#RolandMartinUnfiltered - CBC wants more Black Biden appointees; Obama slams #DefundThePolice; Ga. runoff gets nasty

Episode Date: December 3, 2020

12.2.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: CBC wants more Black Biden appointees; Obama slams #DefundThePolice; Ga. runoff gets nastySupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. you there? No, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered,

President-elect Joe Biden's cabinet. Is it diverse enough? We will talk with Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver about the concerns of the Congressional Black Caucus and others who want more top black appointees. Former President Barack Obama said slogans like defund the police could lose voters. Activists are not too pleased with that.

We'll talk to Mark Lamont Hill, as well as one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter in Los Angeles about that. Donald Trump says he ain't going to the inauguration. He's not going to call Joe Biden. He's not inviting him to the White House. Whatever the hell. I say Joe Biden, go to Obama's

house and ride to the inauguration with him and Michelle Obama. The hell with Donald Trump. We'll talk about that with my panel here. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis says Floridians should not expect any more lockdowns or state mask mandates during COVID. He's also overruling

cities from having their own mandates. I thought Republicans were all about local control. We'll talk with Mayor Wayne Messam of Miramar, Florida about that. Also the latest information regarding the coronavirus pandemic. And we'll also remember Olympic legend, Rayford Johnson.

And of course on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, they actually heard the appeal of Bill Cosby. We'll show you some of that as well. It is time to bring the funk. A roll and mark unfiltered, 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 belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's on for a royal. It's rolling, Martin.

Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martel Now Martel President-elect Joe Biden continues to fill his cap. And yesterday we talked about him, of course, unveiling his economic team. Two African-Americans on that, Cecilia Rouse, who will lead the White House Council on Economic Advisers,

as well as Wadi Adeyemo, who, of course, will be the Deputy Secretary at the Department of Treasury. Now, Neera Tanden, of course, who is South Asian, she is going to be the head of Office of Management and Budget if they are confirmed by the Senate. Now, of course, Wally, he's a man born in Nigeria and near an Indian American. Okay, of course, Janet Yellen, white woman

there as well. But Biden is under lots of pressure from Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latino Democrats to have more diversity. Joining us right now is the congressman from Kansas Americans, African Americans, and Latino Democrats to have more diversity. Joining us right now is the congressman from Kansas City, Emanuel Cleaver. He joins us right now. Emanuel Cleaver, glad to have you here.

This is also Alpha Week, so that's why I'm rocking the black and gold kente for my fellow Alpha brother. Glad to have you here. I'm glad to be with you. First and foremost. I love that black and gold. Well, you know, we got to represent and in fact, and in fact, and in fact, I'm just going to show you, since you mentioned that I'm going to show you this here, let me just stand up. Go ahead, take this shot. Just so you, I had this actually

integrated into the kente right here, right here. Oh man. perfectly clear that y'all want to see more top black appointments from Joe Biden. Black folks were key. First of all, let's be clear. Without black people, Joe Biden ain't the nominee. He doesn't win South Carolina. He does not run the table when it comes to Super Tuesday. And so far, he's named an African-American woman, of course, to be the head of the United Nations. Then, of course, you have Cecilia Rouse. But look, folks want to say, look, Clyburn, others have been saying they want Congresswoman Marsha Fudge to be ag secretary and other positions. And even inside of the White House, I haven't heard an African-American deputy chief of staff. I know Congressman Cedric Richmond is going to be over the Office of Public Engagement. But even when it comes to political director, legislative affairs, chief of staff, communications assistant who's a deputy press secretary.

But in the White House, no African-Americans running departments. That's right. And we're concerned about that. And, you know, we consider ourselves a big tent party,

which also means that President-elect Biden should have, and I think he does, expect the pressure to come. And it would be irresponsible for us, me, Jim Clyburn, and others. I was with Biden in Iowa in the snow when we were getting crowds of seven or eight people back before the virus hit. So I think the vice president is going to do the right thing. I've said that publicly. But, you know, I think, you know, the Russians have a proverb,

trust but verify. And it's given, usually people say that's a quote from Ronald Reagan, but actually it's a Russian proverb that Ronald Reagan used. But the point is, yes, we trust President Biden, but we're going to verify and that we don't think that he is going to make these promises and then back away. But I think we have to, as his friends and loyal supporters, go to him and say, you know, it looks like we're not getting the consideration that we'd like to have. So be sure to understand that we're going to continue to watch. You know, now, betrayal, from my perspective, always comes from the enemies. So I don't consider Joe Biden an enemy. Therefore, I don't expect to be betrayed. But there are key positions, as Jim Clyburn said.

I mean, Marc Marial and Al Sharpton and a group of us mayors from the 90s, including Andrew Young and to go into office, especially now with this crisis with COVID and the economic crisis that was created by COVID. We need somebody who can go in there. We're going to have African-Americans losing homes because some of them haven't paid mortgages in eight, nine months. We're going to need rental programs to help people who find themselves without a place to live as the virus has gotten under control. So we need somebody in HUD. Alvin Brown, a former mayor, and most of us former mayors, Ed Rendell, we want somebody like Alvin Brown to be in HUD. And it's about time we get some of these, you know, appointments as cabinet heads so that, you know, people who are going to play significant roles.

I'm not saying that the people there now are not playing significant roles, but we want some people on the cabinet. That means that they meet with the president regularly and the issues that they bring to the table are in part many of the issues that we are concerned about. Not only that, the Congressional Black Caucus has the largest caucus among the Democratic caucus in the House. You're Joe Biden. you're going to need those CBC votes. And look, I get everybody else, but the reality is

there are more, in terms of again, the various groups in the House Conference on the Democratic side, CBC is the largest. And Black women voted at a higher rate for Joe Biden than anyone else. Black men were second.

So when it came to who supported, I hear all the suburban people and then Asian Americans, Latinos, but sheer numbers, the largest percentage for Joe Biden, black women, black men, everybody else. That's right. And if Joe Biden has been paying attention to the Congressional

Black Caucus, he'll do what we've done. Our chair is Karen Bass, and the next chair in all likelihood is going to be Joyce Beatty. Yeah, there are a lot of black men in the CBC., make no mistake, African-American women have saved many of the CBC members and African-American women saved in no small part the presidency of vice president him go to Biden. He said an elderly black woman came over and sat beside him in church and said to him, you know, look, if you support Joe Biden, we need you to say something publicly. We need you to go out and let everybody know what's going on. And because he had said before that, you know, how Clyburn is, you know, he's not going to get involved. He's a member of the Democratic leadership. But he went out and got involved. It was a black woman. And I hope history tells when I tell the story about how Vice President Biden became President-elect Biden.

It was a black woman who played a pivotal role, just like the same thing happened in Montgomery, Alabama, with Rosa Parks. So African-American men, you know, we play a significant role, but it has been the women. Let's not pretend that that hasn't happened. You know, I grew up in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and, man, the women were the movers and the shakers in that CLC. And, you know, I mean, for example, there are some people who are known nationally, internationally, they may even have a TV show.

But if their wife is a pastor, a powerful pastor who can tell the gospel story, you know, she probably helped make that man. I'm just saying. Absolutely right. And again, when you start looking at, because the other thing is this here, and let's talk about what happens on the inside. The reality is this here. There are two meetings every single day when it comes to the White House. There is the 7 a.m. meeting and

there's the 8 a.m. meeting. The folk who are in the 8 a.m. meeting ain't in the 7 a.m. meeting. And so the concern that many folks have is who are the black people who are going to be at the table at the 7 a.m. meeting? We don't have any 7 a.m. ones yet. Right. And that's the whole point. Now, so, you know, one of the issues that for me is at that 7 a.m. meeting, when it comes to the chief of staff and the top people, is Cedric Richmond going to be at that meeting? Who else is going to be at that 7 a.m. meeting when it comes to the chief of staff and the top people. Is Cedric Richmond going to be at that meeting? Who else is going to be at that meeting? Will African-Americans be sitting at that table? Because a 7 a.m. meeting, tell the folks at the 8 a.m. meeting what to do. That's right. That's absolutely right. That's when the president

gets his briefing. And this president can read, of course, and so he will be knowledgeable about what's going on and all the information that he is receiving. The vice president, Kamala Harris, will be in that meeting. But I think you hit just where we are, where Jim Clyburn is, where I am and others. And it is that, you know, we need people sitting around that major table, the major table. It's good. I'm glad to get African-Americans in deputy roles. That's good. But we believe that we have capable individuals who are knowledgeable about the government and the particular areas from which they come to the table to be of enormous help to the Vice President. Now, I'm not saying he's betrayed us.

I want to make myself clear. He's not through. There are, I think, about 16 other major appointments that he has not made yet. And so I think a better time of measurement will be after those next 16 appointments. And that very likely will be those appointments where people like myself and others will be able to say, see, we told you, this is the right guy.

Well, again, I mean, this is... And y'all are raising the alarm now instead of doing it after the fact. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, there won't be any point in doing it later. And I think the civil rights leaders, Martin Marielle and the head of the NAACP, they've all come out and said they want to have a meeting with the president-elect. And they're not going to go in there and be disrespectful and nasty.

I mean, because in that meeting will be two other African-Americans. One of them will be Kamala Harris, and then the other would be Senator Grisham from New Orleans. And so I think that, you know, they are going to also say things to the president-elect that we will never read about or never hear, just because I know the two of them. I work with them in the CBC and feel very comfortable that this is going to take place. But you hit it right on the head when you said, you know, we don't need an after-the-fact group who starts talking after all the significant appointments are made. We're doing it right now. Jim Clyburn has been very clear. He wants Marsha Fudge and Ag

and somebody like Alvin Brown in HUD who has the experience working in HUD and the mayor of the second largest city in Florida. So we're going to continue to push and we're going to do it respectfully. I think that right now it's time to respect. So we're going to continue to push, and we're going to do it respectfully. I think that right now it's time to respect. So we're going to embrace the Russian proverb. We trust the vice president, but we're going to verify it.

Absolutely. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, we certainly appreciate it, sir. Thank you so very much. Good to be with you. All right. All right, 06. All right, folks, let's go to our panel. We will start with Robert Petillo, executive director, Rainbow Push Coalition,

Peachtree Street Project, Monique Presley, Legal Analyst, and Crisis Manager. And of course, I know it pains him greatly to have to be on the show during Alpha Week. Kappa, A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Everybody ain't able.

Robert, I want to start with you. And it's very simple here. Robert, what you are hearing from the CBC is exactly what they are supposed to be doing, using their leverage to maximize power for black folks. Well, you're absolutely correct, but I'm trying to figure out why exactly we need to be leveraging. The entire point of us turning out in record numbers

was so we wouldn't have to leverage. There are some things that just go unsaid. This should be one of them. And I want people to understand Donald Trump ain't going nowhere. He's running again in 2024. He's going to launch a media empire. And all those black magas out there, they're not going anywhere either. They're not invited back to the cookout. They got nowhere else to go. So they are going to continue beating this drum for Trump for four more years. And if you give them fuel for that five, you give them ammunition where they can run back and put their finger in your face and say, look, told you Jim Crow Joe wasn't going to do anything for you. They will ride that into the ground for the next four years. They'll be

making, they'll make it very difficult in 2022 to retain the house, to increase the margin in the Senate. After we went to these two seats in Georgia on January the 5th. It'll make it very difficult to get a governing majority because you need a filibuster-approved majority in the Senate in order to get any big legislation passed. It's going to make it very difficult in 2024 for either Biden or Harris to run for re-election that year. So this is something they have to get right. The community is demanding it. Young people in particular are demanding it. They did not vote for moderation. They did not vote for gradualism.

What we saw from the Trump era, from the Trump movement, is that people expect big, bold things right now. And even if you can't get it done, they want to see you go down fighting for it. Trump never got his wall paid for, but he fought for it until the last day. So people are going to be expecting that on things such as police reform, on criminal justice reform, student loan forgiveness. They will have a whole laundry list of issues, and we're going to need representation in the cabinet to be able to do so, because anything less than that will be substandard. You're going to shoot yourself in the foot the same way that after 2008 and 2012, after the Obama glow wore off, many of those progressives did not turn out for Hillary.

And 2016, that's where the Bernie movement came from. So we have to play the long game, not simply the checkers game that we're playing currently. And I, for one, would like to see Roland Martin, the administration on the communications team. Ain't going to happen. I would like to see. Look, I'm just saying I'd like to'Neal Presley and Scott Bolden in the AG department or somewhere in the Office of Legal Counsel. We earned it. We've been

up here campaigning and fighting and bleeding for them, so I shouldn't be having to beg. If I got begged, guess what? I can be crowd surfing with Vernon Jones at the next MAGA round. That's what will happen if we do it again. But the deal here, Monique, I don't see this as a question of begging.

First of all, what it is is, like, we're just going to let you know, like, what did Congressman say? Trust and verify. Look, there are a lot of black people who are extremely talented, who have been in politics, who worked on the campaign, who are on the transition team. And people need to understand something, okay? People have approached me to run for office

since I was 20 years old. I ain't never ran. That ain't my calling. I've never had a desire to work for a politician because I don't want to have to ask somebody else for permission. So just real simple, there are a lot of folk who can work in communication. I ain't one

of them. So I love these fools out here on social media. You were only sitting here supporting Biden and Harris. You were trying to get a job. I got one. Right here. Roe good. Monique?

Was that a question? Yes. That was a clear undeniable statement. But again, the CBC is doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. Yes. Everybody is in their lane doing what they're supposed to do in their roles. What I spoke to you about earlier, and I'll say again without fear because I've got to be bold in 2020, just heading up to 2021, our people are so conditioned to think that good government check is something to aspire to that they don't even recognize when there's a significant segment of their population who's already transcended that, who don't need or want to take the pay cut that it would take to go back to where the young folks are waking up at 5 a.m.

when it's dark and going to work and going to sleep at 11 a.m., 12, 12, 12 a.m. when it's still dark. No, that's that's not our role. And it doesn't mean that we don't have influence. And it doesn't mean that we're not doing something that people should aspire to. It just means, as I said to you earlier today, Roland, Simone is in that role and she should be. Congratulations. Lord knows, I push her. I love her.

I've mentored her. I'm excited about it. I don't want to be her. I'm just excited about her doing it. I love what it means to be outside of that bubble and still have influence as you do in your own lane. And people need to recognize that it takes all of us. It takes all of us doing our parts. And if we are not still at this very late date looking for our goal watch and our parachute and our retirement, then we may actually get to where we have real influence. What, uh... And we can help our children and our children's children and it not be about this one position and this one appointment. Scott, the point that I was

making about being in the right meeting, being at the table, because you're there when it comes to when policy is being formulated. And so what the CBC is saying, we want to make sure that black people are vertical and horizontal. We don't just want to see, you know,

one or two up here, then one, two here. No, they say we want to see black through and through. And we deserve it. We've earned it. And we've gotten smarter about this. Trust but verify. Listen, the 7 a.m. meeting is the meeting before the meeting. We call it the meeting before the meeting in corporate America. And it's no different than the White

House. That's the first thing. Second of all, we've earned it. I appreciate all people of color. Don't get me wrong. But the biggest chunk of the people of color are Black people. And you apply the but-for test. But for black people in the black vote, in particular black female vote, you would not be president-elect and vice president-elect. End of story, right? That's the end of the debate. Secondly, you know, the same rule applies when FDR told Roy Wilkins in the 30s, I agree with everything you've told me about the American Negro. Now go make me do it. And so now we've got to go make Biden do what we want him to do. That's pure power politics. And so often black people have waited and assessed and jumped in after the fact to complain.

No, we're going to do it right now because this is smart politics. We're going to remind you, and we're going to make sure you do the right thing. We're leaving nothing to chance, respectfully, and I think they better get back to those black leaders because what I've been reading is that no one's even set up that meeting that the congressman was talking about. They're doing it

smart, and they're doing it the right way. The reality is that the meetings that you have with various organizational leaders typically does not happen before the inauguration. It typically happens after that. And so, I mean, I fully expected them to do that. But here's also the thing, Robert, that I think is important as well. This is extremely important.

I don't want there to be one black meeting. Let me be real clear, okay? NAACP, Urban League, A. Philip Randolph Institute, I'm trying to name the groups who were on there. National Action Network. You know, National Action Network, that's fine. NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Lawyers Community for Civil Rights Under Law, that's civil rights group.

You got black health practitioners. You've got black education folks. You've got African-Americans who are in media. There are multiple groups. So the reality is I want to see multiple gatherings with this administration of African-Americans. That because expertise comes to the table. And I'll be real clear, and I'm not criticizing Rainbow Push or National Action Network or

National Urban League or NAACP, but let me be real clear, okay? If I'm having a conversation about black business, I'm going to have black business people at the meeting. Exactly. I ain't going to have a discussion. Here's my whole deal. If I'm going to have a discussion about black business, okay, I'm just going to have a discussion about black business. I'm talking to black business.

If I'm going to have a discussion about black law stuff, I'm going to talk to the National Bar Association. If I want to discuss black health stuff, I'm going to talk to the National Bar Association. If I want to discuss black health stuff, I'm going to talk to the National Medical Association. And so that's what I'm going to do. So let's come to the kid right here. Let me, let me real clear, black people, black organizations. I'm talking to y'all directly. Okay. Let me be as clear as possible. What this requires, this requires proper expertise. Black people, we have graduated from the days of single organizations and single leaders speaking for all. Those days are gone.

This is now a question of black expertise. And so I want to have experts at the table talking about those issues. And so when the conversation is about COVID, when you have this vaccine that comes out, guess what? The federal government is going to be spending a lot of money on advertising, on the vaccine, on reaching out to people. I want to make sure black media is getting the money. I want to make sure black ad agencies are getting the money as well.

That means having people at the table who know what the hell they're talking about. And again, stay in your lane. Stay in your lane. And I think too often we have not had that take place. Folks, got to go to a break.

We come back. We're gonna talk about defund the police. Obama made some comments that are not sitting well with various activists. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Trump can show up and say anything. And they can just go, oh yeah. The African American community was great to us.

They didn't vote. You know, he just called you stupid. Did you hear that? Oh, oh, oh, but he's for us. Really? And they were just regurgitating the things that they had heard on a radio or in the barbershop or something that somebody had told them.

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

I'm done with hope. Fuck hope. Bye. -♪ We're at Mom's Kitchen in Preston, Georgia. It's a family business. I enjoy making people happy, giving them a good meal. But since COVID, we had to close our main dining room.

We lost all of that business. And we used to do a lot of caterings. We can't do any of that anymore. David Perdue knew what was about to happen. He was getting classified briefings about the pandemic. But instead of him being concerned about us, he off selling stock.

We had no idea we'd have to close our businesses off. We'd lose caterings, and so many people died. And then when we needed help the most, he fought against the stimulus checks and to cut unemployment insurance. Purdue needs to come out and Ossoff in. Early voting starts December 14th. You've got to make a plan to vote.

I'm John Ossoff, and I approve this message. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's a value we all try to live by, but in Washington, it's been forgotten. It's clear. Our politics are broken, overcome by a selfishness that rewards money and power, leaving far too many of us out of the conversation.

I'm Raphael Warnock, and I see you. I see too many communities left behind, too many hardworking people ignored. I'm running for Senate to be your voice. That's why I approve this message. One senator in particular irks me. A Senator Kelly Loeffler, not elected elected but appointed just a couple months ago calls across the political spectrum for the resignation of republican senator kelly loeffler of georgia loeffler her husband's the chairman of the new york stock exchange i know

that sounds like a joke about rich people in an Adam Sandler movie. That's a real thing. He owns the Stock Exchange. So they're two regular down home folks. One of the first things they did after they found out just how bad the coronavirus would be during closed door Senate briefings was sell a huge amount of stock. You sold over a million dollars in stocks in your own personal portfolio before the market went down. They were making a bunch of moves in the stock market to make sure their portfolios were protected instead of making sure you were protected. New congressional disclosures show that law force sold far more stock than we initially knew. 18.7 million dollars in stock trades. While there are those who would dismiss it and say,

well, she's worth so much more, I've never met a wealthy person who didn't want more money. Not only did she sell stuff, but then she bought stuff. And one of the items she bought was to help people who have to work at home software. There's a reason Kelly Leffler's spending $25 plus or $30 billion. Because she don't want people to know about her past.

So she owns part of Atlanta's WNBA team, and there are calls for her to give up that ownership now. Truth is, with Kelly Loeffler, her own ambitions and her own elite friends come first, and the president, the rest of us come second. Folks, this woman is knee-deep in the swamp, and she just got there. We should have leaders who actually respect the people. If Loffler knew about these trades, she should leave office. The voters of Georgia had the opportunity to ballot box you out.

I'm Deion Cole and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard arguments in Bill Cosby's appeal hearing and questioning whether the five women who testified against the 83-year-old during his sexual assault trial should have been allowed to do so.

The judges believe these testimonies are based upon the questions to the lawyers. The judges indicated that they believe the testimonies could have unfairly influenced the jury, although prosecutors argue the women's testimony showed a common pattern where Cosby would befriend and isolate young women, then drug them and sexually assault them, the justices weren't sure if that was enough to establish that there was a common pattern.

Cosby is serving a three to ten year sentence for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constant, a former Temple University employee, in 2004. The justices haven't given any indication on when they could or whether they will overturn Cosby's 2018 sex assault conviction. However, Cosby and his legal team see this as a win. Cosby said, quote, this was not just an historic day for me, Bill Cosby, but it became a beacon of hope for those countless American citizens of the Keystone State in Pennsylvania correctional facilities whose constitutional rights might have been grossly abused because they lacked resources and means to fight prosecutorial corruption. Let's go to our legal panel here. All of our panelists today, they're all lawyers. Monique, I'm going to start with you because you actually served on the Cosby legal team early on. Your thoughts about yesterday's hearing

before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. I mean, Roland, what's the specific question? Because I have many thoughts and I don't want to ramble. Well, just share your thoughts. And then when I get tired of you talking, I'll stop you. Okay. Lord have you. Okay. Lord have mercy. Yeah.

What's interesting to me, and I will do just an observation, and I will let Scott and Robert clean this up for me. When a black man of means is being prosecuted or persecuted, then we get into the technicalities of everything. And we're trying to figure out as a country every single way that we can make sure that he is convicted, as opposed to every single way that we can assure that he gets the benefit of the doubt and is not convicted or is released or is not having his liberty restricted. And this is one of those situations where we saw a judge who made a right decision one time and then when given another chance made the wrong decision. We saw people who had an opportunity to come forward for decades and didn't. but then when the price was right, did so. And now we see justices who are trying to figure out what the law says about this. And what they're really assessing, frankly, is, is alcohol and drugs, is that a modus operandi?

Is that something that is unique and particular to trying to do a particular crime? Or is that common? Is that something that 50% or more of people go through, as one of the Supreme Court justices said? Is that something that is not unique, but is random? And I'm not talking about what women should experience or they shouldn't before I get the hate mail that's likely to come. I'm talking about what the law says

and what should have been applied before these women were allowed to testify in the last trial. And that's all I'll say for now. Scott. All right, I'll start with that. Robert. Yep.

Well, just piggybacking on my point, I'm not going to make any legal judgment or determination as to the facts of the case. I've learned this equisonic endeavor to try to glean from oral arguments or from a hearing how judges or justices will rule. However, I do think it's important for us to look at the ways that we have to reform our criminal justice system generally. If somebody like Bill Cosby's means is still

arguing that he was not able to achieve a fair trial, how does that 18-year-old who has a public defender, public defenders who do great work, how is that 18-year-old able to fully exercise his constitutional rights? How can we make sure that we have a free and fair justice system in this country so that there's not an auction where it does not depend on how much money you make in order to determine your guilt or innocence or your ability to fight a case? So I think we have to look at the systemic issues more so than the individualized issues in this case. All right, folks, we'll go to our next story, and that is defund the police. Democrats have been whining and complaining, those who lost, saying, oh, it was defund the police is the reason. Obama weighed in on this on an interview on a Snapchat show. Listen to this.

It's interesting. We take for granted, if you want people to buy your sneakers, that you're going to market it to your audience. If a musician drops a record, there's going to try to reach certain audiences speaking to folks where they are. It's no different in terms of ideas. If you believe, as I do, that we should be able to reform

the criminal justice system so that it's not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan like, defund the police, but you know you've lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you're actually gonna get the changes you want done. But if you instead say, let's reform the police department so that everybody's being treated fairly, you know, divert young people from getting into crime, and if there's a homeless guy,

maybe we send a mental health worker there instead of an armed unit that could end up resulting in a tragedy. Suddenly, a whole bunch of folks who might not otherwise listen to you are listening to you. So the key is deciding, do you want to actually get something done, or do you want to feel good among the people you already agree with? And if you want to get something done in a democracy, in a country as big and diverse as ours,

then you've got to be able to meet people where they are and play a game of addition and not subtraction. Well, that piece right there is pissing off lots of people. Mark Lamont Hill is one of those folks. Mark has a new book out that actually speaks to this whole issue of policing. Folks, we have that book cover. Please pull it up. It is We Still Here, Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility.

Mark, I'm going to bring up my other guests in a minute, but Mark, I want to talk to you first. Obviously, in comments, folks are not happy on social media. But the thing that's interesting here is Obama acts like stuff hasn't been done. The reality is we saw changes made in San Francisco. We've seen changes made in a bunch of different police departments. The folks who have been saying defund the police have actually been achieving wins. What is he talking about? That's what's so frustrating about this.

I understand the president's on book tour and he's, you know, sometimes speaking to soundbites and moving very quickly, but this is imprecise. You know, first of all, I've been part of the prison abolition movement for decades now. This is not a movement that just came out of nowhere. This is not a movement that has not thought about slogans and branding and conversations, but, it's a policy demand. And quite

honestly, it's not the most radical policy demand that came out. Defund the police is a very simple call to take resources from one place and invest it in places where we can better use them and where people will be better served, where people's needs will be met. And to your point, Roland, we absolutely have gotten wins, right? We got wins in Minneapolis. We got wins in Camden. But it's not just about taking money out of police budgets. It's also about reorienting our thinking. And

the president makes it seem as if the fundamental problem here is that we simply haven't presented it in a way that is palatable to people when the truth is, many of the people who have been opposing us, whether it's in Ferguson, whether it's in Baltimore, it's people who don't want to defund police. They want to invest in police. They want to support police unions. They want to make police less accountable. This isn't a question of our ability to articulate our vision. This is

a question of people not being able to imagine a world where we operate differently. And the president didn't do us any favors with his comments. And quite frankly, he didn't echo what I think is truthful in this case. But also, I have yet to see any actual data from these folks who lost. And let's also break down the Democrats who lost. Outside of the two Democrats in Florida, Shalala and Marquesa, whatever her name is. The other folks who lost were in essentially red districts. Yes. Now, and so show me in those districts how they're impacted by policing.

The places where they're arguing defund the police, which actually does not. And again, the opposition took that. Oh, you're trying to say don't fund the cops. No, idiot. This is what it means. So to me, you're sort of playing into your opponent's hands by by allowing their narrative to control what you do. When, in fact, the purpose of the slogan is to push folks as far as they can. And if I push that and then you say, well, no, we'd rather call it reform. Well, damn, call it whatever you want to call it, but do something. Do something. And I think your first point is on the money as well. Right. Which is that these candidates that were that were running in red districts, they weren't going to win anyway.

And the issue wasn't their failure to distance themselves from Medicare for All or Green New Deal or defunding the police. You know, some people said they were running too close to socialism, the Democratic Party. That's all sore losing Monday morning quarterbacking from people who, quite frankly,

didn't get on board with what the people were calling for. But they called individuals who were second amendment believers and who were who were capitalists socialists look the republicans are going to call you socialists regardless look at what's happening right now with Warnock in Atlanta oh my god scary Warnock oh my goodness he hung with Castro and Jeremiah Wright. This whole deal. But Kelly Leffler never mentioned and we'll get to it later. She never mentioned that she went to his church, Ebenezer, for MLK Day with Johnny Isakson, the other Republican who replaced. So they're always are going to brand Democrats as radical, left, socialist, and if they didn't use defund the police, they will use the other three letter, the three word phrase, Black Lives Matter.

It doesn't matter. Right. And the president is playing into those hands, as you said, by acting as if those are things that we should legitimately be running from. And history doesn't aid that argument either. You know, suffrage now, abolition now, women's rights now. These were phrases that were, these were snappy phrases that didn't make everybody comfortable. But we stayed with them. We stayed the course. We fought for justice.

We won. The same thing has to happen here. But instead, there are many people, middle-of-the-road Democrats, who are willing to run from these things. They're willing to run from Black Lives Matter and Medicare for All and Green New Deals. Hell, Joe Biden won the presidency by running from some of that stuff because he wanted to appeal to a certain base. But the election's over. At some point, we have to run on our values. We have to have an affirmative vision of the world and say what we want, not just what we don't want.

And saying that we want to defund police is a reasonable argument. And the failure to get it, I'll say it again, is not because people don't understand what we really mean. And it's not because we're not smart enough to just say reform the police, because that ain't what we're calling for. We're calling for something more fundamental here. The problem is that people can't imagine a world without policing in the way that it currently functions. And the problem is that there are many people a world without policing in the way that it currently functions.

And the problem is that there are many people who are on the other side of the equation who want to see more policing, more quote unquote law and order in the Donald Trump way, who want to see more criminalization of vulnerable people. And until we get at that core issue, instead of gaslighting and blaming people who are calling for justice, we ain't never going to get nowhere. This also, and let's just call it what it is this is also about making white people comfortable this is can we come up with something that's non-offensive okay no no define the no no can can we just say reform the police okay here's my whole deal fine show me where the phrase reform

the police has actually caused them to say, OK, you know what? Now I agree with you. Right. That's the frustrating part, Roland. They act as if we just started this movement last week. We have been calling for reforms to the police since the moment that policing started. Whether you whether you begin policing with the with the with slave patrols, whether you begin it in New England or in Boston in particular, or whether you begin it in the more modern iteration Boston in particular, or whether you begin it in the more modern iteration. At every moment where there's been policing, there have been people who have been calling to reform them. And at every moment, there have been people who have pushed

back. And in this very specific modern era, from Rodney King forward or from Trayvon Martin forward, we have called for reforms. We've called for citizen review boards. We have called for outside arbiters. We have called for community policing. We've called to demand that police live in the neighborhood. We have called for body cameras. We have called for every kind of reform that you could imagine, and they've never said yes to any of it. So they need to stop acting as if, if we could only say the word reform instead of these crazy radical demands, that we'd somehow get what we want. We got to ask what we want if we want to get it. Mark Lamont Hill, he is the author of the book, We Still Hear, Pandemic, Policing,

Protest, and Possibility. Mark, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Good to see you, bro. I want to pull up Melina Abdullah. She's with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. Melina, Obama's a politician. Let's cut to the chase, okay? He ran on being a community organizer, but he's not a community organizer anymore. He's a politician, politicians. They make compromises, activists, push, push, push. They prod people push. That's what they do. That's what this is. And so activists are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. But there are many people who feel as if that Obama with these sort of recently throwing activists under the bus by saying, oh, tamp that thing down.

And again, I'm just trying. Fine. OK, Obama, you don't like defund the police. OK, show me where your phrase reform the police has actually reformed the police. Right. Well, also, we have to remember that we've been saying defund the police for a very long time. This is not a new phrase. We know exactly what we're saying and why we're saying it. You know, in the words of your friend and mine, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, budgets are moral documents. And when most major cities are spending upwards of 50 percent of their tax base on police, that's a problem. So when we say defund the police, what we also mean is fund mental health care.

What we also mean is fund public health care in the midst of a global pandemic like we've never seen. We also mean support small businesses. We also mean create good jobs. We also mean support our young people and develop strong youth programs. So defund the police is about thinking about the morality of this country and how we spend our dollars and investing those dollars in the things that actually make communities safe. So when Obama says this is a snappy slogan, I think we need to quickly remind him that

snappy slogans include things like, yes, we can, and change we can believe in. But defund the police is really a call to action to keep the world safe, to get the world to be safe for your children and mine, for you and me, and for communities that see policing and over-policing as a threat to our safety. Again, there have been so many different reactions to this. And again, a lot of these Democrats who lost, who have been complaining, say, they ran all these ads against me saying defund the police.

But that was a white woman in Atlanta who actually ran in a district that was a purple district, and they hit her with all kinds of different ads. And guess what? She won, and she actually marched with protesters. Is it because she actually ran a better campaign than the other folks? And again, please, by all means,

I'm trying to figure out, show me the data. Now, what I do know is that defund the police did have an advantage because it increased youth turnout. Right. Defund the police. You can't have it both ways, right? Defund the police absolutely mobilized and invigorated what is now called the largest racial and social justice movement in global history, what ignited young people, what ignited progressives, what ignited people who didn't really feel like they were called to the polls by kind of the mainstream rhetoric, was the phrasing defund the police, was the dare to radically reimagine a world and create a world and build a world where we can actually live and grow freely. And so it's

important that we understand that Black people, that Black organizers, and Black Lives Matter in particular ushered Donald Trump out of office. We won many of these seats that Democrats were running for, and so they can't benefit from defund the police and the movement that is using it as our clarion call and then condemn us at the same time. Melina Abdullah, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you so much. I'm going to pull up my panel right now. Let me first start with Robert Petillo. Robert, to this particular point that you're hearing, obviously President Barack Obama was always about moderation, conciliation, compromise. But here's the deal. That's not who activists are.

Activists are all about how do you push? How do you push? How do you push? How do you push? How do you push? How do you try to achieve change and demand change? And for, again, the people who complain about defund the police, again, if they say, oh, my God, I hate that phrase, okay, but do you support the reforms

that folks are calling for with police departments? And the reality is those white folks don't. Well, you know, President Obama is coming from a position of navite when it comes to these issues and the protesters are pushing. It's not about the slogan. It's not about what you call it. There's nothing more wholesome than saying Black Lives Matter, literally just the understanding that black people's lives matter. And they twisted that into BLM and Donald Trump declared a terrorist organization. You take someone like Raphael Warnock, who's running commercials eating pizza with a fork and playing with a puppy, and Kelly Loeffler's running commercials saying that he's Fidel Castro, Jeremiah Wright, and everything but a child of God.

It's not about the slogan. It's not about these people not understanding. They understand completely. They hear Black Lives Matter. They hear defund the police. All they hear is black folks and minorities want more rights and they are scaring the political system, the social structure that I'm used to. And you're not going to change that through moderation. Jesus was not a moderate. He was flipping over remember this entire black mega generation that we're looking at right now, you can talk to any of them who are in their fifties or below, they all voted for Obama in 2008. It was statements like this. It was actions like this that turned them from hardcore Democrats into Trump supporters. And I think until we can get a grasp on that and understand that we cannot moderately and slowly and gradually move our way out of police

brutality, we're not going to make progress. Let's go. Monique, agree, disagree? I disagree. I want us to slow down because I'm annoyed on so many different levels. People don't

necessarily understand this rapid fire where we say as many words as we can fit into a minute conversation. But what they do understand is that there's one person we're talking about who is a first Black and two-term president of the United States. So maybe we credit him for knowing a few things. And then there are others of us who are responsible for the lawyering and the advocacy and the agitation. And we all have our lanes. But this is really, to me, kind of a stuck on stupid situation, issue and conversation. President Obama, and Roland, you used to require us to call him President Obama.

I guess he's just Obama now, but I'm going to call him President Obama. He said that defense— I don't know. I called him President Obama. What's the point? No, no, no. He was Obama all night tonight. I was listening. No, no. If I call you President Obama the first time, I'm going to call you Obama on the second reference. That's actually how it's all. That's that's actually AP style. So that's actually how I've done it.

It wasn't you. It wasn't you. OK, whatever. Go ahead. Go ahead. It was your guess. OK, whatever. Fine.

Go. Mark. Mark Lamont, who said we should vote for a third party candidate. I wish he was still here because we would have had Hillary Clinton as a president. But we're not talking about a third-party candidate. We're talking about the issue of defund the police, and we're talking about Obama taking issue with that and actively disagreeing.

I mean, and I can hear you if you yell or if you whisper. No, what I'm saying is, but stick to the subject and not who Mark voted for in 2016. The reason why that matters is because he's now criticizing the very actions that he could have been behind. But I'll leave him alone if that's offensive. Here's what I'll say. Defund. Everybody knows some people have responded to unfavorably people who we could use in order to get things

to happen. That doesn't mean defund is wrong. Everybody knows what politics is. Everybody knows what branding is. Everybody knows what it means to use language. We right here, we on media right now, we know it's a difference between saying N-I-G-G-A and a difference between saying N-E-G-R-O. We know, right? Do I have to say both of them for people to understand? It's the same thing, though. So what I, all I am saying is, let's stop the people who are in the President Obama circle who want to get those objectives met for us, and the people who are in the activist circle who want to get those objections, those goals met for us, we agree.

We need the Senate right now. We need two seats in Georgia. Y'all stop majoring in the minors. I'm not going to do it with you. No, we're not majoring in the minors, but here's the deal. The reality is this here. There are people, Scott,

who don't like defund the police. There are people who Scott, who don't like defund the police. There are people who also vote who were motivated by defund the police for the Democrats who are complaining, saying, oh, I lost because of defund the police. Show me. Show me the data that you lost because of defund the police. Because you know what? Out of all of those Democrats who lost, I have yet to see them present any evidence that actually backs that up. And here's the other deal. And this is the thing that people have to understand. The Democrats' tent is a much larger tent than the Republicans'. If you're a Republican, this is how you run.

You run on, I'm pro-life, I'm second amendment, I'm small government. That's it. That's all you need. Whether you're running in the northeast, the southeast, the southwest, the midwest, out west, all around the country, if you are Republican, that's the only way you run. But if you're Democrat, you run a certain way. If you're in rural Pennsylvania or rural Michigan or in Detroit or in Cincinnati or in Cleveland or in rural Ohio, it's a totally different deal. And so defund the police serves an interest for a significant number of Democrats. But it ain't going to work with all Democrats. And so the Republicans say we're just going to brand all y'all with that. All y'all love Black Lives Matter.

All y'all socialist. All y'all radical. And it don't even matter. Yeah, yeah. Now, you may not like that rule. It may be completely false and wrong for them to do that. But when you say defund the police, you're giving the Republicans that slogan

to run on and run against Democrats all around the country. So what's the slogan? Hold on. If you know that, then why give that to them? Because that's not because that's not because that because the because activists defund the police because activists call the police because activists and political because activists and political people operate two different ways. And so here's the piece. Here's the piece. Fine. Here's the question.

Is the issue actually the slogan or is it the substance behind what folks are demanding? I think it's the slogan more than anything, because those who lost, those who lost would argue that part, not all, but part of the reason they lost was because the Democratic progressives gave the Republicans something to run on. You forgot one other thing about what Republicans run on. They run on law and order and pro-police. So help me out. Like it or not. So hold on. So Scott, so Scott. So help me out. Like it or not. So hold on. You don't have to like it,

but I'm speaking truth to you about this. Okay, so fine. Let's say you don't use defund the police. Let's say we use reform the police. Hell, they're going to run against that. Yeah, they may, but they won't. They may? They won't do something as powerful as defund the police. My

goodness, you're giving it to them on a silver platter and if you believe in power, political power, you don't give your enemy that. And they gave it to them. Robert, there is no difference. It's called reprogramming. There is no difference for Republicans between reform the police and defund. You know what they're going to say? Oh, yes, it is.

No, it's not. Oh, yes, it is. They're going to say we stand with the cops. Because, Robert, hold up. Hold up. No, it's not. Oh, yes, it is. They're going to say, we stand with the cops. Because, Robert, hold up. It's a big ass deal. Hold on, hold on. We have all the proof. We have all the evidence, Robert, because you said it earlier.

They use black, they use black, they weaponize Black Lives Matter. Robert, you wrong about this. No, no, one second. One second. You wrong about this. One second. They weaponize Black Lives Matter. There is nothing about Black Lives Matter that's

offensive, scary. Oh, but they have flipped that phrase into... No, it's not. It's fact. It's a three word phrase, Robert, that they use the same way. The Republicans are going to weaponize

anything against Democrats. Not like defund the police. Robert is talking. Robert is talking. All we have to do is look back to the Henry Louis Gates situation when President Obama said the cops acted stupidly and they called him the N-word. Then when he said

Trayvon Martin, if I had a son, he would look like him. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, hold on, hold on. He said the cops acted stupidly arresting him after they identified who he was. The whole right went...

Hold up. The entire right went Obama called the cops stupid. And Obama had to have a damn beer summit to calm their asses down. So it's not about the slogan. It's not about the slogan. It's not about the slogan. It's the substance. If you go back

to the Abraham Lincoln meeting with Frederick Douglass, they were talking about gradualism. We look at Booker D. Washington, gradualism. If you look at Brown v. Board of Education, we're talking about with all deliberate speed, things don't happen in America slowly. It takes big, bold

actions. And this idea that we're going to somehow middle of the road our way, let's not scare the white people in Iowa by saying defund the police. We're going to say we're going to change the regulatory structure so the city will waive municipal liability or something. That's not the point. They are afraid of black folks and minorities getting more rights. It does not matter if you called it cotton candy and unicorns. They still would have something against that, too. I'm going to bring in one second. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Scott. Scott. Hold up. Hold up. We're going to continue this. But I do want to bring in Jim Galloway, the columnist with the Land Journal Constitution, because he actually wrote a column talking about this race between Kelly Loeffler, Raphael Warnock,

saying this crossed the line. And Jim, I want to get you to weigh in on this because, again, Carolyn Bordeaux, who ran there in Georgia, OK, and they hit her with defund the police. She marched in protest. She won. But the thing here, Loeffler, she's sitting here trying to do the same thing. Warnock wants to defund the cops. Black Lives Matter, terrorist organization, they are going, I argue, they will weaponize anything to drive out their white voters to oppose any Democrat. And it's especially a tactic that's suited to a runoff,

because you're really not trying to persuade anybody anymore. You already have your voters, you know who they are, and your object is simply to bring them out one more time. So yeah, this is, look, I'm getting mail, my mail is from both sides now, and it is, there's no middle ground. If you're pushing for Warnock, you're saying that there's a name for corruption in Georgia, and her name is Kelly Loeffler. If you're pushing for

Kelly Loeffler, you are, yes, you're pointing to you're putting out video of the unrest that followed the George Floyd killings, killing the Rayshard Brooks killing. So, yeah, it's it's it's we are not this is not humanity at its best moment. The thing, Jim, that I find to be interesting, again, when I look at how the politics plays.

And again, I've looked at this particular race as well. And I've looked at the attacks, how Nikki Haley and all the other Republicans have been running that ad saying, Raphael Warnock called cops thugs. Forget context. Forget he was talking about thugs, cops who've actually gone to jail. For them, you can't even say that. So the point I'm making is if you're activists out there demanding, there is nothing that you can do that is going to appease or make happy the law and order crowd. There's nothing.

You can be as genteel. I can see your point. I can see your point. But here's the one thing I would, you've been talking about the difference between activists and politicians. Right. All right? We are, and we are now in a political moment, I think.

And what you have to realize is that, specifically in Georgia, let's take Georgia as the example. You had Stacey Abrams working the ground since 2015, and she was working the grounds on the basis of the demographic diversity that's building in Georgia, that ultimately Georgia is going to be a majority minority state. But that's not what happened in 2018, and it's not what happened on November 3rd. What happened in both of those elections, you saw a serious breach in white suburbia, in some very white enclaves, north of Atlanta, northwest of Atlanta, and northeast of Atlanta, where Carolyn Bordeaux is. And so you do have to start taking those people into account as part of your formula for winning. Right. And if that's the case, then you've got to make them comfortable. Be quiet.

No, no, no, no. Wait, but see, but this is now if I is now, I'll put the panel in, and this is why this is so different because to the point I made earlier, to the point I made earlier, if you're a Republican, your messaging is the same across the board. I don't care. You can hop from, you can take every Republican congressional district, your messaging is the same, okay? But the reality, Monique and Scott out there protesting as well, and defund the police, the data is clear, the impact it had on youth vote,

that's why it now is incumbent upon the politician to say, I'm going to run this way in my district, and it might be different in yours. So for the Democrats who are in a purple district to say, no, we shouldn't be saying this, but it works over here. That's the point I'm saying, Monique and Scott. It's not that, oh, like, okay, you can't use it all, but their job is to frame themselves and not be tagged by something that's happening across the country. Just like they don't use Nancy Pelosi against anybody. They don't use AOC against all of them. Your job is to say I'm not them, but to say that, oh, that's why I lost. That's why I disagree with those Democrats saying that they lost because of defund the police.

I say it ain't the slogan. It still is the substance. Monique, Scott, Robert, and I'm coming back to Jim for some other questions. There are these two elections right now that are more important than anything else that is going on. We're past the presidential election and thank God we have a winner that is going on. We're past the presidential election, and thank God we have a winner that is in our favor. We're pre-2022, right? So there's these two elections. And what President Obama was saying with wisdom, and what others, including your past guests, who was saying it much more nicely than I will say it is, don't get stuck on stupid because these people in

Georgia, they don't want to hear this defund the police bullshit right now. They are scared of that. And we need them in order to get a Senate so that we can defund the police. Is there anybody

who's listening right now who can let go of a word? But, Monique, this is the mistake that you're making. But, Monique, the mistake that you're making is that this topic is not. But, Monique, this topic is not just about Georgia. They literally were. It is right now, Rowan. No, it's not. That's all I care about right now.

No, it's not. No, it's not. I don't care. It's not, Monique. It's not just about Georgia. It might not be. It's not. No, it's not. It's not, Monique. It's not just about Georgia. It's not. Right now it is. It might not be all you're about right now, and forgive me because I'm on your show.

No, that's not. No, no, no. That's not what they're saying. No. No, no, no. See, this is the mistake you're making. What Clyburn and Obama are saying is don't use it at all. It ain't about Georgia. They're saying get elected. No, what they're saying is don't use it at all. And what I'm

saying is it ain't going away. They said the nomenclature was wrong. And I resent, actually, anybody who's on here right now who's saying that President Obama's administration didn't take steps forward in terms of reforming police and getting federal initiatives that we need. Who did? Forget y'all. Who did? Are you forgetting what we did? No, stop, stop, stop. Who did? Who did? Uh, him. Who? Him, he did. Who the hell

was him? Him, President Obama? No, no. Who said he didn't do anything? What we said. No, no, no, no, no, no. Who said do anything? What we said. No, no, no, no, no, no. Who said that? What I heard was. No, no, no. What you inferred. He's saying reform is wrong, right?

He's saying that is wrong and that the activists are responsible for making sure something gets done. What I'm saying is, oh, but you're insulting the last president who actually gave a damn about the giving. No, actually what you're doing is and also you also forgot

he had to be pushed. Those same activists met with him. No, no, no, no, no. The same activists met with him in the Oval Office and they pushed him to also do more. And it's on the record. Hold up. It's on the record where he also

told them gradualism and they told him no. That's what you're dealing with. And they should keep on. But these people who are out there saying he's just trying to sell a book and bar him. No, but first of all, we ain't talking about them. We're talking about the people who are on this show. Jim, I want to ask you this here.

I want to ask you this here about this particular race here between Loeffler and Warnock. It is it is about turnout. It is about turnout. But what you have here, Jim, though, is you have Kelly Leffler who's saying I'm an outsider who is viciously attacking Black Lives Matter, who who is rolling with this whole notion of the polar whites of the world saying they are a terrorist organization. And so Kelly Loeffler, I'm going to get your thoughts on it, her deal is if I can scare the hell out of white voters as much as I can

by saying this man is a lover of terrorist organizations and Black Lives Matter. But you noted in your column when she visited Ebenezer in January. So was he a terrorist then? That's a good question, isn't it? Isn't it? Yeah, she was there on MLK Day. That was kind of her public debut as a U.S. senator because she had just been sworn in a couple of weeks earlier

and she had kept a lid on her public announcements. At that point, she was being groomed as a suburban friendly replacement for Isaacson. And Isaacson had cultivated this interesting relationship with Warnock. He had been at MLK ceremonies for the last 25 years. He was the most dependable Republican attorney, attendee, and sometimes he was the only Republican of note there. It was his statement, his very quiet statement, that the Republican Party couldn't survive as a white-only party. And Loeffler was up there.

And to kind of replace that, she said the right words. I mean, you know, they were a little bit vague, but she carried that off well, relatively well. And ever since, I mean, she got tied up in that fight with Doug Collins from February, really, into November. And then, man, her focus has been on Warnock. And yes, she is. Clearly, they have been going through years and years and years of Warnock sermons. I mean, the guy is out there. To pick up on maybe just a slight lack of phrasing. America, you can't serve God and the military. That was the last three minutes of a 45-minute sermon.

And if you listen to the front part of that, Roland, you've been to enough churches. You know what was being said. Yeah. It was a matter of priority. Hell, my wife is a minister. My wife is a pastor. I know about preaching. Yeah, you serve God first

and then you go to your second, to your second love. And that's all he was saying. That is all he was saying. That is all he was saying. And yes, that got twisted. And it's very clear that they're trying to do the same thing that they did with Jeremiah Wright and Obama in 2008. But to your point, to your point,

what's happening here is that you've got both Ossoff and Warnock running as a team. They're running as a ticket. Perdue and Loeffler are running as a ticket. And clearly what they have decided is that Warnock is the man to attack because if black voters turn out for him in heavy numbers, they're in trouble. Well, I really hope they are going to be in trouble. Jim Galloway, very good column there on Land Journal Constitution. We appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Robert, I want to pull you in here. You're there in Georgia. Look,

it's going to be a turnout deal. They want to demonize Warnock as much as possible. They want to tag him with defund the police. They want to tag him with Black Lives Matter. But the bottom line is here. Are you seeing black people extremely energized? Are you seeing those suburban areas energized? And then you've got these stuck-on stupid Republicans. What they're doing, they have the news conference today talking about stop the steal. They're making all the allegations in a second. I'm about to play this video of a Georgia election official going off on Republicans,

sowing seeds of discontent in the state. Well, you're absolutely right, Roland. What you have to realize, what's going on here in Georgia, the reason that they are attacking Warnock like this is because they are afraid for their lives. Kelly Loeffler has no resume. She has nothing to fall back on. She's running a commercial right now with our friend Janelle in it, talking about how she lived paycheck to paycheck to get through college, when in reality, her family leveraged their farm to pay her way through college and grad school. She worked for a job for about three years, and then married the CEO. He bought her a basketball team and he bought her a Senate seat.

That is the extent of what we know about Kelly Loeffler here in Georgia, and that's why they have to attack Warnock in this way. This morning, Rainbow Push Coalition, along with LaTosha Brown, Black Voters Matter, C.K. Hoffler, the National Bar Association journalist Greg Pallast filed a lawsuit. Our local counsel, Gerald Griggs, demanding that they return the 200,000 names to the election, to the rolls that were purged by Secretary of State Raffensperger so that we can have a free and fair election in January. If you return 200,000 people to the voting rolls and you get the normal 10 percent of turnout that you get in a general election, that's enough to sway the election one way or the other.

So Republicans have been running on a campaign of voter suppression in Georgia for over 20 years, whether that's the poll tax that they disguised as voter ID 20 years ago, whether it was gerrymandering and redistricting in 2010, the Diebold machines, which were in use in Georgia from 2000 until the last election cycle. And what we're seeing now is that by motivating the 35% of the state that's African American, the 12% of the state that's Latino, the 52% of the state that's women, the LGBTQ population, our college student population, you have the ability to flip the state permanently. Demographically, they have been a blue state for 20 years. It's been voter suppression that's kept that from happening in the actual voter turnout. And what we saw in 2018 was when Stacey Abrams ran a bold,

progressive campaign, not a Jason Carter campaign, not a Michelle Nunn campaign, where you just try to get those old Reagan Republicans who used to be Democrats 40 years ago to come back, but really tried to motivate people who were in part of the progressive base to turn out. We saw that she nearly won that election. That went a long way to flipping the state. So we have to keep motivating those people, fight for voting rights, fight to get people back on the rolls. And that's how you win elections, not by trying to cajole former Confederates to come back

to the Democratic Party. Yeah, you know, Roland, my colleague is absolutely right. But that only works, we've seen from 2018 and 2020, is when the coalition that he just described gets to the polls and votes in huge numbers. The Republicans can't win without voter suppression. They can't win without scaring their voters. The only way

they can motivate their base to get out is to suppress the Democratic base and the people of color base and the suburban women base, because there are not enough Republican votes who follow their unfriendly policies or offensive policies. And so you're right. In the end, it's about getting your base out to vote. But the only way the Republicans can do that is to scare them and to suppress the Democratic votes or to throw people off the voting rolls and what have you. So the playbook, we've seen it over and over again. The question for January 5th is, can the Democratic base, can Black folks get out in Latinos and women get out in major numbers again? Because that's the only way you find yourself with a true blue state called Georgia. It's the only way. And it's a heavy lift

that we've done once, but can we do it again? Well, again, and that's why I dare say if you're trying to get black people out, you ain't got no problem with defunding the police. Monique? Most black people don't even agree with defunding the police. I'm sorry, show me... They don't.

I'm sorry, show me... We still call the police. Hold up, based upon what? No, no, no, stop, stop, stop. Based upon what? We want them to be better. Stop, based upon what? Show me proof. Show you proof of what? I'll no, no. Stop, stop, stop. Based upon what? Based upon what?

Show me proof. Show you proof of what? I'll show you data. Show me the data. What's the polling data? That black people- What's the polling data? ... community don't want you to defund the police. They want the police to be better.

They want the police to have enough funding- What poll is that? ... and they want to put money into mental health services- What poll is that? ... to reduce the police in your community? What poll is that, Scott? That's too complicated. Scott, what poll is that? What poll is that? What poll is that? What poll is that, Scott? Scott, what poll is that? Scott, what poll is that? Scott, what poll is that? Scott, what poll is that?

Well, the Washington Post poll, the Pew Trust, look it up. All of them say that the majority of people of color do not want the police to be defunded. They want the police to be better in their communities. Mm-hmm. Monique, go. Hear it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but I noticed you didn't really cite exactly the poll.

You just threw some names out. But go ahead, Monique. Hold on. Nice try. But you're like, oh, look it up. Go ahead, Monique. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Roland, are you going to act like you don't know

that black people in poor communities want the police, that they are the ones who call the police more than anybody else? Hold on. That wasn't the question I asked. No, stop. That wasn't the question I asked. I'm speaking. No, no.

If you're going to say I said something, be factual. Go ahead. A whole lot of male energy. First of all, this ain't male energy or female energy. It's called energy. No. If you're going to say something, back it up. Go.

Let's just have manners. Go. I got manners. It was absolutely correct, right, that it is black people in poor communities who want more police presence rather than less. It is people who don't need black police presence in their communities, who don't ever see the police, who if they see the police, it's an exception. I'm aware of that, but that's not what I asked. See, here you go.

No, no. But if you actually answer the question I asked, as opposed to trying to deflect, answer the what I asked. See, here you go. No, no, but if you actually answer the question I asked as opposed to trying to deflect, answer the question I asked. Oh, God. I believe I answered when I said, you know and I know, as Scott said, that black people by and large want more police presence in poor neighborhoods than less.

And the reason why we are saying defund is because we have an understanding through study, through empirical evidence, through science, that we can use less money and more community presence and smarter policing to get to a different result. All I am saying, and I agree with my brother Scott, which this is like two weeks in a row, and I'm impressed with myself,

is in Georgia, in Georgia, y'all scaring these people. And if you don't want Georgia, fine. Go ahead. Stand. Be. They're not scaring them in Georgia. No, they're not. Defund the police.

No, they're not. No, they're not. Defund the police. You know what? They're not scaring them in Georgia. They're not. You know Georgia. No, they're not. No, they're not. No, they're not. They're not scaring them in Georgia. They're not. Listen. They're not. The people, the good white folks who you want, they don't want this. They're not. And if you think that just black people can vote and we

can win in Georgia, then I got a bridge in Georgia that I can sell you. It's on Lake Kono. And here's the whole deal, Robert. There are white people who are also turning out who have enough sense to not fall for the Republican. Okie doke. Who understand when people say, when I don't,

don't you dad try to say reclaim your time when you want to talk now, here's the whole deal. Robert, people are smart enough to know when people have said defund the police, they mean shifting of resources. They mean like in like in San Francisco, San Francisco, as opposed to sending the cops out when there's a mental call. They send out mental health professionals. Those who advocate defund the police have explained what it means.

The opposition simply does not want to hear that. Robert, final word. They are not smart. They are dumb. Robert, final word. Robert, final word. Then I'm about to talk about Georgia, the election official going off next.

I think when we're talking about winning Georgia, being the most important thing in politics right now, you have to dance with who brought you here. It was a bold, progressive agenda. It was turning out young people, turning out African-Americans, turning out minorities, turning out liberal whites, turning out people who are against the idea of Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue and Donald Trump. And I think you have to, you can't change your messaging now. Fight through, push through, and that's how you win. Go with the one who brung you. That's all I'm saying. And to all the Democrats

out there who run in purple districts, maybe you should run some better races and not allow yourself to be branded. Maybe because your messaging was whack. Alright, let's stay in Georgia. We're going to go to this video here, y'all. Yesterday, this election official in Georgia was

pissed. When I say he was pissed, just listen how my man just marched to the podium. Good afternoon. My name is Gabriel Sterling. I'm the voting system implementation manager for the state of Georgia. And just to give you all a heads up,

this is going to be sort of a two-part press conference today. At the beginning of this... All right, so here's the deal. So, our folks, so we added that, we cut off the front. The reason I set that up, because Gabriel was so angry, he was so angry with Republicans, when I saw the video, I was like, oh, is he OK? I thought, you know, you know, his wife made him sleep on the couch, how he just rolled out and how he just

came to the podium stomping, slamming stuff. I mean, Gabriel was just a wee bit angry and upset with Republicans when he rolled through. And so we're going to do this here. We cut the part out. I'm going to find the march out. Now he's slamming stuff down, and then he started. So run his comments on the end of that. I will show you how to actually start it. Go. Good afternoon. My name is Gabriel Sterling. I'm the voting system implementation manager for the state of Georgia. And just to give you all a heads up, this is going to be sort of a two-part press conference today. At the beginning of this, I'm going to do my best to keep it together because I'm going to do my best to keep it together because

it has all gone too far. All of it. Joe DeGeneva today asked for Chris Krebs, a patriot who ran CISA, to be shot. A 20-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from an EMS to a county computer so he could read it. It has to stop.

Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up, and if you're going to take a position of leadership, show some. My boss, Secretary Raffensperger, his address is out there. They have people doing caravans running their house.

They've had people come onto their property. Tricia, his wife of 40 years, is getting sexualized threats through her cell phone. It has to stop. This is elections. This is the backbone of democracy. And all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this. It's too much. Yes, fight for every legal vote.

Go through your due process. We encourage you, use your First Amendment, that's fine. Death threats, physical threats, intimidation, it's too much. It's not right. They've lost the moral high ground to claim that it is. I don't have all the best words to do this because I'm angry. And the straw that broke the camel's back today is, again, this 20-year-old contractor for a voting system company just trying to do his job. Just there.

In fact, I talked to Dominion today and they said he's one of the better ones they got. His family's getting harassed now. There's a noose out there with his name on it. It's not right. I've got police protection outside my house. Fine. You know, I took a higher profile job. I get it.

Secretary ran for office, his wife knew that too. This kid took a job. He just took a job. He just took a job. And it's just wrong. I can't begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this. And every American, every Georgian, Republican and Democrat alike should have that same level of anger. Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We're investigating. There's always a possibility.

I get it. And you have the rights to go through the courts. What you don't have the ability to do, and you need to step up and say this, is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone's going to get hurt. Someone's going to get shot. Someone's going to get killed, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed. And it's not right.

It's not right. And y'all, I don't have anything scripted. This is, like I said, I'm going to do my best to keep it together. All of this is wrong. The Genova who said for Chris Krebs to get shot is a former U.S. attorney. He knows better. The people around the president know better. Mr. President, as the secretary said yesterday, people aren't giving you the best advice on

what's actually going on the ground. It's time to look forward. If you want to run for re-election in four years, fine, do it. But everything we're seeing right now, there's not a path. Be the bigger man here and stop, step in, tell your supporters, don't be violent. Don't intimidate. All that's wrong.

It's un-American. So y'all, I've covered a lot of news conferences. I mean, a whole lot of news conferences. And typically when you're covering these news conferences, you're just sort of sitting there and you're just waiting for this whole thing to start. This is how this one started. I just want to let

y'all know that if I was sitting in that, sitting there waiting for him, I would have went, oh shit, this is about to be lit. This is how he walked out, y'all. Good afternoon. My name is Gabriel Sterling.

I'm the voting system implementation manager for the state of Georgia. Robert, his whole deal was like, I'm about to come out of here, I'm about to bust a cap in somebody's ass. That was his, that was his, I'm telling you, when I saw the video. My name is Gabriel. And this is some bullshit. I'm going to keep this together. That's, that's, I was like, damn, Gabriel.

Well, look, I'm just really happy that everybody across the country is finally getting a chance to experience Georgia politics at their finest. This is new. This is how politics in Georgia always are, is a full contact sport. One of the mistakes people make is thinking they can send in, you know, coordinators and strategists from other states to campaign in Georgia. It don't work that way. We a different breed. And what Republicans in Georgia are realizing is that MAGA movement is not a Republican movement. It is a separate, independent movement centered around the iconoclastic figure of their martyr, Donald Trump, and anybody who gets in the way. They may

caucus with Republicans. They may work with Republicans. They may be running with Republicans right now. But if Donald Trump ran as a Democrat in four years, that MAGA movement would come with him to the Democrats. If he ran as a Green Party candidate or a Free Earth candidate, they will go with him there. And Robert, Robert, Robert, Robert, speaking of that, hold on, speaking of that, you talk about them crazy-ass MAGA people, that attorney Lynn Wood, Sidney Powell, they all had a little news conference today. And then they featured some of them ignorant black MAGA people like Georgia Representative Vernon Jones, the dumbass, the Kappa, the Kappa who went crowd surfing, the Kappa who went crowd surfing with the MAGA people like Georgia Representative Vernon Jones, the dumbass, the Kappa, the Kappa who went crowd surfing, the Kappa who went crowd surfing with the MAGA people. Then they got this little boy, C.J. Pearson, this conservative. Listen to the nonsense this fool was spewing today.

They made the mistake of thinking that we were still the party of Mitt Romney, the party of John McCain, the party that didn't know how to fight. But what they don't realize now is that we are the party of Donald J. Trump. We are the party of fighters. We are the party of courageous people who will lay it all out on the field and fight for this nation,

because if we don't fight for it, who will? America is the greatest nation in the world, but it is not great by accident. It's great by the continuum. I don't need to hear the rest of that nonsense that he's spewing. It's stupid. But just, I'm going to play a little bit of this because, Eric, to your point,

Robert, to your point, there's another guy who I know, Eric Erickson. Eric Erickson, far-right conservative. I used to be what gets him on CNN. Eric Erickson is a election lawyer. Okay? He's an election lawyer. He is from Georgia.

He has been beside himself with these stuck-on stupid people like C.J. Pearson, like Vernon Jones, like Sidney Powell, like all of these people who are out here alleging this mass conspiracy. I saw this video last night.

I even sent Eric an email. I was like, damn, bravo, Eric. This is one of the... Me and Eric don't agree on nothing except probably how good the Chick-fil-A sandwich is. That's about it. We don't agree on nothing else. This is... Y'all, let me, Eric Erickson, far right conservative,

but an election law expert. Robert, he pissed. He tired of these people. Hit play. Some of you are wrong on the internet. It pains me to say that you're wrong. And I want to explain to you all how wrong you actually are because you're wrong and because you're wrong it's annoying me and i realize people are stupid

and people will believe whatever they want to believe i mean there are people who believe the moon landing wasn't real i'm sure there are people who believe they've been possessed by aliens but just because you believe something doesn't make it true, sometimes you're just an idiot. So I'm annoyed. I'm actually rather aggravated. And so now I'm going to explain to you. Let me explain how these electronic voting machines work and how they weren't hacked, and you're a dumbass if you think that they were.

First of all, did you understand that these machines are not connected to the Internet? Now, I know a bunch of idiots out there blithering on the internet are telling you that these machines are connected to the internet. They're not connected to the internet. Do you know why I know they're not connected to the internet? I know they're not connected to the internet because years ago, when Georgia was rolling out its machines, Georgia, among other places, got the bright idea of, hey, if we connect these to the internet, they might get hacked. So they're not connected to the internet. Why? That would be bad. So they're not. So when you hear someone say they're connected to the Internet, they might get hacked. So they're not connected to the Internet. Why? That would be bad. So they're not.

So when you hear someone say they're connected to the Internet, no, they're full of crap. Now, let's talk about the actual machines. The actual machines in 97% of all precincts in this nation print out a paper ballot receipt that you yourself can read before you stick it into the scanner. And guess what? In Georgia, we counted all 5 million of those pieces of paper

that have your actual vote on them that you yourself can see before you or the poll worker slide them into the machine. And guess what? They matched. The machines and the paper ballots matched. So maybe there were careless people not looking at their paper ballot receipt, even though it was a brand new feature in Georgia this year. Maybe they weren't looking, even though the poll workers who were scanning them actually told everyone to look at them before they put them in the machine. But that's on them. That's not on the machines. And guess what? The paper ballots in the machines match. But wait, there's more. I asked a cybersecurity expert who believes these things were hacked how it was possible that the paper ballots in the machines align.

Well, she came up with this thing where that she believed, you know, when you check in, you go to a touchscreen or they check you in on a touchscreen, and with this touchscreen, they list that you were there. Well, she thinks they could be connected to the Internet and they could be pulling data from the cloud. They could see, well, they know you're a hard Republican, and so they're not going to touch your vote. But then somebody else, they may actually alter their ballot, they know they're gonna be careful. That's bull, that's like crap, that's not true. For example, did you know that the machines that check you in at your local polling precinct are completely unrelated from the voting machines?

They're not even the same company. This was a 10 minute video, Scott. He was livid. And he's been tweeting like, I'm tired of you people. Now they're saying he's a never Trumper, even though he didn't vote for Trump in 2016, voted for Trump in 2020, gave a Trump in 2020. But still, this is how nuts these people have become. Scott, you there? Are you frozen? No, I was frozen. Can you hear me now? Yeah, now we can hear you.

I thought you were going to do a crowd surfing like your frat brother Vernon Jones. No, he's no longer in the fraternity. You missed that news. But the best part of what that video of Erickson said was, he says, you may deeply believe this in your heart of hearts, but that doesn't make it true. And it's so apropos here with these Trump supporters who don't care about practicality, don't care about the science of these voting machines, and don't care about the hand ballots, including the Dominion machines were used in Ohio, and I think Utah, and several other jurisdictions that Trump won. How do you reconcile that with the fact that the voting machines were used in jurisdictions that Trump won?

They're irreconcilable. And so I think we need more Republicans to stand up like that, including Trump supporters. But the train has left the station. And the only thing that's left now is for whether he goes to the transition or rather goes to January 20th or not, the swearing in. I don't really care. No, no, no. Here's the whole deal.

He going, but first, here's what's the deal, Monique. You think so? No, no, no. Follow me, follow me, follow me. Here's what whole deal. He gone, but here's what's the deal, Monique. Follow me. He's going to stay up through January 20th. Ken Delaney put this tweet out, Monique, saying that sources are saying that Trump has no plans to go to inauguration. He's going to launch his 2024 bid on the same

day. He's not going to call Joe Biden nor invite him to the White House. You know what? Fine. If I'm Joe Biden, this is what I do. Damn Trump. He can go to hell. Biden on inauguration day should roll up to the Obama house. Obama should walk out and greet him like they normally do at the White House, go into the house, have coffee with him and Michelle and then Michelle and Barack and Jill and Joe get in a limo and ride to the inauguration together. We just should simply have a transfer of power from the 44th to the 46th. Just skip the 45th.

Well, where's Kamala in your scenario? Well, no, normally what happens is when the president goes to the White House, the vice president is not there. That's why I didn't mention Kamala Harris. It's called protocol, Scott. Keep up. I was trying to explain that to your audience because they didn't think that. No, I think the audience is smart enough to know that. But again, Monique, that's the whole deal. I don't care if he don't go to inauguration.

I don't care. In fact, put one of them plastic-ass dummies. Put that in the chair and say that was his seat. Oh, gosh. I want to go back to the point where we were. The undersecretary of the underbelly, whoever we started with,

who sashayed up to the podium mad and then gave his whole mad speech about how things have gone too far. What I was thinking about when I first heard them do that is, oh, I would say welcome to 15 seconds of being black or brown in America. But really, but really, it isn't that it's as close as you will ever be to it. And so I'm going to welcome you in that spirit. But it's not the same as if you've lived

an entire life where people have gone too far. You've lived an entire life where you are attacked for no reason, where you are persecuted for no reason, where you are under threat of assassination or killing or murder by the U.S. government and by people in power for no reason at all. And so when he was up there crying his whole mad tears and talking to this president that they elected, by the way, and saying that it's now too far, I'm like, oh, isn't that special? Isn't that convenient? We knew it was too far in 2015 when old dudes started running and y'all thought it was okay to put up a psychotic certified fool into the highest office of the land. But now, four and a half years later, you're finally done because your white wife, your white children, your lily white neighborhood, and your good government job are being threatened. Welcome to America, Mr. Undersecretary Underbelly, second in command, whoever the hell you are.

I don't care really about you except that you're now like me. So can we all get together now and do something better for this country? Why are you always bringing up old stuff? Oh, gotta go to a break when we come back. Ron DeSantis is telling mayors, he's telling mayors, y'all, he's telling mayors, look, y'all,

can't even have a no mask mandate in your city because I'm the governor. Well, we're going to talk to one of the black mayors in Florida, Wayne Massimo, Myanmar, Florida, next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. I'm proud of it. When the going got tough in the Senate, Perdue hid in the airport bathroom and even stole someone's cell phone who asked him a tough question. I stole my property.

When the going got tough with COVID, Perdue hid critical information while selling his own stocks. Records show that Senator David Perdue bought and sold stocks shortly after a private Senate briefing on the virus. It's not just that you're a crook, Senator. You're attacking the health of the people that you represent. Now, Perdue won't even face his constituents,

backing out of debate after debate. Enough incompetence, deceit, corruption, division. Change has come to Georgia. Change is coming to America. Georgia needs a real senator, not a chicken Perdue. Midas Touch is responsible for the content of this advertisement. In a democracy, the people deserve

to hear from candidates for office. Democracy only works when we have informed electorates, the opportunity to have open debate. And for Senator Perdue to refuse to debate his opponent, to refuse to answer questions in public suggests, first of all, that he feels entitled to the seat and that he shouldn't have to face scrutiny or criticism or account for his conduct or his votes.

We told them the smear ads were coming and that's exactly what happened. You would think that Kelly Loeffler might have something good to say about herself if she really wants to represent Georgia. Instead, she's trying to scare people by taking things I've said out of context from over 25 years of being a pastor. But I thinkorgians will see her ads for what they are don't you i'm rafael warnock and we approve this message and now the president of the united states donald j trump on the telephone this election was rigged this election is a total fraud dead people were applying to get a ballot they were making application to get ballots.

There are a lot of dead people that so-called voted in this election. I say, I don't have standing. You mean as president of the United States, I don't have standing. But poll watchers were walked out by thugs out of the building. There's no way Joe Biden got 80 million votes. Do you know the votes in Dominion, they say, are counted in foreign countries. There are many mailmen that are in big trouble right now for selling ballots, getting rid of ballots. Well, you know, we're completing the wall. Like I said, I would. Everyone said you'd never be able to do it. I got that's another one I got built, and it's had a huge impact. They stuffed the ballot boxes.

This is disgusting, and we cannot allow America's election to be corrupted. We cannot. All right, this week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Floridians should not expect any more lockdowns or state mask mandates during COVID. He's extended a ban that prevents local governments from using fines and penalties to enforce people to wear masks when leaving their home. He says he doesn't believe wearing a mask or locking down the state is an effective way to beat the virus.

I'm sorry, is he a doctor? DeSantis said in a news conference, the lie of the lockdown is that if you just locked down, then you can beat the virus. Then why are people having to lock down two or three times then? Now, according to the CDC, researchers have found mask mandates do actually help to prevent COVID cases from skyrocketing. Both Democrats and Republicans disagree with DeSantis and believe he's only making people more vulnerable to COVID. Joining us now is Myanmar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam.

Mayor Messam, glad to have you on here. Fellow Alpha, this is Alpha Week. Of course, Founders Day on Fridays. I'm glad to have you on the show. I'm sorry. I thought Republicans were always about local control. So you got the Republican governor in Florida overruling, overruling mayors in Florida. You got a Republican governor, Tate Reeves, an absolute idiot in Mississippi, overruling mayors.

You got the governor, Kay Ivey, Alabama, overruling cities. Again, I thought they liked local control. So all of a sudden now, oh, forget your power as mayor. I'm going to supersede what you do. And you got to listen to me say masks don't work. It is one of the most hypocritical positions in terms of leadership. You know, in the state of Florida, municipalities, over 400 of us, we pride ourselves on home rule. And the executive order by Governor DeSantis is just another example of just poor leadership as it relates to COVID-19. Today, the state has crossed over 1 million positive cases. And for him to take this position really sets back municipalities and it's causing

lives. People are really dying every day and it's just a travesty. And, and again, he's decrying, he's literally saying masks don't work. The experts are saying they do. Of course, you know, uh, we believe in science. You know, ever since the onset of this pandemic, you know, it took me as a mayor. Miramar is in the heart of over 150,000 in a very metropolis area, right between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. And especially when the news broke that people of color, especially Black people, were most at risk and was most susceptible to this virus. We had put in provisions and executive orders at the local level

that began to curb the surge that Florida was experiencing in July. And when the initial executive order that usurped our home rule, it really set us back. Now, Florida continues to be the third, has the third largest number of positive cases. Our hospital system is being stretched to the limit. The bullying tactics and the threatening of our school districts, forcing them to open schools and making kids come to class. It's just holding back funding or the threat of holding back funding of our school districts, especially here in South Florida, where it's ground zero in the state of Florida. It's just poor leadership. And we need to be able to have

the ability as local leadership to do what's right in our cities to save lives. So is there any way to fight this? Because that happened in Atlanta. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, she fought the governor, Brian Kemp. He sued her. Then he backed off. Any plans for you to sue DeSantis to say no? We should be able to determine what happens in my city. Well, the challenge with the executive order that Governor DeSantis issued, it does not eradicate our executive orders in our cities for facial mask mask. What it does is it prohibits us from being able to collect fines. When you find individuals and find business establishments, that is the incentive for them to comply. Here in Broward County, Broward County mayors, we meet weekly to talk about a concerted effort, a collaboration, so that what goes on in the city of Miramar is also taking place in Fort Lauderdale and in Pompano Beach,

so that you can't go from one city to the next and defy these orders. But when you have an executive order that just strips away our ability to have those hammers, so to speak, to find individuals to be able to collect on those fines that will encourage compliance, it really sets us back. So because the city and the state are at odds, we are looking at the various options that we have, but based on Florida's statutes, we're very limited

in what recourse we can take. All right, then. Mayor Wayne Messam, Mayor of Florida, we certainly appreciate it, sir. Thank you so very much. Thanks for having me. Happy Founders Day. Appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Folks, when you talk about masks, Brian Williams of MSNBC said,

never forget what the idiots at Fox News, the role that they played in all of this. Ooh, he threw some serious shade at them last night. Watch this. Last thing before we go tonight, as you watch the following clip, please remember, Americans are now dying at the rate of one per minute. Please remember, we've lost over 270,000 of our brothers and sisters, people who were here with us when the year began, people who will not see another New Year's Eve. a moment of clarity and awareness that took place on live TV on the president's favorite morning show, Fox and Friends. And this happened this morning. Ultimately, right now, what's going on with the pandemic is and we don't know exactly how many people may have been infected over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. But the number of cases in our hospitals is going through the roof in 41 states.

It's going up. I read a great survey and they looked at the scientific data in my home state of Kansas. In the month of July, they had a statewide mandate for masks. Now, the problem with Kansas was some counties would actually enforce it and other counties would not. In the counties that enforced the mask mandate, the number of cases of coronavirus actually went way down. And in the counties where they did not enforce the mask mandate, it went way up. Really? Yeah. You just have to do it smartly and do it safely. It means apparently masks work. Apparently masks work. A breathtaking moment of situational awareness on live television this

morning. Ten months, 270,000 lives into this. And this is important in the rush to a vaccine, in our rush to get life back to normal, to have a spring and summer in 2021 that feel like spring and summer. It's important we never forget who the deniers were because those 270,000 mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, they ain't coming back. So it's incumbent upon all of us to honor their memory. That is our broadcast for this Tuesday evening, along with our thanks for joining us. All right, Scott, next time you go on Fox News, don't let them forget that they were sitting there telling all these folk not to wear masks. I'm still trying to get you on Fox. You know I am not an acceptable Negro. I'm going to get you on Fox. You know I am not an acceptable Negro.

I'm going to get you on there, brother. No, no, no, no. I simply abide by too much James Baldwin. I am not your Negro. Neither am I. Hey, Roland, one thing for sure. January 5th is Kappa's Founders Day. That's the Georgia Senate elections. Wish me a happy, have me on,

and wish me a happy Kappa Founders Day on January 5th when we cover the elections. That's the least you can do. No. That will not happen. I gotta get my own show. That simply will not happen. No, it's not gonna happen.

Scott, I know you got to go. Vamoosh, I appreciate it. All right. Yesterday, the country paused to remember, of course, how Rosa Parks refused to move, change the country. On December 1st, 1955, she was arrested, and in only four days convicted of disorderly conduct, her arrest started a bus boycott that lasted longer than a year,

organized by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others in the Montgomery Improvement Association. Of course, Park passed away in 2005 at the age of 92. Yesterday, this was actually opened, this particular display at an Air Force base there in Montgomery, Alabama. And so this was in honor of Rosa Parks and Mayor Stephen Reed. Of course, he is the mayor of Montgomery. He was there and he tweeted that he was pleased to have been on hand to witness the unveiling of this particular sculpture.

Again, that's at Maxwell Air Force Base there in Montgomery. Folks, today we also remembering the life and legacy of Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson. Johnson passed away this morning at his home in Sherman Oaks California where he was surrounded by his family. He was just 86 years old. Many remember Johnson as a decorated athlete who won a gold medal in the decathlon at the Olympics in Rome. After retiring as an athlete, he became an actor, appearing in movies like Wild in the Country with Ellis Presley and A License to Kill. Johnson wasn't just an athlete or an actor.

He was also an American hero in 1968. He was one of the men who tackled and subdued gunman Sirhan Sirhan just seconds after he assassinated Robert Kennedy at a hotel there in Los Angeles. Rayford Johnson leaves behind his wife, Elizabeth Betsy Johnson, and their two children, Jennifer and Joshua. The family's asking if anyone is looking to make a donation in Johnson's honor to donate to the Special Olympics

Southern California Rafer Johnson Tribute Fund. And so we certainly appreciate that as well. All right, Monique, Robert, I certainly appreciate it. Monique, one of the followers here on YouTube says they would like your address, where to send your defund the police T-shirt. They just wanted me to pass that on to you. Yes, can I give them my cash app? It's dollar sign MoPress.

Okay, really? So, I mean, what this is about making it rain? Okay, Robert, you got a cash app you want to give out? You want to make it rain, Robert? No, but if you want to make a donation, join Rainbow Push Coalition, rainbowpush.org. We're doing great programmatic work throughout Georgia, particularly with young people, before the January 5th runoff election. Remember, early voting starts on December 14th. Vote early.

Make a plan. Plan your vote. All right, folks. Tomorrow, we'll be broadcasting from Kennesaw State University. John Ossoff is going to be having a town hall at 3.30 p.m. Eastern. We will be live streaming that, and we'll be broadcasting the show from there. We'll be there in Georgia

from tomorrow through Tuesday. Remember, the deadline to register for the runoff in Georgia is Monday and so we'll be broadcasting from the ground. So look for our live streams and live reports from there. Alright, folks, I got to go. Before we do so, please join our Bring the Fuck fan club. Every dollar

you give goes to support what we do on this show for our travel, for things along those lines. Your donations really make a huge difference. And so you can do so via Cash App. Dollar sign RMUnfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash RMartinUnfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash RMUnfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com.

You can also send a money order to New Vision Media, NU Vision Media, Inc. 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. All right, folks, that's it. I certainly appreciate it. I'll see you tomorrow from the Peach State. Holla! Holla! You say you'd never give in to a meltdown

and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens.

Before you leave the car, always stop. Look. Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an iHeart Podcast.