#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Jan. 6th Hearing, SCOTUS blocks LA's 2nd black district, Black Conn. Man paralyzed in Police Custody

Episode Date: June 29, 2022

6.28.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Jan. 6th Hearing, SCOTUS blocks LA's 2nd black district, Black Conn. Man paralyzed in Police Custody LIVE from New Orleans as the city prepares for the 2022 Essence Festival of Culture. A special hearing from the January 6th committee reveals more disturbing information about what was going on in the white house at the time of the insurrection and what the Trump administration knew. We'll show you the evidence the committee couldn't wait two weeks to share. The Supreme Court blocks the order requiring Louisiana to form a second Black congressional district. I'll explain what that could mean for the black voters. A black Connecticut man who gets critically injured and paralyzed from the chest down while in police custody files a lawsuit against the officers involved. We'll speak with the man's attorney Ben Crump who will break down this disturbing story. In our Marketplace segment, this Black entrepreneur is trying to take her wine company to another level, literally. She'll explain how. #BlackStarNetwork partners: General Motors, Chevrolet and Verizon #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.

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The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Tuesday, June 28th, 2022. today is tuesday june 28 2022 roland martin unfiltered broadcasting live from new orleans where we are partnering with coca-cola right here on the black star network coming up we'll talk

about the january 6th uh hearings folks a surprise witness says that Donald Trump told Secret Service, don't search my folks. Knowing full well they had weapons, she even testified that he got into an altercation with a Secret Service agent to try to grab the steering wheel to go to the U.S. Capitol where the interruption was taking place. My Lord. Supreme Court, folks, is not going to allow a second majority black district to be created in Louisiana for the midterm elections.

We'll give you the breakdown on this hearing. These conservatives don't give a damn about black people. I'll fully explain that. Also, a black Connecticut man has been paralyzed. As a result, he was critically injured and paralyzed from the chest down while in police custody. They filed a lawsuit. We'll tell you about that particular lawsuit also in our Marketplace 7th. A black wine entrepreneur wants to go to the next level with the business.

We'll tell you all about it. Folks, lots to break down on Roland Martin Unfiltered. It's time to bring the funk from the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine.

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Martel. Three, two, one. All right, folks, there was not supposed to be a January 6th committee hearing today, but there was a surprise witness who testified. And oh, my goodness, did she have some shocking revelations in today's testimony. Her name is Cassidy Hutchinson. She was a longtime aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, and she laid out some damning testimony. Chairman Bennie Thompson and Congresswoman Liz Cheney, they laid out exactly, preparing folks for a testimony,

but we were still shocked with what we heard. In our hearings over the previous weeks, the Select Committee has laid out the details of a multi-part pressure campaign driven by the former president aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election and blocking the transfer of power. We've shown that this effort was based on a lie, a lie that the election was stolen, tainted by widespread fraud, Donald Trump's big lie. In the weeks ahead, the committee will hold additional hearings about how Donald Trump summoned a mob of his supporters to Washington, spurred them to march on the Capitol, and

failed to take meaningful action to quell the violence as it was unfolding on January 6th. However, in recent days, the Select Committee has obtained new information dealing with what was going on in the White House on January 6th and in the days prior. Specific detailed information about what the former president and his top aides were doing and saying in those critical hours. First-hand details of what transpired in the office of the White House chief of staff, just steps from the Oval Office as the threats of violence became clear, and indeed violence ultimately descended on the Capitol in the attack on American

democracy. It's important that the American people hear that information immediately. That's why in consultation with the Vice Chair, I recalled the committee for today's hearing. As you've seen and heard in our earlier hearings, the Select Committee has developed a massive body of evidence thanks to the many hundreds of witnesses who have voluntarily provided information relevant to our investigation. same people who drove the former president's pressure campaign to overturn the election are now trying to cover up the truth about January 6th. But thanks to the courage of certain individuals, the truth won't be buried. The American people won't be left in the dark. Our witness today, Ms. Cassie Hutchinson, has embodied that courage. I won't get into a lot of detail about Ms. Hutchinson's testimony. I'll allow her words to speak

for themselves and I hope everyone at home will listen very closely. First, I recognize our distinguished vice chair, Ms. Chaney of Wyoming, for any opening statements she'd care to offer. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. In our first five hearings, the committee has heard from a significant number of Republicans, including former Trump administration Justice Department officials, Trump campaign officials, several members of President Trump's White House staff, a prominent conservative judge, and several others. Today's witness, Ms. Cassidy Hutchinson,

is another Republican and another former member of President Trump's White House staff. Certain of us in the House of Representatives recall that Ms. Hutchinson once worked for House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, but she is also a familiar face on Capitol Hill because she held a prominent role in the White House Legislative Affairs Office and later was the principal aide

to President Trump's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows. Ms. Hutchinson has spent considerable time up here on Capitol Hill representing the Trump administration, and we welcome her back. Up until now, our hearings have each been organized to address specific elements of President Trump's plan to overturn the 2020 election. Today, we are departing somewhat from that model

because Ms. Hutchinson's testimony touches on several important and cross-cutting topics, topics that are relevant to each of our future hearings. In her role working for the White House Chief of Staff, Ms. Hutchinson handled a vast number of sensitive issues. She worked in the West Wing, several steps down the hall from the Oval Office. Ms. Hutchinson spoke daily with members of Congress, with high-ranking officials in the administration, with senior White House staff, including Mr. Meadows, with high-ranking officials in the administration, with senior White House staff, including Mr. Meadows, with White House counsel, lawyers, and with Mr. Tony Ornato,

who served as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff. She also worked on a daily basis with members of the Secret Service who were posted in the White House. In short, Ms. Hutchinson was in a position to know a great deal about the happenings in the Trump White short, Ms. Hutchinson was in a position to know a great deal about the happenings in the Trump White House. Ms. Hutchinson has already sat for four videotaped interviews with committee investigators, and we thank her very much for her cooperation and for her courage. We will cover certain but not all relevant topics within Ms. Hutchinson's knowledge today. Again, our future hearings will supply greater detail, putting the testimony today in a broader and more complete context. Today,

you will hear Ms. Hutchinson relate certain firsthand observations of President Trump's conduct on January 6th. You will also hear new information regarding the actions and statements of Mr. Trump's senior advisors that day, including his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and his White House counsel. And we will begin to examine evidence bearing on what President Trump and members of the White House staff knew about the prospect for violence on January 6th, even before that violence began. To best communicate the information the committee has gathered, we will follow the practice of our recent hearings, playing videotaped testimony from Ms. Hutchinson and others, and also posing questions to Ms. Hutchinson live. Folks, the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson was unbelievable. Even what she heard as they talked about what's going to happen leading up to January 6th.

We will begin today with an exchange that first provided Ms. Hutchinson a tangible sense of the ongoing planning for the events of January 6th. On January 2nd, four days before the attack on our Capitol, President Trump's lead lawyer, Mr. Giuliani, was meeting with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and others. Ms. Hutchinson, do you remember Mr. Giuliani meeting with Mr. Meadows on January 2nd, 2021? I do. He met with Mr. Meadows in the evening of January 2, 2021. And we understand that you walked Mr. Giuliani out of the White House that night, and he talked to you about January 6th. What do you remember him saying? As Mr. Giuliani and I were walking to his vehicles that evening, he looked at me and said something to the effect of,

Cass, are you excited for the 6th? It's going to be a great day. I remember looking at him and saying, Rudy, could you explain what's happening on the 6th? He had responded something to the effect of, we're going to the Capitol. It's going to be great. The president's going to be there. He's going to look powerful.

He's going to be with the members. He's going to be with the senators. Talk to the chief about it. Talk to the chief about it. He knows about it. And did you go back then up to the West Wing and tell Mr. Meadows about your conversation with Mr. Giuliani? I did. After Mr. Giuliani had left the campus that evening, I went back up to our office and I found Mr. Meadows in his office on the couch. He was scrolling through his phone. I remember leaning against the doorway and saying, I had an interesting conversation with Rudy. Mark, sounds like we're going to go to the Capitol. He didn't look up from his phone and said something to the effect of, there's a lot

going on Cass, but I don't know, things might get real, real bad on January 6th. Ms. Hutchinson, Mr. Meadows is engaged in litigation with the committee to try to avoid testifying here. What was your reaction when he said to you things might get real, real bad? In the days before January 2nd, I was apprehensive about the 6th. I had heard general plans for a rally. I had heard tentative movements to potentially go to the Capitol. But when hearing Rudy's take on January 6th and then Mark's response, that evening was the first moment that I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on January 6th.

And I had a deeper concern for what was happening with the planning aspects of it. Folks, talk about shocking and stunning. Then Cassidy said Trump demanded, demanded he be taken to the U.S. Capitol, even tell the Secret Service don't even search his followers' weapons, knowing full well they had weapons on them. Let's turn now to what happened in the president's vehicle when the Secret Service told him he would not be going to the Capitol after his speech. First, here is the president's motorcade leaving the Ellipse after his speech on January 6th.

Ms. Hutchinson, when you return to the White House, you will be a part of the conversation that we have had over the president to speak. Ms. Hutchinson, when you returned to the white house in the motorcade after the president's speech, where did you go? When I returned to the white house, I walked upstairs towards the chief of staff's office and I noticed Mr. Renato lingering outside of the office.

Once we had made eye contact, he quickly waved me to go into his office, which was just across the hall from mine. When I went in, he shut the door. I noticed Bobby Engel, who is the head of Mr. Trump's security detail, sitting in a chair, looking somewhat discombobulated and a little lost. I looked at Tony and he had said, did you effing hear what happened in the Beast? I said, no, Tony, I just got back. What happened? Tony proceeded to tell me that when the president got in the Beast, he was under the impression from Mr. Meadows that the off-the-record movement to the Capitol was still possible and likely to happen, but that Bobby had more information. So once the president had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby, he thought that they were going up to the Capitol. And when Bobby had

relayed to him, we're not, we don't have the assets to do it. It's not secure. We're going back to the West Wing. The president had a very strong, very angry response to that. Tony described him as being irate. The president said something to the effect of, I'm the effing president. Take me up to the Capitol now. To which Bobby responded, Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing. The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel.

Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol. Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engle and when Mr. Ornato had recounted this story to me he had motioned towards his clavicles. And was Mr. Engle in the room as Mr. Ornato told you this story? He was. Did Mr. Engle correct or disagree with any part of the story from Mr. Ornato?

Mr. Engle did not correct or disagree with any part of the story. Did Mr. Engle or Mr. Ornato ever after that tell you that what Mr. Ornato had just said was untrue? Neither Mr. Ornato nor Mr. Engel told me ever that it was untrue. Now, if y'all really want to get a good laugh, Trump actually said, I don't lie. We're going to show now an exchange of texts between you and Deputy Chief of Staff Ornato. And these text messages were exchanged while you were at the Ellipse. In one text, you write, but the crowd looks good from this vantage point as long as we get the shot.

He was effing furious. And the text messages also stress that President Trump kept mentioning the OTR, an off-the-record movement. We're going to come back and ask you about that in a minute. But could you tell us, first of all, who it is in the text who was furious? The he in that text that I was referring to was the president. And why was he furious, Ms. Hutchinson? He was furious because he wanted the arena that we had on the Ellipse to be maxed out at capacity for all attendees. The advance team had relayed to him that the mags were free-flowing. Everybody who wanted to come in had already come in, but he still was angry about the extra space and wanted more people to come in, had already come in, but he still was angry about the extra space and wanted

more people to come in. And did you go to the rally in the presidential motorcade? I was there, yes, in the motorcade. And were you backstage with the president and other members of his staff and family? I was. And you told us, Ms. Hutchinson, about particular comments that you heard while you were in the tent area. When we were in the offstage announce area tent behind the stage, he was very concerned about the shot, meaning the photograph that we would get, because the rally space wasn't full. One of the reasons which I previously stated was because he wanted it to be full and for people to not feel

excluded because they'd come far to watch him at the rally and he felt the mags were at fault for not letting everybody in but another leading reason and likely the primary reason is because he wanted it full and he was angry that we weren't letting people through the mags with weapons, what the Secret Service deems as weapons and are weapons. But when we were in the offstage announced tent, I was part of a conversation. I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, I don't effing care that they have weapons.

They're not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away. Just to be clear, Ms. Hutchinson, is it your understanding that the president wanted to take the mags away and said that the armed individuals were not there to hurt him? That's a fair assessment.

This whole day shows you the sheer incompetence of these people and what they were trying to do, how they were literally trying to overthrow this country with this election. And at one point, this key phrase, blood will be on your hands, was uttered. Ms. Hutchinson, I'd like now for us to listen to a description, your description of what transpired in the West Wing during the attack. For context, in this clip, you describe the time frame starting at about 2 p.m. So I remember Mark being alone in his office for quite some time. And I know we've spoken about Ben Williamson going in at one point. And I don't personally remember Ben going in.

I don't doubt that he had gone in. But I remember him being alone in his office for most of the afternoon around two o'clock to two oh five, around two o'clock to two oh five. You know, we were watching the TV and I could see that the riders were getting closer and closer to the Capitol. Mark still hadn't popped out of his office or said anything about it. So that's when I went into his office. I saw that he was sitting on his couch on his cell phone. Same as the morning where he was just kind of scrolling and typing. I said, hey are you watching the TV, Chief? His TV was small and you can see it but I didn't know if he was really paying attention. I said, are you watching the TV, Chief? He was like, yeah.

The writers are getting really close. Have you talked to the president? He said no, he wants to be alone right now. Still looking at his phone. So I start to get frustrated because I sort of felt like I was watching a, this is not a great comparison, but a bad car accident that was about to happen where you can't stop it, but you want to be able to do something. And I just remember, I remember thinking in that moment, Mark needs to snap out of this. And I don't know how to snap him out of this, but he needs to care. And I just remember I blurted out, I said, Mark, do you know where

Jim's at right now? And he looked up at me at that point and said, Jim? And I said, Mark, he was on the floor a little while ago giving a floor speech. Did you listen? He said, yeah, it was really good. Did you like it? And I said, yeah. Do you know where he's at right now? He said, no, I haven't heard from him. And I said, you might want to check in with him, Mark. And I remember pointing at the TV, and I said, the rioters are getting close. They might get in. And he looked at me and said something to the effect of, all right, I'll give him a call.

Not long after the rioters broke into the Capitol, you described what happened with White House counsel Pat Cipollone. No more than a minute, minute and a half later, I see Pat Cipollone barreling down the hallway towards our office and rushed right in, looked at me, said, is Mark in his office? And I said, yes. He just looked at me and started shaking his head and went over, opened Mark's office door, stood there with the door propped open and said something to the, Mark's still sitting on his phone. I remember like glancing and he's

still sitting on his phone. And I remember Pat saying to him something to the, Mark's still sitting on his phone. I remember like glancing at him, he's still sitting on his phone. And I remember Pat saying to him something to the effect of, the rioters have gotten to the Capitol, Mark. We need to go down and see the president now. And Mark looked up at it and said, he doesn't want to do anything, Pat. And Pat said something to the effect of, and very clearly had said this to Mark, something to the effect of, and very clearly had said this to Mark, something to the effect of,

Mark, something needs to be done or people are going to die and the blood's going to be on your effing hands. This is getting out of control. I'm going down there. And at that point, Mark stood up from his couch, both of his phones in his hand. He had his glasses on still. He walked out with Pat. He put both of his phones on my desk and said, let me know if Jim calls. And they walked out. And of course, Meadows

and Rudy Giuliani. They knew what was happening. That's why they wanted those pardons. One other point about the speech, Ms. Hutchinson. Did you hear that Mr. Trump at one point wanted to add language about pardoning those who took part in the January 6th riot? I did hear that, and I understand that Mr. Meadows was encouraging that language as well. Thank you, and here's what you told us previously about that. You said he was instructed not to include it. Who was instructing him not to include

language of pardon in that January 7th speech? I understood from White House Counsel's office coming into our office that morning that they didn't think that it was a good idea to include that in the speech. That being Pat Cipollone? That's correct. And Eric Hirschman? Ms. Hutchinson, did Rudy Giuliani ever suggest that he was interested in receiving a presidential pardon related to January 6th? He did. Ms. Hutchinson, did White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows ever indicate that he was interested in receiving a presidential pardon related to January 6th? Mr. Meadows did seek that pardon. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Ms. Hutchinson. Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Wow. Let's go into this with my panel.

Dr. Mustafa Santaygo Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA, joins me. DeMario Solomon-Simmons, civil rights attorney and founder, justice for Greenwood, Dr. Avis Jones DeWeaver, political analyst and author. Okay, DeMario, how in the hell, after today's testimony, do you not, does Merrick Garland not charge Trump with seditious conspiracy and these other individuals. I mean, what she described was beyond shocking. I mean, absolutely. He should have been charged. He should have been charged back on January 6, 2021. Only way it doesn't happen is the same way that Democrats never do anything.

They're spineless. They're feckless. They're weak, scared. This guy should be charged. Meadows should be charged. Rudy Giuliani should be charged. Right now, this is all about show and tell. What I want to see is the Department of Justice executing arrest warrants, indicting these individuals, having them in court, and let this evidence come out in a court of law where there can be some real serious ramifications anything short of that only emboldens these rabbit dog-like individuals even more to continue to do the illegal criminality and they will make sure they are successful next time, not like this last time. What's interesting here, Avis, just a few moments ago, Peter Alexander with NBC said, a source close to the Secret Service tells me both Bobby Engle, the lead agent and the

presidential limousine SUV driver, are prepared to testify under oath that neither man was assaulted and that Mr. Trump never lunged for the steering wheel. Now, the U.S. Secret Service did put out a statement saying the U.S. Secret Service has been cooperating with the select committee since its inception in spring 2021 and will continue to do so, including by responding on the record to the committee regarding the new allegations surfaced in today's testimony. I can't imagine, Avis, this committee not, this committee allowing that testimony to go forward and not having the receipts to back it up. Yeah, I can't either. But what we see here is damage control in real time. You know, who knows everything that is going on in terms of all the people behind the scenes that in some way are looking to kowtow to someone who is using his power as a threat against so many people.

It's really interesting to see history in real time with regards to Trump's sort of mob-like behavior that continues to put him in situations where no matter what he does, he can find people to fall on the sword for him. He can find people who are willing to go to jail for him. He's promising to help people or promising to hurt people, depending upon which side of the line they fall on, either for or against him. As thorough as this committee is, as you've mentioned, it's hard for me to believe that they would allow something out in public testimony that they don't have information to back up in some way, shape or form, because they understand that their credibility is on the line. And so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. But what we saw today was still ground shaking.

And let me tell you, that's there's more to come. Mustafa, again, this is thuggish behavior. This is a man who was hell-bent on overthrowing this government. In fact, there was even a particular clip, y'all get that ready, where Hutchinson testified that Trump had no problem for them hanging Mike Pence. Here's some of that. I opened the door to the dining room, briefly stepped in to get Mark's attention,

showed him the phone, like flipped the phone his way so he could see it, said Jim Jordan. He had stepped to where I was standing there holding the door open, took the phone talking to Jim with the door open, took the phone talking to Jim with the door still propped open. So I took a few steps back. So I probably was two feet from Mark. He was standing in the doorway going to the Oval Office dining room.

They had a brief conversation and in the crossfires, you know, I heard briefly like what they were talking about, but in the background I had heard conversations in the crossfires, you know, I heard briefly what they were talking about, but in the background I had heard conversations in the Oval Dining Room at that point talking about the hang Mike Pence chants. That clip ended, Ms. Hutchinson, with you recalling that you heard the President, Mr. Meadows, and the White House counsel discussing the Hank Mike Pence chance, and then you described for us what happened next. It wasn't until Mark hung up the phone,

handed it back to me. I went back to my desk. A couple minutes later, him and Pat came back, possibly Eric Hirschman, too. I'm pretty sure Eric Hirschman was there. But I'm confident it was Pat that was there. I remember Pat saying something to the effect of,

Mark, we need to do something more. They're literally calling for the vice president to be effing hung. And Mark had responded something to the effect of, you heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong. To which Pat said something, this is effing crazy. We need to be doing something more. Briefly stepped into Mark's office. And when Mark had said something, when Mark had said something to the effect of he doesn't think they're doing anything wrong. You know, President, the person we used to label... Mustafa, Mustafa, this is nuts. Go ahead. Go ahead.

I was just going to say, let's just truly unpack what this is. You know, Trump saw himself not only as the label of a president, but what we're finally seeing sort of play out in front of everyone is an American dictator. You know, an American dictator, a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has gained control by force. A dictator will hang or support the hanging of individuals who stand against him or who stand for justice or democracy or any of these other labels that you want to use. A dictator will also sacrifice their people. They'll sacrifice others for their own personal gain so that they can continue to control the power. So this is the dynamic that we are seeing play out. I take it far above him being a thug. He has truly tried to be a dictator. He's trying to grab power away when he lost the election,

then rally individuals to actually move forward and try and break up democracy so that he could then regain the power that he lost when he lost the presidency. So we need to just be clear with who this man is, how he sees himself, and then also the individuals who continue to support him. You know, I've worked with the Secret Service. I know plenty of folks who've been in the Secret Service. And folks should take this very serious, because not only are you damaging your career, that oath that you took to protect this country from those both domestic and abroad is serious.

So let's just call out what we're dealing with, and that is the first American dictator. So my... Go ahead, Mario. My question is, what has been put in place to stop this from happening again? What will occur right now? Everything that we've seen since January 6, 2021, Republicans have done whatever they wanted to do to create a better environment that they can steal elections, a better environment that they can be dictators, a better environment so they can have minority rule.

That's why, regardless of all these hearings that we're seeing and the bombshell testimony, if these individuals are not charged and indicted soon, and we see them going through the court criminal justice system that my clients go through, there is no way in the world that anybody black or anyone that was not a rich white man could have this type of evidence and not be charged. If we don't see charges soon for Trump and all the Republican elected officials who participated in this, If we don't see Congress soon utilizing the third clause of the 14th Amendment to impeach these insurrectionists

from Congress, this will happen again. This discussion, these hearings will be for not, and we will be in a much difficult place, terrible place in 2024. Absolutely. All right, folks, hold tight one second.

Got to go to a break. When we come back, we'll talk about a case out of Connecticut. Black man paralyzed after, again, an incident there with police. Also, we'll be talking about the case out of Louisiana where courts ruled to create a second black district in the state. Supreme Court has put a halt to that. GOP, don't give a damn about black people.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from New Orleans on the Black Star Network. Verizon just gave us all a brand new iPhone 13. We've been customers for years. We got iPhone 13s, too. Switched two minutes ago, literally right before this. iPhone 13 on us on any unlimited plan for every customer, with plans starting at just $35, all on the network more people rely on.

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that people are responding to. And it would have been great if we had the opportunity to sit one-on-one. Hold on one second. Okay. Spike! Love, babe. So I'm in L.A. right now.

I got a one-on-one series with my network, Black Star Network. And I'm interviewing Maddie Rich. I got a one-on-one series with my network, Blackstar Network. And I'm interviewing Matty Rich. I appreciate that, bro. That was, that's a big moment, man. That was like, man, that was good. Got me all choked up. That's good.

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And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. 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 theresa griffin hi my name is latoya luckett and you're watching roland martin unfiltered All right, folks. So today's black and missing is Iyana Fares.

The Suffolk County, New York police need folks to be on the lookout for the 10-year-old Iyana Fares. The Suffolk County, New York police need folks to be on the lookout for the 10-year-old Iyana Fares, who they believe is trying to make her way to Georgia. Iyana was last seen Monday morning. She's five feet tall, weighs 76 pounds, has brown eyes and brownish blonde hair. She's possibly in need of medication. Anyone with information

about Iyana Farris should call the Suffolk County New York Police Department at 631-854-8552. 631-854-8552. All right, folks, that's our black inmates missing. So there's a lot of discussion taking place today with regards to the November elections, with regards to whether or not President Joe Biden is going to be seeking reelection in 2024. All these different things. We've got races happening today in Illinois, in South Carolina, in New York State, and it goes on and on and on. And obviously, because of the Supreme Court's decision on Friday, Roe v. Wade is a part of the conversation right now. But the question that goes out is, obviously, will that be enough to be able to get people to turn out? There are a variety of decisions that we're going to be looking at.

Of course, the Supreme Court is also going to be weighing in on a crucial environmental decision that many believe that they are going to shank the EPA, just pretty much gut the Environmental Protection Agency. I want to talk about a couple of these things. Mustafa, let's start with you on this. So explain the people of this case that the Supreme Court is going to be ruling on. Many expect them to rule in a way that will be devastating to the environment. Well, I think you're talking about West Virginia versus EPA. And it's an important case because it's focusing on coal-fired power plants. But in more particularity, it is also talking about

if the Environmental Protection Agency has the right to set the regulations around this or if the states will. And the problem with that is that we know that there are a number of states who have not done what's necessary to help us to not only address the climate crisis, but also to address these disproportionate impacts that happen in vulnerable communities. We know that the majority of African Americans,

a vast majority, actually live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant. We also understand that the exposures and emissions that come from this cause heart and liver and kidney diseases and also asthma. And we know that we've got 24 million folks in our country and 7 million kids who have asthma and that in many instances, a lot of folks are losing their lives and kids can't even learn when they have these exposures and then these asthma attacks that are going on and a number of other public health impacts. So all that being said is that we need to truly have a complete social safety net.

And if the Supreme Court knocks this down, it just begins the first domino around these coal-fired power plants because the preceding sets of actions may take away EPA's ability to be able to regulate a number of other impacts that are happening across our country. The thing here, Avis, that I think that people have to understand, there are a lot of individuals who simply thought,

oh, the courts will protect us. What we are now seeing with this 6-3 majority, they don't care. They now have the votes even if one of them, Chief Justice John Roberts, chooses not to go

along. Solid five votes. They can run the table. Not only Roe v. Wade, not only the environment, not only voting rights. We could go on and on and on. This is this is the conservative dream that they have been waiting for. It certainly is. You know, I'm old enough to remember complaints from the right about judicial activism and talking about how an activist court is out of hand and how you shouldn't be legislating from the bench, you know, they would describe anything that had to do with expanding rights as judicial

activism. Here we are in the midst of judicial activism in its purest form. It's really interesting to see this court run roughshod over the rights of women and people generally in terms of decisions that have already been made and decisions that will be made coming down the pike, you know, and to hear the hypocrisy, for example, of a Clarence Thomas who comes out and basically says, let's not only get Roe, let's go after gay rights, let's go after contraception, let's go after peeping into grown folks' bedrooms to see what sexual acts they are engaging in, but let's not touch interracial marriage because I happen to be married in an interracial marriage. The hypocrisy of it shows you that this has nothing to do with the law.

This has to do with their specific political agenda, and they are hell-bent on advancing that agenda come hell or high water in the future. And this is why we have for so long talked about on this show how important it is for the left to really get that these appointments to the Supreme Court and of the damage that this specific court is going to do. You know, Mario, I always talk about on this show how we have to connect the dots. And this is a perfect example for the people who don't understand politics. And that is the individual that you vote for, the individual that you vote for president, that's who is going to appoint Supreme Court justices. The individual that you vote for in

the United States Senate, those are the people who are going to vote on, confirm, or reject Supreme Court justices, federal judges as well. And so I just think that a lot of people who are out here and they're going, well, I'm not going to vote or I don't like their position on this whole issue. I mean, do understand that you can sit on the sidelines, not a problem, but you're going to get the type of government that you will get when you're not actually involved. I had somebody who tweeted me the other day and they were talking about Gen Z's. And I said, why? I said, I don't understand why millennials and Gen Zers keep complaining about baby boomers like Joe Biden. I said, if y'all vote y'all numbers, y'all can run the election.

She's like, oh, no, no, we turned out in 2020. I said, no, you didn't. I said, you turned out. That was an increase. I said, I'm talking about voting your numbers. And that's really the whole issue here. How do you vote your numbers for African Americans? We shouldn't have a situation where you got

30, 40% turnout. New York State today is going to have awful turnout. This is a perfect example. When you vote your numbers and everybody else is low, you can run the table. But you got to actually vote. Yeah, I'm going to respectfully

disagree with you on that. You know, you're talking to someone here in Oklahoma who was gerrymandered to death. It does not matter how I vote in a federal election. I exercise my right to vote. I think it's very important. I think what's most important in this particular moment, though, is the people that are in power are not exercising their power. Where is the Congressional Congress with the impeachment of Clarence Thomas and those other justices that lied under oath?

Where is the impeachment proceedings of Clarence Thomas and his wife being insurrectionist? Where is Joe Biden on his bully post? Hold up, hold up. Demario, Demario, Demario, Demario. Hold up, Demario, Demario. Wait, hold up. If we're going to put something out, let's be factual. Congress cannot

impeach Clarence Thomas. Why not? So when you're saying where's, no, no, no, hold up, hold up, because here's part of the problem. The Supreme Court, first of all, the Supreme Court doesn't have an ethics, you don't have, you don't have, you don't have an ethics situation set up. That's first. Now, can you impeach federal judges? Yes, you can. But you can't impeach Jenny Thomas. She doesn't hold a political office.

No, I know that, but I'm talking about her. I'm talking about Clarence Thomas, who's making these decisions that my sister talked about earlier, wanting to get rid of not only Roe v. Wade and all these other rights. Where is the congressional members right now? All they keep saying is, give us two more senators. Give us two more senators.

But I'm old enough, as my sister said, to remember when the Obama administration had 60 senators, and they still said they didn't have enough senators. They always want to move the ball. The only thing that they did after Roe versus Wade, after having two months, two months, knowing that this was coming out, was go out and sing songs on the steps of the Capitol

and send out fundraising emails. This is ridiculous. And so for people to say, well, you just got to vote harder, I reject that. Yes, people want to get out. No, no, no, no. No, no, no. See, again, DeMario, you're leaving out

some of this factually. You're wrong. You're not letting me finish. The House. How can I get in? Everything I'm trying to get in. DeMario. No, DeMario. But if you're giving out factually incorrect information. For instance, the House has actually

passed a bill dealing with reproductive rights. Avis can tell you that. The House has actually passed. No, hold up. No, no, DeMario, but when you say Congress, but when you, DeMario, when you say Congress, that includes the House

and the Senate. Be specific. The House has done what you said, not the Senate. So don't say Congress, say the Senate. No, no, no, no. You wasn't listening to what I said. Where is Congress, the House, right now bringing these judges in, finding ways to bring this in, bringing to the House right now, bringing these judges in, finding ways to bring this in,

bringing to the House floor to expand the Supreme Court. They haven't put that on the House floor. It may not pass in the Senate, but they need to be showing their constituency and their base that we're willing to fight as hard as we need to for the things that we can control. The House is not doing that. And certainly the president is not doing that. I mean, the things he said at the end of his speech on Friday was, I want to leave you with, you must be peaceful, peaceful, peaceful. These people are ripping apart people's rights each and every day. As the sister stated earlier, this is things that our grandchildren will be dealing with while we sit here in real time and watch this. This is like being in Germany in 1933, 1934, 1935, and just seeing things ripped apart, ripped

apart, ripped apart. The congressional leaders are not acting strong enough. They tweet, they go on TV, they send out fundraising emails, but they're not utilizing every tool in their bag, in my opinion. Okay. Okay.

And again, in order for you to do that, what you have to have is you got to have the votes. And if you don't have the votes, what you do is politically, and this is also being smart politically, what you do is you don't set yourself up to lose. So part of the issue that you're now dealing with is, and again, I can run these things down, Avis, the number of bills that have been passed in the House that are dead in the Senate. So when I hear people say, well, they aren't doing these things, there are a number of things that have been passed. Look, the domestic terrorism bill after Buffalo was passed in the House, it died in the Senate. So when we say what Congress is not doing, no, what the Senate is not doing, there are a number of things that have happened actually in the House.

But see, I'm not only looking at, see, and again, this is the key. This is the key. I'm not only talking about Congress. I'm also talking about what's happening on the state level. And when I look at voting numbers on a state level, I see the exact same thing. The point that I am making is when you, if we see folks voting our numbers, Avis, then you might see also a change in the very people who are in elected office. Part of the problem we have right now is that people who are in office are in there because they were elected with low voter turnout.

But, Avis, if I just jump in, we've got to also factor in the hearing aid. Hold on. Hold on, Demario. Demario, hold on. Avis, and I'll come back to you, but hold on. Avis. Yeah, I agree with that. When you think about where the black population is concentrated,

I know it may not make much of a difference in terms of the number of black people in Oklahoma, okay? But if you're looking at places like Georgia, like Pennsylvania, even New Mexico, I mean, these key states that were key in that last election, and Texas as we're growing there, let me just say there are key states where when we maximize our vote, we have tremendous power. I completely agree with that. But I also want to say that the biggest mistake that I see the Democratic Party making right now, and we know that we're in this conundrum where the House can do all sorts of things, but it's not it's going to die in the Senate. OK, we know that's the reality right now. What they aren't doing, though, is utilizing their bully pulpit. We don't see enough of Biden utilizing his bully pulpit. When things like when things happen, like what has been happening this entire time with the Republican Party, and particularly as a result same talking points, repeating the same

sound bites. You don't have that level of concerted effort and strategy with regards to messaging to rally the base among the Democratic Party that you do with the Republican Party. And I think that this is also connected with a lack of enthusiasm in terms of making sure that their base actually does come out and maximize their voting power. I see this all as being connected. If the Democrats were better at messaging, if the Democrats were better at fighting, I agree with that. If the Democrats were better at really showing some sort of emotional, powerful reaction to this crazy moment that we're in right now. I mean, they're acting like this is politics as usual.

This is not politics as usual. This is not normal. I mean, I want to see them acting like the world is on fire because it is. And if they continue to try to think about this from the sort of intellectual standpoint that Democrats normally approach things from, you are not going to engage and fire up your base to the degree that you need to at a moment like this in order to make the difference that we need to make in the polls in November and beyond at the national level or the state and local level. All of it's important, but you have to really make people want to go out there and fight.

And they are not rallying the troop. They're not living up to this moment to the degree that they need to. But but this is why I'm this is why I'm making this point, Mustafa, because I look at the poor people's campaign. It's one thing to hold news conferences and complain and to say what should be done. It's another thing to actually go out and knock on the doors to actually mobilize and organize the people to begin to have a shift, begin to have a change. And what I am saying is,

if you are in a place and the cavalry ain't coming't coming, then the question is what is at your disposal? And what I'm suggesting is all across this country, cities and counties, various states, what we're also seeing is we're seeing people who are frustrated. We're seeing people who say, I want to see stuff get done. You can't get jacked done unless you have the votes. Ron Kirkman, who's the mayor of Dallas, told me that all the time. Ron said, I can count votes. He said, you can come to City Hall bitching and yelling and screaming all you want to. But if I look around the table, he said, and there's 12 people and I got nine votes. Y'all can yell, holler, scream all you want to. But if I look around the table, he said, and there's 12 people,

and I got nine votes, y'all can yell, holler, scream all you want to. I got the nine votes. And so there's a difference between being pissed off and emotional and being strategic and organized. And what I am offering is if you are pissed off and angry and emotional, but you've got no strategy, you have no organization, you have no mobilization, all you are is pissed off. Now, if you're on the flip side where all you are concerned about is raising money and being as bland as possible, you're going to have a whole issue with being able to turn people out. What I am still saying across the board, that what is absolutely needed for us, I can't speak for nobody else, is for us to say, wait a minute, if the last election, that person got elected and only 14 percent of all eligible voters turned out and they sunk.

We don't do. I'm going to try to figure out how to get another 16 percent to turn out and put them out of office. That's what I'm saying. You know, my grandmother says you have power unless you give it away. One of the victories that Republicans have had is that they've played a role in convincing people that they don't have power. There are all these examples of how when you actually mobilize folks, when you build structures, infrastructures and have a strategic plan of how change can happen. You mentioned the Poor People's Campaign. Let's go back to the More Mondays movement there in North Carolina when folks said that, you know, that you could never make changes there in North Carolina. Reverend Barber and a whole lot of community-based folks and others came together

to be able to make change begin to happen there in North Carolina. I was with Indigenous brothers and sisters earlier today, and we were talking about how they helped to play a role there in New Mexico. I believe Avis had mentioned New Mexico and helping to actually flip that by getting folks together. Now they did also raise that we've got to have more

resources going in to get even more folks in their community together. But all that goes back to the fact that we can make change happen, but we have to, one, be strategic. That's why this show is so important. From the earliest days of being on this show, one of the things we kept raising to folks is that Republicans have a strategic plan that they have been playing out for decades,

and that Democrats, one, have to do a much better job of connecting with folks, getting resources to them, but to also understand that dynamics can actually change. And we do a disservice. We do such a disservice when we put out there that voting doesn't matter. Voting matters on the local level, the county, the state level. If you want to actually address what's happening around gerrymandering and redistricting, then you got to get people mobilized to vote on that state level to be able to play a role in helping to make change happen. If you're not doing that, and if you continue to say, well, you know what, I can't find nobody who represents what I stand for, and ain't nobody focusing on issues I care about.

My question every time somebody says that is, why aren't you running for office yourself? Why don't you run on the local or the county, the state level? Or if you have the ability, why not get enough folks together so you can run on the federal level. Or if you have the ability, why not get enough folks together so you can run on the federal level? So if you're saying that, then you have a responsibility to do something in that space. Because if you want to see change happen, this starts with each and every one of us,

and then we build it out by bringing other people in. And that's why going back to the Poor People's Campaign of making sure that everyone who's focusing on their commonalities, those points that everybody can get behind, and then building from there, honoring each other, supporting each other in an authentic way. And when we don't do that, we are just as responsible for some of these things that we see going on

as those who are trying to destroy our communities and to strip power away from us. The unfortunate issue that I'm looking at, Demario, is, again, we got a lot of people who are angry, pissed, and emotional, but they have no plan. Well, I think there's a lot of people that are angry, pissed, and emotional, and they're looking for leadership. They're looking for leadership to stand up and show them what the plan is.

Like, everybody is not a leader, and everybody is not going to lead organizations like all of us on this panel. Everyone doesn't have the experience, the connections, the wealth to be able to run for office. Some people are looking for leadership, and I'm not going to castigate anyone who feels a little dejected in this moment

because they're looking around and don't see anybody actually leading and fighting on their behalf. All of us fight every single day. And as a civil rights attorney that is based in Oklahoma to take cases all over this nation, I understand that sometimes a win is not necessarily getting the ultimate victory. The win is just doing the fight. And that's what people are looking for. That's why people gravitate to Reverend Barber, because he's fighting. That's why people gravitate to this show, because he's fighting. That's why people gravitate to this show, because you're fighting.

But we cannot just cascade and talk bad about people not wanting to vote. Look, when I went down to Texas back in 2018 to do voter protection for the NAACP down there, I went to Waco, flew down to Waco, and you get down there and you see these voting districts for black organizations or black communities where they have two or three voting machines and people got to

wait in line four and five hours and you go right across town to the white voting districts and they just walk in and walk out, that stuff is real. So understanding that that is real, we have to give people real incentives of why they believe people are going to fight on their behalf when they are elected. So yes, we want everybody to get out to vote. Yes, we want people to be more passionate and to get the numbers up. But we cannot give excuses for those who are in power right now. I remember everyone saying about Georgia, if we get these two seats in Georgia, if we get Roanoke and Ossoff elected, we can get our agenda passed. That is what Joe Biden said to everyone. Everyone believed that, and he has not come through on it,

and it's okay for people to be upset about that. But, Roland, let me just... First of all, there's no... Go ahead, go ahead. I was just going to say, this is not a hit-it-and-quit-it situation. You have got to have consistency in our mobilization and our activation to be able to get this stuff achieved. And we keep thinking that because we get somebody in for one term. I

mean, when you look at our brother Warnock, it's not like he's been in for six years, right? I'm not disparaging brother Warnock. And we all understand that this is a long-term play. This is something that people have to show up all the time. But the moment right now, when it is, for me, I am dealing with this stuff every single day. I mean, this impacts all of us, but this impacts my clients specifically

as these rights are being rolled away right in front of our face. I do not see enough passion. I do not see enough fight. I do not see enough resources being pushed down to black communities and black organizations to do the get after, bro. People like LaTosha Brown and other organizations like my man Frank White

with Black Men Vote. These are people that I'm in contact with, consulting with, supporting right now. They're not getting the resources to get our community out there. That's because the Democrats, Roland, you said the Republicans don't care about us. At this point, the Democrats have not proven that either.

Well, I'm not going to try and defend the Democrats. And again, first of all, what you're doing is you're having a Democratic-Republican conversation. I'm not. I'm having a grassroots.

You said the Republicans don't care about us. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not. I'm having a grassroots. the Louisiana case, which we're about to discuss next. So if you're going to quote me, quote what I was talking about. What I'm talking about right now. I don't know what you're talking about right now, my brother. I'm talking about... First of all, you don't have to be in my mind. You literally heard me say it. I was specifically talking about the Supreme Court decision today

regarding the second black majority district in Louisiana. That's what I was talking about. What I'm talking about on this segment right here is if we're talking about how do we change politics, what I'm saying is you have never seen politicians lead movements. No. Movement leaders do so. What we have right now, you have right now organizations out there that are actually doing it. But what I am saying to people who are watching

and to people who are listening is that if you actually want to see change, do understand that it's going to have to be driven by the people. And if we also vote our numbers, what cannot happen is when you have, perfect example, and I used it before, when you had black turnout, there was a significant number in North Carolina in 2008 when Obama was elected, and then in 2010, the midterms, it dropped significantly.

And then in 2012 and 2014, it dropped even more so. What I am arguing is when we mobilize and organize our numbers, we can truly affect change. So what I'm trying to get people to do is stop complaining and align with entities. And so if you are in a state right now, you should say reach out to the Poor People's Campaign in that state. Reach out to Black Voters Matter in that particular state. There are entities who are doing the work. I'm trying to get us to go from being pissed off to being proactive and organized and mobilized.

That's what I'm talking about. I agree. Everything you said what I'm talking about. I agree with the dichotomy. I agree with everything you said. I agree 100%. But I don't think there – I think you can be pissed off and get organized. I think we need to be pissed off and get organized. That's the only thing I'm going to say. Well, first of all, fine.

Yes, you can be pissed off and organized. What I'm saying is being pissed off don't change shit. You've got to have the organized part to go along with it. I agree. I agree with that. And the problem is, it's a bunch of people walking around who are solely pissed off, and again, the numbers reflect it.

The numbers reflect it. Yeah, I mean, again, I don't... And that's what I'm saying. I don't disagree with your basic premise. So, but I know you want to move on, so I don't want to belabor the point. I don't want to hog up all the time. Well, no, no, no, no. First of all, no, no, no, no.

First of all, my next guest is actually traveling, so I got to go to him. So let me do this here. Let me quickly go to the break. When I come back, I'm going to talk about right here. Louisiana should have a second majority black congressional district. The courts ruled that it was racial gerrymandering. Now this conservative Supreme Court is invalidating that. We'll tell you more about it, folks. It's shameful, but this is what happens when this court

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What up, I'm Lonnie Wells, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, earlier today I chatted with Louisiana Congressman Troy Carter. He is the only African-American in the Louisiana congressional delegation. Well, a district judge ruled that Louisiana, they were packing black voters into one district, say, basically racial gerrymandering, and that Louisiana African-Americans deserve to have a second majority black district. The state is more than one third African-American, yet what lawmakers do is basically pack them into one black district right there, as you see in that blue. There are six congressional districts in Louisiana. Only one is African-American.

Well, the district court ruled that there was enough time to create a second district and redraw the maps because Louisiana does not hold its primaries until later in the year. We'll explain that. But the Supreme Court has actually issued a stay of that ruling, which stipulates that the maps Republicans have drawn in Louisiana will stay in place. And so therefore, you won't have this second black district. This is one of their shadow decisions where there were no oral arguments, but they basically made the decision without having to actually be on the record with their questions. Joining me right now is someone who knows Louisiana politics very, very well, a professor there at Dillard, Dr. Robert Collins. Glad to have you on the show. So, Doc, you do political science. You look at these things right here. I mean, this is a perfect example of largely.

Look, I'm a call it white Republican rule. Yeah. Even with Clarence Thomas, that this is what happens when you have a Republican conservatives who control the Supreme Court. They've been validated and gutted the Voting Rights Act. What they are essentially allowing is racial gerrymandering to move forward. Yes. You know, Roland, what's interesting about this is that after the district court judge ruled that the current map that the Republican majority legislature passed was a violation of the Voting Rights Act, and she ordered them to create two districts, two black majority districts, which they refused to do. The judge basically almost threatened to hold them in contempt of court, but they refused.

Then they appealed to the Fifth Circuit, and interestingly enough, the Fifth Circuit refused to stay her order. So the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, mind you, which any lawyer will tell you is the most conservative court of appeal in the United States, and the panel that heard the case was a Republican majority panel, actually left the current maps in place. They refused to stay the order, and they actually scheduled a hearing for July 8. So we were waiting for the judge tomorrow, actually. She was going to issue her two maps, and then there was going to be a full hearing July 8 before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, which is the standard way that, which is the

standard process. But then because the leadership of the legislature filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court basically decided that they were going to Bigfoot the situation, that they were going to come in, they were going to, without a hearing, without a hearing, they were going to overrule both the district judge and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, and that they were just going to, you know, basically cancel the two majority black districts, leave in place the current maps, which only has one majority black district, and they scheduled a hearing. Well, and they put the case on the docket for next term.

But let's not kid ourselves. We know how they're going to rule in advance. I'm not going to sit here and give anybody any hope that the two black majority districts are going to receive a fair or impartial hearing from this court. That's just not going to happen. It's going to be a six to three vote. And I'll predict that now very comfortably. And if anybody wants to put a bet on that, we can put a bet on that. Yeah, so it's very disturbing that the court would actually, with everything it has to do,

would actually step into this it has to do would actually step into this this louisiana case when it really didn't need to it could have just let due process play out but but but they chose they yeah but but but see but see but but but but robert but robert look let's keep in mind this is the exact same supreme court where overturning roe v wade was not on the agenda like literally that was not a part of the Mississippi case. The state of Mississippi wasn't asking for Roe v. Wade to be overturned. This Supreme Court chose to go even further. And so when I hear Republicans complain about, oh, Democratic judges being activist judges,

this is a perfect example of activist judges with them not allowing lower courts to do their job. They decided, oh, damn that, we're shutting this down. Oh, yeah. And I've told people, people say this is a conservative court. I said, no, this is an activist court. This is an activist right-wing court. This is an activist right-wing court. They get involved in cases. You know, They always use the cases before them to rule on a bunch of different social issues that aren't even in the case. And you're right. In the Mississippi case, they could have upheld the constitutionality of the Mississippi law, left the Mississippi law in place and been totally silent on Roe

versus Wade. And interestingly enough, that's what the chief justice wanted to do. The chief justice, who is very conservative, wanted to just, you know, just leave the Mississippi law in place, and then, you know, in his opinion, he said he believes in taking a more incremental view. But the five ultraconservatives, they don't really believe in an incremental view. They saw this the chance to, this was their chance to take out Roe v. Wade, so they took it out. They just took it out.

And I think we're going to see, and as I wrote in one of my tweets earlier today, this current majority, conservative majority of the Supreme Court, has made it very clear that now they're going to be very aggressive in taking the hammer to their opposition. And they're going to be pretty ruthless about it. So I think we better buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride. Yeah, and this is why the previous segment I was talking about why we got to mobilize and organize to vote. The reality is this. And I don't care. Yeah, I know what people said in 2000, 2020, we were talking about elect

Warnock and Ossoff. But I also knew if you elected Warnock and Ossoff, you would still be at 50-50. The reality is this here. If Mandela Barnes becomes a U.S. senator in Wisconsin, if Fetterman wins in Pennsylvania, if Sherrod Beasley wins in North Carolina, it's now 53-47. If all of a sudden we get aggressive, and I keep saying black people, look, if Democrats actually or even if outside groups register black people in Louisiana, look, I know people may sound crazy. You can flip that U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana. Hey, call me, call me nuts.

But John Bel Edwards won in this state by 30,000 votes. The bottom line is here. You have to activate the people. Look, you've got Booker in Kentucky. You've got Demings in you've got Demings in Florida. You've got Demings in you've got Demings in Florida. You've got Tim Ryan in Ohio. So potentially Democrats could be 53, 47, 54, 46. And now all of a sudden these things we're talking about, you can now codify them. Look, you don't have to wait for the Voting Rights Act. You can literally now change the law.

But you have to you have to break the logjam of these people who think, oh, we can't get rid of the filibuster. Damn that. This court is making it clear that they are going to do the bidding of Republicans and try to return everything the state's rights. And we know if we're living in red states, we are screwed. Sure. And let's be clear. If the Republicans get control of the United States Senate, they will shut down all judicial appointments. Mitch McConnell has been very clear about that. If he gets the majority, it's over. I mean, not just, not only will Biden not get any more Supreme Court appointments, assuming someone retires before then, which they probably won't. But he won't get that. Biden won't get any more of his district or

appellate judges through, you know, Mitch McConnell is basically going to shut all that down. You know, and I know we focus when we look at judicial departments, I know we focus on who the president is. And it's obviously it's important to control the White House. But as I've been saying for years, and let me say, I'm a former U.S. Senate staffer, so I'm sort of biased toward the Senate, you have to control the Senate. The current problems on the Supreme Court were not caused by not controlling the White House. I mean, the Democrats at the end of the current term, you know, the Democrats will have held the White House for 12 of the last 16 years. The issue was they didn't control the United States Senate.

And so the reason why Barack Obama was not allowed to put his final appointment on the court was because the Republicans control the Senate and they were able to block it. The reason why Donald Trump was able to get Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court just a few days before the end of his term is because the Republicans, you know, controlled the court, and the Democrats could not stop that from being rammed through. You know, I mean, Donald Trump should have had one Supreme Court appointment. Normally presidents get one. Sometimes they get two during a term. To get two, you normally have to serve two terms. He got three.

He should have only gotten one. He got three. He basically stole two. He stole two because the Republicans control the Senate, and the Republicans are very cutthroat and vicious in either blocking the Democrats' picks or in ramming their picks through, basically in defiance of the will of the American people. You know, the reason why Mitch McConnell said that he didn't let Barack Obama have his pick

is because, oh, we have to let the American people vote on it. They have to decide. But then, of course, at the end of Trump's term, when Justice Ginsburg died, he didn't let the American people have their say then. He just basically shut down the democratic process and said, no, we're going to put our person on the court. So he's very, I mean, he's not, he's very ruthless and he's very cutthroat. And so, yes, holding on to the United States Senate, and as you said, not just holding on to it, but getting two, three, four seats is vital if you're going to be able to, you know, not only make inroads and making sure we have a more fair

overall federal judiciary, but as you said, being able to codify some of these laws so that we don't have to depend on the Supreme Court to protect people's rights. Questions from my panel. I'll start with you, Avis. You know, I hear what you're saying, and I completely, I'm really interested in your perspective around the Senate, specifically given your background there. When you think about what's going on right now and what will happen in the midterms, You know, what do you think are the chances that we will get enough turnover in the Senate in the Democratic direction to be able to overcome those people who have stood in the way this time,

which is why we needed more than a 50 slash 51 majority to pull things through. We had these conservative Democrats who were unwilling to stand up for key pieces of legislation. Do you think that there are enough seats that are shaky enough, uh, that Democrats might actually win enough, uh, new seats in the Senate in order to have at least that 53, 54 even maybe

that we need to get past the mansions of the world? It's gonna be tight be tight, you know, because, of course, the Democrats have to hold everything they have now. They can't lose anything, and then they need to flip a few seats. Rowland's probably more optimistic than me. I mean, I think they can hold everything they have now,

but, you know, I think flipping Florida, is it possible? Yes, but it's going to be tough. The turnout has to be tough. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Remember, I named three that are actually at the top. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Then after that, I think Ohio is next.

That's still going to be hard. I think the hard ones are obviously Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana. But the reason I was talking earlier about the organizing piece, a Democrat was elected governor in Kentucky. A Democrat is elected governor in Louisiana. I'm saying that for a reason that you have to put in the work to beat them. There are too many Democrats who right now are going, oh, it's Louisiana. We can't beat John. We can't beat Kennedy. Well, if you never actually try, you're guaranteed to lose. Same thing

with Booker versus Rand Paul. I'm looking at two states that ran, yes, white male governors, but there's still Democrats in red states. But you've got to make the effort. So what I've been saying is, if you hold got to make the effort. So what I've been saying is, if you hold Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, those are four Democrats who must hold. The three pickups, I believe, in the polling data right now shows Wisconsin, North Carolina,

Pennsylvania, and then that next one is Ohio. And then I think you get to Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana. Yeah, I think Pennsylvania is definitely doable. Wisconsin is doable. North Carolina is doable. Yeah. Then it gets tough after that. Louisiana gets especially tough. I mean, you'd have to have really high turnout,

and you have to get some working-class whites to come over. I mean, you know, Roland, 20 years ago when I used to work in the Senate, I worked for a guy named Bennett Johnston, you know, Southern Democrat. We used to be able to, you know, rely on about 40 percent of the white vote. Obviously, we always got 95 percent, 96, 97, 98 percent of the black vote. But we won because we were always able to get about 40% of the black vote. But we won because we were always able to get about 40% of the white vote. And so we didn't need the majority of the white vote.

We just needed 40%. Now, you know, somebody... Yes, go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, no, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. I'll disagree with you. Now I'm saying... I said right.

Now you have somebody like John Bel Edwards, who's a very conservative Democrat. He barely breaks 30% of the white vote. I mean, he won the governor's race because he was able to hang on to about 30, 31, 32% of the white vote. That's pretty much the, that's, that's the threshold. You, you dip below 30% of the white vote as a Democrat, you're gone. So, you know, so it's, it's. So, so, so Robert, so, so Robert, here's my point. Here's my point. If you, so if you know you about, you gotta get 30, which then means you have to then say, what's the number, uh, Gary Chambers was on, he told us, is it 300,000 unregistered blacks in Louisiana? Yeah, it's about that. It's several hundred. Then what you got to do is,

if I'm at 30, about 30 percent, I know as I get whites, then I've got to increase my black, my first of all, my eligible black voters, my eligible Latino voters. And so I got to put the resources there. And that's what I'm saying. That continues to be part of the problem in terms of the calculus. What they don't do, because I remember Chris Van Hollen. I remember 2012. They didn't get what this when he was in the Congress, he was in the House. They didn't get what they might put money in Georgia. And they kept saying, yo, we can actually flip it. And so what I'm arguing is that if we know that's going to be the threshold there, we have to maximize our turnout. And when we do that, then we're able to sit here and offset the numbers that we know we're not going to get.

But what can happen is that Democrat getting 30 percent and black being right here, you're guaranteed to lose. So something has to change because you've got to go out and get your votes from somewhere. I mean, John Bel Edwards, he banked on only getting about 31%, 32% of the white vote, but he was able to mobilize the black vote very effectively and get people to the polls. So, yeah, so you've got to hold on to that 30% of the white vote

and then be able to mobilize the black vote and get people to the polls. There's no question about it. A question from Mustafa. Yeah, Robert, I'm curious. You know, we have this conversation about resources. I'm curious, from your perspective we have this conversation about resources. I'm curious, from your perspective, where should we be making better investments to be able to win? Well, you mean as far as candidates or you mean as far as organizing or media? You know, we often talk about infrastructure and the lack of funding that often happens for our organizations that are actually out there on the ground.

There's another theory or paradigm where we should be, you know, better resourcing candidates. So I'm just interested in where you think resources should be going to maximize the vote? Well, I do think we need resources to go into voter registration. As, you know, as Roland just said, you know, it's really unacceptable that we have hundreds of thousands of unregistered Black voters in the state of Louisiana. that's a disconnect right there. That's a resource that you can't win without. So I think we need to put more resource into organizations that actually, and it's really in the rural areas. We do okay in the urban areas because we have a lot of grassroots organizations here.

We can piggyback with grassroots organizations. We need folks to drive out into the rural areas and register the working class rural black folks. I think that's the first place I would put money. I mean, if I had unlimited money to spend. I mean, as far as putting money into recruiting candidates, I think we have a good set of candidates. I mean, you know, I think we have good candidates running, you know, in the U.S. Senate. I think we have, I just think what's scary, we have many fine candidates that serve in the Louisiana legislature that I personally would think make fine United States senators, very articulate, highly educated, you know, Ivy League educated folks that serve in the

Louisiana legislature. It's not that we have a dearth of candidates. It's that the candidates sitting in the legislature, they look at, you know, somebody like, you know, John Kennedy sitting on top of $14 million, and they said, well, you know, we can't top that. How are we, you know, he basically has an unlimited campaign fund. We're not going to be able to knock him off, so there's no point in us putting the money into challenging him.

And, of course, when you're in a state like Louisiana, Louisiana, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is the, who allocates, which is the campaign committee run by incumbent U.S. senators that allocates how the national money is going to go, their position is Louisiana is not in play. So they don't really want to send any of their national money down to Louisiana, because they're going to say, oh, well, it's taking money away from Pennsylvania. It's taking money away from Wisconsin. We have limited funds.

We can't give you money to run any media down there. But the bottom line is this. If I had to, or let me put it this way, if I had to prioritize it, if you gave me a million dollars and say, Bob, that's all you have, I only have a million dollars, can't spend anything else, that's not really enough to spend on media. What would I spend it on? I would spend it on sending folks into black rural districts to register blacks to vote, and then to make sure we could get them to the polls on Election Day.

That, you know, because right, having hundreds of thousands of Black folks unregistered in the state of Louisiana is just not acceptable. I mean, that's an insult to all of the folks that died in the civil rights movement to give people the right to vote. As I keep saying, organize and mobilize. Demario, your question.

I really enjoyed listening to you and your insights, brother. I'm very interested to ask you two questions dealing with judges. It's something I'm working on currently. I was very disappointed. I had a conversation with a high ranking government official in D.C. a couple of weeks ago that the Dick Durbin, Senator Dick Durbin, is still recognizing the blue slip policy. And therefore, like here in Oklahoma, we have two, maybe three judicial openings. And we are telling the Biden administration, please appoint someone, appoint someone, appoint someone.

And we've been told, well, they got to get the sign off of our two Trump Republican senators who are never going to sign off on anyone that we would want in play. So that's my first question. Can you explain to the people what the blue slip process is, and why is it that the Senate that is controlled by the Democrats are still adhering to that? That's my first question. Okay. So the blue slip process just means that if you are a member of the United States Senate,

you have final approval over any judicial nominees that come from your state. So it doesn't really matter if the president is a different party than you. You can basically freeze that nominee just by turning in your blue slip to the majority leader. So now let's be fair. The Democrats use those blue slips, too. So when there's a Republican president, the Democrats turn in their blue slips if there's someone they disapprove of. It's one of those arcane U.S. Senate rules that don't make any sense, that it's not in the Constitution, it's not in any statute.

It's literally purely written into Senate internal rules. So it could be changed at any time by majority vote, just like the filibuster could be done away with at any time just by majority vote. But I think the reason why the Democrats have not gotten rid of it is because, well, I'm assuming even if they wanted to, Sinema and Manchin wouldn't go along with it since they believe in these arcane rules. But honestly, I'm not even sure you could get even the majority of the Democrats to do away with the blue-slip rule simply because they want to have that rule available to them when

the Republicans are in power. And also, U.S. senators are just very protective about their states, and they want to, regardless of who's in the White House, they want to have control over the people who serve as district and appellate court judges in their home states. But isn't it, thank you so much for making it clear that it's just a rule. It's not a law. But isn't it true that during the Trump administration, the blue slip was ignored many times, and the Trump administration was able to put forth unqualified candidates to be on the bench, young candidates, people had never even tried a case, ever been in a courtroom. How was the Republicans able to do

that and the Democrats are not? Well, simply because they were actually actually actually hold on, Robert. So remember what you're not what you're talking about is Robert, just make the point. So, for instance, one of the people who was rated unqualified was named in Florida. There are two Republican judges, U.S. senators in Florida. So you didn't have a Democrat there. Now, there was an example where the Republican senator in Wisconsin and the Democratic senator from Wisconsin put in a blue slip and McConnell still ignored them for that judge. There have been examples where Dick Durbin has actually ignored a blue slip from Republicans. So all of that has actually happened. Robert, go ahead. But at the end of the day, you know, it's about

majority rule. You know, in order to, you know, to be able to, you know, I mean, in order to be able to stop unqualified judges from going through, you know, you have to have the numbers. I mean, you know, you just, you know, you have to have the numbers. And, you know, otherwise, you know, it's just majority rule. And the Republicans have been, you are correct, the Republicans have been, you know, more, a little more brutal in following the rules when it serves their purposes, but ignoring the rule conveniently, you know, ignoring the rule when it does not serve their purpose. My second question, Roland, if I have time. All right, then. Actually, we don't.

Literally, my next guest has been waiting for about 10 minutes, and I've got to go to the next guest. Robert Collins, always glad to have you, man. We appreciate it. Thanks for the knowledge. Hopefully, I'll see you around New Orleans this week. We'll catch up. Okay, thank you, Roland. Bye-bye. I appreciate it. Thanks for the knowledge. Hopefully I'll see you around New Orleans this week. We'll catch up. Okay.

Thank you, Roland. Bye-bye. I appreciate it. Thank you very much, folks. We've got to go to a break. When we come back, we'll talk about this case out of Connecticut. We'll be joined by one of the attorneys working with Ben Crump on this case, a black man paralyzed. They're actually having a rally for him as we speak in Connecticut.

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You know, I made this, you know, this creative art, right, that people are responding to. And it would have been great if we had the opportunity to sit one-on-one. Hold on one second. Spike!

So I'm in L.A. right now. I got a one-on-one series with my network, Black Star Network, and I'm interviewing Matty Rich. I appreciate that, bro. That was, that's a big moment, man. That was like, man, that was good. Got me all choked up. That's good.

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Get your freak on. Get your freak on. Get your freak on. Get your freak on. Get your freak on. Get your freak on. Get your freak on. Get your freak on. Get your freak on. Get your freak on. I'm Ryan Destiny and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hey, folks, this is a live look at a rally for a young man, Randy Cox. Y'all go to it, please. Go to it, please. Thank you.

And of course, this is the story that we're covering. Ben Crump is speaking right now. In fact, a young man who was paralyzed from the neck down after being seriously injured in the back of a police van when the driver breaks. Suddenly he was not built. He was not bolted in. Let's actually go to this news conference and let's hear what Ben has to say. Okay, audio is not coming through, but again, that's actually happening as we speak. Again, man, a really just a horrific story. Reminds us of the Freddie Gray story. Chris O'Neill is one of the attorneys who's working on the case along with Ben Crump. He joins us right now. Chris, explain to folks exactly what happened here. I mean, and also I think there's video of this. I saw it on Ben's page. So he was placed in the back of a police van and they just all of a sudden slam on the brakes and it throws him forward and pretty much breaks his neck? He pretty much got it right, Roland. The situation was after this young man was arrested without incident, he was placed in the back of the paddy wagon or van.

He was not restrained in any way, shape, or form. There were no other people in the van with him. But the controlled narrative of the police department was that they had to slam on brakes to avoid an accident. But the issue is, why were they going as fast as they were going? Why was he not strapped down? And why is it that he had this horrific injury and was not afforded medical care. So wait a minute, hold up. Snell on the brakes, he's injured and he wasn't taken to the hospital? He was not. In fact, he was actually transported over to the jail.

Once he was transported into the jail, they told him to get up, get out. They did not hear his plea that says, hey, I can't move. They dragged him out by his feet, threw him into a wheelchair, as you can see, and then they processed him from that wheelchair

in the jail facility, and then dragged and threw him into a jail cell. I'm stopping. I'm going to check you out. Wow. What has been the reaction from authorities? You fell.

What happened? Can you move at all? I can't move. Hey, guys, do me a favor. Bring the audio down on the videotape, y'all, so I can hear Chris. Chris, go ahead. Thank you, Roland. What ended up happening is we have, there's over two hours of recorded footage on this situation from body cams and from the facility itself. But what happened is that the authorities, the city authorities, police department, decided to release what they felt were the most important and pertinent aspects of this.

And by doing that, they attempted to control the narrative. But you can see in there that there was reckless indifference to this man's well-being, his care, and his life for that matter. His life is going to be forever changed. Randy Cox is never going to be the same. No one charged, no one indicted, and just what? Just we're all good? Anybody suspended? Anybody put on leave?

Actually, there were some officers suspended. I believe it was five of them that have been suspended. And there has been a statement from the mayor of the city of New Haven that indicates that they're very disturbed at what they've seen. But there's been no one that's been charged. There's been no one that's been indicted. We're waiting on all of that. Wow. Absolutely incredible here. Any any questions from my panel tomorrow? I'll start with you first. Hey, Chris, good to see you, team. What's up, team? What's going on? Really sorry. I mean, this is just a heartbreaking video. And, of course, you know, we've worked on these cases a lot together.

Now, I think I don't have a question. I just want to remind people that, again, President Biden had a speech where he said it's harder now than ever to be a police officer. That's false. And he also told cities around this country to use the money they received through COVID to give police officers like these officers right here more and more services, more and more resources, more and more money. And I look in this video and I see there are some black officers involved. And that should also be further proof that when we say, oh, we need more diversity in the police department. Now we need a whole new system because this system is corrupt, it's broken, and this stuff happens every single day. Chris, you guys be careful up there in Connecticut and tell Ben I said what's up. Certainly will. In fact, Ben is on the other side of this wall right now in a rally where there are city officials, including the interim chief and several other people. So we're looking forward to making sure that

they respond to the pressure that's being levied against them. Avis or Mustafa, you have a question for Chris. You know, I'll just jump in. This has huge overtones of what happened to Freddie Gray. And it makes me think of not only the horrendous actions of the police who were so reckless, so reckless, leading to Freddie Gray's death and leading to this paralysis.

I'm also thinking about what happened after Freddie Gray. And I'm thinking about all of the, you know, all of the sort of the, how the police system closed ranks to protect itself and to go after the prosecutor, right? That to me sends messages. So in terms of this particular case, what do you think are the chances of actually something substantive

happening to these police officers? Do you think that that's just a moot point, that it's just going to end up in some sort of civil resolution? Or should we even expect to see some level of criminal culpability for what was, you know, this life-altering injury

and the full lack of regard for his health and safety after they got him out of the van to just kind of plop him into the wheelchair and process him instead of giving him medical attention? Is someone going to be arrested? Is someone going to serve some criminal time for this type of reckless disregard for human life? You know, that's an excellent question. And we've been doing this for many years, as Demario Solomon Simmons indicated a moment ago. And we've seen this playbook. This is not unusual. We actually expect them to now start to attempt to assassinate his character,

to attempt to alleviate some of the pressure that's been placed on them to rally around the folks that are the Blue Lives Matter people. But ultimately, what it comes down to, and I appreciate exactly what you said, because if there's not a prosecution, that is going to be the decision of an elected official. And if we do not take care to go out and vote and place up candidates that are going to look out for the best interests of our community, that's going to be on us. Ultimately, we have to get out there and put the pressure on. Every time there's an incident, that's one thing. But voting is something that is actually scheduled. We know it's coming up.

We've got to get behind programs and stories like what Roland Martin is willing to do, what this show is willing to do. We have to get behind causes like voter registration that I've seen Roland Martin is willing to do, what this show is willing to do. We have to get behind causes like voter registration that I've seen Roland Martin out there day in, day out, trying to get people involved with. So quite frankly, this show and the people that are on this show are going to help push the narrative. When he talks about getting likes, we need to get more eyes on shows like this because it's going deeper into the coverage than the national media would. Mustafa, Chris, we appreciate that.

And that's one of the reasons why this was created because we can't hope they show up and cover us. Mustafa, any question? Yeah, you know, Chris, thank you for everything that you and Ben and the rest of the team there does. You know, it seems like there is negligence from the beginning all the way through. I know without a doubt that there's training that's supposed to happen around both head and spinal injuries and that you're taught that you are not supposed to move someone. And I heard that young man say that he couldn't feel his legs, that he couldn't

move. So do you think at a minimum that negligence, of course, there will be other possible charges, but at a minimum, it seems like negligence was throughout this whole process. That's an interesting take on it. And I actually think that that's exactly what they want us to do, to go that route of negligence, because there are certain protections, and Demario Solomon-Simmons can get into those, but those sovereign immunity protections that protect against certain amount of negligence. So we have to play chess instead of checkers in this situation and not fall into the trap of saying, oh, yeah, look at all of this negligence and hang our hats on that when they know full well that they have protections against those things.

All right, then. Attorney Chris O'Neill, we certainly appreciate you joining us. Keep us abreast of what happens with this case moving forward. And thank you for being in that room, Roland. I'm literally on the other side of that room that you were streaming. That's the kind of journalism that black America needs. We appreciate everything that you do. Now, we appreciate it. Thank you so very much, folks. Got to go to a break. We come back marketplace and we'll talk with a black

wine company owner right here on Roland Martin on filtered on the Black Star Network. Love our new Alexa. It's a Buick. Yeah. Alexa. Buick. Alexa. It's a Buick. It's an Alexa. It's a Buick. It's an Alexa. Coach, that's a Buick. That's an Alexa. The Buick Enclave with available Alexa built in.

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Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. All right, folks. So what happens when you're an engineer and you kind of want to do some other stuff? And then all of a sudden you decide to become a winemaker in Alabama? Y'all, that's my next guest. Welcome to the show, Roddard Griffin, owner and inventor of Anissa Wakefield Wines in Huntsville, Alabama. Glad to have her on the show.

So, okay, seriously, so we go from engineering to wine. Was it because you loved it or did you say, man, I see a business opportunity? Well, because I love it. And to go back a little bit more, I'm a private chef. So when I rebranded my private chef company back in 2017, I had already been studying wine for several years, since 2009 actually. And when I rebranded my private chef company, I was like, what can I do to make me stand out even more, to make me more unique as a reintroduction to the company? And so I was like, well, you've been studying wine, you love wine. So why not start your own wine label?

And that's kind of where it started. Wow. And so is your winery there in Alabama? So I make, I produce the wine out in Napa. So I partner with a company that kind of come in and do incubator style wine making I have a lot of consultant there. And so while I'm here in Alabama being an engineer. My wine is still bringing being produced in and taking to all the process in Napa while I'm here.

And so how has it gone? First of all, how long have you owned the label? So I started the label in 2017 and I made my first vintage in 2018. Took a break to go to Cornell and get some certifications in wine because I just felt like I needed to have something behind this because I had been studying for so long.

I would like to have the certifications. So I took some courses at Cornell during the pandemic because we all had some time and started my next vintage in 2021. And so here we are with the vintage from 2021 ready to go. And how many bottles

are you moving out? So I only do one barrel at a time. I only do one barrel at a time because it's just myself. And so I have 300 bottles right now.

All right. Let's see here. I would probably say out of the three folks on my panel, Mustafa, Fred, you look like, no, Avis. Avis, you look like the winery person. You look like the wine person. I know right now Avis is like, man, slide that bottle over to the sister. I'm going to put the first one to twos. But'm gonna give a bottle of water to the sister. I'm gonna give a personal under twos.

But I love entrepreneurs. So, sister, I do wanna ask... Say it again. I said, actually, I don't drink, but I love entrepreneurs. So I do have a question. So... Mm-hmm. What she say?

For real, for real, for real. Let me... But I'm really intrigued with your choice of starting your own sort of wine, your wine brand, your own wine label. And I'm wondering, you know, it's such a rare space that you see us in. You know, we don't really, we're not really there. I know that you have, you know, that you love wine. You say you have a background in it, but what made you so bold to say, hey, I want to start my own wine despite all the competition that's out here? Because I love the fact that you said, you know, there's a gazillion wines out here, but I can make mine better. What made you want to do it?

And then secondly, what makes your specific wine different and unique and separated from the other choices that people have on the market? But it's like you just said, you don't see many of us in the industry. And just looking across the industry and studying, I didn't see many people that looked like me when I started this journey back in 2009, just trying to gather information. There's lots more information available now on the Internet. But back in 2009, it really was like you had to know somebody in the industry that was willing to share the quote unquote secrets of winemaking just to try to learn and understand how winemaking, you know, the process, how the process goes. And so fast forward to 2022 and, you know, you can go learn about wine everywhere, anywhere. But it goes back to what you said. There weren't many of us

in this industry. There still aren't many of us in this industry compared to our white counterparts. And especially the white male counterparts. So, we see a lot of celebrities and athletes starting their own wine labels, and I'm so proud of that, that we're starting to get into the industry and just, you know, pulling the culture forward because we drink wine, we buy wine, we know about wine. So, you know, why shouldn't we have our own wine labels?

And so that's kind of where that boldness came from, just sitting back and looking across the industry and just saying, there's not enough of us and I want to be one of them alright Demario we know you drink no sir but I'm excited to talk to this

sister I'm really excited she's a yeah we know you drink but you got that damn vegan food that's what I wanted to talk to sister about I know she's out here talking about her wines i was wondering when she do her private shelf no we ain't talking we ain't talking about no vegan food we talking about her wine business let's stick to the topic well listen listen what i was thinking about i don't know much about wine be honest with you but i do want to ask this question and it may

sound crazy but do they really make wine with people stepping on grapes with their raw feet, their bare feet? No. Absolutely not. Oh my God. We can tell who's the only omega on this show today. I don't know much about it.

I'm confident. I want to give the sister an opportunity. I'm confident. I'm confident. I want to give the sister an opportunity. I'm confident in answering my question. Forgive us. Forgive us. The only thing he ever remembers is that I Love Lucy episode where they were asking. Don't educate me.

Don't educate me on how Ryan is asking me. I gave her a softball. I gave her a softball. Don't educate me. Don't educate me on how wine is actually made. I gave her a softball. I gave her a softball. Please explain to this Omega how it actually works. So, no. You know, back in the day, they used to do that before there was machinery that would do the pressing. Wait a minute.

Say it again. Say it again so Rolla can understand that this didn't come from just out of my mind. This is historical. They used to do that. Dude, I'm fully aware. Demario, I'm fully aware how they used to do it. I'm not uncouth. You are uncouth.

Please continue. Please continue answering. Thank you very much. But currently, no. So we have machines that do the pressing of the grapes to extract the juice. So there's no need for feed anymore. And I can imagine that that was a funky situation back in the day. Back in the day. So I'm grateful that we don't

do that anymore. Now allow me to go to someone who is more erudite, someone who is more sophisticated, someone who is more cosmopolitan, a fellow alpha. Whatever, you mean chitlins. You talking about the chitlins.

Mustafa, please please redeem, please redeem the panelists for his countryness. Go ahead. I love DeMario, brother. Radha, getting back to your product, and somebody mentioned boldness before, so I'm just curious. Is it red wine, white wine, sparkling wine?

Is it dry? Is it sweet? Could you share? It's a white wine. It's a white blend. So in 2021, I sourced six different varietals to go into this blend. I won't say how many ended up in the blend because I like the element of surprise. So once I get my tasting tour going, that's going to be the fun part with people trying to guess what the varietals are.

But I will tell you that it's not sweet. It's not super dry. It's medium. I classify it as dry, but it's sweet to me because my palate is just used to picking up the fruitiness from the wine. But I don't drink sweet wines, but I do make them. But this one is not sweet. All right. Tell people where they can check out the wine.

Where do they go? So you can go to my website, AnissaWaiteFieldWines.com. You can find me on Instagram, at Anissa Waite Field Wines. You can also find me on Facebook, at Anissa Waite Field Wines. And you can also find myself on Facebook at Anissa Wakefield Wines. And you can also find myself on Facebook at Rodda Griffin. And obviously, question, who is Anissa Wakefield? So, Anissa is my middle name by my mom.

Wakefield is my dad's last name. So, it's just a joining a family. So, it's just a joining a family. So it's just a homage to my family. All right. Sounds good. Well, we appreciate you joining us on the show. Good luck. Thanks a lot.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye. Thank you very much. All right, folks. That is it for today. Avis, thanks a lot. Demario, not so sure. Mustafa, thank you so very much. It right, folks, that is it for today. Avis, thanks a lot. Demario, not so sure. Mustafa, thank you so very much. It's food time. Stepping on grapes in 2022.

Hey, listen. I need to get the memo. I'm going to have me some pink. I'm going to have some pink on Avis and Mustafa. That's not right. Y'all did your boy dirty. We got the AKA Alpha thing going on here. Oh, okay. I'll see how you are. Okay.

Well, you had Chris O'Neal on, so you had one of my frat brothers on, so I'm good. Well, you know, somebody got to feel sorry for you quite unfortunate individuals. All right, that's it. We appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, folks. We'll see you tomorrow. Don't forget, download the Blackstar Network

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Holla!