#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Head of FEMA Questioned, Fired FEMA Worker Responds to Hearing, Trump's Cabinet & Project 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Starting point is 00:00:41 Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does.

Starting point is 00:01:25 It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

Starting point is 00:01:45 A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. We'll be right back. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Rolla. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary.

Starting point is 00:02:58 It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. Today is Tuesday, November 19th, 2024. Coming up on Roller Mark Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. FEMA's top administrator faces questions from the House Oversight Committee about the federal government's hurricane response and allegations from fire FEMA worker Marnie Washington-Milton, who said she got orders to skip

Starting point is 00:04:26 hostile homes happen to have Trump signs in their front yard. Will show you some of that hearing and Marnie will join us to discuss. Discuss what she heard in today's Capitol hearing. For those who didn't believe us, will show you how product 2025 is

Starting point is 00:04:43 becoming a reality with Donald Trump's cabinet picks. Trump confirms he will declare a national emergency and use the military to carry out mass deportations. Like we told y'all, this is what they laid out in Project 2025. We'll unpack all of that. Plus, Trump's criminal cases in New York and Georgia are being put on hold indefinitely. That's stupid. In tonight's Marketplace segment, we'll also talk to the creators of a game designed to teach youth about the law. Plus, you've got some Negroes out here who have a problem that black-owned media companies like myself receive campaign money from the Harris for President campaign.

Starting point is 00:05:27 But it's interesting, they say nothing about the billions that go to white media. I got a few things to say about that. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin-Unfields on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it.

Starting point is 00:05:44 Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks he's right on time And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rolling Martin, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Martell! Now!

Starting point is 00:06:52 Martell! Oh, hashtag, we tried to tell you. Donald Trump kept lying that, oh, nothing at Project 2025. He knew nothing about it, didn't want to read it, had no impact on his campaign, yet it's amazing how he keeps hiring people who are all tied to Project 2025. We're seeing this in his cabinet picks. We're seeing this in their policies. And the reality is they are going to implement that 900-plus page leadership guide. Real clear, journalist and author Ahmed Baba, who wrote what Trump's cabinet and staff picks tell us about his second term priorities. Jones is now from Brooklyn. Glad to

Starting point is 00:07:31 have you here on the show, Ahmed. Look, it is real clear they were lying the entire time. And these idiots in the media fell for it. Oh, you know, what Trump said that wasn't the case. And we're like, Trump lies about lies. So we all knew he was lying. And so he names Brendan Carr to be chair of the Federal Communications Commission. Who is Brendan Carr? Oh, he

Starting point is 00:07:58 only wrote the section of Project 2025 dealing with the FCC. Okay? We can go down the line. All of these people who he's picking all have ties. His press secretary, oh, no. Nothing to probably 2025. She's in their videos.

Starting point is 00:08:14 And so it was all a lie, and we knew it. And guess what? A bunch of folks in this country fell for the okey-doke, and they effed around, and they're about to find out. Yeah, they're about to get a really extremist agenda. BUNCH OF FOLKS IN THIS COUNTRY FAILED FOR THE OKEDOKE AND THEY EFFED AROUND AND THEY'RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT. THEY'RE ABOUT TO GET A REALLY EXTREMIST AGENDA. I MEAN, WE'VE BEEN CALLING THIS OUT FOR MONTHS. I'VE BEEN ON THIS FOR OVER A YEAR NOW. AND ESSENTIALLY, AS WE COULD SEE THE WHOLE TIME, PROJECT 2025 DIRECTLY ALIGNED WITH DONALD TRUMP'S AGENDA. WE SAW THIS IN THE BEGINNING. CBS DID ANALYSIS THAT FOUND 270 PROPOSALS DIRECTLY MAT directly match Agenda 47. We saw many of his former appointees and administration officials

Starting point is 00:08:50 crafted it. Brendan Carr, now literal direct author of the FCC chapter, and he actually got into Twitter beef with me after I called out his ties. He responded by saying, I'm so sorry this happened to you. So as we can see, international— I'm sorry, you're breaking it right there. He said what to you? He slid in my replies at 2 a.m. and said, I'm sorry that happened to you, in response to me calling out his Project 25 ties. It didn't really make any sense.

Starting point is 00:09:29 So, essentially, we have, essentially, affirmative action for grifters in Trump's Cabinet here. We have internet trolls who are sitting here in my replies and other people's replies, this incoming FCC chair, who has promised and indicated that he would target the broadcast licenses of networks that Trump disagrees with. He spoke about NBC. Today, he was on Fox News talking about CBS. So we have not just Brendan Carr, but we have Matt Gaetz, who would implement retribution. Project 2025 calls for—this is something for your Black audience, for us Black folks to care about—turning the civil rights division on its head to target and essentially take universities or people who are trying to boost diversity and accuse them of discrimination, right?

Starting point is 00:10:17 So, there's all of these avenues that these cabinets indicate Project 2025 plan will be implemented successfully. And not only that, as we—personality policy, that's how the saying goes. Donald Trump has successfully won, unfortunately. And I think Americans are about to be really shocked by the extremist agenda that he implements. I think a lot of people, you know, if they really did vote for inflation, they're not going to get price cuts here. They're going to get a really extremist agenda, mass deportations, Project 2025 agenda that we all said was his. Obviously, it's not directly his, but Agenda 47 echoed the bulk of it.

Starting point is 00:10:58 And we're about to get this full force rolling. Well, first and foremost, I laugh at these fools in the case. And Brendan Carr knows better when he's talking about, oh, we're going to go up to CBS, let's say go up to NBC, because they had Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live.

Starting point is 00:11:18 First of all, go to my iPad. These are the CBS-owned and operated stations. For all of y'all out there who don't understand how the FCC works, the FCC only has jurisdiction over stations with broadcast licenses. Let me be clear. CBS has affiliates. These are the only owned and operated stations of CBS. That's it, y'all.

Starting point is 00:11:50 The rest of the stations that are CBS affiliates, those are locally owned or they have independent owners. So the only licenses they can go after are these stations. And you got to have a little bit more than, oh, Vice President Kamala Harris went on Saturday Night Live. So here's the other thing. And I meant to tweet this to Brendan, and I'm going to tweet it to him. I'm very interested. So Brendan Carr is saying that SNL did not give equal time to Donald Trump because they brought up Vice President Kamala Harris. Okay, is Brendan Carr, and this is where progressives need to be a lot more, to me, guerrilla-minded. Salem Broadcasting, those are radio stations with licenses. How many times did Donald Trump appear on the radio shows of Hugh Hewitt and others?

Starting point is 00:12:53 And why didn't those stations give Vice President Kamala Harris equal time? See, Brendan, if y'all want to play this game, we can play this game. We can go after Sinclair Television and their content as well because those are FCC licenses. Now, if they want to play that game, sure. Now, again, because he's basing the SNL thing on equal time, okay, we can do the equal time conversation. Let's go.

Starting point is 00:13:21 Yeah, and the thing about Sinclair Broadcasting, they see Brendan Carr as a facilitator to this. You're calling out the hypocrisy perfectly. And unfortunately, at this point, they don't care, right? They don't really... There's no ideological consistency. It's just getting their way. So,

Starting point is 00:13:39 one of the things he's going to potentially do is roll back more regulations that were preventing Sinclair from having more of a monopoly on local stations, so we could see more disinformation proliferated at the local level. And, you know, when it comes to CBS and these other networks, although, like, for example, MSNBC doesn't have a license, but the parent company does run some local broadcasting stations, right? So what we could see is it views more as a threat to kind of push people to toe the line. We've seen a little bit of that in recent days,

Starting point is 00:14:13 people trying to curry favor with Trump, trying to change their messaging. So we're seeing the threat clean enough to change the tone and tenor of some coverage. So that's what we're seeing on the FCC side. And these other Cabinet picks, it's just so absurd. I mean, we had Steve Bannon. We had Matt Walsh. We had people who were openly saying right after he won that Project 2025 will go long. And it vindicated people like me and you, Roland, who have been out here warning about

Starting point is 00:14:39 this for a really long time. And although some of this will get tied up in the courts, and there's various things that he might not be able to do on day one, like, for example, Biden is rolled back or actually implemented a rule to make it harder for Trump to essentially target civil servants, but, again, he has executive power. He can roll that back. So we're just going to have to see. The guardrails are going to be tested here once again. I mean, the courts are filled with conservative justices, so it really depends on what court these various things are going to be presented to

Starting point is 00:15:12 and ultimately whether Chief Justice Roberts is really going to let this tilt into full-blown authoritarianism. But, you know, we're not there yet. It's just going to be one of these things that happens a day at a time. We just have to stay vigilant and call out these plans and people like Brendan Carr and Matt Gaetz who were appointed. Look, then the reality is, look, folks, OK, they voted for it and they're going to get it. And so the 70 million people out there who they're about to whack when it comes to food stamps, when it comes to subsidies, the people out there who are gonna get whacked, who are gonna get deported, all these different people. And so, and like I saw one guy,

Starting point is 00:15:52 I saw one story of a guy was like, oh yeah, I know I might get deported, but I still love Trump. Okay, love his ass back at home. These folks, see, I love all these people. It reminded me of, again, 2016, when people were like, oh, I voted for Trump, but I hope I don't lose my Affordable Care Act. Well, dumbass, that's who you voted for. So, and I'm telling you right now.

Starting point is 00:16:17 A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

Starting point is 00:16:40 And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

Starting point is 00:17:14 podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

Starting point is 00:17:41 From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Starting point is 00:18:03 Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Dr Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Starting point is 00:18:29 Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

Starting point is 00:18:37 We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Starting point is 00:18:56 Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter

Starting point is 00:19:09 and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content,

Starting point is 00:19:26 subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth.

Starting point is 00:19:56 Never stop being a dad. That's that occasion. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Okay, if you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Okay, if Trump and the Republicans try to come in here and get rid of the Affordable Care Act, it's going to be a bunch of crying white people, a bunch of crying broke white people in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas,

Starting point is 00:20:28 especially white men whose lives were changed because of the Affordable Care Act. But y'all want to play games? Go right ahead. Yeah, I mean, what we're going to see here is overreach, right? Trump thinks he has a mandate on his extremist agenda. But as we see, you know, Roland, me and you, we know all these plans. But the average American, a lot of them are tuned out. They don't know the exact details of what Donald Trump is about to pursue. They think, oh, you know, tough guy, economy, lower prices. That's maybe what they thought when they went to the voting booth. But tariffs and a lot of these policies are going to hit, like you said,

Starting point is 00:21:04 some of these vulnerable people in red states that Trump considers his base. And by then, it's too late. We've elected the guy. And I think one of the silver linings, which is unfortunate because a lot of people are going to get really hurt by this, especially migrants. And I think as Trump overreaches, I mean, we look today, Mike Johnson and their new, their new trend that they're thinking about putting a rule in to prevent the new transgender member of Congress from using, you know, a woman's bathroom. They're focused on these extremist issues that is going to backfire, right? Like Trump can't cancel the midterms as much as, you know, we've called him an authoritarian,

Starting point is 00:21:41 but that's, he's still in the wannabe stage, right? It takes time. It takes chipping away. With this extremist agenda being implemented, I suspect it's going to backfire heavily. Like, I really think when people start to struggle because he went all in on his agenda when he thought that he was just—he really is misinterpreting this as a broad mandate of all of MAGA extremism. And I think this could cost them the midterms. And then hopefully we begin to—we have that legislative check. And then going into 2028, we can have some kind of figure in here, because he can't run again. I mean, he might try, but constitutionally, it's—I'm not on the whole Trump third-term vibe. I really think that this is gonna be a hard four years.

Starting point is 00:22:27 And if everybody locks in, like we all are staying committed to spreading people, I think we can really pull us back from the brink. Maybe I'm just being optimistic, I don't know where you stand on it. All right then, well, we shall certainly see. And again, I keep telling y'all, all these people who voted for him, all I'm going to play for the next four years

Starting point is 00:22:48 is Scarface's No Tears. I don't want to hear whining or crying because this is what you chose to do. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me, Roland. Folks, on my panel, Dr. Mustafa Santayag Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, joining us from D.C., Dr. Larry Walker,

Starting point is 00:23:07 assistant professor at the University of Central Florida, out of Orlando, Benjamin Dixon, pastor, political commentator out of Atlanta. Glad to have all three of you here. I'm being very serious, Larry. All I'm going to do is play No Tears. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear any whining, complaining, crying.

Starting point is 00:23:27 Someone was saying that the number of searches on Google, can I change my vote? I'm sorry. You had eight years. You saw what happened in 20... Matter of fact, you go back further. Okay, you go to 2015. Nine years. You go to 2015, now you're, you go to 2011.

Starting point is 00:23:50 They knew exactly who this man was. They decided, they willingly accepted evil. Now they're going to have to accept it. Now they got accepted Dr. Oz being over Medicare and Medicaid, okay? Even though he paid a massive ICE fine, okay? Okay, Matt Gaetz sleeping with 17-year-olds, women testifying that they actually saw that happen. I don't want—please, don't look—I'm telling you, I'm going to get a shirt that says, don't blame me, I voted for the black woman. That's real talk rolling in and so the next four years are going to be like

Starting point is 00:24:27 if a farmer decided he was going to let a fox inside the hen house and then close the door and say he's not responsible what happens to the hens so that's essentially what our next four years are going to are going to look like and so rolling you're right black folks in particular have consistently not just the last four years so so the last eight-plus years, warned about what a Donald Trump first, his first administration, now the second administration will look like. So you talked about the Affordable Care Act. We saw the attacks against the Department of Education and all the other damage that could be done to homeland security, state, in terms of international issues. We could go on and on. And listen, Roland, I worked on the Hill, and essentially what the Republicans have done

Starting point is 00:25:10 in the second, what we're going to do in the second Donald Trump term is every single thing they had ever hoped to do when it comes to dismantling the federal government as a state is exactly what's going to happen. Going after federal workers, in terms of how, you know, the post office, all these other things that people take for granted. And, you know, in terms of Americans don't know what it's like to live without, are going to find out what it's, you know, what it's like to live out with these essential services. And so you talked about the

Starting point is 00:25:38 Affordable Care Act, Roland, and how, you know, some folks don't understand that the Affordable Care Act is Obamacare. And so, why they say they don't like Obamacare, they have the Affordable Care Act. And so, why this—it seems silly that people don't understand those differences. They fell for the banana in the tailpipe. And you're right. There are millions of people who want to lose their health insurance. Parents who were able to keep their kids on their insurance until 26. Let's not talk about preexisting conditions in terms of individuals we all love about who have had previous health challenges. Their ability to get new insurance or keep their insurance will be made virtually impossible.

Starting point is 00:26:14 And then once again, this is the dismantling of the federal government as a state. And we will all pay for it. I really, Mustafa, difficult, yes. But for a lot of these people, I really don't want to hear a lot. I don't. It's not like, again, it's not like they didn't know. It's not like they didn't know the kind of things that he said. They didn't know about his behavior.

Starting point is 00:26:43 All of these things were there. They were covered. It was public. It was all there. They simply said, oh, no, eggs are too high, even though eggs went down. Gas is too high, even though gas went down. Oh, the economy is awful. OK. They said we're going to ignore how he responded to COVID because we're going to only focus on those two other great years. Okay, good luck. Yeah. You know, I was thinking about this earlier, and it's amazing.

Starting point is 00:27:14 I don't think most folks get that they're literally going to be paying for incompetence and extremism. So they're going to use your tax dollars to actually implement many of these things that are going to put your life in a much more difficult position. For some folks, it will shorten your life. For others, it will take your life. And, you know, there's a responsibility normally for individuals who take these types of positions. One, you're supposed to be one of the best if you're going to lead, you know, whether it is HUD or EPA or HHS or a number of different places.

Starting point is 00:27:41 The other part is that you are supposed to care about the community, and you're supposed to take civil servants seriously in this space. But now you're going to have folks who, whether you believe in wanting to have clean air or clean water, that that is going to become much more difficult. When we look at, as Brother Larry just talked about, around health care, you know, for those of us who have been fighting for criminal justice reform, we now know that that's going to be much more difficult, for voting rights, all these different types of things. You are literally paying for these things to be dismantled and deconstructed. So I hope you get what you had hoped for, because, you know, now you're paying for it in so many

Starting point is 00:28:20 different ways, in both your health and the future of your children and in relationship to your positioning inside of this society. JOHN YANG, Former U.S. Secretary of State for Health and Human Services, Ben? BENJAMIN CRUZ, Former U.S. Secretary of State for Health and Human Services, You know, one of my concerns, Roland, is the power of MAGA, the misinformation machine, to turn the minds of these people. I have seen people in person who literally embraced the destruction. They embraced the destruction of

Starting point is 00:28:46 COVID. One guy came and said that he felt it was his patriotic duty to get sick with COVID, right? And the ability to manipulate the minds of the masses at that level really suggests to me that even after they go through the stage of destruction, they'll still be turning back to Donald Trump, thanking him for punishing them and thanking them for destroying their lives. And so it's a really sickening deception that is over this entire country that, honestly, we have to be delivered from because it's going to impact us as much as I want to poke in the eyes of other people. And I'm doing my best. I want that T-shirt that you're going to get. Don't blame me. I voted for the black woman. Right. I want that T-shirt. But I do know that when they start rolling back water regulations, that it's going to impact our water supply. When they affect the EPA,

Starting point is 00:29:34 it's going to affect everyone's air that we breathe. So it's really going to have a deleterious effect on every single one of us. But there's going to be a subset of folks who turn around and thank their dear leader, Donald Trump, for making their life miserable. Oh, absolutely. And again, I had a whole campaign and folks chose to do differently. So, any of those people who go,

Starting point is 00:29:55 oh, I'm going to regret my vote, we try to tell you. Alright, folks, we come back. There was a hearing today on Capitol Hill dealing with FEMA the response to the hurricanes they also dealt with the fired FEMA worker who said that they bypassed homes that had Trump signs because of how abusive they were her name Marnie Washington Milton came up a lot during this hearing she A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Starting point is 00:30:35 Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.

Starting point is 00:31:00 But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

Starting point is 00:31:36 But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

Starting point is 00:31:58 dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

Starting point is 00:32:25 and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Starting point is 00:32:43 Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

Starting point is 00:33:09 We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

Starting point is 00:33:23 It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We ask parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives.

Starting point is 00:34:05 Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. She will be here to respond. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Blackstar Network. Hatred on the Blackstar Network. Trump mob storms the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial.

Starting point is 00:34:59 This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist

Starting point is 00:35:18 in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you. Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie.

Starting point is 00:36:02 We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin on Tilted. Feeless administrator Deanne Criswell faced tough questions from the House today during the Oversight Committee hearing.

Starting point is 00:36:41 She was asked about the policy regarding skipping homes, which resulted in the firing of FEMA worker Marnie Washington. Republican Congressman Scott Perry also asked Criswell about the investigation into Washington's firing and her allegations. A number of people had various questions. Here is some of that. Individuals that have been impacted by communities. We have several ways

Starting point is 00:37:05 that they can. Administrator, last week we sent a letter signed by myself and all the committee's Republican members to you about the recent allegations that you just mentioned. FEMA workers skipped the homes of supporters of the president-elect. Following the allegations, you issued a statement that one FEMA employee departed from FEMA's values and was terminated. However, she alleges that those were the instructions from FEMA when she was deployed. She asserts that FEMA supervisors and leadership were aware. And independently, we've received reports of similar practices in places like North Carolina. Tell me about the investigation. Tell me about the investigation. Who's conducting it? And has there been an IG investigation initiated by yourself or anybody in FEMA? Chairman Perry, there is nothing in our policies and our procedures in our training that would direct any employee to bypass anybody's home based on their political party.

Starting point is 00:38:10 I cannot speak to what her motivations were, but this came to my attention again on November 7th. I directed my team to get me information. They gave me factual information on November 9th, which is when I directed the termination of this employee. This first came to our Office of Professional Responsibility on October 28th through the team member from TSA who was working under this individual. She immediately raised it to the Office of the Special Counsel who took the case as a potential violation of the Hatch Act. There were ongoing investigations with that, and the Office of Professional Responsibility is currently working with the IG to determine what the investigative matters will be going forward.

Starting point is 00:38:55 The IG has not of yet stated they want to investigate this, but I highly encourage them to take on this case and look and see if this was a widespread issue or if this was just a single incident. So you're working with them and you've encouraged them, but you haven't requested they do so. Now, according to your employee, Ms. Washington, who was asked, and this is a public report, these orders who she stated, so you're telling me these orders who she stated. So you're telling me these orders came from somebody above and she said correct. So what has your investigation gleaned regarding her direct supervisors, the people above her? Have you questioned them and what have your answers been?

Starting point is 00:39:38 Chairman Perry, we do have an ongoing investigation and we have questioned other personnel in this chain of command and we find no information at this point that there was anything beyond her direction to her employees to skip and bypass a home so the same employee alleged that the florida team had already been avoiding trump voters homes prior to the week prior to her work there and that this was as she said the culture now these aren't my words these are these are the words from a FEMA employee who's claiming that she's being the scapegoat she said but I'm just simply executing again what was coming down from my supervisors. Do you know how many supervisors does she have?

Starting point is 00:40:28 How many people above her before she gets to you? She is a crew lead, which is the lowest level of supervision. So there's a lot of people above her, so to speak. There are several people. I'd be happy to forward an organizational chart that would show where she sits within the organization. And your investigation has spoken to certainly the immediate and maybe two or three steps above that. We have an ongoing investigation, Chairman Perry, to determine if there was any additional acts that violated our core values of compassion, fairness, integrity, and respect. Okay, so I get there's an ongoing investigation, but this isn't a law enforcement thing where you can't say, well,

Starting point is 00:41:10 we have an investigation, so we can't talk about it. You can talk about this. Does the investigation include her immediate supervisors and several steps above that? The investigation includes those that were deployed in this particular incident, and we have found no evidence that there is anything beyond this one employee's specific direction. You found no evidence at this point. Let me ask you this. Now, you can understand that from America's perspective, certainly the people that weren't visited when FEMA was in town, that it would be in FEMA's best interest to just investigate this internally,

Starting point is 00:41:55 say this is a one-off employee, that this claim of hers that it's a culture is just her trying to kind of make sure that the responsibility or the accountability doesn't fall on her. Why shouldn't this be an independent investigation by at least somebody like the IG? The actions. All right, folks, Marilyn Coggins and Jamie Raskin also spoke in this hearing. Watch. So we could be here today celebrating the workforce of 22,000 FEMA workers, but instead we're invited to focus on one so-called intermittent employee in Florida whose team encountered what she called political hostility while canvassing door-to-door for FEMA in Florida. Thereupon, as I understand it, she made the judgment that her workers were unsafe, and she issued the order to her team not to go to any

Starting point is 00:42:44 more houses in the neighborhood where there were Trump signs planted in the yard. This was a bad mistake, legally and constitutionally, which violated the core mission of FEMA and every federal agency to work on behalf of all Americans. It's plainly wrong and divisive to use a presidential campaign lawn sign as a proxy for someone's dangerousness. The director of FEMA, who's with us today. Congressman Kweisi of Maryland also spoke in this hearing.

Starting point is 00:43:16 As I listened to the interview that journalist Roland Martin did with the person in question. I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out if, in fact, she was told by someone who is full-time, who may have taken an overreach in a disaster with a lot going on, to say, by the way, you can skip those homes. I don't know that she necessarily would have done it on her own. As you know from the interview, she's not a Democrat, she's not a registered Republican, and she did not even vote. So I'm still hoping that at some point in time, your request to the Inspector General will be taken seriously, and he will start to look at what's going on. We need facts

Starting point is 00:44:00 in this committee more than anything else. Folks, this here is a live look at the second half of the FEMA hearing is taking place right now on Capitol Hill. We live streamed the first half on the Black Star Network. And so that's actually happening among the members who've questioned her since Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. We'll be able to have that later for you on our YouTube channel and on the Black Start Network as well. Right now, I want to go to Marnie Washington-Milton. You heard the testimony, the person in question. They kept referencing

Starting point is 00:44:38 her as the fired female worker. She joins us now on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Glad to have you back on the show. This hearing, like I said, is taking place as we speak. First, were you invited by the House Oversight Committee to testify today? No. So they're having a hearing discussing FEMA. They're having a hearing talking to the administrator. They're talking about you. They're showing your text messages. They're talking about directives that you gave and you did not get an invitation from the Republicans or the Democrats on this committee? No, sir. Okay. Have you been watching this hearing today? Yes, with such disdain. Say it again?

Starting point is 00:45:30 With such disdain. Why? Because I find it ridiculous that they need to hide safety precautions for political advances. They know we take safety precautions serious, and the community trends have nothing to do with recovery trends that Ms. Criswell was discussing earlier. Community trends, when we're discussing things that could potentially be a danger to a team, are the surrounding elements of that. And again, the Trump campaign signs were not the focus. The focus was safety. But since we continue to focus on Trump, I want to know how did Ms. Criswell vote? It's apparent how I voted, and they keep saying that this was politically motivated. So where does she stand in her voting? On that particular point there, that particular point there in terms of they went through this here.

Starting point is 00:46:29 You heard Raskin say there what you did was wrong, what you did was illegal. But you also had Congressman Mfume asking, wait a minute, did you know, did higher ups tell her to do this? I find it really baffling that people that have not been in the field have such an arrogant opinion about what is happening in the field. I'm not some deranged woman that's come up with a rule on my own and said, hey, this is how we're going to keep our people safe. I need to remind the American people, before I even arrived to Florida, they were already implementing the avoidance and de-escalation policy because there had been so many hostile encounters.

Starting point is 00:47:13 If you notice, Ms. Criswell deflected when they asked her, how many incident reports do you have? During the hearing, Congressman Jared Moskowitz, who is a Democrat, he spoke and he talked about his work, and I'm assuming, I'm trying to, let me try to go to it, and I'm assuming he, when he was talking about, that he had, he said that he had done this work with FEMA. Give me one second. So play this, and then I want to get your thoughts on what he had to say. Congress, who's run a disaster response, run a disaster recovery, handed out billions of dollars of FEMA money,

Starting point is 00:48:00 also a Democrat who worked in a Republican administration and ran the recovery efforts for Hurricane Michael in deeply Republican areas of the Panhandle, I can tell you not once did I ever think about their politics or my politics. As I toured the Panhandle in Neil Dunn's district or Matt Gaetz's district, I looked at people as Americans who were hit by a disaster. And my job was to get them every program that FEMA had, every dollar available to them. I looked at people as Americans who were hit by a disaster. And my job was to get them every program that FEMA had, every dollar available to them.

Starting point is 00:48:30 That was my job. What happened in Florida in this instance is deeply disturbing. It's unacceptable. I know you know that. Disaster aid should never be declined based on support of any political candidate. And I'm happy this rogue employee was fired. You did the right thing immediately, right? What should have happened here is if there were members of FEMA's team that felt uncomfortable,

Starting point is 00:48:54 that should have been passed up to the FCO. That should have gone to the federal coordinating officer. And then that information should have gone to Director Guthrie, who's the director of emergency management in the state of Florida, my former deputy. And then they could have made sure to identify those homes and gotten them the information. But that's not what happened. There was a. So I want to freeze it right there. So he calls you a rogue employee. And so he lays out what he says the process should be.

Starting point is 00:49:20 How do you respond to that? I find him highly unethical. And the first thing in the military is you never ask your subordinates to do anything that you're not willing to do yourself. So in order to run a proper investigation, someone that has a clear record, evaluations exceed expectations, is telling you they received a direct order from a superior that's been demoted before in the past for giving the wrong order. It was not properly looked into. They just immediately fired me. If you notice, Ms. Criswell could not answer the question when Mr. Jordan asked her,

Starting point is 00:49:55 have you investigated him? Have you asked him the question? So it's not a level of misunderstanding or comprehension on my part. They're choosing not to admit that they put safety precautions in place that may have violated people's rights. But in the same breath, another organization is coming forward and asking, how come the safety precautions have not evolved over time, being that things in the field have changed over the last five years. Again, he lays out this process. Well, it should have been going to this person and this person, this person. Again, for the folks who don't know, when folks on the ground told the canvassers, told you what they were encountering, what did you then do?

Starting point is 00:50:46 I always communicate with my task force lead. We have morning meetings all the time on the phone. And his directive, his mantra, his entire deployment has to keep people safe and keep people comfortable. So in order to keep people safe and comfortable, we have to consider what makes people feel safe and comfortable. And unfortunately, both of those two adjectives are subjective. Ms. Criswell has failed to put an outline in place for safety precautions as far as safe and comfortable for the team. It leaves room for interpretation. So again, my duties, my directives come from my TFL, Chad Hershey.

Starting point is 00:51:27 I implemented everything he asked me to during that deployment. So, and so again, you were instructed by Chad Hershey to tell the folks, hey, keep it moving? Yes. I even explained to him that our partnering company, the surge capacity team, they express grievances with our safety precautions. And I have to say, they appeared to be anti FEMA the entire time. They were not interested in our policies and our procedures. And unfortunately, it emboldened

Starting point is 00:52:05 them to be malicious and to release personal information nationwide about Rue 33 in Highlands County. If Cat Chad Hershey would have addressed these concerns immediately and educated them on FEMA policies, we would be here today. But no one took into consideration their discomforts with the safety precautions. Is Chad Hershey still with FEMA? Yes. He was not investigated. He was not held accountable for my actions. Again, I was thrown under the bus as a rogue employee that was creating policy and rules on their own. As you, and again, this hearing is still going on right now. Nutcase, Louisiana Congressman Clay

Starting point is 00:52:59 Higgins is talking. That is an absolute waste of my time listening to what he has to say because he is literally deranged and so do you find it look do you find it offensive that again there's a hearing and they don't bring in the person who they're all talking about yes

Starting point is 00:53:19 I have no reason to lie I have no reason to coop up a story here I'm giving you fresh intel from what happened on the ground. And it's been confirmed from other entities and other employees that have called me privately and said, it's not isolated. The only reason why they're not flooding the gates is because they fear retaliation and they're trying to figure out, well, how do we be transparent and honest about this? Because here's an opportunity for Ms. Criswell to improve the security measures for her team.

Starting point is 00:53:51 But instead of her acknowledging that there is a weakness in our practice, she is sweeping it underneath the carpet and saying it doesn't exist and that it was isolated. And how the hell can that be when we already have reports in North Carolina that FEMA workers were being under attack? If you even look at DR 4819, which happened in Chicago, you had FEMA workers that were uncomfortable to even process African-Americans in urban areas because they did not feel comfortable

Starting point is 00:54:20 in those neighborhoods. How about they research and look into that? You said that you had been reached, you were contacted by some folks out of Georgia that this was a photo that greeted female workers at the entrance of a particular property, folks hanging in effigy? Yes, that happened last week.

Starting point is 00:54:44 Someone sent me that text message and said, there really is a problem. And this image here, are they, I mean, it doesn't show who this depicts, but clearly it's folks hanging from that apparatus, that pole. Correct. And then there's ammunition signs at the bottom of it. That's not welcoming.

Starting point is 00:55:11 And honestly, FEMA's policy is to avoid and disengage. There's no room for interpretation there other than somebody is going to feel uncomfortable with that display. Absolutely. Absolutely. The when you as I said, you had Democrat Jared Moskowitz saying that you were a rogue. I mean, first of all, you heard rogue employee. You heard folks who say you broke the law, you were partisan. I mean, there were a whole lot of attacks being made against you in impugning your character, even by Democrats and Republicans in this hearing.

Starting point is 00:56:02 Which proves my point that I'm being used here as a scapegoat. Where did that directive come from? I didn't come up with that directive. I'm simply following orders. And this was a cultural practice, work cultural practice that was already happening in Florida upon my arrival. When they complete the investigation and they look into everything, I'm sure they will find dates prior to my arrival where avoidance and de-escalation policies were implemented in order for people to feel

Starting point is 00:56:29 comfortable to canvas. But here is the question, Roland. If this is not political, why did FEMA give us stand down orders on election day? Did they have any viable threats on that day for us not to canvas? And if not, why did we not canvas? You heard the FEMA directors say under questioning that an investigation was indeed taking place. An Inspector General. Have you heard from anyone regarding this internal investigation? I know special counsel reached out to me. They wanted me to relinquish all of my documents. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

Starting point is 00:57:39 But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.

Starting point is 00:58:01 But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

Starting point is 00:58:52 From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1,

Starting point is 00:59:18 Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

Starting point is 00:59:37 I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

Starting point is 00:59:51 It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

Starting point is 01:00:15 MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 01:00:33 And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad.

Starting point is 01:01:09 That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. And I didn't at the time because I didn't have representation. And still, as of this date, I do not. But based on the status of where everything is, I will be relinquishing that information over to them in the next 24 hours to prove that there was not a violation of the Hatch Act and that all of the directives were in motivation of keeping

Starting point is 01:01:39 the team safe as a whole. And so you, so would you say you still have yet to hire an attorney? Correct. Gotcha. You did launch a GoFundMe page. Go to my iPad and you laid this out. Target goal is $100,000 because you said one, not only, again, they're trying to, for one, the state of Florida is suing you. They're alleging violation of the Hatch Act. And as a result of this, not only have you lost the FEMA job, you lost your civilian job, and you've had to actually leave your home because of all of these threats against your life, correct? Correct. Mind you, I did receive a call where someone wanted to rape me and give me a proper nigger lynching. I've had several calls telling me that I deserve what I'm getting and I'm going to get what's coming to me very soon.

Starting point is 01:02:32 And I find it completely baffling because I was under orders and my superiors have no integrity. They have not come forward and said, yes, she was following orders for safety precautions. Instead, they're able to pull up her go fund me. It is there. And so Marnie, we appreciate it. We're going to continue to watch this hearing as I'm sure you are. And as it continues, we'll look forward to having you back to hear from your perspective over what we're hearing out of this, out of Capitol Hill. Thank you again, Roland, for a voice.

Starting point is 01:03:27 I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. First of all, Mustafa, I want to start with you. If you're going to have an oversight hearing discussing this, don't you think you should invite the very person who you are blaming for the problem? Yeah, I thought that was really strange that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans had invited her in to share her testimony and to hear her story and how everything played out. So that was curious. The other thing that's curious is that, in all those years, and most some folks know

Starting point is 01:04:01 that I work both manmade and natural disasters. So I've worked with FEMA, I've worked with the National Guard, you know, a whole contingency of different folks. You know, for—there had only been 48 hours for them to review her case and make a decision to let her go. That also is strange, because usually in the past, those types of things would take a while to actually do the proper investigation and then come to the decision that would be made. And the other part, too, is, in all those years that I worked in these types of situations, you always are reporting in.

Starting point is 01:04:40 So, early in the morning, you have your briefings. And then, whenever your shift is over, in many morning, you have your briefings. And then whenever your shift is over, in many instances, you're also then reporting back about what was achieved and those different types of things. So you usually are following what the particular edict is for the day and what was to be accomplished and how you're going to get it done. The other thing that I'll add, because I don't believe in these situations and not giving real talk, is that, you know, we've got a different dynamic that's currently going on in the government, not in the government, but in our country, in relationship to folks of color being out there trying to do their best to be able to help folks as a part of, you know, recovery efforts. So we've got to make sure that the proper protocols are in place. I remember during Katrina, when, you know, those brothers and sisters were trying to go across the bridge, and there were individuals with guns who were stopping them. So, you know, even, you know, the dynamics of, you know, we just got way too much violence that's going on, too much hate that's

Starting point is 01:05:39 going on. And you have this situation where people are, you know, under extreme stressors, right? People have been impacted, whether it's from natural disasters or manmade disasters. And then you have all these other dynamics that now help people think it's all right for them to be able to act out in any type of way. That makes it incredibly difficult for folks who are trying to come and help. So we've just got a lot of work to do, one, in making sure that the proper protocols are in place. Secondly, in making sure that our folks who are out there are being protected. So I'll be really interested to see what the investigation from the IG actually brings up, because normally, you know, you would be taking your orders from

Starting point is 01:06:23 the person who's above you, who's taking orders from the next set of folks all the way up. But we'll see how it all plays out. Ben. You know, the thing that stands out to me about this, Roland, is the pattern of problems that they had at Trump voters' homes. You know, I do pray for the sister who lost her job, and I hope that everyone can donate to her GoFundMe account. But there is a problem, and we saw it in North Carolina, where the MAGA misinformation machine stirred up so much hate towards FEMA. They were under attack in North Carolina,

Starting point is 01:07:01 and it seems like that followed the pattern all the way to the state of Florida. And what we have right now in Congress on Capitol Hill is a hearing that's coddling this, right? They're scapegoating our sister, but they're coddling the fact that there are people in this country who have been worked up into a frenzy, so much so that we can't even help them with emergency funding without them threatening violence and creating hostile situations. And this is going to continue to happen because this is exactly how one of the ways Donald Trump got power. It is sadly very political. And the fact that they can make people turn against the very folks who are out there trying to help them such that they can identify a pattern. Her higher ups identified a pattern that they're going to face hostility at Trump supporter homes.

Starting point is 01:07:46 That's a problem. And it's a problem that's happening on the ground amongst the people. And it's being stirred up on platforms like Twitter, formerly X, or ex-formerly Twitter. And it's happening as a result of this is a campaign tool. This is a political tactic that is deployed all across the country. So I think this is going to continue to happen in the next disaster. And so the question is, is what are they going to do the next time this happens? The next time they go to a city and every house that has a Trump flag on it is violent towards them, we have to address the problem as much as we have to address this particular situation.

Starting point is 01:08:22 Larry. Yeah, Roland, this is an example of how misinformation impacts various communities. And, you know, my colleague is right. What happens in the next natural disaster? We know with climate change that, you know, we will continue to see an increase in natural disasters throughout the United States and particularly in some places in the South. I think the other question is relating to what we just heard, and then having this hearing in Capitol Hill, and Mustafa knows this, he's another Hill staffer, anytime you're negotiating about having a hearing on a particular topic, or in this case, an individual, there's a negotiation from the minority majority

Starting point is 01:09:05 to figure out who their invited speakers are going to be. So the idea that you could have a hearing and consistently talk about the same individual throughout the hearing and that person not be invited to the hearing, I have never seen that at any time in my time working on the Hill or since then. It is highly unusual. So what I think we essentially have here is kick the can down the road. Everyone knows there's a new administration coming in, just really in less than two months. And it sounds like, you know, when you heard the administrator say the IG is currently handling it, is she's going to transition out in a couple weeks. And it's best to just kind of let, you know, get this hearing out of the way and let

Starting point is 01:09:43 the IG decide whatever they're going to do. No one wants to deal kind of let, you know, get this hearing out of the way and let the IG decide whatever they're going to do. No one wants to deal with this. Anytime you have, once again, you have essentially a hearing based on the allegations from one person and that person not be invited to a hearing. I've never seen it before. And it's clear that the minority and the majority, you know, from this hearing, they have really no interest in finding out what the truth is. Indeed, indeed. All right, folks. So, gotta go to break. We come back.

Starting point is 01:10:11 New York Times does a story about the spending of the Vice President Kamala Harris campaign and they include what we receive for advertising. But then you got these silly Negroes out here and go, oh my goodness, that's right, you was shilling and how you

Starting point is 01:10:28 getting that money? But they didn't say a word about white media. So are we saying that white media should get billions upon billions of dollars in advertising, but black-owned media run ads for free? Then, of course, there's the people who's out there, you didn't run ads. We didn't?

Starting point is 01:10:56 We only did every day for months. I'm going to break this thing down when we come back. Oh, you know I got something to say. Folks, don't forget to support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. You, of course, you can use Cash App by using Stripe. The goal is to get 20,000-dollar fans contributing on average 50 bucks a year. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day.

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Starting point is 01:11:52 Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you helped build Fanbase. And we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million

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Starting point is 01:12:48 without limits pull up a chair take your seat the black tape with me. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch! I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America.

Starting point is 01:13:24 All the momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Hi, I'm Dr. Jackie Hood-Martin, and I have a question for you.

Starting point is 01:13:55 Ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders? Well, let me tell you, living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Blackstar Network for Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. hatred on the streets a horrific scene a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn minds there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what i call white minority resistance we have seen

Starting point is 01:14:41 white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because

Starting point is 01:15:15 of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

Starting point is 01:17:09 The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on,

Starting point is 01:17:23 why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

Starting point is 01:17:40 Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Starting point is 01:18:14 Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Starting point is 01:18:55 Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Starting point is 01:19:09 Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Starting point is 01:19:32 Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.

Starting point is 01:19:45 Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Starting point is 01:20:12 Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. Arapahoe, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else. But never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov.

Starting point is 01:20:38 Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Been frozen out. Facing an extinction level of bad. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have black arms. All right, folks, welcome back. So the New York Times dropped a story the other day, and this was the story.

Starting point is 01:21:14 Give me one second. Let me go ahead and get this ready for you. This was the story right here. The story was how Kamala Harris burned through $1.5 billion in 15 weeks. The story was done by Shane Goldmacher. And so he lays out here different spending of the campaign. And in here, they talk about money that was spent on the spherephere Inn venue in Las Vegas. They talked about what was spent on rallies. They mentioned in here the, you know,

Starting point is 01:21:50 in terms of how much was raised. And, of course, they're just going through here. They pulled the FEC reports and showing, you know, how much went to, you know, Oprah Winfrey's production company, Harpro Productions, to put on the live town hall they did. You heard these people out here saying, oh, Beyonce got $10 million. Her mom, Tina Knowles, came out and said, no, that's an absolute lie. It talks about these various concerts in here and things along those lines.

Starting point is 01:22:18 And so then it mentioned a variety of other expenses and money that was going to different places, commercials that should have run, future Ford weighed in. Then it says some media allies of Ms. Harris were also paid. It mentions Areva Martin, who hosts a talk show, was paid $200,000 as a media consultant, and how she won the Battleground State Tour in October. Okay. And so then it goes in here. Now, this is Roland Martin, who holds his own streaming program and runs a media

Starting point is 01:22:47 company called new vision media received $350,000 in September for a quote media buy that he said was for advertising. And then he quotes me and said, it should have been a hell of a lot more, uh, more should have been spent on black owned media. Okay. Since Mr.

Starting point is 01:23:02 Martin interviewed Ms. Harris in October, then it mentions national action network. Then it mentions National Action Network. Then it mentions, of course, National Urban League. Now, first and foremost, I don't understand why they put media by in parentheses because that's what the $350,000 was for. It was for advertising.

Starting point is 01:23:20 Then, of course, you have these people out here. I love people who run their mouths on social media out here. Like, oh, you got Tariq Nasheed tweeting, like, of course, you have these people out here. I love people who run their mouths on social media out here. Like, oh, you got Tariq Nasheed tweeting, like, you know, SMH. And then you got Jamal Green talking about, oh, see, he was paid to attack us because of discreet oppositions. No, that means none of you, including you, Jamal, or Tariq, or any of y'allall even understand that media advertising is actually real. And so then I had one dude say, y'all didn't run any ads. Really? We ran this one. Bob and I both voted for Donald Trump. I voted for him twice. I won't vote for him again. January 6th was a wake up call for me. Donald Trump divides people.

Starting point is 01:24:05 We've already seen what he has to bring. He didn't do anything to help us. Hmm. We ran this one. Kamala Harris has never backed down from a challenge. She put cartel members and drug traffickers behind bars. And she will secure our border. Here's... Okay, and this one. IVF is a miracle for us because it allowed us to have our family.

Starting point is 01:24:32 After having my daughter, I wanted more children. And this one. Five teenagers were arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to prison. No men were exonerated. What he did to us, he tried to end us. Of course I hate these people. So... And this one.

Starting point is 01:24:48 ...had Steelers season tickets and some seven years old, man. Me and my dad, that's our thing. Here we go, Steelers! Here we go! Kick it! I was a seven-year-old... And this one.

Starting point is 01:25:00 Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for president. So why are Trump's close allies helping her? Stein was key to Trump's 2016 wins in Battleground. And this one. In this style, we've seen our share of hard times, heard our share of big promises. Up to 13,000 jobs. But empty promises. And this one.

Starting point is 01:25:23 I get it. The cost of rent, groceries, and utilities is too high. So here's what we're going to do about it. We will lower housing costs by building more... And this one. Philly tough is different. They insult us. Bad things happen in Philadelphia. Bad things.

Starting point is 01:25:39 They don't like us. We don't... And this one. ...rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully gave over power. He is still... And this one. Winners never back down from a challenge. Champions know it's any time, any place.

Starting point is 01:25:58 But losers, they whine and waffle. And this one. A yinzer. I define it as somebody that bleeds black and gold, works hard, and cares about their family. And this one. He told us who he was. Should abortion be punished,

Starting point is 01:26:17 there has to be some form of punishment. Then he showed us. And this one. 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems. Oh, she had a big crowd. Oh, the crowd. This weird obsession. And this one.

Starting point is 01:26:34 The overturning of Roe almost killed me. I had a blood clot in my uterus that caused my labor to have to be in due. And this one. In 2016, Donald Trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his White House. Now those people have... Hmm. That's 16 different ads. And just so y'all know,

Starting point is 01:26:59 the first ad that was purchased for Biden for president was in September 2023. Then they came back and did a small ad buy in February 2024. Then did another small ad buy in March of 2024. See, for the people out here, this is an actual media company. There's this show and there are other shows on the Black Star Network. It's called a network. Here's what people also don't realize is that political campaigns actually went to YouTube

Starting point is 01:27:45 and purchased advertising to Google that actually ran during commercial breaks of this show. Oh, I'm sorry. So you got these silly Negroes, he got $350,000. It should have been $3.5 million. BET got nearly $10 million. I know other black-owned media companies or black-targeted media companies that got money.

Starting point is 01:28:15 Oh, but see, these silly little Negroes, these silly little people, it shouldn't be all that. Really. people, it shouldn't be all that. Really? This right here, y'all, is a story that ran January 11, 2024. Go to my iPad, Anthony. 2024 political ad spending would jump nearly 30% versus 2020. Hmm.

Starting point is 01:28:51 Huh. Now you got some fool in the chat. Roland got $500,000. No, I didn't get $500,000. I told y'all it should have been that, but we didn't get that. So this is very interesting. This says total U.S. political ad spending will hit $12.32 billion in 2024.

Starting point is 01:29:14 Hmm. $12.32 billion. Let's go to October 2024. NBC. This is NBC. It says the final price tag on 2024 spending will be almost $11 billion. Now, I'm curious now.

Starting point is 01:29:44 So if we got $350,000 for advertising from the Harris for President campaign, where did the other $10 billion go? The other $10.6 billion or whatever. I'm sorry, where did that go? Where did it go? Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I know where that money went to. ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News,

Starting point is 01:30:24 MSNBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, local TV stations, and local media in Pennsylvania, in Georgia, in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Arizona, in Nevada. The reason I know, I went to five of those battlegrounds. North Carolina. in Michigan, in Arizona, in Nevada. The reason I know, I went to five of those battlegrounds. North Carolina, I went to those five of those battleground states. I'm sitting in the hotel room, and I'm going to the television. Ad, ad, ad, ad, ad, ad, ad, ad, ad, ad. All those ads, all of those ads actually ran. Let me take y'all, do even better right here.

Starting point is 01:31:07 Because remember I said those local ads. Did I say that? Huh. Here's a piece in Axios. Political ads boost local TV. That's what the ad said right there. That's what it said right there. Okay.

Starting point is 01:31:22 Political ads boost local TV. That means that the ads run. So let me get this straight. We shouldn't take political advertising. Everybody else. But let me give you another example. Hmm. Let's see right here. iHeartRadio. iHeartRadio, and I do commentaries on iHeartRadio's Black Information Network. Guess who got political commercials? iHeartRadio's Black Information Network. Do you remember when iHeart ran this one-hour interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Charlamagne Tha God on a bunch of their radio stations. Do y'all think iHeart did that out of the kindness of their heart?

Starting point is 01:32:16 No, iHeart got millions of dollars in political ad spending. You know who else did? Cumulus Radio, Salem Radio, Sinclair Television. So now I'm confused here. So you got some black folks out here who now are questioning why he gets the money. Because we have a network that reaches millions of people. If I check right now the YouTube dashboard, in the last 28 days, we will have generated 30 million views on YouTube alone. Y'all do know ads run on Joe Rogan's podcast, right?

Starting point is 01:33:13 You do know Spotify sells advertising. In fact, maybe, and I'm going to get back to this one in a second, but I just want to show y'all something here. I don't think people really understand what the hell they're talking about, and that's primarily it's because they know nothing about this world that we're living in. How many of y'all are aware? How many of y'all are aware that the entire media ecosystem is built on advertising? Let me say this again. The entire media ecosystem is

Starting point is 01:33:56 built on advertising. There's a thing that happens every year and it happens in the spring, and it's called the TV up fronts. And in the TV up fronts, that's where almost 60% of all money is actually being spent. If you go to my, give me one second, if you go to my iPad, this is from Deadline. Upfronts 2024, where and when they're happening. So you go down here and you see all of this, the upfronts for all the networks, and it lays out the development strategies, and it lays out in terms of, look at all the networks.

Starting point is 01:34:46 Look at all of this here. And NBCUniversal, Amazon, Disney, Warner Brothers, Netflix, YouTube, all of these people, they lay out their strategy in terms of what they want to get on TV up front. And it also lays out in terms of how much they're trying to get. Let's see here. Annual spending on advertising.

Starting point is 01:35:11 I just want to show y'all, and I'm walking you through this because these yahoos out here, see, they don't want to do this here. Hmm. don't want to do this here. The global spending on media is $674 billion. $674 billion dollars. Black-owned media. And ad spend. Since all these people got all of this here, look at this here. A study released

Starting point is 01:36:11 earlier this year by the Association of National Advertisers Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural showed spending with black-owned media companies increased only 6% to $991 million. Let me explain it again. See, I would love for the New York Times to do a story on this. No, no, no, go back to it. So $674 billion is spent globally, yet $991 million, barely a billion dollars, goes to black-owned media. Who watches more TV than any other group? Black people. Who watches the streaming services more than any other group? Black people. Who watches the streaming services more than any other people?

Starting point is 01:37:08 Black people. Your black-owned media receives less than a billion dollars. Why am I... Look at this Afrotech story right here. This comes from 2023. Black-owned media drives the culture, yet spending on them was only 1.16% in 2022. Did y'all see that? Did y'all see that?

Starting point is 01:37:39 1.16%. Now, see, the same Negroes, the same Negroes who bump in their gums, whine and complain about black wealth creation, about how do we support black, all that sort of stuff like that. The same Negroes. Yet they mad because of what we got, which was minuscule compared to others. I'm going to show y'all this

Starting point is 01:38:12 tweet. I thought this was interesting. So check this out. Go to my iPad. So this sister, I don't even know who she is. She goes, real question, do any of these orgs resonate with black voters today? This is some sister. I don't know who she is. She goes by Quidditch424. She says she's an attorney, BRCA awareness advocate.

Starting point is 01:38:42 I love this one here. Words in New York Times. Her name is Erica Stallings. Words in New York Times, NPR, O Magazine, Zora, Huffington Post, Washington Post, and others. So she asked the question, do any of these orgs resonate with black voters today? She's got 10,500 followers.

Starting point is 01:39:02 I got more than 700,000 on Twitter. Shoulders Blackatched to our net. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.

Starting point is 01:39:43 But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Starting point is 01:40:23 Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Starting point is 01:40:56 Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

Starting point is 01:41:24 In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-stud on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher.

Starting point is 01:41:49 Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

Starting point is 01:42:04 It really does. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. my parent. Like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't

Starting point is 01:42:45 change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. voters. I think more than you. Now, this brother here, he answers, as a black millennial, no, but I do have colleagues my age who do. And so he goes on and on. I said, don't resonate. I said, y'all bugging. He goes, well, there's a difference between resonate and respect. I only got two friends who pull up for orgs like this. And look, I grew up listening to you on WVON in Chicago. Parents forced me. So have deep respect for the work you're doing.

Starting point is 01:43:30 Just not sure I'm the target demo. I said, are you black? If you're black, you're the target demo. See, I love the people who want to, right here, go back. The person says, what would resonate? I hear so many of us saying we need to support our own, but don't. Who, what speaks to you? See, I love the folk who like to raise these questions because

Starting point is 01:43:57 again, I don't hear any of them questioning why so much advertising was spent by the head for president campaign on white media oh some of y'all are oh oh oh did i just say that did i just say that how about this sister right here uh she's an attorney uh her name is ashley i don't know uh her name is l woods uh and so uh she no, doesn't resonate. And I later tweeted her. I said, well, Ashley, I said, since you a lawyer, why don't you go ask black lawyers like Ben Crump and Harry Daniels

Starting point is 01:44:32 and Daryl Washington and Lee Merritt and Monique Presley and others, when they have cases, why do they come on this show? Because we cover the stuff that the other networks don't cover. See, some of y'all just want me to go ahead and do this thing. And so I'm just going to go ahead and do this thing because I'm about to lay this thing out. See, folk love to talk. Well, I love this one right here. I like Roland, but his audience is older, and because of that,

Starting point is 01:45:08 how many of them actually care about his YouTube show? Y'all know I had to hit him with the facts. I said, y'all better learn the facts. 30% of my YouTube audience is ages 35 to 54. 60% is 55 plus. 54% are male. 40% are female. In the last 28 days, 66% who watch aren't even subscribers.

Starting point is 01:45:26 We're the only daily news show that targets African-Americans. When somebody sits here and questions, do these resonate with black voters? We launched this show on September 4, 2018, with 157,000 YouTube subscribers. Here we are six years later, and we actually have 1,509,134 subscribers. So I'm sorry. How do you not resonate if you've grown tenfold in six years? But I digress. See, the reason I specifically call out folk by name.

Starting point is 01:46:05 And so they love chat, chat, chat, chat, chat, chat. See, first of all, J Maul, I don't have to be paid any money in advertising to disagree with nonsensical statements about the policies of Vice President Kamala Harris. I disagree with folk on GP. That ain't got nothing to do with advertising. I disagree with folk every single day,

Starting point is 01:46:30 and we don't get advertising from anybody. So this notion that, oh, he came at me because, that's silly. It's silly. But see, what's still amazing to me is how some of these black folks got all the smoke about 350,000 advertising, but they ain't saying nothing about the billion, the 11 billion. Y'all noticed that, right?

Starting point is 01:47:03 Do y'all understand why the New York Times and CNN, MSNBC and Fox News are able to send reporters and producers and technical people and massive staff because they got the money they got the money they got the money but see we shouldn't bring those things up, huh? We shouldn't bring those. Let me tell you something. Look at all the firms that got paid.

Starting point is 01:47:33 Look at all of the firms that got paid. Look at all the firms that got media money. Look at the firms and how much they took down. In fact, the folks at Real Sludge dropped this story. Oh, man, let me see if I can see it here. Let me pull this up. I need y'all to see this. Okay? Because, see, folks don't want to deal with this here. Let me see, Real Sludge. Let me see, I really got to pull this up for y'all. Because Real Sludge and Dem Consultants. See in Shane's New York Times story, he said at the end of the article, well, we don't really know what these agencies got.

Starting point is 01:48:28 Well, actually, they laid it out. They laid it out. Like, you go to the bottom of this story. This is what Shane wrote in his New York Times story. He wrote, he wrote, numerous firms could have netted big commissions from the Harris campaign. Four companies received at least $90 million in payments as of mid-October, including one firm whose cumulative receipts from the Harris campaign approached $300 million.

Starting point is 01:48:59 Y'all know they typically get 10% to 15% of the ad buy during these campaigns. See, y'all need to understand. See, y'all need to know where the money's coming from. So in this article right here in Real Sludge, they lay out right here. The Harris campaign's largest vendor was the creatively named Media Buying and Analytics LLC, a front company for the Canal Partners media firm. Media Buying and Analytics LLC lists an Atlanta UPS store on its invoices.

Starting point is 01:49:35 Y'all, an Atlanta UPS store on its invoices that can be accessed through the Federal Communications Commission and is registered in the state of Georgia of what appears to be a law firm based out of a suburban office plaza. However, some, I think they meant FEC, not FCC. F filings show the firms are linked and Canal Partners, Media's president, confirmed the tie to Business Insider in 2020.

Starting point is 01:50:00 Formed in May of 2019. Boy, stop right there. You mean tell me, hold up, they formed a company just five years ago that became the largest vendor of the Harris campaign? Go back. Formed in May 2019, Media Buying Analytics, LLC, has overseen more than $280 million

Starting point is 01:50:20 in ad production and placement spending for the Harris campaign. Connell Partners Media's president is Bobby Kahn, a former chief of staff for Georgia Governor Roy Barnes and former chair of the Georgia Democratic Party. Hmm, tell y'all something. I know of a black company that's wanted to meet with Media Buying Analytics and send an email to Bobby Kahn asking for a meeting to discuss media buying and black folks. And he sent them an email, no thanks.

Starting point is 01:50:55 He refused to even meet with the company. I saw the email. Why am I walking through all of this? Because see, when you got certain Negroes on social media who want to question what we got in advertising, $350,000, but they not asking how many black people, why is it no black-owned company got $280 million? In fact, if you go down this here, y'all, it gets worse. Gambit Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based digital firm, was paid $122 million for media production and placement.

Starting point is 01:51:38 Hell, this company was only formed three years ago. Just three. Do y'all understand? It was just formed three years ago. Just three. Do y'all understand? It was just formed three years ago. Three years ago. That's where it was formed. Hmm. Oh, Gambit partner Megan Classen

Starting point is 01:51:59 was a senior paid media advisor to President Biden's 2020 campaign. Oh, so Gambit then was born out of some Oh, we saw how that works. Bully Pulpit Interactive. 101 million went through them. Look at this here. All their partners, all the work that they do, the other groups they work for, keep going.

Starting point is 01:52:26 Look at this here. The largest pro-Harris super PAC, Future Forward, paid more than $6.7 million to media buying firm Waterfront Strategies. Listen, an arm of D.C.-based media giant GMMB. See, y'all feature forward. I sent them an email, five different emails. They never even responded to the email asking, what's y'all black media strategy? So why am I unpacking all of this?

Starting point is 01:53:00 So I got some stupid person in here say, Mr. Speak on it, Roland's part of the problem. He's in this for the money. Let me ask you a question. Some other people, Sosa, Rocks, Deflection. Oh, it's not Deflection. Y'all just stuck on stupid. If the entire media infrastructure is based on advertising,

Starting point is 01:53:21 meaning every TV network, digital operation, newspaper, magazine, digital site, podcast, radio, please explain to me why is it that all those other people are able to participate in the 11 billion dollars in political ad spending, but we can't. Please explain to me, how is it, and I'm gonna tell y'all right now, this is the fourth quarter of the year. In the first quarter of 2025, all of these publicly traded media companies are going to do hearings.

Starting point is 01:53:59 They're gonna do calls where they're gonna be discussing how much money they make on political advertising, all of them are going to show growth. All of them will say, oh yeah, we saw a 20, 25, 30% increase in political ad spending. So, and let me tell you, explain to y'all how the game works. The media companies, the media companies literally project at the beginning of the year if they're going to see a 10, 15, 20, 30% growth in political ad spending.

Starting point is 01:54:30 And so that money, they are positioning how they're going to have their 2025 budgets based off that money. And so what some of y'all hate Negroes are saying is, y'all don't want to see black-owned media get any of the 11 billion, but then y'all want to turn around and say, wow, we don't have black-owned media. Let me say it again. We're the only black-owned news show. It's us. We don't do entertainment. I ain't talking about LeBron. I ain't discussing no housewives. I ain't got no hair and beauty segments. We ain't talking about

Starting point is 01:55:08 gossip. So I could easily be, let me say it again, because I don't think some of y'all get this. Does essence do what we do? Nope. Black enterprise? Nope. Ebony? Nope. Blavity? Nope. Black Enterprise. Nope. Ebony. Nope. Blavity. Nope. I could keep going.

Starting point is 01:55:30 Urban One, Radio One. Nope. They got two networks. TV One, Clio TV. Nope. BET, Black Targeted. That's actually, of course, Viacom, which is now, of course, being bought by another company.

Starting point is 01:55:47 They got a monthly news magazine show. We on every day. So what some of y'all are saying is, we need black news. We need our stuff covered. Oh, but you shouldn't get paid any advertising money. Everybody else should. That's some bullshit. See, so if you apply that logic to the campaigns, then the same Negro, the same hate Negroes,

Starting point is 01:56:14 oh, you shouldn't get money from General Motors, from McDonald's, from Verizon, from Amazon. You should, well, please explain to me how you're going to actually build a media company if I'm not just talking about the general market. Boom, go to my iPad. Federal advertising, contracting with small, disadvantaged businesses and those owned by minorities and women has increased in recent years. Huh, look at this here. The federal government spends a billion dollars on advertising contracts. And then it shows exactly, look at this here. Huh, the percentage that went to minorities and

Starting point is 01:57:27 women averaged about 13% over the past five years. This is fiscal year 2013 and 2017. The problem is if you break out women out of this here, the minority number is ridiculously small. So even when the federal government spends money, we are getting less money. We're getting the same money. Do y'all know why? Because the same ad agencies that control the general market, they control the federal dollars. I'll give you a perfect example. When we launched Black Star Network, I'm gonna go to my panel in a second.

Starting point is 01:58:06 We launched Black Star Network. I met with Group M, an ad agency. I showed them the slate of shows. Oh no, no, no, we need to see the content. Okay, we launched the shows. They promised we were gonna get ad spending. I got the emails. We met with them in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

Starting point is 01:58:36 You know how much money we got in ad spending from Group M since we first met with them? And we met with all of them. Nelson, Cynthia, Gonzalo, Kurt McDonald was a brother. He was the president. He black. Met with all of them. You know how much we got? Zero. Zero. We launched the shows.

Starting point is 01:59:07 Nothing. Publicists. Oh, we met with Lisa Torres and her team. Oh, my God. I can't tell you how many meetings we had with publicists. Numerous meetings. Zero. I can go on and on and on. I can go on and on and on.

Starting point is 01:59:27 I can go horizon. I can start naming companies. I can start naming. I should start naming their clients. Got zero. Dentsu, I've had numerous meetings with them. I didn't get money from Dentsu. I went to General Motors Direct.

Starting point is 01:59:49 Dentsu does $60 billion in annual billing. Has Black Star Network got any money from any of their clients for this show or any other shows? The answer is no. So please, all of you hate Negroes, please explain to me why. Why should black-owned media take a back seat and work for free, run ads for free, and not receive any political campaign money, but all the other folks in white media can earn billions of dollars, but black owned media can't. And now y'all understand why black owned media is almost extinct. Now y'all understand why, because you got some

Starting point is 02:00:35 hating negroes who all they do is trash folk, but they don't even understand the game. 11 billion dollars was spent on advertising in this political season. And black owned media won't even get 1%. I dare say black owned media won't even get 0.5%. And you tell me that it's about reaching African-Americans, and now you understand why black on media can't grow? Because if you don't get the advertising,

Starting point is 02:01:17 you can't invest in your programming. And you can't invest in your programming, you can't invest in marketing. You can't invest in marketing, you can't get more eyeballs. If you can't get more eyeballs, then you can't grow. These are facts. So I hope now y'all understand what really went on. And let me be real clear.

Starting point is 02:01:40 The proposal that we submitted was about $5 million. You damn right. The proposal that I submitted had advertising going from September 225 to November. So you damn right, I asked for $5 plus million. You know why? Because so did Disney and Comcast. I asked for five plus million dollars. You know why? Because so did Disney and Comcast, as well as Viacom and Paramount and Warner Discovery and every other media company.

Starting point is 02:02:19 So ain't no way in hell will I, the founder of a media company, apologize for doing what media companies do, and that is fight for advertising. Go to my panel. B.N., I want to start with you. This is the reality that these people know nothing. I love this person here. Rogan, I love this stupid-ass person.

Starting point is 02:02:43 Rogan didn't get any money. How in the hell do you think he got a $100 million contract from Spotify? Because Spotify gets money from advertising. This is the stupid stuff that these people don't know anything about. There's a reason. There's a reason Charlamagne and DJ Envy get paid what they do from the Breakfast Club because of the money that iHeart gets in advertising. As a reason, when you look at Good Morning America, where they pay

Starting point is 02:03:11 Robin Roberts $25 million a year. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

Starting point is 02:03:39 Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Starting point is 02:04:29 Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-ibillion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

Starting point is 02:04:58 It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Starting point is 02:05:30 Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

Starting point is 02:05:56 Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

Starting point is 02:06:10 It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before.

Starting point is 02:06:44 I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. And George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan, $25 million a year, they get advertising money. Ben, go ahead. They apparently can't tell the difference between a show and a network, first of all. And I saw the entire exchange, particularly with Tariq Masheed.

Starting point is 02:07:22 I think he should tread carefully in this conversation, since he has audio of him saying where he got offered money from, from white supremacists, whether or not he took it. That's a question for another day. Perhaps that's how he thinks you should have funded your show, your network, Roland, by taking money from white folks. Perhaps it was considered the money that—think about the money that even Vladimir Putin puts into media, of $100,000 per episode, $100,000 per episode to American influencers by the name of Tim Pool. By the way, J. Maul Green was on that show with the man who received $100,000 per episode from Vladimir Putin's network. Money is always spent in advertising and

Starting point is 02:08:06 it's always spent to spread the word. That's the only way it's going to get out. And that's exactly how they strangle the black message. That's how they kill the black message. They would rather you go get a watered down message from Charlemagne, the God, through white people, through white dollars, through a white company than to come directly to a black media network. Why? Because it's going to be filtered. And it's not going to be until the end of the election season when Charlemagne Tha Guy decides to go out and say something positive and say his own message.

Starting point is 02:08:35 But all the way through the entire season, the message was carefully curated by iHeartMedia, right? This is why we have so many black folks who thought that the thing to do was to sit out this election because it was the more sophisticated, the more intellectual thing to do because they continue to get their messages funneled through white folks. Would they have been better?

Starting point is 02:08:54 Would they have been okay if there was a white intercessor for you and that perhaps you would have gotten the money from a white person passed down to you, Roland Martin? That's what people like Tariq Nasheed, J. Maul Green. That's what they're saying. See, here's the whole deal. Listen. Y'all, I'm trying to explain.

Starting point is 02:09:10 We'll be people that understand Larry. And Charlemagne works for iHeartRadio. They own the Breakfast Club. That's fine. He can say whatever he wants. But the reality is iHeartRadio gets advertising money. It does. If I pull up right now, matter of fact, if I pull up,

Starting point is 02:09:29 if I just pull up, and it's just a fact, it's just a fact, it's just a fact that when you look at these media companies, they actually make their money from advertising. That's make their money from advertising. That's where their money comes from. iHeart Media is a publicly traded company. That's what they are.

Starting point is 02:09:54 And so they make revenue. And the reality is you can't grow a business unless you grow revenue. This show right here, this is iHeartMedia stock. It's right there, and there's nothing wrong with that. Urban One is a publicly traded media company. Comcast, publicly traded media company. Netflix, publicly traded media company. Disney, publicly traded media company.

Starting point is 02:10:24 I can go on. Warner Discovery, publicly traded media company, Disney, publicly traded media company. I can go on, Warner Discovery, publicly traded media company, Lionsgate, publicly traded media company. This is what happens. This is why, and I got no problem saying this, Larry, Netflix, some of y'all just don't get this. Let me show y'all this here. This right here is the stock of Netflix. Right here.

Starting point is 02:10:55 $871.32 a share. Netflix has reached out to me on numerous occasions, and they wanted to get, hey, we got this junket and that junket and this junket and that junket. And I said, is there an ad buy that goes along with that junket? And let me be real clear, I've said this to Starz, I've said this to Amazon Prime Video,

Starting point is 02:11:24 I've said this to Hulu,. I've said this to Hulu. I said it to Oprah's network own. When I was at TV One, I literally said, I am no longer going to keep putting talent of your shows on the network and we not get paid. And this is what I've said to Netflix, to Amazon Prime, to Prime Video, to Hulu, to any of these people.

Starting point is 02:11:47 If you respect my audience and my show enough to want your talent on it, respect me enough to pay for advertising. Guess what? When we did Shirley, the movie on Netflix, they actually bought advertising. Wasn't a lot, bought advertising. We did a promo, we ran a commercial. They called me about other stuff and I said, is there an ad budget? No, it's not. No, thank you.

Starting point is 02:12:29 I'm not going to do three or four or five or six interviews that don't benefit me economically, but that benefits you in terms of viewership unless there's advertising. You know why? Because I can't deposit. Wow, Roland, that was a great story. yeah so roland i think people are missing something you're a ceo and owner of a multimedia multimedia company i mean that's first and foremost your job you have you have bills to pay and people to take care of who have lives and are professionals the other thing rolling is you know when is this general conversation you know, and I follow you on various social media platforms. One of the things that really troubles me as a Black man is the level of anti-Blackness

Starting point is 02:13:11 that I see on social media, particularly platforms like formerly Twitter, now X. Also, that these platforms have given people an opportunity to criticize, critique,

Starting point is 02:13:27 which is fine, but, you know, really root themselves in these anti-Black ideas that are harmful to the Black community. Listen, if you have a fair critique, sure, I know you, like more anyone else, more than willing to hear that out. But when it comes to these gotcha moments on social media, with, like you said, no context to why the money was sent by the campaigns, and the idea that if you truly believe in Black investment and Black Wall Street, so to speak, then you should be having a problem with a Black owner of a platform that provides information to millions of Americans, you know, particularly members of the Black community in terms of politics, culture, or various other issues. You shouldn't have a problem with it. Also, considering the changes

Starting point is 02:14:15 about the COVID in the next couple of weeks, you need to focus your energy on the things that will make our lives far more difficult in January and a little over a month, two months from now. So once again, we need to really shift this focus. Like I said, these ideas are rooted anti-Blackness and focus on dismantling white supremacy, which is truly the problem. And we should be uplifting and supporting Black-owned businesses and investing in them instead of, once again, playing this gotcha game. And I'll go back to my point.

Starting point is 02:14:43 Social media is giving platforms to a lot of folks who really have no idea what they're saying. They put something out there, and then they say, they just consistently defend it without acknowledging, like, hey, listen, I was wrong. And so I'm glad you unpacked what you talked about in terms of the ad buy. I knew what it was when I read the article in the New York Times. But unfortunately, once again, a lot of these ideas are really anti-Blackness. And these people are about a paycheck, and they're not really concerned about the challenges and issues

Starting point is 02:15:08 that confront the black community. No. They haven't built anything. They haven't started anything. They haven't grown anything. But then they complain, we're not getting our stuff covered. Why is it not getting covered? It's not getting covered because they don't care. We do stuff every... In fact, we got a segment coming up

Starting point is 02:15:23 that's our marketplace segment. We feature black-owned companies every week on this show. Please show me a network in America that features black-owned companies. I don't charge them to come on the show. But again, this is just the e-logic that happens. And so you got hating Negroes, Mustafa, and I ignore them. I ignore them, have always ignored them.

Starting point is 02:15:45 These are the same people who said this show was not gonna be successful. These are the same people who said it was never gonna grow, it was never gonna be able to be built, and the fact of the matter is, we have built it. And we're not gonna stop, but our people need to understand,

Starting point is 02:15:58 there is an economy, there is a entire media complex that is built around political ad spending every two years for the midterms, every four years for the presidential race, and billions are spent every year. of it. And then we have these hate Negroes who are tripping because literally we're getting crumbs and they're like, oh, how dare you? Yeah. You know, I always see everything as an educational moment. And I'm hoping that some of the information that you share, because nobody's going to take a hundred percent of the information is hopefully going to help people to have a better understanding of what's actually happening in this space and the strategies that are out there to limit our participation. Because people understand that if they can limit us economically, then it creates so many other dynamics that makes it difficult for us to thrive, right?

Starting point is 02:17:05 So, so many folks are just grounded and anchored in survival, and we're trying to break that paradigm. A part of that is people talk about liberation, and they want liberation. Well, liberation, a part of that is economic justice. And we're talking about making sure that our folks have a fair opportunity to be able to participate in these processes fairly and make sure that there's equality in there. The other part of enrolling is that many people don't get a chance to see what's going on behind the scenes and how many Black folks you actually hire. I remember the first time that I came to the studio and being able to look behind the cameras and see all those Black faces that were garnering new skills and being able to look behind the cameras and see all those black faces that were garnering,

Starting point is 02:17:46 you know, new skills and being able to help share in the creation of these stories that you put out there for folks. So that is a part of addressing the black wealth gap that exists inside of our country. But folks don't ever get a chance to see that. They also don't get a chance to see, you know, individuals like me who work in communities and I'm walking to, you know, an event and then I come around the turn and you're there actually filming and you're the only one who's there filming, sharing those stories that are happening inside of our communities, both the impacts, the opportunities and how people are being transformational, but nobody ever gets a chance to see that. So if we truly love each other, we talk about black love all the time and,

Starting point is 02:18:24 you know, sometimes it's harder to see it because we're so continually tearing each other down while other people are stacking dollars because we are focusing on folks inside of our own community and being an impediment to them being able to move forward. I mean, I think we've got to really reevaluate if we actually truly love each other. And if we do, then we've got to find ways to better support each other. And a part of that support is making sure that we are supporting black businesses, which is a theme that many people talk about. But when it becomes, you know, it comes down to the realness of that, we often are a part of what's slowing each other down. So we've got an opportunity in this moment, because things are going to get real crazy here real soon, that we have got to rally around each other. We've got to uplift each other. And even though

Starting point is 02:19:09 we might not agree on 100% of the things, the one thing that when you look in that mirror, you see a black face looking back at you, and we should be supporting our people. And I'm just going to say this here. For all y'all folks who run y'all mouths, this is all I want to know. When your ass get in trouble, who you going to call? When white mainstream media don't even respond to your email. Because see, I get the emails every day. My son is in jail.

Starting point is 02:19:42 I lost a job because of discrimination. I want to file a lawsuit. I get stuff every single day. So if we're not impactful, why do folks email us constantly and call us? Why do they stop us on the street? hateful Negroes to answer. Please show me what other black-owned media company devotes this much time to black news every single day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Take your time. See, I don't worry about what other people are doing. I focus on what people are doing. I focus on what we are doing.

Starting point is 02:20:27 And I will tell you right now, we're going to keep building. And we're going to keep demanding advertising money. And I'm going to keep fighting these ad agencies, all of them. I'm talking about Group M. I'm talking about Publicis. I'm talking about Horizon, I'm going to go down the line and I'm going to tell you right now, these political media companies, we coming after y'all too.

Starting point is 02:20:57 Because y'all been freezing out black media companies, y'all been freezing out black-owned ad agencies, not even returning emails, not even giving them the courtesy of a response. And you think for a second. And just so y'all know, when you talk about doing $300 million in billing and they start pulling, let me tell you what they do. They do their 10%, 12%, 15%. Then they send some of the stuff to another company. Then they get their cut and they own that company too. So these Democrat media companies are earning $20, $30, $40, $50 million in billing

Starting point is 02:21:34 off of these political campaigns. And you didn't see a black-owned company in that top five, did you? No, you didn't. So don't think for a second that we're going to stop. So I don't really give a damn what Tariq or J-Mall or Marcel or any of y'all. I really don't give a damn what any of y'all think. Because we are doing the work that Frederick Douglass did,

Starting point is 02:22:08 Ida B. Wells Barnett did, Robert Abbott did, Charlotte Bass did, John Sinstat, John H. Johnson, Butch Graves. We doing that work. And we don't care what the critics have to say because the people stand with us and they see the end result of that work We don't care what the critics have to say because the people stand with us and they see the end result of that work

Starting point is 02:22:29 every single black ass day. I'll be right back. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it.

Starting point is 02:22:56 And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Weigh $100,000. We're behind $100,000 so we want want to hit that. Y'all money makes this possible. Check some money orders. Go to P.O. Box 57196.

Starting point is 02:23:28 Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform.

Starting point is 02:23:52 It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding Black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital

Starting point is 02:24:14 directly through their community, through the Jobs Act. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

Starting point is 02:24:50 Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

Starting point is 02:25:46 But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

Starting point is 02:26:16 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. in a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice

Starting point is 02:26:50 to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

Starting point is 02:27:07 We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

Starting point is 02:27:20 It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to

Starting point is 02:27:35 Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids,

Starting point is 02:28:11 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White people are losing their damn minds. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history.

Starting point is 02:28:48 Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women.

Starting point is 02:29:18 This is white fear. hi i'm dr jackie hood martin and i have a question for you ever feel as if your life is teetering and the weight and pressure of the world is consistently on your shoulders let me tell you living a balanced life isn't easy. Join me each Tuesday on Black Star Network for a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. We'll laugh together, cry together, pull ourselves together, and cheer each other on. So join me for new shows each Tuesday on Black Star Network, a balanced life with Dr. Jackie. How you doing? My name is Mark Curry. A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie. Turn that shit off. We're doing an interview, motherfucker. A family of five lawyers have developed Crime No Crime,

Starting point is 02:30:45 a legal game to educate youth on the ins and outs of the law. The Johnson family includes a criminal district court judge, a prosecutor, a criminal defense attorney, and corporate lawyer with more than 100 years of legal experience. Crime No Crime is the only game of its kind, and the creators say it has a real-life impact. Joining me now is Eartha Jean Johnson, president and CEO of Legal Watch,

Starting point is 02:31:07 and the vice president, her husband, Lonnie. How y'all doing? Doing great. How are you? Doing great. All right. So, first of all, that's a whole lot of lawyers in the family. So, how did this come about? Were y'all sitting around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and folk were going back and forth,

Starting point is 02:31:24 and then all of a sudden it was like, yo, let's do this game. No, I wish that were the case. It's just that because we're a family of lawyers, we get calls all the time when someone's in trouble. They just, hey, call one of them. And it was because of those calls that we started thinking about the fact that sometimes I get frustrated, like I'm thinking, why, how did they not know that? And the more I thought about it, I'm like, how would they know it? Because where do people learn the law? You know, we hear all the time that ignorance of the law is no defense, but it's 100 percent,

Starting point is 02:32:02 I said, devastating reality that's led to the mass incarceration of far too many of our young kids. So that's kind of what kind of got it going. And this was a vision like really like I would say 10, 15 years ago, but just never had the time to work on it. And some events happened in life and I I got the time, and we pulled together and came up with this game. So when was it launched? When did you start it? Hasn't been quite a year yet. We started last year.

Starting point is 02:32:35 I guess we got our first real batch right around Christmas time, so not quite a year. It took us like five years, actually, to make it, because when we got into the game, what started happening is we thought it was going to be easy with all of us. But the laws in every state, as you know, are different. And because those laws are different, we had to research and find what is the majority, what is the law in the majority of states? So those are the answers on the crime, no crime questions. How many units have y'all moved so far? Wow, I would say right at 8,000, you know.

Starting point is 02:33:19 So it's been a lot. It's been a long journey. And that was helped with the CBC. They got games for some of the youth and gave them out, so that was really helpful. So what really constitutes the game? So I'm looking in here. So we've got your, of course, your sand, if you will, your timer, if you will, right here.

Starting point is 02:33:48 Yeah. And so then you got these cards. Yeah, it's 250 questions. And how those questions work, we were very intentional with the game. It wasn't a game just to be a game. So how it goes is, if you think of the family view, just envision that. It's played a lot like that. You have two teams of up to four people per team. The first person up will get the question, crime or no crime? And I'll give you one just for the sake of giving you one. One Running someone off the road who cuts you off in traffic and no one's injured. So the first person up would get to say whether that's a crime or not.

Starting point is 02:34:32 So, Mr. Martin, what would you think? Is it a crime or not? Running someone off the road who cuts you off in traffic and no one's injured. You both go your merry way. Crime or no crime? Hell yeah, that's a crime. Yeah. Reckless driving. Okay, that's the... Reckless driving.

Starting point is 02:34:47 Okay, that's what you think. Okay, and that's the second part. So what we figured out is most people figure out they've committed a crime by the facts, but they don't appreciate the gravity of their conduct. When we get the call from the parents, the grandparents, whomever, it's always, my child's been arrested. They weren't there.

Starting point is 02:35:05 They didn't have a gun. They don't understand. So the second part of that would be you have to name the most severe thing you could be charged with. If you don't name, and your team has 20 seconds to confirm, that's what those little timers were for. And if you don't, in 20 seconds, if your team don't get the most severe crime, team two can steal those points because we're trying to reward people for knowing the gravity of the conduct. So you said reckless driving.

Starting point is 02:35:36 That didn't even make our list. So the second team, and I'm just giving you a hard time, it actually is there. The second team, if they said, and you want to take a second guess of what you think it could be? No, go ahead. How about aggravated assault with a deadly weapon? What we're trying to do is trying to let our kids know it's not just the knives, not just the guns,

Starting point is 02:36:00 but your car could be a deadly weapon. And then most people, they'll give a misdemeanor, saying reckless driving, road rage or something like that. But it's actually a felony, an aggravated one at that. So the game not only teaches them the law, but the impact of their actions. So they don't end up engaging in contact that unwittingly not knowing that it's an actual crime. All right, then. I'll try another one on you if you want to hear it. Actually, I'm going to go to questions from my panel.

Starting point is 02:36:36 So let me start. I'm going to start with Professor Larry Walker first. Yeah, so, yeah, thank you for the game. And I'm just curious, you mentioned the young people a lot. And, you know, it makes sense to make sure that, you know, they have access to information, much information is possible. When you were developing the game, you know, creating it the way you have, you know, have so far, did you seek a lot of insight from young people in terms of, you know, developing some of the information? Yes, if you look at the box, all the names on there are young people who had input into this game.

Starting point is 02:37:20 All our grandkids, in fact, a lot of the names, the name itself or the theme on the box actually comes from one of our grandkids. We had a different name. And he looked at it and he said, you know, I just don't think that's going to help. That's going to be attractive to people in my age group, 11, and actually younger than what the game is designed for. But he came to the part and said, play your cards right. We had something totally different there. So there was a lot of input from the design of the box to actually input on questions. A lot of the questions came from experiences they had. For example, one of the questions deals with having a police officer provide questions to a school principal, and the school principal asks you questions that the police officer couldn't ask without a parent being there.

Starting point is 02:38:05 And crime is perfectly legitimate for the school principal to do that. And so the people need to know that so they can instruct their kids that they can always say to a principal investigating something, I would rather not have any conversations or answer any questions until my parents are here. Because so many times our kids are now being given criminal records at age 11 and 12 and 13 because they don't know that they have the right to not say anything. All right. Let's see here. Mustafa. Yeah. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, thank you for this. Having a working knowledge of the law is incredibly important. I'm curious, after moving around 8,000 units, have you had any testimonials from folks about how it has played a role

Starting point is 02:38:51 in their families' lives or others who they interact with? Yeah, if you look at the back of the box, before we actually put it out, we had people go through it, give us their feedback and their comments. And then since the game has been out, we've gotten all kinds of feedback. But since the game's been out, we've had people, if somebody's working on a commercial with the force right now, with all the positive comments that have come out since the game, you know, people that actually have had an impact on them. So, yes, you can't help but to learn. It's just one of those things that you just can't help but to learn.

Starting point is 02:39:41 And one of the unintended consequences of the game, we've had several calls from people saying, after playing the game, our daughter, our son, I mean, several times, they said they want to study law now. They're interested in the law. Ben. That was actually one of my questions, was the interest in the law that came from this.

Starting point is 02:40:04 I'm excited about getting this game for my kids. They already love to argue, so this would be perfect for them. My question for you, though, is have you been able to connect with any distributors? Because I go to Walmart and I look for a family game and we're running out of games to get. This would be a great one to have on the shelves. Ironically, we just got listed on Amazon, just got listed on Walmart. It's been on Shopify. So, yeah, we're working on it. It took us—we've been doing the infrastructure and really trying to get to at-risk kids. We try to donate them to them where we can. So, you know, yes, we definitely are trying to get on those shelves.

Starting point is 02:40:46 We're not nearly where we need to be or want to be, I should say, but it is a goal of ours, and that's something we're diligently working on. And we're looking at, I mean, the long-term plans include school districts, universities, athletic programs, with the idea being, I don't care how good the player is, if we can't keep him on the field, he's really no good to you. So, we're looking on a broad spectrum as to how we can get this game into every child. And we say child.

Starting point is 02:41:18 Really, our target age is from 15 or from 13 up to about 35, 36. But everyone has fun playing the game and everyone can learn from. All right. Where people go to get the game? What was that? I said, where did folks go to get the game? We got rolling. We put a discount on Shopify. They go to Shopify and put rolling, you'll get $10 off. And if you get three, you'll get three for $109. So the games are $39.95. They're normally $49.95. And then for Amazon, people that shop Amazon, just put Crime No Crime on it. And for the next 48

Starting point is 02:42:02 hours, we put the same price that is the discounted price for the show. So that way people can get it if they want to go to Amazon with the free shipping. But we did give a discount for you. And thank you for having us. We really appreciate that because this is our mission to get the hands in our youth. And I say that because I say no game is more relevant in this day and time than crime, no crime. The child or family you save may be your own. Yes, thanks for having us. All right, then. We appreciate it.

Starting point is 02:42:34 Thank you so very much. Crime, no crime. All right, folks, that is it for us. Let me thank Ben. Let me thank Larry. Let me thank Mustafa for joining me on today's show. Gentlemen, I appreciate it. Two alphas and a pastor. So glad to have everybody here. I appreciate it.

Starting point is 02:42:49 Thank you so very much. All right, folks, that's it for us. Tomorrow I'll be broadcasting from Atlanta. Tomorrow we'll hit it there. We got a project that we're working on, so look forward to doing that project with Coca-Cola. So I'll be broadcasting from Atlanta tomorrow and Thursday. Folks, don't forget, support the work that we do.

Starting point is 02:43:06 Again, folk can whine about advertising, but guess what? Politics is over. These ad agencies, and I named them. I told y'all. Listen, we've been fighting a good fight constantly over and over and over again.

Starting point is 02:43:26 You know, and I'm just gonna say it. And look, I ain't got nothing to lose because they ain't giving us a damn thing. You know, I've had meetings. I've done meetings, y'all. I've done meetings with publicists. Constant meetings. Constant meetings

Starting point is 02:43:40 in the past since we launched this show. Constant meetings with Group M. Constant meetings with Dentsu. Okay? The deals that we... Horizon, nothing. We've been... Listen, and listen.

Starting point is 02:43:58 Folks always talk about, oh, great meeting. I'm sorry. When we have these meetings, we the only people in these meetings not getting paid to be in the meeting. meetings not getting paid to be in the meeting. They've been paid to be in the meeting. They've been paid to be in the meeting. We can run down a lot. Y'all, the numbers do not lie. Black owned media is getting screwed.

Starting point is 02:44:20 I'm talking about we're getting black owned media is not getting the ad dollars from Havas, from Horizon, from Dentsu, from Group M, from Publicis down the line. Then it's like, oh, well, you know, our clients don't buy news. So why see all these ads on Fox News? Oh, we don't want to buy all those opinion. Why see the ads on MSNBC? Really? Why do I hear the ads

Starting point is 02:44:56 on Spotify? I'm hearing nothing but opinion in these podcasts. So I just hope y'all understand the battle that we are facing as black-owned media. And that's why I don't want to hear a damn thing from these haters about accepting political advertising money. We will accept.

Starting point is 02:45:13 Then somebody said, well, you ain't take money from the Republicans. They didn't call. Oh, but guess what? For all y'all folks out there who are running your mouth, what about Trump? They ran ads. They paid YouTube. They paid Google.

Starting point is 02:45:34 So they bypassed us, and they paid Google. And that's just how some of the folks do. Listen, y'all, I'm going to be straight with y'all. I had a killer music. I had a meeting. I had a Bank One. I flew to New York, presented to them.

Starting point is 02:45:54 JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase used to be called Bank One. Presented to them, and it was like, well, why don't we just buy? He's on YouTube. Why don't we just buy the ads from YouTube? And it was like, well, why don't we just buy the ads from YouTube? And it was like, well, why don't we actually pay the black-owned media company directly? Why give the money to a

Starting point is 02:46:12 trillion-dollar company to run the ads during his show where we can actually do a relationship with him? We ain't never done any business with JPMorgan Chase. Wells Fargo? Nope. Bank of America? Nope.

Starting point is 02:46:28 So, I just need y'all to understand the reality of what we face as a black-owned media company that focuses on news. And I'm telling y'all, people have come to me and they've wanted me, they've wanted me

Starting point is 02:46:43 to cover gospel. Y'all, I'm not doing it. I'm not covering that stuff. Go somewhere else. And any fool out here, first of all, some dumbass, so's a rock. Roland, you should have disclosed to your audience you were paid prior to the Kamala sit-down.

Starting point is 02:47:01 Dumbass, we talked about advertising for a year. You slow. Yeah. Sosa rocks. You slow. But let me ask you this, Sosa Rock. Since you got an opinion, Sosa rocks. Did Fox News disclose to you how much advertising they got money before they interviewed Trump or J.D. Vance? Come on, Sosa Rocks. Did CNN disclose to you how much money they got in advertising before

Starting point is 02:47:38 they interviewed somebody? Did Salem Radio, did Sinclair Television? I I can keep going Sosa Rocks yeah I thought so I thought so I thought so y'all can go to hell with that bullshit y'all don't question white media then you want to sit there and question me go sit your silly ass down

Starting point is 02:48:01 folks support the show this is how you can contribute to us via Stripe. Just simply use this QR code right here. If you want to use cash, you have to contribute via Stripe. Senior Check and Money Order. Senior Check and Money Order. Look at these stupid fools that we knew they were being paid for their ads. What, you thought I was running all them Kamala ads for free?

Starting point is 02:48:20 Damn, you really dumb, Sosa Rocks. Senior Check and Money Order. PO Box 57196. Washington, D.C., 2003-7-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle, rolling at rollingsmartin.com, rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com.

Starting point is 02:48:38 Folks, that's it. I'll see y'all tomorrow from Atlanta. Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punches! A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

Starting point is 02:48:55 The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding.

Starting point is 02:49:44 If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastain. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated I get right back there and it's bad. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. Razor Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

Starting point is 02:50:31 And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Starting point is 02:50:49 Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

Starting point is 02:51:07 They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more.

Starting point is 02:51:22 Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.

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