#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Chauvin murder trial; Rep. Wasserman Schultz talks HR1; Outrage! Delta supported Ga. voter bill

Episode Date: March 30, 2021

3.29.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Derek Chauvin murder trial opening statements; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz talks HR1; Outrage! Internal memo shows Delta's support of the heinous Georgia voter suppression bill; New Jersey expands voting rights; Montgomery County cops cuff 5-year-old; Virginia Beach police shoot and kill an unarmed Black man; Black-owned media accuses GM CEO Mary Barra of racism.Support #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. 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 starts that a little bit, man.

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Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Monday, March 29, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin on the filter, day one of the Derek Chauvin murder trial. The man who was on trial for killing George Floyd. It began today in Minneapolis and the lawyers shortly clashed on day one. Nine years ago, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head runner of the DNC, appeared on my TV one show, Washington Watch. And she said that the Republicans were

instituting Jim Crow-like voting laws. Republicans lost their minds. She was right then, as people are now. She joins me on today's show to talk about H.R. 1 and what Democrats can do to stop Republicans and their efforts. Also, an internal communication by Delta shows their support of the bill that was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp. That is not sitting well with lots of African Americans. Delta would get behind this voter suppression bill, and New Jersey is expanding their voting rights. We'll tell you exactly how. The Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland has released body camera footage

that shows them handcuffing a five-year-old boy. Wait until we show you this video. Plus, Virginia Beach police shot and killed a black man over the weekend. Lot of back and forth that he was the gunman in a shooting, but it wasn't. Nine people were shot, three different shooters. He was not one of them. And also, Byron Allen,

these several other black media owners, including yours truly, taking out a full page ad in the Sunday Detroit Free Press, blasting General Motors for their lack of dollars flowing to black-owned media companies? We will explain. Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine.

And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling Martin.

Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martel. Yeah. Martel. Opening arguments and testimony began today in the trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, the man, of course, on trial for killing George Floyd. Prosecutors said during opening statements that Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's head and neck

for four minutes and 45 seconds as Floyd cried out for help, stayed on his deck as Floyd failed and had seizures for 53 seconds, and then remained on a non-responsive floor for another 3 minutes and 51 seconds. This is an update to the 8 minutes and 46 seconds initially quoted. The defense team focused on Floyd's alleged drug use and his resistance to the arresting officers. Here is what took place today. We plan to prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt

that Mr. Sharman was anything other than innocent on May 25th of 2020. And our second objective, ladies and gentlemen, is to bring you the evidence. And you will be able to hear Mr. Floyd saying, please, I can't breathe. Please, man, please. In this nine minutes and 29 seconds, you will see that as Mr. Floyd is handcuffed there on the ground, he is verbalizing 27 times, you will hear, in the four minutes and 45 seconds, I can't breathe, please, I can't breathe. You will see that Mr. Chauvin is kneeling on Mr. Floyd's neck and back.

He has one knee on his neck, and the knee on his back is intermittently off and on on his back as you will be able to see for yourself in the video footage. You will hear Mr. Floyd as he's crying out. You hear him at some point cry out for his mother when he's being squeezed there. It's very close to his mother, you will learn. You will hear him say, tell my kids I love them. You will hear him say about his fear of dying, he says, I'll probably die this way. I'm through, I'm through, they're going to kill me, they're going to kill me, man. You will hear him crying out and you will hear him cry out in pain. Mr. Chauvin asked the officers,

is he under arrest? Yes. And then Officer Chauvin began to assist them in their efforts to get him into the squad car. You will see that three Minneapolis police officers could not overcome the strength of Mr. Floyd. Mr. Chauvin stands 5'9", 140 pounds. Mr. Floyd is 6'3", weighs 223 pounds. As the struggle continues, you will see and hear both what Mr. Floyd was saying to the officers and the officers' responses to him. Mr. Floyd does end up on the street and appeared to continue to struggle to these officers, so much so that they considered applying what's called the maximal restraint technique. It used to be called the hobble or the hog tie. Mr. Chauvin used his knee to pin Mr. Floyd's left shoulder blade and back to the ground

and his right knee to pin Mr. Floyd's left arm to the ground. Officer King was placed below Mr. Floyd's buttocks, and Officer Lane was at the feet. And you will see and hear them continue to struggle with Mr. Floyd as he's attempting to kick. The evidence will show that Mr. Floyd died of a cardiac arrhythmia that occurred as a result of hypertension, his coronary disease, the ingestion of methamphetamine and fentanyl, and the adrenaline flowing through his body, all of which acted to further compromise an already compromised part. At the conclusion of this evidence, you will be instructed as to the law, the elements of the offense, and the court will give you detailed instructions on what you must find to convict Mr. Chauvin of these charges. But when you review the actual evidence and when you hear the law and apply reason and common sense, there will only be one just

word, and that is to find Mr. Chauvin not guilty. Joining me now is Bernardo Villalona, senior trial counsel for the Joey Jackson Law Firm in New York. Certainly glad to have you here on Roland Martin on the filter. First of all, your assessment of today's first day of this trial. Thank you for having me, Roland. So today is the day that we've been waiting for for so long. Since May 25th of 2020, we've been waiting for this trial to start. And we heard and got a preview of what this trial is going to entail by listening to the opening statements by the prosecution, as well as from the defense. The prosecution,

who did an opening about one hour long, did do a good job emphasizing that for eight minutes and 46 seconds, actually for nine minutes and 29 seconds, that Derek Chauvin was on the neck of George Floyd, emphasizing also that your eyes don't lie, that you can believe your eyes. And when you look into that, you can see the intent of Derek Chauvin in taking away the life, the breath

of George Floyd. From the defense perspective, actually the defense also did a good job. And the defense did a good job because they did a good job with the facts that they were dealt. They focused on reasonable doubt. They focused on reminding the jury that this case is not just about a video. And the way that they did it in saying that over 50 law enforcement people were working on this case, over 50,000 pages were involved, bait stamped in this case. And taking that into account goes to show you that even with all those pages and also all those people helping out, that it was more than a video. It wasn't a quick judgment that on that day he was culpable. So taking that all into account, I think that both sides actually did have a good day in terms of laying out the opening statement.

So now let's see where we're going to go with it. First of all, what do you make of the testimony of Donald Williams? I want to play some of that right now. Watch this. So when I first, like I said, when I first arrived on the scene, Mr. Floyd was vocalizing his, his sardiness and his pain and his distress that he was going through. The more that his knee was blocked on his neck and shimmies were going on, the more you're seeing Floyd fade away and slowly fade away and like the fish in the bag you've seen his eyes slowly you know pale out and again slowly roll to

the back of his eyes and he um so this is what i've seen this is what i heard and that's you know what it was like he was going through distress because of the knee and he vocalized it that i can't breathe i need to get up and i'm sorry and his eyes slowly rose to the back of his head he's seen the blood coming out his nose you heard him telling me tell him before he stopped speaking that my stomach hurts and those most of times the last vowel movement of your life so from there on he was lifeless he didn't move he didn't speak he didn't have no life in him no more on his body movements during that time period did you notice anything about his breathing that was significant to you so just like in mma you could tell when someone get tired you could tell when

someone's getting choked out or things like that, his breathing was getting tremendously heavy and tremendously harder for him to breathe. And you actually could hear him. You could see him struggling to actually gasp for air while he was trying to breathe. And he barely could move while he was trying to get air. As you were standing there, did others gather around? Correct. At the moment, I was the most vocalist person out there pleading for Floyd's life

because I felt like it was definitely in the wrong. There was at one point in time, a medic came on scene, and she spoke on checking pulse, what made me go even more harder because I heard it and then I registered it. Like, oh, you do need to check his pulse. Oh, he is not moving. Like, oh, you just killed this man, you know. And so her expertise was like, look, he's fading away.

You need to check. Folks, that was Donna Williams, of course, a professional mixed martial arts fighter who was heard on the video yelling at the cops there. Strong testimony there, Bernarda. Absolutely. Donna Williams gave one of the strongest testimony that I've seen in the 16 years that I was a prosecutor.

Donna Williams comes off as credible, likable. Credible and likable that you can trust him. You can trust him. You believe what he is saying. And with that, think about the most important word that we heard from there. Is that number one, he was like a fish out of a bag of water.

In addition to that, that Derek Chauvin was shimmying on the neck of George Floyd. Shimmying is going to be a word that's going to be used repeatedly during closing arguments. And I think that is one that the jury is going to be able to accept. So the next phase here, obviously, if you're the defense, jury's going to be able to accept. So, the next phase here, obviously, if you're the defense, they want to make this all about drug use, drug use, drug use.

They want the jury to believe that George Floyd died because of drugs in his system. That's what their whole plan is. Absolutely, Roland, because what happens is that in any homicide case, you have to prove manner and cause of death. Manner of death has to be homicide. And then the cause of death has to be as a result of the actions of the defendant.

If you do not prove manner of death being homicide, if you do not prove that Derek Chauvin was the one who actually caused the death of George Floyd, then you cannot find him guilty of any of the three charges. So that is the focus that Eric Nelson is going to have to take if he has any chance in trying to get Derek Chauvin acquitted. But in the end, like was emphasized by the prosecutor, George Floyd was on drugs for years and he was walking around and without any issue did he die during that time. It wasn't until May 25th when Derek Chauvin put his knee on the neck of George Floyd for nine minutes and 29 seconds is that he actually died. Bernard Villanueva, we certainly appreciate it. Senior

trial counsel for the Joey Jackson Law Firm. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me, Roland. All right, folks, I want to bring in my panel here right now. Teresa Lundy, principal founder, TML Communications, Andrew Lee, Political Strategist. That's Julian Malveaux, economist, president, Emerita Bennett College. Theresa, I want to start with you. Look, this trial is being televised.

Folks are paying attention to it every single day. Significant pressure on prosecutors and the DA here to get a conviction in this particular case here. And so riveting witness testimony on day one. Teresa, you do this every week. You got to turn your mic on every week. I like to be on the test. So, yeah, I think it was especially important to really understand that the testimony that is given, the

time frame of the expectations of what some of this testimony was found as. It is important to note that the witnesses are going to be very crucial to this case. prosecution is for their own and proving that Derek had real

responsibility in the matter. But I think, you know, when it comes to looking at the witnesses and looking at the defense providing as much evidence as they can possibly get outside of what the other outside, I guess, noise would be in terms of the press

and some of the protests that are happening. I think the facts of the case will actually show what it will be and, you know, hopefully a connection. Dawn. Julianne? You know, I'm had some of the opening arguments today, and I did think the prosecution was very effective in terms of what they were talking about. I think that the defense did a decent job, but they want to focus on the drugs.

And the fact is that this brother used drugs, and he never fell out on the street before from using drugs. So there is a responsibility that Derek Chabian has. But this trial is going to be going on for, they say, two to four weeks. There are lots of other witnesses to hear from. This was a reasonable beginning, but there's so much more to hear. I was really frustrated by the defense when they started talking about the size. If Derek, Derek, Derek Chabon was too little to be a police officer, he should have been on the police force. He kept emphasizing he was only five, whatever, and weighed 140 some pounds. He didn't look like 140 pounds to me. But again, this is

always the case of trying to make a black man look like some kind of big brute compared to, you know, this very innocent, slight white man. Well, the slight white man had his knee on his neck. There's no way you can argue your way out of that. So as I said, I was not surprised, but I was disappointed with the defense. They're doing their job. They're supposed to defend their client, but their client is a murderer. Andrew. I think it was a very strong day for the prosecution. I mean, it's hard to argue with a lot of the video evidence that we've seen already. As you mentioned, this case is going to be going on for a long time. I thought some of the arguments about

his size or the lack of size for Derek Chauvin didn't really make a lot of sense given the evidence. And I thought the witnesses, as your previous guests alluded to, were very compelling, especially the fish analogy. And I think that this trial means that America is on trial if Derek Chauvin is able to get away with this. Folks, so this is going to be certainly, look, we're streaming it live every single day. People can actually watch it to see what's going on here. But the bottom line is this here.

We saw this video. They're going to have to explain why did he have his knee on his neck for that prolonged period of time. It's going to be real hard to try to get around that but the hope but the point here Teresa all the defense needs is one drawer all they need they are simply aiming for one that is a mistrial that's what they're aiming for right and I think what they're doing is really trying to come at the character of who um of who George was and essentially when you start bringing in the character of who George was. And essentially, when you start bringing in the characteristic of his size and you start bringing in, you know, that he used to use drugs,

they're really trying to frame that this is the type of person, you know, you want on the streets or this is the type of person, essentially without saying it, that you want living. And essentially, that's what they're saying for everybody who is stuck in prisons right now with that type of characteristic traits. And I think it's a false narrative when we really just need to talk about the facts. And so if they do talk about the facts, and I believe, and I think everybody's praying here that the verdict will be in the decision as it should be going with the facts. And of course, justice actually can be served. Andrew, again, the goal is to get a mistrial or not guilty. Look, we know Jor's typically silent police officers. That's what we're probably going to be.

The prosecution is going to still have a tough job to convict Derek Chauvin. They are. But he has so many prior incidents of using this type of neck restraint that I really think it's going to be a lot harder this time. But you're right. All it takes is one to sow that doubt. But I mean, it's just so difficult to argue with the evidence like our eyes are not deceived as we all saw what we saw. Julianne? This is disturbing at the way that the defense is going at this, but I think that the prosecution is going to have several other strong witnesses. Remember, there were a lot of people out there. The brother who testified today, he was trying to help. The paramedic who came,

the medic who came to take his pulse. There are a lot of compelling witnesses to say even if George Floyd was everything negative they have to say about him, he still did not have to die. When you look at the picture dealing with size, George Floyd didn't have a gun. He had no way to defend himself. He had a knee on his neck. He was begging for his mother. And I think that when you get some of the other witnesses who were there and there were several people there to say he was calling for his mother. He said he couldn't breathe. You know, he said his stomach hurt. That's compelling. Absolutely. All right, folks, we're going to be covering this every single day and we'll certainly give you the latest. All right. Now, let's talk about what is happening in Georgia. We'll first start off with Delta Airlines, folks.

They released Delta CEO Ed Baskin issued an internal communication statement praising the Georgia voter suppression bill SB202. The statement reads, Delta believes that full and equal access to voting is a fundamental right for all citizens. Over the past several weeks, Delta engaged extensively with state elected officials in both parties to express our strong view that Georgia must have a fair and secure election process with broad voter participation and equal access to the polls. The legislation signed this week improved considerably during the legislative process and expands weekend voting, codifies Sunday voting, and protects a voter's ability to cast an absentee ballot without providing a reason.

For the first time, drop boxes have also been authorized for all counties statewide and poll workers will be allowed to work across county lines. Nonetheless, we understand concerns remain over other provisions in the legislation and there continues to be work ahead in this important effort. We're committed to continuing to listen to our people and our communities and engage with leaders from both parties to ensure every eligible employee and Georgia voter can exercise their right to vote. Teresa, as a PR professional, how do you read that particular statement? Knowing full well that folks are like, we're still not happy with the end result of this bill? I think it was a lot of fluff in the midst of it. I don't think they really got to the point of it.

I think there was a lot of communications that it's like they're testing the waters, per se, and some internal communications really just do that. They put things out there and see what people will respond to. But I don't think there was actually any actuality of what they plan on doing. And I think that was what was missing, really, in that statement. Julianne, again, seeing that particular statement there. So it reads like, hey, we're Delta. We made some phone calls. We got the bill to be a little bit better.

So now let's take a victory lap. Looks like on the one hand, on the other hand, on the one hand, on the other hand, they didn't come out conclusively against the legislation because as they say, they had their hand in the Kool-Aid. The problem is that the legislation that remains, OK, so maybe they added a little Sunday voting and maybe they did a couple other things, the drop boxes, which the legislature had proposed

eliminating. But what they did was tinkered at the edges of a mean spirited Jim Crow bill. So they tinkered at the edges. It's just like President Biden. He says it's Jim Crow legislation, but he would condemn the filibuster. You can't have half of a Jim Crow. Half a crow is not a sandwich. And so with Delta Airlines shilly-shallying on one hand, on the other hand, what they really saying is you stand for nothing, you fall for anything. Andrew. I mean, it's an indefensible position. I mean, when you are making sure that voters in line, when they're being penalized for water, when you're restricting voting access, when you're cutting down on the number of days, when you're making it harder to cast a ballot, I don't understand how that's a defensible position, even for a company like

Delta. So I think what we're seeing in Georgia is a lot of activists are standing up and saying, we don't want the PGA Tour. We don't want certain movies being made here in Georgia. And I think what we're seeing in Georgia is a lot of activists are standing up and saying, we don't want the PGA Tour, we don't want certain movies being made here in Georgia. And I think that public pressure is going to continue to build as this gets resolved. You know, the thing here is these companies are going to have to deal with the reality of voters. And they are going to continue to face the pressure. There are people out there right now who are calling for economic boycotts of Georgia. Here's why I do not agree with those folks today. I believe that before individuals who are outside of Georgia start calling for economic boycotts, you might want

to listen to people who are in Georgia. There are people who are on the ground who have been fighting these bills. Stacey Abrams, Fair Fight, New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter, and many others. We should be taking our cues from them, listening to them, letting them lay out the strategy. Because part of the issue here, Julian, is that if you have a boycott that is not properly planned, where you have not trained people, educated people, walk them through what the fundamental issues are, then what it does is fail. I think back to the so-called boycott of the NFL with Colin Kaepernick. It wasn't organized. It was ad hoc. It was folks throwing out there. And so you had no real measurement because you had no real group that was behind it.

That was organizing people to have maximum impact. And so in this day and age, a lot of people, they always throw out boycott, boycott. If you don't plan, if you don't walk people through, all you're going to have are people sitting here commenting on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. And you're not going to have a substantive impact. There have been successful economic boycotts in this country. They have not been successful if they were not planned. Well, the most successful economic boycott that we've seen, of course, is the Montgomery bus boycott, where you saw the people for a year walk to work, refuse to take the bus. Both Sydney City, an economic message that we're not putting

up with this anymore. Bus company lost money. And as they lost money, they were forced to the table to negotiate. Now, the negotiation was not perfect. There were lots of problems with it. But we know that that was effective. To just sort of willy-nilly say, okay, we're going to boycott, as you say, it's like the Kaepernick thing.

It doesn't necessarily have an impact. I'm willing to wait to hear from Stacey Abrams. I think it's really important she has established herself as a leader in this movement against voter suppression. I think we should also, I'm not going to be flying Delta, but that, y'all do what you do. But we have to remember that there are 15 companies or 16 Fortune 500 companies in the state of Georgia, mostly headquarters out of Atlanta. You've got UPS. You've got Southern. You've got the Pulte Group. You've got, let's see here, of course, Coca-Cola, Home Depot. So literally those 16 companies represent about $438 billion worth of revenue. Do we boycott all of them or some of them? And then let's not forget, Roland, when we look at the issue of economic boycotts, that because of mergers and acquisitions, there's so much interlocutory stuff going on.

Coca-Cola owns like 400 brands, from Fanta orange juice to the Sunny Water. And I could go down the list and talk about some of the others. Some would say that Coca-Cola has been a good corporate citizen based on what they've done around diversity and the fact that the Honorable Secretary Alexis Herman was at least one of their boards. Do we punish them because they've been kind of a good corporate citizen Or do we say, well, you've got to draw a line in the sand? So I think that it's something that requires a lot more thought. And, you know, Twitter is not a boycott. You cannot organize around hashtags. And people need to understand that. I mean, you cannot organize and create a movement around hashtags. You could raise awareness around it. And, you know, Black Lives Matter in L.A. actually shut down a freeway around it, which was really great. But at the same

time, this is something that's got to be extremely strategic. This is one of 43 states that is attacking our right to vote, one of 43. So we need to be very careful as we move through to make sure that those people who are fighting voter suppression do it in a way that's logical, that's sensible and that's fair. And that, Andrew, I think is the point. I've talked a lot on this show about Martin Depp's book, Operation Breadbasket,-1971. It was a program that was instituted by Reverend Leon Sullivan in Philadelphia where they had a clearly defined plan to get companies to not only hire African Americans, but to also put money in black banks, to hire black businesses. It was a multi-pronged strategy. Boycott was the last piece of it. There were steps they actually went through. And again, I think what people need to understand is it's very easy to just put something out there.

Very easy to post it. Oh, boycott. But no, there has to be a strategy involved. There has to be a plan of action involved. Otherwise, again, you're going to have something unsuccessful. And here's the downside. If it fails, the company goes, oh, we're good. But if you properly plan it and execute it, and as Dr. King said on April 3rd, 1968, you redistribute the pain, then that begins to

change the dialogue. And trust me, they don't want to feel the pain. You're absolutely right, Roland. I mean, it's hard to believe that only two months ago, Senator Warnock and Senator John Ossoff were just recently elected to Georgia. That seems like almost a whole another year ago that that happened, but it was only two months ago. And I think the bigger question that we're beginning to grapple with is really how many state houses, how many state legislatures, how many city councils are still in Republican hands and where you're going to continue to see efforts like this to restrict the right to vote and make it harder to vote, whether that's removing drop boxes, whether it's cutting early voting

and all sorts of other efforts that really are, as Dr. Malbeau said earlier, kind of a relic of the Jim Crow past. And we kind of thought we would pass that in some places, but we're not. It's still here. We're still having the same conversation 40, 50 years later. First of all, Teresa, the reason why it makes no sense for the statement that Delta made is when you start talking about this particular bill, oh, you're not going to have drop boxes. Well, the problem with the drop boxes is they're only open nine to five and they're going to be inside of the facility. So just to have a drop box, that wasn't the point. The point was to have

a drop box that you could access before you go to work or after you get off of work. That was the whole point. That's why it's silly to see that internal communication being sent out by Delta. Yeah. And you almost want to think, and hopefully it's not, but it was intentional. Right. Because I'm sure it didn't take, you know, scholarly hours throughout the day when they were putting this strategy together. Oh, let's just put drop boxes in. But let's think about the times of operations. Right. So it could have been one person that could have had that bright idea that could have saved this memo from going out that was pretty much a disgrace to the brand. And everybody's right, you know, in terms of their commentary about making a plan and understanding that the efforts that are made in the beginning will ultimately turn a new ending, right? So what does that mean? That means that if the plan is structured in the beginning, using the footprint

that, you know, some of our late leaders has put together and using some of the thought leaders that we have in Georgia, that we've elected in Georgia, that it will ultimately bring about a new beginning and a new revelation on what it looks like to be free, in a sense, than actually, you know, just doing a standoff. So if there were better strategies and better leadership that could have asked the questions like you did, Roland, I think we probably would have been at a different communication, internal communication that they sent out versus, you know what, you know, we're just going to throw something at the problem and see if it works and maybe it doesn't catch anybody's attention. Well, I think it look, I think what these companies are doing is, I mean,

look, they are very much aligned, Julian, with these Republican legislators. I mean, the Republicans control the House, the Senate and the governor's mansion. And so they so the companies are sitting here. They've got other economic interests that they want to see passed and handle. And the last thing they want to do is really go hard against them. This is why the external pressure is important. Putting that external pressure on them. Then what you're doing is you're flexing those muscles. At the end of the day, what you're saying to every single one of these companies is, which do y'all prefer?

That is to kiss up to the legislators, or do you prefer us dumping your products or not buying or not shopping or not using your outlet? I'm sure if you're Home Depot, you don't want to see picket lines erected all across the country in front of Home Depots. I'm sure you don't want to do that. But again, what I am cautioning people is stop just tossing out boycott, boycott, boycott. You have to plan it. You have to have a clearly defined strategy. You have to be able to say, fine, are we going to target one particular store? Are we going to target five stores?

Are we going to hit them every day? Are we going to hit them every Saturday? What's their busiest day? See, you've got to go through all those things. Otherwise, you're just out here just willy-nilly, and you're not going to win. And the whole goal is to win. The goal is to win. And, you know, Barbara Arnwine and her team at the Transformative Justice Coalition

are planning on May 8th 100 actions around H.R. 4, the John Lewis bill, and really talking about voter access. It would be brilliant if somehow that could be coupled with some form of action around economic issues. Because let's look at what's at stake here. We're talking about the vote at the top, but we're really talking about should there be a minimum wage? Now, you know, Georgia is not one of those states that is in favor of a minimum wage. So some of these corporations that give out these shilly-shally press releases or internal communications, as they call it, Teresa,

you can correct me. I don't do PR. I do it very poorly. But in any case, what we know is this is an attempt to maintain the status quo. And the status quo is no Medicare for all, no minimum wage increase. These are the things that are behind this whole notion of voter suppression. If everybody votes, I mean, even white Republicans now are saying that they are desperate for a wage increase, a minimum wage increase. A plurality of white Republicans approve of Joe Biden's economic actions around the Rescue America Act. So they're trying to maintain theirs. And the only way they can do it is to keep us away from the polls. They don't want our souls at the polls. They don't want us anywhere near the polls. And so if we just look at the vote, it's important to look at the vote, but let's look at what's

behind. It's not just voting for the sake of voting. It's voting for the sake of social and economic justice. And that's what they want to avoid. Andrew. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that when you look at President Biden's agenda, back to the point earlier, you know, it would have happened without the 10 or 15, without the 50,000 to 100,000 African-American voters in the state of Georgia that delivered those seats, those Senate seats. And I think it's just fascinating now learning a lot of the lessons from President Obama's time in terms of how President Biden isn't negotiating as much with Republicans or isn't waiting as much with Republicans or isn't waiting as much

with Republicans to move his agenda forward. And I'm really interested to see exactly what's going to become of the filibuster, because we do know that redistricting is happening. We do know there are a lot of very vulnerable House Democratic members. So there is a chance that the House could become Republican in the next cycle and all the ramifications that are going to come as a result of that. So I think he's right to hit the gas right now and to move his agenda forward. He has a very small window to do so. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. We'll talk with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. Nine years ago, nine years ago, she clearly stated that what Republicans were doing is passing Jim Crow laws.

They lost their minds and trashed her. Well, guess what? She's back to say, I told you so. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Georgia lawmakers have unleashed an all-out attack on voting rights this year, including through the introduction of more than 80 anti-voting bills since the legislative session began in January. Two of the worst voter suppression bills in the nation right now are SB202 and HB531, and they are rapidly moving through a flawed and non-transparent process in

the Georgia General Assembly. It should come as no surprise that these bills are a reaction to increased participation by black voters. That context is critical to understanding the purpose and impact of these voter suppression bills. Georgia lawmakers want to restrict voting access by significantly restricting the use and availability of secure drop boxes, by restricting the ability for voters to cast provisional ballots, and by adding new ID requirements for absentee voting. They're also seeking to allow for unlimited voter challenges, which is particularly troublesome given that just this past January 2020 runoff, tens of thousands of Georgia voters were subjected

to baseless, untimely, and potentially discriminatory voter challenges. Georgia lawmakers want to criminalize people for giving out free food and water to voters who are standing in extremely long lines and last anywhere from two to five to even ten hours. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is in partnership with a coalition of on-the-ground partners including Black Voters Matter, All Voting is Local, and All voting is local and fair fight to push back on SB202 and HB531. If you live in Georgia, please call the Georgia General Assembly line and ask to be connected to your representative. Tell them to vote against SB202 and against HB 531. If you live outside of Georgia, you can still help by contacting your U.S. senators and asking them to support H.R. 1, the For the People Act. Please call your elected officials

today and join us in the fight to protect voting rights. Senators, this cannot be our future. Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard. This cannot be the future of America. That's all we got! The false right's gone! American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. Where the fuck are they? Everybody stay down. I'm going to fuck this man's son up.

People died that day. What message will we send the rest of the world? What happened today in Washington, D.C. is not America. America has stood for some very important things. I think what we're saying in the United States is terribly distressing. Incited by the current president. President Trump. The world is watching and wondering whether we are who we say we are. You are patriots, just like the patriots gathered at Bunker Hill. The election in many ways was stolen.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. At one point, people started chanting, kill him with his own gun. They thought they were going to die. Watching someone use an American flagpole to spear and pummel one of our police officers ruthlessly, mercilessly. We didn't need more witnesses. We need more senators with spines. President Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate.

So if he gets back into office and it happens again, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. Hi, I'm Gavin Houston. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. We've been talking about, of course, what is taking place in Georgia. Republicans are really upset. I mean, like really, really, really upset because Democrats have been calling this these Jim Crow laws. In fact, yesterday, Lindsey Graham, very upset, senator from South Carolina,

was on Fox News, and Lindsey was really mad. Joe Biden's playing the race card. Oh, he's, I mean, just really upset. And then, try and talk about exactly what this bill is. Listen to Lindsey, y'all, yesterday.

I want y'all to listen to what he says. Watch this. What's sick is H.R.1, federalizing state elections. In our Constitution, states are supposed to run elections. H.R.1 is the biggest power grab in the history of the country. It institutionalizes ballot harvesting. It does away with the voter ID requirement. It will take over every election in every state. It makes the federal election commission a partisan commission. It will no longer be bipartisan. So that's the power grab we're standing up to. To my friends in Georgia, they had the highest turnout in the history of Georgia. We had 150-something million people vote. So every time a Republican does anything, we're a racist. If you're a white conservative,

you're a racist. If you're a black Republican, you're either a prop or Uncle Tom. They use the racism card to advance a liberal agenda, and we're tired of it. HR1 is sick, not what they're doing in Georgia. OK, so little Lindsay, he says that Georgia had the highest turnout. So why are you screwing with the laws? See, y'all notice this. I told y'all in 2008, massive turnout for President Barack Obama. He went North Carolina by 14,100 votes. Highest North Carolina had ever. Republicans, what do they do?

They go, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, we can't have that. We've got to change the law. That's literally what Lindsey Graham is there saying. Let's actually change the law because I know y what Lindsey Graham is there saying. Let's actually change the law because I know y'all had all that turnout, but let's actually affect it. Well, you don't start changing stuff just because the law was changed. But I want to play something for you folks. So it was nine years ago on my show, Washington Watch was on TV one when I had Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the time chair of the Democratic National Committee.

We're talking about this same issue. And Republicans were angry because of what she had to say. Listen. Things along those lines. We talk about this is the fundamental right to be Americans. But to put roadblocks up for voting makes no sense to me. Well, I mean, if you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and and saw that our voting process needed refinement and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks. Now you have the Republicans who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally and very transparently block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote for Democratic

candidates than Republican candidates. And it's nothing short of that blatant. Oh, Republicans lost it. They trashed her. How dare you? You're playing the race card. Nine years later, same thing. Joining us now is Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. Glad to have you. First time on Rolling Martin Unfiltered, but certainly not a new guest for any of my shows. Boy, they ripped you to shreds nine years ago. You know, I said it nine years ago, I'll say it again. They were trying to drag voting requirements all the way back to Jim Crow back then to put as many obstacles in the path of the types of voters they didn't want showing up at the polls. And they've continued to do that throughout the last nine years.

You know, the only problem is, is that so many African-American voters, you know, got online, Roland, and said, you see this line? I'm going to stand on this line until I cross the threshold of that polling place and cast my vote. And that's exactly what happened, except that this time, because they knew that they weren't able to stop and shape the electorate the way they wanted it to look, now they're doing things like trying to prevent people from having water and food. They're stripping the power of local elections officials so they can inject partisanship and total control by one-party rule in Georgia over their elections. Donald Trump said it best, Roland.

I think we, did we lose her? Did she freeze? All right. Looks like we lost the signal for a second there. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she left off by saying Donald Trump say the best. We'll try to get her right back. So y'all let me know when we have her back. But but but y'all notice this. Y'all notice Lindsey Graham. You notice the little whiny and complaining and and Lindsey sitting here. Oh, my goodness. They they say we're erased. This is real simple, Lindsay. If Georgia had its highest turnout, why are you messing with the law?

I think we got it back. You said Donald Trump, and you cut out right there. So Donald Trump openly admitted exactly what they thought and why they're doing what they're doing to throw obstacles in the path of the types of voters they don't want to show up, it's because Republicans don't win. If all the voters who want to cast a vote show up, if minority voters show up, Republicans don't win.

If senior citizens, if people who are infrequent voters, if working class folks show up to vote, Republicans don't win. So now all over the country, it's no wonder that in more than 25 states, you have Republicans trying to make it harder, not easier for voters to cast their ballot because with a record turnout, they lost the White House, they lost elections all over the country, and they don't want it to happen again. Here's what's interesting. One of the users in our YouTube channel just posted, what does shortening the hours have to do with voter fraud? And that's the point. They're shortening the hours. They're saying, oh, the drop boxes, as opposed to them being available anytime, they will be inside, which means that you can only drop off your ballot between 9 and 5.

So if you're headed to work, no, you can't do it. After work, you can't do it. And we had the state representative Shannon on last week. If you, if your mother or your father or your uncle, my parents are 74, if they voted elderly, excuse me, they voted absentee and said, hey, son, drop it off, I literally cannot pick up their envelope as their son and drop it in the box because that's now against the law. I couldn't drop off my college kid's ballot, which I did in the last election. And I'm their mother. I mean, and their permanent address is here.

What they're doing is so incredibly transparent. I mean, we had it particularly in Georgia. Even the governor said they had a near perfect election. And so what they did in changing the law had nothing to do with the fact that they were trying to fix the problems that they supposedly had, because they acknowledged they didn't have any. What they're trying to do is shape the electorate to look like the kind of electorate that wins elections for Republicans, not making sure we have free and fair elections and maximizing voter turnout. And that is what H.R. 1 would do. That is why the Senate needs to take up H.R. 1 and send it to Joe Biden's desk so he can sign it into law, because we need to make sure, just like we had the Vote America Act in 2000, which set some standards across the country for access to the polls, we have to make sure that nefarious partisan actors like the Republicans in Georgia cannot throw obstacles in the path of the voters they don't want to show up and win elections unfairly.

They have to win the election on the merits. What's also crazy here is that they literally have codified it. They can take over the local board. So here you have voters in these counties who have elected who they choose to represent them. Republicans are always talking about, oh, we hate big government. We want local control. Well, if you want local control, how are you, the state, now telling counties, oh, not only can we remove the whole board, we can replace it with whoever we want. And I'm sorry, everything Donald Trump wanted to do in 2020, they now can try to do. they can literally overturn the will of the people

because they're saying, no, you do not get to certify the election. We get to determine who won or not. And to be clear, had that been the law in the 2020 election, then Donald Trump would have been successful in being able to get those votes tossed out, get those results tossed out, and have the result he wanted imposed. I mean, this is not Venezuela. This is not Russia. This is the United States of America.

And we need to make sure that all over the country, everyone has an equal and fair and the same opportunity to cast a ballot. And we need to make voting easier, not harder. We are the beacon of democracy, small d democracy to the world. But we're certainly not showing that. We're showing what is, in my faith's vernacular, we're showing our tuchus in what's going on here with Republicans knowing that they can't win elections unless they rig the electorate. And that's they talk a lot about rigging elections. The Republicans are trying to rig the electorate to look like who they want to show up so that they have the best electorate that is there to cast ballots for their candidates. I'm sure there's I'm sure there's somebody who's watching. They're saying, okay, Roland, she's a congresswoman from Florida.

Who cares? But what they don't understand is. They're doing it in Florida. That's what I'm saying. Florida Republicans are watching Georgia. Texas Republicans are watching Georgia. Iowa, Republicans in Iowa have already put forth their voter suppression bill. They're doing it in Michigan.

This is literally the policy of the Republican Party nationally. Roland, the legislature is in session in Florida right now, and they have a similar voter suppression bill that has been filed and is moving through the legislative process right now. This is happening all over the country. States that are controlled by Republicans know that they can't win elections on the merits or on the issues so that they have to try to put obstacles in the path of the overwhelming majority of voters who would go to the polls and make their own choice freely.

That's why we have to pass H.R. 1. It's already passed the House of Representatives. We have to get dark money out of politics. We have to make sure that people have an opportunity, as much of an opportunity, to register to vote, make it easier, not harder, to register to vote. We need to make sure that it's easier, not harder to cast a ballot. We need to make sure, yes, we have secure elections. Yes, that people who are casting ballots by mail, that you make sure it is who the voter says they are. But the obstacles that these Republicans around the

country are trying to throw in the path of mail-in ballot voters, especially states where they have been doing mail-in voting for years successfully, like we have in Florida. The only purpose they have is to try to make it harder for Democrats and people most likely to go to the polls and vote for someone other than a Republican to be able to cast a ballot.

But how, how, how do we get Siena in Arizona and Manchin in West Virginia to understand this? Senator Joe Manchin keeps doing all these interviews talking about, well, as Democrats, you know, we need to compromise and work with Republicans. I'm sorry. There is that. I have not seen a single Republican, not one who believes that we should move on H.R. 1. They're saying we don't have to do anything. So I don't know what world Joe Manchin is living in. And so how are you as a member of Congress get him to understand that he's in la la land, that what he's describing literally doesn't exist. See, I mean,

I'm for changing the filibuster. At the very least, we need to change to a talking filibuster. It should be difficult to hold up legislation that has a majority of the United States senators

willing to support it. And you can do that by making it painful. A senator should have to stand up and debate and defend their position for all the hours that they can muster physically. And when they can't do it anymore, then it's time to vote. But listen to Joe Biden. Joe Biden has said already, he's not engaging in my way or the highway politics. He's willing to compromise. We're willing to compromise on what's in H.R. 1. That's what the legislative process is about. You come together and you sit down and you find a way to pass what you can put together a majority for. I'm confident that if Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema see that there is compromise that's

possible, let's take the best parts of H.R. 1 that can ensure that more people, not fewer people, can cast their ballot. And then if the Republicans are still standing in the way, I hope my two friends on the Democratic side of the aisle in the United States Senate are the reasonable people I know them to be and understand that the filibuster reform is essential. Well, I hope so, because I don't see 10 votes. At the end of the day, the only way you keep the filibuster is if you could pick up 10 votes on the other side. I don't see one.

I just don't. I don't either, because they want to win elections, and they know they can't win them fair and square, so they have to try to rig the outcome by shaping the electorate to look like an electorate that will show up and vote for their candidates instead of an electorate that shows up and votes for candidates who support the issues that the majority of the American people want to see implemented, which is why Democrats won the election in November and why we should be able to implement the policies that Joe Biden and our Democratic majorities in the House and Senate ran on. And we need to make sure that

there aren't artificial obstacles like the filibuster in the way to prevent us from doing that. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, I appreciate it. Always glad to have you here. I look forward to coming back next time. Thanks. Me too. Thank you very much. Folks, while some states across the nation are succumbing to Republican legislation restricting voting rights, New Jersey decided to make things easier for people to vote. Tomorrow, New Jersey's Democratic Governor Phil Murphy is expected to sign two bills that will authorize 10 days of early in-person voting and expand polling locations throughout the state. The governor will be joined by Stacey Abrams via video conference as he signs those particular bills. Come back to my panel here, Teresa. Look, at the end of the day, I don't care what Joe Manchin or Sinema thinks.

You've got to pass H.R. 1. This is very simple. If Sinema and Manchin do nothing about the filibuster, they will be in the minority in 2023. Democrats are not. Let me be real clear. Right now, it's 50-50. Democrats are not, let me be real clear, right now it's 50-50. Democrats are not going, Republicans in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, you have the Warnock seat that's on the ballot in Georgia.

You have the Ron Johnson seat in Wisconsin. That's four seats. Bottom line is this here. Democrats, you take two of those. You now have 51-49. It's no longer a tie. But the reality is this here. You allow these voter suppression bills to go forward,

they are going to lose all of those and Republicans will be in charge and Mitch McConnell will be back running the show and that means no bill Democrats desire will get passed. He will shut it all down like he did when Democrats control the House. And then they passed 300 bills and he did not move on any of them.

Yeah, so it looked like it would behoove them to really do what they said they're going to do and actually ensure that voting rights are more so expanded and make sure that rights are protected and that civil liberties are not lost. So I think it would absolutely make sense for them to make effective decisions unless they plan on not being there in the next two years to come. So if some of the decisions now is because they plan on retiring in the next couple of months or the year, then yes, it makes sense on why they're making these choices now. But I mean, the long game is showing that it is time for them to pretty much own in on this is where it's going. Democrats are going to take it unless the filibuster comes. So. Andrew, again, I don't

know what world Manchin is living in, where he keeps talking about bipartisanship, compromise, compromise, compromise. Republicans, they have no desire to compromise on voting. They're saying no new laws needed. What the hell are we going going to compromise for so I don't know what world he's living in yeah to compromise you need to have a willing partner on the other side and I think you know we're seeing over 250 bills filed throughout the country that are assaulting voting rights everything from acquiring signatures on the back of a mail-in ballot to new efforts to make sure that the awarding of electoral votes, changing that in some states to be congressional instead of like winner takes all, which in some cases would benefit Republican states that typically vote for the president, but in

major cities where they tend to be Democratic strongholds. So I don't know what Senator Manchin's thinking or Sinema. I mean, I think in some ways he's trying to just maintain his power influence. But the assault that we're seeing in to be making these decisions on voting, overruling counties, overruling county boards of elections, you know, would we see a situation where Republican elected officials are not going to level with their voters and say, hey, we lost fair and square? You know, would we have a situation, could we have a situation going down further down the line where if you have a Republican board of elections, they're just going to overturn the results. Julian, again, I mean, we could sit here and dance around this all we want to. We can entertain all of this still in his old this, that and the

other. It's just real simple. If the Georgia Republicans are successful, this is going to Florida and Texas and North Carolina and Michigan and Wisconsin. I'm just going to go all over. The Supreme Court, they're not going to do anything. They invalidated, Chief Justice John Roberts invalidated Section 4. There's no preclearance. The DOJ cannot step in. The only thing that could happen here is if Congress passes a bill and that must pass the Senate, which means they must get rid of the filibuster? There's no question about it. I mean, Iowa, we could just, 43 states have this legislation

that essentially puts power solely in Republican hands. The difference between Democrats and Republicans, unfortunately, is that Republicans see the long view all too often, and Democrats react almost emotionally and see the long view all too often. And Democrats react almost emotionally and see the short view. And what we're seeing, I mean, you could go back to the election of Ronald Reagan, where he talked about deregulation. We're basically living that now. It took him a long time to get it in there. Newt Gingrich was the manifestation of Ronald Reagan. And who will be the manifestation of Mitch McConnell?

It depends on what we do right this minute, right now. But Andrew said, and people, I speak to Republicans sometimes. It doesn't kill me. So occasionally I do it. But all they want to do is win. They don't care about fairness. They care about winning. Even some Black Republicans

who have sense or a little bit or purport to will say things like, well, it doesn't matter if we win. And so that's where we are. We're with people who believe in a scorched earth, winner take all, or not winner, loser take all. That's what it is. Loser take all philosophy. And you're right. We can commiserate. We can spin. But what we really have to do is get to work. If in Georgia, you can't give somebody a bottle of water because they're standing in line, hand them the water before they get in line. Put in a little bag with some flowers on it, a couple of chips, and hand it to them that way. I mean, we can think around this. We've had to think around things before. But at the end of the day, all the thinking we do

cannot combat gerrymandering when we have a hostile Supreme Court, cannot combat essentially these crazy laws about you can use a Dropbox, but only in the daytime. What about the disproportionate number of African-Americans who work multiple jobs?

And we'll probably slide by the Dropbox between jobs. That's not going to happen. So we have to basically take back the power in terms of pressuring some of the Republicans who have sense that maybe one or two, maybe, what's his name? You know who I'm thinking about, the Mormon. Mitt Romney. Yeah, but here's the deal though but see fine listen you can get romney you can get murkowski let's just assume you get romney murkowski collins that's three you're seven short i mean i'm saying i, I'm just like, look, this is called math. All right. I wrote, wrote one good algebra geometry. Roke account money.

I can count votes. I know this. If I need to get to 60 and all I got is three, I'm at 53. Well, I think we need to go back. We need to go through the map. There are going to be some Republicans up that may be... None. None. There are none. Toomey not going to

do it. Barr, North Carolina is not going to do it. Okay, fine. All right, so let's do it. Let's say Toomey. Let's say Barr. Both are not running for re-election. Let's say they go along do it. Okay, fine. So let's do it. Let's say Toomey. Let's say Barr. Both are not running for re-election. Let's say they go along with it. That's five. Still five short. Ten are

not there. What do you suggest? What do we do? That's the point I'm making to Manchin and Siena. Get off your asses and realize you ain't going to pick up ten and you got to get rid of the filibuster for this bill. And the thing,

Andrew, here's the other deal. When I say get rid of the filibuster, it doesn't mean that you completely get rid of it. You can actually get rid of it only for this bill. I think it should get rid of it completely for this bill. I think it should get rid of it completely. All I'm simply saying is, ain't 10 votes.

Ain't 10 votes. The votes aren't there right now, bro. You're right. They ain't there right now. There will never be 10 votes. There will never be 10 votes. Never. If we got rid of the filibuster, let's say we got rid of the filibuster, let's say we got rid of the filibuster.

What would we do when the shoe was on the other foot? I mean, I think that that's... Don't mind. Hey, hold up. Hold up. You know what Democrats are going to do when the shoe's on the other foot? Sit their ass down, yell and complain, because Mitch McConnell did it with the Supreme Court justice. Here's the deal that's fact. Senator Harry Reid is...

People are like, oh, he caused this. No he didn't. The Republicans kept obstructing Obama's nominees and federal district judges. They kept it, they kept it, they kept it. Reid was like, look, I'm telling y'all, I'm going to get rid of this. Nope, they kept blocking, blocking, blocking. Finally, he said, nuclear option. This is what he said, though. We will keep the

filibuster in place for appellate and Supreme Court justices. Meaning you need a threshold of 60. What happens? McConnell gets in charge. Damn that. Hell no.

51. And then trying to say, oh, Harry, you don't know. No, no, no. Reid was very clear. He changed it only for nominees and district judges. So here's the piece. McConnell has already shown what he's going to do if the roles are reversed. So guess what? You use the power you got because here's the deal.

If you don't, you are guaranteed to lose because they can they can run the table on political gerrymandering, which means that with the census now redistricting, they now can create more red districts. I saw one story where Florida is a perfect example. Right now, it's fairly balanced. I think it's like 21-16, something like that. The Republicans in Florida literally are thinking about creating like a 15 vote margin. If the Republicans, listen to me clearly, y'all. If the Republicans are able to change the drawing of the lines, they can guarantee Republicans will win the House because the Democrats only have a four vote majority. So you Democrat, you ain't got no choice. There ain't no choice.

You have no choice. If you don't, you're guaranteed to lose. Andrew, you want to say something? Go ahead. It's time for Democrats to start winning some elections. I mean, they should be running candidates across the country and from school board on up. But don't, but you're all about by Andrew. You can't look the numbers. This is what I'm trying to explain. If Democrat Democrats got 55% of all votes in Wisconsin and they steal in the minority, how? Yeah, that's just gerrymandering because the Republicans structured the districts to where they couldn't even win. So what does the Supreme Court, Supreme Court says we can't decide partisan things, Kick it back to the states.

Well, here's the problem. You kick it back to the states, Republicans control the Supreme Court. Look, the only reason, the only reason the North Carolina racial gerrymandering decision came down is because Democrats won a majority four to three on the state Supreme Court. And what do Republicans do?

Republicans did try to strip the state Supreme Court of all their power and give it to a lower court because Democrats controlled it. So when you say Democrats have to win, you can't win if Republicans rig the election. You can't. Right now, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, they have literally rigged the map to guarantee. Texas. Texas got five new seats. And the last one, the Republicans tried Democrat. Because they control the House and the Senate and the governor's mansion in Texas, and they can run the table. So if you don't end the filibuster that passed

H.R. 1, Democrats, you're guaranteed to lose. And then they will lock in gerrymandering even worse, and you will never be able to dig out of that because they will control the house, the Senate,

the governor's mansion, and the state Supreme court. They already control the Supreme court six, three. So you are completely in charge. That's why they got no choice. If you're Democrats, final comment,

if they don't do it now, when will they do it, Roland? I mean... And that's precisely my point. I don't see how you flip Manchin. I don't see how you flip Manchin. This guy has amassed an enormous amount of power by being Mr. Compromised. I mean, he has not been...

He's a Dino. But what is he compromised? Nothing. He just sits there and obstructs the Democratic agenda. And what you have to do is you got to put it on his ass. You got to bring you got to roll in a thousand West Virginians every single day. You got every time his ass go home and have a town hall. You got to have a thousand people show up. You got to go at him hard.

You got to make his life uncomfortable. You got to make his life uncomfortable. You got to make it perfectly clear that he is the reason. And then you're going to challenge him to say, all right, see, this is what Democrats ain't doing. I know, and my next guest, Will, I'm coming to you. Manchin keep talking. He keep talking.

He keep, oh, compromise. This is what you say. You say, Joe, bring me the 10. Bring me the 10, Joe. Says you missed the compromise. Bring me the 10 Republicans who are willing to compromise. Joe, we'll listen. He ain't going to be able to find them.

They don't even exist. They are a figment of his imagination. So that's how you do it. But see, and then for all these other sorry ass mainstream journalists, when you bring his ass on your show, make him name the 10. Joe, name the 10, Joe.

Name them. Who? Well, Jake, well, George, well, Carl, well, Margaret. No, no, no. Name the 10. Well, Chuck, I think if we bet. No, no, no. Name the 10.

They ain't trying to do that. Because they already know the answer. And he know the answer. And he playing games. He playing games. So we'll see what they do. But I'm telling you right now, I'm going to say it right now. I said it before.

I said it before. Ron Brownstein's in the piece. I'm going to tell you this right now. There is going to have to be a massive mobilization in the nation's capital on voting rights. We're going to have to put 100,000 people minimum on the mall in Washington, on the U.S. Capitol. And let me be real clear,

you can't do it on a Saturday. You got to do it when they hear. You got to send people to Capitol Hill. You got to send them to all 435 House members. You got to send them to all 100 United States Senators. You got to send listen to me clearly, folks. You got to send delegations led by

constituents of that congressional district and of that state. You got to send people from Kentucky to go see Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. constituents of that congressional district and of that state. You've got to send people from Kentucky to go see Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. You've got to send people from West Virginia to go see Manchin and Caputo. You've got to send folks from Pennsylvania to see Toomey and to see, his name is escaping me, Teresa, the other U.S. Senator, Casey. That's what you've got to do. That's the only way. They got to feel that heat. They got to see the halls of Congress jammed.

They got to see people chanting. They got to see folk waiting outside their doors. You got to sit here and drop a dragnet on the U.S. Capitol and say we ain't going nowhere until y'all do something. That's the only way they got to feel that heat. I'm not sure if folk are prepared for that. But I can tell you, I am talking to different different groups who are already thinking about that. And that's the only way it has to get passed by this November. So all I'm saying is play all these games and negotiate with mansion this

summer, come to fall, drop a hundred thousand minimum on the U S capital and let them know we ain't playing going to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about Montgomery County, Maryland. Folks, body camera footage, five-year-old boy. This is sickening. We'll talk to a council member in Montgomery County next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Who needs a little love today? Who needs some love sent their way? Who needs love? Who needs love?

Who needs a little love today? Who needs some love Who needs a little love today? Who needs a love sent their way? Who needs love? Who needs love? Who needs love? Who needs love? Who needs love?

Who needs love? Who needs love? Who needs love? Who needs love? Hi, this is Essence Atkins. Hey, I'm Deon Cole from Blackist. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, unfiltered. Newly released body camera footage shows Montgomery County, Maryland police officers

handcuffing and screaming at a five-year-old boy in a January 2020 incident, telling the boy's mother she should beat him. A 51-minute body camera video was released by the Montgomery County Police Department on Friday. Watch. Come here, buddy. Yeah, we'll be out with him. He's gonna be at 733 Silver Spring Ave. What's going on, man? What are you doing? Abbey 2, George 14, 733 Silver Spring Ave. What are you doing? Huh?

I'll tell you what. I got you. Listen to me. How old are you? How old are you? Five. You feel like you can make your own decisions? Huh? You feel like you can do what you want? Are you an adult? Are you 18? So why are you outside of school? Look at me. Why are you out of school? Why do you have people following you? Huh? I don't care if you don't want to go to school. You do not have that choice. You understand?

Get back over there. Now. Now. Don't make me take you over there. Your record of detection. Okay. All right, can I give you a vest? No, for a license. Listen to me. I want you to listen very clear. You don't make any decisions for yourself unless somebody is trying to hurt out. Hey, cut it out. Cut it now. I'm riding with you. We're going back to school. We were listening like, what? I don't know how y'all do it. You got him? What in the world? Trying to hide behind the car.

I don't know. Is he behind? He's behind. That's him. Get in. Now. I'm not asking. Get in the car.

I'm going with you. Let's go. Oh, we're going to have problems. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. I don't want to hear it. I still don't want to hear it. You better stop. You better stop.

You better cut that off. What's up? What's going on? Huh? Why are you not listening? Huh? What Ms. said is ask for a snack, and she said sit down and I'll give it to you, and he started attacking her. So that's how we deal with adults?

He took a phone from the back of the head and shoved her down. So what mommy going to do? He took a clipboard and attacked her So what mommy going to do? He took a clipboard and attacked my student with it. What mommy going to do? Huh? So now, what's going on? He walks out of the school regularly. You left out of the school?

You grown? He told him, yeah. You in a doubt? You want somebody to take you? Huh? Yes or no? Open your mouth. What I keep telling you, stop playing retarded for free. I don't get a check.

Right? Yes or no? So why you can't listen? I work hourly. If I don't listen? I work hourly If I don't work, I don't eat If I don't eat, you don't eat Remember mommy tell you that?

You think I got time to be keep coming here for this? How many times I gotta talk to you? You want me to keep beating your ass? You want her to let me do it? You want her to let me do it? You want the police officer to take you? You know why I should ask you that? Because I don't like bad children. Bad, disrespectful children.

I think they need to be beaten. And that's what I told your mama. When you get older, when you want to make your own decisions, you know what's going to be your best friend? These right here. You know what these are? These are handcuffs. You want to make your own decisions, you know what's going to be your best friend? These right here. You know what these are? These are handcuffs. You know what they're for?

You want to go where Uncle Birdo at? Huh? Huh? You know what these are for? These are for people that don't want to listen and don't know how to act. You want to go where Uncle Birdo at? That's what that is. Where Uncle Birdo at?

They put you like that, and then now you can't move, you can't free, you can't go anywhere. You do what we tell you to do. Is that how you want to live your life? Huh? So how are we going to fix that? If somebody tells you to sit down and shut up, any adult, you better sit down and shut up. Now, if your teachers tell you to do something, you better listen.

Joining me now is Montgomery County, Maryland, Councilman Will Juando. He's been asking for the video since the incident. He joins us right now. So, Will, your reaction to this? I mean, it doesn't get easier watching it. You know, I've seen it many times and it's never easy. It's disgusting. I mean, and there's actually gets worse as you go along. At one point, the officer screams within an inch of this young boy's face, five-year-old boy, just screaming in his face. No one's wearing a mask. We're in the middle of COVID. I mean, the teachers don't intervene. The mother, obviously, is not handling the situation the way we'd like to see a parent handling. But, you know, my focus has been on the government responsibility, people who wear the Montgomery County seal on their arm, treating a young boy like this, who is clearly in distress.

No adult in this situation was looking out for this young boy and intervening and showing him love. He's five years old. He's five years old. And it's just, it's disgusting. It's horrific. And, you know, I've called on these officers to be fired. I've called for a full investigation of these administrators and the school staff that watch this happen.

Police are not supposed to be involved in any way in school discipline. The fact that this went on for an hour, nearly an hour, was allowed to is clearly a violation of policy. But it's just morally wrong as well. And so this is very disappointing and just shows the criminalization and the robbing of the childhood of particularly black youth. Any idea how he just gets to walk out of school? Well, that's another point. What's going on with the security and the doors in the classroom? That is one of the things I've called for. What's the full investigation? Now, you do have kids, you know, that try to

wander out of classroom. That happens. But there should be someone there in multiple systems and redundancies to catch that before a child gets out of the school and down the street like that. So that's an issue as well. So you're calling for the officers to be fired, but if you listen to the mother there, sounds to me like she's right there along with the cops, not particularly happy with her son disobeying adults. Yeah, well, look, my job is I can't parent. I'm a father of four. That's not my job. My job is to people who are supposed to be protecting and serving and caring for children. My job is to oversee our police department, our budget, our laws, and how we conduct our business. And that was not appropriate.

I don't personally agree with some of the things that the mother said, but here's what we also know, Roland. I know we're on unfiltered here. We also know the complicated and tortured history that people of color have with police. And if you just go back to why there's some theory and there's a lot of literature written on why Black folks have used corporal punishment as a way to do it at home so that it doesn't happen at the hands of the state. And, you know, if you watch this thing, at one point the officer says, I don't beat him because I don't want to go to jail. And the officer says, you can beat your child. You don't have to go to jail.

She gives her the wrong advice, tells her she can break the law and physically abuse her child. So I think it's a lot more complicated than any one of those scenes shows. But certainly, look, as I said, there's no adult in this situation that did the right thing for that child, not one adult. And where does the case stand right now? So there is a lawsuit that's been filed by the mother. That's proceeding. I have asked and my colleagues, we've asked for a full investigation from both the school side and the police department. One of the most troubling things about this is that it happened in January of 2020, so

over a year ago, and we didn't find out about it until the lawsuit was filed in January of 2021. That's when I started requesting the tape for the last three and a half months. And the lawsuit is filed by, who filed the lawsuit against whom? The mother filed a lawsuit against the county and the police department and the school system. For what? And that's the only reason i found out about hold on the mom filed lawsuit against the county for what uh for uh false imprisonment uh endangering uh the child i forget what the other things it's a few things'm confused. Wasn't the mama standing right there?

For about half of it. The first half, she wasn't there. You know, you cut to it. So for about the first 20, 25 minutes, she was not there. She was called to be there. So the initial outside and bringing them into the school and all that, that happened before she got there.

So I'm not here to speak on the validity. No i mean i'm good i'm i just want to be clear because i'm going i mean if you listen to that i mean she when when the cop puts the cuffs on her she's like no do you want to go where uncle burt is i mean sounds to me like he's a participant in the conversation i'll just try to understand that so you know i'm with you i understand that but she doesn't even if she was saying cuff this five-year-old child that our police officers shouldn't be doing it so it's not it's not excusable because someone doesn't understand the law and is telling that's not how we should conduct ourselves and again like i said if you keep letting that tape go our officer is literally screaming in the child's face, less than an inch from his face, in response to his crying and telling the mother that she can beat him,

that we want you to beat your child, things like that, which is just not true. So I think, look, none of this situation is pretty. And again, I said every adult in this situation failed this child. But certainly from him being able to get out of the school building, from the police being able to treat him that way. And when he's clearly in distress, you know, I'm the father of an autistic child. You know, I don't know where this child's history, but I can tell you that a lot of this symptoms that he's displaying, I'd be curious if he's been assessed. And you just don't treat you don't treat children that way. And so I think that's the issue. And the fact that we found out about it so late, this has made its way around the world

now. And I think most people are outraged by it, by everyone's actions in that video, the administrators, the police officers. And certainly, I understand people taking issue with some of the things that the police officers. And certainly I understand people take an issue with some of the things that the mother said, but, but let's see, let's think about who has the position of power here. Who's holding the gun and the badge and the handcuffs. That's, I think that's an important point as well.

All right. Well, Juwando, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks, Raul. Teresa, what do you make of this? Your thoughts? Well, I have a lot of thoughts on this. I think one is a it's a bit of a disgrace that we decide to hold a lesson with a five year old. And even before we got to the five year old being in handcuffs, the conversation of him getting in back of a police car. And honestly, you know, when they moved the young child into the school system and you heard all the unfortunate animosity and, you know, saying big terms, like the five-year-old knows what the definition of grown or being an adult really means, was talking to him like they were almost trying to do an intervention.

But you also kind of see where the young child's home life is because his mother wasn't stepping in and being a parent. But I also think that is amongst many issues of, you know, her own personal trials and errors. It's so unfortunate. It hurts my heart. And I think, you know, it wasn't a lesson, you know, that was able to be captured on body cam by police officer. It was more so a lesson of really, I would almost say mental health, because I think everybody in that room has something going on mentally that they didn't understand the ramifications of what they were doing to this child

that they all actually need to have a psychological evaluation because that child is now traumatized. And I don't think the lesson was really learned because part of it is he has to understand the terms. So better parenting and better evaluation of the circumstances should have not only taken place when he first was encountered from the police officer, but it should have came to the school administration, which it wasn't there. It should also be came to the security system of why this child was able to go out into the streets.

We don't know if somebody even opened the door and allowed that child to be out because there's no cameras there. So we don't know, and we all know children do not tell us the full truth, or they don't feel comfortable or feel safe. So I think a lot of factors happen, and of course, running down to the parenting of the situation of the matter, it did not help the situation, and this child is going to have some serious mental health issues, that if this happens when he becomes a teenager, we can't expect, wow, we didn't know. They should expect, wow, you guys did this. You didn't show me love. You didn't give me the attention that was due.

But you treated me like the criminal you already thought I was. Andrew. Absolutely. I mean, we all know this is a traumatic experience, but it's to me a case in point of the over-policing of black and brown youth. And to speak to a child that way, who's five years old, I wonder if they speak to adults and grown people that way. You know, in a school setting, which is supposed to be about learning in a safe environment and safe space, I have to agree with your previous guest, like this child's going to have some serious challenges and trauma as a result of this. I mean, you've been arrested at five years old or had cuffs put on you in a way that doesn't even make sense. I mean, this whole situation is

just awful. But I think it's indicative that, you know, this is happening. I've worked in schools. I know many of you have worked in schools, public schools, charter schools. And this happens every single day where school resource officers or police officers are heavy-handed or respond in a way to a child that's inappropriate or go too far thinking that they're imparting a lesson, but they're really just traumatizing that child. Julianne? Our children are never treated like children. We've seen little girls being handcuffed. We've seen teenage girls being pulled by their braids. But this just made my blood run cold. This child, of course, has been traumatized to have handcuffs put on him. But more than that, I think Teresa made a really good point. Everybody in that room probably needs some intervention, not the child, but everybody else, that principal, that police officer.

But the child, I think, actually does need to be evaluated. I mean, he may have some. Will Joando made a point. When I first heard him howling, I said, you know, is something wrong here? And that should have been the first question the police officer asked, not the tough love. Get in my face. Do you want to? You know, I mean, that's awful. This is why so many people have talked about defunding the police. Imagine a different outcome if a social worker had been on the scene and said some things, both to the mother, who may be totally stressed. I picked up on her comment. I work hourly so I can eat. If I don't eat, you can't eat. So this

woman may be under some significant economic distress. And this is what happens with a lot of low-income women. You can't take the hour off to go to school because then you're going to be docked, usually something around $10 an hour, which we know people really can't live off. And we don't know the rest of her circumstances. Does she have a partner? Are there other children? But what we do know that this woman is clearly under some stress and is clearly very vulnerable, not as vulnerable as her child, but very, very vulnerable. I just find this, I don't even have a word for it, Roland, because, you know, I don't cuss that much on the air. But it's repugnant. It's repulsive.

It's the kind of thing that you would want your own child to go through. And so I thank you, Will Giroirando, for making that public. Shame on the Montgomery Police Department for holding that body cam stuff for so long. This happened more than a year ago. So thanks. Shame on them for that. And then, of course, the question about the masks. In the boy's face that nobody has a mask on, and we know what time it is in terms of COVID, they've endangered this child mentally, but also physically. And the thing about it is this is awful. We know it's awful,

but we know it also happens almost every day in some schools somewhere in this country. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk about advertising major companies, not spending fair share on black owned media companies. We'll break it down on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I believe that it's movement time again. In America today, the economy is not working for working people. The poor and the needy are being abused.

You are the victims of power, and this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs. Work seven days a week, no days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit, and it is time for this to end. Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic. And they've been doing it on a measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was nearly $291. I can't take it no more.

You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages. And it's long past time for this nation to go to 15 so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars is because income does not match housing cost. If I could just only work one job, I could have more time with them. It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations

to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage. We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too. We need this. I'm going to fight for it until we get it. I'm not going to give up. We just need all of us to stand up as one nation and just fight together. Families are relying on these salaries and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour. $15 a minimum. Anyone should be making just to be able to stay out of poverty. I can't take it no more.

I'm doing this for not only me, but for everybody. We need 15 right now. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now.

You're not going to have black on you. You have consistently heard me talk on this show about how crucial it is when it comes to advertising dollars and how black-owned media is consistently frozen out of the money. $150 billion a year is spent on media advertising, major corporations, publicly traded companies, private companies, the federal government, black owned media, small number. I've had many people say to me, well, why shouldn't we or why don't we see a black owned media company the size of a Fox News and the CNN, a New York Times? Why are black newspapers so small? Why is it? It is because we have not gotten enough of the pie.

We talked about it on here and understand the game. Understand how the game is set up. The companies give their money to the ad agencies to control. Well, the ad agencies are all white-led. And so then they make us jump through hoops, play games. I won't bore y'all, but trust me, I cannot tell you the conversations that we've had with ad agencies where the company is saying,

oh, we know Roland, we like Roland, want to do business with Roland, but the ad agency got their whole other agenda going on. And so we sitting here, we're trying to make stuff happen. And it's just fill this out, fill this out, put this together, put this together, and they never come back with money. Then you have those industries where we are significant drivers of their bottom line.

Take, for instance, General Motors. General Motors, more than 11% of their buyers are African American. Cadillac, we know their numbers. But black-owned media spending, not even 3%. Yesterday, in Sunday's Detroit Free Press, Byron Allen took this ad out, signed by several people, including yours truly,

specifically calling out the CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, for refusing to meet with us to discuss advertising opportunities. As you see, it was signed by Byron Allen, Butch Graves, head of Black Enterprise, Ice Cube, his basketball league, yours truly, Todd Brown, of course, founder of Urban Edge Networks, HBCU League Pass, Junior Bridgman, who recently purchased Ebony Magazine, Don Jackson, of course, Central City Productions. Why is that the case? Why is that the case?

It's the case, folks, because where's the money? And let me be real clear here. We're not talking about black targeted. Let me be real clear to everybody who's paying attention. When, when, if you watch the NAACP image awards on Saturday night and you saw all of these companies advertising and that was a long list of them. That money is not going to black on that.

Not, not, not, not, not, not not let me unpack that. The money on the money. Is going for checks for African-Americans who work there. The money is not going to build black wealth. Some of y'all missed that. Let me just read for you. These were the advertisers during the NAACP Image Awards. Wells Fargo, Ford, Google, Ruffles, Target, American Family Insurance, Snickers, T-Mobile, L'Oreal, Walmart, Facebook, Geico,

Wendy's, McDonald's, The Good Feet Store, Amazon, Vaseline, Chime, Healthcare.gov, Kellogg's Special K, LegalZoom, General Insurance, Metamucil, Toyota, Shiba Cat Food, Little Caesars Pizza, Jack in the Box, BET MGM, Cadbury Chocolate, Walgreens, Burger King, TurboTax, Frosted Flakes Kellogg's, Travelocity, M. Gallaty, Hyundai, Pizza Hut, Stanley Steamer, Procter & Gamble, Hennessy, Hershey's Chocolate, Lincoln. All of that advertising money flowed to ViacomCBS. Who was the principal shareholder of ViacomCBS?

Sherry Redstone. Black employees. Not Blackwell. Black News Channel. Recently launched. Majority owner is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Pakistani American, not black owned,

black targeted, complex, black targeted. Who owns them? Everybody goes to Verizon. Yeah, I can go on and on and on. Not black owned. Black targeted.

Bounce TV. That's scripts. Not black owned. You see what I'm saying? I've always said that America has always monetized blackness. Yet black people have not benefited from the monetization of black people. Well. And so we had a call with General Motors.

We'll have another one and laid out exactly what should happen. And not sort of this one-off. And also, this is not a situation where folks want to pick off two or three black media people. This is where black-owned media people have to learn how to stand together. Do y'all know why OPEC is so powerful? It called them a cartel. Do you know why cartels are powerful?

Julianne is going to explain in a second. It's because they stick together. They don't allow themselves to get picked off. They control the product and the price to maximize money. Black newspapers could be bigger and stronger black magazines just so y'all know if it was not if it was if it wasn't for the conferences and black enterprise they'd be out of business they told me that point blank 90 of the money of essence comes from the essence festival not the not not not the magazine money of Essence comes from the Essence Festival.

Not the magazine. Blavity make their money from Afrotech, their conference. That's what you see going on, folks. We launched this show September 4th, 2018. We've been able to grow this show methodically. We are in the black. But if you showed me a white media company that had the growth that we've had in two and a half years, I can guarantee you they will be doing more than a few million dollars a year in revenue. I can guarantee you. So when we talk about where's our money in social,

economic social justice, what we're talking about is going after the very dollars we are already spending. I just read for you all of those companies. And so here's what the NAACP should be asking to every single one of the companies that advertise during the NAACP Image Awards on BET, what is your black-owned media spend? I want to know the black companies you're using for your commercials. I want to know the black catering companies. I want to know the black technology companies. I want to know the black catering companies. I want to know the black technology companies.

I want to know the black ad agencies. I want to know the black companies that are driving dollars. What I'm trying to get y'all to understand is this here. It's my last point before I go to the panel. When we have these black events and corporations are buying tables and we excited that so-and-so is our platinum level sponsors, so-and-so is our gold and silver and bronze partner. So-and-so is the lead sponsor of tonight's dinner. Well, guess what? If black owned media got our fair share, we wouldn't need their tables because we could be the lead sponsor.

This is not going to be like a preacher, but this is, uh, uh, uh, and then I love somebody, some Emily, uh, sounds like Roland doesn't understand the game. No, Sounds like Roland doesn't understand the game. No, boo, you don't understand the game. I understand the game. I've been in this since I was 14 years old. See, let me break it down to y'all, for y'all simple signers who don't quite get it. In Brett Pulley's book, The Billion Dollar Bet, the unauthorized biography of BET, he writes that BET, when Viacom bought them, was getting $1,500 for a 30-second spot.

The same spot on MTV was getting $8,000. Do the math. BET was getting, when it was black owned, when it was owned by Sheila Johnson and Bob Johnson, they were getting $1,500 for a 30 second ad

and it was $8,000 on MTV. Now I'm about to really trip y'all out. BET was sold for $3.3 billion. Had BET, see, y'all about to, had BET been getting the $8,000 for those spots versus the $1,500. BET's worth likely would have been $10 billion. I'm about to really blow y'all away. BET's likely value would have been $10 billion.

I told y'all they sold for 3.3, which means that had Bob and Sheila Johnson sold, don't miss this, sold one third of BET, they would have sold it for $3.3 billion and they would still own two thirds of BET. I don't think some of y'all just heard what I said. Had BET Julian gotten its full value, $8,000 versus $1,500, BET's value would have likely been three times more than what it was sold for. So had they gotten their full value, they could have sold in order to be liquid.

They could have sold one third of the company for three point three billion, which is what they got when they had to sell the whole damn company. So had the ad agencies and the companies not undervalued the black consumer and not played black media small, BET would still be black owned because they could have sold

one third of BET for $3.3 billion, still had the company and have been worth another six to seven billion. But in order for them to maximize the value, they had to sell the whole thing. And now Viacom owns it. And now Viacom is making more money off the monetization of black people and it's not benefiting black folk. Black wealth is not being created with BET getting a lion's share of the money. And we can go down the line of all of these black targeted companies. So the reason black owned media is not in position

to build capacity because we're being frozen out of the dollars because of lip service. That's why the letter was dropped targeting General Motors. And that's why it's a whole host of companies. We're coming after all of you because y'all have been making billions off of black people and you have not been giving it back to

black-owned media. Julianne, your thoughts. Well, you know, the first thing that comes to my mind when you talk about the $1,500 ad on BET versus the $8,000 on MTV, that's a difference of a fact of five rolling,

not three, which means they could have sold 20%. I ain't even want to go five. I want to keep it simple. I just want to keep it simple. But you're right. I want to keep it accurate. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, for the person, see, for the folk out there who is like a little too much,

I wanted to show if you go three, they could still solve one third of a 3.3, what they actually got total and still hold on to it. But I get your point, but go ahead. So you're basically really talking about the constant undervaluation of black people economically, socially, politically and otherwise. In terms of the folks who do not, do not invest in Black-owned media, but want us to be the ones to buy their stuff, this requires some internal discipline on our parts. How dare GM,

but any other company, and we know they all do it, and the Black-owned ad agencies often get the little tiniest slice of the pie. But not only that, the black media companies are very often, as you said, ignored. Now, you could tell stories that will curl people's ears about how you go to these agencies to try to get an ad. You know, I mean, years ago, about 15, I tried to start doing a show thing. And some of my friends at ads said, go here, go here, go here, go here. Well, you talk about running a sister around. I mean, running a sister around. do a show thing and some of my friends at ads said go here go here go here go here well you talk about have running a sister around i mean running a sister around and people as you said they'd ask you for more they'd ask you for numbers what is your cue give us some samples and you

spent hours right putting that together and then and never get the contract yeah and never get it this doesn't quite meet our specifications. So you gave me the specifications. What you want me to do? But basically, they don't want, oh, I must tell this story just to make some people watch and laugh. I met with one guy who said to me, is it in my interest to have a smart black woman on the air every day? He actually moved his mouth and formed his lips to say that to me. So he said, you know, you can do commentary, but no, you don't need to have your own thing.

White man told me that to my face, smiling. And they said, would you like to have lunch? I said, no, I don't eat crow. So but in any case, the economics of this are we spend our money, over a trillion dollars, we spend our money, we get very little ROI. I'm glad that you guys wrote the letter to put GM on the carpet, but there's so many others that need to be looked at. And not in terms of do they go to the black ad agencies, but do black-owned media get

some dollars? Because many of the black agencies are not making their own decisions either. They're like almost go-betweens. So when someone, when Roland Martin comes, when some of the others come, and he had six signatories there, when they come,

basically, they ought to be on top of the pile, not at the bottom. So the black news channel, interesting, good idea, but again, not black-owned, not at the bottom. So the Black News Channel, interesting, good idea, but again, not Black-owned, not generating Black wealth. No, it's a Pakistani-American, Shaw, and again, I appreciate the network, but if they go out and start generating hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising, that's going to him. He's already a billionaire. It's not going to African-Americans. They are Black investors. And even more than that,

Roland, when they invest in his, and you then go and say, you know, I'm Roland Martin. I've got this daily digital show. Well, we already advertise with a black news channel. That would be the answer. So basically, folks can out-black us without being black. And that's what happens. They can

out-black us on Black Targeted. And again, we're trying to compete against black targeted with massive resources and we're not, and black people are not benefiting from it. That's, that's the real deal. Teresa,

I'm gonna go Teresa, pull her in. So Teresa, again, this is focus. Hey man, you know, I really wouldn't call people out like that.

Here's the deal. Show me, please. Where black people have gotten anything by having to play nice we we call for the meeting we go through all the processes and we still fine so obviously the only way folk react is when we have to call folk out call them out the cake drag out specialty is is what i like to call it but we have to be honest here. It's interesting that, you know, and again, I am a proponent of all black media outlets, but it's interesting that

we actually have to fight against each other in order for us to get on the platforms, different platforms. You don't see Fox News, you don't see, you know, CNN and some other white conglomerates that are larger media platforms fighting against each other just for media ad buys. It's essentially if, you know, if you advertise with one black entity, it essentially, you know, it's like a domino effect, they feel like, with one budget. And part of it is, you know, African-Americans and minorities, we have to know the value of our wealth. And part of it is when the deal is time to be made, we have to make real strategic decisions when we are starting to look down the line and not just the short-term gain just to get out. Knowing that that vision that we had early on could potentially be a whole generational wealth, But we got to hold on to our equity. We got to hold on to our Black economics.

But I believe that is what is missing as of right now. But how bigger companies can support Black medium outlets and, i.e., daily digital shows like yours, Roland, is to continuously, you know, not just by the tables and by the sponsorship and say, hey, we support 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, but continuously figure out what that economic equity plan looks like for African-Americans, what it looks like for black media outlets and saying, listen, you know, shares are, you know, maybe become available. I know that's probably a long shot, but it's also an opportunity. Or we keep creating content and hold our content and not selling it. But we got to stop selling ourselves short,

especially if we don't know the actual number we are actually worth in this billion-dollar economy. Andrew, when Fox sold their company to Disney, I need everybody to listen to me. Fox sold the company to Disney for $71.3 billion. $71.3 billion. Robert Smith is the richest African-American in the United States. He is worth $7 billion. Robert Smith is the richest African American in the United States. He is worth $7 billion. Fox sold Disney to the tune of 10 Robert Smiths.

That means that when they sold it, Rupert Murdoch walked away with billions. His sons, each billions. Rupert Murdoch walked away with billions his sons each billions daughter billions if you have the ability to be able to create a black owned media company and acquire other assets

and build build build and then down the road let's say sell it you can sell it for 10, 20, 30 I mean I can only imagine what BET could have been built to or Ebony and others if they were getting the dollars. Billions, y'all. Andrew, when you're frozen out of the game, when you're completely frozen out, when the rules are created to specifically freeze you out, this is why you can't grow. It doesn't mean, I'm telling you, y'all, I rarely watch this show.

I rarely watch this show on TV, on the TV when I get home. I mean, I went home and I was like, damn, this show look good. I put it up against some other products. Imagine, imagine if I had 5% of CNN's budget. Five. Imagine five. Y'all, Fox, y'all, profit is going to be a billion dollars. 5% of a billion? That's

$50 million. Y'all, that's $50 million. Do y'all know what this show would look like? What we would be able to cover with a budget of $50 million a year? Can you imagine what I would

look like on your platform? See, you still have congressional... But Andrew, this is the thing that people don't understand. That's how we are frozen out. We can never get to that point because of the arbitrary rules they create. Go ahead.

The big point, I really appreciate that you are using your platform, Roland, to speak out against this. I mean, there's just so much money that's always made on the backs of black people, not only in media, but we could talk about housing and how we've been shut out of that or education with the GI Bill coming out of World War II. I mean, I think media is another frontier because we need to be able to tell our stories and cover the news in a unique way for our community. And there are not a lot of platforms that do that. So I think you should keep fighting. We all really need to keep stepping up and, like, holding these companies accountable.

Billion-dollar profits. We know about the investments that African-Americans are making on our spending power, but we need to demand more from these companies. And it really doesn't seem like there's much incentive for them. I'm struggling. You know, a lot of these companies have black board members. A lot of these companies may have black executives. Why has it been so hard for so long to have these investments in black media and black newspapers?

I'm going to do something right here, and let me preface this. This is not to say they don't matter. But this is where they also play us. Let me be real clear. We need black board members. But by the time it gets to the... No, no, no, listen. We need black board members. By the time it gets to the board,

the decision has already been made. The power is not... Let me be clear, folks. The power is not a black person on the board. The power who is in the operational chain. See, it's P&E. It's P&E. P&E. Y'all, if you do not have if you do not have if you do not have P&L, you do not have P&L responsibility. Yo, you ain't got power in the company. All these diversity, equity, and inclusion jobs, ask how many staffers do they have?

Ask what's their budget? Ask how much do they control? It's P&L responsibility. P&L, who's the chief marketing officer? See, not, see, you can have all the black board members. No. Who's the CMO? Who's the COO? See, that's where the power is. But see, and so again, they get us. Hey, we appointed a black board member. But are your senior are your senior level executives? Are they black?

Or do you only have one? Julian, final comment, go. There's a book called Blacks on Boards. It's a really old book that I reviewed years ago, but it talked about how these corporations go to look for black people who pretty much look like them. Come on. They're not looking for Roland Martin. Oh, hell no. They're not looking for Julian Malveaux. They're looking looking for Roland Martin. Oh, hell no. They're not looking for Julianne Malveaux. They're looking for somebody who basically has already been finished, polished, taught how to act. I think one of the most effective black board members is John Rogers at Aerial Capital Management because he does not mind calling people out. But the fact is that the executives are almost incidental unless they're the CEO.

The board members are almost incidental unless they're the CEO. The board members are almost incidental. They're representation. But unless they're on the finance committee, unless they're making some kind of decisions, unless they're in the meeting before the meeting, it's just representation. It's not necessarily change making. So don't believe the hype when you see this black face and everybody claps and says, oh, yeah, so-and-so just got on this board. Good for them. But are they willing to take them on or are they happy to be their Black person? Last point here, just so y'all understand, Roger Ferguson, go to my iPad, Roger Ferguson was the CEO of TIAA. He was replaced by Fasunda Brown Duckett. This is the first time in history that a Fortune 500 company replaced a black CEO with another black CEO.

The brother who just stepped down at Merck, his number two is black. He was not made the CEO. All I'm saying, y'all, is you need to understand the game. And we're going to deal with this advertising money in order to be able to grow. Folks, I certainly appreciate it. Julian, Andrew, and Teresa, thank you so very much. Folks, if y'all want to support what we do here at Rolling Mark Unfiltered, giving you the kind of information you're not getting anywhere else,

trust me, you ain't going to see MSNBC and CNN break this down. That's why you have black folks getting checks, not building wealth. All of our supporters at Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal.me, forward slash RMartinUnfiltered, Venmo.com, forward slash RMUnfiltered, Zales, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. You can send your money over to New Vision Media, Inc., 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Folks, thank you so very much.

I shall see y'all tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Have a great one. Howl! 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.

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