#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Federal Contractor Nondiscrimination EO revoked, ICE school raids, J6 pardon backlash

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

1.22.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Federal Contractor Nondiscrimination EO revoked, ICE school raids, J6 pardon backlash The criminally convicted felon-in-chief dismantles affirmative action in federal contracting.  I'll talk with Ron Busby, Sr. the President and CEO, of U.S. Black Chambers and Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, about what this means for black contractors.  Nearly two dozen states are suing the orange man, challenging his executive order that could revoke citizenship for children born in the United States. Elie Mystal broke down the executive order. He'll be here to explain why the order is unconstitutional, and I'll talk to an attorney from Human Rights First about their efforts to combat the order. The sweeping pardons for the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist are not sitting well with the police unions who supported the convicted felon.  We will examine the backlash he is facing for disrespecting law enforcement officers he claimed to love. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

a social media tech company with over 1 million users that is disrupting media by allowing anyone to reach all of their following and monetize their content from day one. The market is changing, We'll be right back. of social media. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Rolla. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home.

You dig? Thank you. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. And right now we're accepting investors in our $17 million round to revolutionize the future of social media. Today, for just $399, you can own 60 shares of stock in Fanbase at $6.65 a share. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest today. While the big platforms have grown too massive

and disconnected from their users, Fanbase is building a platform where creators and users truly come first. We've already raised $4.8 million from everyday investors who believe in this vision, and now you can join them. This is your chance to invest in a social media tech company with over 1 million users that is disrupting media by allowing anyone to reach all of their following and monetize their content from day one. The market is changing,

big platforms are failing to serve their users, and Fanbase is stepping up to fill the gap. Don't wait until it's too late. Invest now. Invest for yourself and your future. Go to startengine.com slash fanbase and own the future of social media. Today is Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025, coming up on Roller Mark Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The twice-impeached, criminally convicted

felony chief Donald Trump dismantles affirmative action in federal contracting. I'll talk with Ron Busby, President and CEO of the U of the US Black Chambers, and Damon Hewitt of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law about what this means for African-Americans. Nearly two dozen states are suing the orange man, challenging his executive order that could revoke citizenship for children born in the United States. Elliot Mishton with The Nation broke down the executive order. He'll join us as well. The sweeping pardon for the January 6th domestic terrorists not sitting well with the police unions who supported convicted felon Donald Trump.

We'll also talk about that. Plus, Trump's immigration order is having an impact, guess what, on school campuses, but also on farms. NFL Hall of Famer Warren Sapp files a $20 million lawsuit, a wrongful arrest against a Florida Sheriff's Office. Wait till we show y'all the video. That and more. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filch.

From the Blackstone Network, let's go. Got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling Best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yow It's rolling Martin

Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah It's Roland Martin Yeah, yeah Rolling with Roland now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Roland Martin Now Martin With the stroke of a pen, the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon and chief Donald Trump

has dismantled affirmative action in federal contracting. On Tuesday, the Office of Personnel Management issued a memo instructing agencies to place diversity, equity, and inclusion office staff on paid leave, and all public DEI-focused webpages must be taken down by 5 p.m. Eastern today. These employees are expected to be laid off. Some have already been laid off. This executive order on affirmative action revokes a directive issued by President Lyndon Johnson that dealt with the issue of discrimination in federal contracting.

Joining us right now is Damon Hewitt, president and executive director for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Don't ask me why he's wearing a purple tie but an alpha. Plus Ron Busby Sr., of course, President and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. No surprise, he got a little red in his tie because he's a little kappa. Alright, let's get right to

it. Damon, I'm going to start with you. First off, look, we know these guys have been targeting DEI, but going after the Lyndon Baines Johnson executive order is a whole different thing because that dealt specifically saying you can't discriminate in the hiring of folks when you're getting federal contracts. That's a whole different conversation. Well, look, we always knew, Roland, that they were going not just after issues. They're going after people and also going after the money. That's exactly what this is really about.

The same reason why they went after federal contracting programs after the Students with Fair Admissions case, the higher ed affirmative action case. And so this is really troubling. You know, the message being sent here and the implications of this rescission is that federal contractors no longer have to take, it seems, undertake affirmative duties to root out discrimination in their own workplaces, in their processes. This is essentially an invitation to discrimination. And the message that it's open season on black workers. And, you know, look, federal contractors represent one fifthfifth of the entire U.S. workforce. So this has massive implications

for everyday work and black people. And let's be real clear, which people don't seem to understand. Republicans used to support the civil rights laws. But when Barry Goldwater's book, The Conscience of a Conservative, came out, that flipped it. And then they opposed the Civil Rights Act.

You've had conservatives and Republicans who have been saying that a person should be allowed to discriminate. And so that's really what this is about. They do not want to be held to the laws, the civil rights statute, saying you cannot discriminate in the hiring. What they're saying is,

we want to be able to hire anybody we want to, and this is a burden telling us that we can't discriminate against somebody black or Latino or Asian or somebody who's a woman. That's what this is really all about. Yeah, you know, we're going to enter a period as follows. Number one, we're going to remind folks of the facts on the ground, but also the law, because no matter what Trump says in an executive order, that doesn't change Title VII. That's the law of employment discrimination.

That law was not changed by a Supreme Court decision. That law has remained the same for a very long time. And so these employers have affirmative obligations. What this EO from 1965, the year after the Civil Rights Act, did was it added a layer of protection. It added a layer of affirmative duty for federal contractors to make sure that they were compliant with Title VII. So we're probably going to enter a period where this law will be in contest, a period of people talking about rapid evolution. This could be rapid devolution of workplace culture, of open season on black workers and brown workers. And so we're going to have to meet these people in the courts of public opinion, but also in the courts of law. Ron, I want to go to you. when that idiot Trump was there last time, you and I talked,

and they stopped collecting racial data, correct? Correct. So the problem is, we didn't know what was happening. We didn't know what contracting was happening. We didn't know who was it getting. We didn't know if it was an increase or a decrease. So they stopped collecting racial data across the board, correct?

Correct. So when it came to, then what they did was they started bundling contracts instead of typically what happens on the Democrats, they unbundle. The only Republican who actually understood the unbundling of contracts was actually George W. Bush. And so typically Republicans, they bundle them back. And so really what we're seeing here with the attacks on, when we see these executive orders, couple that with last year,

those federal judges ruling MBDA and also the SAA program, what this means, and this is what I kept warning people during the campaign even now, what they're doing is this is what I kept warning people during the campaign even now, what they're doing is this is going to have a direct impact on black businesses getting contracts. Correct? People don't understand that. And as we have been talking, and I know you have been saying it, Roman, voting and elections have consequences. And we had been saying for years, and we saw it during his first term, he tried to come out with the ban on Muslims. He got caught up in the process with George Floyd, and it took his attention away from

his original plans. This time, he came out the gate making it very clear that he was concerned about his supporters, about his billionaire friends and trillionaire friends, and making sure that the programs and the conversations that he talked about during his first term were going to be implemented immediately upon his inauguration. And we have seen that happen already. And again, I want to reiterate this. And this is for all of the simple Simon Negroes who are on social media,

who are doing radio, television interviews, talking about Trump is going to be putting money in our pockets and how all these things are going to be going down. What they need to understand is that what they are doing is they are going after the money. And then when they target Walmart, when they target McDonald's, when they target corporate America, they're not just saying, oh, let's get rid of these DEI offices. They're going after supply diversity or what John Rogers with Arrow Capital calls business diversity. And so what we are going to see, and black people need to wake up

over the next one, two, three, four years. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In the next few years, we're going to see a material decrease in billions of dollars flowing to black-owned businesses who largely employ black people, who fund HBCUs and black interests.

And so that is going to be the direct impact of what Trump and the Republicans are currently doing. Let me make it more clear. During Obama's first term in office, the goal for minority spend was roughly 5%. He surpassed that and hit 7%. His second term in office, the goal was then 7%. He surpassed that goal and hit 9%. If you heard when President Biden got in office, the goal was to go from 11% to 15%. That scared the nation. What we found out was, as you've been discussing, the disaggregation of the numbers, because they will tell you it's 11%, 9%, 5%. But as you have just mentioned, we never knew what that meant to the Black community. And so during this last administration under President Biden, we said we were interested

in three things. Intentionality. Let us know what you were doing for the Black community. We wanted transparency. We wanted to know what percentage meant for black businesses. And then we wanted accountability. We wanted to know, okay, if they're not hitting the numbers, how can we motivate them? And what can we do to improve the conditions for black-owned businesses? And so the reason why MBDA, Minority Business Development

Agency, was the first place to go under attack is because while we were there, the goal was to get the increase for Black businesses from 1.5 percent of the entire country's spend to 3 percent. I had Black people fighting back on us saying, well, why 3 percent? Why not 13 percent or 10 percent? Understand this. Of the $960 billion that the country spends every year, $640 billion is set aside for products and services

that all of us can apply and compete for. Of that... So, hold on, hold on, hold on. The $960 billion, that's what the federal government spends? That's what the federal government spends. That's what the federal government— Go ahead. $640 billion is really available because the other portion is for the military. So, of that $640 billion, 11 percent of that goes towards minority firms.

But I want your audience to understand who was included in that minority. The second thing I want them to understand is it did not come out easily in reference to the disaggregation of the numbers. It was leaked out. And so once it was leaked out, then the federal government had to address it. And what we found is that of the 11 percent, the Asian community received 1.8% of the minority spend. They had the fewest number of businesses registered to do business with the federal government, but that's fine. They had large contracts. The Hispanic community received 1.71% of the minority spend. Black business community had the largest number of businesses that were registered and certified to do business with the federal government. We received 1.5 percent, the least of all of the ethnic communities.

And so you ask yourself, well, where is the spin going? White women, not women, white women received 78% of all of the minority spend. So people are saying, well, Ron, what are you guys doing to fight back on these attacks on DE&I? And I ask myself, well, where are white women? Because they have the biggest loan that's available to them, whereas we have the biggest opportunity to gain in this conversation. And so the U.S. Black Chamber, along with other business organizations, are going to continue to fight to make sure that we have our share of the wealth

of this country. Now, again, before I go back to Damon, you gave the 1.5 percent, but also I want to speak in terms of actually real numbers. That number represents about $10 billion. And that $10 billion is the most we've ever gotten. The most we've ever received. And to be honest, it was 1.5. Then in 2021, it went to 1.55. Then 2022, it has now gone to 1.61. So we, under Biden administration, have improved our conditions. We've improved the spend. We've improved our share. Now we cannot turn back and go back to where we were before. Yeah. And so, Damon, this is the thing that I think the people have to understand when we talk about the battle over civil rights, that is a direct relationship to the battle over silver rights.

And that's what Dr. King understood. It was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That was economics. He said in that speech, of course, which the goofy pastor on Monday did not mention when he talked about America giving black folks a check stamp insufficient funds. And he always talked about we came here to get that check. The conservatives, by targeting affirmative action in colleges, impacts black wealth because we know a black college graduate makes more than a black person with a high school diploma, but a white man with a high school diploma makes more than a black college graduate.

When they're targeting these, when they're targeting the law schools, now they're targeting, you know, in terms of affirmative action for medical school. Then they are attacking a program in Minnesota to increase the number of black teachers, to increase the number of black doctors. When they attack these programs, they are attacking the ability of black people to make high five-figure, six-figure jobs and earn seven-figure jobs. This is a money battle, Damon.

It is. You know, Dr. King recognized that we could have laws that allow you to eat at a lunch counter in a non-segregated environment, but if you can't afford to buy lunch and buy the meal, then what are we doing here, right? So just to paraphrase Dr. King. So these folks understand this. They are trying to take any means of opportunity and cut it off at the knees. And frankly, if you read this executive order from Trump, labels them as illegal, labels entirely lawful methods as illegal, even things that aren't about race-conscious elections. This is not talking about set-asides or quotas or anything of that sort. This is—and those things have their place. But this is all about entirely race-neutral methods of training, of education within workplaces, among contractors, and also, let's call it insurance, to ensure that folks aren't being discriminated against.

They're calling the efforts to stop discrimination, discrimination in and of itself. So it's all about limiting economic opportunity from every avenue of American life. Absolutely. Damon Hewitt, Ron Busby, I appreciate both of y'all joining us on the show. We're going to have this conversation, trust me, have a lot more over the next four years. Thank you for having us. We'll be here. Bringing my panel right now, Rebecca Carruthers, Vice President of Fair Election Center out of D.C., Jade Mathis Esquire, the Jade Mathis Law Firm out of D.C., and political sis, social media, political activist

out of Nightdale, North Carolina. Glad to have all three of you here. Rebecca, I'll start with you. I keep saying that if you go down two blocks from here, there's only one federal agency that shares a lawn with the White House, and that is the Treasury Department. White House is power. Treasury Department is money. Power and money.

If you ain't having a money conversation, you're not having an American conversation. And what people need to understand, which is why I wrote this book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, this is a money conversation. And what these right-wing MAGA people are pissed off about,

they do not want to see black people continuing to advance. And so they want to shut down all of these programs that have aided African-Americans in being able to generate wealth. You know what, Roland? I spent a lot of time talking about how I grew up in the Midwest, Nebraska specifically. And one of the things I really learned about racism in this country,

especially when my family would go to the South to visit relatives, is in the South, white people really don't care about what you have as long as you don't live next door to them. If you live down the street, that's fine. You can have whatever you want. But up north and also in the Midwest, they don't care if you live next door to them. They don't care if you live across the street. But you better not be doing better than what they are. And so what's interesting with watching this new administration, the second term of President Trump, like you said, this is purely a money grab because, quite frankly,

$10 billion in a near $1 trillion budget really isn't that much money when we talked about the 1.5 percent that Black folks as a racial minority gets in these different set of sides to make sure there's a diverse supply chain within the federal government. And like when you talked about that 78% number, 78% of that like $660 billion is going to white women. So in the grand scheme of things, $10 billion isn't that much for our community. It's not that much across the United States, quite frankly. But the fact that we are even getting that for some of these people, that's the problem because they feel like we should not be getting anything.

Yeah, man, here's what's crazy, Jade. The white woman in Tennessee that sued the 8A program, here's what was crazy. She was a part of a program for women. That's how she was able to get contracts. She then sues the AA program saying, oh, I can't participate in that, and she never even applied. So the white woman was mad at the program for minorities,

and she was mad that it didn't include her, but she had no problem with the program that was for women, for white women like her. And this is what we are dealing with. These white folks talk about, oh, no, it needs to be a meritocracy. It needs to be, oh, no, we shouldn't have double standards.

But they got no problem when we know white folks are getting a hookup for their whiteness. Yes, and speaking of hookup, that is one word Trump never uses or we don't hear often used is nepotism, right? They talk about everything else and we want it to be equal here and gender rights and all of this, you know, but nepotism

was the one key word that he always leaves out, which he was a beneficiary of, right? And I essentially feel like what Trump is saying about DEI is that he's implying that it's discriminatory, but it's only discriminatory when whites, Asians, American, Asian Americans, and white, Asian Americans and white women, when they don't get their way or when they don't get the positions that they want. That's when it's discriminatory. I think that's the part that he's implying and willingly not saying. No, he's not implying they're actually saying it. That's what they're doing.

Political sis, go ahead. You on mute. You on mute. I don't think. There you go. Go ahead. Okay. One thing I don't think they understand, especially white women, veteran white men, is how they,

DEI, impacts them in a good way. When it comes to Obama, along with the LBJ executive order that Trump took away, Obama added the sex, gender, along with gender identity, I think. But that's going to affect white women as well as black women. So I think that's something we need to keep in mind. And I hope, I don't know why the Democrats, especially here in the South, can't drill that into white working people,

white working women people. But I think if we can do that, then we can get somewhere with some votes. Well, but then that's going to require people to have a conversation they frankly are unwilling to have. Of course. One of the folks who has no problem having that conversation is

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett of Texas. She joins us right now. Congresswoman Crockett, thank you so very much. Listen, we know what they're doing. We saw this movie before. They want to throw so many things at one time and have people just scatterbrain disillusion, but I'm not falling for the okey-doke. What this is about, Congresswoman,

is they want to attack the money source. They do not want to see black advancement. They want to go after the money, and they're not satisfied with white women getting 78 percent of the federal NWBE contracts. They want 100 percent. And those white women are silent. And so folk need to understand. And frankly, you know, Democrats need to understand they've got to be a hell of a lot more aggressive in understanding the game being played here. Yeah. So for me, it is overwhelming for so many people. He operates in chaos and only chaos and confusion. And he consistently hides some of the really big things in the chaos, right? So I appreciate that you're talking about the executive order as it relates to civil rights. And so I think it is important for people to

understand that Republicans and Democrats alike, including Donald Trump, consistently signed off on this EO, and this time he decided that he was going to rescind it, right? And so when people are like, oh, well, what is it about immigration? And oh, what is this DEI thing? And oh, what is this going on over here? Here's the reality. It is all rooted in white supremacy. And that's what people need to understand. The white supremacy agenda is alive and well. And every single one of these attacks, they are rooted in white supremacy.

So unless you are a white man, I don't really know what place you have in this agenda that we see coming out. And by keeping us divided, by having those that understand the importance of affirmative action, those that understand the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion over here fighting this fight, and then those that are so concerned about their family members and whether or not they're going to be deported, they're over here in this other fight. Instead of uniting us, we need to understand that it's not an attack on just one group. It's an attack on all of us. And it is all rooted in white supremacy. Even this random whitewashing of Jesus and this narrative around Christianity. It is the white supremacist narrative of Christianity,

the same one that kept black folk enslaved. Well, here's a perfect example. I'm gonna pull this up for you. Today I was perusing social media and people need to understand you gotta be careful because it can get real overwhelming. So this tweet here came up from this Geiger Capitol, and he tweets, affirmative action is systemic racism. Not my opinion. Look at the data. So he shows Harvard applicants, all

in the top academic, had vastly different chances of admission depending on their race. And so he puts this here. So this is the first one that he puts. And so Hugh Hewitt, conservative radio show host, retweeted this. And I saw it. And so I, of course, responded this way. Hey, Geiger Capital and Hugh Hewitt, now do legacy. Please tell me the race and gender of Harvard students admitted due to legacy. White people never want to call out legacy. I'll wait. And, of course, Congresswoman, they never responded

because what they know for a fact is that if you put on legacy, that's absolutely white people. And so they want to label everything else, oh, this is about merit. But legacy ain't merit. It's a whole bunch of grossly unqualified white folks getting into colleges and universities because their parents and grandparents went there. And that's the game they love to play. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.

When they try to play this game, I just remind them of the people that Trump has decided should be in his cabinet. They are all unqualified. Let me tell you something, I can find somebody of every color, of every sex, of every gender, of every everything that is better qualified than every single one of his nominees. I absolutely can. Because... I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Right now, what we see playing out and the reason that we needed affirmative action is because it's always been this cronyism.

It's been the good old boy system. And it was about making sure, not that you were given a hand-me-out, but instead of you saying, the pool of people that I'm looking at, they are only white men. Instead, I'm going to look at everybody. And I'm going to try to make sure that we have everybody here. Y'all can talk about admissions all you want to.

But when it came down to getting grads such as Barack Obama, he may have been admitted because of affirmative action but i can tell you for sure that he didn't somehow become the president of the united states as the only black person to hold that seat because of affirmative action he became president because he had a work ethic about him and back then we actually cared about ethics in some way so he had one wife he had one woman that he had children with he had no criminal record. That is what we required. And he also was intelligent. Yes, it may have been affirmative action that got him there, but it wasn't affirmative action that was going to keep him there. So whether or not we get a chance is all it's about is making sure that you will say, it's basically like I've been talking

about, we need to take up the ban the bots legislation, which is legislation that I filed on the state level. Well, considering the fact that we have a 34 count convicted felon that is sitting in the White House, arguably the most prestigious job that you can have in this country, and he just happens to be a felon. I don't know why somebody can't get a job at the Walmart because we refuse to ban the box on the application. That's honestly what it is. What it is is literally saying, I am going to consider you even if this is your record. What it is is saying, I'm going to consider you even if you aren't a man.

I'm going to consider you even if you don't happen to be white. That is all it is. It's opening up the consideration and giving us a chance, but at the end of the day, just like any other black person will tell you in this country, we have always had to work ten times harder. So just because they gave us a chance, let me tell you, it is so much more

difficult for us to stay. Last question for you. I know you have lots of other things to do. It's been already a very long day. When it comes to Democrats, listen, you tried

to become chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications, whatever the title of that committee is, and I can tell you here we are almost at the end of January. And look, very limited opportunities that we've heard from Democratic groups, DNC, from House, Senate, or whatever. And I'm just trying to understand, after the shellacking that took place in November, after we saw what happened, how Republicans utilize independent media, streaming shows, things along those lines,

are Democratic leaders going to wake up and realize this is a communications war and paper press releases ain't going to cut it? I don't know. All I can tell you is thank you for being my constituent. I had the best numbers in the entire state of any challenged Democrat or Republican seeking reelection because I believe in communication. And the way that I do communication is completely different. And I can tell you that the old school way of thinking, and I won't name any names, but I definitely remember someone who's actually gone on who talked to me and said, well, there's no way you can do all of that media and be effective. And I'm like, I can kind of walk and chew gum. Like I can do both,

right? There is a sentiment seemingly from old school Democrats that you kind of keep your head down and you just do the work. And I do want to be clear. We absolutely need to do the work. But if no one knows what you've done, really, what was the point? Right. And so that's where I see it differently. And I try to explain to people it's kind of like a teacher. When teachers walk into a classroom, they should understand that people will be better learners in different ways. Some people are auditory. Some people are visual. Some people are going to be hands on. And so what does that mean? It still translates even when these children become adults that some people just take their information in in different ways. And so we need to know that they take them in in different spaces and in different forms. And we need to make sure that we're prioritizing all of them. And right now is when we should be communicating a lot. You shouldn't wait till election time. I mean, you know, we all know, we've all seen what I call the Chipman Circuit, right?

When it's election time and everybody comes to the black church. Like, why can't you come when it's not election time, right? Like, come tell us what you've been doing so that we know. And literally, you stay ready so you don't have to get ready. And right now I feel as if I really am about to experience what Shirley Chisholm went through and what Barbara Jordan went through and what so many others who were first went through as they were trying to break through the noise. But they were doing it in a time in which people at least had some kind of ethics about them. Ethics is out the window right versus wrong is gone like it's all out the window and so you know if we don't tell our stories then somebody else is going to co-op those stories and is going to tell them for us

and we will be back here in four years or in two years or whenever talking about we don't understand why we lost again. Yep. I keep saying that Democrats are playing a political game that no longer exists until they want to play by a set of rules and Republicans are like, what rules? We're just going to create whatever we want to do and y'all can suck it up.

Congresswoman Crockett, keep swinging. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks a bunch. I want to go back to my panel here. And Jade, look, she nails it. She's right in terms of how people communicate, how things are totally different. I'm going to bring up in a second another guest who is very much involved in having a YouTube channel

talking about these different things. And it's absolutely crazy. I'm going to tell you, this happened last year. So this is beyond laughable. The Senate Democrats had their Black Media Day. I forgot what month it was. And so we hit them up. We said, listen, they said it's going to be on the record.

I was like, yo, can this be recorded? They said, yes. All right, great, cool. So I go to the record. I was like, yo, can this be recorded? They said, yes. All right, great, cool. So I go to the meeting. I come in there with my gear bag, pop it up. I start taking out my tripod, setting the camera up. I got my live view unit ready to live stream. One of the staffers comes over.

She goes, Mr. Martin, excuse me, are you streaming? Are you video recording? I said, yes. She says, oh, no, that's not allowed. I said, I'm sorry. We asked y'all this. Y'all said it's recording. No, no, no, no.

It's on the record, but audio only. I said, are you serious? So I then text, because there are about 20 senators. I mean, you've had, so Amy Klobuchar was chairing the meeting. Schumer was there. It was Cory Booker, Warnock. You had you had then-Senator Sherrod Brown, then-Senator

Casey. It was just about 20-plus senators. Cain, Tim Cain was there. So I sent a text to Booker and Warnock. I said, this is absolutely stupid. I said, this actually makes no sense. I said, y'all are playing by these old rules.

I said, I don't understand what y'all are doing. And then he sort of leans over, he leans over, and he says something to Schumer, he shows Schumer, and I'm watching this. And so when he came to the questions, I said the first thing, I said, you guys are analog. I said, you're talking about audio only. I said, do y'all, I said, all of y'all have sat here

and complained about how y'all have done this and this and this and this and this and this and impacted black people. I said, but don't nobody know. And I said, so you want me to record the audio, so now I got to go back and create a slideshow to put it on Instagram and on TikTok and Snapchat. I said, where if we can sit in and record it, we can actually get it out.

I said, one video can literally go viral. And I mentioned the video when I went off on the Republican over the issue of abortion that Cory Booker had just retweeted that reposted on Instagram. They went viral again. And I said, what are y'all doing? Now, instead of Schumer sitting there going,

y'all know what? Mr. Martin is right. He's correct. Go ahead and record. No! They continued the meeting with the old rules. And I'm like, this is why you're getting your asses kicked on communication, Jade. Yeah, and quite frankly to tell you, they probably didn't want it to go viral for several reasons. So that may have been one of the reasons they did not allow you to for their own personal gain. But yes, communication right now, I feel like what they're doing is they're telling us what to do, right? You're instructing and you're telling,

but there's no, we can't communicate back what we need, who we need it for, who is it going to be beneficial for us? We're playing the listening game now, but we don't have a say in anything. And that's the game that I feel like is being played with this lack of communication or miscommunications. I mean, this is what I said to Booker. Because I still have the text. I said, I hope folks know that this is not a black press meeting. You say today, Semaphore, Huffington Post, myself, a freelancer, and Ebony Jet Ryder are here. This room has gotten smaller since the first one two years

ago. The ad money speaks to this issue and actual outreach. I can guarantee you that very few people will hear about this. I have 1.26 million YouTube subscribers, a total of 4 million plus followers. Having no video just wastes the moment. And Booker agreed with me. This was April

17th. We now got 1.55 billion. But the point is, I'm like, what world are y'all living in? How in the world do you think you're going to be communicating in a new world? And this is the fundamental problem here. Democrats are getting their asses kicked because

they don't recognize that the world no longer is the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CNN, MSNBC. That ain't the world we're living in. Why did they send content creators to D.C.? I mean, to the DNC. Why did they send us to the DNC? Because that's where the public looks at us, right?

They're listening to us. There's a such thing called primaries, and this is what I tell my followers all the time. People can be primaried. They're supposed to listen to us now. We lost by doing things the old way. Jasmine Crockett should be heading that right now Nancy Pelosi I'm sorry with all due respect

she needs to go Chuck Schumer needs to go we need new leadership that is the only way that's the only way people will get elected the right people here's what's crazy here Rebecca

and Carol correct me if I'm wrong. Actually, I'll ask Carol this first. Carol, have we gotten a single email from a U.S. senator or their staff saying, hey, we'd like to get on the show to talk about, this is before the inauguration or now after, has anybody hit us and said, hey, can we come on? Okay, Carol just said no.

Now, let me be real clear. There is not a single show out there, there's not a daily show, news show, that targets African Americans that's bigger than us. Not one. It's us, us. Black-owned, independent, it's than us. Not one. It's us, us. Black-owned, independent, it's just us. And so I'm trying to figure out

what the hell is their strategy? They still have not learned from November 5th, Rebecca. Roland, at the top of the show, you talked about following the money. And one thing that I would say about Black politics versus Democratic Party politics versus Republican Party politics is that the latter two benefits financially from white supremacy. And within Black politics, we have to figure out how do we decolonize ourselves?

How do we make sure that we're not doing things to perpetuate white supremacy and cozying up for access byuate white supremacy and cozying up for access by using white supremacy tools. And the bottom line is, you know, oftentimes I talk about if I'm going into battle, if I'm going to choose fighters, I'm not choosing the Democratic Party as my fighter. I'm not choosing the Republican Party as my fighter. If this is about the existence of Black people in America, of Black Americans, even as an ethnic group in this country,

not just surviving, but thriving. You know what? It's very apparent that all we got is ourselves and the ancestors. Again, it is hilarious. I am a part of a consortium of voices that's called Chorus. And what we've done is we've gotten together, we've worked together, we've been raising additional funds, trying to help trying to help non-traditional

voices be able to survive in this world. My next guest is one of those folks, Elizabeth Booker Houston. She joins us right now. Elizabeth has her YouTube channel, and she's out there speaking to these issues every single day.

And Elizabeth, part of the reason why we created Chorus and joined together is because one of the things that the right does is they actually have their folks on each of the shows, share their content. And so all of a sudden it becomes a circular thing and they, they build, they build their audiences because they are basically in partnership. And for some nonsensical reason, progressives have not figured that out. And let me be real clear, for me,

I've never called myself progressive, I've never called myself a Democrat, I've never registered with a party, don't call myself Republican, I don't call myself independent, I'm black. So I'm real clear where I stand. I'm black, this is a show that targets African Americans. Now other folk watching listen, and I'm cool with that, a black show. This is a show that targets African-Americans. Now, other folk watching, listen, and I'm

cool with that, but I know who we deal with, so I don't use any of those labels. But this is where progressives lose. They don't understand that in 2025, we're not living in 1985 or 1975, and

they keep playing by old rules. Elizabeth, go ahead. Yep, that's basically it. They don't know how to fund this. And, you know, I've said many times when I get in the rooms with these organizations, they say, well, what can we do? And I said, well, you have to provide consistent funding because we don't have a lot of the real estate on social media. We know that it's dominated by conservatives, and they know this. I had the displeasure of being on a panel for the media post conference in D.C. last week, actually. That also included Alex Brusewitz, who is the advisor for Donald Trump. And he bragged about the fact that they have so much pull, whether it was on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, wherever. They have a lot of influence on those platforms. And we know,

even if they don't want to admit or share numbers, we know what gets talked about in these circles when it comes to contracts and pay. We know that they are being paid and funded and supported. And just like you said, it's not just money. Also, on each other's platforms, each other's podcasts, they make something happen. I mentioned one organization, for example, I said, hey, you need to look at investing in time and energy and support when it comes to Substack because that's the new place where it's in. And some people said, oh, yeah, well, we'll see in a few months and nine months, a year, how it's going. No, like you have to make it the space. That's what they do on the right.

They don't say, let's see if something's going to pop off. They say we're going to make it pop off. We're going to make it the space. We're going to make sure that we take over and that our voice is heard. Well, and also we're talking about issues. We're talking about how do you inform people? How do you make them aware? I was in I was in a group chat a little bit earlier today and I was talking about how the Trump folks, how they stopped using racial data so you couldn't track the information. And somebody goes, are you serious?

I didn't know that. And this is an extremely smart person who's a lawyer, very plugged in, but I don't assume everyone knows these things. And so if you're not using the communication mediums to be able to communicate to the people, then you're going to lose. The reason you see these right-wingers out there

who have no clue about the truth is because they are being bombarded with conservative radio, Fox News, Newsmax, OWN, O-A-N, ON American News, conservative digital, the entire ecosystem, and that's why it's a lot of clueless people because they don't

go outside of that system. And now, of course, with Elon Musk controlling, owning X, it's going to become his South Africa apartheid site. We already see how TikTok is flipping to kiss Trump's ass. So is Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, as well as Instagram.

And so this is an information war. And Folkman, to understand, in an information war, you kind of got to fight the war with the existing tools. That is exactly right. And we have to get the information out there, like you said. And we need to use all of our resources where we can. And speaking of Elon Musk and everything going on with mass deportation, that kind of information needs to get out to everyone quickly. I had the German government, the German Council on Foreign Relations relations reached out to me over a year ago and said, we want to bring some us influencers together with German influencers

and have an information exchange, give you some support, some information. They had us meet in Washington, DC, and then in Berlin, Germany, and that kind of information exchange and support, which had to come from a foreign government, not my own, by the way. They taught us so much. And one of the things that they highlighted was Alternative für Deutschland, which is AFD, translated into Alternative for Germany. They are the far-right extremist group that has tried to for mass deportation, Muslim bans. And the long goal is what they refer to as unassimilated Germans. So whether you're a migrant or not, at the end of the day, if you're not German enough, meaning fit into their white supremacist narrative, they are planning to deport you. And they were uncovered by some journalists.

I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Who again I got to meet in Berlin and talk directly to, and I got that information

in April of 2024. And so I'm thinking now I'm seeing Elon Musk in the news, praising the AFD, praising that very far right group and throwing up the Sieg Heil. And I'm thinking, oh, thank goodness I had that information exchange along with other influencers and these connections in Germany, because now I can get this information out there and quicker to people who probably are not aware of the AFD. I would be willing to bet that the majority of Americans don't even know what the AFD, what they do, who they are or the harm that they cause. And we need to pay attention because that is the blueprint that they are using to bring here to the United States.

Political sis, one of the things that like, first of all, let's be real clear. One of the reasons you're on this show, because I came across your videos where you were being very specific in trying to educate your followers about the things that are going on. And I said, OK, let's get her on the show because you need to be amplified beyond just those who follow you. And the reality is this is how things are built. Go to my iPad, Anthony. Folks, Elizabeth's YouTube channel, she's got 3.43. She's got 3,400 subscribers. She should easily be at 5,000 by the time we end this interview. But if we don't do

this, then if you have a smaller following and then I have a larger following and I'm amplifying you, then that's just information. I don't have the terrain. I don't have to go over again because you're already doing it. So we don't all have to be doing the exact same thing. And so, boom, you got this here. Cool. I don't have to cover that, but I can repost it, share on all of my social media platforms. This is how we're able to impact people. This is exactly right. Elizabeth, actually, I follow her on Instagram. So I learn a lot from her as well. If we do not have the support, unfortunately, a lot of black creators, just like black politicians, we don't have the support.

So we are not heard as or amplified like the right. And until the Democrat Party learn to do the things that the Republican parties are doing to help commentators to lie, then we're going to remain this way. One of the reasons why what I do is the reason I want people to subscribe to Elizabeth's YouTube channel, and this is not getting anybody's business, but I need people to understand the economics as well. Elizabeth, are you monetizing your YouTube channel? Yes, I am now eligible to monetize on there. And I'm just now starting to post long-form content on that platform.

The first was actually from Chorus, where we did the interview last week with the DNC chair candidates. It was the most watched DNC chair forum that has ever happened. And the reason, hey, do this here. Carol, do me a favor. I need you to get Damon Hewitt back on for some breaking news because the Justice Department, they are freezing all cases in the Civil Rights Division. Washington Post is reporting that. Yeah, I was going to go to a full screen of all our panelists. I saw your look there, Rebecca. Again, literally, the Washington Post,

Damon Hewitt just texted me there, so let's get Damon back on. And again, we told people... This is voting rights. Rebecca, we told people, well, it's. Rebecca, we told people it's voting rights, but it's also all of the cases against police departments, police officers. It's against jails and prisons.

Yes. And I have two cases involved with them, so absolutely, you're right. So, Jay, that means that your cases are frozen right now. And as if a year and a half for them even investigating these cases wasn't long enough, now there's probably going to be some more years added, conveniently

added on, but this probably has something to do with Trump said that he was going to do with law enforcement now after he became president. And again, Rebecca, for all of those black people who were out there posting videos and on their YouTube channels calling us shields for the Democrats, but they said they cared about Black Lives Matter,

all of those people who were yelling about tangibles or we're not going to vote, the people who said we want to see reparations, even though they could not articulate a pathway to actually getting it done with Republicans controlling the House. Guess what? All of y'all people. Hello. Hashtag. We tried to tell you. Here's the thing. Even in the comments, I'm looking at people talking about, you know, we're Democratic shields. Hey, it's S.H.I.L. It's not S.H.I.T.L.D. That means something completely different.

So if you're going to call us something, make sure you're accurate what you're trying to call us. Here's the bottom line. Many of us, many Black folks in this country have been here for hundreds of years. So when we tell you, hey, this is what this regime is talking about, when they use certain coded language, we're saying it because our ancestors have been here. So I understand, like, you know, there's talk about the FBA and ADOS. Cool. Guess what? I'm a foundational Black American then by that definition, because how long my family has been in this country. It still doesn't mean that I want to live in a country where rights are rolled back.

Because one thing that I firmly understand is if someone's rights are rolled back, mine are next. Like, when you are Black in this country, if gay people are attacked, Black people are going to be attacked. If religious minorities are attacked, Black people are going to be attacked. If immigrants are attacked in this country, Black people are going to be attacked. Because one thing you even have to understand about American jurisprudence, the reason why these other groups have rights is because of Black Americans. So if they're starting to chip away at specific rights, they're chipping away at the American jurisprudence that was off of the backs of Black people in this country.

And you have to understand what's happening here. It's not just these ancillary groups or these other groups, these other minority groups are getting all of the stuff, but they're going after the foundation of this country. And if you are black American, if your family has been in this country for hundreds of years, the foundational part of America that's under attack are a lot of those things that black folks in this country have contributed to. People have to understand that context. Elizabeth, the folks in our chat are asking, what kind of content do you do on your channel? It's legal and political analysis. I am a lawyer as well as a social scientist. I work in federal privacy law, so I'm sure I'm going to be very busy for the next four

years. Yes, yes, you are. To our folks, listen, listen, you're up to 3,600 subscribers, folks. I want that to be up to 5,000. It's almost 7,000 of y'all watching us live right now. So 1,400 of you subscribe to Elizabeth's channel. She's going to hit 5,000. So I want y'all to get that done. Elizabeth, I appreciate it. We're going to have you back on the show. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you, folks. Let's go to the breaking news. Damon Hewitt is back, who leads the Lawrence Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Damon, you just sent me this text literally six minutes ago, this Washington Post story. So the yahoos in the Trump Department of Justice, they're freezing all civil rights cases? That's exactly what it looks like, according to The Washington Post. They're freezing all civil rights cases, no new cases, no new consent decrees, no new statements of interest where the government steps into other people's private litigation to articulate the interests on civil rights for the United States. This is a stunning flex of all the things that we've seen. But this is them telling us exactly who they are. They don't want to just change philosophy. They want to grind justice to a halt in this country when it comes to civil rights.

Yeah. I mean, listen, Donald Trump consistently said that he wanted to give police officers 100% immunity in cases. And I kept warning people on this show. I've warned them for more than a year. You're not going to see a civil rights division led by Christian Clark repeated under that crazy fool Trump. They're not going to go after cops. They're not going to go after the police department.

That was one patterns and practices investigation under the Trump administration the first time. Some small department out of Louisiana. You ain't going to even see that one. They do not give a damn about civil rights. You're going to see more religious rights cases. And so

this is a huge, huge issue that folk better realize is now a problem for the next four, at least the next four years. At least the next four years. Look, we knew that we would have to step up. If the attorney general and their minions won't do the job, then we as private attorneys general

have to step in. That's why we were founded in the 1960s and so many other organizations as well. But, you know, justice delayed can be justice denied. And I think that's part of the worry. But I will say this. To the extent they try to stop or pause ongoing litigation, they can't do that on their own. Federal judges have to be willing dance partners. Now, I'm certain some of them will be, but others won't. Others will draw that line in the sand. Others will say, this is not a place for ideology. This is a place for law. This

is a place for justice, the federal courts. And so we're going to have to call upon the higher, better angels of federal judges, regardless of who nominated them, to actually do the right thing here and push them to make sure that that happens. We will certainly be doing that, I believe, in our cases, if this reporting is true. All right, then. Damian Hewitt, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot for that. Of course, man. I'm going to bring in right now Ellie Mistel, of course, justice correspondent with The Nation. Ellie, before we get to the topic we were going to talk about with you, this news here is huge. And again, this is one of those things that we warn people.

You heard Damon talk about, well, you know, these federal judges are going to have to do their job. But here's the problem. Again, elections have consequences. When you have Republicans who now have a 53 to 47 majority in the United States Senate, they can now confirm hardcore right wing federal judges. And that's exactly what they want to do. And so when you look at this is the headline, folks, go to my iPad from The Washington Post. Justice Department freezes all cases in Civil Rights Division. The memo doesn't state how long the freeze will last, but it essentially shuts down the Civil Rights Division for at least the first weeks of the Trump administration.

That is serious, Ellie. This is directly from Project 2025. I wrote about specifically the DOJ section in Project 25 and how they promised to do exactly this, completely remake the Civil Rights Division, shut it down, prevent it from prosecuting cases on behalf of affected minorities, and instead turn the Civil Rights Division into an organization that sues on behalf of white folks who feel like their racial justice has been threatened by sharing the country with black and brown people. I wrote that in July, I think, of last year before the election, and I couldn't get on television to talk about it. And I couldn't get on mainstream programs to talk—I mean, I talked about it here with

you, Roland. I couldn't get on many mainstream programs to talk about it. And when I did, the white folks told me that I was gaslighting them, that Trump had disavowed Project 2025 and it wasn't going to happen. So there is a big part of me that's like, what did y'all think was going to happen?

He literally wrote it down. They literally wrote it down. People told you that they were, what they were going to do. And now they're doing it and people are acting like, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening. What did you think? Yeah.

What, you think I was exaggerating? All right. They wrote it down, I read it, I reported it, and now they're doing it. Man, we pounded on the table every single day over and over and over again. Go back to my iPad, Anthony. This is the Washington Post story.

The letter instructs Kathleen Wolf, designated by the Trump administration as supervisor of the Civil Rights Division, to ensure that civil rights attorneys do not file, quote, any new complaints, motions to intervene, agreed upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest. The memo doesn't state how long the freeze will last, but essentially shuts down the Civil Rights Division for at least the first weeks of the Trump administration. Trump's nominee to lead the department, Harmet Dhillon, a Republican lawyer and activist, is awaiting Senate confirmation.

The memo states that officials are implementing the freeze to be, quote, consistent with the department's goal of ensuring that the federal government speaks with one voice in its view of the law and to ensure that the president's appointees or designees have the opportunity to decide whether to initiate any new cases. This is what that means, Ellie. All of you career lawyers, we're going to get rid of every single one of you.

We're going to control every case. We're going to decide everything. And in fact, it's not even going to be we. It's not going to be Dylan. It's not going to be Pam Bondi. Donald Trump will be running the Department of Justice. He'll be running the Civil Rights Division. There's not going to be any wall there.

And if Kash Patel is confirmed or whoever's confirmed to lead the FBI, Donald Trump will be determining who gets investigated. And you're right. It was all in Project 2025. And what Trump lied, said he didn't know about it. These dumbasses out here said, see, he said he didn't know anything about it. Yet he is implementing the plan because he's hiring all the people who wrote the plan. He's taking us back to pre-1860, pre-1865 America.

He's taking us back to the antebellum point in America. And you say, you know, it's not going to be Pam Bondi. Make no mistake, if the Senate confirms Pam Bondi as attorney general, she will be in charge of implementing these rules, and she doesn't have to, all right? The Department of Justice has independent authority to bring cases on behalf of the people of the United States, not the orange dictator bigot of the United States, but the people of the United States. Pam Bondi could ignore this order. She's not going to, because she's a weak sycophantic person—sycophant and a weak

person, but she could. I mean, I think we all—having all just lived through the Merrick Garland era, I think we all should know that the attorney general has immense independent power from the White House, but Pam Bondi is going to do what—she's going to dance with the person who brought them, and she's going to carry out the racist, white supremacist intentions of the Trump administration and refuse to bring valid lawsuits on behalf of the American people. So, I don't want to—it's not her call—it's not her decision, but I don't want to let her off the hook, because she could show character, strength, resolve, any quality.

She could show any quality of a decent human being. She's not going to, but she could. So I don't want to let her completely off the hook. In terms of further, like, court actions, you've got to remember, we're dealing with a Supreme Court that's already been captured by the MAGA forces and the white supremacist forces. I honestly think that this current—there are at least four, if not five or six, votes on the Supreme Court who don't think the Civil Rights

Act should exist at all. Who straight up don't think that the Voting Rights Act or the Civil Rights Act should exist at all, and challenges basically canceling out the Civil Rights Act, the one of the—the 19-634 Civil Rights Act, one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history, the thing, more so than Brown v. Board of Ed, that ended Jim Crow, the white apartheid domination of this country, that act itself is, if not under direct threat through legal challenges, it's certainly something that the Supreme Court is going to simply ignore over the next at least four years and potentially longer than that. So again, I don't know what to tell people. This is what America voted for.

Well, that's why we have a shirt called, y'all show the graphic, hashtag WeTriedToTellYou, FAFO 2025, and that's also... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Why y'all see me wearing that shirt, you see it right there. Y'all can go to rolandmartin.creator-spring.com or the Black Star Network. This is why I'm wearing my shirt. Don't blame me. I voted for the black Network. This is why I'm wearing my shirt. Don't blame me. I voted for the black woman. That's why I'm wearing a shirt. We tried to tell y'all, but a lot of folk, y'all didn't pay attention or y'all play other games.

You fucked around. Now you're about to find out. Folks, 22 states have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration to challenge an executive order that could revoke U.S. citizenship for some children born in the United States. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge John Kofner will hear arguments regarding a temporary

restraining order to prevent the enforcement of this executive order. Joining us along with Ellie is Yannick Gill, senior counsel at Human Rights First. Glad to have you, Yannick. And of course, Ellie, you're still with us, and I still have my panel as well. Yannick, this is very simple. Conservatives want this to go to the Supreme Court. Here's what they know. They now have a 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court. Even though Amy Coney Barrett has ruled in a few cases, even though John Roberts, the reality is they know they have a lot.

They want to go after it all. They want to go after the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment, and hell, probably the 13th. For everybody who's listening and understand, those were the Reconstruction Amendments passed by radical Republicans after the Civil War. We know what's going on here, Yannick. As Ellie said, they have long despised the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, even the Fair Housing Act. This is an effort to completely undo the Reconstruction Amendments,

as well as the 1960s and those critical three civil rights laws. And you couldn't say better. This is not about anti-immigrant sentiment. This isn't even about immigration law. What we are seeing right now is a white backlash. This is anti-immigrant, anti-back legislation being codified by the man that was voted in, by folks that didn't attribute racism, xenophobia, to themselves. I am gravely concerned about the apathy that I am seeing in Black communities surrounding an attack on immigration communities, on immigrant laws. The executive order directly cites the same 14th Amendment you did, as in the Dred Scott Amendment,

as in the only reason that we are not seen as property in this country. Donald Trump forecasted all of these issues, and we in the migration space have been monitoring this as early as 2015. This is not a surprise. This is actually an implementation of what he has been trying to do, which is all a nod to the great replacement theory, all that's in Project 2025. What we have to do now is really focus on what is essentially going to be unconstitutional. But the concern lies with who is going to be impacted, which

asylum seekers are going to be impacted, which naturalized-born citizens are going to be impacted in the interim. It's a legal mess, but those of us at Human Rights First and those of us that are educated about what is happening have to speak out against this. This can't stand, and we have to look at the pain of others

being reflected back on ourselves because as this executive order is showing, it's only a matter of time before it ends up in our front door. And Ellie, here's the whole deal. When these Republican governors like Rhonda Sambis and Greg Abbott sent migrants to Chicago and New York and D.C.

and other places, it was all up to gen up unrest in black communities. Donald Trump talked about, oh, they're taking the black jobs, taking the black jobs. And guess what? Silly black people fell for it. You got so-called activists running around in Chicago tearing down the mayor. Oh, the migrants are getting this, getting that.

They don't even realize that what the Republicans are doing is they don't just want to close the border. They literally want to use this in order to engender black support and they want to go after the civil rights laws and the protections to then go after the economic gains. This is not like, oh, well, you know,

we're with them on closing the border. No! They don't just want to close the border. They want to shut down even the black folks who are here. So all you FBA, B1 folks and everyone understand the game they're playing is way bigger than what y'all even think. Yeah, look, I obviously agree with Yannick. We have to care about immigration. We have to care about others. But if I'm being real, Roland, I also care about immigration. We have to care about others. But if I'm being real, Roland, I also care about me. And I also care about my right to citizenship in this country. Now, I am an American born citizen. I'm from Queens, right? And you can trace my people from my mother's side all the way

back to a plantation in Georgia that was free when Sherman marched through the South. So, like, I'm solid on that side of my family. My father is from Haney, but I'm solid on that side of the family. But that doesn't mean that I'm protected when you start coming for birthright citizenship, because people, Black people especially, need to understand that our claim to be Americans is centered in the idea of birthright citizenship. That's not how they do it in the old world. That's not how they do it in the old world. That's not how they do it in Asia, in Europe, in Africa even. They go by what's called—by what the scholars will call jus sanguinis, which is Latin for

rule of the blood. In other countries, in the old world, your citizenship is conferred to you by your parents. It is something that is passed down to you by your parents. It is something that is passed down to you by your parents. That's not how we do it in the new world. That's not how we do it in America or Canada or Mexico or all of South America or most of the islands, right? And the reason for that is slavery. The reason for that is because none of us here in the Americas are actually from here, except for the Native Americans, right? I was talking about my father is from Haiti. My father ain't Taino, the indigenous people of Hispaniola, because white people killed all the indigenous people from Hispaniola.

White people killed most of the indigenous people from Queens, where I'm from. So everybody in the new world is a descendant either of colonists, a descendant of immigrants, or a descendant of slaves. Some of us are descendants from all three. And so when you go at birthright citizenship, when you say it doesn't matter where you are, it matters what your parents are from, it matters what your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents did. It don't take too long for the white folks to say, and you, son of freed slave Z.P. Pittman, you are not a real American citizen, because you are only here because of the birthright citizenship granted to you by the first sentence of the

14th Amendment. And that, we have already proven, can be taken away. So much as I care about other communities—and believe me, I do care about other communities—I also care about me, and I also care about my community, and this is coming after us, too. The thing right here that jumps out, Rebecca, is that, and Elliot's talked about it, Yannick has talked about it,

and I really need, I really need everybody who's watching and listening to get it. What the conservatives have been doing since Brown v. Board of Education, they have been seething. They have been since Brown v. Board of Education. They have been seething.

They have been angry. So you go from that decision to 55, the Montgomery bus boycott, you then go to Kennedy's election, you then go to those three Civil Rights Act, they have been angry, and they were angry at federal judges. So they said, we're go to those three Civil Rights Act, they have been angry. And they were angry at federal judges. So they said, we're going to lock and load. Then they said, no, we've got to create our own think tanks. They funded that. Then we've got to create the Federalist Society to control the federal bench. They are playing a 100, no, they're playing a 1,000-year war. That's what they're doing.

And so what liberals and progressives did, they went, oh, the courts have decided these things. They fell for star decisis, whatever the hell they call it. And oh, no, they're never going to overturn those things. And they're like, nope. Guess what? President don't mean shit. We can overturn it. This is literally, with that billionaire who gave Leonard Leo that $1.3 billion,

and he says, we're going after academia. We're going after Hollywood. They want to completely reshape the entire country. So for the black people who keep falling for the okey-doke for this small sliver of immigration, that ain't just it. They want to reshape it all, including black people. The 14th Amendment is about black folks,

like just what Elisha's talked about when it talks about citizenship in this country. The reason why citizenship is important in this country is because it's about who has the right to petition the government and to ask for things, to ask for protections, to ask for money. And so even to your point earlier, for all of those, my fellow Black folks who are on the side of we want reparations, if you are not a citizen in this country, then you do not have standing to even petition the government to ask that. Even when the guest earlier, Elizabeth, when she was talking about what she learned in Berlin and talking about that far right group, and they were saying, well, if you're not assimilating properly, then there's an issue. So when you bring back Brown v. Board of Education, and when we've talked to many civil rights icons who are, fortunately, some of them

are still alive now, they talked about they weren't fighting for integration, aka assimilation. They were fighting for desegregation. So Black folks in this country had access to the full faith and power of the United States, meaning the ability to enter into contracts, the ability to get loans, to have access to capital, the ability to actually build a town, a city, and not get burned down by a paramilitary group, which we just found out definitively by the U.S. government that that's what happened in Tulsa. So people have to get away from some of these petty-anny games of, oh, I'm anti-immigrant or whatever, because this is attacking Black folks here. And people have to understand what the underpinning

of these arguments and what the underpinning of what Project 2025 and what this new administration's agenda is. It goes back to that foundational stuff. So if people want to talk about foundational America, then this is what the argument is. But you have to understand the context to even know what's going on instead of falling for the okie doke and saying, oh, well, yeah, you know, these folks are here now are taking my job. It's deeper than that. Political says you're there in North Carolina. They're literally trying to steal a Supreme Court seat They have a five to two majority

They wanted to be six to one Anita Earles is up for reelection next year And then of course, there are three Republicans who were up in 2028 they do not want that court to return back to Democratic control The Republicans have lost the supermajority in the legislature, but they want to control everything. Again, black folks who sat on their ass in North Carolina need to understand that they could change the results of the state. People do not get it. I need black people who are 18 to 35 to stop fucking around and realize if you actually want a country that gives you a shot, you better realize the game being played

and sitting your ass on the sideline ain't gonna cut it. And it's not just that. They're also trying to strip the power away from our current governor and our attorney general. But I want to go back to, I think, Rebecca, I hope I'm saying your name right. Yes, Rebecca.

Rebecca, I'm sorry. Rebecca, if I'm saying your name right. Yes, Rebecca. Rebecca, I'm sorry. Rebecca, if I'm not mistaken, the 14th Amendment came from the 13th Amendment, right? Because slavery was banned. And because of that, states came in with the black codes, and then we have the 14th Amendment. So at the end of the day, it still comes back to black folks, citizens. It still comes back to black folks. When America is bleeding, black people are dying. Everything comes back to us. All laws just about comes back to us. And we need to understand this.

This is why I say it's so important that we understand our history, because history does repeat itself. Unfortunately, the bad history repeats itself too, only if we allow it. Yannick and Ellie, look, the lawsuit by these folks challenging the 14th Amendment is going to wind its way through the courts. But what they're doing, and I'm going to go to Yannick first,

then Ellie, then I'm going to go to Jade. What they're doing is they are trying to chip, chip, chip, chip, chip, chip away. They did this with the Voting Rights Act after Section 4, then Section 2. That's what they're doing here. Yannick, you first. If we look at the language,

all persons born and naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States. It does not take a legal education to understand that very plain language. Now they're trying to attack jurisdiction of any person in this country, regardless of their nationality, regardless of where they are from, is under the jurisdiction of the laws of this country. We see that all the time when it comes to this alleged crimes ring that's happening within immigrant communities. But I also want to go back to the point around this division that seems to exist between the ways that the laws are applied to the

immigrant community and the Black community. I think the name that all of your viewers should look up is Peter Sean Brown. This is a Black man born in Pennsylvania, living in Florida, who himself was found in ICE custody. Why? Because of perception. Why? Because of the way that he looked.

We have to understand that these laws are not going to be applied with any sort of logic. They are trying to dismantle a system that was already broken. Mr. Brown was in detention for weeks, weeks, being deported to Jamaica, a country he had only seen on a cruise, because of these same concepts that the Trump administration is now trying to push forward under these executive orders. So you're saying, so let me be clear, so you're saying that if an ICE officer goes, hey, Roland Martin looks like he ain't from here. They, that's, that's where the carrier paper's from. They are setting it up where they can detain anyone for any reason.

So I'm going to, this is going to be going back to South Africa, where they had the past book, where I'm going to have to prove my citizenship. Right? Listen, we've seen it already. Our communities are over police. I lived in the Dominican Republic, one of the only other countries that has similar laws around birthright citizenship. And there, anyone who was perceived as Haitian is regularly dealing with police harassment and having to show their papers. That is what Trump is trying to replicate in 2025. Make it make sense.

Yelly? Yeah, so I want to talk a little bit about the court case itself, because I don't want to give false hope. This is such a flagrant violation of the 14th Amendment that I don't think, at least right now, he's got five votes for it. But the question is always one of timing. If you look at the operations clause of the executive order, it authorizes starting 30 days from Monday, for the Bureau

of Vital Statistics to stop issuing birth certificates, for the Social Security Administration to stop issuing Social Security numbers and ID cards. And if you're ever a parent, you know you get those things pretty much before you leave the hospital. You apply for those things before you leave the hospital when you have a new miracle in your life. So, starting 30 days from now, there is going to be a class of babies who nobody knows exists, who have no official documentation of their citizenship or just identification because of these Trump orders. So, let's say the Supreme Court doesn't take this case before 30 days from now, before

February 20th. We start with now everybody born on February 20th. We don't know how many people are going to be effective, right? Going forward, going forward, if a court takes a year, two years to get around to overturning this case—and I'm saying being hopeful. Let's say the court eventually overturns it. If it takes them years to do that, you're going to have an entire class of citizens who aren't, who don't have, who should be citizens, but don't have any papers in any documentation.

And who's going to go back and find them and make sure they get their birth certificate, make sure they get their papers, right? They're going to be what, two years old. They can't say lawyer yet, right? So who's going to... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Go back and do that. And then the other thing we have to remember is that even if the court

overturns this executive order, who's going to stop Trump? Trump is the person who controls the military. He controls the Justice and State Department. He controls all the federal agencies that we're talking about that might issue these documentations. What if Trump just says, no, I'm just not going to follow that order. I'm going to follow that order very slowly with all deliberate speed, which is another trick the white man likes to use. We are looking at irreparable harm if the Supreme Court even allows this order to take effect within the next 30 days. And that's assuming that eventually, a year, two years,

three years from now, the Supreme Court gets around to blocking it and restoring birthright citizenship. That will come too late for one-year-old and two-year-old and three-year-old babies who were born without identification, without birth certificates. And then you can always imagine— Remember, the birtherism that Trump started with, he never went away. He never stopped. The white media stopped talking about it, but he never stopped thinking about it. It's a way to question the very birth certificates

of people who aren't white in this country. Jade, people may think, oh, you guys are just being alarming. We're trying to tell you this is a five alarm fire that's rapidly going to be a six, a seven, an

eight, a ten. It's going to be a raging inferno. I'm not being callous with what's happening in California, but people need to understand that Project 2025 was real. It was not a document. It was a game plan that they are executing. Jade? Yeah, Roland, one of the things I wish that people pay closer attention to during the election season was that the best indication or indicative of how the future is going to

be is based on the past, right? And in 1973, Donald Trump and his father had to settle a case against a fair housing—they had a regulation for a restriction against a fair housing act in which people were trying to move into their properties who were black, but they were discriminating against those who look like us because they were predominantly white buildings and wealthy buildings. So that is—this happened 40 years ago, right? So he showed us what he's capable of, and he's reminding us now, but he's more empowered. So now he has more power, so it's going to be a lot more vicious.

And when you talk about the citizenship, you all gave analogies as well. When you were talking, the only analogy that kept popping in my head was like, this reminds me of when the slaves were free, right? But they had to have freedom thinkers, right? So if someone's going to get stopped, then what do I have to, I have to give you these papers for my citizenship. That's the analogy that was painted in my head. So I think you made a really critical point earlier, Roland, when you said this generation up to that 19 or 20 years old to 35 of black people, they really need to wake up

because they're distracted. I believe they're distracted on social media, so you're only seeing what they want you to see about Project 22, right? Or about what the next administration plans are. They're selectively showing you what they want you to see, so you're not woke enough and you're too distracted to pay attention to what the real plans are, which are going on right now. Yeah, the only reason I'm saying 1835, because in 30 years, that 18-year-old is going to be 48

years old. And don't think for a second that what's happening today will not have a direct impact on you when you're approaching your 50s. And we start talking about Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. That's what we're talking about. This is not, oh, man, you calling out young folks. No, this is saying every decision being made today has a direct impact on the next 30 to 40 to 50 years. Yannick and Ellie, I appreciate y'all joining us. Thank you so very much. Won't be the last time y'all are on the show.

Folks, again, the reason we are being so serious about this, I know somebody is saying, well, isn't there other news out there other than what Donald Trump is doing? Understand that the reason we have to sit here and deal with this is because, again, the policies that are in place, the policies that are being put in place. And so they now control, again, 53-47 in the United States Senate. You look at them having a very narrow majority in the U.S. House. But here's a perfect example. Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, when he was asked today about the Trump January 6th pardons, you know what he said? You know what? That's Trump. He can do what he wants, but they're going to investigate the Biden pardons. I'm sorry. The Biden pardons happened before the Trump pardons. That's just reality. And we have to realize that their desire is not to even address anything.

Their desire is to say, oh, no, we're just going to keep going back and calling what they did, what they did, what they did. Here's a perfect example. You take what's happening at CNN. Like right now, okay, CNN CEO Mark Thompson apparently called Jim Acosta and talked about moving Jim Acosta like it's a promotion to a midnight show. Anybody knows that show will be dead in the water from his current perch in the morning. Okay, good ratings, which says a lot for CNN because basically it sucks all around. But understand they're doing that to cater to Trump. They're catering to Trump.

All the networks are. First of all, Sean Hannity yesterday did his show from the U.S. House with Republicans as his studio audience. So we know Sean Hannity and Fox News is absolutely the communications arm for the Republican Party. That's just an absolute fact. But what you need to understand is that they don't want to answer anything and they want to just ram this thing through. This is a conversation that Jim Acosta had today with Tim Burchett, who is one of the craziest members of Congress and who was very IS ONE OF THE CRAZIEST MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND WHO WAS VERY MUCH INVOLVED IN THE ATTEMPT TO

OVERTHROW THE ELECTION. IF YOU WANT TO HEAR CRAZY, WATCH THIS. THIS MORNING, THE LEADERS OF TWO FAR RIGHT EXTREMIST GROUPS ARE FREE AFTER BEING PARDONED FOR HELPING TO PLAN THE JANUARY 6TH INSURRECTION. FORMER PROUD BOYS LEADER ENRIQUE TARIO AND OATHKEEPER'S FOUNDER STUART ROSE, BOTH CONVICTED OF SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY, LEFT PRISON ON TUESDAY, insurrection. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stuart Rhodes, both convicted of seditious conspiracy, left prison on Tuesday, just hours after President Trump granted clemency to more than 1,500 people charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election, rioting at the Capitol. Let's discuss that and more now with Republican Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee. Congressman, thanks so much for being here. Axios is reporting that Trump's January 6th pardons were a last-minute decision. His team

was reportedly wrestling with how to handle them. But according to one advisor, Trump said, quote, F it, release them all. Your response? Well, Jim, as always, it's good to be on here for my weekly beating from you all at CNN. And I appreciate you, brother. And I was thinking about you this morning, actually, because I remember Rush Limbaugh. Somebody called in when Bill Clinton was elected president and they said, oh, I bet you're depressed. And he said, depressed? Heck no, I got four years of material. Just think, you've got four, where you're standing right now on January 6th.

People who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. I spoke with Officer Harry Dunn at the top of the program. I spoke with the ex-wife of Stuart Rhodes, Tasha Adams. They are both worried about their safety. Do you defend what Donald Trump did, releasing these people from prison, pardoning them, commuting their sentences? Yes or no? It was the last person to leave the Capitol grounds, excuse me, the floor of the Capitol, last member of Congress on January 6th when all this went down. I was offended as anybody. If they crossed those barriers, they were breaking the law.

But you've got to realize, too, they were charged under federal law. Many of them never even saw their day in court and were sitting in a jail cell. So the whole thing is bad news. But you also— Congressman, I asked you a yes or no question. Do you agree with President Trump's decision to pardon these violent people and releasing them from jail? If they were truly violent, no. But do I know that they were? I don't know that. What do you mean you don't know that? We're showing the footage on the air right

now. Congressman, you were there that day. There are offenders on January 6th who violently beat police officers. There are offenders who are convicted of seditious conspiracy. That is the truth. This is a political world, Jim, and I don't remember you all on CNN condemning Joe Biden for commuting the sentences of murders and child molesters, which he did. And you all refused. Congressman, I'm not asking you about that. Congressman, we talked about Joe Biden's part.

You never do, Jim. Congressman, we did talk about it. We talked about Joe Biden's part. Oh, Jim, you all refuse. Congressman, I'm not asking you about that. Congressman, we have talked about Joe Biden's parties. You never do, Jim. Congressman, we did talk about it. We talked about Joe Biden's parties. Oh, Jim, you did not. You all read your report from the Democrat National Committee, as you always do. That is absolutely false. Congressman, are you going to respond and say whether or not it is right to let these people out of jail? I don't know if it is or not.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'll tell you what is it, right? You're a congressman. You're a member of Congress. You're an elected official. Take a stand. They were not given due process. I told you if they crossed the line, they were trespassers. Should they rot in jail for the rest of their lives

in a federal penitentiary and never be charged? Beating police officer, tasing police officers. Seditious conspiracy. What you're forgetting to say is the ones that he didn't release. Why did he not release those? POLICE OFFICERS, TASING POLICE OFFICERS, SEGITIOUS CONSPIRACY. WHAT YOU'RE FORGETTING TO SAY IS THE ONES THAT HE DIDN'T RELEASE. WHY DID HE NOT RELEASE THOSE? THERE ARE SEVERAL THAT HE DID. THIS BLANKET THING YOU'RE ALL TALKING ABOUT IS NOT A BLANKET. IT'S NOT A BLANKET PARDON. THERE WERE SEVERAL THAT HE DIDN'T FOR THOSE VERY SAME REASONS.

WHY ARE YOU NOT FOCUSING ON THEM? WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE LEADER OF THE OATH KEEPERS, THE LEADER OF THE PROUD BOYS. THEY SHOULD BE RELEASED FROM PRISON? WHAT ABOUT THE LEADER OF THE FBI? Congressman, we're talking about the leader of the Oath Keepers, the leader of the Proud Boys. They should be released from prison? What about the leader of the FBI? What about the FBI agents that were on the grounds, that were in that mess? Congressman, the leader of the FBI was not rioting at the Capitol that day and beating up police officers. Whatever happened to Back the Blue? I want to show this.

The Fraternal Order of Police, another police organization out there, the International Organization of Police Chiefs. If we can show that up on screen, that would be great. They both say that what President Trump did is wrong. They're deeply discouraged by these pardons. And I want to ask you, whatever happened— Jim, if they broke the law, they ought to be in jail. If they broke the law, they ought to be in jail. You know, you spring this stuff on me.

I don't know. I haven't seen the tapes of these individuals of what happened to back the blue what happened to backing police I was hit pause hit pause okay the reason I'm laughing Jade political says and Rebecca I haven't seen the tapes. You spring this thing on me. It happened four years ago. There was literally a January 6th committee. Videos have been shown ad nauseum all over. So what a member of Congress is saying, I have been so out to lunch that in the last four years, I hadn't seen nothing.

I hadn't heard nothing. He's like, you were there. It's like, what are you talking about? These people kiss so much Trump ass, they all look like they're in blackface. That's how much a Trump ass they kiss. Orange face. They sitting here, Jim, I hadn't seen it.

I hadn't seen it. We're showing it right now. And y'all, I guarantee you, there was a monitor sitting in front of him. What people need to understand, he was one of the people who were a part of the overthrow effort. The head of one of those folks who got released, Tarrio, got 22 years in prison.

The head of the Oath Keepers got 18 years in prison. Oh, and were y'all aware of what happened today? That Oath, the God, the Oath Keeper. Hold on, I got to show y'all aware of what happened today? That oath, the guy, the oath keeper. Hold on, I got to show y'all too. If y'all want to understand how much these people are in bed together, I don't know if y'all saw this here, but I'm going to show this because I'm about to blow y'all away if y'all have not seen this.

Sam Stein of the Bulwark posted this photo. This photo, that's Stuart Rhodes, who was just pardoned, he was the Oath Keeper guy. Let the, no, no, no, no, no, I ain't blowing y'all away yet. Do you know where he's sitting, political sis? He's sitting in the Dunkin' Donuts in the Longworth building where

House members' offices are. Let me repeat that again for everybody who now, come to me, I want to repeat. The guy that you're seeing, Stuart Rhodes, Oath Keepers, who led the O come to me, I want to pick. The guy that you're seeing, Stuart Rhodes, Oath Keepers, who led the Oath Keepers,

okay, a violent group. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He got one of the 1,500 pardons of Donald Trump. Today, this is him sitting

in the Dunkin' Donuts in the Longworth building in Washington, D.C., where members of Congress are. When asked about him, John Thune, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, goes, I don't know what they do over in the House. He wouldn't even address it. If you don't, if you were questioning whether these Oath Keepers, these Promise, whatever these Proud Boys, if you were wondering if they, in cahoots with the Republican Party,

exhibit 20,896 political assists. I mean, Lauren Boebert, didn't she invite them? Yeah. Did she not invite them? In fact, in fact, the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee dropped this

video today reminding Republicans of what happened on January 6th and it includes the person you just mentioned, Lauren Boebert. Roll it. So this is January 6th, and these

are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 for a pardon. Full pardon. This pardon that Donald Trump has issued is sweeping. It is 1,500 people. That is every single person charged in any kind of a way tied to January 6th,

including those, the more than 500 or so, who are charged with violent offenses. They're victims of what happened. All they were doing is protesting a rigged election. That's what they were doing is protesting a rigged election. That's and they were unbelievable Patriots. Among those you pardon, DJ Rodriguez, he drove a stun gun into the neck of a D.C. police officer who was abducted by the mob that day. He later confessed on video to the FBI and pleaded guilty for his crimes.

Why does he deserve a pardon? Okay, well, we'll take a look at everything. Look for intel here, guys. Intel. Where did this motherfucker go? They were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable and it was a beautiful day. String all these fucking worthless bastards up from the top of those. We hope they get him. We hope they come out tonight, frankly. Speaker Mike Johnson was pressed by reporters.

Here's what he had to say. It's not my place. It's the president's sole decision, and he made a decision, so I stand with him on it. We hope they're going to be released shortly. They should be released shortly. A pardon is a pardon. I want to see them for their release, and, you know, I'll be the first member of Congress to offer them a guided tour in the Capitol.

Whoo! So, Boebert says, when they're released, I'm going to offer them a guided-it-through in the Capitol. Political sis, take it away. Oh, wow. Can we just... Can we take a step back for a minute? Like, we're talking about Lauren Boebert.

I need for her to focus on her son right now. I need for her to focus on her son. That's what she needs to do. Second, in reference to the... If you don't mind, I want to go back to the police unions, because I'm a little shocked that they made a comment saying that they are upset that Trump pardoned these people, but they also threw Biden in there about Biden commuting and pardoning people, too. Well, first off, the police unions, they already knew what Trump was going to do before they endorsed him.

This is not the first time the biggest union, police union in the United States endorsed him. Secondly, when it comes to Biden, the Waverly case is what they're talking about, number one. Those two guys were acquitted of killing those police officers. But they did get locked up for drug charges. That is what Joe Biden pardoned those two guys on. So I want to make sure we are clear. And in reference to Joe Biden's son, I would have did the same thing. It is what it is. And also, I think Democrats need to capitalize on this video. Now is the time they stand up and they actually talk about what's going on.

I don't see him anywhere, except for Jasmine Crockett. I see none of them out there in the public talking about it. I don't see them on TikTok. No, we're talking about it. None of them except for AOC and Jasmine Crockett. I mean, the thing that people need to understand here, Rebecca, reporters questioning him about one of the January 6th domestic terrorists taking a stun gun and plunging it into the neck of a cop. He then goes, we'll look into it.

Hey, dumbass, you can't rescind a pardon. Once you give it, that's it. You can't go, oh, damn, my bad. You got to go back to jail. No, that's not how it works. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. But this idiot said he didn't want to waste any time. He said, fuck it, pardon them all. That's what he said. That's what's being reported. He didn't want to look at the case-by-case basis. All of them are getting up.

You know, and this wasn't last minute. I mean, AND THIS WASN'T LAST MINUTE. I MEAN, IT'S WEDNESDAY, Y'ALL. THIS JUST HAPPENED ON MONDAY. THOSE PEOPLE PROBABLY HAVEN'T EVEN SHOWERED. THEY STILL SMELL LIKE PRISON. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN INSIDE OF A PRISON? THERE'S A SMELL.

LONG WORTH RETURNING TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME. WE JUST GOT TO ACKNOWLEDGE HOW BIZARRE THIS IS. AND SO FOR THAT MEMBER OF CONGRESS TO SAY, oh, I have no idea what happened four years ago, we'll look into it, but let me tell you about what Biden just did.

How do you know about the people that Biden pardoned if you don't even know what happened four years ago? Like, make it make sense. Like, I just want to acknowledge how bizarre this is. It's bizarre, but I got to show you a little more of the surface. Press play. IT'S BIZARRE, BUT I GOT TO SHOW YOU A LITTLE MORE OF THE SURFACE. PRESS PLAY.

YOUR PARTY HAS SAID TIME AND AGAIN, WE BACK THE BLUE. IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU LET DOWN THE BLUE. YOU'RE BETRAYING THE BLUE. JIM, WHY DON'T YOU JUST GIVE AN EDITORIAL AND NOT LET ME COME ON? LOOK, WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST FOUR YEARS WITH POLICE? WHAT HAPPENED WITH ALL THE RIOTS THAT TOOK PLACE ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY? POLICE OFFICERS WERE MURDERED. give an editorial and not let me come on. Look, what happened in the last four years with police? What happened with all the riots that took place all across the country? Police officers were murdered. Courthouses were burned. Over 22 police cars were burned. Yet no one went to jail for that. Where is your crocodile tears for that?

You're engaging in a game of whataboutism. People were obviously prosecuted after those rights. Every day. Every day. What are you talking about what we're doing at CNN? We didn't storm the Capitol. These people did. And President Trump let them out of jail. Why not just say you were...

Freeze. Cops were killed all around the country and nobody went to jail for that? That's bullshit. We can call a lie on that. You can't show me where a cop got killed and nobody went to jail. Oh, I think that was a cop who got killed in Baltimore who they believe was killed by fellow cops

because he was going to tell on them. He was going to snitch. Maybe that's what Tim Burchett is talking about. Continue. Wrong, Mr. President. Say it. Why can't you say it? Jim, as I said, individually, I don't know the case, but on several he did not release from jail. Why are you not putting the story out on that and saying it's a blanket? Showing the tapes of these individuals beating the police. Jim, I can't name the case.

Can't name the person. I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, but I know he did it. You're an idiot. And you know what? I think Tim Burchett, I think Burchett has now surpassed in terms of, because you know, the previous, the dumbest person in Congress was Louie Goldmer of Texas. Burchette, you now have the title.

Press play. We're showing it right now. Congressman, you're saying I'll be happy to go to your office and show you the footage of these people beating police officers. I've seen that footage. But of those individuals, Jim, you say I spoke with the ex-wife of Stuart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers. This is what she told me just a few moments ago. Let's listen to this. I'm worried. I am worried. I'm also worried about his followers. They're a bit unhinged. And he does seem to be regathering and regrouping his army, you know, right now. Congressman, there are relatives who turned in their relatives because they were involved on January 6th. Who's going to protect them now that these people have been released?

Jim, I had individuals from my community, bankers, church people that left before all this happened. The FBI came to their house, their places of business, and harassed them. This was a political thing from the start. It was a bad day in America. If they crossed the lines, they were trespassing. It's not a political thing. It's not a political thing. Congressman, they broke the law. Jim, it's all political. It's not all political. There's such a thing as right and wrong and law and order. And, Congressman, your party has has said we back the blue. And I just want to ask you, if any of these people who were released from prison, if any of them commit crimes in the future, should Donald Trump take personal responsibility for that?

No more than Joe Biden should take personal responsibility for the 14 million people for Lake and Riley losing her life because he didn't have enough guts to enforce the law. I'm not talking about Joe Biden. If Joe Biden pardons people and they reoffend, he's obviously responsible for that. I'm asking you, why can't members of your party just tell the president when he's wrong? Why can't you do that? You spent four years making excuses for a fellow with Alzheimer's in the lead office in this country and defending him and putting him in office. Congressman, you and I talked about this. We raised questions about that time and again on this network, on this program.

You all made excuses for him for four years. I'm asking you a question. Is President Trump responsible? Is he responsible if some of these offenders reoffend? What happens if one of the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys goes out there and hurts somebody? And they were involved on January IF SOME OF THESE OFFENDERS RE-OFFEND, WHAT HAPPENS IF ONE OF THE OATH KEEPERS OF THE PROUD BOYS GOES OUT THERE AND HURTS SOMEBODY? AND THEY WERE INVOLVED ON JANUARY 6th AND WERE PUT IN PRISON AND DONALD TRUMP RELEASED THEM.

ISN'T HE THEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT? ISN'T HE RESPONSIBLE IF SOMEBODY GETS HURT? I WOULD SAY IF THEY'RE TRUMP APPOINTED JUDGES, THEY WILL GO TO JAIL. BUT IF THEY'RE JOE BIDEN

APPOINTED JUDGES OR SOROS-BACKED DAs, THEY'LL PROBABLYOINTED JUDGES OR SOROS BACKED DAs, THEY WILL PROBABLY WALK AS THEY DO IN NEW YORK AND THE REST OF THE COUNTRY. WE SAW DURING THE BLACK LIVES MATTERS MARCHES, WE SAW ON THE

RIOTS ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY, THOSE PEOPLE WALKED. NOBODY WENT TO JAIL. WHY IS BURCHET A LIAR? THERE ARE TRUMP APPOINTED JUDGES WHO ARE CALLING OUT HIS JANUARY 6TH PARTON. SEE, THIS IS WHEN YOU KNOW YOU'RE DEALING WITH A PARTY out his January 6th pardon. See, this is when you know you're dealing with a party that is a massive

liar because they are following a massive liar who now occupies the Oval Office. And so this was a 10-minute segment on CNN, and Burchett literally lied in nearly all 10 of those minutes. And people on the right, like the idiots over at Newsbusters and Sean Spicer, who was so stupid, he couldn't even get the crowd size right at the inauguration in 2017. They are saluting, saluting the great job Burt Jett did on CNN, because he questioned their rating and said,

SpongeBob gets more, get better ratings than CNN. That's what the idiot actually said. And so people need to understand that idiots like Burchette, guess what? They now have a vote. They get to vote on these things. And you know what? He represents a congressional district of some 700,000 people and idiots in his district voted for his dumb ass.

This is what we're now dealing with. And so when people sit out elections and go, oh, man, both parties are the same. I'm sorry. That's just stupid. It literally is just stupid. And what people are about to learn, Jade, they are about to learn that it's a whole lot of stuff that people have been taking advantage of, have been participating in, that is about to go out the window. Let me say it right now.

I'm going to go to Jade first, then I'm going to go to Rebecca, then political sis. We're now talking about, going to go to Jade first, then I'm going to go to Rebecca, then political sis. We're now talking about they are looking to do massive, hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to federal programs. They're looking to do massive changes to the Affordable Care Act, to Medicare, Medicaid. Donald Trump got rid of, by signing an executive order, where Biden was trying to battle the prescription drug companies to have lower cost of drugs for insulin. They got no problem.

They're like, oh, forget $35. And remember, on the campaign trail, Trump actually tried to take credit for insulin being $35. Then it was Biden. So now he's like, no, no, no, it's good. Let's go back to paying $1,500. So for all of the people who said they voted for Trump because it was about the price of eggs,

it was about the economy, it was about inflation. Oh, y'all about to get a serious lesson and you got played. Jade? Yeah, Roland, not only

are they about to be deprived of just the basic necessities in life, right, and the basic things that we have the rights to have, they're going to be deprived of anything that remotely is in the excess of that. Wait, wait, wait. We've got to show some. Oh, okay. Yeah, they're going to be deprived of so much more than that, right? This is only what's foreseeable and what we see for now, But the next three years, this is going to be completely depleted. And I do want to touch on briefly. I know we moved off of the J6, but I just had to. I was so disturbed by that video, Roland,, if they reoffend, if they reoffend, the thing is, when they reoffend, right? Trump is showing us along by how he handled this matter with the J6, that he is reckless. He's calling them hostages, right?

That he is reckless. He is ruthless. That he is on board with people who assault people, including law enforcement officers. And we have not seen a piece or a half of what he's capable of doing and the rights that we are going to lose as people and just as people. Here's the thing, Rebecca. He said, Bert Chapp, the only thing that he did get right, it's all political. Yes, it was political. Those idiots were protesting and trying to overturn the election because they lost.

They were pissed off with how black people voted. Donald Trump kept blaming four cities, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Detroit. That's black people. So we know why they were there. Let's not make any confusion here. They were pissed that black people voted, which is why they're targeting voting rights, which is why they're targeting voting rights, which is why they're targeting civil rights, and people who are black who somehow are playing this game

and they think that, oh, no, no, they're our friends. We can perform for them at their inauguration balls. It's all good. It's about securing the bag. Well, you know what? Your family members, your cousins, your friends, your church members, your homeboys, your homegirls are about to learn real quickly how this is going to turn out. You know, these are some very unserious people, but just because they are very unserious doesn't mean that they're not dangerous.

Like just yesterday, if you went to the Department of Government Efficiencies website, DOGE.gov, what you saw was the Dogecoin icon. And it was like it was a big joke. Today, it's been removed and it's no longer on that website. But this is an example of just some very unserious people. But just because they're unserious, it doesn't make them less dangerous. Like the analogy that we use for what we're seeing now is a toddler with a live hand grenade. Just because a toddler doesn't know exactly what that hand grenade does doesn't make that toddler less dangerous when they are walking or when they are toddling around unsupervised with that hand grenade. And that's unfortunate that what we're seeing in this particular administration,

it appears to be some unserious people, but then also people with a very dangerous agenda, Project 2025, that will disproportionately impact Black Americans in this country. So what I would tell people is buckle down, stay focused on hyper-local elections. That's where you're going to be able to find some protections and lean into how local officials can help support and provide for your everyday life. Because what we're seeing nationally is going to be scary for a lot of people. Political says we got this fool called Facts Over Emotions on our YouTube channel

who posted, don't y'all know fear-mongering isn't working with FBA? But being dumbasses does. Well, fear-mongering does. Well, fair market not. And like Rebecca said, when they commit another crime, because we're also not talking about those people who he let out, they have previous convictions. One got in trouble for assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.

Another, when he was 23, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. So when will they commit crime again? The guy that... Was it the guy with the bullhorn saying, I'm gonna go buy me some guns. Did he not post that? So I guess... I guess they're new here.

I'm telling you, people need to just recognize that we're're new here. I'm telling you, people need to just recognize that we're not joking here. All we're doing is telling y'all what is literally happening as we speak. Folks, real quick, the trial for the Georgia prosecutor who declined to bring

charges against the three white men who fatally shot black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 is currently in the jury selection phase. Johnson, who was a district attorney at the time of the incident, is facing charges of violating her oath of office and hindering a law enforcement investigation. She's accused of using her position to protect Grant McMichael and his adult son, Travis McMichael, by instructing Glynn County police officers on the day of the shooting not to arrest Travis McMichael.

The McMichaels and William Roddy Brown were convicted on state and federal charges related to Ahmaud's murder. They are serving life sentences. The jury selection is expected to be completed by Friday. And thank goodness, because if that was a federal case, I'm sure Donald Trump may pardon her. Folks, rapper Sexy Red apologized for her inappropriate image of herself with

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was an AI photo she posted on X in response to Dr. Bernice King's request to take the image down. Quote, you ain't wrong. Never meant to disrespect your family. My apologies. Just reposted something I saw that I thought was innocent.

King's daughter accepted the apology saying, thank you for your apology, which I sincerelyed something I saw that I thought was innocent. King's daughter accepted the apology, saying, thank you for your apology, which I sincerely accept. Please know that it was not my intention that you be denigrated. I value you as a human being. I hope you understand my concerns about the image. I know that my father has become a bit of a caricature to the world. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Images often used with no regard to his family, his sacrificial work, or to the tragic, unjust way in which he died, a state-sanctioned assassination. Unfortunately, I regularly challenge the disregard. Well, you know what? I really hope, Jade, that sexy red, when she goes to Atlanta, will personally go to the King Center. I hope she would go meet with Bernice King. I hope she would

sit down with her and talk with her and be educated about Dr. King because she left up an image of her photo holding a stack of money that was imposed in a photo of King and others marching. I hope that actually happens.

I hope the people who are around Sexy Red will make that happen because I don't care. It's fine. She deleted the post. She apologized for it. But I hope she also learns more and uses the opportunity to recognize that you have millions of followers

and you can do a hell of a lot more educating them than just posting an AI photo of you and Dr. King in the club holding hands, dancing. Well, that was a really, you came up with a really good idea. And I do hope that someone from her team, they probably are not listening because they don't listen to things like this probably,

but I hope someone from her team does get that message across, that your team gets that message across, because I think that's a phenomenal idea, is for her to do a walk down memory lane in case she didn't learn some of the things that Dr. King, you know, did for our rights and our freedom. In case she missed that course in class, I think that's a very, very good idea. I do commend her for apologizing and taking it down. But what I will tell people is that when it comes to some of our artists or mainstream artists, unfortunately, you expect what you're going to get, right? She has a song talking about bow, bow, bow, clap that booty meat.

Like, I expect her to do exactly what she did as an entertainer and who she is. But I am happy that Bernice King was very, very gracious with her and very graceful with her and kind of letting her know that it was inappropriate in a loving and a kind way. Political sis? Can we have more interactions like that? Interactions like that? I thought that was, I thought it was good.

I think sexy red responded back graciously. I think Bernice, she gave her the respect. Her apology actually, well, Bernice's response, it brought tears to my eyes. But it does make sense for her to maybe try to educate herself and her followers. I doubt if she does

do that. But the most important thing is that she apologized. But did you see the comments, the disrespectfulness that Ms. King received from the black men? I think that, to me, is what really caught my eye. Yeah, you had some dumbasses

who were literally arguing with her. But again, though, there's a serious level of ignorance that we have to confront. And see, what always happens, Rebecca, I get this all the time, like, you know, I got this fool here, a fool I talked about earlier, facts of emotion. Oh, yeah, you don't like the FBA people.

The grassroots don't like you. I'm like, fool, I roll all around this country. I'm like, you so dumb, I'm in the streets. I get brothers who stop me all the time who say they watch this show in prison. I've had brothers who've served 20 the time who say they watch this show in prison. I've had brothers who served 20 and 30 years in prison who said, bruh, I was

watching you on CNN and on TV One and following you now. So I love it when some of these fools open their mouths as if again, the bros in the street. I've been stopped by cats. Brother stopped me at MGM National Harbor, who

said, yo, Roland Martin, I fucks with you. Ask my girl. And I was like, and he was talking real loud. And I was like, alright, bro. He was like, no, no, no, no. I fucks with you. And I was like, I appreciate it. He said, if anybody, he said, anybody fuck with you, I got you. And I was like,

and then I was like, appreciate it. He said, no. And so he reaches down. I'm like, fuck with you, I got you. And I was like, and then I was like, appreciate it. He said, no. And so he reaches down, I'm like, he is not about to show me a gun. My man lifts his shirt up and I see scar tissue from the top of his neck down to his belly button. His chest had been cracked.

His chest had been cracked. He was trying to let me know my ass been shot before. I'm ready. And he literally went, anybody fucks with you, I got you. So, all you yahoos who like, yeah, you know, don't nobody in the streets mess

with you, don't nobody in the streets know your ass. Rebecca, go ahead with our final comment for the day before I have to go ahead and smack some of these fools again who just sit here and just say just dumb shit. Go ahead, Rebecca. Even the people in the comments

who are making the offhand comments about FBA, Foundational Black Americans, I see there's some people who are like, well, what does that mean? Here's the thing. What does that mean to you when you say that? Because I know what it means to me when I say it, because I understand the history of my family in this country, which is why I go so hard about voting rights in this country. It's the reason why I go so hard about civil rights in this country, because my family

has literally bled and died to make sure that everybody has these rights in this country. And so when people just throw those words around, what does it mean? You know, it doesn't mean that you're not community. It doesn't mean that you don't interact with others. It doesn't mean that you don't try to push this country forward and hold this country accountable for its promises that it hasn't given to us foundational Black Americans.

So it's very easy for people to put that in the chat, but let's actually have a discussion on what it means regarding policy. Because when we talk about policy on this channel, we're talking about things that are beneficial to the Black community, which includes foundational Black Americans. So just throwing that in the chat, I don't know if you're a bot or you're a real person, but there's actually an, if you follow Dr. Claude Anderson or other academics who actually spent time talking about what this thing means, it's not just a throwaway phrase. And so the people that see in the chat using it disparagingly, you're not even using it in this right or proper context.

However, stay tuned to Black Star Network where we talk about issues that impact black people in this country. Well, you know, it is. Look, here's what I've always realized. There are very silly people who have nothing in their lives, who do nothing in their lives, but the only thing they can do is talk about other folk who do have stuff

and who are doing stuff. That's just the reality. And so I laugh at them all the time. And here's my last point. For those of you who love talking y'all little trash in the chat room, you do notice that you on my shit and I am not on yours.

It's kind of perfect. It's like my social media niece and nephew said they don't have no motion but you know what we gotta be careful with them because their dumb asses is the reason why we're in this situation right now oh yeah no i'm just saying i just and see and then but here's the other thing that i tell them political sense i'm being very i tell everybody and i've said this about all them haters out there who love doing YouTube shows on me. I'll never do shows on y'all because you ain't that important.

And here's the deal. I can get views not talking about you. You can only get views talking about me. And so if there are people, and I'm real clear, if you don't like the content here, go start your own.

You can do exactly what I did. Go on, start your own. But maybe you realize don't nobody care what you have to say. I'm just saying. As we say in the South, bless they hearts. Yeah, bless they hearts.

Bless they hearts. Bless they hearts. They would be all right. Remind me of that, what's his name, Vernon Jones? Oh, yeah. Oh, that crowd-surfing Negro? Yeah, him, that Negro.

Who kissed so much Trump ass, ran for governor, had the dropout, ran for Congress, and got his ass whooped in the Republican primary. I don't have a... Hell, there's more people watching me right now than voted for him. You're right. Matter of fact, I think there's three times

more people watching me than who voted for him. Right, because I'm not back at it, but his A-S-S, yeah, I didn't even know. That's how we roll. First of all, we don't spell ass on this show. We say ass. I'm just letting you know. Clearly, you ain't never seen Reese

Colbert on this show. Cuss out Thursdays is a real thing. I got some followers out there who keep telling me, brother, please stop cussing. I'm like, y'all, I tried. But some people deserve to get cussed out. I'm going to end the show with this

here. Years ago, this is a true story, y'all. This is no lie. It was an episode of Nightline. It was Ted Koppel, Ice-T, and Dr. Alvin Poussaint of Harvard University. Of course, we were consulted with the Cosby Show. And it was so funny because Ted Koppel goes, you know, on Ice-T, you know, there's language, there's cursing and rap music.

And Ice-T said, Ted, listen up. He said, black people cuss for emphasis. He said, for instance, Ted, a white person would say, Johnny, put down that knife. He said, a black person would say, Johnny, put down that goddamn knife! He said, Ted, he said, it's different with us. And Ted Copper goes,

Dr. Poussaint, do you care to weigh in with what Ice-T just said? And Dr. Alvin Poussaint and all of his Harvardness goes, well, Ted, Ice-T does have a point. That's right. I will never forget that episode

of Nightline absolutely hilarious alright, Blue Girl Sis this is your first time on the show, we appreciate it we'll have you back, Jade, thanks a lot Rebecca, thanks a lot as well, and this is the first time in a long

time we had an all-female panel, so appreciate it thank you to the ladies, y'all. Beautiful sisters, thank y'all for being up here. Appreciate y'all. All right. And Blugan, since I know you were a little nervous

this is your first time, because you go hard in your videos. So, I'm going to tell you what I told Reesey. Come here and do you. You ain't got to be all, they say,

we keep it regular here. I want you to bring that same heat you do in your videos, because you'll be wilding out in your videos. No, I'm ready. I'm ready now. I had to loosen up. No, yeah, you got... No, no, no, no, no, no. Ain't no loosening up.

When we hit, you got to go. All right. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Folks, don't forget to support the work that we do. What we do here ain't no show like ours. Y'all know this is way too much seasoning for anything on msnbc cnn fox news abc nbc cbs ain't no podcast like ours ain't no show like ours first off all y'all on youtube y'all being just chatty patties but y'all don't sit here uh and i hit the like button so go on right ahead, hit the doggone like button, all right?

Also, support the work that we do with your resources. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average 50 bucks each a year. That comes out to $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. If you want to give via Cash App, do so via the Stripe app. This is the app. This is the QR code right here. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com to see the QR code. PayPal is PayPal.me forward slash RMartinUnfiltered.

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Black Star Network is here. A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice. Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going the video looks phenomenal see this difference between black star network and black owned media and something like cnn you can't be black on media and be scared it's time to be smart bring your eyeballs home, you dig?

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