#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Harris accepts VP nod; 1st Black NFL team prez speaks; Biden disavows Sarsour; Bannon arrested

Episode Date: August 21, 2020

8.20.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Sen. Kamala Harris accepts Democratic Vice President nomination; Barack Obama issues dire warning about American democracy in rebuke of Trump; First Black NFL team President, Jason Wright speaks; Women's March Co-founder Linda Sarsour addresses Joe Biden disavowing her; Lawsuit has been filed against Postmaster Louis DeJoy; $600M Flint water settlement; Postmaster sued; $600M Flint water settlement; Steve Bannon arrested for fraudSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partners: 2020 CensusIn America, everyone counts. And the 2020 Census is how that great promise is kept. Respond today online, by phone or by mail and help inform hundreds of billions in funding for education, health programs, and more. Shape your future. Start here at www.2020census.gov.#RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: CeekWhether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset.Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting site covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Thursday, August 20th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, history was made last night. The Democratic National Virtual Convention, as Senator Kamala Harris of California accepts the nomination as the country's first African, first black and Indian American vice president. We'll show you what she had to say. And also former President Barack Obama laid into Donald Trump. Trump was not happy. He was tweeting in all caps. Also, we'll talk with the head of an Indian American political organization about what Harris's VP not means for that community. Also, folks, another Trump official took a perp walk. This time, Steve Bannon, the Postal Service cops snatched him off of a 28 million dollar yacht as he was just cruising in the waters of Connecticut.

He has been indicted along with several others. Also folks, we'll be talking with the first black president of an NFL team, Jason Wright, who now leads the Washington football team will join us. And also Women's March co-founder, Linda Sarsour joins us to talk about Joe Biden's campaign dissing and disavowing her after she met with other Muslims who backed him and Harris. Plus, a lawsuit has been filed against postmaster Louis DeJoy. We'll give you those details.

And a $600 million preliminary settlement has been announced between the city of Flint, Michigan residents and the state as a result of the water crisis there. Folks, we got a jam-packed show. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Martin, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Martin, yeah, yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now, yeah, yeah, yeah

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin, yeah, yeah, yeah Martin Big night last night as senator comrade of california becomes the first black woman to be the vp nominee on any major presidential ticket now of course uh there was a sister charlotta ross uh on the uh in 1930s but when it comes to democrats and republicans she is the first first black woman first uh indian American woman as well in the American candidate period.

It was a big night as she spoke for President Barack Obama. And man, they closed that thing out with Jennifer Hudson singing Sam Cooke's A Chain's Gone Come. Watch. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, and we celebrate the women who fought for that right. Yet so many of the black women who helped secure that victory were still prohibited from voting long after its ratification. But they were undeterred. Without fanfare or recognition, they organized and testified and rallied and marched and fought, not just for their vote, but for a seat at the table.

These women and the generations that followed worked to make democracy and opportunity real in the lives of all of us who followed. They paved the way for the trailblazing leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. And these women inspired us to pick up the torch and fight on. Women like Mary Church Terrell, Mary Cloyd Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Diane Nash, Constance Baker Motley, and the great Shirley Chisholm. We're not often taught their stories, but as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders. And at every step of the way, I've been guided by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom.

Kamala Harris for the people. I have fought for children people. I have fought for children and survivors of sexual assault. I fought against transnational criminal organizations. I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges.

I know a predator when I see one. Donald trump's failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. If you're a parent struggling with your child's remote learning, or you're a teacher struggling on the other side of that screen, you know what we're doing right now is not working. And we are a nation that is grieving. Grieving the loss of life.

The loss of jobs. The loss of opportunities. The loss of normalcy. And yes, the loss of certainty. And while this virus touches us all, we got to be honest. We have to be honest, it is not an equal opportunity offender. Black, Latino, and indigenous people are

suffering and dying disproportionately. And this is not a coincidence. It is the effect of structural racism, of inequities in education and technology, health care and housing, job security and transportation. The injustice in reproductive and maternal health care, in the excessive use of force by police, and in our broader criminal justice system. This virus, it has no eyes and yet it knows exactly how we see each other and how we treat each other. And let's be clear, there is no vaccine for racism. We've got to do the work for George Floyd, for Breonna Taylor, for the lives of too many others to name, for our children, and for all of us. We've got to do the work to fulfill that promise of equal justice under law. Because here's the thing, none of us are

free until all of us are free. The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It's a lot. And here's the thing. We can do better and deserve so much more. We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together, black, white,

Latino, Asian, indigenous, to achieve the future we collectively want. We must elect Joe Biden. Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons. Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose. So make no mistake, the road ahead is not easy. We may stumble. We may fall short. But I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths and we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us. We believe that our country,

all of us, will stand together for a better future. And we already are. It's about us, people of all ages and colors and creeds, who are, yes, taken to the streets and also persuading our family members, rallying our friends, organizing our neighbors, and getting out the vote. And we have shown that when we vote we expand access to health care and expand access to the ballot box and ensure that more working families can make a decent living. And I'm so inspired by a new generation. You, you are pushing us to realize the ideals of our nation. Pushing us to live the values we share. Decency and justice, and love. You are patriots who remind us that to love our country is to fight for the ideals of our country. In this election, we have a chance to change the course of history. We're all in this fight. You, me, and Joe.

So let's fight with conviction. Let's fight with hope. Let's fight with confidence in ourselves and a commitment to each other, to the America we know is possible, the America we love. And years from now, this moment will have passed, and our children and our grandchildren will look in our eyes and they're going to ask us, where were you when the stakes were so high? They will ask us, what was it like? And we will tell them.

We will tell them not just how we felt. We will tell them what we did. My panel, Dr. Greg Carr, Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, Recy Colbert, Black Women's Views, Erica Savage-Wilson, host of Savage Politics Podcast. Recy, I'm sure you were over the moon last night, waiting for that moment for Harris to give that VP speech. Absolutely. And she knocked it out of the park. This moment was made for Senator Kamala Harris

and she was made for this moment. I just absolutely was blown away by how she really centered black woman in her speech. I have never heard anybody give a speech like that in terms of a vice presidential nominee. One of the first, she mentioned black woman within the first two minutes and she said their names. The first time I met Senator Harris, one of the first words out of her mouth was actually Shirley Chisholm. And you were there, Roland, at Essence Fest where she went down the list as well. So this is something that she has always done in terms of paid homage to those who came before her. And I just thought that, you know, really centering Black women and giving us the recognition that we deserve for being the backbone of the party and for acknowledging that there have been many times throughout the various civil rights fights where Black women were at the

forefront, yet still were not afforded the rights that were won at that time. And so I loved how she was very honest about what we are facing in this country, not just in terms of coronavirus, but also in terms of the racism. And I just think that she really, really represented on such a high level. The stakes are high and she delivered in a way that I just, it made me feel so much joy. And I just, I could not be more elated with what she accomplished on that stage last night. And I hope that people really listen to her and saw the person that many of us who supported her from day one have been cheering on and have been said have said she is the one for this moment. Erica, it did not take her long to acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the 19th women's suffrage movement. But then she made perfectly clear that was not all that wasn't for black women.

Right. It will always have an asterisk. And it is true. And I think that that is what people are going to find that begin to support Senator Kamala Harris in this particular space, is that she's truthful and she's very honest and she does not mince words. One of the parts of what I loved about her speech last night, it felt extraordinarily personal, as Risi already has shared with us, is she did in fact center black women. And in that conversation, it seems as though she was having not just with black women, but with people all over the globe. When she talked about her mother, that for me was something that was beautiful and profound because her mother is no longer here with us.

But she brought us into a very private space and talked about the influence that her mother had as a scientist and as an activist. And when you're thinking about a person that was really made for this moment, the loins that she comes out of, she comes out of the loins of parents who were active in the civil rights movement. And she talked about having that stroller view of the activity that was going on. And so understanding that this is not a woman who came from a family of great wealth and this is just something that you do, right? You just run for president. She came from a family with a set of values that taught her to be, her mother specifically taught her to be very proud as a black woman and also very proud of her Indian heritage and brings collectively all of those experiences as well as her toughness as a person who is in law.

It really did feel as though Black women were seen. So for her not to have on white, to be donning that beautiful color that she was wearing last night and speak as earnestly and as truthfully and as toughly, but as kindly, compassionately and empathetic as she did. I believe that she really did bring us all into the space where we feel as though we do have some stance in this fight and that there is, in fact, hope. Greg Carr, Mary Church Terrell, Mary McCall Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash, Constance Baker Motley, Shirley Chisholm. Also, of course, name checking Congressman John Lewis. And then, of course, later in her speech, HBCUs, Alpha Kappa Alpha Seroja Incorporated. In addition to that, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor. I think when you look at this speech, when you look at the speech that Michelle Obama gave and surprisingly, we'll talk about that a little bit later. The speech that Obama gave, no avoidance of black. No, but I mean, what does it cost? Right. So I think one of the watershed moments of this convention has been the video that

was shown during the nomination, the nominating process, each of the 57 states and territories. It seemed to be that, that seemed to be overwhelmingly nonwhite. The person representing the delegation from New Mexico, a Native American out there in Navajo, he even said, respect our sovereignty. I'm like, so I think it's a, so as a piece of, as a piece of political rhetoric, I thought it was an excellent speech. I thought she had all the notes. I thought that, you know, Kamala Harris has to walk a tightrope. I mean, let's be very clear in the wake of the political insurrections of the 1960s and then the Jackson campaigns of 84 and 88, the Democratic Party in the early 90s really went toward the right with

the Democratic Leadership Conference, the DNC. And so, DLC, rather. But that process has produced a tension at the heart of the Democratic Party. How do you build a multiracial, multiclass coalition when your policies are much to the right of the people you claim to represent? Kamala Harris has an impossible task. And yet, last night, we saw her articulate and line out, you know, under the broad notions of conviction

and hope and confidence, the assertion that people can, to borrow from the Obama campaigns, project onto me your hopes and aspirations, that is a stratospheric bar. You know, it's been reported the last several days that her Secret Service name, the one she's elected, is Pioneer. And, you know, that reminded me of the first black woman to accept nomination for vice president in the United States who did not do it from a major party, but of course a woman who was in your craft, the great Carlotta Bass out of South Carolina when she accepted the nomination

for vice president on the progressive party ticket. And it made me, I went back and reread that speech and she talks in that first paragraph of her speech about being a pioneer and accepting that role. And what struck me was two things. One, the similarities between Carlotta Bass's speech in 1952 and Kamala Harris's speech in the year 2000, and also the distinctions between Carlotta Bass's speech, where she critiques American militarism abroad. She critiques hypercapitalism. And Kamala Harris's speech last night, where she really does focus on health care and education and access and all these things, but has to do it while generating enthusiasm

in a party that has already made commitments through Joe Biden talking to corporate America to say we're not going to do any new legislation to reel in Wall Street, who has already made commitments through Joe Biden talking to corporate America to say we're not gonna do any new legislation to reel in Wall Street, who has already assured Silicon Valley that we're not gonna go that far, and who in a moment, as you said, has assured people that he doesn't stand with Linda Sarsour. So God bless Kamala Harris. God bless her, because why should a black woman have to not only inherit all those burdens, but somehow entertain everybody's thoughts, particularly the thoughts of those people who were represented in that beautiful video that showed leading up to her speech that showed all those beautiful sisters and all those folks from all over the country and indeed all over the world were saying we're projecting our hopes onto you. I do want to do this here. I want to, guys, play the Sarah Elizabeth Warren video.

Folks were paying attention to her speech, but then others said, what's that in the background? Roll it, please. Today, America has the most COVID deaths in the world and an economic collapse. And both crises are falling hardest. All right, folks, you might not go back. Go back. Go back. Y'all see that right

over her left shoulder? B-L-M. That wasn't my accident, Recy. I'm so impressed. Can you tell my impressed face? Greg? Okay.

Greg? Here's the problem Democrats have. You're raking in billions of dollars from your donors and you want these Negroes who may get put out of their house tomorrow with rent eviction to vote for you. I don't even know how you build that big a tent. That BLM didn't bother me. What bothers me

is whether or not they're going to have the courage to beat up on Donald Trump the way we need it. We're going to need to generate enthusiasm. And this convention, these last few days, I haven't seen more Republicans at the Democratic convention than I have at Republican, than I will at the Republican one, likely. And so we, you know, it's all political theater. They're trying to play all the keys on the piano. Sometimes when you do that, you don't make a song at all. Well, the reality, Erica, that's what conventions are. Bottom line is they want to do all the check marks, hit all the notes.

And look, they're all well-produced shows. That's what they are. But it's going to be quite interesting to see next week. I keep saying, I think the Republican Party, that Trump probably sent one of those emails out asking for actors to apply to even come near close to the amount of color we saw this week. But again, some folks were talking about that imagery that was in the background there in that classroom. You know, that is just odd, particularly when you're looking at the type of classroom,

which seemed to be a kindergarten classroom. I mean, that definitely was a stunt. It was theater. But, you know, when we're moving past that and we're looking at kind of like where we are in the country and what's needed there, the Democratic Party is a big tent party. And there are a lot of people that really do lean into the party because they feel that it is more malleable than the Republican Party. Because think about it like this. Republicans have a very easy job. They're a white nationalist party. So if you are going to be a part of their party, you have to acquiesce

to what their agenda is, which is very narrow, and it doesn't have any room for growth, only if a person is interested in making sure that whomever the dear leader is of that party successfully becomes a dictator and all of those people around him in that regime become oligarchs. So absolutely, the Democrats do have a lot that's on their plate. But when we think about what actually the citizenry actually depends on and those individuals that group themselves into a particular party that is about ensuring that people do have the right to vote, fair housing. When we think about all of those big pieces of legislation, we think about the Democratic

Party. And I think that overwhelmingly what this convention was about, even though it is the DNC convention, was actually about unity. And, you know, whatever cynicism that that may be met with, we are at a place where for everybody who doesn't have a passport, for those folks, which that is a small percentage here in the United States, for those people who don't have another country that they can drop to, that this is what we have to work with. And there's some people that they don't have a cushion for to not vote, so to speak.

So the Democrats are really making this work. They're really bringing in a whole host of voices for all of those that are listening to say, and bottom line has been echoed throughout each night. This is about either continuing forward and doing what we can do with what we have with the semblance of democracy or giving it over to the dictator and the oligarchs completely. All right, folks, in President Barack Obama's speech, he I call this it. Look, he's not going to be an angry guy. But there was like this smoldering thing happening where at one point, I swear he was damn near about

To shed a tear because he was kind of pissed off roll it please I'm in Philadelphia where our Constitution was drafted and signed There wasn't a perfect document it allowed for the inhumanity of slavery and Failed to guarantee women and even men who didn't own property the right to participate in the political process. But embedded in this document was a North Star that would guide future generations, a system of representative government, a democracy through which we could better realize our highest ideals.

Through civil war and bitter struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those who'd once been left out. And gradually, we made this country more just and more equal and more free. I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously. That he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

But he never did. For close to four years now, he has shown no interest in putting in the work. No interest in finding common ground. No interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends. No interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.

Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president, and he's got the character and the experience to make us a better country. And in my friend Kamala Harris, he's chosen an ideal partner who is more than prepared for the job. Someone who knows what it's like to overcome barriers and who's made a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream. But more than anything, what I know about Joe, what I know about Kamala, is that they actually care about every American.

And that they care deeply about this democracy. They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballots, not harder. They believe that no one, including the president, is above the law and that no public official, including the president, should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters. Look, I understand why a lot of Americans are down on government. The way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress make it easier for special interests to stop progress than to make progress. Believe me, I know it.

I understand why a white factory worker who's seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him and why a black mom might feel like it never looked out for her at all. I understand why a new immigrant might look around this country and wonder whether there's still a place for him here. Why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and conspiracy theories and think what is the point? And we cannot let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Do not let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how you are going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can

and tell your family and friends how they can vote too. Do what Americans have done for over two centuries when faced with even tougher times than this. All those quiet heroes who found the courage to keep marching, keep pushing in the face of hardship and injustice. Last month, we lost a giant of American democracy in John Lewis. And some years ago, I sat down with John and a few remaining leaders of the early civil rights movement. One of them told me he never imagined he'd walk into the White House and see a president who looked like his grandson. And then he told me that he had looked it up.

And it turned out that on the very day that I was born, he was marching into a jail cell trying to end Jim Crow segregation in the South. What we do echoes through generations. Whatever our backgrounds, we are all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great grandparents working in fire traps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told, go back where you come from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped.

Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged, spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters, beaten for trying to vote. If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work and could not work, it was those Americans, our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the men. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together. And they said, somehow, some way, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words in our founding documents to life. Greg, again, it's not going to be firing brimstone. That was a little as Robin Harris. I'm pissed off to the highest of pistivity. Your take on what Obama had to say.

Well, brother, it's my friend, the great Ethiopian filmmaker, Holly Greenmoff, and says black folks feel like they can't slay the dragon. They go into fantasy. I understand why President Obama could get emotional, because he has banked everything, as have so many, on aspiration. But the simple fact of the matter is Donald Trump stole the election in 2016. And to be there at the Constitution Center, I was there outside the Constitution Center that day he gave that speech on race, where he threw Jeremiah Wright under the bus. And I understand that, you know, you do that because you're banking that the future's going

to be better than the past. But you also are banking that you don't have to speak truth to power completely, that it can be kind of implied. And so what we saw with Brother Obama last night is a man who realizes that this whole thing could go down the tubes very quickly. You know, again, I think about the fact that, you know, what Gil Scott-Harris say in 1974 in Winter of America, the Constitution, a noble piece of paper with free society, struggled but it died in vain. And, again, I encourage everybody to go back and read Carlotta Bass's acceptance speech from 1952, because she says, for 40 years, I've

been the editor of the largest Negro newspaper in the West and, of course, the first black woman to edit a daily newspaper, the California Eagle. She says, I have stood on a watchtower and watched the rising tide of race, hatred and bigotry and rocked this country move against anybody who believed the Constitution was something more than a yellow piece of paper trapped in a glass at the archives. She said, you know, when you think about this project, you have got to speak to truth to power in the moment you have it. Barack Obama became president of the United States in part because he was able to sync the politics of personification with the politics

of policy. And what we have reached now, we've reached a moment in society where we are at the notion of personification politics. So Joe's a good guy. We got to vote for Joe because he stood up. And then people are going to respond with, well, what about the crime bill? In other words, let's start talking, let's try to make the person as perfect as we can. That is a huge mistake because we must talk about policy politics.

Because if you overburden this guy, Joe Biden, who already looks almost like a mummy, then you're going to rise and fall with every gasp, with every stumble. What the Democratic Party is going to have to do now is energize a base in a way that really, if they were smart, should kind of pull back a little bit from personification politics and dig in very heavy, especially with the grassroots. And I know these sisters are doing it, Melanie Campbell, so many others. I mean, Recy, of course, Erica. I mean, they've been meeting them. But we got to move on policy now, almost as if we don't care who the presidential nominee is. I'm just afraid if we don't do that, we could be on the verge of, which is why he kind of teared up, the collapse of this project. Recy, when you he normally does not name check Donald Trump. He did this time. Yes, he did. I was I think I wish I would

have thought he would have name checked the Republicans because they really got off easy. I mean, he kind of made more vague references to like Congress and a little both sides ism to me. But I do think that I appreciated that President Obama kind of backed away from some of his more aspirational kind of kumbaya talk and really laid bare a lot of the challenges that we are facing, because I think we aren't really in the mood for kind of people blowing smoke up our ass in terms of what's really capable. I think we really do need to hear some of these harder messages. And I think that he did deliver on that. And I really appreciated his line in

particular about how if anybody had a reason to be discouraged or not really, you know, to not believe in the power of what this democracy could be, it is our ancestors. And yet they definitely pushed forward and blazed a trail for us here today so that we can sit on social media and impose these purity tests and litmus tests and say things about why we're not going to vote for X, Y, and Z. But I do agree with Dr. Carr's point about policy. And I do think that, unfortunately, there is a lot of personality politics.

But the one good thing is there is a lot of policy that is appealing if we ever get to the point of talking about policy. Erica, your comment before I go to my next guest, go. Yeah, I agree with Dr. Carr and Recy said, particularly about that policy piece. And when we kind of look at where we are right now, we're really in the ninth inning, you know, and so where this energizing has to be, Hopefully, I think the point was made with all of the speakers that it also requires an involved citizenry. Right. So then we have to be responsible to the people that we elect. So I think as we move forward, I hope that the Democrats do, in fact, keep this energy so that they'll have space for those engaged policy conversations going forward.

All right, folks, let's now move to history that was made when former NFL player Jason Wright was announced as the first president of an NFL team, the Washington football team. This, of course, you would think after Fritz Pollard, you would think after so many Art Schell, first black head coaches, both of those alpha. And, yeah, I'm shouting out Jason because he's also an alpha. But some things just are consistent, right, Greg Carr? Sir, old six. Let's bring up Jason right now.

Jason, how you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, brother. It is glad to see you. I saw something the other day and it was a great year. This great comment where you said, hey, if there's some white guy out there who play in the league and then who went to get his NBA and became a top at McKenzie and then all these things who I passed passed by. I'm sorry. That's why it always amazes me when people somehow think that folks like you are some unicorn when in fact, let's just be honest, there were a lot of African-Americans long before you who could have been president of

NFL teams. And people just like, there are a lot of black folks who could have been president before Barack Obama, who could have run Fortune 500 companies. But the reality is folks did not give them the shot. Yeah, I'm not necessarily an exception to black talent. I'm more representative, I think, of what black talent offers in corporate America and in general, you know, and I think that's the point you're making. And to your point, you know, at first, I sort of didn't want to embrace the historicity of the moment because I wanted to, like, get to work and show people what we could do. But I do think it's important to do and acknowledge because of the folks that did come before, to your point. Kevin Warren, who was the COO of the Vikings for many, many years, basically did the role I'm doing,

but just without the title. And so people have trodden this road that I happened to waltz down at this moment. And so it's important to acknowledge and celebrate in honor of those folks. And it's also important to deal with it because what it also does is it shines a light on the other teams. It shines a light on the history. I mean, just it was this weekend. I own the DVD, but I just happened to be watching cable and I stumbled across on two different occasions the movie The Express. He read the first brother to win the Heisman Trophy and to and to watch this, to watch this movie after the announcement was made regarding you. And where the the owner of the Washington football team made it perfectly clear he might have been the best player, college player in the country.

But he was not going to play for this team because he was black. Yeah. I mean, you can look at any industry like that. And if you take a historical lens, you know, that story and that narrative exists everywhere. And it's a good point to acknowledge moments like this in light of that. And what I like about this moment too, especially being a former player and being inspired by having a black head coach in Romeo Cornell and being inspired by having a black GM in Rod Graves, it does open the aperture for folks like me to see that black talent is both welcome and can excel outside of the lines of the football field and also for that to be a signal to others that that's available as well. But, you know, still 70 plus percent guys in the league are black.

And so I think more representation outside of that gives multiple pathways and just changes the way people look at athletes, their talent and their capability, especially intellectually. Also, I think what it does is it also to those same athletes, because the reality is out of all the major professional sports, an NFL career is the shortest out of all of them. And that when there are opportunities provided for players after their playing days are over and and and not just sort of the development person whose job is to just talk to guys and just to be able to counsel them but the real substance uh of this 10 billion is 10 to 15 billion dollar enterprise when we talk about the NFL, we are talking about a major corporation. We're not talking about just, you know, no, this is a major corporation. And for African-Americans,

what we're saying, like I tweeted this earlier when I talked about, I said, you've had black folks. When I was talking about you coming on, I said, you've had a black president. We have black people running Fortune 500 CEOs, but you've never had an African-American run a Hollywood studio. You've never had an African-American run a major broadcast network or even the news division. And when we were in 2020 to have the first black president, that speaks to the levers of power. That if you want to understand power, that's when it comes to if you can run the show, that's the power, not the person who's handing off or tossing the ball. Yeah, I think the goal of every professional that has a desire to, I don't know, have any sort of impact that's just beyond, I don't know, personal compensation or whatever it is. You do look for moments where you have a sphere of influence.

If it's in corporate America, it can be about capital and controlling capital flows and things like that. If it's in your arena, it's about narrative and having influence on narrative and how people see things. And I think for all of us, we bring our identity into that for sure. And I'm excited to do that here. One of the things that Dan and Tanya Snyder and I talked about that was very exciting to me was the opportunity to lead the building of a new stadium. And, you know, we have to go through location and all of those questions, but irrespective of location or anything like that, so much of my research at McKinsey was focused on equitable and inclusive growth. So if I think about all the capital that is going to go into a stadium build and the businesses that would profit

from being a part of that, and then all the capital that will flow from that stadium as it's operating and being a retail hub and state of the art and an anchor institution for families in the area, the revenue generated from that to what communities will that go and how will it lift the economic outlook

of an entire region in a more equitable way? That's a lens from my identity and my passion that I bring to it. And I think that's the exciting thing about trying to be in a position like this. We also talk about when you see it, you can actually achieve it. When I think about the number of African Americans who have done things and they say it because I saw somebody in that position so therefore I what Wow now I can actually do that cuz I see someone who looks like me we hear the exact same thing that for when Kamala Harris gets named I mean that that that speaks volumes to black women and women of color say I'm seeing me I think back to when I went to one of the Houston Texans games with my brother

and his wife and his children, and I have a nephew, Chris. And it was very interesting because Wade Phillips was defensive coordinator for the Houston Texans, and so we were waiting to meet the players and the family and coaches. And so I introduced him to my nephew, introduced my nephew to him, and he says, hey, Chris, what position you want to play? I said, oh, no, no, no, no. Chris ain't being raised to play ball.

Chris is being raised to own the team. And he went, whoa. And I wanted him to understand because what often happens is when we speak to black kids, especially black boys, we only, even black folks even do this, we only talk to them with the mindset of what position you want to play as opposed to raising them and saying, no, no, no, no, I want you to be raised thinking you could own the team or be a team president.

Even though you played, I'm sure your deal wasn't, I'm not just trying to be a player. I want to go beyond that. Yeah. Well, I mean, I had the fortunate factor of limiting talent that made me think about my brain beyond my legs. But I'll tell you this. My parents were really sticklers on making sure that I had options beyond just playing ball to really get to a sphere of influence, as we talked about. And I remember I had already gotten a college scholarship to

Northwestern to play ball. And my parents still made me write essays and apply to a bunch of other schools. And I remember what I wrote my essays about. I wrote about why being a professional football player was not a long-term career trajectory that I would ever be able to rely on. That's just how ingrained they put that in my head. And so I think there's something to what you're saying. And I guess I've never really acknowledged it, but I guess in the back of my mind, that helped lead to a role like this, where I'm excited to expand the value of the franchise, work with new and great people, and take on some real interesting and important challenges. You also, speaking of those challenges, I mean, you're walking into a tough situation. Of course, they had to force to change their name. Of course, the story that came out dealing with the issue of sex and culture there when it comes to a variety of issues.

And we haven't got to the fact that the team has sucked. You got a hell of a job. You know, in one sense, there's challenges. In another sense, there's opportunities. You know, the way I've been describing it, football aside, because it is super clear that my job is about expanding the value of the franchise as a business leader. Right.

Coach Revere has got the team. Yes, I played, but I haven't coached for two decades. And I don't want one of them, because they were undergrad in business school, to ask me about financial statements. So we're going to stay in our lanes, number one. Number two, there are enough things on my plate and on our plate as a team to look at on the business side. And we've got to navigate a COVID season and keep folks healthy, be prudent, engage data, be agile. We've got to get this culture right. And one of the things that made me believe that the Snyders were not just talking about a

change in culture and values, but meant it was that they had brought in an independent investigator. That's a big deal. To pull back the curtain, let everybody in your house look under the carpets, the bed, all that, and actually report out on what's going on on the inside. That's a bold step that not many companies ever take. And I'm eager to dive in and understand where that's at when I start on Monday. And irrespective of where it's at, I know where the culture is going to go. It's going to be one where people's voices are empowered and they can raise issues of leadership that does not comport to our values. It's going to be one where diverse voices are brought to the table on the decisions that matter the most for the direction of the franchise, especially women's voices. Not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's the prudent business thing to do.

Because when you have diverse voices on business decisions, you make better business decisions. And it's going to be transparent. We're going to have a culture where we know how we're performing both financially and in organizational health, we'll measure it. And it's not to hold it over folks' heads, it's to know where we need to invest, where we need to develop our talent more and allow people to innovate,

because sports has great talent. We just need to unleash it. I like to allow my panelists to ask one question. Folks, if y'all can make it brief with the questions, I've got two guests in the next 15 minutes. So I'm going to start with Erica, your question for Jason. Congratulations, Jason, to you. And just very briefly, you talked about your first 100 days. Could you just briefly share what is your number one priority in your first 100 days as president of the Washington football team?

Oh, that's a good question. I never like to be boxed into one, but I'll try. I've laid out two of them already, so I'll skip those because I already said them. The other one is really figuring out a new and revised approach to fan engagement. I think what I've learned over the last few days, being exposed to our fans in a new way, being announced and exposed to our fans in a new way, this is a deeply passionate fan base. And they are emotionally invested in this team. And those emotions are in a wide range right now, because this is a big time of transition and transition is hard for

folks, you know? And so I think I've become very aware of helping our fans, not because there's anything I can do to make them happier in this moment or to help them immediately get through things, but I can listen and I can be present and I can be visible. And there's a real hunger for that. And so can the rest of us in the organization. And so I need to figure out a real rigorous way and structured way of doing that so people know that we're about something different this time. Recy. Congratulations, Jason. My question for you is, is there anything in particular that you feel like you did to help get yourself in this position? Because I know that Black people lack a pipeline

to ascend to the heights that you did. And so is there any kind of particular step that you took? Oh, that's a good, that's a really good question. I think there's a couple of things that I did or that I recommend people do. I don't want to take too much credit because a lot of this is just opportunity happening at the right time. You know, I can't, I can't take too much credit. But a couple of things I did and then a couple, I think a couple of things that I try to think, which I think is equally important to doing. A couple of things I did is I followed my intellectual curiosity.

I think a lot of times we maybe get funneled into things that are familiar. But I'm a nerd, and I wanted to learn about things and consume information. And I found stuff that I was excited enough about to like put in the work to learn about. For me, it was analytics and financial statements and mathematics. And I just like ate it up when I retired from football and just went for it. So I think there's something about doing that and then finding people that have the expertise to help you do that. Because we don't always have those folks proximate in our circles, you know? But then on the thinking side,

I think we just have to remember that when we walk into a place where, especially a person of color, where I may be the only, or the first, or whatever it is, that I actually belong. And related to that, that is not set aside, there's not a lower bar, that I belong. And then secondarily to that, or related to that, that is not set aside, there's not a lower bar that I belong. And then secondarily to that, or related to that, is that I need to remember my strengths. I'm not perfect. I have weaknesses. I think I have the things I need to develop, but I damn sure know what I'm good at. And when things

get tough, I come back to those things that I know are my core strengths and I rest on those. And the last one is pushing myself to be a little bold and a little brash. I do feel like opportunities, especially in corporate America, favor the bold. And the more that I can be a little more forward leaning without being arrogant and off putting, it helps a ton. Alphas are never last. But Greg Carr, since you are a fellow alpha as Jason, you get the last question. First of all, thank you, brother, for rolling. Congratulations, Frat. Oh, by the way, my vote is for Red Tails.

So if you're at the table, brother, Red Tails. He's already said it's not going to be Red Tails. He already said it's not going to be Red Tails. But go ahead. I got you. Well, that's all right. But, you know, maybe this is from watching too many episodes of Ballers, brother. But in addition to being the first brother, you're also the youngest in the league do you think that in this moment when everything is being renegotiated that gives you an inside straight with younger players with the players with the agents as we see more black agents and and people of non-white folks being

agents does this give you an opportunity on your way to ownership we're just going to claim that right now to uh maybe maybe maybe it's too many episodes of ballers as i said but does this give you an opportunity on your way to ownership? We just going to claim that right now to maybe, maybe, maybe it's too many episodes of ballers, as I said, but does this give you an advantage perhaps that every other GM in the league doesn't have? Yeah. I hope it does. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, no, no. I hope it does. You know, I hope that, that youth helps in a few ways, you know, it affects it, it, it, it affects how I think it affects the things I've been exposed to. I do think there's an ability to connect to the player experience

that is not necessarily important for running the team because Coach Rivera's got the team. But as we think about how that's incorporated into the brand and how we engage players and alumni and bring them into the way that we engage fans and redesign the fan experience, I think it will help. And I do think, you know, there's do think there's a little bit of proximity to pop culture, whatever you want to call it, that will help us be really innovative and maybe a bit disruptive with the ideas that we bring to the table around redesigning the fan experience and things like that. So I hope it helps. But I also really value the SAGE expertise that exists in the organization that I want to preserve because we need that dynamic of all of these things coming together.

You don't need some wild ass young guy's idea that isn't rooted in the pragmatics and practicality of someone who's been in the industry for 30 years and knows what works in peer to peer marketing or working with sponsors. So I think I'm looking to bring what I am, but also make sure that we have a team around me and everybody there that's balanced and gets us to a good answer. All right, Dan. Frat, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Good luck. I just have one request. I am from Houston, Texas.

I came out the womb hating the Dallas Cowboys. Henry, he claimed everybody. He's a big-time, my production guy, big-time Dallas Cowboys fan. I just have one request. You want to say, I hate the Cowboys more than I hate the Klan. So I just have one request. I need y'all to beat their ass twice a year. That's all. I mean, y'all to beat their ass twice a year. That's all.

I mean, y'all, look, I know you want to win. Y'all can lose the other 14, 15 games. Just beat them twice a year so we can shut his mouth when y'all play him. That's all I ask. I promise Coach Rivera I wouldn't touch football stuff at all, but I will speak on his behalf here and say that is 100% in the plan. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Jason Wright, thank you very much.

Take care. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. Linda Sarsour will join us. She, of course, was a Bernie Sanders surrogate. She did an event earlier this week. Muslim was for Joe Biden. The Biden campaign disavowing her says she has nothing to do with the campaign. We'll get her response next right That's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. Census takers will be visiting households to make sure we are counted. Too much is at stake. Respond online today. Shape your future. Start here at

2020census.gov. As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard. Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 census today at 2020census.gov? Now, folks, let me help you out. The census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how

they are spent in our communities every single year i grew up in clinton park in houston texas and we wanted we wanted new parks and roads and senior citizen center well the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes it also determines how many seats your state will get in the u.S. House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding or services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that.

We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years, funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. Folks, Joe Biden's campaign has disavowed Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour

after she spoke at the Democratic National Committee Muslims and Allies Virtual Assembly. She appeared at the online meeting of Muslims who will be campaigning for Biden for president. Biden's campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said this in a statement to CNN that Biden, the Democratic platform, condemns Sarsour's views and opposes the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Sarsour has been involved in a number of controversies over her activism related to Israel. Also, of course, she's one of the co-organizers of the Women's March. She joins us right now. Linda, glad to have you back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. So this is you were a surrogate for Senator Bernie Sanders. You were out there. You were advocating for him.

You this particular event where you invited to participate in this event. And that come from activists come from the party. Thank you so much, Roland, for having me here today. What's really interesting about this particular controversy that I'm in, Roland, and you followed many of my controversies, is that it was unprovoked. Nothing actually happened. I am not only am I a was I a former surrogate for the Bernie Sanders campaign? I am an official delegate to the DNC. I am a delegate from the great state of New York. There was a Muslim delegates assembly, which means that all Muslim delegates are invited to it. I was asked by Muslim leaders and delegates at this event to

speak. And one of the reasons why I was invited to speak is because to give legitimacy and credibility to the position that I hold, which many Muslim Americans and Arab Americans hold. There is not much enthusiasm in our community around Joe Biden. But as you know, I have been putting forth this framework that Joe Biden is the best opponent for us to have in the White House and that we cannot defeat fascism. You know, we have to defeat fascism, which is why I'm going to put my vote on Joe Biden. So this thing came out like you just jumped up, like you jumped up on the stage. So you're saying you have credentials. Oh, I am a credentialed DNC delegate. I was formally invited to speak on this Muslim assembly.

I didn't like protest. And in fact, Roland, the actual entire assembly situation is actually a video on the DNC website. And you can watch it. And in fact, you would laugh because you know me very well. I was actually quite bland and out of character. I didn't even mention Israel. I didn't say BDS.

I didn't say anything. I didn't talk about Palestine. All I said was the Muslim Americans are swing voters. We are not a monolithic community. We are people who care more, more, you know, about more than just national security and Palestine and Israel and foreign policy. We are actually a community that cares about health care and education and infrastructure and jobs and the economy. And that is really it. I was so out of character. It's like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. I'm minding my own business, Roland, as you know. I was so out of character. It's like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. I'm minding my own business, Roland, as you know. I moved with your dear sister, our dear sister,

Tamika Mallory, to Louisville, Kentucky. I wake up in the morning yesterday to find this controversy. And here I am, you know, not ignoring national politics, really putting my mind on something that I believe deeply in, which is to get justice for Breonna Taylor. And here goes the Joe Biden campaign, throwing the most prominent Muslim American organizer under the bus. Not only am I the most prominent Muslim organizer in America, I'm also the leader and the co-founder of the My Muslim Vote campaign that is stationed in six states right now that Joe Biden needs to win in November. And I don't even know what to say. A white spokesperson, Roland Martin, was coward to the right wing media, coward to the Republicans, literally. The original drama came from Borgin, who you know is a senior advisor to the Trump campaign. He's the one that was like, oh my God, Linda's speaking at the DNC. And immediately the

Biden campaign coward to the right wing and went to answer. And when they disavow my views, which is what they said, they said they condemned my views, not, not from what I said at the DNC, just in general, that means they condemned the views of 99.9% of the communities that I come from who hold the exact views that I have. The, um, so it has to be perplexing or difficult for you to sit here and go, OK, I'm a delegate, which means you actually got to vote on the nominee. You are active in trying to get the nominee elected. And his campaign is like, hell no, we want nothing to do with you at all. And my views, they want nothing to do with my views, which means those views are not welcome to the Democratic Party, which by default means that my whole community is not welcomed in the Democratic Party because the views that I hold, Roland, are mainstream in the communities that I come from. When your critics call you anti-Semitic, when they say you're racist, when they say you're a bigot, when they say you hate Israel, how do you respond?

My track record, Roland, is very clear. I have been working with Jewish American communities for the last two decades. They all have come out. Many of them have come out in solidarity each time that I've been attacked for being anti-Semitic. The bottom line is what I am is a Palestinian American. What I am is someone who challenges the narrative around the state of Israel. I am someone, Roland, who is going to be unapologetic about who I am, just as Roland is unapologetically Black. I do not have to change who I am, change my views to appease anyone. And I don't actually require anybody else to do the same. So when I'm being called anti-Semitic, it's actually quite antithetical to everything that I am. And you know me very well. I'm a person where there is an injustice. That is where I am.

I have raised money for desecrated Jewish cemeteries. I have stood in solidarity with Jewish communities. I have organized in solidarity know, in solidarity with black people, with undocumented people, with LGBTQIA people, wherever there is a fight, Roland, that is where I am. So you cannot claim something that does not match my character, does not match my work, my track record, my, literally my every day. And everyone who knows me, Roland, knows exactly who I am and what I stand for. And I'm not going to cower. And the bottom line is, and you know this, I have never been an ambassador to the Democratic Party. I have never been, I was never an ambassador for the Joe Biden campaign. I never worked for the Joe Biden campaign, nor do I want to work for it, nor do I want to ever have a job in the administration.

I am trying to help defeat fascism. And if the Biden campaign doesn't understand why my voice is important, not only do I bring Arab American and Muslim voters to the table from states like Michigan, which you know we have to win in order to win this general election, I also bring progressives to the table. I bring Bernie supporters to the table. I am very well respected in the progressive movement. So if you want to throw under the bus one of the most prominent women organized in the country, you do that and you're going to have to lay in the bed that you made. The last thing that I'll say about this, you know, in this segment, Roland, is that while I was watching the women's tribute, I don't know if you watched it yesterday. I did. I did. Listen, forget Linda, put me to the side, right? Make believe that nothing ever happened to me and I'm

great. Did you notice, Roland, that they were showing footage of all these women who won office, their victory speeches, these really emotional moments? Did you notice that two of the most prominent politicians in America, which are Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Congressman Ilhan Omar, were nowhere to be found? So you wanted to show us everyone else that made history, but you left out the two Muslim women. You left out the Palestinian women. Then you want to disavow me. And then you show footage of the women's march on Washington and you in fact show my photo, like I'm in the video. So how does that make sense, Roland? How do you use my labor to act as if the women's march somehow was connected to the Democratic Party, which it was not, never been funded by the Democratic Party or sponsored by the Democratic Party. And then you

literally delete and erase two of the most prominent politicians who come from these communities, also representing Midwestern states. Rashida's from Michigan, Ilhan's from Minnesota, and you need to win both those states in order to go to the White House. And on top of that, there is not one single Muslim American in the entire main stage, there is not one single Muslim American in the entire main stage. You will not see a Muslim American in the main stage of the DNC. Why is that, Roland? Why are we a community directly targeted by Trump? The bigotry that we've experienced as Muslim Americans in the last 20 years, especially during the last 2016 campaign into now, and for some reason, this particular brand of the party and the Biden

campaign have erased us like we don't exist. OK, then I don't know how you're going to ask me for my vote if I don't exist. But my community doesn't exist. But before I go to my panel with their questions, I do have to ask you this. And that is a lot of people did not realize this, but in 2000, George W. Bush was very aggressive in courting Muslim voters. Grover Norquist played a huge role in organizing that. Bush raised money from Muslims. He got a significant number of their votes. You just made the point that Muslim voters are swing voters. Fact of the matter is the fastest growing segment among Muslims in America are African-Americans. Absolutely. So with this whole deal here, do you believe that the Biden campaign is potentially turning off Muslim voters and now saying, OK, are we not going to examine every single one of you and what you support and what who you back before?

Oh, it's not it's not maybe it already happened. I mean, every major Arab-American and Muslim-American organization has sent out letters publicly and privately to the Biden campaign at this moment. There are conversations happening in the campaign. When you say to someone, if I say to you, Roland, that I condemn all of your views and you carry views that 99% of the people in your community hold, that means we're all not welcomed. And so my community right now is absolutely enraged.

They are outraged right now. And what they're asking for from the Biden campaign is a retraction. They're asking for an apology and they have to commit to a big tent party where we have the understanding that unity is not uniformity. And the reason what makes us different than the Republican Party is we are not monolithic and there is no way that we can have a party where we are all going to agree. And if my views and the

views of my community are not welcomed in the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party is not going to be a successful party. Muslim Americans are swing voters in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Virginia, in Florida, and in Texas, and in Minnesota. Ilhan Omar represents the city of Minneapolis. And right now, we just saw a poll that came out where Donald Trump and Biden are literally tied in a place like Minnesota, and Biden is only ahead of Trump by 3% in the state of Michigan. We cannot repeat 2016 over. So my community right now is outraged. I'm going to still tell my community, look, we got to defeat fascism, but I cannot convince people and do the work, the dirty work of the Biden campaign. They have to step up. They have to say they made a mistake

and they have to apologize. And then hopefully my community will will come around after that question. First off, Erica. Yes. Great speaking with you, Linda. This is Erica. And my question for you is prior to this happening, what was the temperature of Muslim Americans and folks that you reached out to prior to this and then post? I appreciate that, Erica. To be quite honest with you, lots of people in the Muslim American and Arab American communities have specific things that they care about in addition to issues that other people care about, like health care, et cetera. Majority of Muslim Americans support Medicare for all. Biden does not support Medicare for all. A majority of Muslim Americans want to abolish agencies like ICE, which were created after 9-11, really to target Muslims and those that were perceived to be terrorist threats,

and they want to abolish ICE. Biden does not support that. We also have seen surveys coming out of the Institute for Social Policy understanding on issues of police reform and defunding police, et cetera, which a lot of Muslim Americans support. And also when it comes to foreign policy, the Muslim American community is a very pro-Palestinian community. They support human rights of the Palestinian people. I mean, it's not something that unfortunately Biden has a track record in. So the temperature check was, OK, Linda, we don't like Biden. We don't think he represents our values. We don't think life is going to be better after, you know, better with a Biden administration. It may not get worse, but we don't know if it's going to get better. And my framing that I have been able to bring

people along, people have shared my videos. I have been on local, you know, Muslim media, blogging, where I've said to people, but let's make a decision here. What if we say that we want Biden to be our opponent in the white house and people literally Erica, we're going along with my argument, saying that Biden would be our opponent. We would build a movement under him. We would push him to do what better and do better. And now they're like, if we can't hold the Biden campaign accountable when he's the candidate and we can't even get some respect candidate,

how are we going to get respect and hold them accountable when he's the actual president of the United States of America? And to be honest, Erica, I don't actually have an answer to those people in my community at this particular moment. Hi, Linda. I don't really have a question, but my comment is just that it sounds to me like the Biden campaign needs to work on the cultural competency in matters like this and how they approach different communities instead of a knee-jerk reaction. And so I just want to thank you for the work that you're doing and continuing to push through and outreach to your community, despite the fact that there are some ideological differences there. I appreciate that. And I think just so folks understand, Roland, is that the man who's the director of rapid response is a white man. And I'm not, folks understand, Roland, is that the man who's the director of

rapid response is a white man. And I'm not, and I don't use that necessarily in a derogatory way, but to your point about cultural competency is that, trust me when I tell you, if it was a black woman or a person of color that was there, they would not have a knee-jerk reaction that would require them to throw a Muslim American woman in hijab, who's Palestinian, who's part of the larger movements that we need to win this election under the bus. Someone of color who had the expertise would have been more strategic, more logical. And the real thing that I wanted them to do, just to be clear, I don't need the Biden campaign to agree with our community, to agree on our issues. What I would have said if I was the director of rapid response and asked the question

about Linda Sarsour participating in the DNC, my answer would have been, to be clear, Linda is a DNC delegate from the great state of New York. And while we do not agree with Linda on these issues, the Democratic Party is a big tent and we welcome people to have spirited debate because that is what makes democracy great. That's all. They could have said they disagreed with me. They could have said they disagreed on the issue of BDS, on the issue of Palestine, Israel, and that would have been totally fine with me. I would have been totally fine because I already know that. I am not naive to think that the Biden campaign actually agrees with me on probably 90% of the things that I believe. The fact that they thought that the knee jerk reaction was to throw important swing voters under the bus, a marginalized community that has

been quite even more marginalized in the last 20 years and more so under the Trump administration. The first executive order, Roland, you remember I was on your show about this. The first executive order put forth by the Trump administration was the Muslim ban. That was the first piece of paper that he signed. So the fact that we are going to throw the entire Muslim American community and Arab American Palestinian communities by saying we condemn these views in our party. First of all, it's not true because a majority of Democrats have moved exponentially on the issue of Israel-Palestine. And they have also many in the Democratic Socialists and a lot in the progressive wing of the party have embraced the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement as a nonviolent movement to resist the human rights violations that the state of Israel commits against Palestinians. So the Democratic Party needs to catch up with us. I'm not trying to catch up with the Democratic Party because they're 20 years

behind me. And so the question is, can they do that in a very short period of time so we could win this damn election and defeat this damn fascist in the White House? Red car. Thank you, Roland. And thank you, Sister Linda, particularly in this moment for relocating to Louisville, you and Sister Tamika, my young brother, Sean Ali Waddell, who's down there, who's a Howard student.

I know he's been down there with y'all. He's telling me he loved it so much. And I saw Nick came down last week with you all, Nick Cannon. So thank you on behalf of all of us who are fighting for freedom. I'm going to try to talk and ask you this question as if there are no cameras. So we know there's a different conversation when we're in cameras, right?

But pragmatically, this fear-driven Democratic Party still trying to chase those three imaginary Trump voters. Whatever you do, they're going to hang the Muslims, hang the black, hang everybody on them anyway. And I love the way you frame this. He's the best opponent to have in the White House. When they don't roll it back, because it looks like they really are trying to replicate 2016, when they don't roll this back, what do we need to do to prevent any more erosion so that we don't end up with this fascist in the White House? I mean, I don't know that you're prepared to be able to have that kind of conversation with us now here, but what's the step when they don't? Because that wasn't an accident, just like leaving Ilhan and Rashida and them out. That's no accident.

They're chasing them imaginary white voters who will never vote for them. So what's the strategy if they don't, when they don't roll it back? Don't apologize. I mean, the bottom line here is they're going to have to, again, they're going to have to reap what they sow and they also have to lay in the bed that they made. But it's also bigger than myself and my communities. What I've been telling folks, and it's a strategy that I hope works, it may work, it may not work. I said, listen, you may not be enthusiastic about Joe Biden being your president, but you know this and I know this. There are young Black people across this country running for office, running for congressional seats. We have people of color

and immigrants and women right now who also need to win those races in November. We have an opportunity, as you know, in a place like South Carolina for Jamie Harrison to take out Lindsey Graham. Like we really have a lot of great races that we need to be focusing on. So what I'm telling a lot of people in my community, I said, listen, find a local candidate that really inspires you. Someone that really aligns with your values and principles, knock those doors, do the text messages, do whatever it is that you need to do, donate the money.

And what I hope happens is that it trickles from the bottom up. If we can, if we can get higher voter turnout around some of these candidacies in these important swing states, that may mean that when you go to the polls, we hope that people are voting up and down the ballot. So not only do they vote for the candidate that they love, but they're also saying, well, my candidate is on this party line. Maybe I should just go up and down the ballot, which is what I'm saying to people. That is one strategy that I'm holding. I don't know if it's going to work. I do think that the Biden administration has to apologize to Muslim and Arab American communities only because, number one, it's the right thing to do, but also because we are swing voters.

The state of Michigan, Roland knows this very well. It's home to the highest concentration of Muslim American voters in the entire country. We have large populations in California, in New York, and they are more than the one in Michigan. But Michigan is the most highly concentrated. You cannot win an election without Michigan. You don't need New York. You don't need California. You cannot win a race without Minnesota. You can't win a race without Virginia and Pennsylvania and North Carolina and Florida.

And this is where our community is concentrated. We are a very diverse community. People in my community don't look just like me. We are South Asian. We are Arab American, Southeast Asian. We're African American. We are African immigrants. We literally represent the globe. And the campaign just snubbed us. And so the question is, are we a community that is only about acceptance or are we also about respect? We have self-respect. And our community right now is waiting and they have been demanding. They've wrote public letters. The campaign knows how outraged our community leaders are right now. And these are

the people that are supposed to move the people. And as a leader of the My Muslim Vote campaign, it's going to be, I was already in uphill battle and the mountain was already high for me to climb. And now the mountain just got really slippery. Somebody just dumped a bucket of soap on the mountain and I have to figure out how to get to the top. And that is what the administration, this campaign has done, just made our work just a lot, much, much, much harder than it already is. Linda Sarsour, we certainly appreciate you joining us to give your perspective on this issue. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. Folks, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is suing Postbachelor General Louis DeJoy and the United States Postal Service for the actions intended

to disrupt the 2020 election. They are suing on behalf of the National Urban League, Common Cause, and the League of Women Voters to challenge the actions intended, again, to disrupt the 2020 election. Joining us right now is Kristen Clark. She's the president and executive director for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. So, Kristen, what is the basis of your lawsuit? Well, there is a pandemic that has gripped the nation. There are Americans all across the country that are casting their votes by mail in historic numbers because they have no other choice. And what does this administration do? They put in place a new postmaster general just two months ago, Louis DeJoy.

He has no experience inside the Postal Service, but he's a Trump megadonor. And in two months, he's wreaked havoc and chaos. He has eliminated overtime for postal workers. He's ripped up blue mailboxes from communities. He has eliminated scanning machines used to sort mail in mass. He's put in place a hiring freeze. I mean, you name it, he has done it. And he has done this with the goal of carrying out President Trump's agenda, his goal of silencing and discouraging people of voting by mail this season.

So with about 75 days to go until the November election, we're not going to stand by idly and wait to see what happens. On Tuesday, we filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland. Our clients include the National Urban League, League of Women Voters, Common Cause, organizations that work every day to register people to vote. And we're arguing that Louis DeJoy's actions violate the Constitution. He is literally taking action intended to suppress people's voting rights. And he's also undertaken all of these policies without going to the U.S. Postal Commission and getting clearance for the changes as required under administrative law.

So we're going to fight tooth and nail. This is one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime. And we know that this administration is bent on undertaking any action possible to disenfranchise voters. And so you're suing them. What do you want to achieve? What remedy do you want the court to put into place? Because he's already said, the Speaker of the House of Pelosi, that he has halted the changes until after the election. Yeah, that falls flat with us. It rings hollow. We're not buying his mea culpa. He needs to be held accountable. He has proven every day during his two months on the job that he is there to hijack and turn the U.S. Postal Service upside down, an agency that's been in place for over 200 years.

And you never hear controversy about the Postal Service because it's run by postal workers who do their job. They get mail to people and they get it to them on time. So we're not buying his apology. We're not going to stand by and wait to see what happens. We're in court right now making sure that we can get remedial relief to address the damage that he has done. He has done tremendous damage during his two months on the job. We run a program called Election Protection. It's anchored by the 866 Our vote hotline. And Roland, over the last few weeks, we have heard from thousands of voters who've said, you know what? I requested my absentee ballot weeks ago and it hasn't gotten here. It's election day. What should I do? And we're getting ready for the general election,

where we know that there are going to be historic numbers of people who are turning out. So we're not going to stand by. We need to get the U.S. Postal Service back on track, back to the status quo. And it's going to take work for him to correct the damage that he has done. All right, then. Kristen Clark, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. Greg Carr, these lawsuits are important. This is also why I often when Christian is on, I tell people why we have to support the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under law. You have other legal civil rights organizations. You have NAACP, LDF. You've got Barbara Arnwine's organization. These are the folks who are using the court system the same way Thurgood

Marshall did and so many others. That matters. So action in the streets, action in the suites and politics in corporate America. But you've got to have a lawyer, too. It all works together, bro. We know that and I read the brief that they submitted, I think in the prayer for relief, I think it was item seven, they asked for everything that they've done so far to be reversed. Talk about Rashida Tlaib, I saw Congresswoman Tlaib standing in front of the post office, one of the post office in Detroit the other day, saying it's not enough for them to say that they're gonna stop everything, you've got to reverse it now.

All these mailboxes that you've taken up, all these mail sorters that you've taken up and begun to destroy. And so you're absolutely right. This has to be a full spectrum approach. It's interesting thinking about Linda Sarsour and then seeing our sister Kristen Clark. You know, it might look like those are two different kind of sets of politics, but it's all part of the same thrust and strategy. And the last thing I'll say is interesting. Julius Hobson, who actually was vice president nominee for the People's Party in 1974, went to Tuskegee. He was the first black person from HBCU to be nominated for vice president.

Benjamin Spock, remember Spock ran for president, not Spock. But, you know, Hobson is known in Washington, D.C. for being one of the main figures who said it's not enough just to vote. You've got to get in the streets and back those people in electoral politics with street action. And then you've got to have lawyers in place for when they try to arrest you. So all of this works together. They are going to steal this election unless everybody plays their position. The lawyers like Kristen, the folks in the street, electoral power, it all works together because, believe me, that's what their team is doing.

They're all working together. Recy, it is going to be a battle, and I keep telling people, and you heard Michelle Obama modify her when they go low, we go high. Let's just be honest. She modified that thing a couple of nights ago because of how Trump and his folks have operated in the last three years. Yeah. And I'm still going lower than what Michelle said. I said, when they go low, I'm going to punch him in the face. But I do respect that First Lady Michelle Obama can't go as far as I would go.

But this is an all hands on deck situation. I definitely applaud the work that Kristen Clark is doing and her organization. You have a different state's attorney generals that are stepping up to the plate. Congress is starting to put a little bit more pressure, and specifically the Democrats in Congress, let's be clear, is starting to put a little bit more pressure on it. But the one good thing about this obstruction and this voter suppression is that we all know it's happening. They've given us enough time to make a voting plan A, as Erica has been really, really, really, really beating that drum about making a voting plan. But they've given us enough time to know that

we have to have a voting plan A, a plan B, a plan C, and a plan D. And so that is the power of knowing indisputably what we're up against. You know, I don't know if it's enough time to reverse the damage that they've done to the U.S. Postal Service. I think that they're going to have to, to some degree, undo some of that damage because it's not just impacting absentee ballots, it's impacting our actual economic flow and people's livelihoods in terms of being able to get their medication. So I do think that we have a battle on hands, but it's going to take all of us getting involved and making sure ultimately that they do not succeed in suppressing the vote in the way that they want to. Erica. Yeah, this is a buffet for everybody, this operation of voter suppression.

And while Kristen, you were talking with Kristen, I was on Twitter and actually retweet then be very suspicious of folks who are customers that are asking a series of questions. So it is that same type of paranoia. It is that projection, that whole really regime presence that has really trickled down and they're funneling it down into all of these different levels of service. And so I think that people are really seeing, particularly folks that are in rural community, our Native brothers and sisters that are on reservations, but particularly people that have not been subject to voter suppression before, that this is an equal opportunity for all. And people are seeing how it's interrupting their days. We saw, you know, photographs of, excuse me, a mailroom in which there was still mail that had not yet been delivered since August the 7th.

And here we are going into the third week of August. And so I love what everyone said around playing their role. But it's really about definitely keeping on the pressure because as we all are really feeling this, there's so many different layers to invalidating this election that this son of a Klansman will not, not try. But it is really the will of the people that are really going to make sure that people not only vote, but that they bring folks with them, but then that they also are able to fight back this voter suppression by showing up early and showing up with other people too. Folks, got to go to a break. We come back.

We're going to talk Flint settlement, 600 million bucks. We'll also Steve Bannon. Parkwalk, I'll explain. And the latest rounds of anti-Trump viral videos. We have all of that for you. Don't move. Next on Roller Mark Unfiltered.

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All right, folks, the book is Seek.com. They have a great deal for you. They have their virtual reality headsets right here. Just simply drop your cell phone right in. You can look at the content, the virtual reality content, on Seek.com right with these headsets. Maris Pio, our sister, she is the creator of this, founder of the company. In addition, they have these 360 degree 4d headphones amazing bass you can use this for music watch videos also for gaming

has a microphone Bluetooth as well so you can use it for your conversations absolutely fabulous and of course I love the colors of black and gold my alpha colors if y'all want to get these go go to SEEK.com, C-E-E-K.com. Use the promo code right here, RMVIP2020, RMVIP2020, for you to take advantage of these products. We support black-owned businesses right here on RollerMart and Unfiltered, and we appreciate them supporting what we do as well. Folks, in Flint, a water crisis legal settlement has been proposed. It totals $600 million and will create a victim compensation fund. Flint residents will be eligible for hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from a court-monitored victim compensation fund with nearly 80% of the payments going to those who were under 18 at the time of the crisis, which of course began in April 2014. Now, partage to the settlement would include multiple government defendants, including the state of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality,

and all individual state defendants, including former Michigan Governor Rick Schneider, who left office in 2018. Children are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of lead, which can impact brain development, and the state will create a dedicated $12 million fund to provide special education and other services for students who suffer long-term health and behavioral impact from lead poisoning. About 65% of the money will go to Flint residents who were six and under when they were first exposed to lead in Flint water, with 10% going to those who were between the ages of seven and 11, 5%, those who are 12 to 17, about 15%,

go to adults, 3% for property damage, and 0.5% to cover business losses. This, Greg, is, again, it's one of those things that, frankly, could have been averted. And the fact that here we are six years later, and they're just getting to a settlement the children there there were a number of women who again this is what well the pro-lifers a number of women lost children because of this this this this the flint water crisis and these children are going to have to be monitored for the next 20 30 years their their children are going to have to be monitored as a result of what happened. Absolutely, Roland. Again, it just undergirds the importance of process with this.

I mean, I think it was 2018, Judge Levy there, federal judge, district court judge, appointed, I think, Senator, I'm trying to remember, Carl Levin, I think, was one of the people who was appointed to monitor this. And the negotiations are ongoing with the, you know, they're going on to sue the EPA. That's one of the things in this settlement and so forth. But the point is that you have to have, this is why participating in the political process is so important. These are federal judges who are mandating this stuff, who are convening these types of entities. And when you do not participate, you can set it up, whether it be a lawsuit to say,

put the mailboxes back, or one to say, make this right in the city of Flint. A judge is going to hear that. A federal judge is going to hear that. And those judges are appointed by the people we vote for. Other thing I would say is that

it's a little unsettling because we got to focus on the young people. But for every dollar that goes to those six and unders that's a dollar That's not going to go to the older people and we don't know the health outcomes of those people yet And so, you know this this is a this is a wonderful victory But it's one victory in an ongoing war that started as brother Pinnock said in Atlanta with kovat 1619 We're just destruction of racism we face. Recy, to Greg's point,

to Greg's point, a federal judge is overseeing this. This is why federal judges matter. Democrats don't spend lots of time talking about the judicial system. Republicans, they do, especially the evangelicals, the white conservative Christians.

But the reality, this is why you want fair- minded judges who believe in what's right for the people as opposed to far right wing judges who are more about corporations. Right. And Donald Trump has already gotten over to Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have already gotten over 200 judges. They have reshaped a quarter of the federal judiciary for over a generation, maybe two even generations. And so it is a topic that is undercovered in terms of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party, I think, is lacking in just educating people on civics because the Republicans understand using every lever of the government

to push forth their agenda, whereas Democrats do tend to focus a little bit more on personality and the big names at the top of the ticket. And so this is an opportunity to demonstrate, as you said, how it is so important that we have the next president be Joe Biden so that we can get these judges, the next several hundred judges appointed by a Democratic president. That is again, this is the thing that I keep trying to lay out to folk, Erica, that when you look at these sort of cases, people keep saying, oh, I'm not worried about what happens at the top of the ticket. Who picks federal judges? Presidents. Who confirms? Who picks federal judges?

Presidents. Who confirms or rejects federal judges? Senate. So the Senate, the senators matter. Right. Right. And, you know, that's the unique that's that is the unique quality of this show, that people are going to be educated and that connecting the dots is the continuum of Roland Martin unfiltered. And then we also look at with Senator Kamala Harris, Biden-Harris in the White House means that Madam Vice President Kamala Harris will be the president of the Senate,

which means that she will be able to cast tie-breaking votes. And when you think about tie-breaking votes during the Obama-Biden administration, Vice President Ben Biden did not cast any tie-breaking votes. And we see that in this particular Senate that Mike Pence has aided and abetted getting over the finish line. One, Elizabeth Betsy DeVos, he's cast 13 tie-breaking votes. And so when you're thinking, when we all thinking about the federal courts and thinking about this is not just now, you're talking about in the future. If somebody has a veteran's claim, when you're talking about the different divisions that

are assigned to these specific courts, although someone may not see the importance on it on face, it does reach into all of our homes and into all of our lives. So it's not just about the ticket. It's about what we're going to be able to do with the ticket that is not focused on being an oligarchy, that is not focused on regime, that is not focused on collapsing absolute power, that is actually listening to the people and having a conversation. So this is really another fine example of why folks need to be involved in the body politic, because there is a lane for everyone and that it does affect all of our lives. All right, folks, our next story. You know what? I really do love that song by Smokey Robinson.

D'Angelo remade it. I love it when we're cruising together. Steve Bannon was just cruising down the ocean and he was just having the time of his life, y'all, this morning on a $28 million yacht. Then all of a sudden, some folk with the Postal Service just rolled up and said, let me holler at you. Y'all, Steve Bannon, former campaign leader for Donald Trump, top advisor in the White House, this is what he looked like a few hours ago when he was in court.

Oh. Got messed up. Steve Bannon was arrested. This is an artistic rendering. No cameras are allowed in federal courts. This is an artistic rendering from Reuters. He was arrested on fraud charges in the border wall fundraising

scam. Steve Bannon and three other defrauded donors by raising more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. According to the indictment, Bannon promised that all of the money would be used for the project. Oh! That was a lie.

Instead, hundreds of thousands of dollars were used for personal gain. Do y'all know who I haven't heard from today? I ain't heard from Steve Bannon's good buddy, Raynard Jackson. So you remember when Raynard was. Oh. Mmm. So you remember when Raynard was talking all that trash? Well, Raynard went on Steve Bannon's radio show.

So, Steve Bannon is the latest Trumper, Reesey, to be indicted. And Trump was asked about this today.

Oh, he was sad to hear it. But somebody said, but hold up, but you picked all these people. I mean, isn't it amazing? Then he tried to say, oh, Obama was corrupt. No, so please just refresh my memory. I don't recall Obama people doing perp walks. No. And this is actually the second Trump campaign co-chair or manager to get arrested. Paul Manafort has already been convicted of crimes that he committed. And so the Trump orbit is nothing more than a criminal enterprise. I think by the time, you know, in the next couple

of years, we're going to see some RICO charges on all these people and they're all going to go down. You know, the way that you get the white folks is you got to get them with the financial crimes. Okay. They get the black folks with the, with the stop and frisk and all the other stuff, but you got to get the white folks with the financial crimes. And so it's much harder to weasel out of these things because they have all the documentation. And so these are the chickens coming home to roost. And even Bill Barr could not come to Steve Bannon's rescue. And the good thing is that this likely will not be dispositioned in a way that Donald Trump can pardon him or commute his sentence like he did with Roger Stone.

And he will be going to jail behind this. So here are the folks at the Midas Touch. You know, they don't wait long. They don't wait long. They already dropped they Steve Bannon ad. And you know, I'm obliged to play it. Papadopoulos was convicted of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. He was the coffee boy.

Don't remember much about it. Former Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates pleaded guilty. Paul Manafort convicted on eight criminal counts. George Nader just arrested today on child pornography charges. Associates of the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, and Igor Fruman. I don't even know who they are.

Felix Sater, he is in the news because of his efforts to build a hotel in Moscow with Donald Trump. If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn't know what he looked like. President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Michael Flynn admitting he lied to the FBI. Roger Stone has now been found guilty on seven counts. Breaking news of Trump's ex-political advisor, Steve Bannon, being arrested in connection with a crowdfunding scheme called We Build the Wall. Midas Touch is responsible for the content of this advertising.

Hey, Rishi, I guess they might have a new slogan in the White House. I don't know. Well, I love that they had the only people who haven't been indicted yet. We do know from news this week that there had been several criminal referrals from the Senate intelligence investigation that were sent to, I believe, Barr or one of Trump's corrupt attorney generals that were not acted upon. And so there are some people that are still in the crosshairs of criminal liability. But before I go to you, Greg, you know, the Lincoln Project, they had to have something to say, too. Of course. And I am obliged to play it. Nå er det en av de fleste som har vært på denne vegen. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok I guess if Trump wants some inside knowledge of the federal prison system, he can ask all of his former workers.

Well, I suspect, Roland, he had some inside knowledge even of this, because remember, this is the Southern District of New York. That's where Audrey Strauss is her first big case that she's announced since Tony Barr replaced Jeffrey Berman up there. I think Trump probably knew about this.

And you messy for going on Twitter and putting all them boat songs on there, brother. My contribution to your list was the Hughes Corporation. Hashtag songs for Steve Bannon. Songs for Steve Bannon. My contribution was the Hughes Corporation, rock the boat. Rock the boat.

Don't rock the boat, baby. Rock the boat. Don't tip the boat over. But there's a line in there, up till now, we've sailed through every storm. But understand that Steve Bannon considers himself intellectual. I used to see Steve Bannon over at Capitol Hill Books right outside, right down the street from the Capitol. It's not there anymore. But this shows you that appeals to intellect, appeals to trying to think through.

I mean, Steve Bannon trying to create a globalist society, all this stuff. At the end of the day, this is about naked power. When he couldn't serve Donald Trump anymore, they threw him overboard. And if you don't think that Barr didn't tell Trump before this went down that the Southern District was getting ready to drop the hammer, cuz remember, Trump said something the other day about, Bannon, I don't know about. Yeah, because it's your turn. I'm just waiting on Steve Bannon's book and Steve Bannon to finally name all the names

But even that's not going to be enough because between the QAnon people and the white nationalist party They don't care about criminality. This is all about power Yeah, so they will throw Steve Bannon out now. So here before I go before you speak Erica. This is when the orange one was asked about his former homie, Steve Bannon, at the White House today. that these are the kind of people... Well, I have no idea....and the culture of lawlessness around... Well, no, there was great lawlessness in the Obama administration. They spied on our campaign illegally. And if you look at all of the things and all of the scandals they had,

they had tremendous lawlessness. But I know nothing about... I was not involved in the project. I have no idea who was. But I can tell you, I didn't know the people, the three people that were talked about were people that I did not know. I don't believe I ever met him. I don't think that should be a privately financed wall.

I don't think it's too complex. It's too big. And we're now up to 300 miles almost in another week, week and a half. We'll be up to 300 miles of wall at the highest level. They were even having construction problems. I was reading, the little I know about it, I got from you. I was reading where they were having construction problems with the wall that they had a small area just to show people that they could build a wall. And they were having a lot of problems where it was toppling over and other things. And I didn't like it because I didn't want to be associated with that. We built a very powerful wall. It was a wall that is virtually impossible to get through. It's very, very tough.

It's very strong. And it's everything the Border Patrol. Reece, his ass lying. Excuse me, Eric, his ass lying. Yeah, he's the father of lies and the son of a Klansman, right? When you think about Steve Bannon, I immediately think about, and I always go back to this moment in CPAC in February 2017, where he sat on stage and said very boldly, and it was printed across many, many publications,

and people talked about it, well, except for Black people, very casually that the plan for this particular regime was to deconstruct the administrative state. And now Steve Bannon, the day after Senator Kamala Harris made it very clear that she knows a predator when she sees one and has no issue with prosecuting transnational criminal organizations, that very next day that he was arrested, i think that's just very poetic in and of itself and so um when we uh kind of look at you know the grifting nature right this emoluments president and that things that come out of his mind pretty much do the same thing now interestingly enough from what i understand the yacht that he was on was of a Chinese billionaire. So when you think about all of the money, a Chinese billionaire reportedly tied to Chinese Secret Service. But go ahead. I'm sorry. But see, see, this is why you have to be tuned in to Roland Martin and filter. And why all of this matters, everyone, is because while this regime, and I'm

going to use the term that I love when Dr. Carr talks about, totes, William Barr, and all of those different sycophants and people that fall up under that regime, real dear leader squadron, is that when you think about what they've been doing is telling Americans, listen, $600 a month, that's too much, maybe $200. However, I'm going to be home for about three weeks or somewhere for three weeks. We'll pick it up later. These are the people that are saying that they want to make sure that corporations are taken care of. They want to make sure that they're taking care of the NRA, all of these different organizations, but starving Americans. And so I think that when people see this particular regime and all of the

people that come out of this regime, it is real, real to me. It makes it much, much easier to cast a vote for people who actually do believe in some level of the rule of law. But I do want to remind y'all that Donald Trump said, I'd never believed in this, this project. I did not support this project. But your grifting ass son did. Your namesake. His campaign rally?

I am obliged to play this video. Thank you guys for being here. Brian, thank you so much for all your sacrifices doing this and showing really what capitalism's all about, right? This is private enterprise at its finest, doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else. And what you guys are doing is

pretty amazing. It started from a grassroots effort, and it's just doing some wonderful things for an important issue. And thank you guys for being here. Brian, thank you so much for all your sacrifices doing. So the Brian he was referencing, that's one of the people who got indicted today. So when Donald Trump says, oh, I was never down with this.

Yeah, but Fredo was. I don't say that about Fredo. He's not dumb. He's smart. He's smart and he wants respect, brother. Fredo was. Fredo was. See, y'all.

There is no Michael Corleone in that family. I kept trying to tell y'all. This is the thug in chief. this is the thug in chief. This is the thug in chief. This is they all are grifters. And you know who the stupidest people out there are? These stupid conservatives who just keep giving these fools money. Remember the other fools who had that Trump pact and the fools thought they were giving money

for Trump re-election and all they were doing was simply paying themselves? I keep trying to tell... Look, you stupid if you give money to Candace Owens. You stupid if you give money to Brandon Tatum. You got to be a dumbass you give money to Brandon Tatum. You got to be a dumbass to give money to Jesse Lee

Peterson, to Steve Bannon, to all of these... That's the game they play. The game they play. These folks just sit here and say, y'all got to understand how the game works. That's why you got all these conservative radio stations.

Because what these folks do is they sit there and they sit every day, they just feed them that stuff. Obama was weak, Obama's a Muslim, Obama was a terrorist, all that sort of stuff. And they buying into it. So they come back and they just sell out they five, 10, 20, $25. They raised, y'all, they raised 25 million for this wall.

25 million, 25 million. this wall. $25 million. $25 million. You can go down the line. That's what you have here. And see, now y'all understand. Now y'all understand why Trump wanted Barr in. Hell, Barr,

this thing was, let me tell y'all something. If this thing was close, Barr would have told him, shut it down right even bar probably like damn i i can't even i i a a dog a a dog no question i i i can't even i can't even fix this one he was like i mean damn man know, he was like, look, Donald, damn. I mean, I didn't fix the Roger Stone thing. I fixed the Michael Flynn thing. But they got so much stuff on these fools. I can't even. Oh, but guess who also, y'all, was on the advisory committee?

Eric Prince. Oh, yeah. Betsy DeVos' brother. I ain't done. I ain't done. I ain't done. Former baseball player that races Curt Schilling. Oh, and guess

who else? Fake-ass cowboy David Clark. Oh, yeah. All of them. He needs a check. Yeah, the U.S. Attorney's office ain't done. oh yeah all of them were on it yeah the US Attorney's Office ain't done

and the Post Office Police I guess something does work at the Post Office Office okay okay I'm just I'm just saying I'm just saying so while all y'all sitting here acting a fool,

you know, doing what y'all do, I just keep trying to explain to y'all, you know, okay? Keep it up. Y'all, these are thugs. They are grifters. That's all they know. That's all they do. And you just need to

understand how they roll. I'm just trying to tell y'all. So, look, and that's why they are trying to hold on because Trump, no, y'all, hold up, I forgot. I got to tell y'all the last one. The damn court in New York said, Trump, no, you got to turn your tax returns over to the to the uh da uh in manhattan not trying to fight that y'all but you know you know that wall judges right that's right right but but the deal though john roberts set it up so they're gonna have to appeal it back to him that's why all he won he didn't win they knew they was gonna do that's right hey all i'm saying is this here. All I'm saying is this here. When you have thug after thug after thug, y'all, I told y'all is 74 days left in this. I got my I got my notice today. My absentee ballot filled it out today, mail that sucker back. Y'all, if we do what we are supposed to do,

I know there's a new poll saying they're tired in Minnesota, but y'all, if we do what we are supposed to do, the day after the election, I'm going to be sitting here jamming to this. Crank it up. Come on. That's what I do. to this. Crank it up. And John P. King is, John P. King's singing, I made it out.

Now look, Obama said it last night in his speech. Now hold on, pull the music, I didn't tell you to pull the music down. Go back to the panel. Oh boy. tell you, pull the music down, going back to the panel. The only way this gonna happen is if y'all get registered. Is if y'all vote. Is if you

check your registration. You got to tell every family member, every one of your cousins, everyone, you got your nephew, your niece, your aunt, your uncle, all of them, because these thugs have got to go, because we got to be out of this mess. Sing it, John. If y'all stay at home, that ain't going to happen. Go ahead and close us out, Greg Carr. No, brother. My soul looks back and wonders how I got over.

Might be the one out here if we get past this, Greg. Reese soul looks back and wonders how I got over might be the one. If we get past January. Reese, he calls us out. I make it out a little bit farther than the U.S., but I will be here and say, if you don't vote, none of it matters. Because we are going to be in whatever the early birds in the mail do. Hold on, Reese.

Greg finished. Greg finished. All right, go ahead. Reese, you go ahead. Reese, go ahead. I'm saying we're naming it and we're claiming it Biden-Harris victory 2020, but we've got to vote plan A, plan B, plan C, and plan D. Go ahead. Erica, close out.

Come on, Erica. And get your voting outfit together. Yes, I said outfit. I'm bringing the whole South. Get your voting outfit together. Yes, I said outfit. I'm bringing the whole South. Get your voting outfit together. Your PPE, your shoes, your shoe covers, your face shield, your mask, your water, your hairnet, your glove, your extra gloves, your hand sanitizer, your chaps if you have to wear them.

Get your voting outfit together now. Look, I'm real clear. I am hyper-focused. This thug and his birth-a-damn wife and his ignorant children, all them grifters have got to go. And anybody who want to sit here and play games, any of y'all want to say, hey, this ain't no big deal. We really

have dealt with more. These folk don't believe in civil rights. They don't believe in police consent decrees. They don't believe in real criminal justice reform. They don't believe in actually helping black businesses.

They don't believe in the Affordable Care Act and helping folks with health care and even Republican states like Oklahoma and Missouri pass Medicaid expansion. All I'm saying is if y'all sitting here stuck on stupid, keep making up some bullshit in terms of what's going on. I'm trying to tell y'all right now, if they are in charge of the White House, in charge of the Senate, there's nothing that you say you care about that they are going to do. They ain't moved on fixing the Voting Rights Act. They have not moved on fixing, making sure our elections are secure.

Mitch McConnell says, look, he's the grave digger. You name it, that's what he is. And so this is not about Democrat, Republican. This ain't about even Trump, Biden. This is literally a decision that you will be voting on for your children's children. Don't play games with this. I'm telling y'all right now, these folks got to go. And I told y'all this means war.

They asses got to go. And so if any more of these thugs get arrested, hell yeah, we're do the happy dance and I can't wait for Trump to lose so they can go back and indict Roger Stone and throw his punk ass in prison with that particular racist. I'ma see y'all tomorrow. Tomorrow, Lisa Fisher is here, Tom Perez with the DNC, Gerald Horn

is here. Y'all know, ain't no other show like this on broadcast, cable, digital. That's why y'all gotta support Roland Martin Unfiltered, on broadcast, cable, digital. That's why y'all got to support Roland Martin Unfiltered. Cash app, PayPal, Square. You see them right there. Dollar sign RM Unfiltered.

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I got folk from Canada and the UK watching our show. Even one of our white brothers sent me a euro from Amsterdam. I can't even cash it, but I appreciate it. And so all y'all on YouTube, y'all can give as well. I'm trying to explain to y'all. There's no show like this and if we got to have our own place to have our own conversations

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or booking any of these people, well, go get your own damn show if you want to book your own guests. I'm going to see y'all tomorrow. this is an iHeart podcast