#RolandMartinUnfiltered - COVID-19 stimulus package vote; FL Commissioner snaps on mayor over virus; NOLA coronavirus hot spot

Episode Date: March 29, 2020

3.24.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: COVID-19 stimulus package vote; FL Commissioner who snapped on mayor over virus speaks; Texas Lt. Gov says he has no problem risking his health for the economy; NOLA, the coronavirus hot spot no one is talking about; Atlanta shuts down over outbreak fears; WHO says social distancing may not stop the acceleration of the virus; COVID-19 is still showing up on the surfaces of the Diamond Princess; We remember members of our community who have lost their lives as a result of the coronavirus. #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, we have up-to-date information on the COVID-19 pandemic, including more states that are ordering people to be sheltered in place. What is happening with the stimulus bill on Capitol Hill? We'll talk with Congresswoman Karen Bass, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

A Black Florida official goes off on the mayor of his city saying she's not doing enough. He will show you the video, and he'll explain why he put her on blast. Also in Florida, Lieutenant Governor says he has no problem risking his health for the economy. Okay, that makes no sense. Also, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas is an idiot.

Pretty much saying, let's just leave our older parents and grandparents their own devices so they can protect the economic interests of their children in the future what what the hell is going on in new orleans is one of the hot spots in america for coronavirus infections but nobody is really focusing on this nationally all the attention really is on new york we'll talk to a local doctor and atlanta is one of the latest cities declaring a shutdown and the mayor of Atlanta has said they've reached a critical stage

for ICU beds in the city in the World Health Organization says social distancing may not stop the acceleration of the coronavirus. Also, according to a cruise line, the COVID-19 virus is still on surfaces some 17 days later, longer than many people actually

thought about. Plus, looking back at the lives and The COVID-19 virus is still on the surface some 17 days later, longer than many people actually thought about. Plus, looking back at the lives and untimely deaths of some African Americans who have died due to the coronavirus. Folks, it is time to bring the funk, a roll of the mark on the building, let's go. He's got it, whatever the mess,

he's on it, whatever it is, he's got the smooth, the fat, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling.

It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. As we go through this coronavirus pandemic all across the globe,

the daily circus of the White House is taking place right now. Larry Cutlow, the chief economic advisor to the president, is speaking right now. Let's go to the news conference. Assistance program in the history of the United States. Phase two delivered the sick leave for individuals, hourly workers, families, and so forth. Phase three, a significant package for small businesses. Loan guarantees will be included. We're going to take out expenses and lost revenues. As the president said, eligibility requires worker retention. We will maintain the people

eligible, will maintain their payrolls during this crisis period. And on top of that, we will have direct deposit checks of roughly $3,000 for a family of four, and that will bridge to enhanced, plussed-up unemployment insurance benefits that will essentially take those up to full wages. This is one, two, three, four. You know, a strong workforce requires strong business. You can't have a job without a business to work for. And the hope here is that the companies that were operating very well at the beginning of the year when the economy was in good shape we will help them and their

employees get through this tough period so they will come out the other side let's say this later this spring or summer and we'll continue their operations that's the key point now don't forget there's income tax deferrals for individuals and corporations without interest in penalties. There are student loan interest and principal deferrals without any penalties. And finally, I want to mention the Treasury's exchange stabilization refund. That will be replenished.

It's important because that fund opens the door for Federal Reserve firepower to deal a broad-based way throughout the economy for distressed industries, for small businesses, for financial turbulence. Now, the United States Senate, of course, they actually have to actually pass that, and so they're still actually debating that and finalizing those conversations. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made it perfectly clear that the House may very well move on their own. Republicans have really been upset for the last couple of days as a result of Democrats demanding a number of other items be placed in there. In fact, it was quite interesting watching this debate where you had Congresswoman, including

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, angry that they included voter relief in the bill. Well, voting has a has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus. And so, again, that's sort of the nonsense that you're actually seeing coming from coming from folks on the Republican side. And so it has been quite a while. Last 48 hours, as we are monitoring what takes place. I've had a number of people with small businesses who have reached out to me who have said small businesses really need to have serious, serious help when it comes to what is happening with the coronavirus. Here's Senator Cory Booker talking about, again, what needs to happen in this Senate bill. Here we go to my iPad, please.

Maybe hours before a deal is being set, but there's fierce negotiations going on down here. A lot of people are trying to put this into a partisan perspective, but this is about people. I want to give you a couple examples of things that we're trying to push this bill to include more of. The first one is just a lot more support for our hospitals. Hospitals are now in a deep crisis as this wave is coming of a demand on our hospital systems that we don't have a supply to meet. We've got to act from the federal government to get the hospitals a lot more resources so that they can meet this growing demand. I'm in the trenches fighting for things that people might not be thinking through, like increased SNAP payments, help for our towns and

localities. And a big area that's going on right now is just fighting for our small businesses. We see on the Republican side large funds for big corporations. We're trying to put much more accountability and transparency into that, but we cannot allow our small businesses, businesses that are the backbone for job creation in our country, not to have the kind of robust support that they need as well. So there's a lot going on down here in Washington right now. I am fighting every single day to try to talk about things and get things into this bill that frankly we often don't think about. Whether it's a crisis facing people that are in our prison systems right now or even families that have particular special needs, we have a monumental challenge. We cannot meet that through half steps

and half measures. We have to act as big as possible to get the support that our communities, our towns, our hospitals, our people need right now. That is the fight. I'm glad we're making progress. And hopefully by the end of the day today, we will see the progress we need to move this bill forward. All right, folks, there are now 50,982 cases of COVID-19 as of today. That number includes all 50 states and three U.S. territories. At least 655 patients have died. Now, more American states have gone under lockdown with Louisiana, New Mexico, Washington State, and West Virginia issuing stay-at-home orders. Also, what is happening, we talked about what's happening with the cities. A few moments ago, I saw this tweet, the Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, tells the CBS affiliate in Atlanta that ICU units

in hospitals across Atlanta are at capacity, are at capacity. It's one of the reasons why you see mayors and governors asking the federal government for more help when it comes to what is happening with the coronavirus and hospitals are on the brink. But the problem that you have is you have a White House that is so focused on the economic numbers that you have Donald Trump, who is literally, y'all, literally talking about bringing everything back online by Easter. It's April 12th. It's March 24th. That makes no sense at all.

And he was actually at the White House and was speaking about that. But he also gave an interview with Fox News and he's fixated. He's fixated on this idea of Easter. That's probably because his white conservative evangelicals have been telling him this whole deal and listen to what he tells bill hemmer of fox news about wanting to see the churches packed

folks we've got the health experts saying we have yet to see the worst how bad this week is going to be and he's already talking about how we can get this thing back going by Easter Sunday. Listen to this. For the citizens of our country. During our town hall today, you threw out a date where you think America can be working again. And that's Easter Sunday. That's 19 days from now. How did you come up with that day? Well, it's 19 days, but add another seven because we've been doing this now for seven.

So that's from the time we heard about it. Seven to nine. From the time we, yes. So from the time we close it up. So you could add seven to nine. Look, Easter's a very special day for me. And I see it's sort of in that timeline that I'm thinking about. And I say, wouldn't it be great to have all of the churches full? You know, the churches aren't allowed, essentially, to have much of a congregation there. And most of them I watched on Sunday online. And he was terrific, by the way. But online is never going to be like being there. So I think Easter Sunday and you'll have packed churches all over our country. I think it would be a beautiful time. And it's just about the timeline that I think is right.

It gives us more chance to work on what we're doing. And I'm not sure that's going to be the day, but I would love to aim it right at Easter. No words. That's what Donald Trump literally said today after his town hall on Fox News. Here's Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York talking this morning, obviously frustrated. 400 ventilators. Really? What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?

You picked the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators. Where are they? Where are the ventilators? Where are the gowns? Where's the PPEs? Where are the masks? Where are they? Where are they if they're doing it?

And by the way, Peter Navarro, well, we want to work with companies. Fine, work with companies. When what the Defense Procurement Act was about, the country needed materials to go to war. They didn't. When we went to war, we didn't say any company out there want to build a battleship. Who wants to build a battleship? Maybe a couple of you guys could get together and build a battleship maybe a couple of you guys could get together and build us some missiles maybe you think anybody want to build a plane you

know we're gonna need planes they're sending planes at us and they're dropping bombs anybody want to do that that's not how you did it president said it it's a war. It is a war. Well, then act like it's a war. Joining us right now is Congresswoman Karen Bass of California, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Congresswoman Bass, glad to have you on the show. You're from a state that's on lockdown, some 40 million people. That's right. You have more states that are actually shutting things down.

You have counties. You have counties. You have Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, the largest county in that state, ordered a shelter in place. You've got Harris County in the largest county in Texas. You've got Dallas County. It seems as if you have these governors and county and city leaders

who recognize that you have a rudderless operation from the White House, and you've got Donald Trump who's over there talking today about hey, let's have all the churches packed by Easter because it's a special day to me, and he's acting as, and he literally has said, he said in his news

conference that we're almost at the end of this battle. What the hell is he talking about? Roland, I don't... Congresswoman, do you hear me? You were going in and out. Okay. All right. I'm trying to understand. This guy's up... Trump has been talking about we're almost at the end of this battle. What the hell is he talking about? I mean, I think that we know, first of all, well, I mean, he's talking nonsense like he has from the beginning.

He has no understanding of science. We know that through many other things he said in his policies. He refuses to accept that this is a serious problem. Remember, a few weeks ago, it was a Democratic Party hoax to go after him and to destroy his presidency. So it is impossible for him, and we've experienced this over three and a half years, so it really shouldn't be new. It's impossible for him to see the world outside of his own self. And he's thinking about his reelection and how this virus is destroying his economy,

not the fact that over 45,000 people have been infected and a couple of hundred people have died. That is not his concern. Remember, he didn't want the ship to dock because he didn't want his numbers to be messed up. So I don't think that that it should be surprising the stance he's taking. Now, what has happened in our country, though, is that the governors, the mayors, the county executives, just as you have described, they have stepped up. They are the ones that are leading. So there is no national coherent leadership. There is only leadership from the states, the counties and the cities. Now, we're fortunate on the House side because to the extent that there is national leadership, it's coming from Speaker Pelosi. It is not coming from the Senate side at all,

and it's not coming from the Republicans. So right now, we're waiting to see what's in the Senate bill, but we already know that it's going to be a huge bailout for major corporations, and we're not sure how it's going to help working people. And so you have Republicans who are very angry at Democrats saying that Democrats are trying to load this bill up with all sorts of things. And frankly, they've been quite indignant on the Senate floor saying that this needs to be passed right now. Well, we are trying to load it up. We're trying to load it up with benefits and policies to help working people. I mean, they want to give everybody a check, which is fine. Give me a check. But if I'm unemployed, what does that check do? That

check pays a couple of bills, and then afterwards, I'm homeless. So we're talking about doing a variety of things. We're talking about giving money to community health centers. We're talking about making sure that unemployment insurance extends to people for longer periods of time and at higher amounts. We're talking about grants to community-based organizations. We are looking out for folks who are not the millionaires and billionaires. And I do have to say that we know that even some senators were able to, it appears now, maybe I'm wrong, but why did they sell their stocks? So for us, it is not just about the 1%, but it is about the American people. We have to worry about our historically black colleges and universities. We have to worry about the students that don't have any place to go when the dorms close. Those are the issues we're worried about.

So if the senators or the Republicans want to accuse us of loading the bill up, they're correct, but we're loading it up for working people and working families. You talked about HBCUs. I believe the Thurgood Marshall Fund, I saw a press release just a couple of days ago, actually it was yesterday. And I think that what they, matter of fact, here it is, they're asking Congress to allocate $1.5 billion in emergency Title III and Title V funding to assist HBCUs as well as minority serving institutions. They say, quote, language unveiled in the Senate bill last week includes some helpful regulatory and payment relief for institutions,

but simply does not do enough to provide financial relief for schools. Well, we were calling for a much higher amount than that. We were calling in the we I'm referring to as the Congressional Black Caucus. So we have our own proposals that we're putting forward. And I'll make sure that you have those proposals. Okay, Roland? Because here's the reality. We are going to wind up voting on a Senate bill, and it is going to be very deficient. But what we do know is that there's going to be one, if not two, more bills after this. And here's where we would really like to ask for your help, because all of the civil rights organizations, the faith-based community,

all the sectors of our community coming together with a proposal that we're all fighting for. But we want to start fighting for it now. We don't want to fight for it while the package is being written. Now, of course, we're going to push to get everything we can in this bill, but I want us to view it from two levels. One, fight for today, but also fight for next week. So I would love to get your help in that. We certainly do all the help that we can give, and so certainly let us know.

And, you know, look, we're focused on this. We're live every single day trying to give information to our folks because frankly, I mean, look, I swear if you look at cable television, you don't think there are any black experts on any of these topics. I mean, I'm talking about doctors and infectious disease experts. So we've been having them every single day because we got to make sure our people, and look, a lot of our people are also dying. And so I'm going to be talking about a little bit later, you know, prominent African Americans, a guy I went to college at Texas A&M with, who played basketball. I mean, many of us are dying. So these people out here saying black people are not getting coronavirus are absolutely idiots.

And New Orleans is really being devastated by this. We'll be talking to a doctor about that a little bit later as well. Right. That's right. All right. Congresswoman, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, what was happening, Anthony Fauci was just at the podium answering one of the questions about this timeline that Donald Trump wants to have. Let's see if we can go back to this news conference and hopefully we can have some truth. But Donald Trump looks like he's at the podium, so we can expect lying. Direct assistance, roughly $4 trillion in Federal Reserve lending power. Again, it will be the largest Main Street financial package in the history of the United States. All right, so we're going to actually do a reset of that.

Again, I told you what Trump has been talking about. I mean, he's literally talking about hopefully having everybody back at work targeting Easter Sunday. I'm telling you all, it's his white conservative evangelicals who are putting that date in place. You had this mega pastor down in Louisiana. They had almost 2,000 people at a service. I mean, these people, y'all, Louisiana has one of the highest infection rates in the country.

These idiotic white conservative evangelical pastors are having these people show up for church service like it's not even happening. Now, you have all these people who are complaining about what's happening in New York City, which is becoming a true hot zone. Now you've got people who are leaving New York City, who are traveling to Florida and all these other states. And Fauci, I'm going to play in a second. He said they might be impacted. Let's go back to the news conference right now. They have very big sections of Texas where, you know,

it's like numerous states, frankly, but we can have large sections of, if we want to do it that way, we can have large sections of the country open. I think it's very important that we start moving on that and start thinking about it because our country wants to be open. Our people want it to be open and they want it. They want their raring to go. And I think it's one of the reasons that we're going to have a tremendous bounce back. I think it's going to go very quickly. Also, I want to thank while I'm here. OK, let me explain something to y'all. Go to go to a split screen like we did yesterday. Henry, here's what you're dealing with. Like a monster was happening. Here's what you're dealing with, so I can monitor what's happening. Here's what you need to understand. There is no

national shutdown. Let me say that again. There is no national shutdown. Donald Trump keeps talking, and he's lying. He didn't order a national shutdown. They announced a national emergency. The shutdown

is a result of governors, county leaders, and mayoral leaders who recognize you have to be able to slow this pandemic down. Of the 19 or so states, around 20 or so states,

right now, I think this thing is over, of the 20 or so states, it represents 158 million Americans. Sheltered in place. This idiot is literally talking about, oh, let's just get back to normal because he is fixated on the stock market.

That's all they care about. It's the stock market. It's the stock market. It's the stock market. That's all you hear. The stock market. And then people say, well, you know, if you look at the numbers, the death rate may be about 1%. So we're good with that. But you have the doctors who are saying, slow this thing down. We've got to keep these provisions in place to do so.

In a second, I'm going to play uh what uh dr fauci said uh again talking about tests and hot spots around the country here go to my ipad testing and how that has really changed the complexion of the approach that we're going to be able to take we write you know testing was an issue we had many questions of testing in this room for a number of times now Now that we literally have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of testing out there, there are a few things that we can do with that. One of the things is that when we make policy about what we're going to be doing with the rest of the country, particularly those areas that are not hotspots, we need to know what the penetrance of infection is there. So we need to put a light on those dark spots that we don't know.

We have to act policy-wise on data. And we're going to be getting more data, a lot more data. The other thing is that the areas of the country that are not hot spots, that are not going through the terrible ordeal that New York and California and Washington state are going through, they still have a window of significant degree of being able to contain. In other words, when you test, you find somebody, you isolate them, you get them out of circulation, and you do the contact tracing. When you have a big outbreak, it's tough to do anything but mitigation. We have an opportunity now that we have the availability of testing to do that. So you're going to be hearing more about how we can inform where we're going, particularly because we have the ability to test.

The second. So you're hearing what they're trying to break down when talking about the testing. The problem that we still have is you just heard it yesterday when at the news conference they said that it only processed 250,000 tests. That's it. 250,000 tests. We still are at a point where we do not know how significant this is. I told you what is happening in New York. I told you that they're at max capacity for ICU beds in Atlanta. I told you what is happening in Louisiana. And you've got Donald Trump who's acting as if, hey, let's just hurry up and get this thing. Y'all, the man literally said today, we're almost at the end of this. We're almost at the end of this.

I'm trying to figure out in what world. In what world are we almost at the end of this? That's not what all the experts that we've had on, that's not what you've been even hearing from the experts in these news conferences. I have no idea to explain, again, the lying that consistently happens and what is going on from this administration so bringing my panel right now joining me via Skype Michael

Brown former vice chair Democratic National Committee Finance Committee Kelly Bethea communication strategist Mel Abdul Republican strategist I'm gonna start with you Michael again as I'm as I'm looking at looking at this and I'm looking at numbers, I'm looking at what's happening in New York City, and we're seeing the numbers there. We're seeing what's happening in the state of Louisiana. We do not have a full handle on where we stand, yet Donald Trump literally,

a few moments ago at the news conference, talked about how we're almost at the end of this. He's clearly, besides being an impeached president, a very inept president. And he got off on the wrong foot because he was hoping that maybe only one or two cases would come to the United States from China or from wherever. That clearly wasn't the case. It was too late for him and his administration to put in the kind of procedures you need to then mitigate, as Tony has been talking about all week. And so without the processes to mitigate, the spread continued.

And then it was about spin. And then it was about spin. And then it was about his supporters. And once he gets into the political realm with him, you can forget all rational thought. And that's what you've been talking about today. Nothing's rational. And so from this point on, we're all going to be playing catch up. April 12th, he's going to turn the thoughts back on. I don't know how people, especially especially some states aren't going to just let churches fill up there's still going to be type of spacing whether it's in grocery stores pharmacies

hospitals well hospitals are going to be overrun and then clearly churches and synagogues and mosques. Kelly, I'm still trying to put my arms around him coming out today saying his target or timeline is Easter Sunday. And he's already talking about wanting to see all of the churches full when if you his own surgeon general said on Monday this week is going to get going to be a very bad week no I am thoroughly disgusted by this president on a regular basis, but for him to use religion, specifically Christianity, because that is the predominant religion in this country, to try and garner some type of support and be like, oh, I'm trying to get churches open as a way to appease and appeal to the evangelical Christian community, it is blasphemy at its highest level. Because first and foremost, you don't need a church building in order to have church. If he were a Christian, he would know that. So for him to say that, oh, I want all the churches open and I want, you know, pastors to garner congregants and all these things.

But it's absolutely ridiculous. God would want you to stay ridiculous. God would want you to stay home. God would want you to be healthy. God would want you to serve him in any capacity that is going to help others. You being in a building does not preclude you from serving God. So let's just get that out the way right now. It's clear that Donald Trump isn't Christian. If anything, he's more of a troll. And we've known this for years. But for him to use a religion that I ascribe to, that I have been following since birth, basically, it's beyond insulting.

And what's even more insulting is that churches are actually following him. They're actually having service, like these mega churches, like you said, in Louisiana. There is no way for you to truly social distance in such a way that will help thousands of congregants be healthy within your vicinity. You need to stay home. You need to open up your Bible from home. If you want to see your pastor, cite, you know, something other than being in a building, because that's not going to help this crisis. Just because you don't know people who are dying doesn't mean that people aren't dying. So step outside of yourself and actually contribute to the greater good.

Malik, I want to, before I go to you, I want to play this video here. This is Dr. Fauci at the podium. He's talking about, again, how this thing is reaching critical mass in New York. And they're trying to get people not to leave the state because they could likely spread this virus around the rest of the country. So go to my iPad, Henry. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I want to just talk very briefly about two or three things. First, the issue of testing and how that has really changed the complexion

of the approach that we're going to be able to take. We write, you know, testing was an issue. We had many questions of testing in this room for a number of times. Now that we literally have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of testing out there, there are a few things that we can do with that. One of the things is that when we make policy about what we're going to be doing with the rest of the country, particularly those areas that are not hot spots, we need to know what the penetrance of infection is there. So we need to put a light on those dark spots that we don't know. We have to act policy-wise on data,

and we're going to be getting more data, a lot more data. The other thing is that the areas of the country that are not hotspots, that are not going through the terrible ordeal that New York and California and Washington state are going through, they still have a window of significant degree of being able to contain. In other words, when you test, you find somebody, you isolate them, you get them out of circulation, and you do the contact tracing. When you have a big outbreak, it's tough to do anything but mitigation. We have an opportunity now that we have the availability of testing to do that. So you're going to be hearing more about how we can inform where we're going,

particularly because we have the ability to test. The second thing is I just want to reiterate what Dr. Birx said about New York. It's a very serious situation. They've suffered terribly through no fault of their own. But what we're seeing now is that understandably, people want to get out of New York. They're going to Florida, they're going to Long Island, they're going to different places. The idea, if you look at the statistics, it's disturbing. About one per thousand of these individuals are infected. That's about eight to ten times more than in other areas, which means when they go to another place for their own safety, they've got to be careful, monitor themselves.

If they get sick, bring it to the attention of a physician, get tested. Also, the idea about self-isolating for two weeks will be very important because we don't want that to be another seeding point to the rest of the country, wherever they go. And then thirdly, just one comment about drugs and the testing of drugs.

Folks, so Malik, does it make sense, again, to have a Surgeon General saying how difficult this week is going to be? You look at the numbers exploding in New York. You look at what's happening in New Orleans, to have Donald Trump say today at the podium that we're almost at the end of this, where in the hell is that coming from? Yeah, I don't think it's helpful for the president to really get into dates. I do think that part of the reason he's done that

as of late now is because there have been many questions asked. I imagine that many of the business owners that he speak with would want to know some type of time frame that we're looking at. But I think he said something that was absolutely important and that a lot of people should really take into consideration here. Donald Trump can give whatever date that he wants. He can say that the date should be next week. But as you pointed out, these are decisions that governors and local leaders are actually making. Donald Trump doesn't dictate when states decide to get from under their stay-at-home designations that they have for their state. So Donald Trump, I don't think that he is

helping the situation in the sense that he's giving out dates like this, you know, just, you know, random dates because that's essentially what it is. But by Easter, it would have been almost 30 days that we would have been under this type of national situation, not the emergency itself. But I don't think that, you know, giving a date like Easter, that's a, I think me personally, I think that's a very good thing to be hopeful that that date is when it's over. But the experts that we have around the president, and as I've been saying, you know, we should listen to what the experts are saying, but Donald Trump himself, he has very limited capacity to do anything as far as even whether, you know, the criticism of of churches being open, Donald Trump

has no type of authority. Right. Even though he has no authority, but it's irresponsible, though. I mean, it's irresponsible to have Trump saying we're at

the end of this and you had your Surgeon General on Monday, two days ago, 48 hours ago, saying this is going to be the worst week we've had? Yeah, I mean, I absolutely, I don't think that Donald Trump throwing out the random guesses, which is what he's doing, you know, I don't think that Donald Trump is helping it. I think a lot of the problems, you know, from the beginning has really been the PR campaign, the messaging campaign from the White House, as opposed to what the federal government is or is not doing, because the federal government has performed well, but it's just the messaging comes coming from Donald Trump. No, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The federal government hasn't performed well when we were told in the first week of March by the government,

when Donald Trump went down to the CDC that by that Friday, we were going to have 4 million tests. We don't have, we don't have 4 million tests. Well, yeah, well, I think, well, first of all, we have to, and I'm one of those who defends the federal government because, you know, yeah, we could have these conversations about what politicians on television are saying, but I have no doubt. No, I didn't say a politician. No, no, no. I have no doubt that the people at the CDC or any of these agencies really are working their ass off to make sure that we get the information. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Malik, Malik, do you forget?

Let me finish right quick. Saying that there would be 4 million tests. By the end of the week. Yeah, but I'm saying, saying that there would be 4 million tests, projecting that, that is a messaging problem as opposed to a failure of federal government. No, that's not a messaging problem.

He is the federal government. No, that's not a messaging problem. He is the federal government. Donald Trump is part of the federal government. Why are you bifurcating what Donald Trump says from what the federal government is doing? Because the federal government is the one, because the federal government, they are actually responding to it. As I said, Donald Trump can have his own messaging problems, but to act as if that the federal government, the experts that are part of the task force around the president every day, if you listen to the people, the experts who are actually talking about this in government,

they're telling you what the federal government is doing. They just had Attorney General Barr, Attorney General Barr talking about how the federal government is going after things like Proust gouging. I understand that, but what you're imagining... Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, Kelly. Hold on, Kelly. Kelly, I want you to respond because, Kelly, this is exactly what took place. Mike Pence, the vice president, said that we would have four million tests by March 13th. Today is March 24th, Kelly.

11 days later, we don't have 4 million tests. Mike Pence, Kelly, is also the federal government. Everybody is part of the federal government. Everybody that you see on that podium is part of the federal government. It's a general part of the federal government. The president is the head of the federal government. It's a general part of the federal government. The president is the head of the federal government. The vice president is the right-hand man of the head of the federal government. So what's happening is not just a miscommunication issue. It is the head of the federal government lying about what he asked, what the rest of the

federal government, the people who he worked, he represents, the people who worked for him, he is lying about what they are doing. THE PEOPLE WHO HE WORKED FOR HIM, HE IS LYING ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE DOING. HE IS OVER-DELIVERING OR OVER-PROMISING, RATHER, AND UNDER-DELIVERING BY GIVING US MESSAGES SAYING THAT SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN IT'S CLEARLY NOT EVEN AVAILABLE TO US TO HAVE. SO IT'S NOT JUST MESSAGING. IT'S JUST STRAIGHT-UP LYING. IT'S A MISCOMMUNICATION. IT'S A MISREPRESENTATION. FRANKLY, IT'S HARD. So it's not just messaging. It's just straight up lying. It's a in front of a camera and say one thing and a totally another thing happens, that's a lie. That's not, oh, he miscommunicated. No, he's lying.

He's absolutely lying. And the problem is this here. The problem is people are actually dying. You have governors, mayors who are saying, today, he said he signed the National Defense

Production Act, but he won't use it. He won't use it. I'm going to Michael here. Then I'll go back to you, Malik. Michael, again, he says, oh, I signed it. We're using it, but we're not using it. I hope it's not the cynic in me, Roland,

that just thinks that everything he does is political for his base, having nothing to do with what's best for the country. Here's the example. Washington State, New York State are obviously the hardest hit. And California. Louisiana is now obviously trending upwards as other states are. But clearly, Governor Cuomo has taken the lead because New York is just getting hammered. If New York was a red state and had a Republican governor, would 45 be acting like this? Because I'm wondering if everything with him is blue and red.

If it's not a red state, if it's not happening in Texas. And that clown lieutenant governor in Texas talks about he'll sacrifice his own health to get the economy moving again. Shows this cult culture of his supporters and the fact that clearly New York is a blue state with a Democratic governor. I wonder if politics is playing how he's even thinking about who to help. I want to push back on that just a little bit because Maryland has a Republican governor right now, but because that Republican governor does not support Trump, Maryland isn't even getting the support that they need from this president. So whoever is aligned with Trump, period, red, blue, purple, green, whatever.

Though you're right, and I agree with your pushback, Maryland is a blue state. It is not a red state. Maryland is a blue state, but we got a red governor. That's what I'm saying. But it's not a blue state. Sure. It is. I'm watching this thing in real time.

Check this out. This is what was said at the news conference today. Donald Trump on why he couldn't support Speaker Nancy Pelosi's package. Quote, they had windmills in there, Malik. Windmills that killed the birds and the real estate. What do you want me to say? There are reasons. No, not not there that's your guy that came out don trump's mouth that the windmills kill birds in real estate well i do know that republicans have been um in reference to the bill itself that the republicans

have expressed some express discontent no no no i, no. I didn't say Republicans. I'm reading you the quote that Donald Trump literally said. He didn't support it because, quote, they had windmills in there, windmills that killed the birds and the real estate. Well, the bill that we're actually talking about, and there are two things that I think that has actually been conflated. The Senate, which is where the bill is,

and two times that they've actually voted on it, it did not go through the Senate. There is no vote right now. There is no bill that has been voted on or about to be voted on today in the House. There's a draft proposal that Nancy Pelosi actually came up with. I'm aware of all of that. But I'm speaking about the fact that, again, this is literally what his thinking is, which just makes no sense whatsoever. And here's the other deal. Here's the other piece. sense to have the president and the House leadership and the Senate leadership at the table jointly

negotiating? Doesn't that make sense? Well, sure, but as we know, I mean, this is, unfortunately, this is how our government works. Right now, there are discussions being that Nancy Pelosi is having. There are discussions that... No, no, no, no, no, hold up, hold up, hold up.

You missed something right there. That's not... What I said is, doesn't it make sense if you want to have true leadership for Donald Trump to have the House and the Senate? But the reality is this here.

Donald Trump doesn't even want to talk to Nancy Pelosi. Donald Trump is still so petty and bitter over impeachment that he won't even talk to her, Malik. Is that called leadership? Is that actual leadership?

Well, from what I've heard Donald Trump say at the podium is that he would actually be willing to work with Nancy Pelosi right now. No, no, no. White House aides, he will not talk to her. Well, I'm just telling you what he said during the press conference.

But we know he lies at news conferences. And that's fine. You cannot believe him, but I'm telling you what he says. But he lies. And that's fine. You can believe that he lies. No, no, no. Lying is not his lie. That is not fine.

It is not fine that President lies. You can believe whatever you want to believe. No, no, no. That is not fine. It is not fine. That's a crazy lie. You can think. That is not fine. You can believe whatever you want to believe. I'm not believing he lies. We know he lies. He said. So you can either disagree and just not believe what he said. Okay.

That's literally what he said. So all of that that we were talking about with the tax credits, those are things that Republicans are against. Right now. I didn't mention tax credits. I'm talking about wind the tax credits, those are things that, you know, Republicans are against. Right now. I didn't mention tax credits. I'm talking about windmills. Senator Schumer, who happens to be the Senate minority leader, Senator Schumer said that

he's having great conversations with McConnell and Mnuchin. I'm aware of that. I'm aware of that. But the point I'm making is, the point I'm saying is, in a national crisis, you would think the person who's sitting in the Oval Office who had some guts, he would actually sit down

with people on both sides. I gotta talk about what's happening in New Orleans, folks. Orleans Parish has the sixth highest rate of known coronavirus cases of any county in the United States. It's the only county among the nation's top ten that is not in the New York metro area, according to an analysis of the Times-Picayune.

But they have not been mentioned often in national discussions about this. In a moment, we'll be talking to Dr. Corey Hebert, who's the chief medical editor for, actually, he's the chief, he's the director for Dillard University. And so we're gonna talk to him in just a second. Folks, you see this map, go back to the,

I mean, you see this map, go back to that map. I mean, when you look at that, when you look at how significant this thing is in New Orleans, it is causing a huge issue. You look at the ICU beds in Alexandria, at capacity, Metairie, Houma, look at Baton Rouge, Lake Charles.

I mean, it goes down the line. Louisiana is having a serious, serious situation there, and it really needs the attention. But this is also what happens. States, they're saying to the federal government, we need help. And unfortunately, it is too slow in coming to many of these places, Michael. It is, and that's how, you know, I don't know.

I think I've heard a couple times this could possibly be 45's Katrina. I hate to use the reference relative because you're talking about Louisiana right now. But his response, and obviously we know what kind of people are in Louisiana, though it's a red state, you still got a ton of black people. And so we had, you know, and again, I hope I'm not being too skeptical relative to how he thinks things through. But until the Republican governor of Louisiana calls him and says... No, no, no, no, no, no. Actually, actually, no. Part of the issue is, it's a Democratic governor. Oh, no, correct.

John Belair was a Democratic governor. I'm sorry. Hence back, I'm thinking Alabama. Hence back to my point that because it's a... Got it. I guess it goes back and forth. It can be considered purple, but you have a Democratic governor. Right. 45 is not going to do anything to do anything that seems to be helpful.

I want to go to Dr. Corey Hebert, who's down there in New Orleans. Doc, glad to have you on the show. It is very stark what's happening in Louisiana with these coronavirus cases. I remember a couple weeks ago, a friend of mine, she had her son

talk to her into taking him to spring break in New Orleans. And I text her, what the hell were you thinking? I'm like, do you know what the hell is going on in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans? And then when I sent her the story, they booked an earlier flight out the next day to fly back early. I'm like, that's the last place you should be flying to. Right. So this is the deal, Roland. People that don't know their history are doomed to repeat it. You can look back to the Spanish flu in 1918. They had a really bad pandemic going around the United States of Spanish flu, which was the H1N1 influenza virus. In Philadelphia, they knew that

it was coming, but they had a parade. I couldn't make this up. They had a parade schedule and they decided to have the parade. And then in the next six weeks, because they had 200,000 people at the parade, and in the next six weeks, 16,000 people died. 900 miles away, St. Louis got the same exact information. And instead of going on with their day, they actually quarantined and shut everything down. And they only had 100 deaths in the same amount of time. That's where we actually get that flattened curve and that spike curve. So this virus, which is a coronavirus, which is the same type of virus as SARS and MERS. We've been waiting on this. It comes about once every hundred years. And it's so close to 1918, 2020. And we had in New Orleans

a giant parade. And so what's happening now is everybody was one foot away from each other. Everybody was talking, drinking. It was kind of cold outside at some point, rainy. People were picking things up off the ground, putting it on their heads, kissing and, you know, that type of thing. And so this is what we expect. I've been saying this for the last three weeks now. We are expecting the numbers to go up and to go up very rapidly, partly because of the new cases, but partly because we finally got the test. But I need people to really understand that as these numbers go up, you really shouldn't get more and more upset because across the country, the number is going to go up and up and

up because this virus is an animal virus, which means no human outside of China over the last three months has any immunity to this at all. So everyone is having to make an immune response, which means older people who have no real ability to make an immune response are dying. Younger people who have autoimmune diseases or are pre-existing illnesses or hypertension, diabetes, obesity, these types of things, they are also at a very high risk. Now, of course, everyone is going to say, well, my cousin, Pookie, you know, is 35. He died. He's absolutely fine. Yeah, my best friend, Jonathan, was 50 and he was fine and died. Those are and I'm not saying this. Anthony Fauci used these words. These words, those are people are outliers and one offs. You're going to be able to see your friend that did this or your cousin

that did this. But public health as a whole, those people are not going to be the lion's share of people that are going to be dying and having a fundamental difficult time with this virus. Doc, when you hear Donald Trump stand at the podium and actually say we're almost at the end of this, and then when you hear him talking about how it's going to be glorious to have packed churches on Easter Sunday, April 12th, what's your response? That's setting people up for a disaster. Not only is that going to be a disaster, what people don't understand is we have to look at this virus that we don't know much about

to begin with. If we don't do what we're supposed to do, this virus that we don't know much about to begin with. If we don't do what we're supposed to do, this virus is going to go away for the summertime, all right, and it's going to come back in the fall and kill more people or hurt more people. This is something that we have to continue social distancing because it's not an airborne virus. It is a virus that, as I'm speaking to you right now, if you were here, you can't see it, but I'm spitting on you for all practical purposes. When I'm breathing, my respiratory droplets are coming out of my nose just by just talking. That's why we're recommending if everybody stays six to eight feet away from each other, then that won't

land on your clothes. And then you touch your clothes on your face and then touch your eyes and your nose and get in. So the problem is that we have to continue to social distance, but people are not really listening, Roland. And if they don't listen, this is going to be a real problem. And it's going to be a real problem. And this is the bigger issue for black people. This is going to be a real problem for all black people. And this is, I need to hear your grandmother tell me a story. I need to have those recipes. I need that leadership. The young people by and large, 80% of people are going to be absolutely fine. But it's the older people that are going to have these issues.

And we're going to lose a generation of people, of culture, that we're not ready to lose. Well, guys, get the video of Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick Reddy. He said something last night on Fox News that was so sickening, so despicable, that it just made no sense whatsoever. Doc, go ahead and play it. I want to show you all the stupidity of Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick. Lieutenant Governor, I work 12 or 15 hours a day,

mostly from home now, but I travel when I need to. I'm living smart, listening to the president, the CDC guidelines, like all people should. But I'm not living in fear of COVID-19. What I'm living in fear of is what's happening to this country. And, you know, Tucker, no one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that's the exchange, I'm all in. My message is that let's get back to work. Let's get back to living. Let's be smart about it. And those of us who are 70 plus, we'll take care of ourselves, but don't sacrifice the country.

Dr. Abrams, this idiot literally said, hey, old Americans, we'll go ahead and we'll be on our own in order for our kids to have a financial future. So what? The kids don't give a damn about grandmother and grandfather? Big mama, big daddy don't care about their parents? My parents are 72 in Texas. So what am I supposed to say? Hey, you know what? All right, so for the sake of my nieces and nephews, why don't y'all go ahead and die right now?

What the hell? Well, you know what? Look at culturally how that group of people treats their elderly and treats their young people. I mean, this country is the only country that doesn't have paid parental leave. It's the only country that you can't, you know, take care of your children with free daycare. Only industrialized countries. So we treat our children horribly. We put our—they put their family members in elderly nursing homes, by and large, in large numbers.

And they don't even treat their pets well in that culture. So when you see that, that's what they think. And so we and people of color tend not to think that way. We think about living more communally and taking care of our older people. And that's not something that I'm I'm thinking that's just in the literature, you know, I mean I'm not trying to be you know races or anything understand that's that is what we read in the literature that

these communities just do things differently and that's that and that's evident in the in this state. But what to but to be a lieutenant governor and pretty much say let's just leave our elderly elderly citizens out on their own to survive, that to me is sickening. Final comment, Dr. Avery. What is it? I want you to remember this, though. This is very important. I need people to remember, please do not panic. When you panic, it makes it seem like there's no logical thought in process

right now. There are a lot of people actually doing a lot of logical thought, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who I know very well. He's trying to take care of his business. But what I don't want you to do, I want you not to panic because if you panic, you increase your cortisol level. Cortisol is a steroid. It is a fight-or-flight hormone that comes out when you are nervous and upset and anxious. As you increase that level of cortisol or steroid, it makes your immune system go down. If your immune system goes down, then you're more apt to get the virus. So the more you panic, the more apt you are to get the virus. So what I need you to do is I need you to relax in this situation. Stay at home.

Control what you can control. You can control washing your hands. You can control making people take off their shoes before they come in your house. You control how much you eat and what you drink, meaning eat vegetables. Don't drink a lot of alcohol. Don't smoke and get your house. You control how much you eat and what you drink, meaning eat vegetables, don't drink a lot of alcohol, don't smoke, and get your rest. Drink water. Those things are very important. Yes. All right, Dr. Abare. We appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. All right, brother.

I appreciate it. Take care. All right, folks. I'm going to go back to my panel on that one. Malik, as a Republican, what the hell was Dan Patrick talking about? I thought Republicans were pro-life. Like, the hell with the elderly?

Really? I have no idea what your home state's lieutenant governor was talking about. Yeah, but that's my home state, but he's your Republican. That's all right. I mean, your state voted for him, and that's okay. No, they voted for him. I didn't vote for his dumbass. I mean, your state voted for him, and that's okay. No, no, no. They voted for him. I didn't vote for his dumb ass.

I used to do a Sunday show, KPRC called Newsmakers. It was like a Sunday morning show that aired, and Dan Patrick was batshit crazy then, and so no way in hell I would have... He just got crazier when he became a conservative radio talk show host and then ran for the legislature and now is lieutenant governor. And so I tweeted, he's an absolute national embarrassment to any Texan. But, I mean, but to say something like that, hey, yeah, I'll take the tradeoff.

So to hell with our grandparents and our parents to protect, what, the 401ks of people? Jeez. Yeah, this is the first time I heard it when listening to your show. And it's a ridiculous statement to make. I don't, I, normally in these type of situations, you say to yourself,

well, let me understand, you know, let me see the fuller tape so I can understand it in context, but you really can't get around what he just said at that particular moment. It's kind of hard to explain it. So, no, it can't get around what he just said at that particular moment. It's kind of hard to explain it. So no, it's not something, and obviously this is not a Republican thing. He just happens to be a Republican saying this type of stuff, but- Well, he says a whole bunch of other crazy,

batshit stuff, Kelly. So this ain't the first time Dan Patrick has shown how much of an idiot he is. And I don't have any quotes that prove that. I trust you when you say that he said a whole bunch of dumb stuff. Oh, I know. A whole lot. A whole lot. A whole lot. Well, again, I trust you on that. But at the end of the day, it was just really insulting to me because my last living grandparent is 89 years old and she only lives in Baltimore.

I live in D.C. and I can't go see her because I know that I could be a carrier for something that could take her out. I can't go see my mother because she's immunocompromised. And even though she's younger, you know, she she'll be 60 this year. I can't go see her. She can't come see me, even though we live relatively close, because I'm worried that I could be, you know, be the reason that she could be taken out of this world. of a state could take this lightly, either or worse, prioritize money and profit over his constituents who voted for him. It is beyond absurd. It is absolutely disgusting. And he's talking about himself, if you really think about it, like he's in that upper echelon of age where he could be taken out by this virus, too. And he's saying, I'm willing to die for money that I'm not even going to see. And again, this ties back to that whole church sentiment. These are people who consider themselves to be evangelical Christians and following Christ and doing the right thing,

pro-life, all of that stuff. And the last thing that they are talking about, the last thing they seem to be caring about is people's lives. So the hypocrisy is real with this. And I would just urge for people to just ignore it. All right, folks. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced yesterday that she signed a 14-day stay-at-home order

due to the coronavirus pandemic. Aside from exceptions for essential services and businesses, Atlanta residents are directed to stay inside their homes, according to the executive order. The exemptions to the order include essential city services and businesses, grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies, laundromats, parks, the Atlanta Beltline, and restaurants serving takeout. All right, folks, there have been so many different folks who've been talking about, again, what should the reaction be, and then also how should we respond. Social distancing is one of those issues. Now, in a media briefing about COVID-19, the head of the World Health Organization said that self-distancing will not slow down the acceleration of the virus. Check this out. Asking people to stay at home and other physical distancing measures are an

important way to of slowing down the spread of the virus and buying time but defensive measures that will not help us to win. To win, we need to attack the virus with aggressive and targeted tactics, testing every suspected case, isolating and caring for every confirmed case. Well, this makes sense. Now, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report indicates that the strength of the coronavirus can now live on surfaces for more than two weeks. The CDC found traces of COVID-19 on surfaces

in the cabins of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected passengers on the Carnival Cruise Line's Diamond Princess cruise ship 17 days ago, 17 days after passengers had left the cabins. Now, the cabins had yet to be disinfected. While the data doesn't show if transmission took place, occurred from surfaces, the CDC reports recommends exploring that further. Man, talk about just unbelievable.

All right, folks, many of you saw this video of a official, a brother in Florida, just snapping in a meeting because where he governs, they were pretty much shutting the lights off of people and their power as opposed to being compassionate. His name is Omari Hardy. He's a commissioner for Lake Worth Beach.

This took place last week when he confronted the city manager over the city's handling of coronavirus. Man, watch this. Can we do better? There's always things that pop up that we can do better on. And I call the question. I'm sorry.

That's not how this works. We each have an opportunity to speak five minutes. I thought we did. Yeah, the question's been called. No, I'm sorry. And that's not how calling the question works. You need a second and you need to vote on it. Then I have a second for calling the question.

So are you telling me that you're going to keep me from talking right now you've talked all evening look look here you're calling me disrespectful because i've interrupted people but this gentleman has turned off people's lights in the middle of a global health pandemic that's what that gentleman did and you think i'm disrespectful interrupting point of order this gentleman has had the ability to do any number of things. We could have banned large gatherings. We could have closed the beach. We could have put a moratorium on utility shutoffs. I recessed the meeting.

Also not within your power, and the attorney has held that that's true. I recessed the meeting. You came up with new rules at the beginning of the meeting, and then you didn't even want to follow the rules that you came up with. And you took advantage of it. This is a banana republic is what you're turning this place into with your so-called leadership does a recess mean that we will be yes i don't i don't care anything about i don't care anything about this we should have been talking about this last week can we cut off people's utilities this week and made them pay what could have been their last check to us to

turn their lights on in a global health pandemic but you don't care about that you didn't want to meet but every other year you go around and beg people for their votes hey can we uh explain more about your relationship with that guy than you care about the relationship with the people who don't go to work you were done you were done you're were done. You were done. Disrespectful. Disrespectful is what you've done to the working people in the city. I didn't do anything. You failed to act.

I didn't do anything. When you're a leader, you failed to act. You said you didn't do anything. You failed to act. When you had an opportunity. A party for state house. I don't care anything about that. I don't think anybody cares. Does a recess mean that we can reconvene tonight?

Yes. Okay. Is that in five minutes? Joining us right now is Commissioner Omari Hardy. Commissioner, glad to have you on Roller Martin Unfiltered. I'm happy to be here, Roland. Thank you for inviting me. Well, she pissed you off.

That's true. I got heated just watching that exchange again. So you're sitting there, and I take it people were reaching out to you talking about those shutoffs. And what, the city manager, the mayor didn't care? The other council members didn't care? Yes, manager, the mayor didn't care, the other council members didn't care? Yes, that's the way that I saw it. The week before that meeting, actually seven days before that meeting, I attempted to call an emergency meeting of the city commission to give the city manager very specific instructions on how to handle and navigate through this novel

coronavirus crisis. You know, and in Florida, we have emergencies every single year. We have hurricanes, and we know how to get through those. But this is something that's new. We haven't seen it before. And so I felt that the commission, the elected body, the folks who represent the people, needed to give the city manager very specific instructions on how to handle it, how to address utility shutoffs, which is mainly not to do them at all,

and also how to take care, how to address utility shutoffs, which is mainly not to do them at all, and also how to take care of our employees, to make sure that they have paid emergency leave and that their out-of-pocket medical expenses would be guaranteed so that they wouldn't feel the need to weigh their finances against their health. I didn't want any of our employees to wonder, you know, were they going to get stuck with a surprise bill coming out of a hospital or a surprise bill after getting tested for coronavirus. I wanted them to just be comfortable going to get the test without worrying about the financial ramifications. The city manager blew me off. Three of my colleagues blew me off. They didn't want to have a meeting. And the following week, the city manager commenced to shut off utilities to 52 families in a single day. In a single day. And that incensed me. This obviously has gone national. What has happened? Have they pulled back on that?

Did they respond? Or are they continuing shutting off the power of citizens? So thankfully, I was able to alert the local news media as to what was happening with our shutoffs because I was losing inside city hall. A majority of my colleagues didn't want to enact a moratorium on shutoffs. They didn't want to meet. And the city manager didn't want to enact a moratorium or for the city commission to meet. So I just went to the press. I went to the fourth estate. I said, this gentleman

is cutting off people's powers, uh, power. And I have, you know, the evidence that that's the case. And by the time a camera was in front of his face, he changed his tune completely. That was the night before the meeting. But then we got to the meeting and he didn't want to acknowledge anything of what had happened over the week. He didn that building and have a meeting just to say that they had a meeting and slide out of that building without having done anything to protect our workers and also to protect, you know, the residents and the utility customers within the city. And I thought that that was a daggone shame. And so I take it they're not too fond of you blowing the whistle on them. But the reality is is if you're there to serve the constituents, that's what you're supposed to do. Correct. You know, I taught civics for several years. In Florida, every seventh grader has to take civics. And so one of the things that, you know, we teach our students in civics is popular sovereignty. You know, it's the

idea that the power that elected officials have come from the people. And every single election, you get an opportunity to take that power back and to give it to someone who remembers and knows where that power comes from. And frankly, you know, my colleagues, or at least three of them, I don't want to say all of them because Commissioner Herman Robinson was one of those commissioners who, you know, like myself, wanted to have an emergency meeting to address these issues. But three of my colleaguesers who, like myself, wanted to have an emergency meeting to address these issues. But three of my colleagues forgot who put those titles in front of their names. And, you know, what has happened since is that, you know, a light has been shined on this situation that no one knew anything about.

And now what it's doing is it's disciplining the city manager and it's disciplining my colleagues. And they know now that because people are watching, they cannot do wrong. And that was the only way, frankly and unfortunately, to get them to do right. Commissioner Omari Hardy, we certainly appreciate you joining us on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Thanks a bunch and keep giving them hell. Thank you. I appreciate it, Roland. All right. Thank you very much. Let's go to my panel. Thank you. I mean, this is what

elected officials should be doing. They should be advocating on our behalf, and when people actually use their voice that us, the people, give them, this is what happens. Like, people fight for us. So I

commend Omari for doing that for his constituents, and I just wish Donald Trump would do the same. He clearly isn't. Malik? Yeah, I mean, mention Donald Trump, I guess, but it was good. You know, the interesting thing about, you know, where the district where he is, is that the, I think it's Hispanics, make up an overwhelming majority of the population there. So it was kind of interesting looking at the demographics and the commission itself. It's good that he actually came out, you know, of course, no one really wants to see colleagues, you know, arguing or anything like that in front of cameras.

But in this particular case, he had a valid concern. And I'm sure, you know, he did address it later. You know, there were things about it. He may have changed. But the overall message that he was talking about is something that he had. That wasn't nothing he would change. He was right here. He wasn't nothing he wanted to change. When he, well, what I'm referring to is when he actually addressed the public and when he actually addressed the public. So you can say that he didn't change anything or whatever, but he addressed the public and it was separate from what they did on the show. But the city itself, the fact that businesses are in the time of an emergency turning off the utilities for its customers, you know. And it's not even a racial thing at this point.

You know, you're literally turning off utilities for a customer in places all over the country, whether it's Ohio, New York, even here in Washington, D.C., Illinois. Plenty of places are actually businesses themselves are offering extensions of bill payment and things like that during this crisis. So he was right to call

attention to it. But I imagine that this is not only happening there, that it's happening in other places. So hopefully, you know, those other places can get attention and you really can press upon businesses the urgency of now when we're talking about people who haven't gotten a check in a couple of weeks. Bottom line, Michael, that's how people want to see elected officials standing up and calling out shameful colleagues. Look, as a former local elected official, I give him huge dap, commend him, much respect. He said everything right. He did everything right.

I frankly didn't think he had any issues related to disrespectful at all. They tried to basically turn his mic off, shut's the kind of leadership that we need all across this country. It needs to happen. Folks, we've talked about, of course, on the issue of coronavirus and how African-Americans are impacted in New York City. A principal has passed away due to complications from the coronavirus. Dazon Romaine, she's 36. She was just 36 years old. The first known New York City public school staff member to die from the virus. Romaine was the principal at Brooklyn Democracy Academy, a transfer high school for students who are overage or undercredited. She's one of 125 New York City residents to die of COVID-19. Also, folks, former Texas A&M basketball guard David Edwards, who also played at Georgetown, passed away from COVID-19, confirmed by family

and a spokesperson by Texas A&M. Edwards, who played at Texas A&M, averaged 13.5 points, 7.1 assists, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.7 steals in 85 games. As a member of the Texas A&M Aggies, in his later seasons, he led the Southwest Conference with 265 assists, which remains the school's single-season record. I actually was there for one of those years. David was there. He was the transfer from Georgetown after the 1991 season. And I was still a student there graduating in December 91. David Edwards was a great guy, a real baller who was just phenomenal.

And again, just again, not even 50 years old. And so certainly thoughts and prayers go out to his family as well. You say something to them, Michael? No, sorry about that, Roman. Okay. Also, I want to pull this up because I saw this on my man D-Nice's page of an artist. And I thought, I don't know why we didn't, okay, we're supposed to have that. But saxophonist Manu Devongo passed away as well.

Go to my, go right here. And so he, of course, best known for his 1972 song, Sol Macasa. He'd also died from COVID-19, was 81 years old. You might remember, I'm gonna say must say Makusa that live from Michael Jackson's when we starting something actually came from his song he sued Michael Jackson and then of course that was settled out of court and so he has passed away as well and so people really

to understand that COVID-19 is real it It has a serious, serious impact. And all across this country, I just think that, I just think, and I'll start with you, Michael. You can't play games with this. This is real. To listen, matter of fact, that was a comment that Ed Henry made on Fox News. It

kind of actually pissed a lot of people off. I'm going to try to find it. And he was talking about, you know, because Donald Trump's whole thing now is, well, we can't allow this thing to really wreck our economy. I want to play for you all. This is what Ed Henry said today on Fox News, and I want to get all of y'all's response to this. And so go right ahead. Yesterday at the same news conference, Dr. Hotez said that the best estimate right now of the mortality rate here in the United States is 0.7 or 0.8 percent, as in less than 1 percent. Now, every life matters, and you don't want to minimize any of them. But when the mortality rate is that low, what is the balance? What would be your advice to

the president if, say, he's trying to make this decision this coming weekend ahead of the expiration of the 15 days to slow the spread? So what I would tell the president, Mr. President, you know, the mortality rate, you know, that may sound like a low rate. In fact, it's about five or six times higher than influenza. And what's more, it's not just older individuals. We have a lot, we're seeing about, according to the Centers for Disease Control, we're seeing about a third of the patients who are hospitalized under the age of 40 or 44. And even though they're not necessarily dying their their lives are being saved because they're in ICU being taken care of and the risk I mean like Italy right now is you have so many

patients in ICU that they just can't take care of them all yeah and you're starting to see high mortality so I I would say, look. So, Michael, when you hear that, well, yeah, you know, the low mortality rate. Yeah, I mean, that that's great, but you don't want that to be your colleague. I mean, you got some Fox News people right now who are quarantined. It was a brother at NBC News who died because of coronavirus. So, I mean, I get this. But again, it's amazing how you have people who are going, yeah, you know, but this is really hurting the economy. Look at the stock market. Let's get back to normal. Let's get people back in churches, back to shopping.

No. You want to get a handle on this whole damn thing so it doesn't get worse. And as you mentioned at the start of the question about the seriousness of this. So I had a cold about a week, week and a half ago. And my doctor, you know, saw some numbers and said he didn't say come tomorrow. He didn't say give come in a couple of days. He said, you need to come in today so I can get you tested. Came in, got the covid test, which is an extremely, not exactly the most comfortable test to take. But thank goodness I was negative. But wasn't the point. The point was these medical professionals are taking this extremely seriously. They're not playing around.

Everyone, the only people seem to be playing around are 45 and his friends. Tony is not. Dr. Vasco is not. He knows the seriousness. I'm wondering, Roland, if we could have a fly in that room or, frankly, in the room with him and his friends. If he's thinking, you know what, I can't do this anymore. I can't come out here protecting this dude, contradicting him. I don't want to do it. He doesn't know what he's doing

because he's got to be thinking that. I could be wrong. I have no idea. But the professionals, the scientists, don't seem to have the voice they should have. This administration, keep in mind, he also cut the pandemic office from the National Security Council.

Malik, the greatest mistake we could make is to cut the response short to try to get back to normalcy and this thing spiral out of control. If your health experts, not or not, if the experts, again, this is very simple here.

If you've got a problem with your car, a problem with your heart, and let's say a problem with your brain, you don't go to the car mechanic to fix your brain problem and you don't go to the heart surgeon to fix your brain problem and you don't go to the brain surgeon to fix your car problem how hard is it to let the health experts do what they do i don't i don't think it's hard at all. And I think you said the gentleman's name was Ed Henry. What Ed Henry said was pretty much a repeat of what the federal government officials have been saying as far as the projections. No, no, no, no, no, no. He wasn't. No, no. He wasn't speaking just about the projections, Malik. What he was talking about

is, well, you know, we got to sort of have this balance between these deaths and the economy. That's pretty, I mean, that, and that's what these, the health experts are saying we cannot do by playing games with trying to stop or, or, or curtail this, the shutdown and the distancing, because they said said the health experts are saying, Malik, we don't have this thing under control. Yeah. So I think there are two different discussions there. So there is a discussion to be had about what is the reason, of course, no death is good, but what is the reasonable threshold for deaths where we can say that, okay, well, maybe we have this under control. How about no deaths? But we're talking about a reasonable threshold.

When organizations or scientists or governments or whatever, when they're studying this, this is exactly what we were talking about what happened in China. You know, when they get to a reasonable threshold, then we can have a conversation about... Malik, Malik, Malik, Malik. This is a reasonable threshold, then we can have a conversation about is this too low or this too low. Malik, Malik, Malik, Malik, this is the reasonable threshold.

Are you seeing a decrease in new cases today from yesterday? That is also part of a reasonable threshold. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. In South Korea, in South Korea, in China, in all these, Italy, all these other countries, what they're looking at is, they're saying, when does it flatten? How do you get to that point?

It's when you have tested enough people to the point where you're not seeing an increase in new cases. You're not seeing an increase in new cases. You're not seeing an increase in deaths. These people are already talking about going back to normalcy when we're still in the midst of an actual increase. Well, I mean, we literally talk about the death toll that this has taken every day. So I don't think it's so out of bounds to have a conversation about what,

as far as a scientist is concerned, the medical experts, is there anything that they look at as a reasonable threshold where we can say where the deaths are not spiraling out of control? There was a second point that you made about the economy, which, I mean, and it's not a comfortable conversation to have, but we do also have to be concerned

about the economy because it's not just people are losing their jobs. There are many people like I'm sure those of us who are on this panel now who've invested in the stock market where we need to be concerned about the economy. So I think that there is a balancing act that the government, that businesses even must take when they're saying, okay, well, how long can we afford to stay closed? And you were talking about the, as far as what the president can do, the president can't do anything but say, well, we're no longer under this 15-day, you know, self-quarantine. That's the only thing that the president can do as far as the national economy. He can't open back up

the economy. As you said, that's something that governors and state leaders are doing. Kelly, here's what's stunning to me. Here's what's stunning to me in all of this. Does Donald Trump actually think

that businesses and employees are going to be perfectly fine with? Okay, sure. Yeah, you know what? We're going to go ahead and go to that church and sit next to 500 people. Sure. We're going to go back going into stores. Sure, we're going to pack buses and subways.

Sure, we're going to do all of that. We're going to do all of those things. Because Donald Trump says he's in his gut. Things are getting better. No, Kelly. The reality is when you have a pandemic, you do not listen to political people. You listen to the experts, the health experts whose job

is to ensure this does not get worse. Not only that, but it is really frustrating to me how these political experts, Donald Trump specifically and his cronies, will bifurcate the person from the position. So you want people to have jobs and you want people working, you want people doing this and that and going to church or whatever and stimulating the economy. Well, what actually does it? It's not a coffee person. It's not a banker. It is a human being. Human beings get sick. That is the whole point of this.

Human beings need to stay home. Human beings need to get better. Human beings are dying because of this pandemic. And the economy will be fine. You understand? Anything non-human related will be fine. You understand? Like anything non-human related will be okay because it doesn't matter. It does not matter. People are dying. We need to take care of people first so that the non-human related entities and processes can go forward. But you can't have an economy without people. You can't have a business without people in them. Corporations, no matter what the Supreme

Court says, they are not people. You need people to run those corporations. But if those people running the corporations are dying because of a pandemic, because our president is saying, oh, it's not that big of a deal, we have a problem. Look, you got dumbass Jerry Falwell Jr. who is literally saying Liberty University students, come on back to school. Does that make sense? God's going to take care of you at a university.

Does that make sense, Malik? No, I don't think that that's something. I'm actually surprised. I guess maybe, is that South Carolina, North Carolina? I can't remember. Hell no, that's Virginia. That's Virginia, Lynchburg. Lynchburg, Virginia.

Well, yeah, well, I'm actually surprised that he's even able to do that. Because, again, we have to, I get what you all are saying. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hold up, hold up. He's able to do it. The governor of Virginia i get what you all no no no no no hold up he's able to do it the governor of virginia virginia does not have a shelter in place okay yeah so that's that's what i was actually i'm getting ready to say but you know the fact that that virginia itself does not have a shelter in place you know other places around the country whether it's

maryland whether it's illinois other places around the country have this shelter in place. Only about 20 states. They've closed that school, so he shouldn't be able, I don't think that he should be able to keep the school open, considering what we've been talking about as far as just how contagious this is. Yeah, but Malik, he's a white conservative evangelical, and he's saying the Lord will provide. The Lord will protect.

White evangelical versus black evangelical. I don't think that it has to be any type of racial component. Black evangelical churches are closed. Black evangelicals don't know what's going on. I don't know how many

black evangelicals founded a school. Are you how many black evangelicals founded a school. So are you saying that black evangelicals... That's irrelevant. What the hell are you talking about? You just said black evangelicals. We're talking about someone keeping a school open. No, hold on.

Mellon, white conservative evangelicals have a different view of this. You had the pastor down in Arkansas who said that his supporters don't, they didn't believe coronavirus were real and they will, they will be willing to lick the floor in order to prove it. And that's something that ridiculous, but I don't think that this has to be a white evangelical. But guess what? This has to be a white evangelical.

White conservative evangelicals are Trump's biggest supporters and this whole deal with Trump by saying, hey, let's open everything by Easter, that's who he's appealing to. We know what that game is. There are lots of other people than white evangelicals who look forward to Easter Sunday. No, no, no, no.

We ain't looking forward to getting infected. Well, no, we're not. We ain't looking forward to getting infected. Well, no, we're not. No, we're not. And I don't, that's what I'm saying. I don't, you've already said White conservative evangelicals,

Malik, this is real simple. White conservative evangelicals will be absolutely crazy if they go to school, live at a university, and you show up and thousands of people are on campus,

and then you have no campus-wide testing. I would say till Jerry Fogwell Jr. he is out of his damn mind and I'll see you next semester. I gotta go to a couple more stories folks. Sad news out of Chicago. Erica Gorton Taylor, the cousin of Emmett Till, passed away at the age of 50 on Saturday. Gorton Taylor was a civil rights advocate and the founder and executive director of the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation, named in honor of Till's mother.

The organization provided education, enrichment, and empowerment to young people. Recently, she advocated in Congress for the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, which passed the House in February. Gorton Taylor had been battling kidney problems for decades, including two transplants. Gorton Taylor's legacy and efforts will live on through her mother, Ollie Gordon, Emmett Till's cousin.

Also, folks, Darius Swan, who started the Milestone Supreme Court case that made busing a 240 segregation, died March 8th in Centerville, Virginia. He was 95. His wife, Vera, said the cause was pneumonia. Reverend Swan was one of the many trailblazers during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1964, after a failed attempt to send his six-year-old son to a neighborhood integrated elementary school, the Swans were led to be the lead plaintiffs in the K. Swan v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education. Darius Swan earned his master's and Ph.D. degree in 1971. He taught at George Mason University from 1971 to 1984 and at the Inter-Dominational Theological Center

in Georgia from 1984 to 1993. Sraddha Akadola says go out to the family of Swan as well as, of course, Erica as well. All right, folks. That is it for us. It has been quite a busy

news-making day. But before we go, before we go, I got to do this here, folks. I came across this video from Stomp the Yard website. It was a man talking about a heartwarming story. This woman, an Alpha Kappa Alpha member, she's undergoing chemo for cancer. And, of course, this whole coronavirus, where her line sisters could not visit her. So they had a surprise for her outside.

Watch this. Volume. Nini, come here. Keithen. Nini. Nini, come here. Come back. Don't open the door. Nini, come here! Come back. Go open the door.

Mimi, come here! Mimi? Mimi, come here, come here! Y'all ready? Y'all ready? Y'all ready? Mimi, come here! Say, how are you?

Hi, how are you? How are you? Mom! Mom! He! Harry! Me! Come here. Take a deep breath. Breathe. I love y'all. We're here for you, guys. The 15, we're fine with you.

We're freeing with you. We're believing with you. That's why you want me to take a bath. God's got a blessing for you, girl. Where are you? I ain't took a bath since Thursday. She was like, mama, please put that mask on. I just... Come on now. Go get Mimi a bottle of water.

I just got out the shower for the first time. Go get Mimi a bottle of water. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing.

God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. I just Come on now Go get Mimi a bottle of water Go get Mimi a bottle of water God's got a blessing God's got a blessing

With your name on it Hey Stacy God's got a blessing God's got a blessing God's got a blessing With your name on it With your name on it With your name on it. With your name on it. With your name on it.

With your name on it. Just put it down, Kingston. Thank you, baby. Thank you. Thank you. I've never seen you in a room like this. I've never seen you in a room like this. Happy tears.

Go get the hug. Go get the hug. God's got a blessing. Give me a hug. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing.

You sound better now that Linda's here. Now I'm a little boy. but I was just gonna say. I was just gonna say, thank God Linda. Well, that, folks, right there was one nice video that shows you sisterhood there. And so they could not hug her, they couldn't kiss her, but they had to keep their distance because of coronavirus. But that was certainly a heartwarming video

that we wanted to share with all of you. Wanna thank our panelists, Melik, Kelly, as well as Michael. Wanna thank everybody who joined us today, all of our guests as well. Folks, remember, we need you to stay safe. We need you to wash your hands, we need you to use hand sanitizer. We need you to keep your distance as well.

If you have any of the symptoms of coronavirus, what we need you to do hand sanitizer. We need you to keep your distance as well. If you have any of the symptoms of coronavirus, what we need you to do is, of course, get checked out immediately as possible. Self-quarantine as well. Tomorrow, I'm going to show you what Oprah did to Stedman. He had been traveling. Oprah's making Stedman stay at the guest house. Lord have mercy, she did Stedman wrong.

And so we're going to y'all that video tomorrow. Also, tomorrow's show, we're gonna talk about cannabis. Y'all realize that cannabis shops have been named essential places to remain open.

We have a panel of African Americans who are involved in the cannabis space to talk about that as well right here on the show. But,

coming up next right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered, what's gonna happen is we're gonna end the show. So, all of y' on Roller Martin Unfiltered, what's going to happen is we're going to end the show. So all of y'all have been seeing my man D-Nice. He has been out here just doing it. He's been out here just spinning, you know,

nine hours on Friday, on Saturday. Well, so what's going on is, so when we were in Chicago for Lewis Carr's men's conference, we did an interview with D-Nice. He was one of the folks who we talked to. And so what we did with him is we talked to him, and so we talked to some others as well. But we're going to share for you, we're going to have the interview I did with D-Nice, talking about him being on top, going to the bottom and coming back on top.

He talked about the art of DJing. It's a really great interview. And let me tell you something. I'm going to go to this page. So when he started this whole thing, y'all, let me explain something to y'all. Last Monday, eight days ago, D-Nice had about 200, you know,

1,000, 220,000, 230,000 followers. On Saturday, on Friday, on Friday, at 9 p.m. he had 266,000. At midnight, 566,000. Right now, here we go to my iPad, my man's at 1.5 million followers. Well, tomorrow he's going to have a couch party,

a voter registration live set partnered with Michelle Obama's voter group. Stephanie Young helped put this thing together and so it's when we all vote. And so it's 6.30 p.m. tomorrow, so you're going to check that out. But coming up next,

my interview with D-Nice is one you don't want to miss. It's a great conversation. And I think you'll get a lot out of it. Alright, folks, I'm going to see you guys tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Please support what we do by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com Cash app, PayPal,

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