#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Criminal Pardons Criminals, Elon's Nazi Salute, Detroit's Cooning Pastor, Richmond's Water Crisis

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

1.21.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Criminal Pardons Criminals, Elon's Nazi Salute, Detroit's Cooning Pastor, Richmond's Water Crisis Ya'll fucked around, and now ya'll are finding out.  The twice impeached criminally convicted felon-in-chief, Donald Trump, pardoned 1500 of the Jan. 6 terrorists.  We'll talk to Harry  Dunn, a Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer, about this brazen disrespect to law enforcement officers.  Elon Musk is getting heat for appearing to give a Nazi salute after his inauguration speech.   Black Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell shucked and jived while praying for the felon-in-chief. You don't want to miss it if you haven't seen it! Richmond, Virginia, is experiencing a water crisis. The newly elected Mayor was sworn in on January 1, and less than a week later, he must fix the problems that caused the city's water treatment plant to fail.  North Carolina Amazon workers are trying to unionize.  I'll talk to one of the organizers about why they say it's essential.  Tech giant META is being questioned about platform issues affecting political content related to Democratic Party terms and hashtags, raising questions about its relationship with the new Trump administration. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media. Today, for just $399, you can own 60 shares of stock in Fanbase at $6.65 a share. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest today. While the big platforms have grown too massive and disconnected from their users, Fanbase is building a platform where creators and users truly come first. We've already raised

$4.8 million from everyday investors who believe in this vision, and now you can join them. This is your chance to invest in a social media tech company with over 1 million users that is disrupting media by allowing anyone to reach all of their following and monetize their content from day one. The market is changing, big platforms are failing to serve their users, and Fanbase is stepping up to We'll be right back. Network and black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home, you dig? Today is Tuesday, January 21st, 2025, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Well, the twice-impeached,

criminally convicted felon and thug-in-chief Donald Trump is back, and what did he do? He has pardoned nearly all of those domestic terrorists who tried to overthrow the government to stop the certification of the 2020 election. Forget the fact that they attacked, viciously attacked,

U.S. Capitol Police officers and Washington, D.C. police officers on that day. It doesn't matter. He's freeing them all. We'll talk to Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, about this gross disrespect to law enforcement and this lawless action by a lawless occupant of the Oval Office. Elon Musk is getting some heat for appearing to give a Nazi salute after Trump's inauguration speech. Why is the ADL protecting Elon Musk? And we've all seen minstrel shows before, and we saw a minstrel show yesterday from Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who shucked and jived his way during a so-called prayer for the felon in chief. Yeah, I got a few things to say about it.

Richmond, Virginia, they're experiencing a water crisis. Will talk to the newly elected mayor about this issue. North Carolina Amazon workers are trying to unionize. I'll talk to one of the organizers about why they say it is essential. Also, tech giant Facebook now called

meta being questioned about platform issues affecting political content as folks search for Democratic Party or Kamala Harris and nothing's showing up. Same thing happened on TikTok. Hmm, what's going on? Plus, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett will be joining us as well for the Crockett Chronicle. It's time to bring the funk on Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Blackstone Network. Let's go. To news, to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yow

It's Roland Martin Rolling with Roland now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martel Martel Why do we pick video? CNN CNN just said that they evacuated. That's all they got? What the fuck? Let's go! Let's go!

Well, folks, the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in in chief, Donald Trump, he said all of that is just fine. Those were his domestic terrorists, his supporters on January 6, 2021. And what is one of the first things that he did when he got the power back? Pardon nearly every single one of those domestic terrorists, some 1,500, an absolute pardon for them. Forget the fact that they stormed the Capitol. Forget the fact that they attacked numerous police officers trying to stop the certification of the 2020 election.

Guess what? They now get to walk free because of the sweeping grant of clemency that he gave. Many of these people, including one of them, a proud boy, a proud boy leader who was sentenced to 22 years in prison. He is now out. He is emboldened. These far right groups and their racist extremist rhetoric and these organizations are happily they are openly calling for political violence. Yeah, that happened. And you know what also happened?

An absolute show of cowardice from nearly most Republicans. Here is Trump's newly confirmed secretary of State, former Florida Senator Marco Rubio. I hear you, but in February 2021, even you issued a statement. You said the images of the attack stirred up anger in you. The nation was embarrassed in the eyes of the world by our own citizens. How do you personally reconcile those feelings with the pardons that he did yesterday? I understand you have work to do in the job as far as there are many things, but on this particular issue, I'm curious about what you're thinking. Yeah, well, what I'm thinking is that I used to be a United States senator until midnight last night, and now I'm going about to be sworn in as the Secretary of State of the United

States. And that's what I'm thinking, is I work for Donald J. Trump, the new president of the United States, the 47th president, who has a clear mandate to reorient our foreign policy to one that once again puts America and our interests at the center. And that's what I'm going to focus on, 100 percent. Absolutely gutless, Marco Rubio, who of course when the Capitol was attacked, he said, oh my goodness, some action should be taken. Here is another gutless wonder, also of Florida. Rick Scott was CNN asked that U.S. Senator about the same thing. So many people were unfairly prosecuted.

What about those that assaulted police officers? I don't believe anybody. If you violate the law, you should be prosecuted. What about those who assaulted police officers and then were pardoned by the president? I haven't seen any. I haven't gone into the detail. But there are those pardons that exist. I'll have to read it.

I haven't heard those details. Really? Really? Here's Senator Lindsey Graham in 2021. There are a lot of people urging the president to pardon folks who participated in defiling the Capitol, the rioters. I don't care if you went there and spread flowers on the floor. You breached the security of the Capitol. You interrupted a joint session of Congress.

You tried to intimidate us all. You should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And to seek a pardon of these people would be wrong. It would be, I think it would destroy President Trump. And I hope we don't go down that road. Well, he did. This is Lindsey Graham's Twitter feed. He's talking about Mexican cartels.

He's talking about the Paris Agreement. He's talking about the Lake and Riley Act. Let's see. He's talking about Marco Rubio being confirmed. Oh, President look at him. The inaugural speech, heading to the Capitol for the inauguration. Oh, isn't it interesting?

No profiles of the courage here. Not a word. Not a word from Lindsey Graham about these despicable pardons of Donald Trump. Hmm. Let's see here.

How about we go to give me one second. I'm going to pull this up, y'all, because I know y'all going to love this one here. And so, Mr. Law and Order, Mr. Let's throw everybody in jail. He always has something to say about prisons and law and order. Who am I talking about? Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton. Go to my iPad. So let's see here. Huh. I love this here. Colleges that tolerate pro Hamas mobs shouldn't receive a dollar of federal funding.

Oh, but he says nothing about the mobs that attack the U.S. Capitol. Let's see right here. Okay, he criticized Senator Chris Murphy asking about Elon Musk and the Nazi symbol. Oh, so he makes up wild smears. Nothing about these rioters. Let's see here. Huh, okay. Oh, more inauguration tweets.

World Health Organization. More and more and more. OK. Oh, more inauguration tweets. World Health Organization. More and more and more. Nothing. These are cowards. At least at least North Carolina Republican Tom Tillis actually had the guts to speak up. Just get your thoughts on the pardons from President Trump. Yeah, I've got any any of we're going through it now. Many of them probably was the right thing to do. They made a bad a bad choice. But anybody who was convicted of assault on a police officer, I just I can't get there

at all. I think it's it was a bad idea. Are you worried that in terms of- By the way, we can't have a story about pardons without talking about the nonsense that Biden did on his way out the door. Well, that was going to be my follow-up question is, do you think the Senate needs to look at the power of the pardon for the presidency? I think it's a legit question because we can't get into this cycle

where presidents are, you know, pardoning their friends, creating prospective pardons for charges that haven't even been applied. I don't think that that's what the founding fathers had in mind when this ability to pardon was first vested in the executive branch.

Can I ask you something? Well, at least he answered the question when reporters asked other senators, like Texas Senator John Cornyn, who used to be the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. He brought up the Biden part, and so did other senators as well. Minority leader Chuck Schumer, the senator, here's what he had to say about Trump freeing these domestic terrorists. And sadly, it's a golden age for lawlessness and lawbreakers who were pardoned yesterday by President Trump. There is no other way to describe President Trump's pardon of January 6th offenders than un-American.

It is so deeply un-American to do that, to pardon them. And let's be clear. President Trump didn't just pardon protesters. He pardoned individuals convicted of assaulting police officers. He pardoned individuals convicted of seditious conspiracy. And he pardoned those who attempted to undermine our democracy. It's a betrayal of the highest order of our Capitol Police officers who risked their lives to keep us safe. It defames, it just is so cruel to the Sitnick family who lost a police officer.

Hmm. One of those folks who was there on that day, who got sentenced, this is what she said on CNN. That's the mega... I don't know how to explain it, but they have this way of demeaning you and putting you down. And that's what they've got going right now is this huge gaslighting smear campaign going on, telling me that it was a peaceful protest.

I was there. I was there when they pushed those gates and those officers. And when they stepped on my head and it was an officer that saved my life that day. Biden is right on with everything he's saying. Trump is a dangerous, and I mean dangerous, narcissist. He's a cult leader. He needs to be put in prison. He's not any different than his friend.

What was that guy that just got, they're saying that he was he killed himself in the prison. Epstein? Friends with Epstein? Trump is disgusting. That was Pamela Hemphill, a grandmother from Idaho, who spent 60 days in jail for the role that she played on that day. She said she is rejecting the pardon because she did commit the crime.

Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer, joins us right now. I got to say, Harry, I know the text groups and the group chats of you and the other officers have been burning up since last night. I don't want to hear a damn word from this thug, Donald Trump, about law enforcement and police officers and back in the blue and supporting him.

When he pardoned these domestic terrorists, he literally called them hostages. Yeah, Roland, thanks for having me on the show. I'm going to take a different approach, my friend. I've been screaming and yelling and warning, not warning people, telling people that this was going to happen for four years. So I've already been angry and sad and hurt, stabbed in the back, betrayed, all the terms you want to use. But I'll say this. If anybody is surprised that Donald Trump did this, if anybody's surprised, my question

to you is, where the hell have you been? You weren't paying attention. Yep. Donald Trump is who he says he is. Yep. He did what he said he was going to do and for people to be clutching their pearls and upset now

you had the opportunity to do something about it November the 5th he told you what he was going to do so yeah I'm mad, I'm mad at the people who didn't give a damn enough to care about the officers when Donald Trump said that we were the bad guys that day.

I'm mad about the people who didn't give a damn. I'm mad about the people who claim, who claim they support law enforcement, except when it's U.S. Capitol Police officers, except when it's the FBI, except when it's the ATF. Oh, so we're going to support all law enforcement except the ones that we don't like. And you're right. Look, I was saying on this show, not in the last year, not in the last two years, but ever since those Republican senators let that thug off the hook by not convicting him when he got impeached, had they convicted him in the aftermath of January 6, 2021,

we would not be sitting here today because he would have been barred from running for office for the rest of his life. Roland, I'm glad that you brought that point. These institutions have continually failed us. So I was banking on the American people. You know, hey, guys, let's show, let's stand up and do what's right. Yeah, so much for that, right? But Mitch McConnell, I lay this at your feet. That's right.

This is Mitch McConnell's fault. If you want to blame one person, it's hard to blame one person. You know, America, 20 million people stayed home and didn't vote. But one person stopped the impeachment or stopped the conviction of Donald Trump, and that's Mitch McConnell, even though Mitch McConnell knew that Donald Trump was responsible for the actions of that day. He said it as much during his floor speech. He said the president bears responsibility for his moral—he was wrong. He was responsible for this. And look where we are now. So if any one person's to blame, I blame Mitch McConnell. Yeah, absolutely, because Mitch McConnell,

just like Susan Collins, sat there and was like, oh, you know, we think this is going to be the end of him. What they did not want to do, they did not want to challenge him. They did not want to correct him. Instead, it was like, let's pacify him. They did not want to correct him. Instead, it was like, let's pacify him. We think this will do it.

But yeah, guess what? The American people, they clearly, the folks who voted for him, they had no problem with it. And just so the folks know, this is Mitch McConnell in February of 2022 talking about January 6th. Listen. The RNC's censors of representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

Again, you remembered they were censored for their work on the committee. Here was Mitch McConnell a moment ago. Is it appropriate for the Republican National Committee to censure two sitting members of Congress and also use the words legitimate political discourse in talking about January 6th? Well, let me give you my view of what happened January the 6th. And we're all we're here. We're here. We saw what happened. for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next. That's what it was.

With regard to the suggestion... Here's the thing, Harry. He caused a violent insurrection. But that wasn't enough to convict Donald Trump. But then he wants to deny the reality that there were members of his own Senate caucus, Ron Johnson, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and others, who were in on the plot to overthrow the results of the election, and they are still in power.

They are still there. And that, to me, is also what is the most scary part. Not just that thug is two blocks from here sitting in the White House. It's that these individuals are silent, they were complicit, and those who were not there, who were newly elected, are going along to get along.

And what this should be telling everybody is all bets are off. There's no such thing as the normal. Forget being institutionalist. You have to deal with real threats the way police officers are trained to deal with real threats. Yeah, you know, the Constitution was made up to have checks and balances in it. But what happens when those checks and balances are your best friends or the people that want just like you? We're set up, like you said, we are on a crash course right now, and we're headed for the end of our democracy. And that's just unfortunate.

You know, I'm going to stay in this fight, Roland. I don't, you know, I, what's the alternative? You just throw your hands up and say the hell with it. I don't accept it as an inevitability that Donald Trump is just going to end democracy in the world. No, not without a fight. He's not, you know, I don't, I don't believe it's, it's, we need to sit down. We do need to organize better. We need to get focused.

There are elections in 2025. There's elections, midterms in 2026. There's an opportunity, y'all, for us. And I know a lot of people are saying to hell with this. Like, they don't care about me. Why should I care? I'm asking y'all as a personal favor to me. I haven't quit yet.

So I'm asking y'all not to quit, to me. I haven't quit yet, so I'm asking y'all not to quit too. We got to stay in this, brother. We have to stay in it, but also I think we have to acknowledge what we are up against. When you make the point about guardrails, the reality is these Republicans have no desire whatsoever to operate with decency. They have no morals, no values, no principles, no integrity. They have none of that. I mean, the Democrats, a law was passed to put up a plaque in recognition of folks like you. And Mike Johnson and the Republicans still right now

refuse to put that plaque up in the U.S. House. I'm glad you brought that up, too. Yes, at this point, that's no longer playing politics. Like you said, there is a law that is on the book requiring that plaque to be up. So now we are past playing politics. That is clear obstruction by Mike Johnson. That's what Mike Johnson is doing.

He's being obstructionist because it is a law that he is not following. Another thing, he had no problem doing a favor for getting Donald Trump to get those flags raised to full staff. We just want a plaque up that's required by law. You just did a favor. I need everybody to listen.

A law was passed. A law. It's law that passed in a Republican Congress. Nope, we ain't putting it up. Like, the plaque is actually made. Yeah, it's done.

They need to take it up now. And, you know, I don't know how the logistics of those work, you know. I mean, there are plenty of spaces for it. But it's a law. And every day that goes by, Mike Johnson is not putting it up. And he's in violation of the law. Yeah, I just need people to understand what we're now dealing with.

And so, look, we're going to see this crap. The reality is that thug is there for the next four years. But I need people to actually give a damn. I need people to actually care what's going on because

you're right. He made it clear he was going to do it and then when J.D. Vance did an interview oh no, oh no, we're going to, I mean people who committed violence against cops, we're not letting them out. Pam Bondi in her attorney general hearings oh, we're going to look at every

single part in case by case. What happened? Sworn in? Boom. Everybody, you're good. In fairness to them, damn fairness, but in their defense, I honestly think that they believe that.

Donald Trump said, F y'all, I'm going to do what I want because I can. I don't need your advice. I don't need to consult with anybody on pardons. I can do this. Donald Trump said, F y'all, I'm going to do what I want because I can. I don't need your advice. I don't need to consult with anybody on pardons. I can do this. Donald Trump is power hungry. He's power driven. And when has Donald Trump ever taken anybody's advice?

Like never. He doesn't. He doesn't. But and that's my point. Why are we expecting anything different out of him? Like this is who he is. He like a snake. We get mad at snakes if a snake bites you.

No, you should be dumb for going around a snake. That's what snakes do. They bite you. Donald Trump is a liar. He's power-driven. And that's who he is. We should be upset at ourselves if we expect anything else but a liar-in-chief out of him. That's it.

Absolutely. Harry Dunn, man, we appreciate it. And, you know, it's unfortunate that these Republicans in MAGA claim to support law enforcement, but don't support Capitol Police officers

and Metropolitan Police officers. They just, they don't care. They will never care. And hopefully people realize how crude and pathetic these people really are when it's time to go to the polls again. Yeah, I hope so, brother. Thanks for having me on, my friend. I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Folks, we talk about, listen, on this show, we tried to tell you. We got T-shirts that says, we tried to tell you FAFO 2025. We, every single day, we kept warning people about this. We kept warning them about Project 2025. We kept warning them. Look, we ran this ad for the Lincoln Project that spelled out explicitly

what will happen when this con man, when this thug actually returns to the Oval Office. November 5th, 2024. Donald Trump defeats a divided and dispirited Democratic campaign. On January 20th, 2025, Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. Unfortunately, he keeps his promises. Trump seizes control of a divided government, signing hundreds of executive orders implementing

Project 2025. Trump replaces over 50,000 civil servants with hardline MAGA loyalists. The federal oath of office now requires declaring loyalty to the president, not the Constitution. Protected by the Supreme Court's grant of total immunity for official acts, Donald Trump orders the Department of Justice to arrest members of the January 6th Commission, current and former DOJ employees, and political opponents for treason, election interference, and conspiracy. He declares it to be an official act. Trump ends birthright citizenship by executive order and turns millions of American-born citizens into illegal aliens overnight.

Mass deportations begin. Hundreds of thousands, including legal U.S. residents and American citizens, are imprisoned in newly built camps. Protests erupt. Trump addresses the nation from the Oval Office, invoking the Insurrection Act and declaring the protesters a danger to American sovereignty. He orders the National Guard to use deadly force to suppress the protests.

In the wake of the bloody violence, Trump declares nationwide martial law, awarding himself new powers under the freshly signed American Sovereignty Protection Order, which defines protest of immigration policies as non-protected speech and a threat to national security. Governors in New York, California, Illinois, and elsewhere declare their opposition, promising to refuse compliance in their states. Trump orders their arrests. Trump pardons every January 6th attacker,

including those who assaulted the police, and in a White House ceremony issues a new presidential medal honoring them. Many are given jobs in his administration. The Department of Education has renamed the Department of American Values and mandates a nationwide Christian nationalist curriculum for all schools receiving federal aid. Trump, joined by Speaker Mike Johnson and evangelical leaders, announces that the Department of Health and Human Services has reclassified Mifepristone, making it illegal to distribute or prescribe, as well as new HHS regulations that make IVF treatments impossible to legally administer.

Trump reverses one campaign promise by declaring a national abortion ban by executive order. Challenges to his authority are rejected by the Supreme Court, which has seen new appointments from Trump after it was expanded to 12 justices. He signs an executive order removing abortion records from HIPAA privacy regulations and announces a new federal data-sharing program

so states can monitor women's periods. Thousands are detained while crossing state lines under suspicion of seeking an abortion. Trump's acting Secretary of Defense, a disgraced ex-general, fires over 400 generals and admirals, leaving the military leaderless. Other Trump appointees purge the ranks of the CIA, FBI, and Department of Justice. By executive order, Trump withdraws the United States from NATO and ends Pentagon cooperation with Ukraine. Russian tanks enter Kiev. Vladimir Zelensky is killed. It is announced that Trump will run for a third term, claiming he was unfairly cheated in the 2020 election. His Supreme Court ultimately agrees with this interpretation, paving the way for Trump's 2028 re-election.

If you hear all this and believe it is impossible, then ask yourself, what did you believe was impossible just eight years ago? This isn't a fantasy. It's Trump's plan. And he's counting on you to believe it couldn't happen. Again, we tried to tell you these things were going to happen. We told you this man was petty. We told you he was shameful.

We told you he was pathetic. And guess what? Some of y'all still voted for him. And so for the people who are like, oh, my God, I can't believe this. Why? The thug literally said it. He signed a series of executive orders getting rid of all DEI. I just sat here and read. Just hold on. I just sat here and read a tweet, y'all, that was unbelievable. It said, buried amidst all of the buried, this is

Senator Tina Smith. She said, buried in the flurry of executive orders last night is one that halts all funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law. Yes, the law that Republicans and Democrats

came together to pass that fixes our roads, modernizes old bridges, makes drinking water safer. Now remember, this asshat for four years, Infrastructure Week, Infrastructure Week, never passed a bill. One of his first actions. We want to talk about, again, the kind of actions that you see taking place.

How petty is he? Oh, John Bolton, who the Iranians were trying to assassinate Donald Trump. Oh, because Bolton was a critic of Donald Trump. Donald Trump said, that's it. The Secret Service protection that Biden gave you revoked. Bolton said he got a phone call. He told CNN's Jim Costa, told him, got a call at 1130 last night from the Secret Service saying, your Secret Service is being revoked at noon today.

Oh, how about this one here? Go to my iPad. Just 10 days ago, this portrait. Let me go. Let me restart it. This portrait of General Mark Milley. OK, this former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This was just unveiled 10 days ago. Guess what? Moments after the swearing in rejected, rejected, taken down. That's right. So his portrait will not be in the Pentagon for the next four years.

It goes on and on and on. But we told y'all this was going to happen. Guys, a lower third is wrong because we tried to tell you, not you. We tried to tell you. To bring him up, Dr. Mustafa Santago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA out of D.C. Also joining us is Joe Richardson, civil rights attorney out of L.A. We'll be joined later by Joy Chaney, founder of Joy Strategies out of D.C.

I mean, again, Mustafa, nobody can be surprised what this thug is doing. He said what he was going to do. His supporters, they cheered that. They loved it. They all, man, they threw their arms up. And so guess what? He's doing exactly what the thug said he was going to do. Yeah, you know, what was that old adage?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I mean, he was very clear of the things that he was going to do. Everybody has been clear. Donald Trump shared exactly what he was going to do. Project 2025 said exactly what they wanted to see happen. Agenda 47 was very clear about these things. So I don't know why anyone is surprised. Maybe they think that no one could possibly ever stoop this low or to have no forethought about how this will overall impact our country and our standing in the world. But he doesn't care about that. He's fine.

The people that he surrounds himself with are extremely wealthy individuals, so they're going to be fine. But the people who will be hurt are everyday folks. Of course, our most vulnerable communities will take many, many hits. We will lose lives. Folks will get sick. You know, they'll end up losing homes, all these different types of things. But the people who think that they won't be impacted, everybody's always like, well, that could never happen here. And then it does. And what you will find is that those folks who are in the middle class, they will also have huge amounts of impacts that are going on because they didn't pay attention

and because they thought it was the others who would be the ones who would have to carry the weight for the various things that Donald Trump has already said he's going to do through his executive orders and the things that are coming day after day after day. So, you know, unfortunately, you end up getting what you don't, you know, what you don't vote for or what you vote for. For those who sat on the couch and didn't vote, you get it too. And for those who actually went out there and cast their vote for somebody who's told you that he doesn't care about your communities and he doesn't care about the future for your children, now you've got to actually deal with that as well. Joe? Yeah, I mean, you're in—you kind of bought this.

This is what you bought. My mom used to say, you made your bed, now you get to lay in it. So, you know, you have a situation where there's all kinds of things that the president can do to seek to exact revenge. There's no discussion, if you'll notice, about prices, the things that actually people, you know, well-intentioned people—they got it wrong, but well-intentioned people were hoping that he'd do. No indications related to that. If anything, it's the opposite.

You know, what's the point of stopping funding from the infrastructure law? Maybe just despite that Biden got it done, but he didn't. You know, what's the point with, you know, letting all of these folks off related to this insurrection? Well, just letting the folks off that, you know, went along with him and did basically what he told them to do. And so, yeah, this is just the beginning. And you're going to have to kind of, you know, fasten your seatbelts, because there's no way that the things that he is doing are not

going to affect regular people. There's no way that you could actually think you could actually stand next to Donald Trump, whether you're the administration or whether you are a citizen that voted for him, and really think with certainty that he would never do something that has the potential to hurt you, if not devastate you. And that's just kind of where we are. And people are going to have to find out the hard way. Oh, yeah, they're going to find the hard way. And again, I'm not shocked when it went down yesterday.

It's not like people were texting me and group chats. They were going, oh, 1,500? I was like, oh, yeah, sweeping pardon, full, absolutely. And Lincoln Project is right. Oh, don't be shocked if this man invites them to the White House for a big lawn party. Don't be surprised. He might literally give all of them the presidential medal of freedom. I wouldn't put none of that past him, Mustafa,

because this is his army. These are his thugs. This is his militia. And people need to be concerned because what he's saying is, if people do harm in my name, I'm going to hook them up. Well, he's got to feed the base,

right? So, you know, he's got his soldiers, right, that are out there. These folks, you know, these insurrectionists, of course, we know are domestic terrorists. You know, he has got to continue to feed the base. So, yeah, you know, congressional medals, but he's got to also continue to do the most outrageous things because that is what they signed on for and what they expect from him. So when you see these actions that he said he was going to do around immigration, you know, separation of families, trying to, you know, do some things around the 14th Amendment, you know, he gets that, you know, from previous presidents, you know, who have done some really just amazingly egregious things who are for racists. So when you look at all these different types of things that he has to do,

when he is willing to destroy the environment, when he's willing to go after environmental injustices, even though he knows lower wealth white communities will also be impacted by dirtier air and dirtier water, when he tries to strip away education, he knows who's going to be impacted by dirtier air and dirtier water, when he tries to strip away education, he knows who's going to be impacted by that. So he's got to continue to feed the beast that he has created and the beast that evidently he is. So, you know, we've just got to make sure that we are organizing and mobilizing and, you know, utilizing the few opportunities that actually will exist in the court system. And we've got to make sure that we're also building community so that when folks are being impacted, they're not out there by themselves and that we fill the, you know,

we fill the gap until we can make changes happen. So we've got to understand that we still have power. It's less, it's harder to get our arms around, but we can't just throw our arms up in the air and say, we're just going to allow these egregious things to happen. We have to stand in community. Oh, absolutely. And so it's just about being real, about being honest. I think that what you're doing here is people just don't understand. I do want to bounce this off of y'all. I just saw this here. So do everybody remember when Vice President Kamala Harris was swearing in the senators and so Deb Fischer of Nebraska was sworn in and her asshole of a husband did this here? Watch this here. Hi.

Do you want to come here, Bruce? In the middle. I'm going to sit in this. Is it paper on the ground? In the middle. Should we go over there? No, no. It's okay.

We're white. We're white. Don't worry. Okay. We're white. Okay. We solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. I thank you.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your work. the Constitution of the United States. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your work. Thank you. Congratulations to you. Thank you. You're welcome.

Sure. Okay. That way. There you go. Thank you so much. Ready? One, two, and three. Hold it. Ready?

One, two, and three. Thank you very much. Thank you. Rest in peace. Okay. Hold it. Ready? One, two, and three. Thank you very much. Thank you. And of course, you know, he was just quite arrogant, not even wanting to shake her hand walking off. Well, CNN's Edward Isaac DeVere posted this here. Give me one second. Let me close this box.

I saw this story and I said, ooh, I just love this here. Headline, go to my iPad. At White House tea, Emhoff rebuffed the man who didn't shake Harris's hand. It said here, at the ceremonial tea at the White House before the motorcades head to the U.S. Capitol, the former second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, refused a handshake from Bruce Fisher, the husband of inauguration co-chair of Nebraska Senator Deb Fisher, a person familiar with the interaction tells CNN.

The test moment came after a violent exchange, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It said, it says, let me see here. It was still on Emhoff's mind on Monday. Why would you try to shake my hand, he told Bruce Fisher, when you

wouldn't shake my wife's hand? It says the vice president and the senator were not involved in the interaction, even though Bruce Fisher did later make his way back over to apologize, the source told CNN. And by the time they headed to

the car to the Capitol, tempers had cooled and there was a cordial conversation which touched on golf, among other things. I'm with Doug 100%, Joe. Yo, punk ass, disrespect my wife? No, I ain't shaking yo punk ass hand. Doug, listen, Doug is a real one. You remember when they were on the stage that time and that person walked up to him and you saw the look on Doug's face.

Doug's looking like thug life. He ran up there in front of the security. So, you know, Doug is down for his wife now. I love me some Doug now. And but this is what lets you know kind of what you're dealing with. You've got this man who would actually have enough nerve not to even shake the vice president's hand and then go to her husband. Like everything is everything. No problem at all. So he doesn't even see them as one. He doesn't even see them. He doesn't even see them as God would see them.

Right. Those of us that are church going folk and I give you 10 to 1 he showed up at church on time on Sunday I bet you okay so this lets you know kind of what we're dealing with but I'm glad that Doug was down for his wife like that that's the way we all should be the only thing I guess

he could have done is I guess he could have punched him or something but you know he was acting cool but he asked him, why wouldn't you, why wouldn't you, why would I shake your hand when you wouldn't shake my wife's hand? So I appreciate that, but it lets you know what it is that we're dealing with.

You try to do things. This woman's been vice president, uh, for four years. Uh, she's done what she's done professionally. She's probably forgot more about politics. And this man knows,

and this man somehow believes that he shouldn't be shaking his hand and embarrassing his wife that way. Here's my whole deal, Mustafa. I ain't down with the bullshit. That's how you want to roll now, bro. You ain't come and shake my hand. It ain't gonna happen. See, I just don't believe in normalizing this crap. I don't

believe that you get to show your ass, and I then have to be the one, no, let me, it's decorum and the way things are supposed to be. Now, Mustafa, those rules are gone. Those days are gone. These people, just like Trump sat here,

apparently he called inspirational the letter that Joe Biden left him in the drawer. Did Trump leave a letter for Joe Biden? When Trump came to the White House, oh, I'm sorry, I don't recall that meeting taking place after the election in 2020. Oh, Trump's punk ass, along with Melania's trifling ass, didn't even come to the inauguration.

See, I'm sorry. Look, there are other people who are like, oh, no, from a president, it's the institution, we must do these things. No. Obama and Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton coming to the inauguration and Trump's old trifling ass

people are booing them from the rafters. Gross disrespect. These folks don't show respect, but always want somebody to give them respect. Yeah, that's because folks let them punk them all the time. You know what time it is. I mean, if you grew up in the streets, you already know if you let somebody punk you one time,

they're going to come back and do it again and again and again. And each time they're going to try and take more of your dignity, more of your soul, more of your resources, whatever it might be. And that's why I appreciate Michelle Obama, because she said, you know what, I'm not even dealing with this foolishness. If y'all want to go ahead and play them silly games, then you go right ahead. You know, and the other part, too, is I appreciate Doug, too, because if you stepped in my family, we're going to have a problem. So I'm glad that it didn't escalate to that, because as my mother would say, just because somebody is uncouth doesn't mean that you have to be. But, you know, I believe from my daddy's side, sometimes you just got to hem somebody up and let them know what time it is.

I'm going to let you know, my ass petty. I'm petty. I'm going to give you all of it back. Look, I done told y'all the story when I was at the TV anchors meeting When the thug was there last time And when he came into the room all the TV anchors moved towards him. Mr. President. Mr. President. Mr President they were shaking his hand. I was sitting I was that Simpson me and I like fell back into the bushes He had to come my way and I'm like this I said we when he come to me, I said, I can't call him Mr. Trump.

I said, Mr. President. Then I'm like, I can't call him Mr. Trump. So when he finally got to me and stuck his hand out, oh, good to see you, I went, hi. That's all he can get from me. I'm sorry, I'm not going to give you that respect that you have not earned when you disrespect

the office on a consistent basis. So, folks need to understand we're going to see a whole bunch of this nonsense over the next four years, but that's what we're dealing with. But this is also what happens when a lot of y'all sat y'all ass on the couch

and didn't vote. And even in places where Vice President Kamala Harris won, like in Virginia, a whole bunch of people still sat their ass on the couch. So that's why we got these shirts right here. We got them made up. I'm going to wear this shirt tomorrow. Go ahead and pull the graphic up right there and say, don't blame me, I voted for the black woman. So if y'all want to get that shirt,

y'all can go to ro Martin dot creator that spring dot com. Go to the Black Star Network to get your merchandise. But don't vote. Don't blame me. I voted for the black woman. I see my next guest is laughing at that. Richmond, Virginia's water treatment plant failed. It's led to a boil water advisory, leaving thousands without access to clean water. The new mayor, Dr. Danny Avila, has been spending his initial days in office addressing this longstanding problem. He joins us right now. Mayor, I say you got a kick out of that shirt there.

Sign me up, Roland. I'm ready for it. I'm just letting you know, I got about four or five of those. I'm going to get the sweatshirt. That's all I'm rocking for the next four years. So when somebody starts complaining, I'm going to say, who you voted for? And if they say they voted for Trump or they didn't vote, I'm the wrong one. Let's talk about this water problem. This is what you inherited.

What the heck is going on in the capital city of Virginia? Yeah, well, you know, things are on a better trajectory now, but those early days were rough. You know, we had a power outage that led to a failure of the water plant and flooding. And so a lot of our equipment, our pumps and filters got damaged. And, you know, we were about two and a half days without producing any water. And then because we were out of service for so long, we needed to wait about another 48 hours before we could clear the water to drink. And so we were under a boiling water advisory for about five and a half days. And, yeah, it was a hard thing for our community. And understandably, I mean, you recognize how important water is

to just every part of your everyday life. Well, absolutely. And so you lost power. Now, so, you know, how are you assessing those, you know, critical city services so you don't run into this problem again? Yeah, you know, I think one of the realities of our city is that it's an

old city. We celebrated a hundred year anniversary this past year in our water treatment plant. But part of, you know, dealing in an old city is making investments, ongoing investments in that infrastructure. And that's something that we've done to some extent, but probably not to the extent that we needed to. And so we'll understand more of that as we go through our after-action report. We have signed a contract with an engineering firm who's going to come in and kind of do a head-to-toe look at what happened on the morning of January 6th here in Richmond and then what happened in the subsequent hours and how did we end up in the scenario that we were without water for five days.

And I think the after action report will tell us a lot. It will tell us probably a lot about aging infrastructure, about maintenance that we hadn't been doing, about, you know, culture of emergency preparedness and responsiveness that we really need to bolster as we come out of this. So eager to see what they say. It'll probably be a couple of weeks before we have the round one of that analysis, but I think there'll be a lot for our community to talk about

and hopefully for our city council and state legislature to say, okay, we've got to make some ongoing investments here for critical pieces of our infrastructure. Talk about the fact that, I read this earlier, that among all of those nutcase executive orders Trump signed, one stopping the funding of the bipartisan infrastructure law. There are a number of cities, counties and states that are depending upon that federal money to fix vital infrastructure.

This Trump didn't do anything in four years to pass an infrastructure bill. And so now he's playing around with the money and being petty, and guess what? This may hurt lots of places, including places that voted for him. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I think the funding that the federal government has provided through that

infrastructure law has really helped communities, you know, and I think we've got, we had hopes, and we're doing some work to really pull down federal funding because, you know, and I think we've got, we had hopes and we're doing some work to really pull down federal funding because, you know, we are an old city. And so you take this water crisis as one example, but we needed another five to $600 million to fix our combined stormwater overflow if we want to keep our river healthy. And so there's funding for the sewer stormwater, there's funding for our roads, for bridges that are reaching the end of their healthy. And so there's funding for the sewer stormwater. There's funding for our

roads, for bridges that are reaching the end of their life. And so infrastructure has to be something that our federal government continues to invest in in local communities because people's safety, health, and well-being are at risk. Absolutely. Well, listen, hopefully things get sorted out there. What last question for you, what are your priorities as a new mayor of Richmond, Virginia? Yeah, well, they're a little different now, Roland. You know, I don't think infrastructure was at the front of mind when I came into this job two and a half, four, the number one issue that came up on the campaign trail. And so we really need to look at how are we stewarding city land? How are we using innovative tools?

How are we incentivizing more development in our city? Because more housing is going to create more opportunities, both for market rate housing, but it's also going to bring down the prices of housing across the board, right? More housing is better for everybody. But we also need to make sure that we're creating more affordable housing for those at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, those making zero to 30 percent of the area median income. So affordable housing, really focusing on city services, on improving the customer experience, on improving efficiencies within city government. I think a

lot of folks want and demand more from their local governments. And so we've got to be really thoughtful about how we're reaching our customers and our end users and making sure that they have trust in the government that their tax dollars are funding. And then, you know, the other big issue for every community is schools investing in K-12 education, both in old aging infrastructure, but also as schools are being dependent on more and more for mental health services, social services, food. We really need to make sure that we are coming alongside our schools to meet all of the needs of our population. And now, you know, really in the wake of this water crisis is taking a hard look at our aging infrastructure across the board and making sure that we are making the ongoing investments we need so that another crisis like this doesn't happen. All right, then.

Mayor, I surely appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Good luck. Thank you, sir. Take care. All right, folks. Going to go to a quick break. We come back. We're going to talk about Amazon workers who are trying to unionize.

Also, why is the ADL protecting Elon Musk after making a clearly Nazi salute? Also, did y'all catch that minstrel show at the inauguration? I was not watching that planned inauguration. But I do have a few words to say about that minstrel show

we saw from that pastor out of Detroit. Because he sure was smiling a whole lot for his new boss, Dada Trump. We'll discuss that. I'm Roland Martin. Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform.

It's a movement to empower creators offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding

can serve as a powerful tool for funding Black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly through their community community through the jobs act coming soon to the black star network well y'all when you're on that stage or when you're and you're seeing two and three four generations in the audience that's got that's got to speak to you about the power of what y'all overcome oh most definitely i think we were doing our show before our tour before our break and remember i was watching this kid i could not take my eyes off him because he was about right nine or so he's sitting in the front row with over on the right hand side yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I was amazed that this kid knew everything.

And I was like tripping to see how many songs this kid actually knew. And he knew them all. And he knew them all. We had to go over there and bring him on stage and take a picture with him, you know, at the end of the show and stuff. Because it was just that amazing. It was like, this is crazy. You know the music travels Everywhere, you know like Like what Philip was saying seeing this young kid then you see hear our songs on commercials cold commercials

Then you have the younger ones that seen out here our music animation on a next a balanced life we talk about how to get in touch with your feelings emotions how to find your north star and how to move your life along. Because oftentimes what we'll do is we'll accept what the world says about us as the truth and how we see ourselves, which that can be completely contrary to what the word of God says about who you are. That's on the next A Balanced Life here on Black Star Network. Hey, this is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered, though.

I ain't never known him to be filtered. Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. Amazon workers known as Carolina Amazonians United for Salad Dairy and Empowerment, they've successfully collected more than 30%

of the union authorization cards required to hold a union election at the Fulfillment Center in Garner, North Carolina. Ryan Brown from the organization is here to talk about that. Ryan, glad to have you here. So, all right, how long have y'all been trying to get

these cards in order to call for this election? First of all, thank you, Brother Roland, for having us on the show. I'm a huge fan of yours. I've read your book, White Fear. And we've been collecting cards for, we're not collecting cards, but we've been organizing for three years. And on the third anniversary of the birth of calls, that is when we filed for an election and met an agreement with Amazon for an election, which was January the 7th. So, and this, I mean, look, we see there have been issues in other places. Amazon workers, I believe, was in Mississippi or Alabama were trying to unionize, and that did not happen. What will it take for this to be successful?

And how many people, first of all, are working at this fulfillment center, and how many votes do you need? Thank you. So we have roughly 4,700 workers in the Garner, North Carolina facility. This facility is a building that is probably 75 percent workers of color. Amazon, they are predators of black and brown communities. Seventy% of their warehouses are strategically placed in low-income neighborhoods and where they can find cheap labor. And to win this election, this is going to be just a 51%. Whoever reaches 51% wins the election, but it's going to be a collective effort for the community as well, because everyone in America probably knows at least some person who has at least worked

at an Amazon facility. So, look, I mean, Amazon, according to its critics, have played dirty when it comes to stopping people from unionizing. Are y'all prepared for the battle that you no doubt are going to face? We have experienced all of the union busting tactics that Amazon has thrown our way. It is in their DNA to be very brutal with their union busting. One of the things that has given us advantage is that for three years, we've been able to prepare, we've been able to study, and to get ready for the battle ahead. Right now, this is actually the easy phase of the campaign. If we win, that's just the first phase of the battle.

The hard battle, the hard fight, comes when we have to get this Goliath to his knees and bring it to the negotiating table. Questions from our panel. Joe, you're first. Appreciate what it is that you're doing. It's certainly a difficult thing, but it's a necessary thing. Is there any consultation or collaboration and discussions with other groups, with Amazon

and other parts of the country to try to, you know, build strength, be encouraged, talk about tactics and some of these other things in terms of really connecting the dots and hopefully making something happen that could end up being national? Thank you. That's a very good question. What the general public doesn't know is that actually back last year I flew to Chicago and there in Chicago I met with Amazon workers from all over the country various organizations like ourselves and there we built a national coalition where we we discussed with one another what's going on and what we're seeing and to think collectively on strategies of what we can do together in solidarity

to fight Amazon and bring it to a national movement. Excellent. Thank you. Mustafa. Brother Brown, thank you for your work. I'm third-generation union, and I remember sitting on my grandfather's knee. He was a coal miner, and he used to pull men together to talk about the various things that folks needed. Often people hear about unions,

but they're not clear about what union members are actually fighting for. Could you share with folks, you know, what are the things that people are looking to be able to garner once they're able to unionize? I appreciate that question. And I think that the very first way to answer that question is that the workers in Garner, this is a 100 percent worker-led movement, independent union. We recognize that as workers of color, majority Black and Hispanic workers, that a lot of the traditional unions have actually failed us. Those systems, we've been fighting various systems. Those systems failed us.

And what has always been a part of our tradition, when systems fail us, we go outside of those systems and build our own systems and our own institutions. Here in Garner and just in North Carolina in general, we have the second least union participation in the entire nation. The only state that is ahead of us is South Carolina. It took three years to educate workers on the benefits of a union. The demands of the union can be summing up folks want better pay, folks want an end to racism and discrimination, folks want longer breaks. But when I sum it all up together, it comes just to one conclusion. Workers want to be recognized as human beings and not irreplaceable robots.

And we want to live a life of respect, dignity, and that Amazon recognizes our humanity. All right, then. Again, for the folks tuning in late, when is the election set for? The election will be set for February the 10th through February the 15th. All right, then. So we'll check back to see what happens. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much.

All right, folks, we come back. Oh, my God. Did y'all see that minstrel show that was called a prayer at yesterday's insurrection fest? Oh, my goodness. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Have mercy. If we saw what happened yesterday,

I thought I was watching the sequel to Spike Lee's Bamboozled. Yeah, I've got a few words to say. I'm going to do that coming up next. Don't forget to support the work that we do with Mustafa. You okay? You all right, Mustafa?

All right. That's right. I don't know what we gonna do, boss, but I'll be right here for you. All right, y'all, we're gonna discuss

that next. Support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. If you want to give via Cash App, do so with the

Stripe QR code that's right here. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com. You can support us via PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo's RM Unfiltered, Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And, of course, you can send your check and money over to the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Back in a moment.

Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now, we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media. Today, for just $399, you can own 60 shares of stock in Fanbase at $6.65 a share. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest today. While the big platforms have grown too massive and disconnected from their users, Fanbase is building a platform where creators and users truly come first. We've already raised $4.8 million from everyday investors who believe in this vision, and now you can join them.

This is your chance to invest in a social media tech company with over 1 million users that is disrupting media by allowing anyone to reach all of their following and monetize their content from day one. The market is changing, big platforms are failing to serve their users, and Fanbase is stepping up to fill the gap. Don't wait until it's too late. Invest now. Invest for yourself and your future. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase and own the future of social media. Next on Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, women of color are starting 90% of the businesses in this country. That's the good news. The bad news, as a rule, we're not making nearly as much as everyone else. But joining us on the next Get Wealthy episode is

Betty Hines. She's a business strategist and she's showing women how to elevate other women. I don't like to say this openly, but we're getting better at it. Women struggle with collaborating with each other. And for that reason, one of the things that I demonstrate in the sessions that I have

is that you can go further together if you collaborate. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. sessions that I have is that you can go further together if you collaborate. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. Now streaming on the Blackstar Network. I was challenged by my uncle early on before I even had a career. I was maybe eight old, and my uncle said, what do you want to do? And I told him I wanted to be a rapper. And he said, okay, well, I don't know anything about the music business,

so what you should do is learn everything there is to know about the music business, and I'll make sure that you have the resources to push you through. And so I went and bought books, All You Need to Know About the Music Business, hit me, and I just went and bought a bunch of books

to just start reading as a 10 year old. Just reading, reading. And so I learned all things, licensing, mechanical rights. I learned about publishing, learned about how composition is broke up into two pieces, the writer's portion and the producer's portion.

But by the time I actually learned I can't band, I was ready to like, okay, I got it. He would go into prison. So I had all this information. All this knowledge. All this knowledge. You like, well, what am I gonna do with it now? Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint.

Hey, Saraz. I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland Martin and Sheryl Underwood Show. Well, should it be the Sheryl Underwood Show and the Roland Martin Show? Well, whatever show it's going to be, it's gonna be good. All right, folks.

Now, y'all already know, I did not watch that crap yesterday. We were in Memphis with Reverend Dr. William Barber. I told y'all I wasn't gonna watch it. We were not even streaming it. We wasn't doing with Reverend Dr. William Barber. I told y'all I wasn't going to watch it. We were not even streaming it. We weren't doing any of that.

But then all of a sudden, Lord have mercy, folks started texting me, started calling me. This is how it all started. What the hell was that? Did you see that? Did you hear that? And I was like like what are y'all talking about and they were talking about the closing prayer that was led by that fool out of Detroit Lorenzo Powell is it Lorenzo Small was his last name oh so I thought it was Lorenzo Small. Okay. Lorenzo Sewell. If y'all missed it, go ahead and roll it. We pray that you use our president, that we will live in a nation

where we will not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character. Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we are so grateful today that you will use our 47th president so we would sing with new meaning, my country, tis of thee. Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring. And because America is called to be a great nation, we believe that you will make this come true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alighettes of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous hilltops of California. But God, we're asking you not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill in Mississippi, from every state, every city, every village, and every hamlet. And when we let freedom ring, we will be able to speed up that day. All of your children, black men and white men, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile will be able to sing in the meaning of that old Negro spiritual, free at last, free at

last. Thank you God Almighty, we are free at last. If you believe what the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Come on, put your hands together and give your great God great glory. You know what I can't stand? I can't stand... Let me be real clear with y'all. And y'all know that there are certain words I do not use on this show. I don't let people use it.

I don't use it. But that absolutely was a Sambo impersonation. That was a minstrel show that was a damn abomination where that ratchet ass so-called preacher would dare use the words of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that he delivered on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,

that he would bastardize those words at the behest in a prayer for a fake Christian. For a man. Who is atrocious and pathetic. And see what's even more. And the reason I say bastardize because. This so-called preacher skipped over what King said at the top of the speech.

Skipped over voting rights. He skipped over the check stamp insufficient fund. He skipped over police brutality. See, what he did is what all these other white Republicans love to do. They love to talk about the bottom of the I have a dream speech. They love that part, but they never want to deal with the real stuff in the top. See, they don't want to deal with the reality

of what folk are facing. No, what he'd rather do was do some fake-ass audition for Juilliard or some acting school by standing there and waving his hands and Just all of this Just he reminded me of Spike Lee's movie bamboozled rolling Make headlines make headlines. The Huxtables, Cosby, a genius, revolutionary.

But we can't go down that road again. The network does not want to see Negroes on television unless they are buffoons. Have you ever thought about just quitting? I have a contract. The only way I get out of that is if I get fired. And that is what I intend to do. I know you are familiar with minstrel shows. Variety shows, like in Living Colors.

Right, right, right, that was dope. Man, tag. The new millennium minstrel show. We're gonna need a little more money for this. This could be bigger than Friends, Ally McBeal, even my boys, Amos and Andy. You're putting white actors in blackface. We're using black actors with blacker faces.

Run, Hollywood. Run, Hollywood. Run, Hollywood. Run, Hollywood. Showtime. This fall. Right on, man. Yeah, great show.

You won't believe what's coming to your television. Sleep and Eat and Man Tan are lazy and unemployed. Beats. to your television. Sleep and Eat and Man Tan are lazy and unemployed. Beats, do your stuff. But we are certainly not saying anything about the entire African-American community. What's sweeping the nation? And what's coloring the way you see the world? Yo, we can't let this injustice go by, man.

Not this time, man. You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? You know what, man. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean, you know what I'm saying? You'll notice that everybody white wanna be black. How about we raise it up? We all have that sound level. When are you going to come into the light?

The light. The light. Your hands are just as bloody as mine. Cousins, I want you all to go to your windows. We talking about revolution. Go to your windows and yell out. I am not going to take it anymore! I don't want anything to do with anything black for at least a week.

He was man-tanned. That's what that was. I'm just out here doing my shuffle for the white folk. There have been black pastors who have given prayers at Republican inaugurations before. 2005, Houston's Kirby John Caldwell gave a prayer. This is what a black preacher looks like giving a prayer at a Republican inauguration. Oh, Lord God Almighty, the supplier and supplier of faith and freedom,

how excellent is your name in all the earth. You are great and greatly to be praised. Oh God, as we conclude this 55th inaugural ceremony, we conclude it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Thank you for protecting America's borders. After all, as the psalmist reminds us, unless you, O God, guard the territory, our efforts will be in vain. Thank you for our armed service personnel. And it is with unswerving thanksgiving that we pause to remember the persons who have made the ultimate sacrifice to help ensure America's safety. Thank you, O God, for surrounding our personnel, their families, their friends, and our allies with your favor and your faithfulness. Deploy your host from heaven so that your will for America will be performed on earth

as it is already perfected in heaven. I confess that your face will shine upon the United States of America, granting us social peace and economic prosperity, particularly for the weary and the poor. I also confess, O God, that each American's latter days will be better than their former days. Let it be unto us according to your word. Rally the Republicans, the Democrats, and the independents around your common good so that America will truly become one nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty, justice, and equal opportunity for all, including the least, the last, and the lost. Bless every elected official right now. Oh God, I declare your blessings to shower upon our president, George W. Bush. Bless him, his family, and his administration. I once again declare that no weapon formed against them shall prosper. And God, forgive us. Forgive us. Forgive us for becoming so ensnarled in petty partisan politics that we miss your glory and flunk our purpose. Deliver us from the evil one, from evil itself, and from the mere appearance of evil. Give us clean hearts so that we might have clean agendas, clean priorities and programs, and even clean financial statements. And now unto you, O God, the one who always has been and always will be,

the one King of kings and the true power broker, we glorify and honor you. Respecting persons of all faiths, I humbly submit this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. See, that's called a prayer. What we saw by that fool, Lorenzo Sewell, was just complete and utter trash. Ben Watson, conservative brother, Ben tweeted this. Lorenzo Sewell is a complete disgrace. He should be ashamed of himself. What an embarrassment.

He's absolutely right. And y'all, he made it worse. He made it worse because after he stood up there looking like a damn fool with his minstrel show, he then comes on social media to announce he's getting his own coin, his own mean coin, whatever the hell they call them. The latest fraud scam of Trump and his cohorts. Listen to this.

I need you to do me a favor right now. I need you to go by the official Lorenzo Sewell coin. I want you to be able to see politics become manifest, not just in a way where we're praying over political gatherings, but we were seeing us become the hands and the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you help? Now y'all notice, you notice in that despicable mocking of Dr. King, this in that minstrel show, Lorenzo Mantan's soul made no mention of Jesus and the poor Lorenzo

Mantan soul made no mention of the least of these Lorenzo Mantan soul made no mention of Democrats and Republicans coming together to do what's right for the American people know what he did was give a minstrel performance for the ages to the world. That's what he did. But see, he didn't have the dignity nor the biblical understanding, nor the gravitas, nor the common sense of Bishop Marion Edgar Budd,

the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. Because, see, today they had a national prayer service. And in her prayer, this is what she said to Trump and Vance and others assembled in the National Cathedral. Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you

and as you told the nation yesterday you have felt the providential hand of a loving God in the name of our God I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country

we're scared now there are to have mercy upon the people in our country. And we're scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors.

They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, wadara, and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.

May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people, the good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen. I want you all to freeze it right there. Freeze it right there.

Now, I want everybody that's watching, put me in the toolbox. I want everybody that's watching to understand something. And here's a bishop talking about being merciful, who's talking about the poor, who's talking about the hardworking. Yet, she's talking about immigrants. She's talking about all of that. It's two immigrants sitting on the front row. Trump's wife.. Trump's wife. Vance's wife.

Go to full screen of them. There's two immigrants sitting on the front row. Sitting behind him is his son. Sitting next to her, you see the daughter. You see, guess what? They are the children of an immigrant. That was his first wife. Oh, and the right.

They upset with that bishop. How dare she talk to him like that? And when he was asked coming back to the White House, it could have been better. He didn't like the service because he didn't like being confronted with the word of God. He didn't like a prophetic voice challenging him to do what's right. This modern version of King Saul stood up at the inauguration and chastised and condemned and just ripped apart the administration of Harris, Abbot and Harris sitting right beside. He didn't have a sense of dignity. He didn't have any morality.

He didn't have any decency. He didn't put forth a visualization moving forward, talked about how awful and degrading and how bad things have been. That's because he is not a Christian. He is not a moral man because if you actually know the word, if you actually go to church, by the way, no president has gone to church more than Joe Biden. If you understand the power of the word, then you would have never, ever said this. Go to my iPad.

But have you ever asked God for forgiveness? I'm not sure I have. I just go and try and do a better job from there. I don't think so. I think if I do something wrong, I think I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't. Now, when I take, you know, when we go in church and when I drink my little wine,

which is about the only wine I drink, and have my little cracker, I guess that's a form of asking for forgiveness. And I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed, okay? But, you know, to me, that's important. I do that. But in terms of officially, I see I could say absolutely,

and everybody, I don't think in terms of that. I think in terms of let's go on and let's make it right. That is a no good heathen speaking. And all of these white conservative evangelicals, and you can throw in some black ones too, have fallen for the okey-doke.

And when you, oh, I try to get my little cracker and wine as much as possible. It's called the Last Supper. Typically it's done once a month. Catholics, it's done every week or every time you go to Mass. He don't know that. He ain't got no clue. He has no clue about asking for forgiveness and mercy. He has no understanding of grace.

He doesn't know anything about Jesus dying for all of our sins because that man ain't no lover of Jesus. He is an absolute demonic individual who is an agent of Satan. And I told y'all before, if you really want to go biblical, see really what we're dealing with, Donald Trump is King Saul. The people of Israel have been freed and What we're dealing with, Donald Trump is King Saul. The people of Israel have been freed, and God said, I got y'all. They said, oh, no, everybody else got a king.

We want a king. God said, what's up? I got y'all. No, no, no, we want a king. So he said, Samuel, okay, go ahead and give him a king. But let me tell y'all what your king is going to do to you. Let me tell you how he's going to treat you, how he's going to abuse you, how he is going to screw you over. That's all biblical if y'all go read 1 Samuel.

And so then Samuel goes and he looks at the sons and he chooses the tallest and most handsome one. And what does that punk do? He runs off. No, you can't run. I'm picking you as the king. And he was evil. evil tried to kill David tried to break up the relationship between David and Jonathan Donald Trump is King Saul because you know what America said we want a king oh we want a king can we give us king give us a king so in his speech I think that I think that God saved me from the assassination

because God wanted to make America great again. Now, I think it's a little different, Don. I think God said, America, I'm going to give you all the desires of your heart. Now, biblically, it does not mean that the desires of your heart actually means it's good. It means God will give you the desires of your heart. So America said we don't care about January 6th. America said we don't care about his ethics. We don't care about him grabbing women by their vagina.

We don't care about his mistreatment. We don't care that he didn't pay people, businesses who did work with him. We don't care about the lawsuits. We don't care about the line. We don't care about the mistreatment. We don't care about he didn't pay people, businesses who did work with him. We don't care about the lawsuits. We don't care about the lying. We don't care about the mistreatment. We don't care about the degrading Reddit. We don't care about none of that. We want a king.

What did he say? Day one, I'm going to be a dictator. Well, we've already seen that. but when you stand before the world to give a closing prayer and then what you do is literally prostitute the words that Dr. King spoke you actually thought you were preaching you actually thought Lorenzo Mantanso that you were praying

no what you were doing was you were pandering. You were posturing. You were presenting yourself to America as America's lawn jockey. And see, I said it. Those are words and phrases I don't use to describe folk on my show, but you took it to a whole new level. Your church is called 180 Church. I dare say, Lorenzo, you need to do a 180.

But then again, Lorenzo, I see why you punked out and you were scared to come on this show after you had Trump at your church. I see why you ran the Fox News and others. Because, see, Lorenzo, you did not want to come to a place where we have reverence for the words and the actions of Dr. King. what you chose to do was make a fool out of yourself as well as the tradition of the black church

and that black preacher. Shame on you. And while you think MAGA and whatever coins MAGA tosses your way, just remember there was somebody else who got some coins for selling out Jesus. And we remember him a whole lot differently than we do the other men who follow Jesus. I'll go to my panel.

Before I go to Joy, I did see this video that also quite reminded me of something. Oh, Gen X, I cannot be the only one who thought this while I was watching this fella during the inauguration. Please tell me that I'm not the only one. Take a look at this and then take a look at what I thought of. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain. And, well, this here's what I thought of. Only God can give that woman the kind of joy she has right now.

You're not going to hate me, are you? Yes! Come on now. I cannot be the only one. Please tell me I cannot be the only one. Please tell me I'm not the only one. Oh, Jenny. Go ahead, Joy. That's going to be funny.

I thought of that, too. So I did watch yesterday. I am home in Florida, and my mom, we just couldn't resist. We did not say Christianly words at the TV. I'll admit that. But when the pastor came on, I think I just couldn't believe that he was, I knew that he was engaged in a grift. I didn't know about the coins until afterwards,

but I knew, I was like, if he's engaged with Trump, there's a grift involved. There's money involved. There's some effort to defraud and confuse and befuddle and to make some money off of this engagement. It was the worst acting ever. And I've seen a lot of bad acting. This, I mean, I just couldn't believe it. And it a bastardization of religion. Just so embarrassing. And they laughed at him. That's what's so great.

Stop looking at him. Look's what's so great. Stop looking at him. Look at the people behind him. They were laughing at him. J.D. Vance's wife was also, she had my face. It was confusing. And obviously he didn't read the room. I mean, none of those people appreciated what he was doing. Even they knew it was off. And black Republicans, you can be a black Republican. I love that you juxtapose with the Trump, with the Bush first inaugural. Think about how divided we were even at that time. But we didn't have a black preacher come on and make a complete mockery of himself, a performance. And so we know that this person is not any kind of true man of God.

He couldn't possibly be and have done all of that. The person we should be focused on is the bishop who spoke today. She is a reminder of what religion should be, what it can be. And frankly, Donald Trump should have expected that some minister was going to speak directly to him. And I wasn't even as appalled at Donald Trump's face during

the prayer breakfast, but J.D. Vance's face. He was looking around. He was obviously... No, he was looking around. He was obviously... No, he was looking down at Trump like, oh my Lord, she's saying to you, you're going, I can't believe...

He was mad. He was mad. Power... First of all, Joy, here's what these folk don't understand. They don't understand that my poor Joe is here. The purpose of a preacher is to convict those sitting in the pews.

They're not supposed to be there to affirm you. The preacher is supposed to use the word to challenge you and to call you into question and to call you to do better when you leave. And all of these right-wing folk, Joe, are mad, upset. Oh, take they 501C3

status. How dare she talk that way? Because she talked the way a preacher is supposed to talk to power. Yeah, that's right. I mean, that's the way Martin talked to power, right? You know, and we whitewash

how this country, as a country, we whitewash how we felt about Martin, as if he wasn't killed violently, which he was. And so, you know, a preacher is always going to call us to our highest purpose, to our highest morals, and they'll use the word, actually, to do it. So, it was a bastardization of Dr. King's words to take his favorite parts of the speech, but not the other parts that really call into question what it is that's going on with those that are the least of us, right? And you know it's bad when you be sitting there and your eyes are closed to start,

and at some point you just kind of got to open your eyes and be like, what in the world is going on here? And they were all doing the best they could to keep from busting out laughing because this thing was really a clown show. It was a performance and not a very good one. And it's not one that glorified God. It's not one that lift people up. All it did was, you know, you know, kind of kiss the president's behind, for lack of a better term. And so he sold himself out. But, you know, it's probably not the first time he's done it. Probably won't be the last time. And since he was on minutes later talking about getting a commemorative coin, you know what his purpose is.

And so the minister yesterday did the right job. She did the right thing in terms of speaking to what it is that is supposed to be arisen out of us, our best instincts, reminding you this is the standard. You are in power, and you have a position, and you have an ability to do this. And there will also be accountability for not doing it. But that's another thing that the people that seem to be so excited that Donald

Trump won, you know, the evangelical types, the Christian types, or whatever else, they're not tripping off him not putting his hand on the Bible. Let Obama not put his hand on the Bible when he was wearing it. Oh, I knew he was a Muslim and this and that and everything. Hell, they got mad at him over a flag pin.

Right, yeah. And a tan suit. The hypocrisy is nuts. And what's so bad is that as a Christian, you stand on the outside and you just see non-Christians looking at this and being like, no, I'm good. Ain't no reason to jump into this because this ain't what's cracking like at all. So, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how it all how it all turns out and see the moment and time in which these so-called preachers stop undermining and undercutting their own salvation in order to kowtow to the president. Here's what I find to be hilarious,owtow to the president. I'm not glorified by that. Here's what I find to be hilarious, Mustafa.

Go to my iPad. This fool gave a, he did an interview with a bunch of different people yesterday, and he said, quote, if you take politics out of the Bible, you have no Bible. He said that religious leaders need to, quote, equip all people to understand that the Bible is a political book. Well, it's interesting, Mustafa, because the whole bunch of stuff he skipped was a whole bunch of stuff he didn't want to bring up. And see, again, what what offends me is that you want to quote Dr. King on MLK Day and you want to talk about content of character and all that stuff and from the hills and all it.

But you skipped over the thesis see you see what he did was He gave them the hoop part of the sermon, but he skipped the scripture He skipped the basis and so that's what he did And so that's why I have no respect for it And of course you go on to a social, you see all of these white conservatives. Oh my God, he was amazing. He was just, I would go to his church if I was in Detroit. That's the kind of pastor I will follow.

And they're mad at the bishop today because the bishop today gave a sobering message and specifically said, Mr. President, she challenged him in terms of how he should be responding and how he should be acting as president. And that's what they cannot stand. They can't stand because what the right wing evangelical conservative community has done is they have completely stripped grace and mercy and humanity and compassion and care from the Bible. And instead, what you get, Mustafa, is vitriol and hatred from these individuals.

And then if they do talk about grace, it's what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace where that they ask for. And so these folk want to hold themselves up to be somehow the paragons of virtue, the individuals who we understand and we represent the true body of Christ. When you have these fake frauds like Franklin Graham, who would rather ask for forgiveness of Donald Trump, who's cheated on all of his wives, who cheated in business, who cheated in money, yet he didn't question the Christianity of President Barack Obama. Yeah, well, you know, one side of my family is ministers and deacons and deaconesses.

So one of the things that I was taught as a young boy is that you don't play with God. And the bishop and her demand to the president was saying, don't play with God. You know, you've got this second chance. Sometimes God gives us the opportunity to be better and do better. So, you know, I hope that he does. Some folks, you know, would probably not go that far,

but I truly do because I understand how many vulnerable people are out there. But, you know, would probably not go that far, but I truly do because I understand how many vulnerable people are out there. But, you know, the other day I was also meditating and praying and then I started writing. And, you know, I was wondering who it was meant for. And the first stanza, I guess, is actually for Reverend Sewell. When I said all skin folk ain't kin folk, some grin for the wind, tap shoes clacking, backroom dealing. Soul on auction, truth revealing. Dollars fold, but integrity bends. When devils pay, some friendships ends. So, you know, I hope that he will realize the opportunity that he has. He's going to continue

to have some form of a platform. I hope that that platform will be focused on our most vulnerable communities, on folks who are looking for some grace, who are looking for some protection, who are looking for some opportunity. And I hope as a minister that he would understand that that is the roots that he's supposed to come from and that he will continue to share that message if he has the ear of the president, that he needs to do better with this second opportunity that he has. Not the second opportunity at the presidency, but that second opportunity to actually be able to breathe in some air, to have a heartbeat continue on. There's a, you know, I would not play with God if I had had those types of situations, I wouldn't play with God anyway.

But, you know, we'll see how it all plays out. We're going to close the show out. Actually, I closed the show out because I've got Isaac Hayes coming up. But isn't it amazing to see how national media, how they are just absolutely kissing the behind of Elon Musk. Some of them literally ordered their folk not to even bring up or show the Nazi salute. So this is what happened at Trump's insurrection fest after the inauguration. Elon Musk was one of the speakers.

Come on. Come on. He was finishing his speech, and he walked out all excited, running around, and then he does this salute. Do we have it fixed now? So Elon Musk, at the rally, he does this salute. Now, what's funny is that, or not what's funny, so what has happened is that after he does this salute. Now, what's funny is that, or not what's funny. So what has happened is that after he does this, I mean, all these people, I mean, social media goes crazy.

People are like, wait a minute, what did we just see? And then you've got folks sitting here, oh, my goodness, that's not what he did. That is what he did. He didn't do it. He didn't salute. I mean, you've seen, I mean, I'm talking about a whole bunch of back and forth, back and forth, what he, what they claim he did not do. Now, first of all, let's be clear. He did it twice. He did it twice in the particular video. And so, just go to my iPad, watch this. So, one time, he does it again.

Okay. Now, here's what's crazy. Here's what's crazy. Here's what's crazy. I guess it wasn't. Again, you have the right folks, you have them defending him. Did y'all pull the video of the Nazi protesters and they compared the two videos? Did y'all pull the video?

Alright, roll it. Elon. The Nazi video, no, no, not that. That's from the hearing. That was a video where these Nazis were protesting. They did the sign and then they played Elon. And it looked the same. It looked the exact same. Now, I'm going to find it, because y'all don't have it? All right. Anyway, I'm going to find it.

This is the ADL statement. This is the ADL statement. So the Anti-Defamation League, you know, they call out anti-Semitism all the time. Y'all had a statement? Please pull it up. So the ADL issues a statement where people were hoping that they were going to check Elon Musk. And this is their statement.

This is a delicate moment. It's a new day and yet so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed and social media only adds to the anxiety. It seems that Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm. Not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge. In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath. This is a new beginning. Let's hope for healing and work toward unity in the months and years ahead. Now, mind you,

the ADL called Elon Musk on anti-Semitism last year, and he threatened to sue them. I wonder that's why the ADL all of a sudden is skittish. Now, let me also say this here, which is quite interesting. On all the hate boards, the hate groups, they called it a Nazi salute. Somebody just told me the Italian chat boards, they're calling it a fascist salute. Folks in Germany are saying, oh, we know what that is. That's a Nazi salute.

But it's quite interesting, Mustafa, how the ADL would release that and folk trying to give him cover for what he did as if we didn't see it with our own eyes. Well, you know, we went through that with the last Trump administration where we were supposed to not believe what we saw or what we heard or what some people experienced. You know, it's interesting also. So we know facts. Elon Musk was raised, you know,

in the apartheid South African system. We understand that that is rooted in racism and white supremacy. Back further, his own daddy said that his grandparents were with the Nazis in Canada. They moved to South Africa to support the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Go right ahead.

Yeah, thank you for building on that. I was going to just end up saying that. So, you know, and when Nazis and other white supremacists say, we see you, thank you for acknowledging and joining us in the way that we see the world, then, you know, I don't know how others come out and say, well, that's not what he did. If the folks who that's how they get down say, yeah, we now got the richest man in the world who is a part of our symbolism. Let me just leave it at symbolism, because symbolism actually sends a message to folks about what you believe, how you get down and who you're going to fight for. So, you know, they can they can say what

they want to say. But at the end of the day, you know, the truth is the truth. And we're not dumb people. Joy, go to my iPad. Let's compare the two. Let's just, I mean, so watch this. Thank you. I'm sorry. Look, look quite damn simple. Just in case anybody missed it, let me go ahead and just run that back. Okay, just watch this again.

Thank you. My heart goes out to you. I look pretty damn close to me, Joy. It was exactly that. It wasn't close. It was it. We was exactly that. It wasn't close. It was it. We all know that. We need to stop.

There's no one out here arguing about it. We know what happened. It's clear. Let me talk about the Anti-Defamation League, and I spent the whole first part of this segment

wondering what I was going to say. I have worked with them before as an ally. Jonathan Greenblatt has done more damage to that organization and his reputation than any other leader possibly could have. He's probably filled their coffers more. He's probably, you know, done other things, but he has damaged their reputation. And at this point, he's gone full circle to where he would be supportive of someone that he knows is an anti-Semite. He knows is a Nazi apologist. He knows engages in supporting bigoted language online. This is about money. This is about having common enemies,

right? Elon Musk was critical of people who were critical of Israel. This is about being transactional. That's what this is about. So we should not be surprised that ADL has found itself in this situation. I pray that they will find new leadership. I also pray that some of the other Jewish organizations who are out there speaking against what Elon Musk did, we can put them out there in front and let ADL recede until it's ready to come back and be its full self again.

I'm sad for them. I'm sitting here. I'm going to play it again, Joe. What's amazing to me, well, I'm going to talk over it, so pull the audio up too as well. I mean, this is the 20-second clip. For elections, the elections, they come and go. Some elections are, you know,

important, some are not. But this one, this one really matters. And I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you. And this is also a man who is now aligning with far right and Nazi sympathizers in European countries trying to impact other elections, Joe. Yeah, I mean, what you're saying is when you don't really see this for what it is, what you're saying is. Here's a guy that can that can quack, swim have webbed feet, and you're swearing it's not a duck. I mean, once again, you're going to be in a situation where people that are supposed

to have credibility, organizations that are supposed to have credibility, that rely on our support are actually going to sell themselves short and tell you that you didn't see what you actually saw. You know, this make-believe thing is incredibly, incredibly dangerous. And you have to be concerned about how it affects the media. I mean, you know, even the media is talking very little, from what I can see, about the fact that Donald Trump was the reason that TikTok was on the ropes to begin with all of that time ago. Media is saying very, very little about it. And so

it's a danger when people won't say what it is that needs to be said or when people will act like they didn't see something that they actually did. He has—Elon Musk has the background. He has the history. He has—you know, he's had problems before in terms of the Anti-Defamation League and all of these particular things. And suddenly, however, the Anti-Defamation League comes out very quickly and says with confidence, apparently, that this wasn't what we all saw that it was. And I think that that's a problem and that's going to continue being a problem. So that's so here's the other thing that we're now seeing. So folks were on social media today and all of a sudden we yesterday as well. They begin to search different things related to Elon Musk, related to Democrats and Kamala Harris on TikTok,

as well as Instagram, all of a sudden, stuff wasn't coming up. TikTok, oh, Instagram, oh, we're working on something that happened. No. Here's what has happened. This is why you saw all those tech CEOs there. The folk with the information sources, they are aligning themselves with

the right wing and Donald Trump. Isaac Hayes III is the founder and fan of A.C. Jones right now. Isaac, you understand this game. You understand algorithms. There are no coincidences. No. Not at all. Not with this game. You understand algorithms. There are no coincidences. No. Not at all. Not with this one.

Just sharing people how just all of a sudden, there's certain things you can't search for and you can't pull up. Like, it just disappeared. That's rigging the algorithm. I mean,

it's censorship at another level. It's an oligarchy. It's stateging the algorithm. I mean, it's censorship at another level. It's an oligarchy. It's state-run media. It's all the things that we hear about happening in other countries, but happening right here in the United States of America, which is very, very dangerous because when you eliminate the ability, and I saw this today, some people were saying, well, if I put in the word Democrat, without the hashtag, it comes up.

The importance of a hashtag is it's basically like a hook that attaches all content related to that that dates back from the inception of the product. So you've got 14 years worth of content that might say Joe Biden or Vote Blue or Kamala Harris or whatever. And if all that content is inaccessible, you're eliminating a lot of information readily available to the public. So it's completely unethical and dangerous. And we're in very scary times right now.

But it's also similar to what happened when Elon bought Twitter, when all of a sudden the feed, you stopped being flooded with all of this right-wing content. And we started seeing all, I mean, the stuff that people we had never followed before, I mean, they were purposely rigging the algorithm to suppress content about Biden

and Harris and elevate stuff regarding Donald Trump. Yeah, and they did a masterful job at it. You follow Elon Musk. Well, you don't follow Elon Musk, but you get his tweets or his posts on X, whether you want to see them or not. Well, I blocked his ass. That way I don't see his crap.

I just blocked. Because you're right, I got tired of seeing his crap show up. And even in that one, he was pissed off. It was the Super Bowl. He sent a tweet out, and Biden's tweet got more retweets. He ordered the engineers to change the algorithm to elevate his

tweet. Yeah, but this is what happens when the billionaires get control of the media. And the media is now in a digital format. It's not television stations. It's apps. So it's very scary to see that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are all aligned and then with whatever's going on with TikTok, which I

think is temporary, a temporary stay for the other guys to catch up to TikTok and then they're going to kill it. But it's just very dangerous. And it really speaks to the necessity for a new generation of social platforms that people have the right to speak and are balanced and have citizen journalism and free speech. Well, and what people also don't understand when we talk about these platforms, the reality is, and we started in the election, a majority of people in demographics 1835, 1849, they were getting their information from Instagram and TikTok. There were people who were saying that TikTok changed their algorithm and was feeding right-wing content. Now, all of a sudden, you've got the VP,

the vice president of the Chinese Communist Party as a guest inauguration, the TikTok CEO sitting amongst them, TikTok sponsored one of the inauguration balls. The Chinese government, they know exactly what they are doing. I mean, I honestly think that the ban doesn't necessarily make sense for me with TikTok and the relationship because it only bans it, it only gives it until April to sell the company in a 50-50 split between the United States and China. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Correction. The law, it wasn't a 50-50 split.

Trump is proposing a 50-50 split. But it actually, the law called for it to be sold completely. There are currently American laws on the books, for everybody who's watching who don't know this, that foreigners cannot own more than 25% of television stations in this country. Foreigners cannot own more than 25% of a U.S. airline. Those are considered critical parts of the infrastructure. So what you have here is when it was banned, they were saying national security concerns that either sell it to Americans or shut it down.

Trump is now floating. Oh, well, maybe we take 50 percent and y'all keep 50 percent, which is going to be pretty interesting for all of those Republicans and Democrats who voted for the ban and say, oh, now all of a sudden y'all cool with the Chinese government and ByteDance owning half of it versus all of it. Oh, yeah, that changes everything. Well, I don't I don't buy that. I'm going to tell you what I think. I think that these 75 days are to give Meta and X enough time to tock functionality and then they will ban tick tock because why why would meta all of a sudden say put your tick tock link on your facebook page

why would they pay tick tock creators five thousand ten thousand thirty thousand dollars to post reels why would they create a cap cutut-like editing functionality platform that's owned by TikTok on Instagram? Why would X add a video feature? There's a video feed feature now on the bottom of X. And so I think this is just to give them enough time to mimic and copy TikTok as much as they can, and then they're still going to get rid of TikTok. Okay. Questions from our panel. I'll start with you joy um so i definitely think

we have to like educate ourselves about you know what came first right we definitely the real issue for me is that we have a law on the books um it was passed by democrats and republicans this is why the supreme court wouldn't invalidate it, right? For national security reasons, which is the highest reason that it's hard to overcome. And yet we had both a little bit with Biden and now with Trump, a willingness to walk away from this. Now, I understand a lot of people are upset, but a lot of people have been upset. And really, this is up to TikTok, because TikTok could have done what the United States said to do, which was to divest, right, which was to sell. It did not do that. It was hoping for a Trump administration, and some might say pushed for a Trump administration through his algorithm.

Okay. But I know I'm getting there. I know. I need you to get there a lot faster what do you think we i mean like what do you think about that i mean that really is the concern is that we have we're grooming people for an authoritarian state where you can just throw out a law switch it up via executive order and everyone say, that to me is really the problem. Not just this, but what it says for the future. Well, from an optics standpoint, if I'm China,

I just punked the United States of America. I had you guys go through both houses of Congress, the president and the Supreme Court, and you still didn't do what you said you were going to do, which was kick our ass in your country. So if I'm trying to lie, you know, they played chicken and they won. We didn't do what we said we were going to do. So this 75-day reprieve, I still think is like, for me, it just makes America look weak. If you say you're going to ban an app for national security reasons and then you don't do that after, again, it goes through all this legislation, all this process, and you don't, it just makes America look weak. And, you know, again, if the app should be banned for national security reasons and everybody voted for that, the Supreme Court upheld the law, then I guess that's what should happen to the platform. But

it doesn't seem to be happening that way. So. Joe? Good to see you again, Brother Isaac. Give us a sense of roadmap related to how people that are content creators, people that have been on TikTok, et cetera, how we really read the tea leaves here and say, I'm not breathing. collective cyber relief because it looks like TikTok is back for a moment or whatever else. Take us through it. Is there something that you guys are doing actually on your platform taking us through how one would good in a good way, the best way they can make the transition as if TikTok may not be here? Well, I mean, first and foremost, I think that content creators and users should own their content. No matter where you go, you should be able to pick up and take it where you want to take it and move it around. So for that reason, we created a content migration tool that allows you to migrate content from TikTok over to Fanbase, content from Instagram over to Fanbase. because if these platforms do go away, I think this weekend showed us how fragile the ability for millions of Americans that enjoy TikTok, that built businesses off TikTok, to have their ability to monetize and make money taken away from them so quickly. I would not trust these

platforms at all. I would not trust Meta. I would not trust X. I would not trust TikTok. I would try to find places and platforms where I knew that I could own my content, that I was free to monetize, and that is not caught up in this game of politics and censoring content. And so, again, for us over at Fanbase, I welcome every single person on the planet that wants to utilize the platform. I'm not here to silence Republican voices or any other type of voices on the platform because there is no discourse. We make it in this world when we disagree and we have conversations and we come to understand one another a better way rather than these silos and just shutting off information and trying to rewrite history through technology. And so for us, I look for myself and other platforms to create apps and other tools for people to be able to utilize that support free speech. Something that we're doing at Fanbase that we're building in 2025 is called Spark.

And Spark is basically our answer for Twitter. It's citizen journalism. It's microblogging. It's something that I really want to make sure happens in 2025 as we continue to close this race, because people need to be able to speak freely and not worry about a CEO being all in the video, pushing content down your throat. And that doesn't happen at Fanbase. Mustafa. Well, brother, good to see you again.

I continue to try and tell everybody to go to Fanbase, check it out, make some informed decisions for themselves. I was gonna ask you about Spark, but you talked about Spark cuz I think that's incredibly important. I believe that Fanbase has a lot of promise. I'm curious, you talked about over the next year or so, but if you could pull out your looking glass and five years from now,

what would you like to see Fanbase looking like and how would folks be utilizing it in that moment? I see Fanbase in five years being the number one social media platform in America. I think that the current platforms and the owners of those platforms seek to be something different than they are. I think that Mark Zuckerberg wants to be something more than just an owner of a social media platform. And I think they want to reach trillionaire status and have true power. And for that very reason, they're going to open

the opportunity for other platforms to step up and come into the fold and do that. So for me, we're going to continue to build fan base. And in this last, you know, even in this last like few days, we had over 400,000 people join the platform. We raised over $1.7 million last week and over $700,000 in the first two days of this week. So the raise that we're doing on Star Digits closing, that is critical for us to be able to scale and build. And I think it's the biggest compliment in the world to compare fan base to a platform like TikTok or even a platform like Red Note that's worth $17 billion and raised $900 million when we're just trying to raise our first real 17 million dollar

round to scale and build and so um i think that we will close this 17 million dollar round relatively quickly i think that tiktok is going to do what i said is go away and fan base will be there to benefit um like the other apps out there and then we will continue to scale and move forward from there. Again, folks, if y'all want to, first of all, you should download Fanbase, get your account. If you want to invest, go to startengine.com forward slash Fanbase, startengine.com forward slash Fanbase. All the details are there for you to check it out.

Isaac Hayes III, we appreciate it, bro. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Real quick, folk. Yesterday, Sexy Red, you will never, ever hear me discuss her on this show. Only within this context. Yesterday, Sexy Red decided to post this AI-generated photo

of her dancing, holding hands and dancing with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Well, that didn't sit too well with his daughter Bernice, one of his two surviving children. Bernice posted this. This is intentionally distasteful, dishonoring, deplorable, and disrespectful to my family and my father,

who is not here to respond himself because he was assassinated for working for your civil and human rights and to end war and poverty. Please delete. Well, sexy red has deleted that photo. Unfortunately, let me find it right here. did leave up that put her in a... This is the one. Let's see right here. This is the one that she put up, her holding a handful of cash as if she was marching in one of these protests. And so that one is still up.

Real quick, get our panel's thoughts. Mustafa, when you saw that first one, you were like, oh, hell no. I mean, folks are so disconnected from the struggle, right? And everything that folks have done for them and poured into them. So they have the opportunity to be an artist and to be able to make money. But we also, and I understand that art can take many different forms,

but there's nothing of value in what this sister has done. And I know she's younger, but I hope as she begins to evolve and grow, that she'll realize that she should use her artistry in a way that uplifts our community and not gives people the ammunition to continue to degrade and break down our community joy you know i i think it's fair to judge her art that's what it's out there to do i'm going to refrain from that only to say this this if you're listening we love you we want to bring you in. Sometimes you got to make sure that you're surrounded by people who will give you pause and will say that may not land the way you mean for it to land. Martin Luther King doesn't just belong to all of us.

He has a family. He has a reputation. He has people who want to make sure his image is one that is respectful and emblematic of him. You should have checked with the family to make sure that kind of post was okay. No, no, no.

You wouldn't have done it. No, no. You don't check with the family about an AI-generated post of you in a club dancing with Dr. King. You don't do it. You don't do it. You don't check. Hell it. You don't do it, but I'm... You don't check. I mean, that's... No, hell no. No. You don't check. You don't do it. I'm trying to give freedom.

No, no, no. Damn, no, no. Damn freedom. No, I ain't giving freedom. I'm calling. No, I ain't giving freedom. No, see, there's... No, I'm not letting nobody your ass do the AI-generated photo of you and Dr. King with this sexy look in his eyes,

holding your hands, dancing. Fuck that. It's disgusting. No. Yes. No, you don't do it. And somebody on her management team should have said, what the hell is wrong with you?

We're not putting that shit out. That's my point. She needs people around her and I'm calling her to get those people around her, but I want to do it in a loving way. No, I ain't doing shit in a loving way. I am tired of coddling

these people. You did that bullshit to get attention and now you got attention and Joe Bernice King called her ass out and that's why she deleted it. Yeah, I mean, it's a problem for sure. And but to Mustafa's point, when these kids don't understand the struggle, they don't know that some stuff is out of pocket and out of bounds to begin with. There are certain things that you shouldn't even be trying to do.

OK, and that would be one of those categories. And there's a reminder of, you know, it's not just about being an entertainer. It's not just about making money or whatever else. It's also about living a life that hopefully honors people that contributed to your ability to even achieve success, not the least of which would be Martin Luther King, who literally gave his life for it and knew that's what he was doing while he was doing it. And so we've really got to make sure that these young folks understand what it is that's going on so that certain things, hopefully to them, would be off limits in the first place. Yeah, well, I just, I like, I have no tolerance for the shenanigans,

nor do I have tolerance for these people who put these flyers together for MLK holiday at strip clubs and at restaurants and hookah or whatever. It's going to be some basic damn respect and some stuff is, some stuff that we ain't going down. And so,

no. And so, folk need to stop playing games. And I'm glad Bernice King called her ass out for that stupid damn photo that she put up. And she should delete the second one because you look like a damn fool holding a hand of cash, imposing yourself in a photo where they fighting,

where they marching for rights and advocating for poor folk, and you sitting there holding a hand of cash. What the hell is that for? Is it for bail money for the folk who actually went to jail for you to have rights? No, I ain't letting them off the hook, damn that. I ain't doing shit in a loving way.

I'm gonna do it as harsh and as grown, as man as I can, because some of these folk clearly didn't have daddies and uncles and aunts to check them. No, yeah, I damn sure said it. Yeah. Because if you had mamas and daddies and aunts and uncles who checked your little young

ass right the first time, you wouldn't be having this damn conversation. Yeah, I said it. And trust me. Rolling, my mom agrees with you. And trust me, if one of my nieces or nephews pull some bullshit like that, trust me with the quickness,

I wouldn't even make a phone call or FaceTime. I'd be on a plane in they damn face direct. Up close and personal. You're right. You damn right? I know I'm right. Yeah, that's right. I'm right. Alright, y'all. You said you're right. You damn right I know I'm right. You know I'm, yeah, that's right, I'm right. All right, y'all, that's it for us.

It's going to be a lot more to deal with when it comes to this thug who's in the White House and all these crazy fools. And so we're going to be right here. And so I told y'all, we ain't backing down. We're going to call this thing out as we see it. And so thanks, Joe. Thanks, Joy.

Thanks, Mustafa. Thanks, Mustafa. Folks, the reason you got to support the work that we do, because you know what? It's a whole bunch of other people running on TV and radio, making excuses for black artists who performed at inauguration balls, giving them all. No, no, no. Don't don't call them out. No, we're going to sit here and challenge folk to do what's right because enough of these games that we keep seeing being played. And so we need y'all's support to do this here.

I told you, we ain't got no millionaires and billionaires. It ain't like, look, Elon ain't going to be cutting no check. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, none of them. They ain't going to be advertising. We'll know all of that. And so we are here to speak truth to power, to cover the issues that matter to us, and to enlighten you what's going on. Because I'm sick of

people saying, oh man, we didn't know. I wish we knew. Well, hell, you need to watch this show five days a week, every single day, because we bring the funk right here, and we're looking at adding some shows as well to speak truth to power as well. And so when you support us and support the network,

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Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.