#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 5.10.19 RMU: Farrakhan responds to FB ban; CA cop body slams Black woman; Gillum talks #votingrights

Episode Date: May 11, 2019

5.10.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Min. Louis Farrakhan responds to Facebook's ban; Calif. cop body slams Black woman during routine traffic stop; Delta Airlines to employees: Spend money on video games not labor union dues; Chaos on the Alabama Senate floor as Senators debate one the strictest abortion bans in the country; Andrew Gillum talks #votingrights and FL GOP's trampling of Amendment 4 Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In our American worker segment, Delta Airlines. What the hell is wrong with them? They put up a poster saying, don't pay your union dues and go buy a video game console? Really? Y'all really put that poster up? Chaos on the Alabama Senate floor as senators debate one of the strictest abortion bans in the country and in Georgia.

Hollywood is saying, oh, your new abortion bill? We ain't making no more damn movies in your state. We'll tell you who has made that announcement. Also, I talked with former Tallahassee mayor and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. We talked about voting. Also, Amendment 4 in Florida and what he is doing to drive

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Martin It was a week ago when Facebook announced the ban of a number of people who they say instigate hate on their platforms, banning them from Facebook and Instagram. One of those folks is Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan. After being silent for a week, he spoke last night at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago at the invitation of the church's pastor, Father Michael Flager. And this is what Minister Farrakhan had to say. And here we are today. some of us could not come out tonight because they did not wish

to be censured by those who presently have power to censure. But that power is gradually being taken from you. All right, folks, we have an issue with our video playback. That's what I'm going to do is we're going to do an end around, so I'll work on that in just one second.

But I do want to go to our panel right now to talk about that, but also we'll talk about one of the other co-founders of Facebook, Chris Hughes, who says that Facebook has gotten too big. He published an op-ed in the New York Times saying it is time to break up the conglomerate. Our guest, Eugene Craig, CEO of the Eugene Craig Organization, Teresa Lundy, founder of TML Communications, Joseph Williams, senior editor, U.S. News & World Report. Joseph, I'll start with you. Lots of drama.

First of all, Facebook is preparing for a major fine from the Federal Trade Commission. Some say it could be as high as five billion dollars. They've had privacy issues. They've been, of course, allowing third party companies to see users data. And so on this on this ban of different individuals who they say incite hate, which includes Alex Jones and others. They're now also having one of the founders saying they have gotten too big. And then you have people like Elizabeth Warren and others who are on the road saying, who are on the campaign trail saying that Facebook is too big. Do you believe that the Republicans and Democrats, both of them criticizing Facebook, were moving towards it actually happening?

I think we are because we have both sides doing that. And in response to a lot of what has happened, you not only had the sharing of information, the political shenanigans from 2016, you also had the data breach that happened, where not only did Facebook share its data with Cambridge Analytica and some other people, they also got hacked and users' information was spread far and wide. So I think it is time to break up big tech, but the question is what comes next and how do you do it? And the issue, Teresa, we're dealing with is even when you're talking about what has happened, how Facebook has been such a disruptor.

First and foremost, when you look at how they've obliterated the media industry, when you combine the digital dollars of advertising, literally 60% to 70% of all digital dollars going to Facebook as well as Google, which owns YouTube, other platforms. And when you look at just the massive amounts of data they have here, Facebook has not done itself many favors with how they've responded to lots of this drama. I think Facebook is responding the way new startup companies are responding, which means for me and many others, they're not really taking in context the amount of opportunity that it is with other medium outlets. So I don't think they followed the blueprint with Google, with YouTube,

because a lot of YouTube is obviously content creation. Same thing Facebook is, but it's also allowing users to now write their blog posts. So what does that mean? They're now taken away from WordPress, right, which WordPress, that website was essentially established to do blogging. And so what I think, you know, outside of having a young millennial CEO, is that when we encounter some of these situations that Facebook is having, their response time is, one, it's not working for the public at large.

It's very directed, and it feels like it's being attacked. And I think if they came out and actually started to support organizations a little more, they did recently with the Giving Tuesday. So Giving Tuesday nonprofits have the opportunity every Tuesday to upload, ask users to upload and support. But an issue with that is Facebook doesn't recognize a lot of smaller nonprofits. They recognize the larger ones. So, again, if I was on the Facebook strategy team, I would probably tell them that they need to invest in more community dialogues

and conversations and really start having those focus groups again to see what the people want and how the people can stand with them even further as it relates to controversy that they obviously is going to have. Hopefully, I think we have the video file ready right now. So here's Minister Perricon in Chicago. All right, so we don't have the video file. So Eugene, go right ahead, and I'm going to go ahead and try to play it from here. The thing is this.

What you see on Facebook is what happens when you have a company that experiences consecutive years of hypergrowth and prioritizes growth over everything. Do I think Facebook needs to be broken up? No. I'm not a proponent of government coming in and, you know, deciding how big a company should be. We want to have history here. Look, look, look. Teddy Roosevelt broke up major companies because they had gotten to the point they were such

large monopolies that it was the whole trust, you know, all the different trusts. We have the reason we have antitrust laws today. But when looking at particularly Facebook, I mean, you're seeing Facebook's a unique case where you had a company that experienced hyper growth, has been a disruptor, and now it's becoming the establishment. The issue, I mean, I think the bigger issue with Facebook is that, you know, they're seeking to, you know, on one end you have, you know, folk that are calling for a breakup. On the other end, you have them sitting down with Facebook's lobbyists to write the rules for the rest of the game. I don't think breaking it up Facebook is going to fix that particular problem, where Facebook

has now become essentially the establishment. You know, with the, you know. So that's like lobbying 101, though, right? It is lobbying 101. You know, once you become big enough, then you absolutely have the right to rule. I mean, to a degree, you can consider Facebook and Twitter and a lot of the big social platforms, banks buy a new name. Instead of coming with cash, the new currency is data, and they have it all.

Hold tight one second. I'm going to go ahead and play this video of Minister Farrakhan last night. Guys, go ahead. I don't have no army. I just know the truth. And I'm here to separate the good Jews from the satanic Jews. Yes, yes, yes! This is just the beginning banning me from a social platform I use that platform

with respect. I never allow those who follow me to become vile as those who speak evil of us. So I am dangerous. And here we are today. Some of us could not come out

tonight because they did not wish to be censured by those who presently have power to censure. But that power is gradually being taken from you. and I am so grateful to God that he made me an instrument to bring that in of your wicked system of injustice.

Jesus said, I give you this day two commandments. And if we focused on those two commandments, we can walk through what's happening with Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and the hatred that is shown toward me. you could dig into those two commandments, you can overcome the disease of envy that keeps us divided against each other. I have not said one word of hate. I do not hate Jewish people. I do not hate Jewish people. Not one that is with me has ever committed a crime against the Jewish people,

black people, white people, no matter what your color is. As long as you don't attack us, we don't bother you. All right, folks, that was the interview there. What is interesting here is Facebook still has not fully explained how they arrived at that decision to ban individuals. I think, look, yes, you can make that call, but it's still worthy of an explanation. So, you know what crosses the line. I mean, I'll say this. I think with a lot of the other. Or is this like porn in the Supreme Court?

You know what it is. Yeah, I think with a lot of the other... Or is this like porn in the Supreme Court? You know it when you see it. Yeah, I think in this particular case, I think that with most of the individuals on that list, like Alex Jones and others, it's kind of cut and dry. When it comes to Minister Farrakhan, what he's become is a lot of folks go to when they want equilibrium. You know, when Senator

Scott wrote his article on the climate of our country, you know, he used Minister Farrakhan for equilibrium. And I think that's what Facebook did here. I mean, has Minister Farrakhan said some anti-Semitic things? Absolutely. Some indefensible things? Absolutely.

But if there was a way to scale, if there was a way to scale, I think, you know, if I'm looking at a Jacob Worrell or an Alex Jones or some of these other far-right individuals who, you know, are just pure white supremacists and they're, you know, in their blood cut and dry, I don't know if I necessarily put them on the same levels as Minister Farrakhan, but I think this is Facebook looking for some level of equilibrium. You've got to think about this, put it in further perspective.

This time last year, Facebook was sitting down with folk on the right about, quote-unquote, conservative censorship. So it's not as if Facebook hasn't taken the opportunity or bended the knee to the conservative movement and their bemoans? See, I don't know. I mean, you're absolutely right that Farrakhan's a complex picture, but the lack of a clear and decisive standard, I think, is going to bite them in the end. I agree. I mean, I don't think that you can just kind of toss Minister Farrakhan on the pile

and call it a day. I mean, and at the end of the day, I mean, he's done he's a very complex figure and he has advocating for African Americans and not against white people per se. I mean, he's not commanding his people to go out and kill.

You know, and I think that part of what Facebook is facing here, I mean, not only in trying to bring some equilibrium here, but their lack of a clear standard. If he decided to sue, I mean, you know... I will say this. Even if he decided to sue, I don't think, you know... The First Amendment doesn't apply to private companies. No, but therein again,

we get the argument about how powerful... Right, and that's the piece. Right, how powerful it is. So it's reached the point that, yeah, you might be a private company, but you control so much of the discourse and so much of this communication landscape, that's why there are people who are saying that a Facebook or a Ute or a Google they are damn near getting getting close to being a utility yeah well then there's a lot of talk about that regulating as you know so I just

think that again from their vantage point the question is gonna be when do you reach a point where you're wet like so big but you which would you still might want to explain why. Why somebody actually got banned. And I think Minister Farrakhan actually mentioned that at, um, where was he at? State Sub-Bahn in Chicago.

He mentioned that there. He said, you know, I want everyone to take out their phones and go Facebook Live. And so he literally put Facebook to the test. You know, one to test his limits they, none of them got removed. But again, if you don't have those standards in place, if you don't have better practices in place in order for your company to go to the next level where you are actually telling people this is why we took you down, then you're going to have everyone, you know, from

celebrities, from influencers to, are going to be putting Facebook to have everyone, you know, from celebrities, from influencers, are going to be putting Facebook to the test, which ultimately, like you said before. It's already happening. I mean, you know, Facebook itself, you know, it's not on multiple platforms, but Facebook, the platform, is a dying platform right now. And, you know, Instagram is starting to slow down quite a bit to the point where... Where are you getting that back? Well, you can, Instagram is starting to slow down quite a bit to the point where. Where are you getting those back? Well, you can look them up.

Got it. To the point where now they're testing not even having likes and comments on content. And so they're looking for creative ways to stay alive. It's WhatsApp that's driving them. Yeah. But who owns WhatsApp? Facebook. There you go.

That's my point. That's my point. I'm just saying, y'all. Okay, folks. Let's go to this story here out of California. Let me know if y'all got the video, folks. Rio Vista Police Department. In Rio Vista, California, the police department launched an internal investigation after seeing cell phone video that shows an officer body slamming a woman to the ground.

Roll the video. And you shouldn't be touching him. Your man has my daughter, and you shouldn't be touching him. officer body slamming a woman to my daughter. What the? Are you serious? Are you serious? Are you serious? They just slammed she. He just slammed her. Mom, mom, mom, mom. Folks, this happened during a routine traffic stop. In addition to the cell phone video, police released body cam video. All right, so let's go with the body cam video. Back up, back up, back up, back up. Oh, no.

Back up. No, no back up. Back up. No, no. Get him off my daughter. Get him off my fucking daughter now. Get him off my daughter. No. Get him off my daughter. No, you're not. Don't.

All right, now, but see, this is one of the things that I keep saying, okay? I want you to roll that again, but here's the piece. You hear the cop say it, don't talk to me like that. I'm sorry. First of all, there's nothing that says a cop can't get cussed out, all right? There's nothing. Actually, it's a protective right that you can cuss a cop out. I mean, there's nothing that says a cop cannot get cussed out.

But to sit here, and so she's watching her daughter get body slammed, and his concern is, don't talk to me that way. Here's the body cam footage again. Back up, back up, back up, back up. Back up, back up. back up. Back up. No. Get him off my daughter. Get him off my fucking daughter now!

Get him off my daughter. Now! No you're not. Don't do it. Now clearly we showed you three different videos and so I guess there was another woman who was in the police car. Yeah. Because it appeared to be she was in the car. And so I guess there was another woman who was in the police car because it appeared to be where she's in the car and so I guess she was recording and there was a police computer there and you see one of the

guns there. And Teresa, this is the craziness where, okay, it's not like this woman is his size. You mean to tell me that even if you're saying,

okay, she's resisting, you don't have to body slam her in order to handcuff her? It's disgraceful. It is purely... Because we played it. You jumped. I was disgusted. Well, one, I felt like I was in it, you know?

Because it can happen to any of us at any time. She's getting pulled over for a traffic stop. I could be pulled over just across, jaywalking across the street, right? And the same situation could have happened. Gratefully, no guns were pulled. But that's a small favor. I mean, you know, but obviously there needs to be, I think, and I've always said this since the beginning, a departmental training where training and consequences where, you know, if situations like this happen, then it needs to be some sort of, I don't know, take away from their pension or something so they can get the understanding that this is not allowed. Well, I'm just saying that training is a key, right?

And we have seen this before. How many times? When I saw this, I was like, okay, stack this one with the other ones. I mean, just put it over here. But the problem, you put your finger on it, Teresa, is that training is not where it should be. I mean, any time a situation with a woman who is clearly half his size gets out of control, you are poorly trained, and you're not handling poorly trained and you're not handling this I don't think it's training I think there's there are people that are police officers should not be police officers and you have situation like this it should be I mean I'll fit this I'm at

the point where this needs to be a 2020 issue I mean it should be put on the table that what part of the first hundred days of the next Congress to come out of the new president is actual policing, federal policing reform, with federal mandates with DOJ dollars attached to them. I'm sorry. You do know who's in the White House. I know. I said after the next president.

With the next president. With the next president. But the next, I'm sorry, with the next Democratic president. Well, hopefully Kamala Harris. Because you ain't getting a damn thing from the Republicans. Go ahead. But the thing is this. The thing is this.

The one constant in all of these situations is police interaction that did not have to happen. There has to be a transformation in this country of what happens with police. There needs to be, there's a routine, there should be no sustained as a routine traffic stop. You know, I think, I think, I think the scope of what police should be able to stop before needs to be extremely narrowed down. No more, you know, I mean, it's something.

You have broken taillights, the blinkers turning into full-on body slams and deaths. But see, it goes back to training again because they are stopping these people for a very clear and specific reason. And they're stopping them because they look the way they think somebody who is suspicious looks, right? I think it's training and it's vetting because the reality is you're right. There are some thuggish cops who have no business being on the force and they get off on this and they know with a badge and a gun, they have license to do that. Final comment. Again and again and again, because you have small departments like this, where you have

a situation like this, internal investigation, maybe they do a serious job, maybe they don't, one way or the other, that uniformed officer can go someplace else and do the same thing. You gotta put a license to the police. Exactly. There needs to be a federal database of bad cops. But wait for that. Don't hold your breath for that, man.

The Department of Justice tomorrow could start a federal database of cops that have been convicted, cops that have been involved in violent situations. Not this one. Don't hold yourself to that one, man. But the next one. Not even the next one. I mean, the culture is too entrenched. You have to make it an issue.

But the problem is, we have politicians who want the endorsements of politicians. There you go. That's what you got going. Going to a break. We come back. American worker segment, what the hell is wrong with Delta Airlines? That's next on Roll Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, and 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. Hey, fam, I'm inviting you to come out swinging and join me for a day of golf at the University for Parents Golf Tournament on Saturday, June 22nd in Southwest Atlanta's Wolf Creek Golf Course. It's a golf tournament with Saturday, June 22nd in Southwest Atlanta's Wolf Creek Golf Courts. It's a golf tournament with a purpose, a fundraiser for the University

for Parents, a program designed to empower parent learners through education, inspiration, and support. Now when you empower the parents, you empower the children too. The location of the tournament is 3000 Union Road. The shotgun start time is 9 a.m. to register. Please go to www.u4parents.org. For more information, be sure to call 770-316-3487. I hope to see you there. All right, folks, let's talk about, again, some craziness by a company,

an airline for our American Worker segment. And, of course, forget Ask Me. They are the sponsor of this segment. So check this out. Delta Airlines sent out flyers encouraging their employees to spend their money on a gaming console instead of union dues. Yeah. Delta has a website called Don't Risk It. Don't Sign It. That advises employees against signing their union card.

Do we have the poster? This is the poster they actually made, yall they spent money on this poster union dues cost around 700 dollars a year uh and it says uh a new video game system with the latest hits sounds like fun put your money towards that instead of paying dues to the union. Delta should smack the hell out of the dumbass who literally thought of this, who used money to print it

and then post it. Or who hired the PR firm that did that work. Nah, that looks internal. Nah, that's internal. Nah, that's internal. That's somebody that's out of touch with the culture right there. There are a lot of things you can spend $700

other than an off-brand game. But, but, but, but, you're saying, hold on, wait a minute. So you want me to not pay my union dues, and your idea is a gaming console when the people who are in a union are trying to get pay increases or health care increases and you're saying yeah just play video

games it's ridiculous it's absurd man i mean and the fact that that that somebody did think it up and that it got green lighted i mean never mind who came up with it. Whoever green-lighted that thing just, I mean, and it's all of a part, right? I mean, corporations have been attacking unions for years. I mean, the American level of union membership has gone down from 30-some-odd in the 1970s to about 5% now and further declining. But what people don't really understand, what African-American union workers kind of get but needs to be more brought out to the fore, is this is how we made the middle class, right? This is how

my parents got into the middle because of a union. You know, my daughter's going to college because of a union. You know, and to be as insensitive and frivolous to put it on a poster that suggests you get a game, it's mind-boggling. This is war. This is war. It's war.

There are no rules in war. It's give me every advantage possible. And if I'm Delta and I look at my baggage handler and the folk on the ground and the average male, average age of 18 to 30 or whatnot, I can't put on a poster board,

oh, hey, go spend $700 at a strip club. What's the next best thing? Go spend $700 on your xbox playstation madden and 2k it's war it keeps the dollars out of the union it keeps folks from signing up for the union which then weakens the union hand when coming up and negotiating against delta let's see what also is interesting is like it's just bald right i mean before it was a little subtle now it's just like don't buy this war yeah It's not a cold war. It's a hot war. It's a hot war.

The culture has evolved to such a point that... But it's nuts. It's just nuts. It is nuts. Speaking of war, the continuing war by the right when it comes to abortion in this country. The Alabama Senate folks postponed a vote on what would be the country's most restrictive abortion ban. It removes an amendment that would allow exceptions in the case of rape or incest,

but also what it would do is it would literally cause for a woman to be in prison up to 99 years in prison for having an abortion. Now, chaos broke out on the Senate floor in Alabama when the rape and incest exemption was removed without a roll call vote. Senate Majority Leader Bobby Singleton shut the whole thing down.

The eventual goal is, of course, to challenge Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court. Y'all, this actually happened on the Alabama Senate. Watch this absolute abuse of power. Senator Chambliss, all those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Committee amendment is tabled. abuse of power. He made a motion to table. Senator Chambliss, you're recognized. I don't care what the chair is about. He did not make a motion.

In response to the number of abortions that have been performed this year versus the traits and incest. Mr. President, there are 325,000 abortions that have been performed this year. Now in Georgia, the governor has signed a heartbeat bill that also bans an abortion after six weeks. Many folks have been opposing that. A lot of women who support, who are pro-choice, saying that, well, first of all, that means that if you're a woman and you're two weeks late from your period and you discover you're pregnant, six weeks has passed. Three Hollywood production companies, they've announced, David Simon, of course, the creator of The Wire, and two others,

they've announced they will not be doing any movie productions in Georgia. Actress Elisa Milano was in Georgia protesting this bill before it was actually passed and signed into law, and many other Hollywood folks as well. Georgia makes a lot of money each year off of Hollywood productions.

The question is, will it have an impact? Go to our panel here. The Alabama governor has been very clear. He wants this law in Alabama passed. The right wants the Georgia bill passed because they want this case to go to the Supreme Court and for this Supreme Court to rule on Roe v. Wade. That's what this is all about. This is the holy grail. The two things that white conservative

evangelicals care most about are getting rid of Roe v. Wade and getting rid of same-sex marriage. That's been their focus. That's why they don't care what Donald Trump does. That's why they're packing justices on the Supreme Court. That's why they're packing the federal bench. Just today, for the fourth time in history and all this year, the Senate has moved federal judges where both home state

senators said no to it. And all four have happened this year. They don't care. They are in a hurry to put as many far-right federal judges in order to affirm these laws. Yeah, the thing is this, and then, you know,

I have some folk already questioning my conservative credentials, but the thing is this. I think day one of the next Congress for the new Democrat president, there needs to be an expansion of the Supreme Court day one. These cases aren't going to make it to the Supreme Court within the next two years. It's just the way the court's set up. Take maybe 80 cases a year or something like that.

These cases aren't going to be in the next batch. So which means they're going to get pushed into 2021. On day one, whoever's Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, whoever, day one, the first thing after the cabinet's approved and confirmed, the very next thing, you need to throw another five, six, seven justices up there. The Constitution does not limit our Supreme Court. You go from nine to 14? You go to nine to 14, nine to 16, nine to 20. I don't care.

But I think that when it comes to the interests of women, the interests of black people, the interests of the future majority of this country, you need a Supreme Court up there that's going to protect those interests. Teresa, again, this is all white conservative evangelicals care about. Yeah, it is. And

kudos to that elected official who actually spoke out. And I'm glad that, obviously, it was on camera. You know, because more of this needs to be shown to the forefront. First of all, before you continue, there are only four women who are in the Alabama Senate. They're all Democrats. So on the Republican side, there are only four women who are in the Alabama Senate. They're all Democrats.

So on the Republican side, there are no Republican women in the Alabama Senate. And so when these decisions are made, as such, there is no room for... There are white men making the decisions. Again, there's no court choice. It's crazy. There's no court choice. There's no decisions. There's no consideration.

Right, and they probably do benefit from abortion. I mean, you just had a doctor there on the stand saying, you know, I performed X amount of abortions. Then just change your profession, become a gynecologist. You know, I mean, but for him to kind of just be, you know, like that was kind of like their focal point as it relates to the other conversations when it passed. I think, you know, that this was a telling moment. And now it's like, OK, so now what other states going to do seeing this injustice happen? Joseph, money, money, money, money. If you're Georgia and all of a sudden you start losing billions of dollars because Hollywood pulls out. The question then becomes, will you see that pressure apply to other companies saying don't relocate your industries there? The question then becomes,

of the industries that are already there, will people be bold enough to say fine and start boycotting those products? You got a can of Coca-Cola sitting right there. I mean, look, this is really what you're going to, but again, this is the battle because since Roe v. Wade was decided, this has been the one thing that white conservative evangelicals. This is what they care about the most. And they have a guy in the White House who, frankly, supported abortion rights, who was pro choice. But now he doesn't give a damn he's giving them whatever they want that was then this is now right and and let's not forget the the confirmation hearings for justice neil gorsuch and justice

brett kavanaugh were very much centered tacitly and sometimes openly on abortion right this is what they're there for and it's all they're there for and and and two things that occurred to me when i was when i was seeing that tape the first was North Carolina, which took a really big hit over the bathroom bill, brought the state basically economic pain in a major way. Same thing in Indiana. When Pence tried to sign a bathroom bill, they passed it. Folks said, we're going to pull our business. They had to modify it. NCAA, exactly.

And North Carolina lost the Super Bowl and it lost a number, I think. NBA All-Star Game as well. Exactly. So there is some economic pain coming Georgia's way, right? That's the first thing I thought about. The second thing I thought about was Arkansas. You rolled the tape maybe three or four months ago about the senator who stood up against the Stand Your Ground bill. Just gave them hell.

Black woman just gave them hell, said, y'all don't know what you're talking about. Black men are going to die because of this. She stood up. She stood firm. And we have another example here. The question is, are they going to get the support they need? These black people kind of see what's going on. Are they going to get the support that they need? And in calling them out, is more pressure going to be applied to these lawmakers who try to do these things in the first place? All right. Well, folks, we'll see exactly what happens there. All right, folks. Earlier today. I sat down with a former Tallahassee mayor and gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Gillum.

We talked about the issue of voting. Also, again, Florida's Amendment 4 and his plan to register one million folks for 2020. We also talked about what Democrats should be doing to specifically those running for president to specifically target black men. Here is our conversation. All right, Andrew Gillum, lots of things happening in Florida. We'll talk about voting, but I want to first deal with this whole issue of Amendment 4. I kept telling everybody I told Desmond Meade, I told Sheena, I said, I do not trust Republicans in Florida. I do not believe that they are going to just easily allow those 1.4 million folks to get registered.

And there's no shock that we're seeing Republicans push forth this bill. And of course, Rhonda Sanders, the guy who you ran against, said he is going to sign it. They do not want to accept the will of the voters when it comes to extending voting rights to formerly incarcerated. Yeah, I always kept telling people when they were asking, well, how do you think the governor's doing? So I said, it's too early to tell. My grandmama used to say the proof is in the eating of the pudding, not in the pudding itself. So he's got to make his way through a legislative session. We don't know what kind of bills are going to end up on his desk, and we certainly don't know what they're going to do with them, right? So everything

from now arming teachers to ripping away money from the public education system to the shredding, in my opinion, of Amendment 4 by adding what is equivalent to what I believe is a poll tax by adding fines, fees, restitutions as a condition of being able to be able to get out there and register to have your rights again. Now, Roland, in the state of Florida, in order to make it onto the ballot, a constitutional amendment to make it onto the ballot, the language must be approved by the Florida Supreme Court. And they go meticulously through every line, every sentence, making sure the intent is extremely clear to the voter, making sure that there's only a single issue. Well, in this case, they went through that process and, Roland,

nowhere in the language was there a requirement for court fines and fees to be added as a condition in order to have your rights restored. So the Republicans, wanting to keep that 1.4 million people from being added to the rolls basically added what is equivalent to a poll tax. And if we are to believe the Brennan Center for Justice's report, which basically said that when those fees and fines are added as a condition for reentry into society, that only 3 percent of those former felons are actually going to be able to meet that barrier. So if those numbers are to be imposed on Florida's 1.4 million, you're talking about 97 percent of the people basically not being able to participate in the process.

And that's a nullification of Amendment 4. Amendment 4 got more votes than I got. It got more votes than the governor got. It got 65 percent support of the people of the state of Florida. And yet in broad daylight, they have undermined the will of the voters, adding a poll tech, which we got rid of in the 1800s. But it's no shock because if you look at Utah, if you look at Wyoming, you look at, I think, Montana, you look at Michigan, there are multiple states where there have been voter initiatives. Missouri, where the voters have passed initiatives and Republican state legislatures and governors have said, we don't care. We're we've seen this all over the country, you saw it after the Democrats won in Wisconsin and Michigan, the lame duck Republican legislatures then worked overtime to undermine people's access to the ballot box. This is only about power.

It's not about democracy. It's not about the Constitution. It's not about enforcing the will of the voters. This is about how do you concentrate as much power as you can, especially before the decennial census and the redistricting and the redrawing of lines so that you can maintain political power for as long as you possibly can, right? So that's what they're doing. Let's not make any bones or mistakes about it. And what we've got to be doing is being equally, frankly, vicious about our defense of the Constitution, which is why it is my hope. One, I'm holding out hope maybe Governor DeSantis and some of his friends may be able to prevail on him that this is not in the best interest of the state of Florida and maybe

even his own political interest. Recall, Roland, that maybe 60, upwards of 60 percent of these folks are white people. All of these folks that are getting their rights back are not necessarily going to be Democrats. We don't know that yet. We're in favor of it because it's the right thing to do. That's why Democrats are in favor of it. But what they're saying, because after January 8th and they saw that the surge of people registering were black men, black men coming out of supervisors of elections office saying, for the first time in my life, I feel seen. for the first time in my life, I feel seen. For the first time in my life, I feel heard. And it terrified them. And so for whatever gain they could possibly get from reenfranchising those people, they don't want to take the risk of also us adding new people to the role that can create an X factor and throw in jeopardy their majorities. Well, this is why I have been trying to make this argument to civil rights

groups and others that we have to expand this conversation when we talk about voting rights. I believe, and look, rightfully so, fully understanding Voting Rights Act 1965, understanding the impact where African Americans have stood on this whole issue of voting rights. But what we are seeing, we're seeing Republican state legislatures, Republican governors, Republicans in the House and the Senate, Republican presidents. What they're doing is they are even denying voting rights to white Americans. You talked about Wisconsin, where you had in 2016, a federal judge called in Governor Scott Walker's office and said, the voter ID was approved by the Obama Department of Justice. Why are you dragging your feet in the issuing of voter IDs? Then you have in these other states, when it comes to gerrymandering as well, there was a clerk in Wisconsin who said she purposely moved an early

voting location off of a college campus, largely white students, because too many of them were voting Democrat, moved it to an out of the way location with a small parking lot, hard to get to. What we're seeing is young white voters disenfranchised. We're seeing elderly voters disenfranchised. And so we've got to issue the clarion call to white folks. This ain't just about us. You are also getting screwed and you better be in this fight. In fact, the Ohio law that went to the Supreme Court that purged the list where a guy said he was taken off the list because he had not voted in a couple of cycles. That was a white man who filed that lawsuit. And so I think even with Amendment 4, we got to say to white folks,

hey, black folks have been fighting this thing. Y'all getting screwed too. Y'all got to get in this fight. Yeah, it's interesting you mention that, Roland. I testified earlier this week at a field hearing that Chairwoman Marsha Fudge held down in Broward County at the start of the week. And Congressman Alcee Hastings was there. And I mean, the man is the dean of the Florida legislature of the Florida delegation and knows well these tactics.

He said in front of that committee room, listen, black people for 200 years count add to it. Four hundred years have had to deal with these kinds of, you know, struggle after struggle, suppression, marginalization being discounted in the process, he said, we're going to persist. But this impacts also white voters, as you have already indicated. Do you know that it was Parkland, Florida, a pretty white area of the state of Florida, obviously where the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting took place, it was the 18 to 25-year-olds whose vote rejection rate was higher than any other area in the state. These were young white voters who had the suppressive tactics of the right come down on them. It is the Florida legislature. It was us citizens in the state of Florida who had to take this issue to the courts because they refused to

put polling places on college campuses, just refused to do it. So we had to win that battle in the courts. Your argument is completely correct. And that is, is that this is, while Black people are obviously over impacted because of our over-representation by share of the population in the criminal justice system, we're 11% of the population in Florida, yet we're 20 plus percent of those who are incarcerated. We know that we're disproportionately impacted, but the consequences of this kind of suppression impacts more than just us. And the broader we can build this coalition, which is why I give credit to Desmond and to Sheena and to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, because they did try to span outward

to bring more people into this process. That's how 65 percent of people in the state of Florida passed this amendment, because many of them have relatives, husbands, families that are impacted by the effects of Amendment 4. But what the legislature and the governor are telling us is that they don't want any X factors in this process, that they're willing to do whatever they can to suppress whoever they need to suppress in order to maintain their majorities, their narrow majorities. Let's talk about the initiative that you are launching in Florida. It's somewhat similar to what Stacey Abrams did in Georgia. So explain to folks exactly what this is and the impact you want to have, not just on the 2020 presidential race, but what people need to understand, those state representatives, state Senate races, those school district races. Republicans have a

super majority in Florida, largely because of gerrymandering. And so talk about that initiative. Yeah. So to your last point, I want to pick up on this. The majorities that Republicans hold in the House and in the Senate and the Florida legislature don't make sense when you consider what happened in the last gubernatorial and U.S. Senate race. Bill Nelson lost his seat by 10,000 votes out of 8.3 million votes cast. My race for governor came down to 33,000 votes out of 8.3 million votes cast. Now, how is it that you can have margins that are within 0.4 percent difference and below, yet the Republican legislature have 70 of the House members of 120 legislature are Republicans? It just doesn't make sense. That is a function

of the kind of work that Attorney General Holder is leading right now around this redistricting effort. These are elected officials choosing their voters rather than the voters choosing their elected officials. And so coming off of my race, where, again, 33,000 vote difference with 85,000 votes that didn't get counted, ballots rejected over the state of Florida because of signature mismatch, where the W in your signature didn't match the W in your signature from a year ago. And an untrained person looks at your signature and decides that they're going to invalidate your constitutional right based off of that, right? Federal judges were very clear in the recount process that Florida needed to change that law and that it needed to

get a cure process in place that was universal across the state of Florida. So they've already got the law on their side, right? Now what we've got to do in Florida is we've got to get back to our basics. We've got to get back into our communities, back into our neighborhoods, talking to our voters further out than six weeks before an election so that they know that we're there with them in election cycles and outside of election cycles. And so what we've committed to is registering one million voters in the state of Florida. Now, without the 1.4 million former felons returning citizens, we got four million eligible unregistered voters in the state of Florida. Four million eligible unregistered in the state of Florida. Right. And so you add to that the returning citizens. We got a lot of runway for getting our numbers up. When Barack Obama was on the ballot in Florida in 2008,

Democrats had a registration advantage over Republicans of over 700,000 more registered Ds than ours. When I was on the ballot 10 years later, that registration advantage has shrunk to around 250,000 Democratic registration advantage. And at the same time, white, 65 and older white voters migrating into the state shifted who votes and the type of vote a voter that's showing up in our election, a more conservative voter, more Midwestern voters. So when Obama was on the ballot in 2008, 65 and older white voters represented 21 percent of the total vote share.

And my election, white voters, 65 and older, represented 35 percent of the vote share. So we've had a precipitous decline in our registration and at the same time an increase in older, white, more conservative voters showing up in the process. And in spite of all of that and all of the built-in structural electoral disadvantages that we had, we still got closer than we did in 24 years in the race for governor. So the best thing that I could do in this case, Roland, was to put my energy effort apparatus, the 77,000 volunteers that worked on behalf of my campaign, the $55 million that was spent trying to make me a household name across the state of Florida, and the 33,000 vote difference that was had, and the 4 million people who went out and voted for us, to get them energized around this effort around registering and engaging more voters and more of our voters.

But registering is one thing, turnout is another. And so I think I cite this all the time. The Tallahassee Democrat had a story that showed how Ron DeSantis won over you. And the reality is, and they broke it down by county, you talk about those older white voters. The reality is older voters, whether they are white, whether they are black or Latino, they vote more than anybody else. are going to vote it's trying to get those folks who are 18 to 49 to understand the power of voting and when you look at that particular chart i would dare say and i was trying to pull it up while you were talking

the first 12 counties read 70 plus percent 69 68 when you got down to Miami-Dade and Broward, 57. And I have said numerous times, had Miami-Dade and Broward turned out at 70%, you're the governor. It's all over, but you're right. So listen, we know that everybody who's registered to vote doesn't necessarily vote, but it certainly helps to have more marbles on the table so that if a few roll off, it doesn't cost you the whole election. And so my only point was, and by the

way, I want to give credit to many of the groups that were out there doing this work. We were expected to have 6.1 million people vote in this gubernatorial election if they kept track of what the previous trends of every four-year gubernatorial cycles were like. Well, in this race, we came close to presidential levels. We came close to the same numbers Obama turned out in 2008. We had 8.3 million people vote, and I think he may have had 8.6 million people. So we reached presidential-level turnout in the midterm election, a gubernatorial race. More than 2 million more voters than were expected. Young voters doubled their numbers. Black voters, for the first time in the history of this state, voted their share of the population. The problem is, let's get really granular about this.

Right, right. In precincts where I won, 65 percent of the vote or more, compared to precincts where DeSantis won 65 percent of the vote or more. His precincts where DeSantis won 65% of the vote or more. His precincts turned out 10 points higher than my precincts. So even in communities where we have a propensity for voting and the numbers exist there, we still didn't maximize the turnout. We didn't have to close a 10 point gap in those areas. We needed a two point gap closing in those areas. And that's why I think we're talking about being as granular. Earlier you talked about precinct by

precinct. I think what happens is a lot of people get consumed by, oh, young voter turnout was this or black voter turnout was this. It's like, no, no. It's not the percentage. It's the numbers. It's the people who were voting.

How many are you turning out and you have to go precinct by precinct you have to say okay in this precinct there are 700 registered voters how many of the 700 voted if that's one of your areas doesn't matter if you got 65, 35, 70, 30, 80, 20 in that precinct. If they had 700 registered voters and only 300 voted, it doesn't matter if you got 70 of the 300. What you needed was 70 of 500 or 550. That's right. And Roland, so we're now at the level that we're talking with regard to the effort that we're undertaking. The reason I say register, engage, and win as the motto for this effort is because I recognize that registration is just the beginning of the conversation. Right. Not the end of the conversation.

The more important thing is, is that usually we're not having this conversation, you know, a year and a half out from the election. Right. We're in the race to do this in the final month. These people ain't heard from us. They haven't seen us in that period of time. And so what I'm trying to convince national donors and donors in my state is we're going to spend a billion dollars trying to beat, you know, Trump. This election cycle, we're going to spend that much money. Wouldn't it be smarter to spend early to do the difficult work of democracy in a time frame that we bring into our database, we're going to track those folks. We're going to geo-target them. When they open up their social media, they're going to

see ads from us that are harder-hitting ads. It's why my focus has been on raising 501c4 dollars and not just c3 dollars, because time is out for going into the Latin community and talking about it's your civic right and obligation to register to vote. When Trump is out there telling them we're going to put troops on Maduro and that we're going to bring down the regime and speaking very, very plainly and politically to them about why it is it is in their interest to vote for him,

we've got to be able to raise the kind of money that allows us to speak politically, hardcore. So while Donald Trump is out there sable rattling for Venezuelans, he has yet to extend TPS to Venezuelans who are fleeing the Maduro regime coming into Florida. So if he means to protect you, then let's hold him accountable for doing that. But who's going to tell that story? Who's going to communicate with the voters after we register them to let them know that this guy is not for you? He's for making you a prop in his rally, but he's not doing, he's not complementing that with the public policy that makes you whole, that sees you, that will represent and respect you when they hold office. So the totality of this work is registration, engagement, and then we turn them out to win,

not just for 2020, but beyond 2020. I want to run this by you. There was a nine point gap between black women and black men who voted for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But there was a nine point gap between black men and black women who voted for Obama and Mitt Romney. What I've said to the Democrats, look, they need black votes. My mind is they need black votes, just like Republicans need white conservative evangelical votes. And so I'm saying that because folks will always say, oh, black folks, why y'all just give your vote away? Well, guess what? Why conservative evangelicals don't act like they're voting their interests. Black people are voting their interest as well. That's right. But I've said this to several presidential candidates.

You should be holding black male specific town halls. I said you should be having discussions because here's the deal with two black men talking. I totally understand all the conversation about black girl magic and the impact of black women. But when Doug Jones ran in Alabama, he got a lot of black men who voted. And it wasn't just black women who voted. And we talk about the same thing. Mike Espy, when he ran in Mississippi, black men voting as well.

And so I do not disagree with the targeting of black women. But what I will say to a candidate, they should be saying, what is it about black men that we're not getting and why there is a gap? Your thoughts on that? Listen, Roland, you won't get an argument from me on that. All due respect to the tremendous electoral power of black women. Black men also have a tremendous electoral power when you organize and you engage us and you

talk to us about the issues that matter most to us. Talk to us about the wage gap that exists for us. Talk to us about what it means to get access to small business loans that allows us to turn our dreams of owning a business into a reality. Talk to us about the over-prosecution rates in our community and the way in which so many of us are targeted. We do have to begin to engage this thing. And that's why I have never bought. And if I had advice to any of them running for president who are avoiding having a conversation around what your black agenda looks like, I would ask them to revisit that and to do it in a hurry. This idea that the rising tide lifts all boats, when we know that if that

were true, the kind of disproportionate inequality that we see in the system wouldn't exist if the rising tide truly lift all boats. Some of those boats are tethered to the ground. And many of those boats that are tethered to the ground are holding Black men and Black women in them. And so how is it that we're going to structure a system that sees them and that reflects the needs of those communities? And if we I just saw they did in Texas, your home on your stomping ground, the women of color. Yeah. Presence reform forum that they did. I completely agree with you. We ought to put our energy, and you ought to be the moderator for it, by the way, into holding the same kind of forum that addresses more directly and distinctly the issues that confront the issues of the black male experience in America. And I think we can begin to close that gap. Again, the other side didn't have to win our

votes. That's why in my friend's timelines, I saw the super predator comments. I saw the comment of Bill Clinton made referring to Obama's campaign in South Carolina and the idea of it as a fantasy. Those things were the crime deal. All of that was replay on rotation. And a lot of brothers who I know and I went to school with were reposting. I was like, man, where's this coming from? So when we talk about Russian bots and their infiltration here, they had a very distinct plan. They didn't necessarily convince those voters to vote Republican necessarily, but there was a suppression effort. If we can keep those votes down, keep those from going toward the Democrat side, we don't got to win them. But the truth is we got to lose them less.

And that means keeping some of us out of the arena. If we do that, I think it could could play a very, very tremendous role in helping to motivate more men of color to participate. Well, I'll tell you what, Andrew, when it comes to the issue of voting and mobilization, it is about fighting is understanding public policy. And what I keep telling people, I've never self-identified as a Democrat or Republican. I look at issues. And the reality is when you look at the issues that are being driven by Donald Trump, driven by Republican state legislatures, it has a negative impact on African-Americans. And I see the Republicans. That's why you're not people to get them to understand how all these things are interrelated and how it impacts their life. As opposed to as opposed to them saying, oh, I don't really this really doesn't matter to me when, in fact, every single decision impacts them in a unique way. Totally, totally agree. And Roland, one of the reasons why we're trying to really ground this effort at the local level is because as much as we want to motivate people around the presidential politics, for some of the people we have to move, we got to move them on the fact that they're dealing with police brutality in their neighborhood, on their street, that they're dealing with a mayor that they disagree with who doesn't necessarily reflect them. They're dealing with a school board. They're dealing with a county commission. And so our ability to help relate voting to how it changes and impacts on people's

everyday lives is critically important. I carry Sanford, and we flipped a lot of that area, largely because there was a black woman for the first time running for mayor in Sanford, Florida, in an area that got woke up after Trayvon Martin. And the combination of me at the top of the ticket for governor and a woman running for mayor in that area helped to really transform and created the kind of energy that was necessary. So the local piece of it, we got to ground this at a level that people can see their very lives reflected in the issues that are being decided. They already know Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified for his job. But the truth is, is they felt like they were doing

bad before him. They're doing bad through him. And they don't necessarily believe that they're going to do better, whichever way it goes, Democrat or Republican on the other side. So we've got to now convince them that that is not true and that we got the policies to answer those questions for them. All right. Andrew Gillum, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you, brother. Wishing you well, man. Keep the voice loud. Will do. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house.

And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like, uh, less than their best. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there,

no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens before you leave the car. Always stop. Look, lock brought to you by NHTSA and the ad council.

I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Brought to you by NHTSA 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 Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.

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