#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Manchin opposes voting rights bill; Are Dems losing ground w/ POC? Racial bias probe in MD AG office

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

6.7.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Manchin "screws" Democrats, opposes voting rights bill; Are Dems losing ground with Black, Hispanic, & Asian American voters? Racial bias probe launched in Maryland's AG office; Virginia Gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McClellan shares her vision for the state + We'll talk with the author of "Battle for The Soul...Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump"Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Thank you. Martin! Thank you. Today's Monday, June 7, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin says he will vote against the For the People Act and that he digs in on ending the filibuster. We'll talk with New York Congressman Jamal Bowman, who is quite vocal on this issue, as well as others as well. A new report on voting warns that Democrats can't depend on the same racially diverse voters who brought victory to President Joe Biden in 2020. What's up for 2022 in Maryland? State's Attorney John McCarthy is investigating whether the victims' race played a role in the prosecutions in that state.

Also in Maryland, Wes Moore. It's announced he is running for governor. In Virginia, we'll talk with Jennifer McClellan, who is trying to become the Democratic nominee for governor. And in my book club segment, I'll talk with the author of Battle for the Soul, Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Donald Trump. Plus, in Fit, Live, Win, how do you keep your energy up while dieting? Folks, we also remember actor Clarence Williams III, who passed away at the age of 81. And it's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling, Martin. Folks, over the weekend, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, one of 50 Democrats, announced in an editorial in a state newspaper that he plans to support suppressing the vote.

Yeah, we actually said that. Now, what I mean by that is he said he is going to vote against the For the People Act, already passed in the House by Democrats. He is calling that particular bill way too partisan. So what do you call what Republicans are doing across the country? He keeps saying we need bipartisanship. He keeps saying that he'll support the extension of the Voting Rights Act. But I'm sorry, Joe, did you not realize that was invalidated by the John Roberts Supreme Court? And Republicans have shown no interest in actually fixing that.

He went to Fox News on Sunday talking to Chris Wallace. Won't come talk to black media, but he'll only go talk to conservative media. Where he was asked about his reasoning for voting against the For the People Act. Watch this. Let me ask you about another issue, voting rights. You're the only Democrat in the Senate who is not supporting S-1, the so-called For the People Act, which would be a major voting reform bill. You say it's too broad and too partisan. And instead, you support basically a renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which says that the feds get preclearance on any voting right changes in individual states. But you'd like it to apply to all 50 states, not just the states in the South that had a history of

segregation. A couple of questions. One, is Chuck Schumer making a mistake in pushing this big bill, the For the People Act, and saying that he wants a vote on it by the end of the month? And two, if he does bring it to the floor, will you vote against that bill? Well, I've been pretty clear on that. I did an op-ed back home in West Virginia. It came out today and laid out my concerns and my preference of what I think would happen. Voting is the bedrock of our democracy, an open, fair, secured voting. We used to go around the world and explain and show and observe voting procedures in a democracy. And now if we can't practice what we preach and we're going to basically do an overhaul, VOTING RIGHTS ACT. WE'RE GOING TO DO A VOTING RIGHTS ACT. WE'RE GOING TO DO A VOTING PROCEDURES IN A DEMOCRACY.

AND NOW IF WE CAN'T PRACTICE WHAT WE PREACH AND WE'RE GOING TO BASICALLY DO AN OVERHAUL, AN 800-PAGE OVERHAUL OF THE VOTING RIGHTS OR WHAT WE CALL FOR THE PEOPLE ACT. I THINK THERE'S A LOT OF GREAT THINGS I AGREE IN THAT PIECE OF

LEGISLATION. BUT THERE'S AN AWFUL LOT OF THINGS THAT BASICALLY DON'T PERTAIN DIRECTLY TO VOTING. SO THE VOTING RIGH. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM.

THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM.

THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTING THEM. that I'm in right now. I love my country. And I think my Democrat and Republican colleagues feel the same. If we continue to divide it and separate us more, it's not going to be united. And it's not going to be the country that we love and know. And it's going to be hard because it'll be back

and forth no matter who's in power. He doesn't want to see a country that is divided. Yet right now in Texas, they tried to pass an onerous voter suppression law. Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Arkansas. I can go on and on and on. What in the hell world is Joe Manchin living in? Does he not see what is going on? Does he not see that the Supreme Court handed Republicans a huge victory with gerrymandering by saying, oh, no, no, no, we can't get involved in partisan gerrymandering. That's left up to the state courts. Well, the problem with that is Republicans have gerrymandered the states, so they control the state Supreme Courts. They control 61 out of the 99 legislative bodies in the country. If these laws go forward, they can further solidify their support, actually hurting black

and brown voters, but not just black and brown voters, white voters. They're targeting white voters, but not just black and brown voters, white voters. They're targeting white voters, college educated white voters. They're targeting the suburbs in Texas where Republicans have been getting killed. And then he's, oh, bipartisan. Fine, Joe, show me the 10. By all means, Manchin, show me the 10. He says that, oh, his colleague, Lisa Murkowski, agrees with him when it comes to the Voting Rights Act. Okay, let's assume 50 Democrats vote for it. Murkowski's 51.

You say you won't end the filibuster. How in the hell would the John Lewis act get passed if you don't have nine more Republicans? Joining us now, New York Congressman Jamal Bowen. Congressman, glad to have you on the show. The logic of Manchin is beyond belief. It is sheer stupidity. He keeps talking, oh, I don't want the nation divided. I don't want us actually split. Fine, Joe. Please show me the nine other Republicans you're going to bring along with Murkowski.

I'll wait. Yeah, he's designated himself as the protector of a myth, a myth that states, you know, we need to become more bipartisan, and if I support H.R. 1, it drives us further apart. The bottom line is corporations and the wealthy elite control our democracy. They control our Congress, and they control specifically the Republican Party. And what H.R. 1 does, in addition to retroactively providing protection when it comes to voting rights, it also gets big money out of politics. So now me and other members of Congress will be more beholden to the people than we are to large corporations. This is something that Senator Manchin never speaks about. He only

puts up the myth of we need a bipartisan protection of voting rights. Yes, we do, but the Republicans have also shown no willingness to negotiate in good faith. So H.R. 1 ends gerrymandering. It protects voters in terms of outside interference, and it gets big money out of politics and brings us closer to a one person, one vote. Everyone's voice is empowered within a multiracial democracy. And that is why H.R. 1 is so significant. But it's not just Manchin. It's a bigger system that's been in place where through a minority rule in the Senate, we have a minority controlling the majority of the American people.

Well, and your colleague, Representative Mondaire Jones, he sent out a series of tweets that I thought was important because Manchin, so Manchin wrote this. Unfortunately, we're now witnessing that the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized. Today's debate about how to best protect our right to vote has itself become overtly politicized. Today's debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage. Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections,

partisan policymaking won't instill confidence in our democracy, it will destroy it. OK, let's just let's just deal with right here where he says whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting, that's Republicans or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections. I'm sorry, Congressman, just correct me if I'm wrong. How many state how many secretaries of state said their elections were secure? How many secretaries of state uncovered voter fraud? So I'm just trying to figure out who the hell is ignoring securing our elections. Is he literally saying that Democrats are ignoring securing our elections? That's a Republican Donald Trump. I lost. It was rigged. Talking point.

100 percent correct. Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been pushing the big lie of a stolen election. No evidence of that whatsoever. They continue to push that big lie. Republicans voted to overturn the Electoral College in the House. They failed at that. Republicans did not vote to impeach Donald Trump, despite clear evidence that he incited an insurrection.

Just recently, a couple of weeks ago, Republicans in the Senate did not THAT HE INCITED AN INSURRECTION. JUST RECENTLY, A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, REPUBLICANS IN THE SENATE DID NOT SUPPORT THE FORMING OF A COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 6TH INSURRECTION. SO WE GOT THE MAJORITY OF THE VOTES TO PASS IT IF A SIMPLE MAJORITY WAS ENOUGH. BUT BECAUSE OF THE FILIBUSTER, WE DID NOT GET THE 10 VOTES FROM THE OTHER SIDE THAT WE NEEDED. SO WE ARE IN A PLACE NOW WHERE REPUBLICANS CONTINUE TO OBSTRUCT. THEY CONTINUE TO PUSH A BIG LIE. AND MANCHIN, AS A

DEMOCRAT, IS USING THEIR TALKING POINTS IN TERMS OF HIS HOLIER THAN NOW STANCE ON PROTECTING OUR DEMOCRACY. WE WERE SENT, DEMOCRATS WERE SENT TO CONGRESS TO DELIVER FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. our democracy. We were sent, Democrats were sent to Congress to deliver for the American people. H.R. 1 is popular amongst Democrats and Republicans. We need to pass H.R. 1. We need to pass common sense gun control legislation. We need to pass common sense immigration legislation and many other pieces of legislation that cannot move because of the filibuster and because Manchin in and of himself continues to act as a singular filibuster with popular American policy. I love this one here. This is also from the same op-ed he wrote. Democrats in Congress have proposed a sweeping election reform bill called the For the People Act.

This more than 800 page bill has garnered zero Republican support. Why? Are the very Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump because of actions that led to an attack on our democracy unwilling to support actions to strengthen our democracy? Yeah. Are these same senators whom many in my party applauded for their courage now threats to the very democracy we seek to protect. Yeah. But here's what's hilarious, Congressman Bowman. Only seven Republican senators voted to impeach Trump. 50 plus seven equals 57.

That's still not enough to get to 60. I mean, he's asinine. I mean, I sit here and go, dumbass, do you even understand what you're writing? 50 plus seven ain't 60. I know West Virginia is real bad in the education stats in America, like 48, 49, 50 around Mississippi and Alabama. But damn, dude, can you count? And I think it's important to also mention what the filibuster was designed to do. The filibuster was designed to stop civil rights legislation, specifically anti-lynching legislation

in Southern Dixiecrats. Strom Thurmond, who is a member, was a member of the KK and a senator, used the filibuster to stop the Rights Act in 1957. So this is to uphold white nationalism, white supremacy, and corporate control of Congress, and Manchin is aiding and abetting that

and not making much sense as he aids and abets it. And to support your point, this literally is the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talking about the filibuster specifically when it comes to voting. Maybe Joe Manchin and Meghan McCain should watch this. So we get this to play. I mean, it's just it's unbelievable what we're actually seeing from Republicans here. Let me see if we can now get this to play. All right, folks, go ahead. After this, how would you feel about submitting this to a vote of the people of the United

States who have never really had an opportunity to express themselves in this area? Well, this would certainly be all right with me because I think the vast majority of people in the United States would vote favorably for such a bill. is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting. They won't let the majority senators vote. And certainly they wouldn't want the majority of people to vote because they know they do not represent the majority of the American people. In fact, they represent in their own states a very small minority. That point right there, the Republican senators actually represent 40 million fewer American citizens than the Democrats. That shows you that we have an unequal system.

And for Senator Joe Manchin to sit here and stand in the way. And look, the only way around this, and I know people like, oh, here you go talking about voting. But this is simple. Ron Johnson must be defeated in Wisconsin. Democrats must win the Senate seat in North Carolina. They must win that Senate seat in Pennsylvania. They must retain the Senate seats in North Carolina. They must win that Senate seat in Pennsylvania. They must retain the Senate seats in Georgia and Arizona. If that's the case, you got Congressman Val Demings who's going to be running against Senator Marco Rubio in Florida. It's going to be a very tough race. But if Democrats were able to hold Georgia and Arizona and

pick up and pick up Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, that negates Joe Manchin, and the filibuster can be ended. 100% agree, and I think another very important point must be made. We, in our community, must continue to apply pressure on Senate and House leadership and the White House. We, all of your listeners, Roland, and our extended network, we must act as a lobby to demand transformative change when it comes to the filibuster practices in the Senate and overall legislation. That happens through writing, phone calls, organizing rallies, and consistent engagement. Roland, there are people who care about a variety of issues, who call my office daily and write my office daily to make sure I pay attention to those issues. Our community needs to do the same thing, whether it's the NAACP,

the Urban League, Color of Change. Every group needs to come together and apply pressure on the White House, the House, and the Senate. And the infrastructure bill is a big part of it, because they're trying to go smaller when we need to go bigger because this in my opinion is our reparations moment they didn't give us anything with the homestead act they didn't give us anything with the new deal and social security and the gi bill we have to continue to apply pressure on a day-to-day basis so that they respond to our demands last point here republicans love to talk about uh the voting restrictions in New York State. I have to remind those very same people that progressive Democrats have been demanding lots of those changes.

They got some of those recently in a bill signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Reality is folks like you are not stopping there. They want to make New York the model and not be as so restrictive as they have been when it comes to voting. 100 percent. And because of our organizing and new people who are not part of the machine running for Congress, we now have a super majority in the statehouse and a majority and many progressives in the statehouse. So the stuff that we win here is because we've organized for it on a day-to-day basis, the same way Stacey Abrams and many others organized to help us win Georgia for the first time. Georgia, all blue. President and senators, all blue. So that organizing needs to continue to happen across the country, needs to happen in West Virginia, and it needs to happen to everyone else to become what this democracy claims it wants to be, but never really has been the case, particularly for black folk. Absolutely.

Congressman Jamal Bowen, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, sir. Skudar Pound, Dr. Julianne Malvo She's economist, president, emeritus, been at college at Macongo, Dabinga, professorial lecturer, School of International Service, American University, Michael Brown, former vice chair, DNC Finance Committee. Bottom line, Michael, is this here.

That is, Manchin has spoken, but the reality is this here. I say you got to light his ass up at every single turn. You got every time he speaks somewhere, he needs to be met with protesters. Every single one of his offices in West Virginia. He needs to have folks going to his office in Congress every single day. Every time he turns around, it should be a voting sign in his face.

Every single every single time he gives a speech, it should be folks chanting in the back. Jim Crow 2.0. The reality is this here. What Senator Joe Manchin is doing is doing the bidding of the Republican Party. And then when you have folks like Meghan McCain, who are on The View talking about, oh, how this is all about the squad, I had to tweet her clueless self saying, no, Megan, this is not about the squad. You have an independent senator, Angus King, in the Senate who says, I don't want to end the filibuster, but what they are doing on voting is dead wrong, and I will vote to end it. See, the squad has now become the new George Soros for the right.

They love everything about the squad. No, this is literally about the voting rights of black and brown people and a party that is advancing white supremacy and white nationalism. That is today's Republican Party. First of all, I don't know what you're doing with that funny looking shirt on, but, you know, you want to don't get embarrassed today. I just don't get embarrassed today. Remember,, I'm just saying. Don't get embarrassed today. Remember, Alpha's your daddy.

Oh, Lord. And remember, y'all was so weak, you took one of our colors as your own. You better go ahead and answer that question. First of all, you know, I don't think Schumer would ever, ever do it. But when you have someone who is so far beyond being the black sheep

who is so far off the reservation on a variety of issues because he's... Yeah, but you're making some point about bipartisanship and let's bring the country together and all this kind of stuff. What the states are doing are further splitting

the country up. And I don't think Schumer would ever do it. I don't even think he would threaten it. But sometimes, you know, you got to do some tough things. And in politics, sometimes it's hard to make these tough decisions and take them off some committees, put them on different committees that aren't as relevant that he really cares about. You got to start, I mean, whether that's the case, whether you have to do old school politics and offer him the Joe Manchin Airport in Morgantown or a new brand new highway with his name on it, whatever it is, whether it's old school politics or starting to strip him of some of his favorite committees, you got to do something that threatens him

to bring him back into the fold, because what he's doing is irrational on a variety of issues. Yes, of course, voting rights, as you and the congressman were just talking about. Clearly, from my standpoint, D.C. statehood. He's also acting like a fool with that. Obviously, the infrastructure bill. He thinks that Republicans are going to wake up one day and say, you know what, kumbaya, let's come together and bring our country back together. That's not going to happen, at least no time soon. So if you're in a particular landscape, you have to treat the landscape accordingly.

And that means putting the hammer down on Joe Manchin for acting like a fool. The thing here, Julian, is that, again, look, it's sitting before us right now. It's sitting before us. The Republican Party, they ain't playing bipartisanship on the state level. They are ramming through these bills,

no Democrat involvement whatsoever. And I'm like, Manchin, what the hell world are you looking at? They are trying to solidify. This is how significant this is. Democrats only hold a four seat majority in the U.S. House. Republicans in Florida alone could gerrymander Democrats out of the majority. In Texas, they could grab three to four more seats. That means that forget whatever voters do. In Texas, they could grab three to four more seats.

That means that forget whatever voters do, white voters, black voters, Latino voters, the Republicans could guarantee they pick up eight Democrat seats, meaning they control the House. And Manchin's talking about, I don't want to split the country. We got to get along. Republicans are like, we don't give a damn about splitting the country. We're going to follow Trump to hell and back, and we do not care because we are about power. You know, Roland, what's his name?

We don't call his name. The previous president used to call people rhinos. Republicans are name only. Manchin is a dino people rhinos, Republicans a name only. Mentioned as a dino. He's a Democrat in name only. Some of the things that are fundamental to the Democratic Party are things that he refuses to support. I mean, he refuses to support infrastructure. When people have been crying for it, and when West Virginia is crumbling, let me say that again. They got a bridge that's about to die. They have roads and highways that, you know, potholes the size of ponies.

And they really do not want, he does not want to see this stuff fixed. He is, to call him a throwback, will be thrown back to what? Jim Pro 2.0? Absolutely. But this man is an egotistical idiot because he's basically holding progress in his own little hand, saying, I'm not gonna do it because I don't want to.

And what he has done, certainly with the voting rights, which is already... We understand that there... It has never been majority rule in this country. It has never been one person, one vote in this country. Because if there was, how does itty-bitty Rhode Island have

the same amount of power as big old California? Well, hell, how first of all, I love that they're complaining about D.C. statehood, but they forgot why the Dakotas were split up to guarantee they got four U.S. senators when the Dakotas should be one state because

they barely got any population in those two damn states. No, they got population 24 buffaloes. That's what they have. They don't have people. So, you know, Manchin is just such an irritation and a vexation, but he is enjoying every minute of this. I mean, he's truly enjoying every minute. It feeds his ego. It feeds his self sense of self-importance and it does not serve the people. Um, the, the, the bottom line here, uh, on the Congo that we have to understand. And again, this is not me being emotional. This is me being factual. Republicans are running a rough shot over democracy all across America. They are passing bills that are designed to keep people from voting.

When you start reducing drop boxes by 75, 80 percent, claiming, oh, security, but they're already secure. When you are, when you, when you pass laws that say, I literally cannot deliver my parents' absentee ballot. They have to do it personally. Yeah. Game recognized game. We see what's going on here. And he's sitting here, oh, my God, this is just too much. This is just too hyper-partisan. Well, what are you saying that's happening over there? And here's the other deal. In 2013, I got the NABJ, National Association of Black Journalists, Journalists of the Year Award for my coverage for voter suppression. I'm sorry.

I don't recall one time in the last eight years where Joe Manchin was a leading voice on extending the Voting Rights Act. So all of a sudden, Joe, all of a sudden, you got religion on the VRA? Why in the hell weren't you holding news conferences when Mitch McConnell was majority leader?

Why weren't you calling for it then? Oh, because you didn't give a damn then. 50 plus 7 does not equal 60. And one of the things that the representative said that I think we need to start paying more attention to is we need to start seeing where the money's coming from with Mancham. Because part of H.R. 1 is about getting that money out of this. We've got to shine a light on some of his donors to really understand, because some of his donors or corporations that are probably supporting him are probably in favor of this, probably companies that didn't speak out when it came to places like Georgia and what they're doing in places like Texas as well.

And so I think that there's a money trail that we need to follow. But furthermore, when we talk about the filibuster, fine, he can make his arguments about why the filibuster shouldn't end, but when it comes down to voting, it's got to go. When it comes down to that one issue of voting, the filibuster has to go.

And look, at the end of the day, we're not even talking about the old school filibuster where you actually had to be present and make your extra long speeches. People can just phone it in from their hot tub or from their hotel or from Cancun or somewhere right now. And so there's laziness all in an attempt to get power. And Manchin has to... I think Manchin does understand

that basically when it comes down to it, the Republicans are not gonna give in. And so since we see how people are actually struggling in West Virginia, you talked about education, that basically when it comes down to it, the Republicans are not going to give in. And so since we see how people are actually struggling in West Virginia, you talked about education, what, 48th? Dr. Malveaux talked about some of the other issues with the infrastructure. He has to be beholden to the people

who are his corporate interests because he doesn't care about the people. He cares about being a diva. He cares about the spotlight. And that's why, like you said, we have to make sure that we get as many senators in as possible come this next election cycle, because he has to be made irrelevant.

Look, it is what it is. We see what's going on here. And the folks at Black Voters Matter, they're going to be launching a massive voter campaign extending from Mississippi coming to D.C. beginning on Juneteenth. They got a stop in

Charleston on June 24th. I hope there's a massive turnout for that. Folks, let's talk about 2022, where a new Democratic report finds that Democrats are at risk of losing Black, Hispanic, and Asian American voters in the next election. The study was conducted by Third Way, the Collective PAC, and the Latino Victory Fund. They found that support from these groups will fall short unless the Democratic Party presents an economic agenda that's inclusive to all. It also warns that voters want them to counter Republican efforts to spread misinformation and tie all Democratic candidates to the far left. Other key findings from the report include Republican attempts to brand Democrats as radicals worked. Year-round organizing and cross-party collaboration worked. Black, Latino, and AAPI voters made a difference in top races. Polling failed to reach

the right people. But they also said this here, that defund the police, according to a poll that was done, actually is not supported by African- Americans and that defund the police actually hurts Democrats because Republicans were successful at branding them as not being supportive of police. Julian, I want to start with you on this because that poll was conducted by Cornell Belcher, African American by his firm. It was a commission by Coll collective PAC which supports black candidates. And so the question is this,

you know, Congressman Jim Clyburn got lots of criticism when he criticized defund the police and others as well. And so if that is true, if even black voters that are polled support resources going to the police to protect the communities. What adjustments must Democrats make in the midterms where there are fewer people who are likely to vote and you're going to have to get folks out? And as I said, Democrats have to win. They've got to protect Georgia.

Pastor Raphael Warnock is up for reelection. Mark Kelly in Arizona is up for reelection. And then, of course, you have those seats in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania in particular are open seats because those senators are not running for reelection. You know, Roland, I think that the Black Lives Matter team, we all support them, of course, but I think they made a critical error with that language of defund the police. Nobody wants to completely defund the police. We want to use the resources differently. Defund is an easy, you know, like the Geico commercial. Anyway, defund is an easy thing to say, but first of all, difficult to do. And secondly, especially older black people aren't going for that. If you are living in a community where in southeast D.C. over the weekend, I think three people were killed.

You want the police there. If you walk up certain streets in D.C. down to even in downtown D.C., you want the police there. So don't say defund. But that language, Republicans will take our language and slap us in the face with it. And we've allowed them to do that. We have to be far more careful about the language we use when we talk about police justice. We want the George Floyd Act passed. We want people to stop being killed on the street. But to say defund is an automatic turnoff for too many Black people. And so somehow, those of us, you, Roland, I mean, because you got the platform,

I mean, and praise the Lord for it, but we have to figure out ways to have different kinds of language around this and to make that language more popular than the defund language. We know what they mean by defund the police, but we also know that many of our elders in particular, but also others, I mean, who are you going to call when someone breaks into your house?

Let me just put it that way. Who are you going to call when you get mugged on the street? So those are the kind of questions I think that are running through a lot of people's minds. We don't want to weaponize the police, but we certainly need their presence in so many ways. Macongo, one of the points that they made, they talked about, of course, look, you cannot expect voters of color, Black, Latino, and Asian to somehow just support you because, just because, which means you're going to have to work for them, compete for them, put the resources in those communities. Let me just also put it out there. And that is because they've been showing

this report to different Democratic strategists and others. And I'm going to go ahead and say it. You also got to stop letting these white Democratic strategists run the damn money and run the campaigns. That's the problem. I can't tell you how many black people I've talked to who work in political campaigns, who are sick and tired of listening to smart ass white men and women who refuse to listen to the ground and know how to connect. And they figure, oh yeah, we'll just throw paltry sums, but then we can just simply keep chasing these Republican white women who are never going to vote for them. And at a whole point about year round campaigning. Yes, that's what you got to do. You got to invest. That's right. No, yeah, you're absolutely right. And there's there's two parts to this when I look at it. Number one, I remember when Obama was running and people and one of the things he said is don't compare me to

the almighty, compare me to the alternative. And he was talking about what happens if you don't go Democrat. What do you get off the Republican Party? And I do believe that many of us within the Black, Hispanic, and API community, we do have to be mindful of just what's happening right now when Democrats are quote unquote in power and seeing what the Republicans are doing. And so we have to be mindful of if we do stay back and not engage in this next election cycle, it's going to be the end. Because once we saw that they didn't want to impeach Trump, we should have known then that they were working to bring him back.

Once we saw the insurrection on January 6th, we should understand now with these voter suppression efforts that the insurrection is still ongoing. That was just one of the more violent aspects of it, but it's still ongoing right now. Now, having said that, the Democrats also need to do a better job of staying in touch directly with the community. You know, it's a great example of it

when we saw how the COVID vaccine was distributed in the beginning, how I'm sitting here in Southeast D.C., one of the poorest areas of, the poorest areas of D.C., and I'm seeing white folks coming in, older white folks from all across town because the rollout targeted people

who had better access to resources. And so the Democratic Party cannot lay on its laurels, cannot sit on them, cannot, like you said, just go with these white Democratic strategists. They need to keep the messaging in these communities, and people will not show up because at the end of the day, despite everything we're talking about, all politics is personal.

And people, the Democrats, you've really got to step up right now. DNC, you've got to get in these in these communities and you got to push this message hard because we will end up losing if a better job is not done. The thing here, Michael, that I keep getting folks to understand is, and I love the people who they talk about, well, we got to get this is, first of all, no, a politician can promise you all sorts of things when running. That's fine. But what happens when they win? Now, let me unpack that.

I've had some people say, well, Biden should have promised this. Biden could have. Biden can't pass a single bill in the House or the Senate. He can't. We're seeing right now. Right now what happens in the Senate and how the mansion blocking how things are done. There's somebody who's watching us right now. Same thing.

They talk about school boards, city councils. Yes, you may vote for your school board member, your council member, but if you got a nine member council or nine member school board, you need five votes. So you need to have four other votes. And so it amazes me when I hear people say that because they somehow think that,

well, their member of Congress or their school board member is the be all to end all is not the case. You have to build coalitions to get things done, which means after the election, you still must push, prod, petition, protest if necessary to get something done. Voting is the end of one process and the election once it's over is the end of one process, and the election, once it's over, is the beginning of another. And it's interesting you mention that, Roland.

You know, when I ran, unfortunate enough to win my city council seat, I tried to do what you just talked about. I tried to explain, even when, because it's certainly the temptation is there to promise, obviously, the world, here's what I'm going to TO DO THIS. I WAS TALKING TO THE PRESIDENT ABOUT THE TEMPLATE. THE TEMPLATE IS THERE TO PROMISE THE WORLD, HERE IS WHAT I'M GOING TO DO FOR YOU. IT IS HARD TO RESIST THAT

TEMPLATE. I ALSO SAID, LET ME TELL YOU HOW IT WORKS ON THE D.C. CITY COUNCIL. YOU NEED SEVEN VOTES TO GET ANYTHING PASSED. I TRIED TO CAMPAIGN AND campaign and educate along the way. So then folks understood OK. Michael's there but he still has to get six other votes for us to move. So maybe we need to work in other places around the city or work with different constituency groups. So that's what politicians frankly should be doing. Promise. Yes. But also educate along the way. But having said that the challenge in the midterm elections is always, especially for

people of color, they get extreme or they, we get extremely motivated for the top of the ticket, the presidential race. But in the midterms, oh, it doesn't matter. We already did what we were supposed to do. We got Obama elected twice. We now got Biden elected. Go back. We got Clinton elected. And in each of those situations, the first term, the first midterm, Clinton lost. Obama lost. So obviously, we don't want Biden to have that same track record. So we have to have the same level of engagement in midterms as we do in presidentials and all the way down the ballot, not just president, not just your senator, a member of Congress, but yes, city council, school board, dog catcher, whatever it is, people, our folks, for whatever reason, historically,

haven't been engaged in all elections across the board. I'll give you a perfect example. Over the weekend, there were peoples lost in the runoff to be the mayor of Fort Worth. And give me a second. I'm going to show you what the results were. And one of the concerns, one of the concerns that she had was what the turnout was going to be and and the reality is You know what it did not It did not go as expected and and the thing that That I keep trying to explain to people is that to that point you you have to Oma, Congo you have to

Show up You have to, OmaKongo, you have to show up. You have to be there for the election. And so here's the case right here. Maddie Parker, she got 47,283 votes. Deborah Peoples got 41,012 votes. When we were there in Fort Worth, Deborah told us Hispanics made up 30 plus percent of the voters in Fort Worth had 7% turnout. Black voters, same thing, low turnout. The reason Maddie Parker won is because when they counted the early voting, she had a several thousand vote lead in early voting. Peoples could not overcome that on same day voting. This is real simple. And guess what? Peoples ran. She spoke to the issues that we care about. And so what this particular analysis lays out is that there can't just be a candidate focus. There has to be a party focus. Infrastructure, when Howard Dean talked about a 50-state strategy, that's really the challenge

that Jamie Harrison is going to have as chair of the Democratic National Committee. Absolutely. And you know what? It has me thinking about the issues that Trump and Republicans pulled with the census and the like. When you speak about so many of these issues, we had a lot of people within the Hispanic community who didn't even bother to fill out the census because they felt that they were going to be tracked and they were going to be deported if their documents were in order, right? I think what's happening right now with all of this voter suppression talk and all of these bills that are being passed, many of us in the community, we're acting as if these bills have already been passed and if we can't even vote anymore and we're

not fully engaging. And again, it goes back to what Dr. Malvo was talking about, about the market, right? And I remember when I ran for city council here in D.C. and I was out on the street campaigning and I was trying to talk to this one woman and she said, I don't do that politics stuff. I mean, there's not a single aspect of our lives that isn't controlled by politicians and laws. And so, you know, PEOPLES is absolutely right, and I, I, we have to do a better job, Harrison and DNC, of bridging this disconnect

to understand that these local elections matter. When I saw the, the saw the candidate who won there being embraced by Abbott and Trump and all of those other guys, I was like, here we go. Here we go. And this is why Trumpism is so dangerous because people think, oh, Trump is gone, we're all good. But between this new mayor

and the Marjorie Taylor Greene's of the world, they're planting themselves all across the country and we need to wake up before it's too late. You know, one of the things that we talk about this here that we have to also deal with, and look, people don't want to own up to this, but Julianne, we got to own up to it, and that is this here. Today's Democratic National Committee was in many ways destroyed or severely gutted by Obama. Oh, yeah. The success. And I got and look, this is one of the reasons why the Obama folks were not happy with me. That's the reason why when you see him giving all these interviews to all the other people, he ain't talking a row because I had no problem telling them to their face. The work that Reverend Jackson,

Dr. Ron Walters, Ron Brown did after Reverend's run in 84 and 88 was gutted by Obama. Now, all the folks who love Obama, let me explain so y'all can understand. Obama's whole deal was he didn't need the sophisticated black infrastructure that was put in place. He didn't need it. His whole deal, they're going to turn out for me. I kept saying, player, you're only going to be there eight years. What's going to happen after you leave? Organizing Obama for America turned into organizing for America.

They shifted all of these resources over to OFA and gutted the DNC. So part of what this report is laying out is literally trying to rebuild that infrastructure that Jackson Brown Walters worked hard to put in

place that in many ways Obama completely gutted. Well, you know, Roland, you interviewed me five or six years ago when I wrote my book, Are We Better Off? Race, Obama, and Public Policy. So look at the effect of Obama. The fact is that as a titular head of a Democratic party, he is singularly responsible for the losses in 2010. Dollars could have been invested in the local DNCs, in local races in 2010, and he didn't do that because, again, he was all about himself.

Now, brilliant brother, all that stuff, folks. Don't send me the ugly little emails y'all like to send me. I'm going to ignore them anyway. But the fact is that he did not, I mean, what we said about him in 2008 was just the truth. The brother was a rookie. He did not understand politics as we play it. He did not understand the Democratic National Committee and the fact that it had the possibility of long coattails. And because he didn't, he saw his victory as the nation's victory when it really, really wasn't.

You see what happened in 2010. I mean, the world turned... Not the world, but the Congress, he didn't have it anymore. Pelosi lost her seat. I mean, her leadership, we didn't have it anymore. So, you know, but that's... You know, we don't have to look back. Let's look forward. And forward, Jamie Harrison, they just, DNC has just agreed to spend, I think it's $22 million on local elections. I think that's a good thing. Jamie Harrison has his work

cut out for him. He's got to do a heck of fundraising to get some more money into communities. But the other thing that you mentioned earlier, Roland, that's really important, is the fact that basically the DNC has become pimp daddy for the white boys. Pimp daddy for the white boys. How come, you know, Cordell Belcher did this, he's one of the best we have, did the survey for, he should have been doing the survey for the DNC. We need to have more operatives. People like Leah Doutry, Mignon Moore, folks who, as you say, were there with Reverend Jackson and Ron Walters and our beloved Ron Brown. Those folks, if they're at the end of their careers, help them find some young people to do this. I mean, DNC ought to be doing all kind of workshops

to get more young people into politics. Because, you know, all of Congo is right. When people say stuff like, I don't do that politics thing, it's because they don't understand what that politics thing is. From the quality of the water you drink to where your children go to school,

you know, to how much money you pay for your utilities. All this stuff is politics. And so I have no patience, and I'm saying this on national television where my brother says, I don't do that politics thing, and I'm like, well, then just don't talk to me, dude. Just go sit in the corner and eat some cornbread.

Because basically, the politics thing is where we are, and J.B. Harrison has his work cut out for him, I hope he can do it, but we've all got to support him. Again, Michael, what this report is talking about is infrastructure. It's talking about what has to be in place year round, where you have the personnel, where you have the messaging that's tailored to different groups. And again, there was a, it wasn't by far, it wasn't perfect, but you actually had a strong

black infrastructure that was inside the Democratic National Committee. And then when Obama came along, he, and yeah, did he need it? No, he didn't need it because, frankly, his black support was so significant. But a party ain't about one person. And I and I and I had close folks in the Obama world. I'm talking about who worked in the administration who said, yeah, one of the biggest mistakes we ever did was organizing for America and basically shifting all of that attention and resources over to them and take it away from the DNC? Well, first of all, Dr. Malveaux and Roland, thanks for the shout-out to my pops. You know, I appreciate that. It's just fact. We're just stating fact. No, no, and I appreciate it.

I'm glad you remember. And you remember they created what was called the Coordinated Campaign. And you had mentioned all the different folks that have been helpful. Dr. Malveaux mentioned them. You mentioned them. All of that is absolutely correct. The Ron Lesters of the world. I mean, he was really the first.

He was a pioneer in black polling. And the DNC would never give him what's called a prime contract. They would subcontract him just to go do polling in black neighborhoods around the country. But when my father was chair, he got a prime contract. They would subcontract them just to go do polling in black neighborhoods around the country. But when my father was chair, he got a prime contract. And then that way he was able to develop his business, grow it so he could be around for 20 years like other pollsters. Same thing. So the coordinated campaign was basically you wouldn't have to create the wheel every time there's an election. You have the infrastructure in place on presidential side for targeted Senate races or House races, for city council races, for state legislative body, whatever you name the political body. And over time, as you mentioned correctly, Roland, it started to get gutted where people – because everyone wanted to have their own thing when they were chair of the party.

But it worked. Remember, Bill Clinton beat Ronald Reagan's vice president. I mean, you know, Ronald Reagan is on the Mount Rushmore for Republicans, and we took down the vice president after one term, which was obviously Bush, because of the efforts, obviously, in every single community, and the great messaging, and the great infrastructure. And the point was, if we can do

it like that to beat Reagan's vice president, maybe it can work every election, so let's not gut it. And then when we finally got to the Obama years, he had zero interest in the DNC. He had zero interest in the DNC. He had zero interest in state legislative bodies around the country where we got destroyed in his eight years. Like you, Dr. Malveaux, Roland, I'm going to get the same kind of little tweets and ugly emails. How can you talk about Obama? We're not talking about Obama. We're just giving facts. And you can check out the facts yourself if you don't believe. Check out how many Democrats and Republicans were in state control by Democrats in 2008 and how many in 2016. Do the math yourself and you'll see what happens.

So that's where we have to really focus. I know people see the DNC as as a fundraising arm and it is it's certainly about raising money but it's also about the infrastructure of getting people out to vote and keeping them engaged folks gotta go to break we come back we're gonna talk about uh maryland where a top prosecutor is launching an investigation into targeting of black folks there also westmore announces he's running for governor of Maryland. We have all of that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment.

Racial injustice is a scourge on this nation, and the black community has felt it for generations. We have an obligation to do something about it. Whether it's canceling student debt, increasing the minimum wage, or investing in Black-owned businesses, the Black community deserves so much better. I'm Nina Turner, and I'm running for Congress to do something about it.

Before Till's murder, we saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. I think it'll be the most emotional run of my entire life. I found the time to train and complete the Ironman competition in New Zealand.

And almost a dozen other races. And I had plenty of time to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. But I just couldn't find the time to come to Washington, do my job, and vote for the January 6th Commission to investigate the domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. Kirsten Sinema. Bad for Arizona. Bad for America. Let's get a real Democratic senator in Arizona. Black women have always been essential. So now how are you going to pay us like that? And it's not just the salary.

I mean, there are a whole number of issues that have to support us as women. Yeah, but that's what we deserve. We shouldn't have to beg anybody for that. I think that we are trying to do our best as a generation to honor the fact that we didn't come here alone and we didn't come here by accident. I always say every generation has to define for itself

what it means to move the needle forward. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, Virginia. They're going to be going to the polls tomorrow to elect candidates in the primary. And one of the races everybody's focused on is the governor's race.

There are a number of candidates who are running, including former Governor Terry McAuliffe. Look at the polls. He is leading in a significant way. You also have Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax is also running. And then you have two black women. One of them is Jennifer McClellan. We had one of the candidates on last week. McClellan joins us right now. I'm glad to have you here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Of course, she represents the greater Richmond area for 11 years in the

House of Delegates and for four years in the Senate. She also serves as vice chair of the Virginia Black Caucus. Glad to have you on the show. Final stages. How are you making the case for the folks in Virginia to vote for you, looking at polling data that shows a huge lead by the former governor, Terry McAuliffe? Well, we are not undaunted by polls that only talk to about 600 people. We have been talking to hundreds of thousands of Virginians at their doors, on the phones, and our field numbers look really great, and they're excited for a new perspective, the next generation of leadership for a new perspective, the next generation

of leadership, a black woman and someone who has experience both in the party and governing to get things done on day one and to win in November. Obviously, when you look at the number of people who are running, having three African-Americans run, running is something where we rarely ever see. And some folks are saying that that's splitting the black vote and Democratic primary and making it easier for McAuliffe to coast to victory. What would you say to that? I would say that I am building a broad coalition of Virginia voters of all walks of life, of all races, of all backgrounds, of all ages.

And we are poised to win. And I'm just excited and Virginia is excited to make history and build a stronger future. You talk about the issues that are most important. What jumps out? What are you conveying to black voters? And that's certainly our audience. Well, you know, we have got to rebuild our economy, our health care and economic safety nets and our education system in a way that addresses the inequity that was already there before COVID. And we need to do it in a way that doesn't just create a seat at the we navigate through this reckoning with racial injustice, which here in Virginia started before this summer. And so we are ready for someone who brings that perspective. And that's how we get things done.

Questions from our panel. First off, Julianne Malvo, your question for Jennifer McClellan. Hi, Jennifer. It's good to see you again. Good luck tomorrow. My question, you have two black women in this race. And of course, as Roland said, we very rarely see three black candidates. Did you all ever have any conversations about perhaps one of you not running so that the black vote could be more consolidated? We had conversations, but, you know, people decide to run based on what they think they can bring. And no one ever questions two white men running together or two white women. And so my campaign just focused on building a broad coalition, focusing on the work that I have been doing for 16 years almost in the legislature and 31 years in the party and in the community.

And we're just running on that record and running on that experience. for 16 years almost in the legislature and 31 years in the party and in the community and we're just running on that record and running on that experience question uh mcconnell well i wish you the best of luck in this election runoff tomorrow i i really feel like you have a very strong platform and my question is related to education coming off of the pandemic where there were so many conversations about students who were not getting access to the same level of resources, now we're coming into a situation going into the fall where students are coming back, and people are talking about it as if it's going to be this safe haven for students. But we know

that many of our Black students in particular are going to be coming back into a system where they're disciplined more, where they don't have culturally relevant instruction. What are some of your thoughts as it relates to what we need to do going into the fall to make sure that our Black students and other students in neighborhoods where they may not have the best resources are getting what they need

in our educational system in Virginia? Well, on the school to prison pipeline and disproportionate discipline and referral to law enforcement, I'm gonna build on the progress that I make hearing legislation to begin to break that. But we've got to make sure we are fully funding our education system, getting support personnel back in our schools, our nurses, our mental health professionals, our social workers, our guidance counselors to provide some of the wraparound services that our students need, especially those that face

trauma every day. And we've got to make sure we're funding it in a way that doesn't depend on what zip code you're in because we know those zip codes are based on policy decisions long ago whether it was redlining or segregation itself that had communities that are cut off from economic opportunity and those legacies didn't go away the magic wand. We have got to intentionally fund our education system in a way that addresses that inequity and also make sure the buildings aren't falling down and having the state fund the construction

and renovation of schools that are falling apart, many of them in our communities. Michael Brown, your question for Jennifer McClellan. Well, Senator, good luck, good luck, and we wish you well. Question, not to get too much in the weeds of kind of what your data shows, but clearly one of the reasons, one of the reasons, I'm not saying the only reason, but one of the reasons Virginia has become blue is because of Northern Virginia. Northern Virginia is becoming, obviously, the tail that wags the dog in Virginia, at least if you listen to a lot of the Northern Virginia politicians. How are you doing in D.C.? How are you doing up here in the Northern Virginia part of the state?

I know you're probably going to do well in Tidewater, obviously, and Hampton Roads and all that. But how about up here, where obviously there's so many voters that vote, and how are you participating and working out up here? I'm doing very well. There's a lot of excitement. I've been up in Northern Virginia a lot. The straw poll, Fairfax County is the largest county, and their Democratic committee, I won that straw poll handily. It was ranked choice voting, but I won every round. Some of the magisterial districts up there had straw polls. I won those. But our ground game has been very strong in Northern Virginia as well as other parts of the state. And the excitement that we see up there is palpable.

But we're not leaving any part of Virginia behind because in a contested primary, there are votes everywhere. And I've also been to parts of the state that no other candidate has gone and hasn't gone in a very long time. Well, good. Again, good luck and we wish you well. Thank you. So last question, and that is this here. Obviously, folks are going to the polls tomorrow. And so where will you be? What will you be doing? And another thing that also jumped out that I was curious about in terms of we look at contracts and things along those lines. What your plan is for African-Americans when it comes to getting business in the state of Virginia?

Well, first of all, we have had disparity study after disparity study, but we've never implemented all of the recommendations. So that's the first step. We're in the middle of a disparity study now. I'll make sure the recommendations get implemented. We had a bill that I co-patron that almost passed during this past session, but Republicans blocked it on a procedural vote. So as governor, I will make sure we get that in to really make procurement more fair for our SWAM businesses. But we've also got to make sure our SWAM businesses have access to capital. That was a problem before COVID. It's definitely a problem now. All right, then. Well, certainly good luck. And we'll be watching to see what transpires tomorrow in Virginia. Thank you. Have a great night. All right. Thank you so very much. All right, folks. Today, Wes Moore,

you know, he is the book author, also ran a nonprofit. Wes dropped a notice on social media that he is running for governor of Maryland. Now, Larry Hogan, of course, is not running, of course, term limited. And so he would not be seeking it. We expect the Republican black lieutenant governor to be running for the House office as well. This was the video here that Westmore released today announcing his candidacy. My name is Westmore. When I was three, I watched my dad die in our home.

By 11, I felt the feeling of handcuffs. Let me go ahead and fix that so we get double audio here, so just give me one second. Uh, one second here. I think we got it taken care of. All right, here we go. Go ahead. My name is Westmore. When I was three, I watched my dad die in our home.

By 11, I felt the feeling of handcuffs on my wrists. My life could have gone a different way, but I was lucky. I had a mom who believed in me before I believed in myself. Kids like me, we didn't think there was a world where anything was possible. We like to say that my mom wore sweaters so we could wear coats. And the dreams she had for herself were replaced by the hopes she had for us. When I lost my way, she sent me to military school, where I learned about leadership, standing up for what's right, and putting others first.

I earned a Rhodes Scholarship. I joined the Army and became a captain in the 82nd Airborne Division, where I led soldiers in combat in Afghanistan. I served in the White House. I wrote books about the sad and fragile nature of economic opportunity in America. I built a successful business in Baltimore to help kids go to college.

And for the past four years, I've been the CEO of one of the country's largest organizations fighting to end poverty. By working the halls of government and the streets of our communities, we fought for bold measures to lift families out of poverty. Ultimately, we distributed over $600 million to support families around the country, including right here in Maryland. Through all of this, one thing has become clear to me. Opportunity is readily available to some and dangerously absent to others.

Here in Maryland, we have some of the nation's most prosperous communities and some of its most impoverished. World-class medical institutions and people who can't afford basic care. Some of the best schools and some of the most underfunded. Too many people work too hard, do everything the best schools, and some of the most underfunded. Too many people work too hard, do everything the right way,

but it's never enough. What could our kids be if we actually gave them more opportunities than we had? How much better than us can they be? And this pandemic has made these inequities even worse. But right now, we stand ready to lead, ready to do something about it. I believe no matter what road you start down,

you deserve a path to success. Unlike most who run for office, I know what it's like to struggle, and I know what it is to achieve dreams my parents couldn't have even imagined. I know what we are capable of if we choose hope, if we come together to fight for each other, to open doors for each other across every neighborhood in every corner of this state.

I'm Wes Moore, and this is what I'll fight for as the governor of Maryland. That's in Maryland. Now, folks, in the same state, a top Maryland prosecutor is launching an investigation into his own office. Check this out, folks. State's attorney, John McCarthy, is analyzing his office to determine whether the race and ethnicity of victims and suspects affected prosecutorial decisions. The study will focus on what cases to pursue, what kind of plea deals to offer, and what sentences to request. McCarthy says the study responds to the increased demand to examine all parts of the criminal justice system for possible racial disparities. Outside researchers will conduct the investigation. It's a hell of an idea, Omokongo.

Omokongo? Are they going to have any teeth when they release the findings? Look, back in 1993, the Maryland came through with something called the Maryland Governor's Commission on African American Males. They brought business members together. They brought clergy. They brought other educators, youth centers. Everybody was in on this report that took 10 years. They issued it in 2003, 2004. At that time, the late 2007 or 2008, I was working in Montgomery County schools with educators. And I asked them, what did they think about the findings of this plan?

None of the teachers I was working with ever saw it. Why? Because the principals didn't introduce it to the teachers. So Montgomery County is strong and positive as it relates to putting off these efforts and these studies. But I'm concerned that similar to what the Maryland Governor's Commission on African Americans mails and how it wasn't implemented, I'm afraid that they'll release this, but there's not going to be much teeth behind it.

And if there's no teeth behind it, then it's just going to look nice in terms of an announcement, but no real change is going to come. And that's my concern, having worked in Montgomery County. Michael Brown, these things are important because, again, when we talk about criminal justice reform, mass incarceration, DAs, they are at the center of all of this.

They are. And clearly you hope the report comes back and it's fair and objective. But I think you do have to, in cases where the DA's office is led by somebody that does not look like us, you have to give credit where credit is due that they're trying, that they see that maybe there is a problem. Whether, you know, who knows where his heart really is, we have to assume that he's in the right place because he is taking steps to say maybe we haven't been as fair as we can be to people of color in Montgomery County. So hopefully the report will come back and it'll be helpful. People will follow the lead of the report. Obviously, the police have a whole lot to do with it relative to how police are treating their residents in Montgomery County. So we just have to wait and see.

But kudos for trying. Julianne? I agree with Michael. I'm glad that they're trying, but I also agree with Omicongo. It's like you try, you have these reports. That's a treat. That's just a treat that somebody

killed for the paper. So the question is what happens next in terms of these recommendations? There's too many discretion points in a prosecutorial process, beginning with whether charges are pressed, what kind of sentences are offered, all of those. And so, you know, I got to give props to Sean King and some of the others who've been looking at elected DAs to see how more of those positions can come to us

so that we can begin to do some of the work around the fairness issue. But thanks for trying, but trying is not going to be good enough. You can have the best report in the world, but if you don't do anything about the report, you just have a report. Talk about craziness. While one prosecutor is trying to do the right thing in Pennsylvania,

another allows his personal feelings to cloud his judgment by forbidding his deputy prosecutors from making plea deals with a black lawyer who stood against systemic racism in criminal courts. Y'all, check this out. Allegheny County DA Stephen A. Zappala Jr. emailed several deputy prosecutors about attorney Milton Rayford. In his email, he wrote this. On May 13th, we experienced another issue of unprofessional conduct in the courtroom of Judge Anthony Mariani, this one involving attorney Milt Rayford. The transcript will evidence what is presently considered a convoluted critical diatribe. You're being advised of what actions will be taken.

No plea offers are to be made. Really? Many are calling for Zabala's forced removal from office. What do you make of this, Michael? This DA not happy at all, no plea deals. So basically screw his clients because you're mad at him. A little petty, huh? That's pretty, a little petty. That seems to be the definition of petty. And maybe a little bit of racism. So we don't know if other white attorneys

sometimes editorialize about particular issues related to the criminal justice system or just life in courtrooms. And if they're admonished, like we're admonished by this gentleman. So yeah, it's petty, it's pitiful. And hopefully it gets just tossed out. Julianne, boy, little DA mad

because a black attorney called out systemic racism. Ain't that a shame? Ain't that a shame? Ain't that a shame. I mean, this was like a toxic cocktail of arrogance, racism, ignorance, and a few more things on the part of this Apollo person. And he should be removed. Somebody needs to start a recall on him. Because to say no plea deals is really to say, again, you're denying this brother's clients a courtesy that many others have.

And that, by definition, is just a bias, racial bias at that. Because you're mad because the brother said there was systemic racism. Well, go and get your lollipop, go to the corner, and do something with it. But do not penalize the clients. And don't, I mean, the brothers ought to sue him for libel. He should not be sending emails to all his colleagues about this man, because basically he's inviting them to do the same thing. Goes to show you, Omicongo, when you're staying up to power,

boy, they get a little bit upset. Sounds to me like there's one DA we should be taking out in this next election. He's got to go. And that's another reason why this voting is so important. And look, this is just another example right now of weaponizing all of this rhetoric about critical race theory and systemic racism. They're using any type of power they have to stifle any conversations. And now this attorney's client has to suffer because this he because the pilot feels like he needs to make a stand. And we're seeing it happen all across the country. Now we're talking about it from a legal case right now. But then you can also go to schools and what's happening in Oklahoma where they're banning teaching about critical race theory.

This is another example of it. And it's manifesting itself in different areas across this country. And we need to call it out like you're doing tonight. And we need to, as Dr. Malveaux said, look at recalls. And if that's not gonna work, we gotta vote these folks out because they do not care. All they want is power, and this is extreme abuse of power. All right, folks.

Earlier, we were talking about the Democrats, the analysis, what should be done for the 2020, 2022 midterm elections. What about that 2020 election? What can be learned from that? There's a new book out called Battle for the Soul, Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump. It details how the Democratic Party successfully regained the White House. The book is a fly-on-the-wall account of the Democrats' journey through recalibration and rebirth.

It certainly brings you on the campaign trail in private rooms and long for critical conversations. Joining us right now is Edward Isaac Novere. Edward Isaac, how are you doing? Hey, Roland. How are you? Glad to have you on the show. So here's the thing that that's interesting. And if you can speak to this, I mean, Democrats put a whole lot of emphasis, obviously, in taking back the White House. They, of course, took control of the Senate because of those elections in Georgia with John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. But we still saw losses on the House side. We still saw them not pick up.

They were five seats away from taking control of the Texas House, not winning those as well. And so you're still dealing with a party that I dare say goes back to the James Carville, Paul Begaglia, Rahm Emanuel idea of let's be a national party. But so much of the power is happening on the state level. I think that's a very good point, Roland, and this is something that Democrats have had to deal with. One of the things that I point out in the book is that you look at the change, and not all of it is Barack Obama's fault. A lot of it is the fault of gerrymandering, but in the Obama presidency from state legislature seats from in 2008 when he came in to 2016 at the end of his presidency, about 1,000 went from Democrats to Republicans.

That has changed things a lot for the day-to-day life of people, much more so, honestly, than what happens in control of the House and the Senate, even though we spend a lot of time thinking about that. And another thing that Democrats need to think about going forward here is there are big questions that are posed over the course of the book and then are really grappled with at the end of it, that Biden ended up being more popular than a lot of Democrats. And that goes for Democrats of all sorts. But it just shows that Biden, whether Democrats are going to be able to do well going forward is whether they can build a coalition that doesn't require Joe Biden and also doesn't require running against Donald Trump. In vain that when you look at this election, and it was all over the place, and there were people who were angry by saying,

you know, how in the hell did Joe Biden get picked? You know, he was running a lackluster campaign, couldn't raise money, but here's the deal. Everybody had a shot. And I remember, you know, we were talking about it on this show. People, people kept asking how did these black people in South Carolina, what was wrong with them? How did they vote? Here's the deal. Black people have always voted. Hmm. How white folks going to vote? So we got to figure out who the hell we going to support based on how the white folks going to vote. And I keep reminding everybody out there, and if you have any data that's different, show 69% of the total electorate were white voters, 69%. So this idea that, you know what, you can win solely on black votes

and Latino votes and Asian votes is not there. You gotta pick up a good portion of white support, even as 38 to 41 to 42% to win. Yeah, Roland, what you're saying reminds me of a conversation that I have in the book with a guy named Fletcher Smith who's a former state representative in South Carolina. And we were talking the night before Biden won the South Carolina primary after an event that Biden did in the northern part of South Carolina. And Smith said to me, you know, sometimes it takes black people showing white people what they need to do. And there was clearly throughout the Biden primary campaign, even when things weren't going well for him, a huge amount of black support that sort of floated him and gave him a place in the polls when otherwise the support wasn't there. And it just became a very, very important piece of what was going on. As I think you're right, black voters, and I trace this, what's going on,

look at other candidates, whether it's Pete Buttigieg, who obviously was well known for having a problem with black voters, but also Deval Patrick, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, the black candidates in the race, and thinking, can they really win? That was a similar conversation that was happening in 2008 when it was Obama and Clinton in the primary fight there. And as I'm sure you know well, Obama was greeted with skepticism initially until he started to win, especially in Iowa, where there are not a lot of black voters.

But even Obama wasn't fully supportive of Joe Biden. He didn't want him to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016. And I actually said then, dude, Biden could actually beat her. And see, it was interesting. I mean, all these dynamics. And speak to what you're able to cover in the book, the empathy, the empathy of Biden and how he connects with people is what made a difference. And like it or not, after four years of crazy ass Trump, folks were like, can I get sane back? And I think it wasn't just sane, although that was a big piece of it. I think it was empathy, like you said, people feeling like they could connect with him. A big part of that,

of course, is the connection that people felt to him about his son, Beau, dying in 2015. And it was a reconnection on so many levels for people. That's another thing that I trace in the book, how this relationship with Beau is essential to understanding Biden and essential to understanding his connection with voters. But you know that same night I was just talking about that guy Fletcher Smith right after I talked to him I was watching Biden on a rope line. It was right before the pandemic hit. It was before he had Secret Service protection. I could get up close. And there was a woman who was standing waiting to talk to him And she was so scared to talk that she had written out on a piece of paper the story of her daughter who needed some medical attention. And she handed it to him and she was shaking and crying. And Biden holds it up and he looks at her and he says, look, let me get your number. Maybe I can do something to help. And there are obviously a lot of people who've had experiences like that with Joe Biden of some sort connecting with him. There are a lot of most people haven't had that direct connection with him, but they see him doing that.

They get that feeling that that's who he is. And that meant a lot to voters. I think especially as we were as a country in such turmoil and grief of last year when it came to the not just the pandemic, but everything after George Floyd was killed, this feeling like we just need someone who cares. And voters really respond to that with Biden. I'm going to go to my panel with questions for you next. I got to ask you this. Team Obama was not particularly happy with some comments that people made about him. And we discussed this a little bit earlier. We talked about, frankly, how he didn't give a damn about the Democratic National Committee. And there were a lot of people who, I remember last year, who were saying,

oh, now all of a sudden you care? Now you care about gerrymandering? Now you care about redistricting when you actually had the power for eight years and you didn't show a lick of caring then? Look, it's one of the aspects of the Obama presidency. There are a lot of things that people can like about it. But Barack Obama felt that he had other things that were higher in the priority list being president than building out the party structure and investing the time and attention into the DNC. What you see happen after it. And you know the book starts with Obama and Biden on election night 2016 watching Trump win. These stories that have never been told before and Obama's reaction to it. And it traces a lot with Obama over the Trump years. Nobody really realized what was happening, how he was watching, how he was getting upset about these things, what he was doing to invest. And one of the things that he was doing was getting more involved in the fight against gerrymandering, getting more involved in the DNC, and also getting more involved in

guiding the party in a way that was completely behind the scenes. Almost no one knew that it was happening. These phone calls with Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, everybody, walking them through doing a lot of things that he thought were now important to try to get the Democratic Party back into shape. That's him acting as a party elder when he's the former president, but he wasn't doing it to the same extent when he was the party leader as the current president. Questions. I'm going to start with my panel. Michael Brown, you first for Edward Isaac. Isaac, how are you? I haven't had the honor yet of reading your book, but I am very curious to look at it now. So thank you for your piece.

I'll pick one up. Absolutely. I'm wondering when you I know there's a lot of conflict related to the Obama presidency. And clearly he was wrong. I understand that he had other priorities. But, you know, clearly when you have the kind of staff and resources, you can certainly say, OK, you guys focus on building the party. But that's a whole other discussion. But when you were when you were doing your research, did you find you just

mentioned the whole thing about he didn't want Biden to run about or run against Secretary Clinton? What were the reasons behind he didn't want Biden to run against Secretary Clinton? Besides this, I guess he thought she want Biden to run against Secretary Clinton? Besides, I guess he thought she would win, or what was the reason? Well, he thought she would win. He thought that she had gotten stronger since the time that they'd run against each other in 2008. And he also was concerned that Biden didn't have some of what he thought it took to be running for president. There were questions about his age already in 2015 when he was looking at running then.

Obama remained even more skeptical about that, obviously, as time went on and Biden got older. Obama felt like, did Biden have the ability to connect with crowds? Did he have what Obama refers to as swagger, you know, that way of just making people believe in you? He was very skeptical of that. I think importantly, in 2015, when he was trying to steer Biden out of running, he was also looking at a man who had just lost his son and was in really a mess of

state mentally, as Biden himself has said, and just grieving all the time. But even into the 2020 race, Obama was skeptical in the same way that a lot of people were about Biden. Could he do it? Could he really win? Could he beat Trump? And he was asking those questions of allies of his and to an extent of Biden's aides, as I think a lot of other people were. Thank you. Omokongo. Well, first of all, I want to congratulate you on a great book and so know, George Floyd Act and some of these voting rights bills and the like, do you feel like there's a possibility that more white voters are actually going to become alienated by his attempts to make the party more diverse? And appeal primarily, like you said, he's not going to forget the African-American community because we had his back.

Many people feel like he's doing that to some extent. But do you feel like he's going to risk alienating more white voters as we go into 2024? Look, I've learned not to make predictions in politics if 2016 taught me anything. But I will say this to you. I think we, in some ways, underestimate Biden's ability to serve as almost a Trojan horse for getting things through and making people feel, even if they're more out there ideas, not where the moderate idea is, but where Biden says, look, I can do that and move it in. There are realities of what's going on. He is an older white man. He does not spark the same kind of reaction in people that Barack Obama did for reasons that you are all very familiar

with. But one of the things that I trace in the book a lot is last summer, when after Floyd is killed and after the protests are picking up, there's this transformation that Biden has in thinking about these issues. He goes to see Floyd's family before the funeral and meets with them privately. He's talked about how he saw Floyd's daughter, Gianna, and she said, my daddy is going to change the world. He connected with her about that grief, that personal story. There's also an important moment where Al Sharpton says to him, you know, we all, it's not just he had a knee on his neck. We've all felt a knee on our neck. And Biden says to him, I've never thought of it that way before. And then as you remember the protests grew a little violent in places and Sharpton

condemned the violence. Now Biden gets on the phone with him a little bit afterwards a couple days later and he says listen I'm glad you said that condemning the violence because it's really helpful to our cause. Sharpton and I talked about it and he said to me that's such an important thing. He didn't say it's helpful to the cause or your cause to our cause. Sharpton, and I talked about it, and he said to me, that's such an important thing. He didn't say it's helpful to the cause or your cause, to our cause. But also thinking about how Biden was pushing back, there were people on his campaign who said, you've got to be for defund the police. And he said, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. I've got to make sure we approach this right. After Kenosha, there's more pressure for him to go. And he says, no, let's do this in a way that takes the temperature down, that doesn't risk losing those voters that could be really turned off if we go at this in a way

that he thought would be too aggressive and too much veering toward what was seen as the left or just racial politics. I was asked, book authors, this question, I'll ask you the same question, and that is this here. What was your wow moment? Every book author has, when they're doing their research, they're doing interviews where they go, wow, that was crazy. I get the sense that you've actually had several of those. So if you've got a couple that you could share, that'd be great. I mean, the book is full of them, quite honestly. One of the things that's gotten a lot of reporting is you see the Biden team's reaction and Biden himself reacting to what happened in that first debate with Kamala Harris and the real. It was clear to me that he, because I was covering the

race the other day, how angry he felt about what had happened. But he responded, as there's been some headlines about, with some, that was some effing BS. He says to Pete Buttigieg afterwards on stage, and then Jill Biden gets mad on his behalf a couple of days afterwards and says, to stand up there with all the work he's done and call him a racist, go eff yourself. But I think actually one of the things, because toward the end of the book is, the book ends with the riot and the inauguration and then an interview that I did with Joe Biden on February 2nd. It was his first interview as president. We talked about a lot of these things. But the book was actually supposed to be done two days before the riot, and we ended up building in more time to report on that. Some of the scenes from the riot whether it's Cory Booker feeling like he needs to stay on the Senate floor and maybe have a fistfight with the rioters as they're coming in to protect his older colleagues or Lisa Blunt Rochester the congresswoman from Delaware who said to me that she had to take her member pin. She was worried that they would come to attack members of Congress. So she takes her member pin off of her jacket, but is also worried that as a black woman walking around the Capitol,

she won't be protected unless people know she's a member of Congress. So she puts it in her hand so that she can show it to people. That's going on in 2021 America. Wow. Right. And then also you see there's a lot of unreported detail about the level of legal planning that the Biden team was up to, thinking that Trump was going to do something to try to challenge the election results, thinking that they had to prepare and get everything together. They had 600 lawyers working on it, millions of dollars in a secret effort that went into it. And they got through everything, including to think, what do we do if Mike Pence is standing up there and reaches into his jacket and pulls out a separate slate of electors?

How do we deal with that? And they planned for all those eventualities. But, of course, the eventuality they didn't plan for was rioters coming into the Capitol building. That is quite interesting. Julianne Malveaux, your question. I don't forget about you. I'm very curious. First of all, congrats on the book. It sounds like it's a really great one. I look forward to reading it.

How did Biden get from where he was that evening in that debate where Madam Vice President really kind of went off on him, choosing her as vice president? We've heard the inside stories that, of course, she was close to Beau. But what can you tell us that we don't know that's not public about he got from there to there? If he knows it's in the book! It's in the book. It is in the book. And I encourage you

to read it, but I'll give you a little preview. Yes, she was close to Beau. I think we can overplay how close they were. They became friends in their 40s when he was attorney general in Delaware and she was attorney general in California. It's not like they were old school buddies and had that closeness. But there was something there. And Joe Biden spends a lot of attention and time thinking about things related to Bo Biden, so that there was a connection through Beau made

a difference. But he goes through the year after the debate, because it's about a year, that was the end of June 2019. And then it's June, July of last year, when he's deciding who to pick as his running mate. There are a lot of factors. He'd said he'd pick a woman. After Floyd was killed, there was a lot of pressure for him to pick a Black woman. And he's stressing, stressing, can I have the right kind of working relationship with my vice president that I want to have with Kamala Harris, given that that was there, even though I've moved on? Has she moved on? Has my aides moved on? Will the supporters move on? And one of the people that he talks to about this is Barack Obama. And he says, look, I want to have the kind of relationship that we had, where we were tight, we worked on everything together, and we're personally so close and our families are close. And Obama says to him, listen, Joe, what you need to do is you need to think about this

as number one, it takes time. Remember you called me unqualified to be president when I was running for president. That's what you said about me when we were running against each other. We had the first year that we were in the White House together. It wasn't working out so well. We weren't really close at all. And we couldn't even like have a normal working relationship between our staffs. It takes time. Build that time up. But also you need to think primarily about what's going to help you win. And if you think Kamala Harris is the best choice to help you win, that's how you have to do this, because it doesn't matter who you think you want

to have lunch with or whether your family is going to be close if you lose. And Biden comes around on that and thinks it's a question of his head and his heart. And he's torn about this, whether he should pick Gretchen Whitmer. He looks at some of the other candidates, too, like Susan Rice and Elizabeth Warren and some of the others. But ultimately, he says, no, Kamala Harris is the one to help me win the best. And look, I will say this. We're only a couple of months into the administration. But the two of them who didn't really know each other except professionally a little bit before Harris and Biden, have developed a pretty strong working relationship during the transition in the first couple months of the presidency.

They have gotten to know each other in a way that neither of them was really expecting. They know each other well. They spend a lot of time together. And so far, we haven't seen really anything that would be any kind of cracks in the relationship between them. Well, I dare say I would probably say I think what we've seen thus far, the relationship that they have is even stronger than what he had with Obama. I've never I've never seen a president defer to and include his vice president the way Biden has with announcements or even where she speaks before he does. I've never seen that in my lifetime. I think that, look, you're pointing to something important. When she spoke before him was on the night of the Chauvin verdict, right? And that is because he respects her role in the

vice presidency. He also knows that she carries a lot of obvious symbolic value. When there were issues, let's say it was Trayvon Martin, it's not like Barack Obama needed Joe Biden to speak first at that moment. Absolutely. Folks, the book, please pull it up, Battle for the Soul, Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump, Edward Isaac Dover. we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.

Some great stuff in there, and I think people will enjoy it. Thanks a lot, Roland. Thank you very much. All right, folks, we want you all to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Of course, we're all about showcasing the kind of information that you're not going to get anywhere else, and we want you to do that by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is very simple. People have asked me, you should do a subscription.

You should make people pay a certain amount every single month for your show. I've had people even encourage me to take this show to subscription base, even when we launch our OTT platforms. And actually, I said no. And the reason I said no is because we've had people who've contributed to our show, who join our fan club, and they didn't have $4.99 a month. They didn't have $5.99 a month. We've had people who've given a dollar, $5, $10, $20, $25, $30. We've had people who, you know, we asked for an average of 50 bucks each. We have people who've actually given us, you know, more than that, $100, $200, $300, $500, $1,000.

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Hello, I'm Nina Turner. My grandmother used to say, all you need in life are three bones. The wishbone to keep you dreaming, the jawbone to help you speak truth to power, and the backbone to keep you standing through it all. I'm running for Congress because you deserve a leader who will stand up fearlessly on your behalf. Together, we will deliver Medicare for all.

Good jobs that pay a living wage and bold justice reform. I'm Nina Turner, and I approve this message. I'm proud of the officers I worked with on January 6th. They fought extremely hard. Our worst nightmare really come true, an attack on American democracy right here in the nation's capital.

I experienced the most brutal, savage, hand-to-hand combat of my entire life. I received chemical burns to my face that still have not healed to this day. I just remember people still swinging metal poles at us, and they were pushing and shoving. They were spraying us with, you know, bear mace and pepper spray. They were all shouting at us, calling us traitors. It's been very difficult seeing elected officials and other individuals whitewash the events of that day or downplay what happened.

As an American and as an Army veteran, it's sad to see us attacked by our fellow citizens. My Disturbance is responsible for the content of this advertising. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope.

Hey, everybody, it's your man Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And, well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered. While going through a weight loss journey, many find it challenging to maintain their energy levels. Shahada Kareem, founder of Habibi Sport, provides nutrition plans and fitness classes that focus on energizing and elevating yourself

during the weight loss process. She joins us right now. How you doing? How are you? Doing Great. All right. So this is one of the things we've heard from people like, okay, you know what? I'm losing weight. I'm lethargic, but I can't get myself going. And then the others you talk about that there can be energy drinks that you can take, uh, other ways to actually get to boost your energy, to do it naturally. What do you suggest? I suggest real food.

I don't suggest energy drinks or any synthetic or processed foods. Okay. So, and so when you say real food, what? Everything that comes from the earth. If it comes from the earth, it's great. If it was made by man, probably not so much. One of the things that we get confused about when it comes to energy and supplementing our food is that we think that supplements are nutrition, when supplements are literally meant to supplement holes in your nutrition.

So if you don't have any holes in your nutrition, you don't need a supplement. Ah, great point there. What is a, what are two or three great energy boosting items? I played golf this weekend and I'm on a meal plan and I did not want, and look, it's real easy to grab a hot dog and some other stuff when you're playing. And so I brought brought my protein i brought a protein shake and then i had a banana i ate that after nine holes and then when my round was over then i had another one and so uh and that and that that that helped me i wasn't i wasn't about a 13th 14th hole because i walked all 18 as well so i ended up doing like 20 21 000 steps i think i walked for about nine or ten miles walking the 18 holes. And so what are good energy boosting foods that we can sort of just toss into our bag and have with us?

Greens, greens, greens, and more greens. You can juice them. You can put them in a smoothie. I know people who munch the leaves literally out of a bag. They will wash bags of kale or romaine lettuce. Arugula is great. Any kind of green, especially a dark leafy green, is going to go right into your bloodstream. Plant blood is human blood. So the chlorophyll, the thing that makes the leaf dark green, gives you an immediate energy boost. So a green smoothie? Yes. More plants than fruit. A lot of times I say green smoothie and everybody's got 15 pieces of fruit

and two leaves of spinach. That's not a green smoothie. Ah, all right. More greens than anything else. Questions for our panel. Let's see here. I'll start with the skinniest panelist, Omokongo. Well, first of all, I want to congratulate you for the work that you do. And you're really just crushing it and helping people just have better lives and more fulfilled lives. So

just congratulations on everything that you're doing. One question I would ask is, what are your thoughts as it relates to intermittent fasting and keeping your energy when you're not really eating? Intermittent fasting is something that you do naturally anyway. When you're sleeping, you're fasting. Intermittent fasting became a fad recently. And like anything else, when it becomes a a fad it can sometimes be unbalanced intermittent fasting is fine as long as it's balanced the best balance the most positive balance is 12 on 12 off and that does not mean during the 12 hours that you're eating that you're

stuffing your face and eating all manner of everything it also doesn't mean on the 12 hours that you're off that you're not hydrating and drinking teas or waters. One of the issues with intermittent fasting is that you have a lot of people do 4 on 24 off, 20 off, which is very imbalanced and very unhealthy. And the only reason you should be doing 8 on 16 off is if you are competing for some kind of fitness competition. So like anything, intermittent fasting is only as balanced or imbalanced as is practitioner. Thank you. Julianne?

Whenever we talk to folks about fitness, they have a tendency to talk more about diet than exercise. So I'll ask you the same thing I ask everyone. I mean, is diet so much more important that exercise is unimportant? Or how much exercise should people be getting? As much exercise as they need. Every body is different. And nutrition supports fitness, not the other way around.

That's why you hear so much emphasis on nutrition. I don't like to use the word diet because the root word is die. And diet also, it assumes that a thing is temporary. Nutrition is not temporary. It is every day for the rest of your life. And it supports your movement. The more nourished you are,

the better your body feels about moving, the more likely it will move in a safe and efficient way. You have to fuel your body to move it. All right, Mike Brown, your wife controls your eating. Your question. Ms. Kareem, how are you? I'm good. And don't worry, I control my husband's eating too. Okay. All you female control freaks, we got you. All right, go ahead. Whatever. This question is in reference actually to my wife. She is a workout beast.

I mean, I have to pretty much make her not work seven days, work out seven days a week. But she seems to use these bangs and these energy drinks before she works out. I know you and Rowan started with the conversation about these energy drinks, and you seem to poo-poo them, and I'm glad to hear that. So what should, what, should she start just eating greens before she works out?

And should she completely stop drinking these bangs? I personally, if she were having a conversation with me and she asked me, I would tell her, yes, she should stop. And the easiest way to get anything green into your body is with a little spirulina which is algae it usually comes in a pill form or powder powder is easier on the body I mean mix it in a little water I tend to mix it with a dropper full full of chlorophyll that has peppermint in it it tastes like minty water it's dark green you get an immediate energy boost she can do that in

place of any energy drink. What she's getting with the energy drink is a caffeine burst. And what it does is raises her adrenaline. So she's telling her body that she's being chased by a bear. So now she has all of this energy. So she's running, running, running, running, running. So she can really go fast and far in a workout, but afterwards she gonna crash and what would that means will not allow you to crash what was that little potion you mentioned called or ingredient spirulina it's very cheap it's easy it's it's just algae um it typically comes in a powder or a pill form i prefer the powder because you can mix it with water and it goes right into your bloodstream liquids will go into your bloodstream faster than the solid ever will and then your body doesn't have to work that work to break down a pressed pill form both of

the forms are just dehydrated algae it's just ground into a powder sometimes they press it into a pill sometimes you just get it in a little jar I would mix that with 16 ounces of water half teaspoon is 16 ounces of water a drop of full of chlorophyll, dark green. It's so dark green, it's almost black. There's her energy. I appreciate it very much. Thank you. You're welcome.

What does flaxseed oil actually do? Flaxseed oil does different things depending on how you use it. You can use it topically. It is amazing for skin and scalp health. Or you can take it. It is an immune booster. So black seed does a lot of things. I know people who cook with it.

Flaxseed. Flax. I thought you said black seed. I was like, oh, we going back to the motherland. OK, black seed. I don't need no black seed. I got good DNA. I'm good.

So flaxseed. Flaxseed is a protein booster. It is very, very good for you. Flaxseed can be taken. Ground is the best way. You can put it in a smoothie. That's a lovely way to have it. If you roast it and mix it in a salad dressing or sprinkle it on top of a salad it should the

seeds should be broken because they're easier to digest that way but flaxseed is a great protein booster it is also it also is good for helping fill you up one of the things that people worry about when they go on a nutrition plan is that they're going to feel deprived so flaxseed is one of those things that will help you not feel deprived. So when you talk about a certain amount, like I was instructed to get some flaxseed oil and actually put that over a teaspoon over a couple of meals a day. So the flaxseed oil serves a different purpose. Flaxseed is going to be a protein content. It's going to help you fill you up because it has fiber in it and it's going to help you feel full longer.

And oil is designed to moisturize you from the inside out. It's a hydrator. So anytime you use an oil, particularly something like a flax oil, you're going to hydrate your joints and hydrate your skin from the inside out. Well, that's why we

it's great for joints you might have been recommended to do it especially if you're walking 18 holes you're going to need that for joint rehab. My joints cool as well as why look we've got a lot is hot when you dance enough you I see when people don't do on a regular basis, the other ones who they need I came on these we got no problem. I don't know who don't do it on a regular basis, they're the ones who they need. Oh, okay, my knees, um, we ain't got no problem. Good. Don't need no being gay.

Don't need no all that stuff. We got this. Uh, a question from the control room. What the hell did Carol want to know? Uh, Carol want to know about sea moss. Sea moss is another one of those things that is kind of taking hold. See, people have been using sea moss forever, but now it's a fad, right? Sea moss does contain 92 minerals.

You can get those minerals from whole food. Sea moss is a supplement. Is it great in a smoothie? Yes. You want to put it in your smoothie? Put it in your smoothie. You want to rinse your hair with it? Rinse your hair with it.

All of that is fine. But remember that it is not meant to replace real whole foods. You get all of your vitamins and nutrients and minerals from whole foods. So when we start getting into supplementing, then we are not paying attention to what we're putting in our bodies on a regular basis in terms of feeding it three to six times a day, depending on how many times you eat a meal. Got it. So what you're saying is, Carol, leave that damn sea moss alone and eat some regular damn food.

She can have sea moss. She can put it in a smoothie. But sea moss should not replace any place else where she can get minerals. You can get some of those minerals in watermelon, which is now in season. So you don't have to always have sea moss. Eat some watermelon.

See, there you go. Making it real simple. All right. Where can folks get more information from you and follow you? My website is HabibiBodySport.com. My name is Shahida Kareem. It's everywhere. Google it. It's my Instagram. It's onim. It's everywhere. Google it.

It's my Instagram. It's on Facebook. It's on YouTube. I don't hide behind special handles or monikers. I'm very easy to find. I'm also very accessible. My DMs are always alive, and I respond to every inquiry. All right, then.

Well, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. You're very welcome. Thank you for having us. Hopefully folks will listen to the advice. Thank you. All right. Thanks so much. All right, folks. That is it for us. Again, if y'all want to support what we do here

at Roland Martin Unfiltered, look at that. We got Fit, Live, Win. We got the book club. We're talking about politics. We talk about criminal justice. All these issues. That's what makes this show unlike any other out there. It's always some great stuff. And then, of course, we have those great conversations we've been showing you previews of,

of Tiffy Loughlin, Janetta B. Cole, and Alexis Herman, and Brittany Packnett Cunningham, and Chuck D., and Chris Payne, and, of course, Philip Agnew, and Charles Cobb, and also Bree Newsome and Reverend Dr. William J. Barber. That's a part of our Facebook and Instagram project. So you can actually go to my Facebook and Instagram pages and see those interviews. And so we certainly appreciate y'all checking us out. So great stuff we have planned. I'm telling you, y'all have no

idea. Man, I wish, I can't wait to tell y'all. It's going to blow y'all away. I'm telling you, y'all have no idea. Man, I wish, I can't wait to tell y'all. It's going to blow y'all away. I'm telling y'all, all these people out here who keep playing. And let me tell y'all something. You know, y'all always got haters. And I like haters. Because I love for the haters to have to stay on the sidelines and see you just zoom right past them

and you just keep building. I love, see I love haters. I just love haters. See every time my name is in they mouth, that's just advertising. That's all it is. Cause you notice, I don't never mention them. Ever. See I don't never mention them. Ever.

See, I don't need them for clickbait. See, we put in the work here. That's why we do what we do. And so that's why we went to Tulsa. That's why we did what we did for the six days in Tulsa. That's why we've got some great things coming up for Juneteenth. Looking forward to that as well. And so that's going to be next week.

And so, y'all, we're just doing what we do. Please support what we do. Joining our Bring the Fuck fan club. Cash out, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. Zell is rolling at rollinsmartin.com. And did one thing.

I did have actually a couple of things. It's not it for us, y'all. I totally forgot. Simone Biles put on another historical performance this weekend, winning her seventh all-around championship. It took place in Fort Worth, Texas. Folks, she is just, I mean, she's the GOAT, period. She's the GOAT, period.

And so she was just amazing. You should have seen, of course, some's the GOAT, period. She's the GOAT, period. And so she was just amazing. You should have seen, of course, some of the video. We are restricted from showing some of that stuff. But again, certainly congratulations to Simone Biles from Houston. And just a few weeks to go before the Olympic Games in Tokyo. She's going to be doing it there as well. Also, folks, over the weekend, lost a great one, Clarence Williams III,

the renowned black actor best known for his role as the smooth undercover cop, Link Hayes on the Mod Squad. Died at the age of 81, he passed away Friday at his home in LA after a battle, a long time battle with colon cancer. From 1968 to 1973, the New York native portrayed the role of the cool black cop on The Mod Squad.

He also got his start in theater, appearing on Broadway and nominated for a Tony Award for Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. He was in movies like The General's Daughter, Half-Baked, and of course, Purple Rain, playing the father of Prince. An amazing role in Deep Cover, also Tales from the Hood, I'm Gonna Get You Sucker, Sugar Hill. On the small screen screen the talented actor starting everybody hates chris twin peace walker texas ranger and hill street blues

again clarence williams iii 81 years old certainly rest in peace Holla! I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up.

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