#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black Lives Matter Murderer Pardoned, Summer Lee's Re-election Campaign, Harris Econ Tour Continues

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

5.16.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Black Lives Matter Murderer Pardoned, Summer Lee's Re-election Campaign, Harris Econ Tour Continues Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardons Daniel Perry for the fatal 2020 Black Lives Matter protest shooting after the pardons board recommendation. #BlackStarNetwork advertising partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbaseJustice For Marilyn Mosby 👉🏾https://justiceformarilynmosby.com/ Pennsylvania Congresswoman Summer Lee is here to talk about her recent victory in defending her seat in November and why she's on board to reintroduce the CROWN Act legislation.   The U.S. Supreme Court says Louisiana can use its congressional map with a second mostly Black district in November's election.  The Biden-Harris Administration announces its record of over $16 Billion in Supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  We'll tell you where those monies came from and what it was used for.  Vice President Kamala Harris continued her Economic Opportunity Tour in Wisconsin.  We'll share some of her conversation with radio host and comedian D.L. Hughley.  And we'll show you how Representatives Stacy Plaskett and Jasmine Crockett blasted some white MAGA folks during a hearing about the Weaponization of the Federal Government.  Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, 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 Glott. 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. 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. It's Thursday, May 16th, 2024, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardons a white man

who killed a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020 after he was convicted of the crime. Yeah, we're going to break it down for you. Pennsylvania Congresswoman Summer Lee is here to talk about her recent victory in defending her seat in the primary, also why she's on board to reintroduce the crown act in the house the u.s supreme court says louisiana can use its congressional map with a second mostly black

district for november's election the biden harris administration announces a record 16 billion dollars in the last three years supporting hbcus hmm I want to see how many more times Senator Tim Scott is going to tell that lie that Donald Trump supported HBCUs more than any other president in history. Vice President Kamala Harris continues her economic opportunity tour. She was in Milwaukee today. And we'll share some of her conversation with radio host and comedian Dio Hughley. And also, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, Jasmine Crockett, was all in that MAGA ass in a House hearing yesterday. Yeah, we're going to roll the video, y'all.

It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on filter on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's rolling, yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo, yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now, yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martin, now Oh, when the folks at APAC are going to learn that y'all are wasting a lot of money, you keep going after Summer Lee. She, of course, was in another primary battle this year.

Well, they dumped a ton of money trying to take her out. Didn't work. She beat their opponent again. And we see how they're targeting other squad members across the country. They're going after Congressman Jamal Bowen, dumping lots of money into the district, to the person running against Congresswoman Cori Bush. But it didn't work. But also, Congresswoman Lee is very much involved in the Crown Act as well.

So lots to talk with her about. Welcome back to the show, Congresswoman Summer Lee. How you doing, Uncle Roro? I'm good. I'm good sitting here, you know. I get a kick out of the folk who keep thinking that you can't fight. Listen, one thing I'll tell you is that in Western Pennsylvania we know how to fight.

I've been doing primaries since before I was even in Congress. I had to fight to get into the State House to become the first black woman from Western Pennsylvania there. I had to fight to become the first black woman in Congress from Pennsylvania. And I know how to fight for my black community. So when people threaten us with all of this money, when they threaten us and they spread their disinformation, I recognize that I have more at stake than they do. So we're always

up for it. You know, we don't want to, but we will, we stay in fight and trim. But it's not just fighting. It's also understanding what it means to organize, organize and mobilize. And that's the thing. I was, I was joking this week, Representative David Trone, he dropped $60 million in Maryland in the primary against Angela also Brooks. And he got beat by double digits. And I said, hey, y'all, I said, all you Democratic strategists, keep dumping money on TV all you want to. You win elections on the ground.

And you win elections by, you know, connecting with people. People are tired of the same old type of politics and the same old type of politicians, right? They come in with the same old type of politics and the same old type of politicians, right? They come in with the same tactics every single time, with their money, where they think they can just buy over voters, with their stale message that doesn't resonate with working-class folks, with black and brown folks.

And then, when we have candidates who actually reflect the will of the voters, who reflect talk like, sound like, look like voters. That's the era we're in right now. People want to know that they're going to be reflected, that their views are going to be reflected in Congress. They're looking for authenticity, not just wealth. And I think that we saw that. We see that in Pennsylvania with me often.

We've seen that just the other day in Maryland. And I think we're going to keep on seeing that, because people are getting smarter with our field strategies. We're getting smarter with our organizing. We're getting better. We're getting stronger every time. So a good message, people center message is going to beat this money every time. And when you look at this November, I continue to say this repeatedly to the Biden-Harris campaign, I say it to the DSCC, the DCCC, Democratic Governors Association, on and on and on, that you better understand how to connect with people with issues. You can't just throw Trump's name around. You can't just throw MAGA around. You have to speak to the issues. And you also, in the words of the late,

our dear friend Joe Madison, you got to put it where the goats can get it. You got to make it plain. Yeah, I completely agree. This isn't a race that we can take for granted. I think that a lot of people are kind of wish casting. Right. This idea that if we just build it, they'll come. But the reality is, is that voters, whether or not—many voters have many reasons for why politics is draining, why politics feels toxic, why it feels like a never-ending cycle of losses for certain communities. And we have to be about the business of connecting with them. We have to be about the business of answering to their many concerns, of centering them in our political strategies. And I think that too often we're looking for every way to get voters besides

centering the most marginalized. We have an opportunity to do that in November. Mine is a state that's going to be critical, right? We need to start right now. But we can't take a single vote for granted. We can't continue to rely on what I call the coalitions of the past. We've got to rely on the coalitions of now and the future. That's black voters, brown voters, young voters, progressives, and not just, you know, the swing voters of old. We need to invest the same way in our people as they've been investing in others. What do you say to Biden campaign, Democrats as well? You got a lot of young folks who are very angry with what's happening, Israel and Gaza. And let's be clear, Donald Trump wins, he'll tell Netanyahu, you can graze the entire place. He doesn't care.

You have voters who say, OK, but if they don't change their policies, I'm not going to vote. You've got Robert F. Kennedy out there. You've got other third party folks out there. And so what are you hearing and what are you saying in response to folks who are talking about, say that issue is so important to me, I'm not going to consider anything else? So first of all, I'm not here. I'm hearing voters who say that, but let's be very real. The voters who are saying that they're not going to vote for one issue are also saying they're not going to vote for other issues. These are compounding things.

And that's why it's more important than ever that we not be condescending to these voters. I think that what we have to stop right now, we've got to nip it in the bud, is this idea that young voters don't vote our way or are not supporting our candidate because they're dumb or because they don't know enough. These folks know precisely what they have issues with. And what they want issues with and what they want to hear is a tone shift, right? They want to hear some sort of acknowledgement that we recognize the severity of the situation instead of what they're hearing is, oh, you only care

about Gaza because, you know, some cosmetic reason. I think that that's a losing strategy. So what I do, what I always do, this election, last election and every election with voters who often feel these ways, I talk to them about what they want to do, how they want to power build, not just for today, but how they want to power build into the future. Where are we trying to get our democracy to? Where are we trying to get our communities to? How are we trying to move our party, our nation? And I help them to strategize how we can do that in the long run. And that might mean making a sacrifice here to get a leg up there.

It might mean that we need to start to build up our pipelines. It might mean that we need to start to invest in our organizing infrastructure. But what people want to feel is that they actually do have power, that their contribution isn't in vain, and that them stepping forward isn't going to, you know, really result in the same old, same old. And I think that when other Democrats react in similar ways by recognizing, yes, there are so many parts of our politics that are disempowering, that are disenfranchising, but we hear you, we see you. We need to do that, right? Young voters, whether it's God or whether it's loans or whether it's criminal legal reform and police violence,

whatever it may be, people have very real feelings about a very real complicated system. And the answer to that is not to say shut up. It's not to say move aside, just fall in line. It's to say, oh my God, I hear you. Let's work together on that. And that's what they're looking for, that acknowledgement, that respect, and that affirmation that they are an important part of our coalition and we all can do better with that. And one of the things that affirmation that they are an important part of our coalition, and we all can do better with that. And one of the things that I try to do on this show is connect the dots. And so when I'm having conversations with people, whether young, middle-aged, old, or whatever, try to get people to understand that you can't say, well, you know what?

I'm so sick of what's happening in D.C. I'm going to tune that thing out. Because the problem is I don't care what your local issue is there is going to be a federal tie-in and so you can sit here and you can say well you know I want criminal justice reform and I want sentencing reform and I support reparations and I support this that and the other the other, and I go, judges. And then our house might tell me, man, you keep bringing up judges, but, you know, okay, fine, Biden appointed all these black judges. That really don't mean anything. And I went, do you know a lot of the judges he's appointed were actually defense attorneys

or public defenders, were not necessarily all former prosecutors? And I'm going, but you do know the reason you're complaining about Supreme Court because Republicans got a 6-3 majority because they were able to win the White House and control the Senate and they got judges. And so even when you talk about judges, which obviously the Senate has responsibility over, not the House, that still is tied directly to who's in the White House, who controls the Senate. But that's empowering people, right? To think that when we talk about patience and grace, we have to recognize that what we can't do is victim blame, right?

Constituents, voters are, in essence, I don't want to call them victims, but we're blaming the people who are on the other end of the system and not the system itself, right? Our system is complicated. So what we need, those of us who know, those of us who are in it, who understand it, who are working around it, we need to help more people to see it the way that we do. We need to help them to apply their lived experience to how this system works. And we need to do that in a way that's loving, not in a way that's condescending.

We need to do it in a way that actually connects the dots for them, right? Speaking people's language matters. When you go into the barbershop, you're having a different conversation than when you're going to, you know, a different venue. And that's okay. But those conversations are just as important. It is just as important that we help those folks understand their power, how this system impacts them and how they impact the system. And when we have these conversations with them, they don't forget it, right? It might just be one of many conversations that we got to have. But what I know from being an actual organizer, you know, someone who actually expands the electorate, who brings new voters in, I know that when I have a conversation with a

voter in love and power, that they're going to go and share it. They're going to share it with their family members, their loved ones, and they are going to understand the system and power building better the next time. And those voters stay with us. We have a model in western Pennsylvania. There's a reason why our voters are coming out not just to elect me, but to elect people who are aligned with the same agenda, because we've taken the time to build, to include, and to center them. If other places were to implement this blueprint, we would see voting turnout looking different around the country. So I hope that people will look at what we're doing and replicate it instead of shunning it. Crown Act. It passed before in the House. It died in the Senate.

We have seen... Where places go to die. Huh? Where places, where things go to die, right? Absolutely. We have seen how this continues, the brother in Texas who continues to deal with the drama over his hair as well in Vault Springs. And so what are the prospects of this hopefully becoming federal law? And so what's the game plan?

I'm going to just say straight up, man, I'm nervous about it, because we're seeing unprecedented—I don't want to call them unprecedented, but we're seeing increasing attacks on anything that's connected to black liberation, to equity, to justice. We're seeing it in the attacks on DEI, on wokeness, whatever that is. We're seeing it in so many venues. So right now, as we're introducing the Crown Act, for us, it's common sense. We've lived it. Listen, I'm a black woman in here with my braids in that I did myself. But there was a time where even to wear hair like this in Congress would be unheard of. And we're trying to normalize it so that students in schools around the country aren't being suspended or harassed for this exact same hairstyle that their congresswoman

is wearing. So we have work to do to help other people understand the plight of black folks, to them understanding our natural hair does not come natural to them. And a lot of people are not interacting with black folks as our hair is in their natural state. So we got work to do. We're always worried about the Senate. You just talked about it. I'm going to do the exact same thing. How important the Senate is right now, that we're not just keeping a majority, but that we expand that or we get rid of the filibuster? Because too many issues that are important to us, we're passing out of the House, and then it's going over to the Senate and it's dying there because they don't have enough votes because of the filibuster, which is truly a

relic of the Jim Crow past. So we got to put all these things in perspective and we're going to start to win on so many of these kind of common sense pieces of legislation. But we're gaining steam. Other states are passing it, even states that you wouldn't expect. So I think it's only a matter of time before the federal government gets this one done, rightfully so. Questions for my panel, Recy Colbert. She's the host of the Recy Colbert Show on Sirius XM Radio, coming to us out of D.C. Recy, what you got for Congresswoman Summer Lee? Congresswoman Lee, first of all, congratulations on your primary victory, your hair is slammed,

and I have to say that. But what I have to ask you is we hear a lot of feedback about how people don't feel like enough is being done and solutions aren't being implemented. Can you talk about some of the things that you've tried to do under Speaker Mike Johnson's tenure in the House while he's running off to sit behind Trump that have been obstructed by Republicans. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I don't think that people really understand the extent to which solutions are on the table, but they don't just magically happen because people have good ideas and they end up in Congress. Yeah. The reality is, is that everything is being obstructed right now. When Democrats are in office, listen, the first bill that we often see is usually a democracy reform bill, you know, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We see the PRO Act, right, which is a, you know, progressive labor act that would benefit all the working people across America. We see those things as the first proposals. Codifying Roe, those are things that we care about, that we have solutions

for. For me as a progressive, you know, Medicare for all, these are solutions that we are proposing. But with Mike Johnson—and not just Mike Johnson, before that, with Kevin McCarthy, right? This Republican Congress has been nothing but a clown show and obstruction, right? They can't figure out how to govern for themselves. And I will say that, on one hand, I feel good about that, because you know what? It could have been so much worse if they weren't in chaos. Let's talk about the things that they could have done to our community. Right. But they are not getting good things. But that's why we

need the gavels back because we have so many good bills that we will pass. Right. We will pass. We will get them over to the Senate. The Senate needs us to send them good things, but we can't because they can't pass bills ever. And listen, I'm going to just say it. If we're in cop week this week, every week we voted on an Israel bill and we're still not voting on bills that impact Detroit. We're still not voting on bills that impact, you know, Braddock, where I'm from or D.C. right, right here. So we really need a shift in priority and we're going to have to wrestle it out of these people's hands because they don't know what they're doing. Cameron Trimble, he is the CEO of Hip Politics Media, former White House senior advisor, D.C.

Cameron, question for Congresswoman Lee. How are you doing, Congresswoman? My question, Pennsylvania is such a linchpin state for the last several elections, and there's also been some complications over the last several elections related to voter registration, rolls, polls. We've seen lawsuits, recounts. What is being done at a federal level, or what are you doing as a representative in Pennsylvania to ensure that every vote counts, especially communities of color, and every

vote is counted in Pennsylvania this upcoming election? Yeah, thank you for that. We saw, you know, just last time, right, when Joe Biden won the first election, we were able to, as a nation, celebrate when Pennsylvania's results came in, because it did take us a couple days to count our ballots. And we've gotten better since then. We have invested in Pennsylvania. When I was in the statehouse, we passed a new law, right, that extended early voting and mail-in voting to millions of Pennsylvanians, which we've actually never had. In Allegheny County, we've been leading and making sure that those votes are not just getting counted, but they're easy to get in.

I'm happy and I'm proud that one of our partners, we worked really hard to get elected at the executive level because we had to win elections at every level. She helped us to implement drop-in boxes, right, so that folks particularly—and I helped to talk to her about making sure they're in Black communities—that we need to have drop-off boxes so that people can safely put in their mail-in ballot and know that it's going to be counted. Those are one of the things that we've been doing in western Pennsylvania over this last just cycle that will help us in November. But at the national level, we've got to continue to make sure that we're protecting people's right

to vote, making sure we're making it easier for them to vote and not harder. We know that racist policymakers are always targeting black and brown voters, always targeting our elderly voters with their racist voter ID laws. We see them targeting us through gerrymandering and so many other ways. So we're always trying to counteract that. That's why it's always our democracy reform is our first piece of legislation that we work on every session because we can't just have what we have in Pennsylvania. We actually need to make sure that every state

can vote as easily as we can. Lauren Victoria Burke, Black Press USA, out of Arlington, Virginia. You're next. Congresswoman Lee, congrats on the victory. Can you comment on why you think it is that more progressive members of Congress seem to be having trouble sometimes with their own party? You center Black folks and Black issues all the time, and then you get targeted by AIPAC, and there's no comment about that. Like, there's no comment about that within your own party.

Did you feel like you got enough support during your primary from other members of the Congressional Black Caucus? I know Jeffries did endorse you, but just generally speaking, as a progressive member who speaks to a populist side of your constituency, did you think you got enough support, or did you feel like you were out there alone? I thank you for that question. It's—that is the question that we're trying to get to the root of. And I'm going to say something that's a little bit controversial. I think that a lot of people target especially progressive black women because they see us creating a home for liberated black folks,

right? As black folks are stepping into their power, as they're understanding and learning more how we fit into these systems, they are more than likely to come over to our side, our progressive side, where we're shaking things up, where we're changing and affecting not just our policies, right? Because a lot of people say that they care about progressive policies. We're talking about progressive politics. We're making sure that we're accountable to who we're doing our politics with and who we're doing it for. And that makes folks uncomfortable.

And yes, there are groups out there, like AIPAC, who seem to almost exclusively be focused on black and brown progressive women, but also people who have corporate interests at heart. I think, and I will say very personally, yes, that I will support it. But it's not good enough for me to be supported individually. We need the Democratic Party to embrace the ways in which we are expanding the electorate, the ways in which we, progressive black and brown folks, especially progressive black women, are not just expanding the electorate, but we are actually holding our country accountable to its ideals, right, of a reflective democracy of, for, and by the people.

So if the Democratic Party is going to be serious about a reflective democracy, if it's going to be serious about honoring its base, black women, then it's going to have to do better about supporting black women at every step of the way. When we're running for office, when we're announcing, when they're trying to decide who's a viable candidate, we need them to see black women for the power that we bring, for the perspective that we bring. We need them to honor that perspective. When we're in office, we need them to fight like hell for us the way that we, progressive black women, fight like hell for our constituents. And we have more work to do for that. I'm proud that the CBC did support me.

I want to see us pushing harder and further. I want to see us being as courageous. I want to see us embracing that conscience of the Congress. And we have to always be striving towards that. So we'll keep doing that. We'll keep inviting more people into our fold. We'll keep letting them know who we're fighting for and why we're fighting this way. But we also need folks like you on the outside to help us with that, to help them to know that we're mainstream.

We're not extreme. We're not radical. And people want to label us that. And they will stop when they see how many people actually stand with us and share our values. All right then. All right, Malcolm. Y'all don't realize we all, it's two of us always joking, but she's always bringing the heat into Congress. Congresswoman Summerlee, always great to have you. Keep giving them hell and showing them how this is done. I appreciate you, brother. Until next time, thanks for having me. All right, thanks a bunch.

All right, folks, got to go to a break. We'll be back more Rollerball Unfiltered, including, ooh, man, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett and Jasmine Crockett, man. They all up in the face of MAGA. And Vice President Kamala Harris takes her economic tour to Milwaukee. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I wanted the people of Baltimore to hear it from me.

I have done nothing wrong but i see that what you are trying to do is destroy this black woman for doing her job i have heard your calls for no justice no peace however your peace is sincerely needed as i work to deliver justice on behalf of freddie gregg mar Marilyn was a force to be reckoned with. I was assuming this was all because of Freddie Gray, but it actually is much deeper than that. Baltimore's top prosecutor, a woman named Marilyn Mosby, was indicted yesterday in the Eastern District of Maryland for perjury. Couldn't help but think about Donald Trump. This is what you got to deal with when you are a black woman fighting for just causes in America.

Yeah, but just take it on the police, period. She's stepping on their toes. They want to cross her out of the system so she can't stand up for the future. Reach to the pool and grab me and pull me out. Imagine if this were you. You would want people to stand in your corner. I lost my car. I lost my car.

I lost my job. I lost my marriage and almost lost my mind for a little while. There's just so much right now, Lord, and I'm just, why are you putting all of this on me? A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm about to break. For details on how to invest, visit startengine.com slash fanbase or scan the QR code. Another way we're giving you the freedom to be you without limits. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges.

And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning into... Roland Martin Unfiltered. So, all of these Republicans lined up for their ass-kissing tour yesterday when they traveled to New York City to... Well, actually, the last couple of, to speak on behalf of Donald Trump. And that was Monday and Tuesday. I mean, they were so pathetic, they even dressed up like him.

And it looked pretty stupid. It looked pretty stupid. Well, yesterday, there wasn't trial on Wednesday. So Jim Jordan decided to have one of his waste-of-time House hearings. And, you know, a couple of sisters just had to let their feelings be known. So first up, from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett. Two weeks ago in the same room, we watched as the Republican majority

attempted to use the congressional hearing process to intervene in an ongoing Supreme Court case. Republicans here did so by suggesting that they were concerned about how social media companies are bullied by the federal government. In truth, these arguments are operating in the interest of securing an open season where Russia and China can destabilize our democracy at will in the 2024 election. By my Republican counterparts causing people to bully social media companies,

they want to allow any and all foreign adversaries to dump lies and misinformation on social media in support of a would-be fascist former president. And now you're back. Why are we back this time? We're here because former President Trump is on trial in New York. That's why we're here. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, his former attorney, Michael Cohen, delivered devastating testimony implicating former President Trump in a hush money payment scheme.

His former attorney even had audio recordings of Trump talking about those payments. Whether we think the trial in New York is a good case or a bad case, the truth remains that the facts in the case don't help Donald Trump. We're here because Donald Trump knows that the evidence against him is plentiful and that the testimony of his literal, literal, as my teenage daughter says, literal partner in crime in this case

is harmful to his criminal defense and his political prospects. It's not that complicated. This is how Congresswoman closed out her opening statements. Simply because Donald Trump's sycophants have been taunting the members of this committee on the GOP side and judiciary Republicans for not doing anything tangible to defend Trump against our judicial system. Blackies like Natalie Winters, a Trump loyalist and an executive producer for Steve Bannon's show, have been mocking Chairman Jordan's leadership

of the committee openly. As you can see up there, when the House Judiciary tweeted, imagine actually believing Michael Cohen, she retweeted and said, imagine actually believing Michael Cohen. She retweeted and said, imagine actually believing at GOP, at judiciary GOP will do anything about it. Just as one example on Monday, she put that tweet up and then Fox's Maria Bartiroma and Steve Bannon himself have gotten into the act.

And here they are. Why aren't you being louder about this? Why aren't I hearing anything from this committee? I had to just ask you about it, okay? We are—just let me be clear. Viewers are sick and tired of hearings. They're sick and tired of letters. They're sick and tired of hearing complaints.

They want action. President Trump is in a trial all day long, every day, in New York City. SICK AND TIRED OF LETTERS. THEY'RE SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING COMPLAINTS. THEY WANT ACTION. PRESIDENT TRUMP IS IN A TRIAL ALL DAY LONG EVERY DAY IN NEW YORK CITY. WHERE IS THIS COMMITTEE OF WEAPONIZATION AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT? I JUST SPOKE WITH KEVIN HASSETT,

THE FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE WHITE HOUSE ECONOMICS COUNCIL, AND HE SAID, MAKE NO MISTAKE, IF WE SEE PRESIDENT TRUMP GO TO JAIL BECAUSE HE VIOLATED THIS GAG ORDER, MARKETS WILL REACT. OKAY, CONGRESSMAN, WE'RE LOSING THE COUNTRY. SO WITH ALL THE RESPECT, I'M NOT BLAMING YOU SPECIFICALLY, BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO SET UP A COMMITTEE THAT'S CALLED THE WEAPONIZATION OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. THAT'S NOT DOING IT FOR ANYBODY. WE WANT TO HEAR MORE FROM

YOU. WE WANT TO HEAR ACTION. WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN THIS NEW YORK TRIAL for anybody. We want to hear more from you. We want to hear action. We want to know what the heck is going on in this near trial where nobody can seem to come up with a crime. Well, I'll tell you what I'm specifically doing. Okay. Okay. No, I don't need to hear a backbencher. I'm sure you're a good guy, and I'm sure you're trying to do a lot, but it's not, as Maria Bartiromo says, and man, she lit him up. It's not enough to set up a committee, just call the weaponization of the federal government. That's not doing it. We want action.

And that's why we're here today. We're here at the beck and call of Trump fanatics and talking heads on cable and Internet talk shows in the MAGA world who, like Bartiroma and Bannon, have goaded this committee to act. Because the purpose of this select committee is, in fact, to be an arm of the Trump campaign and take his orders. Now, they trotted out these MAGA people, and it's always a pleasure to watch my congresswoman, Jasmine Crockett, light that ass up. This is so interesting. A couple of things.

I'm just curious to know, as we're talking about lawyers and the obligations of lawyers and whether or not maybe the former president has any idea of what good lawyer obligations look like, I'm just going to ask, we're not going to play, we're going to do Ms. Weinbanks. Have you heard of any of these lawyers? I've got Robert Cheely, Kenneth Chesborough, Jeffrey Clark, Matthew DiPerno, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Michael Farino, Rudy Giuliani, Julia Halia. I got a long list. Have you heard of any of these people? I have. Are you aware as to whether or not any of them have faced criminal penalties? Yes. And also been disbarred or suspended. Oh, yeah.

Okay. So they've had some issues, but these are the handpicked lawyers for Trump. I'm assuming that y'all have never been Trump lawyers, Mr. Trustee or Mr. Costello. No, I was for a year. Oh, you were? And you still have your bar card? I'm sorry? You still have your bar card?

Yeah. Well, unless I get targeted for daring to represent a former president you have you have absolutely uh done a lot better than most uh that deal with him so so good for you um i also want to make sure that we talk about what two-tier really looks like and mr trustee since you've been a prosecutor before, I'm curious to know, have you ever had a criminal defendant that had over 80 counts in four different jurisdictions

and somehow was not held pretrial? I know that you talked in your opening about your interpretation of what speedy trial looks like, and it's really only for those that are held pretrial. And last time I checked, most of the time those people held pretrial, they don't have anywhere near 80 counts pending against them. But I'm curious to know in your experience,

have you ever had someone that had over 80 counts pending in four different jurisdictions and they were not held pretrial? Yes or no? Well, no specific recall, but I could answer more if you'll let me. You told me no, and I understand because I hadn't either. So in addition to that, there's been a gag order since we're going to talk about the pending trial that's going on right now. Have you ever had a defendant that violated a gag order and then you went to the judge and the judge didn't

lock them up and they they'd have done it at least 10 times i think it's 10 i'm losing count right now have you ever had somebody violated 35 years i had never seen a defendant gagged okay not my question so you've never it's hard to get to the second part if they're never you've never had it. Well, it's hard to get to the second part if they're never gay. So you've never had it. You're absolutely right. All right. So finally, when it comes down to intimidating witnesses, because maybe you haven't had gag orders, intimidating witnesses, have you ever had a defendant that you were prosecuting and they were intimidating witnesses and they didn't somehow end up in the clank clank for at least a day or two? I've had criminal death penalty prosecutions based on witness retaliation. and they didn't somehow end up in the clank clank for at least a day or two? I've had criminal death penalty prosecutions based on witness retaliation. I'm very familiar with gang cases and mafia cases. Most of those defendants were already incarcerated when they would orchestrate some sort of obstruction.

If there's provable physical violence-based obstruction, it certainly makes sense that they'd be incarcerated. Thank you so much. And, you know, Mr. Hamilton, I don't want you to feel left out of this conversation. So I'm gonna make sure I ask you some questions. Let me know if you're having problems answering them because they really should be yes or no.

Let's see, you're the executive director for the America First Legal, correct? That's correct. All right. And America First Legal is a member of Project 2025, which is dedicated to creating the playbook for the next conservative administration and what it calls the Project Pillars, correct? We are proud contributors to Project 2025.

Okay. And are you familiar with Project 2025's mandate for leadership? In fact, I am. Okay. And in fact, you wrote some of the sections of this mandate related to the DOJ, correct? Sure did. And the mandate outlines policy priorities for the next conservative president. Is that correct? It does. You've done a great job. I just wanted to let you know.

All right. So let's walk through some of the provisions of the mandate. It calls for eliminating the Department of Education, eliminating the Department of Commerce, deploying the military for the use of domestic law enforcement against protesters under the Insurrection Act of 1807. It also has the repealing of Schedule F status for thousands of federal employees to allow a president to replace career civil servants with unqualified partisan loyalists. That's probably my favorite of it. It also prohibits the FBI from combating the spread of misinformation and disinformation like Russia and China who are actively trying to interfere with American elections.

I don't know why or how anybody can support Project 2025. And I know that there was allegedly a joke about dictators and whether or not that's funny, but in the United States of America, dictatorships are never funny. And Project 2025 is giving the playbook for authoritarianism as well as the next dictator to come in. And I know that you are doing your jobs here by making sure that hopefully some juror turns on and finds some viral moment of you spewing more of the nonsense as it relates to the president. But as practicing lawyers or licensed attorneys, I hope that we can all agree that no one gets indicted because someone says so. There takes a grand jury, and the grand jury is comprised of American citizens that sit down and review evidence, and they make the determination. And when and if Trump is convicted,

it will be a jury of his peers, and it won't be the President of the United States. I thought you were going to get to a question somewhere in that 90 seconds for Mr. Hamilton after you went after his 2025. I will point out the inspector general just released a report that said the FBI retaliated against whistleblowers. One of the reasons we do need some changes, but there was no question there. But Mr. Hamilton, if you want to give it some kind of response, you're more than welcome to do that. Mr. Chairman, my only response would be to say that there are a great number of policy options that have been provided to any future conservative administration through Project 2025,

and it's an attempt to restore the rule of law in this country. And I reject the Huffington Post-style characterizations of the recommendations. So, you know, it's always amazing, Lauren, don't you love it? The contrast there, old restoring the rule of law, restoring the rule of law. Well, she just sat there and said how, oh, how there is a double standard because these are the same people who don't like the rule of law being being applied to the Cheetos man. Yeah, they're not talking about restoring the rule of law being applied to the Cheetos man? Yeah, they're not talking about restoring the rule of law. They're talking about using the judiciary to push their ideological agenda.

And however they want to do that really has nothing to do with specific law. It just has to do with whatever their ideological views are at any given moment. And they've had a plan for that for decades. And now they're trying to make the bureaucracy, the federal bureaucracy ideological as well, which is outlined in 2025, Project 2025. I actually think that the Democratic Party needs to get out of the realm of being amazed by this or being surprised by this or going over this. When I say the Democratic Party, I mean the Democratic insiders. I'm not talking about the rank-and-file voter, OK?

Because rank-and-file voter does still need to be educated on Project 2025 and a lot of the things that the congresswoman just brought up. But they need to get out of the realm of being shocked and get into the realm of, what are we doing about it? And what's the plan on the other side against this? Because they know that this has been going on. We knew what Trump did the first time. We see what they're planning the second time.

They're open and in the public about it. There is no secret about it. So they have to enter the realm of what is the plan? What is the plan? What is the offense? Instead of being on defense all the time and talking about the problem all the time, they've got to get on offense. And that hasn't happened yet.

And that, to me, is a little bit worrisome. And I'm talking about the Democratic Party leadership when I say that, again, not the rank-and-file voter who's just waking up and finding these things out. See, Cameron, I think the fundamental problem for Democrats, and this really is a problem. Democrats continue to act as if

that they are playing by a set of rules that both sides believe in. And that, you know what, we just can't say certain things or push for certain things. You know, we must talk about my friends on the other side of the aisle and things along those lines.

When literally the folks on the other side of the aisle are trying to destroy you with a two by four, a pipe or whatever is at their disposal. And that to me, I I think is the problem. I think that Democrats and listen, remember, when Hillary Clinton was running, she isolated Trump supporters from Republicans. And I was like, what the hell are you doing? They the same. 2020, he actually articulated that he thought Republicans were going to return to the party of, when he would say, your grandfather's party, that he thought they were going to return to the normalcy of the Republican party once Trump left. It was like, say, bro, they're not returning to anything. They are

the party of Trump. They're the same. And so when Democrats wake up and realize you're going to have to go after them as the clear and present danger that they are and not be nice about it. Man, I so agree. I think there's only one rule here. People are trying to win. Those who are in office are creating the rules and create and really lead our country forward. I feel like so often as a Democrat and working for the Democratic Party for so many years, we will show up for a boxing match with gloves and hope they're going to be refs and points. The Republicans show up with a street, like it's a street fight with

a brick behind their back, you know what I mean, ready to go to war. But I do think there is still, there's still a place for civility in our government and in our campaigning. But we have to use the full extent of the toolbox and the tools in the toolbox in order to win these elections moving forward. And then I think to Congresswoman Plaskett's, to her earlier video and clip that you showed about how the Republicans are rushing to show kind of allegiance to Trump and rushing up to his trial, but then that sits in direct hypocrisy to what that very

committee, that weaponization committee, is all about. It actually shows, moving forward, who's going to be there if this election has to get certified. People are lining up now and really showing their allegiance to Trump. So we have to not only prepare how far we're going to go to make sure everybody understands the imminent threat and danger that not just Donald Trump, but all those members who ran up there to go support him, all those members in the Senate who are going to be there to hopefully pack the judges and pack the courts, who may even go as far as not even try to certify the election next time.

We literally do not know what they're capable of, but they're showing us in plain sight that they will lie, that they will be hypocrites, that they will skirt whatever rules they need to to ensure they win. So we have to understand this is a new day and age with social media, with reality TV. People are just a little disenfranchised in there. And we have got to do that, go that extra mile to make sure we, as you said earlier, hit the ground and win every single vote. But really, we do know what they're capable of. They've made it clear. And as Lauren said, they're telling you this is what we're going to do.

Believe them. And that to me, I think, is the problem. Democrats like, no, they're not going to do that. Like, when all the white women were outside the Supreme Court after the Dobbs decision, and I was like, so where were y'all? A lot of times, the big economic

forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, It's really, really, really bad. Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers

Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive

content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. When a few weeks before all the black people kept getting arrested, fighting for voting rights, none of them white women were out there. And it's like they were just oh my God, shocked at the Trump wins, you know, the millions that march all around the world, you know,

wearing their pink hats and all kinds of stuff. And I'm like, they told y'all what they were going to do. So I'm like, believe it. If somebody says, I'm going to knock you the hell out, I'm not going to stand in front of them when they trying to throw a punch. Right. Well, you know what? The bottom line is people are really fucking delusional about how strong our institutions are. We're seeing our institutions being deconstructed and being disregarded by Trump, by Mike Johnson. Imagine the Speaker of the House wearing a goofy-ass red tie behind the 91 times indicted former president, indicted for things

like having classified documents, starting an insurrection, being who's already been found liable of civil sexual assault. The Speaker of the House is so vaulted in our political system, and he's debased himself, because that is what the Republican Party is. That is what our American institution is now. It is MAGA, completely. So what we're doing now is we're trying to piece together and hold together the semblance of what's left, which wasn't that great to begin with. And I feel like people are waiting for this large shoe to drop as though we're not watching it every

single day. We talk about it here on the show all the time, the way that our citizenship has been stripped away. Women do not have bodily autonomy in this country. We see increasingly, as people are looking to do so-called—do something about immigration, where police are being empowered to stop people under the pretext of confirming their citizenship and arresting them and having no recourse if they're wrong, which of course they will be. And so, whatever it is that people need to see—I mean, to me, I know that people are woken up about how high everything is, because, I mean, we all see it and we all feel it. But just as much as people are acutely aware of the challenges that we have in terms of affordability and a number of things, people need to be equally acutely aware as to how our citizenship is being stripped and it is being—it is endangered and how these Republicans will stop

at nothing to rule by minority rule. They do not have an electoral majority, except for the extent that they disenfranchise and gerrymander their way to power. So I don't know what it's going to take. I applaud Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett. I applaud Congresswoman Summer Lee and Jasmine Crockett and others. But at some point, people got to wake the hell up and realize what's not just going to happen, but what's already happening. Listen, that's going to be the case. And I keep telling people they're telling you what they're going to do.

And so believe them and don't play games with it. Just saying. All right. We'll go to a quick break. We come back. Vice President Kamala Harris and Ben Walge today talking economics. don't play games with it. Just saying. All right, we're going to go to a quick break. We come back. Vice President of the Commonwealth of Harris, Edmund Walge. Today, talking economics. We'll show you some of that when we come back.

Don't forget to support us in what we do. Join the Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do, traveling around the country, covering the stories that matter. You can see your check and money or in the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003-710196.

Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Download the Blackstone Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Back in a moment. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.

Trump was a failure on health care. Hundreds of thousands of black Americans lost health care insurance. That is outrageous. And if he's president again, he would cancel insurance for millions more of us. We cannot go back. President Biden and Vice President Harris

have lowered health care premiums and expanded coverage for black families. They also capped the price of insulin at $35. Joe Biden is getting the job done for people just like me. I'm Joe Biden, and Spike calls me and he says, Malcolm, what are you doing next year? Graduating, you know. He said, take a year off. Welcome Malcolm X.

I said, okay. First of all, for the folks who don't know, Spike is my cousin. Spike is my cousin. The person watching, like, how the hell is Spike just going to tell you? It's true. It's true. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherry Shepard Talk Show. You're watching Rolling Mark. Until tomorrow. Vice President Kamala Harris is on Air Force Two,

heading back to D.C. right now from Chicago. Before she went to Chicago, she was in Milwaukee for the third leg of her Economic Opportunity Tour, where she participated in a moderated conversation with comedian, radio show host, and author D.O. Hughley. Here's some of that conversation. I bought a house in West Hills. I had only lived around black people my whole life. I bought a house in West Hills, California, which is the basis of the television show I did called The Hughleys. I go to sell that house

because my wife said we had to move. We'd owned that house for a couple of years. We'd done all these improvements. My real estate broker said, well, you gotta take your pictures down and take down, you know, take down anything that lets them know who lives here. And of course, I was like, nah, I'm not gonna do that.

They came and the appraisal came in solo. The bank contacted us. And it would have had to have been a home in disrepair. The home that's on TV. I'm on TV with this home. They sent another appraisal out and they gave me $200,000 more. And it was

interesting to me. I'm like, the fact that I actually wrote this in my book and we talk about it on my show all the time, this happens to black people consistently. Now I just keep actual pictures of white people in my house, just in case. You ain't gonna get me twice. I keep them in my wallet, too, just in case the police...

I'm just telling you, this is just me. But these kinds of things, these microaggressions, are things that, no, I've been around a lot of administrations. I don't know that anybody has done it as succinctly as you all have. Because we need to just call it what it is, right, and then deal with it. And so how we're dealing with it is, one, to tell the truth about it, because there are countless stories of a black family doing just that, actually, of then talking with a friend who is white and asking them to put in their family pictures

and to bring the appraiser in. And a substantial difference around how the home is appraised. So we just need to deal with it, knowing that, for example, one of the problems here is that a very small minority of home appraisers are people of color. Because this is about people of color to black people and other people of color. And so we need to deal with it on that level. The other piece of it is that we

are now requiring that home appraisers be trained on racial bias. And we have set up a basically a report line to let people know there is somewhere to go with this information because too often right too often people who are the the the focus of unfairness know it's unfair right you don't need to be taught that it's unfair but sometimes just feel like there's nowhere to go with this i'm just gonna have to accept it and this is unacceptable and so we have set up a system to make it so that there is somewhere to go with this information. We were speaking about expansion of wealth and those opportunities and homeownership, but a big impediment to that also is debt. Huge issue. And I think it's something I hear on my radio show all the time, crushing debt. Student loans are a big part of that.

Thank God I have a GED, so that didn't cost a lot. So while y'all were studying, I was keeping all my money. But it is such a crushing thing to start out with a debt that's going to be hard to pay. Even the interest in that debt is going to be almost impossible. What have you done to kind of deal with that reality for so many people of color? That's right. So let's start with one of...

There are two areas in particular where we're dealing with in terms of the burden of debt, which so many people carry. Such a burden. So one is medical debt. So a lot of people experience medical debt usually born out of a medical emergency. And so it's something you obviously then don't plan for. It is something that happens. And then people have these hospital bills, these doctor's bills that can be in the tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars for an unexpected emergency. So we have decided that, well, look,

it's not like that medical emergency happened because you're financially irresponsible. That's a health care matter. So we are now saying medical debt cannot be included in your credit score. Right? Because after all, your credit, well, first of all, everybody these days knows their credit score like you know how much you weigh, right? You can get a little app and look at it. Some people look at it on daily basis.

Check my credit score right now. And we know what that number means in terms of your ability to qualify for a small business loan, a home loan, a credit card, a car loan. So we are saying that cannot be included. The other thing that we have said about medical debt is that it cannot work against you when you are applying for credit. And again, it's just what's morally right from our perspective, which is people shouldn't be debilitated around having access to economic opportunity because they experienced a medical emergency or something of that nature. Which is why I'm here. Because I remember growing up, you know, my mother would go to the hospital a lot. Yeah.

And the debt was so bad, she put everything in our name. Like, I had an electric bill when I was three. I'm not even trying to, like, these are the things that they had to do to kind of navigate this space. I know. And to hear someone actually address the concerns that you know are real and that through no fault of your own exist. Cameron, I made this point the other day that Biden-Harris campaign, this White House,

look, I know she like being the Vice President's residence. I would have her on the road five, six days a week because these are the type of conversations that you have to have that's not just about economics. It's also about other public policy areas because the reality is President Biden is not out there. It's what needs to be the conversations. It needs to be the rallies.

They need to be in taking that stuff, cutting this stuff up, kicking this stuff out. They should be flooding. I mean, you look at she's got 15 million followers on Instagram. They should be flooding her Instagram feed. They should be flooding her the TikTok channel as well, because guess what? Mainstream media, they ain't covering this. They're not going to cover it at all. Roland, I hear what you're saying. As a unique, I served as the digital engagement director for

the White House for the first two years, so worked closely with both the president and the vice president and our digital team. Shout out to my colleagues out there. That is what they're trying to do. But I think what you just did is also the goal of this. The vice president is on the road every day, and I think they are pushing it out. We just have a, it takes more than just putting it on her social media feed. I mean, if you go to, if you, in pushing it out, it really takes other outlets. It takes the Roland Martin unfilters. It takes content creators and social media. And I think they're trying to get, they're getting smarter and smarter and doing a better job of having a DL Hughley who brings his own audience. Right. But there's some, but Cameron, Cameron, Cameron, they're slow. Cameron, they're slow.

They're slow. Listen, D're slow. They're slow. Listen, Dio has, I'll say your point. Dio has 3 million Instagram followers. She got 15. Bruh, I'm on her Instagram feed right now. Do you know what they published four hours ago? Two photos when she was in Detroit last week. That was last week. I see the marijuana post. All I'm saying is if you know what mainstream media is not going to cover,

then you have to then say, all right, we got that. All right. There should be video clips. There should be photos or interact with people. They should be flooding the zone. And I'm saying that I just think they're moving too slow. You're not going to mainstream is not going to cover her. The reason people have such views about her, man, we don't see her. We don't know what she's she doing she out there doing her work but mainstream game covering meaning you gotta do it yourself i'm just saying i just think bruh they moving a little slow if there's room for improvement but i will say this and this is something we we pushed heavy that is that's the we're in a new age of how this information gets out like her 15 million followers and you're

right they they're those clips need to keep coming fast and heavy i i there are a lot of rules and restrictions on what can even go on her feed uh just quite frankly i get a little bit of inside tea there no no no no no no no no no i'm not talking hold up i'm not discussing her VP feed. I'm discussing Kamala Harris feed. Now remember, the VP feed, that's White House. You can only do policy. Her Kamala Harris account, that's the one I'm talking about. That's the one with the campaign. And in fact, if I really look right here, hell, her VP feed got $14.4 million.

It's more on Kamala Harris. All I'm saying is, look, fee got $14.4 million. It's more on Kamala Harris. All I'm saying is, look, you got some young... Man, go hire the dude or the woman who does 50 Cent's videos where they travel around with them. Hell, they could be dropping fully edited... I'm just saying you can't rely on traditional media to cover the stuff that she's doing. You're right. You're right. And I think this this both this campaign, like you said, separating us out from the White House, from the campaign.

I think as we see the Biden campaign and the vice president hitting it, hitting the road in our official capacity. But these are also serving as opportunities for the campaign. These are serving as opportunities for those supporters and content folks to really get out there. And this is a thing that, as we've seen in previous campaigns, even I worked on the 2020 around advertising and so forth, it ramps up. We just know we've got to ramp up sooner, faster, harder, and even more creative. So I'm very confident that they're going to get up to speed and continue to increase that pace because I agree with you. The speed of the Internet is lightning times two. So we've got to really match that and exceed that

to how quick people move off of stuff. But I like the fact that she's out there on the road, the fact that she's bringing in voices. She's really filled those rooms with people from community, leaders from all parts of those community, and, to that point, also really driving home more than just the top-line talking points, but things that are in issues that are really affecting folks economically, because, at the end of the day, it's people vote on their pocketbook. People vote on their economic and how comfortable they feel in this economy.

And so I think the fact that she's out here really bringing up those additional points and going to communities of color and making sure she has diverse voices around her. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Do people see themselves in the people who are asking the questions of the Vice President?

Racy, here we go to my iPad. This is you six hours ago. The White House put out the Biden-Harris record. You know I see everything. And we've been talking about this since 2012. You said, hey, White House, we need this in a PDF format and one big infographic. And you've been saying this for the past like listen y'all gotta break this stuff up and what i'm talking about here i'm i'm i'm i was with her in detroit hell i was posting faster than

her people and i'm sitting there going like yo if she's gonna be out doing this you're gonna have somebody there they yo they posted real timetime photos videos this this boom boom in order to get someone's attention I mean DL talking about the home appraisal piece right there I remember that that crazy conservative Patrick bet David tried to tell me that wasn't real guess what I if I'm them, that clip would have been out 15 minutes after he said it. Yeah, I mean, I was at the White House literally two years ago covering these exact issues. I wrote up for EURWeb about their initiative around medical debt. I wrote it up for EURWeb about the PAVE task force, which is around homeownership appraisal bias.

Two years ago, just bias, two years ago, just shy of two years ago, their first student debt plan came out. I don't think that they just have a speed issue. They also have a discipline and relentlessness issue. We see that Republicans are relentless around messaging, whatever their priorities are, whatever their ideology is. And here we are now, two years after many of these initiatives began, and it's still breaking news to too many people. And there have been even more actions

that they've taken on each of these issues, including student debt, since then. And so I think—and we've talked about this before plenty of times—there's an information infrastructure that's lacking, and that is not just necessarily the direct people who work for the White House or for the campaign. I understand that they work very hard, but I don't think that Democrats do a good enough job of leveraging the infrastructure, bolstering the infrastructure that doesn't necessarily have all the rules that they have. That's what Republicans do in terms of how they bolster their surrogates. They bolster Fox News and OAN News and whatever kind of podcast, whatever the situation may be. And Republicans, I mean, Democrats are much more reluctant to do that.

But I do think that, you know, Vice President Kamala Harris's tours are underrated. We saw that that made a difference in the midterms, where people thought that it was ridiculous. She was out there talking about abortion rights and reproductive rights, and it turns out she was right. And that was an underrated issue that the mainstream media wasn't picking out on. And so I think, cumulatively, these kinds of tours will have an impact and move the needle, but they could have even more of an impact. impact if they really did branch out and try to build the information infrastructure beyond the people who follow their pages, beyond forcing people to come to them. And then when people do come to them and look for the information, like when I went to whitehouse.gov, make the information easier. You know, I've seen statistics and people who read my articles, people spend 60

seconds and people don't like to keep clicking and clicking and clicking and clicking it. So you have to put it right in front of their face. You have to make it easy for people to, to, to not just read that moment, but also take with them and share with other people. I'm deeply engaged. I've written about these issues and I still have to do so much labor every time I want to run down the list, unless I keep my own damn list, which shouldn't be my job, to try to explain to people what has been done. There's no excuse for that. They really need to fix that because they are outgunned on the disinformation and misinformation side. And people can recite how much money Ukraine has gotten, how much money Israel has gotten,

but they don't know a damn thing about medical debt and homeownership appraisal bias, HBCU safety grants, Black maternal mortality, how many states have expanded postpartum, Medicaid, child poverty being cut in half for one year, the work that's being done around infrastructure, diabetes medication being $35. They can't recite those things, but they can tell you that there's another $10 billion for Ukraine, oh, another $10 billion for whoever. That's the problem that the Democrats face. And at some point, they're going to have to figure that out. You know, Lauren, perfect example. Last week, when Vice President Colin Harris was coming out of the Soul Food restaurant, the brother who's a producer with ABC News, he shouted out a question about Gaza.

And she said something about shrimping grits. I'm talking about in 10 minutes. The Republicans had that clip up, and oh, Kamala Harris blowing off questions, and that thing was zooming all around social media. And I'm sitting there because the producer was going through his feed, and he was sitting here saying, oh, this thing is everywhere. It wasn't even 10 minutes. I'm sitting there watching it in real time. And I'm sitting here saying to the Bad Harris team,

yo, that's called opposition research and that's called rapid response. Well, rapid response can also happen on the offensive your rapid response should not always happen on the defensive and so i'm gonna be very curious to see what comes out of this trip what the coverage looks like what are the clips what are the things that are pushed out that's what i'm gonna be looking for. Your thoughts. Yeah. So you talk about Arthur Jones at ABC. He's a good guy. I think that we need to understand that in most White Houses, I can't speak specifically to this vice president, but in most White Houses, there's a great deal of control by the White House on the

vice president. And I don't know the specificity about whether or not she can get her information, you know, whether she has to get her tweets and communications approved, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. I know in other White Houses, there's a great deal of bureaucracy with regard to what the messaging is, and it's very top-down and controlled by the president's office. In other White Houses, there's a great deal of bureaucracy with regard to what messaging is, and it's very top-down and controlled by the president's office. So when you talk about slowness, that is probably one of the factors.

The other thing is, when we talk about rapid response, typically on a campaign footing, that's where you have the rapid response. That's where you have somebody standing there tweeting, like, in almost, like, real time. That is difficult to do, I think, for most White Houses, simply because there is an incredible level of bureaucracy, an incredible level of fear of making a mistake and wanting all these sign-offs and check-offs. And so it takes a long time for the message to get out. That's unfortunate, because we live in a technological age where speed, of course, is a big factor. But what I've seen in a lot of cases is the young people who are very good at messaging are not in control of those decisions. You know that Anita Dunn, of course, is effectively

in control of comms at the White House. And, of course, she's an older person. And what you typically find is the young people who know how to do it quickly and effectively and know how to meme and know how to do things in a very smart, quick way, they're the ones that are not in charge. So that's something to keep in mind. The other thing I would say, too, is that, though, Roland, I think your points are well taken with regard to the vice president's tour and everything else. You have to remember that the top of ticket is usually what people are paying attention to. They're typically not paying attention to Walter Mondale or Mike Pence or whoever the vice president is at any given moment.

She should not really, quite frankly, have to do all this stuff. The top of the ticket, for whatever reason, is not particularly energetic. And that puts a lot of pressure on an office that is controlled, I think, if I had to guess, by the White House and the West Wing. So it's an interesting situation that Kamala Harris is in. I think in some ways, a very unfair situation. It doesn't accentuate her strengths in a way that would help this White House and help this president as he runs for a second term. But they should have Lincoln Project level messaging. I mean, Lincoln Project, you can see these people who do this messaging quite well. I'm not sure why they're not able to do it.

Well, next we're going to talk about this idiot, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, giving a pardon to this guy who killed a Black Lives Matter protester. We are going to talk about what the White House announced today when it comes to $16 billion for HBCUs. And I'm going to show y'all in real time, again, how they didn't do that one right. And 16 billion is a big number, but I'm going to get that in a second. But let me go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about this throughout Texas. Folks, unbelievable, but it's no shock. Republicans don't give a damn about law and order if you're a white man who kills a Black Lives Matter protester. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I wanted the people of Baltimore to hear it from me.

I have done nothing wrong. Jesus has asked for a beautiful repeat. But I see that what you are trying to do is destroy this black woman for doing her job. I have heard your calls for no justice, no peace. However, your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of Freddie Gray. Marilyn was a force to be reckoned with.

I was assuming this was all because of Freddie Gray, but it actually is much deeper than that. Baltimore's top prosecutor, a woman named Marilyn Mosby, was indicted yesterday in the Eastern District of Maryland for perjury. Couldn't help but think about Donald Trump. This is what you got to deal with when you are a black woman fighting for just causes in America. Yeah, but just take it on the police, period. She's stepping on their toes.

They wanna cross her out of the system so she can't stand up for the future. Reach to the pool and grab me and pull me out. Imagine if this were you. You would want people to stand in your corner. I lost my car. I lost my job. I lost my job. I lost my marriage and almost lost my mind for a little while. There's just so much right now, Lord, and I'm just, and why are

you putting all of this on me? I'm about to break. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Franklin. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, today, Texas Governor Greg Abbott pardoned a white racist, a white nationalist, a white supremacist. His name is Daniel Perry. He's a former U.S. Army sergeant. He was convicted of murdering a 2020 Black Lives Matter protester.

And that protester actually happened to be white. Abbott's decision comes after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend a full pardon and the restoration of Perry's firearm rights. Okay, I'm sorry. Did I just tell y'all that the man was convicted of murdering somebody in 2020?

Four years. Four years later, now, Perry faced between five and 99 years in prison for family shooting 28-year-old Air Force veteran Garrett Foster at an Austin, Texas, racial justice rally two months after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A judge sentenced Perry to 25 years in prison last year. 25 years. Last year.

But here's Greg Abbott now deciding, oh no, no, go ahead and release him and give him his gun back. Now, this here is a tweet that was posted by Joaquin Castro, who is also a member of Congress. Y'all love this. You're going to love this here. Before Daniel Perry murdered a veteran, he told a friend, I might go to Dallas to shoot looters. A year before, too bad we can't get paid for hunting Muslims. Jelana Jones, the representative in Texas out of Houston, joins us right now. Representative Jones, this is Greg Abbott.

Now remember, Tucker Carlson demanded on Fox News that Greg Abbott pardon this racist Daniel Perry. And that's exactly what Abbott did. And the Board of Pardons, the reason it was unanimous, because Perry made it clear he wanted it done. Well, Roland, I will say this. The reason that they did that is because he appoints the people to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is why who the governor is matters.

And they follow his orders on anything all the time. And that's what's expected of them. But what we're not talking about is a man who Daniel Perry murdered. He murdered Perry. He murdered Garrett Foster, who was a military veteran who had a license to carry. And the truth is that Daniel drove his car into protesters two months after the George Floyd murder and the rallies and could have hurt other people. And this other guy had a weapon, which he had a license to carry. He's a military veteran as well. And so, and again, as you mentioned, he tweeted all the time about how he hated Black people, about how he hated Muslims.

And then he argued self-defense. Now, in my day job, I'm a criminal defense lawyer. Well, you can't create a situation where you drive into a crowd of people who are lawfully protesting and then say you felt threatened, because he could have killed people. So I put out a statement today because I was so angry. And you should know, I'm literally sitting in the Austin International Airport somewhere where I could find some quiet in the Barbara Jordan Airport. I literally just passed Governor Perry's mansion. And this is going to be like open season on Black people. And it's going to be open season on people who support black people because the governor just said it's lawful and I will pardon you.

And I'm terrified. In fact, in fact, Jolanda, in fact, Jolanda, this right here is the proclamation that he issued. Texas Board of Pardon and Parole has conducted an exhaustive review of Daniel Scott Perry's personal history and the facts surrounding his shooting of Garrett Foster. And whereas both the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 23 of the Texas Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms for, among other things, self-defense. And whereas Texas law consistent with those constitutional guarantees provides one of the clearest self-defense protections in the United States. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So Daniel Scott Perry, while driving on a public road in Austin, slowed his vehicle as he rounded the corner onto Congress Avenue and encountered a group of protesters obstructing traffic,

and Daniel Scott Perry's car was immediately surrounded by aggressive protesters who rushed to obstruct, strike, pound, smash, and kick his vehicle. And Gary Foster then approached within 18 inches of Daniel Scott Perry's car, confronted him, and brandished a Kalashnikov-style rifle in the low-ready firing position. Daniel Scott Perry fired his handgun at Garrett Foster to eliminate a perceived threat. Now, he goes on and on and on talking about, here's the whole deal. This is what got me. They completed an exhaustive review of his personal history.

His writings are clear. He's an absolute racist. He actually text somebody that I'm going to pull up in a second that, oh, that what he wanted to do was shoot, shoot protesters. He wanted to shoot. Let me see if I can find. I want to find it. Give me a second. Where he actually said he desired to

yeah, he had texted a friend I will only shoot the protesters in front and push the pedal to the metal. This man is a murderer and Texas Governor Greg Abbott today

allowed a racist murderer to be free and gave him the right to get his guns back. It's worse than a racist. He's anti-black. He's anti-black. And the jury vetted his self-defense claim. The jury listened to all the witnesses. The jury listens to all the testimony.

And they threw that out. As I said before, in my day job, I'm a criminal defense lawyer. You do not get to claim self-defense when you create a situation where that you perceive danger. If you drive into protesters, he drove into protesters. The car wasn't surrounded by him. He created them being around him. So I'm again, I'm terrified as a Black woman, as a mother of a Black son, who is actually a man now. It terrifies me, because if someone doesn't like the way my son looks, they could have texted friends, they could have posted things. And if he convinces people who are like-minded like him, i.e. Governor Abbott and the Board of Parties and Paroles, then they are putting themselves in the, I guess, the mind of that person. And it's terrifying.

And it's very hard for me as a black person in the legislature. We are under attack all the time. And the worst thing you can do to somebody is kill them. The biggest freedom you can take away from them is their life. But they believed that his right to carry a freaking gun was more important than the life that he took. That's what it's like to be in Texas. If I were black, I wouldn't live in Texas. I wouldn't live in Texas.

And I'm fighting this day in and day out in the legislature. And I'm just heartbroken. I'm actually heartbroken. It is laughing in the face of the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system finally worked for us, which is very rare. And you take that from his family. You take that from black people who are fighting so hard and our allies who are fighting so hard to help people that we deserve the rights just like everyone else. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull

will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And Garrett Foster had a right to protest peacefully, and he was. And in fact, wait a minute, and here's the deal.

This is also why Greg Abbott is trash. This is what Perry said to the investigator, quote, I believe he was going to aim at me. I didn't want to give him a chance to aim at me. The gun, so Abbott is lying in his pardon. Foster never aimed at him. He killed him saying, oh, I thought he was going to aim at me, so therefore I killed him first. Right. But again, a jury listened to the testimony. They listened to the evidence and they denied the self-defense and they convicted him of murder. Now, the jury didn't convict him of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which I think they should have. But this is just wrong. And in Texas, it's a wild, wild west.

It is open season on us. And I'm terrified for black people generally and black men specifically. Well, and this is what you see when Republicans like Rhonda Sanders pass bills saying, yeah, it's OK. Y'all can run with protesters. That's the whole deal. They despise black lives matter protesters. And so Greg Abbott, again, is standing with a racist man who hates black people, who hates Muslims. And for the Republican Party, that's called a trifecta. And that's how he got a partner.

Representative Jones, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. I appreciate you. Bottom line is recently we've got to understand what's going on here. This is not just in Texas. You've got the Missouri governor who's talking about partnering a cop who was convicted. You've got that case as well. You've got other examples. These Republican governors, they got no problem with these racists doing what they do, these cops doing what they do, and they are going to use their power.

And so the so-called long order people only like long order when it applies to black people and brown people. Well, and let me be clear. This message is to white folks. You will be the collateral damage of these white nationalists being deputized by the system. Garrett Foster was not a Black man. He was a white man, a white military veteran, which is supposed to be the creme de la creme and the untouchable, the highest echelon of protection that's typically afforded in this country is to a white male veteran. They're supposed to be off limits, except for when you are protesting for the humanity of

Black people, for Black Lives Matter. We've seen time and time again, Cal Rittenhouse was acquitted of killing white people. The person who killed Heather, I mean, Heather Heyer, who was protesting or anti-protesting in Charlottesville, a white woman. We've seen time and time again where white people standing on the side of humanity, particularly as it relates to Black people, are just as susceptible to the violence of white supremacists. And their killers are—walk scot-free just as much as they do when they kill Black people. And so anybody who is concerned about the deputization of white nationalists—and that's exactly what this is.

Of course they did an exhaustive review. The fact that he did have those racist writings was the feather in his cap. It made it that much better, because not only did they let somebody off to send the message that it's okay to do this, but they put a deputy, an armed deputy, back on the street, and they've empowered him and everybody else like him. If he had just been some old senile guy whose foot got stuck on the gas, he probably would still be in damn jail. But he isn't.

Yep. He's a white nationalist. He's a foot soldier. And that's what's useful to them. And they are doing this across the country and they'll continue to do it. Yep. And it's not just black people who have to be worried. It's not just Latino people or people of color.

It's white people too. Lauren, Leah Greenberg of the Indivisible team, she tweeted this. This is an open invitation to the worst people in the country, white supremacists, MAGA fanatics and more to commit violence, knowing that MAGA governors like Greg Abbott will have their backs filed profoundly unjust and deeply frightening. Yeah, well, to continue what Recy just said, they're sending a very specific message to anyone who supports Black Lives Matter that if somebody were to get into a situation

where they get killed at a Black Lives Matter protest, white or black, but in these cases, white. Kyle Rittenhouse, of course, was the other one. They're sending a very specific message that we will protect anyone who kills someone at one of these protests who's a BLM activist. I mean, they're sending that specific message. And, of course, this has a long history. When I think about Sharona Goodman Cheney, when I think this has a long history. When I think about Shmarna Goodman

Cheney, when I think about James Swerg, when I think about Viola Liuzzo, there's a history of that particular thing. And, frankly, it's kind of shades of like an 1857 Dred Scott type of thing, right, that effectively the message is certain people are not protected under the law because my politics and my feelings are X, Y, and Z. And so—but to me, that is a particularly dangerous message. It is a throwback to the 1800s and past that. And it's familiar. I mean, they just sort of—it's funny. The modern Republican Party just wants to go back in time, you know, by decades. But really what it kind of reminded me of was a little bit of a Dred Scott type of thing, even though, as is pointed out,

the victim, Garrett Foster, is white. But this idea that you're not protected under the law because we don't like your politics or we don't like you or we have declared you to be a non-citizen, a non-person is what's going on here. Oh, absolutely. And so what you have here, Cameron, you have this is a man who spent he didn't spend 20 years in jail. He didn't spend 10. He went to jail last year. But again, he is a hero on the right. You got Kyle Rittenhouse out here tweeting. Oh, don't think for a second that these racist white conservatives, these MAGA lovers, these folks,

oh, he is going to be their newest star. Oh, they're going to make him a millionaire. Oh, he's going to be on the speaking circuit. Watch, he is going to be their newest star. Oh, they're going to make him a millionaire. Oh, he's going to be on the speaking circuit. Watch, he's going to be at Turning Point USA Conference. I wouldn't be shocked if they have him introducing somebody at the Republican National Convention. Cameron, you're on mute.

Y'all got to stop hitting the mute button. There you go. Roland, I was just going to say, it's kind of sickening to see how low Governor Abbott, specifically in Texas, has gone and has gone and used his office, the state's attorney there, the state legislature, just to weaponize their offices to fully disenfranchise and really make us less than humans, black folks, and anything related to supporting black community there. The one thing I will say, especially when you look at Governor Abbott literally not trying to hide this in any way, shape or form, this is the kind of information and this is the kind of stuff

we really need to put back to the people of Texas. Texas, as a lone star state and having spent time working and even living in Texas before, people have a sense of pride that don't mess with us. We can govern ourselves. We can really stand up, pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and what's mine is mine and stand our ground. But we've gone too far where people's right to life is less than people's right to carry and bear arms.

We've gone too far. And I think this is an opportunity this election and over the next cycles to really start to remove that racist legislature, because this doesn't just start with Abbott. This goes all the way down. Like, they're protected on so many different levels, from the courts to the legislatures to the governor's offices and so many mayor's offices around the state. Well, look, you got that thug attorney general in Texas, Ken Paxson. This is what he tweeted. Governor Abbott has just pardoned Sergeant Daniel Perry after a unanimous recommendation

by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Americans across the country have been watching this case in Texas and praying for justice after BLM riots terrorized the nation in 2020. Our right to self-defense is enshrined in the Constitution. Soros-backed prosecutors like Jose Garza do not get to pick and choose the rights we have as Americans. I am relieved that justice has prevailed. They don't care about his racist text messages. They don't care about his racist language. So we need to be

making perfectly clear. And that is Republicans in Texas, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxson, others, they are in support of a racist white nationalist in Daniel Perry. That's who he is in his own words. Going to break, we come back. $16 billion going to HBCUs over the last three years from the Biden-Harris administration. I can't wait to hear Senator Tim Scott talk about how Trump still did more. His lying ass.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Hundreds of thousands of Black Americans lost healthcare insurance. That is outrageous. And if he's president again, he would cancel insurance for millions more of us. We cannot go back. President Biden and Vice President Harris have lowered healthcare premiums and expanded coverage for Black families. They also capped the price of insulin at $35. Joe Biden is getting the job done for people just like me. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr.

Dr. Gerald Horne, a man regarded by many as the most important historian of our time. He provides us a history lesson I'm betting you've never heard before. Texas enslavers who plan to continue the conflict even after Appomattox, even after the formal surrender of Robert E. Lee. Dr. Horne talks about his new book, The Counter-Revolution of 1836, Texas, Slavery, and Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism. You do not want to miss this conversation only on The Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker.

Trudy Proud on The Proud Family. Louder and Prouder on Disney+. And you're watching Roland Mars Unfiltered. Today, the Biden-Harris administration announced a new record of federal funding and investments in HBCUs, totaling more than $16 billion from fiscal year 2021 to now. Those funds came from the following. Nearly $4 billion for HBCUs through the American Rescue Plan and other COVID relief legislation. These grants, funded through the Department of Education and other agencies, have helped HBCUs support students' ability to meet basic needs, support campus operations,

staffing, teaching, and educational programs, and keep campuses and the surrounding communities on the path to an equitable recovery. $2.6 billion from the Department of Education to build institutional capacity at HBCUs. These efforts support the growth and sustainability of HBCU degree programs, increase and enhance human, technological, and physical infrastructure for research, strengthen positioning to secure direct partnership opportunities, and create sustainable fund development. Over $1.6 billion to HBCUs through federal grants, cooperative agreements, and other competitive funding opportunities that drive the advancement of academic and training programs, community-based initiatives, and research innovation across

national priorities such as medicine and public health, climate science, agriculture, emerging technologies, and defense. Almost $950 million to support HBCUs in growing research capacity and related infrastructure to better compete for federal research and development dollars. Nearly 719 million to grant funding to expand STEM academic capacity and educational programs in other high-wage, high-demand fields such as computer science, nursing, and allied health.

Over $150 million in federal contracting opportunities awarded to HBCUs, including for research and expansion of STEM education programs at the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, and U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.6 billion in capital finance debt relief for 45 public and private HBCUs. Discharging these debts has enabled these institutions

to focus resources on supporting students, faculty, and staff. What that means, folks, is they don't have to pay that money back. Over $2.4 million in Project Serve funds to support HBCUs affected by more than a dozen bomb threats in 2022. Also, folks, so that's the total amount of money. Now, remember earlier I was talking about how you position this and how you frame this? This is the White House Twitter feed. You got a video from President Joe Biden

on the decision by the Department of Justice to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 drug. Totally understand it? Got it. You know what I see right here? Boom, a graphic, okay? The video dropped, the video dropped right here.

You'll see the video, and all of a sudden, then you see the graphic. Then we got the Brown vs. Board of Education meeting, a big photo op. Another post regarding the reclassification of marijuana. Another post on marijuana. Another post on marijuana. Another post on marijuana. Then retirement accounts.

Now we go further. Fair shot at home ownership. Okay, then we got new investments. I'm keeping, I'm keep going. Okay, here we go, here we go. This is on the White House account, okay. National Peace and, okay, now we one day over. Here's my whole point. On the White House account. OK, National Peace. OK, now we one day over is my whole point on the White House's Twitter feed. Nothing, nothing on the 16 billion dollars. OK, now I'm going to do this here.

I'll go to the Joe Biden account. Now, remember when Plies was going off when he said talk your stuff. Same thing. I'm looking on here. I got the video from the debate. I got a Dairy Queen. I see nothing about the 16 billion. This is the thing, Lauren. We were talking about earlier. Recy was talking about no cameras sitting here going like, oh, man billion to HBCUs from the Biden-Harris administration. That's your graphic. And then you put more than any president in American history. Where is it?

I get the press release. I get the long white sheet. You got to sell it. Yeah, I know. I get it. I'm just telling you, these offices are very layered and there's a lot of sign offs and there's a lot of approvals. The other thing, too, that can't be denied here is that, frankly, I think a lot of Democrats, a lot of white Democrats, have a hard time bringing themselves to show everybody what they specifically stuff for black folks, because they perceive that as, oh, my goodness, we might piss off, quote, moderate voters or moderate Republicans that we might be able to attract. So, there's this sort of game that goes on, too, in the messaging of being afraid to show what you're doing for your base, which is, of course, foolish in this particular example,

because of course the base of the party, both parties typically appeal to their base. But for some reason, the Democratic Party always has this problem appealing to their strongest block, their most dedicated block, which is black voters, specifically black women voters, on top of that. But black men are number two. And so I think that's another thing that gets involved with the messaging, particularly when it comes to something so specific as historically black colleges. So I'll bet you anything that that's a factor, because, yeah, they'll put out the performative thing of, and there's nothing wrong with celebrating the 70th anniversary of Brown v.

Board, but that is probably a performative meeting, right? I mean, it's sort of a, you know, obviously a tip of the hat to that history. Nothing wrong with that. But there's the performative and then there's the substantive. And when it comes down to substantive policy, what we find a lot of times in the Democratic Party is a fear to show everyone and message as vigorously as we can in terms of we the Democratic Party messaging as they can, as vigorously as they can in the direction of black people. But the deal is, though, but Cameron, here's the deal, though. They put it out.

A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

What I'm saying is, it's not like they hit it. They actually put it out. What I'm saying is, sell it. You gotta put it out. What I'm saying is sell it. You got to sell it. You got to push it. It has to it has to be there. That's my point. They didn't put it out as publicly as they could have. Cameron. Yeah, you got me. I mean, I will say this. This is an issue that obviously very close to me, close to my heart as a Howard and as a Howard alum, HBCU alum, family of HBCU alumni.

And knowing our vice president also being an HBCU alum and so many of us there as this number kept growing over time. I remember one of our first big issues and crises was the misinformation around how much money the Biden administration was in those first two years had been giving, which already immediately after year one was a record amount of HBCU funding and investment. And that number has only continued to grow. I will say this. This is a growing number that is consistently updated and updated and put in front of folks. Yes, Lauren mentioned something earlier. There are a lot of approvals. There's a lot of different issues that need to cover on the core feeds of the president, vice president, and White House. I got to see that firsthand. There's a million things that can talk about, and literally just due to time and space, you can't tweet them all

in real time. But what I do like about this is that they understand that on a platform like HBCU Buzz, HBCU Grad, HBCU Alum, Watch the Yard, The Shade Room, Executive T, all these different digital outlets which have way more followers and way more engagement with the actual communities that this is affecting, that this is making sure that there was a coordinated rollout. And I can guarantee you that there will be – Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. At some point in the next 24 to 48 hours. Cameron, don't do that. We rolled out. Cameron, don't do that at some point at the next 24 to 48 hours don't do that we rolled out

camera don't do that you know why i mean this used to be my this can't camera camera camera camera camera don't do that camry don't do that and i i don't push back on that it should be but i do the five account cameron the five accounts that you just mentioned, it's not on there. I checked. That's my point. Okay, again, here's my whole point. If you're going to drop the news on, first of all, you're dropping the news on Friday. Everybody already know you don't supposed to drop good news on Friday.

Okay, especially Friday afternoon. Here's my whole point. I'm on the shade room. No mention. I'm over here on HBCU grad. No mention. Thursday? No, I'm over here on HBCU buzz. No mention.

I checked, watch the yard. No mention. This checked Watch the Yard, no mention. This is precisely my point. If you're going to drop this on Friday, you say, yo, name them all again. You said Shade Room,

Watch the Yard, HBCU Grad, HBCU Buzz, HBCU Nation, that I'm going to hit them and say, yo, y'all get it. Y'all get it first. Y'all can load it Thursday night. They should have woke up Friday morning and their graphic, their graphic $16 billion. Whatever

how you want to phrase it should have been on every single one of their apps. It's not. That, Recy, is what I call missed opportunity. You got a great story, but you ain't telling nobody, and we already know mainstream media don't give a damn about HBCUs. Well, let me say this. I think that the Black media engagement has been far superior in

this administration than other ones. I was invited now, again, two years ago, to report on the CERB grants, HBCU bomb grants. Got lots of views, got lots of hits. But I will say that Democrats widely, not just this White House, but Democrats widely rely on us doing the heavy lifting in terms of, OK, we'll send you a press release and we will, you know, invite you on the calls and we'll even invite you to the White House to report on it. But they don't do a lot of making it easy for us to report. And they definitely don't make it easy for those who are receiving the information to receive it outside of reading an article or watching a video or things of that nature. So I agree with you around the point of memes, around graphics. I've been saying that.

And I think they need to do even beyond just text memes, text graphics. They do have some that are pretty good. But, you know, those don't necessarily hit as much as like, for instance, when the disinformation was spreading around crack pipes and you go to the shade room and you see a big ass fucking crack pipe and it says buying hairs, giving crackpipes away. So I think there is a part that doesn't necessarily recognize that what they're up against and how people are receiving the counter information, the disinformation and misinformation. And how that makes it that much more important and how you deliver the message, how relentless you are about delivering the message, how consistent you are in delivering the message, and for making it easier for people to translate the message. I remember when I—just the last thing I'll say is when I reported on these things, I haven't written in a while because I'm busy doing all these shows, but I remember I had to do so much work to write.

And I mean, journalists will say, duh, but I'm just saying that they give you a fact sheet, 100 things on it. They give you a day. Give me three highlights. If you can give me on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, three talk points to run with, that's going to sink in a lot easier than giving me a list of 100 items. It's the same reason that crack pipes was easy. The same reason that $10 billion for Ukraine is easy, the same reason for looking what the Asians got was easy. They don't understand that you got to keep it simple and put it where the goats can get it, as Joe Madison would say. So, again, so, folks, the work is being done.

Yeah, absolutely. It's being done. But again, it goes to how do you drive a message? How do you communicate a message? And the reason for me this is It Matters Camera, because it's in your wheelhouse. The polling, the data shows it. We had the Black Voter Project on yesterday. We had Terrence Woodbury on.

Cornell Belcher's polls. It's in the data. Black people are seeing the most misinformation about Biden-Harris, Instagram 1, TikTok 2. So that means that if I am trying to counter misinformation, I mean, when you look at, when Earn Your Leisure put up the photo of Vice President Kamala Harris on there when they interviewed her in Atlanta, Yo, you had all

of these, some of the nastiest comments attacking her left and right. Lies. They still run with the lie, Cameron. She locked up millions of black men. Been debunked.

They run with the lies, which means that, so if I know what my obstacle is, now I gotta have a counter message. When they would do student loan debt relief, if I posted on my Instagram page, you would see the usual lying folks coming out, oh, they ain't done shit, it's only 9%, why can't they forgive all of it dumbass Supreme Court said they couldn't dumbass Those you did vote for Hillary Clinton say hello cuz as I Trump got three Supreme Court picks. Okay, just cut this just call facts

But my deal is you know what happened people were like, yeah,'t know nobody who got relief. Other people said, I did. My son did. My daughter did. And so it was countering the lies. That to me is what they have to understand what you're now up against. And which is why their messaging has to be stronger, faster, more efficient. Cameron, go ahead. Yeah, I think both from inside the campaign, inside the White House, and all those supporters

who are looking to push. I will say this, is that I think in this era of misinformation, disinformation, salacious headlines, the truth just moves a little slower. If it's not as salacious, if it's not something that— AMY GOODMAN, The Press Leader of the United States, Say that again. JOSEPH BIDEN, If it's not something that really breaks through, it moves a little slower.

But that doesn't mean they don't need to double down and triple down in that vigilance and on keeping that message and on discipline. I have full faith in the campaign that they will get it together, that the White House, like I said, is continuously giving the resources they have to be able to try to push it out as much as possible. But I think even my involvement this year in just making sure that people understand the tactics, social media, content creators, all the different ways we can get messages out this year, and just being on that soapbox to make sure that Democrats, not just at the White House, but all the way down the ticket,

are really using these new age tactics and data and understanding to really be able to reach through, break through. Because it's just going to be that much harder to get a positive message when the lie sounds so much. Yeah. And look, look, I spent six weeks having to negate the Newsweek cover lie of Biden-Harris cutting $35 billion from HBCUs, which was a flat out lie. And again, when you're in the world that we're living in, it's just totally different. And you know what? It's no longer a world where it's only one story per day. Hey, guess what?

The focus today is gonna be this here. No, you sometimes have to have two and three because you're reaching different audiences. Listen, the changing the marijuana schedule, very important, very important. But guess what? I don't smoke weed. So the HBCU story may be more important to me because here's the piece and what I also read.

People have to understand. We talk about that $16 billion to HBCUs. That's just not a BS number. That's also, which they mentioned in the release, it's also those communities around. So you're talking about black-owned restaurants. You're talking about black cleaners. You're talking about the people who rent apartments or houses where the students live as well.

So the support, that $16 billion that goes to HBCUs, is helping black folks who didn't even go to HBCUs but live near and around those institutions. Hold on, hold on, Lauren, one second. Lauren, hold on. Reese, you want to make a comment? I'm going, Lauren. Reese, you go.

Yeah, I just, the reason why the truth travels slower is because there's no investment in the truth. The reason why these lies and disinformation and misinformation travel much more pervasively and quicker is because there's an investment in them. It is hundreds of millions of dollars invested in that. And the Democrats want to rely on organic truth telling. And that's where they all did you see this and can you make a video and can you talk about this? Yeah, I can. But what are you going to do to invest in that truth that I'm correcting getting out there?

And do you value the truth being corrected on platforms like Roland Martin and Filter, like my show, Sirius XM Urban View, or like when I've written for EUR Web and I see the, oh, look at who, look what VP is doing. Look at the articles. And I see ABC News. I see everybody else. And I don't see my article on there. And so what Democrats don't do is they don't invest in the information infrastructure. I've said that a million times. They don't invest in the truth. They just think that things are supposed to just magically happen in an era where everything is manipulated in algorithms and in what's going to attract clicks and dollars. And they don't want to invest in countering that. And I'm sorry, but it's not going to cut it by having people make content and thinking that, oh, well, somebody's making content and that alone is going to fix it.

Not when $100 million is behind your opposition to make sure that people see that whatever it is that they're believing, which they are, and regurgitating and taking for I.E. Cardi B and others, sexy red, and hell, even Charlamagne and some other people, they're going to make sure that there is money behind that. And Democrats do not do that. I'm not saying give me money. I'm just saying Democrats do not invest in the truth and the infrastructure the way that they should.

And that's why they're constantly playing catch up. Lauren, go ahead. Part of that, though, is I totally agree with you, Recy, but this is where it's not the White House's fault. Like a lot of this is the metrics. The metrics of the media business right now is that they're losing money, they're losing viewership, they're losing attention, and they're putting on what's salacious to get that attention. And when you put out something substantive, like the HBCU funding numbers, the media is not interested, because they want to do Donald Trump all day long on a hush money case, because that is what makes them money. So they're not investing in substantive information.

And frankly, it's laziness, but it's's also desperation because they have picked clicks and web traffic over what is the truth and really over what really is just public service which is why which is why you can't that's that's not the white house's which is which no no no no but no no but no no no no no no it is. It is. It is the fault of, I dare say, folks in the White House, in the DNC and others who don't understand that. where conservative operatives put together, raised a million plus dollars to launch this new media outlet on Capitol Hill. One second. They're always launching. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

But the key is, so, but here's the deal. But it goes to, though, what Reese is talking about. Right, the Democrats are not investing in an ecosystem. Right, and so, and so. That's completely true. No, and what I'm saying is, and what I'm saying. Conversations. Hold up, but here's the whole point here.

The whole point here is. But big media, the New York Times... I'm not... But this is... They don't want... But Lauren, I don't give a shit about them. And that's the point. Here's the reality.

They're not doing it. So if you know that they're not going to be doing it, what you then have to do is you have to then have an ecosystem or have a strategy that doesn't even involve them. They're not going to cover it. We already know. Listen, MSNBC, CNN, they're not even going to cover the vice president's conversation with Dio Hugh today. They didn't cover her in Detroit last week. They didn't cover her in Atlanta the week before. So now the question is, if you know that going in, what is the

strategy that you have to communicate and drive messaging? So you know they're not going to do it. So what are you going to do? You can't just say, well, it's not going to happen. And what I'm... Well, Shade Room isn't doing it either. I mean, is black media doing it other than you?

Who is doing a substantive read on HBCU funding? Go ahead, Cameron. Go ahead, Cameron. Roland Martin, who is doing substantive reporting on black information other than Roland Martin? I would say this. It's not necessarily about reporting. It's about content and things that are capturing.

This is an entertainment. Unfortunately, news is now entertainment. People need to be entertained in order for you to stick on your phone, stick on a feed and click. What I do know what will happen, that investment, to Recy's point, in that eco-chamber of not just organics, but you need paid influencers. You need people across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. You need people in these closed groups who are paid, just like any other advertising platform, to continue to promote messages. In addition to that, I think with this HBCU and the fact that this money was so diversely spread across so many different HBCUs and so many different opportunities, over $950 million to 40-plus HBCUs on research funding alone.

I think they have an opportunity is to have this story run all the entire summer, all fall, where they're literally showing, hey, I'm here at Alcorn State University. We just received a grant here. This is real money. Like, I'm here at Mississippi Valley State. Well, that's that's but that's if they do it, that's if they do it. But what I'm but you have to have but you you have to have a plan of action to execute a strategy. And what I am saying is what they have to accept is we know what mainstream is not going to do. We also understand, and this is a reality, because of the lack of investment, why you don't really have a significant, real, black-owned media apparatus. You don't. I've broken this down before.

Black Enterprise ain't covering black business stories like they used to. They're a conference company. It's just a fact. Essence is not covering a lot of this stuff. They're focused on hair and beauty. Ebony is a shell of itself. OK, it's some stuff happening at the Griot. But so if you talk about Baller Alert or Shade Room, Jasmine Brand, they're basically Instagram posts. So you have to understand in terms of what the ecosystem here is but what i'm saying is they they do have to recognize that they got to look at it a different way putting out a three-page white sheet ain't gonna do it and reese has been saying that we've talked about it for longest and i and I agree with her. You can't just put out, here's a long white sheet. No,

it's understanding what the system, the current system feeds off of. And again, what did I say about student loan debt? I don't care what anybody says. And I still haven't seen it and to me this ain't that hard if I'm the campaign I'm soliciting some of the what is it 3.9 million people who got in student loan debt I'm saying send me your Thanks, Joe video and this is to me. This is the video I did that to me and I've been seeing it for longest that's good. I've been seeing it for the longest This is the commercial. The commercial is simple.

So and so. Can I use this idea? Doc, it's in the public. I've been seeing it for weeks. The commercial is this. You see the photo of a black dude. Name at the bottom and amount of money he had in relief. he says thanks joe show me a

white woman thanks joe show me a latino man thanks joe that's the damn ad just showing name 78 000 110 000 58 000 and then at the end of it, 3.9 million Americans have gotten $160 billion in student loan debt relief. And I end that sucker with, thanks, Joe, this ad. I authorize this ad. And you know what? Every time Vice President Kamala Harris, when she was in Milwaukee today, she should have said, hey, glad to see all y'all here. Before I start, Kim, John, so-and-so, these five people sitting in the audience right now, collectively, they had more than $500,000 in student loan debt relief as a result of our administration. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord. And you know what? I'm making those five folks available people to interview when the damn thing is over. And I'm just simply saying you have to understand you're in a different world. You gotta stop running an analog campaign

in a digital world. So yeah, Cameron, take the idea. I'll make sure we get that on the other ways this year. It works. It works. Because all of a sudden it's like, oh shit, because this is the problem. This is the problem.

When you talk about big things, the person at home like, oh, okay, fine, you know, 160 billion. billion oh hold up so and so in my town how much they oh I might know that girl it's real Joe Madison

always said put it where the ghost can get it all I'm saying is it's great that they announced this in the 16 billion but you gotta sell it 80% of the job ain't getting the policy Announce this and it's $16 billion. But you got to sell it. 80% of the job ain't getting the policy. 20% of the job is getting the policy.

80% is selling your wins. That's what you got to do. All right, this real... A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and 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. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter

Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. 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.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Real quick, y'all, I've been pushing this video for three days, and I just want to get y'all to comment. If y'all want to see just what, to me, just one of the dumbest looking but, you know what? They call themselves a starting five. Just go ahead and play the video.

I'm just going to let y'all respond. Hey, this is America's starting five. I'm supposed to be in Georgia. I'm supposed to be in New Hampshire. I'm supposed to be in Georgia, I'm supposed to be in New Hampshire, I'm supposed to be in Ohio and lots of other places, and they have me sitting here for a Biden trial. It's a Biden trial. And I never saw so many prosecutors.

They're all sitting in the room over nothing, over absolutely nothing. There's no crime. There's no anything here. And that's what these legal scholars say. How can you bring a case like this brag didn't want to bring it brag is the guy bringing it and he didn't want to bring it went to every agency just about in law enforcement they all turned it down as a joke and i'm sitting here because that's exactly what they want they don't want me on the campaign trail

but it's a real a real disgrace and the whole world. But it's a real disgrace. And the whole world is watching. It's a disgrace to New York. Well, there's no doubt about it. You think about who the hell is D.A. Bragg? I mean, he has become the poster child. All right, all right. Put that on pause. Put that on pause.

First of all, just put the video on pause. First of all, if y'all going to do some little quasi-ass TV show, okay? Y'all, it's the theme called stream yard today You ain't got to be so ghetto to see the goddamn iPad in front of the camera and play it to get some badass Audio you're not cheap y'all look here's the other thing, okay? First of all y'all go back to the video. Look at them all of us sitting there In all of them sitting there, you know, with the suits on, no ties, on that liberty-ass set, okay?

First of all, get y'all a bigger damn set, okay? Y'all too damn big, Byron Donalds and Tim Scott, and we sitting up there in a little tight-ass set, and then y'all trying to be all cool. Then look at, you got four black dudes with open-collar shirt suits. Get your ass some pocket squares. Get some damn color. Y'all sitting there.

And then you call yourself the starting five. It's four of y'all sitting up there. And let's be real clear. Ain't none of y'all in leadership nowhere. So who's starting five are y'all? Y'all are bench warmers. They ain't starting nowhere, Lauren. Yeah, it's a shame that for black Republicans in a contemporary sense right now that their only value is when they center someone white. Their only value to the Republican Party

is centering white people and promoting somebody white and talking down black people. That is why Candace Owens was, quote, in fact, quotes, valuable, because she, of course, her entire function was to talk down on black people, talk negative about black folks. And that's the only reason they had her around. And the minute that she stopped doing that, they got rid of her. So it's funny for these guys, because, you know, John James and Wesley Hunt are not completely lacking in substance, but I just can't understand why they think that their career is built by promoting some white dude from Queens who is on trial all the time and is probably going

to be off the scene in less than 10 years. You would think they would be able to come up with something a little better than that, and something, frankly, that is rooted in the constituencies that they represent. Right. But it never seems to happen. And look, you sitting here,

and then Tim Scott, who is Elvin Brad? Who is this? Oh, he's an elected DA in Manhattan. That's who he is. And I'm sure folks in New York City are saying, who the hell is Tim Scott? Okay, I need some more comedy. Press play.

Lawlessness and chaos. Except for one person. The only person he wants to lock up is Donald Trump. This is the picture of election interference. I can't think of a better person to be on the poster of election interference than D.A. Bragg. I can't think of a better person to be on the poster that says buffoon than Tim Scott. That's just stupid. He can't lock up. He only wants to lock up one person.

He prosecuted Jonathan Majors. Hell, they prosecute cases every damn day. It's just amazing how Cameron, the amount of Trump ass they kiss. It kind of shocks me that they stay around for it that long, and

something that they'll all soon find, as you've seen with so many Black Republicans, I think Tim Scott is probably unique in the sense of him being able to stay around around and be reelected and be in the Senate and be around the longest. They're going to be out of there pretty soon. Somebody, they might either on the front lines to, like, look, we've got our five black folks. number of African Americans who truly, in Congress, who truly represent the diverse coalition. And yes, those guys technically have the ability to be a part of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Often many black Republicans choose not to join or they choose not to attend. So it really makes you question where their true morals lie, where their true base and spine is. But it is kind of sad to see them kind of kissing ass like that. Give me about 30 more seconds of this unseasoned video. This is also, this is an example half of the left does not teach and understand our history. It is American DNA.

We do not like injustice. And I don't care what race it is. You see why people now coming behind Trump, black, Hispanic, Jewish, it doesn't matter. We don't like injustice. We don't like bullying. And now we're seeing this full hand. And American people are going to stand up for it. Stand up for it, for sure.

Look, I think this is a travesty of the justice system, especially for the state of New York. And I'm a former New Yorker, born and raised Brooklyn, New York. And I got to tell you, it's disgusting to see what they've done. The way that Letitia James and Alvin Bragg, I know we focus on Alvin Bragg because of the case, but Letitia James doesn't get a pass either. What they've done to the legal system in New York just to get Trump is destructive.

Oh, my God. What they've done to the legal system in New York just to get Trump is destructive. Oh my God. What they done to the legal system? Byron? They're doing the legal system in Texas. Byron, do you really want to talk about the legal system? I'm just saying, Reese, some folk might want

to be quiet talking about the legal system. So, gotta get your thoughts to close out, Reese, is some folk might want to be quiet talking about the legal system. So, got to get your thoughts to close out, Reese, on that unseasoned video from the starting five. Yeah, that's like an unseasoned stuffed turkey on that. Gosh, there's some Cornish hands. That table looked a little stuffed. I'm like,

can y'all bring the chairs up or bring the table down? Because all this elbow... Are they trying to look buff And I don't know. Are they trying to look buff? I don't know. I don't know what they're trying to do. Like, this is a big buff black man talking about Trump. Like, I don't know.

I'm claustrophobic looking at it. However, who is this for? I mean, I definitely think it's an audition for Trump. And, you know, they dangle a black man, dangle a black man. You know, one day it's Tim Scott. One day it's Byron Donalds who's ducking and dodging charges in the past himself. Maybe he can relate. But it's all quite ridiculous.

And if this is the big master plan of the Republican Party to try to peel off some more black voters, particularly black male voters, I think they're missing the mark. I think they're missing the mark. Maybe they should just go back to the other issues, the the culture wars. But I don't think that shilling for Donald Trump and trying to act like he's some sort of persecuted victim when he's been convicted or found guilty on multiple civil counts. And he's going to probably be found guilty in in New York. That ain't really the hill that you want to die on. So I think they should be doing more deflecting than trying to defend Donald Trump.

But everybody on that stage wants to be the VP, the sidekick to Donald Trump. And so it kind of tracks, but it's not picking up any voters or doing them any justice. I'm still laughing. Them calling themselves a star of the five. Y'all, y'all.

We're four people. We're four people. Y'all... We're four people. We're four people. Y'all know. Y'all know y'all like them dudes who sit on the end of the bench, who play college. They never take off their uniform. They never get in the game. So let's

just be real clear. So yeah. Y'all ain't starting nowhere no where no where no how and so so dude dude is here Henry do me a favor Henry go ahead and go to the wide shot for me so listen up Tim Scott and the Starting Five. This is called a set. This is called a set, all right? Two can sit over there, two can sit over here, one could sit here.

I could even add a second chair to fit six. That way y'all ain't gotta look all swole on TV where, on that little bitty ass set. So if y'all want Tim Scott, why don't y'all come over here and have y'all's starting five conversation here at the Black Star Network. And then when y'all get done,

then maybe I can join y'all for a conversation and we can have a real discussion about the issues. But, and then again, we got room. We got room. So, why don't y'all come to the Black Cookout if y'all wanna sit here. You know, we got the black art and everything.

Hope they don't scare the five of y'all away. But trust me, it's enough room on, and I'll go back, it's enough room on this set for all five of y'all to fit. And if y'all do come here, trust me, all y'all asses going to have some pocket squares because them bland ass suits you wearing with them boring ass white shirts, you look pitiful as hell. Come on now, get some swagger.

Maybe. All right. That's it. Lauren, Cameron, Reesey, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks, brother. That little bitty ass set they on. Y'all need to stop it. All right, y'all. Y'all want to support us in what we do? Join the Bring the Funk fan club.

Of course, our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average $20, $50 a year. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. You can send your check and money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Somebody in the chat said, Roland, you petty. Yes, I am king petty. Cash app is Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com. Be sure, of course, get the book White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available. Bookstores nationwide. Get the audio version on Audible. And, of course, you can also, folks, what else? Download the Black Star Network app. Did I say that already?

Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung, Smart TV. Y'all, that's it. I got to go. Oh yeah, and I'm still, y'all, I'm autographing the final couple hundred books and so we're shipping them out. So you're gonna be getting your books out of the first.

Alright, y'all, that's it. I got to go start five and sit y'all asses down. All right. How Black Star Network is. I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now. we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home, you dig? Dig? A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, 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 Glott.

And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of 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 This is an iHeart Podcast.