#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 5.12 Fauci: Too soon to reopen; Biden calls Trump virus response ridiculous; New DA in Arbery case

Episode Date: May 13, 2020

5.12.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Dr. Fauci tells Senate: Reopening too soon will cause needless suffering and death; Biden calls Trump virus response ridiculous, says pandemic is the cause of economic insecurity and that problem can't be solved until we deal with COVID-19; New DA in Arbery case only has 10 months experience; National Funeral Director and Morticians Association prez addresses the challenges faced by final responders; What tools are educators using to stay connected to their students amid lockdown; Meet the founder of a boutique for breast cancer survivors. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Martin! We'll be right back. Today is Wednesday, May 12, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate today and makes it real clear a reopening too soon will cause needless suffering and death. He even calls out, or actually jacks up, Senator Rand Paul will show you excerpts from his testimony

and talk with an infectious disease expert about it. The coronavirus pandemic is the cause of economic insecurity and that problem can't be solved until we deal with the first problem, that from Vice President Joe Biden. We'll break that down with our panel. The DA appointed to prosecute the murder suspects in the Ahmaud Arbery case is a black woman

with 10 months experience. Mm. We'll give you more details. Plus, we'll be joined by the president, the National Funeral Director and Morticians Association about the challenges faced by final responders. Plus, what tools are schools using to stay connected to their students during the lockdown?

You'll meet two school leaders who are thinking out of the box regarding that. And in this week's business segment, you'll meet a young woman who are thinking out of the box regarding that. And in this week's business segment, you'll meet a young woman who founded a boutique for breast cancer survivors. And of course, another crazy-ass white woman, this time in Sacramento, California. It's time to bring the funk.

Roll the mic, unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it Whatever the mess, he's on it Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling, best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks

He's rolling, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah We'll be right back. Folks, as of today, 1,404,386 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States. 276,000 people have recovered, but the death toll, folks, is now at 82,485. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who the Trump White House refused to let him testify before the House, went before the Senate today. He is self-quarantining because he came in contact with a couple of White House staffers

who tested positive for coronavirus. And he made it perfectly clear, warning that states and cities face dire consequences if they open too quickly. Dr. Fauci, you have warned of needless suffering and death if we push to reopen too soon. But the president has actually been sending the opposite message. I want to ask you today, what is the most important message you have for communities and states that are reopening? Even as our public health experts make it clear it's too soon? Tell us what the consequences are. Thank you very much for that question, Senator Murray. As I've said many times publicly,

what we have worked out is a guideline framework of how to safely open America again. And there are several checkpoints in that, with a gateway first of showing, depending on the dynamics of an outbreak in a particular region, state, city, or area, that would really determine the speed and the pace with which one does reenter or reopen. So my word has been, and I've been very consistent in this, that I get concerned if you have a situation where the dynamics of an outbreak in an area are such that you are not seeing that gradual over-14-day decrease that would allow you to go to Phase 1,

and then if you pass the checkpoints of Phase 1, go to Phase 2, and then if you pass the checkpoints of phase one, go to phase two and phase three. What I've expressed then and again is my concern that if some areas, cities, states, or what have you, jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely open up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks. So therefore, I have been being very clear in my message to try to the best extent possible to go by the guidelines, which have been very well thought out and very well delineated.

So if a community or a state or a region doesn't go by those guidelines and reopen, the consequences could be pretty dire, correct? The consequences could be really serious, particularly, and this is something that I think we also should pay attention to, that states, even if they're doing it at an appropriate pace, which many of them are and will, namely a pace that's commensurate with the dynamics of the outbreak, that they have in place already the capability that when there will be cases, there is no doubt, even under the best of circumstances, when you pull back on mitigation, you will see some cases appear. It's the ability and the capability

of responding to those cases with good identification, isolation, and contact tracing will determine whether you can continue to go forward as you try to reopen America. Now, for some reason, Republicans are just completely insistent about opening our schools, putting our children in danger. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky got into this exchange with Dr. Fauci, pretty much saying, why are we listening to you?

Watch this. Important because in all likelihood is a good way of putting it, the vast majority of these people have immunity. Instead of saying there is no evidence, you know, the WHO kind of fed into this by saying no evidence of immunity. And in reality, there's every evidence stacking up. In fact, a lot of the different studies have shown that it is very unlikely that you get it again in the short term. With regard to going back to school, one thing that was left out of that discussion is mortality. I mean, shouldn't we at least be discussing what the mortality of children

is? This is for Dr. Fauci as well. You know, the mortality between zero and 18 in the New York data approaches zero. It's not going to be absolutely zero, but it almost approaches zero. Between 18 and 45, the mortality in New York was 10 out of 100,000. So really, we do need to be thinking about that. We need to observe with an open mind what went on in Sweden, where the kids kept going to school. The mortality per capita in Sweden is actually less than France, less than Italy, less than Spain, less than Belgium, less than the Netherlands, about the same as Switzerland. But basically, I don't think there's anybody arguing that what happened in Sweden is an unacceptable

result. I think people are intrigued by it, and we should be. I don't think any of us are certain when we do all these modelings. There have been more people wrong with modeling than right. We're opening up a lot of economies around the U.S., and I hope that people who are predicting doom and gloom and saying, oh, we can't do this, there's going to be a surge, will admit that they were wrong if there isn't a surge, because I think that's what's going to happen. In rural states, we never really reached any sort of pandemic levels in Kentucky and other states. We have less deaths in Kentucky than we have in an average flu season.

It's not to say this isn't deadly, but really outside of New England, we've had a relatively benign course for this virus nationwide. And I think the one size fits all that we're going to have a national strategy and nobody's going to go to school is kind of ridiculous. We really ought to be doing it

school district by school district. And the power needs to be dispersed because people make wrong predictions. And really the history of this, when we we look back will be of wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction starting with Ferguson in England so I think we ought to have a little bit of humility in our belief that we know what's best for the economy and as much as I respect you Dr. Fauci I don't think you're the end-all I don't think you're the one person that gets to make a

decision we can listen to your advice but there are people on the other side saying there's not going to be a surge and that we can safely open the economy. And the facts will bear this out. But if we keep kids out of school for another year, what's going to happen is the poor and underprivileged kids who don't have a parent that's able to teach them at home are not going to learn for a full year. And I think we ought to look at the Swedish model and we ought to look at letting our kids get back to school. I think it's a huge mistake if we don't open the schools in the fall. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, can I respond to that even though there are only 32 seconds left? Yes, and you might make it clear whether

or not you suggested that we shouldn't go back to school in the fall. Well, first of all, Senator Paul, thank you for your comments. I have never made myself out to be the end all and only voice in this. I'm a scientist, a physician and a public health official. I give advice according to the best scientific evidence. There are a number of other people who come into that and give advice that are more related to the things that you spoke about, about the need to get the country back open again and economically. I don't give advice about economic things. I don't give advice

about anything other than public health. So I wanted to respond to that. The second thing is that you use the word we should be humble about what we don't know. And I think that falls under the fact that we don't know everything about this virus. And we really better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children, because the more and more we learn, we're seeing things about what this virus can do that we didn't see from the studies in China or in Europe. For example, right now, children presenting with COVID-19 who actually have a very strange inflammatory syndrome, very similar to Kawasaki's syndrome. I think we better be careful if we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects. So again, you're right in the numbers that children in general do much, much better than adults and the elderly, and particularly those with underlying conditions.

But I am very careful and hopefully humble in knowing that I don't know everything about this disease, and that's why I'm very reserved in making broad predictions. Thank you. All right, folks. Look, this is what happens when you have people, frankly, who are just utterly clueless like Senator Rand Paul. Joining us right now is infectious disease specialist Dr. Alexia Gaffney.

Glad to have you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Great to be here. You have these people who are just insistent. Send the kids back. And again, as Dr. Fauci said, we don't know enough. I mean, what I don't understand is how difficult is it for these people to understand that we literally have not tested enough Americans to have a real understanding of what's going on with this disease? And these folks, they have no problem risking thousands upon thousands dying just to rush out and reopen. Yeah, it's. But I don't know why we surprise. Right. We live in a society that has valued money over lives for the longest time.

And, you know, we are looking at it. You and I as black people. That is it because it's us dying that nobody cares and that they're willing to throw us all out there and see what happens you know um but it's now is not the time there are too many people who are walking around with this infection either not experiencing symptoms so completely unaware that they have the infection or people who are experiencing symptoms, but like so many people out there, and as our government is proving, just don't care enough about society as a whole to do what we need to do and just hunker down, stay still and see what happens over the next couple of weeks or months, whatever it might be. So, so what is still amazing is that part of the testimony is that they

say that, oh, by September, we'll be able to attest 40 to 50 million Americans every single month. Okay. Here's the problem with that. They told us in March, we're going to be doing 4 million a week. Okay. You do the math. That's 16 million a month. We're not even be doing $4 million a week. Okay, you do the math, that's $16 million a month. We're not even doing $16 million a month right now. No, we're not anywhere near that. And the rollout of testing has been ineffective. There's not been enough tests immediately when we were at the peak of the situation.

And then everybody does not have access to testing. And then now on top of it, I think people are going to be fearful of getting tested because they're concerned about contact tracing and what is going to be the result or outcome of that. Is that going to lead to policing of certain people or certain enforcements? And we already know how that goes in our society.

Some of us are simply policed differently. And some of us, the rules don't apply to some people. So there's going to be fear and concern about testing from us, from Black people, from brown people, from minorities, from people who are fearful that they will be discriminated against once it is known that they carry this virus. So there's just too many missteps. There's too much lack of information and there's not enough planning and consistency. And so many promises have been broken. How can we have faith in this system if it's not delivered on the promises it's already made?

And now the system is throwing us to the wolves. So listen, from what you heard today with this testimony, what really is our road forward? Or what should it be? So our road forward should be to just continue to have the country on pause. We are not ready to reopen. The numbers are not low enough and we have not yet flattened the curve for all of us to simply reopen our states and go back to business as usual. Even when the numbers are low and it is time to reopen, the reopening really needs to be very strategic. We can't all come out at once. It really needs to be what is the most necessary essential services above and

beyond those that are already open and available to us. And it needs to be a staggered rollout. You can't build an office building or a business with people and have people sitting next to one another in desks or cubicles or folks riding in elevators together. There's so many levels and layers to what needs to happen when the country reopens. And even if we do everything under the most ideal circumstances, if we follow the CDC guidelines and recommendations to a T, we are still going to see a spike in cases because the virus has not left. But we would see less cases and less fallout and less overwhelm of our health care system if we do it strategically. So we really just need to slow down and we really

need to recognize that dollars in the economy is never more important than human lives. And that's not what's being, that's what's not being understood in my opinion. All right then, Dr. Alexia Gaffney. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me on. All right, let's go to our panel. Malik Abdul, Republican Strategist, Kelly Bethea, Communication Strategist, and Amisha Cross, Political Analyst, Democratic Strategist. Amisha, okay, we have issues with Amisha's line, so we'll pull her up.

Kelly, I'll start with you. I don't understand what is going to get these people to realize what's going on here. Again, if I'm having a conversation about health, I'm going to listen to doctors and not what people like Rand Paul are saying. I'm going to listen to scientists. I'm going to listen to... If I'm dealing with.

Coronavirus numbers, 82,000 dead. OK, what I'm not going to do is, well, you know, you're not the be all to end all. Of course, he's not. First of all, the Senate isn't even the be all to end all governors and county executives and mayors make those decisions. But this callous way by which many Republicans are operating as if, yeah, we should just accept the fact that we're going to lose 2,000 to 3,000 people a day. We're good. for lack of a better word at the moment, exactly how inept and ignorant these congressmen are acting at the moment. But I can't help but notice that, especially on the Republican side, we didn't see this uptick in rebellion, so to speak, until the numbers came out in terms of racial demographics as to exactly who was dying and exactly where these people are dying and affected and infected by COVID-19. So I can't help but see and feel the racial xenophobic undertones in their rationale behind wanting to get back to work because it is typical and almost expected at this point for white, supremacist, racially biased people as a whole

to only be concerned about themselves. There's an extreme undercurrent of narcissism with this particular group of people such that if it does not affect them, they literally do not care about anything else. And then what's worse, when you add on top the Americanism that is consumerism and capitalism and just getting money, it's sad, but it almost makes sense to me at this point that they don't care. I was looking at the numbers for Kentucky, and while compared to, say, Maryland or New York, they're relatively low, they are still dying at a rate that is way higher than normal. It's not normal that 311 people are dead by a disease within two months.

That's crazy. frankly, does not care about these numbers to the point of actually taking Dr. Fauci's advice and taking it to heart, legislating in that same vein to save lives. However, some issues with Kelly's connection. Malik, I'm going to go to you, your response again, as you look at what you're hearing. And again, I just think that Senator Paul was a little too flippant with Dr. Fauci. And the Fauci's like, look, I'm just trying to tell you I'm an expert at this. This is what I do. Yeah, I think that I think he was a little hot. It's not surprising to me considering most, well, many of these televised hearings are pretty much, you know, they're for theater. And I think that people on both sides

end up getting into the theater aspect of that. There were legitimate concerns that Senator Paul had about opening the schools. Sure. And I think he probably, well, not probably. The idea that anyone is saying that schools are going to be closed forever, I'm not sure if anyone is saying that at all. At least I haven't heard anyone say that. But there are real concerns that people have about schools, whatever the mortality rate for children, obviously. And as Dr. Fauci said, we should really be concerned about that because there are things that we're finding out about it. And the virus continues to evolve. The information continues to evolve. But I'm not just, I'm not really surprised that Rand Paul took that position. Fortunately, I do know in listening to the hearing

today that Fauci did say that as far as President Trump is concerned, that he's definitely listened to their advice and heeded to, and actually not just listened to their advice, but taken their advice on particular things. But the theater of a Senate hearing, yeah, I mean, this is, this, yeah, I don't know what to say about that. Amisha, at the end of the day, I think what you're seeing, you're seeing these idiots out here protesting, opening the gyms up by doing push-ups outside and all this sort of silly stuff along those lines. This is about life and death.

And the thing for me is that this coronavirus, unlike these other things, unlike what we all dealt before, you're talking about... I mean, I think back to the bus driver in Detroit. A woman coughs on his bus. He is dead two weeks later. That's how quickly this thing moves.

This is nothing to play with. Absolutely, and the gall that it takes for Senator Rand Paul to actually go up there and say something like that, not only in challenging Dr. Fauci's advice, but also not recognizing the newly released information about how this is affecting children. Yes, maybe the death toll for them isn't the same as it is for the elderly, but I can't think of a single parent in America who is willing to risk their child having kidney failure, having heart conditions,

having lung issues. All of those things have now been traced back to COVID-19 in children. So yes, they may live. However, it's not that they're not going to have developmental issues related to these organs that they need to survive. In addition to that, we know that classrooms and the way they're built is not meant for social distancing. And these aren't things that you can just flip a switch and say, let's get school started back in August, and all of those things all of a sudden eradicate themselves. Schools are very difficult to manage in and of themselves regularly, and we know that. We know that the majority of classrooms in the public school system across America are overcrowded. Do we even have enough teachers for the capacity of reducing a classroom

size to maybe 12 students, to them not being able to eat in the cafeterias anymore, to them no longer being able to participate in any of the social activities or group activities at school. This would fundamentally change the way we think about education in this country. And I think that Senator Paul, he was trying to score some chief political points. But again, no one is willing to risk their children across this country. And I think that it's very disappointing to watch a senator sit there and deny and basically, you know, stand beside the profiteering aspect of all things globalism, of all things our economy, and completely ignore the fact that, you know what, even if children are not dying, guess who is? Their teachers, their paraprofessionals, the cafeteria workers,

the bus drivers, the other people who make sure that your schools are going to be up and running. And I think that it's just disappointing to have someone take these cheap Republican political shots in, you know, in the face of actual medical guidance. Folks, Vice President Joe Biden certainly has a message for Donald Trump. You can't fix the economy without fixing the public health crisis.

Early January, Donald Trump is first warned of the virus. He ignores it. We have it totally under control. It's going to be just fine. Defends the Chinese government instead. January 30th, Trump's own cabinet secretary warns of a pandemic, raising concerns that the Chinese government isn't being transparent. Trump calls

him an alarmist. We think we have it very well under control. We're working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it's going to have a very good ending for us. The next day, the Dow plummets 600 points. Desperate to protect the stock market from sliding further, Trump continues to deny the threat and praise the Chinese government. We're doing great in our country, China. I spoke with President Xi, and they're working very, very hard, and I think it's gonna all work out fine.

Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. But global cases more than double, spreading to over 24 countries. February 25th, one of the CDC's top experts, Nancy Messonnier, speaks out, warning it could soon become a full-scale pandemic. Disruption to everyday life may be severe,

and I told my children that while I didn't think that they were at risk right now, we as a family need to be preparing for significant disruption of our lives. Mr. Trump was, quote, furious as he watched the stock market crash after her comments. Trump didn't want to upset the markets. So for the last five days of February, the Trump administration took to the airwaves to deny the truth.

We have contained this, I won't say airtight, but pretty close to airtight. Thanks to the president and this team's aggressive containment efforts, this disease, as Dr. Shook had said, is contained. February 27th, the market sees through the denials. The Dow continues to plunge, but Trump keeps up the false message. It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away. I think we're going to get through it very well. April turns into May. The virus doesn't disappear.

There is no miracle. The cases mount. The death toll grows. More than 33 million Americans lose their jobs to the pandemic. Unemployment reaches Great Depression-era levels. Donald Trump doesn't understand. We have an economic crisis because we have a public health crisis. And we have a public health crisis

because he refused to act. Donald Trump didn't build a great economy. His failure to lead destroyed one. Wow, Amisha. Bottom line is this here. You look at Trump's poll numbers, that ad directly correlates with what we're seeing in those numbers.

This White House cannot act as if everything is all rosy. And so he better pay attention, which is why Jared Kushner's trying to bring in his own person. He's thinking about bringing Corey Lewandowski back. They realize there is a problem and you can't look at anybody else but the mirror. Absolutely. That ad was pure hot fire. It's going to be very difficult for President Trump to be able to win back the states that he consistently said over and over again he was responsible for building their economies. Those same states are the ones that have lost the most jobs during this COVID-19 pandemic. And no, people don't blame President Trump for the pandemic. They do blame him for his response. They blame him for not being ready. They blame him for ignoring all of the advice from not only medical professionals, but also from other nation state leaders who decided to act long before President Trump did. So the response here is the problem. And we're bleeding hundreds of thousands of jobs across states every single day that are not going

to come back. And we don't have a president who has his head on straight, much less an understanding of how to bring those jobs back. To argue that he was a job creator was a falsity from junk. We know that the majority of new jobs came from jobs back. To argue that he was a job creator was a falsity from junk. We know that the majority of new jobs came from the Investment and Recovery Act that President Obama pushed through. Beyond that, we're watching a president right now who refuses to not only take any type of responsibility

for the disasters that he's created, but he continues to try to push the media to chase other things. We've seen him try it with his friends and people arguing that somebody is going to get exonerated here, there, and everywhere. We've seen him and his administration try to push several tales about Biden and Biden's son.

At this point, we are at a crisis level. And what the American people want is to make sure that they have an economy that works for them, that they're able to pay their rent next month and the months after, that their kids are going to be safe, and they really want to know

how do we get out of this depression era that we happen to be in right now. And I don't think anyone, blue or red state, actually trusts that this president is going to be someone who devises the plan to do it. That particular ad, Mella, if you're a Republican, trust me, they have concerns.

Democrats pick up four seats in the Senate. They take control of the United States Senate. They are seeing Trump as a drag on even their races. Even though we're talking about May, that's not the position you want to be in as we're heading into the summer, the fall, this uncertainty when it comes to the economy, this uncertainty when it comes to the economy, but also when it comes to public health? What we've seen over the past, oh wow, just a

number of just administrations is that presidents typically, as they're approaching re-election, they're not helpful down ballot. We saw that with Barack Obama and the same thing that happened with George Bush, George W. Bush. But, and, you know, the ad, the ad was a little long. I don't know if it were meant for, maybe it's meant for Facebook or something. Yeah, no, it's digital. First of all, it's not a 60-second ad.

It was a two-minute-plus ad. It's meant for digital. Yeah, but it may be long, but the bottom line is, there's a whole lot you've got to put in there in order to get folks' attention that also establishes the timeline, what in the hell Trump didn't do. Well, sure, but we've

talked about this on the show before. The experts that you all are talking about, these experts have actually responded to it. Some of the things that they're alleging in the ad, yeah, I mean, we can go back and forth kind of knocking each one of them down from what the federal government was doing at the time, what Trump was saying at the time, what happened with the doctor at the immunization director or whatever. You know, there are plenty of things we can go back and just say, okay, well, those things actually weren't true. But as far as an ad is concerned, if you are, if you're not, if you don't like Donald Trump or you're on defense, this is something that

could possibly sway you. But it's also something that we've just been debating publicly for a while now. Donald Trump, I think they've done a good thing as far as stopping the number of hearings in the format of the, I'm sorry, not the hearings, the press conferences, I think they actually did a good thing with that because the communication was part of the problem and that PR campaign that Donald Trump was on was something that ultimately didn't serve him well. So they seem to be correcting themselves.

But I just, as I've said on this show many times before, you know, there's Donald Trump and then there's the federal government. Sure, we can blame Secretary Azar for what happened with HHS. We can blame the director of the CDC for what happened at the CDC. That involves testing. That involves what we're talking about with contract tracing. That involves a whole host of things, even from equipment, the PPE equipment. All of that type of stuff we can actually talk about.

And yes, Donald Trump, as the president of the United States, he's the boss. He's the ultimate one who's responsible for these things. But, you know, it seems as if at least especially if we're talking about the testing, that really to me, and I've kind of looked at it and I just decided, but this kind of, to me, seems like more of a brownie. Was that Mike Brown from George Bush's administration during the Katrina? I think he was the head of FEMA at that time, where it was like a good job brownie that George Bush said to him. It seems as if, and I still haven't been able to piece it together, but something happened. And it wasn't President Trump and what President Trump was out there saying. Something happened at the CDC, HHS, as far as these tests are concerned.

I still haven't been able to figure that part out. Why were we so late as far as the testing? But that is an issue. And there have been talks about whether Donald Trump was going to keep Secretary Azar and replace him with Dr. Birx. You know, there have been a lot of discussions about that. But Donald Trump says he's fine. But there definitely, as I've said and I've owned up to, sure, there have been things that the administration just hasn't done well. But I'm not one of those who is going to get on any part, whether it's this administration or another administration, and attack the federal government. And I think a lot of what we've been doing is just

attacking the federal government. No, no, no. What we've been doing is is citing exact... Kelly, what we're doing is citing exactly what is happening. The bottom line is, Malik, that's cute for you to try to divorce federal government from Trump. The reason, Kelly, the phrase the buck stops here.

Remember, remember, remember, Kelly. Remember, remember after in the Democratic, excuse me, Republican National Convention that was in Cleveland, who stood up there and said, only I can fix this. See, when you try to say, I'm the man. I got this. But then, when hell come, oh, that ain't me.

Y'all, gone, gone, gone. That's CDC. That's them. Then he's constantly lying by saying, oh, we were left with no plan. The Obama people left the 69 page plan. Oh, we, the Obama people left a 69-page plan. Oh, we, the Obama people, it was their test.

Fauci was asked that today. He said, no, that's not true. See, and so here's what you can't do, Kelly. You can try to sit here and separate everybody to shield Trump. Mm-mm, mm-mm. The buck stops at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Kelly. My issue with Malik's argument,

be that as it may, is the fact that, again, we cannot bifurcate Trump from the administration because it is Trump's administration. You want to blame the CDC? Okay, fine.

Well, you appointed the person to be the head of the CDC, sir. You want to blame the health professionals or the surgeon general or whatever. You appointed the surgeon general. These are all people who report to you and you hired them. So if they're not doing their job, that's on you. If the administration isn't doing what they're supposed to be doing, that's on you, too. going back to this blame shift the blame shifting and the scapegoating and you know just trying to have trump attenuate himself from everything and i'm just like that that doesn't make any sense to me because like you said when he got up at rnc he said only i can fix this every time he's on a

podium he's like i got this even when he's berating um female journalists at the podium when they're trying to you know use his words and try to get explanations out of what he's saying he wants to be like oh that wasn't me he's a liar but not only is a is he a liar he's a one-trick pony and that's the real issue here he like like any one-trick pony, you have one trick. And his was entertainment and buffering and making sure that people were satisfied by way of a phrase or an event or, you know, something flashy. Well, right now we're in the middle of a global pandemic. There's nothing flashy about over 80,000 people dead under your watch. There's nothing flashy at over a million people affected by something that you could have

prevented back in January. There is nothing flashy about the fact that you really don't know anything, Mr. President. And yet here you are in a position where you're supposed to know and you don't, but you want to, I don't know, act like you do and not garner the expertise of Dr. Fauci and others and instead try to belittle them and berate them and undermine their authority and their expertise on something that they've been doing for over 30 years. Like with any president, you've only been in this for four. Whether you're a bad president or not, you're supposed to defer to the experts. It's clear that he's not an expert. But narcissism says that he is.

His mind says that he is. So he's going to keep doing this one trick pony episode. And frankly, it's not going to work. It hasn't worked. And we're seeing beyond the veil of his facade. And that's really what's taking him off. That's really what's taking these Republicans off because they thought that for four years,

they would be able to have a one-trick pony in the office so they can get whatever they want undone. They weren't anticipating a global pandemic, nobody was. But now they're stuck. Well. But at the end of the day, to your initial point, the administration is Trump's. You wanted this job, you got this job, do your job.

Real simple. The buck stops with you. All right, folks, given what's happening, the chaos in, of course, with the international pandemic is more important for students to stay connected. Even in that testimony, you heard even Senator Rand Paul talk about what's happening with students. Research confirmed that students are more engaged and learn more when the curriculum is relevant, timely, and connected to issues that young people care about. Some examples of schools engaging their

students despite all the chaos and uncertainty with unique podcast projects that allow them to dig into their learning and create something they can share with the world. Joining me right now is Dena Ross. She's founding education advisor and teacher at New Harmony High and Christian Martinez, Dean of Students at Latitude 37.8 High. First of all, glad to have both of you. What specific challenges have you had to endure during this pandemic with trying to navigate educating students? Happy to jump in. Thank you for having me here. Much love and appreciation.

Hope everybody's safe. One of the biggest challenges that we are facing, and it's not new to us. I mean, this has been happening for a while. COVID-19 is just showing the inequalities around the U.S. when it comes down to low-income communities. But one of the challenges is connecting with their parents. To be fully transparent, they're still parents who are out there working, right? I live in East Oakland. I'm an East Oakland native. So knowing that families have been navigating this space and just knowing that they are still going to work and there's no one supervising students at home, just making that connection every day and being consistent is what's keeping this up. Yeah, definitely. I think making the connections with the parents, but I think more importantly here in New Orleans, you know, dealing with trauma.

Students are losing family members. They are losing friends. They're losing neighbors. And having to be very wary of how we throw education and assignments at them when they're dealing with real world consequences of COVID-19. And so when you talk about being creative, OK, so how do you do that when you still don't really have that direct connection with the student? I mean, so first of all, you got to I mean, they have to log on. So you got to know that they're there. And so so how do you how do you make that work? How have the two of you, how has it worked out with both of you? Yeah, I think the most important thing is really giving students the chance to have their voice heard in what they want to be doing. And so the

most important thing that we have been doing is listening to students, taking their feedback really seriously, and trying to craft things that they can really enjoy and run with on their own and self-guide. And that has led to a lot of buy-in for us at New Harmony. For us here at Latitude High, we wake up every morning around 830. Every teacher is connected to the student. And we make phone calls every morning saying, good morning. Hey, you ready to start the day? I'm here with you. We're going to make this happen.

And that's been happening since March 15. So we make sure we're in contact every day with them. And so we talk about these interesting ways of being able to reach the students. How have they responded? So how have they changed sort of what you've been able to do? Christian, you first. For sure. I think one of the things that we see as it's kind of peaking right now is the status of the mental health, especially knowing that a lot of our students are at home alone and being unsupervised and some of them are supervising their young siblings. So making sure that we are curating that experience,

even though it's in the midst of the pandemic, giving them hope that it's going to be better. And through that, we create podcasts, making sure that they are listening to the podcast that we already pushed out early in the year. So that can continue to propel them to have a better view of the world, even though we are in the midst of chaos.

And so as a parent out there, so how have you gotten them involved in this? Yeah. So something that we've been doing is just trying to be as transparent as possible. We will have a parent survey at the end of the year that they're engaging in, but we definitely try to stay in contact with parents just as much as we're staying with students, staying in contact with students. But transparency is key. And we've kind of had to check ourselves and think about how we're communicating information, making it as simple as possible and collaborating with other teachers and staff members so that we all are saying the same thing and so that students are hearing the same thing from each staff member is really, really important,

especially in high school when they're in lots of different classes and it can feel really overwhelming right away. So it's been a pretty open door policy. You need something, call me, email me, and just being available as much as possible is the route that we have definitely taken for parents. And it's very reassuring, I think, when they know that they can call me on a Saturday when their child is working on something and they need help or the parent needs help supporting their student. Christian, go ahead.

Yeah. For us, the way we connected with parents, we created a website where they can go and get information. And then we also created a phone call tree where each staff member calls a parent and breaks down information not just about the school but also about what's happening outside the school gates. So, for example, when the stimulus check was going out, making sure that we were answering those questions and we were well informed so our communities were informed about what's happening outside the community. So definitely everybody needs to be on board. And like Ms. Ross said, making sure the message is transparent and we are saying the same thing. All right, then. Last thing.

So we're moving towards, obviously, we're in May, towards the end of the school year. What should districts, what should parents be doing so we're not losing folks over this summer? And so do you think that because of the lost time, do you believe that districts are going to try to come up with something that keeps these students engaged in the summertime so that way come fall,

you don't have as much fallback, if you will? That's a good question. Yeah, so right now, I mean, I'm in a unique situation in New Orleans where we are 100% public charter schools, and so each school kind of is having to kind of do their own thing. So from our standpoint at New Harmony, I know that we'll stay connected with students throughout the summer.

That's just a big component of our school model. But right now, I haven't heard anything from the district around requiring classes or any type of assignments over the summer. I really feel like summertime is for us to come together, reflect, and think about what the fall is going to look like so we can be as successful as possible, given that we don't know what's going to happen come August.

Christian? I mean, we started this month saying that the school might get pushed to start in July and that got shut down really quick. So we don't know what's going to happen. We are planning to have students be engaged throughout the summer just by doing videos, podcasts, maybe someone reaching out. But as far as like the state kind of mandating that we need to do something, we don't know yet. So it's up in the air. All right then. Well, look, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. We are looking forward to course on Saturday when President Barack Obama, LeBron James and others will participate in the national commencement,

high school 2020 commencement. We're going to be live streaming it on this platform, but also, of course, it will be on major networks as well. And so that's a huge deal. So we certainly want to thank the folks at XQ America for being partners with us to make this possible. So thank you so very much to the both of you. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thanks for having us.

All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, Breaking news in Georgia. They plan on reopening bars and concert venues in a couple of weeks. We'll also talk about this case out of this Breonna Taylor case. Sister in her home with her boyfriend.

Cops storm in, kill her. The person they were looking for was in jail. Yeah. that happened. We'll discuss next right It's 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. All right, so our panel right here, there's breaking news just in. Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia announces that bars, clubs, and concert venues will be allowed to open on May 31st. That's just in a couple of weeks. What's interesting about this, Amisha, is that in South Korea, they shut their bars down again because one person visited multiple bars.

They already have 100 confirmed coronavirus cases that trace back to that individual. And they are, according to this item here, they're trying to trace some 10,000 others. That is a perfect example. And we had the Meharry folks on here, how they said, look, how this thing works, how one person could potentially infect up to a million. They reopened those bars in South Korea. Now all of a sudden they shut them back down because one person led to 100 new cases. Good idea, bad idea for Georgia

to reopen concert venues, bars, and restaurants. It's a horrible idea, and it's a horrible idea on so many fronts. I mean, Georgia already is a mess when it comes to their health care systems and the lack of adequate access to health care they already have. But in addition to that, the state of Georgia has not implemented a single method of contact tracing. So when you can't do that and you can't get down to that patient zero, you will not really know which

one person it took to infect hundreds or thousands of people. It's problematic. And I think that Governor Kemp, he's trying his darndest to make sure that Georgia continues to make money and he doesn't want to, he doesn't want his state to feel the bleed. But with that same, on that same token, he has to understand that this is bigger than him and his state's economy. There are some major things that have to be in place before you could ever consider reopening those types of venues or those types of events, one of which is making sure that social distancing measures are there. The other is acknowledging that you cannot have more than a certain number of people in those places at one time, which, to be honest, if you're talking about concert venues, that kills the point of a concert. If you can only have 10 or 15 people there,

then who's going to actually open and play? So I think that at the end of the day, he just has to understand that the new normal means that we can't go back to the old normal. And the people of Georgia, God bless them, because they have leadership that is not only ignorant, but refuses to acknowledge any of the information that we've seen from doctors, scientists,

or any of the other nations in terms of how they are deciding to and moving forward with reopening. Not a single one is deciding to go full-on reopen for concerts, other event venues, and things like that because it's simply just irresponsible. Is it a good idea, Malik, to reopen bars, clubs, and concert venues? I wouldn't, definitely I wouldn't say concert venues. It's such a, I mean, it's such a large venue. I definitely wouldn't say concert venue. I know I'm not so sure about bars. I think that there are measures, and I say this because I consider what's actually on the table here in D.C.

as far as when bars open, the steps that they would have to take. Essentially, you know, six tables, six feet apart, only a certain number of people at a time. So I think that those are real considerations. I think that these states, not just the governors, but the mayors of all of these cities, they do have to balance the concern for the economy versus what is really a public health crisis.

So I sympathize with them in that. But in the case with Brian Kemp, I think, in fact, it was even Donald Trump, the president himself, came out and said that he disagreed with it. And I don't think that Georgia has met the standard for that initial opening phase, a phase one. I'm not sure if Georgia has actually met phase one yet. I don't think that they have. And if they did, I apologize, but I don't think that they've met that.

But for Brian Kemp to, like I said, I'm okay with bars, but when you get to something, those larger venues, I'm really concerned about that. But fortunately, what I hope, those larger venues, I'm really concerned about that. But fortunately, what I hope, and at least what I'm seeing, I think people will self-quarantine themselves. So people will self-isolate. People won't just go out. And I do think that the demand is there. If we look around the country, sure,

there are people who want to get out. They want to get out in the sun. They want to go out to these places and do things. But what I'm hoping is that a lot of these people, even for me, it doesn't matter when they open in DC. You won't see me in a restaurant in DC for a very long time, let alone a plane. Kelly?

Not only is it a terrible idea, it's dumb. It is really, really dumb. Like, they haven't met any of the quotas from any professional entity, like the recommendations that have been coming out as to when to reopen. They haven't followed any of those. They don't even have enough tests available to test enough of the population to get an accurate check as to exactly how many people have COVID.

Georgia is a very large state and a majority of the state is rural. So I can only imagine just how many people haven't even been reached to verify that they had COVID, as in they contracted it and now they're over it, let alone people who have died from it or anything like that. To have a bar open at this juncture is just, it's dumb. Like, we have issues of people social distancing in the places that are already open, such as supermarkets and carryouts and the like. We can't even do social distancing in a Walmart, and you want us to do social distancing in a smaller entity like a bar or a restaurant? D.C. isn't anywhere near close to reopening yet, but neither is Georgia. And the fact that Georgia even wants to do anything along those lines right now, it's definitely a profit over people mentality. And it's unfortunate because the governor was elected for the people, not for money, not for profit, for the people. And he has profit in mind over people.

So it's just incredibly frustrating to me. Absolutely. All right, folks, other people who we don't necessarily think about or impacted by coronavirus, funeral directors and morticians, they have been forced to adjust protocols in the face of uncertainties about their own safety amid the pandemic, all while preparing the deceased and trying to support mourners saying final goodbyes. Joining us right now is Dr. Harry Close, president of the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association. Dr. Close, glad to have you on the show. So one of the issues y'all are facing is shortage of PPE for funeral homes. Correct.

There's a major, major shortage across the country. But very few people think about the last responders, which are funeral directors and the morticians that run the funeral homes. So we have put an initiative together with some physicians, first-time health care and death care working together to try to help the African-American community and the Hispanic community. You hear a lot of different areas trying to help hotspots, but no one's worrying about the real hotspot, which is the African-American and the Hispanic community.

And so how are state officials responding? Because, first of all, you are a licensed industry. And so what are state officials, what are governors, what are members of Congress saying? We have not received help from FEMA. Some of my colleagues from other communities have, but not the areas that are hot spots. I happen to be in Maryland.

Our governor did. I will give him kudos for getting the 550,000 tests from Korea. But one thing is that the funeral directors are not part of those individuals that will be tested. And it has been proven that the African-American, particularly the funeral director as a whole, but the African-American funeral director as well, is the most vulnerable of keeping this virus moving since I've lost a couple of family members in the last week or two, and I've lost a couple of colleagues just in New York and New Jersey in the last couple of days. This is real. And that's why we're trying to not only get PPEs, protection equipment for the practitioners, but also for our communities. And when this second wave comes, we have not seen yet where the governments are opening their doors, people going back to the old norm.

The new norm needs to keep the distancing and also the mask. It's just scary where my colleagues are. We never have you ever heard of a funeral home turning away a loved one or a family. They're just so overwhelmed in New York and New Jersey. Even here in Maryland, we've been busy every day with a service, and that's not a norm for us.

All right, and so with that being said, I mean, look, we know the stories of how folks have attended funerals in early March and coronavirus spread like wildfire. And so that certainly has to has to freak out your workers. But also, you need to understand if a body you're dealing with has coronavirus. Well, that is true. I since this issue has hit in the last couple of months, I actually have not been traveling. We're an international organization, and I did a lot me. So I'm putting myself at risk to protect my staff. And constantly I'm doing a protocol. If we go to a hospital, what PTs are you using?

This is where I expect you to do the shoe covers. If we have to go make arrangements in someone's home, here's what the protocol will be. Most likely I will go and put myself at risk. The embalmer is really the person you least want to pay attention to is the one that's actually protecting the public. What would you estimate

your need is? How much PPE? What do you need? What are you conveying to public health officials, to elected officials? We look at all of those. I'm going to state in two parts. I'm going to say what we're saying as an industry, and then I'm going to narrow it right down to the African-American community.

What the doctors are, what we're working with, which is the first time that we ever had physicians and the nurses and the fume doctors work together, we're looking technically to have on the short span at least over 500,000 pieces. That could be masks, that can be face shields, gloves. Some of the items that give us PPE where we're

jointing with the funeral advocacy is working with, is they have some items that might not reach the standard for physicians that we can at least make sure it reaches the standard for protection in our community. For those of us who are actually on the front lines at the rear end or the last responders, we need gloves. We need those type of thick gloves like paramedics have. We need gowns and particularly the full hooded suits. Now, some of my colleagues don't use the hood,

but just like when you go into an operating room, you need to be fully covered, nothing exposed. And I have to be honest with you. Every field director who's been trained, in particular the Obama, should be treating everyone that they're contagious anyway, with all due respect to the listening audience. But now with this virus, it has not been confirmed if even when the person expires, if that virus is ceasing. And so it's very important for the funeral home to protect in particular individuals down in that prepper area to cover themselves, protect themselves. Even in my operation, if you are the removal person and you've made a removal, I expect you to go home, wash your clothes, shower. We'll see you the next day.

You're not going to track anything you brought from a hospital, from a nursing home, hospice, or any person you picked from a house into this funeral. I have to protect the public who is coming to at least have some type of ritual to honor their loved one, even with 10 people in a distance of six feet. All right, then. Well, we certainly good luck to you, and hopefully Lincoln officials are listening to ensure that funeral homes are able to get PPE. I just want to show you that this is very important to me, and I appreciate everything you do for us.

All right. I appreciate it, brother. Thanks a bunch. Dr. Harry Close, President, National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association. Thanks a lot. Of course, President, National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association. All right, folks, going to a break. We come back.

The stunning story out of Louisville. Black woman, EMT, 26 years old, minding her own business in her apartment with her boyfriend. She is now dead. The cops involved. nobody's been disciplined we'll tell the story Breon Taylor next a roll about unfiltered after the storm after the crisis after is defined as in the time following. After the battle. After the tragedy.

After the pandemic. After the last breath. After all of this, when we really needed you the most, you were the last to respond. Thank you. All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares.

I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they make these about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories

to wear. So we don't have many many options and so this is really a pretty cool pocket square and what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket you know it gives you that flower effect like that but if I wanted to also unlike other because if I flip it and turn it over it actually gives me a different type of texture and so therefore it gives me a different look so there you go so if you actually want to uh get one of these shibori pocket squares we have them in 47 different colors all you got to do is go to rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares so it's rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares all you got to do is go to my website uh and you can

actually get this now for those of you who are members of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister was a designer, she actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so.

And, of course, that goes to support the show. And, again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. Folks, Breonna Taylor, 26 years old, was empty in Louisville. She wanted to be a nurse. She was out there working on behalf of the people who were impacted by COVID-19. Well, on March 13th, she was in her apartment with her boyfriend. Around midnight, cops busted into the apartment. Her boyfriend, not knowing who they were, began to fire shots at them. More than 20 bullets were fired by the cops. When it all was done, Breonna Taylor was dead. Last month, her family filed

a wrongful death lawsuit against the Louisville Police Department, who executed the search. This is what the Washington Post, this is a story by Erin Haines, in partnership with the Washington Post, wrote. She's with the 19th, which is an organization, journalism organization, focused on women's issues. Look at this, folks, here. This is actually stunning. According to the lawsuit filed April 27th, Louisville police executed a search warrant at Taylor's home looking for a man who did not live in Taylor's apartment complex and had already been detained when officers came to Taylor's apartment after midnight. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker,

was also in the apartment, and according to the lawsuit, shot at officers when they attempted to enter without announcing themselves. The lawsuit alleges that police fired more than 20 rounds of ammunition into the apartment. This, Amisha, is a stunning story. To look at the details,

that you're executing a warrant for a guy who doesn't live in the complex. They then find out that the guy who they were looking for was already in police custody. She's dead. 26. No one has talked to her mother to explain what the hell happened.

The whole time you were going over that case, I was sitting here trying not to cry just because not only is it extremely egregious and particularly disturbing, it's also the fact that there is such gross negligence on behalf of the police in this case that I'm almost at a loss for words. Because at any given point, and we've seen this happen in other cases where doors are, you know, bust down, people are shot when the police wind up at a house that they're not supposed to be at, or they're chasing someone who doesn't live in the area that they're actually looking to. But to actually already have this person in custody and to still go out and commit that type of atrocity is beyond me. To fire that many rounds,

just my heart goes out to this young woman's mother because this is something that was completely preventable. And I'm just wondering at this point, what happens? Where do we go from here? Where's the accountability for this policing entity? Where's the accountability for the officers on the scene? Where's the accountability for those who sent them to that address? Where's the accountability for the entire department who should have known where this guy was? That level of brutality, that level of a mistake that lands, it ends in somebody's death and complete murder in that way is something that is just unforgivable. Kelly, we'll read this here. Go back to my iPad.

None of the officers involved have been charged in connection with the shooting. Walker, her boyfriend, a licensed gun owner who was not injured in the incident, was arrested and faces charges

of first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer how in the hell can you be facing charges when the police bust into the apartment unannounced you don't know who the hell is busting in you you licensed with a gun your deal is i'm protecting me and my girlfriend. And now he's facing charges? That part is the most disturbing to me outside of the fact that this young woman is dead. Because especially in states like Kentucky,

I am almost 100% sure that the CAST doctrine is still in full effect for black citizens in terms of protecting your home and self-defense. So if somebody is entering your dwelling place and they don't announce themselves as police, they say nothing in terms of saying that they're law enforcement, that it's an emergency, nothing like that. You just hear somebody breaking and entering your dwelling place. That's a fight or flight situation. More so, that's a situation in which you have the right to retaliate because somebody is entering your sanctuary, your safe space. So the fact that this young man is being charged for defending himself for the attempted murder of a police officer, which means that that police officer didn't die. But you know who did? His girlfriend, the person that he was trying to protect in his dwelling place.

That's absolutely disgusting to me. The fact that they even had the, the wherewithal and the insensitivity to charge somebody with the attempted murder of somebody who killed his loved one. They should all be ashamed of themselves. Absolutely. Every single one of them involved with this case, from the person who dispatched those police officers to the house, to the people who didn't do the necessary protocol to let people know that they had the person in custody before they were dispatched to the house, all levels of communication responsible

for this incident happening should be ashamed of themselves. Especially the person who pressed charges on behalf of this young man. Because all he was doing is what a white person would have done should somebody try to go into their dwelling place. Police officer or not.

Malik, not sure if I've seen the NRA stand up for this gun owner. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't heard anything from the NRA on this. You know, I've been on your show since probably almost since the beginning. And we've had these conversations. We've seen these scenarios play out over and over again. Immediately came to mind of when the police ended up going around the lady's house, shining a light in her house, and then ended up shooting, I think, through the screen door. This is disturbing. The entire situation is disturbing from the dispatch.

Because they were dispatched, somebody dispatched them to that location. So from the beginning, this was wrong. And it ended up with the young lady, the young man's girlfriend, dead. But what else are you supposed to do? It kind of reminds me of what we were talking about with, um, Ahmad's death. What are you supposed to do when you see someone, you're running down the street,

you're looking at them, a truck in the middle of the road, and you see someone with a gun? What are you supposed to do? What are you supposed to do, Trayvon Martin, when you're walking and you see somebody, some suspicious old-looking man following behind you, and you have Arizona tea and Skittles in your hand. What are you supposed to do when you're sitting in your house?

And you hear that people, or you feel as if people are breaking into your home. You have a gun. You try to defend yourself. And it's so unfortunate that his girlfriend is dead, but now we have the layer of attempted murder. Not manslaughter or second degree manslaughter or anything like that. Attempted murder. I'm hoping that there's a similar public outrage to this. And I'll just say, whether you are black, white, Asian, Hispanic,

or whatever, the police should not come to your home and do what they did. They should not come home to your home and kill the people who are in your own house. So it's unacceptable at all levels. And the fact that we continue to hear these type of story of police abuses, because that's what this is, of police abuses. It's it's it's sad. It's disturbing. It's unfortunate. And I wish we weren't here, folks, about 9 p.m. tonight, Tamika Mallory, she is going to have a conversation with Brianna's mother on her Instagram live page. You want to check that out. And then she'll be talking with Ben Crump on Facebook. After that, we certainly will be talking to both of them on this show tomorrow. It is an absolutely stunning story, you know, all across the board. But again, 26-year-old, this sister, 26 years old, minding her own business in her apartment, spending time with her boyfriend.

She is dead because Louisville, Kentucky police knocked on the wrong door. The guy they were looking for was already in police custody. And the fact that this took place on March 13th, and here we are, almost two months later, and not a single police officer has been disciplined for the death of Breonna Taylor. That, folks, is absolutely stunning. And I would love to hear the NRA, why they're not standing up with a boyfriend, a licensed gun owner, for trying to protect him and his girlfriend, yet the cops are hitting him with attempted murder charges. That, to me, folks, is just unbelievable. Just makes no sense whatsoever. All right, folks, when we come

back, we're going to talk about, we'll talk to a business owner who took advantage of a pitch competition, walked away with one hundred thousand dollars. We'll talk about it with her, but also on coming up, though, here's the commercial, folks. I told you about the XQ event, the high school graduation on Saturday. This is the promo video. LeBron James, President Barack Obama, they are both involved in this. So I just want you all to check this out. If we can get it to play, there we go. High schools may be closed. Graduation ceremonies may be canceled.

But we won't let that stop us. You threw out old traditions, so will we. Join us on May 16th as we all come together. Say goodbye to the end of an era and welcome a new beginning with you at the center. It's time for America to celebrate and honor you, the high school class of 2020. with you at the center. It's time for America to celebrate and honor you, the high school class of 2020.

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RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, I want to bring this up here. And so y'all know how I feel about that stupid, truly stupid and ignorant Candace Owens who made some of the most illogical, nonsensical comments regarding the case of Ahmaud Arbery, trashing him, saying

black folks, why y'all? I mean, he was stealing, wasn't jogging. Well, ooh, things got a little heated on social media in the last 24 hours where a group of black conservatives have actually been standing up uh and called her comments out uh it's been real interesting malik uh seeing this back and forth uh take place with this one sister who's a conservative named sunny johnson uh and

she of course has been battling with with candace on this and what and what was interesting is that is that these these black, what they laid out is that they said that point blank, they condemned her particular comments. I'm going to pull up their whole statement in a second, but can somebody just explain to me why you have black conservatives like Candace who, I mean, anytime, just won't call white folks out for nothing, but will trash black people for raising

a big stink about the Ahmaud Arbery case. Here's the deal, Malik. If black people didn't say Jack, those two guys are still sitting at home. If black folks said nothing about Breonna Taylor, guess what?

Nothing happens. And so what's up with some of your fellow black conservatives who have more vitriol towards black people who fight for justice than the white folks who are defending these two idiots who killed Ahmaud Arbery? So we're gonna... This is what I'll say.

As someone who was a lifelong Democrat until I voted for Donald Trump, the... It's a lot of... And I appreciate a lot of the black conservatives who are coming out condemning her remarks. I condemn her, not her remarks. I condemn her. And I actually wrote a piece on that

condemning her remarks. I mean, condemning her. And I actually wrote a piece on that condemning her remarks. I mean, condemning her. And how do you condemn her but not her remarks? I don't understand that. Well, my I and let me let me clear that up. What I was saying is that people are condemning her remarks. I condemn Candace Owens and what Candace Owens actually stands for as it relates to growing the Black conservative movement. Now, Candace Owens has been this way forever. And people say, you know, she's one of, she is definitely one of the most visible Black conservatives that we have out of there. But for all intents and purposes, Candace Owens is a Trump supporter. Candace is not, I understand what she's doing with the whole Blexit movement, but for all intents and purposes, Candace Owens is a Trump supporter.

Whether or not she'll be around after Trump leaves, I don't know. But wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Wait, wait, wait. I'm trying to understand the distinction. So you're saying she's not a black conservative. She's a Trump supporter. But wait a minute.

You just said that you were a Democrat and then you voted for Trump. So aren't you a Trump supporter and not a black conservative? Absolutely. And actually, in my case, in the distinction that I would make between me and. So I want to be clear before you make a distinction. I just I just want to be clear before you make the distinction. So you're saying that you you're not a black Republican or a black conservative. You're a Trump supporter. So are you still a Democrat, but a Trump supporter? Yeah. So let me finish my point where I where the distinction between me and Candace is that I'm actually out there trying to bring people into the Republican Party.

Candace, for all for and she's admitted to it. You know, Candace, she wants to move people away into the Republican Party. Candace, for all, and she's admitted to it, you know, Candace, she wants to move people away from the Democratic Party. I want to increase the numbers of people in the Republican Party. Until today, and I don't know, maybe it will change tomorrow, Candace, at no point has that been her focus. So when I say that Candace Owens is a Trump supporter, I think a lot of us, people just in America general, you know, they kind of take on the mantle of being a black conservative. Well, what does that mean? If you ask people, what does being a black conservative mean? A lot of them really don't have answers.

And because I've had these conversations with many people who now consider themselves a black conservatives, what they're really talking about is that they actually support Donald Trump. That doesn't mean that they are not conservative, but as for my purposes, Candace is totally different from a lot of those people and the people that you saw in the op-ed, the article that you're talking about. A lot of those people are actually involved in the movement to bring more people into the party. I'm not sure that that's Candace's goals. Again, I understand what she's doing with Glexit, but I'm not sure that's Candace's goal. I've criticized Candace over and over and over again, because I think that what Candace does, and as I wrote today, when she makes comments as she does,

what happens is that there's an anvil that we have to wear around our necks when trying to defend the party against people just like her. But make no mistake, and I'll just say this very quickly, make no mistake, Candace is in a long line of Black people who have done this, whether they consider themselves Black conservatives, Black Republicans or whatever,

Candace didn't start this game. She's probably the biggest that we've had in this age of social media. But Candace didn't start this game. And you can look at the Republican Party itself, black Republicans in the party, black conservatives in the party. They participated in this. So the same people who are actually paying Candace's, depositing money into her bank account, many of these other conservatives have benefited from those same entities. Okay. So you're now a black Republican. I've been a Republican.

No, no, no. That's what I was trying to, it was all over the place. I was trying to just understand what on the deal, what's going on. Okay. All right. I've always, and anyone who knows me, when they ask what am I or whatever, I always actually reference that I'm a Republican

because that's what I am, and I'm interested in bringing people into the Republican Party. That's exactly what I am. Okay, here's a statement. Eugene Craig, of course, appears on our show often. He's the author of this statement. Black conservative statement on Candace Owens

tweets. We the undersigned black conservative leaders unequivocally condemn the hate field and destructive words tweeted and spoken by Candace Owens in the freest county on the face of the earth. I think that meant country. I think that meant country. In the freest country on the face of the earth, no black man deserves to be gunned down like a dog in the street. Blackness is not a weapon. Blackness is not a threat. The words spoken by Candace are not reflective of the earth. No black man deserves to be gunned down like a dog in the street. Blackness is not a weapon. Blackness is not a threat. The words spoken by Candace are not reflective of the black conservative movement and should be universally condemned by the broader conservative movement and all who support freedom and liberty. Her words provide shield and cover for those for these type of incidents to continue. This is not the role of the black conservative. Our hearts go

out to Ahmaud. Actually, Ahmaud is misspelled. Ahmaud Arbery's family. And we continue to lift them in prayer. Black men and women have a right to live freely in this country. We all have a responsibility to protect that right with responsibility to condemn. That should be condemned her hate feel and inaccurate tweets and statements. The thing, Kelly, that was interesting about this, again, is that you immediately see, and this is where, so this segment is not, this ain't about, all about Candace. I don't give a damn because she's stupid.

She dumb, she dumb, and other people who follow her dumb too. But what you find is, who are the people who are the quickest to stand with the two men who killed ahmaud arbery white conservatives you think back to zimmerman now now there have been conservatives white conservatives who said this is foul eric erickson was like i don't care what none of y'all say. I don't care if he was looking inside our house. That is not licensed to shoot and kill this man.

But when you look at these people who are the most vocal saying, oh, first y'all was saying, hands up, don't shoot. Now y'all saying he was just jogging. It's real interesting the people who most are likely to side with Travis and George McMichael are white conservatives. I mean, it's not so interesting when you look at the history of the conservative movement and why people switched from being Democrats to conservatives back

in the late 50s, early 60s during the civil rights movement, going from Dixiecrats to Republicans and the like. But what I will say is specifically when it comes to black conservatism, I am not a part of that number, but I have observed that based off of the ideologies of my friends who are, I would be hard pressed to consider a black person who considers themselves conservative or Trump supporter to be true Republicans, because Trump himself does not align with the ideologies that I know of, of the Republican Party. So when Candace Owens saying, you know, like, I agree with Malik to an extent when he said that Candace is a Trump supporter, but that's the only extent to which I will agree with Malika on this case, because her aligning with Trump, just by way of what Trump has done these past couple years,

and how his ideologies have come to light, I would venture to say that he's not truly a Republican. I would also venture to say that white supremacists aren't necessarily Republican. They're just not Democrat. And that's the problem with a bicameral party system is that if you don't agree with one, it's kind of like you have to go to the other if you want your voice to be heard. And that's where we get a lot of conflating ideologies, where we get a lot of false narratives when it comes to these parties and their ideologies. Because when you look at conservatism and when you look at the Republican Party and what their ideologies are, it's not that of Donald Trump. It's just conservative. Donald Trump is in the class of Donald Trump. It's just conservative. Donald Trump is in the class of his own.

Well, and I think, but it's like the point I raised, Amisha, about the NRA. Will they stand with, I mean, they're supposed to all about, you know, licensed gun owners and Second Amendment and defend yourself,

but they are very much pro-cop. In the case of this brother in Louisville, okay, you're the NRA? Same thing I said when John Crawford was killed in that Walmart in Ohio. All right, NRA?

Show what y'all really stand for. And the reality is, they are more likely to stand for conservative ideals. And this is when black people say, hold up, if y'all supposedly real, where are you on this one right here? And in this case here, automatically it's white conservatives and some blacks sitting there running behind this case. And to Malik's point, you got black conservatives who are like, yo, what the hell? What the hell?

But what it's showing, Amisha, is showing you might think y'all in this thing together, but y'all ain't in this thing together. You might be black and conservative. They might be white and conservative, but your ass still black, Amisha. Absolutely. And I think that that is one of the most salient points of all, because at the end of the day, whether somebody chooses to be a black conservative because of the era of Trump and their grifters, like what we've seen from Candace Owens, or if they are a hard line conservative following all the conservative principles, you can never be conservative enough to erase your skin color or the burden that comes along with it. That is where we are in America. So Candace saying completely ridiculous things and comparing this death to the many deaths that she counted in black on black crime and, you know, calling out LeBron James and going down a whole litany of ridiculousness to try to substantiate why a young man would literally be hunted down by two white men in a pickup truck with guns circa what 1800s 1952 we haven't seen this in america in a really long time

but somehow she thought that she was in a place to make a justification for it that's a problem i do applaud to a certain extent the black conservatives who felt it necessary to come out and say something this time but candace owens has railed against Black people for a long time. She has literally cast a name for herself by throwing all types of negativity on the Black population. She is what the Republican Party has wanted for a very long time. Someone who looked like a Black person, someone who spoke like a Black person, someone who couldn't walk into a room and be mistaken as anything other than a Black person, someone who spoke like a black person, someone who couldn't walk into a room and be mistaken as anything other than a black person, but someone who could

also sell talking points of whiteness, talking points of racism, and it go over well. And now she's reached a point where people are calling her out, finally. The thing here again, Malik, at the end of the day, your ass

might be as conservative as you want to be, but you black. Hell, we don't know who Ahmaud Arbery voted for. We don't know any of that, but what we do know is he dead. And what we do know is

the people who are standing with the individuals who shot him, who are trying to tear him down, are largely white conservatives. And then you got that fool Candace and others. But again, this is where it don't matter. It's the same thing. Look, Cleo and others on this show, brothers and sisters who are same gender loving will

say, yeah, we gay, but you white gay, I'm black gay. You black conservative, I'm white conservative, yeah, but you black still white. The reality is, white is still, the operative word in white conservative is white. It's white. Born black, will die black. Will die black. That's exactly what it is. What I've seen now, and I've been kind of witnessing over the past year or so, what I've seen now is that people have said, and it's usually, well,

it's the number of conservatives that I've seen come out and speak out against it, the black conservatives. You know, this is a long time overdue. And like Amisha said, this isn't Candace's first time at the rodeo. It's just that this is the first time you've actually seen people willing to come out and criticize her. And the reason that they have not is because of what you said, Roland. So those white conservatives that you talk about, and I will say that I've met awesome white conservatives out there, absolutely awesome white conservatives. But the ones that Candace appeals to, where she appeals to their racism, their prejudice,

and their bigotry, those are the people that you're talking about, the ones that will get on social media and say, well, what about black on black crime? Before the ink was dry, Candace came out of Twitter jail and started attacking, attacking Ahmaud. That's exactly what she did immediately when she came out of Twitter jail. And then she tried to kind of backtrack it and say, well, there may be other things. No, she did it because she doesn't, because these are the people who pay her paychecks. And so that's what she has to continue to do. I don't know. And I've heard people say, well, you know, that we have a big tent.

Yes, the conservative Republican Party has a very big tent. Conservatives, whatever, very big tent. But for my purposes, Candace Owens, Candace Amber Owens does not speak to me or any of my conservatism. She just doesn't.

All right, y'all. You know what time it is. I'm white. I got you, Carl. I'm illegally selling water with our permit on my property. Whoa! I'm uncomfortable.

I know. Alright, my people. What happens when you try to mind your own business, you're in Sacramento, California, and Lord, the people living next door to you just act a plumb fool and hit you with the N-word press play are you 100 here with me right now yeah i'm here with you right here i see you right there i see you right there i see your i see your bitch right there recording me i see you nigga i nigga. I see you. You look ridiculous. Come on, let's

go. You're 50 years old. She's not 50, dude. I'm not 50. But you guys understand, like, we're not trying to do anything to bother you guys. You're the same age as my kids. We are. We are. So why are you arguing with people that are the same age as your kids? Listen, listen, listen. I'm a professor at Sac State, dude. I have a Ph.D. I don't need to be dealing with shit like that. I have my master's book. I don't need it either. All right, then. I don't have to control me. I'm controlled. OK, I don't know what happened there, y' controlled. Okay, well, back up from...

Okay, I don't know what happened there, y'all. On the front of that, she just flat-out called this black man just the N-word. I'll try to find the actual video. But they tried to find him. But, boys, they quick to pull it out without Kelly. They quick to pull it out. This guy's like, oh, no, I don't know. You know what's going to happen?

I don't know where that came from. I have no idea where that came from. I have no idea where they came from What was the context? Not that you need context to say that word but it just seemed like out of nowhere she just was like I'm tired of seeing black people Go away n-word like I don't get I truly don't get it and every time one of the videos. Every time one of these videos pop up I always think my your business is free.

It's so free you have to pay you don't have to do anything it might be the easiest lazy is then you can do that will give you peace of mind. I don't understand why people invest in time and things that have absolutely nothing to do with them. Absolutely nothing. Like, and the fact that the guy was talking about, oh, he has a PhD. Well, you spent, you know, Ph.D.s are expensive. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. You asked what the deal is. So according to this story, the video was posted on Facebook by the couple's neighbor, Michaela Cobb, who claimed they verbally attacked her and her boyfriend over the smell of bacon grease.

It was the bacon grease. Yeah, and it says that Tim Ford, who is the professor, he claimed his wife had entered a hospital for alcohol and drug abuse on Friday in the wake of the embarrassing clip. Kelly, finish, then I'm going to Amisha. Oh, so it's kind of like the, oh, I'm crazy defense that we use for serial killers

and school shooters. Only you say the N-word and that'll clear everything up. You know, you go and read that. Well, hold on, Kelly. Hold on, Kelly. Hold on, we're losing your signal. We're losing your signal uh misha go ahead the part that's most shocking here other than them announcing

their credentials when they you know uh walked up and decided to call their neighbors outside of their name is the fact of how this argument started to begin with you are so upset that you use racial epithets because you smell bacon grease coming from your neighbor's place. Like at what point is that where your mind goes? These people are literally making breakfast in their own home and you walk out and you start announcing, oh, I have a PhD also, who cares? And your reaction, and I will give it to their African-American neighbors because they're a lot better than I would have been in that situation. And now to save her tail and her husband's, it is, well, she's going into rehab. This woman isn't crazy.

Yes, she was probably, you know, on some stuff, but that doesn't automatically make the N-word be the first thing that you pull out. So here's what I want to do. So, guys, if y'all have from the beginning, play the video for Malik. Go ahead. But go ahead and play it. I'm in and out of it right now. Are you 100% here with me right now?

No, that's not the beginning. I can see you right there. That's not the beginning. I'm going to go ahead and pull it up. But, see, this still amazes me. What amazes me is the whole, I mean, we always get the excuses. That's not really me. That's not really my feelings.

I don't know where that came from. And now the whole rehab deal. I mean, I think all of that's just utterly hilarious. But this is... Y'all mad because of bacon grease. All that PAHP money, you mad about bacon grease. That to me is what's the most tripped about this whole deal. You mad about bacon grease, Mellick.

Really? I ain't realize bacon... I thought everybody loved bacon. Maybe there's a couple Muslim. I don't know. But I don't know what the deal is that bacon grease make you go crazy.

Now, Roland, I don't eat pork. I don't eat bacon. But when I tell you that the smell of bacon grease is probably the next best thing to fried chicken, to me... The whole... Starting with the whole calling the man a nigger, we started with there, then we ended with all of these,

well, I'm a PhD. All of these things are absolutely, totally irrelevant. We laugh about it. Like folks with PhDs can't be bigots. And be out drinking in public and all of that. It seems like maybe that's what he was doing. Yeah, I mean, it's a stupid story. They were stupid in it.

I'm with my homegirl Amisha on it is that the neighbors were much, those black neighbors were much better than what I would have been because it would have been lit. Turned. The whole, all the neighbors would have been outside by the time we finished with that one. Yeah, I just sit here and

just routinely I keep trying to tell y'all, okay? What gets me is the professor now wants to apologize. Did any of y'all hear him admonish his wife when she said that? Or is it just me? I mean, I'm just saying. Here's the full length video here.

I want you to hear for the beginning. All right, y'all go. Going in and out of it right now. Are you 100% here with me right now? Yeah. Yeah. I'm here with you right here. I can see you right there.

I see you right there. I see your I see your bitch right there recording me. I see you, nigga. I see you. You look ridiculous. ridiculous come on let's go you're 50 years old so the hobbit don't say nothing about call her a bitch call the n-word or call her a bitch dude she ain't 50 man my wife't 50. That's the only thing he was going to respond to? He got offended by the age coming?

I ain't 50. She ain't 50. She ain't 50. She 49. She ain't 50. She 49. Look. Black don't crack.

Blaster shatters. Oh, I'm trying to. Look, look. I have a great appreciation for cameras, but I just want to do y'all again. Please, go back, go to the video. Please do me a favor. Just do me a favor.

Right here, we see it right here. No, no, no. Y'all see the video? Come back to me. Do me a favor. Do me a favor, y'all. Okay? Please.

Can y'all please just, next time y'all shoot crazy-ass white people, just shoot horizontal. Shoot horizontal. Why do you always do this? Because, okay, Kelly, see, I need you to pay attention, Kelly. Go back to the video, y'all.

Go back to the video. Kelly, see the big ass black boxes on the left and the right? That's what happens when you shoot vertical. Because you're charging it from your phone. No, Kelly, let me help you, Kelly. Okay?

Look, Kelly, when you shoot this way, it creates black boxes on the side. When you shoot this way, it fills the whole screen up. That's why. It's called 16.9.

It's the television standard. So I'm saying when y'all shooting video, I want y'all to shoot landscape or horizontal so we can see the whole picture, not the black boxes. What's your issue, Kelly?

Okay, people... Kelly, I need you to first get your Skype together. okay people are Kelly I need you to first get your Skype together you got struggle Skype right now I can't hear you no Kelly look I don't know what kind of wifi you got Kelly you got

cricket wifi at your house no I live under trees. Leave me alone. That's the problem. We couldn't hear what you just said. All I'm saying, people, I'm just giving y'all a video lesson. Shoot this. In fact, let me just go ahead.

Because some of y'all don't believe me, since Kelly don't believe me. Henry, come to my phone. Y'all, come to my phone. Come to my phone. Okay. Henry, come to my phone. You don't see it? There we go.

All right. Y'all see the phone? You don't see it? I don't know why you don't see it. But I'm like, you know what? I'm going to use the iPad. I'm going to use the iPad. Because see, some of y'all think I'm just, I'm joking right here.

Okay, here we go. This, see that view? Come to the iPad. Because see, some of y'all think I'm just I'm joking right here. Okay, here we go. This, see that view? Come to the iPad. Well, dog, there must be something. Well, guess what? It's showing up. There you go. See that? That's vertical. See them black boxes, Kelly? That's vertical. That's horizontal, Kelly!

Do you see the difference? Vertical. Horizontal. Vertical. Horizont Vertical, horizontal. Got it? Lord have mercy. All right, y'all. Malik, Kelly, Amisha, I appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. Now that Kelly needed that doggone phone lesson on how to shoot some video. So next time, y'all, please do me a favor. Just shoot always horizontal so we can fill the whole screen and we can show all the craziness of the crazy-ass white people. Okay? All right, let's talk business.

My next guest, y'all, entered a pitch competition, walked away with $100,000. These events take place all around the country. It's amazing how many people don't take advantage of them. You might have a business idea. And so guess what? This is what you do. I moderated. American Heart Association had a pitch competition that we, it was two of them. We actually moderated

one in North Carolina, had one in DC last year. Same thing. This is all about trying to advance your business and your idea. It also is great because what it does is it allows you to be able to stand in front of people to explain your business. I can't tell you the number of people who come up to me with ideas for their business, and y'all, they can't even properly explain to me what in the hell their business is. Well, my next guest, of course, opened her business

when her grandmother was battling breast cancer, she recognized the challenge of finding well-fitting post-misectomy prosthetics that matched her skin tone. She never found the perfect fit, so she said, yo, I'm going to create Cherry Blossom Intimates, a boutique for breast cancer survivors. Joining me right now is Jasmine Jones. Jasmine, what up?

Hey, how are you? Doing good. So first of all, when did you start your business? We opened our doors in October of 2018, but we actually founded our company about a year before then. So it took us a year really to get things off the ground. And so and so I saw your Instagram post when you enter the pitch competition. And was it was it was that always the plan or did you say, or how did you find out about it?

And then you were like, all right, might as well. Let's see what happens. Well, yeah, exactly that. So I knew that I had a really great idea for a small business, but it wasn't until I started talking to some venture capitalists that it made sense for me to actually want to go and pitch. A few of them started telling me, you know, this is a really good idea. Have you looked at investors?

Have you looked at their outside financing? I never really thought about my business scaling in that way. But after doing my research and finding out that we were a good fit for it, I just took the plunge and tried, and it worked out. So what was this competition you entered? And walk us through that. What happened? Yeah, so I joined the SoGal Global Pitch Competition, which is the largest millennial-led diverse pitch competition across the globe. So 1,700 other businesses competed for a slot for the finals. And fortunately, I was able to represent and go to the finals, represent my business and

pitch in San Francisco. So it was really exciting. Me and 60 other businesses were there and we worked from the beginning of the day till late at night. We all gave our pitches and we all tried really hard. We only had four minutes to explain what our business does. And then we had one minute of question and answer from the guest judges. It was maybe 15 or 20 judges. It's a huge panel. They deliberated and then they came back with giant checks. So this is a photo of you on your Instagram page. Go ahead and go to it. And so

this is outside the competition. Then you posted this photo right here, showing you holding a big old check for $100,000. Wow. Yes, yes, yes. So I, they wrote a big giant check for $100,000 and I had to take it through the airport. So that was, it was pretty crazy,

but it now hangs up in my living room and it's really exciting experience. There were lots of diverse founders there. Um, there were women of color, but what I really appreciated was being able to take home such a huge prize packet and bring it back to my hometown, which was Prince George's County, where I started my business. So you, to propose to this, here we go to my, back to my iPad. You said, I did something unexpected at the I Am So Gal global pitch competition. The last minute

before walking on stage, I decided to try something that hadn't been done. As I think about it, I took a few unconventional approaches to my pitch and it paid off. What'd you do?

At the very last minute. Well, I realized that the judges were going to be sitting there for a long time. And if I were a judge judging 60, 80 pitches all day long, I'd probably get a little bored. So I said, you know, I'm going to actually break the fourth wall. So I stepped off the stage to show the judges what I had. And I think that really helped me to stand out. Another thing that I did was I was really authentic and true to myself, to my brand. I wore a hot pink dress that matched my pitch deck

because I wanted to be remembered for that as well. I made some jokes. I just kept it very true to who I was and I didn't try to show up and pretend to be what I want, what I thought that they might want to see. I just wanted to be myself. So I wore a hot pink mini dress. I broke the fourth wall. I passed the judges samples of what my boutique offers. So we actually create custom prosthetics. So I passed them boobs and nipples, and they loved it, and I won. Well, that works.

That works. Well, see, the thing that's interesting interesting is that I wrote a lot of people and I can't tell you the number of entrepreneurs. It is baffling to me. People who have a business or they want to start a business, but they're scared to talk. Right. And I keep saying, you're you do know that you are the greatest salesperson for your job, for your company. And if you are, I mean, I've met with people and they said, yeah, but that's just not my thing. I just want to do the work. And I'm going, so who's going to even know you exist if you're unwilling to talk and be the face of your business? Yeah, you have to jump out there because people want to be able to connect with another person.

They want to know that they're not just throwing their money into a hole or that nowadays that is going to some big corporation that isn't being responsible or doesn't care about the community. So I make a really good point to be here and be present, let people know that I'm the owner and that I'm here to help them, give them hugs, remember their face. If I see them at the grocery store, you know that I'm the owner and that I'm here to help them, give them hugs, remember their face. If I see them at the grocery store, you know, I say, hey girl, I just try to connect with them and let them know that I'm here for them. And I think it's really important as business owners to get out there and have your face and presence be known so that people can

connect you to your business. Because if you're really in it for the long haul, you can't be afraid of letting people see you and being vocal. So, yeah, if you're ever afraid of that as an entrepreneur, I'd recommend taking maybe some polishing classes and then going out there and trying it. Well, and the thing here is that what this points to, it points, again, to overcoming fears and being willing to step out there and the rally is 100 grand is 100

grand. That's not a small amount and there are pitch competitions all over the place. Tied to different kind of groups. Absolutely and you're never going to win if you don't get out there and try so you know, I mean you can sit at home or you can go try and it might work. I think it's also important to get to know your batting average. So as an entrepreneur, I win a lot, but I also lose a lot. So there's a lot that people don't see. But I've come to realize that I have about a one in six average of winning. So I have to go out and try and try and try and get a whole lot of no's. Let me go through those first

five no's so I can start to get a win. So knowing that as a business owner is that you're going to have to get knocked down a lot and you might be rejected a lot, but that it comes with the territory. And if you don't get out there, you'll never win. If you don't play, you'll never win the game. So how many pitch competitions, I mean, so

how many have you entered in? I mean, how much money have you brought home? Well well this was my first one so you said you said one one and six so one okay so what are the other five you say one and six where they come from oh one and six is just in general so i try for a lot of things i write um i try for a lot of grants. I try for just different types of funding. I try to put my business into business of the year competitions and things like that. And I don't always win. So that's what I mean when I mean that one. It could be one in six of anything. It could be one in six pitches, you know, where I'm telling people about the business and they never write about us or they don't particularly care at the moment. But at least I tried. And that's the most important part. So yeah, for this pitch competition, it was actually

my first try. And I was very fortunate, very blessed to bring it home. And look, the thing that I think for a lot of people is you got to stay focused on the business. I mean, when we launched this show, I mean, I've had two different publicists. They've sent information out regarding the show. Not a single, and this is crazy. So even with all the work that I've done, all the years in the media, not a single media writer has done a story on the launching of this digital show. There's no digital show like this targeting African-Americans.

We've sent them out first-year numbers, 100 million views, 345 million minutes watched, grown the YouTube channel by more than 180,000. Here we are now. I think we're sitting at four. When we launched this show, we were at 150,000. We're now at 474,000 YouTube subscribers. We've grown our metrics.

Our YouTube numbers have doubled from January to March. Facebook doubled. Periscope tripled. And I've had publicists say, well, man, this is a doggone shame. I said, don't worry about it. We're going to do the work. And I think a lot of people who are entrepreneurs get frustrated because they say, and I've seen it. I've seen the New York Times, these other people,

and these mediaite and TV newser. I've seen them write up folks who do some simple Simon shit. And you're like, we're doing a full-fledged two-hour a day show and they launch a little podcast and all of a sudden, y'all blowing it up. I tell my people, it don't matter. Focus on doing the work

and we're just going to keep growing and when they all of a sudden wake up, then we might talk to you. Then I might not. Yeah, exactly that. So by the time you, you know, get to that point, either they'll be there on your side and you can allow them around you or not. I mean, it's not their fault that they're going to miss that opportunity of being able to have the scoop because really, I think that's what it is. But as a business, business reversing back to that you're going to take a lot of losses

We you know had a lot of challenges in our business things are extremely expensive Emergencies come up that you don't expect As a small business owner, there's challenges every single day But I think the core of it is being resilient and not quitting being creative in your approach So yeah by the time you win and have successes, it might be too late. I actually, before this career path, I was Miss DC USA, but there were pageants that I tried that I didn't win.

And I had people who told me, you know, you're not cut out to win and you'll never win. So by the time I had the crown on my head, it was nothing for us to even have a conversation about, you know, a win is a win. So I think that's really the most important part. Just go out there and get it and don't slow down for anybody and don't be afraid to be your best self and to show up as your best self every single day. If they're meant to be in your life, they'll come back around.

All right, folks, we'll learn more about your business. Where should they go? Oh, yes. So we're located in Glen Arden, Maryland, right in Prince George's County. We're a first of its kind breast health facility and Intimates Boutique. We help breast cancer survivors be fit for bras and prosthetics, but we help all women to be fit for perfect bras. We have over 200 sizes, 28 through 54 bands and A through N cup. You can find us at Woodmore Town Center in Prince George's County, Maryland, or you can find us online at cherryblossomintimates.com. All right, Jasmine Jones, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Have a great day. All right, have a good one. All right, folks, we're going to end the show this way.

These are the people who have contributed more than 50 bucks to our Bring the Funk fan club. I told you, you know, you joined our fan club, you do 50 bucks or more, you're going to get a personal shout out. Here we go. Verica Johnson, Beverly Hunt, Brenda. She likes shares.

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Folks, your contributions make it possible for us to do what we do right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I make the point all the time. These monitors are not free. contributions and make it possible for us to do what we do right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I make the point all the time. These monitors are not free. This desk, this news desk isn't free. These cameras are staffed. But our goal here is to give you the best that we can covering stories that, frankly, other people are ignoring. You take that. I'm telling you right now, mainstream news. See, these networks, even the business networks, they're not going to put Jasmine Jones on the show, talk about pitch competitions.

That's why we do what we do, being able to talk about these stories, having the guests. Of course, we have the brother who runs the National Funeral Directors Association. Same thing. The mainstream media not talking to them about PPE. You know, here we had a black infectious disease expert. You surely ain't seeing those folks on these networks.

We've got to be able to control our narrative and tell our story. Here we had a black infectious disease expert. You surely ain't seeing those folks on these networks. We've got to be able to control our narrative and tell our story. Tomorrow, we're going to have more on the case of Breonna Taylor, the sister out of Louisville, Kentucky. We've got to stay on top of that to ensure that that family gets justice. 26 years old, she's gone because of what those cops did, and so we want to be able to do what we do. So, if you want to contribute to our Bring the Funk fan club,

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Also, hit that button that says notifications. So anytime we go live, you instantly get a notification telling you that we are live. Tomorrow, Teddy Riley is back. We're talking technology. Y'all keep making fun of Teddy Riley when it comes to, of course, the sound on that challenge versus battle with Babyface.

Wait till I show y'all what Teddy is doing and how Teddy is making six figures by working with a Black-owned company to do live streaming of concerts. Yeah, we're going to talk about that tomorrow, right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. All right, y'all have a great one. Holla! you I know a lot of cops.

They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We'll be right back. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. This is an iHeart Podcast.