#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Jan. 6th Hearing Recap, N.C. Racially Arson Attack, Ronald Greene's Mother & LA DOJ Probe

Episode Date: June 11, 2022

6.10.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Jan. 6th Hearing Recap, N.C. Racially Arson Attack, Ronald Greene's Mother & LA DOJ Probe #RMU  is coming to you live from Los Angeles at Attorney Ben Crump's Equal Justice Now Awards, We'll recap last night's primetime hearing on the January 6th insurrections with Melanie Campbell, the President, and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. The mother of Ronald Greene, the black man beaten by Louisiana State Troopers, will be here to tell us how she feels about the Department of Justice's investigation. A black North Carolina family says they are being racially targeted. Two homes belonging to the Judge family have burned down. We'll take to a family member and two of their homes.   We'll get one of the family member and their attorney. The Marines could be getting its first black four-star general. And Jamaicans are moving forward to oust the Queen of England as its head of state. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Să facem o p în următoarea mea rețetă. I'm real revolutionary right now. I support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. 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 scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? iPhone 13 on us for every customer. Current, new, everyone. To show the love. Friday, June 9, 2022. First of all, June 9, 2022. First of all, June 10, 2022.

I am broadcasting live from Los Angeles, where I am one of the honorees for the Equal Justice Now Awards. Partnering with Ben Crump. So looking forward to doing that later today. But let's get right to what we're breaking down on today's show on the Black Star Network, folks. Explosive, explosive testimony. And on Capitol Hill last night, primetime address, 20 million people watched it as Democrats and Republican leaders lay out the role that Donald Trump played in instigating, leading, insurrection, the attempted coup to overthrow the results of 2020 election. We're going to give you a breakdown of what took place and also break it down with our panel as well. The mother of Ronald Greene will join us to talk

about the Department of Justice launching their investigation into Louisiana State Police, of course, who tried to cover up the killing of her son. Also, a Black North Carolina family says they are being racially targeted. Two homes belonging to the Judge family have been burned down. We'll talk to a family member about that situation. Plus, Marines getting their first Black four-star general. And Jamaicans are moving forward with kicking Queen Elizabeth to the curb. She will no longer be the head of government for Jamaica. Folks, time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered, streaming live with Black Star Network. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the miss, 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 Roro, yo! Yeah! It's Rollin' Marten! Yeah! Yeah! Rollin' with Rollin' now! Yeah! He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's Rollin' Marten!

Now! Marten! I'm from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and lynching. I'm reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021. Over the next few weeks, hopefully you will get to know the other members, my colleagues up here, and me. We represent a diversity of communities from all over the United States, rural areas and cities, East Coast, West Coast, and the heartland. All of us have one thing in common.

We swore the same oath. That same oath that all members of Congress take upon taking office and afterwards every two years if they are reelected. We swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Folks, nearly 20 million people tuned in last night across various broadcasts and cable networks to watch the primetime hearing of the January 6th committee that has been investigating the attack on this country on January 6th, 2021. unmistakable in listening to Chair Benny Thompson of Mississippi, listening to Congresswoman Liz

Cheney from Wyoming, as they methodically laid out exactly what took place on January 6, 2021, who was at fault, and who specifically was the one who was leading this effort, and that was Donald Trump. Congressman Thompson said point blank that this was an attempted coup, an effort to stop a peaceful transition that has always been the hallmark of American democracy since its founding. Folks, again, so we should have another Congressman Thompson. All right, folks, we're going to play some more videos. So the committee also released new videos and evidence from the deadly Capitol assault. And roll that video, please. That was about a 10-minute video that they actually played that was unbelievable, that detailed exactly how crazy that day was. There was testimony from Capitol Hill police officers as well.

Roll that. For themselves. But it's going to happen. Something's going to happen. Who's streets? Our streets! Who's streets? Our streets!

Who's streets? We are the North Side! I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify. And we become president and you are the happiest people. Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesn't, that will be a sad day for our country. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. USA! USA! USA! USA!

Cruiser 50, it does look like we're going to have an ad hoc march stepping off here. There's a crowd surge heading east. We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump! Mike Pence, I hope you're gonna stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you're not, I'm gonna be very disappointed in you, I will tell you right now. USA! USA! USA!

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! You know. Get back ladies. He circle preach the line. We need backup. Madam Speaker, the Vice President and the United States Senate. We're going to give riot warning. We're going to get riot warning. This is the outriders here. We're going to get riot warning. We're going to try and get compliance, but this is now effectively a riot. 49 hours declaring it a riot.

5 to 50 B by the Capitol Police 1 advisor trying to breach and get to the Capitol. I copy. I copy. Hold the line! Hold the line! Hold the line. 42 we're about five weeks out. We're trying to make our way through all this. Go out! Go get your bro! Go out! Go get your bro! All the gas, though! Go! Go! Go! Go! We have a breach of the Capitol. Breach of the Capitol to the upper level. The advisory is requesting additional resources on the east side

as they've broken into that window and they're trying to kick it in. Without objection, the chair declares the House in recess pursuant to Clause 12B of Rule 1. My kids didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrective set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. The U.S. demands the truth. Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence!

Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence!

Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! Bring out Pence! $3.00 a pound, and they'll just fight for you? They have to pull it back. Get him out. Take him to your house. Take him back there. Watch for him! Our house! Whose house?

Our house! Whose house? Our house! Whose house? Our house! Whose house? Our house! R-M-E-O! R-M-E-O! R-M-E-O! Give your friend over there a hug.

That's right. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!

Let's go! Let's go! We can't hold this. We're going to get too many fucking people. Look at this fucking bandage. We're fucked. We need an area for the housing members. They're all walking over now through the tunnels. We're trying to hold the upper deck. We're trying to hold the upper deck. We're trying to hold the upper deck now. We need to hold the doors of the counter.

I need public support. We've lost the line. We've lost the line. OMPD, step back. OMPD, step back up to the upper deck. OMPD, step back to the upper deck ASAP. FANS SING Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! Nancy! In Jack's views of 50, he advised that Capitol Police

is going to start moving their resources inside. They're going to start the M4 officers first. H208 with four members, the doors barricade. There's people flooded the hallways outside. We have no way out. Advanced officers still remaining on the house floor, on the third floor, to use the subway themselves. It's time to evacuate so we can secure the members on the other side. Copy.

It's up to us people now, the American people. Stop the steal! I want to tell you we're ready to do it. One more time. I want to tell you we're ready to do it. And whatever it takes, I'll lay my life down if it takes. Absolutely. That's why we showed up today.

Stop the steal! Bring her out! Bring her out here! $1,000 a week? Hey! Boys, come on! We're coming in if you don't bring her out! Bring her out here! Hey! Boys, come on! We're coming in if you don't bring her out! Back up! Back up! You, fuck you, you son of a bitch!

Back up! You back up! You back up! I have myself on back now. Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him out!

Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him out! Get him up! Get him up!

Get him up! Get him up! Get him up! Get him up! Get him up! Get him up! Get him up! Get him up!

Get him up! Get him up! Get him up! They were peaceful people. These were great people. The crowd was unbelievable. And I mentioned the word love. The love in the air. I've never seen anything like it. Congresswoman Liz Cheney made it perfectly clear to Republicans that they must own their involvement in this attempted coup. In our country, we don't swear an oath to an individual or a political party. We take our oath to defend the United States Constitution.

And that oath must mean something. Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone but your dishonor will remain. And in the weeks to come you will see evidence of what motivated this violence, including directly from those who participated in this attack. You will see video of them explaining what caused them to do it. You will see their posts on social media.

We will show you what they have said in federal court. On this point, there is no room for debate. Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them, that the election was stolen and that he was the rightful president. President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. You will also hear about plots to commit seditious conspiracy on January 6th, a crime defined in our laws as conspiring to overthrow, put down, or destroy by force the government of the United States,

or to oppose by force the authority thereof. Multiple members of two groups, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, have been charged with this crime for their involvement in the events leading up to and on January 6th. Some have pled guilty. The attack on our Capitol was not a spontaneous riot. Intelligence available before January 6th identified plans to, quote, invade the Capitol, occupy the Capitol, and take other steps to halt Congress's count of electoral votes that day. In our hearings to come, we will identify elements of those plans, and we will show specifically how a group of Proud Boys led a mob into the Capitol building on January 6th. Tonight I am going to describe for you some of what our committee has learned and highlight initial findings

you will see this month in our hearings. As you hear this, all Americans should keep in fact in mind this fact. On the morning of January 6th, President Donald Trump's intention was to remain President of the United States despite the lawful outcome of the 2020 election and in violation of his constitutional obligation to relinquish power. Over multiple months Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power. In our hearings, you will see evidence of each element of this plan.

Today, while speaking about the economy in Los Angeles, President Joe Biden addressed last night's January 6th primetime hearing. PRESIDENT BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, The insurrection on January 6th was one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history, a brutal assault on our democracy, brutal attack on law enforcement, some losing their lives. And we heard about it last night again. It's important for the American people to understand what truly happened, and to

understand that the same forces that led January 6th remain at work today. It's about our democracy itself. We have to protect our democracy. I know it sounds corny to say it. We're all raised in a school of democracy. Every generation has to protect it. I have to admit to you, I never thought that it was going to be

this straightforward a challenge before. The rule of law matters in democracies, and we're seeing how the battle for the soul of America has been far from won. During last night's hearing, they showed text messages from Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Kayleigh McEnany, the former press secretary for Donald Trump.

That didn't sit too well with the folks at Fox. They, of course, didn't cover the hearing. And, in fact, today on Outnumbered, with Kayleigh as a co-host with Harris, Faulkner and others, they didn't even break up the hearing. But you call yourselves a so-called news organization and you completely ignore this huge story. By the way, 20 million people watched the hearing last night across the various networks. So the folks at Tennessee Hollow put this video together to show you the contrast

of the lies being told on Fox News and the reality that we heard last night in the here. Watch this. The dullest, the most boring. There's absolutely nothing, nothing new. Most of the footage we are about to play has never been seen. It is a made-for-TV smear campaign against President Trump. The judge evaluated the facts, and he reached the conclusion that President Trump's efforts to pressure Vice President Pence to act illegally by refusing to count electoral votes likely violated two federal criminal statutes.

There's no respect for truth. There was no insurrection. There was a riot, a small one, that got a little bit out of hand. Leaders on Capitol Hill begged the president for help, including Republican leader McCarthy, who was, quote, scared, and called multiple members of President Trump's family after he could not persuade the president himself. But this was not an insurrection. Whatever it takes, I'll lay my life down if it takes. Absolutely. That's why we showed up today.

The whole thing is insulting. In fact, it's deranged. And aware of the rioters' chance to hang Mike Pence, the president responded with this sentiment. Quote, maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence, quote, deserves it. Why didn't they lift a finger with all the intelligence they had ahead of time to protect the Capitol, to protect every elected official?

Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element of the United States government to instruct that the Capitol be defended. You might get an insurrection if you behave like that. Speaking of insurrection... This peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president, except one.

I absolutely love how those folks can just sit there and lie. And what an idiot Jason Whitlock is. I mean, first of all, you know you don't have any credibility if the one person you want to call for analysis about January 6th is Jason Whitlock, truly one of the dumbest people in America. Let's talk about this with Melanie Campbell. She's the president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation for Washington, D.C. Also joining us is Kelly Bethea, communications strategist, Michael Imhotep, host of the African

History Network, Terraine Bailey, attorney. Glad to have all four of you with us. Melanie, I want to start with you. We've laid this whole thing out. First of all, it was an incredible two-hour hearing. Just your assessment of what you heard and saw last night? Well, Roland, clearly, first of all, I think that, first of all, I want to give you a shout out. I heard you about getting that award. I want to stop before I don't get a chance. Well, well deserved. But at the end of the day, I think what was most riveting to me was actually the videos where you could really feel the riot, the insurrection. We saw tapes before and we thought we had seen the worst of it. in a very different way by the fact that the documentarian was able to actually to show that, and they were in the midst of the bowels of that riot. And it just did something to everyone that I spoke to said the same thing today. But I think what Congressman Thompson did with the hearing last night really just makes it clear.

Donald Trump is responsible for trying to overthrow the government of the United States so that he can stay in power. And also the teasers that let us know that more is coming for those congresspeople who of them, were definitely involved in it as well. We know about the Proud Boys and all of that, but there were also Congress people involved. to hear them say that Republican members of Congress sought out pardons for their actions on January 6th. They even named Congressman Scott Perry. He tweeted, oh, he never did such a thing. But for them to actually name check him says they've got the proof. They absolutely have the proof against every congressman who participated in any part of that insurrection, that attempted insurrection that day. What I find amazing is the ongoing attempt to gaslight America, and particularly when

you watch. I watched FOX News at the same time that I was watching the hearing, and it was like living in two alternate universes. And they clearly wanted to distract their viewership and say, this is not happening. Everything else is happening in the world. It's not real. What we're putting on Fox News right now is real. So they do have these congressmen. They have their staffers right where they want them. So they have enough evidence to go forward. It's clear that they are establishing that Donald Trump led this insurrection. He encouraged this insurrection with the assistance of many of the GOP leaders in D.C. And it's really sad that this is where we are as a country. Listening to this new footage, where you can actually hear the Capitol Police and their

commentary, and as they were observing it and experiencing it, it was heart-wrenching for them to understand that they knew they were outnumbered, but they still stood there and they did their jobs. It was amazing. Those are true American heroes. Kelly, Harry Dunn was one of the officers who has consistently spoken out. And here's what he had to say last night. Today just confirmed my opinions and my suspicions about what happened. It's no longer my opinion to say that Donald Trump did not help us. It's no longer my opinion that I didn't know that Mike Pence was mad at me bleeding and stopping. I didn't know that Mike Pence was mad at me for bleeding. Stop it. I didn't know that. So that just makes it even more detringent that help didn't come

because you got the number two person in the world saying stop it and number one is not. So that's just the way it is. His job is to protect this country and to protect us. And I just, this alternate reality Terrain talked about, Kelly, it's just amazing when these so-called people who always scream back to blue, hmm, where were y'all defending the cops on January 6th? We

see what's going on here, Kelly. They know what he was doing and they know that they were also complicit in this attempted coup. First and foremost, I just have to give a shout to Harry Dunn. He is actually a really

good friend of mine and when the insurrection happened, as someone who knew him as a friend, to know that he was in such danger that day scared me and our mutual friends endlessly. And every time we see that footage, all of us just get so angry on behalf of someone who is such a light to this world, both at his job and in his personal life. So I just wanted to say that on the record.

He's an amazing human being across the board. But that said, the vitriol that he has received, he and other police officers who have been speaking out at these hearings, the vitriol and the hatred that they have received, not just from the Republican Party, but, you know, dare I say, some people in their own ranks who just do not align themselves with just how grave and dangerous that day was. They are heroes in more ways than one. just how grave and dangerous that day was.

They are heroes in more ways than one. And the fact that they are going through this while commendable and heroic, it makes me so angry. The fact that even their brothers and sisters in blue on both ends of the aisle aren't necessarily as supportive as they could be. And I hope that not only the hearings that we are going to be seeing for the next couple of weeks, from my understanding, they're going to be telling the truth, right? But I'm just glad that it's not

just telling the truth to the world, but it's on the congressional record that what they went through was literally fighting treason. They were literally fighting domestic terrorists that day. So, again, shout out to them. Shout out to everybody who was on the front lines that day. from here on out is just a reflection of not only how good they are, but how corrupt and inept those who were there that day on the other side of history were. Michael, Trump's second attorney general, Bill Barr, testified before the committee, and they actually opened up the hearing with this comment from him that pretty much laid the groundwork for everything we heard over the next two hours.

No, just what I've been through. I've had three discussions with the president that I can recall. One was on November 23rd. One was on December 1st. And one was on December 14th. And I've been through sort of the give and take of those discussions. And in that context, I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting

out this stuff, which I told the president was bullshit. And you know, I didn't want to be a part of it, and that's one of the reasons that went into me deciding to leave when I did. I observed, I think it was on December 1st, that, you know, how can we, you can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that the election, that there was fraud in the election. I mean, Michael, by putting that out there first, this is the guy who did everything to protect Donald Trump with the Mueller report. And this this was important just to methodically lay the facts out.

Exactly, exactly. And keep in mind, Attorney General William Barr also resigned about a month before Trump left office as well. OK, and that was one of the reasons why, because he disagreed with Trump. You know, I watched the whole thing yesterday, Roland. I watched the hour of the preview on MSNBC. I watched the whole hearing. Then I watched the analysis afterwards. Yesterday was fantastic. Document documentarian Nick Quest did a fantastic job. I've been reading through articles about this and I knew that this was the type of information that was coming because I've been following the investigations they've been doing. There's been over a thousand people they've interviewed. They reviewed over one hundred forty thousand documents. So I wasn't pressing the committee. I knew this stuff was coming.

Now this coming Monday, they're going to break down, they're going to go through and systematically dissect the big lie. That's what's coming this Monday. So this was fantastic. A lot of new evidence came out, footage we had not seen before. People around Trump who told him, no,

you lost, you're lying, et cetera. Attorney General William Barr, we saw Ivanka Trump, and we saw that she believed William Barr. We saw Scott Perry pursuing a pardon. But also, they're inviting Scott Perry to come testify. They say, well, oh, if you disagree with our findings, you can come testify under oath. Chairman Benny Thompson was interviewed by Nicole Wallace today on Deadline White House. And she asked him, would you let

former President Trump come? He said, yeah, if he comes under oath, testifies that he can. But if he thinks he's going to purge it himself, he better think again. So this is fantastic. I love it. Seriously, I love it. And this reminds me, lastly, of the July 1863 New York City draft riot

during the Civil War, where working-class white men retaliated against the federal government because they were being drafted to fight in the Civil War. Many of them did not have the $300 to avoid being drafted. And they said, wait a second, you in the Civil War. Many of them did not have the $300 to avoid being drafted. And they said, wait a second, you said the Civil War was about keeping the Union together. This was after the

Emancipation Proclamation. They said, now you're talking about freeing the slaves. They retaliated and they attacked federal buildings. There were about 119 people killed, and they also attacked African Americans as well. This was a bloody riot, one of the worst riots in the history of this country.

This was before, of course, Tulsa Massacre, 1921. This is the New York City draft riot, 1863, during the Civil War. You know, Melody, to sit here and listen to people who say, oh, my God, the hearings were boring and they could have made it more compelling. I'm sorry. Everything literally is not a damn television show or a movie. I mean, what we're talking about here is. As Congressman Thompson said, this was an attempted coup.

And so I'm sorry we can't have a Michael Mann movie, you know, or a F. Gary Gray movie. This can't be Fast and Furious 19 or 11. This is real stuff. And the fact that 20 million people saw this and you can have others who are saying that, well, you know, we pretty much knew all this sort of stuff. No. I think there were people last night who

had to see the gravity of what took place. And I think with these hearings coming up, and I think every one of them should be in primetime. If the television networks, oh, we don't them should be in primetime. If the television networks, oh, we don't want it in primetime, damn your primetime shows. Put this in

primetime because American people need to sit at home and listen to this so they understand the evil that exists in the Republican Party because they continue to defend this big lie. Well, I tell you, last night my brother, who votes,

but he doesn't like to get that engaged on some of these things. Me and my brother sat here the entire two hours, and he was talking about it when I came home today. It's like people are paying... People who watched paid attention.

And I think next week, and I agree with you, they need to keep it on primetime, no matter what Fox News, because there's certain people who go, no matter what happens, those aren't the people that's going to ever own it, because they have a different mindset about what it's about in the first place. Anything's going to keep

white people on the top of the heap. And so Donald Trump fits that bill. So it doesn't matter to them what happens. But the American people have to know, and those who say that they support the blue, really, this is how you support the blue. And then you're going to, you're going to let Congress people, uh, you have an opportunity to find out where people stood on whether or not they believe in this democracy that you all say you love so much when you're flying flying the flag and taking people out like Kaepernick because he took a knee. So how patriotic are you really when you say you love this country?

Because if you love this country, then what happened on January 6th, then you're going to show it also at the ballot box and who you decide you want to bring back to Congress in 2023. And the thing here, Terrain, again, what we heard were folks who are breaking the law. We heard them lay out perjury. We heard some serious, serious charges. And the thing that I keep reminding people, that the individuals in the Republican Party who were involved in this, they are still in office. If they win the House in November, they're not in power. And so that's why also these hearings are important, because we need to know exactly who the evil perpetrators are. You're absolutely correct. If the Republicans take the House in the fall,

then they are in office. And I hope, I believe that that's the goal of these hearings, is to inform the electorate of what really happened. But, Roland, the reality of it is there are just people in this country who choose not to see what is in their face. They choose to believe in an America that existed long before we were born. They want to go back to making America great again. Well, it hasn't been great for us as African Americans, as people of color, very long, even if it is at all now. And they want to go back there, and they support anyone

who's willing to let them hold their position that America was previously great in the way it is now. They believe that Black people and people of color are taking over. But, yes, we need to be really concerned that we potentially have criminals who are going to be leading our country and leading our House of Representatives. We need to be gravely concerned about that. And I believe that what the House is trying to do now is to set it up so that before the elections, people can make an informed decision, that some of these people can be disqualified for running.

But the Republicans will do anything to regain their position in the House and to stay in power. That's the sad reality. You know, Kelly, again, as I just sat there and I listened and saw the video and heard the testimony, you know, all I could think about were the constant lies that we kept hearing coming from the White House. And as they laid out what they're going to, you know, unfold in the next hearings, it's going to make it perfectly plain. And I tweeted this and I said, we should never forget that when the Ari Fleishers of the world wrote a column expressing why he supported Donald Trump in 2020, when Governor Chris Christie, when Jack Nicklaus, when Geraldo Rivera, when James Baker, when all these Republicans stood by this man, they were supporting this. This is the same man before January 6 and after January 6. And the Republican Party is in lockstep with him. And so this, to me, these hearings, it is drawing a line. And it's going to expose anybody to say, if you still stand with this man, you are absolutely on the side of evil and not on America.

You are not a patriot. It is not about principle. You don't have morals or values. If anybody after this stands with Donald Trump or any Republican who defends this crap, then we should

make sure none of them ever see the light of day when it comes to public office. I couldn't agree with you more. This hearing, for me, is really just a revelation, so to speak. It is literally shedding light on the shadows that we knew existed corruption and all of the cronyism and all of the ineptitude that was the Trump administration. What I appreciate the most about these hearings is the fact that, like you said, everything's laid out on the table now, and you will not have a choice but to be on one side of history or the other. You're either going to align yourself

with domestic terrorists or you're not. You're either going to align yourself with the cult leader or you're not. And right now, what we're seeing in the footage of people like Bill Barr and the others that we saw last night, it's, yeah, I'm following a cult leader, but here's why. And they're trying to mitigate or really just straddle that line. We cannot afford any more line straddlers now. The Republican Party is already in the realm of cult-like mentality. So again, either you're going to align yourself with this or you're not. And what the hearing is doing is showing you exactly who's on the right side of history.

You are seeing who in the Trump administration and others are going to be considered domestic terrorists and who are actually going to be considered patriots. Now, the American people can do with that what they will. Hopefully they open their eyes to the crap that we've been going through. But at least now it's on the record, at least now it will be nothing but willful ignorance

from here on out. You cannot say that you didn't know because it's been in your face now this entire time. And that's it, Michael. I mean, there are no more excuses. And this is where we get to say, who are you with? Who are you with?

Because if you continue, when the Jim Jordans of the world and Kevin McCarthy keeps saying, oh, this committee, they're illegal. See, that's all hype. No, no. You now have to explain away, Kevin McCarthy, the video of your staff scurrying out of the office as they were coming. So you call the committee illegal, yet your staff was scared for their lives on that same day? In fact, if I'm with his staff, I could not work for that man after what he has been doing, trying to discredit this hearing. I mean, let's talk about this committee.

Well, you know, Kevin McCarthy was calling the White House trying to get Trump to call off his goons, trying to get Trump to call off his domestic terrorists. This is how spineless these Republicans are. These these are traitors. This is how this is how spineless these people are. And this is it. This is an example of how elections have consequences, because the reason why Benny Thompson is chairman of that committee is because people went out and voted, especially African-Americans, and Democrats have control of the House. Now, also, when you talk about these traitors, Republicans, we have to keep in mind, when we look at how they vote, they consistently vote against our own interests. And just a couple of weeks ago, all the Republicans,

except for one, Adam Kissinger, all of them voted against the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act in the House of Representatives. I wonder why. Because you know if the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act passes and 47 Republicans in the Senate vote against it as well, you know that was going to specifically target domestic terrorists, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists, and they know their asses will be busted. This is why every last one of those traitors, keep in mind, 147 of those

traitors voted not to certify the 2020 presidential elections. 139 in the House, and I think it was eight in the Senate. All those traitors have to be dealt with. All of them have to be voted out of office, and then hopefully they'll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And, you know, treason is defined by Article three, second three of the U.S. Constitution.

And we know what the penalty for treason is also. Melanie, a final comment on this topic here. There were a number of conservatives, Republicans who tried to yesterday and today, oh, it's about inflation. And, yes, the report came out showing what inflation is, saying that's the only thing people are going to be focused on in November. I disagree. I disagree. I think people are going to be voting on this issue. I think they're definitely going to be voting on the issue of guns. They're going to be voting on the issue of rolling. They're going to be voting on the issue of Roe v. Wade, depending upon what the Supreme Court decision is. And so the economy certainly is a critical issue. But I think what this hearing, when all these

hearings have run its course, it is going to be damning for the entire Republican Party. I agree, Roland. I think what's going to be important for us over this summer is to keep our people focused and getting all that information and connecting the dots, that we do have the power to change this. With all of the things that are coming at us, we still have the power, and we cannot relinquish it. And we have to challenge our friends in the progressive movement to put resources in place now. They're going to put that weight on us to try to save America once again. Take care and get busy now. You cannot

turn this around in 60 days. Come September, talk about, oh, it's time. Oh, my God, we're in trouble. No. Now is the time so people can connect those dots. And I'm with you and everyone on this show. The bottom line is that the same people who don't want voting rights, the same people who don't

want women to have a right to control our own bodies, same people who were trying to make sure that we can't even talk about Black history in the schools, the same people who were okay with what happened on January the 6th, and more. And they'll say people who won't pass common-sense gun safety in this country. Because at the end of the day,

it's all tied back to white nationalism. And that this, the browning of America, the blackening of America has had some folks will do anything, including destroying this democracy in order for them to stay in what quote unquote control.

Well, again, I look forward to these hearings and we certainly hope people continue to pay attention because democracy is certainly at stake. Melanie Campbell, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, Roland. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, other top stories that we're looking at, yes, the issue of the economy, inflation is one of those also. Another child laid to rest in Uvalde, Texas. We'll tell you about that. As well as a North Carolina family that was the target of arson. We'll talk to one of those family members. Folks, you want to support us in what we do? Please download the Black Start Network app. It's available on all platforms. Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, and Samsung Smart TV.

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to the coal fields of Appalachia or West Virginia. We are the 140 million poor and low wealth people in this country. And we are building the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival. On June 18th, ahead of this year's midterm elections, while the Congress is still in session, we will hold a mass poor people's and low-wage workers assembly and moral march on Washington to arrest the attention of the nation, to put a face and a voice on poverty

and low wages in this country. This is a watershed moment for justice and democracy in America. There are those who say that transformative change isn't possible, but history teaches us that it is precisely in times like these that people must build a broad and deep movement from the bottom up. We must compel this nation to repent, to lament,

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and for years to come. Because the question should have never been, how much will it cost to address poverty? The real question is, how much is it costing us not to? Somebody's been hurting our people. It's gone on far too long. And we won't be silent or unseen anymore. Join us in D.C. on June 18th. Build with us for a

third reconstruction in America. Visit poorpeoplescampaign.org. How about sushi? I just had sushi for lunch yesterday. How about tacos? I just had sushi for lunch yesterday. How about tacos? Automatic emergency braking. One of six advanced safety features standard on every 2022 Chevy Equinox. Find new technology.

Find new roads. Chevrolet. I'm Angie Stone. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Oh, Roland. Hey, Roland. I am so disappointed that you are not here, first of all. Where's our dance?

It's like we get a dance in every time I see you. And so now you're not here for me to dance with, sir. You and your ascot. I need it. I need that in my life right now. OK. I love you, Roland. What's up?

I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. A black family in North Carolina has to rebuild two of their homes that were destroyed by arson. The Judge family, very much involved in community service and social activism in Dublin County, believe they are being targeted because of their race. We're joined now by Beverly Judd and Amy Durant from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. They both join us from North Carolina. Glad to have you here. So, Beverly, first of all, tell us what happened. These homes, when did it take place, and so what's going on?

Well, on January the 26th, I was asleep, and it was approximately 2.45 in the morning. I was awakened by the sound of loud crackling and realized that I was in the home alone, because quite often my grandkids or my kids are there with me. And I ran to the kitchen window where I saw blazes. My 66 Mustang was on fire under the carport. I ran out of the carport, and as soon as I had cleared the carport and made it to the end of the driveway, it was another explosion, which was the van that was under the carport. And the house just began to

engulf in flames from the kitchen on. But it took a while. It burned for a long time. I called 9-1-1, called the fire department, and that house burned for many hours, at least over seven hours. And has it been declared that it's arson? Oh, dear. It was declared as arson that night. Any leads from police? Anything in particular why your family has been targeted this way? Well, we've been asked numerous questions, but we haven't received any leads as of yet. We haven't received a lot of information from the police. We have been asked different questions, and every time there's a press conference,

interestingly enough, I get calls then expressing their concern, but as of yet, it seems like the investigation has basically gone cold. And at later date, my daughters,

I moved all my things, the little things that were left that I had in the house, into my daughter's home. And a couple of months later, it was almost like a repeat. Her house was torched. Her vehicles were torched. However, the response was quite different. The house was put out expeditiously. However, the response was quite different.

The house was put out expeditiously, and the children were in the home asleep just like I was asleep, and my daughter was in the home asleep just as I was asleep. However, they were, they got out just as I did, but they were met with a lot more compassion, and the fire was put out much quicker. Amy, what do you think is going on here? Well, I think it's clear that the family is being targeted and we don't know why yet. We wish we had more information at this point. But the stories that I've heard about the law enforcement reaction in Dublin County have been very concerning, to say the least.

Now, as Beverly mentioned, the reaction in Jacksonville has been slightly different, and there are now more eyes on the situation. So if the same person is responsible, which we believe the same person is responsible for both arsons, then hopefully we can get some more information now. What do you hope, what role can the public play in this? My hope, sorry, go ahead, Beverly. Well, I just want people to start speaking up. I don't want this hate tactic to bring a fear that will keep people from speaking up and telling their stories and what's going on because it has to change.

I don't want them to be riddled with fear. I plan to move back to the property and I want to feel safe. And I want the people who live in that county to be able to feel safe instead of to go through the torture that I went of hours and hours of watching my house burn and my mother's house burn, my family's house burn to the ground. Amy, go ahead. I completely agree with what Beverly had to say. And I'll also add that the Southern Coalition for Social Justice has been working very closely with local NAACP leaders on this and that NAACP leaders have heard from other community members that other black families in Dublin County have experienced, not to the extent that the Judge family has, but has experienced similar responses from law enforcement when they've been the victims of crime. All right, then. If people have any information or if they can assist,

is there a website? Is there anything set up there, Rebecca? Rami? Yes, there is a website. So our website, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, has a section that's dedicated to this issue. So they can go to our website. Beverly, is there anything you'd like to add to that? I would just like to encourage people to speak up and to know that we are, in fact, going to rebuild. And I appreciate the support of the churches and the community that have been supportive to us. And to know that we are appreciative to them and that we're going to help to build economic strength in our community and help our other neighbors that are supportive and that want to feel protected. We are fighting for you as well

as you are fighting for us and our support. And there are two GoFundMes. There's one for my home and my mother's home, family home. And there's also one for Aisha Bullock, my daughter's home. And that will be listed. I'm sure Amy can give information on that as well that people can reach out and support. And I'd like to thank all of those that have supported with us thus far.

All right then. Beverly and Amy, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. You know, Terraine, what this story underscores is what continues to happen to African Americans in this country. When the Senate, when Rand Paul was holding up the anti-lynching bill, part of that is because the Republicans who did not want the notion of hate crimes to be expanded. And a lot of people, especially people out here running their mouths saying, oh, we don't have any, you know, anti-black, you know, we don't have any legislation to protect black folks.

Well, the James Byrd Act actually is part of that. Again, what happened after Buffalo was a domestic terrorism bill passed in the House. It's being stalled in the Senate. So you actually have those things there. But that's why the anti-lynching bill is important because, again, things like this, hate crimes fall underneath those bills. Absolutely. All hate crimes, domestic terrorism will fall under this bill. But that's not what certain people in our country want to happen. They don't believe that this is a real issue. They believe that these are isolated incidents involving people of color and our

families. But they are very real. Our families are being targeted, and we don't have the laws that are strong enough to really protect them. By enacting these type of laws, that would mean that our police, that our government would actually have to take some of these right nationalist organizations on. And I don't think I mean, I dare to say there have been cases where it's been determined that some of the local police officers are members of these organizations, so they would be actually acting against their own interests. So, until we get to the root of the issues inside our police department, inside our elected officials, we're not going to get the legislation that we need to protect Black families.

And that's, again, it just is sad. This is where we are in this country. January 6 and then bringing it back here with this, when people are voting for elected officials, elected officials who are going to look out for our communities, whether you're Black, brown, white, and making decisions about anti-lynching, about domestic terrorism, we're not asking you to fall in love with these candidates. So we're asking you to make decisions that show your compassion and your hope and dreams for this country. And that's not what's happening. And until people take a real look at that, we're not going to move the needle here. And it is about having more courageous conversations with our friends and our neighbors. I have a good friend here in Denver, Colorado, Regina Jackson,

and she and one of her friends, they have this program called Race to Dinner, where they invite white women to host dinner parties with their other white conservative friends, and they seriously drill down. And that's what it's going to take is having these real courageous conversations so that we can get this legislation that we need to protect our families. And, Michael, again, when we talk about, you know, why you have to have legislation, you have the legislation. This is where law enforcement must do its job to find out who these perpetrators are. Absolutely. You know, reading about this, Dublin County is appears to be a county of about 50,000 residents, 51 percent white. The hog farming is the dominant industry. And I wanted to know, maybe you can answer this, Roland, the home,

I think it was Rebecca's home, Beverly, I think it was Beverly's home. It was on 20 acres of land. Was that farmland or was that an estate? Would you happen to know? Not sure. Okay. The other thing, so yeah, you know, this is reminiscent, man, of African-Americans who become prosperous and their homes burned down, their land burned down. This is one of the reasons why some of us left the South during the Great Migration. But the other thing, just to go back to what you were talking about, the hate crimes bill and James Shepard bill, I mean, yeah, 2009, which is signed into law by James Burr. Yeah, that was James Burr and Matthew Shepard bill, I mean, yeah, 2009, which is signed into law by James Burr. Yeah, that was the James Burr and Matthew Shepard bill. James Burr and Matthew Shepard. James Burr and Matthew Shepard.

For African-Americans who say we don't have a hate crimes bill, it's important for you to understand that the first hate crimes bill signed into law in the history of this country was in 1968. It was signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. It was part of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. It came as a result of the Civil Rights Movement and was largely for African Americans. If you go to justice.gov, which is the official website of the Department of Justice, and search for hate crimes,

they've got the documentation there. The first hate crimes bill was largely for African-Americans. This is what happens when you don't understand history. And you say stupid-ass nonsense like, oh, the Asians got a hate crimes bill, because you don't read. And then also, the Department of Justice was created in 1870 during Reconstruction, largely to enforce the new rights for African-Americans. So we've got to study history and law. Indeed. Kelly, when we talk about this case,

as they are investigating for arson, when we talk about, again, other incidents that have happened, for all the people out there who keep saying, oh, no, we don't see this race stuff. Yeah, we do. Y'all don't. And this still speaks to how blind many people are to the realities of what it means to be Black in America.

And it's frustrating, right? Because they don't see it because, frankly, it is a privilege to not have to see it. If you aren't able to see the racism that's going on in this country, in my humble opinion, it's because you choose not to, because it is obvious. And the fact that you don't see it in itself is a privilege. But incidents like this really frustrate me and I'm sure everyone else, but the bar for what constitutes a hate crime is so incredibly high that even when it's obvious, you still have to jump through God knows how many hoops in order for it to be considered a hate crime bills have been in existence, right? Because of the racism in this country, they want the scrutiny to be so high so you can get away with more crap.

And it reminds me of a couple years ago here in the DMV, Maryland specifically, a Bowie State senior, he was going to graduate, what, three days after he died. He was stabbed to death by a racist. And if I'm not mistaken, the murderer in that case was not charged with a hate crime. Or they tried to charge him and it didn't stick because of the level of scrutiny it took to prove that he was racist in the course of murdering this young black man. Even though his Facebook was full of racial rhetoric and he was joining groups that were centered on white supremacy and the

like. But because he didn't call him an N-word as he was stabbing him all of a sudden and it was just a simple murder, that makes no sense, right? And until we have laws on the books that do not involve you having to say the N-word to somebody in the commission of such an act, we're going to keep having to deal with crimes that, frankly, should be given higher levels of punishment, but they aren't because racists don't know when they're being racist. And the people who aren't being, quote unquote, racist choose not to see racism. And that's the frustration that we deal with. All right, folks. Got to go to a break. When we come back, we'll talk with the mother of Ronald Greene to get her thoughts on the Department of Justice's decision yesterday announcing

the investigation of the entire Louisiana State Troopers organization that has been rampant with significant problems for the last several years, but especially as it relates to the case that deals with her son. That is next on Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasted live here in Los Angeles. We'll be right back on The Black Star Network. Verizon just gave us all a brand new iPhone 13. We've been customers for years. I thought new phones were for new customers. We got iPhone 13s to switch to Verizon two minutes ago.

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I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Louisiana State Police are now being investigated by the Department of Justice due to numerous cases of excessive force against Black men.

One of those cases that has gotten lots of attention the last three years is that of Ronald Green. He died at the hands of Louisiana State Police in 2019. Now, they initially claimed that he was killed in a car accident, but we later found out that that was not the case, and they were lying throughout. You had cover-up, cover-up after cover-up by higher-ups in Louisiana State Police, and there were numerous calls after protests, and the DOJ yesterday decided they are going to investigate Louisiana State Police. Ronald Reagan's mother, Mona Hartin, joins me from Orlando, glad to have you here. Let's talk about, you know, at the White House a couple weeks ago,

the signing of the executive orders dealing with police reform. That still wasn't enough because, of course, many people still want the George Floyd Justice Act. And this this is a perfect example of how police will protect themselves. They will lie. They will make things up as opposed to being honest about the truth. Yes, and I thank you. What's been happening is just like you said. It can't get any more clear than what it is.

We've come this far and my family is one of thousands who are waiting for a voice and opportunity. What's been happening, we've been waiting forever for it. I can't say enough that as long as we keep traction and the momentum, it's what we all just pray for. Someone to just listen to us. I can't even believe that we have to keep shouting, we have to keep talking, and keep the noise up to recognize the killing, the genocide that's been going on throughout the United States. It angers me to speak on this level.

What does it take to recognize the murder of a man? Any other time you recognize what's going on out there, but why is it that you have deaf ears and blind eyes to the killings of Black and brown communities? It angers me. The DOJ announcement yesterday, there were numerous organizations that have been pushing this, pushing for this, and pushing for this. And just your initial reaction once the DOJ notified you and others that they were actually going to finally do this. I was all over the place. Emotionally, I was all over the place. I was so damn happy. I was on cloud nine. And all I can say is, please don't drop the ball here. Our family's been waiting on this. Do a good job. Please be of integrity. Just move forward.

Let's keep doing this. I'm just so elated. I'm so happy. And in the same breath, I'm like, please don't drop the ball. There shouldn't be any more ifs. We need to recognize what's going on and let's fix this. This is the one chance that Louisiana has to clean its act up. The dismantling needs to be done. There's no other way of sugarcoating what's going on. Terrain, this is precisely why African-Americans have always looked to the federal government, because we've not been able to trust that the state is going to do what is right and just. Absolutely. Families and our communities, if it wasn't for the federal government, we wouldn't have these investigations. Consistently, time and time again, local governments look at their own, and then they declare no harm, no foul. The

officers were active within the scope of their duties. It's not until the feds get involved that we have an opportunity to really drill down and see what's going on. I mean, we saw what happened in Savannah, well, down in Georgia with Ahmaud Arbery. The local DA said, no harm, no foul. There was no crime here. And then the feds started looking, other people outside of the town started looking, and absolutely a jury came back and found those men guilty. So I'm pretty ecstatic for the Green family that they will have the opportunity to have someone look at what happened here with Ronald Greene and then try to make some systemic changes to address the racism and the brutality that people

have been enduring at the hands of Louisiana police officers. I mean, if you take a random traffic stop, you know, we all have the opportunity, you know, have the opportunity, I don't mean, you know, speed, run, you know, run through a stop sign or do a California stop. That should not result in someone's death. There is no reason. So, hopefully, this investigation will lead to new change in Louisiana. But my question is, how many investigations do we have to have in this country at the federal level before we make widespread change in our police department, beginning at the federal level, where our Congress does something that says, OK, this is a

problem that we have to address because we have investigation after investigation, but we still have more dead bodies. Yes. And Mona, on that particular point, that's what really just, I mean, they just straight lied as to what happened. I mean, they just, just, how do you go from, oh, it was a car accident to being viciously beaten? Exactly. That's what we've said. We screened it at the top of our lungs. You see it.

When I first saw the video of my son, I saw. They meant to kill him. For whatever reason, my son wasn't going to walk away. I said that at the very beginning. And it's something that I can't take. When I see my son, I wanted to see my son take his last breath. And the fact that I saw they had no mercy on him. And my son wasn't that type of a man. The fact that I saw they had no mercy on him. My son wasn't that type of a man.

He cared for no matter what. No matter what. All I can say is God's got my son. God's got my son. How they took him and how brutal they were. What makes me move forward is just knowing that he's with the Lord. And I have to think like that. I have to. But for what I'm doing here, there's no stopping. And I cannot sleep until I have justice on those that put their hands on my son and the cover up. It's just like you said, there's no other way you can paint this picture. You can't sugarcoat it.

It shouldn't be sugarcoated. You shouldn't have to go through it piece by piece, cancel it. Just because there's a cover up here. There's a damn cover up. And every damn piece of it needs to be revealed. People need to pay. And until you make an example of those who has condoned this and continues to condone it,

because it didn't start with Ronnie and it's been going on since Ronnie. And it's a shame that if we don't keep up the noise, they will squash it. That's the sad part. Everybody can go to the— Michael, I was—right. Michael, I was downstairs. I was getting something to eat, and Ben Crump and some other attorneys stopped by, and we were talking and we talked about the second degree

murder charge placed yesterday in Grand Rapids. And Ben said people need to understand public pressure made that happen. Yes. The reason the Department of Justice

moved yesterday was because of public pressure. It was the protest there in St. Capitol in Baton Rouge. It was a protest in other places in Louisiana. It was Mona and the attorneys coming on this show and others. That's what it took. It took all of that energy for this to actually happen. Exactly, exactly, Roland.

And first of all, you know, Sister Mona, my condolences to you and your family. I hope you get full justice. I hope the officers are prosecuted to the fullest, extending the law and found guilty if the evidence proves that, which it looks like it does. Yeah, Roland, I watched the press conference yesterday. I knew charges were coming, second degree murder charges, I knew charges were coming. And yes, the protests are part of it. The other part of it is voting the right people in the office to act so you can push them to do the right thing. That's the other part of it. Okay. This Department of Justice here is much different than the Donald Trump Department of Justice. Okay. Department of Justice under Mary Gar here is much different than the Donald Trump Department of Justice. OK, Department of Justice under Mary Garland, much different than the Department of Justice of the Jefferson Board of Guard Sessions,

the third who backed off of holding police accountable, who backed off of doing the investigations into the patterns or practices of police departments. This elections have consequences. So protests are part of it. And put in voting and putting the right people in office and putting pressure on them is the other part of it as well, holding them accountable. Indeed. And, Marlon, when you were talking about the cover-up, I mean, we're talking about superiors. I mean, this thing went up the chain of command, and the lies just escalated as it continued. And now because of the DOJ, they're not just coming in looking at the Ronald Green case. They now have the capacity to look at any number of cases that stretch back

years dealing with Louisiana State Police. Yes. It's a shame we have to shine it at such magnitude, but it's a good thing because you're going to dig up the dirt. You're going to dig up the filth that they were good. They went to bed night after night knowing that these, what was allowed, what was condoned, these killings, these news stations, where would we be? Why do we have to go through such magnitude in order to process killers?

Condemn, stay paid with tax dollar money, killers. Why do we have to go through this? The dismantling is so huge, but it needs to be done. And, Kelly, the governor is going to be testifying publicly about his knowledge of this case as well, because previous reporting showed that he got a call that night about what happened. And for the longest, they acted as if none of these things happened. This is why the investigation is needed, because people have to have trust. And look, law enforcement can't keep telling us,

trust us if you keep doing stuff that says we can't trust you. Yeah, with stories like this, first and foremost, Sister Mona, you have my sincerest condolences because no mother should be experiencing the loss of her child, especially in this manner. With that said, it is, we are coming into a reckoning with our relationship with law enforcement in that constituents and civilians are finally realizing the power that we have as constituents and civilians, and that law enforcement does not have all the power here. And it is because of activists like Mona and other mothers of the movement that we are finally able to, you know, pull back the curtain that has divided law enforcement from regular people for so long that they've been able to get away with any and everything. But now because of people like that, we are able to finally not only hold them

accountable, but actually have a semblance of justice in the matter and get justice for these victims of people, Black people, who were subjected to the worst type of abuse of power in that these officers were made to, were supposed to be serving and protecting, but because of the history of law enforcement in this country, that didn't apply to Black people. So finally, we are now at a point in our history where we can actually make it apply to everyone equally and equitably. Mona, final comment. I go through this on the shoulders of everyone who's been here with my family, the good Lord, my Ronnie, all the activists, for everyone who's been here, who knows the struggle, all the families that I've come to meet, love, respect. There's so many out here. All I can say is keep

pushing, keep your family, your loved ones' names out there. Do not stop. Make those calls to the DOJ. Make those calls. And I will send out the email and the phone numbers so that these families can have their voices and their family members out there. All I can say is please don't drop the ball. For those who are investigating this, you have a chance to fix this. Don't miss the opportunity. Thank you. Mona Hartman, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for always joining us. And we're going to ride this one out to the conclusion. Thank you. Thank you all so much. And I got to say one thing. I look forward to what Governor Edwards is going to say when his hearing comes up. And hopefully he won't say, I can't speak on that because of the investigation, the ongoing investigation. I hope that does not come next.

Well, we all look forward to hearing what he has to say. Mona Hart, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot for joining us. Thank you. Folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk inflation, the economy. What can Dems say or do to get people to understand what is happening? Are Republicans going to ride this to a huge wave election in November?

We'll discuss that next right here on Roller Martin on Filter on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, folks, if you're on YouTube and Facebook, hit that like button. We want to hit 1,000 likes on YouTube. Let's go. There's way more of y'all watching right now. We should easily,

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I'll be right back from Los Angeles. CLOSED CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY W-K-N-O, MEMPHIS. Get your freak on, get your freak on, get your freak on, get your freak on, get your freak on. A powerful movement is rising across America. From the Mississippi Delta to the Apache stronghold. From the homeless encampments of Washington State to the coal fields of Appalachia or West Virginia. We are the 140 million poor and low-wealth people in this country, and we are building the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival. On June 18th, ahead of this year's midterm elections, while the Congress is still

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in this year's election and for years to come. Because the question should have never been, how much will it cost to address poverty? The real question is, how much is it costing us not to? Somebody's been hurting our people. It's gone on far too long. And we won't be silent or unseen anymore. Join us in D.C. on June 18th.

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some of the artists that have dominated the genre for the last three decades. R&B has birthed many forms such as neo-soul, new funk, alternative R&B, and afro swing. How about sushi? I just had sushi for lunch yesterday. How about tacos? Automatic emergency braking, One of six advanced safety features standard on every 2022 Chevy Equinox. Find new technology. Find new roads. Chevrolet. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Aaron Morrison was last seen riding his black bike in Hampton, Virginia on June 8th.

The 14-year-old is 6 feet 1 inches tall, weighs 220 pounds, black hair and brown eyes. Aaron has a circular scar on the left side of his head. Anyone with information about Aaron Morrison should call the Hampton, Virginia Police Department at 757-727-6111, 757-727-6111. Now, we are all feeling the effects of the economy in our wallets, not just gas prices but food prices and any number of things. The Consumer Price Index reached a 40-year high, jumping to 8.6% in May from April's 8.3%. Economists expected an 8.3% annualized increase in May, from April's 8.3 percent. The economy is expected an 8.3 percent annualized increase in May. Now, among the factors for the significant hike, filling up the tank,

the national average for gasoline, self-serve regular gasoline, is nearly $4.99, according to AAA. It's almost $2 more than last year. Now, one of the things here, Kelly, Michael, and Terrain, that when we're talking about the economy, it's amazing. First of all, it's just amazing how Democrats have done an awful job in even explaining all of this. So here's a perfect example. All these people are going, oh, my God, gas prices are just too high. Do something about it. Well, this is what everybody forgets.

We weren't driving in 2020. We weren't driving in 2021. So the oil companies literally stopped production of oil. 800,000 barrels a day. They stopped production because we had a surplus. Well, guess what? All of a sudden, COVID restrictions get lifted. Folks are driving more. What was a surplus now becomes a deficit. Now, guess what? Supply and demand. Prices go up. I mean, we can say the same thing across the board. You cannot have a worldwide pandemic for two years and the supply chain gets completely decimated and not think you're not going to feel something on the other end.

That's really what we are dealing with right now, Michael. And frankly, you know, when Biden talks about, well, gas prices, he blames it on Putin. You can't just blame it on Putin because you have to also look at the lack of production because of the lack of demand in 2020 and 2021. Absolutely. You have to you have to narrate the story. You have to go chronologically. The war in Ukraine, definitely part of it. But if you go back, if I remember correctly, at the height of the pandemic, when very few people were driving, the oil companies were losing money because the cost of a barrel of oil dropped so low. OK, so that's not talked about. So you have to put all that in perspective.

Remind people about that, because a lot of people don't follow this every day. They just look at the price of gas and they say, oh, is is Biden's fault or things like this? You know. So, yeah, you have to do that. And then also, you know, we're going to see the price of food continue to increase because we see that Russia is keeping wheat exports from—well, they're taking control of wheat exports from Ukraine. That's going to cause a problem also and a shortage of wheat as well. And then you have African countries. Putin just met with some leaders of African countries, and they were talking about—the African countries are talking about the hunger that the lack of wheat and other products, the impact that's having on Africa. So this is global. OK. Inflation is global. The supply chain issues are global. Biden and the White House. OK. The people who work for the White House communications staff, they have to do a better job of narrating this story as well. Maybe they need to hire the documentarian for the January 6th committee to do a video about this as well. No, no, no, no.

Narrating. This is, this terrain is what, again, what Joe Madsen almost said, you got to put away what folks can get. You have to understand, and you have to talk in a way and walk folks through this. I mean, they certainly need a Bill Nye of economics who is doing this. And look, so yes, the unemployment rate is low, but when you have the dramatic increase

in prices, well, your money, your stuff is costing more. I mean, look, we talked about the baby formula shortage. Right now, there's a tampon shortage in America. Yes. I mean, that's, damn, Kelly

Kelly's like, damn, he right. Yes, I read. And here's the crazy part. Yes, I read. And here's the crazy part. Yes, I read everything, baby. So here's the crazy part. Yes, I read everything. Here's the crazy part. Again, you go back to supply chain. And here's the other thing, Trey.

Companies lost a ton of money in 2020 and 2021. They trying to make that money back. I mean, everyone understands how much, well, should understand how much companies lost. We shut down our gas stations. People were not really driving. So I remember paying a dollar

or something like that for gas one day in Georgia. And I was like, okay, this is awesome. However, I mean, the thing we consumed the most was food and internet services and electricity. But the reality is our everyday lives significantly changed. And so most business owners understand that once the supply chain broke down with COVID, because globally people were shutting down their businesses. So things weren't being produced, things weren't being moved. And so now we're at the end of this thing and we're seeing what happened. The gas company,

good example. They didn't, they lost a lot of money. They need to make that up. But what most people do not understand is that the gas prices don't start at the White House. They start with the gas companies. And I think it's imperative for the Biden administration to do a better job of threading the needle, not pointing the finger at the gas companies regarding the oil companies, regarding the fuel costs, but helping Americans understand how this all works together, how farmers work inside the economy and how they're impacted by multiple things with the supply chain issue. But we're hurting. And with the baby formula issue, that's totally different. That plant was shut down because of contamination,

but we didn't have a backup plant. So it all looks like it's falling on the Biden. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It wasn't just the plant being shut down. That's true. Because Donald Trump got rid of NAFTA, and then he did that new BS trade deal, it severely limited the ability

of America to import baby formula from international sources. But I'm talking about our production here to be able to sustain ourselves. Right, right, right. What I'm saying is, when something happens here,

when something happens here, when you have only four companies in America that completely control the baby formula market, well, when one of them, what happened with Abbott, if you have the ability to export it internationally, then you can make up the difference. His trade deal made that almost impossible. So when Biden used the national defense order and then began to fly it in internationally, it alleviated the problem. But this is one of those examples of all these yahoos who like, that's right, get rid of NAFTA,

put a new trade bill, we should buy American. Well, guess what? When you're living in a country where only a handful of companies are controlling entire sectors, something happens to one of them, everybody gets screwed. Well, most Americans don't understand the domino effect of our economy, that we remove one piece and everything else falls down. But the Biden

administration, they definitely have to figure out a way to have this conversation with America. And I mean, it always seems like it's up to the Democrats to explain inflation, explain the economy. And during Republican administrations, like during the Reagan era, you know, this, our inflation is the highest ever since the Reagan era. But what his administration did, instead of leaving the interest rates low, they, instead of increasing the interest rate, they left the interest rates low. I'm sorry, they increased the interest rates instead of letting them drop. What we're doing is actually hurting a little bit more. We're not finding a way to balance this out. Well, Kelly, even with that, let's talk about interest rates. One of the biggest problems that we also have had, because we had the economic downturn

in 2008, 2009, 2010, the Fed dramatically lowered interest rates. Okay. You can't have interest rates that low for a decade. Right. You can't. You simply can't.

But see, everybody was fixated on oh, no, no, no, don't do anything. You're going to hurt the economy. You're going to hurt the furniture places, they said, oh, it's going to take nine to 12 months to get that. I was like, are you serious? They said it was going to take nine to 12 months because everything across the globe shut down with COVID. Everything. Everything. And so you're trying to ramp up. So right now, they're

trying to kick goods out the door. Now guess what? Well, the problem is, I'm trying to make goods, but if they have a shortage of goods, because the same problem with COVID, I can't make something,

because they don't have it. So now the furniture maker is sitting there saying, I'm ready to make some furniture. Oh, but we don't have enough raw materials because we need to have more people to gather the raw materials that all got impacted by COVID. And so all of these things are what's contributing to where we are with inflation. And I had somebody say this here. Somebody said, hey, I'm not worried about the explanation. When is gas going down? All this is bullshit.

We're just screwed. All this is a mess. Okay, but here's the problem with that. Terrain just said it. Hey, when she said she paid a dollar or something, oh, we were all happy. Ooh, gas, $1.99. Gas is $2.09. Gas is $2.09. Gas is

$2.19. But you know who was getting hurt while that happened? Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana. Why? Because those three states depend significantly on Wyoming, depend

on oil and gas money. Well, then guess what? Michael said it. The cost of a barrel was like $14, $15. Now all of a sudden, you look at the cost of a barrel, and guess what? Gas companies flushing cash. So one sector of the country is going to be pissed. Another sector is going to be happy.

If you work for the oil companies, you're real happy right now, because you're rolling in money. When it was $14 a barrel, they were doing layoffs. And so, it does require someone talking in regular, everyday

language for somebody to be like, oh, that's what's going on? Because I'm sorry. What the White House is saying and what Dems are saying ain't doing. And I understand all that. Like, I am one who loves explanation of things because

for me, it makes me feel better. It gives me, even though I don't necessarily have it, it gives me a semblance of control. If I know what's going on, I can function accordingly. But even with that, not to say that the explanation isn't relevant, because you're right, it is absolutely relevant. Everything is happening for a reason because of a longer chain of events that goes beyond just these past couple of months with or year or so with the Biden administration.

But the fact of the matter is we have people in this country, specifically Black people in this country, who are still already under living wage, who are still living in poverty, who were living in poverty before all of this stuff happened, who literally cannot afford to understand the explanation. They just need solutions. I just need solutions. And I'm not necessarily in that boat. So yes, the explanation is great. I feel better, you know, intellectually speaking, why things are happening. But at the end of the day, I'm a woman who has a monthly period. And I just learned today that we have a tampon shortage. Why is it that during a pandemic, people thought we weren't going to need tampons? How is the supply chain so broken that in the two

years that we were in the house, we were bleeding in the house? You know, not to be vulgar and crass about it, but my period didn't stop just because I wasn't commuting to work. If anything, it felt worse. So like, why are the necessities broken in the supply chain? Babies didn't stop being bought. Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. Here's, this is the answer.

Quote, the shortages appear to stem from supply constraints around key materials like cotton and plastic, which are also used in personal protective equipment. So the problem that we have is that we went through a pandemic, and there was an explosion in the need for PPP, of PPE. And I totally understand that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. But again, though, again, though, it's one of those things that I know is hard for people to grasp, but it's like, look, the amount of PPP,

the PPE that was needed across the globe just exploded. In terms of the number of masks and gowns and gloves and everything, well, again, that happens.

The stuff got to come from somewhere. And I totally understand that. Do not get me wrong. So the problem is, the problem is, we are literally dealing with the painful after effects of COVID, of literally two years of COVID. And I totally understand that, but at the same time,

that pain comes at the expense of women who need tampons and pads and other feminine PPE... Yes, but remember, on the front end... But remember, Kelly, but remember, on the front end, remember, let's go back to March 2020 and April 2020. You had hospital workers who were reusing gowns and gloves and masks. And so we had that problem. And so what was happening then? Folks were scurrying around the world trying to find

anybody to get PPE. Well, because factories had shut down, you didn't have folks who were working. And so, again, what we're dealing with right now, and all these people who are like, I blame Biden, I blame Republicans, I blame them. The reality is, the reality is, we

are living through the third quarter, if you will, of what we experienced in the first and the second quarter that is dealing with COVID. And there is nobody, there's no political party, there is no political person who can say, oh, here's the answer to how we fix this. You literally are going to have to build your way out of it. And this might be, I mean, it's June. I'll be honest with you. I wouldn't be surprised if we're not in this same situation for the next 12 months because you have to build that capacity.

And again, I get all that, but it still comes at the expense of women. And my issue with this is, and I, again, I understand and it makes complete sense, but at the same time, you took the everyday needs of women and leveraged it against a pandemic. Just from a supply chain issue, that's a problem. No, no. This is not taking from women. This is everybody. I know. It is everybody. You took it. Yeah, but you took from everybody.

And so here's the deal. This is very simple. If I got if I got if I got This is very simple. If I've got five cupcakes, I've got five cupcakes in my hand, and I've got the three of y'all and ten other people, guess what? We can't get an individual cupcake. and 10 other people. Guess what? We can't get an individual cupcake.

That stuff has got to be sliced and diced. Everybody has got to get a little piece, and then somebody will be like, well, I want my own cupcake. You can't. I mean, I know it's basic, but this is really where we are. When we start breaking down everything. Look, Michael just talked about when we met you with wheat. Again, as a matter of fact,

I'm going to go back to the same story. This story here said, okay, I said that the supplies for tampons, cotton and plastic, this is the same story. The war in Ukraine has further crimped supply because Russia and Ukraine

are both major exporters of fertilizer which is used to grow cotton. Yep. So damn! We've been having a hard time growing the cotton to use for the football. Goes back to Putin invading

Ukraine. Yep. We're dealing with a global economy. The wheat, there's a wheat shortage. I'm just... And I understand. And, Bolin, let me jump in here for a moment. We both get, as women, that there was a redirection of resources because we needed to have the supplies directed to take care of the PPE. However, as women who have this issue that we can't do anything about, someone should have said, wait, here, should have said, wait a minute, we need to make sure these women are taken care of. Because there's nothing they can do. But you could.

Okay, here's the deal. You literally couldn't. This is what I'm, I totally understand what you're saying. And I totally sympathize with it. What I'm saying is that literally could not happen. The struggle that we were in, we had a massive demand for products that we ordinarily didn't need. We wasn't using no damn masks. We weren't using masks. We were not using gloves.

We were not using all this sort of stuff. So you have this immediate massive demand. So all of a sudden you had companies that literally stopped whatever they were making and shifted to making those particular products. But here was the problem. Those manufacturing places also shut down because the workers weren't there. So so in every single sector, you literally didn't have workers. You didn't have anybody who could make it. If I had my backpack, there was a Cam Link card. It's a Cam

Link card. It's a broadcast card. See, this ain't just about tampons. This card allows me to plug up my camera to my laptop and use an external camera to broadcast my show. That card is a, that little card is

$129. When COVID hit for all of 2020 and a half of 2021, that sucker was $1,000. Why? Because people were buying them like crazy because they were now at home. So demand shot through the roof. When demand shot through the roof, there was nobody making them to replace them. So that was the problem with PPE, with tampons, baby formula, everything.

Demand shot through the roof, but we did not have anybody making stuff. So then when we now come out of the houses, now it's like, oh, shit. Oh, damn. Ain't no products. When we were at home, they were at home. And this is, I mean, where we are, so that's the oil, that's the food, that's everything.

And I just think that a lot of people, and I've been reading these stories, a lot of people just really don't understand how our worldwide economy is so now interconnected that one little thing that happens in a corner of a country could cause massive shortages and higher prices in America. And then folks are like, man, y'all got to fix this.

There literally is no fix except to now ramp up production as fast as possible. That's the only fix that we have, but now you need people. And now you have the great resignation. See, so all this stuff, I mean, it's, again, we're not dealing with the painful after effects of a global, international pandemic that we had never seen for 100 years. So part of the deal is it's a little hard to prepare for something you ain't seen in 100 years. And that makes sense. Michael, go ahead. Michael, go ahead.

Michael, go ahead. Michael, you want to make a point? Yeah, I think you're looking at the article from CNN and tampon shortage is the latest nightmare for women. If you could, I think maybe if you could, man, bring that up on the big screen so people can see that. I think it's important for people. No, I'm not in the studio, so I don't have my normal. Oh, OK. But but anyway, yeah, this is it breaks down how this is connected also to Ukraine, and then there's a drought in Texas as well. But I want to see how the White House handles this also,

because this is why it's important to have the right people in office to deal with things like this, because I think the Biden administration is going to handle this better than the Trump administration is going to handle this better than the Trump administration would. Okay. So. Well, and to that point, that's also why we're in this problem. I mean, I know somebody watching is about to say, okay, you sound real crazy, but let's be real. One of the reasons Donald Trump ain't in the White House is because of how horribly he managed this crisis.

Yeah. Oh, yes. Let's just be. If Donald Trump and if him and his people had managed the covid crisis halfway decent, he would have got reelected easy. So part of the problem we also are dealing with is that we had the wrong idiot who was in the White House. So we didn't do the National Defense Act. We didn't put that in place. Production Act. We didn't have a massive—we didn't have the federal government take control over industries. But Robert Reich—and I'm going to get your thoughts on this, Robert Reich, former labor secretary, he also argues this is also the problem when we have too few companies completely controlling different things.

So essentially they have monopolies on all of these markets, and we're left at the mercy of two and three and four companies controlling entire sectors. Yep. I'll agree. You first, Terrain, Kelly, then Michael. I mean, I'm still stuck on the tampon issue. So you kind of got me. No, no. And I'm serious.

I hear you. But when we do have these few companies that are in charge of, and Michael, I see you smiling over there, but it's a real issue. No, I'm agreeing with you. You know, when you have just a few companies that have these monopolies, we do. One comes out of the chain, and then we all tumble down. But most, you know, when I look at people on the right, and I talk to people on the right, and they're like, we're America, and we can be as a country. We don't need other countries. They really do not understand the global economy.

They dumb as hell. They so damn dumb. They are dumb as hell when they say stupid shit like that. We don't need the rest of the world. Fool! They don't even... These fools don't even know

the damn components of the phone. They don't even understand... They don't even understand... They don't even understand the... They don't even understand the raw materials needed to make phones. And it damn sure ain't made

in Mississippi and Alabama. Well, I think it's funny. America great again. The ties that he was selling at one point were made in Asia. You know, and so he understands it. His daughter got 18 Chinese patents when she was in the White House.

The first year. Kelly, go ahead. So, I'm not trying to belabor the issue of the tampon shortage, but I really don't think that the magnitude of the issue is actually being realized here. And I'm not saying it just because, oh my God, I might have to fight somebody in Walmart for my tampons. The issue is that women

and children are consistently an afterthought when it comes to anything that is produced in this country. And yet we are dealing with a Supreme Court that is about to overturn one of our

only rights that we have to our body when it comes to our reproductive freedom. So it... Okay, but Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. Okay, no, Kelly, Kelly. What could have been done to prevent this? I'm not saying anything could have been done to prevent it completely,

but the fact of the matter is there are products out there that did not get as adversely impacted by the pandemic and tampons and baby formula should have been one of those products. And you can't- But Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, how do you arrive at that conclusion

when the raw materials needed to make those things literally were used to save lives? I understand that they were used in order. I get all that. But the fact of the matter is that the Trump administration knew about the pandemic way before we needed the PPE that we needed the way that we needed it two years ago. Things could have been done. That's all I'm saying. And the fact of the matter... Yeah, no, no, we know that.

So what I'm saying is, okay, we've already covered that, that we had imbeciles who were in charge. And what I'm saying is, where we are now is the end result of imbeciles being in charge. And what I'm talking about right now is the fears that are going to be realized as a result of if we have a working class of women who cannot get the hygienic products that they need to go to work. We have already a discrepancy in this country when it comes to lower and poorer, even women experiencing homelessness, who already have difficulty getting products that are already expensive.

And this is called the domino theory. This is the domino theory. And this is the domino theory also of now what is a global economy. We are no longer isolated from the rest of the world. No, we're not. But at the same time, you need latex for condoms and there's no shortage on condoms. You need plastics for other, you know, things for men

and there's no shortage on that. But when we need cotton for something to help us navigate the world and work, all of a sudden, it's a problem. And I understand. Yes. It's a problem. And I understand. Yes. It's a problem, Kelly, because you got a, you had a massive surplus of condom. Cause you got a bunch of dudes who don't wear them. I mean, now come on now.

Let's not act like, look, look, we understand necessity. We understand necessity and we understand for some folk what's optional. So the reality is what we're dealing with, and it's not just tampons, it's literally in every single area, every single area. I'm talking about tampons. We're talking about baby food. We talk formula. We're talking about, again, furniture. We're talking about baby food. We're talking about, again, furniture.

We're talking about everything. I went to a store and, oh, my God, what was it? I forgot the product. And they literally were like, hey, we're looking at six months. Yeah. See, this is what we as Americans are used to. And this is a problem for many of us Americans. We are used to going to the store and seeing a hundred items.

Or we go, well, guess what? Target's out. I'm going to go to Walmart. Walmart's out. I'm going to go to Lowe's. I'm going to go to Home Depot. So everybody got surplus. The problem now is they got five.

They got five. They got five. The problem now is they got five. They got five. They got five. It's rationing. And so what we've now seen is it's dumb. You can't ration pads. You can't ration pads. You can't ration. Kelly, you can't ration tampons.

You can't ration pads. But we were in the middle of a pandemic. People were dying, and doctors and nurses were saying they were sleeping in the same PPE for 30 and 60 days. So the problem that we have... Those female physicians and nurses had access to feminine hygiene products so that they could keep it pushing. No, no, no, no, Remember. Remember. Remember. Remember.

Remember. Remember. Reusing PPE is not the same thing as reusing feminine hygiene products. No. No. No. Hold on, Kelly. Hold on. Hold on. I gotta say this. I gotta say this. Doctors and nurses said their lives

were being in danger having to reuse PPE. You don't remember the conversations? Oh, no, I remember it fully. In fact, I remember when DuPont, when the federal government paid DuPont, they had to dramatically increase PPE. The federal government literally flew over the plastic from China, wherever they were making it,

to get here faster so DuPont can crank this thing out. What I am saying to everybody who's watching, I don't care what the product is, what we're now living with, and this is painful to have the conversation, we are living with the after effects of an international, gas prices, furniture, everything they're yelling about. And the problem is there is no fix other than building your way out of it, and that shit ain't going to happen in a month. It's simply not you can there's a limit to

manufacturing unless you are not doing what happened with the ports in california remember they had to say we're gonna keep the ports open 24 hours why because when you closed because what happened you had more than a hundred ships that were sitting on the sea, sitting in the ocean, some for three months with goods and services, they couldn't unload them. Now think about that. We couldn't unload them. So the Biden people said, hey, let's now open the

ports, have them open 24 hours versus what they opened beforehand. So what I'm saying is the White House, Democrats, and others are going to have to walk folks through this because the average person out there, they like, yo, wear my tampons, wear my baby formula. I want to see my cheap gas. Without understanding, hey, that world that we were in in 2019, that shit changed in 2020. And it ain't going to just get fixed overnight.

It's just now. And we're going to prepare ourselves. I know it's hard. People prepare ourselves. We're going to be in this situation 12, 15 months. I just think so.

We just, it ain't just going, boom, we're out of it. And I, again, I understand that, but the conversation of equating lack of tampons and lack of baby formula with delays in furniture and gas, that, to me, is the problem. Because you cannot... It's the same, Kelly!

It is not the same. The root, Kelly, you're saying... No, Kelly, see, you're like, the after effect is different. I'm saying the root of the problem is the same. It's the exact same. Whether you're talking furniture or tampons, it comes down to raw materials. If you have a shortage of raw materials, you can't make the product.

If you have a shortage of cotton and plastic, you can't make tampons. If you've got a shortage of wood, you can't make furniture. If you've got a shortage of baby formula because Abbott Laboratory went offline and then we couldn't import, guess what? It's the same thing. So what you're talking about is the impact on the user of the product. I'm talking about the shortages of the raw materials and the lack of manufacturing facilities to make the products and lack of employees to work the manufacturing facilities as a result of COVID laying people off has led us to this problem. That's what I'm saying is the same,

not how the product is used and who uses it. Final comment, Terrain, Michael, Kelly, go. TERRAINE WILLIAMS, The Washington Post- Regarding the inflation, I mean, everyone is being impacted. I hear what Kelly is saying, that it seems like, once again, when we talk about the economy and inflation, that women and children are taking the hardest hits, OK? And even though the root of the problem is the same, the end result is that women and children take the hardest hit.

We were taxed on diapers, taxed on feminine hygiene products in a way that others who don't have our issues don't understand. So this just feels like another issue for us to deal with inflation. But it's really important for the Biden administration to take the press secretary is not the person who should be talking about this. We actually need someone from the Department of Labor, someone from Treasury, and just someone to talk about this and who's an economist to explain it to people and help show where the end is going to come. Like, we were able to redirect resources for the sake of PPE. We need to look at redirecting resources so that we take care of the baby formula issue and take care of the feminine hygiene issue. I mean, I know I'm making it seem like it's really easy peasy, but those are things that actually have to be

addressed. And they're important for us as women. We just don't want to be considered like everyone else. This time our need is urgent. Michael. Yeah, I agree. It's an urgent need. And hopefully they can figure this. This is another supply chain issue. Hopefully they can figure this out as well. And, you know, this is reminiscent somewhat during World War Two when a lot of products were rationed. It's not the exact same thing, but wool was rationed. Nylon hosiery was rationed, things like this. So it's not exactly the same thing, but hopefully they can figure out a solution to this and sooner as opposed to later. Kelly? I just reiterate what I said, but to Michael's point about World War II and the rationing, even in that era, women had to come to the forefront because the men were overseas fighting for our country. So even in that era, if you were, I'm sure Michael knows more about this than I do, but the hygiene of women was actually revolutionized during that time so that they could be more effective in the workforce.

So it's even worse now than it was then, because even as we rationed and made sure that our soldiers had what we needed overseas and yet our babies could still be fed, babies were still fed in the United States during World War II. There was not a baby formula shortage or a United States during World War II. There was not a baby formula shortage or a milk shortage during World War II. There was not a feminine hygiene shortage in World War II. So that is my point. The fact that we were still- No, no, Kelly, Kelly.

Tell the audience why. Tell the audience why. Why what? Tell the audience. You said there was no shortage. Tell the audience why. We had... Okay, I understand about the raw material argument.

I get it. No, no, no, no, no. That's not why. That's not why. Then why? The reason we didn't... The reason we didn't is because the federal government literally marshaled the entire country and took over industries. The federal government called together Ford, Chrysler, the shipmakers together and said, put your differences aside. You are now working for the country. So the problem is here. together and said, put your differences aside. You are now working for the country. So then what you had, so all of a sudden,

so the problem is here. What we did during COVID, we tried to say, we don't want to use the big hand of government. We want to work with private industry, okay? Right. When what really should have happened was we said to the pharmaceuticals, kiss my ass, you don't have a patent on vaccines. This is the federal government's patent.

You're going to make these. We're going to pay you this price. And this is what it is. That didn't happen. We didn't do that with PPE. We didn't do that when it came to all of our goods and services. We, Trump and his administration, tried the private enterprise. What did Jared Kushner do?

Brought in all of his little NBA friends in there, screwed stuff up. They had no idea about purchasing for the federal government. They had no idea about any of that stuff. And they were like, we don't understand this. Right. That's why Lieutenant General Russell Honore was saying the DOD knows how to do this. The Department of Defense knows how to buy shit for a lot of people real

fast. And so the difference between World War II is we had a government that said, hey, we're calling everybody to this is a national thing, but what we tried to do in 2020 was to say, hey, no, we don't want to infringe

upon these companies, and so we're't want to infringe upon these companies. And so we're just going to let y'all keep doing y'all thing. And we're going to just kind of do some stuff. Trump wouldn't even put in place the act. We have a law that literally said the federal government can declare, put this act into place and take over whole industries, they wouldn't do it. So we're sitting in the situation right now because we had ineffective leadership in 2020, which is why he got voted out. And so now Biden is now having to deal with that, deal with those imbeciles. And I think, frankly, President Biden should be more aggressive

on using that particular law, like he did with the baby formula, to deal with this problem. I think the White House waited too damn long to invoke the powers to open the ports 24 hours on the West Coast. They waited too damn long. And so I think what they're doing is

they're still stuck in this, well, you know, we are capitalism and we don't want to get, we don't want to tell private industry what to do. No, this is one of those things when you tell private industry, shut the hell up, get this shit done for the American people.

Y'all still gonna make some money. You're not gonna make as much money as if we keep it all in your hands. But that's the difference. And so, comparing the two, we have to compare the actions taken by the government then to what the government didn't do during COVID. And that's why we're... And that... And so, yes.

And now, yes, women and children and families are now feeling the after effects of ignoramuses who were in charge during 2020 who made numerous wrong decisions. Like, that was no... I never understood how... We're sitting here begging China to make some damn masks when you actually had American companies... I remember reading a story of this guy out of Fort Worth who were like, yo, we can convert this facility and start cranking these things out. And they're like, well, no, we're just going to buy them from them.

So he's yelling about China and we were sending billions to them for goods and services that we could have been making. And then when they finally did it, oh, the need is gone. So then we had a surplus of stuff. Now what the hell we do? Look at Target. Target just

had, you see what Target's announced? You know what Target did? Boom. Why does Target have a big sale terrain? Because their surplus is high, so they need to fill their inventory. They went and bought a whole bunch of shit and they stocked it up.

They couldn't sell it. Now their stock price has gone down. Now they've got a clearance sale. And for the consumer, oh, hell, I can buy some Touch Head Target 70% off, but it's hurting the company's bottom line. Bottom line.

So, unfortunately, unfortunately, and I hope everybody who's watching and listening, all these people who say it doesn't matter who's in office, this example, whether it's tampons or baby formula, is an example. When Donald Trump got rid of NAFTA, they didn't think, oh, if we have a baby formula shortage, this is going to hurt. Literally changing that law kept us from importing a baby formula shortage, this is going to hurt. Literally changing that law kept us from importing Canadian baby formula. And now people are kind of like,

oh, damn, that wasn't a good idea. You think? Yeah. It's just a trick. I just want, and I know it's painful, but I want our listeners and viewers to understand, y'all, we are not going to be out of this thing in two months.

No, we're likely going to be going into a recession. So what we're discussing right now is about to be even worse. I hate to go there, but I want our people to prepare ourselves for that possibility. Yeah. Just very quickly, Roland, yeah, during World War II, the Big Three, and I'm here in Detroit, which was the Motor City, the Big Three stopped making cars during World War II

because they were making military equipment. Even before the U.S. got involved, even before the U.S. got involved in World War II, the Arsenal democracy... No, no. Why did they stop making cars? They stopped making cars because the steel, the rubber,

things like this, they had to go to make military equipment. They had to go to make... And who made them? General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. They were making military equipment. No, who made them? Who made them? Who made the equipment? No, who made them? Who made them? Who made the equipment?

No, who made them stop production on the cars? Oh, President Roosevelt. It was President Roosevelt. Right. Yeah, President Roosevelt. And why did we do that? And why did we do that? Because we were getting our asses kicked in Germany.

They were shooting down our planes. They had to roll them off. Why did Kaiser build the ships on the West Coast and come up? And why did Kaiser go meet with Ford to create the assembly line? Because we were getting our ships blown up. That's what caused the turnout, more ships. And guess what? More ships on the West Coast, more cars in Detroit, more planes in Detroit, allowed us to defeat the Germans in World War II, which then led to the GI Bill, which then led to the greatest economic expansion in American history, because the federal government used its power to take control of the nation and say,

we got to fix this problem. Biden is going to have to get more aggressive, but it's a little hard when you got one party that says too much federal intervention in anything. And let me show you this real quick. The Democrats finally put out a video. I know Recy is happy. This is a video the Democrats just dropped just so y'all can see how their thinking is about how Republicans stand on the issues we just talked about.

Watch this. So right there, what you did talk about, Kelly, Republicans voted against all three of those bills, so they want us to go in the tank because it's going to help them in November. Right. Yep. The white nationalist domestic terrorist party voted against the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.

192. It was 222 to 203. 203 of those domestic. No, no, no. I know. I ain't talking about domestic terrorism. They voted against insulin. They got a baby formula. No, no, no, no. Take terror. I'm talking about they voted against stopping price gouging. So the problem is you ain't even dealing with half the country who want to fix the problem. Well, what I find amazing is that so many people who vote for the GOP and love them do not understand they're voting against their own interest. Right. They don't have the stock that these people have. They don't have the bank accounts. people have, the resources that they have.

They are poor and they need these resources and yet they vote for people who consistently say no. It's just beyond me. All I'm saying to our people, we see the shortages. I need our people to understand what we're faced with. And I'm telling you, we're going to keep seeing the shortages. I need our people to understand what we're faced with.

And I'm telling you, we're going to keep seeing the shortages because it's happening across the world. And as long as the war in Ukraine keeps going, we're going to be impacted by wheat, grain, and fertilizer. Just so you know, you ain't got fertilizer, you can't grow shit. I ain't no agriculture expert, but with Texas A&M, I do know, if you hasn't got

fertilizer, it's a little hard to grow something. I'm just saying. All right, y'all. I'm going to do this here. I'm going to thank all three of y'all. I got to go. I'm going to go this here. I'm going to thank all three of y'all. I got to go. Before I go to a break, I'm going to come back, though.

I got to do a shout-out to my parents for the 50th wedding anniversary. Kelly, Terrain, Michael, I certainly appreciate it. All right, right. They in Puerto Rico hanging out. So enjoying themselves, having a good time. I'm like, yeah, y'all. But they're like, you can come with us now. Y'all gone. Y'all grown. Go by yourself. Go on. Enjoy yourself.

So I appreciate it. Kelly, Terrain, Michael, thank you so very much. I appreciate it. Go to this quick break. I'll come back and roll them up and fill it to the show. iPhone 13 on us for every customer. Current, new, everyone to show the love. What? How about sushi? I just had sushi for every customer. Current, new, everyone. To show the love. What?

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Chevrolet. On the next Black Table, with me, Greg Carr. An amazing conversation with one of the most important thinkers of the last century. If you've ever taken an African American studies course, he is one of the pioneers that made it possible. We didn't come to UMass grateful to be there. We brought in people that were better

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What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, Mack Wiles, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, I'm going to close the show out. Again, I'm here in Los Angeles. The Equal Justice Awards will be happening tonight. There are a number of people being honored. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty is one of the folks.

I am one of the honorees. Mario Van Peebles. We're here in Los Angeles. More than 1,500 people are going to be attending tonight's dinner here in Los Angeles. That is Attorney Benjamin Crump's Equal Justice Now Awards. Lonnie Love is going to be the host of the show. And so I'm looking forward to that. Folks, today, June 10th, my parents, 55th wedding anniversary.

That's right. My parents, Reginald and Melvin Martin, got married 55 years ago. That's the photo of them on their wedding day. They are out of the country enjoying their anniversary. Of course, my dad turned 75 in April. My mom turned 75 in November. So certainly, that's the whole group. I think that's everybody.

So five kids, 12 grandchildren. And so it is certainly a big salute to them on their wedding anniversary. Folks, that is it for us. I know we went over our time here. Hopefully, a lot of y'all now understand a little bit more about what's happening with the economy. But

I'm telling you, things are not going the way we want them to go, but you know what? It's still better than having that food Donald Trump in office. Folks, that's it. Of course, I want to thank all of our donors who support our show, which is our Bring the Funk fan club. That's it.

I'll see you guys on Monday. Actually, I'll be in Atlanta. We'll be broadcasting the UNCF conference Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Atlanta. So until then, I'll see you. HALA! Yeah, yeah. Să ne următoarea mea rețetă! The Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. this is an iHeart podcast