#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Decision in Breonna Taylor case; GA GOP fight absentee ballot deadline; National Expungement Week

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

9.23.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Grand jury decision in Breonna Taylor case; Georgia GOP pushback against absentee ballot deadline; Felon voting rights activist Desmond Meade denied clemency; It's National Expungement Week and activists are working to restore the rights of the disenfranchised; In our our Black tech segment we take a look at a Black telecommunications company.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partners: 2020 Census In America, everyone counts. And the 2020 Census is how that great promise is kept. Respond today online, by phone or by mail and help inform hundreds of billions in funding for education, health programs, and more. Shape your future. Start here at www.2020census.gov. #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Whether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky, returned a decision on the case of Breonna Taylor, one of the officers. Only one has been indicted, none on murder charges. We will explain, and we've got legal panel to break it all down. Georgia Republicans appeal a ruling that would extend the deadline for absentee ballots to be accepted. We've seen the same thing happen all across the country. Plus, we'll explain what naked ballots are and how not knowing could affect your vote in the state of Pennsylvania. Felon voting rights activist Desmond Meade will not be able to vote. Actually, he's actually,

well, he tried to actually get a pardon. He tried to get a pardon from the state of Florida. It did not happen. We'll tell you exactly what took place. It's also National Expungement Week, and activists are working to restore the rights of the disenfranchised. We'll talk with the creator of that movement. Plus, our Black Tech segment this week features a black telecommunications company. Folks, it's a jam-packed show. It's time to bring the funk.

I'm Roland Martin on the filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the smooth, Roland Martin and the Filter. Let's go. With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's on for a roll, y'all It's rolling, Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's rolling, Martin

Now Fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling. Martin. Now. Martin. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, African-American, held a news conference today where he discussed the lack of indictments, if you will, against the officers who killed Breonna Taylor. The special grand jury indicted one of the three police officers, and that was not because of murder. The warrant was issued for the arrest of Brett Hankinson. Bail was set at $15,000. The attorney general explained the charge against him in the case.

With a thorough and complete knowledge of all evidence collected in this case, lawyers with our Office of Special Prosecutions presented the findings of our independent investigation before a grand jury comprised of Jefferson County residents beginning on Monday and concluding today. In Fletcher v. Graham, the Kentucky Supreme Court said that the grand jury has competing but balanced functions. On the one hand, its purpose is to investigate allegations of criminal conduct and determine if there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed. On the other, the grand jury serves to protect the public against unfounded criminal prosecutions where probable cause is lacking. The grand jury is unique in our criminal justice system

because it operates independent of the court and the prosecutor. The hallmark of the grand jury is its independence from outside influence. This independence is necessary to ensure that justice is done both for the victims and for the accused. After hearing the evidence from our team of prosecutors, the grand jury voted to return an indictment against Detective Hankinson for three counts of wanton endangerment for wantonly placing the three individuals in apartment three in danger of serious physical injury or death. The charge of wanton endangerment in the first degree is a Class D felony, and if found guilty, the accused can serve up

to five years for each count. Kentucky law states that a person is guilty of wanton endangerment in the first degree when under circumstances manifesting in strict indifference to the value of human life, he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person. My office is prepared to prove these charges at trial. The grand jury found that Jonathan Mattingly and Miles Cosgrove, two of the three officers who fired their weapons, were justified in their actions. The investigation determined that they did announce themselves as police officers before the shooting.

None of the three officers faced charges directly over Taylor's death. The governor of Kentucky, he is calling for the evidence to be released. Joining us now is Lurie Daniels-Faver, general counsel for the Center for Law and Social Justice. Cheryl Dorsey is a retired LAPD Sergeant. And, of course, our panel is Rena Shaw with the Lincoln Project. Women's Coalition, A. Scott Bolden, former chair of the National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Robert Petillo, executive director of the Rainbow Push Coalition's Peach Tree Street Project. Laura, I'm going to start with you. And so people are shocked and stunned trying to

understand how is only one officer actually charged in this case. The attorney general says they knocked on the door, but they had a no knock warrant. We also know that the officers had body cameras, but the body cameras were not on. The AG did not explain how he arrived at the conclusion that they did indeed knock on the door. Who said so? Lori, go ahead. You know, I think this is one of those cases that really reminds us of the quote James Baldwin said that to be a Negro and to be relatively conscious in this country is to be in a state of almost constant rage. Because the reality is it doesn't line up. We know that there are numerous errors with the police reports, including the fact that they listed Breonna's injuries as none.

We know that there are witnesses who say that there was no announcement that the police officers were there. And we're really looking at a case or an outcome where the walls in the apartment that separated Breonna Taylor's apartment from that of her white neighbors, not the Black neighbors who lived upstairs, literally got more justice than did Breonna Taylor and her family. And so that really is, it's in line with historical precedent as it pertains to the way that officers are enabled to take Black lives. Frankly, how any person who is white with a gun is frankly allowed to take Black lives and will typically be able to rely on the law to forgive that sin. And so the fact that there were no officers actually charged with her

murder seems to rest on the case that they are asserting that they were responding with fire to the shot that her boyfriend fired at them. And as a result, they were justified in doing so and that their actions were justified. Although I think the weight of the historical record would say otherwise. Um, Cheryl, 18 fires, the shots were fired. Six of them hit Breonna Taylor. The attorney general said the officers were justified because they had been shot upon. But at what point does the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, what rights does he have when you're sitting in your apartment, she's laying in the bed, all of a sudden you hear folks busting down the door. He's firing to protect himself. And again, I guess I just sort of arrive at this whole notion.

Oh, yeah. Well, they did indeed knock. And so therefore they should have been heard. And then the attorney general would also would not even say if he recommended charges, which, of course, typically that's what DAs do. Well, we know that they have been dishonest in reporting on this from the very beginning. And so, you know, when police kill us, there's only one version and that's the one that they tell. Now we're hearing that somehow the boyfriend fired first and the officers were, according to the attorney general, justified in returning fire. And that's why they were not charged, because there was no unjustified use of force, according to the attorney general. And listen, he's complicit and has a symbiotic relationship with that agency.

And he can present, as he said he did many times to the grand jury, a set of facts that would make them align themselves with his thought process. And so while he's bothered and offended by celebrities and influencers who are speaking out on behalf of Breonna Taylor, I'm equally offended that he would assert he's a black man, he's skinfolk, not kinfolk, and therefore can somehow speak for all of us and say that this was reasonable, but for shots going through a neighbor's apartment building, Hankison would not have even been charged. And so if that was okay, why then was he fired? And if it was a problem for the boyfriend to defend his girlfriend,

Breonna Taylor, why then was he released without charges? It's all mucky. It's all offensive. And I call BS. I am. I'm looking at Lurie. I'm looking at this story, the Louisville Courier Journal, where one of the attorneys, Jan Waddle, said it's possible. This is this writing. It's possible that go to my iPad, please. It's possible that no case was ever presented against Mattingly or Cosgrove to the Jefferson County grand jury. He noted that Jefferson Circuit Judge Annie O'Connell announced only that Hankinson was indicted, not that a no true bill had been returned against the other two officers, which is customarily done when a grand jury decides not to charge potential defendants. One of the lawyers

here says it's a simple and important question. Were the grand jurors asked to consider charges, including the alleged justification, against those two officers, or did the AG remove them from play on his own? Did the grand jury have the opportunity to decide whether the bullets rained upon Breonna Taylor, one of which killed her, were justified? And then this other law professor said the absence of a no true bill suggests the grand jury never voted on whether to indict Mattingly and Cosgrove. Yeah, I think that's an astute observation, because the reality is the saying that you could indict a ham sandwich means something. And as noted by my colleague, the prosecutor in that case, the one who was in that courtroom, he or she leads the grand jury.

They present their version of the facts. They present what it is that they think needs to happen in this particular case. And so the notion that these other officers were not even, the legalities of their actions were not even voted on. So it does raise questions as to whether or not the grand jury was actually asked to consider those facts. And because we don't yet know, and because everything else seems so murky, I think we are well within the purview of reasonability to question whether or not they were even asked to do so. The reality is, one of the quotes that we heard from Mr. Cameron was that there was no reason to believe that Hankinson's bullets were the bullets that killed Breonna Taylor. Well, why not?

Do we not know whose guns and bullets are connected? Are we not able to rule out that he was the one who actually did cause her death? Were the other officers who shot, were their guns and the bullets that were ejected there from, were they evaluated? What was the evidence trail that leads us to believe that it's possible that Hankinson, that his gun was not the one that was responsible for her death? So the fact that we are seeing charges against Hankinson for putting the lives of the white neighbors in apartment 3A in danger, but not even the grandmother and the black neighbors who were upstairs in danger, really begs the question, what was happening in that jury room when they were deliberating,

and who and what angles and from what angles was the evidence actually being presented? Cheryl, really what this points to, and I think this is the reality that people have to understand. You served for years with the LAPD. The reality is the law as it is written, the laws in this country side significantly with police. It is extremely difficult to charge an officer for anything, definitely murder. Exactly. And particularly when you have an attorney general asserting that 16 bullets fired by Mattingly, and it's alleged that there was one report that spoke to the fatal bullet that killed Breonna coming from Mattingly's gun, but he fired 16 rounds. And 16 rounds in and of itself is an excessive use of force. Officers are taught and trained two rounds in rapid succession, and then you reassess whether or

not a threat even exists. And so we understand, based on his own admission, the AG, that he said the officer's use of force, the 16 shots fired by Mattingly, the six shots fired by Cosgrove were justified. And so there would be no reason to tell the jury anything other than that, or even present an opportunity for them to consider manslaughter or some other lesser charge, because in his mind, it was justified. And that was the way he skewed his presentation to the jury. All right, then. Lori, Cheryl, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. All right, let's bring in our panel. I'm going to go to you, Scott Bolden. Scott,

I've had several attorneys text me saying this is exactly how this was going to go down. The officers were never going to be charged with murder and that this was the best they could actually get. Your thoughts? Okay, let's level set it for a second. because what we should have seen was an investigatory grand jury, as opposed to him, the AG, presenting the case two or three days ago upon their investigation. The AG's investigation could have worked with the grand jury and put it right in, as they found out information, put it in the grand jury and let the people or peers make that discussion. That's the first thing.

Second of all, he didn't present, there were 26 shots fired. He didn't present Madsen or Cosgrove because he felt that they were justified in returning fire once they determined that her boyfriend fired first. Cosgrove's bullet through group ballistics testing, FBI and the state lab, although there was some disagreement between them, he concluded further that Cosgrove's bullet killed Breonna Taylor because it was a.40 caliber or.40 millimeter, and Mattson got shot by a 9 millimeter, and that was from the boyfriend's gun. So he did try to justify it. Now, if you don't accept those facts and the investigation was flawed, got it, right?

But he laid out a case whereby he could not bring murder charges against anyone because once he determined that Cosgrove and Matson were justified in returning fire, even if the facts and the process and procedures for this no-knock warrant, and by the way, he indicated that it was not a no-knock warrant. He determined that, and he accepted one person out of 10 witnesses or neighbors who heard them announce themselves. The other nine neighbors never heard it whatsoever. He went with that.

That's a choice he made, which is really flawed at many levels. But he went with that to say that they did announce themselves. Now, whether Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend heard them announce themselves, and even if he had a right to defend himself, once he fired, now you're in no man's land. And the police fired back. If the bullet from Cosgrove is the one that killed her, then Hankerson, you're left with Hankerson and his 10 bullets that went all over the place through the window. You're left with him. But if his bullet didn't kill Breonna Taylor, you got to charge him with something. And what they charged him with was wanton reckless endangerment or wanton endangerment. But you couldn't charge Hankerson because Hankerson, according to lab reports, his bullet didn't kill Breonna Taylor. And so you're just left

with this clusterf. It feels like only civil justice will matter here. Criminal justice, no one's going to be criminally charged for her death. And that's just really a sad and bad determination. But in criminal justice, sometimes you don't get justice. You can only get civil justice that equates to that $12 million the family got. Robert Petillo. I think, frankly, the presentation from the Attorney General was nonsense. Let's understand that, well, that old saying that a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich is absolutely true. The only time a prosecutor does not get a grand jury indictment is when they don't want to get a grand jury indictment. As a matter of fact, very often when prosecutors do have flaws in the initial indictment, they go back to the grand jury again to make sure that they get an indictment. So this idea that they did not release the information

with regard to what was presented, they did not present the no bill which was issued, indicates to me that it was always cooked into the cake that they did not want to indict these officers here. And let's understand, we have people online, people who are defending, let's say, Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, but saying that Breonna Taylor somehow was complicit in her own death, that they deserved it because her ex-boyfriend was a drug dealer, or that she deserved it because her current boyfriend, quote-unquote, shot first. Understand that you have a right to self-defense when you are at home in your house, particularly when people show up and, I believe, as Scott said, out of a dozen witnesses who talk to the prosecutor, only once they heard that a police officer announced themselves.

If someone is beating on your door at midnight about to kick in the door, you have the right to defend yourself. You have the right to self-defense. You have Castle Doctrine. You have Stand right to defend yourself. You have the right to self-defense. You have Castle Doctrine. You have Stand Your Ground. So what we're seeing is this continued diminution of the African-American experience in this country, whereas we're expected to exist as second-class citizens. You do not have the same right to self-defense as Kyle had, laying in your bed asleep. You do not have the same right to service or process.

They have to kick in your door at midnight. They can't simply serve a search warrant during the daytime like they would anyone else. Think about the way they serve Paul Manafort this way, or they serve Michael Cohen this way, or Roger Stone this way, or they're complaining about police coming to arrest them, let alone kicking in their door at midnight and then killing somebody. So this is an entire indictment upon the system and the fact that when police unions and police officers are complicit with prosecutors, that there's no way to achieve justice on the state or local level. And this is why we need an empowered Justice Department, an empowered Civil Rights Division that will be able to come in and provide justice

for these families, because a civil settlement will never be enough. The reason they announced this civil settlement a week or two ago, the reason that they announced that they were instituting a curfew, the reason they announced that they were declaring a state of emergency long before these charges were ever announced was they knew exactly what was going to happen when they let these guys off and now we're seeing that plan come to fruition. Well, Rena, you have so many people, go to my iPad, people are protesting there in, people are protesting there in Louisville.

Folks are actually, they have taken to the streets there, the Kentucky Attorney General, the Kentucky Attorney, excuse me, the Kentucky National Guard, they of course have been alerted. The mayor there announced there was going to be a, the mayor announced that a curfew is in place as well in Louisville. This is video that was shot earlier right now. This is live video that's taking place there in Louisville as well. People want answers. They are demanding they demanding justice. But another example, they're not going to get it. Well, number one, I want to say to Breonna Taylor in heaven, you deserve better, sister.

You deserve so, so much better. And I'm sorry the system failed you. I am sorry that justice has not been given to you. I mean, it already took long enough, Roland. It took long enough for us to recognize what her death was. And the reality is this, is that this country does not recognize black and brown lives the way they recognize white lives. And this is the most perfect example. This is a woman that served her community. She was an EMT. Imagine if she was a white woman. This is what I see the disparity to be, is that justice seems to exist only for certain

colored young women. Now, I have a sister, the exact same complexion as Breonna Taylor, who works in Kentucky. She's a plebotomist. She's a health care worker, just like Breonna Taylor. If she was gunned down in her own home, what would justice be like for her? It would evade her as well. And that is what shocks me in 2020 America is because we operate in the societal pact. We have a societal contract. We subscribe to it. But guess what? Many members of law enforcement do not give us that same degree of respect. And it's rich of the right wing to come at us with this narrative that they believe that they can work for all of us. No way. Give me more examples. You'll unearth so many beyond Breonna Taylor. And you'll see that justice has evaded Black and brown girls for so, so long. We do so much better for white girls that go

missing from the South than we do for a young woman like Breonna Taylor that was laying dying in her hallway. It takes me to something even different. Look, we got great legal takes just now from my friends. This panel was incredible in giving the legal take of what this means for one officer, one officer to suffer the consequences, as he should. If this was a white girl, first of all, the standard of beauty is all messed up in this country. She wouldn't have been laying dying in the hallway of her apartment the way Breonna Taylor was.

She wouldn't have been judged for the man that she was laying next to. She would have been dealt with differently. And the right wing to deal with Kyle Rittenhouse or whatever his name is, Mr. Rittenhouse, who crossed state lines with weapons to kill other people. It is beyond me that people like Pam Bondi in Florida can talk about those people with some degree of respect. But guess what?

They can't keep Breonna Taylor's name in their mouth, as they shouldn't, because they know. They know what went wrong. They do not want to acknowledge it. And the silence is deafening. We must change the standard of how we look at black and brown girls in this country. We must. And it has to happen across the political spectrum.

Scott, there are a lot of people who have been invoking the $12 million settlement today. We had Tamika Mallory on and Ben Crump on when that was made last week. And I have to remind people, that wasn't just a monetary settlement. There were actually police reforms that were a part of that. And I think it is wrong for people to somehow assume that, oh, the family got paid off, that the reality is this here. In most of these cases, and we would say most, cops are not indicted. But we cannot ignore those reforms that were part of the settlement.

I totally get folks wanting to see these cops charged, but we can't act as if that also didn't happen. You're absolutely right. Ben and I talk about that all the time, that the civil justice piece is part of trying to have the justice system work. And you can't ignore that that $12 million, the problem with $12 million is that that's taxpayer dollars. Why are we paying for police misfortune or why are we paying for police misfortune? Or why are we paying for police bad conduct? Our tax dollars, why don't we take their pensions or do something where they have to pay indirectly?

It's still our money. But what bothers you most about this case and what's troubling about the lack of criminal justice is this, and the AG did not deal with this. That murder scene was a clusterfuck. The boyfriend shot one time a nine millimeter. The police returned fire with 26 rounds. Well, supposedly the shot that was fired hit one of the officers in his femoral artery. And then they said, no, no, no, I'm just simply stating that they said that they saw that,

and that gave them reason to fire 18 shots. Well, a total of 26. The boyfriend shot one time and hit the police officer in the thigh. Do you know what that murder scene looked like? Now, maybe you've never been to one, but I've been to several as a homicide prosecutor in New York. That murder scene was a mess. And then the police start comparing notes and getting their stories right. And so, again, you can't ignore the civil piece,

but there's far much more investigation needs to be done. And somebody ought to be paying, if only, as you look at that crime scene, 26 rounds. My goodness, who were they trying to stop? It was only two people in there. And so you can't tell me that reckless endangerment is the only charge against one officer. Because the other two officers shot six rounds and the other one shot 10 rounds. My, my goodness gracious. They had to be violating not just law, but police procedures. And are they coming back now that they've been cleared criminally? Are there going to be administrative

charges here? I mean, there's got to be some justice or some prejudice towards them for making this lethal error, lethal mistake. And in most jurisdictions, we don't have that. And that's one of the reforms we got to get to. Reality, Robert, is that when the announcement came down that this was going to happen at 1-15, to be perfectly honest, my reaction was that nothing is going to happen. Hope's not raised. I mean, because we, let me say, this is a sequel. We've seen this movie before. Yep, yep.

Well, Roland, this isn't just a sequel. This is like the Avengers. This is part 22. You know, we've seen this movie over and over again. I can tell you the beginning, middle, and the end. I can tell you the music they're going to play. It's completely predictable. This is a 400-year-long movie that we've seen in this country because it's the idea that African-Americans remain, until this day, three-fifths of a human being.

Regardless of the civil rights act and the voting rights act and emancipation and everything else, that may have got us from three-fifths to four-fifths of a human being, but we damn sure ain't being seen as five-fifths of a human being like everyone else. And as long as we are expected to subside as second-class citizens, the idea that if you fire one shot to defend yourself that you can be responded to, well, it's 26 shots by government agents. Well, that just tells me that if I'm ever in that situation again, I better fire more than one shot because I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by six. And I'll figure it out later on. So unless we are going to create a situation where African-Americans can depend on the system, you cannot be mad when they are put in a position where they do not care about the system. You can't be mad when you're expected to comport yourself, as was said earlier, to the social contract when you're seeing a Hobbesian brutish state of nature in your own communities. And to this idea that we keep hearing, where they criticize folks for looting, criticize people from rioting, criticize people for social unrest and social justice activities, the point is that nothing has been done.

You can go back to the killing of George Floyd. No new laws on the books to stop that from happening again. You can go back to Trayvon Martin. You can go back to Amadou Diallo. You can go back to Rodney King. You can go back to Emmett Till. Many of these same laws are still on the books. And until and unless we have a nation which is ready to face down the fact that we still have a medieval system of policing in this country, instead of a 21st century system of policing, particularly for black and brown communities, we're going to continue to see this done. I think it has to be our political agenda going into November that whoever we vote for, and remember, the president is the only thing on the ballot.

You have state and local races up and down on the ballot. AGs are elected. District attorneys are elected. Mayors are elected. County commissions and city councils are elected. The people who hired a police chief are elected. We have to make sure that as part of our agenda items, that our vote is a vote to end racial killings in this country? Marina, the reality is what you're dealing with is you're dealing with one party, Republicans, that are very much law and order. They embrace them. Police unions are endorsing Donald Trump.

He says, frankly, that they are being stopped from policing the way they should be policed. He's calling for them to be able to beat the hell out of people to do more. That's what we're facing. We're not a situation where you have two presidential candidates calling for police reforms. You've got one who says, let them just run rampant, forget police consent decrees, no real civil rights investigations. And then you have Joe Biden who is calling for police reform. That's what we're faced with right now. So, Roland, a lot of why I do some of the media I've been doing in the past four years is because I know how the right things. I made my entire career in Republican politics. And I tell you, it is so difficult for me to continue to use the word Republican in anything I do.

Look, I remain in this party as an agent of change. Do I identify with the party in its current form? Absolutely not. But having made my career in this party, I know there are good people there. I know there are people who want to put country before party. And I know there have been sensible people that have really cared about the issues related to criminal justice reform. And they want to know why conservatives

sound like hypocrites on so many things, like no-knock searches. Look, the fundamental reason I have been a Republican the entirety of my adult life is because my family's origin story. We came from Uganda. We lost everything due to a dictator. I saw Donald Trump for who he is the minute he came down that golden escalator, like a lot of us on the right. There were a small number of us, I must say, but we

sounded the alarm. We said, this guy is a wannabe dictator. He is a strong man who admires other dictators. And so with my family's origin story, what I know, what I knew then and what I still know now is that government can get too big. It can get too oppressive. It can get in our way and it can kill us and take everything we have. Look, that's the reality of where we are. But this Republican Party doesn't stand for any of that. They need to talk about the realities and they need to do it without color so that they can bring other people to their conversation. The problem is they've been hijacked by somebody that has peddled hate from the moment he came on any scene, right? Central Park five, we can go down that rabbit hole. We

don't need to do that because the reality is we know now, by now we know who Donald J. Trump really is. And he's a con man who doesn't feel anything differently but this one phrase, white is right. He is missing everything but his Klansman cape. And I tell you, I don't say that lightly. I say that because I have really, really tiny kids with brown skin. And I know that when we go into society, we've already always had one thing against us, black and brown folks. They don't like our success. But we still operate from this place of it's okay.

Everything will be better. There is equal justice for all in this land. What we've realized under this administration is that he uses the Department of Justice for his own good, for his own service, to serve himself and his family. And he's eroded the pillars that hold up justice for families like all of ours. And that is so fundamentally scary to me, because that means that people like the McCloskeys, that husband and that wife who stood in their yard in St. Louis, Missouri, are far more valued than a young Black girl that is doing good in her community and has gone down at 26 for no good reason because of a warrant that number one was served way late and number two had nothing behind it substance-wise look i'm not

the lawyer here but i'm just saying when you read this case you know that it would have been dealt with differently if the color of her skin were white and that is where we have failed brianna taylor as a country and tomorrow what we need do, we need to talk to conservatives about what they care about. Do you care about the color of my skin? Do you care that I am valued as an American as equally as you are? And that is a conversation that needs to be on the ballot on November 3rd. And thankfully it is. But I worry and worry and worry every night that conservatives I've talked to will just not get it because they do not have our lived experiences. And Ron, just real quick on that

point. Let's understand that if you are a conservative who claims that you believe in the Second Amendment, for example, the NRA should be up in arms at the idea that police can kill somebody for defending themselves with a firearm in their own home. That is what they've been talking about for decades. Freedom's Safest Place, they had a campaign a few years ago that they were the nation's first civil rights organization to defend African-Americans from governmental agents being able to kill you. It's completely hypocritical. This idea of the don't tread on me signs, we're the party of liberty. We don't believe in big government. There's no bigger government than government agents killing you at midnight for no reason while you're sleeping in your bed. That is some V for vendetta stuff. That is what

happens in Mussolini's Italy. That is not what happens in the United States of America. So for them to pull out the constitution and claim that they are the party that believes in the constitution being constitutional conservatives while lying through their teeth, while defending officers, government agents that kill innocent individuals is a complete miscarriage of everything that they claim to believe in. And you've got to hold them to task on that. All right, folks, let's talk about what's happening across the country. In Georgia, 1.1 million people requested vote-by-mail ballots, and the number continues to grow. 32% of the requests come from Black voters. The Georgia

Republican Party joined the Republican National Committee Tuesday in appealing a federal court decision requiring the counting of absentee ballots received up to three days after the November 3rd election. This is just one of the efforts to disenfranchise voters, specifically black voters across the country. Now, understand, folks, there are 40 days until Election Day, 40 days until Election Day. Republicans and Donald Trump, they are fighting every effort when it comes to counting as many ballots as possible. If you want to understand the mentality of these people, listen to what Donald Trump said today at the White House when asked the question, if Biden wins, would there be a peaceful transfer of power? Listen. Win, lose, or draw in this election. Will you commit here today for a peaceful

transfer of power after the election? There has been rioting in Louisville. There's been rioting in many cities across this country. Red and your so-called red and blue states. Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transfer of power after the election? Well, we're going to have to see what happens. You know that I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster. I understand that, but people are rioting. Do you commit to making sure that there's a peaceful transfer of power? We want to get rid of the ballots

and you'll have a very peaceful, there won't be a transfer, frankly, there'll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else. Go ahead. What you're dealing with is, again, you're dealing with a thug here. The folks at The Atlantic dropped the story today that laid out exactly what it is that Republicans are trying to do. What they're doing right now is they are working. The Trump campaign is working with lawyers in the various states where they want to challenge. They are planting the seeds. This is the headline in The Atlantic, the election that could break America. And what they're trying to do

in this story here, okay, and this is what the lead says. There is a cohort of close observers of our presidential election, scholars and lawyers and political strategists who find themselves in the uneasy position of intelligence analysts in the month before 9-11. And it goes on and on and on. What it lays out in this article is that what Republicans are trying to do is that if it is close in states, what they will then do is say, forget this. Forget the counting is going on too long. We're going to declare that we know what the will of the voters are and choose the electors ourselves. Now, let me take you back to 2000. Folks, you have to remember in Florida, Florida actually exposed for people the first time an understanding of the Constitution. First, there is no affirmative right to vote in the United States Constitution. When you hear people say voting is a right, that's simply not true.

There is nothing in the Constitution that affirms that every voter has a right to vote. Because of amendments, it does say you cannot prevent folks from voting because of race or gender. So what that is, what people didn't realize was that when looking at the laws, the way this country was set up, I keep telling you beforehand, this is why civics is important. The country was set up for white men who own land to control the nation. So state legislatures actually have the power to choose electors. The Electoral College was a slavery compromise. And so they wanted to be able to control who became president. So what Donald Trump is doing is they are trying to work with Republican

legislatures to say that if there are, it's close in several States that these legislatures will simply say enough is enough. And we are going to choose the electors from the state and we are going to discern what the voters actually want it to happen. That's what is going on. Donald Trump has no problem and the Republican Party has no problem with thrusting America into a constitutional crisis because it is their desire to hold on to power regardless of what happens. You know, I've got a slight smile on my face because I know what's really at play here, right? And it's, it's And they want that crisis so they can

litigate their way out of it. They can use these courts through which Donald Trump has got his people in. Okay, look, there's so many examples. Just look at the past four years, but particularly look at the past four months. There's so many good cases that tell us that these are Donald Trump's judges. It was always about the judge's role. And this is always what it's been about in electing this, you know, two time philandering fool. He's a fraudster. He's, you know, a schmuck who basically has, has gotten so good at conning folks. And this is how he's doing it. He's using the courts to get his way. So yes, Republicans want that constitutional crisis. They thump the constitution, but they do what they wish will. They would do what they will with it. And their wish essentially is to disenfranchise voters who look like us. They do not want us to have what they have. This is about a tale of two

Americas. I've said it over and over again these past few years. There is not one America in which we are equal to white people. And this is extremely difficult for me to say as a conservative coming up in this career. I've always held myself at the same standard, but what I've seen in what Donald Trump has done in using our judiciary for his gains, I have seen very clearly that many a conservative is okay with that if it means that they go untouched, if their lives are unimpacted. So therefore, if the lives of others are impacted, okay, that's okay. That's a casualty. But we will litigate this the way we want so that we will get the justices that we want. That's what it's always been about. I realize that sounds like a very

elementary argument. I'm making an overly simplistic, perhaps, analysis of the situation. But it's very, very important that we talk to our friends and family who may even think that he is not the threat to the Constitution that he is. It's very, very important that we speak to them in simple terms about it. This is a constitutional crisis that they are welcoming. Scott, I'm going to read this here. This is from The Atlantic piece. The worst case, however, is not that Trump rejects the election outcome. The worst case is that he uses his power to prevent a decisive outcome against him. If Trump sheds all restraint and if his Republican allies play the part he assigns them, he could obstruct the emergence of a legally unambiguous victory for Biden in the Electoral

College and then in Congress. He could prevent the formation of consensus about whether there is any outcome at all. He could seize on that uncertainty to hold onto power. Trump's state and national legal teams are already laying the groundwork for post-election maneuvers that would circumvent the results of the vote count in battleground states. Ambiguities in the Constitution

and logic bombs in the Electoral Count Act make it possible to extend the dispute all the way to Inauguration Day, which would bring the nation to a precipice. The 20th Amendment is crystal clear that the president's term in office shall end at noon on January 20th, but the two men could show up to be sworn in. One of them would arrive with all the tools and power of the presidency already in hand. doubt if Joe Biden beats Donald Trump by two, three or four hundred thousand votes in Florida or North Carolina in Georgia, then you're not going to have these games because it will be no doubt that is how you beat this thug and his Republican imps at their own game. Yeah, we got we got to do it. As you were reading that piece in

Atlantic, I was thinking, where's the military going to be on this? Because we're going to be in crisis and like a third world junta. Let's just see what a military is going to be on this. I tell you what else this begs, though, as a question, is the importance of the Senate races. Because if the Senate turns to Democrat and the House stays Democratic, then if he pulls any of these maneuvers with the electors at the state level, that will be challenged in state court and all the way to the Supreme Court.

But it's got to be done by January 1st. And depending on if the electors are selected by the Supreme Court, but it's got to be done by January 1st. And depending on if the electors are selected by the state legislature, they're right. That would be a lot quicker, but it would be under legal challenge. But if the Senate and the House both have run by the Dems, then there's more maneuvering after January 1st that both parties, I'm sorry, both houses could do to either impeach him or remove him. But we've never had an unpeaceful transfer of power. If we get to January 1st at noon and there's no declared winner, what do we do? You're right, two could show up, but that's just borders on the nonsensical. That makes no sense. And so the Democrats have to be as prepared as the Republicans are in laying this groundwork. But I agree, we're going to be in constitutional crisis. And I have no doubt that Trump, if it's close, he's not leaving. Or we're going to have to throw him out or impeach him again. What we are seeing, Robert, we are seeing

again, Trump and the Republicans try to use all these tactics. They are suing folks in Pennsylvania, suing folks in Georgia, and what they hope is, they hope these federal judges agree with them, and what their game plan is is to appeal every decision

up to the Supreme Court. That's why they want to seat this justice so bad, because they want a six to three majority. And if John Roberts chooses to go the way of the liberal justices, then they still have a five to four win. That is their strategy, Robert Pattillo. Well, you know, it's interesting because I remember being in law school and being outside picketing the Supreme Court during one of my summer internships when John Roberts was up for confirmation because we thought he would be the most far right wing justice on the liberal during the time he's been on the court is because the court has gone so far to the far right that now what we used to think was a radical conservative on the court is now

the moderate swing voice on the court. And let's also remember, it was just a couple months ago that Supreme Court ruled that electors have to go along with what the state says, that you cannot have rogue electors. You cannot go against what the state has voted for, what the state says, that you cannot have rogue electors. You cannot go against what the state has voted for, what the state has decided for you. So we're no longer, they've stripped the electors themselves of having the power to step away from what's been said and to vote their own hearts and vote their own conscience, vote their own minds. So yes, we are set up for a constitutional crisis. We're going to have back-to-back constitutional crises. One, on the replacement of Justice Ginsburg on the court, which is going to be a constitutional crisis, and we're not quite certain how that battle is going to go. And then secondarily,

if the election is even within sniffing distance, because last time Hillary won by three million votes and there was still consternation, and we're not going to see a situation where Republicans do the honorable thing like Al Gore did and just concede, or do the honorable thing like John Kerry did and not have a recount in Ohio because it was what was in the best interest of the nation. These people are going to fight and claw, because what they're fighting for is something very different than what Democrats are fighting for. Democrats want health care. We want a clean environment. We want education for our children. We want a foreign policy that is humble. We want the regular things in politics. Listen to what they were talking about at the Republican convention. Listen to Matt Gaetz. Listen to Charlie Kirk. They're talking about a fight in defense of Western

civilization, that the last man standing between the mob, between the hordes, between the immigrants, between America being overrun by minorities, is Donald Trump. This is the American carnage that Donald Trump talked about in his inaugural address. So we can't pretend that we're fighting the same fight and that we're fighting by the same rules. Democrats are still playing by the traditional rules of politics. The Republicans right now are fighting the battles of the Holy Roman Empire. They're fighting against the mongrel hordes and the Umayyad caliphate. They think that they are in an existential crisis for the future of whiteness in this country, and it will be a white-majority nation going forward. And because of that, they are willing to use every tool in the basket and don't expect them to just lie down and do the right thing. Latasha Brown,

co-founder of Black Voters Matter, she joins us right now. Latasha, we are seeing black folks in Georgia right now, 1.1 million ballots. They still are requesting ballots there. I was reading Ron Brownstein on Twitter. He said that polling data is showing that black people there are sort of still trying to decide, do I vote by mail or do I vote in person? And a lot of people are actually trending towards voting in person because they're not trusting this process, especially with all the different rules that you've got to do this and do that and follow all these procedures.

What are you seeing and hearing as y'all are traveling all across the South on the Black Voters Matter bus? That's exactly what we're hearing as well. People are concerned about the mailing in their ballots. They're also concerned about will they be counted. Also, if they're going to get them in time. In the primary, there were hundreds of people, possibly even thousands. We don't even know the exact number of people who requested an absentee ballot and didn't get it in time. And people don't want to take that chance. So what we've been hearing is a lot of concern on the ground around this particular, around mailing their ballots, if it will be counted. But what is even more egregious is that there are 200,000 voters who were unrighteously taken off, illegally taken off the voting rolls in Georgia.

That Greg Palast, who was an investigative journalist, did a report for ACFU. And it came out two weeks ago saying these 200,000 voters. No, no, no, no. Right, right. There were 300,000 that were purged. 200,000 were in error. So they actually purged 300, right. There were 300,000 that were purged. 200,000 were in error. So they actually purged 300,000. They actually purged 302,000. Absolutely. And it was 200,000 are in error. You know, what makes Roland what makes matters worse is that all this time,

even those of us that were been pushing and telling him that he needed to put him back, that he wanted, he kept demanding that he wanted to list. What is interesting is that we were like, no, our experts will sit with your experts to try to figure out how could you be so wrong? How could you have 200,000 names that were off the list? Who is your licensee? The National Voting Rights Act requires that there's a licensee that when you're clearing the list, that those names that are change of address, it can't just be a list that they come up with. You can't even get it from the post service. You have to get a licensee, which is a vendor,

an outside vendor to really be able, they verify like 200 pieces of information to really be able to have this list that they come up with. And so all this time, we've been thinking that he just didn't want to give that information. In an interview that he did with CNN, it was revealed that he doesn't even have a licensee. So technically, it is just completely wrong. Not only is the information wrong, but it is illegal. Not only is it illegal that he did it, but it was illegal in the process. He's never had a licensee to really be able to give him that list.

So we don't know where he got this 200,000 names that are really wrong. And so right now he should put those folks back on the polls immediately, and we're demanding that. This is what we are seeing is we're seeing, again, enormous interest out there. I was looking at a piece from Perry Bacon, and in his particular piece, he talked about young voters and how young black voters and older black voters view Trump and the Democratic Party in a interesting in a different way. What I found to be interesting, I'm going to pull this graphic up, because it really did, it was quite fascinating what they pulled up, because it spoke to, again, this divide between black voters and older black voters. This was interesting. This was a 538 poll that was done. Go to my iPad, please.

Position. Trump is racist. 18 to 29, 79% of blacks say yes. 60 plus percent, black people who are 60 or older, 90% say he's racist. Trump is incompetent. 74% of 18, 29 year old African-Americans say he's incompetent. 90% of African-Americans 60 or older. I vote to support the black community. 18 to 29, only 54% said yes. 71 percent of voters 60 years or older. Democratic Party is welcoming for black people. Just 43 percent of blacks, 18 to 29, 73 percent of blacks, 60 plus.

The overall number is just 57 percent. Let's get to this one. I do not always like Trump's policies, but I like the way he shows strength and defies the establishment. 35 percent of 18 to 25 year olds, just 10 percent of 60 plus year olds definitely motivated to vote. Only 29% of voters 18 to 29 that are black, 78% of black voters 60 plus. Trust congressional Republicans to do what is best for black people. 29% of voters 60 plus. And the last one, GOP is actually two. GOP is welcoming to black Americans. 28% of black voters 1829 say yes, just 7% of black voters are 60 plus. And the last one, I don't vote because it doesn't make a difference. Twenty one percent of black voters, 18, 29, two percent of black voters, 60 plus overall, 14 percent. What do you make of this, Latasha?

You know, it's interesting. I actually can see it. You know, I think there's a couple of things that three things as you were. It's on one hand is shocking and I want to be like, you know, but on the other it. You know, I think there's a couple of things. There are three things, as you were. It's on one hand, it's shocking. And I want to be like, you know, but on the other hand, you know, if I'm in my political scientist hat, you know, some of it makes sense to me. One, when I look at the numbers around how they identify with the party, that makes sense to me. When you look at in terms of party loyalty for young people in that age, whether it's Democrat or Republican, they do not have the same sense.

That has been for a number of years. They do not have the same attachment. That has been for a number of years. They do not have the same attachment to political parties as their predecessors. Even our generation, Generation X, does not have the same kind of identification with parties and party loyalty as the baby boomers. So what we know is throughout, in terms of party loyalty,

that has changed drastically across the board, black, white, particularly with young folks, younger generations don't have that kind of attachment. So those numbers in terms of how they see the parties, I think they're seeing the parties as and they see themselves as independent voters. We know that. I think that that's across the board and data has shown that. The second thing, though, is I think that we're also in this age of soundbites. You know, I have been looking, people have been sending me information, a screenshot of conversations happening on Facebook and other places. You know, some way, you know, even when we look at the news cycles now, which is why I'm so glad you got your show rolling so

we can really get deeper to these issues. Because for the most part, what the national media has done is it's sound bites and it's political pundits and it's really based on opinions, right? And not necessarily we're not having a conversation where we're unpeeling this. The reason why I'm saying this is because people are really attaching to information based on soundbites, not necessarily an analysis about understanding the context of some of the politics and the political landscape. A case in point of that is some of the messages that I've been receiving are messages in these groups, you know, where people are saying, well, Trump is good for the economy. You know, the truth of the matter is we had a conversation, Cliff Albright and I had a meeting with a political economist just the other day who talked about 91 percent of Americans have not done better

but actually done worse after Trump if you factor in inflation. Nine percent of Americans have done very, very, very well, right? And so when you're talking about who's done well with people being employed, because I have to remind folks that employment, if you're measuring the economy about us being employed, that's different from measuring the economy and how well the economy is doing

based on how well people are doing. People may be working, but oftentimes people are working and are underpaid or don't even make enough money to take care of their jobs, take care of their livelihood. The bottom line is I think that there's one element around soundbites, how we're grabbing hold to this notion, even in the economy piece, we can just go from COVID-19, that 80% of black businesses didn't get

any of the stimulus money. So how are we going around saying that Trump is good for black business? Right now it's projected that 50% of small black businesses will not make it to the end of the year because of COVID-19. I haven't heard him say anything, and I haven't seen any money of a special stimulus on making sure that we get resources. So the bottom line is there are sound bites that I think

that people are grabbing hold to, whether it's on Twitter or Facebook, that I keep seeing over and over and over again, that there literally is making some impact in our community. There are commercials running right now. I got a phone call two days ago from an advocate in the state of Florida who advocates, who really is working in the space around felony reenfranchisement and some other issues. And he said that he heard these commercials. He keeps hearing these commercials in Florida to the point where he was like, you know, if I didn't know any better, I would want to vote for Trump. Because Trump, in terms of integrity, he will say whatever he needs to say to do whatever he needs to do so he can maintain power. And so there are these soundbites out there that he's better for the economy, that he is doing good for,

it's good for black folks and that he's about his business. And then the third and the final point that I think when I look, when I'm listening to some of the numbers that you're talking about, you know, I think part of it is a reframing of power that when we're looking at, that's why black voters matter. When we're talking to folks, we're not just talking about voting and participation.

We're talking about power. There is an element in this country that actually has aligned themselves to really believe that this dominant bully leadership is that that's a form of legitimate power. And we're accepting of that because there's something about this country that's quite frankly, that is a value of it that likes to be the bully. You'd like to be the biggest and the baddest and and whoever I can bully. And so there's there's a certain kind of personality that Trump has a certain level of charisma. He comes off like a big, strong leader. And there's some kind of attraction. I do think there's a segment of population. No, I mean, we've actually seen that. I want to bring in Rena, Robert and Scott on this. And to that particular point, Rena, we have seen that there are there are there are people, people who are appealed by the John Wayne attitude of Donald Trump.

And especially especially black men. And what you find, what you find here, because, in fact, I saw so Trump apparently is going to be going to Atlanta on Friday to to talk about black economics at this event. Paris and our Darrell, Pastor Darrell, Scott Diamond and Silk. Oh, my God. That minstrel show. And again, what they're trying to say is, oh, he has been unbelievable. Yet he keeps telling, oh, before COVID, this was the black unemployment rate. The reality is the black unemployment rate right now is double than what it was when he came when he was inaugurated. It's double. OK, the number of the black home ownership rate dropped. The number of black businesses that have closed significant number.

So he's actually just lying. And but it's like the people are falling for the okey-doke. Oh, my God. He's so wonderful. He's so great. And again, they're hammering that and they want to see those numbers and what they want to do. And he said in 2016 arena, he's basically said black people don't vote. And he thanked them. He thanked them for not voting, saying, y'all help me become president. Go ahead. You think he didn't see what happened with Doug Jones down south? He's scared. Internally, this man knows that he hasn't done anything for Black America. And he's scared that Black people will turn out to do the right thing, which is vote against him, right? Because they know when they are being gaslit.

Black people know when they're being gaslit. Because look, generations, history, we can speak to how people of color have been treated in this country. And when you talk about Black and indigenous folks, and then people of color like myself, there has not been a fair America under Donald Trump's folks. Because the whole sentiment has been that there are good people on both sides. Those are his exact words, right? So when we look to the future, what do we see? A whole lot of gaslighting. This is the gaslighter in chief. He thinks if he says it in a certain way and he says it enough times, then it's truth. And look, LaTosha, she made incredible points about just the short attention span we have here

and how the news is given to us and absorbed in those who are in my age range. Let's be honest. I'm a young mom in my mid-30s. We absorb things in self-bites because that's how it's been given to us. And so we become accustomed to that. And then we think that is truth. And so in my study of the American presidency, I've had a great interest in it in the past decade, especially I've worked two

U.S. presidential campaigns, one of those being an independent and another of those, a very long shot, quixotic Republican campaign. And in traveling the country, I have seen some truths. And one of the biggest truths, one of the biggest truths is that we wrongly conflate the success of a president with the success of an economy. And that is just one thing that I have tried to hammer in people's minds this election more than any other time. I have said, these are Obama-era policies, actually,. Trump was gifted this beautiful economy. First of all, he was gifted the economy.

He was gifted all his money, which came from his dad. He's a failed businessman, but somebody said something to me today, Robert. They said you have a generation of people who grew up where it's all about money and power. It's about houses. It's about cars. It's about cars.

It's about wealth, which means that you're smart and you're great. And Donald Trump falls right in line with that theory. So when he tells all these rappers who love hanging around him and name dropping his name, that that is now currency at the ballot box. Agree or disagree? I agree.

And I think the Trump style is something that in private, you'll hear a lot of particularly African-American men, as you said, say that they're a fan of, that they like the I don't give a what attitude about everything. But I do think we have to take this trip to Atlanta. I'm your resident Atlantan here. We have to take this into consideration because Republicans don't come to Georgia 40 days before the election. They only come to a state to make a presidential visit to swing states. That's why you see Trump in Michigan. That's why you see them in Florida and Ohio.

You don't come to Florida unless your internal polling data is showing you that you are at risk. Remember, we have two Senate seats up for grabs here. We have Pastor Warnock, who's my pastor at Ebenezer, even though I've been going to Bedside Baptist recently. We have Pastor Warnock, who is running. We also have John Ossoff, who is running. And Stacey Abrams only lost by a razor-thin margin in this state. Just today, Fulton County announced that they are changing 91 voting precincts from the primary in June for the election in November. So, Pete, we're going to have mass chaos on Election Day. We have the Republican Party suing to stop increased counting of absentee ballots in this state. This state is absolutely a toss-up, which means they are going to be fighting

on home territory. It's the Democrats' job to bring it home. If you've got them fighting in Georgia and North Carolina and Virginia and other seemingly key or seemingly solid red states 39, 40 days before the election, that means that they know they are on the outs and they have to figure out a way to win. But Democrats cannot try to win this in hiding. Still, Donald Trump dominates the news cycle every single day. They dominate the policy discussions. The country spends every week following whatever the this week scandal is. And forgetting about what the last one is, Democrats have to focus their fire and ensure that they are getting that messaging across. Because just like in boxing, the tie goes to the aggressor. And Donald Trump is being the aggressor right now.

Before I go to Scott, Scott, Robert was talking about the news cycle. The reality is today Joe Biden was in North Carolina with NBA player Chris Paul talking about issues with the economy. I just want to share just a little bit of that before he review. Go ahead. How y'all doing? Mayor Lyles, thank you so much. Vice President Biden, welcome to Charlotte, North Carolina. Feels so good to be home. You guys know I was in a bubble for a while recently. Man, this is important.

This is extremely important, and that's why I'm glad to be a part of this conversation. Being born and raised in North Carolina, this is home for me. Always will be home for me. And so to be a part of this conversation and to just have real conversations, we had a conversation in the back and I just thought about how grateful and privileged I am to be a part of these tough, difficult conversations, especially during this time. Being a parent, having an 11-year-old son, an eight-year-old daughter, these times are very crucial and very important. And I can't explain enough how much it means to talk about the things that have to be discussed. And you guys being here, everything is about respect. Everything is about respect. So teaching my kids about respect in the office, having these conversations. And that's why this election is important.

A lot of times people say my vote doesn't count. I'm not going to be in the same office having these conversations and that's why this election is important. A lot of times people say my vote doesn't count. I come from humble beginnings where a lot of people where you live and stuff say it doesn't matter. As black people it doesn't

matter. If I vote what's going to really change? We still have the same restaurants on the corners. We don't have the benefits of having places to eat. Our homes, that's not going to eat. You know, our homes, that's not going to change, right? So the only way that we can really enforce our power is by voting. Voting. So this conversation is

unbelievably important. So glad you guys are here so that we can ask some real questions. So without further ado, I would like to introduce the next president of the United States, Joe Biden. All right, folks, we're going to we're going to stream that later. I want to go to Scott again. This is about having a message that speaks directly to people.

And again, Trump wants to say for black people, oh, everything has been great and wonderful and rosy. He lied in that town hall with George Stephanopoulos saying every category black people have been doing so much better under him. Well, the message we need to be tailored to black men, because notwithstanding that 20 or 30 percent of young black people who see something positive in Donald Trump, that's shocking to me. But the message to black men to vote, because I got to tell you, it's more than that machoism with black men and how they voted for Donald Trump or how they see him. It's that anti-immigration message. It really is. I've had more men come up to me in airports and even in my own building when we were in that building who said to me the following, I voted for Donald Trump. I lost my job to some illegal immigrants. That's why I'm pushing a mop. And nobody on the Democratic

Party is speaking to me and my job loss. And I say, well, what about his racism? He's a racist. They say, yeah, Scott, I've been called the N-word before. Let that sink in for a minute, Roland, because we're right about all this. And we all of us are analysts and we're all playing inside baseball. But the guy and the people that come up to me and say that are frontline voters. I'm not going to call them dumb or uninformed. They're just frontline voters. And that's the messaging that they're getting. And they vote on that messaging that they're getting. The Democrats need to talk about black men. We know the story of black women. We need to keep that message going.

But we need that 10 to 15 percent that the Republicans are projecting that they're going to get from black men. We need to do something about that, because when you say all hands on deck and we need to win big in all of these states, that 10 to 15 percent, even if it's false, we know Trump under polls. He under polls with black men, too, because you hear them talk about that all the time. But we've got to do something and give something in our messaging to black men to make sure they come out and vote. Because the negative messaging or the lies they're being told, there are a lot of black men who listen to that nonsense. And you've got to get under those numbers and explain why that doesn't make the sense. It's too hard for some people or most people to really understand the lies he tells.

That's why the sign bite comes in. I want to go. Right. I mean, Latasha, I want to bring you in. Look, you've been out there and I remember you had posted something on Twitter when you even had some family members yourselves who you said you had to take a nap when you found out a couple of black men in your family had voted for Trump. Yeah, I do. You know, it's interesting. I'll be honest. I've not heard the issue around immigrants. I have. I have. I have. I have. I've actually it goes it goes back. That goes back. I'll be honest with you. That goes back when I had my radio show in Chicago on WVON radio, that goes back to 2006. I've heard that point Scott has made

for the last 14 years. But go ahead, Latasha. No, I agree. I've heard that before. I've not heard that as a court issue this time. As we've been going on the ground, that's not why I've been here. I'm not saying it's not there. What I have been doing is around criminal justice. There's a residue of the conversation

around immigration, but I've heard that as a predominant issue with the men that we've been talking to. The ones we've been talking to, what I've been hearing is really more around criminal justice reform and this message around from Kamala and Biden and what they've done, and this First Step Act, which nobody's really unpeeling, the fact that the DOJ is blocking all of that, that's really smoke and mirrors. And so I think that we really got to lean into that. The two things consistently I've been hearing with me and has been related to the criminal justice system and the economy. It's about money and this idea that Trump is actually bringing more money in. And I do think that as we're talking about,

I agree totally that there has to be a message that is tailored towards black men to really talk about what this administration plans to do. But I also think that we do need, because we are in this space of soundbites, we've got to dispel this piece. The majority, I'm telling you, the majority of what I've been hearing

is related to Biden is bad on criminal justice and Trump going to get us some money in our pockets. Like I've consistently heard that out of everything. And even when the commercials that are running, that's Trump are running, he's running, he's attacking the Democrats on that end. And so, you know, some way we've got to, and let me say this. Brothers got to organize like the bottom line is brothers got to get out here and organize. We've been organizing and pushing work and even without with the women leading. But and there are some men who have been standing in the gap. But part of what I have been hearing has been related to money, related to money. And this idea that somehow Trump has been better around

criminal justice. Absolutely. Latasha, look, we certainly appreciate all the work that y'all have been doing. I do want to ask you about this last story here. In Pennsylvania, two million folks have requested mail-in ballots and those requests have been going out. Now there's this whole issue with naked ballots. Have you heard about this and how it's impacting people? People are really confused and concerned about it. If you take a ballot, you put it in the wrong envelopes. There are two envelopes. And if you don't put it in the proper envelope, that means when you cast your ballot, it won't be counted. It's another form of voter suppression. Right? And so people are confused

and concerned about it. So there are two ballots. There's an envelope. There's an envelope. The envelope comes in. Right. And there's an envelope that you're supposed to mail it back in. And they're saying that if you write, because why the envelope matters, I don't know.

Right. Right. But if you mail it in the wrong envelope,, I don't know. Right. Right. Right. But if you mail it in the wrong envelope, they're not going to count it. Right. And so I saw one local story that said about a thousand, about a hundred thousand people have already been impacted by that. That's right. That's right. We're actually, Black Voters Matter is actually headed, we're doing caravans all through there, but we're taking, we're kicking off our tour in Pittsburgh this weekend. We'll be in Pittsburgh on Saturday. We're doing caravans all through there. But we're kicking off our tour in Pittsburgh this weekend. We'll be in Pittsburgh on Saturday. We're doing caravans throughout the city.

As a matter of fact, in Pittsburgh, it's Black Voters Matter Day on Saturday. We've got activities going on all over the city. And Pennsylvania, this will also be the first year that they're doing early voting. And so there's a lot of attacks because there are a lot of attacks from Republicans because of that. And so we'll be there this weekend doing a tailgate, a tailgate event on a tailgate and voter outreach event on Sunday as well. And in addition to Pennsylvania, I do want to highlight what's happening in Wisconsin and Wisconsin. There's 129,000 voters, which is also a key swing state, 129,000 voters

that the Republicans, a Republican interest group called WEAL, wants to take off the ballot. That literally was interesting in Wisconsin, since the Democrats actually control the state now. They don't want to drop, they don't want to drop these voters. They're being sued by Republicans, right, to drop, to force them to drop these 129,000 voters. It's going to the Supreme Court. We'll make a ruling on it this coming Tuesday. Ironically, we've also had some of the same people that we're working with, Greg Palast and some of the, Palast and the experts who did the work in the findings of

Georgia also did it in Wisconsin as well. What we do know in Wisconsin, as the majority of people on that, of the 129,000 are African-American voters and students. At least 10,000 are students at the University of Wisconsin. And that ruling will be made on this coming Tuesday. All right. Latasha Brown, Black Voters Matter. We so appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right, folks. Got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about those who have been expungement.

But also what happens when you lead the effort to restore the voting rights of African formerly incarcerated in Florida? Then you still don't get a pardon in Florida. It's always Florida. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. The community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard. Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 Census today at 2020census.gov? Now, folks, let me help you out.

The Census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted new parks and roads and senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the U.S. House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted,

which means a potential loss of funding of services that helps our community folks we have the power to change that we have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years funding that can impact our community our neighborhoods and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 Census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov.

You cannot fulfill your life if you're not willing to engage in the tactics and strategies that makes your own life grow and regionally to govern themselves. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hi, I'm Wendell Pierce, actor and author of The Wind in the Reeds. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Earlier today, a Florida state panel denied a request to grant a full pardon to Desmond Meade, the brother, of course, who led the historic push to restore Florida's felon voting rights under Amendment 4. He dropped this video on social media.

I just want to share with you, and I know there's a lot of news stories that's already out there. I want to be able to make a couple of clarifications. And, you know, as always, you know, Desmond, where other people see obstacles, I see opportunities. And always take this moment to encourage people, do not let obstacles slow you down, do not let obstacles discourage you or anything like that. Glad to see my family watching. I see a lot of folks chiming in right now. Matter of fact, I think, let me go ahead and get started. So today,

I went before the governor and the clemency board asking them to grant me a pardon. I put in the application, had my hearing, and had the investigation. The state did a very thorough investigation for months. And then finally they went ahead and they called me up for a hearing. Last week I was notified. And there you go right there. There we go. Last week, I got my team here because I'm on so many different things.

You got to go that way a little bit more. There you go. Anyway, yeah, so today I was appeared before the governor, asked him for a pardon, and it said something about trying to reconnect. Right there. You connected here. On yours.

You connected here. Okay. So, sorry, I had a little connection issue. And after a series of questions and my wife, she also made some comments as well in support of my efforts. The governor and cabinet decided that they were going to defer making the decision on granting me a pardon. We're going to take it under consideration and take it up at a later date.

Yeah, they were very disappointing. You know, I remember when I was sitting in the clemency room and hearing the governor actually say that, you know, this hearing is about what you've done since, you know, you've made your transgressions and they want to look at what you've done. And I thought I laid it out. I mean, for me, I told them, listen, the person that's in front of you today

is not that person that came from years, over 20 years ago, that was in the dark place. This is the person, the one that's in front of you right now, the person that overcame homelessness and drug addiction and was able to graduate law school, was able to really just dedicate my life to giving back and fighting for returning citizens, fighting for the homeless, actually fight for every Floridian so that we could live in not only a better community but a better state. I highlighted some of the things that I've done. But even after laying out how I was named Floridian of the Year and Central Floridian of the Year and Time Magazine 100 Most Influential Person in the World, that still did not appear to be enough for the governor and the cabinet to say

yes. Desmond, we see you have changed your life around. We've seen that you have dedicated your life to give it back to the community, and therefore we're going to grant you a part. They didn't do that. One misconception, because I know that there have been news reports out there. I, because of Amendment 4, I can still vote, even though they have not granted me a pardon. Even though they haven't restored my civil rights, I can still vote because of Amendment 4. And so I think that today's clemency hearing and the governor and his cabinet's refusal to immediately grant me a pardon, I think that is so indicative of why we started Amendment 4 in the first place, right? We started Amendment 4 in the first place because we knew that Florida clemency system was broken. We knew that, right? We knew that the decision to restore civil rights was a pure arbitrary decision

and that it was something problematic when you have four politicians deciding whether or not your average citizen is able to move on with their lives and be able to participate in democracy. And we've seen a clemency system where over 100,000 people were able to get their rights restored in four years. And you've seen a clemency system where in eight years, less than 5,000 people was able to get their rights restored. I went up there with my brother, Neil Bowes, and he went before me. And thank God I want to celebrate, man. Neil Bowes got his civil rights restored, right?

We've been in the community doing that work for quite some time. And I'm so happy for him. And I went up right after him and got to wait and check other things out and take things into consideration and delay my pardon. But that's all right. You know, that is perfectly all right because Amendment 4 was successful. We knew that the system was broken.

That's why we started Amendment 4. That's why we led that effort to allow 1.4 million people the right to vote and that created an alternative pathway than having to go and grovel at the feet of any politician, that American citizens, Floridians, can have an opportunity to participate in democracy. And while most folks may expect me to be disappointed because I did not get my pardon. Number one, I'm okay because I can still vote, right, that I am a registered voter and I will be voting in this election and many other elections

to come and that I am engaged with helping other folks to get their rights restored. And that's why, you know, I'm happy to make this big announcement, right? Yeah, I think this is a great day, the perfect day to make this announcement. So while the governor and cabinet is taking time to consider or reconsider whether or not I'm worthy, guess what, y'all? Those accolades and awards are still pouring in, that people across the country are continuing to recognize the work that I'm doing to make my community, to make my state,

to make my country a better place for everybody, for every human being. An award came in just recently. I cannot give the name of the award because they need to release it publicly at a later date well this is what I can't tell you that with that reward came a sizable donation a sizable a monetary grant to me directly

to me and so as I was walking out of the clemency board hearing, right, trying to figure out why would they deny me, it only strengthened my resolve to make me want to double down. am taking the money that I received from this award and I am donating it to the fines and fees fund so other people, other returning citizens don't have to worry about a governor or any other politician delaying their access to the ballot box. And I am personally putting up $75,000, right? $75,000 that I was awarded. I'm taking that money and I'm putting it right back into the fines and fees fund. And I'm doing it in a way that I'm asking you all to match me. Let's show the world, let's show the state of Florida, let's show the governor and the cabinet that guess what? They can't stop democracy by delaying it. They cannot delay access to the ballot box. And what we're going to do is that we're going to double my donation.

I'm asking all of my friends, I want you to spread it around. There's going to be a link that's going to be put in the chat. All you have to do is click that link. I am donating $75,000 as a matching donation to the fines and fees fund, which means that every time each and every one of you all click on that particular link and donate, whether it's a dollar, whether it's $5, whether it's $100 or $1,000, I'm going to match what you donate. I am going to match what you donate. We have less than two weeks, right, to help people who cannot afford to pay their fines and fees. We got less than two weeks to help people who cannot afford to pay their fines and fees,

help them get their fines and fees paid so they would not be denied access to democracy. And I am willing to be that person that says, you know what, I'm willing to make that sacrifice and I'm giving up $75,000 that I was just awarded, right, for the work that I've been doing around the state and this country. I'm donating those $75,000 right now to the fines and fees as a matching donation, which means that I need you all to help make my $75,000, $150 that's going to go to someone who has been waiting for so long to be a part of democracy, right? I am fortunate that in spite of the delay in the decision of whether or not to grant me a pardon, that I am still able to vote, that I'm still able to have my voice heard, that I'm still able to make a difference in the direction that my country is headed.

And I am proud to be a registered voter, and I want other people to feel what it feels like to walk into that voting booth and to be able to cast that ballot, understanding that they're walking in to a sacred place, committing a sacred act, right, and how treasured that vote is. It says that I am, that I am a human being, that I am an American citizen, and my voice counts. So I'm asking you all, right, help me help others. Help me by matching my $75,000 donation to the FRRC Fines and Fees Fund so that we can have as many returning citizens as possible be able to participate in elections. Thank you all so much. Listen, once again, you know how I am.

Where other people see obstacles, I see opportunities. And this is nothing but another opportunity for us to highlight why we need to change our clemency policies and why it's important to make sure that we free the vote in Florida, that we do not deny democracy to people who have served their time. It's been over 20 years since I've done anything wrong, and I have dedicated all 20 of those years to giving back to the community and being an asset to my community. There is no reason why I should be denying it.

And I'm going to leave you with something that I should have left the governor with, right? Because when I was standing there in front of the governor and they said that they wanted to take it under consideration and hold off, the one thing that kept going on in my mind that I didn't say is that I was looking at people, the people that were standing in judgment over me today were purportedly people of faith, all right? And when I think of people of faith,

I can't help but to think of the story of Jesus Christ when he was on the cross. When he was on the cross dying for our sins, right? There was a criminal that was right next to him and asked Jesus to be saved. Jesus didn't tell him that he had to wait five or seven years. Jesus didn't tell him, oh, let me take it under consideration and get back with you. Jesus said, this day, he shall let you into paradise. That as a person of faith, that there, we have an understanding that grace is instantaneous. It's instantaneous. And when you have a person like me who have spent 20 years of his life dedicating, giving my sacrifice in my body, sacrificing time that I could have been with my family to make our community a better place, to tell me that I have to wait is a direct affront to what Jesus stood for.

It's a direct affront to what our faith says, and our faith says that grace is instantaneous. Jesus said this day, not I'm going to take it under consideration. Thank y'all so much. I didn't mean to preach, but hey, listen, we got work to do, y'all. And this day right here only adds fuel to the fire. So let's get to work, y'all.

Match my donation. $75,000 matching grant is out there in the air. My URL is somewhere in the chat box. Please click on it and match me. I'll match you dollar for dollar. I promise you, I will match you dollar for dollar all the way up to $75,000. All right, folks, this is the Miami Herald story here, Rena. DeSantis and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Petranos said they were concerned about Meade's past criminal convictions, including domestic violence against his ex-wife and a court-martial for grand larceny that resulted in a dishonorable discharge from the Army. DeSantis, a former Navy prosecutor, suggested Meade should clear up the military conviction before seeking a full pardon from the state because it is, quote, every bit as criminal as a federal offense. But Meade said his focus was on Florida, where he said he wants to continue the civil rights movement and do God's work.

It's from the 90s. It's 2020. Like, are we talking about 25 or 30 years old? Oh, you know, we can start there. It's a pardon for hypocrisy. Scott, hold on. Rena, go ahead. Look, look. I mean, Scott is going to make some great points on the legal stuff here. But let's be honest.

We're going to talk about the right. Let's talk about the hypocrisy of the right, because this whole thing smells foul. This is an unconstitutional tax on voting. Okay. Look, judge Robert Hinkle held an eight day trial and he found the overwhelming majority of these felons were too poor to afford these fines that would be thrown on them, right? Okay. You tell me, how are we supposed to overcome? This is an unconstitutional tax, and we don't talk about it that way because the right, they get away with it. But when you put in those terms, you call out their hypocrisy. And so what they're doing to Jasmine Mead, I am not surprised because this is their way of saying saying you step far too out of line, black man.

This is just their judgment. This is the way they do things. They continue to do things, but they do not want to see their own hypocrisy. And as long as that GOP legislature, the GOP controlled legislature has its way, they will continue to do, to avert the will of their electorate. Is that? Robert, I've got to read this, Robert. Meade's criminal history stemmed from a years-long cocaine addiction, which he's recovered from, he told the governor and cabinet members. It started in 1994 with a third-degree felony for cocaine possession.

Two years later, he faced a felony domestic violence charge. Court records show charges linked to marijuana possession, resisting arrest and carrying a concealed weapon also stained his criminal record through 2001. Meade pleaded with the government to grant the request to the person he is now and not quote the one from 20 years ago who was caught up in a drug addiction. But this is the chief financial officer, Robert. He said he was concerned about domestic violence in his background, saying that he would need to hear from his ex-wife personally on whether she had forgiven him over it. Quote, domestic violence is deadly serious. I don't know if you're applying for a firearm permit, but I got a real problem giving you a gun. I just can't, I can't go there. I can't get there yet. Robert.

It's a tub of malarkey, as Joe Biden would say, because let's understand, one, the concept of felony disenfranchisement is only tenuously constitutional at best. The constitutional provision that a lot of researchers are based on is a post-Civil War constitutional provision that says anybody convicted of a crime or participation in a rebellion, what it was meant to stop was former Confederates from being able to vote in future presidential elections, thereby swinging national power towards the South again. That is where that constitutional provision was meant to impact, not normal individuals voting. There's no nexus of correlation between the ability to cast a ballot

and your criminal history. So the only reason these things are still on the books is that they are those last vestiges of Jim Crow. This is your poll test. This is your literacy test. This is your efforts that have been made for the last 150, 170 years to ensure that African Americans were disproportionately kept away from the ballot box. Because as we know, demographically, states like Florida, states like Georgia, states like South Carolina should be Democratic states. And that's why you see

Republican legislatures and Republican governors using every tool in their toolbox to ensure that they can depress the votes of African Americans, of Latinos and of young people, because if those people vote in numbers commensurate with the general population, as the speaker of the House, David Ralston here in Georgia said, as President Trump said, as Ted Cruz said, Republicans will never win an election again. And what Ron DeSantis is doing today was sending a message to other returning citizens that regardless of what you do, you will never be an ex-felon in this state. We will always leave that imprimatur hanging upon you to limit what you can do in the future. The Miami-Dade state's attorney, Miami Harrell here, Miami-Dade state's Attorney's Office initially objected to Meade's pardon, but later withdrew the objection.

Scott, this is what I find funny. The office which prosecuted some of Meade's cases said his files were so old that they have long since been destroyed and no victims could be located. Hello? If your damn files are so damn old, I'm just saying that's a good start. Now, go back. In a letter to the commission sent Monday

by State Attorney Catherine Fernandez-Rundle, they praised Meade's turnaround and work helped with the past of him and for inciting his exemplary life over the past 20 years. Based on the foregoing, it is our considered opinion that Mr. Meade has turned his life around, impacted our community, state, and nation in a truly significant and unique way, and bettered the lives of countless people, the letter said.

Here's the deal, Scott. Florida is so stupid. It's where literally the governor, they have a panel. And the governor hears these cases personally. We've had previous, we've shown previously what they mean to ask people. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? All sorts of different things. I mean, to Robert's point, this is what happens when a system is created that knowingly is impacting us in a negative way. Florida is a damn joke. Go ahead, Scott. So,

the idea that one of the panel members said you need to clean up your court marshal. That's why I'm here to clean up my court marshal. I've lived an exemplary life. So here's the whole deal. First of all, how do you clear, first of all, how do you clear up a court

marshal? You can't. Like, where do you do, do you go to of all how do you clear up a court-martial you can't like like where do you do you go to the federal government to say hey can y'all give me a pardon for the court you okay he was court-martialed and disarmed and discharged that's the process all right and better yet the person who may be able to reverse that, if it can be reversed, may not even be alive. Who would be your witnesses to do another evaluation? That's why I'm here getting a seeking clemency and a pardon. Secondly, I'm going to concede something to you, Roland. Each state has a pardon and clemency process for expungement or suppression of your record. It has various levels.

I do these all over the country for my friends of means and political persuasions. I have only done one hearing in my 30 years of practice in law and doing these pardons at the state level for the last 10 or 15 years. Some of this stuff, if you're 20 years out, is perfunctory. They don't even, they're appointed, by the way, the committee's appointed by the governor in most states. They are so perfunctory and administrative. If you haven't been arrested in the last 20 years, nobody cares. No, but in Florida, that's how. And in fact, there are three people. The Nikki Fry, the Commission of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

She voted to request the full pardon. DeSantis and Petronas said they want to take it under advisement. Y'all, I'm simply saying, y'all, this is Florida. This is Florida. That's how stupid they are. But this whole issue of expungement is a serious one. And the bottom line is this is National Expungement Week. And then the whole point is to provide legal relief to some 77 million Americans across the United States with convictions on their records. The convictions can restrict access to housing, employment, education, public assistance and voting rights long after sentences have been served. Joining me right now is Tori Marshall, co-founder of National Expungement Week. Tori, we were talking about this Desmond Meade story.

Now, granted, he was trying to get a part in here, but the crap that DeSantis said is exactly the problem we see in other places as well, where you have people who are sitting in judgment, who are making it difficult for people who are trying to get their lives on track. And Hale, how do you sit here and say, improve your life if I can't get housing, if I can't get loans for education, if I can't find a job? What am I supposed to do? Tori, go ahead. Thank you so much for saying that. The first step is to create a plan to reduce recidivism and talk about what that looks like, right? And it's everything you said. How do we get housing? How do we get better jobs? How do

we get a job that at least gives me a double digit hourly? Like some of our returning citizens, and that's what we call them here in Washington, D.C., and I encourage everyone to use that language. Our returning citizens, when they come home, they sometimes have to get paid under the table. They sometimes have to just live on someone's couch forever. They can't even have assistant living. They can't retire in peace. Like, clearing a record is so important. It's so detrimental. And it's important for Black and brown people mainly because it's about creating and obtaining something called generational wealth that some of us have never experienced. Right. So what does that really look like? What does that restorative and reparative justice really looks like?

What does it look like? And we look at this whole issue of expungement. First of all, are you tracking this? How is this going? Are we seeing more barriers put in the way or are we seeing a system that is more palatable to people who are going through these issues? The barriers are the same. You know, no matter how people say it, some people want to say forty eight hundred. Some people want to say forty eight thousand. If you want to say 48,000, it's because you're breaking down gambling. If you want to say housing, it's because you're breaking it down. And there's so many subcategories of what it looks like if you have a record and how you cannot return back into society. They are going to check your record. So we always tell people that I live in Washington, D.C. We're not a state. So we don't even have expungement. We have sellingungement does is it automatically just removes it.

It erases it and it does not allow your employer to see it. It does not allow your landlord to see it. You know why? Because you've done your time. Time is done. It's over. We have people that have records just like you said, 20 years back and and they want better. They want more before they transition in life. They want to clear their record because they want to be able to walk around free. All right. First of all, how can people reach you? If they want to get questions, if they want to get support,

how can they reach you? Yes, they can reach us at www.nationalexpansionweek.org. Right now, we are a year-round project. You can go online. We have an online system where we do an intake form. The first process is to find out if you're eligible for expungement and selling. If you are, we then find a lawyer.

We put that pro bono lawyer for you because let me tell you something. Nobody, we can't afford it once we get out. You're not paying us enough. So that's the purpose of National Expungeion Week, because we want to pay your legal fines so that you can get back into society and you can restore your voting rights here in D.C. As soon as we get out, while we're arrested now, it just passed. We can vote. Our rights are automatically restored to vote. It's not the same, like you said, in other places like Florida. So it's like, what does that look like? Sometimes we have to pay a ticket for somebody. And that's OK. That's that look like? Sometimes we have to pay a ticket for somebody,

and that's okay, that's fine, because we know they'd rather pay for food or they'd rather pay for electricity than to pay for this ticket. So if they reach us and just hit us up and let us know what's going on, it's like you said, it's like you're amongst a jury of your own peers,

and this is what National Expansion Week is. We clear services, and we have wraparound healing services for our community. All right, then. Tori, we sure appreciate it. Thanks healing services for our community. All right, then. Tori, we sure appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right. Let me also thank Scott, Robert, as well as Rena.

Rena, glad to have you back on our panel. Look forward to having you back more. So, folks, we sure appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you. Thanks, Roland. All right, folks, got to go to the break. When we come back, we'll talk about a black tech company right here

in Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard. Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 census today at 2020census.gov? Now, folks, let me help you out. The census is a count of everyone living in the country.

It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the U.S. House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding

or services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years. Funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential

and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 Census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. So not only do I have to figure out what these candidates stand for and what they're talking about when they're giving

all these speeches and literally every other word, I might have to look up in the dictionary just to figure out where their viewpoints are. Not just the President of the United States. It's just, you know, you've got your governors and you've got your Senate, you've got your statesmen. All their platforms are not, they're not laid out there.

My point is, they want to keep us quiet. They want to say the issues that matter to us don't really matter. Anything that you are dealing with right now, from the way that you are treated in your school systems to the amount of money your parents have to pay for that school, to how you're treated when you go to the doctor's office,

to the amount of, you know of insurance that your parents have. When you see your parents arguing over bills, those are things that can be affected by the fact that you vote. And if you vote, all those things can change. Michael Pratt holds over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He builds consumer electronics brands and provides consulting services to Tier 1 operators such as T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, as well as retailers like Apple, Best Buy, and Target. In 2018, he founded Pratt Pivot Communications as a response to the lack of innovation and multicultural focus in the consumer electronics industry. Pivot introduces disruptive, eco-friendly tech products to store shelves. He is the only black-owned supplier to Best Buy. Their new line with Best Buy launches next month.

Glad to have you on the show. So in founding this, what products are we talking about? What do you guys supply to Best Buy? So we currently provide mobile phone protective cases to Best Buy. We have multiple categories of product, three different tiers of product, depending on what type of protection, fashion, or style that you want for your phone or mobile device. And the thing here, and that's one of the things that when people talk about being in the tech industry, I remember when Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. was going after companies, he said, first of all, 60% of tech jobs don't require you to be a scientist or to be an engineer.

And so you're in the space, but it's not like you're making the phones. You're making one of the products that goes with the phones. Correct. And to that point, my degree was actually in social sciences. So not a tech degree. In terms of in this space, you know, what are hurdles that you have to overcome? Because the reality is you don't have many of us. First of all, for you to be the only black supplier to Best Buy, that says a hell of a whole lot right there. So there are quite a few obstacles, some of which really it's around

having access to resource, having access to network and being familiar what it takes to actually produce a product and deliver it into a customer like Best Buy or anyone like Apple or the others. And that took basically years of experience. Pivot as a brand that started in 2018, as you referenced, and it was it's the culmination over 15 years of industry experience that I've had, where I learned how to do everything from creating a product to manufacturing it, the logistic supply chain experience, and then how to actually sell that product into a customer like Best Buy and manage the product through lifecycle. So it literally has been 15 years of work and experience that gave me the impetus and the confidence to start my own business in manufacturing my own brand.

And so the products that you have, are they for Android and iPhone? Yes, we primarily manufacture for Apple and Samsung devices since those are the largest brands in the market right now. As we grow, we'll continue to expand other devices that we'll support. But right now, Apple and Samsung. And those particular products, in terms of where can we take a look at them? And of course, if somebody wants to be able to get the ones that you supply, how do we find it? Yeah, I'm available in multiple locations online right now. You can go to our website,

www.mypivot, and we spell pivot P-I-V as Victor, E as Eric, T as Tom, which is the phonetic spelling of the word PIVVT. But you can go to mypivvt.com to buy from us directly. We're available on Amazon again by searching for us and currently available on bestbuy.com site. And then again, as you mentioned earlier in October, we launch in store with the next devices that come out in October. And you have, so go to my iPad, please. I'm showing the different ones here in store with the next devices that come out in October. And you have, so go to my iPad please, I'm showing the different ones here and the different cases that you guys serve, these thin cases. Now do you have the ones, are they just for the back or do you have for the back and the

front, you have the full protection? Which ones that you have? Sure, so it's interesting, what you showed on our site there were examples of the devices or the cases we provided to Best Buy back in February of this year. And I'd love to call it out briefly because as a partner with Best Buy, they gave us the opportunity. We partnered with them last year in 2019. And we're looking at a way that we can honor Black America in February. February traditionally is a fairly low season in the mobile industry. And I sat with the team at Best Buy and we worked on building a program that would represent tech and Black history together.

And on our site, you were showcasing a couple of the cases we did. We showed respect and honor to Rosa Parks. And then we built a case that showcased the West African term of Sankofa, which speaks to the concept that you can't go forward without knowing your past. And we're continuing that program. Which one of those? Which one of those? What do they fall under? There's Glacier, Glacier Plus, Glacier Plus, Pro Luna. Yes, the Pro Luna is the size that we developed the Black History Month cases on. And we'll be doing a new round of those in February of 2021. But in October, we are introducing our Eco cases, our Pivot self-cycling product. These are the first products in the market globally that our packaging is 100% biodegradable,

100% recyclable. It utilizes vegetable ink, no plastics and full 100% paper. So when you put it in recycling or trash, it will biodegrade and disappear. And a first for the industry where we are disrupting is we've worked with a lab and developed a material we have trademarked called Toa to Toa. And that material actually allows plastic to break down and become bioavailable. And what that means is that if you don't have the opportunity to put your product or one of our cases into a recycling bin when you're done with it, if it happens to go into trash, which statistics show that 90 percent of plastic consumed in a THE PRODUCT, ONE OF OUR CASES INTO A RECYCLING BIN WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH IT, IF IT HAPPENS TO GO INTO TRASH, WHICH STATISTICS SHOW THAT 90% OF PLASTIC CONSUMED IN AMERICA ENDS UP IN A LANDFILL. IF IT ENDS UP IN A LANDFILL, THE TODA TODA MATERIAL WILL BREAK THE PLASTIC DOWN IN FOUR AND A HALF YEARS, TURN IT INTO A BIOAVAILABLE MATERIAL THAT NATURE WILL ACTUALLY CONSUME. SO ULTIMATELY IT ENDS UP WITH A ZERO FOOTPRINT. AND THAT'S A DISRUPTIVE NEW TECH THAT WE ARE INTRODUCING TO THE MARKET THIS YEAR IN OCTOBER. material that nature will actually consume. So ultimately, it ends up with a zero footprint. And that's a disruptive new tech that we are introducing into the market this year in October. And this here is the, folks, y'all could pull it up in there as well. But this is,

so this is the Sankofa case you were speaking of, correct? There you go. That is it. Yes. And are those, in these particular cases, are they still available? Yes, they are. They're still available on bestbuy.com. And if you purchase directly from us on our website, mypivot.com. All right. And then I want to, I'm about to show the, so this is the Rosa Parks one here. And the Rosa Parks. So, again, it was a play on trying to bring to a modern millenn market research to ensure there was no disrespect considered in utilizing that term with Ms. Parks. But the word nah just resonated as nah, not today. No, you must got me messed up. Something other than, no, not happening.

So we, yeah. And again, the cool part on that ON THAT WITH BEST BUY, I WANT TO CALL IT OUT FOR THEM SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WALKING THE WALK AND TALKING THE TALK. THEY RECOGNIZE IN 2019, BEFORE THE MOVEMENT THAT IS UNDERWAY THIS YEAR ACROSS OUR COUNTRY, BACK LAST YEAR, WE SAT DOWN AND DISCUSSED HOW THEY COULD BE MORE RELEVANT AND ACTUALLY FOCUS ON OUR COMMUNITY BECAUSE BLACK AM community because black America spends over $2 trillion and we over index in technology and meaning we are a very valued customer to Best Buy.

So we work together to determine ways that we can start to speak to the community in a way that isn't just a flash in the pan or a way that it just makes them look good as a corporate entity, but to actually put the time, money, and effort in to start to speak to our community appropriately. And that's what that first year with those two cases were, and we're continuing it into 2021 and beyond. All right. So folks, look, if you're looking for a Black-owned company to do a case that holds

your cell phone, my pivot, you can go to Best Buy, go to the site and get it. Michael Pratt, we certainly appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much for joining us. I mean, one of the reasons why we created this segment is, again, to bring attention to our audience, to folks like you, that otherwise, you know, folks wouldn't even know you even exist out here. And so we certainly appreciate that. We thank the folks with Seek.com for being the partner, the sponsor of this segment as well. And we certainly hope that our listeners, our viewers would actually be driven to your site. Now you guys see increasing sales.

I really appreciate the opportunity to be on the show, Roland, very much. And if you don't mind, I'd love to just say thank you to Rufus Chambers for helping me out with getting me in contact with your team so that I can have the opportunity to be here. And then, you know, I just had to let you know. Oh, another alpha man.

All right then. Well, look, it's always good to have some bros on the show, so that's always important. So that's the added piece there. I did not know that. So I appreciate it, my brother. Thank you so very much, and good luck. Thank you so much.

All right, folks. Thank you so very much. Great show. Let me do this here. As you see, I rocked on Monday, North Carolina A&T yesterday. I rocked on the show. Who did IT yesterday. I rocked on the show. Who did I wear yesterday, y'all? Virginia State.

I'm joking. And so today I decided to wear the T-shirt. This is my HBCU, Florida Memorial University. Florida Memorial was the first college commencement speech I gave in 2009, and that was the first honorary degree. I got the first of five honorary degrees, so I wanted to shout out Florida Memorial. And so I have not decided who I'm wearing tomorrow. So why don't you hit me up on social media and let me know who do you think what school I need to wear tomorrow and who I should wear Friday. And so I wanted to mix it up. You know, I normally I was going to be wearing my own different vote shirts.

But I chose to go ahead and delay that and rock the HBCU shirts this week. And so we look forward to that. But that last segment, y'all, is why this show matters. OK, we got folks who are watching us right now. We got more than 4000 who are live right now on YouTube. We got folks who are watching us on Periscope who are on Facebook as well. And this, folks, is why we created this show, because we wanted to be able to showcase the best of black America. That right there, look, you are not going to see that, brother, on MSNBC, CNN, on Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS. That's why we've got to have our own platforms telling our own stories.

So we need you to support Roland Martin Unfiltered by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. You can give via Cash App right now, folks. Cash App, forward slash dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal.me is forward slash RMartinUnfiltered. Venmo.com is forward slash RMmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com is forward slash rmunfiltered. You can also send a money order to New Vision Media's NU, Vision Media Inc., 1625 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006.

You can give right there on YouTube as well. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans to join by the end of the year. We are approaching 13,000, and so we need y'all to support us i would love uh for us to pick up uh 100 here's the deal if you give 50 bucks or more you get a personal shout out from me and so if you give right now trust me i will drop the shout outs tomorrow when we're on the show somebody Somebody said Albany State on here. Here's the deal. I spoke at Albany State, but they didn't give me any gear. So Albany State, y'all got to send me something.

Winston-Salem State, I spoke at Winston-Salem State. I don't think y'all sent me any gear. Fort Valley State, yo, did I speak at Fort Valley State? I got to remember I spoke at Fort Valley State. And so, again, I have never spoken at Mississippi Valley State. Yo, did I speak at Fort Valley State? I got to remember I spoke at Fort Valley State. And so, again, I have never spoken at Mississippi Valley State, so I don't have any gear. So, y'all, it won't be Mississippi Valley State. Jackson State, I've never spoken at Jackson State.

I've been to Jackson State. I've been by Jackson State. Never spoken there, so I got no Jackson State. Oh, wait a minute, hold up. I did a Jackson State alumni deal. Yeah. But y'all was supposed to send me some gear and it didn't happen. So, Morgan,

Hampton, I got something from Hampton. Morgan is sending me some stuff. And so, that's what we got. We're going to do what we do. So, look, we're going to be rocking it tomorrow. So, look, I got to go. Folks, I'll see you be um uh i'm rocking it tomorrow so look i gotta go folks uh i'll see you tomorrow look forward to our panel tomorrow greg carr reesey colbert

and erica uh as well okay y'all have a great one and also the artwork down here support artist leroy campbell uh on our set here that great artwork you see down here that's because of my man leroy campbell i appreciate y'all. I'll see you tomorrow. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it.

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