#RolandMartinUnfiltered - America, world prepares for Biden-Harris Inauguration; COVID-19 memorial; Lloyd Austin confirmation

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

1.19.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: America, world prepares for Biden-Harris Inauguration; COVID-19 memorial; Lloyd Austin confirmation; Warnock and Ossoff wins certified; Gwinnett elections board's new chairwoman wants limits on no-excuse absentee voting, voter roll review; Rev. William Barber breaks down what Biden's moral agenda should be in his first 100 days as prez; Census chief resigns; Trump admin to deport man to Haiti; Calls for DC statehood intensify; Meet MCheyenne Chapel, the animator for Pixar's new hit movie SOULSupport #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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. self. 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. 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. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. 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. 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. Thank you. Folks, today is Tuesday, January 19th, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, we are 18 hours away from Donald Trump being out of the White House

and having Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, next inaugurated as the next president and vice president of the United States. And we'll show you today's COVID-19 memorial that took place on the nation's mall where Ilana Adams sung, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris spoke, finally to see leaders addressing the pain, the agony of 400,000 Americans

losing their lives to COVID-19. Also, Senator-elect Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff, their elections have been certified by the state of Georgia. They will be sworn in tomorrow by the United States Senate. The confirmation hearing of retired General Lloyd Austin took place today. We'll show you some of that.

Plus, Reverend Dr. William Barber joined us to talk about Biden's moral legitimacy for the first 100 days. Also, the head of the Census Bureau is out amid allegations that he pushed to deliver data on undocumented immigrants to Donald Trump. That wasn't complete. And the Trump administration is planning to deport

a man to Haiti, even though he's never been there. Plus, Melania Trump leaving the White House with her lowest favorability ratings ever. Let's not forget, she's also a racist birther. And how long will it take for the NFL to increase the number of black coaches, general managers, and team presidents? Is it time for folks to put pressure on the sponsors of the NFL? Plus, we'll be joined by Cheyenne Chappell, the animator of Pixar's new hit movie, Soul. Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the miss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time

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

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real in Donald Trump's term in the Oval Office. Thank God we finally are going to get rid of the thug Donald Trump. The inauguration is set. Security is on high alert here in the nation's capital. As the city is on a veritable lockdown, security everywhere, trying to keep everyone safe after the white domestic terrorists supporting Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. And so they are, first of all, you have security all over the place.

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, both are in the nation's Capitol. A few moments ago, what took place on the National Mall was something really important by the reflecting pool. And that is there was an event. The event was all about honoring the 400,000 Americans who have lost their lives due to COVID-19. Finally, we have a president and a vice president who actually cares about the loss of life. For the most part, Donald Trump has not cared. In fact, check this out, folks. Since December, since December, we have lost 100,000 Americans. One hundred thousand Americans we have lost since. December. And what has the Trump administration done? Nothing for him. We might as well ignore what took place for Donald Trump.

Whatever. No big deal, because he he doesn't want to deal with the so-called bad news. He doesn't want to deal with what took place. He doesn't want to even acknowledge what took place because that's the kind of person we're dealing with. Someone with no compassion, no humanity, someone who doesn't care, who it doesn't matter to him how folks have been impacted. It doesn't matter to him exactly how they have been in pain and agony. But again, to finally have leaders address these issues is important. This is Vice President-elect Kamala Harris speaking earlier today. A grandmother or grandfather who is our whole world. A parent, partner. All right, folks, we're going to cue that back up to hear again Kamala Harris there speaking.

It was it was striking. The tone was striking. It was striking to see the difference between somebody who is a real leader than what we've had to deal with for the past four years to actually see America, see an American leader step up and acknowledge the pain of America. Let's go back. Let's do this. Cue back up. Let's go. Tonight, a nation in mourning to pay tribute to the lives we have lost a grandmother or grandfather who is our whole world, a parent, partner, sibling, or friend who we still cannot accept is no longer here. And for many months, we have grieved by ourselves. Tonight, we grieve and begin healing together. Though we may be physically separated,

we, the American people, are united in spirit. And my abiding hope, my abiding prayer, is that we emerge from this ordeal with a new wisdom. To cherish simple moments, to imagine new possibilities and to open our hearts just a little bit more to one another. It is now my great honor to introduce Lori Marie Key. Lori is a nurse at St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital outside of Detroit. Her community was hit hard when the virus struck, and Lori was assigned to the COVID unit.

Lori is known for singing on the hospital floor, and a video of her singing a certain hymn inspired our nation. She joins us this evening to honor those we have lost with that same hymn. Amazing Grace. Thank you so much, Vice President-elect Harris. It is an honor to be here with you and with President-elect Biden. Working as a COVID nurse was heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking for the patients who were sick. It was heartbreaking for the families who couldn't be there with them. And it was heartbreaking for those caring for them. But when I'm at work, I sing.

It gives me strength during difficult times, and I believe it helps heal. So here is Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Like me, I once was lost, but now I see the Lord has promised good to me. my hope secures. He will my strength in perfect peace as long as life endures. As long as life endures.

Thank you, Lori. As I said to His Eminence as we were waiting to come in, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, if there are any angels in Heaven, they're all nurses. We know from our family experience what you do, the courage, the pain you absorb for others. So thank you. Thank you. Your Eminence, Cardinal Gregory and Yolanda Adams,

to heal, we must remember. It's hard sometimes to remember. But that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation. That's why we're here today. Between sundown and dusk, let us shine the lights in the darkness along the sacred pool of reflection. Remember all whom we lost. I heard there was a secret chord That David played and it pleased the Lord but you don't really care for

music do you it goes like this the fourth the fifth the minor fall and the major lift the baffled king composing Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah I know that there's a God above And all I've ever learned from love

Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you It's not a cry you hear at night It's not someone who's seen the light. It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah Doc, first of all, to finally have a president and a vice president show some compassion and empathy for the 400,000 people who've lost their lives due to COVID, to honor those folks who are on the front line, man, it has to be striking to see someone in leadership actually give a damn. Yeah, it is. And I would have appreciated a little break, Roland, between showing those clips and having to talk. I mean, it actually is. It's just so impressive how much I think America hasn't had a time to truly come to grips with everything that was 2020. I mean, we never had a chance to exhale because you're always waiting for the next hit. So, yeah, that was something. But it also, look, the role of a president is to be consoler in chief when you have significant events take place. We think back to the Challenger exploding and President Ronald Reagan. We think back to 9-11, President George W. Bush.

We think back to the shooting at Fort Hood with President Barack Obama. I mean, presidents, they have those moments. But also after Gabby Giffords was almost assassinated and he went to Arizona. Presidents seize on those moments to be able to bring the nation together. I can't think of a single time where this, where Donald Trump ever did that. And frankly, he repelled people and frankly acted as if this COVID thing was no big deal while thousands were dying. And it's now more than 400,000. Yeah, I mean, you know, we say presidents do that, but it's actually, it's personalities do that, but it's actually it's personalities do that, right? What we have to recognize

and what we have to accept is that President Donald Trump has a pathology. He is a malignant narcissist, and they are unable of feeling love, and therefore, if you can't feel it, you can't give it. And that was

one of the refreshing things of just watching the two couples on stage just love each other and hold each other and embrace in a moment of saying, I grieved through this year with you. It's not possible on the end of Donald Trump. And so, yeah. And so all this time we've been, again,

because if someone can't feel love, if they can give out hate and anger and chaos easier, that's what that's the energy they generate. And that's what 2020 and now we're back to 2016. That's what America has been for four years. And I think tonight we all felt like maybe we're going to be able to exhale. And that in itself, that breath of hope was enough to, I think, break a lot of us tonight. Also, the fact that we know, for lack of a better phrase, the cavalry is coming. We know we are going to have a competent team who is going to tackle COVID-19, who is going to tell people stop playing around when it comes to masks, who is going to have a real vaccine rollout. Earlier today, Chuck Todd made this ridiculous comment saying that essentially Biden wasn't taking COVID

seriously. And I'm like, what the hell are you talking about, Chuck? When he's been, he's already been kicking his butt's team when it comes to making sure that 100 days, that 100 million vaccines are distributed. Right, I mean, and that's the thing. You're going to have people that are, they must look for chaos because Biden, President Biden, he's shown nothing but an organized structure

of let me put people around me who's already been doing this work. Since I don't, you don't have to be the expert in everything. You just have to surround yourself with people who are. And one of the persons is, you know, Dr. Cameron Webb, who's one of my colleagues, he's going to be on that task force

looking at COVID vaccine rollout and looking at the pandemic and how we can mitigate the spread of this virus. And I don't feel, I have not felt safer than the realization that he is gonna be there because I know him, I trust him. He has a family that he also loves and wants to come home to.

So I know he'll do his very best to protect all of us because in protecting one person, we protect all. And so, so yeah, so I think it's not the time, Chuck Todd, to generate chaos. This is really a time that America needs, I need, a moment to just be happy and hopeful and looking forward to some sense of normalcy and the need for a headline, it's just not the time for it.

Let's just let that go. All right then, Dr. Ebony Hilton, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Yeah, thanks for having me. Y'all have a good one. Thank you very much. Folks, prior to flying to Joint Air Force Base Andrews, President-elect Joe Biden gave a farewell speech in his home state of Delaware.

He was speaking at a facility named after his son, Beau Biden, who passed away, of course, from brain cancer. And every time Joe Biden speaks about his son, Beau, he tears up, and that certainly happened again today. This is some of those remarks. We love you all. You've been there for us in the good and the bad. You've never walked away. And I am proud, proud, proud, proud to be a son of Delaware. And I am even more proud

to be standing here doing this from the major Beau Biden facility. Ladies and gentlemen, I only have one regret. He's not here because he should we should be introducing him as president. But we have great opportunities. Delaware's taught us anything is possible and things possible in this country. So God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.

Thank you. Jill told me not to become emotional. I'm Jill's husband. My panel is Candace Kelly, legal analyst, Dr. Chris Metzler. He is conservative analyst and Brandon Bryce, conservative commentator. Kelly Bethea, communications strategist. Glad to have all of you here. First of all, let me start with you, Candace. I don't think we can underestimate what it means to literally have somebody who is the

Commander in Chief, who is the President of the United States, who actually has a heart, who actually cares. We haven't seen it in four years. Thank God we finally, it has finally returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Yeah, seeing his emotion, it gives everybody the entree into kind of just breathing a sigh of relief and being emotional themselves and take a look at what the United States and the world

has just been collectively going through. I mean, we have been on a four-year ride take a look at what the United States and the world has just been collectively going through. I mean, we have been on a four-year ride that we have just not been able to get off. And just seeing Kamala, seeing Vice President, now soon to be President Joe Biden, just standing there and taking note of the almost 400,000 people that have died. To see somebody show emotion is really important. It just kind of continued to let the air out of the wheels on this bus ride that we've been on. Just a sigh of relief. And it makes a difference. It makes a difference in how we see ourselves as a community, how we see ourselves as the United States of America and the force that we are.

And it allows us to grieve and then move on. Because any time that you have such a tumultuous experience, which that's what this has been, it was almost like the death of America. We are now reviving it. We can now go through the grieving process and become one again. Chris, the reality is this here. Had Donald Trump actually gave a damn about any of this, it's a good bet he probably would have been reelected. But the idea of doing what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did, for him, that's weakness. I got to be tough. I got to be strong. But you know what? There are times when Americans want to see a president show some compassion and care. Well, that's absolutely right. I mean, I think for the president, the road to reelection actually was there.

But a big part of it is the fact that he wanted to do things in a way, in fact, he showed any kind of emotion or comforting. And so it is what it is. He is who he is. But he in part has that to blame for the fact that he was not reelected. He released today a 20 minute farewell video. We're not going to show a second of that bullshit, Kelly, because if you don't have the guts and if you don't have the guts to stand before the American people and speak to them live and to take questions, then you know what? You don't deserve any airtime. And here's the reality, Kelly. It is, I think it is fitting how small Donald Trump is leaving the Oval Office. He's been in

hiding for the last several days, afraid to come out, afraid to speak to the American people. He won't own up to the reality that he lost. And so I think it's perfect how pathetic and weak he's looking. He's not going to attend the inauguration. Noah Melania, Vice President Mike Pence will be there. Ivanka is not going to be there. Melania didn't have the guts to even welcome Jill Biden to the White House. Thank God we are getting rid of these despicable people from the people's house. Well, not only is Trump going out as small as he is, for the first time, pretty much in his entire life, certainly as long as I've seen him in the public eye, we are seeing Donald Trump for exactly who he is. He is pathetic. He is weak. He is small.

He is unknowledgeable. He is dumb. He is a loser, thoroughly. And he was never qualified in the least bit to be in the White House. So we are now finally seeing a reflection of exactly who he is without the smoke and mirrors, without the cronies propping him up and making him feel better about himself. We are seeing a broken man leaving a whole house. And that's exactly what's supposed to happen here. a broken man leaving a whole house. And that's exactly what's supposed to happen here. Um, the 20-minute video, I did see pieces of it. I'm glad you're not, you know, showing it.

It's not worth it. It's not worth the airtime. But this just goes to show just how racist and bigoted he's been all four years. Because this rhetoric isn't something new. It's not something that we haven't seen. He is leaving the same way that he came in, a racist, a bigot, and a cheat. And that's how he's going to leave.

So, good riddance. When we... Chris, go ahead. Yeah, and just in terms of, you know, this whole notion of not offering a tour for Jill Biden of the White House, duh, she's been there before. I think she knows where everything is. And so this entire notion that you would spend the last days going out in this form of petulance and being a crybaby is ridiculous. Look, the vice president's not even going to his send-off tomorrow from Joint Air Force Base.

This is ridiculous. You've lost. Move on and show some grace. But again, why would we expect you to? You haven't during the entire time you were in office. Right. I mean, the reality can is I never expected Donald Trump to show any grace. But again, why would we expect you to? You haven't during the entire time you were in office. Right. I mean, the reality can is I never expected Donald Trump to show any grace. I don't think he can even spell grace. And to see the behavior, to see all of this time in his little video, we wish the incoming administration success. They don't want to use any names. He's still running around telling everybody he won. He won. No, as Bill Barr said, bullshit, you lost. All they have done, all they have done is to continue to promote this. And what it does is it feeds the crazy 74 million. The notion that, oh, no, no, no,

no. He did win. He did win. You got this dumb ass, my pillow dude, Mike Lindell, who's running around claiming, oh, I've got this evidence from China. Now Kohl's and Baymeth and beyond have dropped this product from their stores as very well they should. I mean, these people are so deranged. And this is where the line this is where the line comes in because his followers are so deranged that they will do even more crazy stuff because he refuses to acknowledge and accept the reality that he lost. And I think it's perfect also how Biden and Harris are playing this. Fine. You're not going to be there. Whatever. Whatever. Whatever. They don't care and they shouldn't care. And you're right. It does feed the frenzied mob that we saw on the Capitol on January 6th.

And it continues to kind of feed them. Because as we see people from the National Guard, some of them have been removed because of their connection with white supremacist groups and others because of just questionable behavior. When Trump gets on that plane and leaves the White House, he's going to be looking back and saying, I won. I should have been there. And he's going to continue to say that after and during the inauguration, during his kick, during his ceremony to leave the White House, which presidents have ceremonies to leave the White House, which presidents have ceremoniously the White House. They won't be like this one as self-aggrandizing, but he will be speaking the same talk that he won. He's going to continue to feed the base, though you know what's going to happen,

Roland. I think he will find himself in a lot of trouble because his base is saying, hey, you need to come and support us now. We supported you. We went out and did what you wanted us to do. We were there. You were there. You're a part of this. You need to either pardon us, which we know will probably not happen, but I'm going to at least blame you when I get in court for conspiracy charges from what happened on January 6th.

So there's a lot more to come. Biden is expected to give a healing message, a vision forward in his inauguration address. The question is, what will they do when it comes to the poor in this country? How will they address their issues? Well, the Poor People's Campaign, they wanted them to be very aggressive in having an agenda that speaks to them. In fact, on Thursday, there's going to be a service at the National Cathedral, and Reverend Dr. William J. Barber is going to be giving the homily. Well, that's what they call it.

Born and raised Catholic, they call it the homily. We know what it is. We call it the sermon, and it might very well be the eulogy for the Trump administration. Joining us right now is Reverend Dr. William J. Barber. Doc, how you doing? All right, I was told Dr. Barber was there. Okay, all right, y'all let me know when he is there.

Oh, how are you? There you go. All right, Dr. Barber, how's it going? I'm well. I'm COVID well and chaos concerned, but I'm here. I thank God for everything you do. And, you know, tonight

I'm especially gratified because you have my alma mater across your chest. See, I didn't even realize that I was sitting here. One of the graduates sent me a sweatshirt. I said I had visited, but they hadn't sent me anything. He said, no, I'm sending you a sweatshirt.

And I've had it for months. And I said, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and rock it today. So divine intervention had me put this on today. That's right. That's right. That's eagle pride, man. That's an ordinary barnyard fire.

As I said, Thursday at National Cathedral, they're going to have you doing the homily. Again, as I said, born and raised Catholic, that's what we called it, but where you're from, it's called the sermon, and it should be the eulogy after four years of

Trump. You know, you're exactly right, and as we talk about Trump, we also got to have some eulogies on some other things, because you and I have said time and time again, Trump lit this current fire, but he didn't pour all of the gasoline. And there's a whole lot of repentance that has to go on, people in the in-office, people that were dead now, but like the Southern strategists and Richard Nixon, who kept pouring this gasoline out, this intentional dividing of the country using

race and class will inevitably turn into violence. And you know, like I know, that what America got to see at the Capitol on January 6th, black folk and brown folk and indigenous people and others have seen it down through history and sometimes much more violent. We also, the other day, just a few days ago, we know that it's not over. He's over. But when Biden rolled out that he was going to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Federal minimum wage proposed that. And we know that's 39 million families, 62 million people. That'll have major impacts, a major poor people's campaign agenda to lift people out of poverty. 62 million people working every day for less than a living wage. Nikki Haley came out immediately and called it radical and extreme, that same language, that same language.

We saw McConnell today blame Trump. But then he said something we better pay attention to. He said, but in this election, we did not have an election that's calling for any real ideological change, any real ideological change. And so, you know, Dr. King said that last night of his life, nothing would be more tragic than for us to turn around at this point. On Sunday, on Thursday, I'm going to try by the grace of God to lift a text out of Isaiah that actually lays out the steps, the exact steps that a nation has to engage if that nation wants to repair, renew, revive, and rebuild. It's amazing, it's eerie how exact that text is in Isaiah and what it says we have to do.

We have a choice. And it all has to do with not pretending, not seeking false unity, but actually passing and pushing the kind of public policy that will bring healing to the people as the only way for us to be called what the scriptures call a repairer, the debt. They've said nothing for the last four years about that. And obviously, you typically hear, you hear a lot, Joe Biden talking about the middle class, the middle class, the middle class. But the reality is this, the idea, and he's talking about $15 an hour. This is where Democrats have to be bold economically because historically the economy has actually fared better under Democrats than Republicans. But there is this psychotic psychosis in America that, oh, if we elect pro-business, pro-corporate Republicans, then the economy does better. No, it does better for those who already have money. That's right. And too often, major media allows them to get away with that without

pushing them. What do you mean about tax cuts? Who are you really going to cut if you so-called balance the budget? On whose back? Too often, they are allowed to say things. They're even allowed to call a program socialism without a reporter. You would do it. You would say, wait a minute. What is socialism? They probably don't even know. And second, that's not socialism. But in a real sense, we've got to have this third reconstruction. We've said to the Biden administration, we met with the domestic policy team and we laid out a 14 point agenda for healing. We said, if you want to heal the nation, you have to heal the body. If the body is sick, you can't just heal, i.e., the mentality of the nation.

And that's going to mean living wages. That's going to mean comprehensive COVID relief. That's going to mean infrastructure in poor and low-wealth communities that build up that community. That's going to be major investment in education. That means sick leave. That means unemployment extended. That means moratoriums on people losing their homes and being put out of their houses or their apartments. That means moratoriums on people's utilities being cut off. That means taking, redirecting some of our bloated military budget and using it for things like infrastructure, health care, and living wages. And we have it on good grounds.

The Economic Policy Institute showed that a moral agenda is also an economically sound agenda, because we can't keep losing, Roland, a trillion dollars a year on child poverty and $2.3 or $3 trillion because of lost wages, because of the disparities. And we're going to lose $16 trillion in just paying for COVID itself. And so what we need is an investment. We have to see this as not giveaways, but investment, which is why the federal budgets can extend and take debt. State budgets have to be balanced. But the federal budget can go into debt for this very moment, for moments like this, like we had to do in the middle of the Great Depression. And we've got to watch these senators. And the first cue that's going to tell us where they're going to go, particularly Republican senators, is how the 17 vote to convict Trump.

But Democrats may not have a one vote margin, but they better use it. They better use it powerfully. They better use it for the uplift of the people. As you know, I've said 140 million poor and low wealth people in this country before COVID. Another eight million have been added. But one third of the electorate is now poor and low wealth. Think about that. One third of the electorate is now poor and low wealth. Even from a political strategy perspective, you cannot continue to dismiss the poor and think you're going to win elections in the future. The one thing we've not talked about in this election, black folk were critical in places like Georgia. Native Americans were critical in places like Arizona. But 55 percent of poor and

low wealth people that make less than $50,000 a year voted for Biden this time, one of the larger and Harris. In Georgia, he won by 14% in that demographic, 50,000 and below. And we still left 29 million poor low wealth people who did not vote. And many of them say they did not vote because they still have not heard anybody really say they're going to deal with the issues of poverty and low wealth. We have to do this in this moment. We don't have an option if we're going to come out of this pandemic, not only and build back better, but build forward as well. Last question for you. Again, this path forward, everybody, I think is stupid and idiotic when media creates this first hundred 100 days, okay, it all goes back to FDR,

and to me it's just nonsensical that this artificial thing, let's focus on that. But already we're hearing him say he's going to come out with executive order when it comes to dealing with the issue of immigration, executive order dealing with the travel ban, things along those lines. What do you believe that he should do coming out of the gate to specifically deal with

issues of the poor? Well, I think this first $1.9 trillion plan is a good beginning. If you look inside of it, he put the living wage, $15 an hour in there, more money to schools. He put more sick leave, unemployment. It's a beginning. Now, we're still evaluating it because there's some things that are not there. But what

we've said is don't look at 100 days, first 50 days. I mean, one of the things we said, you've got to do the little ways, you've got to pass voting rights because that's critical for poor and low wealth people. Um, we have to have a change in how we even measure poverty. Um, we have to have a clear infrastructure bill soon that, and we can combine that infrastructure bill with doing jobs that are going to benefit the climate as well.

So you can do both of them at the same time. And we have to, as I said, redirect some of this military budget. But Martin, Roland, Dr. King said, if you have a country where the military budget or the military industrial complex dictates so much, it's on a downward spiral. We spend $800 billion in our military, more than China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and Russia combined.

Combined. 54 cents of every discretionary dollar. Only 16 cents of every discretionary dollar to education and infrastructure and living wages. We could take some of that money and put it and invest it in matters of national security as it relates to our domestic policy. So I want to ask your listeners to go to poorpeoplescampaign.org

and look at our, we call it the first 50 and 100 day, 14 steps to healing, 14 clear steps to healing the nation. It has to be policy. And what we've said to them, every policy that you pass, this should be the measurement. Does it establish justice? Does it provide for the common defense? Does it promote the general welfare? And does it provide equal protection under the law? And then the second thing, when you roll out a policy to the Biden administration, we've said, stand before the people and say, if we pass, when we pass $15 an hour plus a union, it will lift 10 million Black people out of poverty. It will lift 20 million white people. It will lift 4 million Latinos. It will lift this many people from

Alabama, this many people from Appalachia. In other words, take the arguments away from the Republicans and let people know every piece of policy you pass, how it's going to impact every segment of the American population. And if you do that, you'll bring people away from some of this foolishness. 72% of Republicans want to raise the living wage. 63% of Republicans want health care. We need to talk to people not in generality, but in specifics. If we do this,

this is how it's going to impact your daily life and your family's life. All right. Reverend Barber, we sure appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, my friend. Thank you, sir. Chris Metzler, I want to go to you. The point Reverend Barber makes, the amount of money we spend on defense. Democrats are scared to be called weak on defense. And the reality is we spend a whole lot of money. In the final year of Obama, that was a survey that was done that showed that there was $125 billion of waste in the Defense Department. If we're talking about moving forward, doesn't it make sense to say,

defense, y'all don't need another increase? Well, it does make sense, but here's the issue. The issue is, in fact, that if you look at defense and if you look at the From the Republican standpoint, it's the issue of getting campaign contributions from defense contractors. And I mean, I'm not just saying that. Just look at the FEC filing reports and you'll see that. And so, yes, there is no need to continuously increase defense spending. Absolutely not. But I think the problem is going to be that from the Democratic standpoint, this is what needs to happen. It needs to be, as Reverend Barber said, messaged correctly. This is how this money is better spent. It has to be specific. Republicans have won the message on that by simply dropping the word weak. Democrats then pull back and say, oh, well, we don't want to be seen as weak in defense.

No, that's not the reality. This whole spending of money by defense contractors, the defense contracting industries is, I think, one of the most corrupt industries relative to campaign financing and contributions. Those are facts. I'm not making that up. But Candace, here's what's interesting here that we also have to acknowledge. First of all, President Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex. And what they did was they then said, all right, this is how we're going to do this. There's a defense contractor in nearly every congressional district in America. So what happens is when this comes, they go, oh, jobs, jobs, jobs. And that is essentially kryptonite to any changes on Capitol Hill.

Lose jobs, lose jobs. And so by doing this, they have ensured that, oh, no, don't don't you dare cut or touch anything with defense because those folks are in your district. To Chris's point, it is a message deal. If Democrats stand up there and say, I'm sorry, we're spending $800 billion. I think we can go a year and not increase the defense department budget by five or 10 or $20 billion. I'm sorry. America does spend far too much money on defense. And the problem is a significant amount, Candace, is being wasted.

And you mentioned the messaging, and that is part of the problem because of the messaging that has not been happening behind closed doors. We've been seeing not a lot of activity in terms of people lobbying for this type of change in the defense spending, right, because we've been spending all of our time on Trump and all of his shenanigans. So the process that normally happens in terms of these things that have to, that normally take place when there's a transition of power, it's totally different. It's unprecedented.

So that when we look at these numbers and the huge amount that are being spent on defense that probably could be directed someplace else, it's going to be a different type of a talk in order to see people, in order to force people to see the light of day in that regard. And that's something that we're going to see in the first couple of months of Joe Biden's administration. But again, it's something that we have not been doing in terms of the typical lobbying to try to see these types of things come into fruition. Look, Kelly, go ahead. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Kristen, Kelly, go ahead. Relates to all the drama that's been going on. But just in general, I think when Democrats message anything relative to defense and I'm not just talking about the lobbying component of this, anything relative to defense, they're afraid that Republicans are going to hit them over the head with your being weak. So I'm just saying the message in general relative to that, because Republicans, we are become masters of simply saying weak and Democrats then said, yeah, well, don't want to touch that. Yep. Kelly, messaging. One of the things that I think that President-elect Joe Biden did learn from his eight years as vice president under President Barack Obama was that they were weak with messaging. For instance, when the stimulus bill came out, they got, you swear the stimulus bill

was a massive failure when most, many economists said that stimulus bill actually saved us from going into a great recession. It stayed that off. Forty percent of that stimulus bill was tax cuts because they were trying to appeal to Republicans. To me, I think the Biden administration should look at that and say, yeah, we're screwing that up again. And then what you do is you sell the hell out of it. Obama, for all of his brilliance and how smart he was, I think when it came to selling stuff, they were dumb. They were horrible at actually selling it. And he was actually in an interview where he said,

well, you know, we thought folks would have gotten it. No! No! El. No, no. Elkhart, Indiana. They had things were rebuilt in Elkhart, Indiana because of the stimulus bill. They didn't take credit for it. And Republicans did. My deal is if you're Joe Biden, do the same damn thing Trump did. But you're not lying. Take credit for everything good you do and slap your name on everything.

That's what you, this project was built by the Biden-Harris stimulus bill. This, you, that's what you do. You message, message, message, and you don't say, well, no, no, no, we don't want to take all the credit. Yes. Take credit. No, I couldn't agree with you more there. I think when it comes to the Democratic Party

as a whole and messaging, they're at an impasse where you have we are so fragmented as a party because we have more or less been rejected by the other side. Meaning, you have centrist Democrats, you have really progressive Democrats,

you have Democrats who are Black, but really have more conservative views, but because of the Republican Party, they just kind of end up being Democrat. Because you have all of these perceptions and points of view, when it comes to messaging, my theory is that they are afraid to create a singular message, lest that they lose some of the power within the Democratic Party. The Republicans are excellent at messaging because they are uniform in what

they think about. They cut the fat when it comes to, you know, peripheral views and viewpoints and the like. When they have a mission, they have a mission. And they make sure all Republicans are on board and they drive that train home. That's what we've been dealing with for the last four years of the Trump presidency. Because behind closed doors,

these Republicans don't necessarily agree with him. But because they are so uniform on the surface, they have to. They feel like they have to. Democrats don't have that same culture. So in the Biden administration, I'm not saying they need to have that exact same culture, but they do need to take some notes from the Republicans in that they need to streamline their messaging and kind of, for lack of a better phrase, ignore what the peripheral views are

so that they can get everything moving forward. Chris Metzler, I know you gotta go. Your final comment, what do you wanna hear from Biden tomorrow in his inauguration speech? Well, I think tomorrow there has to be some outreach to conservatives. I think that's very important. I think there are many conservatives who are in the Republican Party who are willing to hear that message,

to hear that outreach. From my perspective, we want to work with the Biden administration. There are going to be things that we agree with and things that we do not agree with. And the final thing that I would say to the points that were made earlier, see, here's the thing about Republicans. We will be loud and wrong all day long, but we'll continue to be loud and wrong while the Democrats are like, yeah, well, I'm not sure. And so there is disagreement behind closed doors. But I think that is extremely important. All right, Chris Mitchell, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Folks, we've got to go to a break. We come back.

The head of the census is out, resigns. It's a huge mess over there. We'll talk about what needs to happen next. Also, Georgia, they have certified the election results in Georgia. John Ossoff, Raphael Warnock will be sworn in tomorrow. But why are Republicans trying to change the voting laws? Because they big mad they lost. Big mad. We'll explain next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. When you think about the fact that 2043, we are going to be a nation that's majority people of color.

I've really focused on this a lot on television, on radio, in my speeches. That my focus is trying to prepare us to have demographic power while also having educational economic power at the same time. Because there's nothing worse than having demographic numbers, but then you still don't have that economic power, that political power, and education power. Well, you know, you and I, and I think most people know and understand that education is what we've got to impress on all of our people. We've got to help people to understand that if you want a decent quality of life, if you want the kind of quality of life where you're not having to worry about your food and your nutrition

and, you know know being able to pay your bills or buy a house then you've got to become educated the more education you have the larger the paycheck is and of course we've got to be involved in entrepreneurship taking the talent that we have to create businesses and there's a lot of opportunity for that. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is clear. No American who is engaged in insurrection or rebellion is allowed to hold office. While seven Republican senators voted to overturn the 2020 election, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley share the most blame for firing up the violent mob of Trump supporters that attacked the U.S. Capitol and killed five people. We will not go quietly into the night. There were big problems with this election. There were major election integrity issues. There needs to be an investigation. There need to be changes to the law. The same terrorists who Josh Hawley greeted at the Capitol with a raised fist broke into the people's house with the intent to kidnap and even murder elected officials.

Death is the only remedy for what's in that building. Even after the Capitol was breached and blood had been spilled, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley continued undeterred to lie about the election. Now, militia groups are planning to attack the Capitol again next week. Even more Americans could be hurt, all because Cruz and Hawley refused to accept any responsibility. Cruz and Hawley are too dangerous to wait to vote out. They need to be expelled from the Senate immediately and prosecuted for aiding and abetting acts of terrorism. The director of the U.S. Census Bureau is resigning after being accused of supporting a partisan push to give data on undocumented immigrants to Trump before he leaves office. Stephen Dillingham's resignation will be effective tomorrow.

Joining me now to discuss this is Beth Link, the director of Census Counts Campaign, the leadership conference on civil and human rights. Beth, glad to have you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. There's been constant chaos, drama, all kinds of stuff when it comes to the census. They tried to cut the count short. They did not, Trump was trying to rig the numbers as well. I mean, there is a mess right now over at the U.S. Census Bureau. That's absolutely right. The 2020 census has been an unprecedented mess. And that started with underfunding as we ramped up to the 2020 census. It continued with unprecedented levels of political interference, starting with the Trump administration's failed attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, then their attempts to cut the counting

short after the Census Bureau career public servants replanned the census in a COVID-19 environment. And that interference reared its ugly head again when we got reports via whistleblowers that the Census Bureau director may have tried to rush through a politically motivated and not statistically sound report in the 11th hour before the new administration took office. So as a result of this, now what? I mean, is the count being held up? Is there a possibility? Because Congress is really over the count. Is there a possibility in the really important part of the census where they're counting and tabulating and processing the data that it has collected. We won't know the quality and the accuracy of the data until it comes out, but I have to shout out and praise the tremendous work of the National Urban League and the litigators who have been, through their litigation and work, bringing a lot of good information to light, namely that the Census Bureau career employees, as they've been saying all along,

they need more time to process the data. At this point, the earliest it will come out is March 6th. And we're still calling on Congress to give the Census Bureau relief and extend the processing timeline like they requested. So that's one. The second thing is we're looking forward to having, you know, trust in a nonpartisan Census Bureau, again, an opportunity to really, you know, wipe the slate clean from all of this, you know this political interference and shenanigans that we've seen over the last few years. And really, my heart's heavy today because I just left watching the memorial for the 400,000 that have died due to COVID-19. And you have to think the path to rebuild in this moment is going to be rooted in data. It has to be data that tells the story of who are most impacted.

And we know that the black community has been hit so hard and devastatingly so by this virus. And the data, census data, is going to drive where funding goes, where political power is redistributed. And if we don't get that right, or if there's not trust in that data, we won't be able to move forward from that. So we're looking forward to an administration that will appoint officials that are nonpartisan and statistically minded, and will keep an eye towards accurate and quality data. And we're also looking forward to one that's going to undo, to this administration, undoing what the Trump administration has done by politicizing the census in an unprecedented way. And look, I mean, they've done that. Folks like you have been fighting them tooth and nail every step of the way. And clearly, this Trump appointee realized that it was untenable and

they want to continue to come after him. And so obviously tomorrow, inauguration, what should be the plan of action for the Census Bureau, let's say in the next two to three months of a Biden-Harris administration? Well, you know, we are, the way that this happened, and we're starting this new administration with the political appointees that were installed at the Census Bureau by the Trump administration gone. The, you know, Census Bureau director will be out and the career official, Ron Jarman, who's a career public servant, will be the acting Census Bureau director. That was a direct result of whistleblowers within the Census Bureau saying, hey, this is not right, telling the Commerce Department inspector general, that raising the alarm. Advocates like the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and our Census Task Force co-chairs raising the alarm and calling for Dillingham to resign. Leaders in the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and other stakeholders, you know, really, you know, not backing down and calling for swift action.

And so I think we're in a really good position going into the new administration where there can be swift action taken to rescind the executive memorandum, the presidential memorandum and the executive orders that were designed to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census, to put in, you know, thoughtful and good appointees that will ensure that we have quality data and accurate data, and to move us forward so that we have data that we can trust, because really there's no other option if we want to move forward. Beth Link, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks for having me.

All right. Even though Biden-Harris will be confirmed tomorrow, already Senate confirmation hearings began on a number of their appointees, including retired General Lloyd Austin, who was nominated by Biden to become the first black head of the Pentagon. This was some of what took place at his confirmation hearings today. All right, folks. Well, let me know when we have the Lloyd Austin video. I would certainly appreciate that. Okay, do we have it now?

Let's go. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member Reid, and members of this committee. I'm grateful for your time this afternoon, especially during these momentous days. It was apparent to me and to all Americans two weeks ago, seriously, you take your duties to the Constitution. And I thank you for that. All right, folks, having some issues in the video, we'll get that all straightened out. I want to go to my panel right now to talk about Lloyd Austin.

Again, we have Candace who's with us. We also have Kelly who is also with us. And then Brandon, Brandon Bryce joins us. I'll start with you. I'll start with you, Candace. Democrats were very leery of extending a waiver to General Austin because it confirmed, because he's not going to lose a lot of Republican votes. And so I think we're definitely going to be seeing the first Black head of the Department of Defense. I think we are. And I think he showed a very strong showing

in his hearing. Some tough questions in terms of sexual assault in the military. Many people wanted him to make commitments to a number of things. I think it was a very strong showing. I think that from what I gather and the support that he seems to have, it will go through. But it is an unprecedented feat in terms of having to get both the support of the House and the Senate because he has not been active in about seven years, I believe. But today's what I saw, he did a great job. Certainly a strong commanding presence there, Kelly. No shock, somebody who's been leading troops for a very long time. What really, I think, speaks volumes is going to be, again, trying to reassert the credibility of leadership after four years of failed leadership by Donald Trump and his minions? That is a top concern of mine as well. But the fact that he is already coming in

with the respect of a military leader because he is one, the fact that across the aisle, people respect him. When it comes to military, for the most part, it's even keel politically, meaning if you do a good job at your job, it doesn't matter what party you are. So the fact that, you know, there's this unity, so to speak, in that regard, I feel like his confirmation will go through a lot smoothly than we may think. Like I echo Candace's sentiments regarding the challenges ahead being, you know, issues of sexual assault, issues of harassment in the workplace.

But that has been going on before his time. Hopefully with him in office, he'll put an end to it because that is, that is key and having a strong military presence. Brandon, your thoughts on the general Austin. Brandon, are you there? Okay. I couldn't hear you. Yep. Your thoughts on general Lord Austin. You know, I think this is an interesting situation because I actually agree. I don't think this is going to take long as far as within the Senate. I think this is a gentleman who has proved his stripes.

And the good thing about, you know, the armed services. And I agree. It doesn't matter if, you know, whether his politics are. This is a guy who's got a lot of respect in the Senate. And I actually think that this confirmation is going to go fairly quick here. Actually, we've got the video issue straightened out here is actually Lloyd Austin speaking today before the United States Senate. No, go to my iPad, please. Thank you very much. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman and ranking member Reed, members of this committee. I'm grateful for your time this afternoon, especially during these momentous days. It was apparent to me and to all Americans two weeks ago how seriously you take your duties to the Constitution.

And I thank you for that commitment. I know that you share my gratitude for the commitment of the men and women of the Department of Defense as well, who share your devotion to that founding document, our Constitution. Many of them are serving overseas. Some of them are serving just outside this room. And all of them are keeping us safe. We owe much to their selflessness and to that of their families. I want to thank Senator Sullivan and Secretary Panetta for their kind words of introduction.

I am truly grateful. And of course, I want to thank my wonderful wife, Charlene, who, like today, has stood by my side for more than 40 years, guiding me, supporting me, and making me a better man. I'm also very grateful to President-elect Biden for asking me to serve my country again. I value the strength of my relationship with him, and I am humbled by the trust and confidence that he has placed in me. I hope this hearing will earn me your trust. Let me say at the outset that I understand and respect the reservations that some of you have expressed about having another recently retired

general at the head of the Department of Defense. The safety and security of our democracy demands competent civilian control of our armed forces, the subordination of military power to the civil. I spent my entire life committed to that principle. In war and in peace, I implemented the policies of civilians elected and appointed over me, leaders like Secretary Panetta. And I know that being a member of the President's Cabinet, a political appointee, requires a different perspective and unique duties from a career in uniform. I intend to surround myself with and empower experienced, capable civilian leaders

who will enable healthy civil-military relations grounded in meaningful oversight. Indeed, I plan to include the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in top decision-making meetings, ensuring strategic and operational decisions are informed by policy. I will rebalance collaboration and coordination between the Joint Staff and the OSD staff to ensure civilian input is integrated

at every level of the process. And I will make clear my expectation that the Pentagon work hand in glove with the State Department, supporting the work of our diplomats. Now, I know that a large measure of civilian control of our military lies right here with this body. And if you confirm me, I assure you that the Pentagon under my leadership will respect

your oversight responsibilities. And we will be transparent with you. And I will provide you my best with you and I will provide you my best counsel and I will seek yours and just like you I will take seriously the many challenging many challenges facing our country the most immediate of which in my view is the pandemic and if confirmed I will quickly review the department's contributions to coronavirus relief efforts, ensuring that we're doing everything that we can to help distribute vaccines across the country

and to vaccinate our troops and preserve readiness. On that particular point there, Kelly, we've had Retired Lieutenant General Russell Honore on this show, and he has talked about how we should be deploying the military when it comes to the vaccine because of the infrastructure that they already have. That absolutely makes sense. And I'm hopeful that we actually see that with General Austin leading the Department of Defense. I absolutely agree with that. Um, when we hear about our military, a lot of the times, for those of us who are not, uh, aware or, you know, invested in that kind of information, we think of the military

as similar to what we saw, um, during, you know, BLM rallies or, you know, overseas. Just a very militant, soldier-like, uh, presence. But there are doctors in the military. There are nurses in the military. There there are doctors in the military. There are nurses in the military. There are medical assistants in the military, all of which are more than capable and definitely well-equipped enough

to disseminate this vaccine in such a way that we actually meet Biden's goal of 100 million vaccinated within the first 100 days or yeah, within the first 100 days. So this is definitely a situation where it needs to be strongly considered if it's not already in the works. But yeah, this is definitely a good thing to even to even consider. I hope it actually happens because we are in a dire situation. 400,000 Americans are dead because of this disease. And we are going at an alarmingly slow rate in terms of getting the rollout of these vaccines across the country. So something definitely needs to happen in order to meet the goals of the Biden administration.

And frankly, Americans who want their lives back. Brandon, if there's any place for us to be working in concert with the military on U.S. Seoul, it is certainly this. You know, not only do I agree with that, but I think it's how we do it. I know cities like Detroit and Chicago, in some cases, push back against having the military pass this stuff out. So I really think it's got to be a joint effort if we're talking about getting those who need it most, the vaccinations, but also making sure that it doesn't look like they're occupying, but that they're there to assist and they're there to help.

Candace. Well, he made some very strong points in his opening argument, and it was good that he attacked the Republican elephant in the room and that he needed their support. Listen, this already happened with Defense Secretary Mattis. So we've seen it done. But this is someone who has a plan as someone who's willing to empower everybody by putting his feet on the ground with a plan. And one of the most important issues, that being coronavirus. All right, folks. Real quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk about

where are the black coaches in the NFL, the black Joe Mandris, what the hell is going on? And we'll talk about Georgia. Oh, yeah. Republicans, they're not happy at all that a Jewish guy and a black guy are United States senators. They now want to cheat in order to win. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered.

What would you say to a young person who says, look, I'm trying to change our society. I'm trying to change this world. Man, I ain't got time for this church stuff. I just don't think y'all legit. Oh, man. I would say just because you see an artist in music that you don't like, do you stop listening to hip hop? No.

It's like ridiculous. You see one artist do something that is what their choice was, has nothing to do with the whole industry or the whole art form of hip hop, you don't throw out hip hop. So the same way if you see an artist that you don't like do that i would ask you don't do the same thing with the church because just because you see one minister one man or woman do something that you don't agree with don't use that as an excuse to demonize an institution that could actually help save your life you know i am who i am because i was raised in the church

you know all the things that i'm able to do in the world are directly related to being brought up in a healthy church environment where I learned how to develop my gifts. I learned how to communicate. I learned how to deal with other people. I learned how to lead all of those things that help me and other people become successful in society. You can learn in the church. So I would say to somebody that's young, I would, I would challenge them. Everything that's in you, if you're trying to get it out, get into a good church because that church will be a fantastic incubator for all the gifts that are in you. And when you find the right church, you will find that the others that you may have been looking at were the wrong people to look at in any profession. I don't care what it is.

You're always going to find people that you can point out that may not represent that profession to the best of their ability. But when you find those that do, then you begin to see what it really is about. Donald, you hear that sound? That's the sound of moving vans. They're coming to pack you up and move you and all of your grift and indecency out of the White House. That's the sound of the cleaning crews coming to scrub the stench of your corruption and the stains from your lies from the Oval Office. You hear that? That's the sound of the exterminators coming to fumigate all that COVID-19 infection in the air that you could have kept out of the West Wing with a face mask.

You hear that? That is the sound of the wall you finally built. The security wall around the White House. What's being removed to make way for a new president. A real president. The next president of the United States. Joe Biden. Hey, Donald.

Don't let the door smack you in the ass on the way out. Oh, but wait. What's that sound? It's the sound of the Southern District of New York. And they're coming for you. The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising. All right, folks, the Fritz Pollard Alliance,

which exists to advocate diversity in the NFL, released a statement today urging NFL sponsors to take, quote, direct participation in the struggle to hire black general managers, presidents, and head coaches. The statement released by Executive Director Rod Graves harps on the fact that there is just one Black team president in the NFL, three Black general managers, and now two Black head coaches among the league that is 69% African American.

During the latest hiring cycle, the league has resisted changing the disparity in opportunities despite there being talented individuals in the pipeline. Although the Rooney Rule is still in effect, it has proven to be extremely ineffective. The Fritz Paolo Association hopes to work with the league to rectify this issue. Joining me now is Rod Graves, the director of the Fritz Paolo Alliance. Rod, this was interesting. You see the Detroit Lions hire a tight ends coach for the New Orleans Saints. Never been an offensive coordinator, never been a defensive coordinator,

which is always a knock on black candidates because, oh, have they called plays? Well, he didn't. You look at the first Muslim coach being hired, a defensive coordinator from San Francisco. But you look at, again, the Falcons hiring the guy from Tennessee. You look at the Chargers hiring the guy from the Rams. Eric

Bien-Aimé is the offensive coordinator of the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs. And it's like, what the hell? Can he get a job? This is crazy. Well, Roland, you've made a very point that many of our members are concerned about, and that's the double standards that exist in the NFL.

We jokingly say when we line up for a 30-yard field goal, we look downfield and the goalposts have moved to the right or the left or back 10 yards. And that's the issue. We just don't feel like there's fairness with respect to the application of the rules. The NFL has an equal opportunity employment policy, which essentially states that job openings will be based on fairness, on competitiveness. And we just feel like oftentimes we don't have the opportunity to pursue those jobs on a fair and competitive basis. And that's the position that many of the coaches we represent take. And it is a concern because of the double standards that exist. But let's just be cut to the chase. People who don't quite understand what's going on,

they go, oh, Roger Goodell. No, Roger Goodell is an employee. The fundamental problem are the 32 largely white owners of the NFL. You have one owner, the Jacksonville Jaguars owner, who is in white. That's your problem. The problem is, is racism within these NFL team owners. They are uncomfortable with black folks running teams. Roland, that's the reality of it. You know, I don't care how you slice it. They are uncomfortable with black folks running teams. Roland, that's the reality of it. You know, I don't care how you slice it. There is a disconnect between the information that owners receive and the actual decision-making ability that they have displayed. There obviously is a discomfort with Black representation

and leadership of their clubs. And because of that, we think that's the central issue that we have to address. The commissioner and Troy Vincent and other areas of leadership in the football league have done everything that they possibly could to ensure that the decision-making process is as easy for owners as could possibly be. But what we found out is even after making those processes easier, we provided them with more information. I thought this off-season, with the improvements that we've made,

and even through COVID-19, with the laxity that the league allowed with respect to interview processes and more information being accessible and that sort of thing. Even with all of that, we find ourselves with a very minuscule gain in areas. And I think we will never be in a position, I believe, to make up the ground necessary for us to be comfortable. We would have to be able to, at this point, gain every open position, and we know that that's not possible. So we are looking at different areas that we may be able to address to get the attention of owners, and that includes getting more support from the players, more support from media and fans,

and more support from sponsors. I think the only way you're going to affect these owners, you got to hit them in the pocketbooks. The sponsors of the NFL have to do the talking. The pressure has to be on the sponsors to say, we are not going to support folks who don't believe in diversity. We're going to pull our money. That's the only way. The NFL is a $10 billion a year entity. They only understand money. Yeah, there's no question about it. You know, Roland, in all of my years in the National

Football League, I have concluded that you have to talk to owners in the language that they understand. And that language is money. And you're exactly right. I think we've got to be able to approach them in a way that disrupts their or threatens to disrupt their business model. And that is the only way to get their attention. I think that's the only way we'll see significant change. All right, then, Rod, we certainly appreciate it. Keep the pressure up. We think it's important. But the bottom line is these owners, they're rich white guys, and they only understand pressure, and that pressure must be brought to bear against them. Agreed, Roland. Thank you for having me on. Thanks a lot. Kenneth, I'm going to start with you. The only reason the Rooney Rule

exists is because Willie Gary and, excuse me, you had attorneys, including Johnny Cochran, who threatened to take the NFL to court over the issue of racism. That's why they put in place the Rooney Rule. Again, as I said, the NFL only understands money. You want to get their attention? Go after their sponsors and then have their sponsors put pressure on them. Then I think you're going to see a change in attitude when it comes to hiring. That's right. Go after their sponsors, but also get the players involved

in order to make themselves be heard that they too will pull out and make change in terms of the money that will not be in the pockets of the owners. You hit the nail on the head when you said that they just don't want to be in and about black people who have big positions. Otherwise, I mean, let's look at the coaches that are out there and the experience that they have. If you want somebody to operate on you, right, you want them to have experience. But you look at the coaches, some of them haven't even played football professionally. So this just doesn't make sense. What's interesting, though, is that when we look at what happened with the Washington Redskins, right, and their billion-dollar logo, they eventually did, you know, have to retract their name,

and they came up with another one when billions of dollars were at stake. And that's because of what happened in terms of what Rod is doing. He is saying, well, let's go to the media, let's go to the people, because over the years, even though it's just coming into fruition, it was the media, it was the people, it was Native Americans that kept this idea alive to let's change some of these racist ways. And that's what we're looking at right now. We're looking at racist ways in terms of people who aren't enough general managers and are not head coaches. The numbers are ridiculous. Almost 70 percent of people who play are African-Americans. But as you mentioned, the dearth of the numbers who are in head positions just doesn't make sense.

This is real simple. Bitch and moan, bitch and moan. But the question is, how are you going to change it, Brandon? That's what it boils down to. Either you apply the pressure or you know what? Just accept that we're going to have the same discussion every single year. You know, Roland, I think it always goes back to not only the money, but what you just said, the media. I mean, the reality is, you know, let's be honest, whether you're talking about the NFL or the NBA, these are 80% and 90% African-American-run entities.

When you look at the leadership and when you look at, you know, who actually owns the team, we're not even remotely close to that representation. So I agree. I think, one, we need to come down to who's actually speaking to the sponsors. Do they have a divested interest in diversity? And then also looking at how do we begin to not only start from the coaches, but even go from the coaches all the way up to the GMs, all the way up to the owners of the teams. The media is one thing, but it comes down to investment in dollars in terms of who owns these ball clubs. Until that conversation is had, we're not going to see a change.

But let's remember who's actually driving the sport, the industry. It's not the coaches. It's not the team. It's the players. No, it's the owners. The NFL is not the NBA, Kelly, where it's a player's league. The owners have significant control. The average lifespan for NFL careers is only three and a half years.

They understand that. Guys are going to sit here and buckle every single time. You have got to put the – the owners only understand sponsor money. That's the only money they understand. You can sit here and say, oh, we're going to boycott, not buy tickets. They're saying we ain't talking to y'all anyway. You got consumers who use the very products of the sponsors. That's who they have to go after.

Kelly, go ahead. No, you're absolutely right. So the reason why the NFL has been able to survive COVID, if you think about it, has been because of sponsorship money. Because we haven't been able to go to the stands. We're not really buying apparel. Where are we going to wear it? The money comes from advertising.

The money comes from, excuse me, the money comes from sponsorship. So if we attack them at their pockets, that's when they will actually have an answer for us. It's unfortunate that, you know, the right thing isn't enough for these owners to make a change. It is not enough that it is blatant racism existing in the NFL.

It is not enough that we have, you know, a disproportionate rate of white leadership across the board, whichever team you have. Um, it's not right to have that pour of a reflection of the sport itself in your leadership. That's not enough for a rich person, a rich white person specifically to make a change. You gotta hit them where it hurts.

And that happens to be their pockets. And their pockets are filled with sponsorship money, so that's how you gotta get it. Folks, how white is the Republican Party and how wrong are they when it comes to voter suppression? Following devastating losses, Biden-Harris winning the state, John Ossoff, Biden-Harris winning the state,

John Ossoff, Raphael Warnock winning the United States Senate. Ooh, Republicans are not happy, so they're trying to change the law. Listen to this. The Gwinnett County Republican rep on the bipartisan elections board, they're seeking major election changes at the local and state level.

Listen to what Alice Olenek, who serves as a 2021 and 2022 elections chairwoman. This is what she's encouraging her fellow Republicans to reach out to Georgia legislators to make changes to absentee voting rules and expand the advanced in-person voting. She recently told Republican legislators they don't need to change all of the state election laws, just the major parts that will give her party a shot at winning. No, she, I want y'all to understand the actual quote, because I think it's really important that you understand the quote. This is literally what she said, okay? And when I saw it, I said, wow.

But these people, they're very clear. She laid out that if they don't make these changes, they're not going to be able to win. Do y'all hear what I'm saying? She literally said, Candace, that if this doesn't happen, we have no shot at winning. How about you actually campaign for votes?

How about you actually make an argument? They want to severely restrict. They want to get rid of drop boxes. They want to get of no excuse absentee balancing. They want to check. They want to get rid of all of that because they say, no, them damn black folks showed up. Yeah, we can't have that.

We need to be able to win. Deja vu all over again, right? This is the exact same reason that Trump made the call to the governor, right? And it was recorded. He's in trouble for this exact same thing. Can you please give me some votes, find me some votes? Because we just need to win for no other reason. Like you said, why not campaign? Why not work for the vote?

Why not debate for the vote? These are people who are trying to decide an area that has already been decided. If you do want to change the law on any level, you have to go through the steps legally. Well, we have already gone through the steps. So I'm not even sure what point she's going to make because we've already revisited these issues legally all the way up to the Supreme Court. What is her point? I'm not sure. But it's just another case of a sore loser and someone who continues to react in light

of how their leader is, that being Colt, someone who is mesmerized in this cult of people who just think that Trump cannot do any wrong when he is absolutely wrong. And so is she. Brandon, I know what their goal is. Their goal is to literally restrict the number of people who vote to make it easy for Republicans to win. That's their strategy. That's always been their strategy. You know, Roland, the issue here,

and this is a learning opportunity for the Republican Party, when you look at a state like Georgia, Georgia not only has one of the highest number of African-American business owners, but the question is, did they campaign there? Did they actually talk about issues that are relevant to African-American voters, specifically one about the unemployment? Also looking at how do you create an opportunity where Republicans become valid to the overall African-American vote. I can tell you, when you look at Georgia and you look at where they campaign, and you look at the two Republican candidates that we had, you know, there were two issues. One, that, you know, there was some insider trading issues,

and so that didn't go well. But the other thing is, the question is, did the GOP actually do real outreach and talk about real issues that actually affect African-Americans? And I'm not talking about, you know, the ones that they prop up. I'm talking about those folks that live in Buckhead and live in Fulton County, Cab County, where they're actually relevant conversations to fight for those votes. And I can tell you, you know, some people said, well, not necessarily. You know, they didn't, well, not necessarily. You know, they didn't speak to me or they didn't talk about the issues. And the other thing is that the Trump factor, unfortunately, played a big role

as to why you got two Democratic senators in the state of Georgia now. This shows you how they want to cheat, Kelly. It lays it out. These are rules that the Republicans changed. Now they're saying, oh, damn, we lost. Oh, no, no, no, no. Change it back.

Change it back. Change it back. Same. She said, we have no shot at winning unless we change these voting laws. The fact that they cannot win an election without cheating is telling of the Republican Party and their ideals at this point. When you lose this badly, and I shouldn't even say lose this badly, they only lost the presidency. As far as the Republican Party is concerned across Senate and Congress, they did pretty well this election cycle. So the fact, it really is an issue of the fact that Trump lost.

But I wanted to go back to what she said specifically, and I saw it in the article. She said, I'm like a dog with a bone. I will not let them end this session without changing some of these laws. They don't have to change all of them, but they've got to change the major parts of them so that we at least have a shot at winning, like you said. Now, instead of going back to their policies and their ideals and saying, hey, what are we doing wrong? What can we do to get people on our side? Not saying you have to compromise, but to the extent of it not being a Republican Party anymore. But there are certain things that are in the Republican Party right now that should be

disposed of. And instead of doing that, instead of making the party better, you are willing to really tarnish the party's name even further by admitting that you want to cheat in order to win. So it's just very telling just how ruthless and frankly dense the Republican party is when it comes to what needs to happen within the party in order for them not to lose. They're as simple as this, Candace. There is no desire to compete for Black votes. They want to be able to make it hard for black people and young people to vote, Latino people as well. They don't want to make an argument.

What they simply want to do is cheat. Period. Yeah. And that's their strategy, right? Make it harder so that they can't vote, as opposed to maybe showing up when John Ossoff invites you to, to debate at the debate, right? Instead of him speaking to a podium. They had many opportunities. They squalored them. And that's why they're in the position that they are in. They did not work hard enough. They did

not have a message that was strong enough and just did not work out. Sore losers. Yep, they are sore losers, and the bottom line is, I say we got to keep fighting this stuff. And, Brandon, I would hope that black conservatives would be willing to stand up and tell Republicans, hey, if y'all want to compete, compete. But don't sit here and keep playing games with voter suppression, because all you're going to keep doing is pissing on black people.

Well, Roland, I think the first thing is spend some money. Spend some money on these districts that you think are competitive, and I think that's the first challenge. And the other part of that is similar, going back to the NFL issue, is it's time for those people to be in leadership areas

outside of the state where we're talking about places like Georgia and Michigan and Colorado where there are competitors spent on minority relevant candidates that actually have a relationship with the districts or with the communities that they're running in. Well, it's a little hard to run those candidates when you're afraid of Black people. And so we see exactly how they roll every single day. Folks, the Trump administration is set to deport a man to Haiti,

even though he's not a Haitian citizen and has never stepped foot in the country. 40-year-old Paul Farias is a financial consultant from New York. According to his birth certificate, he was born in the French Caribbean territory of St. Martin. He says he came to the U.S. with his parents when he was five. His parents and his sister are U.S. citizens. His parents are also Haitian, but they never applied for the 40-year-old's Haitian citizenship. He was picked up on January 11th by ICE and transferred to an ICE holding facility in Louisiana. According to his sister, he was seized when he went to an immigration office on Federal Plaza in Manhattan for what he thought was a routine visit. ICE has been running removal flights to Haiti every second Tuesday and wanted to do a final deportation flight on the eve of the president's

inauguration. That's today. Biden has promised that when he takes office, he will suspend deportations for 100 days while immigration and ICE procedures are reviewed. Hmm. It's amazing how these black MAGA people aren't saying anything about this here or these other black immigrants who they are sending out left and right, even though they're facing persecution in some of the country they're being sent to. Vernon Jones, C.J. Pearson, Alveda King. Also, let's say Bruce LaValle, Paris Denard. Where y'all at? Why y'all quiet? Why y'all are so silent? Deontay, where y'all at? What's wrong?

Your fingers don't work for Twitter when it comes to black people who are being deported? Yeah, I thought so. I thought so. But that's how folks roll. I'm going to call y'all out every single time. Every single time. Brandon, this is one of those things

where, again, it's important for black conservatives to use their voice and start parroting white conservatives. You know, Roland, there's two issues here. One, this is a failed issue on Congress to not directly deal with this immigration reform problem that we have in this country. But the other side to that, I'm not going to disagree with you. I'm going to actually do something different tonight because we've got a double standard,

whether you're a black Democrat or a black Republican, when it comes to policies like this. When you talk about the Haitians or even the Jamaican folks who are being sent back, who in many cases were already born here. I mean, it's not only born here. They're an American citizen. And so the fact that we have not done our part as Congress, but furthermore that we don't call this stuff out, that's another factor of being relevant when it comes to upcoming elections. I'm going to tell you something, Roland. This is going to play a much

bigger role for the years to come if it's not addressed in terms of immigration reform. They've got to be called out, Candace, because at the end of the day, they're not saying anything. And frankly, if you are unwilling to stand up for black folks, then how can you say you represent black people? And, you know, when I look when I look at this, what I see is we were talking earlier about Trump and marketing and what the Democrats have to do in order to make themselves be heard and big themselves up. While we heard about Trump's shenanigans

and the headlines that he was taking, this was happening, not so quietly, but quietly in terms of the headlines that most of the public was getting, right? Every second Tuesday, they have these deportation flights back to Haiti. So this is something that's been going on. So as was already spoken,

we have a situation where people are not paying attention and haven't stepped up where they need to in order to take responsibility and control of this. You know, it's just timing in terms of this gentleman who was unable to stay. I'm assuming he's already on the flight now because now tomorrow we have another administration and Joe Biden is going to reverse this particular situation. So this is something that we are all responsible for because it was going on. But unfortunately, most of the attention was paid to a lot of other big things. Don't get me wrong. But meanwhile, people have been suffering. I mean, this guy has never even been to the country where his native people are from. Yep, absolutely. Got to go to break.

We come back. Y'all seen that Pixar film, Soul? Well, we'll talk with one of the graphic artists, a sister, next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Ground-breaking, breaking animated film called Soul, put out by the folks at Disney,

and of course, African-American lead, so many amazing voices, but did you also know there were black people who were behind the scenes? Well, as a Texas A&M graduate, she worked on the film. It premiered last month on Disney Plus on Christmas Day. She's a CG artist, Cheyenne Chappelle, who joins us right now. Cheyenne, how you doing?

Hello. How are you doing? Gig'em. Yep. All right. So let's, first of all, when did you graduate from Texas A&M? What'd you say? I said, when did you graduate from A&M? I graduated from A&M in June 2019. So really just like less than two years ago.

Wow. Wow. Well, I came just a little before you. I'm class 91. So just a little before you. I'm class 91. So just a little before you. Talk about what it was like being a CG artist working on this groundbreaking film that so many people have been talking about and raving about. It was a great experience. You know, like it was actually my first film at the studio and like my first time actually being a

part of something that i felt like inspired me to go into animation and so like being a part of that film just felt like it was such a fitting thing because it wasn't just the fact that it was a pixar film it was the fact that it was a film that had a black lead as its main character and like that's something you don't see in animation, like, often. Like, we only have, like, what, like, five times that you actually see Black people as the lead? So I think, for me, that was the most special part because I felt like I could actually relate to the character more than just being an artist that creates the environments on the film. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

Oh, and I was just going to say, like, also, like, the idea that, like, the team allowed me to help, like, really bring my blackness to the film itself. So that was something that was special for me. And how did you... How did you even get started in the animation business where you said, hey, this is what I want to do as a career?

Yeah, so actually it was my high school teacher that kind of just talked about animation in the way that it is. Because you know, whenever I was looking at animation films when I was younger, I didn't really think, OK, this is art. I knew that it was something that was put on the screen, but I didn't know what was it actually about. And so that was kind of like my first introduction to animation was through my high school art teacher.

And after that, I had the chance to really just get into the actual craft of it at A&M. And that's where I kind of started to grow and wanted to get into Pixar itself. I remember a few years ago when I saw the story about the number of about the animation program at Texas A&M and I was like, wow, really? And Hollywood really is has come calling. Did you literally go from graduating from Texas A&M to Pixar? Yeah. So in my junior year, I actually had an internship at Pixar. It was called Pixar Undergraduate Program or PUPS.

And after doing that, like that was what my first introduction to the animation industry was. And so like after I was like, OK, I'm going to try to get back to the studio because I really want to be a part of the culture in Pixar itself. So after I graduated high school, I mean, I said high school, wow, college, I was able to actually come back right after I graduated and go on to Soul as a modeling intern. Questions for my panel. I'll first start with Kelly. Kelly, what's your question for Cheyenne? Hi, Cheyenne. First and foremost, I love Soul and the fact that we have you on the show as a part, who was a part of that, uh, beautiful film. I'm just really giddy, because I loved the movie.

My question for you is, if you can, what was the process like to make this set? Because my understanding is that you were a set modeling artist. Um, that's what was told in the article. So you weren't necessarily a part of the artwork regarding the characters themselves, but can you give us a description or what the process was like to make the set, like the surroundings, like his home and the barbershop and the details of blackness in those scenes, in those sets. Can you give us a description or what the process was like

trying to make something like that? Yeah, so a sets modeling technical director is a person that basically creates the environments of the film. And so usually how that starts out is that we usually will get art packets from the art department and we would then be in charge of translating that into CGI. So that process, there's like, you know, like whenever you're doing something, you can always get lost with different like translations. Well, I'm the person that's hopefully putting that towards the end of the film. So you actually will see it.

So usually we would create it in us, CGI, and then once we do that, it would be passed along to shading and lighting, and then go forward throughout the film. Brandon, question for Cheyenne. So, Cheyenne, first of all, I am just enamored and happy that we have more African Americans in areas that aren't typical. I mean, the fact that you're with Pixar, that's great.

My question for you, what inspired you to go into this field and have other people say, hey, how can I be down? How can I be a part of what you're doing? Yeah. So I think what inspired me was partially um so there's two things that inspire me for one my childhood love of animation i mean like i grew up on like toy story it came out when around when i was born so like that's always been like i grew up with these films so i feel like they're just as much a part of my life as like they are to people around my age and then the second part was because I felt like I think like you know occupying spaces that aren't necessarily really

welcome for black people like that's something that like I've always done when I was in like high school and college and so like I think the it was it felt natural for me to go into animation because, like, I think, one, I already had that passion for animation, but then also there was a lack of, like, Black people and diversity in animation. I felt like if someone's going to do it, why not me? And so that was kind of what steered me into animation. This video that we are showing right now shows some of the folks. Obviously, Jamie Foxx was involved, the lead character. Kent Powers was a screenwriter.

You also have John Baptiste, who was a hand of the music as well. So, yeah, there was lots of soul behind Soul. Candace, what is your question for Cheyenne? So, Cheyenne, first of all, congratulations. I'm so excited about your journey. I know that there's so many other people who want to do the same thing. When you were in your internship, what do you think you did that set you apart? Because that was probably a stepping stone, right, to you getting this job.

How did you negotiate making that internship a job to set yourself apart and make sure that, hey, I'm the one you need to hire? Yeah. So I think like something that like, you know, when you're going off of an internship, a lot of people end up not doing is like really continuing to perfect their craft. So like the internship was amazing, but what really set my uh my like path towards coming back to the studio was what I did after the internship and showing that like I can actually use what they taught me to really improve my craft and really make something beautiful and so after the internship I was focused on like creating art that like I really truly felt like invested in and that I thought would really inspire people

and bring awe to people. And so really for the last year of my college career, I really just spent the whole time, whenever I'd had extra time, just to create something that I felt would really just bring people to really love and appreciate my art. And so that was really what helped me get back to the studio is doing that and also

keeping the connections that i had at the studio because i made a lot of great friends from the studio so why not keep talking to them because like at the end of the day the people at studios aren't just like this wild imaginary people these are these are actually people like if you friend them like you're gonna like get to the places that you want to get to. You probably have the amazing demo reel, I would imagine, right? I mean, I like my demo reel. I hope other people like it. Cheyenne, what's next for you?

Well, I just finished working on Luca. And now I'm working on a couple other projects at the studio. So, it's really exciting. I get to have my second film under my belt, and now I get to work on other projects and just make more art. I'm hoping eventually, if I keep the path and just keep persevering, I could try to hopefully be, um, be able to move up and hopefully be a

beacon to other people and other Black people that, hey, you can do this. Because, you know, like, my family, they supported me, and I feel like a lot of other people, they need that. And so I'm hoping that that could be something I can do. Well, Cheyenne Chapel, I'm sure your nieces and, I'm sure you are

all the rage with your nieces and nephews and cousins who who were sold. And they could say, hey, this your movie. And so are you from Texas? Yeah, I'm from Texas. Right around. You said from where? Brenham. Brenham, Texas.

Oh, oh, hell. We all know about Brenham. Bluebell ice cream. Oh, hell yeah. We all know about Brenham. Bluebell Ice Cream. Yes. We know about Bluebell Ice Cream. So maybe one day they'll have a sign in Brenham, Texas, the home of Bluebell Ice Cream and Cheyenne Chapel. All right.

We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. You have a blessing. Thank you so very much. Gig'em. All right, folks. Yes, both of us, Texas A&M graduates. Real quick, folks, this is from Gail Johnson, one of our folks supporting Roland Martin Unfiltered. I recently discovered your daily digital news show and closes my contribution to your OTT acquisition.

I will spread the information about your essential news service to all the groups I'm a member of, both locally and nationally. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. This is Deborah Triplett, Roland Martin and supporting staff. I would like to do my part and contribute to the informative insight on matters that deal with people of color. Love the panelists, the new set, and all that you and your cast bring to the table. May God continue to bless you all richly. Bring the funk. Sincerely, Deborah Triplett. Man, but we got this one today. I'm going to quickly read this here. And see, y'all need to understand, you never know who watches this show. And although we target African-Americans, folks watch us from all across the world.

And you never know. I got this, and this is from a Timothy Bishop. And this is what he wrote. Dear Mr. Martin, thank you for your efforts. I really enjoy your program and its honesty. I'm a 70-year-old white gay man. I hope this little money will help your program. Folks, this show is about speaking truth to power. It's about covering issues that matter

to African-Americans, but the issues that we cover, frankly, are universal. It doesn't matter whether we're talking about poor people, whether you're white or black or Latino or Native American or Asian, you broke, you broke. We're talking about with the Biden administration, the inauguration. We're talking about that lying thug Trump. We're talking about what's happening with Congress. We're talking about what's happening with voter suppression. This impacts folks all across the board. And so we certainly want you to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Please join our Bring the Funk fan club. What we're asking is very simple. 20,000 of our followers to get 50 bucks each over the course of a year. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. 20,000 of our followers

get 50 bucks each as we can raise a million dollars, which makes it easier for us to do what we do and not rely on corporate support. Cash Shappers, dollar sign RM Unfiltered. Venmo, PayPal.me forward slash R Martin Unfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash RM Unfiltered. You can send us, of course, a contribution via Zelle at Roland at RolandSMartin.com. And then all of these folks today who sit in. These were all it was came in the mail. All this stuff right here, which is, of course, 1625 K Street, Northwest Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Make it out to New Vision Media, NU Vision Media. Candace, Brandon and Kelly, we certainly appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Chris Metzler was with us in the first hour. We thank him as well. Folks, tomorrow we will be live 9 a.m. We will not be live tomorrow evening from 6 to 8. We will be live at 9 a.m. for our inauguration coverage of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect

Kamala Harris. We're going to have great guest panelists as well. If y'all are looking for the Blackest Inauguration coverage, come right here to Roland Martin Unfiltered. We want to see you here. I was also going to rock some Kente Claw tomorrow, but I decided the last second I'm going to do something else. Hope y'all tune in to check this thing out.

Y'all know what we're going to do. We're going to keep it real, keep it unapologetic, keep it black, and more importantly, keep it unfiltered. And also, North Carolina Central University, rocking y'all know what we're going to do. We're going to keep it real, keep it unapologetic, keep it black, and more importantly, keep it unfiltered. And also, North Carolina Central University, rocking y'all. Swear to God, thank you so very much. You know how we support HBCU, so please support your favorite HBCU. Because if we give back to our institutions, then we're able to help the next generation. I'll see y'all tomorrow morning.

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