#RolandMartinUnfiltered - ATL mayor exec. order against Ga. voter law; Big biz boycott looms; St. Louis 1st Black female mayor

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

4.7.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: ATL mayor issues exec. order against Ga. voter suppression law; Big biz boycott looms as Black clergy meet with Coke, Delta and Home Depot; St. Louis gets its 1st Black female mayor; Black Lt. Gov., Justin Fairfax squabbles with former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in gubernatorial debate; Pharrell Williams calls for a federal investigation into the police shooting of his cousin; The CBS Shakeup Continues; Target to spend more than $2B with black-owned businesses by 2025; We'll pay tribute to Midwin Charles; Major concerns over COVID vaccine access in AfricaSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Coming up on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Georgians continue to fight for their right to vote. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has issued an executive order that addresses the issue. Will AME Church postpone planned business boycotts who will protest at the Masters Tournament? Also there in Georgia, the district attorney, Fannie Willis, says no charges will be filed against Georgia

State Senator Parker Cannon for trying to get into the room where Governor Brian Kemp was signing the voter suppression bill. Also, last night, Tashara Jones became the first black woman mayor of St. Louis. I talked with her today in an exclusive interview. It is day eight of the murder trial of Derek Chauvin. We have highlights of today's testimonies. And in Virginia, last night's gubernatorial debate between Justin Fairfax, Terry McAuliffe, and several others got a little heated when Fairfax invoked Emmett Till and George Floyd in going after McAuliffe, who called for his resignation when there were sexual assault allegations leveled against Fairfax. Wait until we show you what took place. Also in Virginia, Farrell is calling for a thorough investigation into the killing of his cousin during spring break in Virginia Beach. And Target announced plans to spend $2 billion with black-owned businesses by 2025.

Yeah, I've got some questions, and I'm still not satisfied. And remember those two CBS TV execs that the National Association of Black Journalists called for their firing? I was involved in that. Today, CBS announced they have been let go against allegations of racist and abusive behavior. A recent report shows that poor countries will not get access to the COVID vaccine until 2023, including a number of countries in Africa. Plus, we remember my good friend, Attorney Mitwin Charles, who passed away yesterday at the age of 47. And wait till we show you the video of Black Panther released from prison for the first time in more than 40 years. Folks, you might want to get some tissue.

It's time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered. Let's go. Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yo It's Rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know he's rolling, Martin. Yeah.

Martin. It's always something when Republicans start just throwing everything out, y'all, and act like we can't read, like we can't fact check stuff. I mean, it really does get hilarious as far as I'm concerned when this happens. So the latest thing now is all the Republicans are making a big deal out of Major League Baseball pulling out of the state of Georgia. Yesterday, I told you how they were trying to make all these comparisons to Colorado and their voting law.

So now the new thing is, oh, black people are losing money because the All-Star Game is getting moved. Now they're saying that, oh, if $100 million was going to be generated because of the All-Star Game, black businesses and black employees are going to lose half of that. Charles Payne, the brother on Fox Business, literally posted that tweet today. And I had to take exception to what he had to say about that. And the reason I had to take exception to that is because, y'all, let me just be real clear. All of those economic impact studies done by sports leagues or by cities and counties and states about the economic impact of sporting events. They're all trash. They're all trash.

So for instance, if you say that the Major League Baseball All-Star Game was gonna contribute $100 million, here's what happens. What economists do, they say, oh, if X number of people come to a city for an event, and they're going to stay in hotels for X number of days, and then they're going to eat out X number of times, they're going to rent X number of cars and go through this whole formula

to try to come up with that number. Economists have been doing that to justify when these sports leagues say, oh, if we build this new stadium, it's going to result in $3 billion of economic activity. It's going to create three and four and five thousand jobs. Y'all, it happens every time and they're always lying. The reason I know this is because I was a city hall reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. When Bruton Smith announced that he was going to be building a NASCAR track in Fort Worth and all of these fantastic reports about how much money was going to be generated, well, not really. Now, NASCAR is a little bit different because typically what happens is a lot of those fans, they'll come and spend the whole week leading up to a race. When you hear these things about the Super Bowl and NBA All-Star Game and Major League Baseball All-Star Game, these one-off events, they're mostly lying, y'all.

So I challenged Charles on this. I said, well, Charles, I need you to somehow show me the numbers. Because he contended in his tweet that black people, black businesses and black employees would be losing $50 million of that $100 million. And he based that upon Atlanta being 51% black. Well, first of all, here's the problem, Charles. And you're a nice guy. The baseball stadium is not in Atlanta.

It was moved out to Cobb County. A lot of white folks in Cobb County. Two, how many black people own hotels in Atlanta or Metro Atlanta? I'll wait. And other black businesses, how many of those are restaurants where people are going to be going to eating? Second of all, we have COVID. The stadium is not going to be full. So the typical parties, corporations throw, events, golf tournaments, using event planners, catering companies, limo companies.

No, this is going to be happening. So the hundred million dollars is really nonsense. And so it's another point that I obliterated. Now, yeah, they just walk folks down with facts because they can't handle those facts. Speaking of facts,

the DA in Fulton County announced she is not going to be prosecuting the state representative Parker Cannon, who was arrested by state troopers for knocking on the door of Governor Brian Kemp. Remember the video? Here's the video. Why does she have to step back? The governor is signing a bill that affects all Georgians. Why is he doing it in private,

and why is he trying to keep elected officials who are representing us out of the process? Exactly. I know you don't have any control over anything other than suppressing people's right to vote and using your guidance and your abilities to talk to them. Yeah, you said you give her one more time like you're going to do something. I'm going to win. I'm going to win.

Are you serious? No, you are not representing. She's not under arrest. For what? Under arrest for what? For trying to see something that our governor is doing? Our governor is signing a bill that affects all Georgians and you're going to arrest an elected representative.

Why does the governor have more power than a representative? Why are you arresting her? Why are you arresting her? That's what I'm asking. Stop arresting her. Why are you arresting her? Why? Why are you arresting her?

Why? Cite the violation. Cite the code. What is she in violation of? I want you to cite the code. Cite the code. Cite it. Why don't you cite the code?

Cite the code. Cite the code. Why are you arresting her? Under what? Under what? Back up. Back up. Get out of here.

Get out of here. Under what law are you arresting her? That's what I'm asking you. Why are you arresting her? Why are you arresting her? Why are you arresting her? Tell us now. Why are you arresting her?

Cited. Give me a reason why. Why are you arresting her? Why are you arresting her? Can you sign the code? Well, we've all seen that video. Here's the statement released by the district attorney's office. The office of Fulton County District Attorney, the office of the Fulton County District Attorney's lawful duty is to investigate alleged felonies occurring in Fulton County and to prosecute when appropriate. This office takes seriously its duty to prosecute crimes of violence, particularly when committed against law enforcement officers. In our investigation of the incidents leading to the arrest of Representative Park Cannon on March 25, 2021,

we received the full cooperation from multiple citizen witnesses who were willing to provide in-person interviews about what they witnessed. We thanked them for their assistance. We also received the cooperation of the Capitol Police, who provided statements, video evidence, and multiple police reports in an expeditious manner. After reviewing all of the evidence, I have decided to close this matter. It will not be presented to a grand jury for consideration of indictment, and it is now closed. While some of Representative Cannon's colleagues and the police officers involved may have found her behavior annoying, such sentiment

does not justify a presentment to a grand jury of the allegations in the arrest warrants or any other felony charges. Yeah, that's what happens when you have a black DA with some sense. Also in a bold move, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom, what she's done is she's issued an executive order to lessen the impact of the new law. The administrative order directs the city's chief equity officer to develop a plan of action to expand access to the ballot box. In a statement released by the mayor, it reads in part that the order will include measures such as coordinating with ATL 311 and the mayor's office of constituent services to disseminate information to city residents on how to obtain the forms of identification required for absentee voting, coordinating with the operational departments to include QR codes or links to websites providing information regarding voter registration and absentee voting and water bills and other mailings, working with corporate and community partners to develop and implement public service announcements and other communications

to provide clarity on new voting related deadlines and timelines. Again, that's what happens when you have a black mayor who is leading. All of this is important, folks, because it shows you what is happening there in Georgia. Joining us right now is Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. Cliff, glad to have you on here. First of all, let me get your reaction to the Fulton County DA saying, we ain't wasting our damn time charging the representative for knocking on the door. Yeah, basically the Fulton County DA said the same thing that most of us, most black folks in particular, have been saying. Y'all need to stop with this foolishness.

So, you know, again, DAs matter, right? Who's in these offices matter, right? And so, yeah, we're glad to see that response from the DA. We're also glad to see some of the actions that the mayor has announced in terms of her executive order. Of course, you know, it's not going to be enough to completely counter the Jim Crow-ness of this new law. But like you said, that's what happens when you have a mayor that, you know, at least understands the importance of voting rights. On that note, brief tangent, but as you know, that's why it's important that the people of St. Louis are about to have such a mayor. That's another story. As well, and of course,

also want to get your thoughts on the mayor of Atlanta pushing that executive order using her power to try to curb the nonsense in Senate Bill 202 signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp. I'm extended. The decision by the mayor to release her executive order to try to mitigate some of the problems with the bill signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp. Yeah, no, I mean, we support that. You know, we support that. We support the Gwinnett County solicitor or DA

who said that they will not prosecute people that give out water and food to people that are waiting in lines. But again, in both of these situations, neither one of those can actually outdo the fact that the law exists. Even the solicitor saying that they're not going to prosecute doesn't change the fact that if it's on the books, you might get some rogue cops that decide that they want to arrest somebody. Somebody can still be intimidated. Somebody can still be arrested.

It still sends a chilling effect. And so, you know, we appreciate these offers. I mean, they're important actions for mayors and solicitors or DAs to take to send a message that, you know, that we reject this law. But until we actually get the law repealed, there's so much that folks in those situations are gonna be able to do. I will say that cities that take the step

of doing everything they can, while they got people getting water bills, utility bills, or the like, to get this information out there, to do PSAs, that's actually part of what we're even asking these corporations that we're trying to hold accountable to do. Help us to get the message out, one, about these bills and fighting these bills. But if they get passed, then help us to mediate some of the impacts of these bad laws.

Also, one of the other stories, we're looking at the AME Church announced that they are pulling back on their decision to boycott Georgia businesses. It was thrown out there last week. I said on this show that I frankly I thought it was a little it was early. I thought it was I said, look, you're going to a boycott. This be properly planned and executed. And so talk about that again. People who are calling for boycotts, but they're not being planned right. I keep saying follow the people on the ground who are doing this every single day to get a sense of what they want to do. Yeah, you know, I think one of the things that and shout out to, you know, Bishop Jackson, you know, and the other clergy for taking a stance.

One of the things that I think they did right was that they didn't just say, oh, we're doing a boycott today, right? And so it gave them time to let it marinate, to let the threat and the planning be out there for a while, to put some pressure on companies like Coca-Cola, who did issue a statement late, but it put some pressure on them to take some more actions. And in this case, the action that they're taking is that they're reaching out to other companies and pulling together a meeting to see like what can be done, what concrete actions in some of these companies that have now issued statements, strong statements, in fact, but what can be done to put some strong actions behind those strong words. And so I think that his and their collective call to at least consider a

boycott. I think that's the thing, right? When we say that we're just gonna take the boycott off the table, it's like we're tying one hand behind our back, right? Right, right. I mean, for me, the issue for me is not taking it off the table. What I keep warning people is, don't just toss it out willy-nilly

unless you have a fully executed plan. I tell people all the time with Operation Breadbasket, with Dr. King and Reverend Jackson, boycott was the last thing they resorted to. They made it clear we could go there. We're not trying to go there. It was there. They didn't start with it.

Right. Yeah, I think there's, you know, there's an organizing lesson in all of this, right? It's that, you know, your tactics and your demands have got to match up, right? If you're where, like, you know, we're putting our all out there, you know, we're taking the actions to the limit, but then the demands aren't really matching, right? Once you go into that level, then you got to have the demands to match, but the reverse has got to also

be true, that if you're going to go there with your top demands, then you've got to be prepared to, like you say, to have a plan and to have some actions that are feasible and actually doable, and then you've got to be able to make it happen. As they say, if you're, to have a plan and to have some actions that are feasible and actually doable. And then you've got to be able to make it happen. As they say, if you're going to pull a gun out, be prepared to use it. That's right. That's what you have to do. Where are we? Also, I got to get your thoughts on this. Republicans have really been cracking me up with trying to

compare the Georgia law to the Colorado law by saying, well, Colorado requires a voter ID. They only have 15 days of early voting. Even Senator Tim Scott decided to come in and weigh in. And you're like, dude, really? Right. Really? Right. Yeah.

There's really no comparison, right? I mean, I'm sure you or Dan in Georgia. You will happily take Colorado's where they sent out sent out an absentee ballot application to every eligible every eligible voter. And they have three times as many drop boxes as Georgia. And they have a lot more access to the ballot. That's right. Colorado does regularly what Georgia was only willing to do one time during the primary, which was, like you said, to send out the application, the vote by mail application to every registered voter. We did that one time here in Georgia. Right. It worked so well. They didn't think it was going to work that well, but it worked so well during the primary that then they came back and they decided not to do it for the general, nor did they do it for the runoff, even though the pandemic was just as bad at that point in early January as it was back during the primary.

So Georgia doesn't really want to mess around trying to compare itself to Colorado. And, oh, by the way, Colorado led the country, either one or two. I think they led the country in turnout. So when you look at states like Georgia, or when you look at Texas, like your home state, Roland, which is like 44th in voter turnout.

It's one of the hardest states to vote in. There's no comparison between a state like that and a state like Colorado, which is like light years ahead in terms of making access to voting available for everybody. Georgia don't really, Roffensperger and Kemp, they don't want to get in that battle with Colorado. Yeah, and that's why I keep telling all the conservatives,

like, y'all keep trying to play that one. I say, but we're more than happy to say, let's adopt Colorado's standard if y'all want to do that. I don't think they're trying to do that. No, And it needs to be the standard. And of course, the reason why we're having this conversation, just to remind folks about Georgia and Colorado

and why the Republicans are big mad at Colorado, the reason we're having this conversation is because MLB, which took the all-star game from Georgia, has decided to take it to Colorado, which I actually think was a stroke of genius, right? Not only did they make a strong stance in taking it,

they made a strong statement in saying, we're going to take it to a state that not only is not trying to push voter suppression in Jim Crow, but a state that is actually leading the way in terms of voting access. I thought that was a smart move. Absolutely there. All right, Cliff, what's next?

What should folks be focused on? What do you want the audience who's watching, listening to focus on? Well, just keep on watching this battle that we're in. You know, we're not giving up. We're still trying to repeal the bill. There's going to be some actions. You know, the Masters has been in the news in terms of, like, some pressure on Augusta in terms of the golf tournament.

And so there's going to be some action this weekend in Augusta, right? They put out a statement talking about, oh, we're not going to, you know, make any statements. We're not going to do anything because at the end of the day, we're supporting the communities that are most vulnerable. And we've got some friends and partners in Augusta in some vulnerable communities. And, you know,

it was news to them, they hear, that they're getting some benefits out of all this. So there's going to be some actions in Augusta. Keep your eye on Texas. Tomorrow, there's going to be action that's going to take place at AT&T's corporate office in Dallas. The Reverend Dr. Freddie Haynes is going to be there along with a bunch of other organizations that are part of that coalition.

Keep your eyes on Florida. We just issued today, Roland, we had ads in five major newspapers starting today, Tallahassee, Pensacola, Miami, Orlando, Tampa. Over the next couple of days, you'll be seeing those ads, similar to the ads that we've done in Georgia and in Texas. Those ads started today, and they'll be followed by some actions taking place over the next few days. Because again, Florida is one of those 47 states that has these voter suppression bills that are taking place. Florida has some of the worst of it, of course. You know, your boy DeSantis down there, he's trying to be baby Trump. And so, you know, so we got those ads and we got some actions that are going to be coming out in

Florida. And in all these states, and this is important. All these states, two things are happening. One, they're all referencing each other and our actions in Georgia. We're going to reference the Texas bills. We're going to reference the Florida bills. Same thing in Texas, referencing Georgia, referencing Florida, because we all recognize this is a movement. The other thing that's happening in all these states is that all of these coalitions are talking about and including in their demands that HR1, that these companies and elected officials have got to support HR1 as well as HR4. This is a movement. These are not isolated battles taking place in these states. This is a movement that's building. All right, then. Cliff Albright. I really appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. All right, let's go to my panel. A appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, let's go to my panel. A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Robert Petillo, executive director, Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project, one of the especially legal analysts and crisis manager. Robert, I'll start with you. I want to start with this whole, again, this whole nonsense coming from all these folks. And you can tell when the talking points go out how they all sound so similar. And then they all start repeating these. So, Robert, look at this tweet that Charles Payne sent out. He said, here it is. We just watched the White House

force MLB to move the All-Star game out of Atlanta, taking at least $50 million out of the pockets of black businesses and workers. What part of this issue is Jim Crow? Robert, it's a lie. First of all, the stadium ain't

in Atlanta. It was moved. Why? Because the Braves wanted those white conservative ticket holders buying season tickets and not black folks in Atlanta. You don't have an abundance of black businesses that are all around the stadium. And if you, as well as somebody tweeted,

what are they going to do? All go get these haircuts? Well, you know, it's funny. They make it sound like the All-Star game was going to take place at Morris Brown Stadium. Everybody's going to stay over at the Castleberry Inn, going to have lunch at Pascal's every day with all the players. No, you're 25 minutes away out in Cobb County.

It was not going to impact African-American businesses that much. But also, I think in that conversation, we're losing the gravamon of what we're actually talking about. We're talking about the diminution of constitutional rights in order to suppress the votes of African-Americans. And it's not as if this started with this bill. Voter suppression in Georgia goes back to 1997, when the state passed its first voter ID law. Previous to that, from 1776 until 1997, you can just walk in and vote. In 1997, Republicans took over the legislature. They pushed through a voting identification law, which is far more liberal than the law currently. Prior to that law being passed in 1997,

we had not had a Republican governor since Reconstruction, since 1872 indeed. After that law went into place and was executed in the 2002 election, we have only had Republican governors since then. So you go from 130 years without a Republican governor to only having Republican governors for the 20 years since, and we try to pretend that voter ID laws don't have an impact. Then further, in 2005, we had the updated voter ID law, which was struck down by the federal courts as being a poll tax because it required, in 2005, the legislature required a $20 to $30 piece of identification that you could buy from the state. Federal courts struck it down. The

state reformed it in 2006. The 2006 election, before the law went into place, was the last time that a Democrat won statewide. And in fact, in that election, you had Thurber Baker getting 60 percent of the vote and you had five Democrats that held statewide office. After that 2006 election, you did not have another Democrat elected statewide until Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff in 2021. 14 years of complete Republican domination and rule. So when they say that this is not about voter suppression, well, we got math on our side. We got history on our side. We can see directly in front of us. We see the demographics of the state are changing. If you look at the 2002 election, for example, the Republican at that time won about 1.1 million votes to 800,000 votes. When Stacey Abrams ran in 2018, she got 1.9 million votes, and Byron Kemp got 1.91 million votes to win by about one percentage point. So you're talking

about a nearly 1 million or 2 million vote change in the number of people casting ballots between 2002 and 2018. So the weight of the state is growing, they have to pass this form of voter suppression in order to have any dominion over the state going forward. And they get mad when we talk about and compare this to apartheid or we compare this to Jim Crow. Remember, all the Jim Crow laws had a race neutral, plausible explanation. We have poll taxes because people, we should financially incentivize and give benefits to people who are paying into the system. It means tests to ensure that the people who are paying money have the most voice. We talked about literacy tests.

They would say, well, we want to make sure that we have an educated electorate that's able to make rational decisions on voting. We talk about landowning requirements for voting. The idea was that when the landowners have the most interest in what goes on in the community, therefore they should have the ability to vote and individuals who don't own land should not be able to do so. So those were the justifications then. Just as the justification now is this imaginary concept of voter fraud, which they're using to justify. So those poll tests, those literacy tests, those land-owning tests are no different than the voter ID requirements that exist right now. Taking it one step further, the secretary of state released a study saying that in the 2020 election, 0.37 percent is all of the fraud they could find in absentee ballots in Georgia.

Not 37 percent, 0.37 percent. One-third of 1% of all the ballots. You are willing to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America, disenfranchise the estimated 250,000 voters in Georgia who are eligible to vote but do not have a voter ID. So we're talking about your people who are the sick and shut-ins, elderly people who are homebound, homeless people without stable addresses, persons who are in rural communities where you're struggling to get water and lights and gas and paved roads. You're taking the vote away from them effectively and disenfranchising them. And this is in a cynical effort to maintain power. This is exactly what we saw in apartheid South Africa. And it's interesting to have seen Republicans tweeting out a picture of Nelson Mandela wearing a shirt encouraging people to get a voter ID in order to be able to vote in the South African elections.

The reason he had that shirt on was because the apartheid government put those exact same measures in place to depress the vote and make it more difficult for the black majority to control the country as opposed to the educated and economically wealthy white minority. So when they have these straw man arguments, what they're simply doing is putting up chaff, putting up enough steam, enough distraction to try to take us away from the actual issue, which is the protected right to vote in the democratic norms of our country. They understand they cannot win the vote straight up, so they have to play around with the rules. And that is why these laws are going into place. And that's why we have to oppose them now, because if they start in Georgia,

then they will metastasize and spread around the country. We will see these exact same laws nationwide. There's a reason that no Republicans won the popular vote nationwide in the last 17 years. There's a reason that since 1961, if you include midterm elections, Republicans have won the popular vote a grand total of eight times in the last 50-some-odd years because they no longer have the ideas to represent the majority of American people,

so they have to play around with the rules, and it's our job to stop them. Monique, I'm sort of laughing, if you will. First of all, let me say this right now. Scott, you will not get as much time as Robert just took right there. Shot that you gave him that much time. In fact, Scott is from Georgia. Scott is from Georgia.

Scott, Scott, suck it up. It's from Georgia. Monique, the reason, Monique, the reason, the thing, Monique, the thing I find laughable. Where are the regulators? The thing I find laughable, why do these people act like black people ain't never had a discussion about boycotts before and who gets impacted? I mean, it's always, oh, oh, you're going to hurt the poor black people

who need this money. Well, how about your ass is not passed the bill? Like, this ain't hard. But they always think that argument is going to somehow cause us to go, you know what, you're right. Yeah, you're right. We shouldn't do this because

there may be some black people who work at a place that might get impacted. Man, it reminds me of Kenosha, Wisconsin, when they interviewed a business owner and homeboy said, if they got to burn it down to change the law, burn my business down. They were like, oh, I guess we better interview somebody else.

Monique? Right. Well, Stacey Abrams gave some quotes when the decision was made on her own behalf and behalf of her organization. And it was similar to what I said when we talked about this last week. I am not in favor of self-wounding just for the sake of doing it. So along the same lines as you saying, if there's going to be a boycott, it needs to be organized. I'm saying if there's going to be a boycott, it needs to be necessary because whether it's this particular circumstance out in Cobb County or not, yes, when we boycott, we take on water. We are injured. The whole key to it, though, is we're experienced at this and we take on that sacrifice in order for there to be good,

for the greater good. And so people walk into it knowing that their own businesses may suffer, that they may be walking instead of riding buses or taking taxes, that whatever type of boycott it is, that they may do without goods and services, that their businesses may take on losses. All of those things go into participating in the boycott. The boycott is not just something that you do to somebody else and Coca-Cola feels the pain. Well, everybody who wants to drink a Coke or who's selling Coca-Cola or who is eating McDonald's or who is selling McDonald's franchises, all of those people take the hit. But it just, in my mind, has to be something that is necessary.

I agree with you. I think it should be a last resort. I don't think it should be the first thing. Scott, when we look at the various actions that have been taking place, first of all, the DA said, man, I'm not going. Gone. Gone. Wayne wasted my time with this stuff. That's pretty much what she said. Gone. Gone. Gone with

that stuff. You got that. But also the actions of the mayor. I mean, this is what happens. I think people need all the folk out there who talk about don't vote, don't vote. This is what happens when you have a black DA. This is what happens when you have a black mayor. This is what happens when you have a majority black city council. You get to exercise power. Yeah, you know, the DA side, this arrest was just ridiculous. When I first saw the video, I thought that this was something that was planned and then that she'd be released. And, you know, it would be, you know, not only substantive, but also you get a hit on evening news with this. And they played into it. But I kept thinking, what is she

charged with? She wasn't disorderly. Right. She didn't try to force her way in. What could they charge her with? I haven't seen the charging documents, but it was ridiculous. And so that type of discretion that usually works against black people worked for us, but it doesn't matter whether she was black or white. It worked for us because the DA exercised the right discretion. But the power of the mayor's order, executive order, is what we really need to be focusing on. Because what it tells you is, is that, okay, if through the court system we cannot defeat these new voting rules in Georgia and the 357 bills circulated around the country to protect this big lie, then black people and white people and progressives and those who care about voting rights have got to be even smarter.

We got real smart last year and we voted and this year we voted and got the people out. Now the rules have changed. And now if we can't get these laws stricken down, then we as a people have got to get smarter, right? We've got to get educated, right? We got to get the word out and we got to make sure everybody, right, has their voter ID and has their information and our meeting deadlines. And that's going to go through communications and media outreach and what have you and training, training voters, training people who are allowing you to vote, training pollsters. That's what we've got to do until we can vote across the board and put Democrats in these state offices, local offices, and federal offices. It's going to be up to us in the end.

So two paths. You go to court, see if you can get it struck down constitutionally. But if you can't, there's just a new area, a new way of voting they've slotted us in. And black people and brown people have got to figure out how to beat that system because they cannot keep us down. All right, folks, let's go to our next story. 28 witnesses have been called to the stand in the trial of ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Eight of those were former or current officers who told the jurors Chauvin used excessive force and unauthorized force when he placed his knee on George Floyd's neck for over nine minutes. Today, the defense team played body cam footage. They claimed to hear Floyd say,

I ate too many drugs. The use of force expert from Los Angeles Sergeant Jody Steiger and Special Agent James Ryerson from Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension asked if they could make out what Floyd was saying in the recordings. Take a look at what happened today. Sir, do you have an opinion to a degree of reasonable and professional certainty to how much force was reasonable for the defendant to use on Mr. Floyd after Mr. Floyd was handcuffed, placed in the prone position, and not resisting? Yes. What is that opinion? My opinion was that no force should have been used once he was in that position.

In the scene of an arrest, even just in the immediate kind of wingspan, that can be very chaotic, right? Yes. People can be talking to each other. People can be talking over each other, right? Yes. People can be talking to each other. People can be talking over each other, right? Yes. The suspect may be saying some things, right? Yes. Bystanders may be saying some things, right? Yes. In the chaos, it's easy to miss some things, right? In certain instances, yes, depending on the severity of what's going on. I'd like to publish part of the body-worn camera. It's Officer King's body-worn camera starting at 2021-01. This is a portion of what's already been received?

Yes. Any objection? No objection. I'd like you to see if you can tell me what Mr. Floyd says in this instance. You hear what he said? No, I couldn't make it out. Does it sound like he says, I ate too many drugs? Listen again. I can't make that out, no.

So in the chaos of a situation, things can be missed, right? Yes. Publish Exhibit 1007 and I'm going to ask you, sir, to listen to Mr. Floyd's voice. Did you hear that? Yes, I did. Did it appear that Mr. Floyd said, I ate too many drugs? Yes, it did. Agent Ryerson, while we were on a break, did you have an opportunity to review Exhibit 127, which is the composite with King's body-worn camera, correct?

Yes. During that same time period? Yes. During that same time period? Yes. And prior to the short clip of Lane's body camera that you were shown as exhibit 1007, is there a discussion about drug use by the officers and attempting to speak to Mr. Floyd? Yes. And hearing that section of the audio, did that help you to understand what Mr. Floyd might have been saying that you were asked about by counsel? Yes. And, Your Honor, then we would ask to play Exhibit 127, which is queued up to 2020-30 through 2020-101, where that appears that Mr. Ryerson,

Agent Ryerson was asked about. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

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All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. Please, I can't breathe. Can you get up on the sidewalk, please? One side or the other, please? My face can't look bad. Here, should we get his legs up? Oh, my God. Help just leave him.

Just leave him. Just leave him. Yep, just leave him. All right. I'm dead. Hopefully the park's still set on the car. Look at my face. I'm dead.

I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. So the record should reflect that we've played through 2021-10 with the quote that you were asked about appearing really at 2021-01, correct? Yes. Having heard it in context, are you able to tell what Mr. Floyd is saying there? Yes, I believe Yes. Having heard it in context,

are you able to tell what Mr. Floyd is saying there? Yes, I believe Mr. Floyd is saying, I ain't do no drugs. So it's a little different than what you were asked about when you only saw a portion of the video, correct? Yes, sir. Well, they're trying a little bit of everything here,

Monique. Obviously, they want to put George Floyd on trial. That whole deal, can you make out, did he say, I ate the drugs? Dog, the ER doc has testified. They've already laid out how he died. Asphyxiation.

Y'all can sit here and keep trying this whole deal. Just your assessment of what today. We also know that there were drugs in his system, but that doesn't mean that they can then just try to get witnesses to guess and speculate about what a now dead man was saying and everyone who listens to it could think something different about it. When I heard that part though, frankly, I just, I've questioned a number of times and maybe Scott can help me on this or Robert too. Where is the judge? I mean, who's running this

courtroom and, and do either, does either side really know how to object? I mean, objection speculation, objection facts not in evidence. I'm lost because it's a little bit of a wild, wild west kind of anything goes thing. And granted, the defense sucks way more than the prosecution. They've been doing, for the most part, a good job, but just some fundamentals of evidence or something, because if your own witness, which is what happened yesterday, you know, your own witness who testifies fine for you on direct goes out to pasture on cross-examination

to the point that now they're calling her back as their witness, but that all happened absent objection. If your witness is talking too much, shut him down the way Roland shuts down Scott. That's what has to happen. Ain't this some shit? Did you just put me in?

Yes, she did. You just endorsed Roland? Yes, she did. Right? Yes, she did. You just endorsed Roland? Yes, she did. Yeah? Right, because she knows I'm the judge and the jury, so damn it, talk before I go to Robert. And it's your show. It's your show.

Right there, right there, right there. You see that right there? See that right there? Okay, let me... It says Roland Martin. That goes above unfiltered in Daily Digital Show. Go ahead. One day that's going to say with a Scott Baldwin.

No, I know it won't. I guarantee that won't happen. No, it won't happen. Okay, let me give some legal foundation to a couple of thoughts, okay? Monique is absolutely right, and I've heard other legal analysts talk about these objections, okay? The defense put on a really sophisticated cross-examination. On cross, the defense attorney is testifying as opposed to the witness and trying to get yes, no answers, okay? Now, here, what he was trying to bring out was whether

the words on that tape, the witness could make out, I ate too many drugs. The objection would have been to hearsay, right? However, because it's cross-examination, hearsay objections hardly ever work because what the defense would say is, I'm not offering it for the truth of the matter asserted therein. I'm not offering it to say that it was true that he ate too many drugs. I'm offering it for the fact that he simply said it, not for the truth asserted therein, which is a big difference. And most judges would let that go. Because if I'm a defense attorney, I want the jury to hear that even the victim said he ate too many drugs. And then what's coming next are these witnesses who are experts and the pathologists,

and you're going to be competing with these scientific theories because in the end, only one thing matters in this case, and it's going to be a boring issue. But one thing matters is what's substantially killed, because Minnesota's got this weird law where you don't have to show that the police brutality killed it, that it substantially contributed to it. All that matters is the jury is going to have to figure out with these competing pathologists and experts what killed George Floyd. Was it the drugs? Was it the police brutality? Was it a combination of both? And or what substantially contributed to

his death? That's why the defense wanted to bring that out, because in closing, he wants to argue and make the victim his witness, along with any other points that he can bring out vis-a-vis. It really wasn't inappropriate to put his knee on his neck because he was trained to put his knee on his neck or his back, but it was closer to his neck and all these other issues. And so that's kind of the framework as to what's going on here in the courtroom. Robert.

Well, to Scott's point, even if you don't believe that an objection is going to be successful, you still need to object just to break the cadence. You object just to make the judge have a ruling. By the way, it's irrelevant too, by the way. It's all of this is irrelevant because the medical records and the autopsy that my colleague just said before I started talking about Nick said. So it's really irrelevant,

but it's an appearance and a messaging point for the defense. I'm sorry, go right ahead. And you're completely right. And I think part of the problem for the prosecution right now is that in cases like this, the tie goes to the defense. The burden is on the prosecution. The prosecution has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. They have to, and for the higher murder charges, they have to both show that Mr. Chauvin had the intent.

He had to have a motive, not just simply that it was a workplace accident, which is the way that the defense is going to try to frame it. Mr. Chauvin was executing his job. He was doing what he was supposed to do. And tragically, Mr. Floyd was in such a decrepit and drug riddled state that he accidentally died as a result of Mr. Chauvin's actions. That was his force, excessive perhaps, but at most it's reckless, not criminal intent needed for a murder conviction. I don't think we've got anything from the prosecution thus far that goes to showing that it was the conscious object of Mr. Chauvin to take the life of Mr. Floyd, not simply that it was a

combination of events, including Mr. Floyd's health, the drugs which he had ingested, the stress of the situation, in addition to the need to restrain him. And somebody on the internet is going to take this and say I'm supporting the cops. No, I'm giving you a legal analysis of what we're looking at. Take this as my personal opinion. I'm giving you the legal analysis of what I've seen thus far.

And just taking this from a completely state of equipoise, you know, they're coming in tabula rasa, just a blank slate. If you knew no other information except for what the prosecution has presented thus far, it'd be nearly impossible to come to a first degree murder or even a second degree murder conviction on this case. So I think the weight is on the prosecution to list some more weights. But there is no first degree murder charge. So they don't have to prove that it's his conscious objective to do it. That's not even on the table. We've got second degree, we've got third degree, and then we've got the second degree manslaughter charge. And for none of those, do they have to prove intent? But they have, they certainly have, because when you have witness after witness saying that they were saying to the cops and were responded to that they could see that he was suffering, they could see that he

couldn't breathe, they could see foam coming out of his mouth and they took no action. When we have video where the officers were trying to get a pulse and didn't, when we have video showing that they had him in a prone position, handcuffed, and they know the training shows them that if you don't turn a witness, turn the suspect on the side as soon as possible, then it can cause what it did cause, which is death, cardiac arrest due to asphyxia. So all of the elements are there and in place. But just to what Scott said about this objection, in my mind, if you're objecting because they're trying to get a dead man to testify, there are only a few reasons why you can do that, and they weren't hitting on any of them. It was hearsay, Scott, because either they're saying it for the truth,

George Floyd is saying, I ate too many drugs because he ate too many drugs, which is what they're trying to prove because they're saying that he overdosed, or either they're offering it for what? His state of mind? He thinks he ate too many drugs? That's not relevant. That's not admissible. Are they saying it for the state of mind of the defendants, of the police officers? He's saying,

I ate too many drugs. Well, to me, that works for me if I'm the prosecutor. He's telling you that he's overdosing. You're not acting to save him. You can give him a drug that could save him right now if you believe that's true. If it's excited delirium, then take out those patches that you've been trained to use and treat the man. If you can't find a pulse, give him CPR. So they killed him from the point that they unnecessarily pointed a gun at him in the car to the point that they took him and tried to stick him inside the cruiser instead of working to diffuse the situation and de-escalate it because he was telling them verbally that he's claustrophobic and that he's hyperventilating. They can see the agitation.

It was an utter and complete failing, and it was a criminal failure that led to somebody's death. Okay, but that's a great closing argument, and I agree with you, but we're not at that junction yet. We really aren't. That's not my close. I can give you a better close than that. I'm just talking about where we are. But you can argue that in closing, and the prosecution's going to argue.

I would have objected anyway, right? But again, the fact that I'm offering it for the fact that he said it, as opposed to the truth of the matter asserted therein, on cross-examination, most judges over my several years of trying cases would let that go. But I would have objected anyway. So we'll see. We'll see. Y'all done? Roller, you can move on now. Why don't you move on? You had lawyers on to talk about legal stuff. You know what you're doing? No, no, I'm just making sure y'all ass is done. Roller, you can move on now. You had lawyers on to talk about legal stuff. No, I'm just making sure y'all ass is done.

Not really, but you can do that. Gotcha. All right, next story. In Virginia, last night's gubernatorial debate, it pretty much was a bore all throughout, but towards the end, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, let's just say he was not going to waste his

moment and take a shot at former Governor Terry McAuliffe when it came to saying he was not going to waste his moment and take a shot at a former governor, Terry McAuliffe, when it came to saying he was treating him like Emmett Till when Fairfax was accused of sexual assault by two women in 2019. Watch this. The murder of George Floyd was horrific. But it recalls a history in Virginia and in our nation where African-Americans, and particularly African-American men, are presumed to be guilty, are treated inhumanely, are given no due process, and have their lives impacted, in some cases taken away in an instant. And I think that in the interest of speaking truth to power here, particularly on the campus of Virginia State University,

we can't just talk theoretically about what generally happens. But we have a real world example where I was falsely accused in 2019 from the Washington Post now saying these false accusations, raising that question, and whether it was a rush to judgment. Everyone here on the stage called for my immediate resignation, including Terry McAuliffe three minutes after a press release came out. He treated me like George Floyd. He treated me like Emmett Till. No due process. Immediately assumed my guilt.

I have a son and I have a daughter. I don't ever want my daughter to be assaulted. I don't want my son to be falsely accused. And yet this is the real world that we live in. And so we need to speak truth to power and be very clear about how that affects people's lives. Monique, I want to start with you. You don't say.

What you had here was, of course, as he said, five candidates on stage, the other four, yes, he needs to go. The reality is he hasn't resigned. The two women who accused him have not filed complaints with the Boston DA or the Raleigh-Durham DA, both black women, in terms of the DAs. Both black women who are making the accusation of black women, both the DAs are black women. But they did say they would participate in an impeachment hearing that Republicans wanted to do here. You have Fairfax saying, Terry, three minutes after a press release drops, you're demanding my resignation. Right now, McAuliffe is leading two to one in Democratic primary. He was governor before. You only get to serve one term uh fairfax has alleged that essentially mccullough wanted to knock him out because he would have been the front runner uh for for governor uh this year what do you make of that

uh that uh that moment there in last night's debate it was spot on and he, and he was right to say it. Um, I'm sending him just love and light and power as he takes a stand. And, and the only thing I think he could have said that follows up on it is, you know, they were all acting in fear because we know, um, that privately they knew that there were issues with these allegations from the beginning. But you want to talk about culture, cancel culture and what all those things are really about. These days, if you don't immediately come out and say crucify him, then you're on the wrong team. And that is why they did that. Now, do I think it was an inside job on the inside of the Democratic Party that led to what Lieutenant Governor Fairfax went through? Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, and it'll all yet remain to be seen. But I mean, it was very obvious.

You said the Black women prosecutors said, OK, you want to say something? Bring it to me. Come on in. Let's talk. They didn't want to do that. They wanted the theater. They wanted what they were either coaxed into doing or paid to do or whatever the case may be. But I like the fact that he did not quit, that he stood up for himself then and is doing so now. And, you know, Roland, I don't know how many times I've told you, Scott, I haven't told Robert yet today would be my day to tell him, don't even jaywalk, Black man. Because if you are a Black man in these United States with any measure of power or influence or education or money, there is a target on you.

You are held to a scrutiny that is different than your white counterpart. It always has been. I pray that it won't always be, but it is right now. So stuff that other people can get away with, that ain't got nothing to do with you. Robert, what do you make of that? And look, the reality is Fairfax has been greatly damaged. He is running second or third, depending on the polls, to McCullough. McCullough has a huge lead, has got a lot of endorsements from black elected officials.

There are members of the Black Caucus in Virginia who were pushing Fairfax to step down. He refused to do so. Well, you know, my position has always been that we have allegations of this nature that you should step away from public life and handle the accusations. As Fairfax said, it appears that these allegations went nowhere. So I think that we have to start...

No, not appears, they didn't. I mean, they didn't go anywhere. Yeah, my point is that I think we have to start establishing consequences and repercussions for false allegations. That it can't simply be that I think we have to start establishing consequences and repercussions for false allegations. That it can't simply be that I get to clear my name and you get to go back to your life. No, somebody got to go to jail. Somebody got to get sued. If you're going to come out publicly and make up a story that you can't get behind, not even file charges behind it.

We see it with athletes all the time. We see it with politicians all the time. You got to start locking some of these people up. You have to start suing these people into oblivion because right now there is absolutely no disincentive to make false allegations against an individual. And you can always use it, always hang it as a domicile over someone's head. Basically, if anyone has ever had an encounter with anybody at any point in time, it can be brought up 20 years later as a way to destroy their

character. So I do think that he should have actually taken stronger actions in order to go after these women, to go after them either civilly for defamation or slander or libel, if they're repeating things that they know not to be true, or going after them with their local district attorney's offices, filing charges against them for making a false report or making false allegations against them. I think the first time you start seeing some of these people going away in handcuffs and jumpsuits, we'll stop seeing this used as a tool to bring down powerful African-American men nationwide going forward. Scott. Or bring down anybody. You know, that was his, you know, that was Justin's Kamala Harris moment,

if you will. He needed to have that moment in that race, regardless of the polls. And anyone that wants to criticize him or come after him in this race, he gave you their answer. That's the first thing. He's also able to argue he was never impeached. He was never prosecuted. The women never investigated or went to have him arrested. All they wanted was the political theater, as Monique said. And that's a plus for him. He's able to say that because he's still there. He certainly has left his law firm and certainly has been negatively impacted. He certainly has had impact on his children and what have you. But he's a viable candidate like anybody else in that race. And the question

is, can he convince enough voters that he's viable to be governor despite these allegations? I think the women who brought the allegations hurt themselves a great deal by choosing politics over law enforcement. So he's there. That's going to be an interesting race to see whether the Virginia voters are going to go back to the future with Terry. And there are other women in that race who are viable candidates as well from around the state. And his dynamic, Justin's dynamic, is just another interesting point of view. As the polls continue to come out, as that race unfolds, the voters and the polling will tell you where the voters are going to rest upon in their view of the world. But he's got an uphill climb because he's got to overcome the perception or the reality of those

allegations as well as defend himself in a political environment where he needs votes and he needs men and women voters to like him in order to get more votes than the next guy. All right, folks. In Virginia, music producer Pharrell Williams is calling for a federal investigation in the fatal officer shooting, fatal shooting of his cousin last month. Williams' plea on Instagram came after attending the funeral of Donovan Lynch. Lynch was killed in the early morning hours of March 27th, along with Virginia Beach's popular Oceanfront strip of hotels.

Police claimed Lynch had a handgun. A gun was recovered from the scene, but the officer's body camera had not been activated. The Phoenix Police Department has turned over the investigation into Lynch's death to the Virginia State Police. Folks, in the story that I was involved in as a vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists, CBS announced today that two station executives are no longer employed by the company after allegations of racism and abusive behavior surfaced. Peter Dunn, who was president of the TV station's group since 2009, and David Friend, senior vice president of news for more than a decade, are no longer a part of CBS, according

to an email sent to staff by Chief Executive George Cheeks. In it, he said, quote, We have determined that CBS stations President Peter Dunn and SVP David Friend are not returning to their positions and will be leaving the company. An investigation by The L.A. Times revealed they created an environment that bullied female managers and blocked efforts to hire and retain black journalists. Point is this here on this, this is fine. Those two are leaving. That's what we called for, Robert, wanting them to be fired. But CBS has a lot more to do. The allegations that were raised by lots of people are critically important that need

to be dealt with. And there's a culture issue. There is a systematic problem there. And the people who were impacted, people who lost jobs, folks who will run out of the company, they need to be made whole by CVS. Absolutely. And on situations like this, it's less so who you fire, but more so who you hire. Who are you bringing in to replace these individuals? Who are you putting over corporate diversity at your company? What are you doing as far as making amends and as far as advertising and first deals with black producers, black content creators?

What are you doing to actually create an atmosphere where these things can live and breed and grow? Because quite frankly, it's harder to have people like this in your organization when you've got a few black people around to check them on their stuff who have enough power and enough ability to speak truth to power in those situations. So I'm more interested in seeing what CBS does going forward to rectify this situation, how they can actually create the type of diverse environment which is reflective of the nation and not simply do a token type of recompense,

some sort of performative justice. I want to see some actual tangible actions taken. Scott. Yeah, you know, the other thing that the fallout will be is the lawsuits that you know about. But I can guarantee you there are other lawsuits that are coming by people and anchors and reporters from that affiliate who have experienced their racism, experienced their bullying because I've gotten calls from two or three and I refer them out to others simply because I don't do plaintiff's employment work. And so there's a real culture problem. There's a real culture problem. There's a real image issue.

But there's also this workplace environment where people will feel short term relieved because of the exit of these two managers. But at the same time, they'll will settle to not only make it go away, but to move forward from an employment standpoint and a management standpoint, move forward quickly so that they can create a new culture at that affiliate and throughout CBS. Right. Monique? If they got fired, there's so much we don't know because, uh, though the things that came out and, and the pressure that you all in your organization put on though, all of that, to me, the things that came out were concerning, were inappropriate, were in some cases illegal, um, and, and ABJ did the

right thing. And so, but now when you fire away from the top of the food chain like that, that means that the investigation revealed, as Scott was saying, there is an environment of toxicity there. There are many different types of allegations that probably may never come to light. That is the hope. They're cutting the head off. right? And hoping that a new monster doesn't grow. And in the meantime, they scurry around and try to clean up and they bring somebody in to do an analysis and somebody else to do an evaluation and somebody to give them a whatever month plan. And they start anesthetizing everything that they possibly can and signing agreements with everything that they can't clean up. So there's a lot going on right there. And I agree with Scott. The lawsuits will probably be abundant. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. Target announces by 2025 they're going to spend two billion dollars with black owned businesses. I'm still not satisfied. I will explain next. I believe that it's movement time again. In America today, the economy is not working for working people.

The poor and the needy are being abused. You are the victims of power, and this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs. I work seven days a week. No days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit, and it is time for this to end.

Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic, and they've been doing it on a measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was literally $291. I can't take it no more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages.

And it's long past time for this nation to go to 15 so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars is because income does not match housing cost. If I could just only work one job, I can have more time with them. It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage.

We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too. We need this. I'm going to fight for it until we get it. I'm not going to give up. We just need all workers to stand up as one nation and just fight together. Families are relying on these salaries and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour. $15 a minimum anyone should be making

to be able to stay out of poverty. I can't take it no more. I'm doing this for not only me, but for everybody. We need 15 right now. Carl Payne pretended to be Roland Martin. Holla! Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. I've been frozen out.

Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have black on you. All right, folks, today Target announced that it will spend more than two billion dollars, two billion dollars, y'all, on black owned businesses by 2025. Hmm. Sounds great, huh? In their announcement, they announced that in a number of areas, how they're going to spend those resources. Let's walk it through.

They're going to increase the number of products from black-owned businesses to more than 500 across stores and online. Spend more with black-owned companies, including marketing agencies, construction companies, facilities, maintenance providers, and others. Establish new resources, including Forward Founders, a program designed to engage with black entrepreneurs early in their startup journey and help them grow and scale their businesses in mass retail. Ford Founders was built on the success of our Target Accelerators program and co-created with black entrepreneurs from its advisory council. OK, first of all, let's be clear here. Target is making this announcement on the heels of Byron Allen and me and others signing a letter targeting numerous companies when it came to black advertising agencies. So this announcement wasn't minority businesses. It wasn't people of color. It was black-owned businesses. But I have a few questions and I

ask Target this these questions and I've yet to get answers to them. If the decision is to spend two billion dollars with black owned businesses by 2025, I'm curious how much is being spent now? What's the supply chain? How much is actually being spent with black suppliers how much is actually being spent right now with black owned agencies how much is actually being spent see if you're going to get to two billion in four years that means that you're at a certain number right now. Let me show you how major this is. Go to my computer, please. This is from Yahoo Finance.

This is I'm going to show you the numbers, folks, for Target. And it's important for you to understand the numbers see a lot of times what happens is we we get caught up in these conversations and folks get enticed by who two billion well here's the issue the market cap for target, Robert, is $101 billion. $101 billion. The stock price of Target is $204.45. That's where it closed. That's the numbers right there.

When you look at the sales of Target, you look at the money that they generate, all those different things. So, again, on the surface, Robert, two billion sounds like a lot. And it is. But when you say for all black owned businesses, now we're talking about the Target supply chain. Now we're talking about black owned media company. Target spends one point seven five billion dollars on marketing alone every single year. I'm curious to know how much of the existing dollars are going to black owned businesses. What is your number now? What do you want your number to be? I want to know what does that two billion represent? What's the percentage of that $2 billion? Is that 2%? 3%? 4%?

5%? 8? 10%? So again, $2 billion is a big number, but the question is still the best, Target, are we getting our fair share? Because we know a lot of black folks who love shopping in Target. Well, to your point, since the revolution summer last year, 2020, we've heard many corporations announce

all the programs they're going to have for the black community and to support black businesses. But at the end of the day, the question is, where does the money reside? Because we haven't seen a lot of this stuff actually hitting the streets and making effects on people's lives. It's a little bit like when you see an NFL contract. They say, well, Patrick Mahomes has a 10-year, $500 million contract. They say, well, how much of that is he actually getting? Like a quarter of it.

So we can't just get seduced by the number overall. We have to ensure that he's actually getting to the people who need it and hitting the streets properly, because there are many young African-American entrepreneurs out there who need access to markets. We're having our, of course, African-American farmers call that we do every month with Rainbow Pus tomorrow. People can email me, rpatillarainbowpus.org, to be involved in that. But how are you working with black farmers to feed your grocery aisles? How are you working with black-owned packaged goods and other types of retail goods in order to support their businesses? And how do people get access to this? When are you going to explain how do people apply for it? Do you just go to the Target

website and type in black and then some money goes to your cash app? Or is there like another portal that's going to be created? So they're going to have to weed out the details in order for people to fully understand so that we can know that this is not just another shell game where we move numbers around, take some pictures, send out a press release, and then nothing really changes. See, the thing for me here, the thing for me here, Monique,

and why we're challenging these companies is because, see, I want to know where you are today and then where we gonna be in four years see so it's great to make these announcements and and I'm very used to companies making announcements getting up oh man y'all doing great. Folks sitting here, you know, congratulating on social media. But it still comes down to fair share. It still comes still comes down to. Sure, it's two billion. But if that two billion still represents three percent of the dollars, that means that we still are not getting our fair share. This is why we call it black economic social justice. Well, absolutely. And the gap is so wide, frankly, that it enables the type of performative shows that we see. And I'm not sloughing off billions of dollars in saying that it's nothing

because I can't say that it's insignificant. But to your point, what often happens is they throw at a problem the money they can afford to lose. And what they were giving before that, they make that back before they've even figured out a way to successfully give it out. So when they call themselves digging deeper, it really just means that they're making the slightest of commitments that would have any effect whatsoever on their bottom line. So you, Byron Allen, that same group that went to GM about the media ought to sign a letter. You late. Some of you, all of you. You late.

Huh? Say what? You're late. What do you mean I'm late? Target has already been sent a letter. Okay. I didn't know that. Okay.

So you've sent the letter. Okay. I didn't know that. Okay, so you've sent the letter. I sent you later. And either when you got the meeting or when you get the meeting, there are only two issues that ought to be on the table, metrics and the game plan. Tell me what the game plan is and the metrics that you talked about vis-a-vis what are you doing now versus what this is going to do and what does this two billion represent right they ought to have that now versus once they issue the press release and you ought to press and stress them on that so that it can make a meaningful difference just like with major league baseball right this 50 million you were talking about earlier it ain't a whole lot of black people that watch baseball it ain't a whole lot of black people that watch baseball. It ain't a whole lot of black people

that go to these baseball games. It's expensive going to the All-Star game. Where are these black businesses getting 50 million? And before you, before they pulled the All-Star game, how come they weren't promoting their tally that 50 million of the 100 million were going to black people? Because I don't think they could ever meet that metric. If you ask me, who's getting it? Employees, vendors selling hot dogs,

those out there selling t-shirts out and around the outskirts of the all-star. And so metrics, game plan, metrics, game plan. That's all that matters. Right. That's what we do. And that's why why i said that's why the moment i got the press release today i sent them an email saying i want answers to these questions because again two billion it looks great but maybe the number actually should be 10 billion so i'm not going to get excited by 2 billion when the real number should be 10 billion that means that i'm leaving 8 billion on the table. Nah. That's what I'm saying. You're asking for reality.

That's what I'm saying. You need reality. I'm still not satisfied. Well, but see, can I interject this one thing that I'm going to let you interrupt? Your time is up. He didn't go to you. He needs to move on. And see, I don't want to say something very, very kind about Scott and his lane as managing partner, because know, trial lawyering and handling clients, but who manages high levels of finances in coming up with bottom line after bottom line

for businesses and understanding how those decisions are made. And so I just think as black folks, if we would cross pollinate, cross pollinate within our set and pull people in who know how to get certain things done, we would be much better off. Well, but the thing though is we'll be much better off also when black people would not accept less than what is deserved. And that's the key. You don't have to know how to have that conversation. No, no, no. I understand that. But see, part of the problem is that because we typically have gotten less, what they'll do is they'll try to pick black folks off by offering a little bit more. Like, oh, my God, we get a little bit more. No, no. Actually, you could have got four times that amount. But you actually accepted the crumbs. No, I don't want the crumbs. I need the whole entree. That's what I'm looking for. And so that's my deal. I got it. I got it.

Bounce off of this here. So Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill now today, he is not going to be running for the United States Senate. That's because he had a little entanglement. Now, earlier today, he said, how dare you? I did no such thing. This woman, this 44 year old woman was stalking me. She was harassing me. Well, she then said this from AL dot com. I don't want to say anything other than here's the proof that John Merrill is a liar.

Here's the true John Merrill. So what does she do, Monique? She provided AL.com with a recording of an October 2020 conversation between her and Merrill, a Family Values Republican. In the 17-minute recording, Merrill and McPherson discussed various sexual acts they performed during dozens of romantic encounters that McPherson says took place between November 2017 and November 2020. During the conversation, Merrill seems to try to end his relationship with McPherson, who's reluctant to break off the affair. He told her they had met for the last time and that he was seeking help from the Lord to stay away from her. After being played a portion of the recording Wednesday,

Merrill, who is married with two children, told AL.com, there's no excuse for this extra-marital relationship. Now, don't, see, don't just step on out there. And see, y'all, this is the same John Merrill who was Mr. Voter Suppression. You know, but, you know, come on now. See, but, come on, y'all the party of Roy Moore. That's right. He was trying to sit here and get his freak on with teenagers at the mall.

See, all them Bible-loving Republicans with their moral standings in Alabama. Monique, go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. There'm sorry. Go ahead. There are always tapes. You almost have to ask in every case, where are the tapes? Are there tapes? You know there's a tape somewhere.

A three-year entanglement. People be taping people, man. You got to be careful out here. Especially when you're having sex with them. Stop having sex with them. Can Monique now talk? I done said her name three times and you just keep talking. Monique, go ahead.

Pride goeth before a fall. Watch yourself. All right. Robert, he says he's not running for U.S. Senate. Yeah. But then again, hey, Trump is their little G God. And we know he a hoe. Between between Roy Moore and between Roy Moore and Matt Gaetz. Let's just be glad it was a grown woman in this case. You know, Republicans don't have the best track record.

You know, what that old meme go hide the children, all those things, because apparently they're recruiting 17 and 18-year-olds for these escapades. But I think the importance of public integrity has gotten lost. We've had a moral degradation in the society. The old idea was that if you can't be trusted to stay loyal and faithful to your marriage, how can we trust you to stay loyal and faithful to the voters? If you're willing to step out on your biblical vows to the person that you've pledged to live your life with, how can we know that you're going to take seriously your vows to protect and defend the Constitution? We really do have to bring character and morals back into our political system. That's gone, dog. Dog, that's gone.

Part of the reason that we are in the situation that we are currently is because we are in a completely amoral political cycle right now. People will do anything in order to be in power, and that is just unsustainable for any democracy. We're in the Caligula phase of the empire, and I think we have to work our way out of it. No, that's gone. That's gone. That's gone.

The bottom line, where we are is very simple. You can't stand up in front, and then you sit here and then want to run your mouth and do something different. That's all it is. So just don't front. There was one politician. They had gotten this person's phone records,

and they were saying, oh, why did you make these phone calls, early morning phone calls and late night phone calls to this certain woman? I give it to the brother. You know what he said? I roll early and I roll late. Next question. Y'all, that's the Hall of Fame quote. I roll early and I roll late.

I think now... Hey, I'm just saying. Hey, hey, guess what? What? No questions after that. Now more than ever, the phrase is cheaper to keep her. Should be playing these politicians. No, his wife didn't go nowhere.

I roll early and I roll late. All right, y'all. For more than 85 countries with limited fiscal resources, widespread access to COVID vaccines will not roll out until 2023. It's been reported many economically developed countries have preordered more doses than needed, making production the main problem. Some middle and most low income countries are depending on an initiative rolled out by the World Health Organization called COVAX, which is aimed at securing doses of the vaccine for poor countries. Joining me now is Johanna LeBlanc, national security and foreign affairs legal analyst. Glad to have you, Johanna. This obviously is going to be a significant issue. What can be done to make sure that these African countries and others get the vaccine and aren't

left behind? You know, first and foremost, Roland, I think that the reality that many countries are dealing with inequities as it relates to access to the vaccine should be alarming to the rest of the world. And here's why. One, we saw how one infected person in Wuhan, China led to over 500,000 people here in the United States alone being dead and also led to the crippling of our economies. So if we did not learn anything in 2020, it's that together we shall stand as a global community or individually we shall perish. We have to take a cooperative approach to fighting this pandemic and to ensure that low and middle income countries also have access to the vaccine. Again, the reality is that this pandemic has no borders. So it is in the national security interest of the United States government to ensure that those countries to have access. The reality is that we have U.S. citizens all across the world in countries across Africa and in the Caribbean who are working on

behalf of the American people. Well, guess what? Those people will come back to the shores of America and bring those potential the potential virus back to America, even after we have all been vaccinated. I mean, the world's poorest countries will not have access to this vaccine until 2024. That is alarming. And too, Roland, by not working with developing nations to ensure access to the vaccine. What the United States government is doing is that the U.S. is allowing room for China and Russia to further strengthen their vaccine diplomacy programs across the world, which would give those two nations more influence and will ultimately weaken the United States' global dominance, global standing across the world. So how do we tackle this? Because I think a lot of times we talk about these highly nuanced and complicated matters,

but we don't always provide accurate recommendations. So here is my approach to this. One, I think rich nations, including the United States, should not continue to hoard the vaccines. We know that by within the next several weeks, if not earlier, there will be sufficient vaccines for every person in this country. So let us work with our allies, our strategic partners, with our patent laws, right, to give greater access to other nations to produce the vaccine. Because we did this back in 2001 during the HIV and AIDS crisis. We gave nations the right to certain patents so that they can properly address the pandemic. And three, I think that we must increase low-income countries as well as middle-income countries' capacities to respond to this pandemic currently and in the future. The reality is that many of those countries do not have the appropriate infrastructure to respond. But Africa does have the ingenuity, the talents in order to create

its own vaccines. A population of roughly 1.2 billion people, which represents for roughly 14 percent of the entire global population, has less than 5% of vaccine productions. That is unacceptable. It needs to be addressed accordingly. And three, I think the IMF and the World Bank, those two organizations should cancel some of the debts of these African nations so that they can utilize those resources to create more capacity in order to address this pandemic. And lastly, African governments must utilize its leverage when it comes to the U.S. not wanting countries like Africa and countries in Africa or the Caribbean to strengthen their alliances with Russia and China. They must leverage that to get what is needed for their constituents, ultimately, because the governments are responsible to responding to the crisis,

and they have to leverage their political tools by any means necessary to have access to these vaccines expeditiously so that their constituents and their and their and their citizen could be safe and so forth. All right. Johanna LeBlanc, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you very much for sharing those thoughts with us. Thank you, Roman. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. Well, remember, lawyer and legal analyst Midwin Charles, who passed away yesterday at the age of 47. We'll be right back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Cancel culture. The cancel culture. There is a vast and thriving right-wing cancel culture.

She said something the cancel culture doesn't like. This is the number one issue for the country to address today. Cancel culture has become a Republican talking point, which pretty much guarantees it's been taken out of context to perpetuate their constant victimhood complex. But the idea that the public is turning its back on Republicans because of cancel culture is ridiculous. Now, it's time we stop using that term. Accountability culture is accurate. Consequence culture is accurate. If any occupation in America should be subjected to the whims of the public, it's our elected officials. If Donald Trump or anyone, for that matter, gets voted out of office, it's not cancel culture.

It's democracy working as intended. And listen, the consequences can be far greater if we don't hold politicians accountable for their actions. Allowing people in power to chip away at our democracy, support white supremacy, or harass teenagers in the street completely unchecked? Well, that will most definitely alter your life. And while cancel culture is not the number one issue of our time, accountability culture for elected officials

should certainly be up there on that list. And boy, do I understand why these mostly white conservative men are scared shitless. They've enjoyed an era of zero accountability with zero consequences. Sorry, we've all decided that era is effectively canceled. I'm Bill Duke. This is Deala Riddle. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 A lot of us were shocked and stunned yesterday when we got the news of the passing of Midwin Charles, lawyer and legal analyst. I got a call yesterday around 3 p.m. asking me if I was

seated telling me about that. And it was a shock to the system. I had just, Mitwin and I talked a number of times, knew her well. She appeared on my TV One show on a number of occasions. She appeared on this show as well. and often i was helping her out with advice about building her digital brand and negotiating contract stuff stuff along those lines we just text um about a month ago and uh went to her social media page she had announced on march 19th that she had fell ill and she would do her live. She did a happy hour every Friday on Instagram live at 6 p.m. She wanted me to do it. I told her, I admit when I'm live at six, I can't do it, which is why I never did it. This is exactly what she posted on March 19th. Hey guys,

sadly, happy hour tonight is canceled. I'm not feeling well. See you next Friday. That was the last post she made until this post, which went up last night from her family. They posted this announcing to everyone about her passing. It is with a profoundly heavy heart and the deepest sadness that we announce the untimely passing of our beloved Midwin Charles. She was known to many as a legal commentator on television, but to us, she was a devoted daughter, sister, aunt, niece and cousin. Our lives are forever changed and we will miss her for a lifetime the family thanks you in advance for your love and prayers please allow the family time to grieve the family of mitwin charles march 12th was the last time she

appeared on tiffany cross's uh show on msnbc and uh her last uh time uh last conversation when she was online was with Monique Presley. Here is some of this. This year's the commentary where she was on Tiffany Cross's show. And we really need the federal government to weigh in on these civil rights abuses. They play a special role. There are federal statutes that clearly have been in violation. As we know, there are other communities that never have these problems in terms of excessive policing and excessive force. And it's important to point out that police killings of innocent Black people is not just the only problem. Excessive policing, constant surveillance are other issues as well. But I want to shift gears and move to the Derek Chauvin trial.

We now have an idea of what the jury looks like as jury selection continues. So far, it's not a very diverse jury. What does that say about jury selection and what impacts will this have on potential justice in that case? Right. You know, race plays a crucial role in this case. There's no denying it. Derek Chauvin is white. George Floyd is black. But Hennepin County, where this happened, is only 14 with you. You were the last one to participate in our happy hour. The family has not announced what happened. People are just shocked and stunned. 47 years old, someone who was vibrant. McMeetwin always had a huge smile on her face, was always encouraging others as well. So just your thoughts on this legal sister leaving us far too soon. Yeah, when I got the call yesterday and someone asked me, are you driving? Are you someplace where I can talk to you? And I'm like, okay, I'm in Office Depot. I can handle it. But I couldn't. I had no frame of reference for what was about to be told to me. And you're right. Midwin

started in the pandemic in April of last year, every Friday, doing a Friday happy hour where it would start kind of with her dancing, being just her jovial self and playing music. And she'd have some champagne flute or something. And she would invite a guest and to, to talk about the legal topics of the week or whatever was of interest of the week. And she and I swapped back and forth with her coming on my live and with me going on hers and our conversations. If you look at the comments, they're like, this was a marathon. This was massive. This was legend because, um, we just were, were sisters of the heart and like-minded about the things of justice and about just the ways that people should be treated. And we had very candid conversations. I would invite,

if anybody's interested in knowing more about what Midwin thought in that beautiful brain of hers, then you could get in the seven or ten minute segments, go and look at her lives or go and look at my feed when I had her because we talked about things like Black women in law and in media and what role sexism and patriarchy and racism played in us not being received well in certain lanes in our own professions and what we could do as individuals and collectively about it. We had fun dance-offs. She was the kind of person, which if you look at the comments on her passing,

everybody had their own story, their own connect, their own memory, because she just carried a light with her. And, and I just remember receiving constant encouragement from her. And, and one of the things that, well, and even that's why I got in trouble with your producer. I was looking down at one point because I found another live that I had forgotten about. And I can't stand yet listening to our conversations because in my mind, I'm still just waiting for her to get better and then we'll get back on a Friday. But one of the things I know we got to do for each other is give the flowers. So I was able to congratulate her on her uptick and appearances on Wendy Williams and all of the great things that were happening in the forthcoming book and just, we were both looking forward, swapping back and forth where we would first go coming out

of the pandemic. So to me, this is devastating that we would suffer as a community and in this world, this kind of loss. She was a special, special human being. Robert, death is hard. It's different when someone's older. My mom's oldest sister, my Aunt Betty, she passed away on Saturday, 81 years old. Had been sick for some time. Thought she was going to pass two or three weeks ago. So you have prepared yourself for that. It's a lot different when it's someone literally in the prime of their life who's 47 years old,

who goes from vibrant, talking, making appearances, to two weeks later, we're getting a notice, getting a phone call that they're no longer here. Absolutely. I think it's important for us to spend the time to mourn, spend the time to remember, to process the information, but also then to spend the time to celebrate. Go back once we have time to allow some of the wounds to heal, go back and listen to some of her TV segments.

Go back and listen to some of those lies. Take the knowledge that she was giving us. She was able to leave a legacy in just 47 years that can live long past her. And when we're talking about issues of women in law, women in politics, having a voice where many others have been voiceless, working your way up to the upper echelons where your voice is transmitted internationally, shaping public policy, shaping law, dictating the way that America views your community, we have to give them their flowers. And we have to make sure that legacy continues going forward

and inspires the next generation. Foundations will be founded in her name. Scholarships will be created in her name. But it's important that we understand the human which was behind it, and that we can go forward in her memory and in her name but it's important that we uh we understand the human which was behind it and that we can go forward in her memory memory and in her legacy building on that foundation and creating a better future for all of us jason johnson uh who is professor of mortgage state university uh contributor at msnbc uh wrote this tribute to her today on the griot. If y'all can go ahead and show that, please. I want to read some of it before I go to Scott. All right, please pull it up, please. If you get no scroll

up, please scroll up. I need you to zoom, scroll up, let you to zoom in folks. All right. I'm going to pull it myself. I'm gonna pull it myself. And I want to show before I go to Scott, Jason, he wrote this. And it was interesting because where I think Monique even posted something about this in terms of where where they met. Right. So this is what Jason this is what Jason wrote here before I'm going to skip some of this. Give me a second. They got ads that pop up on these websites. And so I'm going to try to get past that to that particular point. Jason basically says that Monique in terms of terms of where they met, which was on TV One show. So we often would call her, would have her on.

This is what he says right here. I met Mitt when Charles in 2015 at the place where almost every black person in the media met each other at some point or another. Roland Martin's former TV One show News One Now. I had seen Mitt when on television before in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing and the Ferguson uprising, national networks had just started to discover what I affectionately referred to at the time as the Black Lady Lawyer Crew. There was Ebony K. Williams, Faith Jenkins, Tonya Miller, Yodit Tewelde, Mitwin, this whole new crop of young, talented, and brilliant Black women lawyers who were suddenly all over the television screen, pushing into a space that had been exclusively for white guys in expensive suits until then.

Scott, that's the thing that, you know, she was often called by these networks, and let me go ahead and say it, I got no problem doing so. It was tough for her to actually get hired. She was trying, she tried, she and I talked about this on many occasions. The lack of an opportunity, CNN not giving her a contract, MSNBC not giving her a contract, constantly calling her to appear, making free appearances. And one of our last conversations in February, we talked, Scott, and I said, Mitwin, you've been trying to get a TV deal for a decade. They're not going to do it.

It's time to build your own. And so we began to talk about that, and she and I began to talk about what it would take to do, to build a digital brand. She was already on social media. And I said, you got your law firm. Build your own thing.

Stop waiting on them to do it. And we were having those conversations because the reality is people now, I think, don't understand. They're like, oh my God, I see, ooh, I see a Monique and we saw a Mitt winning. We saw this, you see Scott and we see Robin and we see, uh-uh. For a long time, you ain't seen black lawyers on television commenting. You damn sure didn't see more than one or two.

And that, and you know, that concept and precept that you talk about is so real with black lawyers and these networks. And so Midwin's story of deserving a deal and others like her deserving a deal and never getting them, but will be on TV, any number of shows, Monique as well, four or five times a week out of seven. And always well prepared, always good, always beautiful and bright and capable and passionate about the law. You know, I'm in my 35th year practicing law. I didn't know Midwin the way Monique knew Midwin or you knew Midwin. I met her at Urban One, your original show, your prior show in the green room. And we went on your show together. And I could tell that this was someone in the profession. And I'm a second-generation lawyer, so I love this law game that my father and I dedicated our lives to.

But I could tell she was a passionate practitioner, loved the law, loved talking about the law, and loved talking about the law and media and politics. You know, we all meet at that intersection and I could tell she was there. And after I met her, I wound up on her social media platforms and stuff. And we would exchange social media messages from time to time. We would appear on other shows together and both of us very passionate about the law. You're right. And neither one of us are white men, but just as prepared, just as passionate,

and just as excellent on the law. And yet she had to create her own platform. I believe she was in the process of doing that, writing a book and what have you. And so many of us like her, right, have to do that. And we learned that from you, Roman, point blank. We really have. You know, maybe we ought to stop waiting on people to say, we want that from you, Roman, point blank. We really have. You know, maybe we

ought to stop waiting on people to say, we want to hire you for your legal analysis versus getting it free. We need to create our own platform. And I understand she was in the process of doing that. And, you know, God has a plan for all of us. You know, we presume we're going to live forever, whether we say it or not not or you disagree or not. But the only thing that's for certain is that as part of God's plan, he's going to take us. He just loaned us to each other, and he's going to take us when he's ready. And most of the time, he's not going to tell us when he's ready for that, and we'll never be prepared, whether it's a parent, whether it's a friend, or whether it's a great friend like Midwin was to so many of you all.

I think we have video of that last live with Monique and Midwin. If we do, roll it. We had a great week. Why is that? Because we have a real president now, and we have a president who cares about all Americans, not just the ones in the states that voted for him. How do we know that? Because within 50 days, President Joe Biden has already signed into law the Recovery Act. So y'all gonna get your fourteen hundred dollars. Send me check. All right. Let's just hope it doesn't get lost in the mail because we still have Louis DeJoy in charge of the post office, but you're getting your recovery dollars. Child poverty rate will be cut in half. Unemployment has been extended until September, even though it's a hundred dollars less

a week, but still so many things in this law, just really, really great things. Affordable care at premiums are going to be cut down. I'm telling y'all, voting really makes a difference. It really does. And you know how we know? Because Republicans right now in 43 different states have put forth about 250 different laws to try to curtail the right to vote. Yes, voter suppression, honey, is alive and well in 2021. Yes. So don't let anyone ever lie to you and tell you that your vote doesn't matter. Okay?

Monique, final word. That, though, what you saw, that was it. And I don't know if people could catch all of the different things of what was going on with her there's this great music in the background so she's got her vibe if if the camera would span out you'd see she had a nice little flute of champagne she had a pen in her hand because she had notes. She took seriously the opportunity to share and doing consistent sharing with her following and whoever would join every Friday. And she came ready for

that the same way she came ready for MSNBC or CNN. And she really, she was the best of us, and I don't take it lightly. I've been talking to God about why the very last one that she did, I was on and what my sister expects from me in this season. And I aim to not disappoint her. For so many people, again, to Scott's point, it is look, it's difficult to fathom, difficult to deal with loss. You know, we, day before yesterday, day before yesterday, 44-year-old pastor passed away, had a heart attack. I saw this on social media. Dr. Kimberly Credit, Mount Zion Baptist Church, 44 years old, talked about losing Henry Stewart, alpha brother of ours, working pure on advertising, 44 years old, mid-47. And it is a fact of life. It is, Ambassador Andrew Young often says this.

He says that Dr. King often said that death is the ultimate democracy that impacts all. So the real issue is what do you do with your time? What do you do with the moment that you are here? How do you, who do you impact and how do you impact people? And the reality is, it's not something we want to deal with. I've often talked about this here. My grandfather died when I was 15 years old. That was 36 years ago, which was the first major death I experienced that led to this fear of death.

Then my mother told me that she had it as well, which is very interesting, and dealing with that and how we deal with that. And the reality is that it's there, but how do you live? So for a lot of us, if you spend lots of time wasting your time on other people, stop wasting time on those folk. Stop wasting time with them because they really, really don't matter. If you want to understand about living, play a video of a brother of his daughter going to prison to get him out of prison.

His brother spent 44 years, Jerry Dunnigan, Black Panther, to understand living. So you go from, listen to what I just said. Then when Charles passed away, he was at the age of 47. This brother we're about to show you has spent the last 44 years, meaning he went to prison when she was three. He got out.

This was the video his daughter shot of him getting out of prison. Today is Friday, April the 2nd. I have just arrived at Danville Correctional Facility, where my father has been housed. My father has been locked up for 45 years. He has served 45 years. He is an original Black Panther, Jerry Odenka Dunnigan. And today I am picking him up. He is being released after 45 years of incarceration. I made it. I made it.

You made it, baby. You made it. You made it. You made it. You made it. You driving this thing? It's yours? You made it.

Oh, God. Oh. All right. Like this. Like Oh. Come on. Come on. Come on. You got to load this box. Okay. Come here.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Come on. No! Yes. Come on. Come on. Come on. Ah! Yes. Come on. Surprise, mommy. Come on.

Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Oh, boy, girl. Woo! Woo!

Woo! Woo! 44 years, y'all. Yeah. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Oh, my god. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Yes. Oh, my God. Yes. Oh, yeah. We got you. We got you. We got you. Told you I was going to bring them to your dinner. Oh, my goodness. What did I do?

I got to go get something. I got to go to my car. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And those are kind of the folks that attorneys like Midwin Charles fight for.

Same thing for our panel, Robert Petillo, Oneika Presley, and Scott Bolden. That's why we need lawyers to do what they do. Folks, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Roland. Excellent show, brother. Thank you very much, folks.

Last night, St. Louis elected its first black female mayor, Tashara Jones. We were there in February helping her out. This morning, she gave us the exclusive, her first national TV interview as mayor-elect of St. Louis. Here's our conversation. I am glad to have the first national interview with Madam Mayor-elect of St. Louis, Deshara Jones, the first African-American woman to be elected mayor in St. Louis.

She has not gotten much sleep. First of all, how do you feel this morning? Oh, good morning, Roland, and thank you for having me. This still feels unreal, and I can't thank you enough for the support that you lend. You lend it out in February when we were still in the in the throes of this campaign. So thank you so much. Well, I certainly appreciate it. You know, when I reached out and said, hey, we definitely after I spent those five weeks in Georgia with Pastor Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff,

I said, we definitely going to make our way to St. Louis. It was a bittersweet loss last time you ran for mayor. But this time you prevail, winning 52 percent of the vote there over your opponent. Yes, absolutely. It was a hard fought campaign. A lot of jabs were thrown and racism reared its ugly head, but we never went negative and we prevailed. So in terms of the campaign, obviously you had two progressive candidates who were running. You had so many forces aligned against you that we talked about it before the police union. We talked about, of course, you know,

you had also you had also the local newspaper just constantly attacking you. But clearly, the people's will spoke. Yes, they did. And we are happy that the people spoke. This is a pivotal time in our city right now. And, you know, St. Louis has been losing population at a steady clip since the turn of the 20th century. And neighborhoods in St. Louis have been just flat out forgotten and left behind. And it's time to turn the page and put equity at the center and make sure that we've elected a mayor that's going to bring real transformational change to the city. So let's talk about that transformational change. First off, you don't have a lot of time between getting elected and taking over.

It's what, four weeks? Two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks, wow. And the inauguration's on 4-20. Wow. So that's a huge...

Not much time there as well, and so I take it... I mean, look, you spent the last several years as a treasurer of the city. I take it you already had your transition plan in place so ready to go this morning. Yes, we've had your transition plan in place, so ready to go this morning. Yes, we've had a transition team in place for about three weeks now,

so we've been making preparations just in case. And so we're going to be announcing that transition team later on today, as well as having our first meeting with the outgoing administration. Let's talk about priorities. There are a number of things that you want to focus on, but also you have the advantage of a significant amount of money coming your way as a result of President Joe Biden signing that $1.9 trillion relief plan? Yes, St. Louis has over half a billion dollars allocated directly to us from ARPA. And we're going to have to spend that

with an eye towards equity. And we have the experience to move quickly. So we're going to make sure that we have a public process as well because we want to get public input. And we started that on our website at TasharaForMayor.com. And then also, we will have to address crime and public safety. We have had four riots in our jails since December. And it's as a result of our courts just coming to a halt and slowing down.

And so we've had detainees, pretrial detainees who have been there for over a year. And so we have to work with the U.S. Attorney's Office as well as our local courts to see what we can do to move them through the system. Let's talk about that because what often happens is, and I see this a whole lot in a lot of cities, in New America, and you have folks who go, crime, crime, crime, focus on crime. But while you're focusing on that, you still have to focus on the things that contribute to crime, the things that lead to crime, illiteracy, dealing with education, dealing with lack of economic opportunities. All of those things lead to crime in cities. And all too often, there is a police response to the issue of crime, but not an economic response to the issue. Yes, absolutely. And that's why I ran on a developed on addressing crime and crime as a public health crisis or gun violence as a public health crisis. And that brings everybody to the table. But that also addresses crime at the root. But we're also going to bring our

neighbors to the west and to the east. We're going to have a regional approach to crime and usher in a new era of collaboration and cooperation in our region, which has never before, which hasn't happened before. And that was one of the things that we talked about when we were there together in February, and also the interviews that I did with Kim Gardner and Wesley Bell, the city and the county prosecutor as well, that a lot of people on the outside don't really understand this very weird structure that exists there in St. Louis, in St. Louis County. Yes, absolutely, because St. Louis is its own city and its own county. So we have citywide elected officials and what we call countywide

elected officials. So, you know, we are, when you look at all of the list of all of the counties in the state of Missouri, you see St. Louis City as its own county. And then we have St. Louis County right to the west. So, you know, we have a lot of elected officials as a result of that. But no one has ever brought all of us to the table to see how we can put our heads together to work together to solve our region's most pressing issues. And so how do you propose doing that? Because obviously there are competing interests. You have racial dynamics, you have economic dynamics. And so how do you hope to make that actually happen? Well, I got a little bit of experience doing that. I'm a former legislator. And in my time at the Missouri House of

Representatives, I had to work with Republicans from all over this state. And one of the things that, you know, we did was we worked on the things that we agreed on and didn't really worry about the things that we didn't agree on. And so it's going to take someone who's who has experience bringing people together, which I do, to bring people to the table to have those uncomfortable conversations and really put moving our region forward at the center of all of our communication. And so community is so important, I think, to accomplish that. I grew up in Houston, and my parents were founders of our neighborhood civic club. And that was a situation where, look, they were not college educated.

They got with other folks who were not. But they said, we care about our community. And so talk about how you want to make sure that neighborhood folks, community folks are a part of this. And it's not a top down approach in many ways. Ella Baker, the great organizer, she always said it was she believed in in pew to pulpit and not pulpit to pew in terms of people driving. The was having to come out of the pulpit versus the pulpit saying, this is what we're going to do? Well, if you look at my transition team, I already have activists at the table, and they're going to be a key part in making sure that we are addressing their needs, as well as I am from the community that has been neglected the most

from the city over the last several decades. I am a daughter of North St. Louis, which has been neglected for decades. And so because I come from the community, I will try my best to meet people where they are. And that takes a lot of work. That takes going into our communities, having in-person town halls as soon as, you know, COVID lifts up a little bit and people get vaccinated. That means reaching out to people in as many ways as we can. There's always a trust factor. There's always a trust factor where folks say, hey, you know, I want to believe in this particular person. And also, in many ways, the person who is mayor or who is governor or president, I mean, really, it's about instilling confidence in the people, using that bully pulpit properly.

And so talk about that, how you want to really focus on that coming out of the gate to get folks to understand that there will be a new day and a new way in St. Louis City Hall. You know, I think that people look at my track record. I've been treasurer for the last eight years, and the things that I've done in the treasurer's office have really refocused our office to be more community focused. So we have financial empowerment programs that reach communities in different ways through children's savings, through helping people build their credit. So we we've already proven that we have the community's interest at heart. But that kind of trust is also built over time. And so we will continue to build relationships, and we will continue to show up in our communities

and develop solutions that work for and with them. You talked about dealing with the issue of crime there in St. Louis, but you also got to deal with a police department that a lot of folks there, especially black people, simply do not trust. There are significant issues with racism in the St. Louis Police Department. We've seen the numerous stories. We just had three police officers, three white police officers, essentially, who got off for the vicious beating of a black undercover cop during protests there. There have been so many other examples. And so and you have a union that that was that was a big supporter of Donald Trump. This is a union that they're in St. Louis that does not take kindly to black elected officials who challenge them. And so that is going to be so. So how do you deal with that now as mayor? And you try to deal with the issue of crime there and you're dealing with public mistrust of the police department, how do you get them to understand that the old way of business as a

police department simply cannot continue if St. Louis is to move forward? Right. You're exactly right. Let's talk about the elephant in the room on how our police union is split. We have a black police union and a white police union. Same thing with the fire department. We have a black firefighters union and a white firefighters union. And if they can't trust each other, then how can they expect the community to trust them? So we're going to have to have some really hard conversations and come to some hard truths about the role that race plays in our system and in our government. And also, you know, I've already told the white police union that they have to get rid of Jeff Rorty if they want a seat at my table. There's no ifs, ands, buts about it. So you made it clear that moving, that you replace your union leader,

if you want to have dealings with the mayor's office. Exactly. And I've called him out on it several times publicly. He has profited off of our pain. And he's written books about the racism and profited off of it, the racism that birthed the Ferguson movement. I served with him in the legislature. I know exactly who Jeff Rorty is. And he has to go.

You may have some folks in St. Louis who say, well, Mary Leck to Shara Jones, that's not unity. They should pick who they want to pick to lead them. What do you say to those folks who say that you should be striking a more unifying tone? Well, I think they know exactly who Jeff Rorta is, and they know that he is one of the main reasons that racism is still alive and well in our police unions and in the police department. And in order to move forward, sometimes you have to shed some things and let some things go. With that in mind, when you talk about bringing them to the table, how do you achieve that? Because when you talk about having these various forces, black and white, and this is not recent. This is history. This is decades of a racial discord that exists there. How do you also get the white citizens of St. Louis to realize what is happening in Black communities? And so how do you deal with

this from a citywide approach? Because what you're seeing playing out with this discord in police and fire department, you also see among citizens. Yes, absolutely. And this particular election, I received support in areas of town where I typically have not received support. And so I'm going to continue those relationships and have and have meetings with the communities there to let them know that even though they didn't vote for me, I am still everyone's mayor. And so, again, it's just going to be important to show up in communities where I may not have received a majority of the vote and just let people know that I am still your mayor and I'm here to help.

Let's talk about economics. Look, any city needs to have uh economic uh opportunities um when i was there uh talking to you and so many others what we constantly heard was young people um fleeing the city um because they wanted to go to Atlanta, go to Charlotte, go to other places for economic opportunities. So much has changed in terms of the Midwest, the industries that used to dominate your economy there in St. Louis. What is your plan to transform or to change that economic base,

to shift it in a way that will entice, first of all, companies to come, but will entice folks, the next generation, to stay in St. Louis. Well, something happened recently with our Chambers of Commerce. Several of them combined. We had up to seven of them, and six of them decided to combine and put together a plan to connect the. We have a lot of assets on one hand, but we don't do a good job of connecting them with the people who need those assets. And so I look forward to working with this newly formed entity, which is called Greater STL on their what's called the 2030 Jobs Plan, which is going to focus on black and brown entrepreneurship, as well as connecting marginalized communities to the industries that do exist in St. Louis.

We have a huge ag industry here, biotech and tech and a bursting technology industry here. And so we need to be focused on how do we connect people to the jobs that these industries offer? And that's going to be a key focus of my administration. And on that particular point, when we talk about what's happening in technology, we see what's happening in Atlanta. We see what's happening in Houston. But there really isn't a city in the Midwest that is really trying to become, in essence, the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. What conversations have you had in that space that where, as opposed to folks looking at Chicago, looking at Minneapolis, saying, hey,

how do you sort of create that there in St. Louis, especially when you've had some major figures in the tech space who are from the city? Well, actually, Square, which is founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, is moving a large piece of its business to St. Louis and also St. Louis is home to the National Geospatial Agency or NGA. And so they're building a brand new we need to make sure that our people are ready to take the jobs that will be in these in these companies and then also provide an environment where other tech hubs or tech companies want to move to St. Louis, because I think that we're the best kept secret in the Midwest. Our housing prices are reasonable.

Our education system is growing. And we are going to be ready to take advantage of this new move into the 21st century. And talking about this new move, that also means aligning with your various public institutions there, including Aristote, HBCU there as well. And so what is your plan of bringing them to the table to say, look, we can't achieve these big ticket items, such as lowering crime and increasing our economic base. If you do not have a partnership that exists there between your public universities, a number of them there in

public and private universities there in St. Louis and your local education system. And again, that's where having existing relationships matters. I helped pick the new president for Harris, though I'm formerly faculty there and I'm an HBCU grad. So, you know, I'm always leading with the lens of how do we help our HBCUs or the one that's in the city. And we have two in the state of Missouri. Also, we have to make sure that we're bringing our universities to the table. There are a key piece of making sure that the graduates that they turn out stay in the region or stay in St. Louis. And so we need to make sure that we are making sure that their graduates walk across the stage

with at least their diploma or their degree and an offer letter. And how do we provide that environment for them to succeed? We talked about, of course, forces aligned against you. Local newspaper, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, they were not kind to you in this mayoral race and beforehand. In essence, it seemed as if you were running against your opponent as well as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. How do you deal with that relationship where you have a powerful media voice that's constantly chirping and sniping at your every move?

Yes. So, you know, I respect the hardworking journalists of the Post-Dispatch. They, for the most part, have been very objective when it comes to coverage of me, at least in the last couple of years. However, the editorial board still is a thorn in my side. And so we will see how that relationship moves forward. I did notice that the last editorial that they wrote endorsing their mayoral candidate wasn't as crazy as the usual ones were. So maybe they're softening up a little as well. Just a couple of more questions here. And that is, when we talked about economics,

I had a great conversation with Michael McMillan, who heads the St. Louis Area Urban League. Interview is going to be running this Friday on World of Markets Unfiltered. And he talked about how so much has changed in terms of their mission, the services they're having to provide people. We're now in a situation where so many people are in need of just basic things like food. We're still dealing with the issue of COVID. All of that still impacts. You're going to have to deal with that as well, because now you're talking about with restaurants and other locations, people still trying to figure that out. And so talk about, one one the relationship between the mayor's office and these

social service organizations like the urban league and and what they provide to people but then also how you you know dealing with uh covet dealing with making sure as your people getting getting vaccines uh to speed up the process of being able to reopen the city, reopen these businesses, because that also plays a part in the economic revitalization. Right. So this is where having experience matters. I have a background in health care, a master's in health administration. So I worked in public health for a good 11 years before I started my career in politics. And so I have existing relationships within the community health community and and look forward to engaging with those partners to make sure that we are providing culturally competent education to marginalized communities as they look forward to getting the vaccine and also expanding opportunities

for vaccines. We've been recently tapped by President Joe Biden to have a mass vaccination site at our dome facility downtown. And so while everybody can't make it there, we're also going to try to do mobile vaccination clinics to go into communities where people are located. And again, providing the education that they need. And because I come from the community health community, I also have a great relationship with a lot of our social service providers. The Urban League being one of them, Mike McMillan and I have been friends for over 30 years. And so I look forward to working with him and other social service providers to really, again, usher in a new era of collaboration and cooperation between our government and our social service providers

to make sure that we are meeting people where they are and taking care of them. All right, then. Well, St. Louis Mayor-elect Deshara Jones, we certainly appreciate you sharing your vision for the city. And we certainly look forward to returning back to St. Louis, and this time chatting with you as mayor and not just as a candidate. Yes. Thank you again, Roland, for all of your help. I appreciate you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And I'm sure you got a busy day, but just get a little sleep. I'll try. I'll try. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time,

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

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,

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

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