#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Biden/rights orgs audio leak; Susan Rice back in WH; Cobb Co. adds early voting sites after backlash

Episode Date: December 11, 2020

12.10.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Susan Rice returns to WH; Cobb Co. adds early voting sites after backlash; jon Ossoff speaks; Black doctor speaks out after both of her parents succumb to COVID-19; FBI investigates Goodson shooting; Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a budget that will shift about $8m dollars from the police department; Minneapolis, legal panels are reviewing the case of a 34 year old black man who has spent 2 decades in jail; Crazy a$$ woman thinks she's immune to coronavirusSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Thursday, December 10th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, excuse me, President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Susan Rice to be his top domestic advisor for the White House. Also, Cobb County, Georgia. They add two more early voting sites after intense pressure from voting rights advocates. We'll talk with one of the commissioners in Cobb County.

Also, folks, the results of a recent, a just-released poll, literally just released, that focuses on black women in Georgia. Oh, drama with these Trump people. These fools are filing this lawsuit. Now Senator Ted Cruz says he will represent the Trump administration. If the Supreme Court takes it up, they won't.

Now you have attorney generals in New York and Ohio filing suit against them, saying, how dare you? And 106 traitorous Republicans signed an amicus brief agreeing with that Texas lawsuit. What the hell? Including idiots elected in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia.

So if y'all are saying that the election results in those states were fraudulent, that means your election was fraudulent. Yeah. Uh-huh. Also, folks, a COVID-19 update with a doctor whose heartbreaking post about the impact it's having on her personally and the medical community went viral. We will talk with her. Also, civil rights and FBI investigators are looking into the fatal shooting of an Ohio black man whose family says that he was holding a sandwich, not a gun, like cops said.

In Minneapolis, the city council have approved a budget that will shift about $8 million from the police department to violence prevention and other programs. That's called defund the police! In Minneapolis, legal panels are reviewing the case of a 34-year-old black man who has spent two decades in jail. Also, folks, today's crazy-ass white woman thinks she's immune to coronavirus. We'll show you what she said. And, folks, audio of that meeting with Biden and Harris, with civil rights leaders, it's been leaked.

We'll show you what Biden had to say. And let's talk about his tone. It's time to bring the funk on Roller Bark 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 find. 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 Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real

The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Martin All right, folks. On Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden and VP-elect Kamala Harris, they met with civil rights leaders representing National Action Network, National Urban League, NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Lawless Community for Civil Rights Under Law, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, as well as the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. It was supposed to be a private meeting.

Now, they came out and talked about it, but somebody recorded the meeting, even though at the outset of the Zoom call, Team Biden said, this meeting is not being recorded, but somebody did. So they leaked it to The Intercept, who dropped the audio, edited it in their podcast. Today, here is an excerpt.

I'm the first person, black or white, who calls attention to the fact that you were finding that the rate of people who were African-Americans are dying was three times that of white people. I don't carry around a stamp on my head saying progressive and I'm AOC, but I have a more of a record of getting things done in the United States Congress than anybody you know. Anybody you know. By 2040, this country is going to be minority white European. Hear me?

Minority white European. And you guys are going to have to start working more with Hispanics who make up a larger portion of the population. And you all do. Let's get something straight. You shouldn't be disappointed. What I've done so far is more than anybody else has done this far. Okay, number one. Number two, I mean what I say when I say it.

We don't care about throwing fists in the air and the symbols. We want the substance. The Joe Biden I've known is substance. The Kamala Harris I've known is substance. We need it now more than ever. And I would hope that the first day you start doing the things with your executive orders to restore some dignity to law enforcement in our community and to voting.

There's some things that I'm gonna be able to do by executive order. I'm not gonna hesitate to do it. But what I'm not gonna do is to do it. But what I'm not going to do is I'm not going to do what used to, Benita, you probably used to get angry with me during the debates when you'd have some of the people you were supposed to have on day one, I'm going to have executive order to do this. Not within the constitutional authority. I am not going to violate the Constitution. There is a Constitution. It's our only hope, our only hope. And the way to deal with it is where I have executive authority,

I will use it to undo every single damn thing this guy has done by executive authority. But I'm not going to exercise executive authority where it's questioned, where I can come along and say I can do away with assault weapons. There's no executive authority to do that. And no one's fought harder to get rid of assault weapons than me. Me. But you can't do it by executive order. If you do that, the next guy comes along and says, well, guess what?

By executive order, I guess everybody can own machine guns again. All right. Let's bring in our regular Thursday panel. Dr. Greg Carr, chair, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Reesey Colbert, Black Women Views, Erica Savage-Wilson, Savage Politics Podcast. Now, here's let me let me let me let me position this first. We have not received the full recording. We have not heard, again, the full recording. So I'm going to reserve some of my judgment because I would like to hear it actually in context. In terms of, because what the Intercept posted, and if y'all want to, y'all can go to the intercepts podcast, the deconstructed podcast with Ryan Grimm.

It's a 15 minute podcast and they actually have their audio and audio here as well. So I just want to lay that out there because, again, that's that that's important because, one, we don't know how long this was. I know it was at least an hour. We don't know actually how long it was. So even what they got was an excerpt of the call. But let's deal with what was stated. So first I want to deal with this defund the police thing, which Biden talks about in there, where he says that defund the police got Democrats killed.

Here is what I have yet to see anywhere. Greg, I have yet to see anyone present me actual evidence. Data showing that defund the police led to Democrats losing. I've got anecdotal. I've got Democrats crying who lost. I'm not a socialist. I'm not defunding police. But Carolyn Bordeaux, a Democrat, ran in a purple district in Georgia. They hit her with massive ads saying she was for defunding the police.

She still won. Okay? So if we're going to break down this conversation, I think first there has to be an actual analysis of the districts we're talking about. Okay? Are they lean blue, lean red districts? First, we've got to talk about that. Second of all, you've got to show me actually what the impact was.

Because it's real easy to lay blame at defund the police. But what AOC has been saying, some of y'all just ran horrible ass campaigns. And so we have to push back on folks, even Biden, who wants to say defund the police is why we got our butts kicked. Based upon what, Greg? Show me some evidence. I have yet to see it. Well, Brother Roland, as Richard Pryor once said, I ain't got to show you shit. This is the sensibility since the 1990s and the Bill Clinton, who is the face of it, centrist turn of the Democratic Party. I mean, Joe Biden is a known quality.

And I hope that, to quote another anecdote he shared during that 15 minutes, and I did listen to the Intercept podcast, I guess one of his black friends, he referenced Kamala Harris and Cedric Richmond and said, hey, y'all know, y'all heard me tell this story. So let's make sure that I, to quote Joe Biden, overstand you at this point. You know, Biden is running the same thing Democrats always run, brother. I thought it was interesting watching your interview with our brother Derrick Johnson the other day, you know, hearing Derrick say, Tom Vilzac's a bad choice, bro.

You talking about worried about this election in Georgia? Shirley Sherrod is a civil rights hero in Georgia. You picking Vilzac at this point could endanger the January. And then Biden comes back with, I don't really want to talk about that. And while I'm on it, this defund the police business. You know, maybe we need, I assure you, I promise you that all these things are going to happen after January 5th. But right now, we've got to win these elections.

So, you know, I have sympathy for Joe Biden. Why? Because he's a Democrat. I have sympathy for all the elected Democrats. Why? Because they're dealing with a structure that they don't seem to have yet quite grasped. To quote Rush Nimbalk from yesterday and today when he said, he fears that this country is moving towards secession.

Seventy-four million people showed you they don't give a damn about the American. So you talking about the Constitution, they talking about white supremacy. And so Joe's caught in the middle. As a white man, he can't give up on America. So I understand why he talked to them that way. And I'm glad they pushed back, at least from the 15 minutes we've heard so far. Recy, the thing that that that I'll say this here and I got no problem saying it. Joe Biden, you need to watch your tone. You need to watch your tone. Kamala Harris needs to pull Joe Biden aside. Joe, you might want to watch your tone. Joe Biden, he did during the debate and he did it here where I did this and I did that.

I did this and I did that. That was last week. Now, first of all, let's be real clear. That works fine in a debate because you're trying to establish what I've done. But Rishi, I think about this scene from my favorite show of all time, The West Wing. And there was a particular Latino leader who showed up at a basketball game sitting courtside with either a potential Democratic candidate or was Republican. And the White House was incensed. And they called him to the White House for a meeting.

Well, so and so, what are you doing? We saw the game. We gave you this and this and this. And he said, that was last year. This is this year. The reality is this for black folks. Joe, what you've done the last 47 years is irrelevant to where we are today. It's what you're going to do the next four years that's going to matter.

I agree with you to a certain extent. Listen, I'm not a Joe Biden apologist. Joe Biden was never my candidate. I think if people wanted somebody who was super civil rights, super black gung-ho, they should have picked Kamala or Corey. So we're stuck with what we're stuck with, which is it takes a white man to beat a white man. That was the mentality that a lot of people went into the election with. However, I will say this. Listen, I will never take anything from The Intercept at face value because I've seen how they operate. And this is the exact kind of thing that they did to Senator Kamala Harris, now VP of Kamala Harris, is they take splices of things and they edit it together and they present a picture. I listened to that 15

minute clip. It was narrated with splices here and there and here and there. And it paints a picture of what I want you to see. When I saw the feedback from the individuals who attended that meeting, Benita Gupta, Sherilyn Ifill, and people who are very distinguished in things, people who are very credible, they all talked about how constructive and productive the meeting was and how encouraged they were from leaving it. So I'm not saying that I'm not going to defend Joe Biden's tone. Joe Biden is a guy who talks loud. He talks aggressive. You know, obviously we expect a certain, a level of, you know, tone when we're talking to each other. I'm not going to defend that, but you know, outside of the context, if you just have splices of Joe Biden shouting, like he always does, I mean, he's a 78-year-old white man. He shouts, okay? That's not revelatory to me. It is what it is with that.

I mean, like I said, to me, I just look at it as it's the intercept. It's the selectively edited clip. It's seconds taken out of an hour-plus-long meeting in which everybody left the meeting feeling encouraged. I don't agree with every Joe Biden decision, but this is who we signed up for. Erica, here's the deal. First of all, what individuals say publicly are not necessarily fully reflected of how the meeting actually went.

So let's just say that. Why would they lie? No, no, no. No, no, because here's the deal. You're not going to come out of your first meeting with the president-elect and say No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, were in the meeting that, yeah, that was a lot of issues that they were bothered by. But again, you're going to come out and have a different spin because it's you're giving a public pronounce it. Here's the thing that jumps out the most here, Erica, and it's real simple. This is very simple. And that is this year.

These same black organizations in many ways were silent and impotent when Obama was president. It wasn't solely because they didn't want to push Obama. It was also because when they slightly pushed Obama, their black base pushed back against them. So you've got Biden Harris. Here's the deal. Biden needs to understand they are going to be aggressive because that's their job. It is the job to push him on executive orders. It is the job to push him on police reform, not the creation of another commission. Obama had one. Go get their report and add to it. When he laid out what's constitutional, I get it because there were some actions,

there were some executive orders that Obama did that the courts later declared he was wrong. So I get Joe Biden's position on all of that. But when Joe Biden says in there, hey, you know, Latinos, we're going to be 2040. Y'all got to work with them. I'm sorry. Kwasi Mfume, when he was head of the NAACP, did that 1994-95 when he went to LULAC. I remember because I reported on it. So the reality of those things have been happening. But the point is this here. And this is the point that Biden is going to have to understand and Harris is going to have to understand the entire administration. That in the last Democratic administration, a lot of black people were quiet.

A lot of black folks didn't ask for stuff. A lot of black folks stood back and saw and all didn't say anything that ain't going to happen. Biden, Harris, they're not going to get the same runway that Obama got from 2009 to 2016. So their job is to push. Now, the question, Erica, then becomes how far do they want to push? How aggressive do they want to go? So Derek was on his show. Of course, he talked about Tom Vilsack. I get it, which now means that Biden, if you're going to stick with Tom Vilsack, Vilsack, let's holler at you. It's real simple. If Vilsack is going to be the nominee, we got to holler at you. We want to see concrete things done by you in the first 90 days, Tom Villsack, because you're on the clock.

Because of what you didn't do in eight years under Obama. So this is what's going to happen. And I believe, and this is the last point, Erica, before I go to you, that there are inside people who work in the administration. They're the inside people. There are external people who are inside, meaning they're having the private conversations. But you always have got to have black groups who are outside outside. You always got to have

black groups who never get invited to the meeting on the inside because see those folk they got the swing on the outside and the inside because see the those folk they got the swing on the outside and the inside inside and the outside inside people gotta be able to say look here y'all might want to do this because if you don't they are going to rise up. So the outside outside actually empowers those on the inside. Our failure under Obama is that everybody was inside inside and was afraid to be outside.

Erica, go ahead. Sure, and then there's the runway that Donald Trump has had for the past four years that he's been able to get away literally with murder. We're talking two hundred and ninety thousand people now dead from COVID-19 and counting. I think that also a lot of the demands that are being made is because of, to be very frank and to be very honest, a lot of inactivity from the citizenry. So this is not laying squarely the blame of what has not happened on the citizenry,

but there has been such an awakening in this moment. There is an understanding that there has to be an agenda that centers not only the base, but the community of people that built this country, the community of people who this was their country, and that is Black and Native folks. So when we kind of step into now we're in 2020, we have an administration that we can actually debate with, an administration that we can actually argue with, an administration that we can leverage with. I'm very confident that everything that we would like seen that there has a long time been an issue with communication and the outside outside people that tutorial that you painted,

that those people don't regularly get a ear, get within earshot or get an arm into these inside inside group. the general election campaigns, you see these nine-month heavy-hitting money going everywhere except to those outside, outside groups who are trusted brokers, who people in the community actually do trust. Just take Georgia example, my home where I am right now. Largely, when people talk about Georgia, they're talking about five of 159 counties. Right. Georgia, they're talking about five of 159 counties. Georgia has 159 counties. You can't talk about Georgia if you do not talk about rural Georgia, because it is an agricultural landscape. But that's not largely what you see falling into the political and largely mainstream narrative. So all of that really is to say is that this has really been a communication problem that

has been happening for years, and really to posture and really to prepare for a lot of the demands that we want to see happen to really support and bolster our community, they're not going to happen. One thing I do believe that can be done is really energizing, supporting, and investing in those outside, outside communities, so that as we begin to move into other elections that we will have a voice but i just don't believe that we can lay to bear all of these things that people are wanting to see happen to happen within this administration within these four years well i see but the reason i got it the reason i i gotta disagree with that because other groups swing for the fences. See, here's a deal. I can't go into a fight,

Greg, pulling my punches because I'm afraid they might punch back. I got the punch. Here's what I mean when I talk about inside, inside, and outside. This is what I mean by that. 1959, Roy Wilkins, head of the NAACP, calls Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a radical. 1960, Malcolm X rises to prominence in the nation of Islam. The former radical becomes a moderate. When King goes to the White House to meet with LBJ, SNCC doesn't go because SNCC wasn't invited. But if you look at between 1960 and 1968, most of the most aggressive public demonstrations of civil disobedience were led by SNCC and core.

Now, SCLC was there. NAACP was there, but they were told, do not do the freedom rides. Snick said, hell no, we doing the freedom rides core.

We're doing the freedom rides. And so what I'm saying, Greg, is that in the 21st century, there are going to be black groups who go to the White House to meet with the president. That's fine. going to be able to exert the kind of external pressure that that's on the administration to get things done. So those who are on the inside is going to, we'll say, now, you know, we need to negotiate this thing because they ain't stopping y'all. Obama was president.

I was there in front of a white house, which is three blocks from here, when I forgot his name, but he was the Asian guy who was in the military who got kicked out because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I cannot remember his name right now. I stood there. I left a meeting from inside the White House and stood there as he handcuffed himself to the fence. Now, follow me, y'all. There was a meeting that was keeping there was a rally of other LGBT folk in D.C., but another group was in front of the

White House, chained themselves to the fence and they got arrested. But there was another group that was meeting in the White House. The folk who were meeting in the White House were applauding what the folk on the outside were doing because that outside pressure gave them more leverage on the inside. We've always had an inside-outside game, Greg. So I'm perfectly fine with this meeting, but you got to have the outside leverage to push them to do what's right. Or as FDR told A. Philip Randolph, Philip made me do it. Sure. And I'm glad you mentioned Phil Randolph because in Anna Arnold Hedgeman and Bayard

Rustin, that March on Washington movement in 1941, they then sustained that as an organized movement, particularly around jobs and labor. And that movement lasted a generation. It's A. Philip Randolph. It's Anna Arnold Hedgeman who tells Martin Luther King, look, you're coming to lobby for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We're pushing for jobs. Let's do the marches together. And that is the march on Washington for jobs and justice.

It is because of the outside groups. A. Philip Randolph was called by J. Edgar Hoover a generation before 1941, the most dangerous Negro in America because he was an open socialist. He'd probably be called a Democratic socialist today, which brings us to the point. This framework may be getting ready to fail. And I know you're going to talk in a minute about this lawsuit. I've been looking at some of these amicus briefs. And this structure may very well fail. When Joe Biden talks about the Constitution or when he says when you question someone's motive, you've lost them. Joe Biden is operating in a fantasy world. The Republican Party has declared itself more important than anything like the United States

of America. We see that with Mitch McConnell holding this tiny aide, relatively speaking, hostage to his corporate interests. But what you're talking about, Roland, you know, in the context of American history, the Roosevelt piece emerges right at the time of World War II, which keeps the country together for another two generations. But after the 1960s, this steady deterioration of the framework of the American state has really been pushed by demographics. So when Joe Biden says you're going to have to deal with Hispanics, thereby also indicating his tone deafness, it was funny to hear Vice President Harris have to intervene every once

in a while to remind him of things as he got kind of rolling. But he's talking about things in an abstract way that have very real implications in the real world. Biden is staffing his cabinet the way we know he would staff it. It's business as usual. It's a return to the previous Democratic administrations. But who is in office? The politics of demographics is less important than the policy they make. Black Lives Matter met at the White House. DeRee McKesson, he was down there so much. The one time I've been at the White House, I was down there for a screening of Roots, and here comes DeRay talking about, oh, this is where I go in. He was

in there so much, he had a damn revolving door. That didn't do a thing as it related to policy. What did do a thing is all these people who don't never get invited to the White House, and more importantly, never want to be invited to the White House, who are doing the organizing, who are doing the grassroots mobilizing around the country, and that with all due respect to what they now call the legacy civil rights organizations, and they call them legacy because they are no longer at the forefront, that does empower the legacy groups when they come into meetings to say something. I'll end with this.

What those snippets we heard, yeah, and, you know, I'm not a great Glenn Greenwald fan, particularly after what he just pulled the last couple of months, although sometimes he's right. You know, I'll withhold judgment until I hear the whole thing. But the point I did hear, very clearly let me know that the groups who are outside, outside and will always be there, who make up, by the way, the majority of people in this country. These people need to not only continue to work, they need to expand their work because all these people in the White House are employees. We should not be treating them like celebrities or royalty to make decrees upon the living and dying in this country. We should break their backs too if we need to. The thing here, Recy, is at the end of the day is what can you get done?

And that is you push as hard as you can with your demands and you use all of your leverage to get what you need. And here's the piece. Joe Biden said about 2040, first of all, it's 2043, America is going to be a nation majority people of color. Whites will make up 47 percent of the country, but blacks, Latinos and Asians combined will make up 53 percent of the nation. OK, so so so we got the demographic shifts. We got those things as well. But I must say in 2020. And this is what I'm going to say at any time to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

The group that voted for you at the highest rate were black women. The group that voted for you at the second highest rate were black men. Everybody else was behind. So if you are black groups, you come to the table like this here. Number one, number two, a black people. Everybody else was way behind. White women, 55 percent went for Trump. Sixty five percent Latinos.

Follow me here. Black women 90, black men 80, next group at 65. So they should go in with demands. All I'm simply saying to our people is don't pull your punches. You're going to have to swing on behalf of our people. That's why you're in leadership. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. I've been saying, you know, earn the black vote. I've been saying that it's, I encourage our black leaders

to go in there and fight like hell for our positions. Nobody else is pulling their punches. We see the congressional Hispaniccus. They have two Latino appointees. They're pushing for Tom Perez for AG and a Latina somewhere else. They're not saying oh, okay, we got two. We're cool. So I'm I would never say that black people should not advocate. We absolutely should

and we should unapologetically advocate. The Intercept is not an ally to black interests. The Intercept and what they're trying to push is not. And I know I'm harping on it because it's because that's what it was introduced into the conversation. And again, we don't know who leaked it. First of all, I can't imagine any of the black participants leaking to the Intercept. I don't really know.

I don't really know them as being this super pro black group. I'm just saying I don't. But no, I don't. They're not. But go ahead. But my point is this. The reason why I bring that up is that the conversation is edited to make it seem like

there's an adversarial relationship, that they're worlds apart, when everything I heard about that was about anecdotes and personality type of things, and not as much about substance. I have no reason to believe that in an hour-long conversation, there was no substantive agreement on issues when President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris ran on issues that are in agreement with what 85% of what these organizations are pushing. And so that's what I'm interested in hearing. What were the tangible outcomes of it? What was the substance, the policy substance that was talked about? Joe Biden was never going to be

the guy who was going to come out there and do executive actions to the extent of somebody like VP-elect Kamala Harris would have or other people. Kamala Harris ran on executive orders and go on balls to the walls with that, not Joe Biden. And so what I'm interested in is, okay, where are the areas of disagreement? And I say this every time we talk about policy and substance. And what were the areas of agreement? What is the framework for where we're going forward? Not this personality stuff, not the slogan stuff, all that stuff, it don't really matter because Joe is who Joe is and that's who we signed up for. So where can we get some actual policies? And the whole DOSAC thing, that was already decided before the meeting. So of course, he's not going to sit up there and backtrack on that. You know, that was a moot point by the time the meeting had occurred. So all I'm saying is it's you know, I'm all for demanding. I'm all for pushing. discuss the substance and where we are apart on things so that we know where to push. Because right now, it just seems like we just

push on all the stuff that we're already agreeing on. Where do we actually disagree? And the other day, the final point here, if we go to our next story, Erica, the reality is here, all the conversation right now is about appointments. The reality is inauguration is January 20th. But it will come down to

legislative priorities. But again, the outcome of the Georgia Senate race also determines that. I mean, as simple as that. I mean, we could have all the philosophical discussions we want to. Right. If Ossoff and Warnock both don't. Look, let's say Warnock wins, Ossoff doesn't. It's 51-49.

You're still screwed. You're screwed. And it's not like Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins is going to somehow fall your way when it comes and make it a 50-50 tie. And then Kamala Harris is going to break the tie. I doubt that very seriously. So we absolutely get all of that. But again, Erica, it has to be made perfectly clear. And this is why I think these things do matter. It has to be made perfectly clear to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris that our job is to represent our people. And we're going to do that as aggressively as we can. And there are

going to be times and we're going to piss you off. We're going to get on your nerves. Look, I know this, OK? There's a reason Obama has not sat down with me about his book. No question. Okay, I'm real clear. I know why I never got an exit interview with Obama. And I know why. Again, we finally got the book. Finally got the book. Why? Because I used my platform to critique and push him aggressively. And him and his folk didn't like it. Well, guess what? That's my damn job. And if I never get an interview with Obama about his book or the next two or three, he going to write. I'm good because I did my job.

I'm not interested in the photo op. I'm here to step up and represent the interest of black people. And I'm going to do that. And the same thing for Biden and Harris. I'm going to do it. And guess what? The White House is three blocks from the offices of Roland Barth unfiltered. Y'all going to see me a whole lot. Right. And here's where I'm landing on that point. You know, this for me is noise at this point, because what I look at is that there should not be a Senate runoff race. If there was work that was done during the general election to make sure that

voters were galvanized, that we should have picked up a Senate seat in Mississippi, that these two Senate seats that are now a runoff election, that those should have been picked up as well. And we can go on and on if, in fact, again, going back to the outside, those outside groups, if those groups have been properly supported and invested in. And I think what we're kind of seeing now, what we've already known, kind of preaching to the choir, is that no one is going to save us. We're going to save ourselves. We're going to talk about this a little later,

but even looking at, with this nomination of Tom Vilsack going back into another administration to be the Secretary of Agriculture, and that John Boy, who's a friend of your show, who has been on A Farmer with the National Black Farmers Association, was not invited to that meeting. That he is an important voice in that conversation around agriculture, black farmers, and making sure that black farmers aren't getting less than 10 percent of micro loans from the USDA.

Ensuring that black farmers aren't getting 0.2 percent of loans that are reported to all farmers. He should have been a part of that conversation. So what I am saying is that we have to be an engaged citizenry, that we have to continue to engage and form ourselves so that as elections come forward, as they continue to happen the next two years, the next four years, that we will continue to empower ourselves like you laid out before with the historical antidote, so that when it is time for us to make noise, it is not that we have made all of the noise and not saying that this is what this has been just in 2020, that we have galvanized millions and millions of people, the base, the people that came out and continue to save this country, Black men and Black women, and say these are our demands

and expect them within a specific time frame. And here's the deal. Again, the Tom Vilsacki confirmed by the Senate. Guess what? Black farmers should be there day one. And this is where you put pressure. Let me tell you something right now. If Doug Jones gets the nod or whoever gets the nod for attorney general,

we're going to be right there as well. See, again, I'm telling you right now, I'm hitting everybody. Interior, Commerce, HHS, HUD, USDA. Don't think for a second if Lloyd Austin is confirmed that we ain't we will be right there with the Pentagon. I've already told you all in terms of Eleanor Holmes Norton, the congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, when she did the study with for the with the GAO, as show the federal government over five years spent five billion dollars on advertising and black media only got 51 million. Oh, let me be real clear. We're going to be there.

This is where black interest, black economic people should be saying, Janet Yellen when we meeting. Black housing people, Fudge gets confirmed when we meeting. Black folks who care about the environment, EPA, Interior, when we meeting. Business folks,

Commerce when we meeting. Black veterans groups, McDonald's when we meeting. Black veterans groups of McDonald when we meeting. See, I'm not just focused on who got the meeting with Biden and Harris. Black folks, we got to hit everybody, every agency, every department, every secretary to say fair share. That's what we got to do. Speaking of domestic policy, today Biden announced that Susan Rice is going to be running the White House Domestic Policy Council. Rice, of course, served as former National Security Advisor and Ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama.

She was vetted to serve as Biden's vice president and was to continue to be secretary of state. However, that position went to, of course, Antony Birkin. According to various reports, Biden's team was looking to find a high-profile role for Susan Rice, if they thought was a perfect fit, but also didn't have to go through all the drama being confirmed in the United States Senate

because Republicans are still pissed off with her because of Benghazi. She has significant foreign policy experience, but also this is going to be, of course, a whole lot of domestic policy. That's what this is, Domestic Policy Council. And one of the areas they say she's going to be working on deals with the issue of racial equality. So we'll see what happens with that. And so certainly congratulations to Susan Rice. And I can't wait to have her back on our show as the head of White House Domestic Policy,

just like all the other folks as well. I'm telling you all right now, let me just before I go to Cobb County story, let me just go ahead and say this. And because I really believe this has to be this has to be our our our call to arms, if you will. You just heard me talk about that with our panel here. Our, and you pull a panel up, our positioning has to change. Our positioning has to change. I'm talking about in the aftermath of George Floyd. And to the folks at the Virginia Union, I'm going to be recording this speech because it deals with the third Reconstruction. We really have to be thinking that we're operating in a third Reconstruction. Reconstruction means to reconstruct.

We're talking about reconstructing a democracy, reconstructing this nation, reconstructing our black community, which means that we can't be playing small ball. When I go into meetings with corporations, as the vice president for digital for the National Association of Black Journalists, Roland's not walking in saying,

can we get $50,000 grant? I'm saying, can we get 50 million? I ain't playing small ball. We have to be thinking about massive reconstruction in every single effort. The federal pension fund is nearly a trillion dollars. How many black people are managing that money? How much?

50 million, 100 million? Treasury. black firms, bonding firms, accounting firms, legal firms, hedge funds, private equity by black people. Treasury, what y'all going to do? I'm following the money. I'm telling you right now. Fine, Biden, you got bills set. Oh, but you're going to have to deal with black people because we're going to have a we're going to have a bullseye and a microscope on you at all times. What I'm trying to get our folks to understand, you cannot do anything that I'm talking about unless we are organized and mobilized to do so. Greg, explain to our people what Stokely Carmichael said about black people and organizational infrastructure when it comes to getting things done. It don't happen by the individual.

That's right. It's organized, organized, organized. He said it all the days of his life. And but, you know, the thing about it is you talked about the outside-outside. A guy like Carmichael, when you look at Lowndes County, Alabama, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, the original Black Panther Party, that was a voter, a voting rights organization that emerged through SNCC out of Mississippi into Alabama, and they organized around the idea of local power. So when they went in that and went in Lowndes County and organized Black Folk to register to vote, and these white people who were owning this land, these Black folk working on it

as farmers, basically the debt pens, sharecropping, threw them off the land, they built tent cities in Lowndes County. And those Black people were radicalized in the sense they said, you know what, we're free for the first time in our lives. And you know what those white landowners did? They began when they realized their workforce was now going to do for themselves, they began to make entreaties, please, y'all come back. They said, no, no, no, we're free now.

We're going to negotiate. And the important thing is they were organized and they were organizing. And so, no, you're absolutely right, Roland. I think, and again, you know, you've been talking about this third Reconstruction for a long time, and, you know, William Barber, our brother William Barber's been talking about it, we've been thinking about this. But you know, the more I think about it, the more I think the only Reconstruction in this country that ever was a real Reconstruction, a possibility of one, was immediately after

the Civil War. The second one, so-called second one in the 1960s, is an attempt to make the first one real by having some of the laws stand up. But those laws over the last 50 years have benefited the black middle class and the black elite. So now what we're seeing is you've got a small group of black middle class and black elite who have benefited the most from the civil rights era, who are attempting to do two things. One, widen the space a little bit more for the rest of black folk, but also maintain their position. And so even the language we use in terms of representation

and percentage of revenue that's being shared is the language of the middle class and the black elite. What the rest of these people are going to do, they have never benefited to the degree of their sacrifice. I don't know how much longer there's going to be a United States of America, because that's where voter apathy comes from. That's where focusing on local and forgetting the federal comes from. And as the white nationalists fight finally for their last gasp, Steve Schmidt's been talking about this as if he didnists fight finally for their last gasp, Steve Schmidt's been

talking about this as if he didn't lose Sarah Palin on the world, trying to throw the rock and hide his hand. The Republican Party is now only in their interest. Yeah, that's white nationalism. But the vast majority of our people in this country who are not going to get invited to the White House, who are not going to get any kind of contract, who are not going to be given an internship or who won't be going to college. These people have to organize in their own interest and that's what Stokely Carmichael was talking about.

I only want everybody to watch and understand, you got to get in the game. Speaking of getting in the game, after several Georgia branches of the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union expressed their concerns about a decrease in polling sites for the pivotal Georgia Senate runoff race. Cobb County is announcing it will add two more locations for the final week of early voting.

Voters will be now able to cast their ballots again at locations in Smyrna and Marietta. Cobb County was operating 11 voting sites in the November general election, but it dropped to offering just five for the Senate runoff races. Activists were agitated that many of the locations that closed were in black Latino neighborhoods. Huh? I got you. With the Cal County commissioner. She there. Hi, Commissioner. How you doing? Commissioner Cupid. I'm doing well. Thank you. How are you doing? Great. So let's talk about this here, because was a ballerism to lots of folks.

And I heard the rationale. Folks were tired. Look, I get all that. But my parents are 73 years old. They've been working polls for a long time and they never turned down money. And so when I heard that, I was kind of like, so you're saying folks are not available to work during a pandemic? They're turning down money? Yeah. Is that the real reason? A lot of times it comes down to the money. You know, but our staffing structure is different than a lot of other localities where we do depend more on our local staff. And when we've had past

elections, it's worked for us. But with the stress of this current election cycle on our employees that typically work for the county, yes, I could say money was a factor. So now, so the first two weeks, early voting, first of all, starts in Georgia on Monday. So the first two weeks is going to be the five sites. The last two weeks is going to be seven sites. But you'll also have lots of lots of backed up lines for the general election. And so and some very, very long waits. Yeah, you're exactly right about that.

And there's, you know, different factors that led to that situation. And, you know, they tried to learn from that. And with this runoff, you know, I think they could not have projected just not only what took place during the general, but also with all of the recounts on seasonal staff. And so we've got our work cut out for us to look at what took place during the general, what's happening now and looking at our elections process moving forward. All right, then. Well, last question for you here when we talk about, are you concerned at all? Now you've got Republicans who are saying they're going to go back and change the laws that they changed because they are not happy that Joe Biden won.

I mean, my goodness, y'all mad because folk voted? How about you do a better story telling your damn? How about your better job telling your story? But you want to go back and change the laws that you change because you mad that folk turned out in record numbers. I hear you. I mean, you know, leading leading up to the general election, you heard concerns on the other side of the aisle and post election. You're hearing it from the other. So, you know, I think looking at it in a bipartisan manner at the end of this, there's probably going to be changes desired on all sides. All right, then. We certainly appreciate it. Commissioner Cupid,

thank you so very much. Y'all keep fighting and hopefully we will not see folks in line five, ten hours early on Monday. I'll be getting another call, I'm sure if I do. Yeah, I'm sure you will.

Y'all get some food trucks out there or something like that. And so we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Have a good evening. All right. Thank you very much. All right, folks, let's now talk about a new polling out of Georgia today. Hit strategies in high heights for America released a survey on black women voters in Georgia and their attitudes toward the Georgia Senate runoffs. This is critically important because, again, black women have played a huge role in so many different elections, turning out at a higher rate than anybody else. Roshni Netangadi, got it. All right, a partner with his strategy joins us right now.

In a moment, we're going to have Linda Carr, president and CEO of Higher Heights for America. And so, Roshni, all right. So so what are the results of this poll? What did it show? Thank you so much for having me on. And one of the big results that we found is that while 83 percent of black women say they're definitely going to go vote in this upcoming runoff. And that number is even higher among Black women over age 50. 93% say they're extremely likely to go vote in the upcoming runoff. A majority, 52%, couldn't name what date the runoff election was taking place when we asked, what day is the runoff happening? And this is really important because 42 percent want to vote in person early and 31 percent want to vote by mail. So a whole quarter of Black women in Georgia plan on voting before the election day, but don't know when that

is. So it's really important that organizations on the ground get out there, shore up support from their base, black women, and make sure that they understand when the election is happening and how they can vote. Also, probably for the candidates, look, I get, I saw one story, $250 million in ads have been run. Y'all might want to put the damn date on those ads. Right.

I mean, it is one thing to say, you know, vote for me. Hell, I don't know when the hell to vote for you. Yes, and there are so many different dates here. There's when to register to vote by. There's when to request your ballot by. There's when to get your early ballot in by. So voters in Georgia might be overwhelmed with the number of dates. So just

providing these voters with information on where to vote, how to vote, and when to vote by will be crucial. In this poll, did they say who they prefer? The majority of these Black women, of course, are supporting Warnock and Ossoff, much like they did in the November election. What about any numbers supporting Loeffler and Perdue? I was seeing, first of all, I was seeing previous polling that showed that Loeffler was doing better among African-Americans than Perdue was. Better, but still a very small amount. I think only three or four percent of Black voters overall in Georgia voted for Republicans in the November election. And that number is decreasing even more in these runoff elections. What are these Black women saying, their top issues?

So these Black women are interested, are very, find coronavirus, health care and racism and discrimination as their top three issues. And this really carries through to how they're thinking about the Senate races. They think that the Senate has a very HEROES Act that would provide coronavirus relief, the Pre-Existing Conditions Act that would cover pre-existing conditions guaranteed, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act are really important bills that would impact their community on day one after passing. So they're thinking about these issues and how that applies to the Senate race in the hopes of turning the Senate blue

and achieving a Democratic majority in order to pass some of these bills. I'm going to bring in Glenda Carr, President and CEO of Higher Heights for America right now. Glenda, how are you doing? Pretty good, and yourself? How are you? Doing great. Anything that jumps out in particular for you and this poll of Black women in Georgia?

Yeah, I mean, it's an important piece of polling that we are happy that we connected with Roshni and HIT Strategies. We wanted to hear directly from Georgia women voters as they prepare to do three things. Prepare to have all the information they need to vote, prepare to make a safe vote plan, and more importantly, the research points that Black women are very clear that they have the opportunity to decide this election and to send elected leaders to Congress. And in this instance, the United States. Is Glenda still there? I thought, did we lose her? Glenda, are you still there? Yeah, you said what?

Yeah, audio broke up there. Glenda, what needs to happen with groups on the ground? Because if the numbers are showing a lot of people have no idea what this runoff even is. I mean, that that that's going to be a huge, huge thing. Are people actually know what's going on? And so there's always this natural drop off for runoffs anyway. And this is where the black vote could vary to be even, even more important in the runoff. If you had that sort of the drop-off. Yeah. Is, as you said, there are boots on the ground. Um, we spent the last month and a half talking about the amazing organizing Georgia, and it is about us making sure that voters have the information they need.

And we have to go back to, you know, the way that black women always organize. Like until the day my mother died, she would call me and my brothers on every election cycle to ensure that we had a vote plan. So that is what I suspect black women will be doing while they are preparing for the holidays, as they are caring for their loved ones during COVID-19. And frankly, as you know, people are concerned about the economic uncertainties of this time. But this poll points to that. They're very clear that they know that we need to send leaders to decision-making tables on the local, state, and national level that will send... Roshni, our last question for you, was there anything, was there anything particular that black rural women differed with black women

in cities? In that they left in, in our rural counties in Georgia, they actually say that they are less likely to vote than those in urban counties. So I think making sure that not only everyone has information, but making sure that our turnout operation is also focused on rural counties to make sure that rural black women are represented as well. That absolutely is important. And folks, just to underscore that point,

we are going to be on the ground in Macon, Georgia, and Albany on Saturday, Columbus, Georgia, on Sunday. And we'll be partnering with Black Voters Matter next week to hit several other cities as well. And, of course, Joe Biden announced, they announced today that he is going to be traveling to Georgia on Tuesday to campaign for Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff. And we're going to be there as well. So we certainly thank both of you for joining with us. Give us the update on the poll. Where can people, if they want to read it for themselves, where can they go to read the polling results?

They can be both on both of our websites, higherheightsforamerica.org. And hitstrat.com. All right. Roshni, Glenda, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thanks for having us. All right. Roshni, Glenda, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having us. All right. Go back to our panel here.

I'm going to start with you, Erica. What she just said, I've already been talking to people in Georgia, and that's what they said, that, look, so much attention is focused on big cities in Georgia. Yes. But the margins are going to be in rural Georgia. We were in, of course, Warner Robins on Sunday. The turnout in places like that is going to matter. Athens is going to matter. And again, there's always the attention. And when I've been reaching out to these various groups, I've been saying, hey, where are y'all going to be? And they keep saying, well, you're talking about Atlanta. I'm like, no, first of all, Georgia ain't that damn big. Okay. Now I'm from Texas. I ain't trying to hurt your state, Erica, but it ain't that damn

big. Everything is like three hours. That's down the street for us in Texas. So I was like, y'all just tell me where, stop thinking we're only going to go to Atlanta. Cause it was like, y'all, just tell me where. Stop thinking we're only going to go to Atlanta because it was like, well, Albany, two hours from Atlanta. I'm like, yeah, hell, I drive 45 minutes to work. That ain't nothing. You know, and so I said, we got no problem going out there. The organizers going to have to be in the money from Warnock, Ossoff, the DSCC and the state party is going to have to be in rural Georgia? Because if you can pick up 1,000 here, 1,000 here, 2,000 here, 1,000 here, that's the margin of victory. Yeah, absolutely. Biden won Georgia by 12,000 votes. And I have been saying this and screaming this from the rooftop. There are 159 counties in Georgia.

I am from Albany, Georgia from Doherty County and so what people commonly talk about when they talk about specifically Southwest Georgia is everything that's below Macon, Bibb County is below the NAP line because NAPs are very much so common in Southwest Georgia.

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Translate for them stop stop did you just say the gnat line that's what that is exactly what i said and everybody from albany from southwest georgia is bobbing their heads right now saying what what i'm sorry can you explain again what the hell the Nat line is? That's G-N-A-T. Absolutely. The Nat line. Right. So that's kind of to disparage Southwest Georgia, even though it is home of the unspeakable Albany State, a historically black college, university, Albany State, that a lot of people graduated from. My grandmother, my late grandmother, was one of the first graduates in our family from Albany State, then college, now university.

But yet that's what people call it. Albany is home to the Marine Corps Logistics Base. It's home to manufacturing company P&G has headquarters there, Millipours does. But that's a term used to disparage it. And so I'm saying that to connect the dots when people think and talk about rural Georgia, which really powers the agricultural economy.

There are underground groups that are out of the loins of Shirley Sherrod, who is from Baker County, which is right next to Doherty County, the Southwest Georgia project that are doing the work. But here again, we're talking about investment. Here again, we're talking about having the type of attention that's needed. I'll be home this weekend as well to work with groups that'll be down there on getting people prepared to early vote on Monday. But now, unless there's a Roland Martin unfiltered there, there's not that type of attention that's paid to a county that has about 90,000 people when you include the city and the county. When you take away the city, it's about 90,000 people when you include the city and the county, when you take away the city, it's about 77,000 people, but it's 60 plus percent Black woman Democratic voting bloc that definitely does change elections. That is where investment, that is where eyes need to be. When you're talking about Thoreau County, when you're talking about all these people,

these places, Stewart County, home of a detention center where you talked about this on the show earlier this year, where there was a doctor that was essentially sterilizing women who were held in those detention centers. That is right in Stewart County. That is 30 minutes away from Albany. These are where people are. People live, breathe and eat in these counties. And unless we have people that are supporting the on the ground organizers and groups and folks out of churches that are constantly saying to people that are producing engaged citizenry, that this is how we're going to partner to make sure that you understand that December 14th is the first day of three weeks of voting. And then January 5th is when the actual vote is when the actual vote goes for people to be able to vote in their actual centers. Unless that's made very plain, unless you talk to people in their language, all of the focus will be on the one urban center, which is Atlanta. Well, look, you should, well, then you should give us, look, we ain't got a

problem taking the show there. So give us a list of places where we can roll and look, we can connect with local organizers and we'll see how they feel if we bring Roland Martin Unfiltered to those places in rural Georgia. The NAP, what did you say, is it below the NAP line or above the NAP line? Below the NAP line because it's southwest Georgia. Because let me be real clear. I'm from Texas. I don't give a damn about no gnats. Unless your ass got some

like human-sized mosquitoes, a gnat don't do a damn thing. Hell, a gnat just pester you. A mosquito will suck the blood out of you. So I can deal with them little gnats. Reesey, ground, ground, ground, ground, ground, ground, ground. It's all turnout. That's just the bottom line. It's turnout.

I mean, look, all these consultants, they can talk about putting all this money on TV and radio because that's how they get paid, but I'm telling you right now, the black folks in Georgia should be yelling and screaming, where is the ground money if they are not hitting those places,

I'm telling you, it's the margins. Biden won by less than 12,000 votes. These Senate races are going to be close. They can actually, look, you know what's going to happen in these cities, but if you can pick up 5, 7, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, hell, that's how. Look, Republicans bank on rural votes. They run up large margins and rural votes. Democrats ignore rural voters, focus on cities. And that's how they win. Because guess what? When you add 30 rural cities together, hell, you might outnumber a big city. Right. Yeah. I mean, Democrats always get completely annihilated in the rural areas, and that's because of the lack of investment. I mean, I'm hoping that what we see, we see this massive influx of cash for organizations like Fairfax, a fair fight action. And shout out to Stacey Abrams. She does an incredible job.

And we're seeing, you know, some influx of cash for places like Black Voters Matter, Latasha Brown and Cliff Albright do an amazing job as well. But we need to spread some of that wealth around. If you're not going to donate directly to the candidates, to these more local organizations, those are the folks that know where to go. And so, you know, that's where it goes back to your original point earlier about Black people really organizing together in a collective and really, you know, sharing the pie so that we can get more bang for our buck because it doesn't help if a person like, I don't know if you guys remember hearing Sarah Gideon, for instance,

in Maine, she had over $10 million. I want to say it was a ridiculously high number. Oh, no, she raised a whole lot of money. Amy McGrath down in Kentucky raised a whole lot of money. Yep. But what I'm saying is I think she had 14 million dollars left over unspent. So there is there's only so much that these organizations can do with the money that they're getting. And if they're not giving it to other organizations that are more local boots on the ground, there you go.

And the money just goes to waste. And so I would I hope that what we see over the next couple of weeks is some sort of sharing the wealth, some sort of collective or say, hey, instead of donating to us, donate to these organizations, because that will make the difference. And we can't overestimate that because we're highly engaged, we're on social media, that people have our level of awareness of election dates and things of that nature. The last thing I'll say is when it comes to the rural community, one thing that Stacey Abrams ran on in her gubernatorial election was hospitals. And that's a huge thing. If the ACA is wiped out, then rural communities are going to suffer even more. They already lack hospital facilities and things of that nature.

And so those are the kinds of issues black women are concerned about health care. They're concerned about COVID and racial justice. But Democrats really have a far superior health care message that could really resonate with folks in these areas. But you have to find some way to get to them. it becomes, oh, that's white people. They're rural black people in these same damn states. And the reality is how do you communicate with them is a lot different than how do you communicate with the black folks who are in your large cities. And this is where, look, it's ground game. Again, I keep going back to history. What Fannie Lou Hamer and Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party,

what did they do? They focused on rural. What did Ella Baker tell the SNCC folk? Yo, y'all going to rural Alabama, rural Mississippi. That's where you're going to mobilize people. And I just think that that to understand again, at some point, the candidates and the campaigns have got to tell the consultants, y'all don't know every damn thing.

You got to go touch even in even in a covid world. You can't reach those folks with TV. You got to go touch them. It does not mean that Warnock and Ossoff has to go to every single one of those cities, but you got to have some presence. You got to have signage. You got to have presence.

You got to have door knockers. You got to have canvassers, and that's what you got to have signage. You've got to have presents. You've got to have door knockers. You've got to have canvassers. And that's what you've got to have. Well, Roland, I mean, you keep saying this. You've opened the show with this. We've got to think differently. Rick is absolutely right. You've got the money isn't the issue right now.

How you're using the money. We just heard Erica give a roadmap to victory. I mean, let's be very clear. I mean, you know, let's tie a few of the things we've been talking about so far all together. In that meeting, you know, and as Derek explained to you on the air yesterday, you know, Joe Biden very quickly moved past Shirley Sherrod to get to this. Well, don't use this. OK, bro, did you hearica talk about the southwest georgia project that's shirley

charade and charles charade who started when they were teenagers and 20 somethings along with a sister from albany if i'm not mistaken erica uh named bernice johnson reagan the snick singer these young people what you don't do you don't send us off and warnock down there you have the sense to say here's the money. Let me get out of Shirley's way. Why? Because Shirley going to walk Ms. Johnson to the poll. But see what the Democrats, Tom Perez, Joe Biden, the whole Democratic National, what

they think is that two things. You can't expand the party. That's why, you know, they got, they're begrudging now to Stacey Abrams. Oh yeah, we love you. You don't love that strategy because you think yuca's gonna win this in the cities halfway between atlanta and um and albany look i don't know about the the nat line but i'll tell you right now my mom and i'm from russell county alabama the big city is phoenix city right across the line my mom and i came in columbus georgia i didn't see many a flying roach, flying ant.

Some of them things Global Warming got rid of. You ever see a flying ant this big come in your face? My point is that if you're not turning over money to the people who are already there, the local associations,

the Prince Hall masons, this ain't even fraternity and sorority. You know what I'm saying? I'm talking about the Prince Hall masons or the Eastern Star, Daughters of Isis.

But y'all can't do that because you're so disconnected with the idea of Black humanity that you think this is going to be won by dumping money on TV ads. This is the soft racism of the Democratic Party. You understand? And until that is confronted, you got

three weeks of early voting, you could get it on the end with this. The thing that Tom Vilzac fired Shirley Sherrod for, the Dr. Tate that was on the dead now, Breitbart, Andrew Breitbart, was a story she was telling about a white farmer

whose farm she saved, who now to this day says, Shirley Sherrod saved my farm. He might vote for Ossoff. He might vote for Warnock if Shirley Sherrod asked him, but he don't give a damn about Joe Biden. Y'all better wise up and understand how this works and stop treating us like, well, you know what?

We're not, because your whole damn country is going to fall apart in a minute, and we could have told you how to save it, but damn it, I don't really have a horse in that. It's ground, ground, ground. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk COVID. And we talked with a sister, man. She is unbelievable thread, talking about how her life and family has been impacted by COVID-19. That is next on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Trump can show up and say anything and they can just go, oh, yeah. The African-American community was great to us. They didn't vote. You know, he just called you stupid. Did you hear that? Oh, oh, oh, but he's for us. Really? And they were just regurgitating the things that they had heard on a radio or in the barbershop or something that somebody had told them.

They hadn't thought about it. Democracy is in danger because people don't know how to think. I'm done with trying to convince people to try to vote for their, you know, for their life. You have to run for your life. I'm going to go try to get people who are to vote for their, you know, for their life. You have to run for your life. I'm gonna go try to get people who are open to it and lead them. I'm done with hope. Fuck hope, fight.

And I come to ask you to go all out. Just see what a power you can be. Let us march on ballot boxes. That is to go out to vote, for this is the way we are going to straighten up the South and the nation. Let us march on ballot boxes until men and women will no longer walk the streets in search for jobs that do not exist. Walk together, children. Don't you get weary. One day, Georgia will be a better state. This is our Georgia, where the ordinary accomplish the extraordinary.

And a new American story was written. This is our Georgia. We don't wait for change. We are the change. We keep climbing to the mountaintop and always set another seat at the table of brotherhood. This is our Georgia. We honor the sacrifices of the past,

carry their work forward. Because democracy doesn't stand still, it must be protected, fought for, practiced every day. Let us march on ballot boxes until brotherhood is more than a meaningless word at the end of a prayer, but the first order of business on every legislative agenda. Let us march on ballot boxes. Every voice counts. Every vote counts. Every voice must be heard. Is this my future? This is my Georgia. This is my Georgia. This is my Georgia. This is my Georgia. This is my Georgia.

This is my Georgia. How about you? Me too. Are you in? Are you in? We got power. We about to get ready to launch. We got power. We're about to get ready to launch our We Got Power Tour.

Cliff and I are going on the blackest bus in America. We're hitting the streets again. We're going to be going through at least 12 states, maybe more. I'm just really excited. Now, it's a little bit different this time because COVID-19, we've got to wear masks, we've got to be socially distant. But we are very committed that we've got to get in the streets and inspire and encourage our people in ways that are socially distant. Ready to hit the road, ready to see our folks, ready to be socially distant, ready to mask up. On our way to Pennsylvania, we'll be there for two days and then we're headed to Ohio to Cleveland.

We're going to be just spreading a lot of love and building a lot of power. The very last day, we're going to be out here on the ground in these streets because our people need us. Can't stop. Won't stop. Register to vote. You can even request your online vote by mail ballot by clicking the link or by scanning our QR code with your camera. Vote early. Vote today because we got power. And of course, we're going to be there with him this weekend on a Saturday, December 12th, 3 to 5 p.m. It's going to be a tailgate Christmas concert at the Harriet Tubman Museum there in Macon, Georgia. Waka Flocka, Tammy Rivera and Pretty V are going to be there. Then, of course, on Sunday, they're going to be in Columbus, Ohio, 1 to 3 p.m. with an early vote tailgate at the Columbus Civic Center. And again, Waka Flocka, Tammy Rivera, Pretty V, joined by Sybil Wilkes. And so free

food, performances, music, voter education, and more. We'll be live streaming both of those events right here, Roland Martin Unfiltered. And this is why we have this platform to bring you that kind of stuff because you ain't going to see that on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, because we're Black-owned and we know what matters to you. All right, folks, as of today, there are 15.5 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States. 290,000 people have died with the virus. This week, the UK became the first country to administer Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.

The companies are now saying people with a significant history of allergic reactions should not take the vaccine after two healthcare workers experienced symptoms the day after taking it. Pfizer and BioNTech maintain their stance that there are no serious safety concerns with taking the vaccine, yet allergy-related side effects have been a prime reason why many other COVID-19 vaccines have not been approved. In the United States, an FDA advisory panel deliberated on whether or not the regulation agency will grant emergency authorization to Pfizer and BioNTech to hastily release its vaccine to Americans.

And so that may happen actually tomorrow. Folks, there are a lot of different people out there who've been talking about the impact of coronavirus. They've been telling the story of losing family members of them themselves coping with this. And I saw this thread on Twitter from Dr. Magdala Cherry. She's a Commonwealth Fund fellow in minority health policy at Harvard University. And it really was just stunning what you laid out, Doc. Glad to have you here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Share with our folks just how devastating and difficult this coronavirus has been on you, your family,

not just your family, your family family, but also the medical community. Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Roland. I really appreciate you elevating my family story and even more than that, elevating the experience of healthcare workers everywhere, honestly, not just in America, but across the world. It's been life altering. Every time I hear people say, I can't wait to go back to normal, I think they forget that families like myself will never, normal doesn't exist for us anymore. I now have two empty seats that I'll never have back. And my father passed away on Easter Sunday, April 12th of this year. Mom passed away May 1st. After that, that was Mother's Day without them, my brother's birthday without them, Father's Day without them, my birthday without them, try to not only stay safe, reconcile with the fact that people don't think this pandemic is real, but then also as a physician, as a health care worker there have been a lot of people who have quit the medical profession because of what they have witnessed over the last six months. Right. Right. So let's step back before the pandemic.

The research has shown if we're talking about physicians, physicians that are a higher rate of suicide. A lot of people don't know that. And at our higher rates of burnout. So research or we studied that was done in 2018 show that physicians, especially those that are working in the emergency room in primary care and critical care are at over 40% risk of burning out. That was pre-pandemic. That's just the stress of being a doctor

and seeing patients and losing patients because you connect to them. Now you add a pandemic that is killing people, add layers to it as a physician of color when you watch your community be impacted. It's literally community collective pain. And you have to hide that every day and keep going. And in the physician profession, we don't value mental health. We don't talk about it. So now you're just compounding issues on top of issues and no one's, no one's really hearing our side. We're not heroes. We're human beings and people need to remember that. And what was interesting as, as we, we look at those folks who

yell and scream about masks. They say stuff doesn't work. They get all upset when they say, well, if these lockdowns don't work, there was some

Republican who was on the floor of the U.S. House screaming, lockdowns have failed. No, lockdowns have only failed because dumb asses refuse to listen. Right. Right. Right. And so here's the reality. We have not had a public health response. I'm just going to flat out say it and call what it is. OK, so it's one thing to have PPE. It's one thing to have all the experts talking. But to say that we have had in our country a unified public health response, we have not. Now let's take it the next step further. To say that we have had a response that put those that are the most vulnerable first, because that is where we should have started, in our communities that were most vulnerable, with our essential workers who are working in transportation, who are working in the hospitals, who are working in

the supermarkets. That is where we should have started. If we did this right, it would not have been this bad. It's just plain and simple. So when you're saying it doesn't work, we didn't do it right. And at a cost now where we're now nine months in, people are getting restless. People are tired. I understand. It's been months since people have seen their family. We don't there's so much uncertainty. We don't know what's happening. Things aren't clear. And let's be honest, there's a mistrust of our health care system. I get why people are getting restless, but it's not a matter of it not working. We never started and we failed to do it right.

One of the things that I found to be interesting, this happened, here's a perfect example. This happened today on Fox News where one of the contributors on this show talked about their failure to even bring up the fact that 3,000 people have died in one day. More people died due to COVID than on 9-1-1. And Harris Faulkner, I know Harris, got indignant because all the woman was doing was bringing up something that was truthful.

Well, listen to this. Yeah, I mean, we're 43 minutes into this show, and we haven't mentioned yet that 3,000 Americans died yesterday, more than on 9-11. And every day for a while, we're going to have that many American deaths. And so I agree that the regulations should be driven by science. I've always said that. And I've also always said that outdoor is much safer than indoor. So I don't want people putting in place regulations that aren't driven by the science. But I think that there are public health officials and leaders in this country who are drowning and their people are dying and they are trying everything. And they're not always perfect. And it doesn't always, you know, some people don't don't like them and they do hurt businesses.

They're trying to help businesses. Congress should be doing help to more to help businesses. Congress should be doing more to help businesses. But as we debate these regulations, we cannot lose sight of the tragedy that is unfolding every single day in this country, in large part because people want to go about life as normal. And a lot of people don't want to wear masks, even though the evidence is overwhelming that they save lives. Well, Los Angeles. Can I just quickly say, because I feel like, Marie, you took a shot at us there. And maybe you felt like it was necessary. I don't know. But if you don't think that our hearts are big enough to mourn for the people who we have lost during this pandemic, what exactly are you trying to say? That is offensive and it is not true. It is not true. But the best way to protect those people that we love

so much is to make sure that the decisions that we make give them longevity after the pandemic as well and to get what we do right based on the science, not just, oh my gosh, the numbers are ballooning. Let's just destroy everything in the process of trying to save it. You're right. We have learned a lot. It didn't just happen nine days ago. It's been months now.

The scientists are teaching us again new stuff. Let's live by that. But please keep your judgment someplace where you know you can fact check it because you can't see my heart. And trust me when I tell you it hurts all of us to lose those Americans and people around the world. Then let's talk about it. Let's talk about that more than talking about democratic hypocrisy. Well, we aren't enough. We are talking about it. It's my opinion, and I get to give my opinion.

We're talking about what works to keep Americans in line. How about telling us the truth in the beginning about those masks? See, Dr. Cherry, here's what I found to be interesting. All she was saying was, how have we gone 43 minutes? We got this country and western singer, John Rich, who sucks up to Trump and Mitch McConnell. And we're having a discussion about, and he

comes on discussing a song called Nancy and Chuck, alright, Slam the Democrats. And what she's saying is, 43 minutes have gone by and we haven't even mentioned that 3,000 people have died. And then Harris Faulkner gets indignant because she actually brings up a fact. We haven't even brought up 3,000 people have died. And then Harris Faulkner gets indignant because she actually brings up a fact. We haven't even brought up 3,000 people died yesterday due to COVID.

Right. Right. And that's the problem. That's why I put my thread. I have colleagues who are in the hospital who are working, who are stressed, who are going home crying, who are separating themselves from their family, who are stressed, who are going home crying, who are separating themselves from their family, who are getting frustrated. A lot of them are now seeing the Thanksgiving surge,

the people who didn't listen and had big gatherings, and now they're spiking. Those numbers are coming in. And one of my friends just said, one patient had two family members die. She walked into the hospital room to see that same person watching the funeral of their brother. That's what's happening. And we're not talking about it.

So when I sat there and I just thought about what my family had gone through, what I have experienced as a physician, and no one was talking about it, I just had to just write my thoughts. And if I could show you my inbox, if I could show you the messages I got from healthcare workers that literally brought me to tears and said, thank you for putting those words on paper. It resonates with me because people don't understand. They're forgetting that we're human and we're literally at our breaking point. So when we don't bring the numbers up, we're disrespecting the people who are sacrificing every single day and putting their lives on the line. This was a graphic Samuel L. Jackson posted on his Instagram page.

And it says deadliest days in American history. Number one was the Galveston hurricane. I think that's supposed to be Vietnam. Number two, 3600. 9-11, 2977. Last Thursday, 2861. Last Wednesday, 2762. Last Tuesday,861. Last Wednesday, 2,762. Last Tuesday, 2,461. Last Friday, 2,439. Pearl Harbor, 2,403. It's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous. And like I said, like for families like myself, this is every day I'm waking up and I'm pushing myself because I won't see my mother again. I don't like she's not with me. My father is not with me. I'm trying to remember memories of them because no, if you would have told me I was losing both my parents in a span of three weeks in a pandemic because we don't care and we specifically don't care about black and brown individuals and communities it's just it tells us a lot about our values dr magdalene cherry cherry we certainly appreciate it thanks for joining us thank you for having me bring back my panel here um You know, it's very interesting.

When you still look at this response, when you have this idiot, this this this absolute idiot. Praise me for Operation Warp Speed. Dude, you failed miserably. And to see these people, Recy, I mean, when you see these idiotic Republicans, when you see these folks surround the home of going after the governor, Secretary of State, and they're attacking folks, and they're, how dare you about the mask? And I'm just sitting there going, you know, and again, okay, if you want to die, go right ahead, knock yourself out. But they're literally killing others.

And the response is, oh, y'all going to destroy the economy in doing so. Well, you know what? If you have no people, you ain't going to have an economy. Yeah, unfortunately, it seems like their message of being anti-science and anti-intervention is working because we're seeing polls out. One of my friends sent it to me, a recent Ipsos poll, where people are less concerned. Nine percent of the numbers have dropped by nine points of Americans that are concerned, whether it's very concerned or somewhat concerned about COVID, despite the fact that these numbers have been skyrocketing every single day, with each day practically setting a new record for the most number of deaths

in America from any kind of situation. And so we still have a lot of work to do. The vaccines are not a silver bullet because it's going to take a minimum six months before we even get a majority of the population vaccinated if people do choose to vaccinate, which there is a lot of understandable mistrust of vaccines. But then there's a lot of just also pure stupidity when it comes to these vaccines. And unfortunately, we have a shared public health stake in this, and so we can't afford for just people to just be stupid on their own time because that impacts us. So we have to keep masking. We have to keep social distancing. And the last thing I do want to say that I want to address something I saw fabulous today. He wrote a post and he said the most dangerous profession in America is a Black

male rapper. And I'm trying to figure out, has he not seen what's happening in this pandemic where we have a record number of frontline workers, healthcare workers, specifically doctors and nurses dying from treating their patients from COVID? Like, come on, get real. So we have to really understand that this is a crisis. It is not going away anytime soon. Even with the vaccine, we'll likely still have to wear masks, still have to do some social distancing. But it's time to prioritize the public health over our convenience because it could be you.

It could be your family member. And it is wiping people out. And it's not the large gatherings wiping people out. It's actually the small gatherings. So we have to get real and really get serious about tackling this. And hopefully Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, when they come in, will spur that. But it's still going to take our individual responsibilities to take this seriously. Look, what you're dealing with, Erica, you're dealing with a bunch of crazy, deranged ass people who you can literally have Antarctica turn into a river

and they will go, it's not bad. It's okay. It'll freeze back up. Yeah. I mean, he's definitely exploited the ignorance that runs throughout this country. 74 million people prove that. And even I mean, even here in the state of Georgia, I've been to the grocery store a couple of times and had to exit quickly because there were people that were walking in the grocery store without a mask. And I'm talking about white and black people. There is this nonchalant attitude that has really permeated this society and really just looking out for whatever they feel, what people feel like their best interests are. And I think to me,

kind of more covering the outgoing son of a Klansman has become less important, particularly because he's still holding events at the White House just recently, a Hanukkah event where he yesterday and just went on and on again about the election and how he won, which he lost. So really, you know, to for me, the top of the day should just really be talking about COVID and how people can die. And I think that kind of it's put more into those terms, particularly we're dealing with a novel virus and there's more information that's coming out. I was just reading a piece where six feet of social distancing may not be enough. South Korea had some studies from aerodynamic engine physicists, I believe that it is. these different experiments because they have really, really intense contact tracing,

which we have none of that here in the United States, where the droplets were really expressively going farther than 6.6 feet. And so when we kind of look at where we are in the United States and that people are really just golfing at 290 million people that are dead and that there is a clown that refuses to acknowledge his job, but wants to continue to talk about how he's lost or how he's in fact won when he's in fact lost. I think really kind of just continuing to really press into the American mind beyond fatigue about how really this could affect people in their household today and just really continue to push that at the top and the end of the night. Greg, I think I was sitting here thinking about how do you get these people attention? I thought about the photo that Ice-T posted of his father-in-law, who was a big-time anti-mask person, has got COVID and pneumonia. And Ice-T said he'll believe it now.

And I thought about the Yul Brynner, the actor, the Yul Brynner, when they released that smoking commercial after he died. Folks, y'all millennials and Gen Z folk, they never heard of Yul Brynner. This was a commercial that was released after he died of cancer. I'm going to play this here. Ladies and gentlemen, the late Yul Brynner. I really wanted to make a commercial when I discovered that I was that sick and my time was so limited. I wanted to make that commercial that says simply, now that I'm gone, I tell you, don't smoke. Whatever you do, just don't smoke.

If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn't be talking about any cancer. I'm convinced of that. Greg, I think, look, it ain't going to happen with the fools in the administration right now. I think as a part of the public, I think as a part of the communications campaign that the Biden team should do, there should be ads put together

featuring a variety of people who did not believe in COVID-19, who thought it was a hoax, who got it. I bet you there's a bunch of families who would absolutely agree to allow those images to be used to say, are you one of these people? Do you want this to happen to you? I agree. I think it won't convince any of the white nationalists, though, because white Jesus is going to help them. They are invulnerable to it. And I'm talking about the white Jesus who comes to Earth wrapped in the American flag,

the one that Mike Pence is talking about, almost like a superhero who's immune to COVID. And I'm mocking them very purposefully. I'm mocking them because they represent the unpersuadable. You can show them anything. And so what I think is going to happen, and I think we all probably know this is what's going to happen, after January when the Biden-Harris administration has been installed and is in power, you're going to see a rollout that will include those kind of things. It's going to be a massive rollout. There's going to be all types of things that will emerge to try to get us through this together.

And there's going to be cooperation in the states with Democratic governors or Democratic legislatures. And there's going to be widespread Jesus wrapped in the American flag opposition from those same states with attorneys general that are going to the Supreme Court saying overturn the election. And there's going to be assault, the continuation of the assault civil war. And by the way, I think that Antietam was the reference to the Civil War battle in Antietam. Of course,

everybody who died in the Civil War was technically American. But, so I think that's number one. And number two, you know, even as our hearts go out,

again, to Dr. Cherry and to everyone, because, you know, this is what the research is showing. Black people know somebody

who is either in that situation or who are there in the situation ourselves. We know folks. You know, the tsunami that is coming now as winter has entered the Northern Hemisphere is not only the tsunami of mental health as it affects the doctors and the first line

providers, but mental health that is going to impact every human being in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter is coming now. I'm talking to us, my beloved friends and sisters and brothers, all four of us, and everybody here. So turn that entertainment tripe off on Fox News. Yes. Because this depression that's hitting folks in the night, in the daytime, you can't touch nobody, can't talk to nobody. This thing is going to get worse by the week. And this is a true tsunami. And talk about something we're not talking about, that's not even talked about at all. Great point there. Real quick before I go to a break, to see these ignoramuses from these other states

staying behind Texas Attorney General, to me is crazy. To me, it's unbelievably crazy. And what's even more hilarious, 106 House Republicans signed an amicus brief saying, overturn the election. 106.

Now, here's what I find to be funny, Recy. How in the hell can you be a member of Congress from Georgia and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Ohio and say, Oh, eternal results because voting irregularities, but you won. So all the votes in your race were cool,

but it's the other race that was on the same ballot in your state that was bad. This is why if you're Joe Biden, you can't trust none of these people. You can't sit down with these people. You can't take their word. These folks want to destroy democracy. They don't give a damn about the Constitution. They don't care about the rule of law. They don't care about norms and values. They have no principles. They are sick and demented, and you must treat them as such. Absolutely. And I think, though, that we have to keep in mind that even though these lawsuits are not likely to prevail, I can't imagine that the Supreme Court is going to even hear the case. I mean, it's on the docket, which, by the way, does not mean that

they're saying that it has any merit or they're agreeing to hear it. It just means that it's on the docket because they have jurisdiction. But I think we do have to be very weary of the fact that these people are still in power, not so much the House Republicans, but these 18 attorney generals, I mean, sorry, yeah, attorney generals who have signed on to this brief to support the Texas attorney general. These are the people and their Republican legislators that are going to be over things like redistricting. They're going to be the ones that are going to be pushing for more voter restrictions. The guy down there in Georgia, he wants to now make it such that the assembly appoints secretary of state instead of it being an elected position. And so the Republican Party, they're not about democracy. They're about white nationalism.

They're about white supremacy and white domination. And so they're willing to discard anything. And we're not out of the woods when it comes to that part. This election, it's over. It's done. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be inaugurated. And there's no stopping that. But we cannot take it lightly what's happening. And these people are showing their hand and they're tipping their hand. Because they did that, we were allowed to, we knew, let's get these absentee ballots in. Let's drop them off instead of mail. Let's vote in record numbers. But we cannot let our guard down because these people are still going to be up to these this no good activity for the next two plus years. It's real simple. This is real simple, Erica. This is sedition.

These people, these people are modern day Jefferson Davises. They are. I mean, but, you know, these are people that do worship the Jefferson Davis. Right. And then, you know, this scenario makes me think about back in 2012, Republican governors who signed on to a lawsuit to ensure that Medicaid would not be expanded to their state. You're talking about a time when the global economy had melted down, 2008, 2009. And you're talking about in areas, you know, Georgia, together to make sure that people that live in those areas, particularly Black, Brown, and poor people, would not have access to healthcare. And so this goes back to one of the things that I say, and I'm saying it because it definitely has meaning, and engage citizens. Recy just talked about we can't let our guard down. We cannot let

our guard down, but that the onus is not just on the people that organize and mobilize around these particular issues that impact all of us. It is also on the people on the other side of these screens to stay abreast, to know how is it that they can be in power? How can they use their voice? How can they plug in to make sure that when they see acts like this that are happening, because Republicans are good at one thing, they don't give up. So when people were asking about where's the Tea Party, well, honey, they just evolved. They never went anywhere. They just evolved and expanded. So it is on, the onus is on all of us. There were 435 seats that were up in Congress for this election. There will be 435 seats that will be up in two more years.

But people have got to be engaged now. They've got to be engaged January 2020, 2021. And they've got to be engaged January 2021, 2021 and every day thereafter. The thing here, Greg, I don't trust none of them. None of them. And look, and if you're willing to be silent in the face of this and again i disagree with pat toomey on a whole lot but he has been blasting the attacks on voting there in pennsylvania uh and these people no you're you're not going to be able to uh mediate, partner, call it bipartisanship, call it being collegial. No, these are people who care nothing about tearing up and destroying the nation all because of the bruised ego of Donald Trump because he lost. They cannot be trusted.

No. And Eric is right. This is only, you know, Trump is not the cause. Trump is a symptom of this larger problem. You know, again, people don't necessarily like to grapple with it, but I say it all the time. And at certain moments, usually when fighting a foreign enemy, either legitimately or not, a sense of unified identity. But it's really not a place where people imagine the thing in a common fashion. So what we're facing right now is the continuing move toward the confrontation with this very simple fact. It's very simple. See, when we hear, you know, President-elect Biden talk about the Constitution, talking about reaching across the aisle, it's a fantasy. But the problem is that it was never a time in the history of this country when it wasn't a fantasy. And so what you have, the Republicans who will not acknowledge that Biden-Harris won are held hostage by their voters.

In the 240-some year game of hot potato between the political parties, the GOP now has the hot potato. In order to win any more elections, they have to hold that potato. So they're really acting in the only way they have left to them. Finally, the question of these lawsuits to me is very encouraging. I'm encouraged by these things, because what it really does is it reveals the thing that we're going to face sooner or later. When the attorney general of Ohio says that you don't have original jurisdiction, the

attorney general of Georgia, Republicans, say you don't have original jurisdiction. They're bringing up a point of law. Texas doesn't have original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court really was set up in some ways, and I was reminded of this by a brilliant lawyer and law professor who was telling me this today. The Supreme Court was really set up to mediate disputes between the states. So original jurisdiction for the Supreme Court, meaning that's where you go to file the case originally, their jurisdiction comes when there are conflicts between the states.

This is not a case of original jurisdiction. They have appellate jurisdiction when it comes to disputes on elections because disputes on elections go through the state courts. So Texas doesn't have standing to file this. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the court because some of those amicus that were filed today include friends of Clarence Thomas, Danford, friends of Alito, Christine Todd Whitman, I'm reading through some of the amicus language and I'm fascinated about the fact that

these people are willing to throw away the entire concept of America or better yet, willing to reveal that was always fictional. It's only what human beings agree to and consent to together that makes a thing real. This is all words on paper until enough people agree to make it real. Folks, can I go to a break when we come back? Update on the case of the man shot and killed in Columbus, Ohio.

And crazy-ass white woman. You know she crazy. And we got one for you. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered. I think what still impacts and what creates change is when we mobilize. When we say we're not powerless and if I get with you and you and you and all of a sudden it's 10 and 20 and 100 and 500 and 2,000 and 5,000, all of a sudden you have mobilized people, that creates that voting power. And then when you throw somebody out, it catches their attention real quick.

But not only just that, they have to know what it is that they're standing for. Because if you have friends that talks politics, then of course we're having a decent conversation and I'm being educated at the same time. But if my group of people are not talking about that, then I still don't know. So I can unite with you, and then I'm making sure that you have the voice,

but what if you don't have the courage to speak? So you're still getting a group of people together that don't know how to do nothing. You are leading the way for the rest of this state. And we believe that this state is on the verge of shocking the entire country. He's riding on the prize. And hold on, hold on. What y'all know about that damn office? And ultimately, we know we can't let nobody turn us around. In spite of all that you have endured this year alone,

this is still a good life city? Yeah! If it turns out that the Senate is hinging on one seat and there's only one race left. Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! That's right. This will literally be the epicenter of the entire country, right? So we ready. Music has an ability to be able to help us feel connected. And that's because music has a way of speaking for the spirit. And it is the spirit we're going to change this country with.

It is going to be standing in a space of our power and in the fullness of our spirit of love and the spirit of humanity. That is what's going to transform America. Someone sent the message that I didn't smile the whole time I was speaking. They're like, that's so unusual. Not to see you smile, you look worried. I'm just being serious, guys. My name is Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

I have been nominated to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. The United States is a beacon of hope for many people around the world. That light dimmed over the past four years. The light didn't go out completely, but we were not there when people needed us. You cannot bring about global change alone. You need your allies, you need your partners, you need your friends. During my 35-year career, I am most proud of the fact that I have developed relationships with people. You develop relationships by having people

over to your home and teaching them how to make a famous American Louisiana dish, gumbo. And that's how I came up with gumbo diplomacy. As an African-American growing up in the segregated South, my presence will represent something to a large number of people across the United States. I'm getting messages from people in Louisiana who are so extraordinarily proud that a girl from the segregated South actually achieved a position of this importance in the cabinet. Multilateralism is back. Diplomacy is back. Democracy is back.

America is back. Let's go to Columbus, Ohio, where the Justice Department, Civil Rights Division, and the FBI are now investigating the death of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. Goodson was shot and killed by Sheriff's Deputy Jason Meade last Friday while returning home from a dentist's appointment and picking up some sandwiches. Sheriff's Deputy Meade and Goodson's family members who say they witnessed the shooting reported two different accounts. Meade, who wasn't wearing a body camera, said Goodson drove past him while waving a gun at him. Meade says he then confronted Goodson and when Goodson got out of his vehicle, which is parked in front of the 23-year-old's home.

A witness says they heard Meade command Goodson to drop his gun, and when he didn't, Meade shot him multiple times in his torso. However, Goodson's family says he wasn't holding a gun. Instead, he was holding a sandwich when he was shot. They also say he wasn't shot outside of his home. He, however, was shot inside right in front of his grandmother and two toddlers. On Wednesday, an Ohio coroner stated preliminary information indicated Goodson's death was a result of a homicide. Goodson's family is now demanding the deputy be charged with murder. Let's go to Minneapolis, folks, where today the Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved the budget that would shift $8 million from the police department to mental health teams, violence prevention programs, and other initiatives.

However, the city voted to keep police staffing in place in order to avoid a possible veto. Mayor Jacob Fry threatened to veto the entire budget if the county went ahead with this plan to cap police staffing, stating the city has seen soaring crime rates since the death of George Floyd. This vote comes as many activists have been calling for the defunding of police departments across the nation. Many people believe this is a start to helping Minneapolis become a safer city for people of color. And also speaking of that, a panel comprised of experts around the country recently released a report recommending the immediate release of Myron, Mayan Bale, Burrell, I'm sorry, he's a 34-year-old black man who spent nearly two decades in a Minneapolis prison for a crime he says he didn't commit.

Burrell was just 17 years old when he was convicted in 2002 for allegedly killing 11-year-old Taisha Edwards. Edwards was hit by a straight bullet that hit her in the heart while she was doing homework at her home with her sister. The Hennepin County DA's office initially stated Edwards' murder was the result of a gang-related dispute Burrell was involved in. However, the panel's recent findings highlight Minneapolis police negligence and several inaccuracies in their investigation. Burrell's case is stated to be reviewed by the Minnesota Board of Partins next week. All right, folks, you know what time it is. I'm always amazed by the white folks who think that they have superhuman powers and COVID somehow it's not going to impact them. You can really find these people at Donald Trump rallies like this one in Georgia. We don't have the vibrational frequency to host

that virus. And I taught her that. So if you don't have that vibrational frequency right here, you're not going to get it. Yeah. We don't have the vibrational frequency to here you're not gonna get it yeah i you we don't have the vibrational frequency to get covid correct do you know that everything in this universe vibrates and is alive there is life with that that's what i'm talking about i don't put life into covid i'm not gonna wear a mask i'm not gonna wear a mask either i never wear a mask we're not gonna wear them ever ever. Okay. I want you to play it again.

I want you to see how proud this woman is. I taught her that. I saw that. Press play. You don't have the vibrational frequency to host that virus. And I taught her that. So if you don't have that vibrational frequency right here, you're not going to get it.

Reesha, I taught her that. I got her looking sound dumb as hell. And what is her medical training? What's her scientific training? Okay, y'all going to be out here listening to your homegirls and be dead as a doorknob. Y'all need to quit playing with this COVID. Y'all's president got the COVID.

So, Rudy Giuliani got the COVID. All these Republicans getting the COVID now. They got some kind of treatment that the rest of us don't have because ain't none of them dying from it. But it's a serious business out there. I don't understand. You know, I think Dr. Carr said it.

What did he say? That their white Jesus is going to protect them and they have this master race mentality? I mean, what gets me is one of the biggest super, first of all, there's a story that was reported at the Biden campaign. They are going to pay a private company along with White House staff.

They are going to completely COVID scrub the White House. First of all, first of all, I long said I long came up with I said after Trump won in 2016, I said, y'all, they're going to have to be a massive decontamination effort take place at the white house i also believe what needs to happen is prayer warriors with anointed oil uh need to go through the white house and pray out all the demonic spirits matter of fact the thing might collapse huh The building might collapse. I mean, you know, if they do that, it won't be no White House, brother. I mean, I'm just... In fact, Erica,

I believe what needs to happen. I believe that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris need to call in a group of prayer warriors and call on the angels from Africa. Definitely won't be no.

But listen, definitely with the oil. I'm down with the speaking in times I was over here rolling just a second ago. So I'm all down with there. We knew that place had to be defunct anyway, particularly when we saw that there were mice where the press would gather to get briefings from the press secretary. But just along the lines of, you know, watching this 74 million, the 55 percent continue to exploit themselves. You know, this is just really more of the they're worshiping at the feet of their master. And so I hear what you're saying, Dr. Carr, but I don't even believe that is is is Christ. This is their master. This is who they worship. This is who they lay at the feet of. It is the son of a Klansman. It is Donald John Trump.

You saw that she had a Trump flag around her like a prayer shawl. She had a Trump shirt on. They were speaking his language. Everything she had on was in reverence to her master, who is Donald John Trump Jr. So this is more par for the course. I'm not surprised. But these are the people that I'm making sure that I'm staying the hell away from because they are the people that are infecting and impacting everybody else refusing to wear masks. Clearly they are parishioners at the Church of Paula White. I can't help but. Wait, wait, hold on.

Control room, what are y'all waiting on? Go. Go. Oh. Strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and the coral shirt she had on, I told her that had Rosie the Riveter on it from World War II. Their concept, it ain't Christ. Their Jesus is American, and he's a white man, and he bombs people they don't like, like Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq. He goes around killing people in the name of American Jesus. So, I mean, there's Trump, who, of course, has nothing to do with Christ. Trump is their avatar right now. That's absolutely right.

But in terms of, you know, how this thing is evolving, I don't know, Roland, if you call those African angels. The last time I'm aware of that black folk had any say with what happens at the White House in terms of that building was 1814 when the British burned the place and black folk helped them by helping them get in there. Now, there was a Negro on the other side, Paul Jennings. He's the one who saved the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington that's on the dollar bill now. So, yeah, black people on all sides of the issue. But many of them Negroes was like, yeah, we built this place and we just burned it down.

Y'all can burn it. So I don't know if you want to lose them African angels. When they get finished, there won't be no red, white and blue, brother. The Native Americans, by the way, Joe Biden appoint Deb Haaland, make her the secretary of the interior. I'm with those Native Americans and everybody else. You better do that. But, yeah, maybe the whole thing needs a I ain't going to quote my man Ice Cube from a bird in the hand. The whole thing needs a dish of Massengill. What the hell? But at any rate, yeah.

We'll stop. I'm just saying. Clean it up. Clean it, clean it. I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't expecting that. That was really great. That's old school.

Yo ass, we ain't lying. Yo ass. I only know from seeing her hanging up. The whole thing. Oh, my. Okay, we better stop. I'm just saying. I'm not excited about that. Oh my God, Greg.

Oh my God. Call him. Call him. That's the one. Call him, Eric. Yeah. did he say massengill and the thing hanging from ice cubes said that and you knew roller was gonna repeat it yes of course water water does Water does it. Oh, my God. I don't know.

That was deep. Y'all supposed to be helping him. That was deep, Dr. Carr. That was deep. That was real deep. Was it? No. Okay.

I think we're going to end the show on that one. Yeah. I mean, we talking about fumigating, exercising, demons, praying them away, and Greg, go to Massengill. Okay. All right, y'all. All right, then. If y'all want to support Rolling Martin Unfiltered, that's the kind of commentary you're not going to get on Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC,

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Of course, we are out here trying to, again, make this thing possible. Really, really taking this whole thing to another level. Let me give a shout out. Michael Capers, George Tucker, Benny Briggs, Marvin Bryant. I read their names on yesterday. There are some other folks here who I want to shout out who contribute to our fan club. First of all, if y'all have not received, if you have not gotten your name on the list, please just shoot me an email, and we actually will do that also.

Ramil Adams, Darlene Ward, Gwendolyn Barnett, Darnell Ruff, Roz Perot, Sheila Saar, Zaire Terry, Rashawn Strickland, Nancy Piles, Elbert Washington, Ernest Mims, Calvin Hurd, George and Pamela Bennett, Tawana and Dwayne Thomas, William Stevenson, Jacqueline Anderson, Vivian Washington, Sarah Elizabeth, Bernice McLaughlin, Anna Francis, John Earl Shelton,

Benny Briggs, Michael Capers, George Tucker. Folks, we certainly appreciate y'all supporting the show. Erica, thanks a bunch. Recy, thanks a bunch. And Professor Massengill, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Alright, I'll see y'all tomorrow. Thank you so very much. All right. I'll see you all tomorrow.

Rolling by to unfilter it. Holla! We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.

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