#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Diddy: Black vote not free; Tyler Perry urges increase of Vitamin D during Pandemic; Virus update

Episode Date: April 29, 2020

4.29.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Diddy says this year 'the Black vote won't be free'; COVID-19 update: Is is too soon to reopen?; Kweisi Mfume wins the race to replace Rep. Elijah Cummings; Rep. Justin Amash to run for prez; Black content creators still face challenges; A look at the 7 year anniversary of the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina + Wiildin' Out Wednesday with comedian Alycia Cooper. Support #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. Folks, today is Wednesday, April 29, 2020, coming up on Roland Martin on the filter. The Trump administration, ooh, they're really optimistic. And Jared Kushner said what they did was remarkable and the best in history. I'm sorry. A million COVID-19

cases. 60,000 people dead. And they're praising themselves. Yeah, lots of talk about it. Diddy causes a stir by saying black folks must hold their vote hostage. Democrats must own up

and pay a ransom in order to get it. We'll break that thing down with our panel. Also, comedian Godfrey is in the house. It's Wild Out Wednesday. We might all have some fun as well. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter. Let might all have some fun as well. It's time to bring the funk. I'm rolling Mark down the filter. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the piss, 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 Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's Roland Martel now. Martel! Alright, folks, here's a breakdown

of coronavirus as it stands today. A total of 1,049,431 cases of coronavirus as it stands today. A total of 1,049,431 cases of coronavirus. At least 60,000, now 60,640 people have died from coronavirus. 144,411 patients have recovered from the virus. Now, as we continue to move forward, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo

breaks down the status in New York in terms of where we stay with COVID-19. Here's what he had to say today. Hospitalization rate ticks down. Good news. Net change down. That's good news. Intubations down. That's good news. COVID hospitalizations, new ones per day, just about flat. That's not good news. What we're watching now is how fast the decline, how low does it go. We don't want to see 1,000 new cases every day. Death rate, terrible news.

330. You see the decline has been slow at best and still disgustingly high. So we're making progress, that's for sure, but we're not out of the woods yet. All right, so what was also interesting here is you have the experts who keep saying there should be more testing,

there should be more things that are being done. But for some reason, you got Donald Trump who's like, I don't really see why that's even necessary. Folks, they're all over the place. They're not really listening to the true experts. That is a problem all across this country. And so this morning, something really interesting happened. Jared Kushner was on, and he literally said that states have excess capacity.

Yet we talked to the states. They're saying, no, we don't. This is from Fox and Friends this morning Jared Kushtar And now you know everyone's talking about testing and I have to say that the work that's been done over the last 60 days on testing has been absolutely extraordinary We're at about 5.8 million tests now performed by far the most in the world and you're gonna see that number continue to accelerate We're starting another round of calls with all the governor's today to ask them what additional supplies they need, what's their two-month plan, what's their six-month plan. And right now, we fulfilled all the orders that the governors have. They have excess capacity in

their states. Yesterday, Governor DeSantis was saying that he has more testing capacity than he has demand for the tests. And so we're really doing quite well with that. And I always find that we see the leading indicators and and often the media sees The lagging indicators, but the leading indicators are testing are extraordinarily positive And I'm very confident that we have all the testing we need to start opening the country in accordance with the safety guidelines that President Trump the Vice President dr. Burks and dr. Fauci laid out on April 19th Yeah, you mentioned... Okay, I'm confused.

We have enough testing? But that's not what the experts are saying. My panel is A. Scott Bolton, former chair, National Bar Association Political Action Committee, Eugene Craig, CEO, Eugene Craig Organization, Dr. Cleo Monago, political analyst.

Scott, I'll start with you. What the hell are they talking about? I mean, they are literally painting a picture that is completely different from what everyone else is talking about. And polls are even showing that 80% of Americans say they're not going back out because they're not comfortable with where we are.

We have not tested enough people. It's political propaganda. That's all it is. And this is a medical issue. This is a pandemic. And they're propagandizing people's health and their lives. And by the way, let me clarify one thing when you're listening public or public watching, that where the government says, we've done more testing, we've got more supplies, we've got more everything than any other country. Yeah, you got more disease than any other country, too. You have more corona than anybody else,

and you waited 70 days before you started addressing it. It's like you were part of the problem, and now you're celebrating that you're part of the solution, except one problem. You got millions of, I'm sorry, hundreds of thousands of people, I think 50,000 or 100,000 who have passed away. And so you're telling the public half the story, not the full story. And until we get a vaccine and until everyone can be tested, there is no logical or scientific reason to go back to work. Those shops in Georgia and Florida, they're empty, other than a few Trump supporters. Think about it.

Okay, and here's the other piece. Listen to, Eugene, listen to what Jared Kushner also said on the Fox and Friends this morning. And again, we're on the other side of the medical aspect of this, and I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed. So the government, federal government rose to the challenge, and this is a great success story. And again, we're on the other side of the medical aspect of this, and I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed. So the government, federal government rose to the challenge, and this is a great success story. Eugene, I'm sorry. More than a million people test positive, more than 60,000 dead.

And this is a 26 million unemployed. I'm sorry. Can you please explain to me what's a great success story? We're not getting Eugene's audio. Okay, there we go, Eugene. See, I'm not the only one. Sorry, there is no success story here. You have 60,000 dead, which is more than died in the Vietnam War, all right? If we're looking at testing,

the issue is that we don't have enough testing. All the experts are saying that we need millions of tests per day. We've had about a million tested. All the experts are saying that we need millions of tests per day. We've only probably had about, we've had about a million tested. And the other thing is this, if we're looking at where we do have actual data, like, you know, the New York Police Department

and Fire Department, you're seeing where 17 and 24% of their workforce has the virus. And these are people that interact with people every single day. So if you're seeing 17 and 24% within those confined groups that interact with people every single day. So if you're seeing 17, 24 percent within those confined groups that interact with people every single day, you're probably seeing much, much greater numbers. I mean, if we have full scale capacity, you probably see numbers of 20, 30, 40, maybe even 50 million people that have already contracted the virus. But the issue is this. It's not a success story.

Jared Kushner is out there. I mean, they want the Fox and Friends, but that's the only place that will accept that rhetoric and propaganda from them. But, you know, the thing is they subdued the voters to hold Trump accountable. Cleo, again, great success story. This is not a success story. And see, what they're doing is they're saying, well,

the initial models were saying 100,000, 240,000 could die. So, oh, just 60,000 died, so success die. So, oh, just 60,000 died. So, success story. Well, as we all know, Trump and his administration are running for president, are hoping to get four more years. They are concerned that they might look bad

if they don't say that they are doing well. And it's important to understand that Trump's rhetoric has worked for him. Trump is being Trump. Trump made up lies, and there were other news stations, including you, who had documented his lies

when he was running for president. So he's doing what he does. Now, of course, there's people in this society, including among his constituents, who are suffering. But as I've said before, power, retaining white power, Of course, there's people in this society, including among his constituents, who are suffering. But as I've said before, power, retaining white power,

retaining people who have a white, Great... Making Great America Again agenda, staying in power, is way more important than coronavirus and its casualties and the facts of the matter. And the facts of the matter has never mattered to this party. And unfortunately, in some instances, it has worked for them in terms of the way they portray themselves. People say, OK, OK, well, it sounds good. I mean, I've heard people applaud Trump, even at hotels, et cetera, after he lied and just sounded ridiculous.

As a matter of fact, there's people on his cabinet right now who look at him sideways when he's speaking, like the woman that's over this whole coronavirus project. So we'll see what happens when the election comes up. Yeah, it is quite amazing to watch how all of a sudden they are redefining what is success. The reality is this, Scott. They're pulling, Trump's pulling numbers away down. There was one story I read coming in where he was yelling and screaming

at his campaign manager on Friday for his failing poll numbers, but it's because he was running his mouth at news conferences and constantly lying to people. I mean, what you have here, this is the real deal here. What Donald Trump wants to do is he wants to shove everything to the states and say, yo, I'm good. I'm good. I did everything. I'm good. I'm pleased.

Y'all let me know what you need. That's why this whole deal, we're the backstop. We'll get this here. They do not want to assume any responsibility for this, and they want to blame, and here's going to be the first thing, Democratic governors, Cuomo, Newsom, Pr they want to blame, and here's going to be the first thing, Democratic governors, Cuomo, Newsom, Pritzker in Illinois, the governor in Michigan.

That's what the game here is. It's not to actually save Americans. That is not the plan here. No, and it never has been. Remember, the 70 days. 70 days they waited. They created the problem, and now they want to be seen as saving America from the problem that they in large part created. So that's the first thing. The second of all, when you wait 70 days, you cannot lead at that point. And so the

most convenient part is we're going to be a backstop for the states and then he can blame the governors as he blamed China for withholding information, as he blamed the World Health Organization for not being allegedly honest. But the buck stops with the federal government. The federal government should be leading on this effort. They've certainly got more money than the state. And what you're getting on the ground from the state governors and some Republican governors is completely inconsistent with what the press conferences, the information from the press conferences. And wouldn't it be ironic and fitting that the economy has tanked because they waited

70 days, the information that they're sharing isn't the truth on the ground, so his supporters and his detractors are being affected by it. They're not testing the people that they say that they have tested. The revenue, or rather, the resources aren't on the ground unless in some states there are. And so this is something that Donald Trump cannot politically run away from. It sits right in his lap. And it'll be interesting to see, notwithstanding the polling, how many sits right in his lap, and it'll be interesting to see, notwithstanding the polling, how many people, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents,

blame the White House. I haven't seen the recent figures, but some of the figures I looked at two or three weeks ago, that the blame was sitting, even with some of his supporters, on his lap, because it's been documented what he did wrong. The virus doesn't care about politics or Donald Trump. It cares about infecting people,

and you can't politicize or create false facts or fake facts to beat this virus. This virus is winning until we get our arms around it. And look, at the end of the day, this is the real motivation here, Eugene. Only thing Donald Trump can run on is the economy. And he is so desperate. He is so desperate to be able to say the economy came roaring back.

See, stock market's going up. That's it. That's it. He knows. He can't run on nothing else. That's it. And look, that's what you're seeing, right? There's a poll released today that shows he's down in Texas to Biden by one point. Every other poll that's come out over the last week has shown him down to Biden in multiple places by five or six points.

The economy is done for the year. I mean, the GDP report that came out today, you know, economy strength 5% and job losses and unemployment skyrocketing week in, week out. And so his only thing that he could have run on was the economy. And that card is out the window. So, you know, he's, you know, freaking out because he knows that, you know, without the only positive message he possibly could have presented, he has nothing to run on. So he's putting pressure on all these red state governors to restart their economies. But what he doesn't understand is that forcing these restarts early

will actually cost lives, and a lot of those lives will be Trump supporters. Cleo, I'm sitting here looking at the New York Times, and it says the U.S. coronavirus death toll is actually higher than reported, according to CDC. CDC data suggests total deaths in seven hard-hit states are nearly 50% above normal. That's what the CDC is saying. When you look at these numbers, and they're talking about New York State, New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Illinois,

Maryland, Colorado? Well, this is to be expected with a respiratory virus, a virus that's transferred through spittle, through breath liquids, and people breathing. And so everybody's wearing masks, and no one knows when they first came in contact with coronavirus. So I think that we're still going to be hearing more and more, as you have just

showed us with that data. But I think it's interesting, when you go back to Trump, is to understand that he has never been able to admit fault. He has never been able to admit when he's challenged. He's always used rhetoric and talking about how wonderful

and how great and how excellent and how beautiful and how perfect things are to come off as winning. He's always been able to talk his way through things. I'm not sure, because the man was a crook day one in 2016 and before when he was running, if he'll

lose. Obviously, statistically, it looks like he's going to lose, because as Eugene mentioned, he can't work or he can't use the economy anymore to say, look how great I am. But we're being logical again. And logic is why people thought that he was not going to become president in the first place. There is some conscious or unconscious concern among his constituents and people who don't allow themselves to be known to be part of his constituents about white people staying in power. But at the same time, Biden is white. Biden is running. And Biden is not particularly affirming of black people in demonstrative ways while he's running. As you know, they're

talking about hoping that he picks a black woman. That's a whole other topic. But the bottom line is that, getting back to Trump and this virus, he lost, we lost. And the reason that in the very beginning, it took us so long to jump aboard and take care of this is because, again, he's very concerned about how he looks. And he didn't want to talk about any tears in what he was doing. And here we are. But we will see, and it's still a mystery from my perspective, if that's going to matter when it comes to the next election, even though Biden is an older white man too. So that will help in terms of creating some real competition for Trump.

All right. You know, one other thing is he can't grow from that 40%. He couldn't before, but he really can't now because of the economy and this pandemic. I got you. All right, folks. What's the role does vitamin D play in all of this? Tyler Perry dropped this video yesterday and I said, you know what? Let's have this conversation with the doctor. So this is what Tyler said yesterday on his Instagram. Talk about something that's very serious. And listen, this is not a cure for COVID-19. Please hear me clear. This is not a cure for COVID-19. But I have a bunch of my doctors. I talk to them quite often and my dermatologist in LA, Dr. Pearl for me, my vitamin D is low. It's always been low. For most African Americans, it's low. Everybody that I know who goes to the doctor regularly health. And what I read in a study out of Spain and Italy and China

is that a lot of people who died from COVID were low in vitamin D. Now, listen to me. I think that if America were, this entire nation was keeping record of who was dying and if they were low in vitamin D or deficient in different areas, we would know it. But apparently no one is keeping a record, which is insane to me. So why am I saying all this? I'm

saying that I think that because we are African-American people, we are naturally deficient because of the melanin in our skin. It blocks out vitamin D. Okay. It blocks out vitamin D. And for the most part, not all of us, I'm not saying all of us, but a lot of us just don't like to be in the sun. And that's where vitamin D comes from. It comes from the sun. So please, please see your doctor if you can

or call them when you're doing telehealth or what and ask them about checking your vitamin D. Don't want anybody to go to the hospital right now. I know it's really difficult to do, but a vitamin D supplement is very, very helpful in just immune health. So I've been telling everybody I know, take your vitamin D.

Dr. Grimes would be very happy that I'm telling you this because we as black people, we got to take care of ourselves. Now listen, not just black people are deficient in vitamin D, but we are at higher numbers than others because of the melanin in our skin. So vitamin D can help with immune and respiratory health.

So please take your vitamin D. God bless you guys. Stay safe. I love you. We'll talk soon. All right, joining us right now is Dr. Utebe Essien, core investigator at the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion at the Pittsburgh Health Care System.

So, Doc, you heard Tyler Perry talk about vitamin D, what folks are saying, what they're seeing in Italy. Any truth to that in terms of the United States? Is that an impact here? We also, of course, with the craziness we heard last week with Trump talking about the sunlight and the body and can we shoot the light on the inside out, all that nonsense. Dr. Birx did also say the importance of the role the sun can also play in impacting this virus.

Please explain. Sure. So, first of all, I applaud Tyler Perry for staying attuned to the Italian-Chinese literature. I think there, I see noted the immune system does play an important role in managing any virus, whether it's this novel coronavirus or the influenza virus. When patients present to the emergency department or end up in the intensive care unit with a severe respiratory infection, vitamin D levels are really not a laboratory

test that we check, just because by that point, it doesn't necessarily influence or further change the course of the infection. I think as has been suggested, and not just by him, but other commentators, vitamin D levels, vitamin C, all of our natural vitamin levels are really important to keep on top of and are just a part of the prevention planning that we advise any patient during this crisis. But I would hesitate to say that vitamin D is the be all and end all of this pandemic or the reason that it's disproportionately infecting individuals of color as we're seeing right now. So when you heard Dr. Birx last week talk about the role the sun plays in this, what about that? Yeah, so I think that that may be important as we know the data around so many different processes,

whether it's actual medications to treat an acute infection or being prevented by the sun. You just don't know given how early we are in the stage right now. I know we've heard about ultraviolet light and light affecting and being able to clean surfaces, but in terms of its role in preventing individuals from actually both preventing the disease as well as treating the disease. We just don't have that information right now. So one of the points that's very interesting, when Tyler made that point, I think back to a conversation I had with Dan Gatsby. Dan Gatsby, of course, many folks know, he's the widow of B. Smith. And when he was going through his prostate cancer battle,

I ran into him on the streets of New York, and he was like, Roland, he said, same thing. He said, man, get that sun. He kept talking about vitamin D as well. And it was interesting because he said, no, he said, man, he said, I said, look, Dan, I play golf, so I ain't got no problem being out in the sun. I said I'll be in a sun for a four or five hour golf round. He says, good, because too many of us aren't getting enough sun. Makes sense. No, I think that that's right. And as we know, the fact that we are not getting enough sun,

I don't think it's just because we don't like the sun, as was mentioned earlier. I think we know just in the middle of this crisis that individuals of color are more likely to be essential employees. Those employees aren't typically working out in the sun. They are behind in offices. They are working in maintenance roles or janitorial roles or even within the health system. So unfortunately, it's not a luxury that many of us have to be able to sit out in the sun. So I think that's one important point to make.

But I certainly agree that as much as we can, we need to get out there and practice healthy living, whether it's getting out in the sun and exercising, whether it's eating healthy to be able to obtain the majority of the vitamins levels that we need. So a healthy diet is generally going to get us enough of the nutrients we need without needing to supplement it in any way. But of course, we know we're being asked to stay home as much as we can right now. So being careful and cautious about going out as much as we can would be great. And I will also note that Tyler Perry mentioned that individuals should try and stay out of the hospital because to get this vitamin D level checked, and I am approaching that comment with caution as well.

If individuals are sick, if they have chest pain, shortness of breath, any really scary findings or symptoms, please call your doctor. If you have one, please show up into the emergency department. More and more data are showing that individuals with heart attacks or chest pain, for example, are staying out of the hospital during this crisis. And that I think eventually is going to be as scary as the deaths from coronavirus. Well, unfortunately, we also see in the stories of African-Americans trying to go to the hospital, get tested, being turned away. Let's see if my panel has any questions. I'm going to put you in a four box here. Let's first go with Cleo.

Any questions for Dr. Essien? Questions. Well, I didn't have any questions. No, no, no, no. A question. One. A question. One. A question. Okay, well, I didn't have a question, but I will ask this issue, or is it marginally relevant in terms of deflecting the power of the immune system suppression that supposedly we're at risk for because of melanin,

which supposedly blocks the sun? Right, no, that's an important question. And today we don't have any large studies or small studies to show that vitamin D levels are associated with higher mortality or higher rate of getting infected. As was mentioned, having a whole healthy immune system, both on vitamin D levels and all of the other levels

in our body are important. But at this time, I don't believe that clinicians or researchers are advising that individuals stock up on vitamin D to boost up those levels, nor are they advising to make sure you check those levels. We continue to advise a healthy diet, eating our fruits and vegetables, exercising as much as we can,

whether it's getting out in the sun to do that or otherwise. But the data right now are not supporting yet to boost up with additional vitamin D levels, if that's helpful. Eugene? What are some of the, I guess, are there any other alternative ways to consume vitamin D other than natural sunlight? Yeah, so as I mentioned, our diet generally has sufficient nutrients. I'll have to defer to some of my dietician colleagues in this realm. But we are able to get sufficient enough vitamin D through our diets.

Many of us are eating dairy. Some of us are not. But dairy has sufficient vitamin D. Again, as has been mentioned, many individuals of color have lower levels because of melanin and need or require supplementation. But if today you have not been advised to do that, I'll continue to recommend that you work with your diet. I'm a primary care physician and vitamin D levels are not a test that I generally check in a patient unless they're coming in with concerning enough findings to do so. Scott Bolden, final question.

Hey, Doc. Scott Bolden, final question. Hey, Doc. Scott Bolden here. I have personal experience with this vitamin D issue. I agree with you. You certainly can get vitamin D from a number of food and supplies if you're eating a healthy diet. But my doctor, you know, a simple blood test where the doctor directs you on what they want to test, vitamin C, vitamin D levels, all kinds of,

a complete workup of your blood indicated that I was deficient in vitamin D. And so he put me on vitamin supplements of about 5,000 milligrams of vitamin D. And I've been on them for the last three or four days, three or four months. And now after COVID, I'm going to go back and see if that raised my level of vitamin D. And so none of us are spending enough time outside. I'm not a big milk drinker, but the supplements I find, I mean, I don't notice them other than the fact that I take them every morning,

and I presume my levels will go up. That doesn't mean I'm not going to get COVID or anything, but your patients, if you go to your doctor and you do a full blood work, if you will, you can see what your vital numbers are across the board. It's really a fascinating process, And then obviously you can get supplements if we're not going to get enough through our diet. So I'm on them right now. You don't notice them physiologically,

but I'm taking them because of the doctor's order. I urge everyone to get a full blood workup once a year or once every two years just to see. So I appreciate your leadership on this issue. And you have a comment on what I just described or what I was prescribed by my doctor? No, I think that that sounds right. And like you suggested,

I similarly recommend that anyone gets in to their doc once or twice, either annually or biannually. As we get older, certainly prefer to see folks annually and get that full lab checkup. Again, the vitamin D level is not a regular checkup just as the kidney tests or the other salts in the blood are. But certainly if your levels are low and that recommendation is needed, I support that, what your doc is doing.

And like you said, it's usually a simple pill to take. All right, then. It's your A1C level, so thank you very much. All right, Dr. Utibi Essie, and I appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Thank you. All right, thanks a lot. All right, folks, let's go to our next story,

and that is House leaders will not bring lawmakers back to D.C. for work next week after being warned by the congressional physician about the continuous spread of the coronavirus to D.C. for work next week after being warned by the congressional physician about the continued spread of the coronavirus in D.C. and its suburbs. That means they will continue to be on the sidelines while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brings his chamber into session to process Donald Trump's judicial nominees and start working on a new coronavirus relief bill.

First of all, let's just be real clear, Eugene. They don't give a damn about coronavirus relief bill. First of all, let's just be real clear, Eugene. They don't give a damn about that relief bill. Mitch McConnell, he's all about the judges. He does not want there to be any delay whatsoever in confirming far right-wing, largely white male judges. That's right. Listen, Mitch is concerned about power, all right? It comes down to one thing, one thing, only power. And he will confirm these judges.

He was the only senator on the floor of the Senate. He's considering doing the world a courtesy by recalling the entire Senate back to the chamber. But let's make no mistake. If it was just him and another senator calling the question he would still get it done um and so that's what it comes down to i mean look the house has taken you know the advice of the uh congressional doctor um and heating it and saying and maintaining social distancing and physical distancing but you know mitch lew does not care even though senators have already contracted covet 19. um but you know his thing is this you know he's going to get it done on Mitch Lurie does not care. Those senators have already contracted COVID-19. But his thing is this.

He's going to get it done on his terms the way he wants to do it. This is all about, Cleo, that is pushing through these judges. And in fact, what they've done is they've actually made the federal bench whiter and more white male as a result? Their only concern in terms of distancing is power distancing. Pretty much cosigning what Eugene just said, their focus. And frankly, I'm envious of people who are that focused, because that's how you get things done. You know, you strategize. No matter what happens, you stay on point and you make sure that you do what you believe is important to do. And I wish the Democrats had that kind of laser beam focus, that scorched earth focus on power, not power just for the sake of white supremacy, which is what I

think is happening with the Republican Party, but power to influence society, to transform in ways that are beneficial to the citizens of this country. But they're expected to do what they're doing. And as you know, they've been putting in judges the whole time. And interestingly enough, not even Democrats have put a light on that phenomenon in terms of it being a relentless part of their narrative that look what Trump is doing. Look what Trump is doing to make sure that even if he's not president again, that there's people who are going to be there for decades, if they live long enough, to ensure that there's policy that co-s be there for decades, if they live long enough, to ensure that there's policy

that cosigns a white supremacist agenda. I just wish there was more focus from the Democrats to alert the people that that's occurring. And unlike the Democrats, excuse me, the Republicans, who are laser-beam focused on their agenda, sometimes the Democrats don't seem to be the same in comparison. Scott, what about that? Is it about power? Here's the notice to the public.

The most important race in this country coming up in November is not the presidential race. It's the race between Mitch McConnell and Amy McGrath. Right now, there's an internet fundraiser that's going on right now. I gave, and I'm going to continue to give to her, because the Senate, the Democrats have a chance to turn the Senate, but even if they don't turn the Senate,

if they can turn Mitch McConnell back to Kentucky and Amy McGrath can win that race, and there's several others that Dems can take over because of this White House, then we need to be focusing on it. I know Biden's important and I know the presidential race is important, but if we can turn that Senate and turn Mitch McConnell back, that solves a lot of our long-term issues. That solves the federal judiciary. A third of the judges has flipped and are Republicans now. Many are not qualified. And so the real race that we really need to be focusing on is the McConnell race and some of these Senate seats out of South Carolina, I think North Carolina, and a few other. You got Cornyn down in Texas. You also have the race in Montana, Colorado. I mean, Eugene, by and large, Republicans are very concerned about Trump's numbers

because they know, and they're saying, hey, they're also getting outraged. You got Jamie Harrison, who outraged Lindsey Graham in the first quarter of this year. Amy McGrath, who is going against, in fact, she's not going against McConnell. They get to have the primary there because you got a brother

who's also running in that race as well. So the bottom line, so Kentucky has not had their primary. We don't know who the Democratic nominee is going to be, but Republicans are going, wait a minute, we're getting outgunned, outraged by these Democrats. There is worry among Republicans that they could very well

lose the U.S. Senate. Very much so. The Senate's gone. For nonsense purposes, the Senate's gone. Between Cory Gardner's seat, Tom Till's seat, the seat in Arizona, and then it's literally pick anyone that you want from the remaining.

Hold on, hold on. So right now, one second, hold on. So right now, hold on one second, one second, hold on. So right now, the Republicans hold, what's the advantage they hold in the United States? A four-seat majority. So they have a four-seat majority. Four seats.

So the four-seat majority. Now, first of all, are any of the Democratic seats, are any of them in danger of them losing any of them? Only Doug Jones. Only Doug Jones in Alabama. So really what needs to happen is the Democrats need to have a five, need to pick up five seats. They need a net four. Net four and win the White House.

Or net three and win the White House. Or net four and take the Senate outright. So if you assume. You have a situation similar to what happened in 2000 where there was a 50-50 split and for about a year, Cheney was the deciding vote in the chamber after the 2000 election. But the way things stand right now,

Democrats need to flip three and take the White House or flip four and take the Senate outright. And maintain their seats on the Democratic side. You can't presume that they may not be in danger, but the Democrats have got to hold their seats for those numbers to work, Roland. Well, first of all, of the Democratic seats that are up,

the only one they are really in danger of losing is Senator Doug Jones in Alabama. Right. Yeah. That's the only one. Bloomberg is not going to lose their seat. So the last election was totally different where they had, they were in a number of States where Trump won. That was the issue they saw, uh, they saw in 2018.

Uh, and so, yeah, they, they look, uh, Kelly is leading McSally in Arizona. Uh, Collins, her numbers are way down in Maine. Uh, of course, you have what's happening in first of all, what's happening in, as you look at North Carolina, where the Democratic challenger is actually up on Tillis. And so, trust me, Republicans are real concerned about that. And that's the most important

thing evangelicals care about. All they care about are right-wing judges. That's all they care about. Qualified or not. Hold on, man. Whether they're qualified or not. Scott, I wonder if you believe that the Republicans are gonna, excuse me, the Democrats are gonna take advantage of what you just recommended. Yes.

You believe they're gonna do that? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm serious. I mean, I, here's, here's what I think. Here's what I think Democrats have finally come to realize. So I'll take you back to when Democrats previously controlled the United States Senate. Patrick Leahy from Vermont, he was very conciliatory in terms of working with Republicans. Then, of course, Republicans say, well, it was Harry Reid who changed the rules.

No, Harry Reid did not change the rules on everything. He did not go to the nuclear option on everything. Mitch McConnell then said, okay, fine, I'm going to do a nuclear option on everything. So Harry Reid's deal is we will not use a nuclear option

on Supreme Court justices. McConnell was like, damn that, I will. Not only will I use a nuclear option on it, I'm not even going to take up Merrick Garland. I really do believe Democrats have learned, and their deal's going to be, we get to send it back?

Oh, we ain't paying y'all no damn attention. And this is where, and this is where, this is where the Democratic base has to apply a level of pressure if Biden wins to say, no, don't try to run out trying to find these moderate voices

to make them happy. Do exactly what they did. You pick the most hardcore folks you have and say, y'all ain't got the votes. So I don't care. But here is the only caveat that I'll... And, Scott, you can jump in and answer this here. There are more moderate to conservative Democrats

than there are... Ain't no moderate to liberal Republicans. So part of the problem for Democrats that you have some Democratic senators who are from states that they got to play the moderate to conservative game. That has always been a problem. The Democratic tent is actually far much wider, Scott, than the Republican tent. Republican, you're right, far right, hard right. That's it. There's nothing to this side of far right. And that's the difference between the two parties.

Scott, answer the question. We're going on to the next topic. Well, we got to do something about those moderates like Doug Jones. We got to keep them in the question. We're going on to the next topic. Well, we've got to do something about those moderates like Doug Jones. We've got to keep them in the fold. But when they're in the Senate or even in the House, we've got to protect them. Sometimes we won't have their vote, but sometimes it won't matter. And so whoever's the leader in the House or Senate who's a Democrat, we've got to protect those folks because we can get them to vote on most of the issues that matter,

whether it's the far left or middle left of the Democratic Party. But we've got to protect them. And that's a management issue from leadership once these elections are over. Talk about power of the vote. Last night, Diddy was having a chat with Naomi Campbell, and he caused quite a stir when he said this. The black vote is not going to be for free. We're going to have to see some promises.

You know, what are we getting in return for our vote? Nothing has changed for Black America. And in order for us to vote for Biden, we can't be taken for granted like we always are because we're supposed to be Democrats or because people are afraid of Trump. It's whoever's going to take care of our community, whoever wants to make a deal.

It's business at this point. You know, we can't trust politicians, you know? So we wanna know very clearly, just like Trump made it clear that he wanted to build a wall, Biden needs to make it clear that he's gonna change the lives and quality of life of Black and brown people, or else he can't get the vote i will hold the vote hostage if i have to you said it here said it first breaking news breaking news

all right let's unpack that first of all that did not sit well with some people here were some of the comments that folks made uh kenny burns uh who uh is a promoter, he's an influencer, he said, Puff put this statement, Puff, this statement is very irresponsible at this point. The only option is to get Trump out of office. Come on, champ. Encouraging people to stand by is not

an option. Vote or die. Then he said, that's what he posted on Diddy's page. Then he posted on his page, you erased my truth. Wow, Diddy, you erased my truthful comment and keep the vote for Trump comments on your page. Then you blocked me, LOL. And you're really going to wait till it's two candidates

to say that you're holding our vote? Come on, champ, this is not leadership. Where were you during the primaries? What happened to vote or die? Trump being put out of office is the only option, period. Isaac Hayes III dropped this video. First of all, I'm going to go to the Jamie Foxx comment. This is what Jamie Foxx said on Diddy's page.

Pull that up. Okay, you don't have it. All right, so let's do this here. Play the Isaac Hayes III comment, then I'm going to read for you the Diddy comment. We don't have the Isaac Hayes comment. All right, I don't know why we don't have those two things. Let me just do this here fine.

Let me find Diddy comment here. And it was interesting, again, on all this back and forth that was going on. Let's see here. Right here, here's the comment. Here we go. All right. Jamie Foxx comment at the top of the page right here.

So I'm going to take a picture of that. I'm going to blow it up for you. All right, folks. OK, so here we go. So here's what Jamie Foxx had to say on Diddy's page. Go to my iPad, please. Vote Democrat. The amount of pressure that we put on our candidates are too much. There is no way that anyone can live up to what we think should be a candidate because we want perfection. What I suggest is if we really want to change course, it's about getting behind the values, not the person. The other side won because they wanted legislation. Supreme Court justices, et cetera, look at the criteria the other candidate had that was Republican. The guy said, grab them by the you know? And got 97 percent of the evangelical vote. That's what Jamie Foxx said

in response there to Didi's comments. One of the other interesting videos that I saw, as I said, was by Isaac Hayes, the third. And and he spoke about this very issue, offering up what he said is just his opinion. So go to my iPad, please. About how his vote or our vote will be held up for hostage against Joe Biden if there's not something for black people in it to vote for him. I first want to say that I disagree with Diddy. I also implore everyone that heard what he said

to disregard his message. And that's just my position on it. I have nothing personally against Diddy. Sean Diddy Combs, we've met a couple of times. I have nothing against you. I do think your post was arrogant in the fact that you felt you spoke for all black people, including myself,

and said that from the whitest town and the wealthiest town in America, Hollywood. You can't have it both ways. You can't live in Hollywood and then also simultaneously represent black people. I just don't think that that's hypocritical at minimum. You are a genius entrepreneur and entertainer. But to use your platform at this juncture in the crisis that we're in is irresponsible. It was thoughtless.

And it was unnecessary. I definitely believe that a black agenda is necessary. And I want to say that most importantly, black people have a right to have their demands met, but it's how we go about it that is the worst execution that will never, ever, ever happen. First of all, we as black people need representation. Everybody understands business.

If you have to sue somebody, do you walk in a courtroom by yourself or a group of y'all go to courtroom without an attorney? No, you hire an attorney to articulate exactly what you want in the form of a demand and argue that legally to a positive result. That is what implementing a black agenda is is and politicians are the best way to do that not the politician that you want to make change but the politician that you want to influence change in Atlanta Georgia from the civil rights movement up till now, black people have not asked white people for anything. We realize that a bunch of us live around each other. And if we simply get up out of our houses and go vote, that the representative that we choose,

who best suits our interests, we can put in power and change the laws for ourselves. All right, folks, you can go to, of course, Isaac's page to see the rest of that comment. All right. So I got my panel here. I can't wait to hear what y'all got to say about what Diddy's comment is. So let's start with Cleo. Well, if I heard Diddy correctly, and there was a lot of nuance to what he was saying, he's saying that the Democratic Party, he's saying a few things.

He's saying that the Democratic Party has taken the black vote. Well, let me preface my comments with this first. I don't support Trump. I will not be voting for Trump. I will be voting against Trump. So let me make my position clear because people are going to be reading this stuff and I say what I'm getting ready to say.

The Democratic Party for decades has taken the black vote for granted. Black people are consciously or unconsciously analyzing what happened during the Trump years and not a whole bunch happen for black folks. There are black men like Diddy who have an infatuation with Trump because he appears to have more courage and balls than Obama. And ironically, they're infatuated with his straight upness as opposed to, for example, when Obama was called a liar during that congressional speech, he didn't say nothing. And we can go on and on with some of the things that have some black people, particularly males, looking at Obama as not particularly strong. I don't support Trump. I don't think he's strong. I think he's nuts. But I do understand how people

are interpreting him as a so-called strong leader, even though he's dysfunctional and a liar. People like Diddy, there's a lot of brothers who are thinking like him, who are saying, both of them have good points,

both of them has bad points, they have to prove something to me. That's a real perspective. And I also understand the perspective of get Trump out no matter what. But what people need to understand is that everybody has that perspective. Because not everybody believes that what the Democrats has done in concrete terms has been particularly

beneficial to Black people, have protected Black people from police brutality, have protected Black people from the wrath of white supremacists, the agenda of this country. And they don't feel like they've been defended, protected, or even spoken to in demonstrative ways by the likes of Obama and other Democrats. So people like Kanye and like Diddy are not looking at Biden and Trump as the devil and the angel. Look at them as people who have both who have devil qualities and both who have angel qualities. And if Biden, who's supposedly the blackest of the two because of the Obama Association, does not demonstratively show and articulate

things he's going to do for black people that he's going to be able to be convincing about, a lot of black people, particularly males, are not going to vote for him. Scott, listen. So, Scott, listen. So, Scott. Hold on.

One second. One second. Hold on. Wait, wait, wait. Scott. Scott, wait. So, take into account, Scott, what Cleo just said, one, do you believe it is true that Democrats have taken black voters for granted,

have not done anything for black voters? And what do you have to say about, again, Diddy saying, hold the vote hostage? Go. Well, first of all, of course the Democrats have taken our vote for granted over the years because black people don't have any leverage. We don't have anybody to leverage against the Republicans but to vote for Democrats. Democrats, Republicans don't have anything to offer black people other than these pro-business black people who don't care about the race question, where racism is number one top five issue

for people of color. Republicans aren't for voting rights. They're not for abortion rights. They're not for civil rights or human rights. The Democrats are, but they take us for granted because we don't have anywhere else to go. What's Diddy going to do? You're going to hold it hostage?

You need another Democrat in the race against Biden to have to leverage that type of policy or hostage-taking. So now you're going to hold the vote hostage against Biden. We're going to vote for Trump. We've seen what that looks for. So it's not smart to say that with your following. What's smart is that we need to negotiate what we want and what our resources,

and negotiate commitments with Biden, because he's gonna be the nominee. And compared to Donald Trump, there is no comparison. We have got to vote. And-and Diddy, if you want to hold your vote hostage and don't vote, you're contributing to the vote for Donald Trump, whether you pull the lever or not.

It's just that simple. This isn't even hard. And so we need to stop trying to leverage something that we don't have. We got to vote Democrat because the number one priority, our political enemy is Donald Trump. It's no time for this leverage discussion.

After the Democrats get in office, let's have that leverage discussion. And right now, let's talk to Biden about how the congressman from South Carolina, the majority leader, saved the Democratic Party, saved Biden's nomination. And we need to be negotiating with him right now, not about not voting for him, but about what we're entitled to, what we want, and how he's going to change urban America and the life of black folks better, bigger, and brighter, even under Barack Obama.

How's he going to do it better? We negotiate that now, but we don't say we're not going to vote for you because that'll bring on deaf ears, deaf ears. Eugene. I don't think he said he was not going to vote. One second, one second, one second. Hold on, hold on.

Hold on, Cleo, Cleo, Cleo, Cleo. Cleo and Scott, Cleo and Scott, hold on. Cleo and Scott, hold on. Eugene. All right, I got three quick points, all right? The first is this. This is extremely ill-timed and irresponsible on Diddy. I mean, extremely ill-timed and irresponsible.

If he wanted to take this stance, he should have took it a year ago when there was an active Democrat primary. And he could have maybe even played kingmaker within the primary. I mean, he has the cash. He has the influence. He could have leveraged both to a candidate that he liked or supported. That's the first thing. The second thing is this, all right?

We got to look at what's going on with Diddy over the last couple of weeks for what it is. He's fetishizing and bastardizing this space. You know, revolts, hoarding for content. You know, most of the entertainment industries are shut down right now. So what does he jump to? News, because, you know, in his eyes, it's easy to produce. Right. And so what is he doing? He's now taking a stance that one will hurt black people in this particular time. But two, you know, it's just it's just to grab headlines and clickbait to maybe drive attention to, you know, whatever show that he's trying to black news. So he's trying to develop. We always welcome more black media, but this isn't the way to do it. You know, you don't fetishize and take advantage of this particular space that's being curated

because it's not as if, you know, they're grabbing voices that are actually knowledgeable on the issues that they want to cover. You know, they're grabbing celebrities to come talk about this stuff, this shit that they don't know what they're talking about. You know, so that's the second part about it. The third thing is this, all right? If Sean P. Diddy Combs really wants to have influence and effect within this space, this is what he needs to do. First and foremost, you know, you're wealthy, all right?

Do what white wealthy people do if you want to play the same game. Gather some other wealthy folk and throw cash behind candidates. It doesn't have to start with Joe Biden. It can start with black Senate candidates. It can start with black House candidates. It can start with black candidates at the state level or at the state House level. But if you want to actually

have an effect on policy and want to hold vote hostage, you need to make sure it comes with dollars to empower candidates that have the ideology or push the policy platforms that you want to support.

Secondly, you know, in my eyes, it looks like it's just a play for Diddy to get him to sit down with Joe Biden. But even if that is the case, Art, if that is the case, you need to be organizing black hip-hop that have dollars to throw cash around. I mean, the game is very, very simple, and the way he's going about it is very, very trash. Okay, so here's what I'm going to do.

Here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do another round of the three of you, and then I'm going to weigh in. I'm going to go Cleo, Scott, Eugene. Cleo, go. I interpreted Diddy's comments as him not saying simply that he was going to hold his vote hostage, was that he was going to make a decision and that he was going to vote.

He's saying that, from my perspective, that neither Biden or Trump has his vote right now. And I think that's bothering people who are scorched earth. Let's get rid of Trump, period. Let's not think. Let's not critically analyze. Let's not do any of the things that might come from talking about hostage. Let's just make a decision and get rid of Trump. And I think that's problematic because not everybody is clear on what to do because of the Democratic Party's history of not really being powerful on behalf of Black people and demonstrably supportive of Black people

or having a larger list of success stories for Black people based on their administration. And that's real. I stayed on your show a long time ago, Roland, that it's not gonna be good enough to just be a Democrat. It's not gonna be good enough to just be against... for some Black people to be against Trump. Whoever is gonna get this Democratic support

from Black people, people like it... And I also don't believe in... I'm not gonna get caught up in this, he's rich and he's poor. He's Black. And I know some don't believe in, I'm not going to get caught up in this, he's rich and he's poor. He's black. And I know some people who don't got no money who have a very similar perspective as P. Diddy in terms of the fact that they're not convinced

of who to vote for or not. And the hate Trump movement, which I'm a part of, by the way, but the hate Trump movement is not enough because the democratic solution has not been helpful to black people in demonstrative ways for many decades. And they don't see and they see the Democratic Party, as he did, he said, has taken black people for granted. And if they keep taking black people for granted and not doing things that speak to black people, we're going to be in this conundrum. All right, Scott, certainly take. They certainly take the Democrats, the Democrats certainly take black people for granted,

but the Democrats support more of our issues than the Republicans. There can be no political purity test, just like there can be no racial purity test with presidential candidates or any candidates at the federal or state level. We want someone who's going to support us, want to improve the quality

of lives of our communities of color. And you take your chance with any of your vote, but your vote is still powerful. P. Diddy, you need leverage. And so I'd like to see P. Diddy. I'd like to see all of these hip hop entertainers. We talked about some last week. And put their, not just their money where their mouth is, but if you really want to make change in this country politically, not only invest your dollars, but register voters. And more importantly, invest in taking people to the polls all around this country. Because that's the answer. If you just register to vote, you can't guarantee that the people you register are gonna vote on election day. I'd like to see a group of us get together

and invest in taking people to the polls to ensure that our vote is made and our vote counts. And there is no alternative but Biden right now. And any talk of it is going to fall on political deaf ears of both the Republicans and the Democrats. And if you don't vote, that's a vote for Trump, and that's not changing, Roland. That's not going to change between now and November.

So that's just a plain political and social reality. Eugene. You know how idiotic this is? I'm going to tell you how idiotic this is. Joe Biden has had a plan for black people since he launched. All right? It's on his website. Everybody says, oh, Biden has a plan for black people.

You literally just need to go look it up. And then he employs thousands of people, and any of them could literally just went to Joe Biden's website and said, oh, shit, there's Joe Biden's plan. All right? And then this is the other part about it. It's not Biden's plan. All right? And then this is the other part about it. It's not just his plan. As the election is going along, he's pulled pieces from all the other candidates until his black plan.

He's taking pieces from Kamala's plan. He's taking pieces from Elizabeth Warren's plan. He's even now taking pieces from some of the things that Bernie Sanders has thrown out there. He has a black plan. And for P. Diddy and others to come back and say, oh, man, we're not going to do anything until Joe Biden comes and presents his black plan,

they look idiotic and dumb because it's right there. Go read. Being in writing is not enough, Eugene. It has to be articulated. Being in writing is not enough. It's been articulated for a whole year. I buy it. It's been articulated in 20 debates.

I think Eugene... That Biden did. He didn't articulate his plan. All right. Okay. All right. So now my turn. So first of all,

I want you to play again what Diddy had to say yesterday. Press play. The black vote is to say yesterday. Press play. The black vote is not going to be for free. We're going to have to see some promises. You know, what are we getting in return for our vote? Nothing has changed for black America. And in order for us to vote for Biden, we can't be taken for granted like we always are because we're supposed to be Democrats or because people are afraid of Trump. It's whoever's going to take care of our community, whoever wants to make a deal. It's business at this point. You know, we can't trust

politicians, you know, so we want to know very clearly, just like Trump made it clear that he wanted to build a wall, Biden needs to make it clear that he's gonna change the lives and quality of life of Black and brown people, or else he can't get the vote. I will hold the vote hostage if I have to. You said it here. Said it first. Breaking news! Breaking news! So allow me to unpack that.

Diddy said, first of all, that, uh, what hasn't been done, the lives of African-Americans have not been improved. That's demonstrably not true. Problem is, it's some African-Americans. If you look at where African-Americans were, again, using 1968, 1970 as the marker, and then going forward, there has been some improvement. The reality is this, and this is where I think folks miss the boat here. The reality is this. How black people have been impacted economically, housing, education, health,

cannot and will not be determined by one individual. Not going to happen. Not going to happen. We're talking about a complete infrastructure in this country. President, Congress, judicial, governors, state houses, county, city, school boards, the entire apparatus. So no one person actually impacts that. He is correct that there should be a demand. There should be a very clear demand made by voters. He's right.

Evangelicals made it clear what they wanted from Trump. They accepted him and all his hoeing ways. They accepted him and the porn stars. They accepted all the cheating on the wives because he said, I'm going porn, right-wing judges who are going to get rid of abortion. We know Donald Trump is actually pro-choice, but he will say whatever he needs to say to get their vote. What you also have here is that part of the problem is you have this fractured, this fractured leadership. Isaac Hayes III talking about,

well, who goes and represents. That's part of the deal. Does the NAACP have an agenda? Yes. Does the Urban League have an agenda? Yes. Do civil rights legal groups have an agenda?

Yes. Does the CBC have an agenda? Yes. Do civil rights legal groups have an agenda? Yes. Does the CBC have an agenda? Yes. But then we get to this whole debate, well, they don't represent us, they don't represent us, they don't represent us, so then how in the hell do they get there? So who do they represent? We act as if the NAACP doesn't have 2000 chapters made up of regular ordinary people. We act as if the National Urban League don't have branches. They do. We act as if our civil rights organizations really aren't talking to anybody. But they are. And so part of this deal is, is we have this debate constantly. The black agenda, the black agenda, the black agenda. National Coalition of Black Civic Participation, Black Women's Roundtable.

They got an agenda. They got an agenda. Sororities, fraternities, black BYP 100, color of change. They got an agenda. I mean, all these groups have agendas. You have people who are gay, who trans, church, conservative, who are sports, entertainment, media. I can go to every, all that have agendas. The question then becomes, to Scott's point,

how do you then mobilize and organize after the fact? Yep. See, that's the fundamental issue that I believe we keep missing. We take you back. I said the exact same thing. You can go back and read Essence magazine, January 2009, where I wrote. That we can't just be excited and think these things are going to happen just because Obama's there.

Said it. Said it point blank. In fact, if you read my book, the first President Barack Obama's road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin, I wrote it in the book. Spike Lee, in my interview with him, says it, that these things are not going to magically happen just because you've got a black president.

It's what you do also after the fact, which now means how do you mobilize and organize? One of the fundamental issues that we have, folks, is also how do we take our resources and then begin to say, move people? So let me just let me just give you an example. Where did Reverend Jackson really derive his power from? When he ran in 1984 and 88 and put two million new voters on the rolls. That is what elected Richard Shelby as a Democrat to the United States Senate in Alabama. Now, he later became a Republican.

But if you go back, Richard Shelby was elected as a Democrat in Alabama due to the black vote. If you go back and study, especially 1988, you would discover a number of African-Americans who ran for sheriff, city council, county commissioner, state rep, state senator for the first time and won because Reverend Jackson put to going out registering people. Y'all, that's a tangible, that's a tangible number. See, saying I have millions of people on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, TikTok, does not actually translate into real power. Real power is when you're able to come to the table and say, if I go give this directive, they will follow. Right.

Now, there's a real negotiation. After 2016, I had Bob Johnson on my TV One show, and he was talking about how African Americans, how we need to work with Trump. And let me be real clear. Let me be real clear. Do I think Trump is awful? Absolutely.

Do I think he is atrocious? Absolutely. Do I think he is atrocious? Absolutely. But are we still constituents of the United States of America? You damn right. And so therefore, we still deserve a seat at the table. Fine, we'll bring our own chair.

So here's what I actually hope happens. And I go back to that Bob Johnson conversation. When I said, Bob, when are we going to create a black specific fund whose sole job is to register, train, educate our people. Because what we cannot do is continue to have this conversation where we're waiting. This is us right here. Okay, what's the candidates going to do?

What's the candidates going to do? Are the liberal groups, are they going to then put money into our voter registration efforts? No, here's the deal. Who are the five largest black get-out-the-vote entities in the country? I would say, sure, you got the NAACP here. Sure, you have the National Coalition Black Civic Participation.

You got Black Voters Matter. You could also talk about DeJuan Thompson's group, Be Woke. And then we could talk about a number of smaller organizations that are in various states. So the thing then becomes, OK, so in order for us to hit a certain number. So what is it like? Like what's the number like? We know this. There are 250,000 eligible but unregistered black people in South Carolina. We know that about more than 300,000 in Georgia. There are 900,000 eligible but unregistered black people.

Excuse me, people in Alabama, 500,000 of them are African-American. There are several hundred thousand in Mississippi. Then what's the counties in Florida, the turnout in those counties ranged from 65 to 75%. If you pull up the chart, it would take you about 13 to 14 counties to get to the first blue county. And the number was 57%. So what am I saying? What I'm saying is on one hand, you have education, mobilization, organization, registering people. First off, education, why voting matters. I'm not telling you who to vote for. I'm saying why voting matters. Then I'm explaining I'm connecting the dots between federal, state, local.

Because when somebody comes along and they say, well, local is really most important thing. Forget everything else. That's a lie. Because local is going to important thing forget everything else that's a lie because local is gonna ask state for money state is gonna ask federal for money local is gonna ask federal for money so you can't say those things are separate and divorced so now let me deal with it so now you say okay fine so how do we how do we educate, empower, enlighten? Now I've got to get you registered. Now I've got to get you to the polls, which now means how do we do it?

Who are the people? What are the buses? What are the cars? How are we making it happen? Are we walking people? What's going on? So I'm unpacking. I'm unpacking all these things. So now the question then becomes, is there a number? Is there a number? And that is, do these black organizations based upon their budgets and y'all, I talked to them. They all have budgets. They then say, we need $20 million in order to put 5 million people on the rolls. That's the number.

So here's what I hope. I hope, because you went with Kenny Burns mentioned voter die. I hope really what the plan is for Diddy is before you get to the black agenda is that I create the entity or restart the entity that serves the purpose that says we're

going to study the map. We're going to target these 8, 10, 12, 14 states. We might support existing entities, but we're going to target these 8, 10, 12, 14 states. We might support existing entities, but we're going to fund black specific voter education, voter registration, voter turnout. And when you have the entity, you have the data, which means that you have the name, the phone number. I want y'all to go to the New York Times and read the story they did on Brad Parscale, the campaign manager for Donald Trump, how they're using data to drive. And so now all of a sudden, if you're Diddy's entity and you bring in Killer Mike and you bring in T.I. and you bring in Gabrie's entity and you bring in Killer Mike and you bring in T.I.

You bring in Gabrielle Union and you bring in Dwayne Wade. You bring in LeBron James and you bring in other singers. You bring in other entertainers. You bring in athletes that you bring in. You join with the Black Economic Alliance, the black folks who are partnering. All of a sudden you begin. Now, all of a sudden you have what is a black council. The black council then goes, all right, NAACP, this is what y'all are doing. Urban League, this is what y'all are doing.

This group, this is what y'all are doing. Now we have on the board what black America is doing in these different spaces as opposed to operating in silos and I'm competing with you. We don't need

30 black women's voter initiatives nationally. What we need is a handful where we're now dispersing money and resources to various individuals. Folks, when you do that, then you're able to say, Joe Biden, let me holler at you. Joe, just so you know, we're sitting on a database of 3.7 million people. Joe, in 2016, there was a 2.4% drop in black voter turnout.

Joe, had Hillary Clinton gotten the same number that Obama got in 2012, she be president you know you can't win without us you know that it cost $1,000 to convert a voter that don't like you meaning a Republican versus it's cheaper to convert to get somebody who's already more in line with you and that rain is from 20 to 50 dollars in terms of y'all, in terms of how you target them and ask things along those lines. Now, all of a sudden, this thing goes beyond a video with Naomi Campbell. It goes beyond a post on Instagram to what is the most important thing, and that is infrastructure. That is how you're able to move.

What Lyndon Baines Johnson did not want is for Dr. King to roll up in the White House with 10,000 people outside the gates. The reason Reverend Jackson was so successful when he dealt with companies in the 60s and 70s and 80s, especially with Operation Breadbasket, and if y'all please go read Demi's book on this, they did not want 200 preachers in Chicago taking to their pulpits and announcing that we're not going to buy from this store. You cannot make threats unless you have an organized entity that stands behind you.

If you make a threat and there's nobody behind you, they will laugh at you because they know there's no one behind you. To put it simply, you ever seen somebody walk up to somebody else talking all

kind of smack because they think they boys are behind them? And then they say me am I now everything changes because they now realize ain't no backup what I hope we we now focus on. It's not video that Diddy posted. Not the comments of Kenny Burns or Jamie Foxx

or the several thousand people who posted. I want to focus on organization infrastructure. How do we fund it? How do we target our people where we're not waiting on anybody else? That is how you then use leverage because no politician wants to say, wants to be

in a situation where when they go give a speech, 5,000 or 10,000 people are showing up protesting them. They don't want to have a situation where, like gay folks did who were in the military, who chained themselves to the fence when Obama was president. Yeah. Do y'all also remember when the DACA folks stormed one of Obama's campaign offices in Ohio and took it over?

Y'all remember that? That's how those things happened. 2010. LGBT folks. Obama wasn't sitting here moving on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. They closed their checkbooks. Guess what happened after the slaughter in 2010, the midterms? Obama came out and said, we got to get Don't Ask, Don't Tell passed by Congress.

By December, it had been repealed by Congress. So how do black people use their pocketbooks? Y'all, this is politics. This is how it's done. Now, let's see what happens next. Next, Killer Mike. Next, other folks involved. If there is no plan, all this was was simply a moment.

You want to have leverage, you got to build a moment. You want to have leverage, you got to build a movement. I'll be back with Roland Martin Unfiltered in just a moment. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here

that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square.

This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they make about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so, therefore, it gives me a different look. So, there you go. So, if you actually want to get one of these Shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors. All you got to do is go to rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So, it's rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares.

All you got to do is go to my website and you can actually get this. Now, for those of you who are members of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the Feather Pocket Squares. My sister who's a designer, she actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized Feather Pocket Squares right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so.

And, of course, that goes to support the show. And, again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. Alright, folks. Welcome back. I meant to hit this button. Go to my iPad, please. Eugene made this point. It's right there. Y'all see

right there? Joe Biden's agenda for the black community. It's right there. If you click the button, you will see what is on here. Okay? Create wealth in the black community? It's right there. If you click the button, you will see what is on here. Okay? Create wealth in the black community, invest in our community through housing, protect and build on Obamacare,

invest in our students and educators, support education beyond high school, invest in the clean energy revolution and environmental justice, make a transformational investment in our country's infrastructure, strengthen the right to vote, strengthen America's commitment to justice

and violence against women. Those are what's on that agenda. Real quick, I'm going to go to our panel before I go to my next guest. It's there, Cleo, but you said, though, you got to communicate it. Okay, Cleo, how do you do it? You make it a part of the discussion

when you're running for president. You make it something that you demonstratively break down for your audience while you're being a candidate, while you're trying to prove yourself to the people that you want to vote for you in terms that are undeniable. That is sitting on a website

is not good enough. That is there, it's good, but it's not good enough. So you're saying he's never discussed it? Well, I don't know if he's never discussed it. I haven't watched every debate. I haven't watched all of Joe Biden's moves. Right, but if you're saying he needs to do this,

but you haven't seen the debates, how do you know he hasn't done it? Well, because the ones I have seen it, he hasn't done it enough for me. Hold on, you said enough for me, which means he's done it, but he hasn't done it enough. So which one is it? He hasn't or he's not done it enough?

I'm saying two things. One is I have not followed all of his movements. He might have done something, it's very likely he's done something that I've never seen. But I have seen him debate. I have not seen him or any of the candidates talk about issues wrong to black people in ways that made it real clear that they

had our back well part of and this is what i'll say uh eugene part of that problem is that's what no but that but that's also what happens when you also don't have discussions uh where you don't have debates uh or town halls on black networks where black people are i mean let's just let's just cut to the chase y'all you're not going to have those conversations in depth on mainstream networks that are white controlled. You're not. So, I mean, we can. So we can. It's like we want these things to happen on MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, ABC. That ain't happening. So part of the issue here is what I've been saying. I'm going to need black networks to also wake the hell up to share that kind of information

for our people. I just want one black network to have a damn town hall with Joe Biden or even Trump. Give me one. And rolling. That is not a curse. And recognize, and the black people have a reaction to that. If I may.

Real quick. But I'm going to you, James, and Scott. Ever since I've known say anything, because they'll probably get it. If I may. Real quick, but I'm going to you, James, and Scott. Ever since I've known of you, you have been able to brilliantly address political issues. What you just got finished breaking down was all true. I support it. It was brilliant. If anybody actually followed step with what you recommended, we would be in good shape.

There's some perspectives and states of mind in the Black community that maybe one day we'll deal with that have an impact on how Black people respond, particularly Black males. I said before on your show that there's a lot of Black males who are going to support Trump and or who are going to talk like P. Diddy in terms of being neutral and need somebody to prove something to them. There's a perspective, there's a reaction to a hostile environment that black men live in that this society and that Democrats has not resolved. Got it. The police brutality, the portraying media, the criminality, the over-incarceration, etc., has not been resolved and there has not been a Democratic Party speaker that with some power and clout has acted like they care about the issue enough to change it.

Along with what I described Obama earlier, these things have a communicative effect that throws a wrench in whether people should trust Biden or anybody else or not, and they have to prove themselves, and they usually don't. And because they don't, that's why black people don't go to the polls. They went to the polls because he was black. All right, Eugene, then Scott, and then

I'm going to my next guest. Go, Eugene. The thing is this, you know, a black network eventually has to step up. And with proper planning, it actually could be a cost-neutral situation. It would have been a cost-neutral situation. It would have been a cost-neutral situation because, you know, you're going to have sponsors that are going to set up and want that airtime.

And if it didn't happen in this cycle, absolutely 2022, 2024, it absolutely has to happen. Scott? One of the Democratic presidential debates was at a historical black college. On ABC. It was on ABC. It was a damn disgrace that whatever you define as the African-American agenda or issues important to African-American was not discussed. Well, in fact, you actually had a much deeper discussion about black people at the debate that was on ABC that was in New Hampshire versus the one that was at Texas Southern University. I was there. You're absolutely right. Go ahead.

That's right. And the last debate where there was more than two candidates, there was a substantive debate. who didn't look like anybody on this network trying to put forth their African-American bona fides on a litany of issues, which was really surprising. I think all of the Democratic presidential candidates had an agenda in writing, but also in their discussions. But remember, the first three, you didn't get to South Carolina where you had black people in the majority voting. So I think what Biden's attraction or why Biden is attracted to African-Americans is not just Barack Obama,

but he's been there and he's comfortable talking about these issues. He doesn't talk to black people or at them. He talks to them because of his years of public service. And that's why they trust him. That's why he won South Carolina. And that's why he's going to be the Democratic nominee. We cannot ignore that, nor can we hold him or anyone else to some racial litmus test on perfection,

because he's imperfect as well. So I think he was convincing. I think all the Democratic candidates were convincing. But, Roland, you said something about the definition of power. Your soliloquy or your presentation earlier was a definition of power, not just political power, but any power. And that is accountability. And so I think our work with Biden and the Democratic Party generally has to be about that organization buildup. So I think we're going to be in good shape and better shape.

But black people got to vote in massive numbers, not just register. But bottom line is you can't vote unless you, you can't get them to vote unless you register them. You can't register them unless you educate and get them to talk about why, what they care about and what matters to them. And so it all goes hand in hand. Of course, we talk the importance of media, and my next guest last year launched a new mobile app called HBCU Go. It promised original content such as sports, music, entertainment, movies, entertainment, and live events. There have been some challenges in getting his content off the ground. Joining me right now is to talk about some of the problems that content creators face.

Curtis Simons, he is the founder of HBCU Go TV. Curtis, glad to have you here. We were talking, of course, just that conversation there. Again, why black platforms matter, the kind of conversations that we have. And so you, first of all, tried to start an HBCU cable channel. That did not go quite well. And so what are you now doing and how have you been able to move the needle?

Well, I think what you said earlier and what the panel's been talking about is some direction. Number one, you need that platform that has a channel that talks a little bit about what is into it for our society, our culture. Because one of the things that I think in this whole political ballgame is money is

the game, but the more important thing is, is we are the game. And we have to start believing within ourselves how powerful we are. And as many of you gentlemen laid out in what I was hearing over the last half an hour, I think there's a lot of different things in the agenda. And then I think Roland laid out very, very clearly, you know, what it takes to problem that I think we've got to work on as a family is pulling all of us together. We just work in silos. And when you have comments like Diddy's come out, you know,

then it shows exactly how separated we are and how we're not linked together to really try to grow the matter. Now, what I've done is, like you were saying, Roland, I've created not only the app now, but I've got a HBCU Go TV digital channel. So we just got up in February on Roku and we plan to be up on Amazon in another month and also on Apple TV. And we plan to open up that door and that platform to start being that voice for you and about you. You know, with my education and working 14 plus years at BET and executive director of marketing,

you know, I learned the value of what we bring to the table because I saw a lot of things that you were saying about Jesse and other things early on and how we definitely did not build the platform that could have been built and we could have early on as BET in the early days should have been

the Obama of black media. I mean, we should have been more of a force but we went a different route, unfortunately. So I think that my new HBCU Go channel will begin to be that platform that you're looking for. And as you were talking about town hall meetings, we were just talking about that in creating better town hall meetings on HBCU campuses so we can talk about this issue because we understand a lot of that in the area of education, entertainment, sports, lifestyle, fraternities, and really talking about the value of HBCU schools.

I mean, one of the things that I'm tired of hearing, a graduate of Central State University in Ohio, I'm tired of hearing the word that HBCU schools are not valued, because we are. And that's the one thing that this channel will be out there to drive more of that and educate more people on that value. So the, and I think we have some issues with your video, so hopefully we'll get that straight. So the app is, so, okay, so folks out there who are watching, so the name of the app, is it HBO Go or HBO To Go?

HBO Go. I'm sorry, HBCU Go. HBCU Go, yes. HBCU Go, all right. Let's go. Let's see here. Okay, Henry, go to my iPad. So HBCU Go, a hang time experience.

I'm here on the App Store. Let's see here. It lays out exactly. So let's go ahead and do this here. We'll go ahead and download the app. We'll take a look at that and see what's going on. OK, so let's see here. So let's do do do do. Let's download that. And so I see on here, you say it's free to play and everyone has a chance to win special prizes. Watch the best entertainment produced by millennial content producers from the campuses.

HBCU Hangtime connects friends and meets new people. You can also watch video content up close and tune in with English or Spanish commentary. Yes, the goal of the app, it was an organization out of New Jersey that helped me build this app. And really, it was really more, the app was built more, as you heard this, the word hang time, more of a social type where you would have groups that could come in. So when we're creating the app around different schools, if you're an HBCU alumnus, let's say for a civil state university, you could time in with your group and create conversations within the group

about different things. And we were basically trying to grow that between the 105 historical black colleges and along with provide content that we felt would be adequate to the universities uh, to that, to the universities. Now, what we've extended is, is gone and created a digital channel. If you get a chance, uh, or you can go to our website, but only go to hbcgo.tv and you can go to our website and you can see some of the programming that we're running now on our Roku app. you know, if you want to check that out. Guys, so you have app in the App Store, Google Play, Roku.

What other devices? Apple TV? Apple TV and Amazon. Okay. How many folks have actually signed up thus far? Well, right now, since the free to, we've had it up on the Roku since February. All I can tell you right now is we're in front of 60 million homes,

and the number we got is that we've got almost about 3,000 to 4,000 that have been chiming in on it. Okay. Curtis Sammons, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Thanks, Roland. Thank you.

I think real quick for our panel here, Eugene, I'm going to go to you. This is, you know, the reality is this here. We as African Americans are driving content, driving development on so many other platforms, but we also have to get to a point where we are looking at what is ours. One of the reasons I created this segment every Wednesday to talk about black tech is because we need to understand what's happening with us out there that we own, that we control.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it's on us to bring value to our platforms and to our avenues. And look, that's how you build a legacy. That's how you build channels of communication, channels of media that you control, that you can get information out there. You know, I mean, could you imagine? I mean, we went through it after, you know, the News 1 Now situation. And here we are.

You own this. This is our media. This is our network. as drivers of a lot of these platforms have to, you know, there has to be a way to figure it out that you're going to, where you you know, where, you know, on some cases you have the freedom to create what you want, how you want, but in the other cases, your content

is protected in a totally different way than it won't be in other platforms. All right, then. Let's go to Cleo. Cleo, your thoughts, again, on why these BlackTip platforms matter. The Black... The platformers matter a lot.

Black people have never had any dearth in genius, talent, capacity. Where we have a dearth is... One thing you mentioned a lot, Roland, which is so important, is being trained to be progressive, being trained to be thoughtful, having a critical analysis about cause and effect and importance of voting and the macro outcome of voting beyond just the president and including the president. Our children, frankly, in too many cases are not raised to win.

They're raised to get a job. They're raised to go to school and work for somebody. And they're raised to be an employer and a pawn. We don't raise our children generally to be powerful, to love themselves, to be self-sufficient, and to be leaders, and to have the backs of Black people. I used to be a consultant to Morehouse College about... I don't know, some years ago. Well, I got to edit what I was going to say because I already said too much. Well, the bottom line is this. Our students and even HBCUs are being trained to be great students. Some of them

do well academically. Some of them excel intellectually. But a lot of our students are not excelling in terms of learning to value being Black. You already know that when it comes to alumni donating to their own schools, when it comes to a lot of HBCUs, a lot of students relative to other schools are not giving back because from my perspective, they question the value of anything because it's Black. There's people who, as brilliant as you are and as important as your show blatantly and materially is, there's people, because of its cosmetics, are questioning its worth who are Black. Part of our work toward getting Black people to get beyond the rut that some of us are in, in this instance, in terms of voting and making sure

whoever's president is accountable to us, is that we have to look at these and unpack these emotional, self-conceptual paralysis that we have that gets in the way of us taking care of ourselves. Because no matter how brilliant you are intellectually, if you're culturally broke or self-conceptually in question about your worth, you're not going to get up and take the advice that you just gave, which is winning advice. So in closing, we have to start doing the work on Black self-conceptual health and getting Black people to unlearn the anti-Black unconscious

so we can learn to be proactive and be powerful like everybody else because like these platforms are available to us, there's always been something available to us that we didn't necessarily utilize because there's too many of us, Roland, who are in question of our worth and who are subject to concern about the white gaze. I'm talking about G-A-Z-E, not G-A-Y-S. We're concerned about a our genius and what we have in our very reach as a people, including these platforms. Yeah, I don't disagree with you, although I would say that HBCUs certainly try to address that issue when you're competing, not against each other, but against people that

don't look like you in the workspace, because you certainly don't get it at majority schools, but that's a longer discussion. They don't get it at some HBCUs too, Scott. Pardon me? They don't get it at some HBCUs too. Some HBCUs are Black learning centers that are predominantly black. But one professor told me one time, he said, we create great students. Our students do well intellectually, but they don't necessarily do well as soldiers for black power, economic power, and political power. Scott, final comment real quick. Well, I mean, black tech, we don't have a reputation.

All we hear, there are not enough black people in tech, and that's just certainly not true. But the important of black tech in this segment and what you're doing is that we tell our stories, not his story. And we are so disconnected and disaffected, it connects us to each other, to excellence, to trailblazers, or even just the average black man and black woman. So that's super important. Most people get their news and information from where? Technology and the Internet. They don't get it from newspapers

or even mainstream networks or TV networks anymore. And so you're way ahead of the game, and we want more people to be doing what you're doing going forward. Next Wednesday, I had a conversation with him today. Of course, all the chatter about, you know, the battle between Teddy Riley and Babyface. Well, guess what?

Teddy will be with us next week. And wait till you hear him talk about the tech platform that he has where those future battles can take place. Eugene, Scott, Cleo, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much being with us today. Folks, when, Cleo, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for being with us today. Folks, when we come back from this break, Wilder Not Wednesday! Gotta have a little fun.

Comedian Alicia Cooper is up next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered.

See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. Fam, on this day 70 years ago, Reverend Dr. William Barber, along with 16 others,

were arrested at the North Carolina State Legislature for protesting for voting rights in public schools, the assault on the poor and unemployed, and those who are without health care. This led to the first Moral Monday. They, of course, changed North Carolina for, in a good way, still fighting the good fight. And so, big shout out to Reverend Dr. William J. Barber and all other folks, for payers of the breach, NAACP, and others who were fighting for what's right

there in the state of North Carolina. And that thing is spread all across the world. All right, folks. Every Wednesday, we try to have a little fun, have a little light. When it comes to our segment, Wilder Not Wednesday, joining us right now is Alicia Cooper. She's a comedian and filmmaker who joins us now.

Alicia, how you doing? I'm good, Roland. How are you? Doing great. You also got a new film dropping on Friday. It's called Trade. Yes. All right, y'all.

And I'm so excited about it. Here's a clip. It's a psychological thriller. Here's a clip. It's your first time in? No. I did six months up in Juvie. That's my first time in prison, though.

My wife is a doctor, and I have two beautiful kids in private school. Any of these are cellmate? He doesn't have any family. He never has visitors. That's so sad. I'm so happy we got this place. Just give me a call soon as you get this place. Come on.

Come on over. Fuck your money! . He who come out and have made an atonement for himself and for his household. . All right, Leisha, where are folks... Will they be able to see the movie? They'll be able to see it on a new streaming service

called Urban Flix. U-R-B-A-N-F-L-I-X. They can see it on their laptop. There's a seven-day free trial starting this Friday, which is the same day you can see the movie. Urban Flix. Yeah, and you can get it on Roku, your app on your phone or your laptop.

All right, did I see Buddy Lewis in one of those scenes? Yes, you did. Why the hell would you have a charity case in your movie? Was he free? Let me tell you. Was he free? He was not free. And Buddy was actually an executive producer.

But let me tell you, Roland, the first time I came to L.A. in 1996, Buddy was running the belly room of the comedy store. And I begged him to put me up first, and I bombed. Buddy went up behind me and ripped, making fun of me bombing. And he brought the room back. And I never forgot it. And we ended up working together on Magic Johnson's late night talk show. And I reminded Buddy.

I said, I'm the one you fried that night for bombing. And Buddy and I have been friends ever since. Well, Buddy's an Omega. He bomb all the time. So, you know. And, yeah, I'm going to send him a text in a second. My goodness, my goodness. All right.

So, we've been sitting here looking at all the craziness that's been going on. So here's the deal. Somebody put this out today. I think The Root did. They said, if there was a Michael Jackson-Prince battle, who would win? Now, folks got mad at me.

I'm sorry. I think Prince and Michael will go head-to-head on the fast stuff. It's going to be over once you get the slow stuff. Michael Jackson ain't got enough slow jams to compete with Prince. Sorry. No, no. Me and you are on the same page with that.

A door? How can you beat a door? Insatiable? Oh, my. I ain't never been with a woman who said, baby, put on that Michael Jackson slow jam. That ain't never been with a woman who said, baby, put on that Michael Jackson slow jam. That ain't never happened. Yep, even Michael, yeah, no. You and me are on the same page

that there's no competition. Now, the fast records, Michael got you. You know, we got to admit, though, there was only one of them that we used to dress like, and that was Michael Jackson. We all had that beaded jacket with the 74 zippers, wasn't a pocket, no way on the jacket. I don't know, because here's the deal.

There are only two groups, there are only two groups slash artists who could dictate your dress code. Frankie Beverly and Maze and Prince. You're going to wear purple. I mean, your ass grown, you ain't wearing all them damn zippers on your jacket. We wore

the Michael Jackson clothes. I went to the Jackson's Victory Tour concert in Houston. I wasn't wearing them damn high water ass pants with some white socks showing and a red ass zipper jacket. I'm just letting you know that wasn't going to happen.

But I will agree that Prince Common did an entire color. We know that Prince owns purple. Right. We completely know. He took purple before the color purple. You went to a Prince concert, you wore purple. You go to a Maze concert, white linen will sell out in the city. That's true.

You got it rolling. So how are you dealing with this quarantine? Oh, I'm not dealing with it. My fingernails, look at my fingernails rolling. I mean, just this is so sad. I got a unibrow, a beard, a mustache. Ain't nothing cute going on around here. You know, this quarantine is killing me.

I'm used to having my feet in the street. As soon as I leave out for essentials, I start sweating already, because I swear I got the wrong one. I've been out the house two minutes and I got it. I'm like, and I'm running back in the house. This is sad. This is worse than any horror movie we've ever seen.

Well, I just... So, how I'm saying, why can't you just go to YouTube and learn how to do your own nails? YouTube? Because I already got to go to YouTube and learn how to do my own hair. There's a few things that come in front of that. I mean, I'm YouTube Tutorian Mills.

I've never cooked this much in my life, bro. Look, I don't, okay, okay, I keep hearing women complain about hair. That's why they make hats. You at the house. Who the hell gonna see you? And let me tell you, I've been living like ain't nobody gonna see me.

I don't understand. This has been real sad. Hey, hey, look, Jan Jackson, look, cute as hell in a baseball cap. I'm just saying, look, I've seen some sexy women in a baseball cap. It's a hat. I don't understand why y'all women keep freaking out about this coronavirus, can't get your hair done.

Wear a hat. Y'all can wear church hats. Y'all can go get you a Dorothy Height church hat. You can get you some baseball hats. You can get a helmet. You can get a construction hat. I don't understand what the problem is with y'all.

Like, somehow your life is going in because you can't go see Tamika doing your hair. You know, I just think we got into this routine. You know, and anytime your routine is shook up, you get shook up. But one thing about this coronavirus, we are learning a whole

new way of living. I've gotten so much accomplished in these last six weeks. I'm writing. I'm doing all kinds of stuff I never would have done had this coronavirus not hit. So in a way, it's turned out to be a good thing. You get to reconnect with family members you haven't had time to talk to. It's going to, in the long run, we are going to look back on this time and realize it was actually a good thing. Well, again, that's why I keep trying to explain to people. I mean, I don't think people look at this whole thing wrong. Do you realize how much money sisters are saving by not going to get their hair did every two weeks?

Yeah, it's funny. I'm watching my checking account increase because I can't go spend nothing. So, yeah, I can't get my nails done, my toes done, my's funny. I'm watching my checking account increase because I can't go spend nothing. So, yeah, I can't get my nails done, my toes done, my brows done. We are, we sisters, we can go invest in some stock after this thing is over

because we can't spend. I know husbands are real excited that their wives can't spend. But you know what? We done also figured out how to get online. I done bought all kinds of cockamamie stuff online because I can't get out the house. I done bought some exercise equipment

that look plum crazy because I can't get out the house. So we done found another way to spend. Okay, you bought some exercise equipment. Have you used it? Well, it just came two days ago. No, I have not used it. It looks crazy.

But I'm going, I'm going to use it. It's purple. I'm going to use it. I don't understand. It use it. It's purple. I'm gonna use it. I don't understand. It's purple? It's purple. Oh, so you didn't get one dressed up like Michael Jackson? No. No, no. I had nothing glittery.

Okay, I don't understand. How come two days ago, is it still in the box? No, it's out of the box, and it's out of the box and it's out of the wrapping. It's this little thing where you put your feet in it and you pull it back. So you're doing sit-ups and there's other things you can do. Yeah, Alicia, it's called a rowing machine.

No, but it's not that good. It's not that. That sounds more expensive than what I got. What I got was like $30. You put your feet in like bicycle things and then you pull back on this tension rod. So it ain't that expensive.

So what you're saying is you bought you a cheap ass piece of exercise equipment that likely That's what I'm saying. that likely don't work the moment you pull it out of the box. But when you're addicted to spending, spending, it all makes sense at the time. I can't adapt.

I can't. I don't even know what that is. I don't even know. All right, so you're cooking more, you're writing more. Yes. All right, what else you working on? Working on some new material. Working on some new material.

Us stand-ups, comedy is still our bread and butter. So working on some new material so whenever we can hit the stage, we can hit the stage. I lost so much work that first couple weeks. I was headed to the Tahoe Improv on a Wednesday. They called us on Monday and said Tahoe was closed down. I said, good golly, Miss Molly. So, yeah, I'm ready to get back

out and hit the stage. So I'm working on some new material. All right, then. Well, first of all, where can folks reach you? Where can they cash app you? What's your info? My cash app is T-R-I-U M as in Mary, F as in Frank,

A-N-T. And they can reach me on AliciaCooper.com. They can reach me on Instagram, Alicia Cooper, and Twitter, Alicia Cooper. All right. When that movie comes out on Friday, tell everybody again where they can watch it. They can watch it on Urban Flix. U-R-B-A-N-F-L-I-X.

All right. Alicia, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. Always good talking to you. All right, have a good one. All right, folks, before we go, before we go, I want to be sure to read off the names of the folks who have supported our show. We certainly appreciate what they do. And so let me go hit me find the e-mail here.

My man Kenan sent me the email with the names. If you do not hear your name, just simply send us an email. We'll get that thing taken care of right quick and in a hurry. And so, where is the doggone email, y'all? Okay, let me go to it. Right here. Let me go to it right

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Got a great thing for you tomorrow. I got a sister who is going, she has created her own virtual reality headset. Friday, there's gonna be the first virtual reality comedy show featuring Dio Heaton, Chris Spencer, and others. The creator of that, a sister, she'll be with us tomorrow.

Her site is called seek.com, C-E-E-K.com. Don't want to miss that conversation. See you tomorrow. Holla! This is an iHeart Podcast.