#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 5.13.19 RMU: Sirius XM responds to c-suite diversity demands; Cop in Eric Garner's death faces trial

Episode Date: May 15, 2019

5.13.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: RMU: Sirius XM responds to the CBC's c-suite diversity demands; Cop in Eric Garner's death faces disciplinary trial; Crystal Mason, the woman who was sentenced to 5 years in prison for illegally voting is getting some legal help with her appeal; The woman who tried to get a metro worker fired for eating on the train was terminated; Martavious Banks, the man who was shot by police has been indicted but the police officers involved won't be charged. A Montgomery County Maryland police officer caught on camera using the n-word. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Crystal Mason, the woman who was sentenced to five years in prison for illegally voting, is getting some major legal help with her appeal. A police officer accused of using a banned chokehold on Eric Garner in New York is finally facing a disciplinary hearing. The woman who tried to get a Metro worker fired in D.C. for eating on the train got fired from her book publisher for not minding her own damn business. We'll tell you about that story. Plus, in Memphis, Martavius Banks, the man who was shot by police, has been indicted, but the cops involved won't be charged for shooting him. And a Montgomery County, Maryland police officer caught on camera using the N-word, while a black officer stood there and did nothing. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Let's go. Believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's rolling, Martel.

Martel. Last month, the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to Sirius XM Radio blasting them for the lack of African Americans on the board of directors and in upper management. The letter was signed by members of Congress, Karen Bass, as well as Barbara Lee and G.K. Butterfield. Sirius XM Radio responded, saying that diversity and inclusion is a priority for the network. Now, in their letter, which they laid out, they talked about a number of issues. First of all, it was a fairly lengthy letter.

Now, they said that it was a priority, but okay, what else? And so I found the letter to be quite interesting. The letter was signed first and foremost by the CEO of Sirius XM Radio, James E. Meyer. Now, he writes here, diversity has been a cornerstone of our success. We benefit every day from diverse perspectives over our 20-year history. We've created thousands of jobs for people of every race, color, nationality, and sexual orientation. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in communities and neighborhoods of color, including Oakland, California, Pandora's headquarters, Washington, D.C., XM's headquarters

in Atlanta, Georgia, our newest Pandora flagship office. Now, again, in this particular letter, they also talked that they have adopted the Rooney Rule. And of course, this is what the letter says. As you know, the Rooney rule requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operations openings. This policy is plainly and prominently stated in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. They also say that they have been actively trying to find diverse board members and that their boards nominating and corporate governance committee has a search underway for a new board member and quote, we intend to make sure that there are as many diverse candidates under consideration as possible. Now, in the letter, they talk about, again, creating urban view, the talk channel, the nation's only 24-7 national radio outlet

devoted to issues concerning African-Americans. And again, talking about building a diverse workforce, but nowhere in here have they said what they're doing when it comes to hiring African-Americans in the upper echelon. Now, what was interesting is that there are folks who always say that, well, you know what, I don't know why you make a big deal out of this but the reality is when you look at who is making the decisions when it comes to not only the content but also the jobs and the hiring we want to make sure that black people are in those positions this is also so the cbc uh should be holding them accountable one of the things that they've been talking about uh is the importance of diversity as well uh and so one of the things that we've also been dealing with, of course, is I'm vice president for digital for the National Association of Black Journalists.

We also have been holding folks accountable, whether it's CNN, whether it's ABC, whether it's NBC, meeting with all of these companies, demanding to know when it comes to their hiring. And so I wanna talk about this right now with my panel right now is Cleo Monago, socio-opolitical analyst and activist, Robert Petillo, civil rights attorney. He joins me via Skype. Robert, I'll start with you. The CBC is using their clout, now the Democrats control the House, to call these companies out.

They have created, Congresswoman Maxine Waters has created a subcommittee dealing with the issue of diversity, holding these publicly traded companies accountable and these corporations for issues of diversity. To me, and I'll go back to Maynard Jackson, he had the three Bs, the ballot, the book, and the buck, understanding how you use political power to impact economic power. That's exactly what the CBC is doing. Absolutely. And the CBC is serving one of their crucial roles, which is the role of oversight over these corporations. They use the public airways. They use our satellite system. They use infrastructure paid for by all taxpayers. And because of that, they need to be held to the same standard as other companies, ensuring minority inclusion and diversity. It's not enough

to have a hip hop station. It's not enough to have a talk station. We want to see who's on your board of directors, who's in your upper management, what is your pipeline issues, how are you reaching out to Black colleges and high schools to ensure that you do create a situation where leadership in the future is more reflective of the audience and not simply old white guys sitting around making money off of Black music, which is how things have been for the last century and a half.'s move the ball forward the cbc is doing exactly what they should be doing uh cleo this is about again how you use power and to effect change and so the cbc should be doing this yeah i'm excited about this um as i said when we talked about this before this is revolutionary it might not be apparent to a lot of people that it's revolutionary because we haven't had this conversation before and people have been accepting the lack of diversity in the background.

Or they assume because Don Lemon or whoever is on TV that everything is taken care of in the background, that there's black folks in charge. We really don't realize that they're just talent. So I'm really excited that the CBC is doing this and I'm eager to find out what the CNN is going to do. I've been listening with bated ear to see if they're going to make any changes based on this. They've done nothing. Well, I figured they weren't going to do anything.

They've done nothing. But I think it's important to figure out or to realize why they're not going to do anything, at least from my perspective. The media is used to push an agenda. It's used to create thought, group thought, national thought, citizen thought. And it's used to make thought, group thought, national thought, citizen thought, and it's used to make people think a certain way. And white people benefit from those campaigns. So they're not willing to give up what they view to control us.

I mean, you might have seen the heightened of disproportionate interracial couples that are outnumbering black-on-black couples in the press. There's an agenda there from my perspective. So this is great. Hopefully, both the CBC as well as CNN and Sirius follows through with some kind of transformation. However, I'm concerned about tokenism. And, Robert, I keep explaining to people this is about quarters of power,

not just at those companies, because other companies, when they're looking to hire people, they're looking at who's in the pipeline, who's in the chain. So if you are an executive vice president in one place, you're being considered to be a president or CEO somewhere else. Well, if you never get a chance to do that, you'll never be able to go up the chain of command. Well, it's kind of like the Rooney rule in football. They instituted this rule about a decade and a half ago, where even if you're not going to hire a black coach, you at least need to interview a black coach and a black person for that front office position because it gets that person in front of those audiences, gets you into those corridors of power.

It puts you in a position where maybe you don't get the job for the Steelers this boards, I spent years with the Rainbow Push Coalition, Reverend Jetson and Janice Mathis in the Atlanta office, analyzing corporate boards, analyzing what they do. And it's very easy to put a smiling person of color out front to be your supply chain, what minority contractors you're going to be in, what are going to be the minority set-asides in your business, what's going to be your future diversity plan. There is often no plan for that. And we see that this is not simply a giveaway to the minority community. This is beneficial for the corporations also. A couple weeks ago, Ancestry.com released a commercial where they had a slave owner running away with a slave,

and no black person was in the room to tell them that was a stupid idea. So you need to have people there who can check you on the fly to make sure you don't get into these corporate faux pas. But you both have referenced power. And that's what I'm saying here. They're not interested. I mean, Roland already said that CNN hasn't made any moves yet. This is serious, y'all. We're talking about power over people's thoughts in this country

and the way they have been controlling the media has been very advantageous to white people and white folks in power. So they're not going to just simply move on with trying to change things based on these demands. Let's be real clear about this. And power is an essential word. And I don't think they want to give it up including that serious i mean they said all this about all these

represent representation they have but like roland keeps saying when it comes to the power moves there's nobody black home well no the companies don't i mean the bottom line is they don't want to give uh give up power but this is where frederick douglas said power because he's nothing that's what our demand never have never will and so our job is make those demands and so what the cdc doing to me is critically important what we're doing nabj is critically important but also here's what's very interesting about it when you talk about how media operates uh robert i'll go to you i tweeted this out this weekend and i've already done a search not a single media writer outside of black outlets has written about this issue. Of course.

Not. I'm talking about Politico. Nothing. Of course. NBC media writers. Nothing. Huffington Post. Nothing.

Wall Street Journal. Nothing. And so you're all these people out here who are covering media and none of them have written about the CBC. I've posted the full CBC letter. Nothing, nothing at all. And that's also part of the deal. This is also what media does not like when others call them out. And so these media writers are doing the bidding of these companies, and that's the game they're playing. Just like I tweeted Howard Kurtz and said, why is it he, how is it that Howard Kurtz has said nothing? He has a media show on Fox News. Brian Stetler has a media show on CNN.

They have said nothing about what the CBC is demanding from Sirius, and they have said nothing about NABJ calling out CNN. They have said nothing about what the CBC is demanding from Sirius, and they have said nothing about NABJ calling out CNN. Media, white folks in media, protecting white folks in media, Robert. Well, one thing we have to understand about the democratization of information and media is that we don't have to stand by the legacy media and wait for them to report on things. We're no longer waiting on Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather. We can put our information out through your show, through our own outlets. This is why it's crucially important for us to control our own narrative, to control our own ability to get messaging out there. And on this idea of when will CNN do something, CNN's ratings

are already below swamp people on the History Channel in primetime. So if they haven't figured out yet they need to make changes, they need to listen to minority voices, then maybe that is what will finally get through their heads when they start hemorrhaging viewership as they currently are. Well, it's true that we should have independent Black media. I support it. Every chance I get, I'm involved. However, we also need to hold accountable the white supremacist agenda and the benign behavior of these people in these power positions that control major thought in this country. They control why we get killed by the cops. They control why we're criminalized.

They control divisions between black men and women. They control how we see communities that are black and how we dismiss our own value as a people. They have huge impact, and they need to be held accountable. And we need to hold them accountable until they do something, as opposed to what they hope we do. We just go quiet, go away, not say nothing. And then we finally change the topic until there's a new sensation in the press, which is what keeps on happening, by the way. Well, one thing, I won't be going quiet again by being able to control the platform. Then they can't tell you what to say and what not to say.

All right, folks, let's go to our second story, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. They have sent a letter to all United States senators encouraging them to oppose the confirmation of judicial nominees who won't state that Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided. There's a list of 27 pending nominees. This week marks the 65th anniversary of Brown versus Board of Education. And Robert, we have seen numerous individuals who've come before the Senate committee and they won't say that Brown was correctly decided. Now, there's this whole deal of, I don't want to, you know, go on record as answering specific questions. But, damn, if you can't say that Brown was correctly decided, you have no business being on the federal bench. All right. Let me bifurcate my answer real quick.

So the first part is going to be the legal analysis of this. What the many of the judicial nominees are saying is that because you are asking them to rule on something speculatively, because you're asking them to give their decision on something, that can be used in oral arguments or in Supreme Court and amicus briefs in the future saying, quoting back to their Senate testimony during their confirmation. But they're not ruling. They were specifically asked, do you believe that Brown versus Board of Education was correctly decided, which ended segregation in schools. That's the case. And as I said, I'm giving you their rationale for why they are not answering that, because

they don't want to be held to an answer in the future on these issues. Okay, what's the answer they've been held to? Yes. Well, no, because if, let's say that this is a hypothetical that I saw in a law that come a couple of weeks ago. Let's say in the future it's a question of do illegal immigrant students get the same right as American students? Do we issue the same protections for trans students as we do for African-American students? And do we cite back to your statements on Brown later on? That's the hypothetical situation there. And that's the reason they don't want to lock themselves

into that. However, I do think that these are very intelligent and smart lawyers who should be able to craft an answer that both affirms their commitment to Brown and preserves their ability to have leeway and not be locked into that in the future. I think it's an exercise in cowardice for these people not to be able to answer a simple question on Brown versus the Board of Education, one of the bedrock pieces of Supreme Court jurisprudence from the 20th century. If you can't say you support Brown, you probably don't need to be on any federal bench. I'm not convinced they actually agree with Brown, Cleo. Exactly. I mean, sometimes people kill me with logic

and breaking down the facts of the matter as if they matter to these people. These people don't want to articulate anything that's going to put a wrench in their power. They don't want to support something that's going to create room for so-called minorities and so-called immigrants to come in here and interrupt their Make America Great Again agenda.

It's really that simple. Their intellect and their legal capacity come in here and interrupt their make America great again agenda. It's really that simple. Their intellect and their legal capacity to litigate, et cetera, is not the issue. Their position and their philosophy is the issue. And they don't want to do anything that's going to go against their white nationalist philosophy. Well, I just think that this is not hard. And the fact of the matter is these are these are largely conservative judges yeah who being asked the question and they won't answer it 90% of the judges that Donald Trump has appointed have been white men mm-hmm I think one has been african-american what you are seeing is clearly Robert an effort by

Trump by Mitch McConnell McConnell, and Republicans. They want to put largely white men, far-right wing men, on the federal bench so they can be there for the next 40 years. Period. Well, this is part of the reason I think people need to start, and should have started five years ago, paying attention to Mitch McConnell. Because what Mitch McConnell did throughout the Obama administration wasn't just to block Merrick Garland. He blocked federal judicial nominees throughout the entire

Obama administration to the point that when Trump took office, there were over 100 vacant judgeships which had not come to a vote. And by Republicans keeping the Senate and increasing their margin in the 2018 midterms, Democrats have to make this their top issue going into 2020, the preservation of the judiciary. Because no matter who wins, the House, the Senate, the presidency, if you allow Republicans to place 100 new federal judges on the bench over the course of the next several years, and maybe between three and four more additional Supreme Court justices on the bench, everything else becomes academic. That's the only thing that matters for the half center of American life. So while we're running around chasing all these issues, we're going to repeal the electoral college, going to have a

green new deal. Every candidate needs to be keying in on this issue of the judiciary, because that's what matters, not just for our lifetime, but for our children's lifetime after us. But also, I think this goes right into the fundamental problem the Democrats have right now, is you've got all these folks who are running for president. Now you might have a 24th person jump in, the guy who was the governor of Montana, even though Chuck Schumer would love for him to run for the U.S. Senate there, Beto O'Rourke is lagging in the polls big time. They would have loved for him to run against John Cornyn next year for the United States Senate. Stacey Abrams announced that she was not running for U.S. Senate. People really wanted her to seek the U.S. Senate position in Georgia as well.

You've got candidates there in Colorado and others. Democrats actually could have a good chance at retaking the Senate by having strong candidates, but hell, they all want to be president. On that point, exactly. I've been making this point for weeks. Let's understand that since 1900, only four elected presidents haven't been reelected. Only four. And two of those were because of third party challengers that was Taft and H.W. Bush. Two of those were because of a failing economy, Hoover and Carter. But so the real meat is going to happen in the Senate. Democrats really could retake the Senate.

But instead of having 30 people running for president, let's get people challenging every single one of these Senate seats. Let's get people fighting and fundraising and organizing statewide. A state like Georgia, where I'm from, where Stacey Abrams isn't running for president, are running for United States senator. We have about 500,000 unregistered African Americans in the state. Take the time between 2018 and 2020 to get as many black folks registered, as many young people registered as possible, and then get your candidates out there and run on a platform that can win. It seems like they don't want to win. It seems like they don't want to actually be able to govern because regardless of who the Democratic nominee is, regardless of if they're elected, if Mitch McConnell has a 60-vote majority

in the Senate, you're not getting anything done, including Supreme Court, including judiciary, including regulations. You'll be a one-term, neutered, lame-duck president from the minute you're elected. That's where the real meat and potatoes happens at. Well, Jeremiah Avis Jones, we really should have strategies. Avis, I want to ask you this question.

Over the weekend, I saw a story where several CBC members were quoted as saying they would love a Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. I tweeted this before we came on the air, that to me, it is an abomination for any member of Congress to be commenting on a presidential ticket when, first off, Joe Biden has not, there's not been one debate. Not one vote has been cast, Joe Biden has not earned the nomination, Senator Kamala Harris has not lost the nomination. And so why in the hell is it this whole discussion now about, well, she would make a great vice presidential candidate, when the fact of the matter is, yes, Joe Biden is leading in early polls.

This is May. A whole hell of a whole lot could happen over the next six, seven months when this whole thing could be flipped. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's the poverty of low expectations. I mean, and I say that because, as you mentioned, Kamala is not running for vice president. That's right. She's running for president. And it's really a little condescending, I would argue, to sit here because people are doing the same thing with Stacey, too. Why isn't it? Hey, wouldn't it be great to have a Biden-Abrams ticket? And she came out and said, hey, I'm not running for second place. You know, so it really is condescending. It's not strategic. But let's also think historically speaking. Right.

So when President Obama was first running as senator, the CBC wasn't behind him. He had to prove it. And that's fine. Every candidate has to prove it, right? He proved it by winning the first primary. Well, no, he had some CBC members who were backing him. But not the vast majority. Right.

And here's the deal, though. Because CBC members had longtime relationships with Hillary Clinton. Absolutely. And the reality is the majority of the black voters weren't even polling in his faith. So, you know, we're very early in this process right now. We have plenty of time. And I have to agree with the previous sort of argument.

I think this is absolutely ridiculous that the Democrats are not being strategic and thinking why is everybody and their mama running for president? No, actually, they are. No, seriously. Senator Chuck Schumer, Tom Perez are. why is everybody and their mama running for president no actually they are no seriously senator chuck schumer tom perez are the problem is you got all these arrogant white guys who all think they can be president cleo and look we're already seeing beto o'rourke is talking about

restarting his campaign dude you on the cover of vanity fair you got all this coverage and you're hovering around two percent how about this is the reality? Sorry, you ain't it. This guy from Montana, he's trying to hop in. I'm like, really? Where the hell are you coming from? And then we get this whole idea of, which again, I

still believe it is insulting, electability. Because this whole notion that, oh no, well look what happened to Hillary, a woman can't beat Trump. Trump only won by 77,000 votes he lost the popular vote a woman did beat Trump right but that Trump is an office it gives the kind of person Trump is which is kind of a child in chief he has lowered the maturity level of the culture of the presidency. So people are like on the high school or junior high school field with their marbles.

Everybody wants to play marbles. Everybody wants to get in there. And it's become, from my perspective, almost an adolescent joust as opposed to a serious strategy to win the White House in powerful ways. Because you mentioned earlier, both of you, you and Robert both mentioned about how the Democrats are not stepping up. Well, somebody needs to ask them, why are you not stepping up? You know, what's going on? Ask whoever. They all actually, I'm telling you, all these white guys actually think they could be president.

Well, why shouldn't they? Senator Chuck Schumer has been, I mean, he tried, he leaned on O'Rourke. Don't run for president, run against Cornyn. He leaned on this guy

in Montana. He leaned on the guy in Colorado. I mean, he's like, and they're sitting there. They want white men to run. They want white men to run.

And which brings me, I want to bring this up. So Politico has this story up right now. It's called The Epitome of privilege booker supporters seed over buddha judge mania the two presidential cant contenders both some of the same credentials so why is mayor pete getting all the attention now first of all small city who's gay, who's married, and he speaks, I don't know how many languages. Media loves what's new. So this is no shock. But here's the flip side. And i ain't got no problem saying it senator cory booker has not elevated his game that's true well on that point i agree with you completely and the this

whining to the refs thing uh and i'm sorry about you houston rockets but what they did the first game was whine to the refs robin who's your team? We rebuilding. Robert, who's your team? Here we go. Robert, who is your team? Atlanta Hawks. Did y'all make the playoffs? No, we ain't made no playoffs.

Shut the hell up then. But we digress. Yeah, you're right. I advise you don't bring up the Rockets if your punk-ass team did not make the playoffs. Now move along. The point is, go ahead. It's your fault, Robert. The point is, when you have Cory Booker whining to the refs, talking about privilege,

and why ain't you paying more attention to me? On the policy front, Elizabeth Warren is killing the whole field. On the excitement front, you got Mayor Pete killing the field. There's no mandate for Cory to run. There's no constituency behind him. I don't know what his true issues are that he's running on. I should be his natural demographic

that he's appealing to. I can't tell you nothing about him. But the fact is there's still eight white guys who are polling lower than him. So instead of crying and whining about white privilege and why do they like Buttigieg, figure out what you can do to set yourself apart from the rest of the field and quit trying to work the refs that's what he's doing well here's the deal for i i do concur

with the amount of tension these white boys are getting over women in the race uh if you look at i mean look yeah absolutely livid the warner's dropping policies like tupac was dropping mixtapes i mean it's just constant just and so and so yeah, Harris is trying to buy for it as well. And again, because we have to also understand the dynamics here. And that is, what you have here, you got mostly white boys who are in media.

Most of the people who cover politics are white boys. That's what's going on here. So we can't just deny the reality of what's happening here. But I think we have to be real about what we're facing here in terms of media. And, yeah, Buttigieg is getting all this attention. I don't understand why. And sure, he's out there raising money.

But, again, getting lots of attention is one thing. Beto O'Rourke got tons of attention. The question, though, is what are you saying or doing that's going to resonate? Are you building infrastructure? Are you on the ground? See, here's my deal. Attention is one thing, but are you methodically building your support in South Carolina? Are you building it in California,

in Nevada, in Florida? So, let's say, because I'm telling you right now, if I'm Cory Booker or Kamala Harris or Julian Castro, I don't give a damn about Iowa or New Hampshire. I don't Harris or Julian Castro, I don't give a damn about Iowa and New Hampshire. I don't. Damn. No, I don't give a damn because the reality is—

Didn't they help Obama? Huh? Didn't they help Obama? Well, no, no. First of all, 2008 was totally different. So let me walk folks through his deal. That's true. So I was 90 percent white.

New Hampshire is about 94 percent white. The reality is that's not how you're going to win. Okay? So second of all, I can also concede those states. By the time Iowans vote in the first caucus, California would have already started early voting. So if you're running, you can say, you know what, y'all can spend all your time in Iowa. I'm going to go over here. And so and then you can look,

I remember the year Rudy Giuliani ran, and of course he like waited till Florida. It was the dumbest decision in the world. But this year, the rules are totally different because of how they moved up. And so the old rule of when Iowa set the stage or sets the next stage up, even for Obama, that's now out, because how

the rules have been changed, where really the first, I dare say, six to eight states will determine who stays in the game. So you can pretty much skip Iowa and New Hampshire. You can focus on California, Nevada, South Carolina, and still do well. However, why Iowa, pardon me, however, I can't talk. Iowa helped to determine the relevance of the black candidate because they're majority white and they supported the black candidate. And that shifted people's perspective on the Congress, on everything. But also though, black people running now, no, you're very true.

But Iowa also made a difference because it exposed Hillary Clinton as vulnerable. He beat her in Iowa. That's right. That was also the dynamic there that I think that was different. So I get that. I'm just saying, as I look at coverage,

as I look at how folks are paying attention, at the end of the day, if I'm Senator Cory Booker, I'm not bitching and moaning about coverage. I'm building infrastructure. Better be building it. I'm building ground game. Because you can't get a single vote based upon a newspaper article.

Right. If I got ground game, I can beat all your glorious coverage. Here's the thing. If I was him and any of them, Kamala and any of them, listen, don't worry about Buttigieg, whatever his name is. Here's the thing, if I was him and any of them, Kamala and any of them, listen, don't worry about Buttigieg, whatever his name is. Here's the thing. It's a grand opening, grand closing situation. Because the minute he gets to South Carolina, his ass is going to be off. He's just going to be gone. He's going to be gone. You know, he has some serious problems with his constituency because they are overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly

white. Black folks don't know him. And what we do know about him, we don't like. I mean, there is just one other, one problem after the other with him. This issue of the all lives matter thing, which he now claims he didn't understand what that means. Yes, I don't believe that. His boo? His boo? I don't know about the boo. Don't let him get the black vote. He said he had a boo. But the issue with his, when he fired the black sheriff, for example, and all of the cover-up that's going on right now in terms of the tapes in his own administration, the degree to which the black community in his own city don't like him and are now polling against him because they said that he has done nothing for them.

In fact, their economic situation is worse than it has been previously. But here's the piece where we are, Robert. It's real simple. The first debate isn't until next month. I mean, here's the deal. If you're Senator Cory Booker, go to that first debate. Kill it. Game changes.

Go to the second debate in July. Kill it. Game changes. I got to remind people, Obama was down 20 plus points to Hillary Clinton in August of 2007. And it wasn't until there was a debate that I believe was in October of 2007, where Hillary Clinton screwed up the question related to driver's licenses for undocumented workers. And that was the opening where the crack was open that Obama was able to get into

and then be able to bring those numbers down. As late as August, he was down 20-plus points. It's way too early for all this nonsense. Robert, final comment on this. Well, not just that. Booker's competition isn't Buttigieg's. Booker's competition is Kamala Harris, because one of them has to win South Carolina to have a compelling case going into Super Tuesday. And thus far, Kamala has smoked Corey in every turn. At that bar hearing,

Cory Booker looked like he was holding Kamala's purse next to her. He can stand up and make a compelling case for himself. Otherwise, he's running to be Kamala Harris' attorney general, not to be the next president. Well, and here's the other deal. Again, very simple. The reality is this here, and I keep trying to explain to people this here. I'm tired of all these fools out here who act as if black people

don't know what the hell they're doing. Black people are some of the smartest voters in the world. Black folks want to see Trump lose. Early polling right now shows Joe Biden with a commanding lead in South Carolina. Why? Because of African Americans. We have to understand that how black voters in 1984 weren't caught up in run, Jesse, run. Black folks love Reverend Jackson. They couldn't stand Ronald Reagan. Who do they support? Walter Mondale.

Same thing happened in 1988. Remember the year, 2004? Former Senator Carol Mosley Braun and Al Sharpton, they both ran. Black folks would give a damn about neither one of them. Not one. I remember betting Keith Klinscales, who then was the CEO of Vanguard Media.

Keith just swore to me, we bet a steak dinner that he said, man, Sharpton is going to win South Carolina. I said Al Sharpton won't even come in third place in South Carolina. And he didn't because black voters were concerned about beating then President George W. Bush. And so I don't understand why folks don't understand where black voters are. And so Joe Biden right now is polling very well. The bottom line, though, is you will see what happens with him, with Senator Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. But again, to everybody who's watching, I want you to understand ain't nobody casting a vote for at least seven months, okay? And so all this crap, y'all don't get all excited about,

oh, this early poll, this, don't mean nothing. Because until you have debates, and then they begin to go head to head, then you're going to see the real thing happen. So we'll let y'all know what's going on. Hey, the Texas ACLU and the Texas Civil Rights Project have joined attorney Kim Cole in getting her efforts to get a new trial for Crystal Mason. Crystal, of course, was a black woman sentenced to five years in prison for illegally voting for violating her parole.

Now, remember, she served the violating her parole on the state level, but voting illegally on the, excuse me, she violated her parole on the federal level. She is in a a halfway house, but she still is facing the five years on the state level. Crystal and her attorney will be joining us right here. Roller Martin unfiltered on Wednesday. Our fight folks going to a break right now. We come back. We're going to talk about New York City. Finally, the cop will kill Eric Garner facing a hearing. I'll tell you all about it when we come back on Roller Martin Unfiltered.

You want to check out Roller Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roller Martin Unfiltered. And subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roller Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roller Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, inviting you to come out swinging and join me for a day of golf at the University for Parents Golf Tournament on Saturday, June 22nd in Southwest Atlanta's Wolf Creek Golf Course. It's a golf tournament with a purpose, a fundraiser for the University for Parents, a program designed to empower parent learners through education, inspiration, and support. This is all tied to Susan Taylor's mentoring program, National CARES Mentoring Program.

Now, when you empower the parents, you also empower the children as well. The location of the tournament is 3000 Union Road, and the shotgun start time is 9 a.m. To register, go to www.uletteru4parents.org, letteru4parents.org. Hey, guys, tomorrow, do me, letter U for parents dot org. Hey, guys, tomorrow, do me a favor when you do this here. Put the Web site at the bottom of the screen here. It's a little small on the flyer. For more information, call 770-316-3487, 770-316-3487. And I certainly hope to see you there. Folks, Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was accused of using a banned chokehold

in the 2014 death of Eric Garner, will finally face a police department hearing. Now, he's the plainclothes officer in the green shirt in this video. Roll it, please. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Don't touch me, please. Don't touch me. He gave us a bag of shit. Let's go, let's go, let's go. me, please. Don't touch me. I just gave you some bag of baby shit.

Damn, man. Where's your hand, buddy? I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Now, Pantaleo and the police department have claimed that it wasn't a chokehold. We all have eyes. We saw it was a chokehold.

Also, the medical examiner ruled it was a homicide. They tried to say, oh, no, it was his heart disease that contributed to his own death. Well, if he wasn't being choked, then he could have been able to breathe. Also, there was a protest this morning demanding that Ponte Petaleo be fired. He has been on desk duty since Garner's death, but still getting paid for the last five years. And so we'll let you know how that's going. All right, folks, over the weekend, this thing blew up social media. Natasha Tynes is an author, was just about to get a major publishing deal, but she just couldn't mind her own damn business. She tweeted a picture of a black Metro worker eating on the train, saying, quote,

When you're on your morning commute and seeing a Metro employee in uniform eating on the train, I thought we were not allowed to eat on the train. This is unacceptable. Hope Metro responds. When I asked the employee about this her response was worry about yourself okay the publishing house distributing her novel dropped her and her publisher delayed the planned release of the book the metro worker did not face any action whatsoever because they also only have 20 minutes time to eat between going from one place to another uh uh i won't go to you avis uh she first of all uh the the company that was going to distribute also only have 20 minutes time to eat between going from one place to another.

We'll go to you, Avis. First of all, the company that was going to distribute her book made it perfectly clear. Black women read books. And they are, so the distributor said, we're not distributing her book. They're now putting pressure on the publisher also in her book deal. Tynes has now made her Twitter account private because she was getting lit up, and deservedly so. Absolutely. I mean, black Twitter was on her like white on rice, no pun intended.

It was absolutely poetic justice to see that. And I think really one of the things that people pounced on her about, not only because, quite frankly, this was none of her business and this woman was working, and you don't know her situation. She only had a few minutes to eat. You don't know how long she had been working, how much longer she had to work before she could get some food. People were upset because if you went to her Twitter account, she was publicizing the fact that here she is, a woman of color, and you should support women of color authors. And here she is trying to get another woman of color, a black woman specifically, fired. That's the whole point of that tweet. Let's just be very

real about that. So the hypocrisy of that, I think,'s the whole point of that tweet. Let's just be very real about that. So the hypocrisy of that, I think, is something that people pounced on, and I'm glad that her publishers and her distributor reacted in the way that they did. Robert, it was pretty funny, again, seeing the reaction. I mean, it was swift. It was fierce. She deleted the tweet, said she apologized. Oh, but it was a little too late. Well, one thing that people need to

understand, we're a couple of decades into the social media world. We all understand now how these things work. You can't, you're not the first white woman or the first woman to try to bust out black folks with no apparent reason. Mind your business. She wasn't tearing up the train. Plenty of things happened on the Metro that is worth a tweet. Someone eating their lunch is not it. I'm glad she learned her lesson. I hopefully just won't have long-term permanent ramifications, but I think the publisher and the distributor did the right thing. I think the best thing she can do is find that worker and take her out to lunch and apologize for what she did. And in fact, I would advise that Cleo, because she needs some serious reputation fixing going on right here.

And again, here she was dogging his worker about to affect her money. Now, Natasha's book deals about to affect her paper. Well, clearly she didn't know all this is going to happen. All she knew was that a black woman was eating. And how dare she eat? And my focus here is on how people project and look at black women or working class people and judge them and try to punish them for being who they are. And that's what she tried to do. So I'm glad that she got what she deserved and we'll see who does publish her book.

But sister, keep on eating. Eating is important. It is, it is. All right, folks, let's talk about this next one. The Montgomery County Maryland Police Department says it is investigating a white female officer after she was recorded on Instagram Live and on her own body camera using the N-word while talking to a group of black men.

Y'all, check out this crazy-ass white woman. to a group of black men. Y'all check out this crazy ass white woman. Got a whole bunch of paperwork. Hey, we're trying to get you out of here fast, right? So if we have more people, y'all niggas been trying to do something. I'm like, this is what we're talking about. Racist ass bitch. Uh, no, that's all.

I bet she ain't had that badge on if she wouldn't call us no niggas. All right, this took place outside a McDonald's restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland, where according to Montgomery County Police Spokesman Captain Thomas Jordan, four African-American men were originally approached by an officer for loitering and trespassing. Now, cue up the tape again, because I want y'all to see there's a black cop standing right there who's writing. He don't say a damn thing. Press play. I bet she ain't had that badge on if she wouldn't call us no niggas. Well. Oh, God have mercy. Another white woman freestyling.

You know, that's, that, and, but the issue, though, like you already raised, Rolla, is that the brother was sitting there, he didn't miss a beat. Right. He just sitting here like filling the report out? Just like when a brother or sister is being harassed by cops, beat, lied on, killed, some of them show up and co-sign the ticket. So I'm mixed about this. Obviously I'm against the N-word. I don't use the N-word, but the N-word is so part of our culture,

and she probably was thinking of a song she heard that morning on the radio. Who knows? It's wrong. So don't give me, don't get the impression from me that I'm saying it is right. Right. But, Ava, she was mighty damn free. She was too damn familiar. No.

No. She's got a little white rhythm on it. No. No. It's like, y'all niggas. And why is she still employed? I mean, the only statement that I've seen from the Montgomery County Police Department is that they're going to look into this. She does not need to be employed.

Because if she feels that comfortable to be calling black people niggas, knowing that she has her own body cam on, knowing that she's being videotaped because something is clearly you can see her in clear view then what is she what else is she comfortable doing knowing that they're not going to be any i think this goes beyond her avis i think as i said earlier what about the cops who are sitting right there didn't flinch didn't move smoothly continued to write when we punish quote the white woman for doing what she's doing what we're going to do about the co-signing black people? She was mighty damn comfortable. Well, you can tell from the black officer's reaction or lack thereof, she says that all the time. Exactly.

He probably is in the car listening to songs rhyming along with her while she's doing it. She was a little bit too familiar. This wasn't a slip of the tongue. This is just how she talks normally. So you need to bring that whole crew, that whole shift in, and explain to them to get their white woman under control.

You can't just have her out in these streets wilding out and making us all look bad. If you're going to be teaching her to say all this stuff, you've got to be held accountable for what you taught her. So you need to get that bald-haired dude who was writing, get him in there and get him on probation too because he can't be training these white folks to act like this. He's going to get hugged.

Bottomline is, yeah, I can't wait to see what their folks to act like this. He's going to get her beat. Bottom line is, yeah, I can't wait to see what their response is. And again, I'm waiting for the Fraternal Order of Police to go, it's okay. She was just trying to be familiar. You know that's coming. You know it's coming. All right, folks, let's talk about a case, a stunning case.

Police officers involved during the shooting of Martavius Banks, okay, this has been crazy, y'all, have been cleared of criminal charges. Now, Banks was shot by Memphis Police Department officer in September. The officers involved in the incident did not have their body cameras turned on during the incident. In fact, they were turned off. Banks is up on charges of intentionally evading arrest in a motor vehicle with risk of harm to others,

unlawful possession of a weapon, driving while license suspended, revoked or canceled, and reckless driving. Really, Robert? So the brother gets shot. They happen not to turn the cameras on, and now he facing charges. One thing that I can definitely say as we get into this 2020 race, I've not heard a single candidate say that they're going to make a federal standard for tamper-proof police body cameras that are saved to an independent tamper-proof server. That is what is required.

We got money to go drop bombs on Iran and everybody else. We got money for the Green New Deal and every other thing. I need a candidate to say they're going to make that a federal law. And for any police department to get federal funding, they're going to be required to be equipped with tamper-proof body cameras, because this happens too often, where the body camera either malfunctions, it falls off, it turns off, it was broken at the time, something along those lines. And allegedly, this brother isn't dead, but we see that as the result far too often. We need to make this part of our agenda, not these broad verisimilitudes. We need to actually pin some people down on policy issues that will help us immediately. You're right. And we'll see if any of these candidates have the guts to actually do that.

Here, go to my iPad, please. I want to talk about this, this opinion piece here. This was dropped over the weekend. Alyssa Montano, she wrote this piece in the New York Times called Nike told me to dream crazy until I wanted a baby. And she talks about, of course, being one of the Nike athletes. But then when she got pregnant, she was not able to get paid. And so she talked about the difficulty. And so she basically calls Nike out. She said, it's just advertising. She says that the best of the best can supplement that income with prize money from winning races outright. But the majority of athletes who are often the breadwinners for their families sign exclusive

five or six figure deals that keep them bound to a single company for the vast majority of athletes the sport is a way to earn a decent living by doing what they love and excel at they don't get rich but she says that um look it changes this is what she says interesting now remember when beyonce met with rebot and they didn't have anybody who looked like her she like uh i'm out of here well elisa elisa writes that the four nike executives who negotiate contracts for track and field athletes are all men phoebe wright says getting pregnant is the kiss of death for a female athlete said phoebe wright who was a runner sponsored from by nike from 2010 through 2016 there's no way i tell nike if I were pregnant. And a number of women in here talked about this here in terms of not being able to still be supported by the company.

What they're saying here, Avis, is that these companies are only paying folks while they are actually performing. The women are saying, well, if we have a baby, we can't perform, we should still get paid while we are recovering from having a baby. Absolutely, and I'm going to, you know, beyond just the common-sense moral case that can be made around this, let's just talk about this strictly as business. Guess what, Nike?

Pregnant women actually work out. Okay, please. This could have been a boom for them if they would have contextualized it correctly. I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous that women keep on being punished in every way imaginable just for the very natural human act of having children

or, in other cases, choosing not to have children. Robert, Nike acknowledged in a statement that some of its... Go back to my iPad, please. Nike acknowledged in a statement that some of its sponsors, go back to my iPad please, Nike acknowledged in a statement that some of its sponsored athletes have had their sponsorship payments reduced because of pregnancies. The company says it changed its approach in 2018 so the athletes are no longer penalized. Nike declined to say if it wrote those changes into its contracts. Robert? Well, this is why it's so crucial as we were discussing earlier about

serious, about representation and the highest levels of any corporation. Who's on that board of directors? Who is part of that committee which decides on athlete pay? Or do you have women of color there? Do you have a diversity that actually looks like America? And do you have people who can speak to these issues from a firsthand perspective and not just a table full of old white guys deciding to take checks away from pregnant women. We've got to make sure that we hold these companies accountable. The public face is wonderful. Everyone loves Jordans. Everybody loves getting a pair of LeBrons or wherever else. Let's make sure that the people behind that, the ones who are making billions, not millions, actually look like the individuals who are impacted and that we have representation

in that decision-making process. Cleo, it says here that Montano, I remember in 2014 when she ran the United States Championship, she was eight months pregnant when she was competing. She was celebrated as the pregnant runner. Privately, she had

to fight their sponsor to keep her paycheck. Patriarchy is a bizarre evil why this is almost a rhetorical question but why would you punish women for caring and giving life and being pregnant it's just insane it reminds me of so many other things that people in this country do that's just like paying teachers nothing who are in charge of the children's lives as they develop and having a rationale for that or not responding to it in a progressive way this is strange it's just bizarre that anyone would punish women for being pregnant that's how you come here we need we need people to be pregnant and we need to affirm that so i don't get it uh and uh this was the full statement that Nike actually released.

Let me pull this up, please, here. This is the statement. Go to my iPad, please. Nike is proud to sponsor thousands of female athletes as is common practice in our industry. Our agreements do include performance-based payment reductions. Historically, a few female athletes have performance-based payment reductions. Historically, a few female athletes had performance-based reductions applied. We recognize that there was inconsistency

in our approach across different sports, and in 2018, we standardized our approach across all sports so that no female athlete is penalized financially for a pregnancy. 2018, wow. They only had to wait until 2018 to make a change. But that they even have to be told to make a change.

They had mothers. Patriarchy can be real. It's a hell of a drug. Yeah, and it's disorienting, apparently. Well, again, that's exactly how those things roll. Hey, folks, tomorrow on HBO, it's going to be the debut of a new documentary

called What's My Name? Muhammad Ali focuses on him, of course, being the life of the great. It's directed by Antoine Fuqua, brother, you know, of course. He's directed numerous movies. Co-produced by LeBron James, here is a clip of the documentary.

Anybody who's doing the right thing, they catch a lot of the documentary anybody who's doing the right thing they catch a lot of hell you cannot please god and the devil too well i'm rejected here and rejected there and i have a good feeling spiritually because i'm right if i wasn't, then they would accept me. Cassius Clay is a name no more. Yes, sir. Muhammad Ali is more capable of speaking for himself than any man in this country. This kid had that style. This quickness.

I'm going to hit you six times before you count two. Go. What do? You want to see it again? Boys in Vietnam are throwing away their lives. Mr. Muhammad Ali has just refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He got the title because the draft took my title. Mom, boo, you won't hear no more about Joe Frazier.

Here comes Muhammad Ali. I'm the boldest, the most creative, greatest fighter of all time. I'm out to conquer immortality. What's My Name? Muhammad Ali debuts Tuesday, May 14th at 8 p.m. on HBO and streams throughout the entire month. Robert, I want to go to you. It's still interesting to me how America is just so fascinated with Muhammad Ali, but gets really pissed off when black athletes today actually have the audacity to speak out on issues, to say, I'm not going to go to the White House because you've got a deplorable person who is sitting in the Oval Office.

You look at Colin Kaepernick, all of these scrubs still being signed by NFL teams, and not one team will actually even bring him into training camp. America loves to, again, lift somebody up, but they don't really like it in real time when black athletes speak up. Well, what people really enjoy is his story. They love being able to make up a story about somebody, co-opt their agenda, whitewash it, and then reuse it and repackage it for their own purposes. So whenever you hear somebody say that they love Muhammad Ali and hate Colin Kaepernick, in 20 years they're going to tell you how much they love Colin Kaepernick the entire time. The same thing where now you're hearing white conservative Republicans quoting Dr. King all the time because now they're able to take his message, whitewash it,

co-opt it, repackage it, and send it back to you like you foolish. I've even started to hear conservatives quoting Malcolm X because part of what he said fits their agenda. And so you cannot allow other people to control your history, control your knowledge, control your understanding of what actually happened. We need to hold people's feet to the fire. When they say shut up and dribble now, we have to make sure that they cannot come right back after it and say how much they love Muhammad Ali and many of the activists of the 1960s.

The battle never ended. The characters changed. The combatants changed, but the battle continues. And we have to make sure that these same people can no longer just switch sides as convenient to them. What you got here, Avis, is simple, and that is America wants to praise you after the fact. When you're going through hell, he was vilified. Absolutely. And he was exactly right in his own words in terms of when he was standing up by his moral principles and he was standing up with right. At that time, as you mentioned, the vast majority of the American public was vilifying him. And as was just mentioned, when you have decades that go past, people can

then pick and choose. And when he, quite frankly, was unable to, because of his Parkinson, to really be able to verbalize his opinions as powerfully as he had in his younger years, his whole history had been whitewashed. And so, you know, it's a pet peeve of mine that I do hear people who will, on the one hand, they'll talk about Muhammad Ali. They'll talk about MLK. But on the other hand, you're right. They'll castigate the very people in real time who are the people that those two men would have stood up for and been right beside if they were here today. Well, when Colin Kaepernick dies, he'll get a movie. My point is that when black truth tellers, tellers are alive, Muhammad Ali, Marcus Garvey, Malcolmcolm x marlon the king they're vilified when they can't speak for themselves they become ghosts and legends then we've then we've raised them up because they're not a threat anymore and they can't come back and re-articulate the power of their words anymore and this is great that humbly is being praised but when he was alive films like

this should have been made but this is the press that's controlling this but also the press won't allow these kind of videos to be made when the person's still alive i also dare say that america loved muhammad ali the moment he could not talk that's the same thing same thing i mean had i i don't care had mu Had Muhammad Ali not been affected by Parkinson's disease and was able to speak out on injustices? Exactly. Oh, my God. They still would be throwing him under the bus. Like Kaepernick is being thrown now under the bus. Same thing. The reality is you say what needs to be said regardless of whether or not you're going to be loved because righteousness is what should reign supreme. There's an old African proverb that says a prophet is never honored in their own land. That's how our athletes, how our leaders often are.

During their own time, in their own country, they're not appreciated. They're demonized. Nobody loved W.E.B. Du Bois when he was alive in the mainstream white America. Nobody had this level of love and respect. For many of our leaders throughout the years, it's only once they can change their messaging for their own purposes. It's kind of like a bad preacher on Sunday, where he can pick and choose parts of the Bible to make his own story. He can go to Jonathan and say, win you, and then Ezekiel and say, give me, and then go to Luke and say, money, and then make the whole sermon about giving me money.

That's how these people do with our leadership, where they pick and choose parts of what they say to bring out the point they're trying to make. We have to dominate our own education and our own history. Don't make Black History Month just February. Make it 365 days a year. Don't worry about the schools and McDonald's doing it. Do it for your own children, your own family, so they know the real story when they go into the real world. All right, Tim. All right, folks, I'm sitting here wearing this t-shirt this weekend. I flew to St. Louis to watch Tyler Perry's final Madea play. They've been traveling since January.

112 sold-out shows across the country. St. Louis was jam-packed, sold out as well. They're going to be in Pittsburgh and New York this week. And so Tyler had been hitting me up saying, hey, you got to come check it out. And so I appreciate him and the crew giving me the gift bag. And so I said, this is the first actually Madea play I've actually seen. Have you seen any of them before? I've not seen a play.

I've not seen any of his plays. Cleo? I have not been interested in Madea. Robert, have you seen any of them? I'm not going to watch no six-foot-five man in a dress. What if they were six feet? Five foot nine. I love the studio and all the help they're giving to African-American films and movies and actors. I ain't watching no man in a dress.

I'll tell you what, though. Madea Plays made all that possible. And so I certainly had a good time. And I did. I mean, it's just true. I mean, look, look. At the end of the day, this is the second studio that he's built. And so that's actually what led to all of that.

And so you had a 300 acre compound, which is a major there in Atlanta. And so, again, so it was great seeing David Mann, Tamla Mann, Cassie, all the folks who were in it. And so, again, St. Louis, it was great seeing all of y'all there as well. All right, folks, is it for us? Be sure to support Roland Martin Unfiltered by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Every dollar you give joining our Bring the Funk fan club goes to support this show. Tomorrow we're going to be on location from the Bible Museum here in Washington, D.C. There's a screening of a powerful new movie that's opening in june about emmanuel nine we will have some of the survivors

on our show tomorrow so we'll be broadcasting location on location i'm going to also be moderating a panel after the screening of the movie we'll be live streaming that for you as well so you do not want to miss uh that tomorrow and so uh only only us will be only this show be doing that folks which is one of the reasons why you need to support this. Black-owned, independent, we call our own shots, speak our own truth,

and we ain't got to ask nobody for permission. So please go to rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Also, Friday, I'm going to be giving the commencement speech at Bowie State. It'll be the 18th college commencement speech that I've given. Looking forward to that.

And so this week, all this week, we're going to be live streaming. We're going to be restreaming, actually, a number of the other commencement speeches that I've given over the last several years. And so I did Virginia University of Lynchburg a couple of weeks ago. And so we're going to stream that for you

right after this show ends. And so we had some fun ones. And y'all really going enjoy this, because see, one of the things I can't stand, my new graduations. You know, like, I appreciate they had a brother who sang a song, I think it was Total Praise, one of those songs, but it was a little too

slow for me. So I had to say, y'all gotta crank this thing up before I speak. And so same thing, and so you'll see some of those commencement speeches. Like, if you go to Google right now, and you type in Roland Martin and Grambling State or South Carolina State. And when you see the band getting funky, that was because I told him, go ahead and get funky. So we turned out graduation. And so it was hilarious because the presidents were looking like, I know he didn't. But then when you come as a speaker, you can do what the hell you want to do.

That's how we roll. So we're going to have those features for you streaming this week. So we certainly hope you enjoy them. Looking forward to that. So I'll see you guys tomorrow. Got to go. Holla! 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. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.