#RolandMartinUnfiltered - COVID-19 impact on education; $1M settlement to LA teen shot in back; Feds indict Mayor Mario King

Episode Date: July 13, 2020

7.10.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: COVID-19 pandemic's impact on education; $1M settlement to LA teen shot in back by cops; DOJ has indicted Moss Point, Mississippi Mayor Mario King; BMore cop, Sargent James Lloyd arrested on extortion and kidnapping charges and is being held without bail. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartcinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site 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. Today is Friday, July 10th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Students have been out of school since March. We'll talk to a teacher who serves in Congress Jelana Hayes, Johanna Hayes about what it could mean of millions of American children going back to school in the

middle of this pandemic will also be the young man who just said they claim against the LAPD for shooting him in his back. Department of Justice has indicted Moss Point Mississippi Mississippi Mayor Mario King. We'll give you the details. Also in Baltimore, Police Sergeant James Lloyd has been arrested on extortion and kidnapping charters

and is being held without bail. That's very rare. Also, we have another crazy white person acting the fool. And black Twitter is going crazy after Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith. They dropped a red table talk discussing personal details about their marriage. Now, let me be clear. I don't waste time on celebrity stuff, but we will talk about what it means to maintain a healthy relationship in marriage and what people go through in marriages where they sometimes think they lose it all but how they reconcile to get back together it's a conversation that we're gonna have that's a grown-up

conversation that's important it's time to bring the funk and roll the mark unfiltered let's go All right, folks, sorry about that. Not sure what the heck happened there. Let's talk about COVID-19. As of today, there are 3,266,035 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States. There are 136,304 deaths and 1,439,582 folks who are recovering. Now, this is what we're seeing, folks, are tremendous spikes all across the country. We are seeing states, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, report record cases around this nation.

We also hear that Dr. Anthony Fauci, for two months, hasn't had any conversation with Donald Trump, briefed him at all. What the hell is the White House doing? Now, while that's going on, the White House doesn't even really want to pay any attention. They are trying to rush people, rush students back to the classrooms. But the problem is teachers are going to be reporting in a couple of weeks. I know this. My sister, her daughter, teachers. Is it safe for teachers to be going back to the classroom? Is it safe for students to be in the classes? Now, many businesses and entities have

had to adapt to this, but what is going to happen when it comes to our children? Now, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Sally Goza, says she is concerned that schools may be pressured into reopening too quickly. Another concern is the impact of young people being out of school for so long. Joining us right now is Congresswoman Johanna Hayes of Connecticut, who's a teacher and on the House Committee on Education and Labor. Congresswoman, glad to have you back on Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Thanks, Roland. Good to see you. So my brother used to teach.

My sister is a teacher. My other sister is a teacher, and now her daughter is a teacher. So I've got parents who are working in polls in Texas, and folks are out there in public. You've got an administration who is trying to rush folks back into the classroom. You had Senator Rand Paul when he was questioning Dr. Fauci was going, what's the big deal? Why can't people kids go back to school? You've got Texas Senator John Cornyn. I'm sorry, I'm going to say it. I'm native of Texas. My senator, he's an idiot by saying we don't know if kids can get COVID-19 when you've got 7000 kids who've gotten coronavirus in Florida.

How concerned are you that this nation is about to send our children into a minefield and not just them, teachers administrators personnel support staff are we actually ready roland i'm very concerned about everything you just described because i know that so many of my colleagues superintendents that are going to have to stand in front of teachers and say to them i can't guarantee that this is safe. And then those teachers in turn are going to have to stand in front of children. I mean, the thing is, people think that it's just about geography, that kids will go back to school and continue to learn. If kids are afraid, if kids are not healthy, if their families are sick, they will not learn. I, like everyone else, would like for kids to go back to school. My daughter's a teacher.

But that conversation should not, it should start with, yes, we want to reopen schools, but then it should end with, and we are going to invest adequate funding to make sure that we hit all of the benchmarks to make sure people are safe. I think it's unconscionable that we have replenished PPP loans three times to make sure that small businesses were undergirded, and we can't make the same types of investments in schools. We're going to need at least $200 billion to do this. You know, businesses have a phased-in reopening, but we expect kids to go back when we don't have enough data to say how this virus interacts with children. Well, not only that, is there an actual process? I remember a couple

of months ago, I showed a video of what a particular Chinese school did. Parents dropped the kid off. They came in, temperature check. They simply also sprayed something on their shoes, on their feet. They also then sprayed their whole body. So there was like this whole process and I'm sitting there going, OK, I got I got twin nieces and we've gotten an email where they've laid out. And I'm sort of like, OK. And the email said essentially that they'll be in school twice a week. They have to walk on one side of the hallway, safe distance. And I'm still going, really? You're right. Many of these plans, I mean, my own state put out a 50-page plan, and I looked at the plans from many other states, and you're left with more questions than answers. Most of our schools don't have adequate ventilation. I mean, I don't know when the last time someone has been in a school, but we have buildings that

are 50 years old that don't have ventilation, that don't have windows that open. You know, FEMA has already said that they are not prioritizing school districts or purchasing PPE for them. So districts will be competing in the market for PPE, for masks and whatever else they need. And most of that stuff is already on backorder. We're only a couple of weeks out. There still is no national strategy. And then I think we cannot overlook the fact that the communities that were hit the hardest by COVID, our urban communities, our Title I districts, our 100% free and reduced lunch districts, are going to be the same communities that struggle to reopen because they don't have the resources to do it on their own. I mean, Congress allocated, I think it was about $13 billion in the CARES Act. There's state and

local municipality funding in the HEROES Act. And then we just did the Moving Forward Act to help with school infrastructure. But I think there needs to be emergency intervention right now where there's a standalone bill with standalone funding with the national guidelines coming from the Department of Education. This has been politicized and now teachers and parents have to make a choice on the backs of their children to jumpstart the economy and return us to normal. We cannot return to normal until we are healthy again. the again as i begin just just just to look at this this whole deal um parents are obviously worried because they're dealing with the fact that will my child get behind the the online learning is not equal i know but i know of a of a suburban school district in houston they're going to be 100% online.

They have the resources for laptops, for pads. That's a different environment. I remember reading a story a couple of months ago in Chicago, the high number of children tracking who were not even logging on. They were able to see how many of them, they weren't even logging on. And so, again, you're now talking about not two or three months. We're not talking about a school year. That might be the case for nine months. So, and I think that's part of my challenge, because back in February, when we were first discussing what might happen, and then in March, when there was a national conversation, state after state deciding to shut down, schools were looked at as places for babysitters so parents could work, or making sure that kids eat, or, you know, they had to have a safe space. And now we're talking about we need to reopen because they're lonely. All of those things are definitely societal problems. And I'm glad that we're having

a national conversation about the achievement gap and kids missing education time, but to not discuss their health. So for the same doctors that are saying kids are lonely and they need to get back, they should be demanding that we have the funding so that we have trauma-informed counselors to meet them when they return from the most traumatic experience in their life. So yes, I agree with everyone that kids need to go back to school, but the purpose of school is the academics. All of these other societal problems, we need to deal with those as well. We need to stabilize child care. We need to make sure that families are food secure, but not send kids back to school because we want to make sure all of those things happen when we cannot guarantee their safety.

And then to ask teachers to have to make that choice. And every plan that I've read, there's no mention of if a faculty member says, I'm feeling symptoms and I want to get tested, can I get tested? Most of that is you need to do that on your own. So there's so many issues that we are not even addressing. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. Roll back. Roll back. Are you saying, let's roll that back. That if in the middle of teaching, if all of a sudden a teacher says, I'm not feeling well, they don't have protocols in place to test the teacher on site? Right. These are state by state issues, but in my state particular, and this is a question that I've asked my commissioner, my governor, and every superintendent I talked to, there is no plan

for universal testing. And my next question was, if I'm a custodian or a secretary or a paraprofessional or a teacher or anyone in the building and I say I'm having symptoms, I would like to get tested. It is incumbent upon the employee to find community based testing or something else. It's not seen as an occupational exposure. We don't know enough about this virus and we are sending our teachers almost into battle without any gear, without, you know, any covering. And that's just not fair. You know, a month ago, my colleagues are talking about the Herculean efforts that teachers were making. And now the conversation has shifted to, oh, they're just lazy and they don't want to go back. And I'm sick and tired of people using teachers as the scapegoat and this binary choice where, you know, they're presented

as martyrs, where if you're not doing this, then you don't care about kids. I think it's just the opposite. Teachers know better and they do care about kids and they know that they can't guarantee the safety of these children. And when the secretary of education comes out and says everything from riding a bike to going up in a space shuttle. How do you expect for teachers to fall in line behind a message like that? Well, not only that, we're not just talking about children. And I think that's what people don't understand. You're talking about children? Yeah.

Teachers, administrators, support staff, and... Faculty, bus drivers, everyone. And what are you going to do when a parent wants to come into the school what are you going to do you know college campuses are shutting down or saying they're not letting their freshman in a high school senior is only a couple months removed from a college freshman what's the difference what are you going to do when you have a senior in high school who refuses to wear a mask. And then this leads into discipline issues. These are all of the scenarios that I've encountered on a good year.

And nobody's factoring these in in the middle of a pandemic. And it is not okay. Well, now you also have the other issue, and that is, as an adult, if I have to self-quarantine for 14 days, I can do that. A kid can't self-quarantine for 14 days, I can do that. A kid can't self-quarantine. That kid is still going to be interacting with that parent during that period. There are so many issues here, Roland. I mean, I was raised by my grandmother when I was going to school, and she had so many underlying health issues.

What are we going to do with the kids who have medically fragile people in their families? You know, I have my husband had COVID-19, and when he first presented, he didn't have any symptoms. He didn't have a fever. We just heard Keisha Lance Bottoms say the same thing. So when you have kids in these communal settings, staff coming and going, and in most of our districts, staff don't live in the community, they're commuting back and forth.

This is not how we contain this virus. And I don't want it to appear as if I don't want kids to go back to school. The number one indicator for, the number one in-school indicator for student success is the relationship they have with their teachers, effective teachers in front of students. But to do that when we can't guarantee their safety, just to return to normal and jumpstart the economy. And now as a part of a political game that's being played, I let me roll in.

I just in the worst possible scenario, I don't want to be sitting here with you in six months having this conversation saying we made a mistake. We moved too fast. And when it comes to our children, we should spare no expense. We should not, you know, take any chances and use them as an experiment. All right. Congresswoman Johanna Hayes, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. you know take any chances and use them as an experiment all right Congresswoman Johanna Hayes we certainly appreciate it thanks a lot thank you Roland all right folks let's go to my panel here I want to talk to them Rob Richardson host disruption now podcast and also Amisha cross political analyst in Democratic strategist Rob this is this is serious in that we are seeing, again, Texas and Florida,

where these numbers are just really, really increasing. I really think we've got to understand what's about to happen. I mean, this is scary for a lot of people. Yeah, well, we have to actually pay attention to data, which a lot of these politicians and people in power don't like data. If you look at other nations, we are exceptional now. We're not exceptional in the way we want to be, but we're exceptional in the fact that we can't get this under control because we just don't want to follow data. We want to follow whatever this idiot in the White House is saying. So you have people doing stupid things and just rebelling against social distancing, rebelling against putting on a mask, rebelling against things that work. Science works. So right now, you are seeing

that happening. So this is not surprising. And my hope is that we actually get some control and people realize that we have to take steps. We're not through this. And in fact, it's getting much worse because we didn't do the things we need to do on the front end. Amisha. I absolutely agree with what Rob just said. We are right now a ship without a captain. We are a leaderless nation. And for all intents and purposes, we've watched our COVID-19 response fall apart because of it. Not only did this president ignore the fact that COVID-19 was a threat,

he thought it could be contained to China. He also, instead of giving any authorization or any real leadership from the White House, he decided to leave things up to the states. And not because he had great faith in the states, but because he didn't want any blowback on himself. And even when he told the states that it was up to them to decide when they would be ready to reopen and what their next steps would be, he took to Twitter to call out states who decided that they were going to actually follow CDC guidelines and enforce social distancing, require masks. This has been a president from day one who has decided to go against and not believe in science. And now we're

seeing the fruits of that ignorance. We're seeing the fruits of that illegitimacy. And our nation is suffering because of it. And the world is watching us. This is the first time in America's history where we've seen countries in Europe, we've seen countries in multiple places decide that they don't even want Americans to travel there. That is not something that we do as Americans. That's not something we've seen. And this is President Trump's legacy, someone who doesn't know what he's doing and has basically taken this country in the wrong direction. And I'm afraid that leading into 2020 in the election, we're going to see a lot more devastating things come out of COVID-19, especially as we walk into the

fall months where the flu season is going to tick up and we're going to be battling two things at once. Michael, go ahead. Go ahead. No, I'll just say very quickly, this has also been, COVID-19 has been less of a disruptor. It's been a disruptor in the short term and it's accelerated long-term trends. So when you talk about, just like the congresswoman talked about, when you talk about access to broadband, which we always needed and communities didn't have, now that we don't have that, it's accelerating the inequalities that we already see. The fact that we don't have universal pre-K, other nations have that. That's another reason why they were able to handle this. And you look at our healthcare system, it's a for-profit system that incentivizes not actually

giving people access to healthcare. These things are now crippling us and really preventing us from being able to respond. So all of these things are really affecting this in a really serious way. So it's going to be a long road. Michael Brown, former vice chair at DNC finance committee. The reason I think this, this is so different is that when we talk about businesses shutting down, we're dealing with adults, adults who can make independent decisions when it comes to self quarantine, when it comes to how careful they are. Look, look, I don't have biological children, but I've but my wife and I have raised six of my nieces from a year and a half all the way up to being in their 20s. We got twin nieces right now who are 16. I'm sorry. They don't think the same way as adults, how decisions are

made. And I'm sitting here going, okay, I'm very leery of sending them into a school situation because I'm not sure how other children will be dealing with social distancing, things along those lines. I know what I can control here in my workspace. I don't necessarily have the same thing. We'll talk about my nieces. Well, I have I have three sons and two of which are in college. And I just can't imagine how I have no faith in them that they will say social distance on campus. How are we expecting five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve-year-old young people to there is no way they're going to be able to do this properly without obviously some consequences. We hope it doesn't happen, but the question is, it could. And then what's concerning, Roland, and you and I have talked

about this, I know everything, whether it's a disease, whether it's a tax cut, is all political. And frankly, I'm not sure the Senate was in play before COVID-19 hit. This president, 45, has messed us up so much that I think he's put the Senate in play. More than in play, I think actually the Senate not just flips, but flips significantly by possibly five or six seats. Because Arizona's gone. You forget that. Cory Gardner's finished. And so Willis is probably finished. So I just don't know how you keep the Senate. And because these enablers have let him deal with this disease and this crisis the way he has. He's hurt them, too.

Well, I certainly I certainly get the whole politics of it. I think, again, what you're dealing right now is fear and you're dealing with with real fear of a lot of parents out there. And I'm telling them, Misha, all it's going to take, all it's going to take is for 30, 40, 50 cases in a school, and you're going to have pandemonium of parents pulling their kids out, and then what do you do? And, Roland, you're right. And the issue is we've already seen those numbers. We've seen them in early child care centers and pre-K centers,

particularly in the South. We've seen where there have been 70 plus staff members who got sick, and for these child care centers that reopened, they had to immediately close back down, and parents pulled their children out. That's at the ECE level. At ECE, most centers don't have hundreds of students. When we're talking about your elementary school, middle school, and high school, they definitely do. That means you have to reduce class sizes. Right now, your average class size is 25 to 30 students. CDC guidelines tell us 15 or less. So that means you have to have space in your school building that accommodates that. It means you have to split up your teachers. It means you have to stagger schedules. It means that you have to be concerned

about the paraprofessionals, the teachers who may themselves already be more vulnerable. It means that you have to be concerned about the paraprofessionals, the teachers who may themselves already be more vulnerable. It means the cafeteria workers. Where are these kids going to eat? Because no longer can we house them in a cafeteria room eating at the same time for lunch. What do you do when you can't have them on buses together? How are we going to make this work? And school districts and teachers have been grappling with this for months. And I get it, as you spoke earlier, that the online learning, that the distance learning hasn't necessarily been working well. But I would posit, and teachers do as well, that sending kids back before we have something in place that actually makes sense, before we have those structures in place and the designs necessary, according to CDC recommendations, would result in a complete failure. A lot of teachers, paraprofessionals,

parents, grandparents, and other people getting sick. And we know what that is going to look like. So I think that it's just extremely detrimental and extremely idiotic for the president to be pushing something like this and to also have the support of many Republican governors who are, they were willing to risk our grandparents a few months ago. And today they're willing to risk the kids, the parents, the teachers, and everybody else. But what you're dealing with here that really is a fundamental problem. This is where the failure of leadership comes in. Absolutely. This is where Rob having an administration. There is no way in the world a doctor, Anthony Fauci, should give an interview and say he hasn't briefed the president in two months.

That can happen. You can't have somebody sitting in the Oval Office contradicting the Centers for Disease Control and their rules when it comes to opening schools. This is an absolute travesty of what we're witnessing, of epic proportions of an administration that is grossly unprepared and who doesn't care about the people. Doesn't care, grossly unprepared and doesn't care. Doesn't care at all. Doesn't care about the consequences because leadership, people follow what the leader do. No matter what, people say that they're independent. If you look at what they do, people are following and lying.

Many Republicans, many of his followers, and they are resisting. And it's causing people's lives. It's causing their lives. It's causing other lives. And it's causing the economy to go backwards. It's not going to help them. It's not going to help them get reelected. I would just say this. I think Michael talked about earlier not necessarily having faith in some younger kids to not socially distance. I don't have faith in a lot of the American people. They're showing that they don't want to do it. Like, we're watching that.

We have at least 30 percent of the American people that are just going to say, I don't care. And what we know is they're going to carry it on and we're going to continue this process. And kids are carriers. They may be less prone to getting sick from COVID-19, but they're not less prone to being carriers and getting their grandmother sick and getting other people sick. So are we just saying, or getting administrators sick as Amisha and you, Roland pointed out, so are we just saying those people don't matter anymore? This has gone away? I mean, I just don't understand any of it. I really don't. Michael. It's, you know, it's so problematic when you have, and everything comes back

to the leader. Now, Mayor Bottoms just announced she's probably going to roll back where they are in Atlanta because then forget school. Then I'm thinking about that. They just know that their communities are not safe and not ready. Obviously, the red state leaders or red state mayors of states and cities are trying to make sure this guy gets reelected. They don't care about their constituents. They don't care that 130, more than 133,000 people have died. And that's just what's on record is probably more. So without, and I know everyone's mentioned it, without the proper leadership, I don't even know why, and I'm being a little facetious, but I don't even know why the media covers 45 anymore. He's irrelevant because all he's doing is talking to about now about 25, maybe 26% of the people in America. The rest aren't even listening to him anyway.

So I don't know why we're following Amisha. Amisha, again, I just think that what we're dealing with right now, we're dealing with a group of people who frankly don't give a damn. I think you're seeing the result of that in polling numbers. And I'll say this here, and the Lincoln Project has said this as well. Every single Republican senator who has allowed this nonsense to go on should lose their job in November. Every single, every one. I have absolutely, John Cornyn, you need to go.

Arizona, Maine, North Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, Montana. These people have allowed this to go on. No hearings, no challenges. No, it's like, oh, no, no, we're scared. What Trump wants to do, we're fine with it. People are dying and these people are playing games. And we've lost 133,000 people. I agree with you 100 percent, Roland. My fear, though, is that there is a considerable percentage of the American population that does not. There are people who consistently don't want to wear masks, refuse to social distance. I have absolutely no problem with what this president is saying, irregardless, irrelevant to the actual numbers that we're seeing of COVID-19 cases tick up.

I think that what Trump has done is lulled the American psyche and helped to actually, you know, I is me type of understanding. So we can be isolationists. We can do whatever we want. He's hardcore. He's pushing this ideology that to a lot of people is something that they still believe in. And I don't actually know what those people will have to see before that changes. And like I've heard you say on this show multiple times, 2020 is going to be, November is going to be a turnout race. It is not just going to be us watching COVID numbers or watching unemployment numbers rise or watching the consistent failures of Donald Trump. He's done that since he got elected in 2016. However, we haven't seen a huge tide change in terms of his electorate and that base that continues to support him. So I don't necessarily think that these numbers are going to move them. What I do think will and holds the possibility of doing so is if there was a

heightened risk with opening these schools, because people don't naturally want to risk their kids. They also don't really want to risk their grandparents. But I think that what we're seeing right now is a nation that has been lulled to idiocracy because of the man who happens to be in the White House. And I don't think that that changes anytime too soon, irrespective to the COVID numbers that we're seeing. Yeah, bottom line is- I would like to hope that our America looks different, but that's a hard sell. These nuts are going to continue yelling and screaming about masks. It's going to continue. All right, folks, let's go to our second story. The city of Los Angeles announced that they would

pay $985,000 to settle the federal excessive force claims against LAPD officer Michael Gutierrez. Now, folks, on February 10, 2015, Gutierrez fired multiple gunshots into a group of black teenagers after allegedly seeing one of the teens posing with an airsoft gun while another was rapping and dancing in a circle. One bullet hit a young man by the name of Jamar Nicholson in the upper back. He was 15 at the time. He joins us now with his attorney, John Harris. John, I want to start with you. We're seeing, look, this is the thing that gets me. Taxpayers, we're all these conservatives who are fiscal conservatives who say nothing about these sort of penalties having to be paid by taxpayers as opposed to getting these cops to actually govern themselves accordingly

or change the rules and say, you know what, to these police officers, you cost the city money. We're going to take out of your pocket. John, go ahead. Yeah, it is kind of ridiculous when you think about it, because in this particular case, Officer Guterres was criticized by the L.A. Police Commission for violating a number of tactics. One was not conferring with his partner before exiting the vehicle. He charged and start shooting at the youth before he even saw it covered. His partner was left in the car, unbelievably perplexed,

because this happened in a matter of seconds. He didn't look at the context of what was going on with the teenagers. And in fact, they were getting dressed, putting on their uniforms on their way to school when he shot three times into a pack of four teenagers. What's ironic about this case is Officer Guterres, despite the fact that he was criticized,

had a horrible shoot. He was later promoted to the position of sergeant. Wow. That is unbelievable right there. Do we have Jamar, folks? There's Jamar. Okay, Jamar, glad to have you on the show. This is, that had to be obviously a scary time for you,

what took place five years ago. Yes, sir. You're asking me what took place five years ago? Yes, I mean, it was,

and it had to be scary. What has your life been like in the last five years? My life has been different in a way because everybody knows me from the shooting now. So when people see me, they stop me and ask me like about the shooting and police brutality and stuff like that and how I feel about it. This obviously settlement does not change what happened.

It doesn't take away the pain of what you experienced. No, sir. Because I have permanent back damage. My doctor told me that I'll have back damage until the day I go. So certain days, if I sit too long, my back hurts. If I stand up too long, my back hurts. Certain job positions, I can't get to help feed my family because of my back. John, that's the thing that I think people don't understand. People see these settlements and they say, oh, you got almost a million dollars out of this whole deal. But the pain continues. The after effects of one of these shootings or the case of a police beating. Absolutely. Jamar has undergone three surgeries.

They had fragments of bullets in his back. Just a horrible condition that he had to go through. He saw his doctor and he says he's going to suffer these residual pains most likely for the rest of his life. So with that being said, we don't think a million dollars is really a number. Anybody should say, wow, that's a lot. He suffered a great deal of pain and suffering as he lay out there on the street after being shot, handcuffed to the gurney, and handcuffed as they transported him to the hospital.

They treated him like a common criminal, although he was a 15-year-old teenager. Jamar, we're in the midst of a national discussion, debate, demands for change in the wake of the death of George Floyd almost seven weeks ago. What do you want to see happen? What is it that you want to see cities do when it comes to the behavior of police officers and their conduct? I believe the police should have like a second team that goes out with them for certain situations, like situations that doesn't have to do with violence. The police should show up just in case anything happens, but there should be a team there, like a therapist, someone who could talk to somebody or someone who could calm the situation down. Like, for example, my situation, the cops were just on their way about and they seen a group

of young black men in the alley and they bounced out, unclothed. They didn't say that they're LAPD. They just started shooting. I believe if they had somebody else there with them, the situation probably would have been different. John, as an attorney, you've seen these cases. What do you want to see? What changes do you want to see happen? The most important change is the elimination of this qualified immunity. It's been a case so long, five years, because law enforcement automatically will file a motion to dismiss

a case based on qualified immunity, which is a court-created concept. This case was up in the Court of Appeals for over two and a half years because they lost the motion in the lower court. So Congress is trying to basically eliminate this concept, but that's what I would like to see, a shielding of these officers under this concept of qualified immunity. That would be a first right move. All right, then. Well, we certainly appreciated you joining us, Jamar Nicholson. Thank you so very much. John Harris, thanks a bunch. Thank you, Roland.

Go back to my panel here. Amisha, we have obviously seen a die down, if you will, in the protests in the streets. Are you concerned that this country is going to fall back into the malaise, into just a nice, comfortable position that we were in before the death of George Floyd seven weeks ago? I absolutely am. And I am because while the ignition was struck, literally because you had people across the country protesting and across the globe protesting as a result of George Floyd's death, as soon as that lever was removed, as soon as people stopped applying that pressure, I think that we saw a lot of the conversation shift.

We saw people talk about statues. We saw them talk about the removal of flags. But what we aren't seeing is people really push for the reforms that African-Americans have been asking for since day one. We aren't seeing a large push in reforms at the policing level. We aren't seeing pushes at the federal level in police reforms. What we saw was a large push in reforms at the policing level. We aren't seeing pushes at the federal level in police reforms. What we saw was a watered down version of a bill that honestly wouldn't change much anyway. I think that what we're seeing from corporations and other organizations is a lot of feel good rhetoric, but what we're not seeing is a lot of things that would actually change the status quo. And as soon as the protests stopped, my fear from the beginning was no one protests for years at a time or for six months or more at a time. We weren't going

to see anything like that. But I think that as soon as that pressure was gone, as soon as the people weren't in the streets, as soon as those groups weren't being loud and in your face, that individuals who could make change, leaders that could make change, were going to sit back and they were going to give us the crumbs that they've always given, a little bit of symbolism and hope we go sit down somewhere and shut up. Michael, again, constant pressure. That is actually what changes. And I think that, you know, we'll certainly see what happens. But that is the great concern. Again, challenging not only Congress, but also these state legislatures, these county commissioners in these city halls. Absolutely. And it's unfortunate because, you know, our country,

if we look at the history of the last, I don't know, 20 years or so, I'm not talking about the civil rights protests. I'm talking about, gun violence. Everyone gets so outraged and how can we live like this? And then the politicians don't do what they're supposed to do. Excuse me. Same thing with what's happened with George Floyd. The protesters did their job. They made it, they put it on the front pages. People were talking about it. There was dialogue. And then Senator McConnell said, well, we'll get to it when we get to it. And then obviously, though, I have to give the local leaders credit, the city council members, the state legislators that you mentioned, Roland, the mayors, they're doing some of the hard work related to policing. But your past guest,

I think his name is Jamal, the poor guy that got shot and has bullet fragments in his back. I understand his thought. But to have extra police coming to scenes when you're having a defund police effort, you can't have both. If you're going to defund the police, that means you're not going to have enough police to come do what he suggests, though it's an interesting idea. But this is the America we live in. People shout and scream. The protesters did their job. Right.

Proud of them. Proud of them. But then the politicians on the Hill did not. Rob. Yeah, but it can't stop politicians on the Hill did not. Rob. Yeah, but it can't stop with protesters. They did do their job. It can't stop with protesting, I should say. The protesters have to go to the polls as well because, again, unless that happens,

politicians will ignore you. They are used to us. We haven't seen protests like this, and I am proud of protesters as well. But then we have to take it to the next level because when people like to talk about the officers that shot that young man, they always go to the same line. It's just a few bad apples. No, the problem is we have a culture that empowers the bad apples. And unless we change the culture of policing with some major reform, like reforming or getting rid of qualified immunity, these things will continue to happen. And so we have to change the culture of policing., these things will continue to happen. And so we

have to change the culture of policing. That takes effort. That takes time. You can't, no one, it's not sustainable for people to go out and just protest all their lives for the rest of their lives. It has to also follow up with polling, has to follow up with going to the polls, and that has to follow up with policy. And we have to keep the pressure up on in multiple ways from every single way. That's the only way movements sustain. All right, folks. In Moss Point, Mississippi, the mayor of that city, Mario King, who's seen him numerous times here on Roll the Mark on the Filter, he and his wife have been indicted on 13 charges of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud that allege they use money they raise for mental health services to buy a Volvo and a pedigree dog.

The indictment accuses King of defrauding contributors in late 2018 or early 2019 until May 2019. We spoke with Mayor King today and he says he would like to come on the show and talk about it. But he doesn't think that would be wise right now. He believes that the charters are racially motivated and can't wait to tell his side of the story. He'll certainly join us after he says he is ready to talk. Right now, he believes that the charters are racially motivated and can't wait to tell his side of the story. He'll certainly join us after he says he is ready to talk. Let's talk about what's happening in Baltimore, where Baltimore Homicide Sergeant James Lloyd remains in jail today, held without bail on extortion and kidnapping charges. A charge against him stemmed from a dispute over patio work done by a contractor at his Gwynn Oak house. Three other

officers, all members of Lloyd's homicide squad, are suspended. Allegedly, they were present when Lloyd threatened the contractor with arrest and a police spokesperson said all four men were on duty at the time of the incident. Lloyd was unhappy with the work charging documents said and allegedly used his police power to convince the contractor to pay back the money. Lloyd's lawyer said no crime was committed. Really, Michael? All right. Having issues with connecting with Michael. Rob, this is just, you know, again,

using the power of your police badge to threaten somebody. And it's rare. Think about this here. When was the last time you heard a police officer hail without bail? I haven't heard it much, but I will tell you that the culture, particularly in Baltimore, I recently had Marilyn Mosby, who, you know, of course, charged the officers who killed Freddie Gray. And she got crucified for doing that and didn't get a lot of support from hardly anybody.

And and then later it came out that, of course, the whole most of the whole Baltimore police system was corrupt and they had to be a federal consent decree. So the culture of an area that can tell you that they felt empowered to do that tells you that it's a systemic cultural problem, particularly there in Baltimore. There's a lot of places like that. So yes, I mean, they felt they can get away with it probably definitely because they have gotten away with things like that. It's not the first time something like that has happened. I guarantee you someone who abuses their power so blatantly like that has done it before. Go right ahead, Amisha. I agree with Rob here because as egregious as this sounds, to respond in that way,

he had to have had a history of doing this previously. Now, I do think that he was emboldened, obviously, because of his police background. And I'd be interested in seeing the level of overreach he's done in excessive force and use of policy frameworks that were outside of his police background. And I'd be interested in seeing the level of overreach he's done in excessive force and use of policy frameworks that were outside of his room, even as a police officer, because this is extremely blatant. But he also felt strongly empowered to do so.

And I think that the issue here is that more of these types of stories simply are not coming to light. Baltimore has a plethora of issues and its police department is definitely chief among them. Michael? You know, Roland, as you know, when I served on the city council, it's so difficult dealing with different unions. They have so much power to make life either difficult or help your life if you're an elected official.

But until you take qualified immunity off the table, until you threaten someone's pension, officers are going to continue to know that they have protections. If you take those protections away, they're going to think twice about doing something stupid. But unless you have that deterrent there, these kind of stories are going to continue. Remember that movie, Training Day with Denzel? And Denzel was like, what is that? I'm Godzilla or 800-pound gorilla, whatever he said. He said, I'm the police. I can do whatever I want. And I'm not suggesting all police, because I think we all agree most police officers do whatever I want. And I'm not suggesting all police because I think we all agree most police officers do their jobs well. But for the knuckleheads that don't, they know

they have the protections. So until you take on the unions and deal with qualified immunity and their pensions, it's going to be very difficult to change the patterns. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. The Eagles have disciplined Deshaun Jackson for his anti-Semitic remarks. We'll talk about that. In the WNBA, the Atlanta Dream, they say, we don't want to play for Kelly Loeffler, co-owner of the team. And, oh my goodness, Twitter is blowing up.

Facebook is blowing up because Will and Jada went to the red table, talked themselves. I don't give a damn about what happened inside of their marriage. What I do want to talk about is what individuals can learn from healing, can learn from till death do us part, can learn what happens when we face difficulties in marriages. We'll talk about all of that after the break right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unftered. Support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible.

RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. As the sun rose over Afghanistan this morning. 8,600 American troops started their day knowing Russia has bounties on their heads, paying Taliban militants to murder our troops and the heartbreaking truth that their commander-in-chief deserted them, that he ignored the intelligence report dropped on his desk in February, too lazy to read it himself.

And now, since the report was read out loud to him in June, days have passed, weeks have gone by, still no action. Not a call to his Russian master to stand down. Not a call to console the families left behind. When the sun sets over our troops in Afghanistan tonight, how many more bounties will Russia have paid out? Our troops deserve a whole lot better than a traitor like Trump. It is midnight in Washington.

The lights are finally going out in the Capitol after a long day in the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. You can't trust this president to do the right thing, not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. And you know it. History will not be kind to Donald Trump. I think we all know that. Not because it will be written by never Trumpers, but because whenever we have departed from the values of our nation, we have come to regret it. And that regret is written all over the pages of our history. If you find that the House has proved its case and still vote to acquit, your name will be tied to his with a

cord of steel and for all of history. He has betrayed our national security. He has compromised our elections and he will do so again. You will not change him. You cannot constrain him. Truth matters little to him. What's right matters even less and decency matters not at all. We have proven Donald Trump guilty. Now do impartial justice and convict him. What will history say about Mitch McConnell? Well, he spent most of his time making deals for himself, not so much for Kentucky. Mitch didn't have money when he went to Washington 35 years ago. Today, he's one of the richest guys up there.

Rich Mitch has a nice ring to it. So what did Kentucky get in the bargain? Well, we're 40th in job opportunity, 45th in education, 43rd in health care. Get in the picture? After 35 years, Kentuckians are still waiting for the kinds of opportunities Mitch worked so hard to give himself. With another six years of Mitch McConnell, from the hauler to the horse farm, we'll still be waiting. And Mitch, he'll just be richer. So what will history say about Mitch McConnell? The same thing many Kentuckians say now.

Not a damn thing. Tell you, Rob, we run a lot of those online ads and then talk about it. And, you know, people may think, hey, you're preaching to the choir. But the reality is we're now living in a digital world. These have an impact when you start talking about being seen six, 7, 8, 10, 20 million times? Yeah, there's no question. And then you can look at it this way. Even if they don't win, which I think there is an opportunity to win,

I still think it's a long shot to win in Kentucky, but it doesn't allow him to go on offense. He can usually take all the money that Mitch stores up and help all these other candidates in the Senate. He won't be able to do that. He's going to have to defend himself. And people are energized. And this will get people energized. They will contribute more. And at a minimum, it's going to put him it's going to make him afraid because, look, the governor right now is actually a Democrat. So there's a chance they can they can change and flip this if they do everything right. Everything has to be done right. Turnout has to go exactly well.

All those things have to go in the direction of the Democratic senator. But even if they don't, it puts pressure on him and it puts pressure on the rest of the Republican caucus as it should. Michael, maybe it's just me, but dude, can Democrats get people who know how to cut ads real quick? What does it say that in the last three months, the most powerful, impactful ads have been by never Trump Republicans? Are there no Democrats? I mean, seriously, we run a lot of these. I haven't run a single one from the DNC. Yeah, there has always been this culture outside, of course, when my father was chair and with Governor Clinton at the time, Governor Clinton. And frankly, during the Obama days, that's the only time really that the DNC got super aggressive on ads.

There's always been this attitude of, oh, we don't want to get in the mud. Oh, that's not what we do. Oh, we want to take the higher ground. But when you're, how many times have you and I, Roland, said this about 45? You can't bring a knife to a gunfight. You got to bring a knife to a gunfight. You got to bring a gun to a gunfight. And so in that case, I'm glad these outside organizations are doing what they're supposed to do. I just wish the DNC, because DNC has the money. They're raising it. We're doing a great job of having the dollars. Now, maybe they're waiting for get out the vote.

But either way, you're exactly right. Should be more aggressive. Amisha, I really don't understand, Amisha. I'm serious. I mean, I run a lot of these. You've got the Bill Kristol group. You've got this other group called Recount. You have these progressive organizations out there. I just don't understand why the Democratic Party does not have a rapid video response team that's

churning out and turning around these sort of videos in a timely manner. I mean, literally, I ain't seen one. Partially rolling because the DNC hasn't had to. So the DNC, for the most part, rested on their laurels during the

Obama administration because Obama was great enough to where there wasn't really a usefulness for them. And post that, they have done absolutely nothing. Remember in 2017 when they came out with the DNC ad that looked a whole lot like a Papa John's commercial and everybody and their mama made fun of them for literally

stealing a slogan for crappy pizza. What we've seen with the DNC is these reutilized messages, recycled messaging, messaging that hasn't necessarily really even touched the pulse of getting someone to not only land into the mind that the DNC is trying to get everybody to walk along the trail up, but also we've seen a DNC that has forgotten that communication, that these ads, that this space is one of their greatest means of talking to the public. And for whatever reason, they've decided that either they don't need them or they're going to go as watered down as campaigns, as well as a lot of the progressive groups' greatest strengths, really going for the jugular and using these ads at a time where it's extremely smart and it's extremely pertinent. And I don't have I have no explanation as to why the DNC and their communication staff has continually failed. I can't even remember a DNC commercial that was moving in the past eight, nine years, because the DNC, for the most part,

churns communications staff out every three or four months. So it shouldn't be surprising when you have a new person at the helm of your communications group every other season. Yeah, I just think I'm going to be a little harsher here. I think Democrats are bad at this. They're bad at messaging generally, even if they have better policies. If you look and you look and you do polling of most policies of progressives and Democrats, Democrats are winning, but yet they don't win elections that much as they should because they don't put out their message. There's this, there's this, as Michael said, like we need to be above the fray. You are in politics. Politics is an art of war. And if you're not comfortable fighting, if you're not comfortable putting

out your message, you're going to lose when you shouldn't lose. So I think even during the Obama years, some years particularly when Obama wasn't on the ballot, I do think Democrats lost more than they should have because they weren't aggressive enough. And Republicans will go after the message all day, every day and five times on Sunday. We better. I do believe that Democrats are likely to win this election, but we shouldn't only win elections when we're going against like the worst person to ever be in the Oval Office. We ought to be able to win elections that are close to.

Yeah, I mean, I just don't again, I don't understand that. We've created this segment on this show where we where we run these online ads every day. In fact, we actually did a two-hour show on Memorial Day of nothing but these ads. So we have a whole folder that we've created which has all of these ads in it. And I just sit here and I look. In fact, so here's the deal. We just played for you the the ad that the Lincoln Project dropped when it came to Mitch McConnell. This is them yesterday hitting Trump on the on Veneman who retired. It was improper for the president to demand an investigation into a political opponent. It would undermine our Ukraine policy and it would undermine our national security.

Lieutenant Colonel Vindman escorted out of his job and off the White House grounds. Vindman complied with the House subpoena, told the truth as he saw it, and last week was fired from his National Security Council job, escorted from the White House grounds. As a decorated wounded war veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth. I'm not happy with him. You think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not.

Lieutenant Colonel Vindman. President Trump is sending a signal that the Pentagon should look into disciplining Vindman. We sent him on his way to a much different location. God, I'm sitting here today in the U.S. Capitol, to leave the Soviet Union and come here to the United States of America in search of a better life for our family. Do not worry. The military can handle him any way they want.

I will be fine for telling the truth. Now, that was the Vietman ad. Right before, hey, two days earlier, they dropped this one. He's going to be your president. Why do you think you're losing, Donald? Because some people don't love me, maybe. It's because you've got a loyalty problem. Loyalty problem. They're in your campaign. They're in your campaign. Your White House. White white house white house in congress congress even your own family your own family they whisper about you they whisper about you they leak spin lie they tell the media they're smart and you're out of control and you're out of control you can't focus can't focus that you're mentally and physically weak that you hide in your bunker, scared and shaky. Laugh when you can't walk down a ramp or drink water.

All of them are in your campaign. The ones you know and the ones you don't know. Whispering about you. They expect you to lose. They want the media to like them. And to get one last big payday before you go down. With so many leaks, you probably. Anyone.

Donald. It's everyone. It's everyone. Now, hitting him on loyalty. Again, you talking about that one? Remember that speech he gave last Saturday? Mount Rushmore. This was the day before.

Action over another is itself a frightful despotism. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. It is of little use for us to pay lip loyalty to the mighty men of the past unless we sincerely endeavor to the mighty men of the past unless we sincerely endeavor to apply the problems of the present, precisely the qualities which in other crises enable the men of that day to meet those crises. Four of America's greatest presidents are carved into the living rock of South Dakota's

Black Hills. They are a memorial to those who served with honor, led with courage, and took this great nation into the future. Their words, deeds, and legacies will survive time immemorial. America's worst president will neither be remembered nor revered. The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising. Now again, that was just three days ago. Three days ago.

A couple days before that, they dropped this one. Saying he's the one to take on China. They can't wait. They know who Donald Trump is. Weak, corrupt, ridiculed. China beats him every time. No matter what he says, China's got his number. Trump even begged Chinese leader Xi to help him win re-election.

Like a dog. Trade negotiations? Trump's tariffs? They laughed as Trump hit American families with higher taxes. Trump's trade war, farms and small businesses went bankrupt. China's military expanding without American leadership in the region. President Xi, Trump rolls over for China's president every time. Is it Ivanka's secret deals in China? Is it the 250 million debt Trump owed the Bank of China it doesn't matter comes to Trump China can't lose the Lincoln Project is responsible for

the content of this advertising a couple of more than again I mean I'm like you see these and you see how they fire these out rapid, how they're in the news cycle. When something happens, they're on it. They're just, again, coming after him over and over and over. I'm trying to find the probably my favorite one they did was on the Confederate flag. That one, I mean, you talk about uh just you know just spoke volumes um you know in but donald trump had a different vision of america that was the message the president of the united states shared with millions on a day when the heart of the confacy finally lowered its flag, Donald Trump was

still fighting the Civil War. America is better than Donald Trump. We want to move forward, together. This November, say no to Donald Trump's racist anger and division. Say yes to a good man who can help us heal. Rob, it's a digital world we're living in. Yeah, it's a digital world. And to Amisha's point, not only is the data that Democrats rely on outdated, even if it was applying, it doesn't matter now because now you can target exactly to who you want to target to. So you don't have to worry about people that aren't receptive to the message.

Just don't target them. So I really don't understand the whole philosophy of not being aggressive. And we should be more aggressive. We should be micro-targeting. We should be figuring out ways to motivate African-Americans still not taking their votes for granted, looking at African American men as well and women and figuring out how to target all of our base and people that will make a difference in this election. So, you know, people that think that this election is pre-decided, I think the other side is, as I've said before, they are willing to do anything and everything. If you're a Republican,

you do whatever you want to. If you're a Democrat, you try to stay within a set of policies and rules that are so narrow that you can't even sometimes win. So I think I'm not saying we be unethical. I do say we fight and we fight hard and we hit and we hit to make sure that they do not get back up, especially when you're dealing with something at this moment that is so we're talking we're not even talking about politics. We're talking about making sure that the nation is to be America, at least in the basic ways that we know, even though that wasn't perfect. Donald Trump has just blurred all lines. He's done things that people didn't think anyone could ever get away with and still hold power. If he can do this and still hold power, I don't know what that means for the future of this nation. I really don't.

Michael, the thing for me about all of this, I go back to... I don't care what any poll says right now. We remember the Titans when he said, Herman, leave no doubt. That's where Democrats should be. Leave no doubt. I agree, because if it's close, who knows? It can't be close. Folks, like, for example,

we were social distancing, but I was talking with a couple of protesters down by Black Lives Matter Plaza here in D.C., and one of them said that they were not going to vote because, you know, there's two old white men. And I said, as hard as you're out here protesting, if you stay at home, I'm just telling you that's a vote for Trump. Just telling you. Now, you hate him, you despise him. But if you stay on your couch to try to make some point, it's a vote for 45. I'm sure he's heard that before, but we have to keep telling some of our folks that are so frustrated with the system

that they're just going to stay at home. You can't do that. And then maybe you turn on an old video of some dogs or some fire hoses on folks' grandparents and saying they did this and sacrificed for you to vote. So maybe that'll help. Either way, obviously, the election is super important. People have to vote. They have to get out. As you know, Roland, Vice President Biden taught me in law school. I'm a little biased. I think he's a great man. I think he's going to be a great president.

Yeah, can I speak to a little bit of what Mike said just really quickly? Mike, I would just say we have to point to issues that they care about and let them know it's not just about being anti-Trump. It's that these issues of criminal justice reform, when it comes to Supreme Court justices, when it comes to these judges, these are close issues. And if we're able to appoint people, we have, so what the Democrats should be doing is micro-targeting people like that, that are protesting, that are out there, that may vote, that may not vote. We ought to be messaging them.

And I don't think that's happening. So I do think that's vitally important. I agree. I like that. It's women's reproductive rights. It's workers' rights. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Amisha, well, y'all talking at the same time.

Amisha, then Michael. Oh, I was saying that it's more than just criminal justice reform. I think that the Trump administration and the Republicans are counting on pulling away black male voters specifically around having messaging about criminal justice reform. Whenever they talk to black people, this is a message of criminal justice reform. be mindful that our judges, those judges that are being appointed at the Supreme Court level, as well as other federal judges who have been appointed at higher rates by this president than any president in this nation's history, are also there deciding whether or not women have the right to choose, whether or not birth control is covered by their employers, whether or not you're going to have disability rights, whether or not you're going to have health care and health care for those who have pre-existing conditions. These are things that matter.

It exists beyond just criminal justice reform. As important as it is, a lot of that is decided at the state level from your local leaders anyway. But we also have to be extremely mindful of the fact that when we talk about judges and the judiciary, the whole of what it encompasses. Michael, go ahead. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Michael's next.

Go ahead, Michael. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold up. Michael's next. Go ahead, Michael. So, no, thanks, Rob. So it's, you know, it's so challenging to try to figure out messages. When I say we, folks that are a little more experienced in life, sit around tables and talk about the kind of messaging that works or doesn't work, targeting your constituency, making sure you're hitting them with the right. The challenge is, how do you capture their attention for that 60 seconds? What can you get out? What I chose to do, Rob, and I agree with you 150 percent. I agree with everybody on the panel what you're saying. But when I had 60 seconds with this young guy, I didn't have time to talk about judges, talk about health care.

I had time to tell him one thing. You're trying to make a point. And if you stay at home, it's a vote for 45. So I totally understand what you're saying. a different setting. Like we all speak to college, college classes and, and to folks at schools, we have a little more time to walk them through, to do analysis. But in a situation like that, I had 60 seconds to get them. You can do, you can do a dude in 60 seconds. I mean, look, I, hell, I put three issues in 60 seconds. It's just, it's just a matter of, and like the judges, hell, I can nail that sucker in 30 seconds. It's just a matter of, like, the judges?

Hell, I can nail that sucker in 30 seconds. You know, again, but the argument has to be we have to learn to communicate with people on what they care about. So for me, so when I talk to somebody, I say, what's your number one issue? What are your top two issues? And then I connect the dots that way. Rob, go ahead, final comment. And Roland, and the point, Mike, I agree with what you just said,

but the point Roland just said is we can do this. Like the technology exists that we can figure out what is it that you care about and target the message to them that way. That's exactly what Donald Trump did, by the way, in 2016. And that is why he won with a whole lot less money, micro-targeting his message to what people want to hear and make sure that the message

is tailored to the right person, found at the right time, at the right moment. That can't be done. It should be done. Well, I'll tell you what, out of all those Lincoln Project ads, probably my favorite, this one right here, probably because of the announcer who they picked. The men who followed this flag

150 years ago knew what it meant. Treason against their country. The death of the United States. America defeated the men who followed that flag. Those with honor surrendered and cast it aside forever. So why does it keep showing up today

at events supporting Donald Trump? And why does he call the folks who carry it very fine people? I think there's blame on both sides, but you also had people that were very fine people. What does it say that they're all in for Trump? What does it say that he won't condemn the flag of hate, division, and losers? For us, it says this is a time for choosing America or Trump. Last point I'm going to make here, folks, is real simple. Republicans have been excellent at bumper sticker slogans. The reason they have, to Michael's point, Democrats love the long explanation. They want to talk with a thesis. They want to talk with paragraphs, with white papers.

Republicans talking bumper stickers. That last part of that ad when they said America or Trump. That's how their framing is. Y'all, that's excellent messaging. Got to go to a break. We come back. A lot of these people, I say talking, they all over Twitter, all over these places talking about Will and Jada and the Red Table Talk,

Jada the Chief, all this other stuff like that. But we're gonna have a quite different conversation. I'll explain next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You wanna support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfil filtered.com All right, folks, you know we support black-owned companies right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Well, Seek.com is one of those companies. Mary Spio, she is the founder. She is the architect, the inventor of these two products here. These are virtual VR headset where you can pop your phone

right in. You can watch a 360 degree video right from your phone with this particular headset. You can also go to their website, seek.com, and look at the programming that they have that's also virtual reality. They also have these great headphones right here, folks. While you listen to music, if you're a gamer, you can also do that. 360 degree headphones, 4D. Trust me, you don't want to miss it. All you got to do is simply go to and use this promo code. If you want to get either one of those items, go to promo code is right there. RMVIP2020. RMVIP2020. Pop that in. We'll allow you to be able to get the products. That's how you can support them and how you can support Roland Martin Unfiltered. And so again, seek.com, C-E-E-K.com.

All right, folks. So how should I set this up? I'll set it up this way. Y'all know, so let me just be real clear. On this show, I don't give a damn about celebrities in their personal life. Let me be real clear. When y'all watch this show, how many times have y'all seen me talk about a celebrity that's gotten divorced? How many times have y'all seen me talk about, which the answer is zero.

How many times have y'all seen me talk about, which was the answer is zero. How many times have y'all seen me talk about a celebrity who they're dating? I get a trip out of these stories where they say, oh, so-and-so had a surprise wedding. What a surprise to them. Yo ass, you didn't have to know what was going on. That to me is something that always happens. And so that's been my deal. I don't do that. If you want to watch that stuff, you can go to E! Entertainment, to these other platforms or you want to. So when the story came out, what, a week ago, where some dude, I don't even know his name.

What's his name? Alfonso. Who's the dude? Ariel. What is it? See, his name is August. I don't know who his name. What's his name? Alfonso. Who's the dude? Ariel. What is it? His name is August. I don't know who the hell he is.

I ain't never heard of him. Okay? So he sat down with his interview with Angela Yee and talked about how he went to Will Smith and get his permission to basically have an affair with his wife. Okay? Story blew up. Everybody named Mama was talking. Everybody was going, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Everybody was going, y'all, I don't give a damn i don't talk about on social whatever so when jada pecan smith said now it's

time for me to go to the red table oh everybody's like oh my goodness oh my goodness what's she gonna do so this afternoon she dropped it and i said when i saw pop up on my twitter feed um it had popped up seven minutes earlier. And it's a 12 minute and 53 second video. It's a heavy one. It's an honest conversation. And I was like, wow. Now, again, I don't give a damn what people's personal life.

I reached out to Will and Jada. I'm not going to tell you what I said. But what I will say is this here. It was something that I think people can learn from. Because I think what happens is there are a lot of people who get caught up in salacious details in a celebrity, but they're not actually paying attention to how it impacts them. Here's a bit of it. Because for me, that was the thing.

When Aug first came around, he was really sick. He was really, really sick, yeah. And the outpouring for him from our family was initially about his health. Yeah. And, I mean, we found all those differences, you know, to help pull him through. And from there, you know, you and I were going through a very difficult time. Yeah. And we decided—

I was done with your ass. Yeah, you kicked me to the curb. I was very difficult time. Yeah. And we decided. I was done with your ass. Yeah, you kicked me to the curb. I was done with you. Yeah. Marriages have that, though. Yeah. Marriages have that. Yeah, we basically, we broke up.

We decided that we were going to separate for a period of time, and you go figure out how to make yourself happy, and I'll figure out how to make myself happy. Well, at that particular point in time, it was indefinite. Yeah. I really felt like we could be... So you could see the rest of it. So when I saw it, what I said is, I'm not

interested in the bullshit messiness with people. Why does she do this? Why does this happen? What has happened? What I saw was a cup that could have easily thrown the towel in who separated she talked about having to discover who I am you listen to will what he had to say and then how they have dealt with that, but they never broke up. Then at the end, they have this joke, you know, like rip off a bad boys for life.

They called it bad marriage for life, and they both cracked up. You watch it, you see the seriousness, you see the healing, you see the pain, you hear the funny, Will is hilarious. And both of them are. So I said, we're going to have a different conversation. Bashe Williams is described as an intellectual emotionless. And so on. Certified. Got credentials.

Bashe, how you doing? Good. How are you? So, again, the salacious, the celebrity crap is irrelevant to me. Right. affairs or they have affairs and they don't separate or even if they have a marriage, they don't have affairs, but two people stop communicating. They grow apart. One person is going up. One person is going down. One person is going through depression. Other person doesn't see it. And what I, and when I watched it, I literally said, man, if I gave a lecture series I probably could create a seven part sermon series or lecture series out of just that 12 minutes and

three seconds right right they were able to capture the relationship recovery process so he talked about you think about when when couples have infidelity in there. A lot of times the one who was cheated on, they want to know the details. So you saw Will asking her several times. They need to know what happened. And allowing Jada to kind of express herself in the way that she needed, although she used the word, I forgot what she was using. She was using entanglement. He was like, what's entanglement? No, I'm saying we got to call it what it is in order to really connect with the partner that you hurt.

And we don't know what that conversation was offline, so it might have been a different conversation, but the way that she prettied it up or the way that it sounded, the way that she needed to say it in order to make it OK for her to express the transgressions that she said that wasn't a transgression, but the infidelity within the relationship. But they were able to capture several levels of their relationship, like you said. The thing that I think and again, I I do not talk about celebrity stuff, but what I want this audience to understand, the people who are on YouTube, the people who are on Facebook, I want them to watch the interview and not focus on Will and Jada. But I want them to watch it and then begin to ask themselves the questions. Hey, am I in a relationship? Am I in a marriage

where I've grown distant? Where I've forgotten who I was? Where I need to rediscover who I am? And then in that interview you heard Will say, you need to go figure yourself out. And I think that husband and wives are in that situation where you have to recognize that I don't know what's going on but I need you to go sort that shit out and if you got to go somewhere and do it because

if you don't you heard him say I was through with you that was saying I'm letting you know if you don't go figure that out, this is over. Right. And I think people should be listening to that and then saying, well, how does that apply to me?

Have I gone through that? And I need to say the same thing. Right. That happens so often with couples. I see a lot of couples in my practice. And a lot of men come because the wife says, I need you to figure that out. Or the wife come and say, I need to figure this out so I could be better for my husband,

be better for the relationship. And what they're doing is highlighting the relationship and highlighting the flaws. So we can't necessarily heal or work with our partners if we're not willing to work on ourselves. So if she sat there and said, I need to figure this out, I need to go through this process, she might have been in defense mode anytime that he brought something up because at one point, Will might have offended her. So in relationships, when you have somebody that's there, like a clinician, like a clergyman or somebody else that can really help them separate the problem from the person, then we can address it. But a lot of people walk around like they are the problem. And you talk about forgiveness and there's a difference between forgiving and

forgetting. And forgiveness does not mean that everything is forgotten. Forgiveness does not mean that everything is perfect. Forgiveness is a process. We're taught to forgive, but we aren't taught how to manage the pain of forgiveness because it comes with pain because it doesn't just go away. The next time something reminds you that you're triggered again. So what do you do with that? That's where you learn the different tips and tools when you come to therapy or you find different resources. So I'm gonna bring my panel, I'm gonna bring the panel in right now as well and see, this is, and we lost Michael, but I want to bring in, I want to bring in Amisha and Rob.

And Amisha, I'll start with you. We've got questions for our guests as well. So this is what bugs me. This is what bugs me. So somebody writes, Danielle Lake, what is Roland talking about? They both be doing dirt. She just got put on blast. See, you just missed the whole point of the conversation.

Then somebody over here said, who else doesn't give two craps about Will and Jada? Raise your hand. Rich people with problems. Their life, not my life. That was by Duncan. So it is why all of these people who are running their mouths on Facebook and YouTube right now are not getting this is because they can't act like they are people who they know or even themselves who are having problems. And what I'm trying to get folks to do is to watch the video or discuss the video through another prism and say, this ain't about Will and Jada. You can replace them with your mom and your daddy. You can replace them with your sister. You can replace them with you or your husband or your wife or your cousin.

The fact that what they are describing, not what she did with this other dude, but what caused a breakdown in a relationship. That is what black folks need to be discussing and sharing. So we don't immediately and me should go to I'm out. I'm done. It's over. Absolutely. Roland in America right now, our divorce rate is what upwards of plus 72 percent. That is a ridiculous rate of people who take an oath before God and then destroy a covenant. And in many cases, it is for things that are like what Jada spoke

of. And for anybody who's been following the red table talks up through now, she actually, a few months ago had months ago, had one where she talked about that timeframe where her and will were having a really hard time, that timeframe where she basically needed to find herself, where she was going through a depressive state. And he came to the table and talked about how he, as a man who was doing everything he possibly within his power thought he could do, could not bring her out of it and walked away and told her to go and, you know, do what she had to do to make herself better after trying over and over again and nothing he was doing seemed to work. So I do think that, you know, this falls down a trajectory that a lot of women,

particularly African-American women, go through when you've got the career, you've got the kids, you're doing everything that the public and that, you know, the media gaze tells you you should be doing, but there's still something missing. There's a loss that you feel within yourself. And I think that during that time, many people make decisions they probably wouldn't have made outside of that. And what we see here is a couple who has put more faith and credence in their relationship than they have transgressions that happened while she was going through her series of different bouts with depression. And I think that that can teach us a lot about putting your relationship, putting what you've built ahead of your own desire to get

back at somebody, your own anger, your own set of feelings, because it is a maturity that it takes to even get to that point. See, Rob, I see this dude, Lorenzo Holmes, on YouTube. We don't care. I see this other guy, John Doe, rolling 99% of your viewers don't care about this, honestly. And see, that's the problem right there. One of the problems that we have is let me just be clear we got too many damn people today who quit easy we got people today who don't have

any stick to it ness my parents have been married for 53 years, June of this year. Ain't no, it wasn't all champagne, caviar, great lifestyle. When you start examining people in that interview, they said, man, we've been in this 25 years. What they were saying is we could have easily walked away, got our money, lived our best life, but we chose to fight for this as opposed to walk away. So for John Lorenzo, y'all can take y'all ass on, but there's somebody watching this right now and they can be empowered in terms of getting the right advice and counsel. Rob, I'm going to go back to Bashe. Go ahead, Rob.

Yeah, I actually agree with that point. And I think people like to tear down celebrities because it's something that they can make. They feel better about themselves tearing down other people, tearing down people that look like they're on a pedestal or something like that. But often, if you feel good about doing that, that says more about you than it does the people you're trying to tear down. So, you know, the question I would have for the expert is really, how do people get to the hard part of the self-awareness? Because that seems like that's one of the hardest things to do. You can always figure out a way to blame the other person. I can say, I'm like Will Smith. Well, this is Will Smith's second marriage. I went through a divorce. And

what I often tell people is, I'm not going to blame my ex-wife for why everything went wrong. I have to I have to take responsibility for the things that I did and who I was and learn from that experience and learn and learn to be a better person. How can people take that experience? I think take take that lesson from this experience versus, oh, look at those people. And let me just look at an opportunity to to tear them down because they have problems. See, Bishay, the reason I'm talking about this and giving it this amount of time. Because right now, right now, there are black children who are being negatively impacted by divorce. There are black children. There are the children of divorce who are now adults who are still dealing with the trauma people operating as ships passing in the night. There are people right now who are watching us who in their forties and fifties and sixties and never reconcile the

drama that existed in from their parents and how, what they saw and experienced then translated into their own relationship. And let me be real quick to Rob's point. I was married before six years and things I saw and begin to point out. And I made it clear. I said, look, look, I was married before, six years. And things I saw and began to point out, and I made it clear, I said, look, look, I'm going to do whatever I need to do to save the marriage. That wasn't her view. That's how some folk are. But we're operating in a world, Bishay, where a lot of folk don't want to deal with their personal stuff. They simply want to put it and say, it's all you. That's why when I hear somebody say, all of my relationships have been bad, I go, you know, you're the most consistent point

of all your relationships. Now go ahead. Yeah. I think what happens is when you look at the celebrities, what people try to do is they look for an unhealthy way to normalize the dysfunction in their relationships. So if I'm not a celebrity and I have a dysfunctional relationship where it fails and then I see a celebrity who's all over the news, who's supposed to be this perfect thing I'm supposed to look up to and they fail. So now I can say, well, they're just as bad as me. They're not better than me. So why would I take advice from them as opposed to just listening to the process they went through? Hold on, hold on, hold on, put a pin in that. Cause I want, I want, cause see, I love all these black people. I love, see Michael's back and Michael, we're going to bring you in too. I love all these black people. See, Michael's back.

And Michael, we're going to bring you in too. I love all these black people. They kill me on social media. Oh, Gabrielle and Dwayne. Relationship goals. Did they all forget that Gabrielle and Dwayne broke up? And in between them breaking up, he had a baby with another woman and Gabrielle said, yo, we have to deal with that. Does anybody remember Michelle Obama

saying, yo, Barack, all this, you know, political bullshit, you ain't taking care of the family. You constantly back and forth to Springfield and you coming to Chicago. So all these people who keep hollering, I got to get me a Barack. No. What y'all excited about? Y'all excited about what Barack became. But they don't want to deal with the stuff Michelle was dealing with where she's been honest about the stuff they've gone through.

So I'm just trying to let folk know when you start running around saying relationship goals, you might want to say what stuff have they gone through that has fortified them today. Go right ahead. They recovered. We don't get that part, though. So we see the argument and then we see the happiness. We don't see the steps that people take to get to where they need to be, to rebuild and restore the relationship. We've got to focus on that. But people don't want to do that because it's work. Nobody wants to do the work.

They just want the happy ending. And when they see the hard part, they're willing to run. They run so fast. So there's people who have love addiction. That's people who are excited about the honeymoon phase and they can't do anything. Anything that gets them out of the honeymoon phase means the relationship is over. They just don't have the skills to manage it. They weren't being taught to do it. They don't know how to do it. They don't have anybody to help them through it. And so what they do is run. So we talk about that cancel culture. It's so easy

to go online the next day after an argument and see somebody happy and say, I want that relationship. Not knowing that that couple argued all the way to that photo shoot that you're fantasizing and romanticizing about. It takes work. So we got to pay attention to all sides of the relationship. And when you want to do your self-work, really pay. Don't worry about it. Really pay attention to what the process is. And when you're doing a self-reflection, ask yourself, what patterns have I been keeping in my relationships that's caused me to operate in a certain way?

Not necessarily the other person, but has caused me to either respond to something, to be hurt, to lash out, to withdraw, all those different things that come up in relationships that we really don't talk about. See, Michael, folk love talking about rioting. Idris and his wife, we are seeing a bunch of broken people, our mamas and daddies and grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins and friends and church members and fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, broken folk who are walking around and we're seeing it, seeing, man, y'all don't even talk to each other.

Y'all don't even hold hands. Y'all don't even kiss. Y'all don't even hug. And you like something going on there. But then folks like, no, man, everything good. No, it's not. We see what the hell is going on. And that to me, Michael, what was what I hope if people watch this video, they don't get caught up in the salacious of looking at them as a voyeur of the mola. Let me re-examine my thing. Michael, go ahead. Well, you know, it's interesting and I know you mentioned it. Rob mentioned it. Self-reflection is so important.

And in my first marriage, which for a long time I said, oh, and I would tell friends and family, it was 50-50. We both could have done better. No, I jacked it up. And once I kind of realized that, expressed it, then my ex-wife and I could have a different kind of relationship. We'd have children together. We need to make sure that we have a constructive relationship. But it didn't get constructive until I apologized for jacking up the marriage. And now that I'm remarried, I've learned a lot.

And I hope I'm doing better. I don't need to hope. I am doing better. And so when we are getting advice from celebrities, I think you can put it in a blender with every other piece of advice that you get from your family and friends, pull it out of the blender, and then make the best decisions you can and how to move forward. But you can't move forward positively unless you're honest with yourself. Until you do that, it doesn't matter how many counselors you hire, how many group sessions you sit in, how many online chats you go on.

Unless you're honest about yourself, it's going to be difficult. But, Shea, Va, go right ahead. Go right ahead. Yeah, the same thing. Honesty and vulnerability vulnerability you have to be willing to do that you have to be willing to take whatever response you get from it because it's not really about them it's more about you because if i'm having a relationship with somebody and i did something wrong if i say okay i did it wrong now i can acknowledge the behavior and a lot of people

are walking around with shame and guilt and what i try to get people to understand the difference between the two guilt is tied to the action shame is tied to the person so if i did something wrong to you i'm guilty and i could change the behavior but if i did something wrong to you and i i sit in that and i create shame i'm going to tell myself that i'm going to continue to do this i'm this bad person and now what people do is they blame the other person because they don't want to deal with themselves so there's several different processes that need to happen. Just like everybody's saying, you got to be honest, vulnerable, and you got to be able to talk and really share what you're really feeling and what you really need to work on.

Well, and also I think what this what what it also causes people because I love the people again, you know, uh, you should be bringing this stuff up, but shade, those are the people who don't want to hold a mirror up to themselves. Those are the people. Those are the people who are avoiding real conversations. Those are the people who are in marriages and they had sex with a partner in three or four weeks and they walking around mad pissed off trying to say, yo, why in the hell we ain't had no damn sex? What the hell happened to intimacy in a relationship? Then you got people sitting here who are in relationships who are selfish, okay, who only see themselves staying out late, not calling, doing whatever, rolling with your boys, rolling with your girls as if there's nobody you're also accountable for.

See, and that's why, again, what we're dealing with, there's impact here. Children are also watching. They are modeling what we see. And I think, again, the conversation that Will and Jada had also are factoring in. They have two children together and he has another child. Those things are being factored in. He has previously talked about with his first divorce, how he saw himself as a failure. I said the exact same thing when I got divorced. Luckily, we didn't have any kids together. I didn't have to deal with those issues. But so I need people looking at this, watching this 12 minutes and 53 seconds to act like some damn grownups and say, hey, I could actually learn from something. I can learn from this and not just I'm a third party.

I'm just commenting, tweeting and posting back and forth and being messy. Final comment. Yeah, everything that you're doing in a relationship, you're contributing to it. And if we really can take ownership and act yourself like it's a triangle, the relationship is at the top. What am I putting into that relationship? My behavior. What am I putting into that relationship when I step outside of that relationship, when I disrespect my partner? All those things you have to understand. You put the relationship first because you're not going to like your partner

at all times, but communicate. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Folks are asking us how to reach you. So you got a website and social media? Yeah, website is heartsandmindcounseling.com. You can find me on social media at bachetwilliams.ig. Also, I'm an author of Future Wife,

A Man's Guide and a Woman's Reference to Healthy Relationships, and that has a lot of different relationship tips and tools, and it's aife, A Man's Guide and a Woman's Reference to Healthy Relationships. And that has a lot of different relationship tips and tools. And it's a workbook. It's not just a read. So and I give the clinical perspective as well. So it's like therapy coaching in a book. All right, then.

And we certainly appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, folks. This just in. The Philadelphia Eagles have disciplined wide receiver Deshaun Jackson his comments about hitler on social media earlier this week this is the statement from the philadelphia eagles go to my ipad please this has been a difficult and emotional week for our community and organization the philadelphia eagles do not tolerate hate towards any individual or

group we believe in respect and equality for all races, ethnicities, and faiths. We as an organization want to help be an instrument for positive change. This can only occur through strong, deliberate actions and a commitment to learn and grow. We have had a number of constructive conversations over the last few days, not only with Deshaun Jackson, but also with many other players, members of the organization, and leaders in the community. That has led us to the point where we and he are ready to take the next steps. Today, we have penalized Deshaun for conduct detrimental to the team. He accepted these consequences and apologized. In our many conversations with him, it has also been made clear that we must discuss a concrete plan for how we and he can heal moving forward. He understands that in order to remain on the team, he must also commit to supporting his words with actions.

We have been encouraged by his desire to educate himself, but we all understand that there is still a lot of work to be done. We will continue to assist Deshaun in this process, and we also know that all of us in our organization need to listen and learn more about things that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable to us. We must continue to fight against anti-Semitism forms of discrimination while not losing sight of the important battle against systemic racism. Now, that was a statement from the Philadelphia Eagles. Now, this is what has also been causing folks, because you've had these reactions out here. You had Steven Jackson, who blasted folks saying that Deshaun was right. Then all of a sudden,

he got criticized for his comments. Malcolm Jenkins of the now New Orleans Saints, he dropped a video that also is causing people to chastise him. Watch this. We got to stay focused. All of this back and forth that's going on right now is a distraction. Comments were made and they were wrong. Allow those who were impacted by it to voice their grievances. But we got to stay focused because Breonna Taylor's killers are still not arrested.

We still fighting for justice. We got a lot of work to do and this ain't it. Stay focused. To some folks, it's because this is what he actually said in the post. We can honor the Jewish heritage and trauma while staying focused on what matters. Jewish people aren't our problem and we aren't their problem. Let's not lose focus on what the problem truly is. And that's that black lives still don't matter in this country. Push this energy toward arresting and convicting the killers of Breonna Taylor and burning systemic racism to the ground. Rob, the issues with that, Malcolm Jenkins is one of the biggest criticisms of Drew Brees.

And so what folks are saying is, if you are against hate, then you can't be dismissive when somebody makes anti-Semitic comments, but then you are upset if somebody then says all lives matter. Your thoughts? Yeah. I mean, it was a, it was a, it was a bad statement. It was an inappropriate statement. It was the anti-Semitic statement. And just say that end of sentence, like it is not a, I don't see why we have to choose between saying, okay, we're rejecting anti-Semitism and we're rejecting racism. We can do both and we should do both. And I don't understand why there was even a choice between the two. I think it was a false choice that was put forward and

it was just inappropriate. So they should just, he should just let the apology go and then don't even say anything on the comment. Like, I didn't understand what he was trying to do by adding that by adding that additional statement. The man made it made up, made a bad statement, an anti-Semitic statement. He apologized for it and and he needs to, you know, bear the consequences out from that and move forward. This is, what this is, Amisha, it reveals that there are black folks who don't care about

other folks' pain. So when you hear Malcolm Jenkins saying his part, what he's really saying is, yo, hey, that's Jewish folks' problem, but it's hard for them also then to say, well, I need everybody to care about our pain, but I don't care about somebody else's pain. And when you saw the reaction there, there were some

Jewish NFL players who said, yo, how is it that you want me to stand with you as an ally, but you won't stand with me as an ally? The irony here, Roland, is that this isn't a new revelation. There are members of the black community across the country who don't necessarily see a problem when other groups are attacked or other groups have issues related to their religion or their race either. personally. I know his commitment to diversity, his commitment to ensuring that civil rights and justice are definitely things that we continue to see progress in. I think that this was one of those things where he was shooting above his stage and probably should have just kept his mouth shut. It goes to show that there are people who are strong advocates for racial reconciliation with the black community and the white community who themselves have misunderstandings or just speak out of turn when it comes to racial issues with other communities or religious belief issues with other communities. sad, but completely understandable, but also should be taken as a learning moment for a lot of African-Americans who, to be honest, may not see issues when their anti-Semitic statements made or who elevate the African-American experience and some of the problems we've had in this country

amongst higher than problems that other people have in this country, specifically that of the Jewish community. And I've heard it several times personally. That's why I say that, you know, this is a conversation that isn't exactly rare, but it is one that is now being brought to the forefront of American consciousness. Before I go to my Julian Elliman, wide receiver in the NFL who is Jewish, he dropped this video. I want folks to check it out. I've been getting hit up by everyone asking me about this Deshaun Jackson post, and I wanted to take some time before I responded because it's a complicated issue, and I wanted to be thoughtful. I wrote down some of my thinking. I've seen Deshaun play in his career, make outstanding football plays. We've communicated over social media. I've got nothing but respect for his game. I know he said some ugly things, but I do see an

opportunity to have a conversation. I'm proud of my Jewish heritage and for me it's not just about religion, it's about community and culture as well. I'm unusual because I didn't identify as Jewish until later in my life. Whenever I encountered hatred, it never really felt like it was aimed at me. It was only after I was part of this community that I learned how destructive hate is. Anti-Semitism is one of the oldest forms of hatred. It's rooted in ignorance and fear. I remember experiencing a little bit of this hate in 2011 when I was called a kike on the football field. There's no room for anti-Semitism in this. Even though we're talking

about anti-Semitism, I don't want to distract from how important the Black Lives Matter movement is and how we need to stay behind it. I think the Black and Jewish communities have a lot of similarities. One unfortunate similarity is that they are both attacked by the ignorant and the hateful. It's really hard to see the challenges a community can face when you're not part of it. So what we need to do is, we need to listen, we need to learn, we need to act. We need to have those uncomfortable conversations if we're going to have real change. So to that end, Deshaun, let's do a deal. How about we go to D.C. and I take you to the Holocaust Museum, and then you take me to the Museum of African-American History and Culture.

Afterwards, we grab some burgers and we have those uncomfortable conversations. Michael, wow. Wow. All I can say is wow. I mean, I'm not I'm not a fan of the New England Patriots at all. I don't really. But that was impressive. I mean, that's how you fix problems. What he just laid out in a very thoughtful manner. And I mean, wow, that was very impressive. I really don't have really much else to say about it. There's really, I mean, I just, one of the things I was going to say before you played the video was keep in mind during the civil rights movement, it was rabbis and members of the Jewish community that were some of the first white faces standing in those protest lines. Now, clearly, I'm not suggesting there were not others from other denominations, but the Jewish community stepped up very hard and very quickly during the 60s. And going back to Edelman, I'm still thrown by that.

That was very, very impressive. That's a solution. That's how you fix a problem. Folks, let's talk about this here. That is the members of the Atlanta Dream, the WNBA team. They want the WNBA to kick Kelly Loeffler out as being co-owner of that team. She, of course, is a United States senator from Georgia who blasted the WNBA for allowing Black Lives Matter to be written on the court and for players to wear social justice statements on their uniforms. This is a statement the team put out today. Go to my iPad. Black Lives Matter. We are the women of the Atlanta dream. We are women who support a movement. We are strong and we are fearless. We offer a voice to the

voiceless. Our team is united in the movement for black lives. It is not extreme to demand change after centuries of inequality. This is not a political statement. This is a statement of humanity. Black Lives Matter, the players of the Atlanta dream. You see they all signed it there at the bottom. Amisha, not only that, the WNBA did come out and say that Kelly Loffler has not been a governor of the team since, for a couple of years. Now, what people don't understand is the NBA does not call their, call them owners. They call them. And so whoever actually runs the team is the one who attends the meetings,

the governor's meetings that they have. But it's very rare to have all of these players make it clear they don't want to play for the owner. This is not like Donald Sterling was with the Clippers, but this is them saying, we got an owner who's dissing Black Lives Matter. We don't want to play for her and we don't want her in the league. Amisha? Strong move from WNBA players. I think that, you know, this says a lot about them and what they're taking on in terms of advocacy. Kelly Loeffler has been a problem since she got elected. But now that, you know, post-protest, she took an active anti-protest stance during the protest post-George Floyd's death.

And I think that she has continued to showcase how much Black lives don't matter from there on out. And this time she's actually being called on it by a very lucrative team. And that voice is making its way across the country. I'm very proud of those young women who have stood up and said that they don't want her. They don't want to play while she's there anymore. I think that it says a lot for Georgia. I think it says a lot for the WNBA. And to Kelly Loeffler, you can't just go around doing and saying things that are anti that are racist or anti-black and expect to have support and make dollars off of black bodies and black people. Rob. Yeah, Senator Lafley, like, I look at this, like, she is, she can't even, she finds it controversial to say black lives matter.

At this point, you know, people that say black lives matter, as I think Amitia said earlier, it's almost symbolic. You're just, you're making it clear that you're not racist. She wants to make it clear that she is racist. She wants to make it clear that she, it's not even not only not a political statement. This is a humanity statement, as they said. So what she's saying is I don't want I don't want them saying that statement. So she said in a clear line. And this is what Trump is doing. A lot of other people are saying this is clearly where we're at.

We want to show that we are racist. We believe in this stuff and they're making people make a clear choice. And I'm glad that these players are stepping up and realizing the agency of their own power. They need to keep doing it and keep pressing forward because this is just the beginning to get people who can't even admit that black lives matter. We need equity. Like that's just the, that is the,

that is the floor nowhere close to the ceiling. Michael, this is a post that took place three days ago from four days ago from, from the WNBA players association. It was an article luffler opposes wmba's plan to spread black lives matter message the players union said enough out as they should have and um but you know it's just this issue's no different than a lot of these other um united states senators who are Republican senators on the Hill, they're trying to impress 45 and they don't want to get on his bad side.

They don't want him to tweet after she would make a comment about Black Lives Matter. So it's no surprise. It's tired. It's old. And she needs to get with the times, but she's not going to. So just kind of move on this month from my standpoint from one of the first segments on your show tonight i don't even know why we why we give people like her the day because the wmba players did exactly what they were supposed to do let's give we need to give them the courage

no coverage um outside of uh the senator she's just tired whatever all. Alright, folks. Well, look, we certainly appreciate it. Rob, Amisha, Michael, thank you so very much. Actually, you know what? We got one more. You all know what time it is. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. I'm white. I got you, girl.

Illegally selling water without a permit. On my property. Whoa! You don't live here. On my property. Whoa! Hey! I remember. Give it to me right now. You don't live here. I'm uncomfortable. Black man sitting in his car.

White woman rolls up on him. He's like, what do you want? I live here. She goes, no, you don't. Go ahead. Are you good good good right here this lady's crazy y'all i'm at my house i'm at my house no problem no problem

this lady's on my way at my house and i don't live here No problem. This is very easy. On my way at my house, saying I don't live here. This woman is saying I don't live here. This is my house. You crazy lady. Another white lady pulling some old bull crap. Why do you say you don't live here? Why do I live here?

I don't have to wait for my son to come outside. I don't have to do anything you say, lady. Why do you think he lives here? I called the police. Good. She already called the police. Another one of those ladies on TV, on the internet. No, come back. Why are you running? Fuck me. Why are you talking like that? There's children out here. What's wrong with you? I was sitting there minding my business waiting on Chuck to come out and she says I don't live here. I don't have to. Did you hear that? I'm a drug dealer. Wow. Amazing. You see this stuff on the internet all the time,

but you never think it's going to happen to you at your own house. But there it is. There it is. Wow. That's amazing. She wanted to block the door and everything, man. Wow. I can't believe you. I can't believe you. everything, man. Oh,

my God. Michael, these white folks are acting like we're back in South Africa, where you had to present your papers to prove to them your citizenship. Absolutely. By the way, you always do that extra line of research. Did she lose her job or anything? Because I love when you do that with those folks. We're waiting on that. We're waiting on that. Well, you certainly she should be losing it shortly. But Amisha, that I mean, that I mean, that's really what we're dealing with. This whole deal of who are you? What are you doing here?

But where these folks feel they have the right to challenge black folks who simply are existing. It's always completely baffling to me that there is an expectation that a complete stranger who walks up on you, you now owe them some type of residency papers or you owe them, you know, the showing of your lease. It's very, I have never seen a person in my building or around my building that I felt it necessary to go and ask whether or not they live there. I just haven't. So there's something that is within these individuals that gives them some sense of urgency. Yes. No, no, Amisha. Amisha, it's whiteness.

What it is, it's no different than the video that we showed when the brother was just walking his dog and a white woman rolled up. Or the sister who went to go pick up somebody, I guess, put out up there. If you want some dog food, just come and get it. I think it was some notice in the neighborhood and a sister went and picked it up. And then a white man followed her all around. He was like, well, who are you? Where did you come from?

What did you pick up? Show me the dog food. I mean, no, it's whiteness. What it is is, I'm telling you, this is just like during slavery, during Jim Crow, South Africa apartheid. I, being white, have the absolute right to question you regardless of anything. That's what it is. And then call the police when you don't respond. Hold on.

Amisha, go ahead and rock. And then call the police when you don't respond as if you owe them something. I think that, you know, it escalates beyond I'm just trying to figure out who lives here, which is also inappropriate. Now it is I'm going to call the police because your mere existence on this property means that you're illegal. Something you've done is illegal. Yeah, I was 12 years old. The police were called to me while I was playing video games at an actual bowling alley. The police pulled up, assumed and actually listened to the manager of the bowling alley, said that I threatened his life. None of that actually happened. This happens all the time.

And this is the power of social media. This is the benefit. This is being exposed, and it's been allowed to go on. It needs to stop. We need to end it, and this needs to end right now. I'm going to tell you something right now, okay? Let me just be real clear. Anybody white, if your punk ass walk on my property and ask me to prove that's my house,

I'm going to call the cops. First of all, I'm going to call the cops on your ass for trespassing. Let me be real clear. Now, let me tell y'all something in Texas. I'm going to let y'all know. This ain't like, let me be real clear with y'all. That story out of Michigan where they were in the mall and a white woman pulled a gun out on a black woman and her two daughters and her and her husband got arrested. Let me tell you something in Texas.

When somebody stepped foot on your property, you got the right to defend yourself. That's also staying your ground. I'm trying to warn white people. Y'all are going to roll up on the wrong brother or sister and you're going to roll up on the wrong brother or sister and you're going to come get in somebody's face on their property and they're going to shoot your ass.

And they're going to say, you were threatening, you were on my property, challenging me, and they're going to invoke, stand your ground. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. I keep, we do this segment and white folks need to

understand, you cannot keep rolling up on black folk acting like you the po-po and you have the right to demand to see our ID and question that we live somewhere. I'm telling you it's not

going to end well for somebody Michael. I'm telling you it's going to end well for somebody, Michael. I'm telling you, it's going to happen. And the other tip, Roland, you always mention, besides white folks losing their jobs when they act stupid, what do you tell them to do? Turn their phone sideways so you get the full vision? That's right. Turn your phone horizontal or landscape so we can get the full

look right there on the video. Absolutely. That's what we want y'all to do. I'm telling you, look, man, this is, this thing is real. To Amisha's point, they have this whole I got the right to question you.

The woman yesterday, oh, I know everybody who lives in the neighborhood. How the hell your ass know everybody? I'm just telling you. I'm just telling y'all. I think we've got some breaking news here. I got to get y'all

commenting on this real quick. Yep, thug in chief. Thug in chief did what we all expected him to do. Breaking news. So here's the whole deal here. This is the headline on Politico. Trump commutes sentence of longtime advisor Roger Stone. That's the breaking news. It just happened. Roger Stone was sentenced to three years and four

months after being found guilty on seven felony charges, lying to Congress. He is the henchman for Donald Trump. He was supposed to report to prison on Tuesday. He had been begging and pleading for a pardon or a commutation. Well, he got it. First off, Rob. Yeah, I mean, nothing to say except I'm not surprised. This president thinks he's above the law and he wants to do everything possible to show his power. And he has a bunch of enablers in Congress that are Republicans that are saying we don't care about the law. We don't care about justice. All we want to do is follow this man. And he is a dick and he is trying to be a dictator. And he is very, very dangerous. This might not seem like a big deal to people. He technically has this power, but he's definitely abusing this power.

And this is this is a really dangerous president precedent that he is setting. So we we should be very, very, very nervous about this. Michael, the White House released a statement, quote, Today, President Donald J. Trump and executive grant of clemency commuting the unjust sentence of Roger Stone Jr. calling Stone a victim of the Russia hoax that the left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years. Yeah, interesting to me that he did the clemency and not a pardon because he's still a convicted felon. So he just didn't have to relieve and deal with his sentence. So I just find that interesting that he didn't go all the way for his good buddy. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if his advisor said, look, you do a pardon.

That's a whole different ballgame. But the reality is, it's all the same. It's all the same here. And that's what you're doing. And this is what he said. This is also what he said, Amisha. Roger Stone, this was a tweet from Shannon Breen. Roger Stone has already suffered greatly. He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man. The thug in chief strikes again. Roger Stone was treated exactly like he should have been throughout this process. The man was found guilty of over 25 plus crimes. And Roger Stone has been a shady actor from jump. He was a shady actor before he got involved with Donald Trump. And he continued those actions while there.

What this has shown is the high price of loyalty for Donald Trump. When you are loyal to this man, he will move heaven and earth to try to keep you from facing the music in terms of the crimes you've committed. He has commuted or he has used the judges that he packed the courts with to get several people off who have been in associates of his during his administration, people who have helped him with the Ukraine scandal, people who have helped him through, you know, the Russia scandal. And this is just more of the same for a president who believes he's above the law and uses his friends to help him get his way out of things. And then you got people like Lindsey Graham, a senator of South Carolina, who says, in my view, it would be justified if President Donald Trump tweeted to commute Roger Stone's

prison sentence. Mr. Stone is in his 70s, and this was a nonviolent first-time offense. Let me be real clear. Oh, my God. I wish black people got that treatment. No, no. He literally tweeted that. That's why Jamie Harrison, folks, if you're in South Carolina, y'all should be giving him money to beat Lindsey Graham.

Let me tell y'all something right now. Roger Stone is a thug and a punk and he's a racist. That's who Roger Stone is. He is a thug. He is a punk and he is a racist. Okay? You can just Google it. The comments that he made about me and Anna Navarro and then being a punk ass.

What he does is he tells the reporter he apologized, but he didn't have the guts to actually call me personally to apologize. And that's why I rejected his apology. And so Donald Trump chose to commute the sentence of a racist who is also a lying, conniving person. That's who he is. That's why I've been using the hashtag fire Trump in November. All y'all sitting at home right now and y'all sitting here, I don't know. Damn that. What did Dr. Conrad Ward say? Black folks should do everything they can to dump this fool in November. I'm telling you, he's a thug. If y'all think this thug did this four months out from an election? Oh, you do not want to see what this thug Donald Trump will do for four more years if he's in the White House. Simple as that.

Rob, Amisha, Michael, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, please support what we do at Roller Martin Unfiltered. Join our Bring the Funk fan club by going to, of course, you can go to Cash App, PayPal, Venmo. You can also send a money order. Join our Bring the Funk fan club by going to, of course, you can go to Cash App, PayPal, Venmo. You can also send a money order. Our goal is to get 50,000 of our followers to contribute over the course of the year. Right now, we have 9,510. And so, please, we want to get to 10,000 this month.

Then we have 10,000 more to go. Actually, you can give 50 bucks each. Folks on YouTube, it's 3,840 of you. You can give right Folks on YouTube, it's 3,840 of you. You can give right there on YouTube, or you can go to cashapp.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, venmo, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. And of course, you can send a money order to New Vision Media Inc., NU Vision Media Inc., 1625 KS, Suite, Washington, D.C. 20006. All right, folks, as we always end the show on Friday with, today is Friday, right? Damn, it feels like Friday. Damn, it feels like a Friday.

It is Friday. It feels like a Friday. I'm like, dang, my day's been running together with this coronavirus stuff. I don't even know what the hell a holiday is, birthdays. I can't keep up with nothing these days. All right, folks, I will see you guys on Monday. And here is a list of our charter club, all the members of our Breana Funk fan club. Holla! this is an iHeart podcast