#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Houston's Uplift Harris Halted,Fla. Black Dist. Eliminated,Roland Dissects Trump's Black Roundtable

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

6.17.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Houston's Uplift Harris Halted,Fla. Black Dist. Eliminated,Roland Dissects Trump's Black Roundtable  The Texas Supreme Court ruled against Harris County's new guaranteed income pilot program, saying it could be unconstitutional. The Harris County Attorney is here to discuss the Uplift Harris program and its future.   We'll explain why Maryland Governor Wes Moore pardoned more than 175,000 people.  A Federal Court's decision upholds the Florida Congressional Map, eliminating a Black District. We'll talk to a democratic state representative about what this means for the upcoming election.  A White Florida teacher gets to keep her teaching license after being fired for displaying a "Black Lives Matter" flag in her classroom.  I have a whole lot to say about Donald Trump's roundtable event held in a Detriot, Michigan church, regurgitating his lies about what he's done for the black community.  One of Trump's former advisors admits to sexually assaulting a preteen in the 80s.  #BlackStarNetwork advertising partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbaseMass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. and to the Polls 6.29.2024👉🏾 https://vist.ly/37jmv   Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. 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 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 Lott. And this is Season 2 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. 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. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. 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 Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War 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 thing is. 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, 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. 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've 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 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. We'll be right back. folks black star network is here a real uh revolutionary right now support this man black media he makes sure that our stories are told thank you for being the voice of black america Roller. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Monday, June 17th, 2024. Coming up on Roland Barton Filters, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The Texas Supreme Court ruled against Harris County's new guaranteed income pilot program,

saying it could be unconstitutional. The Harris County attorney is here to discuss the uplift Harris program and its future. We'll explain how Maryland Governor Wes Moore pardoned more than 175,000 people over marijuana. A federal court's decision upholds the Florida congressional map eliminating a black district. We'll talk to a Democratic Senate representative about what this means for the upcoming election. A white Florida teacher gets to keep her teaching license after being fired for displaying a Black Lives Matter flag in her classroom. Plus, Donald Trump

had a roundtable discussion at a black church in Detroit, Detroit talking about the black vote, yet nearly all white folks showed up. I got something to say about the bullshit that we saw on Saturday. Plus, one of Donald Trump's former religious advisors admits to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl

when he was 21. Party of family values. Oh, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Don Filchard on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

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

Rolling with Roland now Yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Roland Martin Now Martin Republicans in Texas continue to try to tell blue counties what to do. Attorney General Ken Paxton targeted the Uplift Harris program, which would have given monthly payments of $500 to nearly 2,000 impoverished county residents for 18 months.

Well, the Texas Supreme Court says that could be unconstitutional. Again, Paxton sued Harris County, seeking a temporary injunction pending the case's outcome, but it was denied. He appealed that decision to an appeals court, which also rejected it. That's when the state Supreme Court intervened. Joining me now is Harris County attorney Christian Menefee. Christian, glad to have you back on the show. So here you have Paxton angry with the county for doing this.

He's trying to tell Harris County what to do with its money for its residents. This, I thought Republicans believed in local control. I think the days of Republicans believing in local control are days of the past and said what we've seen is they believe in power grabs and hypocrisy. We've seen our governor, our lieutenant governor, our attorney general, and even members of our judiciary do everything they can to try to undermine local control and local government in Harris County simply because we have progressive leadership here and we have folks who don't look like them and who don't think like them. So unfortunately, I think the days of principled conservatism are gone here in the state of Texas. All right. So what does this decision mean?

Do you have any other place to go or is that simply the final call? I think the program as it exists today is probably over, and we're going to have to rethink how those federal funds can be best used to serve these populations. But one important thing here, Roland, is we've seen these types of guaranteed basic income programs across the country. This is not unique to Houston. It's in other places in Texas, as well as in major cities across our U.S., including Chicago. There are many places that have rolled out these pilot programs, and they've seen that

time and time again, when the people receive this money, they spend it on basic necessities—food, utilities, rent, housing. But instead, we Republican officials out of Austin come in and argue that this is somehow socialism, despite the fact that we have a government at state and federal levels that gives tax breaks to wealthy billionaires, right, that does everything it can to ensure that people who have money keep their money. But the moment that you start giving some families that needed $500 a month, now all of a sudden it's socialism. So we're going to keep figuring out ways to be creative, to help people who are most in need, and to make government be a part of the solution and not, as Ronald Reagan said, the problem.

So you say you see similar programs in other parts of Texas, but why is he not opposing those? And how are those programs structured? This is a question that I've been asked time and time again. These programs in San Antonio and Austin and El Paso are structured nearly identical to the program that we have here in Harris County. Yet our attorney general did not file a lawsuit against a single one of those local governments. Harris County was the first local government in the state of Texas to get a lawsuit from Ken Paxton. I think the reason is because we have local people out here who have name ID, who are working to flip the state of Texas.

And Republicans know what was said most recently at the Texas Republican Convention here in Texas, which is they know that the road to flipping the state of Texas goes through Harris County. If we can increase the voting margins for certain populations out here in the super-populated Harris County, that has the potential to make the state of Texas more competitive. So, I think this is Ken Paxton doing his part to ensure that Texas stays a red state. But we, those of us on the ground, know Texas is not a red state. It is a nonvoting state. So, we are going to do everything we can to try to flip this state, but this is part of them working

against that to ensure that certain people don't receive any type of benefit so that they can keep state red. Well, absolutely. And that's exactly what, you know, we see we see happening. They have been targeting Harris County, Dallas County, Bayer County, Travis County, all blue counties. The largest county in Texas that's still red is Tarrant County. That's exactly right. And, you know, in addition to targeting those areas, I feel like they've been supercharged against us in Harris County, right? We elected dynamic, progressive leaders, all of whom are black and brown. And when folks got into those offices, they thought of creative ways to help use government as a solution to help people as they achieve their version of the

American dream. So this Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot Program is just one example of that. But we have a number of other programs where we're trying to rethink how government works here in the state of Texas. But out in Austin, you see people who only want Texas government to work for billionaires. While we were in the middle of a winter storm and Ted Cruz was headed out to Cancun, we saw that our governor got a million-dollar contribution, right, from the CEO of a pipeline company, because of how much money that company was able to make during that time period. Time and time again, we see laws passed to benefit the billionaires, but where the laws that are being passed to help out folks who are, you know, down on their last dollar, who are working two jobs and still can't make ends meet, who live in our some of our most

impoverished neighborhoods. And those are the folks that we're focused on here in Harris County government. And so, again, we talk about what's next. Are you looking at other programs and how they were tailored or coming up with a creative way to achieve the same result but making some changes? As far as the lawsuit goes, we have one more bite at the apple potentially in front of the Texas Supreme Court. Given that this is an all-Republican body, many of whom were appointed directly by the governor himself. I am not optimistic on that avenue. But in a parallel trap, we are thinking about how we can refine the program so that it could withstand legal scrutiny. And you asked an important point in that question there, Roland.

You said, are we looking at other programs and seeing how they were done? Well, unfortunately, we can't do that. You actually, we froze there. Hold on a second. Hold on, Christian, you froze. You said unfortunately, and then it froze out. Go ahead. Repeat that. Unfortunately, we can't look at those other programs and try to model our program after those programs because we've already done that. That's exactly how we arrived at this program in the first place. So instead, we're finding ourselves having to come up with a program first of its kind that will hopefully withstand legal scrutiny from the state of Texas. But if I know anything about Ken Paxton and if I know anything about Greg Abbott, regardless of what program we come up with, we can expect that we'll have to see them in court again.

So we stand prepared to do so in the name of helping folks who live in our communities who need the most help. All right, then. Christian Menifee, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you. All right, folks. My panel on this Monday, Dr. Julian Malveaux, economist, president, Emerita Bennett College out of D.C., Dr.akongo Dabinga Senior Professorial Lecture School of International Service, American University, also out of D.C., Jolanda Jones, Texas State Representative, joining us in Lawyer out of Houston.

The reality is this here, Jolanda, we see this not just in Texas, but we see this in Florida. We see this in other states. In Tennessee, Republicans hold super majorities in the legislature, control the governor's mansion, and then they can run the table. This is why what I keep saying to people is, the first thing is, if you can't take out them controlling the House and the Senate and the governor's mansion, what you have to do is you have to target critical districts so they lose the supermajority, even if they lose it just in

one chamber. That forces them to have to negotiate with Democrats, and they can't do a lot of the crazy stuff that they actually do. Well, for sure, in Texas, they control the Governor's Mansion, they control the Senate, and they control the House. And what I've seen as a state representative and also as a lawyer is that they target Houston and Harris County first, because what they're attempting to do is stifle the black and brown vote. So if people are feeling encouraged because government has given them $500 whole dollars

to help them with their necessities, they know that that will encourage them to vote Democratic. So that's one thing that they're doing. I will also say that they have targeted Harris County. We had some pretty creative voting strategies, and this goes to voter suppression, where we had 24-hour voting. We had a lot of stroll to the polls. We've made sure that we haven't allowed people to vote after church service, which is something that we've done historically. So they've done those types of things to suppress our vote. And if people don't believe that in 2024 that the Supreme Court is on the ballot, then they are asleep at the wheel. Because here's the deal. As Christian said before, that we have a Texas Supreme Court. We have most of our

appeals courts that don't have people of color on them. They're lily white. And this goes up to the Supreme Court. So I believe that all these Republican court bodies, all the way up to the Supreme Court, are going to do the Donald Trump thing, which is to stifle black and brown vote and only show up to caricature us. So that's what they did it for. And I'm going to say it again, that the one brilliant thing about Christian is that he has modeled very many programs after other successful programs across the state. And time after time, the only people that they come after are Harris County and Houston, because they know that as Harris County and Houston go, the rest of the state will follow. So stifle black and brown people in Houston and Harris County, then you will stifle black

and brown people across the state of Texas. I'm a Congo. You know, this is the thing that people need to understand. Texas is 61% minority, yet 61% of the people that vote are white. We can go to Louisiana. I mean, we can start going all across the South, and the reality is we have to understand you can't be complaining after the fact. You've got to exercise that power. In the next segment, I'm going to talk about a new poll that shows where black folks are in a couple of critical states. And the New York Times had this story where these black farmers are upset, saying, oh, they might vote for Donald Trump, which is like, okay, that's stupid,

considering it was Donald Trump's top guy, Stephen Miller, who sued to block the billions to go to black farmers. So if you are a black farmer and you're talking about voting for Donald Trump, you literally are empowering the very dude who wants to get rid of you. This is the insanity that I am hearing out here from people who are saying some of the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Oh yeah, Trump's my guy. And

I'm like, do you understand? You are on the menu. You ain't got a seat at the table. Most definitely. And there's another stat that I can't remember that you that you cite often about Texas and the youth voters as well in terms of how they're they're not. Seventy five percent of voters 30 and under did not vote in the 2022 midterm elections, even with Beto O'Rourke running, that's how Abbott won again. Exactly. And that's part of the problem right here, is that people will spend a lot of time out there protesting and reposting things and all of that. But it reminds me what the great Bayard Ruster said. It's like when you have the right to vote, you don't need to protest.

And so we need to shift our energy and our focus. And this program with the guaranteed income, I'm glad you asked Brother Christopher that in terms of what's next, because he was talking about the fact that this state can turn if we continue to get motivated and mobilized. And so this needs to be used as another guide and another reason to get people voting because, hey, we get a different governor, this guaranteed income program comes back to Harris County. You know, as Dr. King, who said, in America, we have socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. And in these particular instances, we see that every instance that is made to help poor people, Reverend Barber talks about it all the time, are crushing us and are crushing

our communities. They break it down. So, if we can galvanize people to finally make this connection, just like you said with the farmers, and finally see that the Texas governor, Trump, all of these guys are working against our interests and our only real power is that ballot box, it can start to turn some heads.

But this idea of farmers thinking of actually voting for Trump, I mean, like we said, it's absolutely insane. And lastly, as it relates to guaranteed income, this program has not been only tried across America. It's been tried across the globe. Places like Canada and other places have implemented it successfully. But there is a concerted effort to make sure that poor people stay poor and don't have an opportunity. And it's not only poor people that would benefit from it, because depending on the state that it's done in or the county, it's scaled. So we should really get elected officials in there

that are going to be looking at this and the success stories. And this should be one of the motivating forces going into the November election. There are people who go, oh man, I always hear you talking about voting and I just think, oh, you're making a big deal out of this. This is very clear,

Juliana. Voting has its consequences. The reason Republicans in Texas are able to do this is because they control every statewide position. And they hold all the cards, they hold all the power. And what i keep saying

to people is the agenda is the agenda there are people right now who say i'm not happy with biden and harris okay got it one what do you want to see get done because probably some of the stuff that you say you want to see get done actually has gotten done but two i'm being fun i'm being very clear the agenda of the MAGA right is not pro-black the agenda of the MAGA right is absolute absolutely meant to completely eradicate many of the economic and political gains that we have made. I tell black folks, stop getting played with the banana in the tailpipe when a Donald Trump shows up at a black church and the pastor goes, I'm just so happy you're here. Damn that.

Let's talk about policy. And people can play games if they want to. And I'm going to show some polling stuff in our next segment. But they need to understand that what we have been able to get since 1968, all of this is on the line if these crazed, deranged, sick individuals are allowed to continue in power. You know, Roland, any minister, black minister in particular, who would invite the devil to their church is on a fast path to hell because he's not serving his constituents. He's not serving his parishioners. He's serving himself. And what we have to ask ourselves later is what did he get paid to do that? What did he get paid to do it? So he's not praying. He's praying P-R-E-Y-I-N-G, on his parishioners.

That's disgusting. But their entire agenda is disgusting. The very modest program in Harris County, and it's a modest program. Some cities are doing up to $1,000 a month. And what happens when you have those kind of programs is that people sometimes are able to level set. Many of the people who are poor are episodically poor. Something has happened. They lost their job. Somebody got sick. And so they're in the hole. And what they're able to do is level set when they get a program like this. The $500 a month, I think it was for 18 months, that's $9,000.

Quite frankly, when you contrast that to the tax breaks that the wealthy get, it's not a lot of money at all. But it's enough money for some struggling family, again, to level set. The hostility toward the poor, that's what it is, the hostility toward the poor is evident here, and not only a hostility toward Democrats, we know that, but it's also a hostility toward poor people.

We do not—we want to oppress people. If that orange man has his way, we'll start talking about debtors' prisons and things like that. And we know historically that we start talking about debtors' prisons when we're also talking about his convict leasing. And we've seen that happen time and again, beginning at the end of enslavement, but into modern times, into the 1940s and 50s. Convict people, imprisoned people assembling furniture, manning telephone lines. I mean, in California at one point, if you had a problem with your driver's license,

the number you called might get you to a prison. How do I know? Because I talked to this brother, and he was at San Quentin in this program. And I'm like, yo, dude, where are you? I was just trying to keep the conversation about my driver's license off the table. And he told me, and we talked for a very long time, but that's what they were being leased to do. So we know when you start warring on the poor, and we have labor market shortages right now. I understand that people are talking about labor market shortages. Will these people be leased? And I know that this

seems like a very dystopian way of looking at things, but it's not. This is what we're setting ourselves up for if you let that orange man and his cronies back into the White House. As I've said many times, you know, look at Project 2025. Look at the 900-plus page document that would actually eliminate the civil service. All the appointments now that are Schedule C, et cetera, these should be presidential appointments. These should be presidential appointments. And here's what we know, Roland, as many as 50,000 people are on civil service and a disproportionate number of them are women. So if that preacher, whatever he did, you know, basically, like I said, he's praying himself straight to hell and right on to Harris County for trying something that's been tried at many other places. And we have to be able to support them so that programs like this can survive.

All right. Hold tight one second. We come back. A new poll specific to African-Americans from USA Today, Suffolk University, shows the work the Biden administration has to do when it comes to reaching black voters, but it also shows exactly how black people feel about that thug-in-chief, the convicted felon, Donald Trump. That's next. You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Hello, my brothers and sisters. This is Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival and president of Repairs of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get everybody you know

to join us on Saturday, June 29th at 10 o'clock a.m. in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania and 3rd for the Mass Poor People's Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the polls, and the post effort to reach 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low-wage persons,

along with moral religious leaders and advocates. Too often, poor and low-wage people are not talked about, even though in this country today there are 135 million poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons do not make up at least 30% of the electorate. It is time that the issues of poor and low-wage people be at the center of our politics. Living wages, health care, things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country.

We must let our voices be heard. Join us. Go to our website, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org. RSVP, get others to come. Get a bus, get a van, get on the train. Come and let our voices be heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom so that everybody writes. And we won't be silent anymore. Me, Sherri Sheppard, and you know what you're watching,

Roland Martin, unfiltered. Well, the folks at UT today and Stouffville University dropped a new poll specific to black voters. And so I want to talk about that with you. This is the headline right here. Key takeaways from a new poll of black voters. Third part is gain ground as Biden struggles to keep his edge. Trump fails to gain around gain ground among black voters.

So in this particular piece, it shows off that Biden is sagging among black voters. They polls black voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania. And it shows you the complicated dynamics. They surveyed 500 black voters in each state taken by landline and cell phone from June 9th to June 13th, the margin of error is plus or minus 4.4%. So here are the takeaways. 76% of those surveyed in each state said they voted for Biden four years ago.

Now his support has fallen 20 percentage points in Pennsylvania to 56% and 22 points in Michigan to 54 percent. And then it says the top reason volunteered by respondents in the survey was discontent with the job he's done in the White House, followed by worries about his age and mental acuity. Third was concerned about wars, including his support for the cops. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 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 two of the War 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 thing is. Benny the Butcher. 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. 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.

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've 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. Now, he was 61 to 31 percent in Michigan, 59 to 33 percent in Pennsylvania. And then, of course, if you go forward here, you will see that black voters are now sold on Trump in 15 years. Compared to 2020, 11 percent in Pennsylvania, 11 percent in Pennsylvania like Trump compared to 8 percent in 2020. Now, it shows right here by more than two to one. Trump drew more support from black men than black women by 22 percent to 9 percent in Michigan and 16 percent to 6 percent in Pennsylvania. Now, he's overall is viewed more negatively than Biden. His unfavorable is 3-1,

72% to 23%. Pennsylvania is 79-15. Now, his was interesting. Kamala Harris, according to these polls, is less popular than Biden among black voters. Among black voters in those states, her unfavorable rating is

60% to 24% and 55 percent to 30 percent in Pennsylvania. So President Obama still is very favorable ratings there as well. And so if you look at this here in the ranking in Pennsylvania, favorable to unfavorable is Obama, highest Biden. And OK, we're going to fix my microphone here. What this shows you is that the Biden campaign, that first thing concerned concerned about the job that he's doing. Where I have been saying this repeatedly, they have failed Omicongo to message what they've done. And I believe, and I've said this, I said this last year, they should have spent January to August holding sessions, holding town halls, providing, laying out what they've done, not just ads. You've got to be on the ground having lengthy conversations, driving content on black-owned media,

putting out surrogates, specifically talking about policy. They haven't done that. And I believe it was in Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago when you were talking about your frustration with them having an event and not even letting the Black Star Network or other black media know, you know, basically until the day of. And you're like, I could have been there. So really, I'm just hoping, Roland, because you've been talking about this for so long and they've been so slow to wake up to it. I just hope it's not too late. When I see what they did, you know, last week at the Concerned Black Men, you know, the other event, you know, in Atlanta, they're talking to the Earn Your Leisure Brothers and stuff.

Hopefully that they're doing more of that. There needs to be somebody who has a regular appearance on this show, a weekly appearance, like I see, you know, Buttigieg and all of these other guys on other networks, you Mitch Landrieu and the others, they definitely got a late start. And the Trump folks, they stay committed. We're dealing with a guy who basically has, between the National Enquired and Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, he has his media wing to help him put out all types of stories. And they're pushing them to so many parts of our community. And so I believe that the Biden administration, it needs to go into overdrive. I definitely believe that some of these numbers in terms of how Black people look at Biden versus Trump are not entirely accurate, but it doesn't matter because, as you've always said,

this election is going to be played out on the margins. And one of the things I don't want the Biden administration to do is kind of say that, well, we've kind of dropped the ball. We missed the mark with black voters. So now we're just going to focus on the independent voters. You know, now we're just going to focus on the Nikki Haley voters. Now we're just going to focus on those guys who can be swayed, because if more black people start to feel like the attention they already were not getting is actually starting to be diverged more towards other groups, then it is going to be a wrap. So I believe that they got off to a late start. It's not too late to turn it around, but they need to go into overdrive and they need to be aggressive with black media markets, starting with the Black Star Network, where over 60 percent of viewers are black men.

See, this is the thing that, again, I don't understand why this is so difficult, Julian. And this is what I mean. If somebody says, I'm not happy with the job that you're doing, I then go, okay, what specifically? When I encounter people and they say, you know what? In fact, like when we did the panel at 100 Black Men, when this brother said, I hear from a lot of brothers and I agree that the Biden-Harris folks have not done anything for straight black men.

Now, I then said, what would you like for them to do? Then when he stated that, I said, got it. They've done this, this, this, this, this. This is why you've got to be having these conversations because I need to be hearing from people and then giving the counter to what they say and now they have real information. How do we know that works? Terrence Woodbury's research shows it. The focus group that he's done, they say, people go, man, I ain't feeling them. They ain't done this, this, this, this, this. Then when told they did do this, this, this, this, the focus group flips. This ain't complicated, but you cannot do that just running a 30 second ad. You've got to be on the ground.

The Biden camp, the Biden Harris campaign. And I haven't seen it. And yeah, I thought that was a piss poor launch. Blacks for Biden, Harris and some campaign folks like, oh, I was very satisfied. I'm like, the hell were you looking at? My deal is, and then there was some events that happened that weekend in Virginia. Okay, who did y'all

tell? Who did y'all tell? They're right. This is what I should be getting. This is what I should be getting right now. I should be getting in conversations in 10 cities this week.

And they're going to be live streamed. And then here are the 10 cities we're in next week. Not just what the vice president is doing, but I'm talking about getting with your partners. OK, if I'm the Biden-Harris campaign and I'm trying to do this in Houston, you know what I'm saying? Hey, Jolanda, I need you to do one of these events

in your district. Wait, wait, wait. I'm going to Juliana. I'm going to come back to you. Juliana, this is the problem. I'm not seeing that. And I know people are going, oh, people are not paying attention. It's too early. They're paying attention, Julian.

But the campaign, they're trying to run a 2020, 2016, 2012, 2008, 2004, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1988, 1984, 1980, 1976, 1972, 1968 campaign, and you can't run that in 2024. No, Roland, you're absolutely right. I mean, Oma Congo gave a series of very important

suggestions. Cabinet members showed up on this show or other shows on a weekly basis. I see them. Buttigieg shows up a lot. I see him showing up a lot. But how about empowerment of other people? How about reaching out to Marsha Fudge, formerly at HUD, and saying, Marsha, come on and be a surrogate for us.

She did such a great job at HUD. She could do that. And Adrienne Todman, who basically succeeded her at HUD, is also an excellent communicator. I mean, what is not excellent is the way the campaign is being run. They are not paying attention at all. They are simply—and you say 2016. How did that turn out for y'all? I mean, when you think about the fact that Hillary could have won,

but she did not pay attention. And guess what, Julia? Guess what? What's that? And I told everybody this here. I told y'all this. In 2016, 60 days out, we were a

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC, and I'm sitting at the table of Congressman Jim Clyburn. Congressman Clyburn had his table come to the back. Now, we thought we were going to meet and greet Obama. No, it was Hillary. And she was doing photos. So I told my wife, I said,

y'all need you to go in front of me. I need you to go introduce you first. I need to say some stuff to her. So I'm being straight up. So she comes up. Now, mind you, that was a Saturday. I told the black people on the campaign on Thursday, I said, y'all, this is what I'm going to do. I said, now listen to me clearly.

I'm going on MSNBC Friday.. I'm going on MSNBC Friday. And I'm going on MSNBC Saturday morning. And I'm going to say this. I was very public about it. So I told, these are the black people on the campaign. So then Saturday comes. And so my wife introduced me, take a picture. I say, and I need everybody to listen

to me. This is Hillary. This is how close Hillary was to me. Let me put it right here. We will, this, we would, I said, I said, Senator, I need you to understand something. There is significant energy on his side and not on yours. I said, I can't even get black male surrogates to come on Tom Joyner morning show and to come on my TV one show. I said, Senator, I'm telling you, if you're I said you I said, if your campaign does not change, you are going to be a bridesmaid again. She goes, Huma, Marlon, I need y'all to talk to Roland. So I go over. She's taking more pictures.

I'm talking to Huma and Marlon Marshall. Marlon Marshall was the highest ranking African American on the campaign. He had this constipated look on his face. He was like, he was mad as hell that I had the audacity to say what I was

saying. And I said, I need y'all to understand something. Y'all got a black male problem. I said, that was a nine point gap between black men and black women in 2012 with Obama and Romney. I said, y'all are not listening to the ground. And so Huma, Huma, Marlon. Then Hillary finishes photos. She comes over and she says, if Roland is not getting these people on his show, others clearly are.

Marlon don't say nothing. He like a mute. Huma, Huma goes, Madam Secretary, we're going to get it taken care of. She goes, get it done. That's what Hillary says. And she walks off to go talk to then-Congresswoman Marcia Fudge. Y'all, this is no lie.

This was a Saturday night. I got the punch. Y'all, this is no lie. This was a Saturday night. I got the emails. The next day, I'm like, can y'all get me Alvin Brown, former mayor of Jacksonville, or some other, because Huma asked

me, well, when you say black men, do you mean like members of Congress? I said, no, not members of Congress. I said, they can't message this. I mean black entrepreneurs, other black men, grassroots activists. I said, y'all got

John Legend. Y'all got magic. Y'all got other people. How y'all not using them? Y'all, no lie. Next day, I said, oh, by the way, hold on, before we go to the next day, then the emails started flying around. Now the black people in the campaign

mad at me. Damn, Roland, what you do? I said, I told, I said, I told y'all Negroes what I was going to do, because that's going to empower y'all, because y'all been saying it. So, the next day, I sent emails. Who could I get?

Literally 12 hours go by. They did not confirm me a single surrogate. I think I ended up calling Donna Brazile and said, hey, can you come on Tom Joyner on Monday morning? I literally just said, the Hillary people hired Jelena Maxwell and Jameera Burley to appear on black outlets. I had Jelena and Jameera on my show on the regular. I could not get Jameera and Zerlina on my damn show. And that's why they were brought on the campaign. Because you had some white girls who were over black surrogates who didn't know black people and who didn't know black media.

But you know what, Roland? The problem with the Hillary campaign, and it's going to be the same thing with the Biden campaign if they don't straighten up and fly right, the problem is that they were arrogant. They basically took the black community for granted. They didn't feel like anybody was going to go for Trump. But now there's evidence that people do, but they're still not paying attention.

I mean, we all have battle stripes from 16 and even from 20. When not paying attention ended up, we just raised thin margins. I think we talked about last week Mandela Barnes, who could have been a United States senator. But in Wisconsin, as an example, you know who they sent to organize Milwaukee? Two little vanilla girls, one of whom was afraid. She didn't last a month. She was afraid of the neighborhood. She was afraid of the black people. And she ran with her tail tucked between her legs out of there within 30 days. Her other little friend, and they were both very young, recent college graduates.

Come on, now. Again, the campaign, if they want to get reelected—and we want them to get reelected, because, you know, we know what time it is. I read Project 2025. We do not want that crazy man in the White House—he's already said he's going to be a dictator from day one. What do we know about power? But I don't even...

But Julian, I don't actually even have to make the argument about how awful Trump is. I could actually say this is what has happened under Biden has been beneficial. Jolanda, the reason I laid out what I just laid out is because,

okay, so this is middle of June. So you got July, August, September, October. And then you got the week in November. So you got, so you really got four months and three weeks. Again, this is just me.

Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm crazy, Jolanda. Maybe I'm crazy. But you ain't crazy. Maybe I'm nuts. But if I'm sitting here going, if I'm going, okay, all of the black state representatives, state senators in

Florida, I'm going to say can each one of you do a town hall once a week? So you got this week, this week, this week. That way, boom. And what you're doing is you take it to the community. You know what you're doing? You're pulling data going, okay, here are the precincts. Got it. In these three, four precincts, turnout was 25%, 28%.

We want y'all to hold the thing in this precinct. Am I? But that's too much like right. You ain't crazy. We're siblings from another mother. They don't listen to us, right? So I'm sitting up here chomping at the bit because here's what I know as an elected official in Texas. We literally have 16 black Democratic

state reps. We are on the ground. Take me, for example. I had a primary. I didn't have an opponent. I didn't campaign. I had 11,000 voters, right? And didn't have an opponent. I know what's going on in House District 147. I literally told the Democrats, hey, we got a black problem. We got to talk to black people. And GOTV costs money. Even if we go back to Beto in 2022, we told Beto he was a fundraising machine, a fundraising machine. I said to Beto, if you contribute to my campaign, $85,000, I can get the voters in House District 147. I can cover the polls, all of early vote.

I can cover the polls on election day. And I can get you on black TV and black media because that's my base, right? Beto was like, no, I ain't going to spend no money on that. So you have white people who think they know black people and they use, like you said, these strategies that I guess worked back in the 90s or 2000, and they're just not listening. Even now, when you talk to the Texas Democratic Party and you're saying, hey, we got a black problem and you can see that it's not just in Texas, it's across the country, then they want to ostracize you. When the president comes to town, don't even tell black elected officials, don't invite

us, say, hey, you got to give money. Let me be clear. My constituents love me, right? The black community and House District 147 loves me. If I go and say, hey, Biden did this, this, this, this, and this, and this is how he helped you, and I'm on the radio saying it, and I'm having town halls. I'm about to have a town hall this week on Thursday. I'm in connection.

I'm in communication with my constituents. But the party doesn't want to listen to it. And then when we say stuff to them, then they don't want us to speak at the convention because they want for us to sign off on their archaic and culturally incompetent campaigns. And let me tell you something, Roland. I absolutely agree with you that we are running out of freaking time. We just are. I could be a surrogate. Senator Miles, your frat brother, could be a surrogate. Senator Royce West could be a surrogate. Senator Miles, your frat brother, could be a surrogate.

Senator Royce West could be a surrogate. Now, they use Royce because Royce has been around for a long time. But there are people they literally do not use because they've decided that the only people that they want to promote or they want to speak for them are people who parent what they say. And when I say to them, you're not talking about things that resonate with black people. We are struggling. A lot of us aren't not voting because we don't believe in the process. Hell, we trying to pay our rent. We trying to pay our mortgage. We trying to pay our car note. We trying to pay our daycare for kids. We working overtime. So it's not that we're not paying attention because we don't care. We're not paying attention because we are living day-to-day life and we're struggling and having programs canceled that will give us $500 a month.

And so what I'm saying is they need to use us. We are an asset to go to our communities. We know where they're handing out free food at the Third Ward Multiservice Center. We know where they have cooling centers with this damn heat wave, where it's burning up, and you need to go there. We know where these places are, but the Democratic Party, at least in Texas and in Harris County, they're not listening to the black electeds because they're just taking black vote for granted. Now, and I think when we're dealing with the margins that the two-to-one black men, as you said, Roland, that are voting for Trump over Biden, that's going to be the difference in the damn election. So whenever they're ready to use us for the superpowers that we have, I'm ready, willing, and able.

But right now, they only want us to meet if we contribute to the president's campaign. Well, guess what? I'm spending the money I got to reach out to Black voters. That is my base. And they need to be trying to help me do that to promote them. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. I'm sorry, go ahead. So this is what I have been saying for the longest. And what I said and I said, y'all pull the tape. I said this in

2022. I said in 2020. I said, don't give money to the, I said black people, don't give money to the campaigns. Is that it? I said,'t give money to the campaigns. Is that it? I said, give your money to black groups. I don't, guess what? I haven't gotten a single call from 10, 20, 30 black millionaires saying,

we're going to create a ten million dollar black geo TV fund and that that black geo TV fund and see but everybody who's listening and I know I know some people in this and they going really you ain't never run for office you ain't never worked on a campaign. I'm like, you're right. But do you know how many nights I fell asleep when Mama and Daddy was working the campaign? Do y'all understand my Mama and Daddy, who just celebrated 57 years of marriage last week,

how many phone banks they ran? Do y'all know how many times that we, me, my brother and my sister and my two younger sisters, they were way too young, were putting out yard signs of candidates? Oh yeah. I know about having to put gloves on so you don't get splinters in your damn hand

for those damn yard signs. Do y'all know how many campaigns on election day, me and my brother were at the polls at 7 o'clock in the damn morning handing out literature for different candidates? So what I'm trying to explain to y'all ain't what I heard. It's what I know. And what I know is this election will be about margins. Let me say it again Donald Trump won in

2016 with 77,000 votes in three states Hillary Clinton campaign was stupid as hell How in the hell does she never ever set foot in Wisconsin? That was flat-out Nuts, she lost by about 10,000 votes. She lost Michigan. She lost Pennsylvania. Now, if you move fast forward to 2020, you'll say, oh, my goodness, Biden, he beat Trump by big numbers in Pennsylvania, in Michigan.

First of all, it wasn't big numbers, but the bottom line is it was a good margin. A lot smaller in Georgia and Arizona and Nevada. Now 2024 is different. You got Muslims pissed off and they're like, hell, we ain't voting for you in Michigan. That means your margins are going to be lower than what it was in 2020, which means you're going to have to maximize black voters, which means that what are the conversations that you are having? Again, maybe these things are happening, but if these things are happening, I can tell y'all right now, I damn sure ain't having gotten any information. And if they are happening and folk like me don't know, that means you're failing. So what should be happening, and I'm just telling y'all right now, what I'm laying out to y'all ain't that damn hard. It literally says, Jolanda

just said there are 16 black, 16 black house members? Democratic house members. 16, what, 16 black Democratic house members. Y'all, that's four a month. That means there could be four in July, four in August, four in September, four in October. All you asking them to do is one. Not one a month.

Just one. Now all of a sudden... But I'm having multiple a month. No, no, no. I'm having multiple. No, no, I understand that. And then, follow me when I'm talking about how I see it. Then you say, hey, let's just not talk to the room.

Let's make sure those town halls are being streamed. So now all of a sudden the content is now going out. And so, oh, damn, Jolanda's having a town hall. Hey, y'all, grab that stream and let's restream it on the Black Star Network. Oh, hey, Representative so-and-so in Pennsylvania, State Senator Vincent Hughes. OK, you know what? Let's restream that. Because guess what?

Black travels. Black carries. And so when black folks are talking in Texas, black folks in Florida are listening. Black folks in Florida are listening to black folks in Georgia. These things, we are communicating. The Hillary Clinton campaign, Donald Brazile went to them and asked them for $5 million, I think it was in August or September, they told her no for black media. She went out and raised $2 million herself. They didn't want to tell

her how to spend the $2 million. She said, y'all can't tell me how to spend the money, I went out and raised. Now, they complained that she gave, I don't know why she gave money to these black media people in Illinois. Well, because they didn't quite understand that you had local campaigns in Illinois because everything just ain't about your presidential campaign. If you're getting the votes out for the local campaigns, it's

also helping you in terms of your ticket as well. What she also understands is that if you're taking care of black folks in Chicago, black folks, oh, black people in Chicago are communicating with black people all across the country. Those stories are being spread. The Atlanta Star, when they do stories, they got a massive email list. That thing is going out.

It's going out. And so when this outlet or this outlet is going out, it's going out because this is about information, y'all. This is not just about ads. Don't just come over here praising Juneteenth. No, talk about the economic piece. When I say the economic piece, Kamala Harris said this in Detroit.

When she said, she said, she said 41% of black-owned businesses during COVID went out of business. We have brought back 75% of those 41%. Tell me why the campaign has never shown me any other 75%. It's kind of basic. Yeah, but why are they making us pay to meet with them when they should just have, I think they should have routine conferences with the elected officials because we send out email.

Right. We do robo-dials. We get on the radio. We're on TV like I am now. Let me hold up. So let me go back. Let me go back. I didn't complete a thought. I didn't complete a thought. I didn't complete a thought when I was talking about black funds. So everything that I'm laying out to you, do you know who does this? Black voters matter. Do you know how they organize? 365. They only aren't here during elections. Do you know who does this? Until Freedom. Do you know who does this? Until Freedom. Do you know who does this? New Georgia Project.

You know who does this? Georgia Stand Up. There are groups in Milwaukee. There are groups in Philadelphia. There are groups in all of these cities of crown. And you know what their whole goal is? Grassroots. You know what they do?

Door knocking. So when Jelana talked about trying to get $85,000 from Beto, What she was saying to everybody who's listening and paying attention is, guess what? Those are paid jobs. So we're going to pay you to door knock. We're going to pay you to take this list and go, hmm, 400 people in this precinct, 78 voted in the last election. That means there are 322 people who did not. You can actually see the people and you can go directly to their door. You've got to touch them. Y'all listen to what I'm telling me again. I ain't got to run for office to notice stuff. You've got to touch those people five to six times before Election Day. You've got to touch them three times between now and the deadline to register, then you're going to touch them three more times from that point to the

start of voting and the end of voting. That's what you have to do. And all I'm simply saying is, and I get it, oh, they're putting up field offices and doing this, that, and the other, but what I'm talking about right now, right now, we're not having a voting conversation. Right now, we're not having a registration conversation. Right now, you need to be having an information conversation. You need to be able to say, hey, Jolanda, first of all, we're providing you, and again, here are detailed, again, folks, here are detailed things. They finally woken up and started doing some of this stuff when you talk about the proper means that should be done. But stop sending out five-page, long-ass white papers detailing what done this, this, and it's too damn great. It's too damn broad. It's too, it's too expansive. I'll give you a perfect example. I'm going to show you this here.

This is a meme. Thank God they're finally doing this. It took them forever to actually do this here. And so this was a meme the campaign sent out. Manufacturing is booming under Biden. Total construction. So here we go hold on let me zoom this up total construction spending u.s manufacturing so all right so now here's the deal y'all nice graphic nice graphic okay but the problem is uh as joe madison will say rest in soul rest in peace uh you ain't putting what a ghost can get it. So what you have to do is, you then got to say, Jolanda,

we have here the numbers, here are the manufacturing jobs created in Houston. And we say Houston, here are the areas in Houston. Here are the manufacturing jobs in Texas. So when somebody says, well, man, I ain't seen it. So then when somebody says, well, you know what? It happens all the time on my Instagram. I ain't met nobody who got student loan debt relief.

Then all of a sudden, me, me, me, me, me. When Vice President Kamala Harris was in Atlanta on Friday, she specifically mentioned, hey, I'm sure y'all got some friends or family who got student loan debt. And so people start clapping. That's what she should have said. Hold on. She should have said, one second. Turn the lights up. She should have said, turn the lights

up. She should have said, first of all, the first group that I want to stand up, if you personally have gotten student loan debt relief, please stand up. Boom.

Then she should have said, those of you, those of you, Julianne, you get to turn that damn clock off. Every damn time you on, that damn clock rings. I don't know how to turn it off, Roland. Oh my God, you drive me crazy with that goddamn clock every Monday. Anyway, okay. Then the next thing is, the next thing is,

I've been wanting to say that about three damn months. I'm like, hold on a clock. It's 7 o'clock. Then the next thing is, okay, are you the mother or the father of somebody that's got someone that really stand up? Now, why do you do it this way? Because it's dramatic. And then you say to all the media folk,

now you go talk to those folks and talk about student loan debt relief. They keep missing it. They keep, this is, I just sit here and I'm like, my God, please, you gotta put it where the ghost can get it. You gotta make this thing plain and you got to make it personal and you got to make it personable and you got to make it personal and you got to make

it personable and you got to be sending folks out there. You got to be saturating the ground and then you don't run from questions. Stop having town halls where you don't take questions. I ain't afraid of no questions. I had a brother at the 100 Black Men deal and Antoine

Seawright said, he said, well, I ain't going to deal with that straight part. I said, hell, I will. See, I ain't afraid of nobody asking a question. You got to be able to give it to folk on the spot. And that to me is the struggle. And guess what? The data is there. They are in low 60s. 62% of black people said they're likely going to vote. I keep saying the couch is real. The couch is real. It is an option. And it's not just Cornel West or Robert F. Kennedy. It's the couch. But you've got to make it plain to people that the couch is not an option. And in fact, you've got to take on the couch. You've got to take on the couch.

You've got to let, you know what, if I'm, and again, I don't do commercials, but if I was doing a commercial, you know what I would do? I would sit here and I would have a camera. It's on a black family sitting on a couch and then all of a sudden and it's like People are frustrated their concern, but you know what we did this we did this we did this we did this Trump wants to get rid of this. He wants to get rid of this He believed that anti-white racism is more important than it is black racism, when hate crimes are impacting African Americans more than anybody else. I don't understand how last week the Department of Justice issued

a Patterson Practices Report on a Phoenix Police Department, and we didn't hear a damn thing coming from Kareem Jean-Pierre at the White House podium. I don't understand how they keep putting people in jail, wardens in jail in the Department of Justice, and hell, Kareem don't say a damn thing from the podium. Listen, if you are holding people accountable, you can tout money for more cops while holding folks accountable.

And guess what? Maybe if you explain all the stuff that Kristen Clark and the DOJ, the Civil Rights Division, are doing, then people might not think you ain't done a damn thing on criminal justice reform. If you explain all the stuff that Kristen Clark and the DOJ, the Civil Rights Division, are doing, then people might not think you ain't done a damn thing on criminal justice reform. But you got to open your damn mouth and make it plain. Final comment, Julianne, I'm a Congo, Jolanda, before I go to break.

I had a question for Jolanda. She said that the party was making y'all pay money to meet with the candidates. I really need clarification on that. When the federal people come, when the president comes or Kamala comes, they say you got to give money to meet with them. What kind of sense does that make? It doesn't make a lick of sense. You literally have the elected delegation go speak with them so that they can give us talking points. It's the dumbest shit I ever heard in my life. Doesn't make a little sense to me.

And they're literally terrified of differences of opinion. It's almost like we're Republicans where they expect for you to be sheep. We need, they need, the party needs to listen to what the real problems are, sort of like you listen when somebody is an addict. You've got to acknowledge you have a problem, figure out what the damn problem is, and deal with the problem. The party doesn't want to hear that. They want people who say, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. And it is absolutely either disenfranchising Black people. I'm about to make this word up. It's causing Black people to just not care about the party because they think they don't care. And I think we need

to tackle the problem head on, and they need to stop making us pay to meet with the president or his surrogates so that we can go carry their damn water. Doesn't make a lick of sense to me. I was praying that I had misheard you. I was praying that I had misheard you because that makes no sense at all. Well, the entire case that's been made here makes no sense if people care about outcomes. And the outcome must be that that orange man cannot go back into the White House. That must be the outcome. And I think, you know, Roland has laid it out. Everybody on the panel has laid it out. But who has not heard us is a Democratic Party. And I mean, I'm a yellow dog Democrat, I mean, I'm a yellow-dog Democrat.

I mean, I'd vote for a yellow-dog Democrat, been one all my life. But the Democratic Party is letting us down. And that's the challenge and that's the problem, is that they're letting us down with their piss-poor campaigning. I didn't say that. Yes, I did. With their piss-poor campaigning, with their myopic view of how campaigns are supposed to be run and with basically an ignorance, tone deaf ignorance about the Black community. So, Roland, you know, you keep doing what you're doing because it's important. I think that it was so important last week to see the vice president at the 100 Black

Men. It's so important to see her and the others. And I hope that people are paying you. That's all I'm saying. I hope that people are paying you. That's all I'm saying. I hope that people are paying you. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War 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 thing is. Benny the Butcher. 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. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs

podcast season two on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, 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 podcast. Here's the deal.

We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org,

brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. And everybody else. Well, well, trust me, we're still waiting. Makongo, go ahead. Look, the fact of the matter is this is Biden's election to lose. And there are so many lessons that you just ran down. We're talking about 2016. We're talking about 2020. We excuse me every single day when we look at this campaign, we see opportunities squandered. When you launch, when we talked about that Blacks for Biden event in Pennsylvania, I remember Rebecca Carruthers was on the show. She was like, I was there that day and didn't even know about it. And she's a political organizing commentator. And so

if Biden really wants to solidify this thing, he has to double down on his Black support. He has to listen to Black statisticians, Black pollsters. If they don't increase their Black media presence, that's the ultimate slap in the face. Because everybody can talk about, well, we need Black celebrity endorsements and rappers and all this other type of stuff. It's the Black media. It's the newspapers, the podcasts, the TV shows, all of that. That's where you're going to see the real mark. And then lastly, going back to what you said earlier also, Roland, putting that money on the ground of organizations like Black Voters Matter, listening to what Representative Jones just said about what she could have done for Beto O'Rourke if they were just willing to cough up the money. We are giving it to them.

We are feeding them. And all we're saying, Roland, is respect us enough to give us that damn money and give us that damn time and we'll work wonders for you. And if they don't listen, it's on them. Jolanda, go ahead. Yeah. And I was just saying, Roland, people think that people just come out to vote. As a person who grew up poor, my mom was working overtime. She forgot about stuff. She's struggling. She's worried about whether lights don't get turned off. It costs money to get out the vote. GOTV is not free. These campaigns are paying people. They're paying people who they think are important, and they're paying the wrong damn people. I'm going to say this one more again. That's

Ebonics. They need to pay us to help us get the vote out. In my district, I know who likes me. I know who doesn't like me. I know who voted. I know who didn't vote. I know the issues that resonate in my district. I know the issues that do not. I just know those things because I have a politically scientific campaign, and I have very good people. And as I said, I do robodials. I do radio. I do little commercials. I do Facebook ads. If people will come to vote for me, the question is, are the people that are coming to vote for me going to vote for the other people on the ballot?

So I could very easily say, hey, when you vote for me, vote for Biden. Hey, when you vote for me, vote for Colin Allred. When you vote for me, vote for this person. When you vote for me, vote straight down the ticket. But they are not paying us. They take us for granted. And I hope and I pray that Trump doesn't win because all of our civil rights are going to be set back and the Supreme Court is going to be screwed so much that my granddaughter is going to have less rights than I have right now. And that doesn't

make a lick of sense. And so I hope the Democratic Party is listening. You guys aren't doing right. If you don't listen to Roland Martin, Roland Martin, a man, Martin, I'm about to give you a commercial. Roland Martin started off on white media. No, I actually started off on black. But go ahead. Well, but I know you would like KCOH and stuff like that. I'm talking about when you're on MSNBC and CNN and doing all this stuff. You had to start your own black media because you know what? We are thirsty. We black people are thirsty to hear from people who understand what we go through and the issues that are important to us.

And that's what in the hell you talk about. You're not going to see this on MSNBC. You're not going to see this on Fox. You're not going to see it. If they don't listen to you, then shame on them, because the one thing I can say about you, Roland, is you know exactly what resonates with black people. And I'm going to say it again, the Democratic Party across the country has a black problem, and they better start listening.

I have said to numerous people, I travel more around this country talking to black people than anybody they got on their campaign. And you go to the Tom Joyner cruise, you go with people, you bump all the people, and they talk politics. I talk to regular black folk in the airports, in the convenience store all the time. And so this is what I keep saying to black people.

I do not believe we have to wait on a party or a candidate. the convenience store all the time. And so this is what I keep saying to black people. I do not believe we have to wait on a party or a candidate. We have institutions. And so if you go, Henry, pull it up. This is blackvotersmatterfund.org. They do the work. If y'all want to support a group, and let me tell you something right now, they actually support this show. They have

supported us from day one as well. So we have got to also fund our own institutions. Let me be real clear. See, this is where all of these little fools, oh man, you sitting here, you know, you caping for Democrats. No, I'm caping

for black people. I'm looking at policy and I'm caping for black people. There you go. I'm looking at policy and I'm caping for black people. And so we need to be, if you're going to sit here and give money to a candidate, I say give it to black voters, matterfund.org. Give it to Repairs of the Breach, the Poor People's Campaign, because they're trying to mobilize poor and low-wage workers in 15 states across. Y'all, there are people who are actually doing the work, who understand the data,

and we don't have to explain to them how important black people are, and so let's make that happen because, again, this is about us. This ain't about Biden, not about Trump. This is about us. But we also have to understand whoever wins is going to have a direct impact

on us. Got to go to break. We'll be right back. Rolling Mark on Filters on the Black Star Network. Support us by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars, like you heard what I just said there. I'm telling y'all, without our fans, we're not here almost six

years later. Y'all had been the difference for us. So you're checking money over at Appeal Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back.

Now streaming on the Black Star Network. We look at all of the best men, the movies, and then, of course, the series on Peacock. Why do you think it resonated so well? Well, I think it's a reflection of us. You know, I think it's a reflection of authentic black people, the way they see themselves.

And in some instances, aspirationally so. On the next A Balanced Life, we talk about how to get in touch with your feelings, emotions, how to find your North Star, and how to move your life along. Because oftentimes what we'll do is we'll accept what the world says about us as the truth and how we see ourselves, which that can be completely contrary to what the word of God says about who you are. That's on the next A Balanced Life here on Black Star Network. place, okay? Ooh, I'm an alpha, yay! Alright, you're 58 years old. It's over. And you are now watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned

believable. A federal court rejected the request by voting rights groups to reconsider a ruling to upheld the constitutionality of the Florida congressional redistricting map. In March, the three-judge panel ruled that the plaintiffs had not met a key test of showing that the legislature acted with racial motivation. The case stemmed from a redistricting plan that Governor Ron DeSantis pushed through the legislature,

which focused on overhauling North Florida's congressional district. Five, Florida State Representative Michelle Rayner joins us now from Pittsburgh. First of all, it's clear the racial plan was to get rid of a black district. That's kind of clear. Yes, Roland, it's so good to be with you. I was a member of the legislature when this happened. I was on the House floor watching in disbelief. And I want to actually quote from the opinion.

The opinion says that even though DeSantis acted with some unlawful discriminatory motive, we can sit that right there, in creating the congressional map, that does not mean the Florida legislature shared that motive in passing and adopting it. As a black woman member of the Florida legislature, I can unequivocally tell you that the white Republicans, the super majority Republicans did share that motive and making sure that black voices were diluted and making sure that this was discriminatory on its face and in practice. But this but so when you see this Florida appeals court, you've got to say, what the hell were y'all paying attention to? Correct, because literally and I want to kind of if I if I can, I want to walk us back to how we even got here. As you probably well know, it is unprecedented

for a governor to get involved in the redistricting process. The redistricting process is a process that lies with the legislature. It lies with the Florida House. It lies with the Senate. They have a map. We have a map in the House. We come together and we pass a map. And so when the governor got the time, this is when Florida was leading with the slate of hateful bills that were diluting the history of black people, that was diluting the black vote. And so this was just another part of this insidious, pernicious, hateful, whatever adjective you want to add, plan to make sure that Black voices were not represented. And it literally jumped out of every hearing that we had about this plan, floor arguments. So I don't know what they were listening to. I do know that some folks may have

been appointed by certain people with certain letters behind their names that are not D's. And so maybe that is what they are leaning into. But I can unequivocally tell you that this map was done literally to make sure that Black people were not represented in the state of Florida. What's the plan? Any plan to appeal? I don't know if the voting rights groups are going to appeal. I have friends who are the EDs, so I can kind of say with certainty that I believe that they are meeting today,

that they will consider a legal way forward. Most certainly, this was disappointing because we know that the law is on our side. And the fact that this appeals court we know that the law is on our side. And the fact that this appeals court did not interpret the law correctly is a problem. Roland, you and I both know the law is very clear when it comes to gerrymandering and diluting black voices. And as a civil rights attorney, I have a problem with this. And I think that on its face, but also the legislative intent was very clear.

But this is also why I try to explain to people why you got to vote in the presidential election, why you got to vote in the U.S. Senate, because that's who approves federal judges. And so when you have these conservative federal judges, these are likely the rulings that they are going to make. A hundred percent. And even as your previous guests were speaking about, you know, Florida is ground zero. Our mutual good friend, Nadine Smith, also talked about, she and I were on a panel this weekend, we talked about how Florida really has been the testing ground for these really just hateful slate and cadre of bills, how we can see the black vote is being chipped at everywhere we go in the state of Florida and that how it has

literally spread like wildfire. And my concern is, is that there's a lack of urgency by people and there's a lack of urgency by folks, even in leadership, that we have to make sure that our people are understanding what's at stake in this election. Absolutely. Well, keep the fight up in Florida. And I'm happy to see that y'all got folks running in every district there. Listen, run it up.

You can't win if you don't run. That whole part. Say that louder for the people in the back, please. Please say that louder. Trust me. And it's happening in so many other places as well. So there you go. All right.

Thank you. We appreciate it. Love your shirt. All right. Keep it up. Folks, when we get back, Governor Wes Moore signs a huge,

a huge executive order today. We'll talk about that. Plus, Trump courted black voters at a church in Detroit. But it wasn't no black people there. Well, I got something to talk about. We'll be right back on Rolling Rock Unfiltered on the Black Sun Network.

A lot of y'all have been asking me about. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

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 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.

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. 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. 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. 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've 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. Pocket squares are available on our website. You see me rocking the Chibori pocket square right here. It's all about looking different. And look, summertime is coming up. Y'all know, I keep trying to tell fellas, change your look, please.

You can't wear athletic shoes every damn where. So if you're putting on linen suits, if you're putting on some summer suits, have a whole different look. The reason I like this particular pocket square, these shibori, is because it's sort of like a flower and looks pretty cool here versus the traditional boring silk pocket squares. But also, I like being a little different as well. So this is why we have these custom-made feather pocket squares on the website as well. My sister actually designed these after a few years ago. I was in this battle with Steve Harvey at Essence, and I saw this at a St. Jude fundraiser. I saw this feather pocket square and I

said, well, I got some ideas. So I hit her and she sent me about 30 different ones. And so this completely changes your look. Now, some of you men out there, I had some dudes say, oh man, I can't wear that. Well, if you ain't got swagger, that's not my problem. But if you're looking for something different to spruce up your look, fellas, ladies, if y'all looking to get your man a good gift, I've run into brothers all across the country with the feather pocket squares saying, see, check mine out. So it's always good to see them. And so this is what you do.

Go to RollinThisMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. You can order Shibori pocket squares or the custom-made pocket squares now for the shiboris we're out of a lot of different colors and i think we're down to about two or three hundred so you want to get your order in as soon as you can because here's what happened i got these several years ago and they the the japanese company signed the deal with another company and i bought them before they signed that deal And so I can't get access to any more from the company in Japan that makes them. And so get yours now. So come summertime when I see y'all at Essence,

y'all can be looking fly with the Shibori pocket square or the custom-made pocket square. Again, rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. Go there now. What's good, y'all? This is Doug E. Freshener watching my brother Roland Martin, underpiloted, as we go a little something like this. Hit it. It's real.

With deep pride and soberness, I will pardon over 175,000 convictions—and I will pardon these convictions—all convictions related to the possession of cannabis and cannabis paraphernalia. Maryland legalized cannabis by referendum. This administration has stood up what many believe to be one of the most equitable and efficient adult cannabis market rollouts of any state in the entire country. In March, we conducted our first adult-use cannabis licensing round, and all 174 licenses were awarded exclusively to social equity applicants.

And to be clear, that's the first time that that has happened in our nation's history. And yet, we know that legalization does not turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by this war on drugs. Legalization does not erase the fact that nearly half of all drug arrests in Maryland during the early 2000s were for cannabis. It doesn't erase the fact that black Marylanders were three times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white Marylanders before legalization. It doesn't erase the fact that having a conviction on your record means a harder time

with everything, everything, from housing to employment to education. It doesn't erase the fact that people who were arrested for cannabis three or four or 40 years ago still have those convictions on their records to this day. We cannot celebrate the benefits of legalization if we do not address the consequences of criminalization. Well, with the mighty opinion of Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, pardoned thousands of folks with marijuana and drug paraphernalia convictions. Moore isn't the first governor to issue mass pardons over marijuana convictions. The governor of Massachusetts issued a blanket pardon in March, affecting hundreds of thousands. But you see that this goes beyond just pardons.

It also talks about those dispensaries and people who are being able to take advantage. This is a huge, huge deal here on the Congo because this is also what happens when you have a black governor and who understands this because part of the problem here, black people more than anybody else greatly impacted by people going to prison due to marijuana. But when it came to legalization, it was not black folks benefiting financially from these different dispensaries and licenses. Absolutely. And I live in Maryland, proud as a call, calling my governor. And really, at the end of the day, this is what we elect Democrats for. This is what we want them to do.

We want them to be able to get out there and have policies that directly affect our communities. When we look at the cannabis industry and what's happened across this country and how so many of us have been left out simply because we've had convictions, and as you said, whether it was four years ago or 40 years ago, and you got all of these other people in the industry profiting off of it. And let's talk about the other issues that he talked about, whether we're talking about housing, getting jobs, other types of access to things, certain types of jobs you can't get at all. For nonviolent offenses, people's entire careers and lives and families have been destroyed

because of this arcane type of law. And really, at the end of the day, when we look at it, we also have to be mindful of some of these—many of these guys had their voting rights affected by this as well. And so this also ties into our last segment as it relates to making sure we're getting education out as it relates to that, because we also need to let these guys know that, hey, who knows what happens if Trump or some of these other guys get in? Are they going to reverse it?

Are they going to have other policies in place that even though you've been pardoned, they're going to try to put something back on the books to make you be criminalized again? This is what political sophistication looks like. This is what it looks like having leaders who actually understand the needs of the Black community. So many of these guys come in, and Representative Jones knows this better than anyone else, and Dr. Malvo, and you, Roland, they come in and say, I'm going to be the governor for all people, the mayor for all people, the president for all people. Yeah, we get that. We understand that. And that's real.

But there are specific issues that relate to our community. And even before Westmore was governor, he's always been about that. So this is not new. When his motto, you know, leave no one behind, when he talks about that, he's putting that into action. We need to respect it. We need to get behind it. And there's no better example of a Biden surrogate that they need to be having out there on the trail than Governor Moore. So I applaud this 100 percent. Jolanda? Yeah. And so I also happen to be a criminal defense lawyer, right? As a state rep, we had a whole bunch of folks coming to the TLBC, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, to try to talk to us and convince us to vote for the legalization of weed stuff, for lack of a better word. Right.

And I did see people who looked like us, Right. Who would share in that. But I will also say that as a criminal defense lawyer, what I saw a lot of times, the thing that got us in the criminal justice system to establish probable cause was I smell weed. Right. And then they went and searched your car and did all these things. And so that starts the system. My next question is, apart from pardoning, will the governor get it expunged? Because trust me, when people go and they run your criminal history and they see that you had a conviction for something, they believe you got off on a technicality. They don't believe that you're actually innocent or that you are profiled for existing while black or driving while black. So I applaud the governor.

I hope Texas follows suit. I doubt it very seriously, although you will see that when people, when white kids get charged with weed, a lot of times they have connections. And so they'll let them do a PTI, a pretrial intervention where they get to jump through some little probation hoops. And if they do it properly for some short period of time, then it's wiped off of their record. It's the whole wiping it off of your record that matters, because like previous people have said before me, if you can't get an apartment, you can't buy a house, you can't get a job, you can't apply for grants and loans because you have a criminal conviction, that is problematic. So kudos to him.

As a criminal defense lawyer, I'd like to see that these be administratively expunged off your record, as long as there's no violence associated with it. Julianne? expunged off your record, as long as there's no violence associated with it. Julianne? I agree fully with what Jolanda has said, especially about the expungement. I mean, it makes a lot of sense to expunge records because otherwise, even if you're departed, it will still follow you. You know, Wes Moore is a rock star. He really is.

He's a really great governor. He's very thoughtful. Would we have—that we have more like him in other states? His comments were spot on about how long these things follow you. People have spent a lot of time in jail behind weed, because what we often forget about is the prosecutorial discretion and the judicial discretion, which means that when a black person shows up, a white person shows up, they might get lenience. A black person shows up and they throw the book at them. So this is a first step towards dealing with it.

But we also have to really look at these issues of discretion. And discretion often means racial bias. And so we know that. But kudos to Wes Moore. One hundred seventy five thousand people is really great. Expungement will make it even better. And he should continue on this path because, as I said, his brother is a rock star. We may see him running. You know, Maryland is producing rock stars. Both Wes Moore and Angela also Brooks, who we hope will be the next senator from Maryland.

They're producing black people who are really outstanding and there should be others who follow their footsteps. Alright folks, hold tight one second. When we come back. Let me woosah.

On Saturday, Donald Trump had a blacks for Trump or whatever the hell it was. It was a round table discussion in Detroit. I'm still looking for the black people. But I got a few things to say about this gathering. Y'all know it was a lot of lying going on in that church.

Lightning should have come down numerous times. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, Dexter Jenkins is a faith-based financial mentor with more than 20 years in the financial services industry. He's passionate about helping families build generational wealth. Even though I'm talking about things like prayer, I'm talking about things about reading the word, I'm talking about things like fellowship, I'm talking to members who are dealing with losing their houses or I'm talking to members who,

because of a lack of the handling of finances, they're working two or three jobs. And so what I'm finding is that they're not coming to church because they don't have a handle on their finances. We're talking how to get wealthy through faith and our finances on the next Get Wealthy right here, only on Blackstar Network. Hi, I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. I don't play Sammy, but I could.

Or I don't play Obama, but I could. I don't do Stallone, but I could do all that. And I am here with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. I'm out. Thank you. Martin! Thank you. All right, folks, one of the famous quotes of journalist Ida B. Wells, we have it right here in our studio. And it says the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them. She's absolutely correct in that. And the truth, turn the light of truth upon them. Now, over the weekend,

Donald Trump, on a Saturday, went to a black church. The church was called the 180 Churches, led by Pastor Lorenzo Sewell. It's on the outskirts of downtown Detroit. Now, it was supposed to be about reaching black people. Can y'all please show the video of all the white folks who were there? Byron Donalds was there, stop, freeze it,

freeze it, freeze it, freeze it. Now, let's see here, go, I don't know if we can, y'all can get me over here, but let me see here. Can y'all get me over here? I'm trying to see. Go start the video, go back, go back a little bit. Go back a little bit. Go back a little bit. Okay, all right.

So come on, hold on, no, no, no, no, no, go on, start from over there. Bring that, so I'm trying to, so let me do this here. So let me go, I'm trying to count here. I'm trying, oh. I'm trying to sit here and count y'all. I'm trying to count here, cause I'm like, I'm really confused.

I'm really confused here. Okay, so. So let's see here. Okay, all right. I see a black guy see here. Okay. All right. I see a black guy right here. Okay. I see a black guy right here.

Let me go on back. Let me see. I don't know what the hell that was. Okay. I see a black guy. I see a black guy right here. Okay. Let's see here. Okay.

All right, can y'all play the video again? Play it. Freeze it. Okay, hold up. Now, here we go. I see a black person right here. Okay. Black person, black person, black person.

I think that's a black person. Play the video. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

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

We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things.

Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Let's see here, Okay. All right. Black person, black person, black person. Run back over again. Run back over again. Okay. Run back over again. Okay, so I think I saw all the black people. There are about 12.

That was it. There are about 12. About 12 black people here, okay? Now, this is the only angle we got. Okay, there's another one I saw. Okay, fine. Okay, I want you to play this over again, y'all. Play it over again.

Okay, so Ben Carson was talking. Okay, play it over again. Freeze it, freeze it, freeze it, freeze it, freeze it. Play it forward. Freeze it, freeze it. All right, y'all see this right here? See all them vacant seats right there? That means church wasn't packed. Play it.

Freeze it. Vacant seats right here. This is Kellyanne Conway talking to lying ass Maria Bartiromo on Fox News. Biden's not doing anything like that. Look at the contrast of just this weekend. You got Donald Trump in Detroit talking to 8,000 people, and then at a black church, of course.

Biden's not doing anything like that. Look at that. Wait, wait, did she? Run that back. Biden's not doing anything like that. Look at the contrast of just this weekend. You got Donald Trump in Detroit talking to 8,000 people. And then at a black church, of course, Biden's not doing anything like that. Stop, Stop.

Can she please tell me where the other 7,650 people are? Because I damn sure didn't see no eighth. Y'all do y'all realize that the church that held the Aretha Franklin funeral that also held the Rosa Parks funeral don't fit 8,000 people. What in the hell? She is of course the queen of alternative facts. Okay. Gotcha. All right. That's Kellyanne Conway. Okay. All right. I'm through over here. So you saw them so-called black people. Okay, so, all right, so this thing's supposed to be a conversation, y'all. It's supposed to be a conversation about black people

in this church. Okay. All right, I'm utterly confused by what, I'm utterly confused by what was on display here. I was utterly confused by what was on display here. And now they in a church. They in a church, so I don't understand, I don't understand what the lion was.

I don't understand what the lion was all about. Okay. Now, now, now play that video right there. Play that video right there. Play that video right there. All right. Pull it up. Now stop right there. Now, damn, do y'all see this is like some straight fake ass, groupie stuff. You, you, my damn. If you gonna sit here and, damn, really? What we got here? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Y'all come on, it's 15 damn people. He literally had 15 people. I wonder how many of them are paid actors because y'all know Trump pays for people to come to their rallies, okay? But these fools are sitting here, just press play. If y'all want to see some, look at this silly ass.

Look at this. That's it. That's it. That's it. They found 15 of them. Stop right there. Here's my other deal. I don't know who these two Negroes are,

but you cannot be a real black person and have your Bama ass wearing a hat in the pulpit. I don't know who these two Bama's right here are, but they need their ass whooped. Okay, all right, so let me, let's, okay. So Donald Trump sat here and he goes to this, and of course all the conservative media covering this, Newsmax, they all covering it.

They all sitting in Newsmax, Fox News, they all making a big deal out of it. So let's just go ahead and start the lion. Press play. It's an honor to be here. It's a very important area for us. We've done more for, and I say this, I say it proudly, more for the black population than any president since Abraham Lincoln. That's a big step. I'll stop right there, y'all. I, I, I, I done heard some silly ass comments before. That man right there has got to be on meth. You ain't done more for black people than LBJ did.

You ain't done more for black people than Bill Clinton did. You ain't done more for black people than Truman and FDR did. His punk ass actually said, matter of fact, Ida B. Wells was sitting there campaigning for Herbert Hoover. This fool actually, a straight ass lie. Now, y'all notice he says that. He ain't never following that up with any facts whatsoever. And them 12 Negroes, yes, Donald.

Yes, Donald. Yes, Donald. You're our man, Donald. Yes, Donald. Yes, Donald. You're our man, Donald. Lying ass. Go ahead and roll it. And crooked Joe Biden has done nothing for you except talk. It's only talk. It's all talk. He gets nothing. He gets nothing for anyone who is lost.

He's in Europe. He's walking around. He doesn't know where the hell he is, and he's supposed to help Detroit. I don't think so. But we achieve the lowest African... Phrase. Hold up, boy. We can play that live.

Let me remind y'all, Donald Trump opposed the auto bailout. It was Obama and Biden that made sure that the auto industry got bailed out. The reason there is an auto industry today is because of Obama and Biden after what took place with the housing foreclosure crisis in 2008 when the economy went in a massive tailspin. But of course, that fool will never tell you that. Oh, all that investment in Detroit all came after that as well. And so none of that stuff happens without the investment in Detroit by Obama-Biden. Those are called facts. Clearly, none of these fools knew anything about these facts.

Listen to this lie. American unemployment rate and the lowest African American poverty rate ever recorded, ever, ever recorded in my four years. Stop. Right there. See? See, whenever you start using the word ever, that means that, oh, ever, meaning before you

and after you, but the fact of the matter is, that is an absolute lie that Donald Trump, the black unemployment rate in November 2020 was 10.3 percent. In December 2020, it was 9.9 percent. In January 2021, it was 9.2 percent, the highest of any group other than teenagers. The source, the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When Donald Trump talks about black unemployment, the black unemployment rate under Trump was 5.3% in August of 2019. Oh, the lowest ever? Hmm. That was in April under Biden-Harris.

Actually, under Biden-Harris, it was 4.7%. Okay, just in case some of y'all ain't good with math, 4.7% is lower than 5.3%. So you can't say it was the lowest ever under you, because that's a flat-out lie. I'm just simply saying. Oh,

also, Trump is also lying about the black poverty rate. The black poverty rate lowest ever recorded since 1959 was 17.1% when August 2022. Who was in office? Biden Harris. So again, right there, he lied again. Roll it.

We lifted 6.6 million people out of poverty. Black Americans saw their largest increase in home ownership on record. There's never been anything like it. Stop. During our period of time. Stop, flat out lie, flat out lie. The highest period of black home ownership took place under President Bill Clinton, not under Donald Trump. I don't know what the hell he's talking about, but that's just a

flat out lie. And so again, this is what happens when you sit there, you know, and just make stuff up, that makes stuff up. And so that's what he does. He's sitting there and just, just, just making the stuff up, just sitting here and just, well, man, let me just go ahead and, you know, just make it up. And so, in fact, here's the whole deal, y'all. Let's see. African-Americans also have increased their black home ownership as of February 2024. And let's see here.

Let me pull information up. Let's see here. OK. Black home ownership rate February 2024 was 44.1 percent. So Trump is just sitting here, y'all. He just sitting here lying. He's just lying. But again, though, that's what happens when you sit here and just, you know, make it up because he goes. And so here's it right here. So black home ownership increased during the pandemic. But what happened was you saw, of course, that particular change. And so the numbers went up to see right here, the black home ownership rate increased two percentage points. Let me see if I can pull this up for y'all. Give me one second. The black home ownership rate increased from 42.2% to 44.2%. Now, and today it's lower than it was in 2000. Again, let me say it again. Let me say it again.

In 2000, 2000, 2000, the black home ownership rate was 45.7%. 45.7. That was higher than when Trump was president. He's lying. First play.

We gave record funding to historically black colleges. Stop. Oh, hell no. Now stop. Now we done debunked that damn lie repeatedly. You notice we gave record funding. He can never give a number.

Congressman Byron Donalds can never give a number. Ben Carson can never give a number. They can never give a number because the number doesn't exist. $16 billion to HBCUs under Biden-Harris. It ain't even close to Trump and it ain't even close to Obama. So Donald Trump is lying. That is the third or fourth lie this man has stated in this black church. Lord have mercy. I don't know what God these folks serve, but they trot with this hell. Press play.

You all know that. I got great support. And I will just tell you a quick story. The heads of the colleges would come to Washington once every year. And after two years, they said, why do you guys keep coming? And I liked them.

I liked a couple of them, really. They're friends of mine. But the whole group was very, they were just terrific people. Men and women heading up the colleges. And I said, why do you keep coming? Because they won't give us long-term financing. We have to come back every year.

One said — and I say respectfully — he said they make us feel like a bunch of beggars. We have to come back to Washington every year. I said, well, we're going to take care of that. And I got them actually more money than they asked for by far. And we got them long-term financing. And I said, the only thing sad is that I'll never see you again, probably. I will never meet you again.

Phrase, phrase, phrase. See right there, just straight-ass lying. First of all, everybody got to come to Congress every single year when it comes to appropriations to seek additional funding. And what he said there is an absolute lie. It's just a flat out lie. The program that he's talking about is a very specific program that he zeroed out of the budget. It was Congresswoman Alma Adams who had to put back in the budget. It was the work of Congressman Bobby Scott and the CBC. They got that particular program passed as a $250 million program and $91 million of that goes to HBCUs. HBCUs get way more money, billions from other programs.

So, y'all, he just straight-ass lying. He's straight lying. So that's the specific program he's talking about. And as Dr. Walter Kimbrough, two-time HBCU president, laid out, that man straight up is lying about that because his budget zeroed it out. Press play. Got used to meeting. I kept saying it. Then after a couple of years, I said, why do you have to keep coming back? I mean, you've been, he said, we've been doing this for a long time, for 20 years, I guess. The one gentleman said he was there 20 years. He's been doing it for 20 years. Phrase. I said, that's. Phrase. Again, he's lying. It's a program that was created under President George W.

Bush. It was going to continue under President Obama. And then, of course, it happened there. So please, stop sitting here lying. Anyway, he's just a liar. And he's sitting in that church lying. And those simple Simon Negroes are allowing him to play them with the lies. Press play. Not right. And they do a very important job and a great job. And so I got you long term financing. And I think all of them are voting for Trump. I don't know. I can't say maybe, but I'd say 99 percent of them. And if they aren't, I don't know what the hell the other side did. But we'll start an investigation. I'll tell you what the other side did. They actually gave $16 billion. They forgave

more than $1.5 billion in loans to them for construction. So we could go on and on and on. Donald, do you really want us to pull the numbers out? See, y'all, this is why you can't let politicians come in front of you and say stuff without any data He did not give a single number He did not say oh I gave eight ten twenty billion dollars because he can't because you know what he only bid to HBCU One time and that was a damn accident press play the hell the other side did but We'll start an investigation or something. okay? We passed historic criminal justice reform,

something that they've been after, people have been after, for mostly the black community for years and years. And to get it done, they needed me. And as you know, President Obama tried. Biden doesn't even try. Well, he doesn't have to because we got it done, but we're going to get it improved. But President Obama tried, was unable to get it done. You needed conservative votes, and I got it done, but we're going to get it improved. But President Obama

tried, was unable to get it done. You needed conservative votes. And I got conservative votes, and we got criminal justice reform done. Phrase. Let me remind everybody what happened. First of all, under Obama, Democrats made a bad miscalculation. They actually felt they could have gotten a stronger bill once Hillary Clinton became president, And so they stalled that particular bill. That's what happened. Two, it was pursued. Remember, Democrats controlled the House in 2017. It was Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Congressman Cedric Richmond, Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee, members of the House Judiciary Committee who drove the first

step through. Don't forget. Now, did you have conservative support? You actually had that, because I met with Jared Kushner to go over what was their particular plan about this at the White House for more than an hour. But let me tell you what happened. When the first step went to the United States Senate, it was Senate Democrats,

Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Cory Booker, and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, who said this bill is weak, it needs to be strengthened, and that's actually what happened. Of course, Trump is taking credit and a lap dance,

I'm sorry, a victory lap for this, but the reality is that wasn't the case. And so without Democrats, there is no First Step Act. So he didn't get it. It was passed by Democrats in the House. Those are what we call facts press play Phrase I'm sorry. Go ahead and play the rest of that nonsense. The mortgage was at 2.6%. The border was secure.

Wages were rising. And the jobs were the best in the history of our country. For African-American, for black Americans, the jobs were the best in the history of our country. Other than that, what did I do? Not that much. Phrase. Not that much. That's real interesting.

All the things that he laid out when he left office and how all things were amazing and things were wonderful. And we had jobs and all that sort of stuff. Gasoline was $2. Really? Is that what happened there, Donald? Was there something you're forgetting that was going on? The reason why gasoline was $2 a gallon that you claimed when you left office? I mean, that was just, I swear as I listened to that, that was just one thing that was just sort of jumping out at me that I never heard.

Henry? No, Henry? iPad. COVID! Wasn't nobody driving when you left office. Of course gasoline was low. And the unemployment rate was through the roof when you left office.

The man is flat out lying, y'all. He's lying. Press play. In the history of our country, other than that, what did I do? Not that much. Freeze. The fact of the matter is, the economy that we have is, we've had the most consecutive months of unemployment under 5% since the 1960s. Since the 1960s.

He's lying. He's straight-ass lying. Press play. Now watch, the press will put that on. I didn't do that much because they're bad people. You know, they're bad. That's why they're the fake news. You have the same problem that I do. They're fake news. No, fake news is everything that fool just said. And they said, I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. 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. 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.

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. 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 iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, 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. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start

building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council Good, good, good, good, good, good Yucking it all up, allowing that fool to lie Then, of course, there were some questions that were being asked And so you sat there, and I just sat here and was like, oh my God Listening to some of this nonsense. And so that was a question that was a very specific question that I found to be quite interesting.

So what I want you to do is, I want you to actually listen to this, y'all, and Lord have mercy. Unity is disenfranchised. We're marginalized. We're pushed aside. And there are two things that are happening with crime and employment. You're an entrepreneur. How do you see funding entrepreneurs specifically keeping the black dollar in the black community?

Let me explain. If I want to eat, I have to give my money to the Alban dollar in the black community. Let me explain. If I want to eat, I have to give my money to the Albanians at Coney Island. If you want to get gas, you need to go to the Chaldeans. If you want to have your hair look like mine, you got to go to Asians. And I thank God for Asians. My wife is right there. She's Asian. Our children are Blasian. So I give it up to my Asian brothers and sisters. Okay, I gotta phrase that bullshit right there. Because first of all, y'all, I've been to Detroit. To act like you don't have black owned restaurants in Detroit is a

simple lie. And then he's trying to say only Asians do black hair in Detroit. That might be news to all the black barbers and the black cosmetologists that are living in Detroit. What the hell is he talking about? But it gets better.

The hits keep coming. Listen to this. But we don't keep the black dollar in the black community. You're an entrepreneur. What does it look like for black entrepreneurs to be able to get the resources they need so we don't look for a handout, but a hand up? Okay. Now, right there, you heard him say, what does it look like for us to get the resources for black entrepreneurs? That was the question. Keep going. And you know, and we talk about this, you have a lot of dollars in

the black community and they don't keep it. I think one of the biggest problems that I see is the crime. They have to stop the crime. If they stop the crime, you're going to see more and more stores sprout and we're losing them in other communities too, where there's crime. They just, you see empty stores, you see them all over. They see big stores. They moved in 10 years ago. They spent millions of dollars to build it. And now they're leaving. And these are not necessarily black communities. In many cases, they're not at all. But where there's crime, there's empty stores and you don't keep the money. So I think the biggest thing we can do is stop the crime. We're going to stop the crime. We have to let people feel free

and be able to walk outside and not even think about being mugged or hit or shot or anything. And, you know, one of the examples, I see the love in this church. It's incredible what you've done. You've done an incredible job. I would like to ask if you could final out with a prayer. Does that make, is that okay? I don't want to get you by surprise here. Okay. I don like to ask if you could final out with a prayer. Is that okay? I don't want to get you by surprise here. Okay, I don't want to get you by surprise. How about your ass surprise us and answer that damn question? See,

y'all notice Donald Trump's answer to anything black is crime. Donald Trump thinks black people are thugs. There are black people and there are black neighborhoods that don't have high crime rates. But see, the idea of black entrepreneurs, okay, really? So black tech company owners always live in the high crime areas? Black law firms, high crime areas? Black engineering

companies? Black architecture companies? Black owned media companies? We can engineering companies, black architecture companies, black owned media companies. We can go on black bond companies. We can go on and on and on. But for Donald Trump, oh yeah, crime, crime. That's how he thinks about black people. Crime, crime, crime. But let me, let me, let me also remind y'all this pastor didn't say nothing, though, about Donald Trump, how he was attacking black people in Detroit in 2020, calling them essentially thugs and saying how they rigged and stole the election, how he called out the two black women in Fulton County as well. Oh, I'm sorry. We forget that. Remember when the head of the Michigan Republican Party said we should count all the votes in Michigan except Detroit? See, we ain't forgot none of that stuff. We ain't forgot none of that stuff that was asked.

But I want y'all to hear the prayer. Listen to this. Because this was not, but I've heard so much about you and so many great things. And it's such an honor to be here. It's such an incredible honor. And with so many of my friends that are political leaders that are really going places, and he is on the list, by the way, and I don't know if he's going to make it, but he's on a list of a few people, right?

Not too many people. Would you like to be VP? Yeah. Ooh, ooh, let me sit here, and let me sit here and do a dance. Do a dance, do a dance, cause Uncle Daddy Trump asked me to do a dance in Detroit. Silly ass.

Tell you one thing, it'd be a good one too, but I'd love to ask you to finish off with a prayer. Does that make sense? I would love to pray. Thank you very much. Let us bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the 45th president of the United States of America. He was

charged with 34 felonies. Then he raised $53 million in 24 hours. Let me go ahead and stop that right there. First of all, I'm very confused, Pastor Sewell. Now, mind you, I want you all to know we invited Pastor Sewell on the show. He was unavailable.

We're trying to get him later in the week. Oh, I would love for him to come on the show because I would love to ask him, you were praying for a man who cheated on his wife with a porn star and then paid the porn star off in hush money so it would not be publicly revealed. First of all, what you prayed for was a lie. You said that he was charged with 34 accounts and then raised 50 some odd million dollars. No, he was convicted of 34 accounts and then raised the money. See, the conviction part was left out there. But go on

here with your prayer. And he has the potential to be the 47th president of the United States of America. You have protected him from things seen and unseen. You have protected his family. We pray for his wife, his children. Father, we ask that late in the midnight hour that you would speak to him. We pray that you might visit him. Hold on. Let me just roll this back a little second here. Now, let me explain something to y'all.

How it's done with black people. Watch this here. Hold on. Let me see. Let me find it right here. Okay. See right here, y'all. See, this is right here when you know he's a. We pray. Okay, see right here y'all. See, this right here when you know he's a fake ass Christian. Okay? Everybody know.

Everybody know. When you praying, what does everybody do? Panel in unison? Bow your head. You bow your head. That's what you do. No.

He praying. Trump, look. Go back to the video. Way to go. Oh, great prayer, Negro. Great prayer. Oh, yeah. Look at.

That's what. Oh, he just so. Look at him. Head bowed. Head bowed. Look at the pastor. Head bowed. Pastor head bowed. Dude with the hat next to him. Head bowed. Head bowed. Look at the pastor. Head bowed. Pastor head bowed. Dude with the hat next to him head bowed. Everybody head bowed. Y'all this man

ain't real. This man ain't real. Y'all know. Y'all know this man ain't real. You know he not real. Because Donald Trump does not actually remotely even understand the Bible. We all know this. We all know because he flat out is a fraud. That man is uncomfortable as hell in church. And just so just remind y'all because, see, again, I don't forget nothing.

I don't forget nothing. I don't forget nothing. Y'all might remember when he was asked this question in an interview. And, ooh, Lord, if y'all want to see the fake Christian jump out, here we go. About how it's your favorite book. And you said, I think last night in Iowa, some people are surprised. Hold on, let me go back to the beginning. Here we go right here. You mentioned the Bible. You've been talking about how it's your favorite book and you said I think last night in Iowa some people are surprised let me go back to the beginning here we go right here you mentioned the Bible you've been talking about how it's your favorite book and you said I think last night in Iowa some people are surprised that you say that I'm wondering what one or two of your most

favorite Bible verses are I wouldn't want to get into it because to me that's very personal you know when I talk about the Bible is very personal so I don't want to get into verses I don't want to get into it there's no verse that means a lot to you that you think about or cite? The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into specifics. Even to cite a verse that you like? No, I don't want to do that. An Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy? Probably equal.

I think it's just an incredible, the whole Bible is an incredible. I joke very much so. They always hold up the art of the deal I say my second favorite book of all time but I just think the Bible is just something very special you mentioned the Bible yo that fool actually

said yeah they're about equal you can ask a kid when Jesus wept. I mean, y'all, oh no, I don't know. It's personal. I don't really, you know, I'm just saying,

I mean, I'm, you know, I'm trying to think of a scripture. I'm trying to think of a scripture. I'm trying to think. Shoot, I can't even remember one of them books. Oh, I mean, you know, I mean, since I like money, my favorite book, my favorite book of the Bible is Numbers. Let me see. I'm trying to understand, you know. Oh, I'll tell you my favorite story is when Jesus turned the tables upside down in the temple. So I love the fact, you know, I love the fact that the Bible talk about money more than anything else. I mean, I know they're talking about poor people, but, you know, I don't really want to talk about the poor people.

So, yeah, but it's really personal. I mean, I'm just saying I it's so personal. I can't even tell y'all because you know what? I ain't never read it. I ain't never read it. But that's what we're dealing with here, y'all. That's who this pastor allowed into the church. And so when you allow somebody into your church and he can't even address any of these issues. He literally can't even speak to the issues. And y'all keep, keep in mind, this fool is actually, actually a hawking a Bible with him and Lee Greenwood. He's actually hawking a Bible. This man will sell out anything to make a buck. And so you sat here and listened to all that stuff he said, and it was lies. He was just making stuff up.

And everything that I said, y'all, can easily be fact-checked. It's easily verifiable. So that's exactly how it goes. You know what? I understand. I would love to. I can't wait to ask Pastor Lorenzo. Does he believe that the Christian in Trump should be talking like this about another Christian?

You shouldn't use that kind of language. Look, look, you can't use the word. OK, that's like Christie. You know, he's like totally unhinged. It's called Trump derangement syndrome. I would say he was a he was a major case of Trump derangement. But he was in there and somebody from the front row said, sir, he's a fat pig. And I said, but nobody heard. The person was a nice person, but said very, you know, I said, you cannot call Chris Christie a fat pig. You cannot do that.

Please, sir, if you call him a fat pig once more, I'm going to have to have you leave the arena. And the guy didn't know what was happening. I said, don't worry about it. I'm only kidding. But I said, you cannot call him a fat pig because you're not allowed to use the fat word. That's mighty, you know, mighty Christian of him.

Yeah, and I love this video here, y'all. This is a video here where conservatives are sitting around and they say, black church erupts when Donald Trump enters. No. White people who are not even from Michigan who are attending the Turning Point Conference showed up at a black church and they erupted. Watch. Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! I mean, right there, y'all.

If y'all had any confusion whatsoever about who was all there, then you now understand. Oh, do y'all also, did y'all know this? You know, I'm just saying, you know, this guy here, this Texas preacher, this guy right here, did y'all hear that Robert Morris announced that, you turn the audio up. We are about to bring tremendous progress to a problem that's been here for a long time. So this pastor, thank you for this administration. So this pastor right here, y'all, admitted that, yeah, when he was 21 years old, he was sexually molesting a 12-year-old girl. And, yep, he's one of the faith ministers standing with Donald Trump.

So, hmm, would have loved to have that actually been asked. And so you got, oh, wait, hold on. Is this new? So we got to check this here out. So just so we understand what's going on here, y'all, what we're facing is a man who is deranged. Trump sat there, and this is the illusion. This is the illusion of inclusion. They hate DEI, but they love to pet, to trumpet and just walk black folks through,

uh, like they are zoo animals, uh, and put them on a parade, uh, standing with Donald Trump. Y'all, he lied. He lied about black poverty. He lied about HBCUs. He lied about black unemployment. He lied about black home ownership. And if you are black and you are considering voting for this man, he don't give a damn about you at all. It is a flat-out lie.

And what we saw Saturday was lapped up by all these white folks, Julian, who claim, oh no, this was wonderful. Look at the black people for Trump when they weren't number 15, maybe 18 black people in that whole church. But Kellyanne Conway said it was 8,000. She can't count any more than he does. Remember what she said. You have your facts and I have my facts. And so her facts were that the church was overflowing with black people. Your camera says a totally different thing.

This whole thing is just amusing. First of all, remember that time that Trump, he tried to, that's why he didn't do a verse that time. He tried to use a verse and he said something like two Corinthians or whatever he did. He got it totally out of context and made it clear that he never reads the Bible, doesn't know anything about the Bible, doesn't know anything about Christianity or anything else. Shame on that pastor. How would he let his church be used like that? You've got three black people on the panel or the pastor and two black people on the panel and some latino looking lady but do you have any black people in the audience he he allowed himself to be used that's all but but again this is what the 45th president does

he uses people uh he lies i mean he the litany of lies is so long. He lies and he just basically has no principles. But there are black people, some, not many, but some who allow him to get away with that nonsense. It's disgusting. That's all I can say. Disgusting. Omokongo? You know, you laid out everything. And, you know, as I can't really add anything more than what you said about the nonsense and the lies that took place. My other issue today is just with the media. I watched, you know, lots of news. I didn't watch everything. But outside of you, I only saw, you know, Joanne Reed, who was talking about the fact that people should not be saying he went to speak to a Black church and Black churchgoers, because that's not what happened.

It's like me going to a synagogue and speaking to Catholics and people saying that I spoke to Jewish voters at a synagogue. That's not what happened here. It was white folks there at a Black church. As he normally does, he speaks to white people about Black people. And the media, if these other networks that are not pro-Trump are not going to get their facts straight, the CNN, MSNBCs, then they're pretty much acting like the New York Post or the Wall Street Journal, because

they're validating the nonsense and they're validating the lie. They needed to fact check like you just did. And then that group of black people, they were over in the corner like it was a civil rights section or something. It's like that group, they weren't even in the main part of the, like, what the hell was that about, right? And then on top of that, lastly, with the pastor, you know, he's using his platform to be an extension of Trump as well. And you're talking about, oh, you're an entrepreneur. You keep your money. How can you teach us how to keep money in our community? Donald Trump's companies don't keep money in this country. Trump ties are made in China. Ivanka Trump, his daughter's getting all

of these deals and all of this. It's all a fraud. And so the pastor either fell for it or knew what he was doing but wanted to get this praise. Byron Donald shucking and jiving there as well. The media failed us. That church failed us. And I see you as the only person outside of Joanne Reed who's calling this out in terms of the media that I watched today. I know other people probably did, but these other mainstream media sources dropped the ball and by default are an extension of Trump and Kellyanne Conway's lies.

This all this man does is lie. He told some 30,000 lies, Jolanda, when he occupied the Oval Office and he will keep lying. Well, you know what? I'm not even going to go tit for tat with the lies, right? There are a number of things that just jumped

to my mind when I saw this story. One, why do black pastors allow them into our churches? I mean, I never... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Binge episodes 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 Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people 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. 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.

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 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. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things.

Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. See white folks bring us to their white churches and say, hey, these are good black people. It doesn't happen. So I'm trying to figure out. Well, well, well, you know, it all depends because, you know, Ed Young like magical Negroes. Well, I'm not talking about step and fetching Negroes. I'm not talking about the Clarence Thomas Negroes. I'm not talking about those Negroes. I'm talking about real black people. But I will say this. We can remember or we understand history—well, maybe not, because they took it out of schools—that

people who looked exactly like us on the continent sold us into slavery. They looked like us, and therefore we believed them. This is no different. This is a Stephen from Django Unchained person. Something else I want to say is that Trump should have been doing confession. He damn so shouldn't have been preaching at all. And some of the biggest devils are in church. I think this is a prime example of it. It makes me sad that religion has been the opium of us even to get through slavery, yet we're allowing our churches to be pimped.

When I looked at the black people in the church, I saw the girl with the big white ribbon. I mean, we don't wear stuff like that. I saw the lady with the, I almost felt like she had dipty-do, putting it on for the baby girls to lay down. I mean, they literally are stereotyping us. They're caricaturing us.

The black people that they had, the few black people that they had in that church looked like the people who they always put us on TV looking at. So I'm really sick of these step and fetching Negroes. And whenever Trump's mouth, his lips are moving or Kellyanne Conway's lips are moving, it's like, you know, they're lying whenever he says never or ever with no facts. He just lies. And my question is to us, to black people, this is for us. Are we going to just let him come in and like pee on us, tell us it's raining and us going to believe it? That's what I don't understand. But going back to what we talked about before, Roland, I really think it's important that the black media tell

the true story. And that costs money. I mean, they pay white media to do stuff and evil thrives when good people remain silent. So the white media not calling out the lies is a problem, which again is why I respect you so much because it takes courage to do right when it's so easy to do wrong and to speak truth to power. And you do that. And so for me, I'm just apart from I'm really pissed about the lies and the caricatures of us on what appears to be legitimate media, because a lot of us, we look at TV and if it's on TV, we think it's real. And I'm challenging everyone, all good, decent people to speak up and speak out. And I'm challenging the Biden administration to reach out to those of us who have our ears to the ground and who are literally talking to people locally so that we can tell the truth and speak truth to power.

Because as long as they're going with the headlines, Trump speaks at black church, that's BS. And again, I firmly believe this. I've said this long before I was on this particular segment of your show. Black churches need to stop opening their doors to white politicians. I believe we should treat them like they treat us. When they start opening their doors to us, and I mean people talking about real black problems and real black issues and saying, hey, this is a legitimate issue. This is a black person that's fighting for this. White people, please vote for them. When they do that to us, we need to do that. But we have far too many pastors in the black community is that they give us a shiny penny and we'll take it and we'll bring them around and we'll validate them. And I think we as black people, we've got to do better. We cannot wait on white people to save us.

We've absolutely got to save ourselves through black elected officials who are down with our communities, through black media, through black radio, through black newspapers, through black podcasts, through black campaign consultants, through black pollsters, through black organizations that fight for black people legitimately, because something else that the white media does not do, they don't poll us right. They are always wrong. They said the same stuff about President Obama. He was going to lose his reelection.

And they kept having these buffoons on TV talking to us saying, oh, he never did nothing for black people. And I'm trying to figure out, where you find this Negro? Because every black person I know understood that things were better. So they go and they find the least of us and they promote them. And then we listen. Y'all, everybody that's our skinfolk ain't our kinfolk. Well, and that's why, listen, I can't control what those folks do.

I've had people hit me up and say, man, I wish you won Urban View on Sirius XM, taking Joe Madison plays. I wish you on MSNBC. I say, yo, I can't book myself. If somebody calls me, I'll answer the call. But what I do know is there's going to be one place where between now and November, we're going to show you contrast. It's going to be one place where between now and November, we're going to show you contrast. It's going to be based upon facts. We're going to say this is what Biden Harris has done.

This is what Trump's proposing. This is what he did when he had the power. And so when this pastor here was talking about Trump's platinum plan, that was a fraudulent plan. It was totally fraudulent. Why? Because he threw it out there late October when he had three and a half years to do it. He had no intention. He had no intention of doing anything for black people. And then the fact of the matter is this here. He later complained about the First Step Act because he complained

and he's like, well, I shouldn't have done it if it wasn't going to get me black votes. Yeah. He did that. So we're going to do this here and we're going to keep informing our people and we're not going to fall for the okey-doke and we're going to let y'all know exactly what's important here

because every time this man lies, we're going to call his ass out. And every time somebody black allows this man to lie in their presence, we're going to call him out. That's why every time Senator Tim Scott lies about Trump and HBCU funding, I blast his ass. And if Byron Donalds and Burgess Owens and John James and Wesley Hunt or anybody else, black and conservative.

Because when my man Chris Messler was alive, people would tell Chris, I don't understand when you go on Roland's show, Roland don't be sitting here cutting you off, loud talking to you. And Chris said, because I don't lie like y'all do. He said, if you lie, he said, if you lie, said if you lie roly gonna cut you off and he's absolutely right we have got to expose these charlatans expose these liars every time and i can't wait for the pastor come on because i got a few questions for him like specifically why did he knowingly allow Donald Trump to lie in his church when it was easy to Google the facts? Jolanda, Julianne, Omicongo, I certainly appreciate y'all being on today's show. Thank you so very much, folks.

That is it for us. We got to go. Hey, if y'all miss Vice President Kamala Harris when she was speaking in Switzerland over the weekend, go to the Black Star Network app or go to our YouTube channel. We have it there as well. She also made some comments today regarding sexual violence. And so we live streamed that as well. So you definitely want to check that out. Support the work that we do, folks. Listen, look, we got to pay folk to do all this work around here. It ain't free. And so your support is crucially important for us doing the work that we actually do. So please join our Bring the Funk

fan club. I'm telling you, every dollar matters. The goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average. Pull the music down some. The goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing on average, 50 bucks each. That's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day. And I'm telling y'all,

look, we're fighting to get campaign money. We're fighting to get advertising money from these other companies. Billions are spent every single year. And trust me, we don't get our fair share in black owned media, but we still show up every day doing the work. So your support is crucial.

Send your checking money over to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 2003-7-0196, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, or Martin Unfiltered, Venmo is RM Unfiltered, Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Be sure to download the Black Star Network app,

Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, of the Browning of Americans, Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Folks, I'll see y'all tomorrow, right here on the Black Star Network.

Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch! 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. 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? We'll be right back. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org.

Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. 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 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 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 Lott. And this is Season 2 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 in 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. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.