#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Budget battle chaos, Dems Day of Action, Executive vs Judicial, Trump ends Segregated facilities ban

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

3.18.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Budget battle chaos, Dems Day of Action, Executive vs Judicial, Trump ends Segregated facilities ban Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer abandoned Democrats' budget strategy, giving into MAGA Republican demands and averting a government shutdown.  Former DNC Finance Committee Chair Michael Brown will explain if  Schumer's decision is reshaping the Democratic playbook. ✨Get your "Don't Blame Me ... I Voted for the Black Woman" tee and #FAFO 2025 tee TODAY #RMU Merch 👉🏾 https://rolandmartin.creator-spring.com/ House Democrats have declared today a "Day of Action" to aggressively oppose the largest Medicaid cuts in our nation's history.  U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts criticized Trump's call to impeach a federal judge for ordering a pause on the deportation of accused gang members to El Salvador. Justice Correspondent Elie Mystal will join us to discuss the ongoing battle between the executive and judicial branches. #WETRIEDTOTELLYA - These MAGA fools are turning back the clock.  We'll discuss how segregated facilities are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts. Former Texas megachurch pastor Robert Morris turns himself in after a grand jury indicted him on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. And we'll show you the world's biggest Elon Musk, Telsa, protest.  #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com 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.

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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. Today is Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Coming up on Roller, Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer abandoned Democrats' budget strategy, giving in to MAGA Republican demands and averting a government shutdown. But what's going to happen with Washington, D.C.? Now, the Senate then, of course, said we're going to fix it, Senator Susan Collins, but what will Republicans in the House do?

We'll talk with longtime federal lobbyist Michael Brown, former DNC Finance Committee and also city council members in D.C., about what's happening in Congress. House Democrats have declared today a day of action to aggressively oppose the largest Medicaid cuts in our nation's history. US Chief Justice Supreme Supreme Court John Roberts criticized Donald Trump's call to impeach a federal judge for ordering a pause

on the deportation of accused gang members to El Salvador. Oh, but also keep in mind they also admitted in court that some of the people who were deported had no criminal records. Hmm. The nation's justice correspondent, Ellie Mistel, will be joining us

to discuss this. Also, a federal judge has said, guess what, Elon Musk? What you did against USAID? Grossly unconstitutional. Restore payments. Rest restore the emails, everything. The federal judges are striking them down. Plus in our hashtag we tried to tell you.

Fafo segment these mega fools are turning back the clock. Will discuss how segregated facilities are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts. I told y'all plus former Don Trump spiritual advisor and mega church pastor Robert Morris turns himself in after

grand jury indicted him for a sick for indecency after the child we have his mugshot and will show you the world's biggest Elon Musk Tesla protest. Oh, it's pretty cool. It's time to bring the funk. I'm rolling mark protest. Oh, it's pretty cool. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered

with Blackstar Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's knowing putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling it's uncle ro-royal it's rolling martin yeah rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know he's rolling Martin Martin

When Democrats voted along with Republicans to vote on the continuing resolution, they included a $1.1 billion cut to the Washington, D.C. budget. Now, your Republicans are like, oh, that wasn't supposed to happen. And so the Senate comes back. You have folks like Senator Susan Collins who say, yo, we have to fix this. And so the Senate fixed it. The problem is the House has to actually fix this.

And trust me, there are Republicans over there who are not necessarily down with that. Former D.C. councilman, also a federal lobbyist, used to be finance chair for the DNC, Michael Brown joins in. Michael, people don't understand that the Senate, can we see what they did? These Republicans in the House, they may screw D.C. But they've already done. Correct. And they're going to keep trying. And there's currently a bill to take away our home rule from some of those maggot Republicans on the House side. Well, already, just outside of our studio,

the tearing up of Black Lives Matter Plaza because they said, oh, if you don't do that, then you're not going to get transportation money. That's correct. And those are the threats and the bullying that obviously this administration likes to do. So D.C. right now is in limbo because, again, the Senate moved on Friday, but the House still has to act. Correct.

And that's where obviously the trouble will come. First of all, that particular provision never should have been in in the first place. There should have been better coordination on Capitol Hill to make sure that you can't rely on votes. You can't rely that some people are going to fall on the sword for the District of Columbia. I mean, some of these folks are fighting for their own states, and then we're going to ask them to fight for us?

So we should have done a little more work on the front end to get that provision out. But also, this wasn't like $1.1 billion that was coming from the federal government. No, this is our dollar. Now, obviously, just to give folks some context, 20, 30 years ago, there was something called the federal payment. And D.C. did get a federal payment to help us run our business.

Then, as D.C. began to prosper more, had our own economic development, property taxes, sales taxes, we then were able to run ourselves. So we provide for ourselves. We pay our own bills. Now, do we get federal grants? Yes. Just like every other jurisdiction in America. So no, this is going to be a problem when it goes back. I'm sorry that Senator Schumer did what he did. It's unfortunate. If he was going to vote that way, also with the coordination on capital, hopefully someone would have said, well, if you're going to do that vote, tell them to take the provision out. Right. And that didn't occur either.

And now we're trying to backtrack. And I think it's going to be very difficult. And also, Roland, what makes it even more troubling, I was fortunate enough to be on the Finance Committee during my time on the City Council. And what concerns us is that 1.1 may not even include if the administration comes after other revenue sources, traffic cams and the like, just like they're going after the congestion tax in New York City. So we'll see. That number could grow. This is going to be a continuing issue that folks have to face. So how must D.C. prepare themselves for this? Well, obviously, the finance folks are now trying to figure out where those cuts, very harmful cuts, I imagine, are going to come from.

A billion dollars is a lot of money, assuming the number of billion stays. It could grow. And that's where the city leadership, the city council, the mayor's office will have to work on trying to figure out where these cuts are going to come from if, indeed, unless some miracle happens and we can get this thing reversed. Schumer is under a lot of heat because of this. He's argued, he argued that a Republican told him that, oh, we would have kept the government shut down for eight or nine months, would have gotten rid of all these people.

So he says that this particular move here actually averted that. You buy that? No. In fact, I agree with Congresswoman Crockett, who I know is a guest here on the show quite frequently, and a huge defender of the District of Columbia, by the way, on that oversight committee.

But no, I actually agree with her. Certainly, there are a lot of opinions about that, but I agree with Congressman Crockett. I don't think that will occur. Frankly, what President Trump, and I hate to even say that, what 47 is doing, 47, my apologies. No, what we use is the twice impeached. No, no, no, we don't use a number. Oh, you do the Joy Reid? No, no, we use what I came up with. Yes, what we use is the twice impeached. No, no, no. We don't use a number. Oh, you do the Joy Reid?

No, no. We use what I came up with. Yes, what is it? It is the twice impeached, criminally committed felon in chief. Oh, okay. Very well. That's what we use. And it's all factual.

That person. What concerns me about how he is moving forward, one of the reasons why he's trying to get things done as quickly as possible is because he knows if Hakeem Jeffries gets that gavel in the midterm elections, his agenda stops in its tracks. Yes, he'll do executive orders, I get it, but he knows that. So hopefully folks that may have made a mistake a few months ago have a chance to redeem themselves in the midterm elections next year, and hopefully we can stop this a little bit.

Again, so Congressman Jeffries came out with a statement today saying that he supported Schumer as being the leader. Look, they obviously had a conversation. He wouldn't answer the question on Friday. Schumer is catching a whole lot of heat, and folks are saying, hey, it may be time for new leadership, but he is not prepared to do battle with Republicans and with Elon, with co-president Elon Musk in nutcase Donald Trump.

Well, the minority leader, Mr. Jeffries, did say he disagreed with his decision, but, you know, they're fellow New Yorkers. I can see why he backpedaled the lease a little on his leadership position in the Senate. But, no, it's going to be a challenge for everyone as we come through these difficult issues, not just in the District of Columbia, but in other places around the country, in particular blue states, though his policies are impacting a lot of folks in red states. And so hopefully that pushback will come from the other side of the aisle. But I do believe, and I totally understand

that you have to have somebody who understands how to do battle. This is not... The fundamental issue that I have, and I had this with Biden, and I had this with Schumer, they're institutionalists. You're dealing with people

who don't care about these institutions. They don't care. And that's the challenge. How do you fight that kind of battle? And I remember what my father used to say. He said it to, when he was trying to figure out who the best nominee. Now keep in mind, the chair of the party back then had a whole, just immense power. Could almost pick who the nominee was. So when he had different conversations with people, going up against Vice President Bush, who no matter what Republican Mount Rushmore you talk to, whatever person, Ronald Reagan is on the Mount Rushmore Republican Presidents. His Vice President was running for re-election.

And my father's chair said to, at that time, Governor Clinton, are you prepared to come to the fight with a gun or a knife? Because Democrats had always come to the fight with a knife, and everybody else had guns, and it's hard to obviously defeat that. Sorry for the analogy. Yeah, now they bring knives, and the opposition, they bring bazookas. Correct. And so I think that's how we have to fight,

and that's why I think so many people were disappointed in Senator Schumer, because at this particular time, when you finally had some leverage to knock down whatever he's doing, he and Musk are doing, he chose a different route. He chose the institutional route, to your point. So, yes, we have to fight a little differently now, and that's where the disagreement is within the party. Some people want to stay institutional. Oh, we're too good for that. We should stay above that.

And other people are like, no. Like Al Green. Al Green said, no. I'm going to put my cane up in the air and voice my opposition. Yeah, and that's why I keep telling people, like, people are like, oh, I just think, when David Axelrod is running his mouth on CNN,

I'm like, dude, this ain't the same. This is not the same opposition that Bill Clinton faced, that Barack Obama faced. This is a totally different world we're operating in. Right, and he, being that person you mentioned earlier, how you describe him, he knows that. He knows that we are coming from this kind of position of, well, you know, the American people have to see us above all that. Right.

But that's not how you have to fight. He's changed the rules, whether we like it or not, which means. And his party's going along with him. Correct. There's no opposition there, especially on the House side. Well, Senate side, it looks like, too. But hopefully, Senator Thune can maybe come to the rescue and be the adult in the room on the Republican Party.

All right. Michael Brown, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Thank you, Roland. Folks, going to go to break. We come back. More to talk about, lots to talk about, including this ruling that just came down more than an hour ago where a federal judge said, nah, Elon Musk, what you did against USAID, grossly unconstitutional. Restore everything. We'll talk about that when we come back right here on the Blackstar Network. This week on the other side of change.

We're digging into the immigration crisis that's happening here right now. It can impact each and every one of us. We're going to break down the topic of this constitutional crisis that is being led by the Trump administration and what you, as ordinary citizens, can do to speak up and speak out to fight back. This is The Other Side of Change, only on the Black Star Network. We begin tonight with the people who are really running the country right now. Trump is often wrong and misleading about a lot of things, but especially about history. Donald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk.

In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reeve's primetime show, The Readout, Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reeve's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network

for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you, and the latest updates on the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks who understand the power of Black voices in media.

We must come together and never forget that information is power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Blackstar Network app. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, the studies show that millennials and Gen Xers will be less well off than their parents. What can we do to make sure that we get to children younger and that they have the right money habits. Well, joining me on the next Get Wealthy

is an author who's created a master playbook. Be willing to share some of your money mistakes, right? If that's what you have to lean on, start with the money mistakes that you have made, but don't just tell the mistake, right? Tell the lesson in the mistake. That's right here on Get Wealth it, like pasteurized milk. Without the 2%, we getting deep.

You want to turn that shit off? We're doing an interview, motherfucker. Four days after the Senate passed the House GOP bill to continue funding the federal government, well, guess what? House Democrats kicked off a Medicaid Day of Action to call attention to expected deep cuts to the federal program that provides health care to 70 million Americans. Congresswoman Yvette Clark, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, made it clear that House Democrats are committed to protecting Medicaid from Republicans.

We all know why we've gathered here today, and that is to address the partisan spending bill congressional Republicans passed that represents an extremely direct, extremely dangerous attack on veterans, families, seniors, and everyday New Yorkers. We can call this attack what it is with certainty because it is an assault on health care of our neighbors that depend on it just to live. Health care in our nation was promised to them. And so I'm proud to stand at Leader Jeffrey's side for this Medicaid Day of Action, just as I am proud to call myself a colleague to Democrats across this nation who are speaking the same message we are today, relaying the same dangers of this spending bill and standing for the same people and families it will hurt. I also serve on the

Committee of Jurisdiction for Health Care in the House of Representatives, the Energy and Commerce Committee, and we have been sent a mandate essentially to cut $880 billion from the federal budget in order to provide space in the budget for the trillions of tax cuts to the wealthiest, the wealthiest in the United States of America. This is a humanitarian crisis. And unfortunately, there is a move afoot to make sure that we all are impacted by these draconian cuts. We've engaged in this national mission to speak to millions of Americans across the country who have lived good, decent lives. The people who are now at risk of losing their health care and housing, safer communities and retirement Security to pay for tax breaks for billionaires. Know that House Democrats will use every tool at our disposal to stop this devastating scheme, but it requires all of us. It is clear that Republicans have put a bullseye on the most

vulnerable Americans among us, and we will not sit down and stay quiet while they do. In New York's 9th District alone, the community that I've called home my entire life cuts to Medicaid will severely impact over 65,000 people over the age of 65, 24,000 disabled children and adults, 146,000 young adults, 85,000 parents and caretakers, 149,000 children and 11,000 pregnant women. And those numbers up, we can see that these cuts will hurt roughly 500,000 people within my district alone. That's almost half of our district. There are real people who will lose more than $5 million in Medicaid benefits and the services they rely on.

I can tell you that you'll see similar disturbing figures across this nation. Republicans continue to rob Americans to fill the pockets of the rich and their actions are costing lives. Democrats will continue to fight back by holding Republicans accountable. And let me just close with this. Human beings are human beings. They are born into this world without party affiliation. This is going to impact all Americans, all of us. The cascading effect of cutting $880 billion out of health care will not only mean the threat to our health and well-being, it will mean higher unemployment. It will mean the closure

of hospitals and federally qualified health care institutions within our communities. It will mean devastation at every turn. We have just recovered from a pandemic. We are seeing the outbreak of measles across this nation. This is not the time for the most wealthiest in our nation, the top 1%, to line their pockets at the expense of the health and well-being of the people of the United States. It's time to stand up. It's time to fight back. All right, folks, let's get into it with our panel.

Joining us on today's show, Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA. Joining us out of D.C., Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy for the American Economic Liberties Project from Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Larry Walker, Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida. Joining us out of Orlando, letting me have all three of you here.

Morgan, I'm going to start with you. Bottom line here is that Republicans, they want to make these cuts. They want to have these massive tax cuts. And if there is in a moment where, sure, you had CBC members there, but this is where, if you're Democrats, you absolutely turn old, white, conservative Republicans against their own members. Well, yeah, I mean, I completely agree that this is an issue. And like we heard from the Congresswoman, this is an issue that impacts everyone. We heard from CBC members there, but I can say very clearly in Ohio, I talk to people all the time from all different backgrounds and really all different working situations, which I think is an important thing to note,

that rely on Medicaid. We just had a town hall last night in Columbus where we were hearing from seniors their concerns about the threats to Social Security. So this is very real. This that rely on Medicaid. We just had a town hall last night in Columbus where we were hearing from seniors their concerns about, you know, the threats to Social Security. So this is very real. This is going to impact everyone. And I think it's a smart angle to unite people around the impacts of some of these moves, not just keep it at the finger pointing of the political parties. Well, absolutely. And look, it's going to be a significant battle. And I'm telling you right now, look, all they need are to flip three to four people, Mustafa. And guess what? You know who I'm targeting? Every single Republican in the state of Florida. Yeah, that would be that would

actually be a really smart strategy. You know, it's interesting that when folks are talking about these cuts, they forget, you know, that these interesting that when folks are talking about these cuts, they forget, you know, that these federal dollars in many instances also go to the states. The states then also have some of their own matching funds that are a part of this. And when you begin to make these cuts, you begin to destabilize the states. You begin to, as, you know, as the congresswoman was sharing also, we know that we've already had the shutting down of rural clinics and hospitals in urban settings, and that we need to actually be investing more dollars into our healthcare system to keep our folks healthier. Because we know that when we look at the studies that are done on an international level, that we're not at the

top of the list in relationship to keeping people safe. And then when we look at our most vulnerable communities, we understand all of the cumulative impacts that are going on inside of those communities that impact people's health. So this is one of the ways that they are destabilizing our government, are actually destabilizing the lives of people through government actions. And I would, as you said, focus on these Republican senators and others who are running for office and say, is this your mandate? Do you want the people inside of your state to be less healthy, to be less protective? And of course, they're going to have to say no at some point, or they're going to get voted out. Larry. So, Roland, you know, I would remind folks that we're just a

few months out from the election. It hasn't been that long. And I'm glad, you know, you see the chair of the CBC and, you know, Minority Leader Jeffrey's talking about the impact that this will devastate the social safety net. And Roland, in addition to that, if we're likely to encounter a recession, this country would experience a serious depression that we haven't experienced in years. And so the fight for Democrats remains. But I think that the challenge is that a lot of these people, even though you hear some people talk about town halls, some people scuttle, a lot of people complaining. A reminder, once again, these people voted knowing, we talk about Project 2025, we talk about a lot of the rhetoric in terms of, you know, President Trump, and then Elon Musk talking about there's going to be pain. This was

said repeatedly. And now here we are. And once again, you know, conversation among, you know, people in the Black community, a lot of this, for those who voted for this, believed that these impacts would disproportionately impact Black people, and maybe they would percentage-wise. But look at Speaker Johnson's, look at his district. This would devastate the people in his district. But those same individuals voted him in, voted for these other individuals, the president and these other elected officials at the state level, and here we are. So, yeah, we have to continue to talk to Americans about how devastating this could be,

not only short-term, but a long-term impact that we have on the United States as a viable superpower when you remove the social safety net. But as an also reminder, we need to have a really serious conversation about whiteness in this country and then the appearance that when things, you take away things, that it only impacts one community. And until we have that conversation and really, really have a deep discussion among what, why people have these views that if it's good, if it's bad for you, it's good for me, then we'll still face the same issue year after year. Well, which is why I believe it's important to take the fight to him and literally, if you're Democrats,

hold hearings in his district to alert his folks what's coming. Now, speaking of what's coming, there's a massive fight happening. Old MAGA is really, really, really upset, y'all.

They are just beside themselves because federal judges are not rolling over and playing dead. Today, literally, a federal judge ruled against Donald Trump and Elon Musk, saying that their attack on USAID was unconstitutional and ordered services and grants and payments to be restored immediately. Now they're pissed off because the federal judge ruled against them when it came to what was happening in flying out these folks to El Salvador

who were, they claim, Venezuelan criminals, but then they had a hearing today where they admitted that yeah, some of the people who were deported had no criminal records whatsoever. They are angry about other federal judges. Now remember, these are the same Republicans who loved when that sole judge in Amarillo, Texas,

ruled against Plan B and when other federal judges ruled against student loans. So now you've got some Republicans now calling for the impeachment of some of these federal judges. Well, as a result, the person who wreaked all of this havoc, Chief Justice John Roberts, he's rejecting calls for impeaching judges after the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief, Donald O'Connor Trump, demanded the removal of one who ruled against his deportation plans. This is what this idiot posted on social media.

The radical left lunatic of a judge, a troublemaker, an agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama was not elected president. He didn't win the popular vote by a lot. He didn't win all seven swing states. He didn't win 2,750 to 525 counties. He didn't win anything. I won for many reasons in an overwhelming mandate, but fighting illegal immigration may have been the number one reason for this historic victory. I'm just doing what the voters wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the cricket judges I am forced to appear before, should be impeached.

We don't want vicious, violent, and demented criminals, many of them deranged murderers in our country or in the Oval Office, make America great again. Well, John Roberts was forced to defend the federal judiciary, so he goes, for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial

decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose. Now his rebuke is an example of how the controversy over all of these judicial decisions, how they are just making MAGA mad. And these MAGA idiots literally even were like, you know what? We're just going to ignore these traditional rulings. Okay. Ellie Mistel is the justice correspondent for The Nation. He joins us right now.

And Ellie, it is... I hate to use the word laughable, but frankly, it's disgraceful to actually read those words from Chief Justice John Roberts because you created this. You're the one who led the ruling

that he just had just maximum immunity, could do whatever he wanted. That gave Donald Trump the green light to say, oh, if I get back in there, I'm going to do whatever the hell I want. Yeah, John Roberts is like the guy in the hot dog suit talking about how we're going to find the guy who did this. No, you did this. This is your fault.

You've done the sowing. Enjoy your reaping, John Roberts. But I want to focus on what Roberts didn't say, right? Because that, as you point out, tepid, weak sauce, pathetic statement that he made was really focused on Trump's call to impeach federal judges. You'll notice what Roberts didn't say. He didn't say anything about Trump following those judges' orders, which is actually the problem, which is actually the constitutional crisis. I don't care if Trump wants to get up on his social media platform and call for the impeachment of federal judges. He can't. Impeachment has to be, for federal judges,

is just like impeachment for the president. You have to start it in the House, you have to pass it in the House, and then you need a supermajority in the Senate to convict. So he can talk about impeaching federal judges all he wants. That ain't going to happen. But that's what Roberts wants us to talk about. Roberts doesn't want to talk about all the times so far that Trump has directly defied court orders from his precious judges. Why doesn't Roberts want to talk about that? Because Roberts doesn't think he can do anything about that. Well, and that's the excellent point, because what you're looking at is a lawlessness operating out of the Oval Office. They don't care about the law. They don't care about the Constitution. Only the parts that they choose to agree with. What I want is for people

who keep telling us that the courts are going to save us, the institutions will hold, all of these lawsuits that we have filed against them will lead to some result or restraint against Trump. I would like to ask those people, especially the people in our own community, what do you got now? Because Trump is in violation of various court orders across a host of federal issues, and I don't see anybody stopping him. The judge says, turn the planes around. Trump says, no, Venezuelans are in El Salvador right now. The judge says, do not deport the doctor from Brown who specializes in kidney transplants and had a valid work visa. Do not deport her. Trump says, oh, she's already gone. Judge says, turn on the money and

restore funding to USAID. Trump says no. Judge says, turn on the money, restore the federal funding that you froze from all the universities and organizations that practice what they call DEI. Trump says no. So great. So that's where we are. You have your court order. You have your courts are coming to save us. You have your institutions have held. Trump's not following them. So, that's where we are. You have your court order. You have your courts coming to save us. You have your institutions have held. Trump's not following them. So, what you got next? And this is the problem, I think, also from our side. We don't got anything next. We've spent entirely too much time relying on the courts, begging on the courts, hoping against hope that the courts will come to save us. Well, now, the courts are begging on the courts, hoping against hope that the courts

will come to say of us, well, now the courts are actually doing the things that we want them to do to stop Trump. But Trump ain't stopped. Trump ain't stopping Jack. And so that, to me, is why that strategy was never going to work. Trump is just straight up ignoring court orders now. And nobody seems to have any theory even of change. Nobody seems to have any plan for what to do next.

And not only that, I mean, he's just firing people when he wants to. We're just now getting in where he fired the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission. I mean, he's just firing folks. And you've had some folks return. The sister was escaping me. We showed it the other day. Gwen Wilcox. Yeah, Gwen Wilcox. And so she came back. But you have to have the enforcement of federal law.

And what they're doing, they're going to court, and they're literally even saying, when it came to the folks just sitting in El Salvador, they literally said, oh, yeah, national security, we can't reveal to you these details. Right. They're not hiding the ball. With the Venezuelan situation, they not only directly defied the order to turn the planes around, they literally said that that order had no relevance, had no force or effect on them. Roberts didn't say anything about that. Trump says that the pardons, the preemptive pardons that Joe Biden gave to the people

who investigated Trump to protect them from exactly the kind of retributive justice that Trump is trying—is threatening to impose, Trump says those pardons don't mean anything to him, and he's going to prosecute those people if he feels like it. So, again, Roberts didn't say anything about that. Roberts could have come out today and say, like, oh, by the way, Joe Biden's pardons are valid. Roberts could have come out today and said, oh, by the way, turn the planes back around. Roberts could have said a bunch of stuff. All he said was, don't say impeach—don't say the

I-word, because that makes me feel bad. That's all he got. So, again, the solution is never going to come from the courts. The solution is never going to come from pencil-necked geeks in robes or wigs or whatever they're wearing these days. The solution can only come from the people who demand justice, not simply hope for the courts to create it out of thin air. So you say demand justice. How do you do that? What does it look like? You saw what happened with Mahmoud Khalil, right? We saw a bunch of protesters in Federal Square demanding his release. We saw a bunch of protesters at Trump Tower, inside Trump Tower, demanding his release. That's the kind of energy that we have to bring across the board everywhere.

Khalil is being held not in Manhattan. He's being held in Louisiana. He's being held in Jenna, Louisiana. We need to do the protest in Jenna, Louisiana. Now, I personally, I'm not a great marcher, Roland. I don't like walking, much less marching, right? That's not my thing, right? But like at some point, somebody needs to give me a shovel and some wire cutters and

we got to go to Jenna, Louisiana and we got to do our thing there. Like that, justice will not come top down. Justice will only come from the bottom up, and that's what we have to do. And until we do that, until we're willing to do that, until we have the sustained pressure of the people against this administration, the courts ain't going to do jack. Morgan got a kick out of that one there. Morgan, your comment or your question for Ellie? Yeah, no, I mean, I think the question I have is, and I appreciate all of your analysis, Ellie, so it's really, it's great to connect with you. Your message is hit the streets.

People should hit the streets. I wonder if that's the same guidance you have for members of Congress, because as we know, they have different tools at their disposal. If you were speaking specifically to members of Congress who do still believe in the rule of law and what to do, what they can to protect that, what would you like to see them doing? Yeah, I think we're going to need a little they can to protect that, what would you like to see them doing? Yeah, I think we're going to need a little bit more than placards, right? Like, the silent auction at the State of the Union for fascism is not going to cut it. Obviously, Congress has more tools at their disposal. And look, I also have respect for the fact that many of our Congress people are old, right, just to put it frankly, right?

And I don't want them to get hurt. So there is a level of street-level activism that many of them just physically can't pull off, right? I'm out here talking about I don't like to march because I'm overweight. They don't like to march anymore because, like, they're crumbly, and we need to respect that. And so I'm not in the position, I would never be in the position where I'm going to tell some 75-year-old congressperson to go do something that is better done by a 23-year-old activist, right? So setting that up, the level of resistance that we need to have from Congress has to be post-institutional, right? Has to be extrajudicial, right? The idea that all they can do, that all they should be doing is using the normal means and powers and structures of government to oppose Trump in the

normal ways, that isn't going to cut it. That hasn't cut it to this point, right? So, like, you want to talk about lawsuits? I don't want to, like, the Congress people should be suing Trump in their personal capacity if they still think that the courts can help them, right? Congress people should be the ones hiding, literally hiding some of these documented—because, remember, we're beyond undocumented. He's already—he's doing this to documented immigrants. Congress should be hiding those people in their offices, in their homes, endearing Musk and Trump and the U.S. marshals to come take them out, right? We should be hiding in churches calling for sanctuary, the old Catholic version of—the hunchback of Notre Dame version of sanctuary, right?

And daring Trump's forces to breach the threshold of a house of God. Like, that is the level of— But do you think they've actually exhausted all the tools available to them, institutionally even? I mean, like, this idea of Congress members personally suing, that's not something I've heard any of them talk about. Holding or starting investigations. I think that's an important point because I don't know if they even have a full understanding of all the tools available to them that are distinct from everything you just named. Anybody technically could do that, right?

Elliot, to that point, explain to people when you say how they should personally sue, explain what that means. Right. So in general, Congress sues as a body, right? Like it is the U.S. Congress that's suing for this or that or the other thing. But you can't do that when you're in the minority, right? Mike Johnson controls what Congress can sue for. John Thune controls who Congress can subpoena, because the Republicans control the government. So I'm saying, instead of doing it that way, since the Republicans won't let you, sue in your personal capacity, right? Sue as like a concerned citizen.

It'll get a lot more media attention if, I don't know, Chuck Schumer sues Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Dodge as opposed to me, right? Chuck Schumer is the senior senator for my state. He can sue as a New Yorker, right? Chuck Schumer is the senior senator for my state. He can sue as a New Yorker, right? And then we have our fight in the courts where we'll probably lose, because again, I keep saying the courts are not what's going to protect us or help us. But Roland, just as you were talking about earlier, in terms of like having hearings, having rallies in Mike Johnson's district to get the people Mike Johnson represents to understand the threat and the values and the problems that Johnson is causing. That's what I'm talking about in terms

of personal lawsuits. Do it so that the people can rally around you and understand what the problem is, regardless of what the courts do to it. Because again, in my theory, we're extrajudicial now. We're beyond the courts now. I want Jeffrey's on the Supreme Court steps, arguing his case, even if the Supreme Court's going to ignore him, because that's the kind of thing that the media will cover, and that's the kind of thing that will alert the people, not just people like you and me and Morgan, but it will alert people who don't pay a lot of attention to politics and law and that kind of stuff that we are in a completely different situation, that we are in a completely new state, and thus we need to use completely different strategies and actions and what have you. So just to quickly answer your question, Morgan, no, I do not think that Congress

and Chuck Schumer have exhausted all of their institutional possibilities here. I don't think that we're even—I don't think that they've even crossed the 50 percent threshold with that. Larry? Thanks to your analysis. So I've argued kind of what you talked about is that the Democrats on House and Senate are far too focused on decorum and not discord. And I'm wondering in terms of when we have this conversation about some of the challenges that we're seeing as it relates to what, you know, what we're supposed to see from the judiciary, people filing lawsuits, judges saying you can't do this and this being ignored. Are there lessons to be that we can learn from the time of Charles Hamilton, Thurgood Marshall, not only in terms of what those great legal minds did, the Supreme Court, federal cases, et cetera, but are there other lessons we can learn in kind of that Jim Crow era in terms of what we're facing today in terms of these system people saying, I'm not listening to—in the Deep South, I'm not listening to this you know, in the Deep South, I'm not listening to,

you know, this thing, you know, what the Supreme Court says, et cetera. Are there lessons that we can learn from the legal perspective in terms of how we attack some of these issues? Yeah. So, number one, one of the lessons that we learned, that we should learn, I hope liberals finally do learn, is that the courts are not going to save us, and they never have. Like, we tend to remember people like Thurgood and Marshall as people who bent the courts to the will of the civil rights movement. But Marshall loses those cases if there isn't a civil rights movement backing them up, right? Let's never forget, Brown—you know, my mother was born in 1950 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. And she likes to say the 1954 decision on Brown v. Board of Head didn't mean jack crap to her, didn't desegregate a damn thing in her neighborhood.

Desegregation was not brought to us by the Supreme Court. It was brought to us by the people. It was brought to us by the movement. And quite frankly, it was brought to us by the people. It was brought to us by the movement. And quite frankly, it was brought to us by Bobby Kennedy putting boots on the ground in Arkansas and forcing white folks to chew with their mouths closed, right? The court couldn't do that, wouldn't do that, literally writes in their opinion with all deliberate speed, meaning desegregate whenever the hell y'all feel like it, if ever. So the courts were never going to save us. They never have. So I think that's one crucial lesson to learn. The other big lesson that I hope Democrats are learning is exactly what the limits of judicial power are. Maybe Joe Biden should have learned that lesson when the Supreme Court ridiculously and unconstitutionally, in my view, overruled a woman's right to choose. everything he could with federal power to protect the lives of women and girls who had unwanted

and lethal pregnancies. Just saying, right? Donald Trump last week goes to the Department of Justice, which breaks with tradition, and people clutch their pearls. Oh, no, he's speaking at the Great Hall of the Department of Justice, and basically has an hour-long rambling speech where he threatens to sue everybody under the sun. I'm not saying Joe Biden should have done that, but perhaps—I don't know, Roland, you back me up here. Could Joe Biden have called Merrick Garland and said, hey, Merrick, how are we doing about, you know, prosecuting the guy who attacked the Capitol on January— Damn, Skippy. Just asking a question. we doing about, you know, prosecuting the guy who attacked the Capitol on January? Damn, Skippy. Just asking a question.

Wait a minute. Hold up. They were so they were so. Oh, my God. There's a wall between us that they would not even tout DOJ victories from the White House podium during the briefing. I mean, it was utterly ridiculous. Like they literally wouldn't even talk about the success stories because, oh, no, no, we've got to have separation. No, no, you don't.

You could actually talk about that, but they wouldn't do it. Kristen Clark is one of the, I've written about this, Kristen Clark is one of our black heroes of the past four years. And most people don't know her name because Joe Biden would never talk about her successes because of the wall between. Hey, you want to here's another one. Remember when Bill Clinton talked to Loretta Lynch on a plane? Oh, the right lost their mind. In Democratic ideology, somehow that meant that Loretta Lynch had to recuse herself from the Hillary Clinton email case, which meant that James Comey was in charge of the Hillary Clinton email case, which meant that James Comey was in charge of the Hillary Clinton email case, which meant that it was James Comey's call, not Loretta Lynch's, to reopen the case a week and a half before the election and basically hand the thing to Donald Trump. Remember when that happened? That happened because, allegedly, of the breaching of the wall of whatever between the White House

and the DOJ, even though Hillary Clinton was not the president at that point, and it was her husband who talked to Loretta Lynch, not her. So, again, maybe one of the lessons the Democrats could learn here is to stop bringing spoons to a gunfight. Maybe one of the lessons here is that the Supreme Court is not actually in charge of the entire country, that there are three branches of government. And if the Democrats are ever fortunate enough, if Trump ever allows them again to control one or two of those branches, maybe they should take that power more seriously. Mustafa. Well, Elliot, it's good to see you. It's been a while. It's been a while, man. Yes. Yes, brother. I got a two-parter for you. So the first part is, you know, Black folks,

I come out of the grassroots movement. Black folks been marching. We show up. We put our bodies on the line. What are your thoughts about what this needs to look like this time? Because, you know, a lot of brothers and sisters have said, you know what, I have marched for important issues, but I need to see some other allies actually putting something and some skin into the game. So that's the first part. Second part is, you know, we've got a set of elections, right, moving up to the midterms. What's your vision for what we need to be doing in that space so that we at least have a chance to balance out some power here?

Yeah. So in terms of the marching and the activism, I'm with the black folks that you're talking about in terms of we need to see some allies now. We need to see some other boots on the ground. It can't just be us. One of the things that this election has proven, that this administration has proven painfully in some ways, is that black people cannot save this country from white folks. We can't do it alone. Right.

If white folks aren't going to join in, if white women aren't going to join in, if Latinos aren't going to join in. We can't do it alone. And so, at some point, these other groups of people that Trump is also attacking have to join the battle. And I know that for those other groups, the worst thing that you can do is ask them to join with black folks. I know that's their least favorite thing. I understand that, especially for immigrant immigrant communities to be treated as white in this country, the first step is to crap on Black folks. I get it. I understand their perspective. But if they want to improve this country and have, I don't know, freedoms in this

country, they better get over themselves and ally with black folks, because black folks cannot save this country by ourselves. That is number one, right? In terms of the elections coming up, look, man, I've been a Democratic voter all my life. I've never voted third party. I don't think I can vote for a single Democrat who voted to, say, confirm Marco Rubio, which would be all of them in the Senate. I don't think that I can vote for a single Democrat who voted for Trump's budget. I just don't think that I can do it. And so what that means is that I have to be one of those people who is on fire during the primary process, trying to get a better

crop of liberal candidates on the ballot and through the primary process. The primary process is where this fight has to be won. Because if you put it in a general and you add to the, and I have to choose, you know, in 2028 between Chuck Schumer and Don Trump Jr., I'm going to vote for Schumer again. I just, I'm crazy, but I'm not an idiot, right? So I have to do everything in my power to not let that happen, to not let that be my only choice. And that means going hard for whoever is going to primary Schumer in 2028 and going hard for whoever is going to primary these weak and useless Democrats in the lead up to 2026. That's where the fight has to

happen. That's where my focus has to be. And to the extent that I have any voice or platform, what I am telling everybody is to show up for the primary elections in 2025 and 2026, as if it's the general election in 2028. That is how important these primaries are. I always use—I like to use the example of the Tea Party, the Republican Tea Party, the failed Republican Tea Party that actually metastasized into the magma movement that now runs the country. Where does the Tea Party start? Does it start with them taking out Democrats? No. No. The Tea Party starts with them taking out Republicans, taking out Republicans who they believed were not committed to the cause.

And that is what Democrats must do. That is what liberals must do, take out so-called Democrats and so-called liberals who have now to this point shown themselves to be insufficiently committed to the cause of fighting fascism. That's the focus. And that's where my energies are going to be going in the lead up to the 2026 elections. All right. L.A. Missile, always a pleasure to have you on the show, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much for having me, always. All right, folks. Got to go to break.

More to break down right here on Roller Mark. I'm Phil Trenum of the Black Star Network. Don't forget, though, to support the work that we do by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. We got some great fans here.

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Get your shirt FAFO 2025. Also, don't blame me. I voted for a black woman. Lots of other stuff you can get there as well. And so please do so. I'll be right back. This week on A Balanced Life, we are talking about protecting your peace when life be lifin'.

I mean, honestly, so much is going on from dealing with chaotic leadership, trying to figure out how we're going to work on these 90-day holds, how to unburden ourselves from the things that are happening in our lives, all the way through knowing what it means and what it looks like to just take the time to work on self. How much time are you spending on wasteful movements? Like what energy audit do you need to do on your personal time, your personal life? Because maybe some people don't need to have

that front seat perspective on your life. Maybe some people need to be in a different position where they don't cloud your view. That's next on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie here at Blackstar Network. Me, Sherri Shebritt with Tammy Roman. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

How many times have I told y'all that this is one of the most anti-Black racist administrations we've ever seen? Check this out here. The federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains. The Salariation Clause is one of several identified in a public memo issued by the General Services Administration last month affecting all civil federal agencies. The memo explains that it is making changes prompted by Donald Trump's executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion, which repealed an executive order signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1965

regarding federal contractors and non-discrimination. So again, so there's been a lot of reporting around this. And so the whole goal is to say, oh, these companies, you don't have to abide by these rules that say that you can't discriminate. What do you make of this, Larry? And I keep saying that, you know, probably the most violent racist we've ever had in the White House, and this says a lot, is Woodrow Wilson.

This administration wants to defund Black America. It is targeting Black people. They are anti-Black. We could go on and on and on, and this, of course, is just another part of that. Yeah, this is part of, you know, the very beginning of a long four years. And Roland, I was on your show last week and I said, we've been focusing on like this, we're using the phrase anti-DEI. We should be saying these people are pro-gym pro because, you know, these, and this

is a perfect example. You know, this strong focus on anti-DEI, you're right, it's centered on anti-blackness. It is focused on dismantling all the progress that was made, you know, and obviously we talked on your show a lot about the Great Society programs, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, Fair Housing Act, et cetera. It is this, you know, when he signed this executive order in the very beginning of his presidency, it was very clear about what direction, what he was trying to do here. Obviously, we talk about federal contracts, that's taxpayer money. So we're not moving forward. They're trying to dismantle, once again, all the programs that were created that was for over decades, really over centuries in terms of Black folks, in terms of being on equal footing, or trying to get as close to equal footing, they're dismantling all those programs and using taxpayer dollars to do that. And so when Ellie was on before, we talked about, you know, I mentioned, you know, we have to focus on discord and not decorum. People have to be willing, and I know black people are tired, but they have to be willing.

We've seen things like this to make sure we're heard, not just at town halls, but various other methods we have to use to make sure that these kinds of things are reversed. Because you go back to LBJ in terms of the work he did, like I said, with the Great Society Program, society and executive order, and now here we are with a president of the United States policy that says openly say, you know what, don't worry about that. Don't worry about Jim Crow. Just go ahead and reinstitute that, and we'll keep moving forward to make sure every program, every right that black folks have fought for for decades is eliminated. And this is, once again, another terrible example of that.

Morgan, I have made this clear that, and I made it very clear, of course, in my book White Fear, that people need to understand what is really going on here. The right is trying to target every economic program or initiative that has aided black people and benefited many others since the black freedom movement, or the civil rights movement. That's what this is all about.

To attack affirmative action in colleges and universities, to attack programs in law firms, to attack programs in corporate America, to attack programs in government. They are operating by this, oh, no, it's about doing what's right and just and about being fair, and it's about a meritocracy, when the fact of the matter is this country has never had a meritocracy. It's never existed, ever.

It benefited white men. It benefited landowners. It didn't benefit white women. It didn't benefit black people and others. And so in their minds that this is the greatest harm, and in fact, the Wall Street, Washington Post got a hold, Washington Post or New York Times, one of them, got a hold of the Doge plan, and the first six months was all attacking DEI. And that means attacking black people.

This is a massive economic assault on black America. And I don't think even a lot of us really understand how deep this is. I think that's right. I mean, you know, taking this example, it is wrapped in a couple of things in terms of how it's getting implemented. So like the NIH guidance, once this policy came down, was, okay, we're going to get rid of the ban on segregation, but then also we're going to get rid of our equal opportunity program, which would likely benefit a lot of Black contractors. Exactly what you're saying, Roland. I mean, it's kind of wrapping this idea of like meritocracy. Well, we don't really have segregated facilities. This isn't that big of a deal. Okay.

But you probably aren't going to hear about this other piece that maybe is having a very, and not to say that we have at all sought for racial discrimination, obviously, but that the Equal Opportunity Program is having a very direct impact on a certain segment of our community being able to get contracts, make money, build wealth, et cetera. I will say, though, and this is something that's come up in conversations and why this strategy, in my opinion, is somewhat successful or successful enough to get this administration the support they're looking for from our community and others, because we do have to be honest about the fact that some people from our community did vote for this administration, is that, and again, I would be very interested in the panel, that, well, what have these programs done for me lately? I've never gotten access to that type

of contract. We've had generations of these contracts. It has not impacted the economic reality in a significant way for, let's call it, at least 50% of the Black community. And I'm never going to work at a corporate law firm. So what does this have to do with me? And look, we can spend some time on that, but I do think we have to be real about that sentiment that for a big segment of our community, there has not been that economic advancement. And getting back to one of the things that Ellie mentioned when we're talking about building a successful coalition, an administration that will support having these types of opportunities available, we have to think about what those economic messages

are going to be to be able to get enough people to support in the right direction. Here's how I would address that. And I've heard this before. Oh, it hasn't benefited me. Okay. Anybody in your family? Anybody in your neighborhood?

Anybody in your church? The reality is last year, and it's not like we should be jumping up and down because it wasn't even 2%. But last year, the reality is that black contractors received $10 billion in federal contracts. Again, it wasn't even 2%. So I would say to those people, so do you want black contractors getting $5 billion? How about $3 billion? How about we go down to $2 billion? Because here's the reality. In black neighborhoods,

you have black organizations that are dependent upon the largesse of black people who work. Black churches, HBCUs. So when someone makes that comment, Mustafa, they're actually not looking at black people in the aggregate or as a whole. And so I hear people, oh, you hear this phrase, Democrats have never done anything for us.

Well, that's also a lie. I mean, it's also a lie to say Republicans have never done anything for us. There are little programs you can actually point to. But you can also say, OK, so what do you think black life is without any of those programs? Like if you want to have that conversation, sure, let's have it. And we'll show you what that actually looks like. Doesn't look good. And that to me, Mustafa, is a massive mistake.

If that is the position of a lot of black people, because if that because what you're then doing is you're giving them license to say, oh, yeah, we can go ahead and gut it. This ain't going to be a problem at all. Right. We should actually be focused on how do we expand the sets of opportunities that are in front of us and understand the steps that are necessary, because we often on the show talk about the wealth gap that exists. SETS OF OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE IN FRONT OF US AND UNDERSTAND THE STEPS THAT ARE NECESSARY. BECAUSE WE OFTEN ON THE SHOW TALK ABOUT THE WEALTH GAP THAT EXISTS. WE KNOW THAT THIS PLAYS A SMALL ROLE IN HELPING TO ADDRESS THAT. WE UNDERSTAND THAT LET'S ANCHOR IT IN THIS, BECAUSE FOLKS MISS THIS AND I TALK TO PEOPLE ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. THESE ARE YOUR TAX DOLLARS. SO IF YOU'RE NOT GETTING SOME OF THOSE TAX DOLLARS BACK, THEN THAT MEANS THAT THEY'RE

GOING TO OTHER COMMUNITIES. So if you're not getting some of those tax dollars back, then that means that they're going to other communities. They're going to others who may not be looking for opportunities to reinvest inside. In fact, Mustafa, let's take it back to Jim Crow. There were decades that black people were paying into a system that they never got anything back. They didn't get roads, bridges, schools. We were paying into this system. Literally, other white folks were being able to live a grand life because they were benefiting from the tax dollars,

property taxes, income taxes, sales tax of black people during Jim Crow, and we got virtually no benefit. That's exactly right. And I would encourage folks, I'm not going to give you homework, but I would say, if you really want to understand what's going on in this moment,

if you really want to be anchored in this conversation that we're having right now, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS, I DON'T KNOW IF THIS WILL GIVE YOU HOMEWORK BUT I WOULD SAY IF YOU REALLY WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS MOMENT, IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BE ANCHORED IN THIS CONVERSATION THAT WE'RE HAVING RIGHT NOW, GO BACK AND LOOK AT PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON. BECAUSE IN 1866 HE ACTUALLY

VETOED THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. HE WAS AGAINST THE FREEDMAN'S BUREAU. HE BELIEVED THAT IN THE SOUTH ONLY WHITE MEN SHOULD GOVERN. NOW, THAT SOUNDS REALLY FAMILIAR TO SETS OF ACTIONS THAT ARE CURRENTLY GOING ON. Now, that sounds really familiar to sets of actions that are currently going on. So when Roland talks about, you know, and the other panelists who are sharing right now are talking about resources and who has access to those resources. like that it is not a big deal, then we start this self-fulfilling prophecy where people can begin to repeal and all other aspects of the economic life inside of our communities and

outside of that. So I know everybody, you know, means well when we have these conversations, but we have to look deeper because many times we are having a surface conversation and not really seeing the dynamics that go on behind the scenes. After decades of working in the federal government and pushing back, even when I was in the federal government, against injustices that I saw, I saw these opportunities for our communities to better be able to fund. And nobody was giving us anything.

It was really our dollars that were being redirected to other communities, to other initiatives, and not the ones that communities were actually asking for. So we just got to make sure that we have a much better understanding of how we build a stronger economic infrastructure, which then gives us the opportunity to create stronger infrastructure and all the other aspects that are critical to healthy and sustainable communities, you know, that come from where we are. Larry's also trying to get people to understand that if you have Black doctors in your neighborhood, you are benefiting from programs.

You want the black lawyers. You want black entrepreneurs in your area. Okay, how do you think these things happen? See, I think we make a serious mistake. And I get it. When we become so, well,

I haven't gotten anything. And whenever I, and I remember we were on the road. I forgot what we were broadcasting. And the brother put that out there. My response was, who did you ask? What did you apply for? I said, at some point, I said, you can't just look at this as, well, let it all go because I haven't benefited.

When if we start breaking these things down, oh, no, no, no, you've actually benefited. You've actually benefited from a lot of this. But there's a difference between a direct benefit and an indirect benefit. Well, I've talked about this on your show before. We have to, first of all, and maybe this goes back to like the Freedom School Project and doing this during the summertime, we have to do a better job of really, in your show, that's why your show is so important, explaining to people how these systems are linked. And part of the reason why we have a president we have today is because people don't understand some of the basic,

simple ideas about federal resources. The other thing is I want to highlight one thing you said about, you mentioned black physicians, lawyers, et cetera. The importance of black physicians alone in the community. A study came out a couple of years ago that found out Black infants were two to three more times more likely to die if they had a white physician compared to having a Black physician. And let's sit with that for a second. In addition, there are a lot of folks out here who are getting away from the idea of communalism. The reason why Black folks are, we are where we are today, beyond the fact we've continued to deal with systemic racism, is because we have a strong sense of communalism that goes back to our ancestors,

slave Africans being brought here to the United States. This idea of communalism is what's kept as sane as possible, and while we've been able to, in some ways, navigate these economic, political, and social systems. So this idea that people don't see how they're benefited is, A, we have to do a better job of explaining to people, like you did, articulating how these systems work. B, we have to do a good job of highlighting if these systems don't exist. We talk about Jim Crow in terms of the challenges that Black folks face. In addition, we have to remind people, even though there are some Black people on our panel and some Black folks throughout the country

who are successful, it's a reminder that those numbers should be quadruple what they are, whatever our discipline or our place of study is, but because the system is embedded in white supremacy, even those Black folks have had a hard time getting to where they are. So the idea is not us. It's not that we don't benefit from the system. We do. The idea is the system is so complicated and geared towards limiting our success that you may not necessarily see it immediately or your immediate community,

even though you're benefiting from it. The idea is there should be far more Black people thriving economically, politically, et cetera, if this system, if we dismantle the system to make sure that Black folks have the chances that we deserve as U.S. citizens. Okay, so somebody just posted. Somebody just, yeah, hold on one moment. Someone just posted in the chat, I found out my doctor was racist during COVID. When I think about opioids, the numbers have changed in the last several years. But in the first three to five years,

racism actually, I know people may think this sounds crazy, but that was probably one of the few times black people benefited from racism. White doctors believed that black people had drug problems. So therefore, they prescribed black people to take Tylenol.

They were initially prescribing white folks Oxycontin and a lot of the other powerful opioids. That's a perfect example, to Larry's point, when you have black healthcare professionals who are able, I just saw a story, I think her last name was Castleberry, a very prominent sister on YouTube, or she was on TikTok, it was something along those lines. She was a social media influencer. And for eight months, her white doctors kept telling her

that she had a fibroid problem. Come to find out she had cervical cancer. When it was finally diagnosed, it was stage three. She died a few months later. So I need people to understand that when you look at medical school programs, when you look at student loan programs, when you look at student loan programs, when you look at, like, there have been things that have been done that have aided the rise

of black doctors and black lawyers and black engineers and black professionals. And also, I think we got to also be willing to challenge our own people who don't know shit because in your own community, if you're like, okay, do I accept what I have or do I want street? I just keep going back. I just keep going back to my life, growing up in Clinton Park in Houston. We live eight

blocks from my grandparents. My parents didn't go to college, both worked, combined never made more than $50,000 a year, five children. And when they decided to join others to launch a civic club, they were asking very basic things. How do we get new streetlights? How do we get new streets? How do we tear down overgrown lots? How do we get rid of these abandoned houses that have now turned into crack dens?

How do we get stepped up police patrols? How do we get rid of these abandoned houses that have now turned into crack dens? How do we get stepped up police patrols? How do we get our park rebuilt? How can we convert this old firehouse into a senior citizen center? These are regular, ordinary people who didn't have college degrees, who didn't have lots of money, but they care enough to say, okay, there are things that we want in our neighborhood. Who do we go ask? Is it the city?

Is it the county? Is it the federal government? Is it the school district? That's what it is. I just think a lot of times, Morgan, and I want you to make the point that you were going to make, but I also want you all to address this. I just think a lot of times we let too many people

in our community off the hook. I think we do not challenge people in our community enough to give a damn about where they live. I know somebody's sitting here saying,

oh, Roland, that's easy for you to say the position that you're in. No, I'm putting myself in that chair when I was 10 and 11. I am not speaking through the lens of where I live and how much

I make today. I'm looking at when I was traveling with my mama to the state capitol for rallies with the Metropolitan Organization. I'm putting myself in the position of being 14 and 15 and speaking before the Houston City Council. I did not have politically connected,

financially endowed parents or grandparents. What I did have though, what I did have were a group of people who actually gave a damn about their community, a group of people who actually cared enough. I just think we have to, at this moment, we have to be challenging our folk to do less bitching and moaning

and then do more organizing and mobilizing. Morgan, go ahead. Well, look, Roland, I mean, and I identify a lot with what you said. I also have benefited from a strong community. Challenges, you know, came our way growing up, but we were able to overcome them because of the root of a strong community,

strong parenting. And that put me in a position. I'm going to shout out also your first guest tonight, Michael Brown, who was the beneficiary of the Ron Brown Scholar Program that allowed me money a position. I'm going to shout out also your first guest tonight, Michael Brown, was the beneficiary of the Ron Brown Scholar Program that allowed me money to pay for college, to pay for law school. So don't get me wrong.

I mean, these programs, I do not dispute at all that they have an impact. It is a tangible impact. But what I'm saying and what I'm hearing from people is it is not enough. We don't want a program. We want to be free. And if you are getting stuck in your children in an underperforming school district where we know this is true,

you are not even learning how to read for real by the time you hit high school, let alone how to do math, then you are not being positioned to actually take advantage of any of these opportunities that might be available. Multiply that by a couple generations of living through that, and we have to be honest about the fact that we have a segment of our community that is not in a position to really succeed and build strong community and provide all of the resources, Roland,

that you and I both had available to us, it sounds like. So why is that? I would say it is about the fact, in big, big way that people do not have enough money and financial stability to be able to reinvest in their community in that way. Are some people just checking out? I absolutely think that's true. But let's even take the example of a Black doctor right now. That Black doctor is going to be entering a healthcare system that is going to stress them out, that is not going to allow them to actually probably have an independent practice where they would be able to be rooted in our community, sponsor the little league team, do all these things. They're going to get gobbled up by

UnitedHealthcare, a huge monopoly that's going to dictate how much they get paid, when they work, and if they don't play by those rules, they will not have a job and be able to practice medicine in this country after probably accumulating $200,000 in debt. So even at the higher end of the class spectrum, I would say now we're running up against some of these limits for us, let alone the people that have not been able to get into a position based on a substandard education they've received to access that type of opportunity. And if we want to avoid or get out of this mess that we currently find ourselves in, we have to be real about that.

We have to have a more aggressive vision for what the future is going to be so that more people from our community are in a position to really reinvest and build strong communities. Which is why I believe, Mustafa, to the point I think you made earlier, is that what you can't do is lose what you already got.

And I think the mistake that, and I've heard people do this, the mistake that people make is, okay, you say, well, like, perfect example, if you look at the federal MWBE contracts, white women get 78% of those contracts. And so all I have to say, well, that ain't benefiting us. But the black contracts last year were a record 10 billion. So the point you're making, all of y'all are making, I'm making as well, I don't want to go backwards to try to go forward. My deal is I'm going to fight for where we are right now

to keep it where we are now and build upon that. The worst thing would be to sit here, which we saw in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 with the home foreclosure crisis. We saw 53% of black wealth wiped out because of the home foreclosure crisis. Now, I remember when people were saying, oh my goodness, the richest black county in America is Prince George's County. And I kept saying, I need y'all to stop saying it's the richest county.

I need y'all to stop saying it's the wealthiest county. So I was like, why are you hating? I said, I'm not hating. I said, do they own the homes outright? I said, no. I said, if there own the homes outright? I said, no. I said, if there's an economic calamity, guess what? They're going to lose them homes.

And what happened? Home foreclosure crisis hit. Middle class, upper middle class, black communities across America got demolished because a lot of folk couldn't afford those balloon payments. I said, so stop saying somebody's wealthy. Wealthy folk ain't going to lose their house when the market goes under. So I had to like, well, people through that, but where we cannot be Mustafa, we cannot be in a situation where we are losing ground

voluntarily. That to me is what's crazy when people say, yeah, man, and we heard it last year. Man, you know what? I'd rather have Trump back because I had money in my pockets when Trump

was there. You know you had money in your pockets when Trump was there because that know you had money in your pockets when Trump was there because that wasn't about Trump. So I was like, what do you mean it wasn't about Trump? I got an email from my brother, right? Compton. Yeah, man, we had money in our pockets when Trump was there. I said, PPP fraud is not money in your pocket.

I said, the so-called Trump economy of 2017, 18 and 19, that wasn't Trump. That was Obama. All the hell that we went through in 2009, 10 and 11 positioned us for 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. And all the hell we went through coming out of COVID after Trump screwed up in 2020, and then the hell in 2021 and 22, building out of the economy, that was Biden-Harris. So I don't want us to lose ground.

That, to me, is the danger. When Morgan talked about the language that people are using, the danger is they are willing to allow us to cede ground that was don't continue, not all folks, but we can't allow any of our folks to lower expectations. I see it all the time. I've worked in over 1,000 communities. The places that thrive have changed their mindset. They've done the work of learning and listening and then bringing their own expertise and innovation and ingenuity into a space and building. And when folks build, then they're reaching over and behind to make sure that somebody else is coming along, and then there's the expectation that those folks have to do that.

We can't go back. I ran track in college. I was pretty fast. And if every time I got to the 100-meter line, if I'm running the 400, and then I have to go back 50 yards or go back to the starting line and go, there's no way that I could ever win the race. And we've got to just make sure. I use that analogy because we have become so used to being beaten down. We've become so used, some folks, to not having the information, to not having somebody who says, brother, sister, family, this is how you can do this. And when we do this, then we can get stronger together and we can make sure that

more folks are actually thriving. Because so many people have just been through so much that sometimes they get locked into this survival mentality. And survival mentality means that you are constantly on defense and you are never on offense thinking critically about how do I make moves? How do I actually build a strong infrastructure, not just underneath of myself, but underneath of my family and then expanding out to my community and expanding out to my people? That's the mindset that you have to get to. But you've also got to have a place where people can help you to learn how do you navigate these systems. We always talk about breaking the system down. You know, I think that that's fantastic if it was a possibility.

I think you got to figure out how you navigate stuff and you may bring new elements in, but I'm always willing to learn. So if somebody has figured out how do you completely dismantle a system and rebuild it, I am more than willing to listen to that. But until I see that in practice and see how it is uplifting enough of us, then we've got to make sure that we are actually holding our arms around each other, making sure that nobody's just holding on to information and lessons learned and best practices, and making sure that folks are getting WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT

WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT

WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT moment. Because if we are not truly, and I heard Larry earlier talking about community, if we are not building real community in this moment, then a whole bunch of folks are going to be in some very devastating situations because there is intentionality in making sure that they are stripping away the various resources, but also the erasure of the successes that have happened.

And we can't allow that. And that means that not only that we operate with our hands and making sure that we are shouting out and educating, but we also have to make sure that we are utilizing these amazing brains that we have that have helped us over 400 years to not just survive inside of this country. But that is going to require commitment. And we have to make the decision if we're going to commit to each other. Now, y'all know, and I always do this,

I always lay out where there is something biblical that you can apply to what I just laid out. And when I was talking about how we cannot cede any ground, how it is our responsibility to fight for what we've gotten so far. The reason I need people who are watching and listening to hear this but also spread this is because we make a massive mistake when we didn't.

We make we this generation. When I hear people say the things that all three of you talked about, I've said, I believe that when people make those statements, they're making it out of anger, fear, frustration, brokenness. But they also, as far as I'm concerned, are insulting the very folk who did the fighting. Because the inches that folk fought for, we may want to see yards. They were fighting for inches. And they were able to gain things. And I think about, and I always, when I think about how do you fight over something that you've already won, I always think about, Henry, go to my iPad, I always think about this fantastic story of David's mighty men in 2 Samuel 23,

where there was a field of lentils and Israel's troops fled from them. But Shema was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If God gave us this, I'm going to fight over this. This insignificant field of lentils. And it said he took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down. The Lord brought them about a great victory. My position, Larry, and I'm going to go to a final round, each one of you, is I'm not about to act like that thing is small and insignificant. I'm not going to not fight for black-owned media dollars

when John H. Johnson and Earl Graves and countless others were beating those doors down. I'm not going to sit here and say, well, yeah, I'm not going to fight for these federal contracting programs or the Minority Business Development Agency when it was folk who were doing the work to make that stuff happen. When you talk about Perrin Mitchell, Congressman Perrin Mitchell of Baltimore, who made that his life's mission in Congress, when it came to black contracts, when it came to

Maynard Jackson, what he did, Marion Barry, Andrew Young, and so many others. This is where freedom schools are important. This is where reminding a lot of our folk how we got here is critically important and letting them know this ain't no this is not a moment where you give up what was fought for this is a moment where you say

no I'm going to go after and grab more land more territory but I'm not going to go backwards always forward and Roland what is that saying about if you don't know history, you're doomed to repeat it? And I think that ties into

what we're talking about this evening. You have to know the history, and that's why you and I talked about the importance of freedom schools and educating some folks. The other thing is, Roland, is the point you're highlighting is something I've expressed to people during this difficult time is continue to fight forward. Maintain what we have and continue to fight forward. I believe if I'm quiet, that means I'm complicit,

and I refuse to be complicit. So we have to, like I said, no steps back, always moving forward. We understand historically the Black people always were fighting against the storm since the first enslaved Africans were born here in 1619. It's always been that case. But we have to continue to stand steadfast. The other thing I want to add is I want to go back to something Morgan said, because a phrase popped into my head. Black people who feel like they don't benefit from the system, Michelle Alexander called them an undercast, right? Those individuals who feel like they're permanently locked out of the system. We have to make sure that understand and understand that those people feel that way for a reason.

But once again, we have to also explain to them that there are opportunities to to use the system or, you know, work within systems within our own community to make sure they can advance and continue to do well. The other thing I would add is that, Roland, you know, you know, we need to say this. We started from the bottom. Now we're here. Black folks have always been fighting to pull ourselves up. And so, many of us come from, you know, middle-class families, sometimes come from working-class, underserved

communities. But there are some of the most successful Black folks in our community have come from very underserved backgrounds. And so we have to continue to remember that, yeah, there's folks out there who might be considered part of the undercast, but there are still stories of Black folks who, regardless of their economic or political situation, have continued to fight, stood steadfast, and they found a way to navigate

these systems to make sure we can all prosper. Morgan? I'm completely on board with fighting to preserve what we have gained, and I agree that should be a priority. My main point is it is not sufficient. How do we know? Donald Trump is president. And so how we look forward is important. The consensus we're building as a community about what we are working towards is important. And I think it's also important to make sure that we're listening to as many people as possible, including a lot of young people who have very different perspectives, in my experience. So, yes, absolutely.

Fight. We have to maintain. These programs have an impact. The contracts that we've been able to secure have an impact. But it is not enough, and we have to be honest about that. Gustavo. I use the words of my grandmother that folks have heard me say before. You have power unless you give it away. You give your power away when you sit on the couch and you don't get up and vote.

You give your power away when you allow folks to take your rights away around contracting or economic opportunities. You give your power away when people stop you having the ability to go to certain institutions to learn. You give your power away when people take away your health care. You give your power away when people tell you that that's not the right community for you or you can't afford to live in that community. We give our power away all the time because we start to believe the narrative that others create. So my grandmother was right.

We got to stop giving our power away. Folks, hold tight one second. Going to a break. We'll be right back for our final segment right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Coffey. We look at the history of emancipation around the world, including right here in the United States, the so-called end of slavery.

Trust me, it's a history lesson that bears no resemblance to what you learned. This week on A Balanced Life, we are talking about protecting your peace when life be lifin'. I mean, honestly, so much is going on from dealing with chaotic leadership, trying to figure out how we're gonna work on these 90-day holds,

how to unburden ourselves from the things that are happening in our lives all the way through, knowing what it means and what it looks like to just take the time to work on self. How much time are you spending on wasteful movements? Like what energy audit do you need to do on your personal time, your personal life? Because maybe some people don't need to have that front seat perspective on your life. Maybe some people need to be in a different position where they don't cloud your view.

That's next on A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie here at Blackstar Network. I'm Russell L. Honore, Lieutenant General of the United States Army, retired. And you're watching Roland Martin on Filth. I'm Phil Fink. Thank you. Check out this mug shot of a former Donald Trump spiritual advisor. Mm hmm. Robert Morris led a megachurch in the Dallas area, turned himself into Oklahoma authorities on child sex abuse charges. Robert, the founder of Gateway Church, is facing five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child. The charges date back to the 1980s when Morris, then a traveling preacher, allegedly abused a 12-year-old girl over a period of four years. Cindy Shemeshire, the woman who came forward with these allegations, says she's waited

more than 40 years for this moment, and now she's calling for justice. Morris resigned from Gateway Church last year after these allegations surfaced. His ties to Donald Trump made him a prominent figure in conservative Christian circles. He's facing up to 20 years in prison for each charge. He's released on a $50,000 bond. You know, it's interesting. You know, Larry, I haven't heard MAGA talk a lot about this guy. I wonder why.

Yeah, yeah, I wonder why, too. This story's been out there for a while, Roland, and, you know, hopefully the victim gets justice somehow, gets justice. And so it's very interesting that, you know, I don't know that these people keep surrounding

themselves with these kind of people with deviant behaviors. It's certainly not a coincidence. But you haven't heard a peep for this, but if it was a brother, you would probably hear about it on every possible podcast possible. But this just goes to show you the difference between rhetoric and belief. And so if many of these people suggest that they believe in religion, then obviously, first of all, they should denounce him. They should denounce, but they should denounce him loudly and publicly. Just like if this was some – certainly if it was some Democrat or some liberal or whatever phrase they would use, if it was someone else, you would hear about it nonstop. So I want to hear the same energy for this despicable accusation.

Like I said, that there's been out there for quite some time. And once again, finally, I hope that the victim gets justice because we can't allow this kind of behavior from a public figure for anyone else in our society. Can you only imagine, Morgan, if this was a black preacher who endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris? Yeah, I think we know that that would be very different. And I do think this is an example of just how far gone in terms of values, decency. We've been, I don't think the American people have been desensitized to it overall, but it's just not something that even becomes relevant in discussing this president. I mean, even his own sexual abuse violations. And it's a dark time in that way where we've kind of lost any sort of common understanding of what values we stand for as a society.

And I'm not that optimistic how quickly it'll take us to reestablish those. Mustafa? I guess the question becomes for all of these leaders, whether they're in religious institutions or governmental positions, we should be taking a deep look and asking ourselves, based upon their sets of actions, do we see darkness or do we see light? And are we following? If they're embracing darkness, are we following them? And does that mean that we also have now become aligned with the hate and negativity and darkness?

So I hope folks will take a deep dive into the folks that you put so much faith into and begin to have a deeper understanding of who they truly are, what they truly believe in and what it says about you if you don't do anything about it. Indeed, indeed. All right, folks. biggest anti-Elon Musk protest by carving out a 250 meter long don't buy a Tesla message on a Welsh beach. This is awesome. My name's Prama and I've been a Tesla owner for six years. We used to joke that Elon Musk was like a real life Iron Man. But then I think there's so many things that have happened. He's gone into becoming someone who is obsessed by power, and that's really changed my view on him. And when he started getting onto the ticket of the extreme far right,

that's when I started thinking, I'm not really sure I should be driving a Tesla. But the pinnacle, I'd say the absolute pinnacle, was the Nazi salute that, you know, of course has become very infamous now. But at that point, there was no turning back. My message to anyone who's thinking of buying a Tesla, don't, don't put your money towards this extremism and division of society. Please don't buy a Tesla. Wow. That was pretty impressive.

I got to show y'all this here. Y'all are going to laugh at this one. Because, you know, there's nothing like the stupidity of people on Fox News. And I really hate to say when you're a brother that you are stupid. But that's pretty much what Lawrence B. Jones is. I mean, the boy ain't bright, okay? The boy is't bright. OK, the boy is not bright whatsoever. But I saw this on. I saw I follow this woman. She's decoding Fox News and she literally watches Fox News or praise the Lord for her sanity and pray for her.

But but if you want to understand how nutcase these people are, this is back-to-back days on Fox News talking about Tesla and electric vehicles. This shows you, remember, these right-wingers watch this crap every single day. They're being fed stupidity. Listen. Where they had an array of five different Teslas, including a red, white and blue one. And the president picked the red one. He bought it. Apparently he wrote a check to Elon Musk for right on the spot. He doesn't like direct deposit, he said. But I love what Sean did. He bought he bought a Tesla, right? Two of them. Two of them. He bought one for radio that he's going to give to someone who wins that contest. Oh, that's cool. And he bought a personal one.

Friends of Fox News. He's selling his other car and replacing it with a Tesla. So, friendsoffoxnews.com, if you've done the same thing or tried to take action, because this guy's trying to donate his time and his expertise to the country, getting no money, and his companies are paying the price, let alone him not being at the head of it. And yesterday, one of the supporters of our radio show, the Dollar Loan Center, they bought $250,000 worth of Tesla stock, and they went out and bought a brand-new vehicle for their fleet because they are so outraged about what's happening.

Because it's nonsense. And if you've done that, just do it. Listen, they're not cheap, but they're great cars. No, $35,000 for their cheapest one is that. That's very affordable. So this is the very next day. Also on Fox and Friends. I cannot make this up.

Here we go. When I decided to go on vacation and get an electric car, I didn't even know it was an electric car. We're not ready for this. There's not enough charging stations. And then you don't know which connector works or not. People want options. If people want to drive an electric car, it's up to them. They want a hybrid.

I got a hybrid. But if people just want old-fashioned gas that works, you can just go to a pump and fill it up, they should have that option as well. But in the new Green Deal, which was the Inflation Reduction Act, there's money and infrastructure. There's money for the charging stations. They didn't follow through.

Eight billion bucks. They built like seven or eight of them? Right, yeah. What it makes it, I mean, the whole sense that the earth will disappear if we don't drive an electric car is pretty much over. Lee Zeldin.

The sheer stupidity, Mustafa, that is on display on that network is astounding. And the thing is, listen, the ratings came out and showed that they were beating the broadcast networks in primetime. They feed drivel to a bunch of people and they believe the lies and stupidity every single day and night. And it's unfortunate because anybody who has done any basic reading would understand that,

you know, not only that the climate crisis is real, but in many of the locations that are having these impacts are places that desperately need us to be able to do whatever we can to stop these extreme weather events. And of course, electric vehicles help us to break the addiction to fossil fuels. So folks are actually hurting themselves when they continue to consume this misinformation and disinformation, because we need to be clear, misinformation just means you made a mistake, possibly. Disinformation means a real intentionality in you sharing information that is not true. Now, the truth is, is that Tesla's stock dropped 53 percent.

So, you know, and there are other EVs that are out there now that have longer ranges and are doing better on some of the various driving tests that are out there. But that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that these folks one day will say this is the greatest thing ever. You need to go out and take whatever bit of money you have and invest into a billionaire's company. And then the next day to say that it doesn't make any sense for you to invest in these types of vehicles. And then the last thing I'll say, it's so ridiculous when you have Trump who came in and Biden had put the funds in place to make sure that there were EV charging stations, to make sure that we're having cleaner forms

of energy, all the things that are necessary to help all communities be safer and healthier. And then for them not to acknowledge that and just make it seem like somebody wasn't doing their job. It takes time to build out a grid. It takes time to build out a grid. It takes time to build out the charging stations across the nation. And when you are constantly starting and stopping and starting and stopping, because we have these different administrations that come in who don't understand the steps that are necessary, then you should put the blame where it belongs. And that's in those who have

been climate deniers and those who have been stopping our progress on a green or clean economy. You know, I just, you know, Morgan, I really laugh at how these free market people who would be going crazy if President Joe Biden was every single day pushing a company to buy it, to support by their stock. And I love that idiot Brian Q. I mean, I mean, he's giving his time. He's not getting paid. I mean, you know, he could be running his company. That's his choice. He's choosing to do this here. So don't come crying to me when this is what happens to your stock price. That ain't my... Hey, again, all I got for you is Scarface's

song, No Tears. So stock is down 36% the last month. They've lost, what, $700, $800 billion in market cap. I can't wait till it hit $100.

Because what's going to happen is... It seems like they might get there. in market cap. I can't wait till it hit 100 bucks. Because what's going to happen is it keeps dropping. It keeps dropping. And here's the other thing that I think is hilarious. I got to pull this up here. So he's been, you know, he was touting the indestructible

Cybertruck and how it was bulletproof. Only problem, Morgan, they're now having to recall a lot of these because of this. Yeah, the parts are falling off. Looks like they used super glue. So it's a little hard, Morgan, for me to believe that, oh, this indestructible Cybertruck, yeah, it's falling apart because the glue is coming apart. Yeah, and it really does seem like part of the reason why, to the extent there are people left that are giving Elon Musk some benefit of the doubt, there are not many, but it is this idea that he's this technological genius and he's created so much value. Tesla is the most amazing

car ever. And look, I mean, it was one of the, you know, definitely the most successful early EV car in the U.S., though, of course, there are cars being made other places that are also very advanced. But that's another conversation. But no, I mean, the fact that this guy now has a global movement against him, that's just astounding to me that you have people all over that are saying, we hate this guy. Make him go away. But it's not surprising because, as we know, our policies, the White House, has the ability, especially through things like the trade policy, to impact the financial bottom lines of people all over the globe. And so the fact that we also have other billionaires that are friends with him that are now trying to lead protests and get

people activated against him, I think that tells us that the public sentiment has definitely turned against him. Whether or not that'll translate into other punishment for the administration at large, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But I do think it's a good idea to continue to just point people on that corruption point. And it reminds me, Roland, of, you know, because I'm in Ohio, so there's all sorts of people with all sorts of political views. People are like, well, what's the big deal? Second Trump administration, this and that. And, you know, one of the things that I point to is like, it does seem that they're being pretty clear that there's going to be conflicts of interest, that there's going to be corruption, that cronies around the president are going to be taking financial advantage of

this position. And that's exactly what we're seeing happen. And there's no better example than Elon Musk. And here's what I find to be the most laughable, Larry. Your company was built on people who believe in climate change, who did not want to support the fossil fuel industry you got massive tax breaks to the tunes of billions of dollars from california from nevada from texas a solar a solar panel company uh in new york state buffalo more than a billion dollars that actually tanked. Okay? And he ain't even producing solar panels. All this sort of stuff. Your company was built literally

on the backs of progressives and liberals. Real estate hates electric vehicles. Trump hates electric vehicles. Trump hates electric vehicles. But then when you gave him $300 million for your campaign, all of a sudden he's loving Teslas.

It's all a con. It's all a grift. as hell to essentially destroy the audience, your consumer base for Trump. And now you're crying because they're protesting and they're burning Teslas. And there was a poll that he made the Nazi move when he spoke Trump rally. So I'm sorry. I have absolutely no tears for him whatsoever. And you know what? Sean Handy can't buy enough Teslas to save his ass.

So, you know, I think there are a couple of points. First of all, if you believe in capitalism and free market, then this is what you get when you don't provide the product or your political affiliation turns off the people more likely to buy by your vehicle. That's just the way it is. The second point I want to make is Musk is the biggest beneficiary of government welfare. Let's be clear about what this is. Call them subsidiaries, but it's really just government welfare in the billions, if not trillions of dollars

at this point. Thirdly, I want to make a connection to those two video clips you showed because when you read about authoritarianism, one of the things you know is about the media, print or TV, digital, et cetera, is that when they report misinformation and people consume it and believe it to be true. So you see that big contradiction from buy Teslas, just don't buy any other vehicles that might be similar, which once again is a contradiction if you believe in capitalism. So I think those are the three points I want to make is showing those video clips is why we're not moving towards, we're in authoritarian government, in my opinion.

And like I said, secondly, you can't do things that are going to piss off the people by your cars. And so now you have to find out. And if you believe in capitalism, let the market sort it out. And if you go bankrupt, that's what the market decided. No one wants to buy your cars. And so you have to start from scratch like everyone else. I just I just found this to just be utterly hilarious. And the Trump people are just really losing it. Mustafa, Pam Bondi was on Fox News. I think she's on, she might, why does she become attorney general?

She should decide to become a Fox News contributor because she's actually on Fox more than she is at the Department of Justice. So she goes on, so this, I love all of this here. She goes on Fox to cry, if you mess with the Tesla, we're going to come after you. Donald Trump in his interview with Laura Ingraham, this is how hilarious these people are. I know the people at GM and Ford and Chrysler got to be saying, this is stupid. Listen to this one.

I find this to be just utterly insulting. Do you consider what's happening an act of domestic political terrorism against one of your allies? So Elon is a patriot. And again, I hardly knew Elon until the, you know, election. And he turned out that he liked me better than he liked these radical lunatics that were in it, better than Kam liked me better than he liked these radical lunatics that were in it, better than Kamala, better than Joe, you know, because he's an intelligent person. He liked, and he backed me, and he went, and he got very much involved. He thought, he actually would go around saying, if Trump doesn't win, our country is over. But do you consider this an act of domestic

terrorism? Sure, I think, I think so. Why? I think that if and when they catch the people, and I hope they do, the good thing is they have a lot when they catch the people, and I hope they do, the good thing is they have a lot of cameras in those places, and they've caught some already having to do with that. I think that you will find out that they're paid by people that are very highly... So, Mustafa, the dude who pardoned the January 6th domestic terrorists believes that the people who are attacking Tesla dealerships, that's domestic terrorism. Quite ironic.

It is ironic, and it's just foolishness, it's distraction. And, you know, I'd love to see what his definition of domestic terrorism actually is then, because we know, especially in relationship to our communities, we know what domestic terrorism is because we've had to deal with it for 400 plus years. But besides that, he knows that the power that people have economically is the only thing that they respect. It's the only thing that gets their attention. So when people pull their dollars away, when they say, I'm not messing with Tesla anymore, then that gives them great concern. And they try and then utilize all of this disinformation to get people back in line and to make them think, well, you have to do whatever I say. And people are like, nah, whether it's $37,000 or $150,000, depending on which brand

you might want to buy, we're no longer interested in that. And that is people's choice. And that is people's power. Well, Morgan, Elon posted this tweet, and I thought this is the appropriate way to end the show. I want you to close this out. Go to my iPad, Henry. He says, this level of violence is insane and deeply wrong. Tesla just makes electric

cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks. Well, Morgan, allow me to substitute where he mentions Tesla. I'll say federal workers. Right, right. Yeah, no, absolutely. And of course, we know that there's no empathy at all for what they're doing to federal workers. Luckily, we see some of these court cases that are pushing back, like we were discussing earlier, pushing back on some of those dismissals. But a lot of the damage has been done, and it's going to continue to have ripple effects throughout our community and communities across the country. The other thing I would note is we need to be very careful here because this word terrorism and how they're defining it and starting to just define it more broadly and broadly and broadly can start to potentially, and it sounds like they're going to try to make it capture all sorts of activity that might be things that we're used to being able to do in the U.S.

pursuant to the Constitution and the First Amendment. And so we're seeing this having connections to different immigration decisions, and it's very, very serious. So in listening to that, I was also thinking, Roland, just coming back to one of the things Ellie was talking about in terms of what are levers of power here, and speaking out about these kinds of things is one of them. It can be kind of ridiculous and funny, but based on how they're moving

using that word, I think we need to be hitting the streets and making it clear that this is not the type of United States of America that we want to be living in. I agree. We certainly appreciate it. Let me thank Mustafa, Morgan, Larry, be on today's panel. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks. That's it for us. Tomorrow, I'll be broadcasting live from Austin, Texas, where I will be receiving from the Texas Legislative

Black Caucus an Outstanding Texan award. So look forward to that. And so that'll be absolutely great. I was supposed to be there today, but I was still recuperating from my oral surgery on Monday. So I was like, you know what? I'll fly Wednesday instead of on Tuesday. All right, folks, if y'all want to support. First of all, let me shout out Itwood Waters University.

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