#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Biden becomes Dem nominee; AOC sparks outrage; Klobuchar talks voter suppression; COVID saliva test

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

8.19.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Joe Biden officially becomes Dem prez nominee; AOC sparks outrage after nomination Sen. Sanders for president, allegedly snubbing Biden; Klobuchar addresses voter suppression; COVID saliva test developed by Yale and the NBA shows promise; Body cam video of Alameda County sheriff's deputy shoving Toronto Raptors president released; Black founders of a online and in class technology school join us for Tech Talk + DJ Pryor joins us for Wildin Out Wednesday; Support#RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered Partners: 2020 CensusIn America, everyone counts. And the 2020 Census is how that great promise is kept. Respond today online, by phone or by mail and help inform hundreds of billions in funding for education, health programs, and more. Shape your future. Start here at www.2020census.gov.#RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: CeekWhether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset.Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting site covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Wednesday, August 19th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Tonight, Kamala Harris. She speaks at the Democratic National Convention. We will talk about that in advance and show you some of the speeches from last night. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she nominated Senator Bernie Sanders, and all people are losing their mind. Do y'all not follow conventions to understand what the hell happened? Also, Senator Amy Globushuchar of Minnesota, she says,

focus, the focus must be on fighting voter suppression, especially when it comes to the post office. I'll show you my interview with her. Plus there's a COVID-19 saliva test being developed by Yale University in partnership with the NBA and the NBA Players Association. Really? So the NBA can figure this out,

but Donald Trump's folks can't? We'll talk with an infectious disease expert about that particular test. And wait until you see this shoving match between... Remember the brother who was the general manager of the president of the Toronto Raptors? Remember the white cop who said that he just experienced pain and emotional distress when he got attacked by this big black guy the black guys attorneys have released the body camera footage the white cop light will show you plus the black finals of an online of an online and in-class

technology will jump school would join us to talk about virtual learning plus remember the viral conversation between a man and his baby son? Well, DJ Pride, the father in the video, joins us for Wildin' Out Wednesday. Folks, it's a jam-packed show. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Mark, unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling.

It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Uncle Roro, yo It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin All right, folks, Democrats continue their virtual national convention. And last night, of course, the big keynote speech was from Jill Biden, of course, the wife of VP Joe Biden, who's a Democratic nominee. Also, it ended with a powerful song by singer John Legend.

Things got kicked off with Stacey Abrams speaking on Leadership Night. This nation belongs to all of us. And in every election, we choose how we will create a more perfect union. Not by taking sides, but by taking stock of where we are and what we need. This year's choice could not be more clear. America faces a triple threat, a public health catastrophe, an economic collapse, and a reckoning with racial justice and inequality. So our choice is clear. A steady, experienced public servant who can lead us out of this crisis just like he's done before. Or a man who only knows how to deny and distract. A leader who cares about our families or a president who only cares about

himself. We know Joe Biden. America, we need Joe Biden. To make your voice heard, text VOTE to 30330. In a democracy, we do not elect saviors. We cast our ballots for those who see our struggles and pledge to serve. Who hear our dreams and work to make them real. Who defend our way of life by protecting our right to vote. Faced with a president of cowardice, Joe Biden is a man of proven courage.

He will restore our moral compass by confronting our challenges, not by hiding from them or undermining our elections to keep his job. In a time of voter suppression at home and authoritarians abroad, Joe Biden will be a champion for free and fair elections, for a public health system that keeps us safe, for an economy that we build back better than before, and for accountability and integrity in our system of justice. We stand with Joe Biden because this isn't just about defeating Donald Trump. We are in this to win for America.

So let's get it done. Hi, I'm former Secretary of State Colin Powell. One hundred years ago, a young immigrant left a dirt farm in Jamaica and set out for America. Three years later, a ship pulled into New York Harbor, and a young Jamaican woman gazed up at the Statue of Liberty for the first time. They became my parents, and they inspired me to finish college and join the Army. This began a journey of service that would take me from basic training to combat in Vietnam, up the ranks to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State.

The values I learned growing up in the South Bronx and serving in uniform were the same values that Joe Biden's parents instilled in him in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I support Joe Biden for the presidency of the United States because those values still define him, and we need to restore those values to the White House.

Our country needs a commander in chief who takes care of our troops in the same way he would his own family. For Joe Biden, that doesn't need teaching. It comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families, sending his beloved son off to war and praying to God he would come home safe. Joe Biden will be a president we will all be proud to salute. With Joe Biden in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends and stand up to our adversaries,

never the other way around. He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots. He will make it his job to know when anyone dares to threaten us. He will stand up to our adversaries with strength and experience. They will know he means business. I support Joe Biden because beginning on day one, he will restore Americans' leadership and our moral authority. He'll be a president who knows that America is strongest when, as he has said, we lead both by the power of our example and the example of our power. He will restore America's leadership in the world and restore the alliances we need to address the dangers that threaten our nation, from climate change to nuclear proliferation.

Today we are a country divided, and we have a president doing everything in his power to make it that way and keep us that way. What a difference it will make to have a president who unites us, who restores our strength and our soul. I still believe that in our hearts, we are the same America that brought my parents to our shores, an America that inspires freedom around the world. That's the America Joe Biden will lead as our next president. Thank you very much. It's a great pleasure for Jimmy and me to join you in celebrating our next president of the United States, Joe Biden. We've known and admired Joe and Jill for many years, and most recently I've worked with him on tackling the demands faced by the

more than 53 million unpaid caregivers in our country who are juggling work and other family responsibilities and putting their own physical and mental health and well-being at risk. Joe knows well, too well, the sorrows and struggles of being a family caregiver. From Joe's time as a young widower, thrust into single parenthood with a demanding job, to he and Jill caring for their own parents and their son Beau at the end of their lives, he knows caregiving is hard even on the good days. Jill and I also know the challenges of caregiving for those who served in the military and returned with visible and invisible wounds. And we know those caregivers need a leader in the White House.

Jimmy and I are voting for Joe because he recognizes the challenges facing our families and has the heart and the talent to make life better for all Americans. When I ran for president in 1976, Joe Biden was my first and most effective supporter in the Senate. For decades, he has been my loyal and dedicated friend. Joe has the experience, character, and decency to bring us together and restore America's greatness.

We deserve a person with integrity and judgment, someone who's honest and fair, someone who is committed to what is best for the American people. Joe is that kind of leader, and he is the right person for this moment in our nation's history. He understands that honest and dignity

are essential traits that determine not only our vision, but our actions. More than ever, that's what we need. During these uncertain times, Joe Biden realizes that many American lives can be saved each day with the use of masks and testing as recommended by our medical experts.

Joe Biden must be our next president. All right, last night also, you saw the diversity of America with how the Democrats did their roll call when they nominated their candidates for president. A lot of diversity. Now, y'all know next week, you ain't gonna see that many black people or brown people

during the Republican roll call. But the one person that stood out out of all 57 states and territories was the sister from North Carolina, who the moment she started talking, you knew right there, a black woman is gonna let you know the truth. Roll it.

North Carolina. I've been doing this for a long time, so let me just be plain. Black people, especially black women, are the backbone of this party. And if we don't show up, Democrats don't get elected. I'm putting on my mask and we're going to every corner in North Carolina to help organize because we need to make sure everyone shows up for Joe Biden. He would show up for us. North Carolina cast 39 votes for Bernie Sanders and 83 votes for the next president of the United States, Joe Biden. Y'all, Cozy Watkins was real clear. She got right to the point.

In fact, roll that again. North Carolina. I've been doing this for a long time. So let me just be plain. Black people, especially black women, are the backbone of this party.

And if we don't show up, Democrats don't get elected. I'm putting on my mask and we're going to every corner in North Carolina to help organize because we need to make sure everyone shows up for Joe Biden. He would show up for us. North Carolina cast 39 votes for Bernie Sanders and 83 votes for the next president of the United States, Joe Biden. All right, my pals, Robert Petillo, executive director of Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project, Brandon Johnson, Cook County Board Commissioner, political analyst, also Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA. Lauren, she's like, let me just get, I've been doing this a

long time. Let me get to the point. Right. Exactly. You know, every Democratic committee out there in America, particularly in the South, has a cozy walk in somebody that has been doing it a long time. Whether or not the party listens to that person, whether or not the Democratic Party listens to that person is the question. But that is the type of grassroots imagination, energy and intelligence that it takes to win these elections going door to door. A lot of people are having to figure out how they will be campaigning door to door and how signatures will be collected and all of that. But that was that really did stand out in a roll call. It was a very well thought out good idea. And people are already talking about maybe doing it again in four years. I will say this here, Robert. You can bank on this

here. I tweeted this out last night. The Republican Party probably is already sending out a notice to all actors of color out there. Can you please send us your resumes because if the Republicans did a roll call next week like that, all you're going to see a whole bunch of white people.

Well, I think the Republicans have done leaps and bounds on recruiting more African-Americans, a more diverse base. They do have the Blacks movement. They do have black voices for Trump. They do have other people. You know, even when they did the Tulsa rally, you saw they had an entire black section. Okay, hold on, Robert.

When you say an entire... Hold on. When you say an entire section... Two roads. Two roads. Two roads ain't a section. And they did have to send a private jet to every major city in the country to pick up those two roads of black folks, but that's better than they've done before. So I think you have to give them credit where

credit is due for the people who are part of that movement. I can't give you credit for two roads. You gotta be on both sides of the aisle. I can't give you credit for two rows. Hell, I covered the Republican National Convention in 1992, okay, when it was in Houston. I covered the next one in 2000. And I can tell you right there, I didn't see many more black people in eight years. And that was 2000 was 20 years ago. But look, I think to the point about Cozy Watkins, I think that what the party has to do, instead of just trotting people like her out, is listen to people like her.

Anybody who's been in a county Democratic Party meeting in Brunswick, Georgia or in Marion, Alabama, knows that that really is the backbone of the party. And I need to see her reflected in the party's platform. I know the Bernie bros are very loud and very powerful. I know that you have other diverse sets under the Big Ten of the Democratic Party. But don't forget about people like her, because those are people who are organizing. Those are people on the county and the local level who are turning up to every single election, who are super voters, who do not miss, who will organize the senior high rise, who will organize the church, who will organize the HOA, who will organize the PTA. That is the grassroots part of the party that often gets left out when we're listening to K Street in Washington and to

San Francisco and to New York about what the party platform is. Do not forget about who is really in charge of the party. Then if you organize folks like her and get them as part of the agenda and turn them out, that is how you turn light red states into purple states and ultimately into blue states. But the reality of this, when you talk about get them organized, Brandon, it's not going to happen. The DNC is not going to organize those people. Those folks are going to have to organize themselves to put pressure on elected officials to follow through on the agenda. We sure we're seeing all of these different speeches and that's great. I keep arguing. That's how you're going to have to

mobilize people in order to impact policy. No, you're absolutely right, Roland. And I got dressed up for you tonight. I guess I could have left my T-shirt on. Well, you know, I couldn't wear a suit and jacket and tell folks to vote on the little appellate pen. So I need everybody to see it in big, bold letters. Oh, no, we're absolutely clear. But we miss you here in Chicago, man. But look, you're absolutely right. The effort that we have to put forth in this moment is not just lifting up the voices of the individuals who never flinch when it comes to what's most important. And those are Black voters. And we all know that. But the real work is going

to be on the ground. And that type of organizing has to be reflected, of course, in our local offices as well. One of the things that we have to continue to be aware of, when we had a real unique opportunity in 2008 to elect the first Black president of the United States of America, great opportunity. We took advantage of that moment. But every election after that, we lost, Roland. And so what we can't have happen is that we focus so much in on November and not build and develop the infrastructure that's going to make sure that we're winning county board seats, which I know we'll get into that a little bit later. you know, trusteeships, these small suburban areas around major cities where Black folks

are being forced into, that those villages and those smaller municipalities are electing Black folks that believe in this dynamic progressive wave that has certainly swept the imagination of voters across America. But again, the focus has to be on how do we make sure that the voices of black folks are lifting up, lifted up in policy, but how do we make sure that we're organized on the ground level so that we don't just win in November, that we win in races that follow November. And again, Robert, that, that, that is where, again, I continue to go. I continue to go. I can continue to go when it comes to these issues we're talking about. And that is this here.

We can express folk not doing this, not doing that. We can have frustration. We can say I'm disenchanted. But that's why I keep supporting everything Reverend Dr. William Barber is doing. What they are doing is exactly what black people have always done when they've tried to impact change. And that is they mobilized and organized to put pressure on city, county, school board, state, federal government, corporations. We can sit here and tweet all day.

You can sit here and post on Facebook. You can post on Instagram. All of that matters. But you then have to take that and transfer it to where policy actually gets done, which means if the folk are not doing their job, you vote them out. I mean, that's just, that's it. That is the, that's how it's done. There's no other thing out there to figure out how to get it done.

That's it. You're absolutely right. And I think what we haven't seen, particularly in the Democratic Convention so far, we've had a lot of these prerecorded messages. But when we're talking about the backbone of the party, being older voters, being Black voters in various municipalities who are really doing a lot of the organizing and who those votes, you know, they're going to show up and vote. But have you heard the word Social Security in the first two days of this convention? Have you heard the word seniors in the first two days of this convention besides in passing? What is the party platform when it comes to older voters? We get distracted a lot

by the, you know, every few years we will say, oh, we're going to get the youth vote and the youth vote never shows up. This year, Joe Biden's, you know, media with Cardi B and getting interviewed by that in 2004, John Kerry was a puff daddy and voter guy. 1988, it was rock the vote. We're always debating whether or not this youth vote will show up, and it doesn't. But we know the senior vote is going to show up, so we need to make sure we're putting policy proposals in place so that they are being rewarded for their dedication to the party and their dedication to getting people elected. And they will show up for those local races. They will show up for those local races. They will

show up for those municipal races. They will show up for races that none of us even know existed because they have a 100% super voter record. The party has to reward that and not simply treat them as if they are guaranteed or they're just a default. We can just count on them so we don't need to do nothing

for them. Here's the deal, Lauren. Older folks not sitting around saying I need you to give me a shout out. I'll give you a perfect example. In 2018, Melanie Campbell and the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation,

they were doing their phone banking. They were calling people and so they called this sister. She was an 80-something-year-old sister in Florida. She said, baby, save your breath. Save your breath. She said, I already got my plan. She said on Election Day, my son is coming to pick me up, take me to the polls, vote and bring me back home. She said, so call somebody else who you need to encourage to go out to vote. The people who they got to be loved, you got to talk to them, you got to make them feel good are folks who are frankly 35 and less who don't turn out in the same way. What I'm saying, though, is that voting in this election, early voting, mail in ballot on November 3rd is one thing, but I need our people, everybody watching and listening to be in the state of mind

that on November 3rd, you're going to vote. On November 4th, a whole new process starts, and that is to make them do what they say they want to do. Yeah. You know, quite frankly, with Donald Trump sitting in office and with 170,000 people dead in the pandemic and with 50 million people filing for unemployment and us staring in the face of the second worst Great Depression, if you need the special message to any constituency at this moment, then that constituency may be that constituency is the constituency we can never wake up. There's always this coddling every four years now, I think really since, particularly since I think 2007, 2008, to younger voters, and there has to be a special message, and we have to get a specific entertainer, and we have to do this and that. And the party, primarily because of black women, is finally starting to figure out that it's a lot easier to court voters that you know are

going to show up, that you know are going to vote for Team Blue, that you know are reliable and don't take a lot of convincing rather than to put a lot of money into people who have to be convinced and cajoled and all this other stuff. I just think that this is a moment in American history where if it isn't clear to you, particularly if you are under 35, with what that particular generation has had to deal with economically, and you've got the craziest president in history sitting in the White House, and you need some sort of special message to get you out and voting and thinking seriously about voting. I mean, you've got to be kidding me. You notice that most of this.

And I think Robert brought this up. You know, so much of this convention has just been really a big, long political commercial for Joe Biden. There's not a whole lot of specific talk about policy. There's not a whole lot of what are we going to do and what's our plan or any of that. It's just basically we're going to talk about Joe Biden over and over and how great he is. There's nothing wrong with that. Because I think the reason, the only reason I would say this is because Donald Trump is in office. If this was another president, if this was George Bush, I think it would probably be a tactical mistake.

But Donald Trump is so off the off the he's so bad. They really don't have to make that much of an argument. Here's one. But here's one of the things, Brandon, that I want people to understand. Last night in Florida, Pam Keith, who's run for a couple of times for office. She won her primary last night in Florida for a congressional seat. She now advances to the November general election. If people need to understand why every vote counts, let me explain to you why. Henry, go to my iPad. Sabrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin ran for a commissioner's seat there in Miami-Dade, District 1. She was facing Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert.

OK, 34,000 votes in that race, 34,000 votes, 34,027. Folks, she lost by 331 votes. 331 votes. Watch this here. Go back to my iPad. This is it. See how close it was. Oliver Gilbert. Now, the deal is, if whoever got 50% of the vote, they win. Oliver Gilbert got 50.49%. Sabrina Fulton got 49.51%. A total of, she lost by 331 votes. Brandon, that's why I need people to understand who have this whole view. I don't need to vote. No, no, here's the deal.

The presidential is at the top of the ticket. Then you're going to have United States Senate races. Then you're going to have congressional races. Then you're going to have DA races and mayoral races and county commissioner races and district judge races and go on and on and on. This is where policy is made, not just in D.C., not just in Tallahassee and Florida, but also on the commissioner level. Policy where you are isn't just made in Springfield.

It's made at the Cook County Commissioner's Court and at City Hall as well and the school board. And so that has to be the state of mind for folks. When I'm saying vote, I'm not saying it's about Biden, Harris, Trump, Pence. I'm saying top to bottom. Well, that's right. And this is why, you know, I do reject the notion that younger voters are not activated in conscious and clear. In fact, they are very quite conscious and clear. It's why there's incredible protests and uprising that's breaking out all over the country. This is the same spirit, of course,

in which those that have gone on before us lived under. And obviously, Reverend Vivian and, of course, Congressman Lewis. I mean, the names go on and on. And when I look at how close that race was, Cook County is the second largest county in the entire country. We have a $6 billion budget. I represent over 300,000 residents just in my one district. The race that I won, Roland, I won by 426 votes on a similar platform that our sister in Miami-Dade lost on.

And the reason why we have to be clear about the demands in this moment, and that's everything from health care being a guaranteed right. Cook County, we service hundreds of thousands of folks through our public health system, making sure that we're not spending money in incarceration and policing and not on health care and jobs. Those are the messages that translate at the local level. And what we don't want is the DNC to get people riled up about a single day and not keep in mind that in many of the places in which we've seen the most inequities and the gross disinvestment, they're neighborhoods that, quite frankly, have been run by individuals that are part of the party that believes that ostensibly believes in the working class.

And so we have to make sure that we're energized, that we're organized and that we got to put Trump out. Like that's very clear. Our sister said earlier, we're talking almost 200,000 people that he has killed because he has not been responsive to this global pandemic. But there is a regularly scheduled pandemic, which is racism. And it has isolated Black communities in particular for generations. Got it. And that's why at the very local level, we have to remain engaged, organized. And I'm going to say this too. We got to start running for office on these dynamic platforms at the county level, at the state level, at the city council level. That's where our power can

ultimately be expressed. Folks, tonight's speakers are Senator Elizabeth Warren, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and of course, Senator Kamala Harris and President Barack Obama. One of the issues you continue to hear folks talk about in the campaign has to do with COVID-19 and, frankly, the lack of testing that we have seen take place in this country. The Trump administration continues to fail the nation in doing so. Now the FDA, they have issued an emergency use authorization to the Yale School of Public Health for its saliva direct COVID-19 diagnostic test, which uses a new method of processing saliva samples when testing for COVID-19 infection. According to the FDA, the saliva direct test for rapid detection of COVID-19 is yet another testing innovation game changer that will reduce the demand for scarce testing resources. The NBA and the NBA Players Association, they have been working on this along with the folks at Yale.

Joining us right now is Dr. Carissa Culbreth, Chief Medical Director of Infectious Disease Diagnostics at Tricor Reference Laboratories. Glad to have you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Dr. Culbreth. So, all right, so explain to folks, you know, the difference between this. I have to take a COVID test tomorrow because I'm doing a work in a documentary for Showtime. And so I must take it tomorrow. I don't know what the test is going to be. They might put that damn thing way down my nose. I don't know exactly what it is.

So what you know so far about this test, what makes it so unique? So this test uses saliva instead of the nasal swab that I think a lot of people have experienced. And it's not the most pleasant experience to have the nasal swab. And so the benefit of this test is that it uses saliva to test. It'd be similar to anybody who's done an ancestry or 23andMe type of test where you spit into a tube, and then that tube is sent to the lab for processing. And so right now, and there are some tests out there that comes back false positives, those rapid testing machines, and that's also one of the issues, because, and from what you know with this,

how long is it going to take to have the test and then get the results back? Because that's one of the issues that people have, is that people have taken the test and got the results three weeks later. And hell, they might have caught it between that point and the last test. Right. Right. So, you know, that's been one of the interesting pieces of the communication related to this test. This is not a rapid test in the same way that we think about rapid tests. This test is generally processed on the same type of machines that the nasal test is processed on. So you should not think about this saliva direct test in the same way that anybody who's had a strep test at your doctor's office where they put the swab in your throat. They go into a room and five

minutes later, they come back with a result. That's not what's going to happen with this test. These tests still have to be processed in what's called a CLIA high complexity laboratory. And so I'm concerned that we are going to face the same type of testing challenges that we've been facing with the nasal swabs. I think this is a good innovation forward to using saliva, but it doesn't quite get us to the rapid diagnostic that would provide immediate results to the patient that's, say, in the doctor's office waiting for a result. That innovation is yet to be identified. We're now seeing more of those type of tests, those type of rapid tests are being approved. There was another FDA approval that just came out today for another rapid test.

I think we need many more of these rapid tests that can be in doctor's offices, in nursing homes, in emergency rooms, urgent cares. Those are the type of tests that we need that are close to the patient, and we don't have to send the test all the way to a laboratory and then wait days to get results back. So the issue that we're having is not really with what tests you take, but it's the processing of tests. The processing of tests has been the challenge that we've been facing from the beginning. We've been facing supply shortages. We've been facing

shortages with the swabs. So the saliva test is incredibly helpful because now we don't have to depend on a swab, but we still have to get that saliva sample to a laboratory. It still has to go on a machine. And the other thing we have to point out here is that we have highly trained clinical lab scientists that are running these tests. And our scientists have been working day and night to get these results out. We need to have less complex tests that can be performed at a doctor's office so that we can get the results back in a quicker manner. But we need those tests to be accurate. We need them to be sensitive. That means that when we look for the virus, we are sure that it's there. And when we give a negative result, we're confident that the result is negative. We also need to make sure that they're specific so that if it's positive, we can trust that the result is positive for coronavirus and not

a false positive result. All right. Dr. Carissa Colberth, we sure appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks. Let's talk about one thing that did happen last night at the Democratic virtual convention. I really let me let me let me parse this as best I can. I'm really tired of stupid people. I'm just really tired of stupid people. And last night was a perfect example of people, frankly, who don't really follow this process. I remember last night, Delaware, Delaware, they passed people like, oh my God, what are they doing? And I'm like, y'all, this happens all the time. The home state of the person who's being nominated for president. They let that state go last to put the candidate

over the top. I was like, well, y'all calm down. People were literally acting like, oh my God, why is Delaware skipping? Okay. So, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she spoke last night for 60 seconds, and people acted a fool because she said this. In a time when millions of people

in the United States are looking for deep, systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care, in el espíritu del pueblo, and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for President of the United States of America. That's it, y'all. That's what she said.

And the folks at NBC News put out this tweet. Oh, my God. She didn't. She did not talk about Joe Biden. Hours later, NBC News released this. Editor's note and clarification. Ocasio-Cortez was asked by the DNC to second Sanders' nomination. The nomination is a procedural requirement of the convention.

Ocasio-Cortez has previously endorsed Biden, and her speech was similar in length to other nominating speeches. Y'all, they put that out three and a half hours afterwards. Lauren, this shows stupidity. This is the stupidity, Lauren, of people. This was a thing. People were losing their mind. And this is also what happens, and again, I don't know who the hell was running the

social media at NBC, but clearly it was somebody who doesn't know what the hell happens at conventions without realizing that people who get delegates, deals are cut where they still get for the record to get their delegates and they tabulate them. And typically what happens is after the first ballot, there typically is somebody to say, I call to make it unanimous. Then the delegates vote. They make it unanimous who the nominee is. This shows the stupidity of people who are always trying to find something. Oh, my God. Ocasio-Cortez. She didn't talk about Joe Biden. Yeah, well, I mean, we do live in a world where our technology, our social media technology rewards people who come up with the bombastic get, you know, so obviously the I know there was a discussion at Twitter about removing the like button, and that may have been in part because that has motivated people to post things that are not true before verification, post false information, post information that they have no

expertise in, all for the attention of the retweet and the like button. I mean, so I think a lot of what drives these little silly moments of, you know, wanting to sort of run to social media and post something and the excitement of it, and it's inaccurate, and then you get embarrassed later on. And we've seen many very interesting examples side by sides where, you know, somebody has sent something out two years ago, and then they contradicted. I remember the Sean King example recently, where he had just, you know, basically wrote the opposite of something. And that's what social media, I think, drives a lot of people to do. Unfortunately, it impacts what is, you know,

generally considered to be, you know, legacy journalism, which is supposed to be built on fact checking and being careful about what you put out there. But, you know, unfortunately, legacy journalist organizations are trying to keep up with everybody on Twitter who's just putting stuff out there. So it's just a race to the bottom, and the casualty is accuracy. Anytime you have speed and you have complicated information,

the casualty will always be accuracy. But it's just basic. It's just so basic, Robert. And these people, again, they act a fool. They they get all upset and like, oh, my God, how dare you? And, you know, and what she does is she said, y'all, this is what it was. And again, people, it's like they're so quick to try to find the gotcha moment. This is where credible people have to go.

Can y'all calm down? This is what's going on. I have to do that about three or four times last night where people were like, oh, my God, I don't understand what's going on. Like, this makes no sense. And I'm probably because y'all probably don't pay attention to this stuff all the time. So chill. Well, this is why Donald Trump won in 2016, because he was able to control the news cycle, understanding that nobody pays as much attention to the fact check as they do to the initial impression. What they were trying to do, look, the convention was pretty boring. They were up against LeBron in the first round of the playoffs. So I think they were trying to spice it up by creating a reality show drama situation in an otherwise mundane convention.

Who's the young, sexy rising star that we can get some media attention from and get some clickbait to? The song came out a few years ago, 100 Likes to Do Anything You Like for 100 Likes. They are trying to get that sort of attention for an otherwise mundane task. It's not getting great ratings. And so they try to create a story. It's reality TV media. It's no different than the housewives or love and hip hop or anything along those lines. If there's not a storyline there, you create the storyline through the media. Trump has been the master of manipulating this. He's been the master of getting free media. I think the last media cycle or last campaign, he got around three billion dollars in free media because he knew just by putting out a tweet, he could get more

attention and more eyeballs on him than by doing a million dollar ad buy. And the media is falling directly into it again. And I think the media has to at some point be held responsible for the fact that they keep giving ad ad time and free advertising to the shiny candidate instead of doing some real media and real journalism to get to the truth it's just basic brand it's just basic it's like if you know the deal it's basic yeah you know it's it kind of reminds me of when you've got to watch a baseball game with someone who doesn't watch baseball. And you've got to explain all the different rules. Look, I think at the end of the day, too, you know, people being sheltered in place, folks are to give fuel to a tyrant in the office of the presidency.

And as more fuel is to to speak last night, because I actually believe that she represents the future of of our party. You know what? She's not she's not worried about last night. She ain't worried about last night. She ain't worried about last night. Here's the deal. Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez could actually go on her Instagram page, her Facebook page, her Twitter page, and have more people watching than who watched last night. No, look, I don't disagree with that. What I'm saying, though, is it's not just embracing her style. It's about a recognition that right now you have party leaders that are more interested in recruiting disgruntled Republicans, where I think we have an opportunity to grow our space, particularly within our black base within the party, within our youth base, the progressive

space in the party, and that she represents a voice and an ideology that reflects the values of today. Look, the people not understanding, you know, certain parliamentary or convention rules. Yeah, that's frustrating. And it's also more frustrating when the media gets it wrong. But what I would say just to offer some perspective that where the party needs to continue to go and grow, that wave has swept through this country. No, no, no, actually, actually, actually, no, no, but it's not.

It's not. And this is where I'm going to push back on you on that one. Here's the deal that the Democrats have to understand and accept. Every district in the nation is not the same as her district. The reality is this. The Democrats took control of the House in 2018, not because of because of moderate districts. For instance, Congresswoman Lucy McBath barely won, barely won her district. She beat Karen Handel. Right now they're running neck and neck. That district is not a super progressive district. The district in Georgia, same Sanford Bush Bishop, same thing, not super progressive. So a Sanford Bishop gets to take has to take different positions because of his district.

Then Congressman John Lewis did or even David Scott or Hank Johnson and theirs. And so we have to I think we make a mistake that, first of all, congressional districts are 700,000 people. Okay. So the reality is Ocasio-Cortez represents, there's a constituency that is far left progressive, no doubt, but Democrats cannot win, cannot have a majority if they only appeal to the Ocasio-Cortez's of the world. They have to have far left and moderate or centrist Democrats because you have to win based upon the contours of your congressional district or your state. Casey in Pennsylvania has to run a totally different race than Harris or Feinstein in California. It's just, they're different. But Roland, you don't have to be progressive

or be labeled as a progressive to advocate for Medicare for all. No, I understand that. I understand that. That's what I'm saying- I think that's what I'm saying, though. I'm not saying that left versus right. I'm saying that the message of Medicare for all, fully funding our public schools, creating opportunities so people can actually make a livable wage, making sure that people like

Jeff Bezos, who are paying the same tax rate as individuals seeking unemployment. That's what I'm saying. But here's the deal, though. You can't, but you actually can't have everyone saying Medicare for all when the very unions that support Democrats were the ones who were saying to Warren and Harris and Sanders,

yo, back the hell up, because we fought hard for those benefits. See, this is the struggle, Robert, that I think that, again, as I look at the Democratic Party, the reality is this. The Democratic Party has a much larger tent than the Republican Party.

Democrats got to keep a whole bunch of people happy to win. Republicans, you're either right or far right or far far right at you so right you come back left. I mean, that's the deal. And so the Republicans have it much easier in the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party has an Ocasio-Cortez and a Joe Manchin and a Casey and a Bishop and a McBath in the same district. The right, Jordan, Rubio, Cornyn. I mean, you pretty much know what they say. That's the difference here.

And I think a lot of people don't understand those distinctions of why you got to have this mix of people who are speaking on the Democratic side. Well, you know, the Democrats are the big tent party, and that's part of the balancing act that has to happen. Well, look, we have four black folks on this panel right now. I guarantee we are all at different points on the political spectrum, but generally vote Democratic. So me being from Waverly Hall, Georgia, growing up in a rural community, I'm pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, Southern Baptist, believe in individual responsibility, small government, economic conservatism, but still vote Democratic. So you have to put that on the same spectrum with the people who live maybe in Manhattan or Brooklyn or San Francisco, who have a completely different reality. And so they believe in different policies. People in the South aren't going to believe in big government solutions to

everything, but they still believe you should have a social safety net and strong union jobs and a political system that works with the least of these. So that is part of the difficulty. That's why you have to mix in a John Kasich, a Colin Powell, Cindy McCain, and also a Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ocasio-Cortez, and put that all into one tent and create a governing majority. You're right. Republicans have been completely—they are running directly on rhetoric because, fundamentally speaking, Donald Trump is not governed as a conservative president. Nothing about his policies have been conservative. If a Democrat did the exact same thing that Donald Trump did, a $1.5 trillion tax cut, $1.3 trillion in new spending, stimulus checks, just direct governmental

handouts to people, the enhanced unemployment, all the things that Donald Trump has done and he takes credit for, including criminal justice reform and many other issues, are Democratic issues. But Republicans run on feelings, on emotions, on that John Wayne character who's going to keep America safe, and they don't care about the actual minutiae because they are one monolithic party in large part. Democrats, on the other hand, have to appeal to a larger, broader base and ensure that everyone is getting something, but at the same time,

that means nobody's going to get everything that they want. And, Lauren, here's the deal. Look, you spent time in the halls of Congress, and the perfect example. I've had Democrats tell me this. They say, look, even if we're in the majority, we don't start an issue with 200, 205 votes, and we just got to pick up 13 to 18 more. They said, no, we actually start with about 180, which means that you take an issue, you start with 180. Even when you're in the majority, they've got to work to get the other 38 necessary to pass, which is where the Democratic compromise comes in.

Remember, the Affordable Care Act. I think people forget this here. President Barack Obama had a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. But you had people like Lieberman and others who made it, who damn near were negotiating like Republicans. And that's what held it up in 2009. And it wasn't until Ted Kennedy died and then Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts.

And then they had to like, Nancy Pelosi was like, no, we're getting this done because they did not have much time. That's the difference between the parties, and I think a lot of folks, people I'm seeing even commenting out here, don't quite understand the nuances when you start getting inside of politics in the party. Go ahead. The Joe Lieberman point is well taken, but remember, you also had Barack Obama,

who in his heart of hearts was a corporate Democrat who did not believe in the public option, did not want to fight for the public option. And the way the Democrats negotiate is a very lowest common denominator style. When Mitch McConnell negotiates, he goes for the most he can get and then goes down. When the Democrats negotiate, they go for the least they can get. Now, Pelosi's been changing that in the last maybe two years, but still.

I would push back on the notion that this country is not, it certainly is not Ocasio-Cortez progressive. But remember, the Democratic Party has won the majority on the national level several times and somehow figured out a way to lose the Electoral College or lose the White House in the case of Gore Bush. And that's because the national vote is national. What I'm saying is elections in America are not national. Elections in America are state elections. And those states see things differently.

That's all I'm saying. I know, but the majority of people voted for Rand Blue. Right. But that's the majority of people when you add up across the country. But the bottom line is you still have to recognize that there are different interests, different views in different parts of the country and hell, even in parts of states. I mean, we can talk about Detroit all we want to once you get outside of Oakland County. Hell, Michigan is Alabama. In Pennsylvania, you can talk about Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the suburbs.

Outside of those, Pennsylvania is Alabama. And so all I'm saying is I recognize just the different nuances of the party, and that's why people don't quite understand what happens when the negotiating takes place, because districts are simply not the same. If you come from a hard, far left blue district and you come from a purple or trending red district, your politics are different. Poll after poll shows us let's do polling and money. Let's just do polling and money. OK, polling and money would tell you that what Miss Ocasio-Cortez talks about is extremely popular with most people. What stops it from happening is the money and politics issue because corporate interest controls the Democratic Party. And so the things that she's wanting are in comprehension with big business and corporations. This is where the Bernie wing of the party is accurate about saying that, because Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell aren't really all that different when it comes to money politics. That's the thing that a lot of people don't want to really confront in the Democratic Party. So the results that you're getting are a result of who gives

money to whom that controls the game and controls what conversation we're having and what these members vote on week in and week out. Yeah, and Roland, if I could, and this is why I trust Black women, I do, particularly one that I married. I think what Lauren is getting at is that because we negotiate as Democrats to the lowest common denominator, we're not pushing certain ideology is because some of us don't believe it. Let's just be honest. And I'm fully aware of the nuances within the party. I mean, here in Chicago, you know, let's not assume that Chicago is deep blue. Roland, you spent some time in Chicago. You go to certain sections of the city of Chicago that have

a much different perspective. Chicago is blue, but it's also white. So let's just talk about it there. Let's just go there because some of these places that you're talking about, you have individuals who are voting against their interests. But the reason why I'm saying that we have to be

bolder in this moment, calling for the things that people want, the way you make sure you don't lose Wisconsin is you got to make sure that black folks don't stay at home. Black folks are going to come out if you talk about the things that, quite frankly, is not the Bernie wing of the party. Bernie Sanders is running on the black liberation ideology about Medicare for all. That was birthed out of the struggle of Fred Hampton, who made sure there were health clinics. That's our struggle. Public education. W.E.B.

Du Bois said that public education at the expense of the state, particularly in the South, after all, is a Negro idea. The very platform that folks are running on that we're calling progressive or the burning wing of the party, that is birth of the pain and struggle and hope of black America. So explain this. So, Brandon, explain this. I got it. So explain this. Explain to me how, according to exit polling data, 18 percent of black women voted for DeSantis in Florida over Andrew Gillum. So look, white supremacy doesn't just live in the house of white folks. No, no, no, no, no. But here's the deal. But here's the deal. But here's the deal. Hold up. Hold up. But here's the deal.

When you start breaking out one of the theories, one of the theories is that you saw a significant number of black women who were mothers of children who were enrolled in charter schools and who were getting those opportunity scholarships who opposed Gillum's position on that. Again, here's my whole point. There's no group that hates Republicans more than anybody else than black women. There are in C city out of their own mouths when I met with him. group that hates Republicans more than anybody else than black women. They're R and C city out of their own mouths when I met with him. So that's a perfect example.

What I'm talking about was that when you start looking at how voters make decisions now, some have said that's an outlier exit poll, but here's the deal. What was driving that? What happens is, and I think the same thing, we're seeing this here. Why did 13, why did 13 percent of black men go for Donald Trump? Why does the White House think that they can get 20 percent of black men to support Trump in 2020? To Robert's point, how do you also speak to various people? All I'm saying is, is that when we start talking about different people and they speak for these different people, it's, I'm just cognizant of the fact that there are different constituencies within the Democratic party. And it's harder for the Democrats to coalesce around getting certain things done

because they have far more voices inside of their tent than the Republicans do, where it's much easier because pretty much, like you say, you're right or you're far right. Brandon, go ahead. Well, when Dr. King was assassinated, he also had a 33 percent approval rating at that time. And his approval rating within black communities was even was was was harsh. Look, I can't explain it in our program or-hour program the impact that white supremacy has played and has impacted on all of us. What I'm recognizing, Roland, is yes, that there are different degrees in which we discuss and debate these issues. I'm from a family of 10 brothers and sisters, right? We fight all the time over the Thanksgiving menu, and it's the same menu every year. So I'm very clear about that. What I'm saying, though, is

if we're going to transform this country, we have to continue to organize at the local level, like you're saying. But we cannot be afraid to say out loud that wealthy people have to pay their fair share in taxes. Of course. I think to Lawrence's point, that you have parties that have been capitulating not just to the right, but to the interests of corporations. Yes. That is not necessarily a message of progressivism. In fact, when

they also did exit polls, they also showed that Trump voters were also voting for Bernie Sanders. Some of the stuff I can't explain, Roland. No, I can. I can. 25%. Because Bernie Sanders for people represented the same thing as Trump. I just want to tear this sucker up. And there are people who want to see that. But the other thing is, Roland, you also had you also had Governor Wallace and Dr.

Keene vote for the same person, John F. Kennedy. This is America. I get that. And that's what I. And that's what I'm saying. And what I'm saying is, and what I'm saying is, when I'm looking at who's speaking and who isn't, I am taking into consideration the reality when I look at two parties, who's in both parties. There are a lot of Democrats who hate to hear from Joe Manchin. But guess what? When it gets down to the nitty gritty, you sure as hell want that Joe Manchin vote.

That's just the it's just one of those games that you got to play. And that's what you're dealing with. Folks, I talked to Senator Amy Klobuchar earlier today about what's happened with the Postal Service and the issue of voter suppression. And here's our conversation. Senator Klobuchar, it's quite interesting to watch what is happening with the United States Senate. You have this drama with the post office. You've got the postmaster general now telling Speaker Pelosi, look, I'm not going to I'm not going to sit sit here and just put these machines back online. I mean, this is outlandish. That's what's going on in this country. It is absolutely outrageous. One, because that's how a lot of us are going to be voting. And of course, they know that. Two, more and more people during the pandemic are getting their medications. They get their documents that way. Veterans use the post office overwhelmingly.

We've got people waiting to get a letter from their grandma because they can't go visit them. It's an outrageous thing. So the solution is not to trust this guy. Let's start with that. The solution is to do what Speaker Pelosi has done, which is call back the House for an emergency session to pass a bill to set strict rules of delivery and other standards for the post office, and then to put the funding in that we should have done months ago, but Mitch McConnell has stopped the bill from advancing in the Senate. I'm ready to go. I can literally take this laptop with you on it and take that to Washington, D.C. and do all my work there, because we should be back in session, and he should be calling us back in session. Well, and what we're looking at here, I mean, this is just real simple. What we're looking at here is, I hear all these excuses. Well, we've had low volume because of coronavirus. But anybody with a brain that knows, because we saw it in Minnesota,

where they said there was a dramatic increase in mail-in voting. We saw it in Wisconsin. We are about to have an explosion of mail. And so anybody looking forward would say, hey, if you're going to execute this, you don't take anything offline until after the election because we're about to see an uptick in mail volume. Exactly. I mean, literally, you don't have to be a postmaster general to understand this. It is a ridiculous situation because we've seen it.

Ready for this one? Republican primary in Maryland. Over 95% of Republicans voted by mail, despite what the president is saying. People are voting by mail all over the place. It's 60 to 70 percent, double in my state, more than double what it used to be. And we see that all over the country. We do not want to have the situation like we saw in Milwaukee, where African-American voters were standing in line in garbage bags and homemade masks just to exercise their right to vote while Donald Trump

gets to vote by mail in the luxury of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with his ballot he gets from Palm Beach, Florida. That's exactly what happens. And despite him trying to cut down voting by mail and voting period, people are voting at record levels. And that's a good thing. And I thought Michelle Obama's comments were amazing. But when she said that at the end, find out all your rules in your state, vote right away, make sure your ballot gets in. And if you don't want to do that or if there's a problem, go pack a breakfast, stand in line, be safe, wear comfortable shoes and vote. We are not going to let this guy scare us out of voting. And the thing here that I think a lot of people don't realize is that historically,

Republicans have voted by mail. Look, I've followed and covered lots of elections and typically on election night, when they first released the absentee ballot totals, typically Republican candidates do very well because they've always taken advantage of this. And so folks have to understand all of a sudden this attack on mail in voting is really because they don't want to see Democrats or progressives now embrace something that they've always enjoyed huge leads in. Exactly. Utah is nearly 100 percent vote by mail. That's a really red state. You have Republican secretaries of state that have said it's no fraud. They like it. Colorado's lot vote by mail. But it is a lot of the blue states that have traditionally done more voting at the polls. I want to make clear the role, and that's still going to happen. Not everyone's going to vote by mail. And that's why part of the funding that we want to get is also for training a new cadre of poll workers,

because a lot of our poll workers are older. When you go vote, you see a lot of seniors there. So they're less vulnerable if we put younger poll workers out there. And the second thing is to make sure the polls are open for longer than just five days ahead, you know, two weeks ahead, like they have in my state, three weeks ahead we have in my state. That'll mean less people congregating. So it's a combination of doing what you can to learn how to vote by mail and doing it successfully. And if that doesn't work or you're not comfortable doing it that way, then make sure that you vote early if you can. And that's why we're trying to get this funding. And the Republicans were ready in the Senate to negotiate. I was working with Roy Blunt. And then, of course, the White House and Mitch McConnell walk away from the table. Well,

McConnell was never at the table. But the point is that we've got to get the funding as well as make sure that we're stopping the voter suppression wherever it is. What about voter suppression? I had somebody who sent me a tweet, a conservative who said, well, there can't be voter suppression until people vote. And I said, no, idiot. The whole point of voter suppression is to even keep folk from registering and to frustrate them when they completely check out of the process. I had Greg Palace on my show on Monday, and he even broke down how even on the mail in deal, how many ballots get discarded in terms of signatures and not write postmarkets. Even when it comes to mail, that we have to get people to understand there's a very clear process that has to be followed to ensure that...

Exactly, and that's why the bill that I did that passed the House now is in the HEROES Act, says you can postmark up to the end, up to Election Day, so you don't have to worry about how long the post office takes. But the second piece about this is that's what happened to Stacey Abrams in Georgia, right? And I quote her, she went through, you know, when just because you don't go to a meeting for a few years at the chamber or at any kind of local government meeting, you don't lose your right to assemble.

And just because you don't speak out or read a newspaper for a little bit, you don't use lose your right to freedom of press. And just because you didn't vote for the last election shouldn't mean that you get thrown off the voting rolls and lose your right to vote. So that's been going on. All of these signature issues should be resolved in favor of the voter. And it's just more reason that people follow Michelle Obama's advice, and that is make sure your ballot is received and make sure you get it done, because there's a low level of trust for good reason with Donald Trump and what he's doing right now.

One of the things that obviously folks are looking at is Democrats have to pick up a net four seats or take control of the United States Senate. Of course, a lot of Democrats will assume that Senator Doug Jones will not win in Alabama. He disagrees with that. But when it comes to these targets, Arizona obviously is one of the places folks are looking at. North Carolina, critical seat as well. Same thing in Montana and then Iowa and a few others. And so from your vantage point in terms of what do you what do you think is looking like?

How many seats Democrats could potentially pick up if folks turn out and they win? Yeah, this isn't just me talking. It's the polls. When you look at the numbers right now, all those states you identified were either even or ahead or it's within the margin of error. We've been doing incredibly well, of course, in Arizona. Mark Kelly, Gabby Gifford's husband in with Governor Hickenlooper in Colorado, Montana, Governor Bullock in Maine, with Sarah Gideon. You go down to Iowa, just south of the border here, the farmers have been really hit by the economic decisions of the Trump administration. And that is a race that no one thought we could win. And we're doing quite well. North Carolina, Georgia, let's stretch the map more. Georgia, with our friend, Reverend Warnock,

and with Osthoff, the other candidate, there's two seats open there. Then you go to Texas. Anything is possible with the way Biden is doing right now. Biden and my friend Kamala are doing right now in the polls. And so that's why people have to remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that Supreme Court seat is on the ballot, right? She's going to retire. And she has been hanging in there so strongly for so long. That is on the ballot. Criminal justice reform is on the ballot. The economic fairness and getting broadband to rural areas and doing everything that we have talked about on child care and minimum wage, all of that, it depends not just on the White House, it depends on the U.S. Senate. So people not just vote at the top, they have to vote all the way down the ballot.

Also, what messaging needs to be very explicit to white voters? And this is why, since 1964, Democrats have not exceeded 40, 42 percent among white voters. In the Midwest, only 36 percent of white men are supporting Joe Biden, Kamala Harris over over the Trump ticket. What often happens when we have these conversations, people talk about, oh, what we must do to target the black vote. What must we do to target the Latino vote? Well, in this conversation, what what should Democrats be saying specifically to white voters, especially white men in the Midwest? You talked about those Iowa farmers, those dairy farmers who've also had to file for bankruptcy in Wisconsin because of Trump's tariffs.

It goes across the line. What are you saying to white voters specifically about this ticket and what they must do? Fifty-three percent of white women voted last time for Trump. What should the messaging be directly to white voters? Right. So, as you know, in my state, I've been able to pick up votes from independents and moderate Republicans at every single election in a big way. And what I think is, first of all, you reach out, you go there, you say to some people who voted for Trump, a lot of my state had like a one and a half percent Hillary victory. Right. And you say, look what's happening right now. This guy isn't competent. It's not helping you. And he also doesn't have any compassion and he's dividing our country.

It's a pretty hardcore message. And Michelle got at some of it, actually, when she talked about or when she said he's just not doing the job right. You know, it's a kind of a common sense argument. Then the other piece about this is that I thought the guy in the video, I loved the roll call last night. I loved when it showed the diversity of our nation. It showed America as it is, as opposed to how Donald Trump talks about it. But the one guy in Ohio, the union guy, when he stood up and he goes, it's in the middle of that field. There's kind of a pole sticking out from under his overhand. And I love these videos because everyone made them on their own.

And he says, you know, every time Donald Trump, workers get screwed. And so I just think those direct, and I don't even call them messages, those direct truths from working people, whether they're white, black, people have gotten hit by this guy, and we got to make that case. He tries to divide us on race all the time. We know that.

But we've got some economic truths that bring all of us together. And that's why the speech I gave was about crossing that river of our divides and remembering that unity isn't like, so what? Okay, unity. That's not the purpose. It's not settling. It's not like the lowest common denominator. It is a means to get where we need to get, which is increasing the minimum wage, all those things we've talked about. And that is just as appealing to those workers in Ohio as it is to African Americans in Maryland. I mean, it just is. And so that's why I think the message has got to be one of unity. And that's what Joe Biden uniquely qualified with Kamala, where every little African-American girl is going to be able to look at her on that stage tonight

and say anything and everything is possible. I would hope that Democrats would be as explicit to point out how Donald Trump, his attack today on Goodyear, that impacts one of the largest employers in Ohio. Exactly. And, you know, that Sherrod Brown would be a good person to put out there talking about these things just because we've got workers that have been hurt by his policies. And when he passed that tax, remember that thing, that's his signature, trillion dollars in debt, putting us in a really bad place right before the pandemic.

When he did it, he went down to Mar-a-Lago and had a whole ballroom of his best friends there. And these are his words, not mine. You just got a lot richer. To me, that's exhibit A, because I can tell you that guy in the field in Ohio and those farmers in Minnesota, they were not in that ballroom. So we have got to make the case that he doesn't have their backs.

Absolutely. Senator Amy Klobuchar, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And I'm sure we'll keep putting pressure on and trying to get folks to focus on voting over the next, actually less than 80 days, 76 days before Election Day. It is. Thank you for having me on again. All right. Thanks a lot. Take care. Robert, real quick. The reason I was asked for that last question there, because I said the same thing Senator Bernie Sanders a year ago. Candids love talking to black people, love talking to Latinos, love talking to women. I'm like, you know what? Damn, no. Don't give me that identity politics stuff.

White people have white interests. And I think there has to be very specific and clear messaging to white people by candidates. Well, you're absolutely correct. And I think even the discussion we were having before the interview regarding the Sanders wing of the party, we have to realize that's actually the Jackson wing of the party. These are the things that Jesse Jackson ran on in 84 and on 88 that were so taboo at the time that he tried to erase it from history. So when we talk about these issues that the majority of Americans feel and agree on and the big tent ideas, we have to bring our white brothers and sisters into the conversation and make sure that even that they're not voting against their interest. If you go down to South Georgia, if you go down to

Western Michigan, if you talk to many of the people who are Trump voters and have a actual conversation with them, they don't believe in nothing that Republicans believe in. They're not voting because they're fiscal conservatives. They're not in the same party as Steve Forbes and Mitt Romney and many of these other politocrats who are at the top of the economy. So if we actually were able to communicate with them, to campaign to them, to connect with them on many of the cultural issues, to not be as exclusionary, because sometimes I feel like progressives and members of the Democratic elite look down on people who are not as intellectually pure as they are on some issues.

Those are the folks who are going to fill out the rest of the electoral map. So Democrats can either decide they want to just be the president of the big cities, I'm going to be the president of New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta, or they can say I'm going to be president of the United States and get out there and actually work for those middle-class white votes who were voting for Bill Clinton in 92 and 96, who did turn around and vote for Obama in 2008 and 2012, and who have felt alienated from the party because once you have an actual conversation with them, you can convince them that they will agree on many issues that you agree with, and it's a cultural dynamic that separates.

This is real easy, Lauren. Probably the last election, 71 and 72 percent of the total electorate were white. This election probably will be the first time it falls under 70 percent. So bottom line is this here. When you're running for president, you're talking to white people. And again, I think Democrats have to be far more explicit when talking to white voters. Yeah, I mean, I think that they haven't necessarily been, you know, some of these issues don't necessarily break to race. I mean, everybody, generally speaking, wants the same things.

They want to be able to earn enough money to buy a house, support themselves, support a family, pay for child care. You know, some of these things are not breaking to race. The person who broke things to race when he got into office is Donald Trump. He's the one with all this, this is your last chance, and saying directly to white folks. Basically, he took the veil off of the Southern strategy and just talked openly, directly to white people specifically, right? So, I mean, I think that Barack Obama, even though the Democratic Party is not one of the majority of black voters since Jimmy Carter, you know, I thought Obama actually did a says. They're in control of the Democratic Party. And they're in control primarily because the things that the Sanders wing wants to do

require money coming out of the same people who give the donations to the party. And that's always the sticking point. I mean, yes, it's a diverse party. Yes, it's a big tent party. But when you go down issue by issue, I don't care if it's gun control. I don't care if it's abortion, whatever it is.

You're going to find that where the money goes to vote the votes and the attention from the party leadership goes. But here's the deal, though, Brandon, for me, I'm not trying to bid on backwards. Well, I'm simply saying that if you make explicit appeal, you have you you got to put some stuff on the table. You got to be frank. And I think what often happens is Democrats, they aren't frank when they are really breaking this thing down. And I'm saying and I'm saying I remember 2008. There was this great video, some union organizers, and they literally said, they said point blank, they said we had to have some frank conversation with our white union brothers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin. And they literally said to them, black people have been carrying democratic parties. You white union

workers, you are going to vote for this black man. And it was a, it was a very clear discussion. And what I'm saying is you got to put whiteness on the table and not go, oh, we're talking to workers. We're talking to voters. But over here, black preachers, you got to say, hey, I met with a group of black preachers. I meet with a group of white preachers, talk to white preachers about white voters in these issues. That's what I'm talking about. Well, I think to that point, Roland, you know, as Robert indicated earlier, and I said at the beginning of the show, is that you have voters that are constantly voting against their interests. I had a chance to travel around the country a little bit as a surrogate for Senator Elizabeth Warren. And what's very glaring, and I'll be very candid on your show because I know we can, white folks are living horribly, man, across this country. In fact, that's proven

there are more white children born into poverty than black children. Now, of course, there's a higher concentration of black folks because there's less of us. White poverty is severe. And if we're going to have that frank conversation, we have to talk about the fact that there are white folks that are living in abject poverty and that that poverty that they are experiencing and their feeling of isolation, it's not that much different than the poverty of isolation in places like Garfield Park, where I represent on the west side of Chicago, that has been described as a developing nation. And if we're speaking to people's pockets, of isolation in places like Garfield Park, where I represent on the west side of Chicago, that has been described as a developing nation. And if we're speaking to people's pockets, speaking to their financial interests, that's the language that people hear the best or easiest in this country. And as I said, you have people who are filing for unemployment,

and Jeff Bezos is paying less in taxes than those individuals who do not have a job as a result of just outsourcing and the loss of jobs. So, yes, we have to be very direct. We have to be very candid. And that's why I appreciate your acknowledgement, Roland, of what Reverend Barber is doing, because that is where we have consensus within this country, that there are people that have and those that do not have. At the height of the Depression, when white unemployment amongst white men had reached 35%, our country caused a national crisis. And white men were literally given shovels before there was stuff to dig. We have reached that moment in this economy. And if the Democrats are serious about building this coalition in the interest of workers, black, brown, white, the coalition that 84 and 88 brought us that led to other mayors being elected across the country, we have to speak to the economic

interest of our communities. And that's where I believe we can find unification. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk about the Toronto Raptors president. Remember the white cop who said how he was just abused and beaten down and hurt? We have the body camera video of that cop, and he was a lying fool. That is next on Roland Martin Unf the field. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. Census takers will be visiting households to make sure we are counted.

Too much is at stake. Respond online today. Shape your future. Start here at 2020census.gov. As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard.

Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 Census today at 2020census.gov? Now, folks, let me help you out. The Census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they

are spent in our communities every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the US House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color

are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years, funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 Census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. dot gov. All right, folks. Each week we profile a black-owned technology business. This week we're looking at Pivot Technology School with the co-founders Quan Clark and Joshua Monday. Quan and Joshua, how you doing?

How's it going? All right. So here we are now operating in this whole virtual world, and all these districts are now scrambling to figure out how in the hell to do it. What have y'all learned? What is your technology, and how does it work? Yeah, so Pivot Technology School is a 20-week data analytics and web development accelerator. We are focused on getting more minorities trained into technology careers. So we're not so much on the aspect of helping teachers get their technology together, but we're on the aspect of getting adults trained to face this new marketplace, which is everything is going to be tech. Go ahead.

Yeah, so what we've identified is, you know, doing this 2020 year with COVID and everything that's happening, most companies are going virtual anyway. So we've been able to accelerate our growth model by providing virtual classrooms. And so we can provide our data analytics and coding software development to adult learners across the country. And in terms of that, obviously what this has shown,

I've gotten so many calls from people all across the country who are people trying to do studios, trying to get what gear to get things on those lines, because the reality is here. I think for the next, I think for the next 18 get, things along those lines, because the reality is here, I think for the next 18 months, we're going to be in the same situation. We're going to be in this virtual world. Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of the jobs, just over 40 million people are unemployed, and a lot of the jobs are not going to come back because everything is turning to virtual

and artificial intelligence that are taking jobs. And the most people that are going to be impacted are African-American people. So we're on a mission to really get people the skills that they need so they can thrive because everything is going to shift and change. Yeah, we've really just identified a gap right now now, African Americans are really underrepresented in tech. You know, I've spent about 15 years in tech myself. And, you know, I got to a point where I was really the only African American in most of my departments, which really kind of spawned up the vision and mission that we have now. And we're just trying to train all minorities across the country, you know, change that psychological barrier that tech isn't for them.

And look, you do have to, frankly, introduce it in a way where people actually understand it and they get it. You say it's 20 weeks. Folks have gone through this. Where have they gone after they've gone through this accelerator? What kind of jobs? Things along those lines. Yeah, yeah. So we have partners all across the country that are pipelines. So we're pipelining people from Pivot Tech to some of the best jobs in the country,

from Amazon to ACA to Healthstream. So as long as people have skills, we're lining them up for jobs. So you have so many people that, when you look at the pay cycle, when you look at the average wage for African-American household, it's less than $58,000. But, you know, one tech job is paying around $65,000. So they don't have to worry about finding a job. We will place them on a career path. Absolutely. And how many people have gone through your program thus far? So right now we have 30 people that are getting ready to

graduate. As Josh said, we have some of the biggest corporations. What we do is set up open houses and we set up virtual interviews and we get our students prepared to go into corporate America or entrepreneurship. Either way, we actually have another 40 getting ready to start on next Tuesday, August the 25th. And then October, we're going to have another 40 coming up with everything that's going on. We've seen accelerated growth. So we're just trying to ramp up and be able to provide these services to everyone that needs it. All right. How can people who are watching get more information to reach out to you? They can go to pivottechschool.com or they can email us at info at pivottechschool.com. All right, then. Well, gentlemen, certainly we appreciate it. Good luck with what you're doing. And I keep telling folks, stop saying that it's the future.

No, it's the now. It's the now. Absolutely. All right. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. All right, folks, let's talk about technology, how technology exposes liars.

Now, y'all know how many times on this show we've talked about police officers who've been busted for lying, saying certain things happen. Well, remember when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA title. Remember this white cop, Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy Alan Strickland. He came out and he said that he was shoved and he had head damage and face damage and all this stuff when he got shoved and assaulted by Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri. That's what he said. He even filed a lawsuit in February for the Raptors president released this body cam footage. I know now here's what you're seeing here, folks.

This is not go full screen, go full screen. Don't go to me. No full screen. This is the one angle here. You're about to see right here. OK, you see the cop right there. All of a sudden you're going to see him come out. The rep is president. He's about to. That's him. He's about to pull out his credentials to show to the officer. He's walking. The officer pushes him in his chest and then twice. Then different folks grab the officer and say, hey, man, this is the brother of the

president of the Raptors. Your jury pushes him back after he got pushed twice. After he got pushed twice. Okay? All right. So you see all the media, all these people come over. I remember he was coming out to celebrate with his team, winning the NBA title. You see the brother who, uh, who, who grabbed them, uh, again,

trying to let them know that no, no, no, he is okay. All right. You see the officer still there. Somebody is talking to that particular officer. Now that's one of the video. Did we have the other video? Okay. I got to pull it up because I think the other video actually folks is a better video because what it, what you're going to see in this other video, let me see if I can pull it up, uh, on my iPad, uh, here. Um, the other video is, is quite interesting because it actually is Strickland's body camera footage, his actual body camera, uh, which gives you a better indication because you could even hear, you can even hear what Strickland says to your jury. Okay. So let's see here. Let's see if I can play this video right here. Let's see here. Watch shoving match. So let me try to pull this up. So we played

you that wide video and going to pull up one second. Bring up my panel, please. Lauren, I'm going to start with you. We keep talking about these cases where these cops fill out reports and they lie and they say certain things happen. But then all of a sudden it the truth comes out. Now, here's the piece right here. So I'm going to play this video. This is the body camera footage from the cop. Guys, turn the audio up as well. I want y'all to hear what was said. Watch this. All right. I'm going to roll that back again. So this is, you know what, let's let this roll. We already played this video, but there are three different angles that I want you to see. And they're going to zoom in on the other angle and you're going to see this this video.

And again, it shows you, first of all, the video he pushes, he pushes your jury, curses him out, says get the F back, pushes him a second time before your jury then, uh, uh, hits, uh, pushes him, uh, back. And so all these folks ran with the story, uh, ran with the story. You'll see it. So I just showed you the body camera footage of the cop. This is the security footage from the Golden State Warriors. And in Strickland's lawsuit that he filed, he alleges that Ujuri assaulted him. That you see this here, pushes him in the chest once, words with him, pushes him a second time, and then he gets pushed, never falls down. He used to get pushed in the chest. In the lawsuit, Strickland said, quote, he suffered injury to his body, health, strength, activity, and person, all of which have caused and continue to cause plaintiff great mental, emotional, psychological, physical, and nervous pain and suffering.

Remember, they initially, the Alameda County Sheriff initially wanted the Raptors president charged with battery of a police officer, and the Sheriff, Lauren, claimed that your jury struck Strickland in his jaw and shoulder. But the D.A. office declined the press charges. Yeah, why not? Why not charge him with the Kennedy assassination? I mean, you know, you basically I mean, everybody implicitly knows what the rules are. Please understand, they say something. Right? I mean, they know that. They also know that a white person accusing a black person of something, apparently,

they're going to be believed. So write up a civil court case or criminal court case and you file stuff on. And generally speaking, the media, this is the other thing they understand, another sort of unwritten rule that's obvious to everybody. The media is going to leave the police and what the police say and what they put out there is going to become the narrative story. And I mean, believe the police without checking anything. So you're just quoting this authority that told you that this happened this way. And, you know, frankly, in most civil situations where you have someone that puts their hands on you, you have the right to engage.

The minute that he pushed him like that that was assault so now your jury should have could have engaged him with equal force so but because he's in a special class strickland my god if he had done that then we would be talking you know in most jurisdictions you get a mandatory a lot of jurisdictions you get a mandatory sentence if a cop says that he was assaulted by you. So check this out, Robert, check this out. So this is from the Bleacher Report story. The Alameda Police Department recommended battery charges against Ujuri after the alleged altercation. The DA's office declined. Quote, Mr. Ujuri attended a meeting with the district attorney's office focused on matters that we believe merited constructive, structured mediation and conflict resolution and were better handled in a setting outside

the courtroom according to the alameda district attorney's office in october 2019 here's what let me translate that robert um we saw the body camera footage that sob was lying so we are not trying to look like some damn fools. And so this thing is going to end right now. Look, Roland, there's a reason the police reports are not admissible in court. I've had many cases like this. And unfortunately, as an African-American male, unless you have a drone or you have footage of you 24 hours a day, you aren't given the benefit of the doubt. And we hear often, we hear from the Laura Ingrams of the world, you know, shut up and dribble.

You're a millionaire. Why are you even worried about these issues of Black Lives Matter and police brutality? Because guess what? If nobody knows who you are, you are just some tall black dude who has to be subdued like any other black dude. Then they treat you with that exact same level of respect, which is none at all. So Mr. Ujiri, not only should this case be dismissed against him, now he has the right to countersue this officer. This is part of the reason that I think many of us have been going after sovereign immunity and unqualified immunity so hard, because I think that not only should he

be able to sue the officer, he should be able to go after his pension fund, go after his retirement fund, go after his Roth IRAs, go after his children's college fund, go after his car, go after his vacation house. I think that's the only way you send the message to law enforcement, because when we talk about criminal justice reform, we're not simply talking about police shootings. We're talking about the interactions between the African-American community and law enforcement. And until and unless we are willing to deal with these systemic issues, we'll continue to see the continued indignities against African-American men in this country. See, Brandon, you're elected official, and this is, look, you're a county

commissioner. Check this out. Again, this is the line that Lauren talked about and we always talk about by these damn police departments. Go back to my iPad. The Alameda County Sheriff's Office initially stated your jury didn't have any credentials on hand when he was stopped by Strickland, though videos later showed that your jury in fact had his credentials in his right hand. The officer later said he didn't have the right credentials to get onto the court. Your jury had a red badge, it claimed, but required a purple badge and gold armband. It gets better. It gets better. The Alameda County Sheriff's Department also said that your jury hit Strickland with two fists and struck him in the jaw.

It said it had video proof. This is where, this is where the County officials at Alameda County should say, yo ass fired, yo ass fired, yo ass fired, and you fired. All y'all were lying because all they had to do was not listen to this

lying ass white cop but play his body camera footage and that would have showed you everything yeah i think the only thing they left out was that he was 6'8", 450 pounds, right? Yeah, and amped up on ecstasy. Exactly. So this is the struggle, I think, that Robert was alluding to of what it means to be black in America. We always have to justify us being there, whether that's Trayvon Martin or whether it's the president of a major basketball

organization. And it's not just saying that these folks have to be fired. What I would challenge this particular county to do is what we're doing. We're reexamining the role of policing and incarceration as a whole in Cook County. We spend more money on policing and jails and incarceration than we do on health care. And so this is not just simply about an individual, right? Though we know we have some bad actors and some individuals that are part of institutions. But this is also about an institution that protects this. And so the county has to challenge these institutions and the way you do it,

I believe this is what Robert was getting at and what you're getting at, Roland, is that you have to challenge the resources. And it's egregious that we are policed, we are surveilled, and even when you have this type of video, they still lie, right? And so I believe that our role in this moment is to bring out policy and push forward budgets that make sure that we're prioritizing people's interests. And people's interest has to be about their ability to live and thrive and grow. So

this is wrong. It's a clear example of what brutality looks like in real time. And we have to make sure as elected officials that we're challenging those systems in a way that examines those individuals' budgets. Because the Toronto Raptors or whomever other stadium is holding these major venues, those institutions are paying those individuals to be in those spaces, those police officers, that's coming out of their budget or it's coming out of the county budget. Why are we investing our budgets into systems that continue to brutalize us, whether we're wearing a hoodie or a shirt and tie? But to Lauren's point, and Lauren, this is the real issue, and that is this. Whenever something happens, the public immediately

believes the cops. And the other problem here is that the cops backed up this lion ass white cop. What the Alameda County Sheriff's Department should have said is, we will wait until we examine the body cam footage to determine what happened. Nope. They immediately believe the lie. And what this white cop did is what cops always do. They lie, they make it up and they run with it. And the sheriff or the police chief will run right out to the cameras and saw back up that lie. And then later Laquan McDonald, same thing. And that was even worse because not only did they lie, they then tried to cover up the lie. They went to the Burger King and erased the video footage was there, then tried to hide that dash cam video.

And it was backed up by Rahm Emanuel and a city office who fought the release of the video. And it was only released when some media reporters were able to get a release. That's how the system protects lying cops. Well, at least on that one, the consciousness of guilt told them, let's hide the video. Right. let's hide the video, right? This dummy Strickland knew that the video existed of him assaulting your jury and went for the lie anyway. I mean, you would think that, and that shows you the level of arrogance,

because you would think in the back of Strickland's mind, he would have said, well, you know what? I know I pushed this guy twice for absolutely no reason. He's reaching his jacket to take his credential out. And I made a big deal out of this and made a fool out of myself. So let me not get into a big thing. The fact that he knew that line was going to work for him, the fact that he knew he could effectively make up any story he wanted to and get away with it,

sort of tells you all you need to know about the legacy of what it is to be African-American in this country when it comes to effectively the fact that you never get the benefit of the doubt. I actually think this doesn't just extend to law enforcement people lying about African-Americans. I just think that people implicitly know that if I lie about you and you're African American, I am going to be believed over you if I'm not African American.

I mean, it's just, it's an unwritten, obvious fact. So this guy is a guy in a suit and a tie. And you know, the other thing too, that we don't really talk about that much is the fact that there's a resentment there that nobody talks about. You know, you're a security guard or a sheriff or somebody doing security at one of these games is a multimillion dollar business. You're watching African-American males make multimillions of dollars, very popular. They're entertaining. You're the

lower person on the totem pole. And that's not the way it's been in America for 400 years. And unless you're an athlete or an entertainer, it's generally not the case. And that's not the way it's been in America for 400 years. And unless you're an athlete or an entertainer, it's generally not the case. And I think there's a resentment that builds up that leads to these types of moments by Franklin. Well, again, my whole deal here is, first of all, your jury is countersuing. I hope he countersues his ass in a huge way. And again, I keep saying this, and I don't care. It should be stated in any one of these departments.

If you lie in a statement, you lose your job. Can I go to... Excuse me. Can I go to a break? Oh, wow. Al is now kicking up. Can I go to a break?

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All right, folks. We are, I got, I was meant to mention y'all this early. Did y'all, did y'all see, did you see, Robert, the story where, what's his name? What's that nut um um uh brit hume um in his effort to praise jill biden speech called her speech very likable in contrast with michelle obama hard angry edge i'm like y'all white folks love and then tucker Tucker Carlson followed up by calling her a victim speech, saying she wants you to shut up and accept her dominion over you. Lord, Michelle Obama sure gets these white men to show themselves, doesn't she?

2024. The biggest fear on the right is that Michelle Obama will be running in 2024 for president, and they are doing their pre-bottle right now to try to create a narrative around that. What about running in 2024? No Republican beating that. What do you say in 2024? Say it again. Becoming 2024. Remember her book, Becoming Michelle Obama? Right. She went on the Becoming tour. Becoming 2024 is the biggest fear the Republicans have because you will lose. I don't know why she hates politics. She ain't running. Look, that is their fear. So they're trying to make sure they keep it that way by starting a negative narrative against her.

They started when she was in the White House. They started before the White House. Glenn Beck was attacking her on the campaign trail. Look, you saw even conservative media after her speech, Big Mike, was trending on conservative media because they've had this smear against her because she's a tall woman that somehow she's a trans person. That is what Republican media

is trying to do to sully her just to try to keep her from ever running against them because they know she will have a 1984-style landslide victory, and that is the biggest fear of Republicans. So whenever you see these slurs against Michelle Obama, understand that it comes from a position of God-like fear, of fear of the Almighty, knowing what will happen if she decides to

run for office, because it may eradicate the Republican Party the same way that the Whig Party went away, the same way that the Democratic Republicans went away, the same way the Federals went away. Michelle Obama can personally destroy the went away, the same way the Federals went away. Michelle Obama can personally destroy the Republican Party, and that's what they fear. These people, look, these white boys, Lauren, just, look, it's the same thing with her, with Senator Kamala Harris. Black women scare these white boys. That's why Trump is always attacking Maxine Waters, Frederica

Wilson, while Trump is attacking Abby Phillips and April Ryan and Yamiche. Lord, black women just, even when they just open their mouths saying hi to white boys, like, oh my God, they're attacking me. Yeah. Well, you know, it's women. And then, of course, you know, black women are supposed to be seen and not heard. That's been the legacy, I think, for a lot of these people. And they're just not used to people who are assertive and intelligent and forthright coming at them. And I think their worst fear will be a female version of Barack Obama.

The male version is what got us the big flip out that resulted in Donald Trump getting elected. So imagine another Obama. That really is their biggest fear. conversion is what got us the big flip out that resulted in Donald Trump getting elected. So imagine another Obama. That really is their biggest fear. And you can see that the cards that are being played now on the right, with some exceptions, obviously, the Lincoln Project is out there. And some people figured out how crazy the Republican Party has become. But I do think that Donald Trump in the end was a reaction certainly to Barack Obama.

It was a backlash to Barack Obama. So when they see Michelle Obama out there hitting the home run with probably the best convention speech so far, they get fearful. You saw what happened when Barack Obama first got into office. Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly just went crazy. No, no, no. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly just went crazy. No, no, no. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck. All them white boys, they just went,

they just lost their mind. So I just, look, look, hey, kids deal. You know what? I want to throw as many black women at them as possible, Brandon, so they can all go crazy. Well, I think it's that point about the moral clarity that, you know, the former first lady has, Mrs. Obama. It's also who they bring with them.

She's not only an effective orator, she's brilliant. And her ability to connect with voters in this moment is going to be critical. Whether or not she decides to pick up the mantle, I'm with you, Roland. I think that her disdain for politics just will be too much. But I think her ability to communicate to just not just the base of the party, but the broader dynamic of what the Democratic Party brings to the discord is what they are afraid of. And if Michelle Obama, as she has demonstrated, continues to speak, speak truth to power, have access to voters. They're they're clear of what that means in places like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, of course, places like Arizona.

Her ability to actually move voters is what they're actually most afraid and intimidated of. I just want all y'all to stop sitting and all y'all people who are watching, y'all, she ain't running, okay? Take this from me. This ain't what I heard from other people. This is what I know from her. She will never run for politics because she hates politics.

Hell, she said it in her speech Monday. I don't like politics. Brandon, Lauren, and Robert, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. All right, folks. Y'all know what it is. Wednesday. Always a little fun on Wednesday. Roll it. All right. We always try to have a little fun on Wednesday,

and things went a little viral when this video dropped on social media. Okay. They need to work on that, right? Yes. Yes, okay. Did you understand it, though? No. No, okay.

All right. No. Okay. All right. Uh-huh. Oh, no. Not this one. This is the grand finale of this. Yeah, that's the last one. That's what I was wondering. I don't know what they're going to do next season because they did some stuff this time.

Exactly what I was thinking oh yeah yeah yeah right don't bring that in you know what I'm saying don't do the same stuff you know what I'm saying yeah I was thinking that yeah yeah like go somewhere else that but don't break here's him then that's what I said he was like you know saying I was like what in the world don't do it here you don't think yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, y'all. Joining us right now is father comedian DJ Pride. What's up, man? What's going on? Okay. I think you're breaking up there. Say it again. DJ, you got that cricket Wi-Fi? Nah, man. I got the real thing. You ain't got the real thing. You ain't got the real thing. All right, you there now? Can you hear me? I can hear you perfect.

Well, I can't hear you perfect. That's the problem. Hold on, hold on. Let me see. Let me adjust. Hold on. Let me make sure we good. Am I ending it good, that good brother no you don't

if you're doing a speed test see see this is the devil it's the devil working right now that's the devil anytime something go wrong it's the devil okay it's the devil okay i think we finally got you there uh were you surprised at how this video just took off? I was man, I was because I had no clue that it was even getting posted. My wife, I didn't find out until it was already 300,000 in. So hold on, your wife shot it and you had no idea that she had posted it i had no idea she posted it he had shot it like a month she posted it wow wow and then of course it just took off uh and people folks like he is really having a conversation with his baby right exactly and it just took off it took a life of his own man i think by the time I got a notification of it, it was like we were 300,000 in. And my wife had told somebody

she was pregnant or something. I didn't know what was going on. And then come to find out, she had posted a video. I went online and I saw it and I was like, damn. And it went crazy from there, man. It took on a life of its own. Then people started sharing it and, yo, like, it was crazy. We went to bed. I think it had like 1.5 million hits. Woke up the next morning, it had like 25 million hits. 25 million.

Wow. How has it changed? Has it resulted in bookings? I mean, how has it helped your career? I mean, yeah, it opened up a lot of doors. It opened up a lot of doors. You know, being able to stand up comedy, I've been doing stand up now 17 years. And then it opened up just to be able to speak on behalf of black fathers to show the world that we're here, we're present and we've been present for a long time. So I became this unofficial spokesperson

on behalf of black fathers. And that's an honor, man. It's something I take real serious and I'm humbled by. You know what I'm saying? So I think I was more so moved by that, is being able to show the world to showcase uh black fatherhood that was dope to me more than my career that was more important to me to show that black men are we're we're making these kids but we're in these kids lives well absolutely and so and of course and it also was funny yeah yeah yeah so it gave the best of both worlds it was like showing i can act and i can you know be funny but then it was still showing I can act and I can, you know, be funny. But then it was still showing I'm a dad and got to show my sensitive side.

It did all of the above, man. So it was dope. It was a dope experience, man. And then Will Smith got a hold of it. And that's when it took off, man. And when he got a hold of it and it was gone after that, it was like, yo, Will Smith got it. And I'm like, oh, yeah, like that's it gonna i choked up a little bit when i heard will smith shared it i was i was have you uh have you uh have you uh have you heard from will smith hold on you're breaking up again

i said have you heard from will sm? Can you hear me? Yeah, go ahead. Not personally, no. Not personally, no, but some of his team, yes. I've dealt with a lot of his team, but I haven't met him personally. Gotcha. So you heard from his team? Yeah, I heard with his team. I went and actually met with some of the members of his team to work on a project that you'll be hearing about here soon. Ah, okay. That's a pretty good thing. That's a pretty good thing. Yeah.

Yes, man. I'm blessed. Well, it really was, like I say, a pretty funny video. We saw it, loved it, cracked up laughing. And certainly had a good time with it. So that's why we had to get you on the show. And I was sitting here. I'm trying to.

I appreciate you, man. I was sitting here trying to see if we could arrange a phone call. But he ain't answering the phone. He ain't answering the phone. The one that was customer, you are calling. Yeah, I was calling. Oh, man't answering the phone. He ain't answering the phone. Yeah, I was calling. Oh, man, you was calling. I thought I was going crazy.

I was like, you're right here. Somebody is ringing in my ear, but I'm not going to say nothing. Yeah, I was calling Will Smith. So hold on. Let me do this here. So I'm going to do something different right here. Give me one second. Let me see if I can do this.

All right. No, no, no, guys. Guys, hold on. Here we go. All right. No, no, no, guys. Guys, hold on. Here we go. All right. Calm down. Calm down. I hear everything.

Control room. People, my control room, they think they can say stuff and, like, I don't hear. That ain't how that work. That ain't how that work. I hear everything. All right. so we're going to do this here. We're going to put it on video. Alright.

Here we go. Hey, Will, remember that brother DJ Pryor, that video you shared of him talking to his son? That's him right now. He's on my show. Hey, y'all, roll a video. There you go. So, Will, you say he ain't talk to you. I was trying to call you on my show. Hey, y'all, Rolla Vitti, there you go. So, Will, you say he ain't talk to you. I was

trying to call you on the show. And so, I wanted to surprise him there. So, hope all is well with you and Jade and the fam. Tell him what's up. And so, DJ Pryor, hopefully, Will will hit me back, and then we'll try to connect y'all.

Oh, my God. Roland, you just did a move on me, man. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry, but I want to. But I want to. Well, you know that. I'm going to, but you got me. Like the Master P movie.

If you got the hookup, you got the hookup. DJ Pride, man, I appreciate it. Good luck. Let me know how it goes with the Project Will Smith's team. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. All right, bro, you take care. All right, folks, that is it.

I got to go. I got to do a speech literally for the Boston Alphas right now. I want to do this here. They are, they have, hold up, first of all, let me send this thing to Will Smith. They have an event going on as a Zoom event. It's a fundraiser for their Edward Brooks scholarship. Of course, Edward Brooks was the first African-American elected to Congress since Reconstruction. And they are putting this event on. It's a fundraiser for them.

Y'all go ahead and show it. This is what it is right now. And so they are I'm about to give the keynote speech. So literally when we hang up right now, I'm about to do that. But if you want to support this scholarship fund, if you want to support the scholarship fund via Cash App, normally right now I'm always, I always do our Bring the Funk fan club. But if you want to see it, guys, go right, pull it up. So this is the Cash app.

So I can do this here because I think on the TV, y'all can just go ahead and just hit it right there with your phone. If you just turn on your camera, and then what it'll do is it'll actually take you, pull in your camera, it'll read this scan code and take you right there. If you want to support the Senator Edward Brooks Scholarship Fund, just Cash at them at dollar sign Boston alphas, dollar sign Boston alphas. Again, I'm about to in a second do their Zoom scholarship fundraiser. I'm giving the keynote speech. This is it right here. They have

folks who are registering. And then, of course, if you want more information, if you want to give some other way, if you want to reach out to them, the email on here is EWB, Edward William Bob, number three, foundation at gmail.com. That's EWB3foundation at gmail.com. So if you want to send a donation, and again, it's a scholarship fund for brothers, and it's put on by the Boston Alphas and the Edward Brooke III Educational Foundation. And so I'm about to do that in a second. So I thank you, all of you who are watching today's show. I will see you guys tomorrow right here on Rolling Martin Unfiltered.

We're going to have a full breakdown of Senator Kamala Harris' speech tonight. We also have President Barack Obama. 9 p.m. Eastern, we will begin our live stream coverage of the Democratic National Convention. So look for our YouTube channel, folks, to watch it as well. And yeah, watch it on our YouTube channel. Forget everybody else's because that way when you watch it on ours, those views help us generate money for us to keep doing this show. So we appreciate that. Folks, I'll see y'all tomorrow. This is an iHeart Podcast.