#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Fla. Woman Guilty of Killing Black Mom,VP Harris' Economic Plan,Springfield 1908 Race Riot Monument

Episode Date: August 17, 2024

8.16.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Fla. Woman Guilty of Killing Black Mom,VP Harris' Economic Plan,Springfield 1908 Race Riot Monument  An all-white jury convicts Susan Lorincz for murdering her black neighbor Ajike "AJ" Owens in June 2023. Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled her economic agenda. It includes a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries, affordable housing, and tax breaks for the middle class. We'll talk to an economist and the National Association of Real Estate Brokers president about Harris' plans.  Centre for Climate Reporting went undercover and published details of the secretive second phase of Project 2025, led by a Trump insider. We'll show you the secret recordings.  We'll show you California Congressman Eric Swalwell's new political ad about Trump that blends dark humor with a chilling message.  President Biden signed a proclamation Friday to establish the Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument in Illinois at the site of a deadly attack by a White mob on a Black community 116 years ago. . The town of Dolton, Illinois, is in more financial trouble. The state comptroller says she will withhold "offset" funds until the mayor turns over annual financial reports.  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. We'll be right back. we have now. We have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Friday, August 16th, 2024,

coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. An all-white jury convicts a white woman for murdering a black mother in Florida. We'll give you those details regarding the case that left G.K. A.J. Owens dead. Today in Raleigh, North Carolina, Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled her economic agenda. It includes a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries, affordable housing, including expanding the housing stock, plus tax breaks for the middle class.

We'll talk with an economist as well as the president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers. About this plan, folks, the Center for Climate Reporting went undercover to publish details of the secretive second phase of Project 2025, led by a former Trump administration official. We'll show you that recording.

Also, we'll show you California Congressman Eric Swalwell's new political ad targeting Donald Trump that blends dark humor with a chilling message. President Biden signed a proclamation Friday to establish the Springfield 1908 race riot national monument in Illinois at the site of a deadly attack by a white mob on a black community 116 years ago. That riot will lead to the creation of the NAACP. Speaking of Illinois, the town of Dalton is in more financial trouble. The state comptroller says she will withhold offset funds until the mayor turns over an annual financial report that she has refused thus far to do so. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered, on the Black Star Network.

Let's go. Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now

Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling, Martel Martel Verdict as account one. We the jury find as a count one of the charge. The defendant is guilty of manslaughter. Did the state prove beyond a reasonable doubt that during the commission of the offense, the defendant personally used a firearm? Yes.

So say we all, dated the 16th day of August, 2024. Does either side wish to poll the jurors to be polled? Yes, sir. Madam Clerk, please poll the jurors by number only. Juror number one, is this your verdict? Juror number two, is this your verdict? Yes. Juror number three, is this your verdict?

Yes. Juror number four, is this your verdict? Yes. Juror number five, is this your verdict? Yes. Juror number six, is this your verdict? Yes. Juror number six, is this your verdict? Yes. Folks, that was a decision in Florida in the case involving the white woman you saw there who shot and killed Ajike A.J. Owens. She fired the shot through a metal door when Owens came to confront her over her throwing some roller skates at her children.

Susan Lorenz could very well spend up to 30 years in prison. The six-person panel of four women and two men did not buy her self-defense claims. This, of course, was a story that took place last year. You see how she reacted. No remorse whatsoever. No reaction whatsoever. And this was just a shocking, shocking story. We had Ben Crump on the other day, and he talked about how she wasn't even near the front door when she fired the shots. He fired the shots through a metal door,

claiming that she feared for her life. Well, that was absolutely nonsense. And so now that all-white jury has convicted Susan Laurent of that murder. And, again, she could spend 30 years in prison. My panel, Michael Imhotep, hosts the African History Network show out of Detroit. Kelly Bethea, communications strategist out of D.C., Matt Manning, civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi. Matt, I want to start with you. I mean, this, it's just so unfortunate. You know, here is, it was a black mother trying to protect her child. She decides to knock on the door to confront this woman. This woman then fires her gun through the metal door. She never, she wasn't like she was inside of the house. And go to the video.

This was them right there leading her out of court. You can roll it back. You know, after it was sentencing, you know, no response whatsoever. I mean, this is a hardcore racist who didn't care that she took the life of someone. Well, you know, I'll tell you, I'm not surprised that she didn't react. First off, most of the time, judges give an admonishment

that nobody can scream or react in a demonstrative way. So that didn't react. First off, most of the time, judges give an admonishment that nobody can scream or react in a demonstrative way. So that didn't surprise me. And also, her attorney may have told her not to react because if they intend to appeal, she doesn't want to give any impression that she thinks she was, in fact, guilty. But to your point on the crux of the legal issue here, yeah, this is definitely an unreasonable case because self-defense in most places here in Texas, presumably in Florida, is based on a reasonableness finding. So essentially, the 12 people or the jury have to determine whether the person's claim that they were in fear of their life is reasonable. And to your point earlier, this is per se unreasonable.

If you're not even at the door at the time that you fire, you're firing through a door, notwithstanding Castle Doctrine or any other law that may give you the right to use deadly force in protection of yourself at your home. It's still a reasonableness question. You don't get to just shoot and then ask questions later. It has to be reasonable. And the primary thing in this case, which I think you've already spoken to, is that there was a history of there being friction between the two of them. So, you know, it just seems like she just wanted to pull this trigger. And when this woman came, she killed her and then, you know, tried to act as though she was in fear of her life, which is completely unreasonable. And I'm glad that the jury saw that here, because sometimes, you know, in Florida and in Texas and other places that are

gun-toting places, people get more of the benefit of the doubt than they should. And I'm glad that this jury did not give it to her because the evidence very clearly contradicts that argument from what I've read. It goes to show you, and I always say this, I say this a whole lot, that when it comes to folks with guns, people act differently when they have a gun and when they don't have a gun. And when they have a gun, all of a sudden it changes and there's this sort of this tough guy, this tough gal mentality. And she goes and retrieves her gun. No remorse whatsoever. Fires that weapon and she kills this mother. And now that one decision. And, you know, I often tell people this is not just even when it comes to something like this here. I often say to people, before you make a decision, breathe. Because the decision that you can make in the heat of the moment

could alter your life completely. And that's what happened here. This mother is dead. Her children don't have a mother. This woman could very well be spending her time in the maximum security prison in Florida. Who is that question? Who is it? You know, I agree with everything you said, Roland. My thing is, I still have a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth regarding this case, because if I read the articles correctly,

it took a couple days for her to be arrested, even though she admitted to killing her almost immediately after the incident occurred. And, you know, blame it on whiteness, blame it on her look, the elderly, what have you. But there's something to be said about being given the benefit of the doubt because of what you look like. And that I have that feeling that is what occurred here. And that is what's not fair. So it's like the family, I feel like I screwed over a little bit twice over because one, it took so long for her to get arrested. And two, the district attorney didn't push for a murder charge, even though they, according to these articles, they very well could have. So it just feels like justice was served to the extent that they felt like justice should be

served as opposed to the latter being every, they threw the book at her. And I don't think that's what occurred here. And it could have. Before I go to Michael, Matt, give us give us a perspective on what Kelly just said there. Just from your perspective, why a D.H. may choose not to pursue a murder charge as opposed to going for the manslaughter charge. So first, I want to speak to the arrest part. and I'm really glad Kelly mentioned that. I think that is part and parcel with exactly what I'm talking about. In certain states and in certain places where people are unreasonable, frankly, a lot of times, when somebody uses deadly force, particularly with a firearm at their house, they start from the standpoint of, you know, it was justified in the way it may not be if you and I are at a public place and I shoot you there, right, not at my home. So a lot of times these arrests don't happen immediately, and that can be because the police

are giving someone the benefit of the doubt when they wouldn't give other people the benefit of the doubt. And that very often dovetails with race, maybe gender in certain circumstances. But in this circumstance, they might have thought, here's an old white woman. We're going to take her at her word. We're not going to arrest her now, which is crazy because that's not how they normally work, especially where there's been an admission. However, as it relates to manslaughter versus murder, I was actually wondering that myself.

I don't practice in Florida, so I don't know how their statute works. But in Texas, especially, you can get a lesser included finding on a jury charge. So what that means is if I charge somebody with murder as a prosecutor and the evidence comes out, and for some reason I think we should also get the jury charged on manslaughter, I can ask for that. But you normally only do that in the circumstance where there's a question about the mens rea or there's a questionable piece of evidence. This case, you don't have that. You have an admission. You have it very clearly happening. And most importantly, you have it happening after a long series of conflict. So from the mental state standpoint, in Texas, the law is intentional, knowingly or recklessly,

you know, murder somebody. But here, intentionally or knowingly for murder, this is intentional. You went to retrieve a weapon. You fired a weapon through a door. It was a weapon that was fired at someone with whom you already had conflict. That's about as intentional as it gets. So why they sought manslaughter, I don't know. Maybe they tried to give her a little benefit of the doubt because she admitted it. But, you know, this is a circumstance where it's malicious. It's per se malicious. It's per se evil. And I don't see why

you don't seek murder charges here. But there may be some nuance in the Florida law that I'm unaware of that explains that. Michael? MICHAEL RUHLANDT, Yeah, Roland, I remember when this story broke in 2023. It was June of 2023, I think, when we first heard about it. And it was a tragedy then. And if I remember correctly, Ms. Owens' son was next door when she was shot. And, you know, I worry about the children and wonder how they're doing as well, because I know they're going to need some therapy behind this tragedy. It's good that we got a conviction today. Ms. Lawrence can face up to 30 years in prison. But one of the things that came into play in this

case, so one, this is Florida. We know Florida is a former Confederate state, a deep history of racism. Two, Florida is the state where the Stand Your Ground law started. That was the first state to have a Stand Your Ground law. And we know that that law also came up during Trayvon Martin. If I remember correctly, the ruling in the case wasn't based upon Stand Your Ground, but it did come up in the conversation. So and, you know, looking at the stories on this and the piece from The New York Times, Ms. Lawrence yelled racial slurs at the children before G.K. Owens went to her house to find out what was going on, et cetera. So, you know, this is just a tragedy all the way around. But I would be interested to find out what type of news did Ms. Lawrence, what was her main source of news? Was it Fox News?

Was it one of these right-wing news organizations that she'd sit up and listen to conservative talk radio all day? Because I think that very well could have influenced her behavior. Well, there's been no, there's been nothing that's even, even suggest that in terms of what she watched, what she listened to. I was asking a question. Well, yeah, but what I'm saying is that that never even came up. So it's not like that was even part of, that wasn't even a part of the, part of the proceedings this week. So in terms of, so no one can answer that question because it didn't come up.

So it's not like that actually came up during the court. Bottom line is you got some folks who may not listen to any news and they just some racist folks who got no problem killing anybody. I think about that crazy fool in New York state where this couple pulled into a driveway, it was the wrong driveway, and this fool came out firing, shot and killed the woman, and then he went to prison. You just got some crazy, deranged people out there who, no matter what they watch or listen to, they're just nuts. And so now she's convicted, and she's going to sit her behind in that jail, and she's going to think a long time, and I hope they give her the maximum sentence as a result of her shameful actions and what she did here.

Taking the life of this mother was just unbelievable and shocking and stunning. And now she's going to pay the ultimate price without the ultimate price. The ultimate price is, frankly, death. And so but we'll see what the citizen is in this case. All right. Got to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk about Vice President Kamala Harris unveiling her economic plan. You've got her critics saying, oh, my God, this is far too left. When, in fact, it actually kind of makes sense.

We'll explain. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's wealth coach, black Americans have one-tenth the wealth of their white counterparts. But how did we get here? It's a huge gap. Well, that's why we need to know the history and what we need to do to turn our income into wealth. Financial author and journalist Rodney Brooks joins us to tell us exactly what we need to do to achieve financial success. You can't talk about why we are as black people where we are unless you talk about how we got here. Bridging the gap and getting wealthy only on Black Star Network.

Coming soon to the Blackstar Network. I still have my NFL contract in my house. Having a case. It's four of them. My four-year contract. I got a $600,000 signing bonus. My base salary for that first year was $150,000. Matter of fact...

$150,000. $150,000. That's what I made, $150,000. Now, think about it. My signing bonus was a forgivable loan, supposedly. When I got traded to the Colts, they made me pay back my signing bonus to them. I had to give them their $600,000 back.

Wow. I was so pissed. Cause man, I try to be a man of my word. I'm like, you. I'll give you your money back. Even though I know I earned that money, I gave him that money back. I gave him that $600,000 back.

But yet I was this malcontent. I was a bad guy. I'm not about the money. Wasn't about the money. It was about doing right. Because I was looking at, I looked at, cause you know you look at contracts. Look at John Edwards.

John Edwards making a million dollars. 800,000, I was making 150. I mean, I was doing everything. And I'm like, but yet I was, man, I was making 150. I mean, I was doing everything and I'm like, but yet I was, man, I got so many letters, you know, you issue, you, so I just play for free and all that kind of stuff. I mean, you don't forget that kind of stuff.

Right. That stuff is hurtful. Hi, my name is Brady Ricks. I'm from Houston, Texas. My name is Sharon Williams. I'm from Dallas, Texas. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin. Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamn-believable. You hear me? Vice President Kamala Harris is in North Carolina today laying out her economic proposals

focusing on food prices, taxes, housing, and medical costs, which she says will empower the middle class. When I am elected president, I will make it a top priority costs, which she says will empower the middle class. When I am elected president, I will make it a top priority to bring down costs and increase economic security for all Americans. As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans, like the cost of food. We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed. But our supply chains have now improved, and prices are still too high. A loaf of bread cost 50% more today

than it did before the pandemic. Ground beef is up almost 50%. Many of the big food companies are seeing their highest profits in two decades. And while many grocery chains pass along these savings, others still aren't. Look, I know most businesses are creating jobs, contributing to our economy, and playing by the rules. But some are not. And that's just not right.

And we need to take action when that is the case. As Attorney General in California, I went after companies that illegally increased prices, including wholesalers that inflated the price of prescription medication, and companies that conspired with competitors to keep prices of electronics high. I won more than one billion dollars for consumers. So believe me, as president, I will go after the bad actors. And I will work to pass the first ever federal ban on price gauging on food. My plan will include new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules, and we will support smaller food businesses that are trying to play by the rules and get

ahead. We will help the food industry become more competitive because I believe competition is the lifeblood of our economy. More competition means lower prices for you and your families. Now compare what Donald Trump plans to do. He wants to impose what is, in effect, a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other countries. That will devastate Americans. It will mean higher prices on just about every one of your daily needs. A Trump tax on gas, a Trump tax on food, A Trump tax on clothing.

A Trump tax on over-the-counter medication. And you know, economists have done the math. Donald Trump's plan would cost a typical family $3,900 a year. At this moment, when everyday prices are too high, he will make them even higher. As president, I'll tack and take on the issue of the cost of health care. As attorney general, I took on insurance companies and big pharma and got them to lower their prices. And together with President Biden, we've gone even further. We capped the price of insulin at $35 a month and the total cost of prescription drugs at $2,000 a year for seniors.

We let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. And just yesterday, we announced that we are lowering the price by up to 80% for 10 more life-saving drugs. And I pledge to continue this progress. I'll lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for everyone with your support, not only our seniors. And demand transparency from the middlemen who operate between the middlemen and the middlemen. All right, folks, just having some issues there with the video of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Guys, let me know when we have that taken care of. What's interesting about this speech, you had all these different media people saying, oh, Shanice, release a plan, release a plan, more details. And then, of course, after it was over, if you watch any of these networks, Shanice, more detail, more detail. You're like, really?

That's how we're going to do this? And so that's sort of the thing that you constantly hear. So in the first there, you heard talking about food prices. Do we have the video fixed, folks? Okay, all right. So we're going to try to get that because she also laid out what she wants to do when it comes to housing. That, of course, is a dramatic issue right now in this country because of high rental prices. Also, you have, of course, a lack of affordability in the country. and there are numerous reasons why that's the

case that often don't get talked about, and the vice president tried to actually address that by talking about increasing the housing stock in this country. So we're going to break this thing down, because, again, if you watch a bunch of these other different people, you see them saying, well, this is too progressive. It's not moderate. It's not she's taking this idea from Republicans, all this sort of stuff along those lines. And for me, I don't actually see how her proposal is so unbelievably crazy progressive. That makes no sense to me whatsoever. And so joining us right now to break this down and to understand it, let's bring up

our first guest. She's an economist. I've been offering the show. She's with the American Economic Liberties Project, Morgan Harper. Glad to have Morgan here. Also, Dr. Courtney Johnson-Rose. She's president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers. Morgan, I want to start with you. I want to start with you because I want to deal with the economic piece. I want to deal with the economic piece, the food. I don't wanna go to housing. So first off, when she's talking about food, all of these people like, and I see these people going,

oh well this is ridiculous, the grocery stores, they only have a one to three percent profit margin, they're not price gouging. What they're overlooking are all of these food companies that are price gouging, companies that have been shrieking packages, the size of foods, but also increasing their prices. And so the way I got it, she wasn't talking just about grocery stores. She was talking about the food industry as a whole. Exactly, exactly.

And I think she was very precise in her choice of words. She said big food companies. And just like you're saying, Roland, it's like that does not mean that we are talking about our mom and pop grocery store down the street or an independent retailer. In many cases, it might not even mean that we're talking about your local chain per se. We're talking about the giants of the food industry that took advantage of consumers during the pandemic. The Kroger CEO was on the record for during an investor call saying that inflation was good for them. It's a chance to raise prices on consumers. They're trying now to merge with Albertsons and get even bigger and lay workers off like

they've done before. It's also the food suppliers. And I think this is a critical point. She didn't get into it in the speech, but there's some price fixing going on there too with this company Agristats that the Department of Justice is suing, that they are finding ways to collude with each other to increase the cost of meat, that then where does that cost have to go? It's not just going to stay with the suppliers. The suppliers have to pass it on to us as consumers. And so she very much was distinguishing between most businesses, which are hiring people, supporting communities, spurring economic growth. And then some of these giants that are trying to break the law and take advantage of consumers and other businesses that are in the market. Yeah. You also have people the other day, Donald Trump was complaining about the price of eggs, things along those lines. Well, you notice they didn't bring this up. Go to my iPad, Anthony, where you had U.S. egg producers that were

involved in a price fixing scandal. That actually happened. So this idea of complaint, this was from December 2023. So to complain about, oh, my God, the price of eggs is up 48 percent and you leave out the price fixing scandal. Well, hello. And this involved Cal Maine. What does it say here? The country's biggest egg producer. Exactly, exactly. And, you know, this idea that this is left or this is Republican or whatever, I think we're entering and I don't know what you think. I think we're entering this new phase where who cares what you call it? It's reality. It's the reality that most people are experiencing in their lives on a daily basis. And they want politicians, they want elected officials, they want the government to be responsive to that.

And I don't know. I mean, to me, that's what I heard of a lot in her speech was like, it sounded like a lot of things that I hear people talking about. Right. And that she has some specific ideas of what to do about it. And again, the problem here is people don't understand these specifics. They don't understand. Listen, the average person is like, yo, I go to the store, I buy stuff, it's high. They're not realizing, okay, as you said, the distribution companies, the

deliverers, the food companies themselves, these public companies. And also, what all these people were trying to do is, again, recouping their money after COVID. All of these things were actually happening. Also, I want to do this because she mentioned competition. And you've mentioned numerous times in this show, Kroger, Albertsons, and Robert Rice talks about this all the time as well. When you have monopolies and not having competition, they're able to increase prices and you can't do anything about it because they're the only game in town. And so the Biden Harris administration has been very aggressive with the Federal Trade Commission in blocking a lot of these mergers.

And you've had people like the CEO, David Zasloff of Warner Discovery, who was like, hey, I don't care which party wins. I just want somebody to win who's going to allow for mergers and acquisitions, which really means Donald Trump, because they don't want there to be more competition. They want consolidation. They want not monopolies. Exactly. And I think another critical point with this is that that is another one of these threats to democracy. We talk a lot about the threat of having people who don't care about norms in government, who break laws. But part of the reason why we found ourselves in this mess is once a company gets that large to do whatever they want in the

marketplace, then they can also take that power and buy off a lot of politicians to make sure that they don't do anything to stop them or reduce their market influence. And unfortunately, that's what we have heard from former President Trump talking to big oil executives in his own home saying, hey, essentially government's for sale. Pick me. I'll do a loan. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission coming out saying we're going to take on collusion of the big that was happening in big oil industry that's increasing gas prices. So, yeah, I mean, to me, it does seem like there's a pretty clear contrast here. This should not be controversial stuff. I mean, making sure that you don't have landlords, you know, moving to another one of the

issuaries that came up in housing, landlords that are able to price fix, just find like the absolute maximum that people are able or willing to pay and go there and then spread that information throughout the country. That should not be political. That should just be exactly what it is, which is illegal and stopped. Okay, so let's play the rest of the video because she also got into housing, and I want to move towards that. So go ahead and play it. And I pledge to continue this progress. I'll lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for everyone with your support, not only our seniors. And demand transparency from the middlemen who operate between big pharma and the insurance

companies who use opaque practices to raise your drug prices and profit off your need for medicine. Two months ago, I announced that medical debt will no longer be used against your credit score. And I will work as president with states like here in North Carolina, Roy Cooper, thank you again, to cancel medical debt for more and more, millions more Americans. As for Donald Trump, well, he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which 45 million Americans rely on. 45 million Americans rely on it for health care. That would take us back to a time when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions. We all remember what that was.

And we're not going back. We're not going back. And remember, and this is why we're not going back, because we do remember, he tried to cut Medicare every year he was president, threatening a program that tens of millions of seniors count on. And according to his Project 2025 agenda, he intends to undo our work to bring down prescription drugs, the cost of prescription drugs, and insulin costs. Well, we've come too far to let that happen. So we're not going back on that, and let's talk about the cost of housing. So now the housing market can be complicated, but look, I'm not new to this issue. As state attorney general, I drafted and helped pass a homeowner bill of rights, one of the first in America.

And during the foreclosure crisis, I took on the big banks for predatory lending with many of my colleagues, including Roy Cooper, and won $20 billion for California families when I was Attorney General. So I know how to fight for people who are being exploited in the housing market. And I know what home ownership means. It's more than a financial transaction. It's so much more than that. It's more than a house. Home ownership and what that means,

it's a symbol of the pride that comes with hard work. It's financial security. It represents what you will be able to do for your children. And sadly, right now, it is out of reach for far too many American families. There's a serious housing shortage. In many places, it's too difficult to build, and it's driving prices up. As president, I will work in partnership with industry to build the housing we need both to rent and to buy. We will take down barriers and cut red tape, including at the state and local levels. And by the end of my first term, we will end America's housing shortage by building three million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class.

All right, folks, so let me explain something to you again that people don't necessarily think about. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Federal Housing Administration. Go to my iPad. This was the press release that HUD's posted in June. And so it talks about, so this was created under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This was part of the National Housing Act of 1934.

Now the press release didn't talk about this here, but the reality is here. This same act is what instituted racism in America. It instituted housing racism. And so what we saw here was with this particular act here, I'm going to scroll down here and I'm going to pull this up right here. So key events. So you see right here, signed into law June 27, 1934. It said right here, 1950.

The Housing Act of 1950 amended the National Housing Act to encourage the production of housing for middle class families and established Section 213 for mortgage insurance on cooperative housing projects. Okay? I want you all to hear that again. What I just told you, in 1950, the Housing Act of 1950 encouraged the production of housing for middle income families. What did Vice President Kamala Harris just say?

Wanting to build more homes, wanting to build new homes. Now, check this out. And y'all have heard me discuss this over and over and over again, the housing crisis in America. Go to my iPad. And I've been covering housing my entire career. What you're seeing right here are the number of homes built in the United States between 1900 and 2021. So if you go to the beginning of the 1900s, okay, you saw 1.78, 2.652, 4.16, 2.67, 4.79, boom! It jumps to 10.08. Oh, I'm sorry. When was that? 1950 to 1959. So, why is that important?

That's after World War II. So, guess what did you then have? You had, of course, all of those soldiers coming back home, G.I. Bill buying homes. So you see the explosion. So let's go. 1960 to 69, 9.49 million homes built. 1970, 1979, 12.37 million homes built. 1980, 1989, 12.14 million built.

1990 to 1999, 12.49. 2000 to 2009, the most homes ever built in American history, 14.56 million. But what happened?? Housing crisis, 2008, 2009, 2010. It crumbled. Prices dropped. Folks, 53% of black wealth wiped out. Folks were losing their homes because of balloon notes, all those different things. What then happened?

Go back, 2010, only 6.9 million homes built. There was a housing crisis. And so home builders were not building homes. Again, 6.9 million. When is the last time we built less homes than that? Right there, 1940 to 1949. Okay, now, let's go right here. So here we are, 2010, 2019, 6.9 million homes.

Now, this chart was done in 2021. The problem is we are building fewer homes in 2020 present day. So now that means that we have back-to-back decades. Now we're a decade and a half, So now that means that we have back-to-back decades. Now we're a decade and a half, but we are so far behind of building new homes. You have significant housing demand, more people, more demand, fewer homes. Plus, private equity has been snapping up homes left and right.

It's estimated by 2030, private equity will be owning 40% of all U.S. homes in the country. So when Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled the proposal today saying we're going to build 3 million new units over the next four years, she is trying to say we have to catch up because of the problems that we had in the housing market all of the last two decades. And so, everybody's sitting out there, and you're like, my rent went up. It keeps going up. Here's why it's going up. There are people right now who should be owning homes who can't. Not just because of mortgage interest rates going up, but because private equity has been buying them.

Second of all, and my next guest will explain this as well, baby boomers are holding on to homes. See, you got to put all this stuff together. Typically what happens, baby boomers get older, then they sell homes, they might move into condos, they might move into homes with their families. That's not what's happening. They're living longer. And so all of these factors are what's driving the housing crisis. So it's easy to say Biden's fault, rent's going up. No, it's not. Right here, when you'd had homes that were built in 2010, Obama was president. He's vice president. That was happening.

And so we have to have a deeper understanding of what's happening in the housing market. And so we're going to play a video later from Robert Rice, I think it's really important as well. But let me bring in Dr. Courtney Johnson Rose. Courtney, what you heard from the vice president today I think speaks to where we are. First time home buyers, $25,000 tax credit. Why is that important? Because now if they have 10%, now that they're $25,000, that really helps. But also, you've got to build more housing stock to drive down these prices because you have pent up demand. Yes or no? Yes. And Roland, you are so spot on on

this conversation. Housing is everything. And when we look at this, this is simply supply and demand and the supply and demand chain has just been off for so many years. But what we're seeing at NARAB is that it is it is the biggest impediment to Black homeownership. It's not our credit, not that we have bad credit, not that we don't have any money, and not that we don't have jobs. It's that there's no housing to purchase because the housing supply has been so low. You mentioned a couple of things. One, baby boomers are not moving. They're staying in place because they don't have anywhere to downsize to. Which means they're not coming on the market. Institutional investors, 28 percent of the market right now,

and it's growing every single year, are being bought by institutional investors. And, Cordy, here's the problem. Here's the problem. You may have customers. You may have folks that are trying to buy a home. They scrap their money together and they're like, we really want to buy a home. But then all of a sudden, private equity comes in and they're like buying a house in cash. So now a homeowner is like... No inspection. How can you compete with that?

Right. And the reason I... Listen, I paid off, listen, I filed for bankruptcy in 2004 because of health issues, because medical bills. But I came out of that bankruptcy in 2008. Part of the reason why I filed, because they were trying to foreclose my home. I then owned that home outright four years later. For the last five years, they have blown my phone up with text messages, phone calls, call

my daddy, call my sister, call my mama, and it's like, try and sell your home? I'm like, hell no, stop calling me. And so, they want to pay for cash because I own it outright. And so, and that's what's happening. So a lot of people, and the reason I'm not selling, because my parents are 77, they live in my home.

I've had nieces and nephews who have also lived there as well. So that actually helps my family economically because they're not having to be in this housing market because I own it. But what we're dealing with is a in right now, you have regular ordinary people. They cannot compete against private equity with all their money. They can't. If they present an offer, Roland, that has, we need 3% help towards closing costs. So we're using a down payment assistance program. They cannot compete against private equity firms that are cash, no appraisal, no inspection and close in seven days. So what it makes it is that our buyers that are qualified can't find a home. Fannie Mae has a stat out now

that shows that there's more than 2 million mortgage-ready Black Americans. That means they have the credit, they have the income to purchase a home, but there's not a home out there available for them. So this plan from Vice President Harris is exciting. It's spot on. It's what's needed to spur the economy. The other thing that we're experiencing is our people are paying so much in rent. It's unreal. We have families that 60 to 70% of their income is spent just for rent. But first of all, you just said it. You just said there are 2 million eligible black people.

They should actually be homeowners. They should be homeowners. They just need to be rent. Right, so the problem is, the problem is when you can't get a home, you have to rent. Now the folks with the apartment, they know pent up demand.

So they like add 500, add 800, add a thousand. Now you have no choice because you can't go anywhere. So if you're not building apartment complexes, if you're not building apartment complexes, if you're not building new homes, then this problem simply intensifies and gets worse. And so you have to have, and I had somebody in a chat like, oh, uh, roll us in vote blue, no matter what. No, this is affecting Republicans,

conservatives, white people, Latinos. I mean, I, I went back and looked courtney's crazy um i went back and looked at the neighborhood that i grew up in okay and i've been back yeah i'm looking at house home prices and i'm like that makes sense literally i'm talking, I'm looking at home prices, houses, not even 1,500 square feet, 1,800 square feet that are $4,000, $5,000, and $600,000. 20, 30-year-old homes, too. That's insane. It's unreal. And then you couple that, Roland, with the high interest rates. And now your monthly payments are just astronomical.

The other thing that we're seeing is that the number one group that is becoming homeless are older black women that are on fixed income. So what happens, the people that should be buying a home don't have a home to buy. So now they're in the rental community. Somebody just posted in our chat, my studio apartment is $1,875 a month. What's crazy, Courtney, when I bought my house and I had a high interest rate, the note was $1,400. Yes, my first house was $897. Two bedroom, two car garage,home, eight hundred bucks a month. It doesn't it doesn't exist anymore. You can't rent anything for eight hundred dollars.

So the only so the only way to deal with this, the federal government has to come in and say we have to spur the building of new homes. And so all of a sudden, if you now have three, four, five, six million, she's simply saying we got to play catch up. Because then so doing that, that's going to actually decrease the pent up demand. And then what's going to do is it's going to force those folks who are who are with the renters. Now people are going to have more options. They have to bring down prices. It's going to take that competitiveness off and bring down and bring the price. And I love your analogy, Roland, about how FHA has done it before. It's why it was created.

Yeah. It is the tool. So now we have to use the tool to do it again. But that's what the tool was created to actually do. And her plan is utilizing the tool that's at our fingertips to be able to spur this economy. The other thing I want to mention is that housing affects so much of the economy. You have construction workers that get jobs. You have people that buy new furniture. You have real estate brokers that get paid, inspectors, appraisers,

mortgage companies. It's a whole industry. We can also be excited about her bringing this industry back to life that has been over the past few years. Yep, absolutely. And so I just, for people out there, they really need to understand how deep and broad this is. And it's not just so simple as, well, it's Biden's fault, it's Harris's fault, or if a Republican was in place. We have to recognize the crisis that we are in right now was 20 years in the making. And Courtney, I'll be honest, I remember people were mad at me because I was critical of President Obama in 2009 and 2010 when I said, don't let the banks off the hook. Because what happened, Courtney, was we bailed the bank. Remember, it was called toxic assets.

Those were the home mortgages. We bailed the banks out. They held onto those home loans. And when they recovered, they were selling 25,000 lots to private equity, and that's where we are right now, right? Yeah, and what happens with the private equity that hurts so bad is that they buy in our communities, Roland. They get the properties, pennies on the dollar,

they turn them around, and they make them rental units. Boom. So we end up renting the same property that we should have the opportunity to buy. We end up renting them and we never get it back as part of the housing stock. It turns into a permanent rental property that these companies do. And then they collect rent from us. And then they add the other piece because you don't know this as well. When neighborhoods transform from being homeowners

renters that actually drives down those neighborhoods because those folks are transient so they're not taking care of their yards they're not fixing up their properties not investing in their properties so the value of the neighborhood can actually go down when it becomes a rental neighborhood and if you're a homeowner in that neighborhood, now your value is decreased because the institutionalized investors that, by the way, don't live in the same state, by the way, don't keep up the actual property, by the way, use an outside property management company.

So that value now is taken away from our communities when there's people that could be homeowners in those properties absolutely uh so i hope folk um got first of all i guarantee our audience got way more out of this than what in the hell they could get on cnn the rest of these people because they they're focused on political stuff when no this is a real issue when it comes to people's issue this this is we're so excited to hear it and to hear it being addressed in such a robust way. It is what is needed and it is what will help communities move, move forward.

And you mentioned this to roll. This is not just a black problem. This is an American problem. Yep, absolutely. It's in it's in neighborhoods and cities all across the country. Courtney Johnson-Rose, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having me. We appreciate it. I want to bring my panel here, Matt, Kelly, and Michael. Kelly, I'll start with you.

Again, it's amazing when I'm watching. I'm seeing all these tweets and I'm seeing these people on these other networks talking about the proposals and oh my god and uh this is just this is just far left stuff and i'm like what the hell are y'all talking about high grocery prices ain't far left that impacts every single person buying food housing crisis ain't far left so this is the problem with why i can't even watch these people, because they want to see this all through a left right prism. Well, no, this is truly an American problem. It is an American problem, but I just have to note that it is refreshing to see someone at a podium that she has done something akin to this before, and didn't need props regarding Cheerios that she apparently saw for the first time in 20 years.

So it is refreshing to see a potential president acting presidential as opposed to a former president who was never presidential in the first place. But to your point about this being an American issue, you are absolutely right, which is why it has been so frustrating over the past four, eight, 12 years, really, of seeing Republicans who are either solid middle class or lower looking to Trump as he's the messiah, who truly cannot relate to the problems that they have, but also can't conceive the notion that Democrats can also help them, too, because it is an American issue. So, like I said, this is a very refreshing take on an issue that has been, as you have so brilliantly laid out, has been decades in the making, almost a century,

according to that chart. And we actually now finally have a plan to get us across the finish line such that we can actually achieve the American dream, however, you know, it shapes out to be in this new century. This is the level of stupidity we're dealing with here, Michael. Go to my iPad. This was a post from this idiot J.D. Vance, Donald Trump's VP running mate. Kamala Harris wants to give $25,000 to illegal aliens to buy American homes. This will only further exacerbate the housing shortage in our country. It's a disgrace. We should make it easier and more affordable for American citizens to buy homes. Dumbass, she is. See, this is what's, matter of fact,

it was some black dude, I don't know what the hell his name is. He posted, I blasted his silly ass on Twitter. Let me see if I can find it. And he was complaining about the same thing. Well, what does she mean by first-time homeowners? She not talking to black people. And then he puts in the same tweet,

you're going to love this, Michael. He puts, and I'm going by memory, he puts in the same tweet, we have the lowest home ownership rate in the country. And I was like, fool, if black people have the lowest home ownership rate in the country, that means it's a lot of us who are going to be first time homeowners.

That's how dumb this dude was. He literally put it in his tweet. I was kind of like, yeah, that's why she wants to get $25,000 for first-time homeowners. And so if black people own fewer homes than anybody else, that means a bunch of us who are first-time homeowners.

See, people like that only pay attention if it says black. And they don't realize that all this stuff impacts black people. Yeah. Oh, he black. He black, too. It's going over their head, Roland. It's going over their head. Now, that that program right there, twenty five thousand dollar tax credit, first time homebuyers. And it also when I was reading articles from ABC News and NBC News about this today, it also applies to people, first time homebuyers and like the previous like their parents didn't own a home as well. OK, it talks about that. Yeah. So so so this is monumental. This is monumental. This is reminiscent. And I teach this history. This is reminiscent to post-World War II during the baby boomer, the baby boomer generation.

OK. And homes being made, homes being built in the suburbs. And unfortunately, many African-Americans, we were discriminated against when we tried to take advantage of our GI Bill benefits to get the loans to buy those homes in the suburbs. So this is huge. And this will also add to the gross domestic product. This will, and she didn't, I watched the press conference. I watched the speech today. She didn't even talk about how this is going to impact the skilled trades. I used to manage a skilled trades program for local community college. OK, you're going to have people going into the skilled trade, right, be able to be put to work immediately. This is going to have a big impact on hardware stores as well. Now, Donald Trump right now is going crazy. I'm telling you right now that he's

he's having a cussing fit because she's blowing him away and everybody sees how this is going to be important. And one of the things she's going to do is attack. It's the preventing the algorithmic facilitation of rental housing cartels. OK. And this is a bill she's proposing. Not not not not not not not again. Slow that down down because what people don't understand when Courtney was on, here's what people don't realize. When she said the people who are buying these homes don't even live in the state, they ain't never even seen a home. They are literally, they are literally sitting at computers and they are using algorithms to know, to know when stuff comes up for sale, and then how to bid on it. And so here you are, here's Kelly, here's Matt, here's Michael, here's someone looking to buy a house, and you're sitting here like, man, and they already got that algorithm running, and you put your bid in, they upping it.

You put your bid in, they upping it. I mean, so, and you don't know what the hell's going on because they are sitting on private equity money to buy them up because they want renters. Right. That's what I'm coming to. There's a big article from ProPublica from October 15, 2022 called Rent Going Up. One company's algorithm could be why. And it deals with these algorithms that are being used by the cartels like she's talking about cracking down on. And this is locking, this is jacking up the cost of rent.

But then it makes it harder for renters to actually save money to even buy homes if homes are available. So she's attacking this from different angles. This is brilliant. Yeah, it is. This is how you win an election. So, Matt, here was this fool, Jamal Green. Go to my iPad. This fool tweeted,

does anybody want to tell me what first generation is code for? LOL. Dumbass is first generation. Pay attention to the cryptic words being used to show us what agenda is their agenda. Yet you literally have black folks acting like the Democrats will prioritize you when you have the lowest home ownership rate in the country at 44% like stop.

See, Matt, the reason I can't stand fools like this here, and I think this fool ran for mayor of Chicago or something, I don't know, but he's stupid. Here's why it's dumb. I remember 2008 having Alfonso Jackson, who was the HUD secretary on my WBON radio show. And what happened was we had a national, we had a national standard when it came to these mortgages. Republicans pushed for, what's their magic word? Oh, let's get rid of bureaucracy, okay? Free market systems.

So we went from a national standard to a 50 state standard. That's when haywire, when it came to doing all these loans. That is what led to this housing crisis. This whole free market capitalism, let's just deemphasize and let's bring it all down. And what this fool doesn't realize is that is what crashed the market, and that's what caused 53% of black wealth to be wiped out. Under Bill Clinton, we got the closest we've ever had to 50% home ownership.

But this is literally how it's gone for black people. Up, down, up, down, up, down. And so you've never had, you have never had 20 consecutive years of black home ownership growth because you've had these ups and downs with the economy. This is a brilliant plan because you have to attack the housing crisis, which is part of the economic crisis, in this way.

Yeah, and you know, I'll readily concede I don't understand the economics of everything to the extent I would like to, but one thing I do know is it's often said that a home is the biggest driver for generational wealth, right? So anything that democratizes the opportunity to own a home, particularly for people who have been kept out of the process en masse, i.e. us, Black people, then I don't think that's a problem. But I think part of this really is a philosophical issue. The biggest issue is we have a free market system wherein we allow things that are necessities to be commodified. When you allow housing and medical and things that are necessities to be commodified to this extent, and you don't regulate it such that your average person gets to actually participate,

then you have this kind of thing happening where you have private equity firms that are buying homes based on algorithms and the family who's trying to get their economic life started can't do so because they're getting pushed out of the market. That's especially true in my hometown in Austin. You look in Austin, you know, a house is listed and people are absurd, absurd. I mean, I have friends, literally people I grew up with who cannot live in the city limits of their hometown because it's so expensive they're getting pushed way out into the boonies because that's the only place they can

afford a house. In many ways, Austin, Matt, that was my first job out of college, Austin American Statesman. Because of technology companies, Austin is damn near going to be like San Francisco where they're driving

everything up and you're pushing everybody out. I live in D.C. and that's exactly what's happening. I get text messages probably twice a month where they're trying to buy my parents' house. The little house I grew up in that was at the edge of town when they

graduated from the University of Texas. My sister and I grew up there. They still live there. The house is very small and they will offer crazy money to buy it because it's in Austin. They know how hot the market is and they know that they can resell it and make money. And the bigger issue is when we allow basic necessities to be commodified to this extent and it pushes people out. And, you know, the philosophical idea of free market is fine. But the problem with that is we know that's disingenuous because we bail out banks, right? We bail out those who are too big to fail or whom we find there's some economic benefit to save. But your average consumer doesn't always get that fail safe. So any program that tries to allow the middle class to really participate and have those entrees

to economic freedom and economic longevity are good things. And I think that comes with some amount of regulation. And one thing I want to say on that is people always say, oh, that cost is going to be put on us. That cost is going to be put on us. It will be. But if that cost is small, if it's marginally felt for each individual taxpayer, but we have the overall benefit of a program that helps everyone. It seems to me that's the business we should be in. Yeah, but here's the whole deal though. First of all, a tax credit, that's actually not pulling money out of your pocket. And for all of the people out there who say those things, let me remind them there are literally billions upon billions upon billions of dollars that go to major corporations every single year in tax credits.

But you know what we say? We call them economic incentives. We call them tax increment financing districts. We call them opportunity zones. So in America, this is the fundamental problem with America, especially Congress. We have no problem helping out major corporations when it comes to actual people. No, no, no, we can't do that. No, no, we actually can't do that. And that's the problem that we have here. And for the people out there, and again, I've seen so many of these other networks, and it's driving me crazy watching them. I'm like,

what the hell are y'all talking about because they're so stuck on process because, and listen, when I was at CNN, I experienced this. We were discussing the Affordable Care Act. And what drove me crazy, listen to all these people. We were on the air, and they were talking about this, and they

were going process, and I'm sitting here, and I'm watching it. And I remember it was around the Olympics. And I remember Wolf Blitzer made some, I think Obama, he moderated some discussion and Wolf Blitzer made some comment about, and he used the gold, silver and bronze analogy. And I was trying not to clap back hard on Wolf, but I said, I'm sorry, I can't sit here and use sports language to discuss healthcare. I said, I had to file for bankruptcy because of healthcare, because my appendix ruptured and I had no health insurance and I couldn't afford Cobra when I lost my job. I said, so I'm sorry, I'm not playing with this issue.

And I remember sitting with the worldwide CEO of CNN, Jim Walton, and I said to Jim Walton, I said to John Klein, the president of CNN US, I said, can y'all stop talking about the Affordable Care Act as a process? Can you actually talk with people who have health issues who are dealing with this here? So we're talking about this stuff. This is affecting real people. And so I'm not calling what she laid out far left and just crazy and all that sort of stuff. This is not far left. This is actually real.

And because I own that home in Texas, my parents have lived there the last 10, 12 years. So that means that they aren't having to spend 70% of their fixed income on housing because they're just dealing with upkeep. Nieces and nephews have lived there. So now they are able to build in the first five, 10 years of their life as adults and not be burdened with this year. So the fact of the matter is this is why home ownership matters.

So by me owning a home, there are multiple generations of my family who are benefiting from owning just that one home. And that's the difference between renting and owning. And people have to understand that. I saw this great video by a former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, on this as well. And I want to go ahead and play this because I love how it breaks it down. And you know what?

I really hope, I really wish, and I would love to see this. I would love to see the vice president when she's giving one of these speeches. I would love for her to treat like a classroom. I would love for her to do exactly what he did here, the chart that I showed, to show people that whole deal versus just standing there. Because again, I think there has to be more teaching of people who don't understand the economy or civics as opposed to just speeches. And so watch this, and this, I hope people also,

after we've talked about it and watched this, they'll really understand how these things are all linked. Roll it. Rent is skyrocketing, and home buying is out of reach for millions. One big reason why? Wall Street. Hedge funds and private equity firms have been buying up hundreds of thousands of homes that would otherwise be purchased by people. Wall Street's appetite for housing ramped up after the 2008 financial crisis.

As you'll recall, the street's excessive greed created a housing bubble that burst. Millions of people lost their homes to foreclosure. Did the street learn a lesson? Of course not. It got bailed out. Then it began picking off the scraps of the housing market it had just destroyed, gobbling up foreclosed homes at fire sale prices, which it then sold or rented for big profits. Investor purchases hit their peak in 2022, accounting for around 28% of all home sales in America. Homebuyers frequently reported being outbid by cash offers made by investors. So-called iBuyers used algorithms to instantly buy homes before offers could even be made by actual human beings. If the present trend continues, by 2030, Wall Street investors may control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes.

Partly as a result, home ownership, a cornerstone of generational wealth, and a big part of the American dream, is increasingly out of reach for a large number of Americans, especially young people. Now, Wall Street's feasting has slowed recently due to rising home prices, but that hasn't stopped them from specifically targeting more modestly priced homes,

buying up a record share of the country's most affordable homes at the end of 2023. They've also been most active in bigger cities, particularly in the Sunbelt, which has become an increasingly expensive place to live, and they're pointedly going after neighborhoods that are home to communities of color. For example, in one diverse neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, Wall Street-backed investors bought half of the homes that sold in 2021

and 2022. On a single block, investors bought every house but one and turned them into rentals. Folks, it's a vicious cycle. First, you're outbid by investors. Then you may be stuck renting from them at excessive prices that leave you with even less money to put up for a new home. Rinse, repeat. Now, I want to be clear. This is just one part of the problem with housing in America. The lack of supply is considered the biggest reason why home prices and rents have soared

and are outpacing recent wage gains. But Wall Street sinking its teeth into whatever is left on the market is making the supply problem even worse. So what can we do about this? Start by getting Wall Street out of our homes. Democrats have introduced a bill in both houses of Congress to ban hedge funds and private equity firms from buying or owning single-family homes.

If signed into law, this could increase the supply of homes available to individual buyers, thereby making housing more affordable. President Biden has also made it a priority to tackle the housing crisis, proposing billions in funding to increase the supply of homes and tax credits to help actual people buy them. Now, I have no delusions that any of this will be easy to get done, but these plans provide a roadmap of where the country could head under the right leadership.

So many Americans I meet these days are cynical about the country. I understand their cynicism. But cynicism can be a self-fulfilling prophecy if it means giving up the fight. The captains of American industry and Wall Street would like nothing better than for the rest of us to giving up the fight. The captains of American industry and Wall Street would like nothing better than for the rest of us to give up that fight so they can take it all.

I say we keep fighting. Everything that we explained, you saw it right there. That bill, and I'm just going to quickly go to all three, that bill, I'll start with you, Michael, has to be supported. Wall Street cannot be involved in buying single-family homes in this country. I totally agree, and this is using the power of government to benefit the people. More has to be discussed on this and really break this down, how this works, and also deal with what the executive branch can do outside of Congress and then deal with how to get it passed through Congress. But also, this puts into play why Democrats have to take back control of the House and why they have to expand their

margin in the Senate as well, because if you get to 54, 55 in the Senate, you can probably change or do a carve-out to the filibuster rule. It is just, I mean, again, we sit here and watch this. This is one of those things where this is a difference between two parties, Kelly, where you have Republicans, they will do the bidding of private equity. Look, you've got some Democrats in private equity as well. But this is the type of bill that should be bipartisan because if Wall Street owns, and listen, 2030, that's just five and a half years from now.

If they are owning 40% of all U.S. homes, we are absolutely screwed because they have no incentive to sell. They want people to be renters. For sure. And, you know, renting is a very lucrative business as somebody who is giving their money away by renting because of the lack of housing. And I made a point. Sorry, I interrupted you, Matt, at the beginning, but I live in D.C. and he's talking about what's happening in Austin. I feel like D.C. is closer to becoming what San Francisco and the Bay is experiencing than Austin is because there is virtually no affordable housing in D.C. right now. And by that, I mean not just, you know, sectioning off rentals to those who are making less than X amount of dollars a year. I am in the tax bracket where

I make too much to qualify for the affordable housing, but make too little to actually buy, right? And me, my peers, and so many other Washingtonians are going through that exact same thing. But you also can't afford to leave because this is where the jobs are, right? So like I said previously, what Harris is proposing is profound and it is brilliant because it's not just addressing an issue that involves Democrats and people who just lean blue all the time. This is an American issue. This is something that is happening to everybody. And in fact, if I recall correctly, this is really happening to Trump's voter base.

And a lot more, there are a lot more dire straits than the demographics that are voting blue. And yet they are voting for Trump because that information isn't getting to them in a way that, you know, is frankly opening their eyes. Right. You know, and that's a layered conversation in and of itself. But this is a this is an American issue. This affects everybody, black, white, brown, beige, what have you. And should it actually be implemented correctly, this could transform how America is viewed, how we view America, and how we move forward. To Michael's point, this is also why we need to vote up and down the ballot. This is not a vote just for Harris.

We need to look at our Senate. We need to look at our Congress. We need to look at our local elections that are up right now, because all of that needs to happen in a way such that she can do her job so that we can live the way that we need to live and want to live as Americans in this country. And see, Matt, The Washington Post, they put out this editorial, The Times Demands Serious Economic Ideas, Harris Supplies Gimmicks. Well, that's what happens when you're sitting in rarefied air, which is beyond stupid. In their editorial, they're complaining about what she's talking about, price hikes, things along those lines. They say, oh, these things are vague, stuff along those lines. And then they claim that

these price hikes are not what's causing inflation. That's absolute BS. And not only that, not only that, here's the other thing that these folks don't want to deal with. And again, I get how Americans operate. This guy put out this post right here, and he said, Bill Prate, he said, someday some reporter will figure out how to explain to the American public how post-COVID inflation was a worldwide phenomenon caused by pent-up demand, and that the Biden-Harris administration handled it better than any, than every other country. So he shows a chart here from the Council of Economic Advisors, and it shows you Italy, UK, Germany, Europe, France, Canada, Japan,

the United States has been able to lower inflation to a lower level than any of these other countries. People, I guess what drives me insane, Matt, are these people act like COVID never happened. They act like 2020, 2021, and 2022 didn't exist. They literally act like, oh, oh, well, Trump said gas is $1.87, because no one was driving. They act like, you know, they act like, well, Trump said gas is $1.87 because no one was driving. They act like, you know, they're like, well, it's like, well, people were actually at home buying things. I had a cam link and I have it in my bag.

It allows you to connect your camera to your computer to live stream. That cam link is like $130. During COVID, it was $1,200. Because there was scarcity. So we went through scarcity. We had supply chains. Nothing was being made. Nothing was being fixed.

I had a Sennheiser microphone. I need to be repaired. They were literally like, yo, hit us next year because nobody's at our factories. And so that's also what is maddening. This idea that like that never happened. So I don't understand why inflation is so high. I don't understand why these are happening because we literally had a worldwide damn pandemic the first time in 100 years. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think I even really need to opine on that because I think you're right. And I think that revisionist history allows people to cast policy and economic conversations in whatever confines they want.

But all I'll really add to this as it relates to, you know, the way I've seen this covered, is it's interesting that you brought up that Washington Post editorial, because I didn't get a chance to read the actual article. But The Atlantic put out what I thought was kind of a hit job headline about Vice President Harris's policies, just basically saying something to the same effect. I saw it. And I don't remember the words they used. I don't want to mischaracterize it. But it was just something attacking that. And what I've seen even more insidious, if you will, is from some of the other news outlets, they have characterized such policies from both Vice President Harris and Mr. Trump as, quote, populism. The reason I think that's problematic is because populism means a certain thing and has a certain

connotation. But as we've been discussing during this segment, this is about people. And what we forget with our government is we give all these dignitaries this power and we parrot their talking points and all this stuff, but they work for us at the end of the day. And if people can't buy a house, if they can't go to the hospital when they get sick, if they can't afford to get sick, if they can't afford their food, we have a fundamental problem in this country, no matter what your ideological position is. And it should disgust you that there are people who are ardently opposed to the idea that

people should be able to own and purchase a home when we know that is the primary economic vehicle for generational wealth. I mean, we have a sick delusion in this country where we take talking points and philosophy over people and what happens to them. So the idea that you'd even characterize this as populism as opposed to a necessity for people who need to buy homes and who need to get health care and all the other litany of things that we've allowed to just run amok with commodification is disgusting. And that is the American problem. The idea that we talk about freedom, but we don't ever say that farm subsidies are welfare. We call it that. When we tell a corn producer, don't produce so your price stays at a certain level, keep driving that Ford

F-350 off of government subsidies, but we castigate the black person who lives in inner city wherever who needs help, right? that becomes the face of it, that's who we should be helping, not a farmer who in a free market can't afford to keep their prices right. I mean, the reality is just the ideology runs amok, and people don't think about what is actually happening on the ground. So the idea that there's legislation that either side wouldn't support that helps your average American family buy a house is disgusting and they need to be taken to task for that. And we as people need to stop allowing this ideology to drive what happens in the halls of power. They work for us. We don't work for them. And if they aren't working for us, the system has to change. And that's why you mentioned the Atlantic. I

criticize the Washington Post. This is also what happens when media elites are opining on stuff, and they're not understanding regular ordinary people. And, you know, listen, somebody can say, oh, you're a media elite. But let me tell you something. When I was on that air, I talk about what that bankruptcy was like, what it was like sitting in that hospital, having those real conversations, and that's the fundamental problem that we're facing. We're not seeing those type of discussions.

Gotta go to break. We'll be right back with more news to talk about on Roller Market Unfiltered. Don't forget to support us in what we do. Y'all, what you just heard here, with black experts and all that, ain't nobody else in black-owned media doing. Ain't nobody doing.

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Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We featured the brand new work of Professor Angie Porter, which, simply put, is a revolutionary reframing of the African experience in this country. It's the one legal article everyone, I mean everyone, should read. Professor Porter and Dr. Vlithia Watkins, our legal roundtable team, join us to explore the paper that I guarantee is going to prompt a major aha moment in our culture. You crystallize it by saying who are we to other people? Who are African people to others?

Governance is our thing. Who are we to each other? The structures we create for ourselves, how we order the universe as African people. That's next on The Black Table, here on The Black Star Network. My name is Lena Charles, and I'm from Opelousas, Louisiana. Yes, that is Zydeco capital of the world.

My name is Margaret Chappelle. I'm from Dallas, Texas, representing the Urban Trivia Game. It's me, Sherri Shepherd, and you know what you're watching. Roland Martin on Unfiltered. President Joe Biden made sound of proclamation designating a national monument at the site of the deadly 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, a tragedy that led to the creation of the NAACP.

The riot killed several black residents and destroyed dozens of black homes and businesses. It exemplified the ongoing racial tensions across the United States, including in northern states. Here is President Biden. Welcome all my former colleagues, colleagues, and members of the administration and those outside the administration that made this happen. I want to say one thing at the outset.

I never thought that having been in the Senate for so many years, as well as Vice President for 12 years, for eight years, and President for four years, that I'd see, have to worry about people wanting to erase history. To literally erase history. What we can't read, what we can't write. And what I'm excited about, you know, the specifics of this, we're rewriting history, we're allowing history to be written, what happened.

So our children, our grandchildren, everybody understands what happened and what could still happen. As a matter of fact, something happened here similar, recently. And so, you know, I want to thank, especially thanks to Senator Duckworth and Senator Durbin and Reverend, excuse me, Adinsky, like Biden-dinsky. By the way, I moved from an Irish neighbor to Scranton when the cold died, and moved down to Delaware.

I was the only kid in the neighborhood that ended in an S.K.I. But look, you know, over a hundred years ago this week, a mob not far from Lincoln's home unleashed a race ride in Springfield. And that really shocked the conscience of the nation. It shocked the conscience of the nation. But these folks worked so hard to make sure. A lot of people forgot it. There's railroad tracks there.

There's a lot going on there. And people forgot it as if, you know, it didn't happen. Some of our colleagues would say, oh, no, no, no. We've never had this problem. Well, you know, you're going to continue to have these problems. We talked about the problems we had before, making sure we solved them. That also sparked the creation

of the NAACP, the leaders here today. One of the most important organizations, in my view, in this country. By signing this designation from Springfield 1908 Race Ride National Monument, remind ourselves we have to, we we have no safe harbor unless we continue to remind people what happened. What happened. Really important. I'm, you know, as you've heard me say, when I had an operation years ago, the doctor said, told me what my chances were, and he said, you know, your problem is your senator said you're

a congenital optimist. Well, I am an optimist. I'm optimistic about this country because we're good people. We can't let these things fade. And I want to thank the engineering firm that went out and found the remnants of a facility. I want to thank the Catholic Hospital for donating the site there to make this happen. All right, folks.

Democratic congressman, go to another story. Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell dropped this new ad asking a simple question. You wouldn't trust him with your kid, would you? Man, I love this. Watch it. I love you. Have a great day at school.

Dictator on day one. There will have to be some form of punishment for women. Roe versus Wade was terminated. Fire, fury, bloodbath. Now get in. You know what, honey? I'm going to drive you today. Besides, can convicted felons even drive school buses? Fury, blood bag. Now get in. You know what, honey? I'm going to drive you today.

Besides, can convicted felons even drive school buses? If you wouldn't trust him with your kid, why would you trust him with your country? That was pretty good. The folks at the Lincoln Project, they also dropped this video here. Check this out, y'all. Trump is a convicted felon. And if elected.

He says, you're not going to be a dictator, are you? I said, no, no, no, other than day one. He is a danger to this country. I did something that nobody thought was possible. He will abolish your rights. I got rid of Roe v. Wade. He's a danger to our democracy. I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. There's nothing wrong with saying that. You've recalculated. He is a danger

to national security. I'm going to bop the shit out of him. He is a danger to our safety. We are watching capital get defaced over a lie. We will never give up. We will never concede. I am your retribution. This is not like last time. A vote for Donald Trump may mean the last election that you ever get to vote in. In four years, you don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote. The danger is real. In a historic decision, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have immunity from prosecution. They've just given him a license for dictatorship. All right, Kelly, what do you think about those two ads?

I think they're effective. I hope that they get through to the American people. And I don't see anything that was untrue about them. So I have no comment on its, you know, on its truthfulness, on anything of that nature. I want to see more of this. But specifically, I want to see more of it from the left. You know, Lincoln Project is technically speaking a right wing, but common sense, uh, nonprofit aimed at, you know, uh,

illuminating the truth within its, within its party. I need an equivalent of that for the Democrats, right? You know, we're, we're kind of sort of getting there when it comes to Kamala's pick for vice president, being Governor Walz. You know, he was the person who started people talking about how weird they are. He was one of the first people, if not the first person, to say, you know, Trump is just weird. The Republicans are just weird. We need to get underneath that and have messaging carrying that out, not just, you know, name calling wise, but like, you know, providing substantive evidence in our advertising as to why they're weird, as to why they're creepy, as to why they are not fit to be in civic engagement with us because they're not civil. Right. So, you know, again, my thoughts on the on the ads, they're great.

But we need something on the left. Well, actually, the first ad was from Eric Swalwell, who's a Democratic. Oh, well, yeah. So that was from. So that was from. I'm talking about Lincoln Project. No, no, I got you. But you have people like Don Winslow. You have Midas Touch. You've got folks out there who are doing those things, who are being far more aggressive. But you also have a campaign that's actually more aggressive than Democrats normally are. You see that in a lot of their press releases. This right here, Michael, I think, and you see the Harris campaign really leaning in on this. And I've seen a lot of veterans really ticked off when Donald Trump made this comment in one of his speeches.

Say, Miriam, I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's the highest award you can get as a civilian. It's the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It's actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor. That's soldiers. They're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they're dead. She gets it, and she's a healthy, beautiful woman. It's very good.

And they're rated equal. I'm sorry. Did that fool just say this? Did he just say this here? I want y'all to hear this again y'all. Because I'm playing this video straight from Twitter. But I want y'all to hear what this fool just said. First of all, no I'm not playing it yet y'all. There are three medals, there it yet, y'all. There are three medals.

There are three medals, y'all. There's the Presidential Medal of Freedom. There is the Medal for Military Veterans, people who have done extraordinary acts of bravery. Then there's the Congressional Gold Medal. This fool literally insulted the military. I want y'all to hear it again. Listen. I have to say, Miriam, I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That's the

highest award you can get as a civilian. It's the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It's actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor. That's soldiers. They're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they're dead. She gets it and she's a healthy, beautiful woman. And they're rated equal so michael wow wow they're rated equal um i dare say the medal of honor is higher than it go ahead Go ahead. You know, Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving.

His stupidity is the gift that keeps on giving. All you got to do is press play and just let him go. You look at that debacle of a press conference he had yesterday at Bedminster talking about the high price of groceries. It costs $300,000 to have a membership at Bedminster. And he's talking about Cheerios and bacon and things like this. You look at this right here. He continues to insult veterans. He continues to insult veterans. So the best asset next to Kamala Harris that Democrats have is Donald Trump. He's the gift that keeps on giving. Just press play. Just let the fool talk. And then

you'll see, do we want to give the nuclear codes to that fool? This is a guy, because he's a convicted felon in New York, he can't own a.22 caliber handgun. You want to put him in charge of the military? This is the guy who wanted to shoot George Floyd protesters. He's mentally deranged. So, hey, let him keep talking. And also, Vice President Kamala Harris is going to wear his ass out at the debate on September 10th.

So here was a statement that the Harris-Walls campaign put out on that. Donald Trump knows nothing about service to anyone or anything but himself. For him to insult Medal of Honor recipients just as he has previously attacked Gold Star families, mocked prisoners of war, and referred to those who lost their lives

in service to our country as suckers and losers should remind all Americans that we owe it to our service members, our country, and our future to make sure Donald Trump is never our nation's commander-in-chief again. You know what I really hope, Matt? I really hope. I wish his chief of staff, John Kelly,

retired four-star general, would actually, in September or October, hold a news conference or give a speech condemning this idiot. So this suckers and losers comment, Kelly confirmed that, but that was too, I think it was for a book. He confirmed those comments. No, no.

Kelly, for the good of the country, was to, I think it was for a book, he confirmed those. No, no. Kelly needs, for the good of the country, he needs to come out and publicly share what Trump has said, how he's praised Hitler and his generals, how loyal they were. He needs to talk about what he said when he refused to go

to that cemetery when they were in Europe. To me, I don't care if you work for the guy and you know that he should never be in this position like 40 or 44 officials in his cabinet. To praise a woman who gave her campaign $100 million

because, oh, she's standing there and she's all healthy and it was just lovely compared to these soldiers who are all shot up or dead. Well, who the hell says that? I think you're right. I think John Kelly should come out and say that. And it's ironic that we are having this conversation this week because my six-year-old has taken to calling people at his school liars. I don't know where he got it from, but we've been dealing with that this week.

But I think he should call him a liar every time he gets up and touts military might and how much we support our veterans and all of that when you call them suckers and losers and when you make disparaging comments about somebody like John McCain, a prisoner of war. I mean, you're a liar, right? Because you're leveraging people, the sheep who are following you and following what the Republican Party are saying every time you get up and tout any, you know, desire to support the military when you repeatedly make disparaging comments. So, as my six-year-old might say, he is a liar when he gets up and says that he supports the military despite continuing to denigrate them.

I think Michael's right. I think he's a gift that keeps on giving. But I do think one of the other gifts that we get is we get to see the populace of people who espouse these beliefs like they support the military, so to speak, but they're behind a guy who continues to do things that are directly against their stated values. And that, to me, is if you're willing to do that, that's because you're voting for him for some other reason. It may be his white supremacist views.

It may be his extraordinary elitism, some other reason that is nefarious. But it's not because he really believes your values, because he keeps talking against them. So as my son would say, he's a liar. Look, I mean, it is what it is. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Then again, for them it's called alternative facts. That's how they roll. Let me go to a quick break. I'll be right back. Rolling Martin on the filter of the Blackstar Network. Next on A Balanced Life, we're

talking everything from prayer, to exercise, to positive affirmations, and everything that's needed to keep you strong and along your way. That's on a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, on Blackstar Network. Hello, I'm Jameah Pugh. I am from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, just an hour right outside of Philadelphia. My name is Jasmine Pugh. I'm also from Coatesville, Pennsylvania. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay right here. Kira Bender has been missing from Auburn, Alabama since June 28th. The 16-year-old is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 105 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about Kira Bender should call the Auburn, Alabama Police Department at 334-501-3100 334-501-3100. Folks, let's go to Illinois where controller Susanna Mendoza says she's immediately suspending what she calls offset fund payments to

Dalton because the village failed to turn over annual financial reports to her office. This year's total with health funds comes out to be about $135,000. Mendoza said she is also threatening fines of nearly $30,000 if Dalton doesn't file the required reports. In a news release, she said that Dalton Mayor Tiffany Henyard has quote,

willfully refused to turn over the annual reports all municipalities are required to file with her office for the last two years. In a report she presented to the public and Dalton trustees at a meeting on August 8, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the village had not complied with state law requiring the filing of annual financial reports. The offset money comes from parking tickets and traffic fines that an individual in the community has not paid. The Comptroller withholds the funds owed from individuals' state income tax refunds and

distributes them to municipalities. You know, Henry came on this show, and she said he blamed everybody else. And this to me is just stupid. I don't understand, Matt, why in the hell, you know, she wants to run around and act like, oh, she's done nothing wrong and it's everybody else. How do you not turn over financial reports to the state comptroller? And so you don't get the benefit of the doubt by saying, oh, it's all of my enemies. They're mad at me. I'm a young black woman.

No, you refuse to do your damn job. I have never seen this level of not only incompetence, but also just flagrant abuse. This is not a big city. Okay? It's a little bitty-ass town in the south suburbs of Chicago. I mean, geez.

Yeah. Well, I don't know, Roland. I mean, look, people hit licks. That's what's happened in this city. They've been hitting the lick on the—let's just get honest, okay? They've been hitting the lick on public coffers, and they got caught up, and they are public financial records for a public entity like a city. And, you know, the great irony of this that I wanted to say on the last show is I listened to a podcast not long ago. Ronald Reagan's hometown, Dixon, Illinois, which is like 150 miles away from there, is actually the place where the comptroller there staged the largest basically embezzlement scheme ever from a municipality, a woman named Rita Cromwell. Oh, my God.

Billion dollars. Yo, she was straight-ass thieving, and she was for equestrian. For 30 years, and Terry Bradshaw was like, yo, I need to get with your horses. You got all this money. Yeah, you got this money. And that's because she was hitting a lick on the public coffers, my brother. So I think what might have happened here is somebody lining them pockets. And that's why I don't have any financial records. And I don't know why she would come on your show or any other show, because right now I don't have the evidence.

Don't get me wrong. But a lot of times where there is smoke, there is a fire. And I anticipate she will be unfortunately heading to prison, as will anybody else who helped with this embezzlement. And I say that tongue-in-cheek, but the sad reality is that's likely what you're looking at, because for that to be as small a municipality as it is, there is absolutely no way you can substantiate not only not having financial records, but if I remember correctly, they didn't even have an accountant for some period of time, if that's right. So if that's the case, you don't even have a financial officer who's overlooking the coffers of the city. That's a huge problem. And this is public money. So the public trust has been violated both literally and figuratively.

And I don't know how to be repaired there. But I think some people there need to get criminal defense lawyers if they don't already. I think she had one that came to a meeting recently. It says to me, to me, it's just stupid. It's just stupid, Kelly. I mean, all of this drama, all of this back and forth, and again, you know, when she came out here, people were like, man, man, you didn't tear her apart.

First of all, again, for all the people who didn't understand, you can't tear somebody apart unless you have the factual information. So my whole deal was I'm going to ask you a series of questions, and I'm going to get you on record, and then we're going to then compare what actually happens to what you actually said. And the thing here is this is not that difficult. We're talking about a little bitty-ass town. We're not talking about the city of Chicago. We're talking about Dalton, Illinois.

Okay? I don't understand. And I'm not dissing Dalton, but it's not large. And so I don't understand how you can be the mayor, you're not getting along with the damn trustees, so you don't want to deal with them. You're ordering employees what they can and cannot do. That's not how people lead. So she could be sitting here mad with all these news stories. Sorry, you created this drama, Mayor Henyard. I mean, and we've seen this several times across jurisdictions, people who, you know, just got too much dip on their chip and get caught up. What Matt said, I was like, I thought there was no such thing as halfway quirks, but I digress.

Maybe she's halfway. Maybe she's all the way. I don't know. What I know is that she got caught. And you cannot use your skin color or your gender to get out of something that you actually did. You can't use either of those things to get out of anything, period. But for sure, accountability needs to be held here, and that's apparently what's happening. So, you know, it appears that she's digging herself, her own grave, and, you know, like the young people say now, let her cook.

Well, I mean, here's a perfect example. OK, look at his headline. Henyard's adulting cops during police power struggle. Stop playing these silly games. So she literally tell me again, this is how just does nonsensical it is. She literally tells the officers keep following the orders of her handpicked police chief, even though homeboys are leave after being indicted for federal bankruptcy fraud charge. If I'm a cop, I'm not listening to somebody who got indicted. Yeah. You know, you're rolling.

This is like corruption on top of stupidity, on top of corruption, on top of greed. You just sit back. It's like they couldn't. If somebody was going to sit down and write a movie about this, nobody would believe the movie. I mean, this is just too far fetched. So, you know, I saw the interview you did with the trustee. I think we had her on. You had her on last Friday when we were on. And I know this is a little bitty town, as you call it. But I also have to wonder, I know Mayor, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot did an audit and found all these millions of dollars that they were in the red.

I think three point five million dollars, something like that, almost four million dollars that they were in the red, I think $3.5 million, something like that, almost $4 million that they're in the red, things like this. And I have to ask, OK, there had to be some other people that knew what was going on. You know, there had to be, and I'm not trying to let the mayor off the hook, but I'm like, wait a second. Hold on. You know, you don't you're not getting the proper financial statements, all of this. You don't have an accountant, things like that. You know, I mean, well, yeah, but because there are people who who she say they report to me, not anybody else. And so to me, again, it's nonsensical.

It's stupid. It makes no sense. And the bottom line is, Mayor Henry, you keep playing games, you're going to get your ass indicted. Okay? So, your police chief got indicted on bankruptcy charge. Your former top aide, Keith Freeman, got indicted. Same thing. So, I'm just saying, I mean, F-Round and find out.

Patrick got indicted. Don't think that you can just keep just playing the folk face and things are always going to be well. That's just so stupid. Let me go to Georgia with the Board of Elections in one of the largest counties says it will start charging people who challenge voter eligibility.

The Cobb County Board of Elections voted 4-1 on the measure with a Republican member voting against it. The Cobb County vote of elections voted 4-1 on the measure, with a Republican member voting against it. The new rule comes as Republican activists challenge thousands of voters in Georgia as part of a wide-ranging national effort coordinated by former Donald Trump's allies to take names off of voting rolls. Most of the people they target have moved away from their old addresses, and the activists argue that letting those names stay on the

rolls invites fraud. But Democrats and liberal voting rights activists say Republicans are challenging voters either to remove Democrats or to sow doubt about the accuracy of all elections in advance of the 2024 presidential election. That's good what Cobb County is doing, Kelly. They should be charging these fools, because we saw in the last election a handful of people were responsible for challenging upwards of 70,000, 80,000 folks' registrations. It's nonsense, but Republicans have created this madness because they want to scale down the number of people who are voting. For sure.

And we've talked about this on your program before, but Republicans' playbook is all about disenfranchising the voter because they don't have the legitimate votes to get what they want. So they have to lie, cheat, steal, whatever else devils do in order to get what they need done done because it is so antithetical to what American people need because they're not for the American people. So for things like this to happen, like, you know, getting charged like this, like it needs to happen because they need to be held accountable for their actions, similar to the previous segment that we just had. Be held accountable for your actions and let justice, actual justice prevail in these situations.

Absolutely. And Matt, what we're seeing is they're trying to set this thing up. They, listen, but they also said it. They wanted to put people on election boards and use their power by controlling legislatures to change the rules, to take over boards, and they specifically want to target

places like Fulton County. But I love what happened there in Cobb. They're like, hey, y'all gonna keep doing all this to a German? Y'all gonna have to pay for this stuff. And it's amazing when you start charging folk, they start looking at their pocketbook like, yeah, I don't think we can just challenge.

Because the law, they can literally challenge anybody. They can just challenge anybody without any standing whatsoever. So I say hit them in their pocketbook. You know, to your point, the city of Corpus Christi is embroiled in a fight right now over the library board here in this town where it's been overrun by maggots. And they're, you know, attacking everything related to the library. So your point is well taken because I see these asinine headlines in the newspaper all the time about the library board.

So they are trying a takeover. I will say with this, I want to reserve judgment on the propriety of this to the extent that I don't know the standing, kind of like you mentioned. I mean, I like the idea of them putting in some measure to disallow people from attacking registrations without any basis to do so. But it does kind of concern me because if there's a bona fide challenge to somebody's registration—from the left, let's say, they wanted to challenge somebody's registration—I don't know the circumstances you would need to show to even get to a preponderance of evidence to show you have a reason to believe it's not a good registration. So, not knowing more, I want to reserve judgment

on how good this is. I like the idea of addressing it. I don't know if charging is the right way to do so, because I can see the circumstance where it hampers people who are legitimate in their attacking it. But maybe there's something built into their bill where it's the number of registrations you attack or something else that allows it to be done kind of in a nuanced way. Michael, real quick. Yeah, Roland, you know, this goes back to one of the agendas of the Heritage Foundation. Not only did they craft Project 2025, but you go back to 1980, Paul Weyrich, who's a co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, he was on video saying it's in their best interest for less people to vote because they're going to turn out their voters. Republicans are going to turn out their voters. Republicans are going to turn out their voters. So this is one of their tactics, challenge people's ability to vote, get people removed from the voting rolls, and then Republicans will turn out their voters. So yeah, they should be

charged for this, and we have to continue to fight voter suppression efforts like this. All right, then. Folks, the family of a black Ohio man killed by a sheriff's deputy will receive $7 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit over the December 2020 shooting. Casey Goodson Jr. was shot multiple times as he tried to enter his grandmother's Columbus home. Jason Meade's trial, tried on murder and reckless homicide charges, ended in a mistrial in February when the jury couldn't agree on a verdict.

Prosecutors will trial the officer again in October, but they have dropped one of the two murder counts he faced. Me testified that Goodson waved a gun at him as the two drove past each other. So he pursued Goodson because he said he feared for his life and the lives of others. He said he eventually shot Goodson because he turned towards him with a gun. All right, folks, that is it for us. Let me thank Matt, Kelly, Michael for joining us as well on this show. Thank you so very much. Hey, folks, do not forget, beginning Monday, we will be live in Chicago. Every single night, six hours of live coverage from the Democratic National Convention.

That's right. We're going to be there. Our team is driving up tomorrow with all our gear. We'll fly up on Sunday, set up and we go live. And so we're going to be covering everything there as well.

So looking forward to that. And so again, every single night we're live there in Chicago. So we want you to join us. Listen, y'all don't need to waste your time with them other networks. Y'all know you're going to barely see any black people on any of those networks, but you're going to see lots of black folks on the Black Star Network. We're going to be covering everything for you. And so you know how we're going to do this thing. So we look forward

to that. Also support the work that we do. It's going to cost us about $25,000, y'all, easy, minimum, to go to Chicago to do this. But we think it's important that we be there on the ground bringing the news to you and not just simply getting it from other mainstream sources. So support us by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. So you're checking money over the PO Box 57196 Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. Cash App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal or RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV,

Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, The Browning of America, Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. And don't forget, y'all, to get your My Black Job is Voting t-shirt. And so go to, you can click the QR code in the bottom right-hand corner or go to DaciasDesigns.com, D-A-C-I-A-S-D-E-S-I-G-N-S dot com. Use the promo code ROLAND. And some of the proceeds of that comes back to this show to support our work. Folks, that's it. I'll see y'all on Monday from Chicago. Holler! Yes, I had. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Martin. More time Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.