#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Charges in Elijah McClain case; Damning R Kelly testimony; Chicago school bus drivers quit over vax

Episode Date: September 2, 2021

9.1.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Colorado grand jury indicts five people for the death of Elijah McClain; More damning testimony in the R. Kelly trial; Since 9/11, the U.S. spent $21T on foreign and domestic militarization; Texas now has the strictest abortion bans in history; Blacks twice as likely to die from COVID; Chicago school bus drivers quit en masse over vax mandate; President of NCCU, Dr. Johnson Akinleye talks MEAC/SWAC Challenge #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: CEEKCEEK is a streaming platform for virtual events and Virtual Reality experiences featuring the biggest names in music, sports, and entertainment from around the globe. Check out the VR headsets and 4d headphones. Visit http://www.ceek.com and use the discount code RMVIP21Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$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. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Wednesday, September 1st, 2021. Coming up, a Roland Martin unfiltered. A Colorado grand jury indicts five people they believe are responsible for the death of Elijah McClain two years ago. The R. Kelly trial continues as more testimony provides shocking revelations. We'll talk with a lawyer, Candace Kelly, about the case. Since 9-11, the U.S. has spent $21 trillion on foreign and domestic militarization.

We'll talk with the director of an institute that breaks down these issues to say, why are we spending that much on the military? Texas now has the strictest abortion ban in history. The new law not only prevents women from getting abortions after six weeks, they also allow random citizens to sue anyone that helps a woman get an abortion. Black Americans are twice as likely to die from COVID than white Americans. Tonight, we'll talk with a pediatrician to discuss the racial and health disparities. Thousands of students in Chicago

will now have to find transportation after the bus drivers quit because they refused to get vaccinated. And at the MeXWAC Challenge, he had a chance to catch up with the provost, sorry, the chancellor of North Carolina Central University. We'll hear from him.

It's time to bring the fog. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. I just believe he's knowing, putting it down from sports to news to politics, with entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling, yeah, with some go-go-royale. Yeah, yeah, it's rolling, Martin, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah, he's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's rolling Martel now. Martel. In Colorado, a grand jury decides several officers and paramedics should face charges for the death of Elijah McClain.

Attorney General Phil Weiser laid out all the charges. In thoughtful deliberation, the grand jury returned a 32-count indictment against Aurora police officers Randy Rodima and Nathan Woodyard, former Aurora police officer Jason Rosenblatt, and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Czajkuniak for their alleged conduct on the night of August 24, 2019, that resulted in the death of Mr. McClain. Each of the five defendants faced one count of manslaughter and one count of criminally negligent homicide. Officers Rodima and Rosenblatt also faced, each of them, a count of second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury

and cause serious bodily injury to Mr. McClain. Both also faced one count of a crime of violence related to the second-degree assault bodily injury charge. In addition to the manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges, paramedics Cooper and Chukuniak also faced one count second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury and caused bodily injury, one count second-degree assault for recklessly causing serious bodily injury by means of a deadly weapon, ketamine. One count second-degree assault for a purpose other than lawful medical or therapeutic treatment, intentionally causing stupor, unconsciousness, or other physical or mental impairment or injury to Mr. McClain by administering a drug, ketamine, without consent. Cooper and Chikunyak also faced two counts of crimes of violence for each of the assault charges.

Folks, it was a couple of years ago McClain was walking home from a convenience store with an iced tea when three Aurora police officers stopped him. They received a call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask. a convenience store with an iced tea when three Aurora police officers stopped him. They received a call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask. McClain was put in a chokehold and injected with ketamine as first responders and law enforcement forcefully restrained him during a walk home from the store. The officers weren't charged in 2019 after prosecutors said an autopsy couldn't determine how McClain died. Let's go to our legal panel.

A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Herbert Petillo, executive director, Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project. Monique Presley, legal analyst and crisis manager. And also Candace Kelly, who is, of course, a justice correspondent for BNC and also an attorney. Glad to have all of you here. This was a case here that shocked so many different people.

And, of course, it was a couple of days ago when it was his birthday. And the family was stuck saying, what the heck happened? Finally, what we're seeing here, finally, what we're seeing here, Monique, is not is a sense of justice. People obviously want to see these folks convicted. But none of this made sense whatsoever how they treated this young man from the beginning. No, and it still doesn't. It still does not. And the fact that they are at least moving forward with charges, which frankly, for anyone who thinks organizing doesn't matter, protesting doesn't matter, shouting as loud as you can doesn't matter. Yes, absolutely it does, because this wouldn't be happening without people just simply refusing to give up. We see over and over

again, Roland, and I say it every single time, and I'm probably going to say it three times before this show is over, on three different matters, the dehumanization of Black bodies. And it just simply doesn't matter as much when we die, no matter how it is we die, whether it's from lack of standard medical care, whether it's killing by police officers, whether it's mistreatment by one of our fellow citizens, it just doesn't matter. And we saw that here. And I am glad at least that there is a charging, but we are far from home. And frankly, even if there is a conviction, that's not justice. Justice is when we are treated fairly. Justice is when we stay alive. So what we would be getting is a semblance of justice. We would be getting at

least the functional operation of law if these officers are made to pay for what they did. And that really right there is the fundamental issue here, Scott, and that is it's not a question of do you get justice after the fact. How about Elijah not being dead? Yeah, he's just not here anymore. And there's so many questions about why he was stopped, why he was oppressed, if you will. Why did they kill him? Why did they give him this drug? I mean, it doesn't appear from the reports that he was being arrested. He had a skullcap on that had a cover on it. That's not a ski mask per se. So apparently the weather was right for that. It just doesn't make any sense. And this is a scary case because if you don't have the special, if you don't have the AG that brings in the special prosecutor, now you're stuck with the D.A. and the and the coroner who could not conclude why he was killed,

which triggered apparently or allegedly by the D. the DA to say, I can't charge anybody because I don't know what killed him, which is a complete asinine response to the death of this young man. For two years, the investigation took place. And so it's a powerful case for independent review when you have local authorities who are close to the police and they simply will not do their jobs independently. And now you have these officers that have been suspended. I think one's on desk duty, maybe. But the fact of the matter is we should watch this case closely, Roland, because we can learn a lot from this case and we can learn a lot from the AG who brought in the special prosecutor and learn more

about the facts here because it just seems like a senseless killing. Candace, this is what the New York Times writes. The indictment unsealed on Wednesday accuses the paramedics of failing to follow medical protocols before and after they injected Mr. McClain with ketamine. Mr. McClain, 23, was already handcuffed when the medics arrived at the scene, and the indictments say they did not talk to Mr. McClain, they're under-trained. I mean, this was a young man who had certain needs. And when you are dealing with someone who has certain needs, they often communicate with you like he did. Elijah said, I'm an introvert. You are in my space. If he was already handcuffed, why did he need something that acted as a sedative, that really almost could put you in an amnesia-like state? Here was a young man who was

communicating. What I expect to see is the Justice Department to go in and once again look at this particular police office, this force, and see what went on. What is the matter with this police force and the paramedics? Why this problem crept up the way that it did. The paramedics were charged, which was an interesting charge, but a charge that made sense because these were people that gave him and did not give him medical treatment. No need for the ketamine, no need for ignoring him. But again, under-trained people. And I think that that's what's the issue here and what's at stake. How do we retrain people so they can look at people like Elijah and realize that there are other things that go into play as opposed to just over-policing and stopping people for no reason at all and taking the most extreme measures in order to take care of a situation. Robert, here's what is quite rare.

Not only were cops charged, paramedics and firefighters. That's also what I think is extremely different about this story. Well, three points I want to make, Roland. I think I've said before on your show, the reason this case hits so close to home to me is because the exact same thing nearly happened to me while I was in law school. I think I told you I was in Chicago on 47th Street coming back from the library, middle of December. So I have my mask on and my hoodie on. Next thing you know, I got my head on the hood of a CPD police car with my handcuffs on. They were looking for somebody. They realized it wasn't me and eventually let me go. That could have ended exactly the way that this case ended. We have to look at police powers where Terry stops. This idea of fitting the

description of an individual, allowing police to stop, manhandle you in any sort of way, and have absolutely no recourse and no repercussions. Let the cops go grab somebody, a little blonde girl named Megan, and throw her on a cop car for doing absolutely nothing but walking home and see what will happen. We have to start valuing the lives of black men the same way we value the lives of others. Secondarily, beyond the point of training, we have to look at the complicity between cops and paramedics often. I've seen this exact situation happen often with people going through mental health issues or substance abuse issues where they will administer drugs against their will in order to, quote unquote, calm them down or be able to take

them into custody. If you take a drug at your doctor, you have to fill out four or five forms, questionnaires to find out what you're allergic to, if you've ever had an adverse reaction to it, so on and so forth. So these paramedics are committing an assault by injecting the chemical in order to ease the job of police officers. There's no difference between injecting ketamine and beating you with a nightstick when it comes down to it, because both are intended to subdue an individual. And I think we have to look at how often this happens that is not reported. And I think finally, we're glad to have charges.

But we need to have come to a place in this country where a black man does not have to be filmed getting beaten, choked or injected to death in order for there to be charges brought. Just the fact that you have a bunch of cops around, so somebody got injected and there's a dead person should be enough to bring charges in 2019 and to not be a two-year investigation involving the state and independent prosecutors just for this to happen, because we cannot always count on there being a camera there to validate our lives. So this is why it's so important for us to push through the George Floyd Justice Floyd justice and policing act on the federal level and not to take a backseat to anybody else's political agenda and demand that these things take place. And here's what is so

crazy about this story. Again, he is walking home. They say suspicion wearing a ski mask. First of all, he was wearing a face mask. Listen to music. Cops immediately roll up and roll a video, because this is the key. They immediately roll up, grab him by his arms, push him against the wall,

pull him to the ground. This is... Come on, roll a video, please. This right here is the problem. This is the problem right here. You walk up, and that's the first reaction, not talking to him, not ascertaining that they immediately lay hands on him.

He then says, let me go, let me go, uh, saying, uh, you know, that he wasn't dangerous.

Then they put them in, uh, they use a, a, a, a carrot hole. Um, again, uh, a restraint on his neck that restricts blood to the brain. All of that because you got a suspicious call? No, they did that, Roland, because he's black, right? If he were white, they would have done

none of that because they don't see us as human beings. Not only did they have the chokehold on him, right? He passed out at one point, came back too. Then they put him on the ground. He says, I can't breathe. You ever been put on the ground with a knee in your back and your hands behind your back and they're trying to cuff you? You cannot breathe. Physiologically, it is a place of discomfort. You can't conform.

And then the bottom line, no matter what you say, is that they use deadly force to compel a police order, which is fundamentally not only illegal, but against every proper police procedure there is. You cannot use deadly force, even if he was resisting. And this is the result. This is a troublesome case because this kid, we still don't know why he was a suspect, whether he was being arrested or not. And they did. They acted as judge, jury and then executioner. We've got to watch this case and learn from it. But more importantly, we've got to make sure justice is done for this family and reform of this police department, as our other guests have said. And of course, and of course, the police union immediately said, oh, the cops did nothing wrong in the New York Times. Monique, I want to read this. This is what they write. An independent review of Mr. McClain's death released this February issued a scathing catalog of errors committed by the officers and paramedics during the encounter and in the investigation that followed.

Prosecutors in Adams County, Colorado, declined to file criminal charges against the three officers involved in Mr. McClain's death. The only reason we are here is because the state attorney general led this investigation because the governor appointed, let me say, I'm sorry, the Democratic governor appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the death. Monique, go ahead. Right, and this is where I was going to say, you've got a panel full of lawyers, so let me get real lawyer-esque about it.

What we have to have happen here, and I agree with everything everybody else said, including me. And so I do believe that he was overmedicated and given medicine when it was unnecessary. I do believe that he was killed due to excessive use of force. I do believe that he was targeted and what happened to him happened because he was black. And if he had been white, then it probably would have been a different result. Here's what I also believe. I also believe that the intent, the way you deal with a murder case was not to kill him. And that's why I've come back to dehumanization and why we have to figure out a way that people can be guilty of crimes and that they can be held accountable, even when their mens rea or their requisite intent was not,

let's murder us a black boy tonight. It shouldn't have to be that. Not when you're a public servant. Not when you know better. Not when you're expected to be trained better. Not when you're expected to have the type of sensitivity and ability to effectuate arrest if necessary, but also to recognize special needs. And that's the one thing we haven't talked about.

So if you're dealing with an introvert, you know this stuff matters to me. If you're dealing with someone who's on the autism spectrum, like my son, who that could have happened to, walking down the street, mask on for no reason whatsoever, headphones on because the music calms him. That's why I don't let him go anywhere by himself, although he can. He's capable, thanks be to God, of walking from here down to the 7-Eleven, knowing how to pay for his candy and his movie and come back. Is it going to happen? Hell no. In these streets in the United States of America? Uh-uh. No, because his name would be Elijah. Because there is a lack of training, as my able counsel said. going on that ends up having sons of mine killed intentionally or not. So again, I am thankful

for this indictment. Do I expect that cases like this will end up with first degree murder? No, but it matters that they are charged and it matters if there's a conviction, even if it's recklessness, because then that says to the next police officer walking down the street. Okay, well, a black man walking is not against the law. Right. To have on a costume. Like, how about just not, I mean, just again, when you approach folks, when you approach black people, the automatic thing is not, let me put hands on you to accost you.

But you shouldn't approach. That's the thing, Roland. I get what you're saying. Keep your hands off. But what about leaving the hell alone? Right. Well, first, and again, though, again, if you get a report of, first of all, I always got these issues of suspicious person. Okay?

I mean, see right there. See right there. Suspicious person. Okay. Doing what, see right there. See right there. Suspicious person. Okay, doing what? If I'm walking down, so I guess I'm thinking about in Texas when they hit the snowstorm and the brother's walking with groceries

and the cops are like, where you going? Say, man, I'm good. I'm heading home. And they keep sitting there pestering him. Next thing you know, he's arrested. He's thrown in jail. He's like, yo, I'm just walking home in the cold.

Now, here's the deal. Look, if I ask you, do you want to give us a ride? No. Dog, it's sub-zero temperatures. I'm fine. If I ask you five times, all right, have a good night. Now, if your ass frees to death, I'm on camera asking you five times. But again, he gets accosted, thrown in jail.

That was Colorado. Let's now go to Texas, where a grand jury declined to indict a Texas police officer in the death of another brother, shot as he ran away after being confronted. 22-year-old Joshua Feast died December 9th after Lamarck police officer Jose Santos shot him. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Feast's family, says Santos shot a defenseless man who posed no threat to the officer. An independent autopsy done at the request of Feast's family concluded he died from a single gunshot wound to the back. Galveston County Sheriff Lieutenant Mel Villarreal says enhanced video from Santos' body camera shows Feast had a gun pointing it at Santos. Monique, you are an attorney on this particular case.

So just share with us uh you get your thoughts about this and all of a sudden the enhanced video that's well look yeah i would have given full disclosure and said i do i consult with attorney ben crump's office and he represents this family so i i know uh lakisha feast the mother of joshua feast i know juanita rodriguez who was sitting in thatast, the mother of Joshua Feast. I know Juanita Rodriguez, who was sitting in that car, was the mother of his child, who had to watch when he had not a gun but a phone in his hand. And when the officer called his name on a dark street with no lights on, and then in seconds he was shot in the back trying to run away and dead. I attended this boy's funeral.

This is my home county. I'm from Galveston. This happened in Galveston County. And what we had yesterday, Roland, was the district attorney's office, Jack Brody, the district attorney who for months and months now, for eight months, has been answering every one of the mother Lakeisha Fee's phone calls and saying, we're with you, we're doing everything we can, we're having a thorough investigation. But then yesterday he comes up and he says justice was served and the officer's actions were justified and the grand jury did their job. Well, it's all lawyers on this panel, so I know I don't have to explain.

The grand jury belongs to the prosecutor. So if we have witnesses, we know we're prepped by a prosecutor, called in by subpoena, and then at 1030 in the morning yesterday, they were told you can go home. You're not needed. We all know what happened. There were eyewitnesses who were not called. And then they rolled out this press conference in front of all of the media. And he said it's the first time he's ever done a press conference. And they show us this enhanced video that they say they've taken to DPS, to Texas Department of Public Safety, that they have had enhanced for light and for clarity. That's what they're saying. And that they want to slow it down and show us where they can see that the officer first saw a gun in the left hand of the deceased Joshua Feast. They want to show us where they can see that he turned to run and somehow,

like some sort of contortionist, twist the gun behind his back and aimed it at the officer that justified the shooting that happened within five seconds of him calling his name. They're showing us now how that was the same gun that was dropped in the street. Well, here are my questions. One, if the gun was in his hand and not a cell phone, then why don't I have fingerprint evidence? You say that you have the gun on camera in his hand and then he drops it and then he's shot dead in the back and then they obtain the gun. Where are the prints? I'm saying, too, if he is the contortionist, like you say, and he twisted his hand behind the back and did that, then why is it that we see the smoke from the shot to his back before we ever see whatever that thing was in his hand? I'm just asking. These are my questions. Why is it that the district attorney didn't present any of these eyewitnesses who would have given different testimony than this slowed down video? And then finally, because it's a lawyer panel, I'm going to say this. frame that officer Jose Santos saw that night. Like it was bright,

uh, like, like a stadium in Texas lit up like, like the sun was at the height of day or was it a dark street with no lights and with no way whatsoever to know the difference between a phone and a gun and a rubber ducky because the grand jury was supposed to decide based on what Santos saw that night, whether his actions were justified, not based on the altered, doctored, enhanced, lightened, slowed down video that Texas DPS came up with to justify it. So these are just things that I want to know.

Inquiring minds want to know these things. Before you get sued, Jack Brody and the rest of you in the city of Lamarck, don't you want to answer these questions? I'll supplement one more question. If he was contorting his body and running away and firing, do they have the bullets from the gun? Oh, no, Scott. He never fired. He never fired. It's just pointing. There's no firing. There's no firing. his prints, but if you're holding a gun and you said that they weren't fired, then they recovered the gun. Where are the fingerprints? I think you raised this. Where are the fingerprints on the gun that he allegedly had? Because as I read the report, there were like two guns.

And so none of it makes sense. Those questions have to be answered. There will be a lawsuit, but it just simply borders on the mountains. Last question that I would raise. If he is, what difference does it make if you enhance for clarity the camera if that's not slowed down and have clarity on the night the police shot him? I want to see what the police saw. And it certainly wouldn't slow down on him. Did Santos see it in slow motion?

No. In the dark. Unless the cop is some superhero with laser-like vision that can slow down a young man running, I don't think there's a human being like that. Running away. So what difference does it make? And Scott, on that exact point, let's understand there's a reason we have policies against shooting fleeing felons. Because he's not an aggressor towards you.

Tennessee v. Garner. My favorite Constitution case, Tennessee v. Garner. And let me remember, this is... Don't make me quote it. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Robert, go. And also, this is Texas, which is a constitutional carry state. It is not illegal to have a gun.

It's not illegal to be holding a gun. Booyah. It is illegal to be assaulting an officer. So this idea that you can... I knew you would remember that, Robert. ...had a gun is ridiculous on its face. Wait, hold on, hold on, on his face. Wait, hold on. Hold on.

You can't talk over Robert. Robert, please finish your point. No, I'm done. That's just the point that this entire thing doesn't make sense. And this is why it's so important. I'm going to circle right back to get on our senators about this justice and policing act, which already does not go far enough. But the fact that it's on the back burner right now, I think how many dead black bodies do we

need to drop at Joe Manchin's front door before we can get a vote on this? How many times do we have to come back and say we are not this is not like some crazy Tea Party issue about critical race theory or Sharia law. This is really happening to us. And it has to get passed right now. And we cannot continue to dilly-dally and dance around it because if we do not put a federal backstop right there, then all it takes is a local prosecutor to not want to prosecute a case of this nature. Then you can end up with no justice for that family at all. Candace?

The ultimate evidence is that he was shot in the back. And what we often see is the D.A.'s office, when they don't really push for the indictment that they're supposed to with the right witnesses, they go ahead and they try to create a narrative of their own, which is what we are seeing right now. We're not going to do it in court, but we are going to do it in the public court of opinion right now and slow down this video. They're going to provide evidence to justify their case, which really is evidence that they are guilty in all of this. They just do not want to bring it into fruition, but they're going to go ahead and try to get people on their side

because they know that they're wrong, or else they wouldn't be slowing down this video in order for other people to try to understand what was the perspective of the police officers. And Roland, can I add something? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, the other thing that I want to add, and thank you for all these brilliant legal minds that are on here, but you know, Attorney Ben Crump is undefeated in taking on clients and getting them some measure of civil justice,

civil award for what has happened. But that is not going to calm the heartbreak in this mother's heart, and that does not fix what's going on in the streets. The streets of Lamar are not safe right now. This man has been on paid vacation, administrative leave since December 9th. And as of yesterday, when the grand jury made their decision, he's now on desk duty. So he's got a gun again. He's wearing a badge again. He's coming into an office. It's just minutes before he's back on the street. And this is an officer who held a citizen underwater in Galveston, Texas, when he was employed by the Galveston Police Department and got fired and rehired across the bridge in Lamarck and has killed a man before Joshua Feast since

he was hired there. So listen to me, people. The only way that we do anything about this is if we ensure that officers like this don't get to carry a badge, don't get to carry a gun. They are right now being sanctioned for murder. And that is what must stop. That's what we have to require from our city governments and from our state governments. And Robert is right. Yes. George Floyd, Justice and Policing Act. Who was at Joshua Fee's funeral? Philonise Floyd, Keita Floyd, their nephew, their family. They paid for the entire repass. Why? Because this type of grief is a fraternity and a sorority that nobody wants to belong to, but they do. So they show up every single time. That's right there in Houston where they're based. But we don't want to keep showing up like this. That's no damn badge of courage.

We want this fixed. We want it resolved and we want it to stop. And of course, we, at the rate we're going, there's not going to be a George Floyd Justice Act. And that's a damn shame. It is. Because what you're stuck with then, Roland, is a bunch of laws from state to state, local, state. We don't have anything from Congress saying anything concrete. You go from one jurisdiction to the next, and you're liable to be in a jurisdiction that has different rules. So we need something that is our blanket rule so that people can understand all over the country and get on one page as to what one can and cannot do. But right now, it's

just all over the place. It's completely a mess. It's a mess. And the Supreme Court has not taken a position to say anything about whether it's chokeholds or anything having to do with so many things that the police can and cannot do. It's just been pure silence. And, Roland, just one last thing on the George Floyd ad. I think Democrats have to remember one very important thing, which is Republicans are running black men across the country for a reason. There's a reason Larry Elders is running in California. Georgia has Vernon Jones and Herschel Walker and Kelvin King running as Republicans.

South Carolina has Tim Scott. They are making a play for the black male vote on the on the justification that Democrats are doing nothing for you. And so if you go after an entire 2020 of activism and you come back to black voters and tell them we couldn't get a criminal justice reform, we couldn't get a police reform bill passed. Donald Trump got 19 percent of the black male vote in 2020. Most people don't remember that. So the Republican nominee in 2024 is Tim Scott. You can expect to see him get about 30 to 40 percent of that black vote if you cannot or that black male vote if you cannot deliver on something like this or the apathy level will go through the roof and Democrats cannot win that way. So I know you're trying to play this little bipartisan game where you're going to appease Joe Manchin, you're going

to appease Christian Sinema. Look, don't lose your for show money going after some more money. You got to secure your base first and black people are the base of this party. Don't forget that when it comes between elections. And I hear that Senator Scott, not Lindsey Graham, is the one single-handedly responsible for the punting, the pivoting, and the scaredy-cat behavior that we are seeing concerning the George Floyd justice and policing. And I sat with both John's sister and with the Floyd family just a few days ago, August 28th, when we were all here regarding the march, the march for voting, the march on Washington, whatever they want to call it now. And they said what I can say. Tim Scott sat there and lied to our faces, assuring that it was going to get done and kept pivoting.

Well, I'm not a lawyer, but I trust the lawyers and leaning toward Lindsey Graham and whoever else. But when it came down to the pressure from the sheriff's offices across this nation, it was Tim Scott who did not have the spine to push back. And so I'm not ready to say that it's too late. What, you know, we, we need to see some things happen in reconciliation like we've seen them never before. If it's time for miracles, Congress and Senate can work some. They know Jesus. They better pray because otherwise it's not going to go right

in the next elections. Well, look, I made it clear I never trusted Tim Scott being able to carry this thing over the finish line. And I kept saying, all right, you think you could bring 25 Republicans? Show me. You could bring 10 Republicans. It's not the votes. It's not the votes, though, Roland.

That's the problem. I disagreed with you about that because it's not about the votes. It's about the resolution to get it done. Because even this argument about what the sheriffs are pushing back on qualified immunity, you have to be able to galvanize your own people and say whether QI makes this bill or not, they should be a bill. You got to go talk to even the Democrats because the ones in the House are saying, well, if qualified immunity isn't in it, then the bill is dead. They need to be doing their damn jobs. This is it's I'm I never mind. I can get censored even on a show that don't get censored. So now's the time.

Well, again, I had no faith that he could get it done. Let me go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk to R. Kelly Case. More explosive testimony coming out of New York. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robert don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares.

I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they're basically about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen.

And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so, therefore, it gives me a different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these Shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors.

All you got to do is go to rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So it's rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So it's rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares. All you got to do is go to my website and you can actually get this. Now, for those of you who are members of our bring the funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our bring the funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares.

My sister was a designer. She actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at rollingnessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And, of course, that goes to support the show.

And, again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. Hey, I'm Arnaz J. Black TV does matter, dang it. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Rolling Martin right now. Stay woke. The R. Kelly trial continues to reveal the strange lifestyle

of the R&B singer. Today, one of R. Kelly's accusers told a jury that he kept a gun by his side while he berated her and forced her to give him oral sex in a L.A. music studio. The witness said the intimidation tactics were part of an abusive relationship that began when she was 19.

These, of course, there have been a number of people who have been testifying in this particular trial. Yesterday, you had former employees testifying about the kind of stuff that R. Kelly was involved in. Candace, I want to go to you first. It has been woman after woman. Many of their names not being revealed. You had a man testify that R. Kelly said, I'll help you with your music career.

And R. Kelly performed oral sex on him. I mean, you've had shocking testimony in this trial. And I still say what stands out is that you had a number of former employees who had been testifying against Robert Kelly. Yeah. And you know what? This is what the prosecution calls building a case, bringing in a number of people so that they can show a pattern that this is what R. Kelly did in order to mastermind his criminal enterprise. You know, a lot of people have said online or when they see me, why do you spend so much time talking about the prosecution? You don't give the defense a chance. Listen, the prosecution is the one that has to make the case, and the defense responds to their allegations and to their evidence. So, as you said, we've heard from so many people, women, a man. We might even hear from another man.

We've heard the voice of a liar from the grave. We've heard of people being forced to eat feces, being abused and raped. We've heard people who said that when they met R. Kelly, they were underage or even that they were not underage. So we have heard a spectrum, from a spectrum of people, R. Kelly all the time saying that this is not true, I want to say that. And the defense has had a difficult time in trying to cross-examine these witnesses and say, hey, didn't you want to be there? And that was a fact for a lot of these young women, is that they did want to be there, to start their singing career. Even their parents were involved to say, yes, we'll sign up on this because you did it for Aaliyah. Maybe you will do

it for Azriel, or maybe you would do it for somebody else, you know, because my child wants to be a singer. But the bottom line is that even if these young women did agree to even be in a relationship or even agree to live with him and be homeschooled and get the parents' blessings, they didn't agree probably to be raped. They didn't agree to have to eat feces. They didn't agree to get herpes. So these are the things that have been spelled out and have been building so far. We are probably halfway through this case. It is certainly not over. We're going to hear more explosive testimony. And this is something that, again, the defense, it's going to be an uphill battle because when you start questioning witnesses who say they were raped and then asking them, but didn't you want to be there? That's re-victimizing the witness. And that's not something that the jury often takes kindly to. So a lot of moving parts here.

Rob Portillo, your assessment of the testimony you heard thus far in the last 10 days of the R. Kelly trial? Well, you know, I'm not a particular follower of much of the celebrity news in general, but from what I have heard, I do think the prosecution does risk the point of expanding the scope of what they're talking about. I do think all of you need to pinpoint directly on what the charges are. The prosecutor is not trying to prove that R. Kelly is a freak. They're not trying to prove that R. Kelly has deviant sex. They have to prove the particular charges which he's being charged with. And sometimes when you have additional sensational information, they can draw away from the central point. I understand they are drawing their case, and we are only about halfway through. But I do think they're going to start having to

draw in that bullseye a little bit more so that it's very clear in the minds of the judge and jury exactly the point they are trying to prove. And that's simply just a reading of all the terrible things that R. Kelly has done in his life, making sure they are actually putting together the case that can have him convicted of the charges which are against him. Scott, you know, kidnapping. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Candace, go ahead. You know, kidnapping, bribery, sexual exploitation, child forced labor, the RICO Act, masterminding this criminal enterprise, the Mann Act. And the Mann Act states that you can't cross young women or men, right, across state lines for the purposes of prostitution, all of these things, he is right.

They have to prove this. And one thing that they don't have quite solid yet is anybody who took the stand to say, hey, listen, R. Kelly actually made me do these things. And that's important when we talk about the RICO Act and racketeering. It has to be something that R. Kelly demanded that other people do. So they're kind of on the peripheral here, saying that their assault was involved and there were Roberts' rules that were very strict and confining. But in terms of even Demetrius Smith, he's the one who paid $500 in order to get the illegal ID for Aaliyah and was there at this wedding ceremony. And when they exchanged vows, even he said, R. Kelly didn't make me do it, and I don't want to see R. Kelly go to jail. Even the employees, none of them has said that specifically R. Kelly made me do it, and they haven't pointed fingers at them.

But on the outside, we do have these things that are building, and they ultimately need to kind of wrap this gift up in a bowl finally because they just haven't done that yet. that are building, and they ultimately need to kind of wrap this gift up in a bowl finally, because they just haven't done that yet. But we do have a lot of, as you said, extreme information and information that's just very, it makes the headlines that people pay attention to. But in terms of the legal actions and in terms of the thresholds that have to be met by the prosecution, are we there yet? Not quite. Yeah, I would respectfully disagree. And not too much. You've always got to wrap it up. But the fact that these were employees, the fact that he had this controlling management style, this controlling personality, they've got to wrap it up, but I think inherent in their presentation is that at the end they're

going to say, use your common sense as a jury, and all of these people did these things at his direction, whether they said it on the stand or not. But I do agree that in the end they've got to wrap it up. But from a criminal defense side, I'm often, because I'm a criminal defense lawyer, I often wonder, what's the defense here? He denies it, and he says that they're lying and they're groupies. I agree with you, that's not a defense. That may be something you put on the stand and argue, but short of that, that's not a defense, because they can prove the herpy charges

because unless he puts a witness on, watch this, maybe he takes the stand and denies all of this stuff, which I hope that he does. Ain't no way in hell are Kelly getting on that trial, get on that stand. Watch this, you know what, Roland, you're right about that. But most criminal defense attorneys would have negotiated a plea deal by now versus taking this to trial. If you look at the overwhelming evidence that they presented and they're not done yet, they've got to put somebody on the stand to say that I didn't hear him, that he told her he was infected and that they had some signed agreement or that he used a condom, if you will.

The fact that they were groupies and wanted their career to be enhanced simply is not enough, even if you cross-examine them. The published reports don't get into how these individuals are being cross-examined. And then what is the defense case going to be about? If you're not going to put R. Kelly on, you've got to put somebody on to deny all of these allegations. And racketeering may be a difficult charge to prove because you've got all these various elements, and it's got to prove essentially that it's a criminal enterprise. Somebody's got to testify.

You're not going to close and never, and with limited challenges to the prosecution witnesses, close and say, I'm ready to do my closing argument. I guess you could do that, but that's a losing defense case. It's a losing defense case. I think there's a lot to overcome here. The defense has to have something better than what they're doing so far, because right now the facts are overwhelming any defense strategy in this case. You got a better shot of him doing a second interview with Gayle King

than getting on that witness stand. Monique? No, he'll do a second one with you. What would be your questions of our killer if he sat down with you, Roland? Say, dog, you know that ain't happening. You know that ain't happening. Hell, Buster Rhymes got a better shot of coming and talking to me before that. Monique?

Well, it's interesting. The only comment I'll make is I believe that my colleague Scott is forgetting the burdens. So to say that in a prosecution's case that the defense has to do a better job than they're doing is a miss. So we'll see. Only because the prosecution is doing a hell of a job right now. I didn't forget the burden. They're doing the job they're doing.

I agree with Candace that there are some things that are missing. I'm not following it closely, but the Pied Piper is real as far as I can tell, and I probably have more information than most. So what I would say is this case is still open. It's not going to be the only case, but I'm not ready to conclude that they have this wrapped up. I'm not. Candace, you better make a comment. I will say this, that one of the things so far that we can see, and as we all know, we're not done yet. We're just halfway there. But so far,

what I think they have proven with conviction is that he married Aaliyah. They have somebody saying that they got the fake ID. They have somebody saying that they were at the wedding. They have the marriage certificate. Those dots are connected. But even with the herpes, he might have given them herpes and they didn't know it. But it then becomes he says, she says, because there's nothing documented saying whether or not he told them or not. But the one thing that we do have is this whole idea of Aaliyah's marriage, as well as if they were underage and if they have videos to prove that these young women were underage and they were being filmed on his iPad, which is what every single person who said that

they were allegedly raped or assaulted by him happened, was that he used his iPad. And often on his iPad, I don't know if some of you back in the day saw the video of R. Kelly or not R. Kelly, depending on what you believe, but in his videos, he likes to say, you're 14, you're 15. If they have that evidence with him saying that on camera, then you have that. Then you have to get the parents involved. At some point, many of the parents. Who is this jury? Who's this jury? Because I haven't been following.

And everything that you say works if you're dealing with a jury of every single person who's willing to but i mean roland roland can say i see the things that people are tweeting him and i'm seeing things that are i mean there's there is this whole contingency of of people that it just doesn't even matter what is said they refuse to believe it And so it only takes one of those. But maybe one second, one second, one second, one second, one second, one second, one second, Scott. Because you were talking loud to Candace. No, no. First of all, Candace was talking, but Scott was trying to over talk. I got this. Yeah. OK, I got this. Candace, Candace, to your point, to your point.

First of all, Candace, to your point, to your point. First of all, Candace, to your point, the prosecution has not introduced any of that iPad video. Correct. So that's that's that's that's one. Folks have tested. So folks have testified. You have you have that. Now, keep in mind, in the first trial, there was a videotape. R. Kelly claimed or they want to to play it was his brother on it bottom line is here's the deal the jury believed that that was R Kelly on the video that wasn't the problem they could not ascertain the age of the young girl on the video that's what happened in his first trial and so I believe what you're seeing here, you're seeing the prosecution

by bringing out all of these different people, by being able to give all of these stories of intimidation and coercion, what they're sort of doing is they're sort of bracketing these charges with all of this in terms of heinous behavior. But to your point, they still have to get to what did he do that was illegal? Go ahead.

On the indictment, there are three men who are mentioned in the footnotes who have already pled guilty to crimes relating to being directed by R. Kelly. So, again, that's why I say we're halfway there. We're going to see so much. If you read this very, very detailed indictment, there's so much more to come. We just don't know. But so far, what I see is them building and building and building a case so that when they bring in that superstar witness, which I don't think there have been any so far, but when they come, that will be the glue that seals all of these pieces that we're going to see right now. Scott, final comment.

What about the jury? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hello, Scott, the money. Scott, the money. Go. The rebuttal, given the wealth of evidence that's coming in, can only be that these

individuals who would testify are just blatant liars. They're going to need a smoking gun witness or document to confirm that these individuals got together and hatched this plan to lie in order to get money. And they're going to have to put on witnesses and or R. Kelly himself to introduce that defense evidence. That's the only way, if the prosecution does what they're supposed to do, that is the only way, and it's not really a reasonable defense, but that's the only way I see them winning this case and getting a defense verdict. That is that the jury simply did not believe the wealth of this evidence because the defense did a good job at undermining the credibility of these witnesses through the defense did a good job at undermining

the credibility of these witnesses through cross-examination as well as putting on their own witnesses who will say that they had the conversations or documents that undermine the credibility of the prosecution witnesses. That's the only way I see it. Monique? Which brings us back to my question, because Scott is saying that the only way is for the jury to disbelieve. And I think all of us understand tonight it only has to be one. What's up with this jury, Candace? Who are they?

So so far, it's very constrained in terms of who's on this jury. We don't know a lot of facts like we do in the others. But we do know that there are seven men and that there are five women. We don't know the racial makeup. We don't know the age. We know during some of the broad year process that some of them were young and into technology. And we know that some of them have never even heard of R Kelly, but that most of them have heard of the song. I believe I can fly,

but that's all we have so far on the jury. I will say this though. I have met people, especially white people who are of a certain age, age 50 and over who, if they're on that jury, they've never even heard of R. Kelly, which is a surprise to me. I've met them in person. They have no idea who this man is. Haven't even heard I Believe I Can Fly. So we don't know who's on this jury, who's going to be able to take a look at this at its just base. No, I have heard nothing. I have not heard in the closet. I know nothing about Chocolate Factory. We don't know who is on that jury

who knows anything about R. Kelly or not. We just don't know at this point. Remember what I said, a defense verdict. A hung jury will be great, but he'll get tried again. But I'm talking about... Well, actually, keep in mind, there are three jurisdictions going after R. Kelly. So it's not just New York.

Go ahead. And this is why I think it's so important for the prosecution to bring this in, because I think Scott is underestimating what the defense, given the information we have currently, not any smoking gun evidence coming forward, but if you're the defense attorney, you can, to the herpes charge, she had herpes when she got there. She had herpes after she left. How exactly are you going to tie that directly to R. Kelly? That's something the prosecution has to prove. On the underage charges, you have to prove, just as Roland said in the previous case, that he knew at the time the individual, you have the individual saying it at trial, but is there any documentary evidence? Is

there a text message? That's not true. Statutory rape, you don't have to prove that. Scott, what I'm saying is I don't think the prosecution has landed the plane yet. I don't think it's time for premature celebration. I think the prosecution has more work to do because there are plenty of plausible defenses, and all you need is one person being equipoised at the end in order to have a verdict. And when you try to try a case again, you never have as much steam the second and third time trying to try a case, which usually ends up with either something getting dismissed or

a plea deal being cut just because of the expense of getting all these witnesses back together. Got it. All right, folks, we're going to leave it right there. Candace, thank you so very much for joining us. We appreciate it. All right, folks, we're going to leave it right there. Candace, thank you so very much for joining us. We appreciate it. All right. Good to see you. All right. Going to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about the trillions of dollars spent by the United States during Afghanistan. Seriously, $21 trillion. Not just Afghanistan, but other foreign efforts as well.

$21 trillion. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope.

I'm Bill Duke. This is DeOlla Riddle, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. Trillions of dollars spent by the United States over the last 20 years, not just in Afghanistan, but all across the globe. A new report called State of Insecurity, the cause of militarization since 9-11. It was released by the National Priorities Project.

It outlines where all of the money went and where those funds may have been better utilized. Joining me now with National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Program is the Program Director of Studies, Lindsay Koshkaren. Lindsay, $21 trillion? Seriously? $21 trillion, Roland, on militarization in the last 20 years. And a lot of that is driven by 9-11, but a lot of it has to do with all the other adventures we're having around the world and a lot of the militarization right here at home in this country, too.

It's always interesting when people say what we cannot afford yet, when you look at anything with military, oh, spend it, spend it, that were billions added to the military budget in the last four years of Donald Trump. And even President Joe Biden's new budget calls for more spending. I mean, put in context the amount of money the United States is spending on national defense compared to the 10 countries behind us. Well, we, Roland, you said it right there. We are spending every year, just on our military, we spend more than the next 10 countries combined. And that includes countries that we use as our reason for military spending, countries like Russia and China, where we spend several times

more than they do. So there's really no reason for it. It's not money for our security. The military budget right now is higher than it was at the height of the Vietnam War. It's higher than it was during the height of the Cold War. And it's all just money. And about half of it is going to contractors. So there's enormous profits being made off of this. And that right there is the critical point. And see something else. That is, there is a defense contractor in every congressional district in the country. So basically, what they've done is, if you even attempt to cut defense spending, it's, oh, you're causing jobs to be lost.

That's right. If you try to cut one program, sometimes it will just be one or two jobs in a district, but it's still something they can still go to that member of Congress and say, we have jobs in your district. You better not cut this program. And it's a huge part of why the spending is so high. They're using it as a jobs program, even though it's a much worse jobs program than if we spent the same thing on health care or education or clean energy or infrastructure. All of those things, we could create more jobs for the same money. But because the military contractors have it and they've had

it for so long, it just keeps going. And what and also I think what happens here is that, frankly, you don't have a president, Republican or Democrat, who has the guts to say, you know what? I think we spent enough last year. We're just going to keep it even. This whole idea that we have to increase the defense budget every year is asinine. It is crazy. It is really true that there are a bunch of people out there, including, unfortunately, most of the people we elect as president who don't seem to think there is a number too high. There's never a number high enough. And that's the thing that, you know, that people ought to realize when we're saying, oh, well, it's just going to, we're a little bit more for this or a little bit more for that. There is never a number that will satisfy the hawks in this country.

So here you have Congress again right now. So how do we deal with that? Because there has to be some semblance of balance here. And do you think that we even will get to that point where you're going to have a confers? You can forget Republicans actually do anything. Their whole attitude is we're strong on defense. They want to beat Democrats over the head by calling them weak on defense. They want to cut the military, all those different things. So how do you break through the American people to say, y'all, do y'all know how much we're spending? And isn't that enough?

Like, for instance, what is the annual military budget that we allocate right now? We're spending about $750 billion on the military right now. Now, that $750 billion, don't you also have a dark budget? And frankly, there's only a number, and we don't know what the hell it goes to. Is that included at $750? Well, we think a lot of it is. Now, as you said, it's a dark budget. It's secret. It's not in public documents. We can't find it easily. But because of some leaks that we've seen over recent years and a little bit of public information that comes out, we know it's about $80 billion a year. We just don't know exactly where it is.

A lot of it is included in that $750 billion. But just to put that $750 billion into context, that's three-quarters of a trillion dollars. That trillion dollars, that's the size of the infrastructure package that they're fighting so hard for right now and And that is supposed to be this once in a lifetime thing that we've never seen before. And we're spending almost that much every single year for the military. Now, that's absolutely crazy and just goes to show you that when people say and then, of course, you have Republicans right now who are saying, hey, let's stay in Afghanistan and let's actually reinvade Afghanistan. They got no problem spending those trillions. But then when you talk about spending a trillion dollars on the poor and food or housing, oh, no, we can't afford those things. That's right. And that's that is actually the whole reason we wrote this report. The fact that we can spend twenty one trillion trillion on wars and militarization around the world and militarizing our borders and militarizing our law enforcement,

the fact that we can spend this much on militarizing all of those things means we have the money and we have the political will to spend it when those are our priorities. So what we need to do, though, is shift those priorities, right? We've spent $21 trillion over 20 years on militarization. Those are our priorities. So what we need to do, though, is shift those priorities. Right. We've spent 21 trillion over 20 years on militarization. But for less than a quarter of that, we could have a fully renewable energy electric grid. So a lot of these things we can do with the money is there. We just have to change what we're spending it on. Now, you also have political courage. And unfortunately, there's not a lot of that today. Lindsay Kosgarian, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, Texas now has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. The controversial law took effect

today after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block it. It prevents women from getting abortions after six weeks of gestation. That's before many even know they're pregnant. And law also allows citizens to sue anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion. Vice President Kamala Harris stated this regarding the bill. This all-out assault on reproductive health effectively bans abortion for the nearly seven million Texans of reproductive age. Patients in Texas will now be forced to travel out of the state or carry their pregnancy to term against their will. This law will dramatically reduce access to reproductive care for women in Texas, particularly for women with low incomes and women of color.

Rights groups see the law as a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion. It's unclear if the law will stay on the books or further legal action will stop it. The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi. I want to go to my panel. Monique, I want to start with you. So this is, here's what is, so there's several things. First of all, there are many people who were waiting, who were up till 1 a.m. because the law went into effect after midnight central time. Supreme Court, no action whatsoever allowing it to stand. There were literally abortions being performed in Texas up until the actual deadline because folks were trying to get it done before the deadline. What is crazy about this bill, any number of things,

but the fact that a stranger, a random person can go, oh, you're in abortion? I'm going to sue you. But not just sue you. I'm going to sue anybody who was involved in the decision. Somebody who called on your behalf. Somebody who drove you to the facility. Somebody who helped you pack.

I mean, so they're calling this vigilante or bounty justice. That is absolutely crazy that a random stranger could literally sue a woman and anybody who so-called was involved in her decision. Yeah, and some people are also calling like Taliban justice. And I think that that is appropriate because the thing that people maybe aren't considering, in addition to the fact that this could even happen and these suits could be brought, is that these suits are public. So it's not just violative of a woman's right to a choice regarding her body, but then it violates the privacy of those choices and of anyone who privately assisted her in the making and the executing of that choice. And so I don't think that these things are going to survive, Roland.

I believe that what the Supreme Court did not do beforehand, once the test cases, the test balloons come up with the actual working of this legislation, will happen afterward. But in the meantime, it is devastating. And as you already said, it directly impacts the poor. It directly impacts women of color, because people with means, rich white women are going to be getting abortions the same way they were getting them in 1940 and 1950. Nothing has changed about that. It will happen and no one will be the wiser. This is about the woman who cannot afford to cross state lines. This is about the woman who goes into some, now we're back to the back alley with the unsafe procedures from the so-called doctors who are making a buck and doing things without the necessary medical safety protocols. So it is a very, it's a dark day in Texas for so many different reasons. But this is close to the top of the list. This, Robert, Supreme Court chose us to stay silent

as opposed to issuing a stay. Right wing conservatives have been waiting for this day. The Supreme Court will consider the Mississippi case. Many people are already saying that since they allowed this Texas case to go forward, that other states are going to rush to pass similar laws immediately in order and say, well, you didn't stop that one. They're not going to stop ours. So essentially, if other states move on this right now, it goes into effect until the Supreme Court issues a decision on the Mississippi case.

You're correct. And also, let's remember that this is what Republicans have been building towards for the last 40 years. They've decided long ago that they will give up the rest of their agenda in order to have judges. The entire reason Mitch McConnell held up Merrick Garland was for exactly this moment. The entire reason that they passed so many catholics on the Supreme Court is for exactly this moment. They've been building towards it for a generation. And I think states, many states, particularly states like Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, throughout the Bible Belt and throughout the South, you're going to see even more draconians

they try to one-up themselves. Look at the way the Georgia voter suppression law was. Then Texas had to one-up. There was an even crazier voter suppression plan. So it's very important people understand these things during election years and off-election years. Donald Trump still did very well with white women in the last election. So if they are not willing to stand up for these issues, then you're going to have a very hard time beating these things back once

if the Supreme Court does roll over. Right now, John Roberts has been very vocal, saying he's in favor of maintaining Roe. I believe Kavanaugh has also stated that he believes in upholding Roe. But all it takes is one or two judges to flip sides. These are Trump judges, after all, many of them, in order to overturn these rights. I think it's something people really need to monitor, particularly on the state level, because you'll end up having to go back

and repeal these laws on the state and local level. So listen to black folks. When we were talking about voting rights, you wouldn't have these problems. Well, you certainly, both of my colleagues are correct. But these laws, no matter how many pass, will be challenged because they have to be challenged. Very often, you'll see the Supreme Court will not want to usurp its authority for that of the legislature.

They're protective of those separation of powers, and so they may not have intervened here, but what they're waiting for is a challenge where they have a set of facts that get to the Supreme Court, and those set of facts they will rule on. And one decision by the Supreme Court knocking down Texas or Mississippi will undermine or reverse whatever the legislatures in those states have done. And so understand the method of their madness. I'm presuming this or believing this simply because that's kind of the way the Supreme Court we've seen from time to time operate. Now, secondly, the issue you raise, Roland, is so vitally important. The standing is what you're talking about, that third parties who have no vested interest in the outcome or damages or injuries for an abortion, they've now created a standing

opportunity by statute. Now, you can do that, but it gets real tricky because you can't undermine the constitutional underpinnings of standing. You can't just say a third party can do it because they want to do it. And that's where the lawsuits, the plaintiff's bar, the civil rights organizations, the anti-abortion rights organizations have got to focus their attention on and say that's unconstitutional as you chip away at these statutes, as well as attaching the statutes total unconstitutionality as well. But that's going to be the chink in the armor. But the Republicans want that. They wanted to go to the Supreme Court, and they want and hope that the Supreme Court will de facto, through these other decisions, reverse the impact of Roe v. Wade or chip away at it until it's gone.

And so both Democrats and Republicans are going to be attacking, wanted to go to the Supreme Court, I won't say attacking, but wanted to go to the Supreme Court. But the weakness in this statute is how unconstitutional the standing provision is. Watch for that to be the subject of many lawsuits. We'll see what the circuits say. We'll see what the federal district courts say. But in the end, both sides want us to go to the Supreme Court. All right, folks, got to go to a break. Before we do, let's hear from our partners with Seek.com. Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok All right. Sync.com is a black owned company founded by Mary Spiel, a virtual reality company. You have the content where you can really see some tremendous virtual reality video.

Of course, you can do so with this VR headset right here where you just simply pop your phone in. And then, of course, you pop it on. And then, of course, you can experience that 360-degree video in virtual reality. You can look at a lot of the great content of other artists that are on their site as we speak. You can also listen with these amazing 360-degree sound Bluetooth headphones. Of course, I know Scott hates it, but the gold ones certainly match my alpha attire. And so, again, great sound. You can use it for gaming.

Like I say, it's Bluetooth. You can take phone calls. The music is tremendous. The bass is crazy. Folks, if you want to get these headphones or you want to get the virtual reality headset, go to Seek.com. Use this promo code RMVIP21 if you want to check it out. So go to Seek.com to try these products out.

And then when you support Seek.com by buying these products, a portion comes back to us at Roland Martin Unfiltered. So we certainly appreciate Mary Spio and Seek.com being partners with us here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, when we come back, we'll talk COVID. Joe Rogan, oh my God, he has been going off against vaccines and saying it's crazy, it makes no sense. He has been going off against vaccines and saying it's crazy. It makes no sense. He now has COVID.

Next, a roller Martin filter. All right. So a lot of y'all always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robert don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket square. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool.

And so I tracked down. It took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they're basically about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so, therefore, it gives me a different look.

So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors. All you got to do is go to rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So it's rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. All you got to do is go to my website, and you can actually get this. Now, for those of you who are members of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club.

And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister was a designer. She actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares

right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And, of course, that goes to support the show. And, again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. Hey, I'm Arnaz J. Black TV does matter, dang it. Hey, what's's up y'all it's your boy jacob latimore and you're now watching roland martin right now stay woke

all right folks let's talk a little covet here uh joe rogan of course uh on spotify man he was sitting here going off talking talking about COVID and the vaccines. Last week, he was angry that venues were requiring vaccine cards by folks as proof, had the vaccine, and said he was just outlandish. Well, he dropped this video today after coming off the road. Feeling very weary. I had a headache headache and I just felt just run down. And just to be cautious, I separated from my family, slept in a different part of the house. And throughout the night, I got fevers and sweats and I knew what was going on. So I got up in the morning, got tested, and it turns out I got COVID. So we immediately threw the kitchen sink at it. All kinds of meds, monoclonal antibodies,

ivermectin, Z-Pak, prednisone, everything. And I also got an NAD drip and a vitamin drip. And I did that three days in a row. And so here we are on Wednesday, and I feel great. I really only had one bad day. Sunday sucked. But Monday was better. Tuesday felt better than Monday. And today I feel good. I actually feel pretty fucking good.

That's the good news. The bad news is we have to move Friday, the Friday show in Nashville. It's going to move to Sunday, October 24th. So that will be the new Nashville date. My apologies to everyone. Obviously, there's nothing that I can control. It is what it is. Crazy times we're living in. But a wonderful, heartfelt thank you to Modern Medicine for pulling me out of this so quickly and easily. And my love to all of you. Thank you. Bye. So, Robert, he threw all kind of meds at it, thanking modern medicine. He was trashing Fauci.

He was sitting here. He was trashing all of this. He was, oh, how dare these venues require people to have vaccine cards. Now your ass got COVID. Look, how is all that stuff easier than just getting the shot in the first place? I'm trying to understand this.

You can either, A, get two shots and not have to worry about it, or B, you can take horse tranquilizers, experimental antibodies, drugs, drip, and almost die overnight. And then, like, how is that easier? Like, I'm a lazy person, so I'm going to do the easier thing.

So I got that today because that seemed to be a far easier thing than throwing the kitchen sink at it. This entire thing has just shown that America is living in an idiocracy. Imagine being in a country that is so advanced and so well financed that you can tell people here is the cure to the disease that kills people. And they will say to you, nah, I ain't going to take it. I don't want the cure. But what the hell kind of sense does this make? And the thing here, Monique, first of all, you can be vaccinated and still get COVID. The whole point of it is to lessen, obviously, your symptoms. Now, you have the people who are saying, yeah, but people who got

vaccinated passed away. They cite the sheriff that's in Mississippi there as well, which we also explain to people is why you still must partake cautions. You still must wear a mask and those things along those lines. But 98 percent Native American, who's who's gay, who's straight, who has money, who's no money. Maybe you'll now pay attention and stop playing games with this because this is not a game. No, it's not. And even the five or 10 things that he said he did in order to attack it right away, I'm hoping that our folks who are watching, and I thank you, Roland, for just being so consistent and fastidious with covering this pandemic and giving our people the best medical information possible. Our folks don't even know what those things are to do or how to do them. And so it's not even a question of get the vaccine or don't. I'm sure he's vaccinated. If he lied and said he wasn't, I wouldn't believe it.

But then feeling symptoms from a breakthrough and then knowing, I mean, to try prednisone, to know which vitamins to take, to be able to access all of the different things that are available to people who have money, influence, the right color, access to medical insurance, access to health care. And so we still end up dead, frankly. And so it's not that I wanted him to die. Of course I didn't. And I hope that he's over the worst of it, but it, it really is criminal. It really is criminal for people who are affluent and of a certain means and station in this life to push out their you don't need whatever kind of views onto people who can't even fathom the types of things they have access to when they're in a pinch and that particular

point right there scott is important because yeah for a lot of people who aren't making a hundred million dollars from your spotify deal all the stuff he described, they can't afford all that. It's so misleading, and it's just fundamentally wrong. But when you look at his video, his video purposely avoids talking about the dangers of COVID. He said, oh, I had one bad day. Oh, it wasn't too bad. I was better, and they pumped me full of drugs and stuff.

He sounded like Donald Trump, if you will, that he triumphed. He was triumphant over it. And therefore it was OK. It wasn't too bad. But what about the long termers? You see, I have friends who are long termers who still can't taste their food. They can't smell. They have no sense of smell. They have liver and heart damage. That's the real danger. Sure, 90% of the people in the ICU right now haven't been vaccinated, but there are people, even if they cure themselves or if they overcome it, still have long-term effects. That, in many respects, is more dangerous because you're going to have a lifetime of long-term effects as opposed to being in an ICU and dying from COVID. They're both just as bad. And I just think it's just unbelievably sad and cruel that these leading voices on this platform, this media platform, are spewing this negative filth, and 49% of Americans living in this incredible country are not getting vaccinated, are catching COVID,

making life miserable for the rest of us. And we won't make it, this government, Democrat or Republican government, I don't care, won't make it an obligation, won't make it a requirement to be vaccinated, for kids to be vaccinated, for adults to be vaccinated. When you have over a half a million people have died from it, you can read anecdotally, but this science is real. It's real. And yet we kind of are dumbfounded as we walk around with COVID and hold on to our First Amendment rights. It's a compelling state interest, health, safety and welfare. We can impinge on our constitutional rights when you have that compelling state interest. It's time to do it. They've got a new variant right now called MU, that they're

monitoring right now, which is spawned from the Delta variant, they think, which was spawned from the original COVID-19. This thing may never go away so long as we act like this. All right. Thank you, Scott. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. You said compelling state interest, and that was going to be my only question. Scott, do you have a plan in mind for how the federal and I can see how the state government could get a mandate going. But how can the federal government do it? Because we know that these states like my home state of Texas, like Louisiana, the Florida, all the all all the devil governors, they're not going to do it. So what could be done for them? So the federal government, the same compelling all the devil governors. They're not going to do it. So what could be done for them? So the federal government, the same compelling state interest on the U.S. Constitution, they can still impose that federal mandate on the states and penalize them or withhold funds if they

don't accept it until the case can go to the Supreme Court. That's very doable. But we do it for polio. We do it for smallpox. We do it for driving drivers licenses. We do it for all of these things to impinge on our constitutional rights. And the federal government just seems to be hesitant to do that because the country is politically split right now. And I get that part. But eventually, how many people are going to have to die? How many long termers are going to tax our health care system before we wake up and say we must infringe on your First Amendment rights? And you must be vaccinated because science works and all your political bullshit doesn't. Your political bullshit kills. And it's a bottom line proposition. And it never stops being that.

Well, Scott, I think I think also we have to look at what the steps are going to be intersessing to that, because many of these MAGA people, you know, they're they're waiting for a reason to start a civil war. So I think Joe Biden is very cognizant of the fact that the minute that you put a national mandate in place, we saw what happened on January 6th. The mention of happening in every state capital. I think what will happen first is you have to start icing these people completely out of society. I know nobody likes the idea of a vaccine passport, but look, it's my birthday. I want to go to a concert and to a venue.

Everybody who's in there should have to show their vaccination in order to do so. If you want to board a plane, you just have to show a proof of vaccination because you using your First Amendment rights should not impinge on my individual freedom to be able to go see Frankie, Beverly and Maze. I don't I don't think that I should be punished because of your bad decisions. Yeah. Wait, are you saying did you say the MAGA people? I just want to make sure I heard that you can ice them. Yes, Monique, it is. Yeah, you got to ice them out of society.

Happy birthday, Robert. Happy birthday. monique it is yeah you're gonna ice them out of society the point is you gotta ice these folks out of society so we can all reopen and get back to doing normal stuff you're not gonna use your 11 millimeter to do that you mean politically right yeah we we mean that you have to stay home. You get to stay home. The rest of us go outside. Exactly. Exactly, man. It's unbelievable.

It really is. It's just unbelievable. Are you singing? You're letting her sing on your show, Roland. You would never let me sing. I'm here for it. This is why me and Monika roll dogs. It was mostly just an example of how as women, it doesn't matter what you're saying.

We can just keep on going. Happy birthday to you. Well, at least you're singing the right version. You're singing the right version. I sang the whole other version while you talked. You didn't hear any of it. Happy birthday, Robert. God bless.

Happy birthday, baby boy. We love you. We love you, youngster. Keep on keeping on. How old are you? Keep hope alive. I'll stop counting. I think 37 or 38, somewhere around there. You're a damn liar.

You go on. I'll let you have that one. But happy birthday, anyway. How old is September 1st, 84? Hey, Roland, let's pivot. What's the next topic? I knew you loved that one. I knew you loved that one, Bodie.

You don't want us to ever have a show. I hate you, Scott. I hate you every time you tell him what to do. Our hopes of our own time is further and further away. He's not amused. He's not amused. I know he isn't. This is our shot.

What is wrong? We could just let the camera keep rolling until 9 and just do a spinoff. We could turn it into a show. Henry, come back to me, please, on camera three. Here we go. Here we go. Folks, let me give an update on the condition of Jacqueline. Let me give an update on the condition of Jacqueline Jackson, the wife of Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.

She is now out of ICU. Jacqueline Jackson is still in oxygen as she battles COVID at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. The civil rights icon, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., he's at a rehab facility getting physical and occupational therapy. The couple, who had been married for nearly 60 years, they were admitted to the hospital on August 21st. He was vaccinated. She was not. See what happens when we continue with the same story when you're the actual host of the show, Scott. All right, folks, the CDC has announced that unvaccinated Americans should not travel during the upcoming Labor Day weekend. The agency also recommends traveling

with caution, wearing a mask. Kind of important. As we see, there are 40 million people who have been reported, 40 million cases of COVID in the country. 658,000 folks have died. As Scott mentioned, the World Health Organization is monitoring a new variant called Mu initially found in Colombia back in January. Of course, worldwide cases, 218.8 million and 4.5 million people have passed away due to COVID. Medical officials worldwide say the vaccine and wearing masks are best to slow the virus from spreading. Now, folks in Georgia, anti-vaxxers have bullied and harassed workers at mobile vaccination clinics. One mobile clinic had to close due to the dangerous behavior of anti-vaxxers. Roberts, Georgia, is still being ravaged by covid with the highest number of positive cases reported over the past weekend nearly 30 000 to date there have been 1.4 million

reported cases in georgia 22 740 deaths in georgia only 41 percent of georgia's population they are They are vaccinated. And in Oregon, check this out. A teach a superintendent in Oregon has been fired by the school board because he followed the state mandate. I'm trying to find the story right now. Give me a second, folks. Let me pull this up. So I saw the story before we came on the air and it was unbelievable. This Oregon superintendent, again, here it is right here. This is the story. A rural Oregon school superintendent has been fired because he actually enforced the state mandate. Kevin Purnell gave an emotional farewell after the school board voted four to one to fire him. Why? Because he followed it. Quote, this is from Oregon Live.

The board provided no public explanation for its surprise decision to oust a superintendent who has been on the job for three years and in the district for 14 years. Critics and supporters of Pernell's stance on mask mandates make it clear it was a pivotal issue in his fissure with the board. He literally followed the state mandate. This, Robert, is showing you again how the crazies are operating. We are facing a dangerous level of stupid in this country. If you're looking at my home state, we have people like Marjorie Taylor Greene running around claiming mask wearing is tyranny, claiming that the shot is somehow part of a government mind

control program. The level of crazy that we are looking at cannot be quantified. So I think this is where it becomes necessary for the federal government, as Scott has said continuously, to step in and put in place the types of safeguards that are needed for the rest of us to be able to go out and play. How about this? If you voluntarily decide not to get vaccinated, maybe you should have to sign away your right to be able to use an ICU bed because there are cancer victims, there are other people with diseases

who need those beds, and your personal decision should not inconvenience them. Maybe because you decide not to be vaccinated, you can't get on an airplane, quite frankly, because there's 300 people on a plane and five of them decide that they don't want to wear masks. They don't want to be vaccinated. Why should the rest of us risk being sickened by these people who simply put will not take the most basic public health initiative necessary. We saw this with AIDS in the 1980s where we criminalized individuals being able to transmit AIDS to other people without their knowledge. And I feel like someone should not be able to transmit COVID to me without my knowledge. And we're going to put safeguards in place.

Otherwise, we'll never get this under control. Just, again, it makes no sense whatsoever. Folks, real quick, rescue efforts have continued in several southern states in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. The massive Category 4 hurricane ripped through parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states, killing

six and leading millions without power. Some power has been restored in Louisiana, but it could be up to three weeks until it's entirely back. And the search for drill crews off the Gulf Coast who did not evacuate continues. In Mississippi, two people died and at least 10 others were injured when their vehicles plunged into a deep hole caused when Ida blew through George County, Mississippi. In Alabama, two electric company employees died in an accident while restoring power in Jefferson County.

President Biden is expected to travel to Louisiana on Friday to assess the damage. All right, folks, now time for HBCU Connect. Grambling State University has named its second woman drum major in the school's history. Candace Hawthorne is the first woman to earn the historic honor since Velma Patricia Patterson broke the historic barrier in 1952. Hawthorne will make her debut this Sunday when Grambling State takes on Tennessee State in the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. So certainly congratulations goes out to Candace. Folks, last week when I was in Atlanta for the MeXWag Challenge, which took place between Alcorn State and North Carolina

Central University, I had the opportunity to sit down with their chancellor. That's right. I had a great conversation with him. I wanted to be able to show it to you. So here we go. Mr. President, how are you doing? I am doing fine. So good to see you. Good seeing you. I had a great time when I was on your campus. Thank you. In fact, we still cherish that moment on our campus. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much for coming to visit. So I'm going to tell you something happened today. So the bands were performing. Yes. It was a central band, all-point state band. I'm taking photos or whatever. And so I'm walking through. And so one of the trombone players, he walked out of line.

I was like, bro, relax. I said, I'm taking photos. I'm working. So and so one of the trombone players, they walked out of line. I was like, bro, relax. I said, I'm taking a photo. I'm working. So they're doing the song, and so one of the other band guys came over. He said, well, you know, who are you? I said, well, this is what I'm doing. He's like, well, you know, our culture, you can't break the line. He's like, you know, these guys don't know who you are.

I said, what your president do? Absolutely. He should just mention my name. I said, he's my buddy. So the police chief came over like, Mr. Martin, I love your show. He's like, we'll talk to him. We'll talk to him. I said, you ain't want to hire them young bucks.

I said, let them know who I am. I said, whenever you send Mr. Martin, he has my ticket to go everywhere. So I had to tell him. I said, look, man, I've been promoting this for two weeks. I said, now we push this out to about 3 million people. I said, you want to be seen? And I tell him all the time, I cannot afford what he's giving us.

The coverage that we're getting, you know, this is expensive. None of us can afford it. And when we have people like you who come to the table and say, hey, look, we're going, you know, this is expensive. Yeah. None of us can afford it. And when we have people like you who come to the table and say, hey, look, we're going to give you that exposure. We can't pay for it. And so we really appreciate it. And our students have to understand that. They don't understand the issue of, you know, PR, media, you know,

they don't understand. I told myself, look, I get your rules, breaking the line. I said, but look, we out of here. So this ain't the halftime. We're good. So, yeah, so we, look, I get your rules, breaking the line. I said, but look, we out of here. I said, this ain't the hang time. We're good. So, yeah, so we all got settled. The police chief said, I talked to him. Don't worry about it.

I appreciate that very much. I said, Chief Williams, I'm going to let him know. I said, when Roland comes around tomorrow, you let him straight to the front line. Let him take that picture. There you go. There you go. You talked about the exposure. Yes.

Not just for the schools, but also for both of these conferences and also for HBCUs across the board. No question at all. In fact, I think the exposure for one HBCU is an exposure for all of us because we have mostly the same mission. We tell the same story. We serve the same types of students. We have the same historical perspective and we have the same struggle. So one HBCU is all HBCU. Now do we have rivalry? Yes of course we do. But it's a good rivalry. So when we tell a story of one, we tell a story of the others. And so I'm so proud that, you know, even this game is between two of our major institutions. But we also represent the others at large. So that's why this is a very important moment for us.

And one of the things that we've been seeing, we've been covering the story. Look, I feature a lot of HBCU professors on my show as well. In the wake of George Floyd's death, there's been a significant focus, resurgence of resources, not just corporate America, but also philanthropists, but also for graduates who now say, you know what, the value of the HBCU matters.

And that's a question that we've talked about for years. Some of you can question me. What's the value of HBCU? What's the impact of HBCU? But now, for some reason, because of the environment that we're in, you know, the equity issue, the disparity issue, the social justice issue, if that's what it takes to bring people to the table and understand our value, I'm not upset with it. We are getting the exposure nevertheless. But what I do say to people, what I do encourage people is that let this not be

a snapshot. Let it be sustained. That's right. If you appreciate us now, if you know where we've come, if you know our contribution to the society that we've proven, then let's sustain this relationship. That's right. So that sustainability is what we need to preach. And that's what you do for us. And that's what we all need to be talking about. I don't need to tell you that we are an important institution.

We have graduates in all walks of life who demonstrate on a daily basis. But how do we keep on being relevant? What are the resources that we need? So it's going to take a sustained relationship from all of these corporations, all of these foundations to make it happen for us. So we thank you for this moment, and we look forward to, you know, a sustained relationship with our institution for the foreseeable future. Well, I look forward to coming back when I was there. I did my show from there, so we'd love to come back.

If your schedule permits, I'd love for you to come to our homecoming. The campus that you saw, I think it was about a year, maybe a year ago. Yeah, before COVID. Before COVID. You will find a new campus now. Uh-oh. Okay. We've just completed our fifth capital project. We finished the Student Center Union.

We finished three major residential halls. We broke ground for our School of Business. And now we're beginning to break down for a 24-7 research center. Wow. So when you come to our campus, you see the expansion. And when is Homecoming?

Homecoming is November 6th, I believe. Okay, I'll take the schedule. We'd love for you to come. And we want to expose, we don't want to be, as people say, the best kept secret anymore. Right. We want to be a known secret. Well,'t want to be, as people say, the best kept secret anymore. We want to be a known secret.

We come down there, we try to help you be known. Thank you so much. And I do appreciate your friendship, your partnership with our HBCUs, your voice, and your advocacy for us, both at the national stage and the local stage. You're doing it every day.

Every time I see you on television, you're fighting the fight. You're making the case. And let me tell you, we appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Great to see you. Thank you. Good luck in the game.

We're back on HBCU Giving Day. We're going to do this every single day. We'll be right back. Port North Carolina Central, go to nccu.edu. I want to go to our panel for this final story here, y'all. And I had to smack Axios around. They have the website, Monique, Robert, and Scott. They literally dropped this story on August 21st. It says, HBCU identity crisis. And if you scroll this story, they lay out HBC use what they call the big picture. And then they quote a professor at Howard University where it says most black students choose HBC use because they feel a sense of kinship with the college's cultural and community. And then they quote him by saying that it's also why there's a sense that

non-black students are invaders. They then go on in this story to talk about the history of HBCUs, what's happening today, and then on how enrollment at HBCUs is increasing with non-black students. It says in 2018, non-black students were 24% of enrollment at HBCUs compared with 15 percent in 1976. Then they use this, which I think is just stupid. They go as HBCU sought out more non-black students, a handful such as West Virginia State University and Bluefield State College became predominantly white, leading to racial tensions. And so they quote a graduate of West Virginia State University, this guy, and talks about this tension. And then goes on to say, you know, blah, blah, blah, some other stuff. Okay, here's my problem with this article, how stupid it is. And I literally tweeted the two authors of this article, as well as Jim Vanderhey, who is the co-founder of Axios.

This article is stupid because they use as the example of HBCUs have an identity crisis to HBCUs located in the state of West Virginia. Monique, Robert, and Scott, the black population of West Virginia is 3.6%. Not 36%. Not 30.6%. 3.6%. Okay? They make no note in this article about the explosion of attendance at HBCUs over the last decade.

They make no mention that these two universities have been predominantly majority white over the last 20 plus years. OK, so to give this impression that there are all these this tension that's going on at HBCUs having a have an identity crisis is absolute bullshit. shit and i literally said how is that y'all didn't quote nobody from nafio no leslie baskerville nobody from third good marshall nobody from the uncf but y'all decide to quote a graduate of an hbcu which is called a historically black college university out of West Virginia where the black population is 3.6%. This is where I'm like, maybe your problem is Axios and Jim Vanderhyde. Y'all ain't got no black editors. Maybe your problem is you ain't got no black staffers who would have seen the story and say, ah,

ah, ah, ah. Identity crisis? Uh, no. This is them seeing the story and say hi identity crisis uh no this is absolutely idiotic monique and horrible journalism it is right i i i yield to scott for 300 robert i call on you this ain't congress well a couple points it was a couple points one one on the uh kind of circling back to the female drum major story they want to give a shout out to latoya the showstopper lee who was our drum major at clark lane university back in 2002 well when female drummakers were... We ain't talking about Clark Atlanta! Oh, look, I went to Clark Atlanta, I'm in Atlanta. The story was rambling! Can you stay focused?

Going to point B on this issue, I think that what we're seeing in the popular press, particularly right-wing press, is an effort to slander HBCUs as we've seen more and more funding going to them, more and more publicity. We saw what Chris Paul did in the bubble to promote HBCUs. We're seeing more SWAC and NEAC teams playing major universities.

We're seeing more money going towards HBCUs in general. Why would you say going to Howard? Well, you know, Clark Atlanta's there. So if they can't get into Clark, there's always Howard. That's why I yielded to Scott because Howard's getting the money and they're hating. That's all it is. Exactly. Let's continue.

Here's the deal, Roland. Here's the deal. Historical black colleges are doing better than ever financially. The last COVID relief act relieved all of their debt through UNCF and the federal guarantees, right? Private billionaires and multimillionaires are giving more to historical black colleges because of the racial equity plans out here, we are experiencing a boom. And as a double HBCU graduate, Morehouse and Howard, my only response to that article is, we good, right? But remember one thing. We have never excluded any person of any other color, which is why we're historical black colleges.

We've never excluded anybody. Morehouse, 10 years ago, had a white valedictorian. And so that article is rooted in ignorance. And as someone who sits on the board of Mar-a-Montar, a secretary, I know the facts and the statistics well. And so they could have interviewed me. They could have interviewed you. They could have interviewed Dr. David Thomas

or the president of Howard University, but they didn't. So they weren't looking for truth. They were looking for a story to back into it. I just have a problem. You writing a story saying, go back to it, HBCU's identity crisis and written by Shauna Chin and Marissa Fernandez. And I literally tagged both of them in my tweets to Jim Vanderhyde saying this is a bullshit story. And I got a problem with the story. But, Roland, the identity crisis in their minds is they view, which is why I keep saying

Howard Howard, but the same is true of Morehouse because they got my brother Robert Smith money. And just, you know, let me go back to Spellman and some Cosby money. Let me just talk about it and understand that when we don't struggle, they think we don't have an identity. Like us struggling to get an education is part of the identity. And it is not. You can't steal my culture from me as a Howard grad just because people who are of other hues come through, they've always been coming through. And they get an education, and they experience more blackity black blackness than they've ever experienced while they get their wonderful education. So just because people with

millions and billions are more and more supporting what the three of us on this panel have been blessed to experience doesn't mean that we don't have an identity. We have our same identity. We are just ratified. And hold up, they mentioned the donations. This is the lead of the article. Historically, black colleges and universities are seeing a new wave of substantial donations and interest from big name talent, but the attention is also highlighted questions of cultural identity. No, let me say this. No, no, no, no, no. Let me say this right here, Axios. You have decided to all of a sudden realize that

HBCUs exist. You have decided to all of a sudden realize that HBCUs exist. You have decided that. Not all of a sudden big name talent. Let's be real clear. Let's be real clear here. I want to be real clear, Axios. Nicole Hannah-Jones going to Howard, as well as, why is it escaping me? Ta-Nehisi.

Ta-Nehisi Coates. They ain't the first big name folk to go to HBCUs. See, all of a sudden, see, let me just go ahead and break this down. All of a sudden, white people and other non-black people are going, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Nicole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates, they're going to HBCU. Oh, my God. What's going on?

To teach. When there have been a number of big-name people. See, the problem is it's big name people that white people know. So the real issue is not HBCUs have an identity crisis.

The problem is Axios has a black identity crisis because you now have discovered HBCUs. So because because i'm not done so because mckenzie has taken her divorce money from jeff bezos and has given millions to hbcus y'all have discovered that hbcus exists and all of a sudden, you want to write a little cute story about, oh my goodness, identity crisis, because y'all looked up and went,

there are two HBCUs that are predominantly white. Let me help y'all out. There are actually three. There's Bluefield, there's West Virginia State University, and there's also Lincoln University in Missouri. Those three are predominantly white. Now, if y'all want to, you can go to Harris Stowe, it's also in St. Louis, to find an HBCU. If y'all also had any depth whatsoever, Axios, Shauna Chen, Marissa Fernandez, what y'all would have done, because see, I've done it, because I've actually covered this for years, you would have realized that West Virginia State University and Bluefield State College have gone to great pains in order to ensure their students don't forget their HBCU legacy. What you may have also realized is that

Bluefield State College created scholarships to attract black students in the area of theology to come to that Christian university because of that history. I'm sorry. How do I know that? It's probably because I've actually talked to the president of Bluefield State College, who has worked in partnership with my pastor, Ralph Douglas West, out of Houston, Texas, the church without walls. See, that's what happens when y'all talk to black people who have an understanding of HBCUs. So, message to all mainstream white media. If y'all gonna all of a sudden discover HBCUs, do the damn research

before you write ignorant ass headlines saying there's an identity crisis at HBCUs. No. Y'all are just clueless. And we'll leave it at that. If y'all want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered, y'all, of course, can do so by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. See, this is how we roll on this show. You don't get this on anywhere else because we speak truth to power and we can do that because I own it.

So go to our Bring the Funk Fan Club, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, Venmo, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R Martin Unfiltered, Zillow's, Roland at RolandMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. I want to thank Scott, Robert, and Monique. Tomorrow I unveil the next phase of Roland Martin Unfiltered. Tomorrow. You do not want to miss the show. We've been working on this since we were created three years ago on Saturday.

Robert's birthday is today. Our birthday is on Saturday. Robert's birthday is today. Our birthday is on Saturday. Y'all do not want to miss tomorrow's show. Trust me. Trust y'all to see Monique. She already dancing. I don't know what she doing, but she's dancing. But it is the next phase.

It's Roland Martin on the foot to 2.0. but she's dancing. But it is the next phase. It's Roland Martin on the foot of 2.0. I'm just letting y'all know. It's going to be fire. That's tomorrow. I'll see you then. Ho! We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops.

They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg 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 star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

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