have to, you know, give a word with regards to our governor here in Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker and his leadership. And I think what we are seeing with governors across the country is the understanding that, you know, you cannot identify an arbitrary date by when we will reopen the country. As Dr. Fauci said a week or so ago, the virus itself will determine the timeline. And so governors are really on the ground in their states, seeing what is happening, seeing how overwhelmed our health care system is. And they are stepping up to the plate and exhibiting great leadership and helping the American public understand that Easter is not going to do it.

It's going to take a much longer effort before we begin to see a flattening of the curve with COVID-19. And we also you've got to do this because frankly, let's just be clear. Americans have been stupid and idiotic. And I'm just going to say it, let's be honest. The mayor to shut down Lakeshore Drive in Chicago because these people continued to keep walking outdoors in massive groups that keep congregating. The governor of Florida was pigheaded in not shutting down the beaches. And unless you order this, people are not going to pay attention. That's right. We were all very excited about Mayor Lightfoot's leadership last week when she said, listen, folks, you know,

I'm seeing entire 5Ks being run on the lakefront. And so she stepped up and used the full police power here in the city of Chicago to ensure that the lakefront paths were shut down, as well as the public parks and some of the other public walkways. And quite frankly, I think it sent a strong message that this virus is much more serious than what many folks have been taking it. And the only way that we are going to begin to see our peak and then eventually a decrease in the number of cases is if people begin to take the shelter in place order seriously. Dr. Leon Madugo, I want to bring you in right now to this conversation in terms of where we're going next. You now hear the officials now saying, hey, keep these things in place until April 30th. This is now another month.

And we saw all the games being played by saying, well, we could be Easter Sunday. We could open the economy back up. Please explain to people why we have not gotten a hold really of this coronavirus. And now when you hear Dr. Birch and Fauci say we could have as many as 200,000 deaths, that's now real for people. So thank you, Roland Martin, for inviting me to present to your audience today. I'd first like to extend condolences on behalf of the National Medical Association for those lives that have been lost and those families that are suffering in regards to these various artificial timelines that have been put forth it really

speaks to a lack of a plan. What is the strategy? Who's in charge? I know I wrote a piece this weekend speaking to from Katrina to coronavirus. What have we learned? uh and uh in the wake of katrina we saw where there was an initial failure of the federal response fast forward to 2019 just as the national weather service tracked the impending strike of hurricane katrina using satellite imagery, the National Intelligence Agency, Centers for Disease Control, and World Health Organization were tracking

the impending strike of novel coronavirus on the United States. So we are behind. Katrina revealed cracks in the levees, and the novel coronavirus has uncovered cracks in our public health infrastructure and national emergency management system. So who's putting forth this plan? That's what we need.

We need a plan. We need a strategy. Where is FEMA? Where is Homeland Security? We need leadership at this time. Dr. McKinney, one of the things that really jumps out when we start looking at what is happening all across the country is that, as you heard Dr. Maduga talk about leadership, look, you got Donald Trump at the news conference yesterday

accusing hospitals of stealing masks. You've got the governor, Cuomo of New York, who's saying there's a reason why you have to store stuff because if you see a tragedy coming at you, if you see a train rushing at you, you better be prepared and stock up. It doesn't help that McKinney in this moment to literally have the person in charge

of the federal oversight saying hospitals are just stealing, saying, hey, it's going out the back door. That to me has to be crazy for a medical professional. It's gotta be driving you crazy. It is driving me crazy. I have spent the bulk of my career working in public health emergency preparedness. And what I will tell you, Roland, is from the SARS outbreak in 2003 to our concern over avian influenza in 2006 and 2007, even to H1N1 in 2009. We have been planning for a major pandemic to occur in this country

throughout that entire period that I just referenced. And we have known all that time that if we were to see a major, large-scale outbreak of a pandemic here in the U.S., that we would have a shortage of supplies, primarily masks and ventilators, and that we would also see extreme stress on our health care system. And so to Dr. McDougal's point, we need a plan. But these are issues that we've known about for quite some time. Now, what I don't want to do is discount the work that has been done in state and local health departments across the country. However, clear, decisive leadership is needed at every level of government, starting from the top.

And if I could say something about the mask situation, what I would want people to understand is that when a health care worker has an encounter with a patient and they are wearing a mask, when they are done with that patient, the proper protocol is to remove the mask and discard it. And you get a new mask for a new patient. And Dr. McKinney, that's CDC protocol. Absolutely. That's CDC protocol. And so for Trump to stand there and say, well, why can't you just put some liquid on it and use it again? And you can use it up to 20 more times. Like, like, what are you doing?

Unfortunately, that just demonstrates a misunderstanding of the way patient care is supposed to be undertaken. It is unfortunate. It is frustrating. And I cannot say enough about the heroic efforts of our health care system and all of the providers in our health care system across the United States. Dr. Madugo, I know this is a law enforcement question I'm about to ask, but I do want to just get your thoughts on it from a health standpoint. Anthony, go to my iPad, please. This pastor in Tampa, Rodney Howard Brown, who flouted these coronavirus rules,

held a massive church service. He's been arrested. The sheriff there said, this is endangering people. Dr. McDougal, can you please, and I talked to some folks over the weekend. Can you please speak right now to black pastors who are insisting on holding service,

who are insisting by saying God will provide, how they are endangering their own congregation and the congregation's family members and their friends and co-workers by insisting on holding church services in the midst of this international pandemic? So very good question, Martin. So what I would say to church leaders and the community as a whole, the church is a vital part of our community. The church will be critical in us surviving these tragedies that are occurring. So you hear the term social distancing. I'd much rather we use the term physical distancing because we're humans. We still need that connection to our church. So what I would encourage pastors to do is to have that six feet of physical distance, utilize streaming, online services and be cognizant of the danger that's involved with being closer to someone

than six feet. And so we have the technology. Every Sunday you turn on the television, there are a number of programs out there sharing the word. And I know we have some tech-savvy members in the congregation, so I would lean on that technology, that connectedness, that social connectedness, and that word is important. So. But it's important, but it's better than death. That's right. And the bottom line, Dr. McKinney, look, this thing may be over in three months, okay? Four months.

I would rather have a church to go back to than to have a congregation that's extinct. We have seen nursing homes where coronavirus is spread like wildfire. We have seen this in other places. In fact, in South Korea, there was a woman who was patient number 31. They had coronavirus under control.

She refused a test. She then goes out to a church, then goes to a buffet. They believe she is personally responsible for infecting one thousand people. In fact, I was I was coming in today and there was a woman who was downstairs in our building talking to the security guard. And I overheard the conversation way in the elevator. And she said four people at her church have tested positive for coronavirus. That's there's a pastor in Shreveport, Louisiana, a black pastor who said, oh, this is a big this is no big deal. Guess what? He's dead. Died last week because of coronavirus. Yes. You know, unfortunately, I think, you know, again, we have so many members of our community, the African-American community in particular, that are not taking this as seriously as they should. However, you know,

one of the things that I do understand is that in the African-American community, we tend to hold on to our faith during times of extreme stress and when we're having a hard time. But if I could say one thing to your listeners, it would be this is something to take incredibly seriously. It only takes one person to spread this disease. You spread it to one person and then that person can spread it to another hundred or so people. And to the point that you made about this particular wave of COVID-19 ending in three to four months, what I would like people to understand from a public health perspective is the behavior of pandemics. They tend to come in waves. So this first wave might end in three to four months. Right. And by the late fall, winter months, we may see another wave of this. So this is not a situation where we can get comfortable and rest on our laurels.

And the only way it's going to end sooner rather than later is if we are practicing the physical distancing and doing those things that the officials from CDC and our state and local health care partners are advising us to do. All right, Dr. Magugle, final comment. So just for clarity's sake, in Ohio, I know in regards to the physical distancing of six feet, we also have an order to shelter in. So if you're in a state where you're ordered to shelter in, follow that edict. So I'm not trying to go against that. So I just want to make that clear. Well, I'm saying even if you live somewhere

where there's no shelter in place, have your own shelter in place. I would rather be safe. And let me be real clear. Look, my wife's an ordained minister for more than 20 plus years. You can pray at home. You can have praise and worship at home. You can sit here and go online, but we cannot put people in harm's way, gathering in places of 50, 75, 100 or 500 people because

they want to have church. I certainly want to thank both of you for joining us. I appreciate it. Thank you both for joining us. Thanks. I appreciate it. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you very much. All right, folks. When we talk about what's going on here in terms of this outbreak, this video, I came across this on the social media,

and it's a stunning video to watch how the United States has blown past other countries when it came to the issue of most people testing positive for coronavirus. This is almost two minutes, and this thing looks like a horse race. It's stunning to watch, but you need to see this. So watch this right now. Terima kasih telah menonton Ketua All right, folks, when you talk about utter incompetence, there's no greater example than what we're seeing out of the White House. As I started off, I said we're not showing you the daily briefing because what Donald Trump has done after the New York Times,

the story over the weekend, talking about how these news conferences have gotten huge ratings. He held one yesterday, one today, and he's leading them. Mike Pence has been sidelined. You're going to see more of this. And so he's now turning this, frankly, into his new rallies. We're not wasting our time being involved with that. But there are some critical things we want to talk about. Let's bring in our panel right now. Dr. Avis Jones DeWeaver, political analyst, Amisha Cross, political analyst and Democratic strategist, and also Preston Mitchum, co-chair of Collective Action for Safe Spaces. Preston, I want to start with you. Go to my iPad just one second, Anthony. Let me pull this up for you. This is a

tweet I just saw, an Associated Press scoop. In a letter to HHS Gov, Democratic lawmakers called for the collection of racial data in coronavirus testing and treatment as predominantly black and brown infection hotspots emerge across the U.S. Preston, that's critically important so we can understand how race is playing out when it comes to testing and treatment. Absolutely. First of all, thank you so much for having me, Brother Roland. You're absolutely correct. It is very important for testing and treatment. One of the things that I do want to share, though, in viewing that tweet that you just showed, was that America is trying to be so used to coming in first place

that we don't even realize when we're actually losing. When COVID-19, and it's important to be clear about what COVID-19 is and what it's not, because coronavirus is not new, but COVID-19 is. And the reason why that's important is because we don't actually know exactly how it will play out in black and brown communities. One thing that is true, and I was listening to your prior guest, and she's absolutely correct. One of the things that she specifically said was that some parts of our community may not take COVID-19 seriously. We know that it is something that's impacting a lot of our communities. I live in the Washington, D.C. area. We've seen how it's been critical in its impact on our black and brown communities out here,

which is why the governors of Maryland and Virginia and the mayor today of D.C. has issued stay-at-home orders. But to your point, absolutely, we need to understand pre-existing conditions in the black community because we know that has a critical impact on COVID-19 and really how it's responding to our bodies. And yeah, that's the one thing we need to really be sure to be true, because one thing that we absolutely know is hurting us is lack of information. And that lack of information is being perpetuated

and exacerbated by media that really does not have our best interest at heart. This letter I'm talking about, Avis, came from Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. Go to my iPad, Anthony. This is what this Associated Press story said. In a letter sent Friday to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley, both from Massachusetts, said comprehensive demographic data on people who are tested or treated for the virus that causes COVID-19 does not exist. Over the weekend, cities with large black and non-white Hispanic populations

emerged as new hotspots for the spread of the virus. We talked about what is happening in Albany, Georgia. We talked about what is happening in New Orleans. We're seeing, Avis, what is happening. We're seeing, Avis, what is happening right now. First of all, I'm getting a lot of feedback, y'all, so please take it out of my ear, please. We're seeing what's happening right now

in Alabama, in Mississippi. We are about to see these southern states, these red states where a lot of black people live, Avis, impacted by coronavirus. Absolutely. And what's particularly concerning is that we know that this nation has a history. There's been a long history of data and research that have shown disproportionate impacts around basically the entire range of health challenges that we face in this nation. And so oftentimes our communities are impacted at a much higher rate, not only because of our isolation in terms of where we are and where we're located,

which sometimes has a lot to do with it as it relates to environmental racism, but also because of just access to treatment and how we are treated in the process of getting treatment. There's a lot of studies that have shown the impacts of quote-unquote unconscious bias in terms of how we are treated when we complain about not feeling well. Our particular, what we normally say is our problem, what's hurting us, when we go and tell the symptoms, they're not taken quite as seriously as when a white person presents and they provide the exact same symptoms. And so there are a whole range of issues that we're going to be facing, not only as it looks like we're seeing in terms of the spread of this virus to those areas who are majority black or at least have a disproportionate number of black folk,

but are we going to be treated fairly when we are dealing with very limited resources in terms of access to tests, which have not been rolled out to the degree that it needs to be so that literally everybody that needs one can get one. And I don't trust this government, quite frankly, under this leadership to be able to provide enough ventilators. So when doctors are making the decision about who do we save, who has access to the limited quantity of resources that we have. If we were going to look at what history tells us about how black folk are treated in our health care system writ large, it doesn't give me much confidence at all that we will be treated in the

same way and with the same high level access to quality of care as our white counterparts. Amisha, speaking of that, go to my iPad. Bassey Orfeong, a brother who was weeks away from graduating, Amisha, from Western Michigan University, complained of coronavirus symptoms, was turned away from the hospital. He is now dead. It's just, it's frustrating. I want to say it's unbelievable, but it is absolutely not. What we know is that coronavirus and its treatment and its cautionary tales for African-Americans are a whole lot higher and a whole lot less recognized in receiving the notoriety that we

see from some other cases. We know that the CDC, for instance, isn't even breaking down demographics for African-Americans. Many African-Americans are considered not essential employees, but they still have to go to work. So because of the fact that there are so many who are working these low-wage jobs who are still required to show up every day, not everyone can isolate from their children or their family. More African-Americans have elderly people in their households. So there is a very strong instance of this being able to get passed on and on. And not to mention the case you just mentioned, so many African-Americans are being denied the test in and of itself, even when they're presenting major symptoms. This again, folks, we're seeing the issues all across the country. Preston, we are very concerned about what is happening

across the South. New Orleans, I mean, you talk about what's happening here. I saw New Orleans is a major issue. In fact, Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, over the weekend, he had posted a tweet that said, if you look at what's happening in Albany per capita, Albany, Georgia right now, uh, would rank as the third most volatile coronavirus hotspot in the world. It's Albany, Georgia is not getting the level of attention, uh, that New York city is that is there. But again, we have to recognize, uh know, in terms of how fast this thing is going. And in fact, if you if you pull up in just just one moment, Anthony, you pull up this this graphic that was posted. Cliff posted this here. This is what he said. He said it took go to it took two months for the U.S. to reach 1,000 deaths from COVID-19. It took three days

to reach the next thousand. We had better be real concerned, Preston, about what's happening in the South, in places like Albany, Georgia, where there are hospitals being overrun. You get the Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, who talked about last week of them being at max capacity in ICU. And you got this idiot in the Oval Office who's literally saying, hey, it's all good. We're ordering ventilators. Y'all still in the equipment.

I don't know why you need all these ventilators. 45, because I refuse to address him by his name, is absolutely ridiculous in how he's running or not this country. One of the things that we have clearly seen time and time again is the racist responses from this administration and how it impacts us on a daily basis. We've seen it time and time again, and we certainly are seeing how it's actually impacting our very lives of black and brown people in a response to COVID-19. From ventilators to trying to force people to still go to work to not issuing orders that actually would help our lives. We clearly see time and time again this administration is not caring about black and brown communities or the south and the Midwest of which Black people populate. Again, I talked earlier about pre-existing conditions. And part of what we need to understand around the Black experience in this country

is that people do not listen to us when we go into the hospitals, right? So there's been multiple studies that's even been done on Black women in pain assessment when it comes to pregnancy, which is why they've received medicines later, which is why we're actually, even when we're going to the hospital time and time again, we're not having access to treatment or prevention. When we look to New York City even, right, as a hotbed for what's really happening in the country around COVID-19, the woman went three times before she could even access her first test. So, again, we really know that this is not just playing out at the national level.

It's playing out at the local and state level too. And we better start paying attention to the cities in the South, because if not, these numbers are going to continue to increase exponentially before finally, finally, this administration may step in and do something. I want to bring in Reverend Dr. William J. Barber right now. Reverend Barber, first of all, glad to have you here. The poor are the most vulnerable right now with what's going on. When you're hearing these stories about people being turned away, when you listen to the White House task force say, hey, the people we're trying to test are those with the worst symptoms.

We're hearing about people not even showing symptoms dying. I mean, we are, and then you got Trump up here, you know, just so happy with testing. In fact, this was a this was a question that was asked today by Yamiche Alcindor, PBS. And he's just touting how old, how great testing is. Anthony, go to my iPad. I know South Korea better than anybody. It's a very tight. You know how many people are in Seoul? You know how big the city of Seoul is 38 million people that's bigger

than anything we have 38 million people all tightly wound together we have vast farmlands we have vast areas where they don't have much of a problem in some cases they have no problem whatsoever we have done more that's very right I know South Korea better than anybody it's a very tight you know how many people are in Seoul do you know big many people are in Seoul? Do you know how big the city of Seoul is? Come on, come back, come back. Guys, come back. Come on. Now, here's the problem with that, Reverend Barber.

One, he's a dumbass. There are not 38 million people in Seoul. There are only 9.8 million people in Seoul. There are 51 million people in the entire country, but he knows Seoul better than anybody else. I mean, we're dealing with sheer incompetence from this idiot in the Oval Office. Yeah. And, you know, from a preacher standpoint, we're dealing literally with evil. Now, I don't say that too often, but I was reading this morning, Zechariah 7 and 10, where it says, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the

poor, and let none of you devise evil against other folk. In other words, when you do policies like this, the scripture actually calls it evil. And when you talk about black people and poor people in the South, black and poor, these states were already the states that denied Medicaid expansion because they hated Obama. That means many rural hospitals closed in the South are already undermanned in this process. And so this is total ineptitude and will cause major deaths. You know, my daughter, Roland, is a Ph.D. from Harvard in public health. She's advising the Poor People's Campaign, along with Dr. Mary T. Bassett, director of the Frankosa Xavier Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard. And listen to what she just wrote me.

This is the woman who used to be with Public Health in New York. She said, the absence of a coordinated response from the federal government has left states to fend for themselves and in some cases compete for life--saving supplies as we've seen with other epidemics communities that have long been subjected to racist and unjust policies people of color people living in poverty and immigrants will be harmed the most by this botched response that this response in itself will have a racist impact economically, but also from the standpoint of sheer death. And so once again, we are seeing what someone who is just racist

and is caught in his policy and backwards in his policy is going to create even more harm in our communities. And obviously we talk about forcing states to fend fend on their own is exactly what's happening. In fact, you know, states competing for equipment because you've got Trump basically questioning whether they even need additional equipment. Right. Not listening to the because when I have talked, I have three public health people now advising us. They said the first thing you do, Roland, with an epidemic is you put eyes on it. So the first thing they should have done is the moment it was breaking out in China, we should have already been over there. We should have already been over there before it ever got here, before the first case, because you have to put eyes on it in order to deal with it. We missed all of that, botched all of that. And notice,

he's acting like 100,000 or 200,000 people dying is a good thing. Now, you have to understand that mentality, though. Before this ever broke out, 700 people are dying from poverty every day, 250,000 a year. And he claimed last year that the war on poverty was over, even though 61 percent of black people are poor and low wealth. So we're dealing with somebody who and an administration that has an ideology that has a long history that that really does not value other people's lives, particularly poor people and minority people. You know, when I looked at this deal, you talk about $2 trillion that he signed last week on top of $1.5 trillion for Wall Street a few weeks ago. Now, think about it. A few weeks ago, they were saying we didn't have money. We didn't have money for health care. We didn't have money for expanding living wages. All of a sudden, now we have all of this money for the corporate. And there's a doctrine called the shock doctrine.

Lady, you know that book. I think you told me about it. She wrote it in 27. She's a Canadian, 2007. And she said that what happens in disasters in the midst of the shock, the greedy will use that shock to transfer more money into their own coffers. So what we had last week is a trillion dollar bill, no provisions for permanent living wages. Fifty four percent of black people make less than a

living wage. No provisions for paid sick leave for everybody. A lot of our people working jobs, they don't have sick leave. No provision for health insurance for the uninsured. The majority of the homeless, the undocumented immigrants, the disabled, and prisoners, there was really nothing substantial in that bill. And anybody too poor to have filed taxes, a lot of our people won't even get the basic income that they're talking about you'll be able to have. And then lastly, that bill last week only delays eviction. You know where it says you get to put the eviction off for three months,

but the bill is still being added up. So after the three months, you either have to have the money that you didn't have the three months and pay that. And there was no provision in there to stop people's water from being cut off, even though to protect yourself from this disease, you need warm water and soap. Last thing I want to ask you before you go, I do want to get your thoughts on the passing of Reverend Dr. James Lowry. You know, the one thing I love about James, Dr. Lowry, Joseph Lowry, is we played his prayer at the benediction of the inauguration of Obama. And even in that prayer, he was

prophetic. You know, he prayed in a way in our traditions. He talked about the nation needed to repent. He stood bold and flat, but he didn't forget who he was just because he was at an inauguration. And that's the power of a Joseph Lowry. That's why his spirit must still be with us. I said the other day, that's one of the reasons as we prepare for June 20 of 2020 to have this massive historic online gathering of poor and low wealth people, moral leaders and their advocates like we've never seen before. We have to do it now because our elders are moving on. Many of them have moved on, but we can't allow their spirit to move on. And I think about Joseph Lowry, and I think about how he stood up for Palestinian rights when a lot of other folk didn't, how he challenged presidents and challenged government and did not bite his tongue.

And we have to understand that's the moment we're in now. We cannot be millimouth. We cannot just go along to get along. We have to be up front and frontal rolling like you do every day because people will die even the more if we are not true to who we say we are and call it out. All right. Appreciate it, Reverend Dr. William J. Barber. Thanks a lot. Thank you, my friend. All right.

I do want to spend a little time and ask our panel this here. Yesterday, again, it's to show the sheer ignorance of this man who has an absolute disdain for black women, especially black women in the media. Yesterday, Yamiche Alcindor read Trump's comments back to him that he said and chose to attack her. Watch this. Mr. President, I have two questions.

The first is, you've said repeatedly that you think that some of the equipment that governors are requesting, they don't actually need. You said New York might need, might not need 30,000. You said it on Sean Hannity's Fox News. You said that you might- Why don't you people act, let me ask you. You said some states-

Why don't you act in a little more positive? It's always trying to get you. My question to you is- Get you, get you. And you know what? That's why nobody trusts the media anymore. My question to you is how is that going to impact? Excuse me, you didn't hear me.

That's why you used to work for the times and now you work for somebody else. Look let me tell you something be nice. Mr. President my question is. Don't be threatening be nice. My question is how is that going to impact how you fill these orders for ventilators or for masks? Your views that they're not going to it's not going to impact you at all. We're producing tremendous numbers of ventilators. We're doing a great job on it. Mike Pence, our vice president, has headed up the task force, which has been incredible, the job they've done. We have everybody in the White House working on it. We have everybody in the House.

Thank you, Mr. President. I have two questions. The first is— All right, so that was that question uh and then of course uh today again uh today again uh same issue you have here uh with uh this uh truly truly arrogant individual uh jamesh ask another question calling her nasty again we'll play it per capita as many as many people as other countries like south korea why is that and when do you think that that. I'm not sure if you can see that. I'm not sure if you can see

that. I'm not sure if you can see that. I'm not sure if you can see that. I'm not sure if you can see that. I'm not sure if you can see

that. I'm not sure if you can see that. I'm not sure if you can see that. I'm not sure if you can see many people are in Seoul? Do you know how big the city of Seoul is? 38 million people. That's bigger than anything we have. 38 million people all tightly wound together. We have vast farmlands. We have vast areas where they don't have much of a problem. In some cases, they have no problem whatsoever. We have done more tests. What I didn't I didn't talk about per capita. We have done more tests by far than any country in the world by far. Our testing is also better than any country in the world. And when

you look at that, as simple as that looks, that's something that's a game changer. And every country wants that every country. So rather than asking a question like that, you should congratulate the people that have done this testing because we inherited, this administration inherited, a broken system, a system that was obsolete, a system that didn't work. It was okay for a tiny, small group of people, but once you got beyond that, it didn't work. We have built an incredible system to the fact where we have now done more tests than any other country in the world. And now the

technology is really booming. I just spoke to, well, I spoke to a lot. I'm not going to even mention. I spoke to a number of different testing companies today. And the job that they've done and the job that they're doing is incredible. But when Abbott comes out and does this so quickly, it's really unreal. In fact, one company, I have to say, that stands out in the job, and I think I can say this, I don't want to insult anybody else, but Roche. Roche has been incredible in the testing job they've done, and they're ramping it up exponentially. It's up, up, up, up.

And you should be saying congratulations instead of asking a really snarky question, because I know exactly what you mean by that. You should be saying congratulations. We're talking about a nasty, despicable, shameful, horrendous, narcissistic, smart-ass Avis. That's what we're talking about here, who cannot stand black women. He has attacked Yann Mish before. He has attacked April Ryan. He has attacked Abby Phillips.

It is consistent how he attacks African-American reporters, especially black women. Absolutely. And I would just add to your list of adjectives, racist, sexist, and idiotic. And he is a salesman. I'm adding that because that describes what he just did. He tried to redirect. He tries to deflect and redirect these questions. You know, it could be that he's just so obtuse he doesn't know what per capita means. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest that he does. And he is intentionally deflecting that question because it undercuts his assertion and his lie that we are leading the world in testing because we're not. We are lagging. And in terms of how he specifically spoke to her yesterday,

using the phrase, you people, and every Black person in America knows what that means, and then going from you people to saying that she was basically attacking him, it's also something that every Black person in America knows, especially Black women having to navigate this charge of being an angry Black woman when you're just being competent, when you're just doing your job, when you're just being intelligent.

When it comes from this vessel, a vessel of Black womanhood is often seen as an attack, especially by people who are weak and less intelligent than you are. And so what has happened with this situation that we're facing is we have in leadership someone who is woefully underprepared for this job, but at the same time, someone who is woefully over compensating himself in terms of his sense of self-aggrandation. And he cannot admit that he is incompetent

and therefore all that he does is try to deflect, dissuade, and lie his way out of every situation while specifically going out of his way to attack Black women, especially in very vile, vulgar, racist and sexist ways. Amisha,

what we're seeing here is this whole deal. Hey, tell us we did a great job. What he wants, he wants massive ass kissing. He thinks he's done the most great thing in the world. When he says we inherited a broken system, that's a lie. The fact of the matter is, his CDC

failed when it came to their test. When they wanted to have three different areas, when the WHO focused on two, and then when their test failed, they said, oh, drop the third one, go back to the other two. His system failed. His CDC failed. His FDA failed and was slow in responding. And what he wants to do is put lipstick on a pig and then to say, oh, it's gorgeous. No, it's not. He has massively failed the American people. Absolutely. And what we know about Donald Trump is that first and foremost, he's a narcissist. He is also all but sad and in many ways actually said it straight out,

that he's not even intent on helping people through this coronavirus who haven't been people who have been kind to him. Kind to him means that you've doled on him, that you've exalted him, that you've sat at the feet of the president and worshiped him. He is someone who cannot take hearing his own words

read back to him verbatim. It wasn't that Yamiche said anything that was out of line or out of order. She is literally asking questions that are derived from the exact things he just said, and he's taking offense. But she's not the only journalist who's come under that ire, as you pointed out earlier. He saves the special guys for journalists in general. But when it comes to African-American women, he has a certain level of hate and a certain level of angst and berating that he has done consistently over the course of not only his time in the White House, but also on the campaign trail before he ever got there.

He is extremely threatened by women in general, but he also has these racist tendencies that tend to come out very strongly and very evidently when he is speaking to Black women. This isn't anything new, but now it is on full display. And he did it just yesterday. He did it at a press conference today. I don't see it ending anytime too soon. And praise be to Yamiche for still being able to do her job and do it diligently, even through the midst of all of this crisis time, but also being completely disrespected as a professional and as a black woman. Preston, what we have to understand that people better be aware of,

he is trying his best to pimp this pandemic, pimp this for personal use, for gain when it comes to the ratings, trotting out all these companies. We know exactly what he's doing here. Gain better recognize game, and what he is trying to convince people that somehow he's leading when in fact he is not

leading. He is failing massively. And that's what he's done since we've known him, right? So this certainly isn't new to 2016 or 17. And this isn't new today. And I want to be clear, it isn't just him that's doing it. It's a lot of conservative lawmakers writ large that are using this moment to profit and not only profit, are using this moment to really capitalize on the lives and bodies of the black people. Take Ohio, Texas and Georgia, for example. Right. We see these orders that have come through amidst COVID-19 that now, you know, abortion suddenly isn't deemed as medically necessary or essential services, right? When obviously these are still part of the southern and midwestern states that have had this backlash of, you know, anti-abortion politicians who've attempted to rule over the lives and bodies of women and pregnant people. And so, you know, Trump certainly isn't alone, but racism usually has its friends,

and its friends are white supremacists, and Trump is not alone in that as well. So Trump is, as you noted, attempting to put lipstick on a pig, but we still know what a pig look and smells like. Bottom line, folks, we're going to call it out exactly how we see it. We know exactly what this is. All right, going to a break right now. You want to check out Roland Martin on Filter? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin.

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Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad.

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