#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Dems NEW voting bill; Multiracial voting rights push; Eductors fight mask bans; Fox mandates vax

Episode Date: August 19, 2021

8.18.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: House Democrats introduce new proposal to fix the Voting Rights Act; Multiracial voting rights initiative launches; Eductors fight back against mask bans; Fox News mandates COVID vax; Is the Baltimore school system failing our kids?; R. Kelly's trial begins; Updates on Haiti and the Fall of Afghanistan + Crazy a$$ Florida teacher calls students half-breedsSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Tuesday, August 17, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin on the filtered anti-masker, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas. More fallout from him testing positive for COVID-19. Yeah, folks, that is the impact there. Also, voting groups are coming together to really focus on the power of voting rights in the United States. We'll be talking with three of those leaders with regards to that particular campaign that's actually being launched. Also, on today's show, House Democrats are proposing a landmark voting bill.

We'll talk about that as well. Plus, in Baltimore, a kid just passed through the.13 grade point average, now being sent back to the ninth grade. His parents are not happy at all. We will talk with his family, but also the school district to figure out what in the world has gone wrong with this young man in Baltimore schools. Also, today began the trial of R. Kelly in New York. Prosecutors dropped a bomb in court about the late singer Aaliyah being impregnated by R. Kelly. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on a filter.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. With some go-go-royale. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah It's Roland Martin Yeah, yeah Rolling with Roland now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real

The best you know, he's Roland Martin Now Martin The fight for voting rights continues all across the country in the House. Congresswoman Terri Soule of Alabama has drafted a new voting rights bill that will address the issues of the Voting Rights Act, which was pretty much gutted by the Supreme Court's decision in 2013 in the Shelby v. Holder decision. Now, of course, we're still waiting on the United States Senate, whether we're going to see movement from Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema as well as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia ending the filibuster to pass a voting bill.

So far, they have made no indication they will do any of that. Now, what is happening is a variety of organizations are coming together to actually work on a massive voter campaign. They include the NAACP, the ACLU, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association. They plan on fanning out all across Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, D.C., Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. And many of those states are critical U.S. Senate races that are actually taking place. Joining us right now to discuss this initiative, Lee Saunders is the president of AFSCME, A-F-S-C-M-E. They're one of the partners here with us at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Also, Reverend Leah Doughtry, the national presiding

prelate of the House of the Lord Churches, and also Dominic Whitehead, National Civic Engagement Director for the NAACP. Glad to have all of you here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Lee, there's been this contentious battle that's been going on constantly, a lot of pressure being placed on the United States Senate and President Joe Biden by voting groups. We've heard the White House and Biden literally say, you know, like the way to defeat these Republican voter suppression bills is to out-organize them. But you've had folks like Cliff Albright and Natasha Brown of Black Voters Matter saying, how in the world are you going to out-organize voter suppression? And so what is the aim of this campaign and how do you still deal

with the reality of these voter suppression bills being passed by Republican legislatures all across the country? Well, it's getting back to basics, and the groups that are a part of this coalition know how to organize. We know how to mobilize. We know how to educate our communities and our members across the country, and that's exactly what we're going to do. Our democracy is under attack, Roland, right now. Make no mistake about it. Seventeen states already have passed restrictive voting legislation, voter registration laws, voter legislation that limits us to do the kinds of things that we need to do. I mean, you can talk about what's happening in Texas. You can talk about what's

happening in Georgia. And we've got to respond to that. We've got to develop a grassroots mechanism across the country, not only in Washington, D.C., but in our communities across the country, to make our voices heard and organized like never before, because we cannot afford to let voting rights remain under attack the way that it is right now. We've got to step up to the platter. Leah, how do you do that? Because there are a lot of people who went out and voted in 2020. There are people who are very frustrated saying that President Joe Biden has not come through for African-Americans. And so how do you then say, OK, I know you voted in 2020. I know you elected Biden and Harris. I know you elected

Ossoff and Warnock in Georgia. Democrats control the House. They control the Senate. They control the White House. But voting still hasn't been addressed. How do you make the argument to get people to then say, OK, come out again, register and vote? Well, Roland, you know, first of all, thank you for raising this very important issue with your viewers. And what I would say is the book that Dr. Coretta Scott King always said, freedom is never really won.

It is fought and won in every generation. As long as this country has election every two years, we have got to be organized as a community, as a people, to turn out to vote for the people who are going to best represent us. Our work doesn't stop the day after Election Day. Our work continues on and on until we get the freedom they deserve and that is warranted for us as American citizens. So there will never be a day when we can sit back and say, we're done, everything's great, and we don't have to care about voting anymore. We don't have to care about organizing anymore. We don't have to care about what our elected officials are doing. That is our job as citizens, as informed voters,

to always have our foot on the neck of those people that we have served us. They work for us. And so we have to be organized enough to make them do their jobs. But how do you still make the argument? Because again, getting somebody to register is going to have to be, this is why you need to register, this is why you need to vote. What do you say to someone who says, but what do we do in 2020, and then what do we get? So again, make the argument to that person who says, hey, I did it last time, nothing happened, why should I do it again?

What do you tell that person? Well, I think you have to take the totality of what we have seen just the last six months of Biden's administration versus what we saw over the last four years of the Trump administration. Already we have seen available, freely available. We have millions of children being lifted out of poverty. We have people who are. This is what we have seen just in the last six months,

and the list goes on and on. So I don't think that we can measure the Biden administration by one thing. We've got to take of the arc of his accomplishments. That's not to say that he can't do more, that he shouldn't do more, and that our elected officials in the Congress can and shouldn't do more. But that's our job to make them do what we need them to do and to measure up to our demands. And that's what we want them to do. This campaign is about organizing people, mobilizing people to make sure that they are pressing every lever possible to make

to the people who sent them to represent us. So, Dominic, let's play this out. So right now, you have Democrats with 50 votes in the United States Senate, 50 votes for Republicans as well. You've got critical races coming up in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania. You can also put it in Florida. So let's just say that's five, okay? Let's assume, let's just say for the sake of this conversation, Democrats win those five U.S. Senate seats. That's still 55. You don't have the George Floyd Justice Act. I saw this throughout a political where they said that qualified immunity has been taken off of the table. That's very troublesome to many progressives. You're not seeing the For the People Act and the John Lewis Act as well. And so, again, you're going, I mean, look, I'm dealing with the exact

same issue. I have to make an argument to the people who are watching and listening why they should go to the polls. And if someone comes back and says to the NAACP, Dominic, well, the George Floyd Act not passed, the voting bills were not passed. So you got a Democratic majority. And let's say you pick up five more seats. You still have five fewer seats to actually end the filibuster. So what changes? Yeah, that's a good question. I think the first thing that they'll get to, I think, is a piece where President Saunders just said a moment ago, a second ago, is around the education piece. I think for us at NAACP, we're in every conversation in terms of the George Floyd Act. We're in every conversation in terms of voting rights,

we're in every conversation, every piece of legislation that matters to black and brown communities across this country. I think for us, it's a matter of actually having those conversations with voters day in and day out on the ground. To your scenario that you just lifted up a moment ago, if we do take full control or expand the Senate,

if you will, in terms of Democrats suspending the Senate, it goes back to what Leah just said a moment ago. How do we continue to keep our foots on their neck? So we have 2022 coming up. So how do we get folks involved and engaged in 2022 around these issues that may or may not pass prior to 2022? I think the first thing is, is really taking it back to 2020 and say, hey, because you turned out in 2020, because you stood up, because you voted in 2020, because you voted in Georgia in 2021 for the runoff election, some of our issues that we're focusing in on, such as the George Floyd Act, such as passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and other issues that we're focusing in on

are either one being watered down and or two being pushed aside. And so you going out this election cycle, being engaged, being involved, you have to elect folks that are going to go into office and do these things that we said that they're going to do and help shape the policy around it. And that's what NAACP is about, is shaping advocacy and shaping policy around us. So it's an education piece, it's a mobilizing piece, it's an organizing piece as well. And it continues to keep our foot on their necks as well in terms of organizing folks around the vote. But again, also, we have wins and we've seen those wins. But how do we make those wins real to everyday people as we're going out to talk to them as we launch off this campaign over the next few weeks?

Okay, so what is this campaign, Lee? First of all, what does it entail? How extensive is it? What does it include? Are we talking about town halls? Are we talking about, I mean, what's the communications piece? Are we talking about billboards, public events? I mean, so exactly when does this begin and what does it all entail? All of the above. And we've got to start now. And it's going to include digital campaigns. It's going to include advertising. Most importantly, it's going to be, it's going to include when we can the door to door contact with our communities across the country, talking with people, looking them dead in the eye and talking to them about the importance of this issue and other issues that are impacting on our communities. We have got to do that. So we're willing to spend

money and resources to get the word out and to, again, educate folks about what we are faced with. Let me say this, and let me just flip the coin just for a minute, Roland. If we don't do this, and if people sit on their hands, can you imagine what will happen to voting rights? Can you imagine what will happen to affordable child care? Can you imagine what will happen to increasing Medicare for all? Can you imagine what will happen for education and for free community college? Those things will go away. And voting rights is really at the—is the key to dealing with this, to energize and excite our communities so they understand that we've got to fight for what we believe in.

We cannot be silent. We have had some successes, as Leah said, over the past six months. The rescue plan, moving money to state and local governments all across this country. The Democrats pushing for voting rights, trying to stop what the Republicans are doing in those 17 states that I mentioned and other states across the country. So we've got to hold these folks who are attacking us accountable. And Dominic is right. We've got to do the same thing with Democrats, because all Democrats aren't on board. And we've got to organize in a fashion where they feel the heat every single day. This is what our communities are expecting, but our communities must be engaged in this process to move the needle forward.

What you're dealing with, and again, and I totally agree, and I'm going to go back to this point, Leah, because it's real. And I can tell you, I've already been out there. I've traveled around the country. I've been I've traveled around the country. I've been in different cities. I've been in South Carolina. I've been in Atlanta. I was just in Los Angeles. I go back to L.A. this Sunday. I'll be back in Atlanta next week. I'm going to be in Nashville. I'm going to be in Arlington, Texas. And I can tell you what I keep getting from people is, all right, Democrats refuse to end the filibuster.

None of these things are getting passed. Why should I go out and risk it again? That actually has to be answered. And there has to be an answer. I get it every day. People who watch. I mean, I can tell you right now I'm literally looking at the chat conversation on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page and our Twitter page and our Instagram page. And those things are there. And so these are black people who are responding. And so we have to have an answer. So the question is, how do we answer that? I get, because here's the deal. Republicans could gerrymander themselves into control of the United States House.

Of course, yes, they could take control of the Senate as well. So we can talk about, hey, what may happen if they get control. The problem right now is Democrats actually control all three levels of government. But you've got to understand and realize, and I think the people do, okay? Number one, and let me say this, politics is not a spectator sport. You can't just sit back and hope that things are going to happen magically. You've got to put heat and pressure on those who oppose us, but also you've got to put that heat and pressure on those who we support so they do the right thing. I mean, voting rights is a major issue that the Democrats are trying to deal with in both the House and Senate.

The John Lewis bill in the House, OK? Senate Bill 1 is going to be reintroduced to put pressure on people. If, in fact, we give folks options and they still decline to do the right thing, then I think that we've got to put everything on the table, which includes getting rid of the filibuster. But we've got to test it and go through that process quickly because we can't wait so long. But in the end, if people don't come to their senses, then we've got to deal with that. And I think that every Democrat is going to have to deal with that in order to move the kind of agenda that Joe Biden has been talking about that our communities across the country need. So is one of the issues here, I know we lost Leah,

we're trying to get Leah back. So Dominic, I'll go to you. You know, it's one of these things when you talk about driving people out, is there also an agenda tied to this? So, for instance, is this group going to demand that any candidate out there, they're going to have to agree to end the filibuster? Again, what are some of the things we're talking about here in terms of speaking to the public, going after and getting these people out of their homes to get them to register? What are you saying to them that's going to be the incentive to do so? Yeah, good question. So for us, what we're saying and what we're focusing in on, honestly, in terms of what we're pushing out, it is all about voting rights.

I think Lee said it a moment ago in his remarks, all of the issues that we're focusing in on that we want to see, it's about voting and getting people to vote. I think for us, the incentive is, and I wouldn't say it's an incentive, it is actually having a conversation and getting people engaged and involved and not on the sideline and say, this is happening right now. This is actually having the conversation and getting people engaged and involved and not

on the sideline and say, this is happening right now. This is our moment in time. To your point, Roland, Democrats have control of all three branches of government. This is now our moment in time since Democrats have control of all three branches of government to put pressure on folks. And the only way we can put pressure on folks is mobilize and organize and have everyone together focus in on one agenda, right, in terms of what we're focusing in on. This campaign right here, this voting rights campaign, all of these organizations that we launched together, it truly and only focuses in on voting rights. Now, the filibuster conversation, that's a conversation that we're going to continue to have in terms of ending the filibuster to get all of these things

passed. But until then, we have to continue to push and focus in on that. And in terms of some of the things that we're telling people and lifting up, in terms of voting rights, we're looking at how do we expand early voting and make it easy for folks in all states, right, making that longer? How do we expand vote by mail make it easy for folks in all states, right, making that longer? How do we expand vote-by-mail and making it a real thing for everyone, regardless of what your condition looks like? And so we're having these conversations with folks and then bringing it to them. But a part of those conversations is also making it local. So we know it's not just about voting rights. What are the issues that are happening locally on the ground? You list about 15

states that we're focusing in on at the top of this segment. We're going to be in each of these states engaging these folks, but also talking about issues that matter to those folks directly on the ground that impacts them daily and connecting it back to this campaign and how they can be involved in that. So I think that's the incentive. The incentive is really engaging on what matters to folks on the ground day in and day out and connecting that with real organizers, real people on the ground that is facing those issues that impact them day in and day out. When we talk about this campaign and it beginning, it obviously is a multi-state campaign, Lee. And so what's the first state, where are you launching first? Did you say Leah? Leah, I'm sorry.

Leah, we're still trying to get Leah back. Leah, go ahead. Leah? Yeah. Okay, you want me? I'm going to leave first, then Leah. Leah, go ahead. Okay.

We're going to go into our communities across the country. We're starting off with rallies on Saturday, fun kinds of rallies where we can bring families together, where we can talk about the issue of the voting rights. We're going to be in Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland and Washington, D.C., but we're going to expand that throughout the year to include other targeted cities and states that have problems with the attacks on voting rights. And we're going to be organizing, as I said, and educating and mobilizing those folks for at least a year to understand and mobilize and push people to understand the importance of not stepping away from the process. And I understand the frustration that's out there. But we cannot step away and say nothing is going to change, because then we're accepting the fact that we

cannot control the situation ourselves. And we have got to move that kind of agenda forcefully and aggressively to get the job done. And that's what we are asking our allies and friends and our community partners to do, to do just that, move that agenda that impacts in a solid and aggressive way on the communities that we care about. Leah? Yeah, I think President Saunders has said it all. We are excited about what's going to be happening this weekend. We invite your viewers to come out and be part of the rally. There'll be food, there'll be music, there'll be great speakers. It's going to be a really empowering, inspiring time. You can go to our website, fightingforourvote.org, to get all of the details on the rallies that are happening both Saturday and Sunday, Detroit, Milwaukee,

Cleveland, and D.C. So come out, be a part of it, and get some information and learn how you can help to preserve your own voting rights and the voting rights of your loved ones all across this country is there a particular website that people can go to right now to get more information that's sort of a clearinghouse for all these are gonna be happening sure it's www.fightingforourvote.org fighting for our vote org and it's got all the sites, the times, the locations, the addresses, all of that. All right, then. Reverend Leah Doughtry, Lee Saunders,

as well as Dominic, glad to have all of you here. First, Dominic Whitehead, glad to have all three of you here. Look forward to more information on this initiative. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you. All right, folks, so we're going to talk about this with our panel in just a second. As I said, what is happening in the House,

that was a new bill that was actually introduced by Congresswoman Terry Sewell. It will be a much needed update to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Okay, the bill would seek to restore a vital provision of the federal law that compels states with a history of discrimination to undergo a national review of changes to voting and elections. Of course, this comes as several states across the nation, including many of those that were covered under the VRA, Texas, Georgia, and others, they pushed to enact new voting laws. Some say it oppresses the voting rights of minority communities. Now, Georgia's others. They push to enact new voting laws. Some say oppresses the voting

rights of minority communities. Now Georgia's already passed their law. The only reason Texas is not passed their law because more than 50 House Democrats have refused to show up for the special session called by Governor Greg Abbott in order to keep the house from having a quorum to pass any bills.

Democrats say they will continue to do that as long as these measures are put forward. Governor Abbott says he will keep calling special sessions until they pass these particular bills. And so, as I say, in a moment, we're going to pull up our panel and have them talk about this. This ongoing fight over voting rights, as you heard Lee, Leah, and Dominic talk about, does impact us all across the board. We start talking about every single piece of public policy.

Remember, those things don't happen unless you are able to elect the kind of folks that you want in power. And so the voting laws being passed by Republicans are going to have an impact on every single election, not just presidential elections, not them just following Donald Trump in his massive lie, the big lie, not just congressional, House, and Senate races, not just, of course, gubernatorial races. We're talking about every single race, state representative, state senator, county races, city races, school board races, judicial races, DA races, all of these particular races. And so that's what these voting changes are going to do.

Now, we talk about the issues that we care about. Again, who gets elected that impacts. Voting also has a direct correlation to gerrymandering. The census, these numbers that are coming out, the census are releasing. Gerrymandering or redistricting happens every 10 years. Well, if you're Republicans and you control these legislatures, you control the entire process. Democrats can't stop it.

The only option that you have is taking them to court. People like Mark Elias and others have already said that they're going to sue these states if they have the kind of gerrymandering. But here's the problem. Supreme Court previously ruled they were not going to get involved in political gerrymandering, saying we will leave it up to the states. Well, the problem is when you gerrymandered your state Supreme Courts and then you only have Republicans who are elected in those states, there's no chance to overturn those laws.

This is what happens when we also don't vote. But I'm going to go back to the point that I was making with Dominic, Leah, and Lee. And folks, let me know when the panel is there. You have to still make an argument. You have to convince somebody why they should register and why they should vote. Well, if you haven't passed things, if you have not passed laws that people want to see happen, well, then the problem is,

how are you going to get them to actually do it. That's the real issue that we're talking about here, and that is going to be a problem. And you kept hearing me push the folks on this. There's a reason. Robert Petillo, executive director of Rainbow Push Coalition Peachtree Street Project, Monique Pressley, legal analyst, crisis manager, Georgia Fort Independent Journalist. Glad to have all three of you here. Robert, have you heard the conversation? I was talking, three of them, I didn't get a good answer. You're going to have to, look, this is going to be, and I've heard this from Cliff

Albright, Natasha Brown, and others, that they're already facing it. How do you go to people who are not regular voters, who are not registered, and say, I need you to get registered and vote? What is the response if they say, don't y'all have the White House, the House, and the Senate? So what got passed? Well, that's exactly the response. And we're seeing this already, particularly with the infrastructure bill finally working its way through Congress last week. It's amazing when there's a $1.2 trillion slush fund at stake. Well, you can find 19 Republicans to come on board. What is them making money?

All of a sudden, everything gets passed. But when it comes to your and my rights, everything gets pushed to the back burner. Remember, we still have not moved on DeJuan Malou's voting rights act. We have not moved on the For the People Act, we still have not moved on Dejohn Maloo's voting rights act. We have not moved on the, for the people act. We also have not moved on criminal justice reform. We had an entire year of activism last year, predicate on the idea of reforming our criminal justice system. There's not one federal law different today than it was when George Floyd died. So when you're talking about young people, when you're talking about voters who are turning out for the first time in 2020,

it's going to be a hard sell to say, well, we need to keep the House in order to continue to do the same nothing that we promised you we were going to do before. And I think that I know the president right now is going through everything he's doing through Afghanistan. I know he's trying to get infrastructure across the line. I know we have to do immigration, but we cannot continue to push the interest of African-Americans to the back burner because at the end of the day, we know what's going to happen. They're going to come back to the well. They're going to try one more time, and then they're going to be very mad when you have a mega wave coming in 2022 and they lose the House and lose the Senate and everything gets put on hold because they've not delivered for the most reliable base of voters that they have. So I think

it's imperative for the Democratic leadership to take this as seriously as the Black community. As Martin Luther King III is leading marches in Arizona, I've been across the country with Reverend Jackson on the marches from D.C. to Austin, Texas, to Atlanta, going through Montgomery shortly. So I think that we need to have our white allies, the same people who are there cheering with us and marching with us and fighting with us when it's time to pass their agenda. We need that same energy, as the young people say, when it comes to voting rights and criminal justice reform. Marches are one thing, Monique, but getting people to actually register, then turn out is another. What is the narrative that has to be crafted in order to break through? Because we all know that in the midterm elections, you typically have a downturn. You clearly have a motivated

right-wing base who wants to take control of the House and the Senate. And so what is that narrative that has to be told, that has to be crafted, that's going to catch people's attention to go, yeah, you know what? I got to get registered and I got to vote. Well, it's our lives at stake, plainly. And I'm not really sure that we need to sell them like we're doing hand bone, hand bone or cutting some step and trying to offer them free beer in order to get our folks to vote. The margin was slim. Yes, we have the presidency and we have the majority in both houses and in the Senate by the narrowest of margins. We need more.

I understand Robert's point. Voting rights is certainly an issue for our people, maybe the issue of our times for our people, but it should be for all people. But what is it about infrastructure that isn't our people's issue? I mean, who doesn't understand that the majority of the jobs are going to go to our folks that are created from that bill? So we talk in plain English. We tell the truth to our own constituencies, to our family members, to our community. How are the majority of those jobs, infrastructure bill, going to go to our community? How? Because the jobs that go for highways and byways and roads and all of the things that they're

looking to do go to a majority blue collar, majority people of color, not necessarily the contracts. And that's a problem. And I get it. And we want to make sure that there's more of that. But these are jobs that go to black and brown folks, not white folks. Where? Roland, everywhere. Everywhere where there are black folks. No, I can tell you right now. Everywhere where there are black folks. I'm not just talking about cities. I'm not. I mean, it's obviously if there ain't no black folks living in Indiana, then black folks don't get those jobs. No, but they are black people in Indiana.

And I mean, the reason I'm saying that, because today this commentary was placed that Ren and Barron's written by Ursula Burns, who was the former CEO of Xerox, Robert Smith, who was the richest African-American in the country, John Rogers, of course, Eric Capital and David Clooney. This is the headline, folks. Go to my computer, please. It says the Biden administration promised diversity. Here's one way it can deliver. And they're talking specifically about about the infrastructure bill and saying that they are going to have to utilize this bill to drive the issue of diversity with that. And this is what they say. Federal contractors must also diversify the types of minority-owned companies they engage, including firms in

professional services, financial services, legal, advertising, technology, and other related fields. And this is what they say. Currently, only 5% of federal contracting dollars are required to go to minority and women-owned businesses. Even though black people alone account for approximately 13% of the U.S. population, that paltry 5% target has resulted in millions of dollars in missed opportunities for black businesses, workers, and communities. We can and should increase the federal contracting minimum for black firms to 13 percent commensurate with the country's black population. Okay, and so that's what I was just saying, right? I said that we are the blue-collar workers, black and brown people, who are getting those jobs. We are not necessarily the ones getting the contracts, and that needs work, and we all know that that needs work. We are not necessarily the ones getting the contracts,

and that needs work. And we all know that that needs work. That's one of the reasons why, God rest his soul, Marion Barry was mayor for life in D.C. because he was one of the pivotal forces that made sure not just that we were the ones with the boots on the ground in the streets fixing the ditches, but that our black and brown business owners, specifically black business owners, were getting those government contracts. And I agree with everything that Ursula and Robert and everybody else said. That needs work. But that does not mean that the people who own the businesses who are getting the contracts are not hiring or don't already have employees who are black and brown, and those are our jobs.

So there's two different things, and it's not either and, it's both. It's both. We need both, but that does not mean that the infrastructure bill and dollars that are pouring in for infrastructure projects, especially in urban areas, don't mean increased jobs for our folks. But, Moni, this is my issue with the infrastructure bill. So between the hard infrastructure bill, 1.2 trillion, and the human infrastructure bill, what is that, 3.5 trillion dollars spent on that? You know, that's close to $5 trillion being spent last week, and there's no guarantee that goes to the Black community. Even if we got just our portion of the population, let's say we got 13 percent of that as a community, that'd be $650 billion.

I doubt severely that $650 billion of that $5 trillion is earmarked for the Black community right now. So when we're going back to people telling them, you need to get out and vote in our ancestors and raising our fist and all that in 2022, they're going to be asking, where's our $650 billion? Where's our voting rights bill? Where's our criminal justice reform? Oh, it's not there. Well, why do I need to turn it out again? I think that's the wall that Democrats are going to run into if they don't start prioritizing the black voters. And that's the point, Georgia, again, that I was making to our other three guests that I am, I've been hearing and I, and I, and I'm saying you better figure out a narrative. And I'm, and let me be real clear saying our lives depend on it

is not going to do it. I agree. I absolutely agree with that, but that's not going to do it. That's not going to pull that person over who says, I'm seeing these things happen and I don't think it's benefiting us, so why should I vote? That, and I get the rallies, I get all of those things, but unless they are confronting that head on, it's going to be a problem. Roland, I couldn't agree with you more. As a journalist, I'm preparing to head to D.C. in a few weeks for the March on Washington, where we're going to hear from Reverend Sharpton focusing on the attack against voting rights. And so what will be the narrative he delivers in his speeches? I want to know, will we hear from Stacey Abrams? Because, as we're trying to craft a narrative to convince the Black community to come out and vote and exactly how important this is, and how coming out to vote is going to dictate who gets an

office and all of the new laws that get passed, the narrative I think that we should be crafting should come from Stacey Abrams, because she's been the one person that we've seen successfully turn an entire state. So someone who is organizing on this issue needs to call her team and figure out what her rate is for consulting and set up a Zoom call and do some organizing. And that's not necessarily my area of expertise as a journalist, per se, but we did see how effective her team was in Georgia. And so if the blueprint is already there, why not replicate what she did in that state across the country? Because you're right, even though coming together and doing the rallying and the marching is one part of how our community communicates with one another. It hasn't proven to be successful in getting people out to vote. The other thing that I'll add to that, just historically speaking, you know,

when you look at when black men and women were given the right to vote. Historically, this country has continuously attacked our right to vote as a strategy to maintain power. And so there has to be a continuous effort to combat that. And Republicans may end up shooting themselves in the foot here, I'll add to the conversation, because one of the tactics Republicans are using is making voting by mail less accessible. And according to studies that have been done in California, more Republican voters used voting by mail as a method to cast their vote than Democratic people who voted for Democrats. So the way that this comes out in the wash is also going to be interesting.

Again, I'm just saying, first of all, I absolutely agree with the initiative to start early, to fan across these states. But I'm telling you, there are troubling headwinds in terms of dealing with the issue. That is, if people say, what got passed that benefited us? If you don't have an answer that is succinct and clear, this is going to be a tough road to hoe. And so we'll certainly be focusing on- But did everything that got passed benefit us?

I don't- No, again, okay, but Monique, what I just said is you have to articulate that in a way for that person who doesn't see it to understand it. And so what I'm saying is the two biggest things that people are looking at,

you look at the actual data, the survey of black voters, George Floyd Justice Act and actual voting bills. None of it has gotten passed yet. So what I'm saying is, a part of the communication strategy is, you have to tackle that head on and

craft a narrative to be able to explain of the things that did get passed, this is how it impacted us. And what I'm saying is, there has to be a part of it. If it's not, it's going to be difficult. Okay, but people listening right now, Roland, you got a big brain. What do you want to tell them? And what I'm saying is that's going to be a deal. And what I'm saying is our lives depend on it.

That ain't going to fly. It's going to be worse. It's going to be worse. Hold on. It's going to be worse. It's going to be worse. It's going to be worse if they win. That's not going to fly. I'm telling you, it's not going to fly. And that's fine. Those aren't the only two things to say. I mean, that's why I said people who actually know what the legislation is that has been passed

and can explain it. I think we make the mistake thinking that our people are stupid when they're not. No, they're not stupid. I'm voters, and they're not. They didn't vote. We need the Voting Rights Act, but that's not why

they voted. They voted because that crazy man was in there, and everything was going to hell in a handbasket. Well, guess what? Crazy man is not on a ballot. But guess what? Crazy man is not on a ballot in 2022. Well, guess what? Crazy man is not on the ballot. But guess what? Crazy man is not on the ballot in 2022. So you know what? And Democrats are going to have to explain how do you control

the White House, the House, and the Senate, and you still didn't get it passed. You gotta answer that. They gotta answer it. Well, I mean, don't they know? We know math. We know numbers, right? Okay. I mean, the fact they know? We know math. We know numbers, right? Okay. I mean, the fact that we have a vice president that can break a tie in the Senate is an excellent start.

But if anybody understands how many senators we need in order to get things done and that those votes aren't there, then maybe those people who do understand that should start explaining it because our people can understand that. It's not as simple as we got all three houses so we can do whatever the hell we want to do and everything can just get passed by fiat, like President Biden can just stand up there and say, let there be voting rights, let there be better health care, let there be infrastructure. There's a system here that has to happen. And that's what we're stuck with. So if we need more votes in order to have an easier time of it, because the GOP is the devil, then I'm here telling y'all the GOP is the devil. I'm aware of that. But here's what I also know. There were 300 meetings over the infrastructure bill,

and I ain't seen 300 meetings on the filibuster on the voting bill. And what I'm saying is this here. This White House is going to have to do a hell of a lot more heavy lifting because here is the deal. If they do not get, and let me just give just real numbers here. Sherry Beasley, okay, who was this North Carolina state Supreme Court chief justice, lost by 400 votes. Democrats could have had a 61 majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court. It's now actually four to three. She's one of the candidates running for the United States Senate.

Here's the deal. If you don't go to rural North Carolina and talk to those black folks and explain to them that you're going to have 18 to 20 percent who are going to support the candidate who's running to replace a bird like you had the number with Tom Tillis. You're going to have that. And what I'm saying is if you don't do it in Cincinnati and Cleveland, then Tim Ryan ain't got a shot. If you don't do it in Wisconsin, Rob Johnson is going to get reelected. If you don't do it in Wisconsin, Rob Johnson's going to get reelected. If you don't do it in Pennsylvania, guess what? Democrats are not going to take the seat of Pat Toomey, and then Val Deming's not going to have any shot

against Rubio in Florida. All I'm saying is this is real simple. What Democrats cannot do, you cannot keep going back to black people and saying we need you to turn out. But when somebody says what of the major bills got passed and you can't say they did, it's going to be a problem. That's all I'm saying. And so as a part of the narrative that they got to craft is they got to have a strong narrative to answer that question.

Because I'm telling you you it's coming. Speaking of what's coming, we're going to be hit even harder by this Delta variant that is going on. Folks, health officials say all Americans will now have access to COVID booster shots beginning next month. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggests getting the booster shot eight months after your second dose will be made available beginning September 20th. The CDC believes up to 664,000 deaths will be reported by September 11th. Now, folks, the country has more than 37 million reported cases and 640,000 deaths. Today, President Joe Biden said we are still in the pandemic of the unvaccinated. ...that cases may be declining in a few places. Cases are still rising, especially among the

unvaccinated. There are still 85 million Americans who are eligible to get vaccinated will remain unvaccinated and at real risk. Across the country, virtually all of the COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among the unvaccinated. In Alabama, more than 90 percent of the current hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated. In Texas, 95 percent of those in hospitals are unvaccinated. Right now, it's worse in states where overall vaccination rates are low. But let me be clear, even in states where the vaccination rate is high, the unvaccinated in those states are also at risk. And we're seeing cases rise as a result. Quite frankly, it's a tragedy. There are people who are dying and who will die who didn't have to. So please, if you haven't gotten vaccinated, do it now. Do it now. It could save your life and it could

save the lives of those you love. Well, folks, in New Zealand, they got some common sense. New Zealand put the entire nation on strict lockdown for at least three days after finding a single case of coronavirus infection in the community there. Throughout the pandemic, the country has reported more than 2,000 cases and 26 deaths. New Zealand managed to stamp out the virus, and the last outbreak was in February. Joining us now is Dr. Joseph Graves, Jr., professor of biological sciences at North Carolina A&T. Doc, glad to have you back. So, okay, I need you to first explain this, Doc.

These people are going, well, people who got the vaccine, they're still getting COVID, so why should I take it? A year ago, you explained to folks that the vaccine that is actually being developed is specifically for COVID-19, that when there were strains and when there were variants, then that vaccine is not as fully effective. And so I've seen these people are now saying, well, how are people dying who still had the vaccine, but they then got COVID? Well, I mean, Roland, this is really, really basic. The vaccines are effective and safe. They protect you from getting serious cases of COVID-19. People who have been vaccinated are not dying. They're not being hospitalized.

However, the original vaccines were designed for the original SARS coronavirus variant. A year has gone past, and as the president said in his news conference, about half of the eligible people in the United States have not been vaccinated. And that group of people is allowing the virus to warp speed its evolution so that it becomes more transmissible and more dangerous. And to give you a clear representation of how much dangerous it is, when SARS-CoV-2 started, it had an R0 number, the number of people that it could infect from one infected person, of around three. The Delta variant now has an R0 of nine. And that means in 10 generations of SARS replication, it will infect nine to the 10th power people. And so we're at a situation that should have been avoided by using some simple common sense, which unfortunately,

the half of the people in this country, and unfortunately, we know who that half is, most of those people who voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election, see vaccination as some evil plan. But in fact, vaccination is the way that we get in front of this virus, and it's the way we return to our lives. But if we don't get vaccinated, things are going to get a whole lot worse, and it's going to get a whole lot worse a lot sooner than people can imagine. Okay, and so we're still dealing with these folks

who are just crazy and outlandish. You've got DeSantis and Abbott who are refusing to actually allow mask mandates. You have that going on. And you're dealing with folks who just, oh, I'm already seeing this whole deal. Okay, I don't know what's in it. I don't know what's in the booster shot. Somebody tweeted.

I saw this interesting deal. They said, well, you didn't know what the hell those 11 herbs and spices in the KFC chicken is. I mean, you didn't order that chicken. And so you so you keep hearing that. How do you respond to all the folks out there who are saying, oh, yeah, you don't know what's in the vaccine. You don't know what's in the booster shot. The way I respond is simple. COVID kills people. We don't have a single case of a person dying from the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In fact, what the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have done is they've saved people's lives. And so it comes down to some really simple things. If you don't value your

own life, then what about the lives of the people you care about? What about the lives of people you love? Now, we have teachers going back into classrooms this fall without mask mandates and without vaccination mandates across the country. Now, a lot of these teachers have young children, so they're going to be going into situations where they can possibly pick up the COVID virus from asymptomatic people and then take it home to their children. And we now know that the Delta variant is making children sick. American hospital beds are running out. And a lot of those people in those beds now are young kids who, unfortunately, aren't yet eligible for the vaccine.

So if these people have any decency whatsoever, they need to start thinking about people other than themselves. And they need to examine why they believe these idiotic things that they believe so then you have the folks who are again who put stuff out and they're like well you know I trust the Lord natural natural immunity. I'm looking for this. Somebody sent me this post earlier. Apparently, Layla Ali posted something today that caused people to say, you know, what the hell are you talking about? And so here it is right here. Let me see if I can actually pull this up.

Give me one second. I saw it. I didn't know if it was legitimate, but apparently she had posted this on her Instagram stories and not necessarily. So this is what she wrote. Now, mind you, Layla Ali has got like four million Facebook followers, millions on Twitter and Instagram. People don't seem to understand that just because some folks don't wear masks, don't want the shot, don't listen to the media or live in fear, it doesn't mean they don't believe the virus is real or think they can't get it. They know it was created to harm humanity. They simply choose to build up and trust their own immune system like they have been doing all their life. If they get it, they will deal with it. It's a God-given choice. I know this kind of faith is impossible for some to comprehend, but lean not on your own understanding. Before you claim they are putting others in danger, you should do your own research to learn if that's actually true.

You can't change anyone but yourself, so you do you. Real talk, Laila Ali. Doc, how do you respond to that? Well, the first thing I want all your viewers to know is that not only am I a research scientist, but I'm a confirmed Episcopalian. I go to church every Sunday. I've served on the COVID vaccination task force of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. This morning, I was in a session with the faculty and the staff of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. These are people who study the word of the Lord and who are in service to their communities, and none of them

are saying things like that. And so, you know, we have had a history of some bad science, and we've also had a history of some bad theology. And so, you know, I do want people to think for themselves. I do want them to be introspective. I do want them to have strong faith. But, you know, in the words of the famous joke about the man who was sitting on top of a house in floodwaters, and when the boat came to rescue him, he said, I don't want a boat. I'm waiting for God to rescue me. And then when the helicopter came to save him, he says, well, I don't want to get on the helicopter. I'm waiting for God to rescue me. And then after he died from the flood and got to heaven and he asked God, why didn't you rescue me? Well, God said to him, well, you know, I sent you

a boat and I sent you a helicopter. And so that's where we are. Okay. We have God-given intellect, which has allowed us to develop one of the strongest biomedical and biotechnology research infrastructures in the world and hospitals and medicines that can prevent people from getting sick and dying. The SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are the result of the tremendous advancements that have occurred in the last 20 years. You know, when people say the vaccines came out so quickly, the reason they came out so quickly is because our science and understanding of how to make vaccines went through a huge jump in the last 20 years. And so when we have something that is as valuable and as important as this technology, which can save lives, it just seems to me that this is not good theology to say, oh, well, let's just wait for God to send an angel rather than a helicopter.

Again, as a person of faith, I have to stand resolutely against that kind of a bad religion. Well, Pastor John P. Key, I think probably is in line with you. He put this on Instagram today. We're going to try to have him on the show tomorrow. This is what he said. This thing seems to only hit home when it affects the people you know. Hashtag your family. Today, I've received tons of horror stories that I will not post.

I'll go out on a limb and tell you I believe this disease is preventable. We pastors beg you to take the necessary precautions and you laugh, mock and criticize us. And now your family is angry because the church won't handle your $12,000 funeral expense. It says it all, Roland. It says it all. It is crazy out here. Dr. Graves, thank you very much for enlightening us with real information. I have people sitting here hitting me up saying, why won't you have so-and-so on? And my first thing I say, is this person a doctor or a scientist? If not, I don't want to hear a damn thing from them about COVID-19 or the vaccine. I don't want to hear, I'm not putting conspiracy

theories on, I'm not putting conspiracy theories on, I'm not putting these fools on and all this old so-and-so. And again, when Layla's like, oh, do your own research, that's part of the problem now. We got a whole bunch of, you know, Google doctors out here who all of a sudden are saying this when these are the same people, Doc, who have allergies and got no problem taking Zyrtec D or any of these medicines, and they ain't got a damn clue what the hell is in that allergy pill. They get a headache, they take Tylenol or Aleve, they ain't got no clue what's in that Advil or that Aleve or that Tylenol. And so it's just amazing to listen to these people who many of them are on high blood pressure medication,

diabetes medication, thyroid medication, hypertension, all this sort of stuff. And they sitting here going, oh, I don't know. I don't know what's in it. Like I keep saying, ain't no flip side to death. I'm completely with you, Roland. If you're going to build a bridge, you don't tell people do your own research and then go out and build a bridge.

I mean, there are people who went to school, who have training, who are professionals in the area, who are engineers, who know how to build a bridge that's not going to fall down. In the same way, with regard to medicine and science, there are people, and I'm not saying just white folks, there are credible research scientists who are African Americans who have been working to help end this pandemic from the very start. In fact, as I'm sure I've said on one of your earlier interviews, one of the people who helped design the Moderna vaccine, Dr. Kitspensia Corbett, is an African-American woman who graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and is now at Harvard at the Chan School of Public Health. So if folks won't listen to us, I don't know what kind of research they're doing. Because if I want to build a bridge, I'm not going to go to somebody who builds shanties for a living. Well, in fact, I'll leave it on this point. It's a whole bunch of folks taking vitamins.

They probably haven't even read the back where they say the FBF, the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved any of this. But they actually believe that those vitamins make them better. Yeah. And that's one of the things that we're working very hard, particularly at North Carolina A&T, to do, to build more African-American students who go into engineering, into medicine, into biomedical research. We have, you know, leading academic institutions that are working to help end this pandemic. And so one of the things I'll say to your viewers, if you want to see this end, you should be supporting your HBCUs. Absolutely. Dr. Grays, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you, sir. Real quick on my panel, I really love this one. If you watch Fox News and you got crazy people like Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham spreading all their nonsense about COVID, then the idiots on Fox and Friends, like Ainsley Earnhardt, who literally said today that, oh, when you take Regeneron, that's like getting the vaccine. No, it's not, idiot. It's not. So check this out. Fox News is requiring that all employees provide their vaccination status today in a collective database. Oh, y'all, and this is the same people who are against vaccine passports. In a statement sent to all staff, Fox News urged employees to enter

vaccination information into a portal and have implemented a mask mandate for public spaces with the buildings. The statement says the following. Dear colleagues, as all of you know, the health and safety of our employees has been our priority at Fox News Media since the start of the global pandemic 17 months ago. Whether at work or home, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on all our lives. Here's some of the steps we are currently taking given the rise in COVID cases nationwide and the spread of the Delta variant. We have asked all employees, whether on site as part of our essential workforce or working remotely, to upload their vaccination status into Workday. This is being done for space planning and contract tracing purposes

in conjunction with CDC state city health and safety guidelines. All employees must enter their status no later than today, August 17th, by close of business. Number two, last week we reinstated our on-site COVID testing program every Monday and Thursday for select essential employees due to their work environment within our New York offices. These employees have been contacted and will be required to test at least once weekly due to their role at Fox News Media regardless of vaccination status. In our New York offices, masks remain optional for vaccinated individuals but are strongly encouraged in public areas throughout the building. However, we are requiring employees to wear a mask in small, confined spaces with limited opportunities for social distancing and where there are multiple employees, including control rooms.

All employees and vendors are required to complete a daily screening ahead of reporting to work. At many locations, you will be asked to display either a work care, go-to-work green screen, or a Fox Clear Pass to a security representative upon entering the building or workspace. So, Robert, it's hilarious to see all of these Fox people going nuts about mask mandates when their own company has one. Speaking of which, I'll be on Fox at 1245 tonight, so make sure you guys tune in for that. But look, you're right, Roland. And what I don't understand about the people who are against the mask on the right at this point, last year they made the argument that all of this was to be against Donald Trump, that the whole point of the mask mandate of the lockdowns was to hurt

Donald Trump and make sure he couldn't get reelected. Well, now the election is over, Joe Biden's in charge, Democrats are running the ship now, and it's still here. Remember, they made that argument, I bet you, the day after the election, the virus will just go away magically. It did not. So what exactly is it, Cassie, about right to justify their thought that somehow this is still a conspiracy theory against them, even though there are literally 600,000 fewer people in this country than there were a year ago. The entire thing does not make sense. But beyond those people on that side of the aisle, they do think we need to have more work to do in our communities. We're still looking at around 30, 31 percent vaccination rates, and a community that has some of the

highest comorbidities of any communities in the country. We have to work on getting the proper information out. We have to work on getting those federal dollars to push these vaccination drives, to push the advertising, to push the nonprofits that can get the vaccine penetration because we cannot be falling into the same trap as the maggots on the other side. Monique, I find this to be hilarious in Paris, Texas. The school board has figured out a loophole from Governor Greg Abbott's ban against masks. They said, let's just make it part of the school uniform dress code. Gotta love outsmarting his ass on that one.

I mean, it's a shame we have to do that. You know, I watched yesterday as the news came out that he's positive for COVID. And of course, he'll likely be just fine because he's vaccinated. So he's having all these maskless gatherings and just bragging about all the standing room only crowds. And the people in there are getting sick. He's getting people sick, going around with COVID. And then he'll get himself to be fine. He'll have the best insurance possible. He'll have the best care possible while his constituents are dying. It's atrocious that school systems have to go to

these measures just to keep themselves, their employees, and students safe. And of course, Georgia and Florida, the State Board of Education, they unanimously voted to sanction two school districts with mask mandates, violating the governor's order. The authorized state education commissioner take legal steps against those two school districts, including Broward, for requiring people in their school districts to wear masks. These people are nuts. Yeah, it's sad. And that crazy foolishness has claimed the life of four educators already in Florida. DeSantis leading the foolishness by selling merchandise on his website, mocking those who are wearing masks.

And the reality of it is just like Fox News, when you have people like Tucker Carlson on air mocking people who are wearing masks and now his own company is mandating it. The truth will always come to the light and the numbers do not lie. And so if you just do a quick search on the statistics, the New York Times has been doing a great job tracking not just the statistics here in our country, but internationally. And America is failing. We're leading the world with the amount of new COVID cases currently. And so unless people stop following along with governors like DeSantis and the governor in Texas, we are going to continuously see that the numbers are going to increase. Speaking of failure, when we come back, we'll talk about Baltimore, where a massive failure of one student has caused his family to say, what the hell is going on? We'll talk about that next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folks. Right. We've got to deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict.

You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's going to happen. Football, bands, and one of the best fan experiences in the country. The Cricket BX Swag Challenge kickoff returns to Atlanta on August 28th,

along with special guests. College game day. Then Alcorn State takes on North Carolina Central with conference bragging rights on the line. Center Park Stadium is the place to be on August 28th. Come tailgate all day before enjoying a primetime matchup on the gridiron. You don't want to miss this. Check out meatswacchallenge.com for more information. And, of course, we'll be live in Atlanta August 27th and 28th Don't want to miss this. Check out me. X-Fact challenge dot com for more information.

And of course, we'll be live in Atlanta, August 27th and 28th, supporting the Swag Me Act Challenge in partnership with Coca-Cola. Friday will broadcast the show from Atlanta Braves Baseball Stadium, interviewing officials with the Swag and the Me Act, plus the university presidents on Saturday, August 28th. We'll be broadcasting live from the Coca-Cola fan zone outside of the stadium. And then, of course, we'll be live streaming the halftime show and the performance after the game. So check out Roland Martin Unfiltered from the Swag Me At Challenge in Atlanta. Don't forget the game airs at 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN on Saturday, August 28th. All right, folks. Education advocates in Baltimore are demanding the city school CEO, Dr. Sonia Santielli, resign due to rising crime, poor education and failed leadership. Project Baltimore's investigative efforts discovered that 41 percent of high school students earn a GPA of 1.0 or below.

Advocates believe the education system has neglected the students and mismanaged funds. In one case, Tiffany Francis' son, a senior in Baltimore City Schools, earned a.13 GPA. No, not a 1.3, a.13 GPA. Now the 19-year-old is going to begin high school over as a freshman. The senior missed hundreds of days of school and failed nearly all of his classes, yet he was promoted every year and was ranked somehow 62 out of 120 students. Hmm. Someone has to explain that. Joining us right now is Andre

Riley, Communications Director of Baltimore City Public Schools. Andre, how you doing? Hello, Rowan, I cannot hear you. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? I can, Rowan. It's great to see you this evening. I missed most of the lead in,

but again, I'm happy to be here. All right, glad to have you here. First and foremost, how does this happen? How does a student have a 0.13 grade point average get to their senior year and then is sent back to the ninth grade? How? Well, Roland, that doesn't happen. What happened and what was reported on, there's some contextual matters that I need the public to understand. First of all, that student was not a senior. He had only earned enough credits to be a freshman. Therefore, his GPA was being compared with students that just started their educational careers who had not yet earned even a credit yet.

So what's happening now is you're taking a student that is repeating the course who has a GPA, and you're comparing him with students that don't have a GPA. So you're saying that he was not an actual senior? Pardon? So you're saying he was not an actual senior? No, sir. Okay, so he's 19. So the

last four years, where has he been? Has he been in middle school? Has he been in high school? Has he been repeating the same grade every single year? Now, I want to be careful, Roland, because, again, we're talking about a student's private educational record. And by law, we can't disclose the specifics of any child's education. That's personal information. Other folks may choose to discuss that in a public forum,

but we choose not to do that. Okay, so... Why a student, why he, his status, that we choose not to do that. Okay, so... Why student? Why he? His status? That wouldn't be fair to him. Okay, so... They put out... The story's been put out. The family has actually spoken as well.

And so, what's actually happening here then? So, again, is he a... Has he been in high school? Or was he in middle school? The student was in high school or was he in middle school? The student was in high school the entire time. So he's been in high school for the last four years? Yes, sir.

And he's never advanced out of his freshman year? To advance from any grade level, you have to earn a minimum level of credits, which means you have to pass courses. If you've not been passing those courses or if you, let's say, have poor attendance, then you can't earn credits to become a sophomore, a junior, or a senior. It's really the same as college. Was his family notified? Were there ever letters sent, phone calls made? Because they claim, the mother

claims she did not know her son had been failing for the last four years. Yes, this has been a point of contention in the story, Roland. I'll just speak from our perspective, obviously. When any student misses any time at school, even one day of courses, you get an automated phone call. We also do home visits. We do emails, we do texts, we do everything we can based on the information that we have for a given student. So if we do not have their proper contact information, perhaps they've moved, They haven't updated us.

There can be many reasons why. But do you have record keeping? So let's let's deal with each one. Was his mother properly contacted via text message, phone call and home visits? And do you have that documented? We have records of those, yes, of any student that we contact. So you have records that indicate that the mother was contacted either via text, via phone, or a home visit. So what you're suggesting is the mother telling this news organization that she had no idea her son was failing. You're saying that's not true. What we're saying in city schools is we have records that we reached out to that family and we did our best to communicate the status of that student. For the last four years? Yes. Okay. So when you say, again, that there were home visits. How many home visits over the last four years?

How many phone calls? How many text messages? Again, Roland, I do not want to dive into the personal records of this student right now. But that's actually not a classroom record of a student. I'm just speaking to how do you, you say you have the evidence? And so if you say our records, our records show that we contacted the mother 85 times over a four year period. That puts into context, I believe, for the public who saw the original story where the impression was given that her child was passed. She had no idea he was just going through and now she thought he was going to be graduating, and now he's back in the ninth grade.

I understand your point, Roland, and I'm not saying that's incorrect, but I also say we have a, in respect to the student's private educational records, our perspective is that's not information we can release. So was it less than 50, or was it more than 50? Again, I don't want to dig into that, but I know we contacted that student's family multiple times. Multiple times. When you say multiple times, is that more than 10 a year or 10 total in four years?

I do not have four years worth of records. I know in the period of which we referenced with the student that we conducted home visits, phone calls, and we sent letters to the student and had contact with the mother. That's what I'm saying. And so you're saying the district had face-to-face contact with this mother prior to this story coming out detailing the academic issues facing her son? Yes, sir. What is happening now? Obviously, this story has come out. Folks ran with it.

They're calling for the firing of the CEO. And so what's the next step for Baltimore Public Schools? The next step for Baltimore City Public Schools is to find better ways to connect with our families. Again, we know one of the biggest issues we're having, Roland, is reaching folks at the proper phone number and the proper address. That's a challenge for any urban school district,

especially in an environment such as Baltimore. So people move a lot. Got it. So what so what is your what is your process then? So right now, when it comes to reaching their parents, what is your actual process? Do you require what the student has to fill it out? So what do you I mean, how do you verify? Our challenge right now, the process is we work to inform our families that we need you to update your contact information. It's a two-way street, so we have to develop trust with them, and we have to develop their confidence so they feel comfortable sharing that information with us. No, no, no, no, no. What I'm asking is what is your current process? What is it?

Do you do it at the beginning of the year? Do you do it monthly? Do you do it each once a semester? What is your process to ensure that you have updated information on that particular parent of every child? What's your system? Our system is at the beginning of every year, Roland, we reach out to our families and we advise them to update their contact information. That's the same as any other school district, well, most school districts in the country. We give you the process of how to do it. We help you to log in to our campus portal if you don't know how to do that. And we meet you at various events and things that we host throughout the summer where we seek together that information. No, no, no.

But that's the summer. Okay, this is following me here. This is what I'm talking about. School year starts when? September or August? No, our school year starts on August 30th. Got it. August 30th.

First day of school. send anything physically home with the student and say, please return this filled out by your family member so we have their information. How many times does that happen between August and June? That happens one time at the beginning of the year as part of our family outreach, with the exception of last year where we were mostly virtual. Okay. Here's what I'm trying to understand. Why is that happening once a year? Why aren't you doing that at the beginning of the fall semester

and the beginning of the spring semester? Because if you say people are moving and you're trying to keep up, if you actually have two points of contact, at least at the beginning of each one of the sessions, and are you actually handing something to the student? Because you're saying, go to our portal. Look, there's a lot of people who don't actually who don't hop online you got folks who actually have flip phones versus

smartphones uh and so what is your so i get you have different events and stuff along those lines but are you physically handing something to each student saying this is required you are required to bring this back with the right information and then we'll verify what the information is up until this school up until last school year yes we you're trying to delineate between the fall and the summer but the work of getting that information occurs throughout the summer into the fall no no no no no no actually actually that's just not what i'm doing summertime no kids are in school correct yes? Yes, but that does not mean that we do not have contact with our students. Right, but the point I'm making is,

fall is when the kids come back to school, right? Yes, the first day of school is the day that they're required to be in school. However, we know our families need resources, they need access to information, so we work with them throughout the summer. No, no, I get that. Andre need access to information. So we work with them throughout the summer. I get that. I get that. I get that. But follow me here. School starts August 30th. When does the second semester start? The second semester starts right after the new year. And

what I'm saying, and what I'm saying, if you're saying, okay, this is what you told me. The problem that we're facing is that in an urban district, people are moving. So what I'm saying is, if you have information at the beginning of the school year, and then you require a second verification at the beginning of the spring semester, they could have moved during that time span. What it sounds to me like is that you're getting information in the beginning of the school year, but you're not getting the second connection until the summer, which is literally nine months later. So what I'm saying is, doesn't it make sense to get But the point that I need to emphasize is, even though we have that starting point at the beginning of the year, we reach out to our

families throughout the year to issue reminders, to say that we need you to update your information. Here's how you can do it. So I do not want to be left that we just reach out to you at the beginning of the year and we'll talk to you to the next summer. That's incorrect. No, we reach out to you at the beginning of the year and we'll talk to you to the next summer. That's, that's incorrect. No, we reach out to you throughout the year, but the core time, the official initial outreach happens at the beginning of the school year. Does it, okay, so who sees this as a problem of the having a, and how do you deal with a 19-year-old man now still in school as a freshman? We have, we offer alternative learning environments for students that are over age or they're approaching over age, but that's, but let's go back just a little bit further. If a student is struggling, our goal is to identify it

at the earliest possible opportunity and notify the family. So not just for attendance, you're missing days, but if your student's not passing courses, the goal is to have an intervention as soon as possible. So were there interventions with this student in four years?

The challenge without going too far into the student's record is, we have to be able to make contact with the family to implement some of those interventions. And if we're not able to do that, then it creates a more difficult situation to navigate. So are you saying, I'll say it again, all right.

So are you saying that young man comes in, he's failing, y'all made the effort to reach his family, and you didn't reach anybody? I'm saying we were not successful in reaching a family. Okay, now this is, again, the reason I'm asking these questions is because what I don't understand is, I asked you earlier, did you have documentation where you connected with the family and you said yes? Are you saying you didn't reach the family? Now, does that mean that you connected with his family, but frankly, they didn't follow up with the district? I'm trying to understand. Did you ask if somebody said, hey, we connected with Reginald and Imelda Martin, that means y'all physically talk to them or talk to them on the phone. And if my mama and daddy never

responded back and didn't do anything to help my education out, then that's on my mama and daddy. So what I'm asking, did you actually connect with this young man's mother, present to her his failing, lay out a plan of action to help him, and did his family respond and work with the district to ensure he doesn't fail? Did that happen? This is the way it happened, but the short answer is yes. We reached out to that student in a variety of ways. We eventually made contact with the family. We laid out like we did for any other student in that situation. Here's where your student, here's where they're at today. Here's the struggles that they're encountering, and here's how we think we can make progress on it and then

we were not i don't think either party would deemer work successful in getting that student uh back on track uh roland my job is i do not want to throw the family under the bus no no no no no this is not no no see here's the deal this is not throwing the family under the bus because i'm about to talk to the family and I'm going to ask them these very same questions. Because again, when a story is published and then people run with it, I want to know exactly, you know, what the heck happened. And so at the end of the day, somebody has to accept ownership for what has happened with this student. It's either this is not actually complicated.

It's either the family did not respond appropriately and frankly bear the brunt of him failing for four years or the school failed, the district failed. I mean, I'll be very clear. The district reached out to that family through multiple methods and we eventually made contact with the family. We laid out a course to get that student back on track and it did not get implemented. We eventually were able to provide a learning environment to the student, but was well after. Well, it was it was later than it should

have been so when you say it didn't get implemented what you're saying is that the school district offered an education um opportunity to fix the problem but it was not acted upon by the family. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Okay. That's something to understand. Andre Riley, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us. Thank you, Roland.

Have a great day. All right, then. Right now, folks, I want to talk to Pastor Shannon Wright, the France family spokesperson, after Chris Metzler, who was a conservative strategist and author of divided we stand the search for america so um so okay so pastor shannon uh you are representing the france family can you answer that very point there uh that i just asked what actually happened here so we've been speaking with a lot of different families, not just in reference to this case. What Andre just told you was a whole bunch of smoke.

The district has failed students, not just this young man's family, but a whole bunch of families in the city. We've got 41 percent of the high school students with a D or below. 41%. And you're telling me we're looking at this one case, but the problem is that there are thousands of that same case. I got that. I got that. I got that. I got that.

I want to deal with the thousands, but I want to deal with this one. But I need some questions answered. He just said that over a period of four years, the district repeatedly reached out to the family and they were unsuccessful in getting them to work with the district to deal with this young man's education issues. Did that happen? Not to my knowledge, no. When you say not to your knowledge, meaning? There was no proof of papers that were sent home of outreach that was made okay has the

mother first of all who were they reaching out to mother father mother aunt grandmother grandfather what was it his mother the district says that they reached out to his mother what does his mother say no evidence of that that she did not get any any any. She did not hear anything from them until they were at the point of saying that the child was failing and they didn't, the district as in they didn't know what happened. Is she saying that she, they say they actually made direct contact with her.

Is she saying they never made direct contact with her face to face? That's what I'm understanding. That's what I'm being told. Okay. What I need to understand is how did the mother, how was she unaware

of the education status of her child for four years? Did she ever look at a report card? Did she ever check in with teachers? Did she ever make any visits in four years to parent-teacher conferences? That I couldn't tell you. I don't know, honestly.

But I will tell you this. Part of the problem that we're having in Baltimore City is that the grades are inflated. So you may not see failing grades because they will not fail the students. Social promotion is real in Baltimore, whether you have missed a little bit of time or a lot of time, because the concern is that the emotional damage that they will cause the student to keep them back and actually try and get them to grade level would be more detrimental. So you're not going to see failing grades. The lowest you will see is a 1.0, which is a D. And when they, and if you listen carefully to how they say it, it's a 1.0 or less, they will never put the less down.

Okay. But, but this is the thing that, that I'm trying to understand, uh, Shannon and Chris that, that again, I, I, I, we're looking at this individual here. I cannot fathom a parent not looking at a report card for four years. I can't fathom having no conversation with any teacher or principal or anybody for four years. So I actually need, it would be great Shannon and Chris, if we could have the family on. Because I think these are questions the mother has to answer. I read the story. She blamed the district for failing her.

We kind of need to know what she did. No, I understand that. Dr. Metzinger? Yeah, and I think that's part of what we're looking at as we are investigating the failures here of the city. So we definitely would need to have her come on because her position is that the school didn't inform her. But as you said, the other part of the question is, what did you ask and when did you ask it? So, that's the other piece of what we'll need to be able to do to get the answers to this puzzle. I want to bring in our panel here. Robert, Monique is gone in Georgia.

So, Robert, do you have a question? Well, I think my question will be, is there a handbook? Is there a very clear laid out process by which they can ensure that students don't fall through the system? Is there a way to track individuals, ensure that they are going to class that they are getting the proper information and are there uh are there uh apparatuses in place to basically catch them before they fall outside the safety net and if those do not exist or if those do not exist what's the process going to be for putting those in place okay so there is a um there is a a manual that the district discusses that they use but it's not being implemented that's part of the problem um in their rescue recovery uh getting back to

open schools program it was a 52-page report. The first 23 pages of that report are what we did, who we talked to, what they told us, what we think they meant. On page 24 of that report is where they start with what we know we need to have. And the problem I have with that is everything that's on the 24th page of your document is things that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out. We need more parental involvement. We need more access points for students to be able to get resources. All of the things that any parent paying attention would tell you after the end of the first semester, this is what I'm not seeing, this is what I'm missing, it took them 24 pages of their document

to get to. And then when you look at the rest of the plan, which describes what they feel they need, there is not one clear measurable metrics outcome in that 52-page recovery, how we're going to do better plan. Georgia. I'm sorry, Robert, go ahead. Robert, go ahead. Well, my follow-up question would be, well, what's the community doing, what are parents doing to try to remedy that? Because it does take two partners. It does take the governmental side of the district side of it, but also the community side to enforce those things, to ensure that they're not falling through the cracks and ensuring that those things are being implemented. Well, yeah. And earlier today, one of the things that we announced is that there's a team of lawyers who will, in fact, bring a lawsuit against the city of Baltimore public school system for essentially educational malpractice.

That, of course, is from the system standpoint, and we are absolutely getting the parents involved as well. Look, if you look at Baltimore City, if you look at the school system, if you look at the superintendent, and I think the spokesperson before we came on gave you a good example, and that is it is run by a bureaucracy that no one seems to know what's going on or how it's done. Discovery, of course, will tell us a lot of that. Dr. Metzler said that nicely. What you heard was a bunch of smoke and mirrors. The district had a program for parents to be able to, quote, understand their plan and how they intended to get the buildings open safely and to get the children back in school with minimal

risk. Now, the interesting thing was they had two options for parents to participate. You could participate on Zoom, which is in Spanish only, or you could look on Facebook and perhaps write a comment. Now, the parents were supposed to have, they were supposed to have coordinators on that were actually picking up the comments from the parents and answering them. The district assistance was on the Zoom link that was in Spanish only. There was no English interpretation or assistance for parents that had questions. And parents typed them in the chat. I know that because I was actually on that town hall. Then I made a list of every single parent there was 796 comments they answered three questions three

georgia yeah you know i as a parent myself i i do believe that there's accountability on both sides here from a parent standpoint of checking in and following up and seeing how your student is doing periodically so that you don't get four years into your high school career and realize that they're not going to graduate, right? But on the other side here, this one case is not an outlier. This is within a system where 41% of students are failing. And so I'm curious to hear from you guys, what are you hearing from the other families who are within this system who also have students who are failing? Like, what are their circumstances and what is the situation contributing to how this education system in a whole is failing the city?

Well, from the parents, we're hearing much of the same story. We're also hearing, and we had some parents at the press conference earlier today who talked about all of the outreach that they have done to the city, and the city simply refuses to answer them or to give them anything that they can work with. So what we're hearing from the parents is, look, I am involved. I want to be involved, but I am put up against a bureaucratic wall in which no one knows what the answer is. No one knows who to ask the questions to, and the answers are not given. So this is not an isolated—this is a systemic problem in the city of Baltimore. You have a superintendent who makes $20,000 a year less than the superintendent of schools in New York City, and you have a failing system. She was given a raise because the system said

we believe she'd be recruited elsewhere. The average grade point average of a student in Baltimore City is a D. This is systemic. And so that's part of what we're going to be exploring. And Discovery will tell us that we also will have a number of parents who will tell their story as well and what their experiences are. This is not an isolated incident. Unfortunately, it really isn't. And you got folks that came through the Baltimore City school system that are now parents and raising their children in public schools. And some of them even say that they didn't realize how much they didn't know and didn't learn until they saw it reflected from their own children in the Baltimore City schools. This is this has been going on for a minute. All right, then.

Well, look, we certainly would love to talk to the mother of this young man to get more answers. And hopefully we'll also talk further with folks in the Baltimore school system about other plans to deal with the 41 percent of those students with a 1.0 grade point average. Chris Metzler, Pastor Shannon Wright, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Today, opening statements and testimony began in the R. Kelly federal trial in New York City. The singer is facing racketeering and sex trafficking charges and is potentially facing decades behind bars. The partially sequestered jury of seven men and five women will hear the case. Prosecutors claim Kelly led a criminal enterprise comprised of people who helped promote his musical career.

Kelly was acquitted in 2008 of child pornography charges, denies the allegations against him. Now, for the first time, one of his victims testified against him. Jorhonda Pace says she met R. Kelly when he was 16 years old. Go to my computer, please. When she was 16 years old, and she said she was excited to be in his presence, but then that began a six-month ordeal where he had sex with her physically and emotionally abused her. She is now 28 years old. And again, she testified in that particular trial today in New York City. Not only that, a bombshell was dropped in the court where prosecutors also spoke to the issue of Aaliyah. And of course, because it goes back to when R. Kelly was very much involved with her.

This is the New York Times story. It says the other five women involved in the case include the singer Aaliyah, who died in the 2001 plane crash, whose brief marriage to Mr. Kelly at 15 years old was among the first revelations to fuel questions over his conduct. And four women referred to only by their first names or by pseudonyms at the trial. The U.S. attorney said this case is about a predator. That's what she said.

She also called R. Kelly a serial manipulator who used the access granted by his fame to prey on his fans. Said he used every trick in the predator handbook to present himself as a mentor to the girls and their families. And so this is what she said, quote, he began collecting girls and women as if they were things, hoarding them like objects that he could use however he liked. Georgia, this is going to be, of course, for so long, you had the documentaries about R. Kelly, you had people who were protesting, taking his music off the air. And finally, he goes to trial a long time after being acquitted in Chicago. You know, I think it's been a challenging thing for our community, the black community to confront. But we must in order to protect our young girls as a mother of three black girls,

I definitely want to make sure that someone like R. Kelly is held accountable for his actions. It is unfortunate because so many people appreciated his music. You know, when I listened to some of his songs were so inspirational and filled with so much spirituality. But the other side of that coin and knowing how he has abused women, you know, again, like I said earlier in the show, the truth will always come to the light. And there have been dozens of women from across this country who have came forward saying that he did these things to him and used his stardom and used his position, his celebrity, to manipulate them into, you know, different favors. And so it is disgusting to know that there were people who

were complicit, people who are standing by different producers or promoters who knew about his behavior and his choices and didn't stand up. And so I think that is also very telling as we're starting to see not only this case, but other cases with the whole Me Too movement and revelation that we have a role when we see this playing out right before our eyes to intervene, to say something. Otherwise, we are also a part of the problem. There was another woman who testified, Robert, her name is Zells. She said she was 17 when she met R. Kelly when he was 48. She hoped that he would help her with a music career. She went to

his hotel where he said he, quote, needed to relieve himself, which meant pushing her into sex. And then, according to prosecutors, Kelly said that he told the girl he would take care of her for the rest of her life and make her the next Aaliyah. She said she had sex with him, contracted herpes, and they say the disease that prosecutors say Kelly transmitted to many others as well. If he is convicted again, he could spend between 10 years and the rest of his life in prison. Yeah, R. Kelly need to be up under the jail. And I think people need to understand you have to separate the art from the artist. This comes up almost every time we have one

of these celebrity cases where people who have fond memories for the media creative persona of these individuals, or they enjoy their music, or they like the all white parties and step in the name of love. That does not mean that the person making that music cannot be a disgusting predator. I think one of the best revelations that come out of the last decade is people like R. Kelly,

is people like Jeffrey Epstein. There's this reckoning of individuals who have been predatory on women and girls and even young boys for generations finally coming to justice. I went to law school in Chicago, and there wasn't a black woman over the age of about 35 who didn't have a story from high school about R. Kelly pulling up in a car, meeting young girls, so on and so forth. There's a lot of urban legend like Candyman. So we have to start prosecuting these people. We have to also start holding to account the enablers, the people who knew about him, the folks who funneled him and brought him his victims, the people who were on the payroll

who were made to pay off these young girls who were complicit in all this, to make sure we break this down for the future so another generation of girls does not have to be abused. And so, look, it's going to be a whole lot happening. The case will be giving updates each and every single day. Well, let's talk about what's happening in Haiti. The death toll rises in Haiti as a result of the earthquake there. Survivors are overwhelming hospitals, leaving many people wondering how could they be taken care of. A 7.2 earthquake again has left more than 2,000 dead, nearly 10,000 injured. That number is going to rise in the coming days as well. Search and rescue efforts are being stifled by lack of resources and heavy rains, which have caused mudslides that blocked roads in the region. The United Nations says about

half a million children now have limited or no access to safe water and shelter there in Haiti. Let's talk about Afghanistan, where Utah's governor is one of the eight who want to open their estates to resettle Afghan refugees. In a letter to President Joe Biden, Spencer Cox, a Republican, is opening up a state to refugees fleeing Afghanistan, citing the state's origins as a haven for Mormons. He wrote, I recognize Utah plays no direct role in shaping U.S. diplomatic or military policy, misspelling there, but we have a long history of welcoming refugees from around the world and helping them restart their lives in a new country.

We're eager to continue that practice and assist with the resettlement of individuals and families fleeing Afghanistan, especially those who valiantly help U.S. troops, diplomats, journalists and other civilians over the past 20 years. Strong letter from the from the. Now, the reason that's important also, folks, is because you have Republicans now who are running their mouths now saying, oh, no, we shouldn't do this. You got the racists over at Fox News. Tucker Carlson saying, replacement, replacement theory. They're trying to replace us. No, dude. White folks just stopped screwing and having sex in America. The average white death rate is higher in more than a dozen states than the average white birth rate. It ain't our problem. Y'all stop having children. That's what

the hell is going on. Robert, what do you make of also a bunch of these Republicans now complaining? I saw a tweet earlier, I got to try to find it, where they voted a few days ago against speeding up the resettling of these refugees. Now they're trying to complain that Biden isn't doing enough. Really? Well, a couple of things. I wanted to jump back one story to Haiti. I'm actually going down there in two weeks to help work out with disaster relief. I do encourage people, if you are donating, find people who work on the ground there. Find churches, nonprofit groups, individuals who work in the communities. Often when you contribute to larger aid organizations, that money does not get where it needs to go. We saw what happened during the earthquake a decade ago when many donations

ended up paying Red Cross salaries and flying people around for the Clinton Global Initiative, but not actually making it to the ground. So find small churches in your community who have direct connection down there to people working on the island and try to help out that way. On this story, I find it amazing that Republicans have found this weird sense of relativity where Earth just started in January of this year, and then they just found out about Afghanistan last Thursday. For some reason, they forgot about from 2001 until 2020. They forgot that Donald Trump released the Taliban leader in 2018. They forgot that Mike Pompeo signed a deal a year and a half ago.

They released 5,000 Taliban rebels that withdrew 15,000 U.S. troops. And they guaranteed by May 21st of 2021 that that all American troops will be out. And indeed, that they hand tied Joe Biden to the point that there was absolutely no way for this to end any other way than the way that it has currently ended. And now Republicans are realizing that this is going to start splashing back on them. You have a schism within the party, the ones who want to be true patriots saying that they want to take in refugees. Brian Kemp here in Georgia said something similar. But then you have the xenophobes and the three percenters and so on and so forth who are saying don't bring them over. So I think you're seeing the civil war within the Republican Party tearing itself asunder

because they don't know if they're going to be pro-war, anti-war. They don't know if they're leave the troops there, bring the troops home. They don't know if they're pacifists or war hawks. And right now they have no clear guiding principles. And that's why you see such contradictory evidence and contradictory statements coming out of Republican leadership. Georgia, what do you make of, again, the folks with a very short-term memory loss? Yeah, well, we just did an extensive piece on this on the Benjamin Dixon show with Captain Barnes, who broke down that 20-year history that Robert just pointed to. You know, what was the expectation? Were we supposed to

occupy Afghanistan forever indefinitely? Because we've already racked up a $2-3 trillion bill just by keeping our troops there this long. So I do think that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is doing the best that he can. 5,000 people have already been evacuated, and it looks like we're doing the best that we can, given what's happened. But, you know, unfortunately, we're in this situation now, and it's a domino effect from what was decided 20 years ago.

And Republicans, let's be clear, were the ones leading that charge to begin with. And so I do agree with Robert that there is a sense of double mindedness where, you know, we want to occupy Afghanistan, but we don't want to run up the bill. And so you're going to have to deal with the fact that now we're going to have refugees who are going to be evacuating here. It is going to happen. And there is a number of journalists. There's 200 journalists who have been on the ground, who have been our eyes and ears bravely documenting what's happening that are now going to have to figure out what is their evacuation plan as well. So there's many layers to this, and it's a story I think that more Americans should be paying attention to. The folks at ABC News, they had an exclusive interview, George Stephanopoulos, with President Joe Biden. They did drop a clip of the interview a little bit earlier, so let's watch this.

All troops are supposed to be out by August 31st. Even if Americans and our Afghan allies are still trying to get out, they're going to leave? We're going to do everything in our power to get all Americans out and our allies out. Does that mean troops will stay beyond August 31st, if necessary?

It depends on where we are and whether we can ramp these numbers up to 5,000 to 7,000 a day coming out. If that's the case, they'll all be out. Because we've got like 10,000 to 15,000 Americans in the country right now, right? And are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to be out is out? Yes. How about our Afghan allies? We have about 80,000 people. Well, that's not the estimate. Is that too high? That's too high. How many? The estimate we're giving is somewhere between 50,000 and 65,000 folks total, counting their families. Does the commitment hold for them as well? The commitment holds to get everyone out that in fact we can get out and

everyone should come out. And that's the objective. That's what we're doing now. That's the path we're on. And I think we'll get there. So Americans should understand the troops might have to be there beyond August 31st. No, Americans should understand that we're going to try to get it done before August 31st. But if we don't, the troops will stay. If we don't, we'll determine at the time who's left. And? And if there's American citizens left, we're going to stay until we get them all out. One of the questions he was asked, how do they not know what was going on here? You've had the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff who said that they had no evidence that this was going to happen, frankly, in 11 days. You know, that that city could actually go longer.

I mean, the thing here that I that's amazing to me by folks here is not understanding. And Biden, in one of the clips, he talked about it where he said, look, the Afghan folks just gave up. I mean, he's like, you're told one thing, you're told one thing and something else happens. And it's like, yeah, we thought people were going to be, people are going to be holding the line. But again, what you have. Here's the thing that's that's crazy to me, Robert.

This is Biden said the Afghan president, he hopped on a plane and left. So you're sort of like, well, who the hell is in charge? The folks that are like, well, what the hell? We're just going to give everything over to the Taliban. I'm trying to understand what do people think was going to happen if the entire Afghan military, 300 plus thousand people just put their arms down and say, yeah, we're good. Well, look, Roland, if we had pulled out in 2002 and we pulled out in 2022, we pulled it out in 2022, it would have ended exactly like this. If a military force can take over a country in 10 days, then you are not the liberators. You are the occupiers.

The Taliban is the government that the Afghani people want. There's video coming out of the international press on Reuters and Al Jazeera of the Taliban celebrating ice cream parties in the street, playing basketball games with children. This is the legitimate government of the Emirates of Afghanistan that was in place after the Mujahideen fell. After the Mujahideen fell, and then in 1998, the Taliban took over, and then they were in power until America came in. America very clearly came in not to end the war on terror because the terror operations were done after Operation Anaconda in 2002. All of our combat missions were done then. We stayed there to protect the poppy fields. We stayed there to protect

the oil fields. We stayed there to protect the tritium and the cobalt deposits under that country. That's the entire reason we've been there for 20 years. So when the Taliban then comes in, the reason you saw the civilian government turn tail and run, because they knew they did not have the legitimate support of the people. They knew that that army was a Taliban army, all 300,000 of those that we trained, all $2 trillion of those resources that we left on the ground there, those were all simply turned back over to their rightful owners, being the Taliban, because those soldiers put down those arms, changed uniforms, and turned against their government. And the Afghani civilian leadership was lying to us the entire time, and we're going to have to hold them to account. Not to mention that the Taliban army still has all the weapons we gave to them in the 80s when they were fighting against the Russians,

and now all the weapons we gave to them in the 80s when they were fighting against the Russians, and now all the weapons we gave to them now. So they have a 21st century military, one of the largest in the region, 300,000 strong posted Taliban forces, both one of the most modern military forces. So now they are actually a regional power, thanks to us giving them a bunch of free money and military weapons over the last 30 years, versus investing in our own country. And let's not pretend that we did not invade Afghanistan for poppy and opium back in 2001 and then immediately go into an opioid epidemic in America as soon as we got a hold of those poppy fields. You want to pretend that those things aren't connected.

I don't know what to tell you, but we need to have a real come-to-Jesus meeting about our foreign policy in this country. And I do want to, of course, share what Secretary of Defense Lord Austin, retired four-star general, had to say today. He's saying that we remain laser-focused right now on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and on doing everything that we can to continue evacuating Americans, allies, Afghans who have worked alongside us and also other courageous Afghans at special risk. And to that end, I'm prioritizing three key concerns. First, the safety and security of our people and the people that we're trying to evacuate. As the chairman will brief you, the final elements of additional military forces continue

to flow into Kabul, with about 4,500 in place as we speak. They are trained and equipped to defend themselves and their operations. There have been no hostile interactions with the Taliban, and our lines of communication with Taliban commanders remain open, as they should be. My second focus is maintaining security at the airport itself. In concert with forces from our allies, our troops have set up defensive positions around the airport, and the airport is able to function safely. Now, we don't take this for granted, and I continue to be in daily contact with General McKenzie

and commanders on the ground to make sure that they have what they need to keep it safe. My third area of focus, of course, is the pace, increasing the flow of aircraft and people out of Kabul. And we've flown out several thousand since the 15th of August, and our goal is to be able to increase our capacity every day going forward. Georgia, that was Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. I want to get your final thoughts here about what's happening in Afghanistan. Absolutely. Well, in that same briefing, Roland, Austin talked about how he was on the ground in Afghanistan. So this is something that's very personal to him as well. And I think the hard thing for a lot of

people who have fought for our country is looking at this was, was it a victory or is this a loss? Did we lose? And the way that things are going right now, I would say the latter. And so as we continue to see our people evacuated, as long as there's cooperation with the Taliban, I do think the priority remains getting all of the Americans out of the country and coming up with a cohesive strategy for the refugees. You know, and looking at the fact that we've spent trillions of dollars on Afghanistan, sending military there, keeping soldiers away from their families, we do have to strategically and critically look at our foreign policy structures because our nation, the infrastructure here is failing.

Our education systems here are failing. There's so many systems here in our country that that money could have went to to build up our country. Instead, we're overseas trying to stabilize someone else's country and after 20 years failed at doing so. So it feels like a waste of money, a waste of time, and not to look at the amount of people's lives who are lost in the process. Absolutely. All right, then, Georgia, Robert, and Monique,

we certainly appreciate you all being on our panel today. Thank you so very much. Folks, we'll end the show, of course, with a word from our partners here with Seek.com. All right, the folks at Seek.com, of course, they have their couple of products that I think you may want. Their VR headset, which allows for you to look at the content, virtual reality content with your particular phone. You just drop it right in here, and then you're able to check out that virtual reality content content on seek.com other 360 degree video actually does bring you up close and personal then of course they have uh their 360 degree uh headphones their bluetooth you can use it for gaming as well they have it in black and gold and all gold i prefer these uh and so uh you can get these using the promo code rmvip21 rmvip21 folks we use that promo code

of course you get a discount only for our fans roller mart unfiltered.com and then roller mart unfiltered then of course a portion of that goes back to the show and so when you support black seek a black owned company you also support this black owned media company so we certainly appreciate it you can also join our bring the funk fan club of course our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans every year supporting us uh you could our goal is to ask 50 bucks for each one of you four hours and 19 cents a month 13 cents a day you can support us via cash app dollar sign rm unfiltered paypal.me forward slash r martin unftered. Venmo is R-M-Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

Also, shout out to Crystal Hadnott. She's from Houston, Texas in Third Ward where my high school, Jack K.C., is where I'm rocking the Jackie J.Y. hat. And so she had this shirt, Third Ward, on Facebook. I said, yo, you got to send me one so I can rock it on the show. So, Crystal, thanks for sending me this shirt. Anybody knows Houston is where Jack Hayes is located, and so we see Third Ward as our own city.

And so shout out to the trade in H-Town. Folks, I'll see you guys tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Ha! I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and

it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and

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