#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Maxine Waters Shreds Trump Power Grabs, Chicago Pushback, GA Election Denier Fight

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

8.27.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Maxine Waters Shreds Trump Power Grabs, Chicago Pushback, GA Election Denier FightCalifornia Congresswoman Maxine Waters is here to talk about what that twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief, Donald "The Con" Trump, has been up to: from "firing"  Federal Reserve Governor, Lisa Cook, to deploying the National Guard to D.C., to threatening other cities, like Baltimore and Chicago.Speaking of Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson says Trump's authoritarianism is not welcome in his city. He'll be here. Those idiots in the White House are telling the world they are taking over D.C. Union Station, when it's already under federal control.  We'll talk to a D.C. councilmember about the real reason MAGA is attacking the capital city. A Fulton County, Georgia Commissioner says he's willing to go to jail to keep two 2020 election deniers off the county elections board. He'll be here to explain why. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV.The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Smokey the Bears. Then you know why Smokey tells you when he sees you passing through. Remember, please be careful. It's the least that you can do. It's what you desire. Don't play with matches. Don't play with fire.

After 80 years of learning his wildfire prevention tips, Smokey Bear lives within us all. Learn more at smoky bear.com. And remember, Only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Force Service, your state forester and the ad council. Our IHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas. September 19th and 20th.

On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams. Ed Shearin. Fade. Chlorilla Roll. John Fogarty.

Lil Wayne. L.L. Cool J. Mariah Carey. Maroon 5. Sammy Hagar. Tate McCray. The offspring. Tim McRaw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com.

Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of fan base. Listen to what I'm about to tell you. The window to invest in fan base is closing. We've raised over 10.6 million of our $17 million goal. That means there's room for less than 6,370 people to invest in fan base for the average amount. The minimum to invest in fan base right now is $399. That makes you an owner in fan base today. Go to startengin.com slash fan base to invest. Why? Because current social apps have taken advantage of users for far too long, with contents of suppression, shadow banning, harmful racist content, and no real tools for monetization and equity.

Fanbase has over 1.4 million users in counting, allowing anyone to reach all their following and monetize their content from day one. Social media is the new TV, and whoever owns the apps that distribute that content have the opportunity to own potential billion-dollar companies. While big platforms with uncertain futures are failing to serve their users, Fanbase is stepping up to fill the gap. Don't wait until it's too late. Now, invest for yourself and your future.

Go to startengine.com slash fan base and own the next generation of social media. Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punch you. I'm real revolutionary right now. I support this man, black media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America rolling. Be black, I love y'all.

All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, this difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black on media and be skating. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home, you dig? Thank you.

Today is Wednesday, August 27, 2025, coming up on Rolla, Mark, unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. in chief continues to do what he does, now taking control of Union Station, moving aside Amtrak, threatening to be a dictator, threatened to send a national guard to Chicago, New York, and other places, attacking a black woman who's the first one on the Federal Reserve Board. So I'm quite sure California Congresswoman Maxine Waters has a whole lot to say about the twice-impeached criminally convicted felony in chief, Donald the Khan. Trump. Chicago Mayor Brennan Johnson makes it clear that Donald Trump has the dictatorship is not welcome in the windy city. We'll show you what he had to say, and he will also talk to him.

Those in the White House are telling the world they are taking over Union Station, as I said, y'all, it's already under federal control. We'll talk to a D.C. Council member, by the real reason MAGA is attacking Washington, D.C. in Fulton County. Republicans are trying to force the Fulton County Commissioners to put two 2020 election deniers on the county elections board. One county commissioner says he will go to jail to keep those idiots off of the board. Oh, it's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

On the Black Sun Network, let's go. fact the fine and when it breaks he's right on time and it's rolling best believe he's knowing putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling it's uncle ro roo yo yeah it's rolling martin yeah it's rolling martin yeah Rolling with rolling now He's funky, fresh, he's real the best, You know he's rolling, Martel now Oh, Martel!

Hashtag, we tried to tell you, We spent more than a year trying to tell you that if Donald Trump, the twice-impeached criminally convicted felon, was allowed back in the Oval Office, there would be no bottom, he would be a dictator, he would be a person who would lead with no morals, no values, no principles, no ethics, no integrity, no credibility, no honor, and no decency. And that is exactly what he is doing. he cannot stand black people he is anti-black he is a white nationalist he is a white supremacist

and he's attacking the first black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook yes this man has no shame and Republicans are going right along with it

last time we had our next guest she said We have to do everything we can to fight back. And I'm sure nothing has changed. Joining us right down is California Congresswoman. Maxine Waters by phone. Congresswoman, glad to have you here. Thank you so much, Roland. Appreciate you so much, so much going on.

You know, Trump has literally determined that he can get away with so much because the power of the presidency is so awesome. The Constitution does not list. of things that he cannot do. And so he's doing everything that he ever thought he wanted to do. He's ruthless, and he's using his power to literally undermine, override, show all of his racist tendencies of Trump, right in your face. And so you mentioned Lisa Cook?

Yes, a brilliant woman, one of the board of governors. He simply told her to resign. she told him go to hell. She wasn't resigning. I love it. She said, you're going to have to see me in court because I am not going to resign. He says, I'm going to fire you. She said, call your best shot because I know what the Constitution says, and I know what I'm

entitled to as a member of the board of the Federal Reserve. And so she's standing up. But look what he has done. He has beaten back the universities. Columbia has paid millions of dollars, Brown University, even Harvard now. He's threatening their research money and there in negotiations with him. He's going after the private sector with law firms telling them who they can represent, who they can't represent. And so when you talk about dictatorship, this is exactly what he wants.

He really loves Putin and Kim Jong-ung and the way that they run their governments, and that's what he wants to do, and he's moving ahead with it. And I want you to know that in spite of the protests that many of us involved, and I've been in 11 protests on the street, everywhere that I go, I've been helping people to understand the danger of this low-down dirty, honorary, this respect. human being. And so here he is now talking about the Smithsonian. And he's talking about slavery wasn't so bad. Well, you know, I don't see him going

into any Jewish museum telling them that somehow they are not to be concerned about anti-Semitism. But why does he think he can get away with blacks? I don't want him

touching the African Museum. I don't want him threatening to take out items that he does not like he does not want. I mean, this is horrible. This is terrible. We know he's the commanding chief. We know that he can federalize, you know, the Washington police. We know he can call out the National Guard and the Army. So I don't want our young people to try to face off with them and get killed.

But what I want us to do is say to him, you go take care of your pedophile friends. You go tell us why you are protecting Epstein. You tell us why it has been said that your name is in all of the records. And so if we keep Epstein in his face the way some of the Republicans are doing, that's what he is trying to divert people from as he does all this dirty work. I want Washington, D.C. to do nothing but make thousands of things. signs, all saying

Epstein is your pedophile friend. What were you guys doing with young girls? Epstein and you forever not only having Maxwell bring young girls to you.

There are young girls who still have a story to tell. Let's keep Epstein on him because that's what he's trying to avoid. And that's what some of the Republicans are really holding him to his word. And so he thinks that he can divert, he can get us, you know, turn the white people on us even more with his racist self and divert all of this attention.

But if we're smart enough, every sign, everywhere he goes, you and Epstein and the pedophiles that you are. I mean, let's keep that in his face because this is what he wants to run from. This is he wants what he wants to hide. He wants to get rid of. But, you know, if we're smart, we will join with those few Republicans that are saying you promised us that you were going to unveil this information. I'm coming to Washington. I want to talk with the mayor about let's make signs. Let's everybody make our pedophile signs.

When he shows up, he shows up the African Museum, let's stick Epstein in his face. Let's let him get away And this is what's going to bring him down Well, check this out I mean, you had this Israeli cyber official Suspected of pedophilia This was a federal investigation And Trump acquiesce and Netanyahu

And allow this man to leave the country So they love some pedophiles Oh yeah Oh yeah, we got to wrap it around his neck yes they do and he wants it to go away he wants to divert the American public from it but we can't let him do that let's rub it in we got enough votes to bring it up on the floor

you know Democrats and Republicans we got enough votes to bring it up Johnson let us out early because he was stopping it but they got to deal with us when we come back and on the streets of Washington I want everybody to have a sign you know, talking about Epstein and Trump and the pedophiles, okay? Yeah, I mean, you're right.

He's throwing everything up against the wall to talk about that. I mean, you name it, he's trying to do it because this was heard of him, and he personally called a bunch of conservative podcast, radio show hosts, TV host telling them, hey, stop bringing this up, stop talking about it.

And that shows you right there how weak and impotent they are. They're very weak, and so many for some reason are afraid of him. But, you know, what we have been taught, you know, by our forefathers and foremothers, that we have to be in the struggle and we have to be in the fight. We don't get intimidated. You know what I'm saying? I've been talking with some older people, and they said, you know, we're going on the street. All I don't want is I don't want our people to get shot and killed by some of these army people that he's bringing in or the National Guard that he's army.

I just don't want that to happen. But we can get him. We could get him if we don't let him get away from Epstein. Well, there's no doubt that what Trump wants, he wants a clash in the streets. Yes. He desperately, he wants that. I was talking to Pastor, talking to Father Michael Flaker yesterday in Chicago,

and I said, this is where he must be met with mass nonviolence. I said, imagine the signs you're talking about. Imagine if 500 to 1,000 Christians, a line in the streets holding their Bible, calling them out and challenging them. But again, we know exactly what he wants because he wants to declare martial law. That's what he wants to do. That's what he wants. He wants to declare

martial law. They want to have a curfews and little black boys on the street will get killed. They'll kill them. They'll shoot him. Yeah. Well, in fact, that was a U.S. Senate hearing. And Elise Slotnik was questioning, she was questioning defense secretary Pete Hexeth. And in that particular hearing, she asked, she said that Donald Trump, in his previous Secretary of Defense, demanded that protesters, Black Lives Matter protesters, be shot in the leg. And so in the hearing, she was demanding, she was demanding to know if Pete Hexon, he

had given the order to do the same, and he danced around it. He got indignant, but he never said he did not. I'm going to pull it up in a second, but again, that's what we're dealing with here, and so we know

exactly what he is trying to do. We know what he is trying to. In fact, in fact, this here, this was Mark Esper. This was Mark, and then Hex said trying to say, oh, you can't believe everything you read in the book. Well, this is Mark Esper, who was Trump's first, he was Secretary of Defense

in his first term, he said this to 60 minutes. He called Mike Pence an eff and loser? He didn't call him directly, but he was looking at him when he was saying it. And it really caught my attention. And I thought that, we're at a different spot now. He's going to finally give a direct order to deploy paratroopers into the streets of Washington, D.C.,

and I'm thinking with weapons and bayonets. And this would be horrible. What specifically was he suggesting that the U.S. military should do to these protesters? He says, can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something. And he's suggesting that that's what we should do, that we should bring in the troops and shoot the protesters. The commander-in-chief was suggesting that the U.S. military shoot protesters.

Yes, in the straits of our nation's capital. That's right. Shocking. We have seen in other countries. a government, use their military to shoot protesters. What kind of governments are those? Well, those are banana republics, right? Or authoritarian regimes.

We all remember Tiananmen Square, right? In China. That was first time. And here's the deal, Congresswoman. Hexsaint is wiping out numerous generals, numerous leaders. They are gutting the Pentagon. They want to put in 100% loyalists so Trump says shoot them

those thoughts When your car is making a strange noise no matter what it is you can't just pretend it's not happening That's an interesting sound It's like your mental health If you're struggling and feeling overwhelmed It's important to do something about it

It can be as simple as talking to someone Or just taking a deep calming breath to ground yourself Because once you start to address the problem You can go so much further The Huntsman Mental Health Institute And the Ad Council have resources available for you at

Love Your Mind Today.org. Our IHeartRadio Music Festival presented by Capital One is coming back to Las Vegas. September 19th and 20th. On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen.

Brian Adams. Ed Sheeran. Fade. Glorilla. Jelly Roll. John Fogarty. Lil Wayne. L.L. Cool J. Mariah Carey. Maroon 5. Sammy Hagar. Tate McCray.

The offspring. Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AX.X. dot com get your tickets today a xs.com will say they will give the order to shoot them absolutely absolutely and I'm worried because the young people

you know they they want to do something and they get very angered by the way that they're being treated and so some of them you know start talking loud and they're going to be met with guns and I do not want them to be shot

and that's why I want to fight I want to fight him with Epstein. I want to fight him and keep the attention on what some of the Republicans are using also to try and get the information. He is absolutely brazen in the way that he's trying to avoid doing what he promised he was going to do

to his own caucus about revealing what's in those Epstein files. So he'll be shocked if he walked into a protest and all the signs said, you and Epstein, you are a protophile, protophile lovers. What are you going to do about, why did you lie about Epstein?

Why are you protecting Epstein? Why isn't you like a protophile? You told us that you did when you said Oh, I like girls And he likes him really young What to hell? You think you're going to get away

With saying that publicly And we not know what that means And this business of interviewing Maxwell In the prison And then sending her to A minimum security prison A cushy prison after the interview Let's us know

A deal is being cut And she's trying to rewrite history She's a filthy, dirty, low-down pedophile that was soliciting young girls as early as 13 years old. And now she's cutting a deal. And Trump, if we let him get away with it, we're part in her. That's where they're headed. He's dirty, low-down. Filthy.

And you're right. These people have said that at the end of the day, you know, that how do you cut the cut this deal? How do you cut this deal with someone allowing her out? And again, what they have done with Jolet and Maxwell, she was absolutely in cahoots with Jeffrey Epstein every step of the way. And Donald Trump sent a high-ranking Department of Justice Official, get her testimony. Second in command, yes. Get her testimony. And many of the victims have said the woman is flat-out, lying. She is lying and Republicans are accepting

her lies as if it was a truth. Absolutely. As a matter of fact, she has already been convicted because all of the evidence has been proven of what she has done in the

solicitation and the violation of young girls. And so now they're going to rewrite history in front of us and take us for being damn fools that they're going to get away with, not only doing an interview and then starting the deal by sending her to a cushion minimum location and leading to a pardon. She is saying everything she needs to say, oh, she's never seen the president in any compromising

position. Well, the lies are being constructed, and they are working on the plan. to partner her. That's exactly what they're doing. Absolutely. When does Congress, when does the House, when does Congress return back from this Mike Johnson, scared to vote on Epstein's summer break? We'll be back the beginning, what's the second week in September. And to your point, I really do hope that Democrat leadership allows, do the exact same thing,

because you have Thomas Massey on that side, who wanted to put it on the record. The moment they come back, they should say, we ain't voting on nothing, moving, nothing, discussing nothing until we deal with EFSI. And then enforce Mike Johnson to run. And what is he going to do? Say, go away from September.

And if he does that, you come back in October and you put it on table again in November, in December, in January. Well, what I'm going for is exactly what you're saying. Damn this business as usual. stuff. I can't do business as usual. We need to shut this down place down if you can't deal with FC. You can't run over this like this. We have people from our communities that's been in jail for marijuana. We've got people who've been in jail for stealing a loaf of bread. And here we have

these crooks and these criminals. You partner everybody from January 6th. Now you're about to part in this pedophile. What the hell country is this? What the hell country is this? Absolutely. We got it. We got to break it. We got to break it. But it's going to take something out of the ordinary to break it. We can't go along in our committees testifying about shit that doesn't nobody care about.

We got to say we ain't doing nothing. Break this stuff up until we get Epstein and everything that he has done before somebody killed them in prison. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, we've been covering this every single day. We're not backing down from this. We're exposing and trying to enlighten, inform, educate our people every single day. Because too many of us have been sitting on the sidelines, lion dancing, having fun. And I'm all for that. I believe in having fun. But the bottom line is here. The future of Black America, the future of America is at stake. And these thugs, we know exactly what they want to do. wants to be a dictator, he wants to crush, he wants to crush dissent. This, this illegal executive order banning the burning of flags is pathetic when the Supreme Court has already ruled on that. And I've been saying this, that he wants to defund black America. He wants to destroy the civil rights, the political, the economic, the educational, and health infrastructure

of black America. That is his agenda. He got the nerve to be. He got the nerve to be in our face telling us slavery wasn't so bad. Go to Melania's country, Slovenia, and tell them what to do. Go there and tell them what to do. Don't come over here telling us that our history is meaningless, that it doesn't mean anything, and we ought to shut up. I am furious. Well, we're every step by the way, Congresswoman, as you already know, you're welcome on a show anytime, so just let us know, and we're here five days a week.

thank you so much i love you keep it up you're our talking drum and you just had a birthday happy birthday thank you so very much i'm still with it all right i appreciate thanks a lot folks that was a california congressman maxine waters uh still uh on the wall fighting every single day to go to a break we'll be right back rolling martin unfiltered on the black star network I have name recognition, but I tour more than any rapper. And it's a lot of overseas stuff. And it's like, I'm going all over to, I've been to, I've been to 80 countries in my, in my lifetime. And sometimes I'll do interviews with people.

And they'd be like, so, what you've been doing? Like, what you've been doing? You know what's that? Like, I just came back from Belgium and Brazil and South Africa. What, what you've been doing? Right. This week on the other side of change. 300,000 black women being pushed out of the workforce.

This is shocking yet unsurprising. What happens when a bunch of black mothers lose their federal job? Their kids are not being fed. Their kids are not being taken care of. But that trickles down to the entire community structure, which may be built on the backs of black mothers and black women more broad. Tune in on the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network.

What's up, y'all? This is Wendellon, aka Winn Hogan at the original Chiefs Golf Classic. And you know I watch Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, my panel, Rebecca Carruthers, President and CEO, Fair Election Center out of D.C. Dr. Larry J. Walker, Associate Professor, University of Central Florida, out of Orlando, Zabora G., D.EIA consultant employment specialist out of Houston. I will start with you, Rebecca.

Listen, it is abundantly clear what we're seeing, and people need to understand they want to shut it all down. They do not want fair elections. Trump is talking about signing executive order, getting rid of. absentee balloting, early voting, let's move to paper, which is stupid because he literally has no jurisdiction whatsoever, whatsoever when it comes to state elections. So that's just all nonsense. And again, and it's one after another, and really what this is designed, Rebecca, it is designed to be so much crap that you numb the audience. And we saw this the last time. when we saw it, and the problem is

mainstream white media are grossly unprepared for it. They are still trying to play this nice, cute game when they don't know how to respond. And what they've done is they've capitulated. ABC firing Terry Moran, CNN, essentially firing Jim

Acosta, MSNBC firing Joy Ann Reid, cutting deals, Paramount CBS, cutting a deal with Trump in order to get their merger approved, Disney cutting him a check, NBC cutting him a check, when these, when media buckles, when media bends over, when media bows down, then you do not have the fourth estate there to hold power accountable. You on mute?

All right. Sorry about that, Roland. You said, you just said a lot. So when people think about the fourth estate and why it's so important, it's because when you think about the checks and balances in this country, when you think about how Congress is supposed to check the executive, check the president. When you think about the courts are supposed to check the president and check Congress, when that's not happening, then what we have left is for the media to actually do the fact checking, for media to provide reliable and accurate information to the masses. So people understand what's happening. Something that you mentioned with a vote-by-mail thing that Trump tried to say last week is when the Ukrainian president was visiting in the White House last week. Trump also said, hey, you know what, maybe we can suspend elections if there's an emergency if we're at war. And that's something the media absolutely has to call out. If you listen to Eisenhower, according to Eisenhower, we went into a militarized industrial complex, which means we virtually, the United States has been at war for 80, 90,

years, nonstop virtually, but we still have elections. So for Trump to say, oh, maybe an emergency would happen and we could suspend elections, something that I want to remind the viewers and remind Americans is that during the Civil War, when literally millions of soldiers were dying unfilled, when electors had a ride by horseback and or by train to get to Washington to cast their votes in the middle of a civil war, we still had elections. When we had World World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, when we had unrest during the civil rights movement, we still had elections. When we had the Bay of Pigs incident where there was the possibility of a nuclear war popping

off at any moment, there were still elections that happened that year. There were still state and local elections. And so what we have to do is stop normalizing the crap that the president is saying, especially when it comes to free and fair elections. This is not normal. We should not be accepting these things. Thanks. Larry. Yeah, this is, you know, this is all a very troubling time to be, to be an American.

But, you know, you're right in terms of the media, mainstream media, in terms of their responsibility that they haven't adhered to in terms of making sure you hold federal, state, and local officials, you know, hold them responsible for not only their rhetoric, but also their actions. It would only be one thing. Obviously, we deal with a lot of this racist. rhetoric. But we're seeing it from executive orders and various other decisions he's making that impacts State and DOJ and DOE and all these other various entities. And who's paying the price for that? We see the black community is paying the price from that. We've talked about on your show a lot, several hundred thousand, you know, 300,000, more than 300,000 black women have lost their jobs. But the media has a responsibility, as a record just talked about, to focus on some of the things that they're saying, listen, it's become normalized.

and many of those, these large media outlets are completely ignoring some of the troubling things that are saying. The other thing is, the problem with Americans is they don't really have context as it relates to authoritarianism as it relates to world history. And if you look at what's happening,

this is literally the playbook for everything authoritarianists have done for more than the last century throughout the world. But once again, the country's ill-prepared because Americans don't understand world history. Everything is doing, detecting higher education, using U.S. military,

going after, you know, the media and various other entities that are historically have kept, you make sure that, you know, politicians who gain too much power held responsible. So they're not doing that. And so he's running wild with whatever he wants to do and pushing, you know, every, every politician that thinks that they're going to vote against something in the House or Senate, he threatens and they just kind of give up and say, well, you know, the president has talked to me and, you know, we have some kind of compromise. But the bottom line is we need people to stand steadfast and fight because you don't fight now.

we're all going to pay over the next several years. Zaborra, I really want people to listen to what Congresswoman Maxine... In sitcoms, when someone has a problem, they just blurt it out and move on. Well, I lost my job and my parakeet is missing. How is your day? But the real world is different. Managing life's challenges can be overwhelming. So, what do we do?

We get support. The Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council have mental health resources available for you at loveyourmindtay.org. That's loveyourmindtay.org. See how much further you can go when you take care of your mental health. Our IHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One,

is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas. September 19th and 20th. On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams. Ed Shearrett. Fade. Chlorilla. Jellyroll. Chon Fogarty. Lil Wayne. L.L. Cool J. Mariah Carey. Maroon 5.

Sammy Hagar. Tate McCray. The offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com. Water said, and I think back, I think back to the Black Freedom Movement and how precise Dr. King and Andrew Young and Josea Williams

and Dorothy Cotton, how precise those leaders, were, Diane Nash, James Bevel, because they understood, again, I keep going back to this, King being the protagonist, said I need an antagonist, but he also understood the safety of the people. There's that tremendous scene in the movie Selma, where the masses, after the vicious beating on Bloody Sunday, and the masses are on that bridge. And King sees those troopers. And he then takes a knee and prays and turns around.

And snick James Foreman, what was angry and upset and the other people were upset. And King said, I was about to lead our people into a slaughter. What we have to recognize, Donald Trump is a cannibal. He wants to eat. people. He is itching. He is itching for people to stand before troops and yell and scream and throw rocks and throw bottles because then he'll say, national emergency. And now, now it's, yes, as Rebecca said, I can suspend the election. I can do whatever I want. So our protest, our response can't be muted. We must be extremely careful with how we respond so we don't give that thug exactly

what he's looking for. Yeah, definitely. We have to be very clear that we are witnessing a bully at the playground. He's not running this country on policy. And like Maxine Waters said, this is not business as usual. And we have to attack this strategically. We have to do this in an organized manner. And we have to really come together and our little squabbles and arguments that are amongst ourselves isn't important at this time. This is about us being unified. This is about us supporting the platforms like your platform and supporting our leaders of right now. But at the same time, making sure that we are protecting our children in D.C.

and him deploying all of this National Guard to these places with these vulnerable populations, like I think of the homeless that are in Union Station. And you see this extra presence of police surroundings and government forces, but they're in places where there's no crime in those areas or there's limited crime in those areas. So, you know, it's a big show. And it seems that he's setting up for something bigger by just creating these little breadcrumbs that give him a way to be able to enact martial law if he really needs it right. now. And he's doing it at the extent and at the expense of us of black people, of black

women, of black children, you know, all of these situations that are happening in America right now. We've been through them before. We saw how to handle them. And just like he has a playbook from the last time he was in the White House, we have to go to the things that we know work. We know that the black church is strong. We know that when we have our own newspapers and our own media outlets, we're going to be strong. We see. We see. what our dollar has done the target. And if we continue on a path where we're having a path of least

resistance, but we're still resisting in a smart manner, I think that it's going to be a truth teller, you know? America's in a very bad place and racism has been at the front of all of our journeys since before

the civil rights, since the slave trades. So this is where we are and we just have to do something different. We can't treat this like this is normal. are like it's not important. And we have to educate people around us because they're not educated. They don't understand it.

And some people understand it and just feel defeated because it's so much thrown at us every day. So I think that, you know, we have to keep the fight and don't give up and listen and take the lead of our leaders that are still here with us.

Absolutely. And I think what we have to, what we also have to recognize, and I'm about to bring in D.C. and large, councilman Robert White Jr. into this. This is Jay Carey. This was yesterday. This is a veteran, this is a veteran who stood in Lafayette Park. And after Trump issued his executive order, he burned the United States flag. To bring audio up. force those illegal laws that that president tried to make.

The violation of his first amendment right? Yep, I'm being detained because I express my first amendment right to burn the United States flag in public. Folks, now, now, you may say, okay, well, I don't understand what the big deal is. But, Councilman, here's why I think that's important. And we're seeing this. We are seeing members who served in uniform showing up and standing with people who are being attacked by ICE. We're seeing veterans who say, wait a minute, I fought four people to be able to protest the First Amendment.

And so this is one of those moments where I think folk as supposed to be in a knee-jerk reaction. There are certain people we follow and stand behind who bring a level of credibility to the conversation that is hard for the right. What's the right going to say? Oh, the hell with those vets? Oh, please by all means do so. This is where we have to be very smart, very strategic, and understand the evil that we're facing and how we must properly respond.

You're 100% right, Roland. And my message to people in D.C. every day is don't fight with aggression. We're not going to win that. You're going to play into their plan and their narrative. Folks need to take notes from the civil rights movement. We have to be organized. We have to be strategic. We have to be united. Because as you all were saying before, people's rights are being violated every single day. Folks are living in fear. And the president has said where this is going. He is going to take military, use the against our own people, not just in D.C., but across the country. So this is time that folks need to wake up. Listen, y'all are in a very precarious place because Washington, D.C. is not a state. And the role in responsibility that the federal government has when it comes to approving budget, cutting things, and so it is not as easy for D.C. officials. to respond like other states and other governors.

Take, for instance, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, stands up, massive amount of lies, talking about Department of Transportation, taking direct control of Washington's Union Station. Amtrak, of course, is managing the nation's second business hub. But the mayor says, wait a minute. Union Station is already under the federal government control, control roll it the federal government owns union station and I think that I don't know the details

of what will happen if it's just about management that I would consider that step one if it's about what union station needs for its total transformation that would be an amazing initiative for the federal government to take on I have had a very early conversation when I visited the president during his most recent transition about Union Station and how that could represent a very significant and good investment for this region. And Duffy then says this is what's coming. Look, Rowling.

What can people expect the changes to be? So first off, DOT owns Union Station, and we've had a lot of partners that we've sub-lease to or we've leased to. we're going to take it back and we're going to drive out the homelessness we're going to drive out the crime and we are going to I think bring in more retailers

I think more customers it'll be better revenue and again this is our capital city it should be beautiful and the president wants a beautiful capital I want a beautiful capital and so this plan is going to make Union Station represent

the president's vision of what America can and should look like I'm going to put this out here councilman let's just be perfectly clear what we're facing and that is this here and I saw Carl Rove, I saw a clip he was talking about how Democrats are going to

lose this crime argument. Let's be real clear. When we talk, when we hear Republicans talk about attacking crime, what they're actually saying to white people is, we're going to get those black and brown people in line. That's what they're saying. And so when you start

seeing polling data, how all of a sudden it's resonating with the American people. No, it's resonating with white Americans, white conservative Americans, because we all know crime, hardcore on crime, has always been the go-to of conservatives to attack Democrats or progressives. And unfortunately, we keep falling for it, rolling.

So they're telling us exactly what they're doing. The president has put together guards from all over the country, brought them to D.C., done an executive order, said, I'm going to make a permanent branch of the guard, and I'm going to send them anywhere in the country that I deem dangerous or protests that I think are out of control. That's authoritarian, right? But then the U.S. attorney for D.C. has said she's not going to prosecute anymore crimes, people carrying long guns or rifles in D.C. That's not our folks that carry that. That's these January 6ers. So the president is going to decriminalize carrying these kind of guns, and he's going to create a subset of the military.

here in D.C., ahead of the next election, where do we think this is going? I mean, he's being incredibly clear about what's happening. They're going to be tough on crime on petty crimes and black neighborhoods, but they're going to pardon the January 6 rioters, the insurrectionists who tried to overthrow democracy. This is absolutely crazy if we go along with any of it. So what are you saying to residents as to, in business owners and homeowners, How Bayes should respond?

I'm telling people organized, and I'm doing my part. I had a town hall on Monday just so people know what their rights are. There were 400 pissed off people in that town hall saying we are frustrated that our local police aren't protecting us. We are frustrated with the mayor and the council for not pushing back harder. And they want us to do more. So now I have a follow-up meeting on September 8th where we're going to talk about. action, in organization, and strategy, because people in D.C. want to know what can we do. And people outside of D.C., most of them know this isn't just D.C.'s fight. This is the nation's

fight. So folks have got to get in now, because once this train moves, we're not going to be able to stop it. I have to ask you this because it's being asked, where is Congresswoman Illinois Holmes Norton in all of this? Look, I used to work for Congresswoman Norton, and thanks to her, we have a federal law passed in 2001 that already gives authority. for us to partner with federal agencies without a federal takeover. And I don't leave the fight to anybody, so I'm spending every day on Capitol Hill. I met with five Senate offices today,

six yesterday, about 20 last week. So we're all in this fight, and I'm going to do my piece, and I'm going to push everybody to do their part two. All right. Congressman White, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

Constantly, why, I'm sorry. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Rebecca, I have to go. Look, we have to deal with it. Okay, somebody was critical, David, David Hog, Hogue, I can't, how you pronounce it, put a video out, talking about the history of Congressman Holmes Norton, talking about her civil rights history, what she's meant, but how she's been basically MIA and all of this. And look, I always say, if you do good, I'll talk about you, if you do Bay, I'll talk about you, if you do Bay, I'll talk about you, any day, I'll talk about you. And I'm sorry, this is not a moment where Congresswoman Illinois Holmes Norton, who's 88 years old, is M.I.A. If you are unable, if you are the delegate of the District of Columbia, and if you are unable to be seen publicly to be the face of the resistance, then it's time for you not to announce you're not running for re-election in 2006.

It's time for you to resign now. And again, I have great respect for the Congresswoman. But there is no way in hell you can have someone who is totally missing. She is nowhere to be found. Okay, a statement was put out. But literally, nowhere to be found. That is not what the people of the District of Columbia need right now. So first, I don't listen to anything that David Hogg has to say.

I'll take my advice for him. But to your point, I think your greater point here is where is leadership? Does that include the congresswoman? Absolutely. Does that include the mayor? Absolutely. Who today the mayor said that she welcomes the increased federal law enforcement in the district, which is anti-everything that residents of the district is currently saying because people

are scared to go out. People are scared to sit on the front stoop. People are scared in D.C. and they're definitely looking for leadership. The other thing that I want to call out here is for decades, there has been a push to make the District of Columbia the 51st state. And so one thing that I have to ask the Democrats,

when you had the presidency, when you had the House, when you had the Senate, why was it not a priority to protect historically black city to make sure that the type of thing that we're seeing happening now, the type of authoritarianism that we're seeing, the takeover of the District of Columbia, where were you? Why didn't you do anything to prevent this? Why was this not passed? Why was this not considered? I understand that, you know, I understand

it's more than just Congress voting on this. I understand there's other procedures. But the Democrats, when they were in power, they could have at least started on this as well. So am I going just put the blame on the Congresswoman? No. Am I going to just put the blame on the current mayor? No. But what I will say is that there is a vacuum of leadership. Right now, there has to be strong leadership in the district right now. So, Larry, I'm not putting the blame on anyone. What I am saying is, what's happening in Illinois? You see the governor.

You see the mayor. You see members of Congress. You see county commissioners. You see alderman. Okay. Now, we know, let's just be real. The mayor of D.C., the police chief of D.C., city council members of D.C., they can't go off because the reality is, listen, we're sitting right now in front of Black Lives Matter Plaza. That's no longer Black Lives Matter Plaza because a Republican said, oh, if you do not tear up that month,

monument, we are going to withhold a billion dollars in funding. The city spent almost $700,000 to tear the street up. So the DC folks are dancing as much as they can because they know how vindictive and punitive these people are. But in this moment, D.C. needs its elected member of Congress and should. She is M-I-A, Larry. I've been thinking a lot about this, about leadership. And, you know, it was funny you mentioned,

the Congresswoman Holmes-Norton annual and, you know, I worked on the Hill, had a chance to work at her office very closely lived in D.C. for a number of years. But this is all hands on deck. This is an unprecedented challenge that black people in America, specifically to D.C. for all the people that I know and care about who live in the city. And much broader in terms of what is,

DC is an example of what will happen in Chicago, Baltimore, you know, we can, L.A., etc. And so we need transformational leadership, right? If a baby is giggling in the back seat, they're probably happy. If a baby is crying in the back seat, they're probably hungry. But if a baby is sleeping in the back seat, will you remember they're even there? When you're distracted, stressed, or not usually the one who drives them, the chances of forgetting them in the back seat are much higher.

It can happen to anyone. Parked cars get hot fast and can be deadly. So get in the habit of checking the back seat when you leave. The message from NHTSA and the Ad Council. Our IHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas. September 19th and 20th. On your feet.

Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams. Ed Shearin. Fade. Glorilla. Jelly Roll. John Fogarty.

Lil Wayne. L.L. Cool J. Mariah Carey. Baroon Five. Sammy Hagar, Tate McCraig, the offspring, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com.

Now, as it specifically is relates to the black community, traditional politics is not going to get it in this unconventional time. And so I think your point is an important one. You can't be missing in a time where the district has not And listen, you and I know we're rolling in it. Their Republican administrations, to certain degrees, has took a look at or critiqued or even threatened, you know, D.C. leaders. This has happened.

But not to this extent when you have the National Guard at Union Station, you know, perched in various neighborhoods throughout the city. If we don't have the necessary leaders elected leaders who are visible on the boots on the ground and also coming up with concrete, of what we need to do, then there's an important conversation they need to have. And like I said, who someone's worked very closely with the office that have a great deal of respect for Congressman Holmes Norton, we have to have this conversation about, like I said, her absence, and also larger about, you know, black leaders. And today, in terms of being prepared to respond, as I said, to unconventional antics that are going to lead to more violence and aggression directed towards the black community. and the boy

look somebody has to say it and listen over the last year a lot of people let's be respectful let's understand her history

what she's meant and a lot of people have done that a lot of people have been respectful there were a lot of people who feel she should not have run for re-election last year. And I'm sorry

if you are unable to even be seen. I'm not saying you got to be out there waving a flag and waving a sign. She's not even present. She's not even standing next to the mayor.

And somebody has to be willing to say and somebody black and I don't want to hear any bullshit from anybody oh this is an attack on black women this is an attack on black leadership we just had an 85 year old black woman on the show

yeah comes when Maxine Waters and I'm sorry there are some things that you have to be able to do and that is and I say this all the time there's a different between somebody being present and having

presence. The problem here is Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. She's not present and she's not having a presence. I get behind the scenes, I get history, but

this is a moment where people need to see and hear their leadership every single day. They need to see, their leader going to churches and rallying pastors and making this the issue. They need to see their leader walking down the street with a bullhorn telling people to be respectful, but also don't get in trouble. They need to see it. I'm sorry. Again, I love her dearly, but right

now, Delegate Holmes Norton is failing her constituents. I think the bigger question to me is this is happening in more than just D.C., right? I'm looking at Texas

redistricting without having representation in certain places that have had representation for a long time. At what point do we say, are you holding this public service and holding this office or disposition hostage.

I think that it's time for us. Respectfully, we respect everything that everyone has done before us. We have to, and we're standing on those shoulders. But at the same time, we are in need of leaders who are energetic, who understand the sense of urgency and understand what the community needs and are able to, like you said, just show up, just show up, just be there. We need to see that. we're already getting bombarded with so much information

and families are scared, children are scared, and you're trying to navigate your life, but we don't have the leadership that's saying, okay, I've been here, I've did my time, but at this point, what are we going to say about term limits and about secession planning and about just ending in a peaceful way that we can celebrate you for the work that you've done? But at the same time, make some space,

for young leaders, young black leaders, young people of color that can stand up to what we're going to be dealing with 40 years from now. These things that Trump are doing and the decisions that he's making right now are going to impact us for 100 years from now. So we need leadership that reflects dealing with those things. My last point on this here, I would rather someone retire gracefully than force people to force them out. And I'm sorry, the delegate should have retired and not run in 2024. She should not have. And what I will say right now, specifically to black leadership across the country,

if you are a state representative or a state senator or a member of Congress or a county commissioner, or a city council member, an alderman, a DA, a judge, a clerk, if you are in public office and you cannot handle the duties of your job, if you cannot physically be there for the people in the way that you used to, it's time for you to go. It's time for you to step away. It's time for you to have the leadership to literally choose a successor, groom a successor, nurture a successor, and now say it's time. Congressman Danny Davis announced his retirement, saying he's not going to run for re-election. and he said who he's going to be endorsing a state rep in Chicago because it's time

it's time if you are being wheeled around the capital and you can barely move and you can barely talk and you I'm going to say it I'm sorry and that goes for white people that Strom Thurman

was driveling at the mouth who was the white guy in in West Virginia name escapes me right now Senator Byrd Yeah, yeah, Robert Byrd Same thing Damn, it's time to go

And let me be clear Somebody's 88 ain't somebody else's 88 This same thing came out dealing with Biden I mean you may be able You may be able to sit down and you still have your mind

and you still see you can make calls. But here's what we have to recognize. The job of an elected official is also a physical job. It's a physical job. It's not a mental job. It's mental and physical. And so the physical part means, listen,

Fetterman, he's working. younger. He had a stroke. Oh, there's, I could be, I'm missing my vacation with my family. Well, then resign. And you will have all the time in the world to spend with your wife and your children to go on vacation. We have to say this. And see, when black politicians, at first of any politician, okay, but I was specifically talking to black politicians when black politicians

hold on and hold on and they are sitting here withering on the vine they're actually hurting black people they're hurting black communities because actually they can't be fully effective

in their job because they're not present they're not present at committee hearings. They're not present at meeting with their constituents. They're not present at meeting with companies and others that trying to bring them into the district or into the city or into the state. So sometimes as black people, we have to stop being so respectful

of a person's ego and recognize that a person's ego can also be disrespectful to the voters. And I wouldn't want to have to give this commentary. I don't want to have to give it. But y'all know and I know.

There are a lot of black elected officials who need to go and retire into the sunset, who need to be loved and appreciated for what they did. But just like in sports, there's nothing worse than seeing an athlete who was beloved, who was amazing, who had a Hall of Fame of career, just hanging on. Just hanging on, taking up a roster spot. Know when to hang it up. No when to quit. And right now, Delegate Holmes Norton,

you are not serving your constituents by staying in this position. I don't know the rules of D.C. when you could call a special election. it could be in this November but this is a moment where we need every single one of our generals

and sergeants and captains on the battlefield and I'll end it with this if this was an actual war she would have been sent home because she would have been unable

to fulfill the duties needed on the battlefield. Respectfully. Going to a break, we come back. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson joins us right here on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do. Join our Brene the Funk fan club.

Make our contributions to cash out. It's a Stripe Cure Code. You see it right here. For the link, go to blackstarnetwork.com, roland martin unfiltered checks and money order make it payable to roland martin unfiltered peel box seven one nine six washington dc two zero three seven dad zero one nine six paypal r martin unfiltered bin mo r m unfiltered zal roland at roland s martin dot com rolling at roland martin unfiltered dot com we'll be right back coming soon to the black star network

I have name recognition, but I tour more than any rapper. And it's a lot of overseas stuff. And it's like I'm going all over to, I've been to, I've been to 80 countries in my, in my lifetime. And sometimes I'll do interviews with people. And they'd be like, so, what you've been doing? Like, what you've been doing? Like, I just came back from Belgium and Brazil and South Africa. What's you been doing?

Right. I'm Russell L. Honorary, Lieutenant General United States Army retired, and you're watching Rollo Martin on Philthage. Donald Trump has no respect for black people. He has no respect for black leadership. is consistently targeting black leadership. Remember 2020, when he complained about losing, the election was rigged. There were four cities he kept bringing up.

Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee. What are those four cities have in common? Black people. Donald Trump is always talking about Chicago. Chicago. He has one of his sorry Trump Tower. hotels in Chicago, but let's be clear, he doesn't give a damn about Chicago. He uses Chicago as a whipping boy for whatever he wants to do.

And that's what the right does. Talk to any white conservative or even the help like Philip from Indiana. Oh, by the way, that Negro was appointed executive director of the Civil Rights Commission in Indiana. You know, and so my producer sent me the Facebook link, and you know I responded, saying, oh, you got a witness protection, huh? See, they love talking about Chicago. They love bringing up Chicago. They love to, just, it's always Chicago.

And I told you all the story when I was at one of those meetings with Trump with TV anchors, and he was like, well, you know, Ron was in my office, and he told me a deal with crime in Chicago. We got to deal with economics and poverty and education. He was like, no, Ron. Rom, you're not getting his right. And I was like, no, actually, he is right. Now, Ronald Emmanuel ain't there. Brandon Johnson is now the mayor, and he's been saying the exact same thing.

And if you actually talk to any police chief, and I've actually asked the question to many of them, they will tell you that more cops on the street does not equate to a chain, a drop in crime. Mayor Johnson joins us right now. Mayor, glad to be with you right now. Glad to have you here. on MSNBC and Joe Scarborough was asking you over and over and over again. Oh, Mayor, I agree

with you about all the other different things, but wouldn't it be helpful to have 5,000 cops on the street? And I saw that clip because I don't watch that show. It's been 10 years since they had me on because I was just way too mouthy for them, as what happened when you're an uppity Negro to them. And the

thing is, I saw the clip and I said, well, hell, I'm sure the mayor would say, can I have 5,000 jobs for you? can I have 5,000 new affordable housing units? And see, we want to talk about more cops, more cops, more cops, but even cops will tell you that does not fix the crime issue, Mayor. No, you're absolutely right, Roland, and thanks for having me back, and appreciate, you know,

the consciousness that you are elevating across this country. And what we've said repeatedly, that policing alone is not going to drive safe and affordable cities, and I've expressed this. If a baby is giggling in the back seat, they're probably happy. If a baby is crying in the back seat, they're probably hungry. But if a baby is sleeping in the backseat,

will you remember they're even there? When you're distracted, stressed, or not usually the one who drives them, the chances of forgetting them in the back seat are much higher. It can happen to anyone. Parked cars get hot fast and can be deadly. So get

in the habit of checking the back seat when you leave. The message from NHTSA and the Ad Council. Our IHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas. September 19th and 20th. On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen.

Brian Adams. Ed Sheeran. Fade. Glorilla. Jellyroll. John Fogarty. Lil Wayne. L. L.L. Cooljay. Mariah. Maroon 5. Sammy Hagar. Tate McCray. The offspring. Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com.

Get your tickets today. AXS.com. Multiple occasions. In the 90s when I was in high school, where the murder rate was as high as 900 and sometimes above 900, we had two to three thousand more police officers at that time.

And so there's no correlation between the number of police officers and violence. But what we do know, there is a direct correlation between poverty and trauma and violence. And, you know, we have a president that is declared war on poor people. And as you know so well, and you eloquently express all the time, that that's one of the three evos that Dr. Keene provided a warning to this country, that if we

don't address those three evos, racism, of course, being one of them, militarism, of course, being one of them, and then poverty, right? And so what I've done in the city of Chicago is I've worked hard to make sure that the neighborhoods that have been most impacted by violence that are also the same neighborhoods where schools have been closed, where the lack of access to health care and good paying jobs. And so what did I do when I took office? One, we made sure that we revamped our detectives division, where we promoted 200 more detectives to make sure that we're actually solving violence in Chicago.

One of the things that I've heard repeatedly, that's quite frustrating for families. It's one thing to lose your loved one to violence or to, you know, end up being experienced, having violent experiences is another thing when you don't solve the crime. And so because we revamped our entire detective's division, we have seen a clearance rate of 76%, almost 77%, the highest has ever been in a decade. But where we really put our investments towards was youth employment, 31,119 summer jobs. I live on the west side of Chicago and Austin. I know you're familiar with Chicago and the neighborhoods here in Austin, one of the tougher neighborhoods because of disinvestment. We saw some of the greatest declines in Austin, but we also saw the highest proportion of young people with summer youth

jobs, right? So we've increased that by almost 50%. But we've also expanded mental and behavior health services. We opened three mental health clinics, the first mayor since Mayor of Harris, to invest in mental health clinics. But we've also have expanded mental health service. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You said the first mayor since Harold Washington. Harry Washington died in 1987. That's correct. That's 38 years ago. Yeah.

Now, we're talking about severe disinvestment. When Mayor Hare of Washington died, they were 19 mental health clinics. When I took office, they were barely six. And so we've also expanded mental and behavior health care services around the city so that when people are experiencing mental health crises, you have a paid. professional behavior, health professional that shows up to those crises and not a police officer. And that frees up our law enforcement to respond to the other critical needs.

But there was something else that we did. We are stabilizing our communities by repopulating these neighborhoods with affordable units. We're unpaced to build nearly 10,000. We're focusing, by the end of my first term, we're focusing on the west and south sides of Chicago where, you know, as I've called it, the Negro Removal Act has been in full effect. where black folks have been pushed out of the very communities that, you know, have historically been stabilizing neighborhoods for the working class, right? And so here's what we've experienced as a result of that, a 32% reduction in homicides, almost 40% reduction in shootings and shooting

victims, 35% reduction in robberies, our carjackings, that has declined significantly. Now, look, the last thing that I'll say on this, we have a lot of work to do. Don't misunderstand me. But we are moving in the right direction as we build safe and affordable communities across Chicago. And the way we're doing that is by investing in people. So policing and the critical investments that ultimately get at the root causes of violence, that's how we've been able to experience this progress in my first two years in office. The, you know, I saw the news conference the other day with Governor Pritzker. You spoke, Father Flager, and others as well.

and Trump's desire to send the National Guard is like, oh, I wish they would call, which they would call. And what's interesting is, and this is why I really despise these national media outlets. And in fact, I want to play this. You know, you keep getting, you know, guys, get this queued up, y'all know what I'm talking about. You keep, you got some maga folk in the media in Chicago

who keeps trying to antagonize you and they throw these questions out and you try your best not to have to deal with their nonsense. I saw this earlier today. Go ahead and play it and I want to talk about it. Go. I'm wondering if you have any concerns

that all of this pushback against Trump knowing how he responds to that, if it might kind of be like poking the bear if it could make things worse could actually provoke him to follow through with this talk about sending in the National Guard when yesterday he seemed to waffle. Could this make things worse all this pushback? Standing in unity is actually what's necessary when you're fighting against tyranny.

I mean, could you imagine if descendants, as a descendant of slaves, if my ancestors would have had that same rationale? Let's not fight against the Confederacy. Let's just try to get along and then maybe one day they'll give us our freedom. Nowhere in the history of America or the world where marginalized people have sat silent and idle and they've been able to actually achieve justice and liberation. The fact that you have a unified front in Chicago where we are rejecting the occupation by the military of our cities, that's actually fighting for our democracy. That's what's required in this moment.

Leading in this moment takes a great deal of courage. But we stand on the shoulders of so many people that have come before us. We have seen these type of tyrannical acts before. One thing that we know for sure, when we fight back against tyranny, the people united will always prevail. Mayor, basically, they're like, well, mayor, why don't you just give up? Why don't you just, why don't you just shut up, be quiet, and take it. That's literally what they're asking you to do, as if you were not elected by the people, as if the alderman, at least as it's the governor.

That's what's crazy. Oh, just let the wannabe dictator be a dictator in, shh, you just need to be quiet. You know, Roland, first of all, I wish I could just have you around when these, you know, asinine questions are put before me because, you know, look, you know, we have to maintain a certain level of decorum, even if others don't play by those same rules. But one thing that I know for sure that in every instance, when the people that have spoken with conviction and truth and have come together to display that collective power, we are always better off having fought back against, you know, these, again, as I described them, the tyrannical reign of this administration.

And here's the thing, man, we are part of a rich history in this country. And because you know Chicago so well, when Dr. King, you know, came to the city of Chicago, he set up his family on the west side in North Lawndale, fighting for fair housing, right? And something that he did experience here in Chicago was something that he said he hadn't experienced anywhere else in the country, but he was very clear that if we're able to do it right in Chicago, we can take that around the country. Yeah, he actually literally said in the book, it was quoted in Fire on the Prairie, he said, man, if we could convince the Chicago Negro, we could convince every Negro in America.

Yeah, I mean, I do always like your rolling Martinisms to be. able to really capture the essence of what he was getting at. And so when I heard that question, you know, I thought about those very words. And we are convinced in Chicago that we can build safe and affordable communities. And, you know, a military, militarized forces and an occupation of our city, that is not how you build communities. That is not how you feed and put food in the mouths of people. That's not how we, you know, restore our public education system that works for everyone.

That's not how you drive down unemployment. And so, yes, it's coming upon us in this moment to recognize that this is the season that is upon us, that it's our turn, essentially, to do the work for posterity. And, you know, this is the city, of course, that said keep hope alive, right, where Reverend Jackson opened up opportunities for mayors to win across this country. It made it possible for us to say, yes, we can. I mean, where Ida B. Wells and her literature and her writings begin to tell the story of how these egregious acts of brutality are harming our brothers and sisters. And so that is the spirit in which I lead with that those individuals made it possible for a working class, middle child, former public school teacher, and union organizer to be

in this position of power. And here's the thing that's actually comforting for me. I know we're not alone, though, Roland. You know, Brandon Scott, the work that he's doing in Baltimore, that's driving by the town in the city of Chicago, Randall Woodfin, Mayor Woodfin in Birmingham is going to get another term and the work that he's doing that's very community-focused. And, of course, our two sisters in California, you know, Mayor Barbara Lee and Mayor Karen Bass,

to the point that you made earlier, you're seeing black mayors all over the country invest in our communities, right? and we're seeing the returns of those investment. And I wish I could go, you know, a little bit further, Roland, because today I got a report from my chancellor of our community colleges. And he talked about how enrollment is up in our community colleges. And the number one subgroup that's enrolling, enrolling in our community colleges are young black men.

Wow. Young black men, right? And you have Latin A men who are coming in second. And so people are inspired in this city because we're creating jobs where you have billions of new dollars of investment that's creating hundreds of thousands of construction jobs. We're building affordable homes with a program called the Missing Middle, where we have owner-occupied units that we're building.

And this is going to allow, you know, generational wealth to be created as we have developers that are building multi-units that they live in and rent to, other people to. And the six developers that are moving forward with this new program, five of them are black, three of them are black women. These are the investments that people expected me to make when I made a commitment to serve this city. And regardless of what's coming from the federal government, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that our people experience the wholeness of what government has to offer to live vibrant and healthy lives. Well, I'm very familiar with City College of Chicago. My wife was a vice president at Kennedy King College where we live there. and my man, Wayne, when he led it, so I know it very well.

Last question for you, you talked about those stats. Two days ago, you dropped this pressure. He's got to my iPad. And again, violent crime overall down 21.6%. Homicides down 32.3%. Overall shooting incidents down 37.4. Multi-victor shooting incidents, 44.6. Robbery, 31.9.

Vehicular hijack is down 49%. Aggravated assault, 18.1%. It would be different if the thug and chief, because I don't call him president because he's not earned my respect for that title. Matter of fact, when I was in one of those anchored meetings, I couldn't even say the name president because it was just too disrespectful. But that's neither here nor there. It would be different if he came to you or the governor and said, amazing job you're doing, how can we double those numbers? what would you suggest what do you need from us to actually do this

instead what you have is someone who wants to use brute force who wants to shame, ridicule trash you, trash the governor, trash Democrats. He's literally said he hates Democrats but this is somebody who's supposed to represent all people so it has to be unsettling

especially also to watch a Republican Party that supposedly doesn't like big government that supposedly loves local control except when is black people leading and when it's Democrats leading. You're absolutely right. I mean, I taught seventh and eighth grade social studies and taught the Constitution.

You know, the Bill of Rights makes it very clear about, you know, state autonomy. And this is something that the Republican Party and conservatives has herald as, you know, quintessential to their value system, and they totally are moving in an opposite direction. And, in fact, what he's proposing is the antithesis to, you know, what it means to have the type of local control and involvement. You know, we would welcome that conversation, Roland.

And one of the things that he could do right away is restore the over $800 million that he, you know, stole from a community violence intervention workers, a program that has been successful all over the country. He would restore Medicaid. He would restore SNAP. He would, you know, stop defunding our public schools, right? He would help us build more affordable housing units. And here's the part that's actually really disappointing is that my police department

has collaborated with the federal government to remove guns off the streets of Chicago. You know, Roland, we, you know, removed over 150 guns just a couple of weeks ago off the streets of Chicago that had been trafficked in from Mississippi and Indiana. You know what I'm getting at. Yep. Right? So, you know, there's coordination that could be done, but he hasn't. express any interest in doing that. That's why it's very clear he's not committed to working

people. He's not committed to solving the challenges that we're experiencing. And again, presidents used to declare war on poverty. This president has declared war on poor people. But in the city of Chicago, we're going to continue to invest in people. And my vision is to build the safest, most affordable big city in America. And we're doing that in Chicago. Well, Mayor, we appreciate that. Again, it's great to see those crime numbers down. I live there. I remember the shootings and the people who were protesting and who were crying and who were the funerals and things along those lines.

And the job that you're doing, the job that Mayor Scott is doing in Baltimore should be commended in praise and not be attacked as well. And let me also thank you again when I did my show last week from Chicago O'Hare Airport. Don't mention it. I was just trying. No, no, no, we're good, we good.

But again, but here's a deal. a couple of several of the officers came by and some other united people and they said man we watch the show brother we appreciate it and they hung with me until i packed up all my stuff uh we all good so um so again i appreciate that thank you so very much hey man look chicago i know you're proud you know houston night uh but man chicago loves you appreciate the work that you've done here and the work that you're doing for our country it really do mad respect for you roland man appreciate your brother love you thanks a much appreciate take care folks we're going to go to We're going to come back, talk with our panel, and then also coming on at the bottom of the hour.

Man, I got a brother out of the Fulton County. He says, I'm going to go to jail before I let these two crazed election deniers on the elections board. Y'all, it's a lot we got to talk about. Roll the mark unfiltered on the Black Sun Network. This week on the other side of change. 300,000 black women being pushed out of the workforce. This is shocking yet unsurprising. What happens when a bunch of black mothers lose their federal jobs?

Their kids are not being fed. Their kids are not being taken care of. But that trickles down to the entire community structure, which may be built on the backs of black mothers and black women more broadly. Tune in on the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. Next on the black table with me, Greg Carr. We welcome the Black Star Networks. And here's Heather with the weather.

Well, it's beautiful out there, sunny and 75, almost a little chilly in the shade. Now, let's get a read on the inside of your car. It is hot. You've only been parked a short time, and it's already 99 degrees in there. Let's not leave children in the back seat while running errands. It only takes a few minutes for their body temperatures to rise, and that could be fatal. Cars get hot, fast, and can be deadly. Never leave a child in a car.

A message from Nitsa and the Ad Council. Our IHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas, September 19th and 20th. On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams. Ed Sheeran.

Fade. Glorilla. Jelly Roll. John Fogarty. Lil Wayne. L.L. Cool J. Mariah Carey. Maroon 5.

Sammy Hagar. Tate McCray. The offspring. Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com. Very own Roland Martin,

who joins us to talk about his new book, white fear, how the browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. The book explains so much about what we're going through in this country right now, and how, as white people head toward becoming a racial minority, it's going to get, well, let's just say, even more interesting. We're going to see more violence. We're going to see more vitriol, because as each day passes, It is a nail in that coffin.

The one and only Roland Martin on the next black table right here on the Black Star Network. Hello, I'm Marissa Mitchell, a news anchor at Fox 5, D.C. Hey, what's up? It's Sammy Roman, and you are watching Roland Martin unfiltered. Larry, you know, to sit there and look at... Listen to Mayor Johnson talk. Listen, he has had a hell of a first two years.

Poll numbers, people under attack. But you cannot deny the success there. The same thing with Mayor Brandon Scott. A lot of people are critical of Mayor Randall Woodford in Birmingham, my alpha brother, last night, 75% of the vote he was reelected. These brothers and sisters, he mentioned Barbara Lee in Oakland, mentioned Karen Bass in L.A. They are taking on difficult jobs, and I don't think people understand how hard it is to be an elected official, to be a mayor, and you are trying to fix problems that predated you.

And what we know, Larry, is that black elected officials, often when they come in, folk are expecting them to be the savior. and specifically let's talk about Chicago I was there I was there Lori Lightfoot got four years Johnson beat her you got folks who are abandoning Johnson

but it's amazing how they didn't abandon Richard Daly it's amazing how he damn it was the mayor 20-some-odd years and they gave him he signed one of the worst deals ever where he gave up the parking meter

proceeds for damnly 100 years for short-term cash and fusion to fix a problem and it's called one of the worst deals in American history but when it comes to black leadership we expect them Larry to come in as Jesus

and to blow breath into these cities that are living Lazarus but when you have these white leaders even we give them lots of runway. Yeah, as you said, black folks are expected to make, you know, turn water into wine. And it doesn't work that way. And you talk about Chicago, we start to talk about Baltimore.

These are historically large, underserved cities because they're predominantly black. And we have to talk about that. And you're right, you know, and this is an issue that, you know, black mayors in particular have dealt with for decades, But even we talk about, you know, now what's happening, these mayors have turned around violent crime in these cities that once again historically have been, you know, underserved. And, you know, credit to the mayor. And I know it's, you know, those poll numbers have been challenging and you highlighted some of the other issues he's dealt with. But one of the things he's has to deal with not only in terms of, you know, the data clearly shows that violent crime, you know, some of the other issues are down is this is a battle against misinformation. nation. This is not, it's not about what the data says anymore. This is a fight, multi-platform

fight to inform the public, some people who live in your jurisdiction, who you serve and voted for you, and those outside, the counter the narrative that black folks in cities like Chicago and Baltimore are violent and historically, that's why crime is committed is because of black folks, which is racial stereotypes. So, and then on top of that, being a black mayor, had the expect these, you know, we always say we grew up twice as hard, these high expectations, despite once you say the historical underinvestment in black communities. In Baltimore City, we have to note that Baltimore is essentially, when it comes to housing discrimination, essentially it was the epitherto of all these, you know, blockbustering, some of these other

historical, you know, racist housing policies started in Baltimore City. So we have to really talk about historical context. We can also talk about, you know, law enforcement violence against black community, particularly Chicago. We know a lot about that and in Baltimore. But once again, is, you know, you're asking for miracles and one, and it's two cities we highlighted, Baltimore and Chicago, we've seen these crime numbers 20, 30, 40 percent, 50 percent. And it's amazing to see that they should be getting, you know, we should offer them kudos and then we should offer more investment to invest in youth program. And Zabora, we're asking for miracles in just two years for problems that have been entrenched for 20, 30, 40.

You heard the mayor say that when it came to opening new mental health areas, first one since Harold Watson, that was almost 40 years ago. We're looking at how they are still cutting mental health, right? They've cut $310 million in this new bill, this proposed bill that's coming. Youth programs are being cut. food assistance is being cut

so it's like on one end you're saying you're going to over police and add National Guard and add all of these militarized boundaries in place but you're taking away all the things that Baltimore has proven works these trauma

programs these youth job programs building community trips and you're not giving them the resources they need to be successful I watch those clips and I'm like okay we know this works, but you're trying to say, hey, let's defund research. So even the facts of what we know work, you're trying to take away all of the money that we need to continue to understand

and learn how to improve these situations. We can reduce crime. It's very clear. If you add these programs, if you make sure that disabled individuals are getting what they need, youth are getting what they need, these individuals that could be stimulating this community, and having something to do, but we keep decreasing our, we have a 16% cut in youth programs. So all of those things are things that are really important. And we're just overlooking it, ignoring it,

and dumping money into things like cleaning up the homeless and you spending a million dollars a day, but you could easily take care of the homeless if you had programs that did these things and you use that money to fund those type of programs. But what we have in our country, Rebecca, is this, and people, and we just need to go in and put it out there. You got people who, I work hard, look at them lazy bums. Why should we support them?

But then over here, oh my God, we will roll out the carpet, offer tax incentives, tax increment financing districts, all sorts of things for billionaire developers. We'll sit here and approve funding for billion-dollar palatial sports. stadiums for NFL teams and Major League Baseball and NBA teams and not bad an eye. And we're talking about multi-billionaires. It goes to show you the psychosis of American voters, elected officials in terms of how people think. But to me, you cannot complain about problems if you're unwilling to fund the things that can fix the problem.

Well, Roland, let's actually call it what it is. Public policy in America centers whiteness. White people feel safer when there's more police and when there's more guns on the street from having law enforcement. But we know studies and research in the data shows quantitative data, not just qualitative data, shows that when there is an increase in police, that's actually not good for black communities. So at some point, we have to stop going by feelings, especially the feelings of white people

in this country as a pretext for policy and actually look at the root cause and figure out things that actually help communities across the country. If this country was interested in reducing crime, reducing poverty, making sure that everyone who is unhoused has housing, making sure that we have proper and adequate education in this country, then they will actually be investing into resources. And the greatest resource in this country is its people. But when you see leadership as a lack of empathy, when you see leadership, that centers whiteness,

then we're going to keep having these disparate outcomes and we're going to keep going the direction that we're going in this country. And one thing that we see is when you have a low informed electorate, you get people like the orange man in the White House. Absolutely. Folks, quick break. And when we come back, man, the madness that's happening in Fulton County,

Republicans are demanding, literally threatening Fulton County Commissioners they'll put them in jail if they don't put election deniers on the election board. I'm going to talk with one commission who says if I got to go to jail to keep those fools off, it's going to happen. You're watching Rolla Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

Coming soon to the Black Star Network. I have name recognition, but I tour more than any rapper. And it's a lot of overseas stuff. And it's like, I'm going, all over the, I've been to, I've been to 80 countries in my, in my lifetime, and sometimes I'll do interviews with people, and they'd be like, so, what, what you've been doing? Like, what you've been doing?

You know what's that? Like, I just came back from Belgium and Brazil and South Africa. What, what you've been doing? Right. This is Reggie Rock Byfield. You watch it. Role Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undam believable. You hear me?

Republicans in Georgia are demanding? Republicans in Georgia are demanding. that two critics of the 2020 election be appointed to the Fulton County Elections Board. My next guest says, oh, hell no. They're threatening the commissioners

with putting them in jail if they don't do it. Marvin Arrington Jr. joins us right now on the show. Glad to have you here. So for people who don't know, what the hell is going on in Fulton County and in Georgia?

Well, Roland, unfortunately, we're seeing the fall of democracy not only at the federal and state level, but now also at the local level in Fulton County. The Fulton County Elections Board is comprised of five members, two nominations from the Democratic Party, two nominations from the Republican Party, and the chair of the Election Board is nominated by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. The Republicans have nominated two people who are, you know, not only election deniers, but they're actually obstructionists and have no good intentions towards Fulton County government. And so when the motion was made to appoint them, I actually did a substitute motion to file their nominations in order to prevent the Republican Party from bringing those two names back. Now, we're not against voting or supporting or appointing Republican Party members, but what has happened is since 2022, the MAGA Republicans have taken over the Fulton County Republican Party.

And so what we're dealing with is the MAGA Republicans who are trying to put their people in place and basically do whatever they can to obstruct the elections. coming up and so, you know, they were, my motion, my substitute motion passed five to two to prevent these two names from coming back. They went to a judge and the judge said that we are compelled to vote for them, that Fulton County shall appoint from their nominations. Now, the way I read that is that the board of Fulton County Board of Commissioners are the only people that can appoint and that the parties can nominate. Right. I mean, that's the nomination. That's called a suggestion.

That's called a recommendation. But not, oh, you are mandated. Matter of fact, that was a, matter of fact, that was a, this actually was in the West Wing. That was an episode of the West Wing where. the Martin Sheen was like I'm going to consider someone else that's like well you can't do that because historically

this is always what happened the Republicans appoint this person and Democrats appoint this person and you follow recommendations he's like no I'm not going to do that and it became a thing so this is the idea that you're compelled I'm sorry y'all are elected

yeah there no one can tell me how to vote right I vote my conscience so the judge judge cannot tell me to vote for any person or any issue or any item on the agenda. Just like you can't tell the judge how to rule. Precisely. And so therein lies the rub, right?

The judge is saying that Fulton County has to do it. And typically what happens, the parties nominate someone, just like with a presidential nomination, it needs Senate confirmation. The parties typically don't even nominate someone that they know can't get past the confirmation or that will not be appointed. And so here we are having them again trying to push the limits. And so the judge ordered us to appoint them.

We appealed that ruling. And typically there is an automatic stay when you appeal. However, for this injunction, there's no automatic stay. So we had to ask the court to stay the enforcement the court denied that we asked the court of appeals to stay the enforcement and they denied the staying of the enforcement pending the outcome of the appeal and so I assume that we will be back we will likely file another notice of appeal to today's

order today's order rolling is crazy the judge ruled today that Fulton County will now have to pay $10,000 a day until we appoint these members. And that, to me, violates my right to vote amongst a whole bunch of other rights. Right. I mean, it's just, it's, to me, I don't understand how a judge can say, no, you are compelled to vote for them. I mean, let's just take How serious is youth vaping? Irreversible lung damage serious. One in ten kids vape serious, which warrants a serious conversation from a serious parental figure, like yourself. Not the seriously know-at-all sports dad or the seriously smart podcaster.

It requires a serious conversation that is best had by you. No, seriously. The best person to talk to your child about vaping is you. To start the conversation, visit talk about vaping.org. Brought to you by the American Lung Association and the ad count. Our I Heart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas. September 19th and 20th. On your feet.

Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams. Ed Sheeran. Fade. Chlorillaurella. jelly roll. John Fogarty.

Lil Wayne. L.L. Cool J. Mariah Carey. Maroon 5. Sammy Hagar. Tate McCray. The offspring. Tim McRaw.

Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com The United States Senate. The Senate advises and consents. President appoints federal judges, Supreme Court nominees. That's a committee hearing.

Go through the process. This doesn't say that, oh, well, because the president appoints them, you have to vote for them. Even if it's your own party, you can vote however you want to. Right. And so the idea that this judge can tell us

that we absolutely have to vote for these people is like I can't comprehend it right and you know as a commissioner I have a right to vote yay I have a right to vote nay I have a right to abstain I have a right to not vote at all

at the last meeting on Wednesday the 19th I was actually in the hospital so I wasn't even there so the judge can't even compel us to attend or show up at a meeting let alone how to vote at that meeting and so

I think the judge's reasoning is flawed. I think the cases that he relies on is flawed because the case that he relies on talks about a Superior Court clerk having to do their job. Well, Superior Court clerks have to accept filings. They have to accept all filings. Their job is mandatory, not discretionary. My job as a commissioner, every vote that I have is discretionary. And so the judge is, I think, invading my right to vote,

and I think that's a violation of my constitutional right. Last question before I go to my panel. So, okay, this is a county elections board, right? Yes. Aren't there other commissions in Fulton County? And don't y'all approve who sits on those commissions and boards? Yes, we do. They all are a little different.

This one is a result of a local law from the state legislature. And so, you know, we're obviously going to have to try to work with our state partners to try to amend this language. Right, but this is for people who don't know, again, this is Republicans in the state capital passing a law specifically for Fulton, County to mandate y'all do what they want to do so in essence this is the state trying to usurp your power as the county commissioner

yes we have home rule and the local laws should take precedence but you know we're just trying to deal with this thing the way it's written and there's no

there is no remedy for what happens if we don't appoint right the law is silent on that matter. And so we're going to have to try to work with our local delegation, our Fulton County delegation, but obviously, you know,

the Republicans have control of the State House and the State Senate. Actually, last question. Do y'all have to put it on the agenda? Well, I thought my motion to file would have prevented it from coming back on the agenda. That was my intention was to not have either of these two names come back.

But, yes, the Republican Party could nominate two new people, two people that they think could pass. And, again, it's not that we don't want to vote for a Republican. I've been on the commission for 11 years now, and I've voted for numerous Republicans to serve on the election board. Just not these two. All right. Commissioner Arrington, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much.

Let me go to my panel here. Rebecca, I'll start with you. This is what people need to understand. what's happening all across this country. Republicans, where they control the legislature, this is happening in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, all their passing laws saying,

we're gonna tell you what to do. Memphis passes a law when it comes to police stops. The Tennessee legislature says, no, no, forget that, you can't do that. I'm sorry, how do you? You're telling us. The governor of Tennessee has, it unveils this Elon Musk, whatever the hell it was, thing in Nashville, doesn't invite the state rep who represents Nashville and the airports in there. This is what Republicans are doing.

They are using their state power to force local folk to do whatever they want to. and in so many of these places, it's black leadership. So, like, Rowland, I was thinking the entire time during that segment, I really wanted to ask him, like, who's your counsel? Like, who's your attorney? At this point, he needs to go to appeal because what the judge, the lower court judge said doesn't even make sense. But here's the next thing.

Okay, so who's going to jail you? Who's going to prosecute you? Because the last time I checked, Fannie Willis is still the DA of Fulton County. So Fannie Willis' office says that we will not, we will decline to prosecute you commissioner, then what happens next? So I hear a whole bunch of, well, these people are saying, but it's a bunch of low literacy people who don't know anything about civic engagement, don't know anything about civics, trying to tell a lot of black leadership what they can and can't do.

And so we still have laws here, and the commissioner is not compelled on how to vote. Now, if there's a requirement, hey, you need to show up and you need to vote, now you can argue that whether or not that commissioner actually indeed has to show up and perform their elected duties. But to compel them to vote a certain way that they can't do that. So I really want to ask, because your counsel, who's advising you here? Because just on its face, this is not. something that could be done. But but the problem here, Larry, is that because it was a state

law, so the conflict here is the republicans and the legislature passed the law to mandate counties do these things. And so this is the county saying, hey, we think your law, frankly, it's unconstitutional. This judge is saying, oh, no, that's the state law. You got to follow it. Yeah. And, you know, it's always interesting how when it comes to rules and regulations, you know, it varies, right? So if it, you know, if it's about power and control and we're dealing with black folks and you want to put them under your boot, then the laws matter. When in the reverse is the case, then it comes to independence and, you know, trying to do things to make sure you, you know, improve, you know, aspects of the community, then it's something that you're not, you're not allowed to do. So it's really a contradiction. And, you know, And as we just heard, this really makes absolutely no sense. How can you mandate that someone votes a specific way? And rolling, I'm glad you highlighted what we see at these, you know, these Republican legislators throughout the country, including Florida,

in terms of forcing black slash democratic counties, cities, et cetera, to do exactly what they want to do, which are really are in the best interest of the constituents in which these leaders, you know, support. We just had the mayor from Chicago on and talking about that. So this is another example of the difference between democracy and power we see in the United States. There's no focus on democracy. This is about power and forcing you to do something for individuals to be placed in this position of power where they can do things. And we already heard a lot about terms of the kind of backgrounds and interests these individuals has in terms of their right-win ideology is to make you do things that you don't want to do.

because you know that it's going to cause short and long-term problems. And we know as we happen here in the next year or two in terms of have very important elections in Georgia that can really, once again, you know, going either direction in terms whether we have maintained a Democratic seat or you lose a Democratic seat. And Rowan, that's really what's going on here. And this why this is why Zabor, I keep telling people why there has to be a fight on for these state rep seats to. keep the Republicans from being able to have super majorities.

Because if they have a super majority, then they can pass these laws. That's the problem in Tennessee. The city of Nashville literally had a civilian review board. The Tennessee legislature outlawed that, say, oh, no, you can't do that. Last night, that's why this is important. Iowa Democrats flipped a Republican-held state Senate seat. Flipped it by 20 points. What does that now mean?

The GOP doesn't have a supermajority in the Iowa Senate. Caitlin Dre beat Republican Christopher Proach and a special election for District 1 in Western Iowa's Wilbury County. She won 55% of the vote in the process 44%. This is the district that Trump won by 11%. You're talking about a 20-point flip, But this is why the strategy has to change. When I talk to people, they talk about, oh, man, we got to take control of the North Carolina of this or the Texas.

No, no, no, no. The first thing you have to do is you have to pinpoint how many seats do you need to win to first break the supermajority. Then you then look at those districts and say, where are the votes, mobilize and organized to first do that. Then the second wave is after you broke in the super majority, meaning they have to talk, they need Democrat votes to pass stuff. Then you say, how do we now take control of the House or the Senate? That has to be the, in Texas, same thing. As long as Republicans in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, as long as they're have North Carolina, and look, they won the one seat, breaking the super majority there.

As long as they have a super majority, they can do whatever they want. That has to be the strategy first to break the super majority of Republicans in these states. Definitely. We see that they're just doing what they want. When we look at in Texas with Nicole Collier, the representative there, they keep changing the rules. making them different, making people to sign permission slips or forcing people to vote. You have

all these things going on and this is when we really have to recognize and make sure we understand that this is voter suppression. It is fine. This is what they've been doing. They've saw progress. When you see all of the things that happen with Stacey Abrams

in Georgia and now it's been a fight ever since. You see these things where you see progress and movement But if we don't organize and understand that breaking these super majorities is our number one priority right now so that we can have a fighting chance because they're already doing what they want to do. So if we don't come up with a solution that attacks them right where they're at and we're doing it strategically and we're really making sure that we're not allowing these super majorities to form and to keep forming and we're not getting people out to vote, it's too many black. people in the South and people of color in the South, if we come together

and make sure that we're showing up at the polls, even in midterm elections, even in special elections, we can stop some of these things from happening if I'm continuing to happen. Rebecca, big win for voting rights at Pennsylvania. Federal Appeals Court ruled the state cannot

discard mail-in ballots merely because the voter wrote the wrong date or failed to write a date on the return envelope. The judges declared that this practice is unconstitutional as it imposes an unfair burden on voters without effectively preventing fraud. In previous

elections, thousands of ballots were rejected due to minor technical errors like these disproportionately affecting Democrats who are more likely to vote by mail. This is a huge, huge thing here. Now, granted, we know they're going to appeal, Rebecca, but this is one of the

this is one of those ways that Republicans, when they pass these rules where, oh, no, you have to have to have two signatures. You have to have a signature on the outside and then on the inside that you must put the date here. They come up with all these different things because it's all designed to shave thousands of votes. That is the goal here.

The goal is not to expand access to the ballot. These rules, and this was a Republican rule, it was put in place to stop people from voting so they have a better shot at winning. Yeah, so in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania is one of the jurisdictions that requires two envelopes that you have to use in order to mail your ballot back. The inner envelope is called the secrecy envelope, the outer envelope, you have to sign it, you have to put the date. And what makes Pennsylvania a particular tricky is that it is a commonwealth,

meaning that when the Secretary of State says something that deals with voting laws or in the state of Pennsylvania is viewed as an advisory suggestion. It's not binding, but every single county in Pennsylvania gets to determine how they're going to do certain things. So this is such a big deal, and it's a great thing for voters in Pennsylvania, because you're literally given the printed envelope, the envelopes, you're given the printed ballot that actually has the actual date. But if you incorrectly put the date when you're filling out that outer envelope, then your ballot was thrown out. And it doesn't even make public policy sense because you understand what election that person is actually trying to vote in because of the nature of the ballot. It literally says it on the ballot. But unfortunately, some of the Republicans in Pennsylvania said, oh, no, but if that outer date doesn't match, then we don't know if this actual ballot that we print it with the date on it if this ballot is meant for this year.

That's nonsensical. So the judge in this case made the right call. Again, this is the stuff that people just don't understand with how the games they play. Former Maui police officers pleaded guilty to violating a man's civil rights. 40-year-old Carlos Freight admitted to repeatedly firing a taser at a man during a January 2020 for arrest in Cahee, Hawaii, even though the man was not resisting and posed no threat. The officer had also admitted to falsifying a police report. Boy, it's amazing that always happens to try to cover up his actions.

He was fired with the Maui Police Department earlier this year after being indicted. It's part of a plea deal. Prosecutors dropped the second charge of falsifying an official report. He now faces up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and supervised release after serving his sentence. He also agreed to pay restitution. The sentencing is scheduled for January 6th. Okay, so this is what pisses me off, Larry. And I have long said this, and then there's some people who are like, oh, I think that's too much.

If a police officer falsifies report, that should be automatic termination, and I hate the fact that prosecutors drop is because this is what happens. These cops, unless you've got video of the stuff, these cops, they lie on these reports to try to gain a conviction. It is a lie. Yeah, so if anybody else writes, you know, tells a lie on a public document, they can end up in jail or fine, et cetera. But, you know, when you trust someone who has a gun and badge...

When your car is making a strange noise, no matter what it is, you can't just pretend it's not happening. That's an interesting sound. It's like your mental health. If you're struggling and feeling overwhelmed, it's important to do something about it. It can be as simple as talking to someone,

or just taking a deep, calming breath to ground yourself. Because once you start to address the problem, you can go so much further. The Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council have resources available for you at Love Your Mind Today.org. Our IHeartRadio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas. September 19th and 20th. On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu.

Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams. Ed Sheeran. Fade. Glorilla. Jelly Roll. John Fogarty. Lil Wayne.

L.L. Cool J. Mariah Carey. Maroon 5. Sammy Hagar. Tate McCray. The offspring. Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com.

Get your tickets today. AXS.com. And, you know, commits this kind of crime. And like you said, relies on an official document. That should be a minimum of grounds of being fired. I think the other point you have made in terms of if there's some kind of civil suit in this, and you've talked about this in the past, is that, you know, the officer should be able to, should be responsible for paying for those, those fines or fees.

So we've got to continue to do a better job to make sure we hold it. individuals responsible for, you know, except lying for documents, but also in terms of, you know, how you deal with citizens in this case, you know, causing harm to someone using, you know, and I guess he assumed he was justifiable, but I'm glad that he pleaded guilty and he should spend the time the judge gives him in jail. Absolutely. And this is, so I'm sitting here, so I'm looking at the story here. All right, so control room, y'all need to let me know because y'all don't put it in here.

Okay. was this a state prosecution or was it a federal prosecution? Okay, y'all got to put this stuff. Okay, so this was federal. Here's the problems of war. Trump could pardon him. And we've already seen this.

He wants cops to do whatever he wants. I'm telling you right now, do not be surprised if this cop gets a pardon. That's just definitely. so disheartening. We know that these cops need to be held accountable.

We are sending them in areas that are high crime and over-policing these created in a place where we're going to have more crime or there's going to be more cops that are overusing

their force. And we have a president that is going to support cops that have admittedly pled guilty is saying, hey, I did this, I know I'm wrong, and they're not going to be held accountable because we have

a president that is okay with cops and okay with himself doing whatever, ignoring policy, ignoring laws, ignoring the Constitution, and ignoring people's civil rights. We're in the most

disrespectful manner. So, I totally agree with you. He's definitely has the chance to be pardoned. We've watched it happen too many times before. This is why, Rebecca, these county DAs got to do their job.

Donald Trump is going to, if there's a cop that has abused somebody and they get convicted in a federal court, he's going to let him out jail. Look at that crap it did in Los Angeles, the deputy sheriff where they said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, after he was convicted, let's change the sentence.

judge like what the hell it was crazy you know Roland what you're articulating you could probably do an entire show on it's like over the last few decades we've used a federal civil rights framework with making sure that the rights of

ordinary Americans especially people of color especially black people are uphill but what we're seeing now on the federal level especially under this type of regime is they're kind of playing like the uno reverse card for federal civil rights which means you can't rely on the federal courts because what in terms is up happening

at the Supreme Court level. So now to your point, we're going to have to have local DAs, local state people actually enforcing state civil rights laws and enforcing, and you're kind of using a different framework because the civil rights community has largely hasn't focused on states' rights, but they focus on the federal framework, and we're just in a different world right now. So if we actually want to have protections for people, that is an overturned by authoritarian leader at the top of federal government, we have to look for other ways of making sure that justice is happening.

If we actually want justice to happen. Yeah, you could, I mean, Larry, you can hang up. If it's involving a cop, you can hang up the feds doing something. Yeah. Going to the days, we had a strong office of civil rights, right, Rowland? How many times we talk about Christian Clark and all the work she did and going after individuals in law enforcement or in corrections who committed certain crimes? But that's not going to be, that's not going to happen anymore.

And as you said, the opposite, those individuals are going to receive pardons. But it's important that we continue to talk about this on your platform because anyone of us or anyone that, you know, looks like us to become a victim of this kind of crime at any moment. and we know that. And so we have to make sure those individuals are held accountable. And once again, you know, we need to make sure

we force deal with state or talk about having a strong office of civil rights. And I'm going to say this again. I'm probably going to end this show every day like this for the foreseeable future. If you are bothered by this,

this is what happens when you don't vote. This is what happens when you don't go to the polls. Because the reality is if Trump doesn't win, he's not in control of the Department of Justice.

So for all these people out there, oh, Kamala was a cop. Oh, I don't like this. I didn't like what she said. Let's just be perfectly clear. All of the mayhem we're seeing, you wouldn't have 350,000 black women losing their jobs

because you would not have the assault on federal workers. If you're angry about these troops being in D.C. and threatening to send them to New York and Chicago, that's what happens when you don't. If you're upset seeing these cops go free on federal charges, that's what happened when you don't vote. If you're pissed off with the billions of dollars in grants being cut, that's what happens when you don't vote. Oh, if you're upset about the $800 million in the crime prevention grants that Donald Trump cut, this is what happens when you don't vote.

if you're upset at the Supreme Court said Trump could whack almost a billion dollars in grants related to DEI dealing with diversity and health this is what happens when you don't vote

I can go on and on and on and on but it's very simple if the thug and chief had not won and if more black people and more Latino people and more conscious white people

had been awake and voted for Vice President Conno Harris we would not be having any of these conversations and for the people out there who black and you wanted a perfect candidate and oh Kamala wasn't black enough is Trump white enough for all of y'all who was saying oh man she a cop she locked up black men which is a lie it's been proven lie

it's amazing how silent y'all are when a black man is a lawyer as a u.s army veteran west point graduate is walking down the street in dc and gets accosted by 20 local and federal authorities when Trump literally stands up and says I'm the chief law enforcement officer of the country y'all ain't calling him top cop oh I love all the people who sit here oh she ain't really black she's Indian well

who he hooking up but y'all do notice y'all notice how quiet all those folks are. I mean, it is stunning how they just evaporated

into thin air. Then again, you have the people out there. You know, the loud people who said Kamala and Trump are the same. Republicans and Democrats are the same. You ain't getting nothing for your vote.

remember when a certain person said that? Ain't he want to lose his school buildings because he didn't pay a tax bill? Hmm. Oh, by the way, you know if you don't pay your tax bill, you could try to go to politicians to get relief to help you out.

Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. you didn't believe in voting hmm thoughts and prayers you got to say it three times in a row so he'll understand what you said you got to say three times

I don't meet anything. Yes thoughts and prayers thoughts and prayers thoughts and prayers thoughts and prayers. Now it makes it real. Ain't that something? And yes, I'm petting. Sabora, thanks a lot.

Larry, appreciate it. Rebecca, appreciate it. And folks, unlike others who don't build schools, if you give to us via cash app, we've actually built a network. So, support Rolla Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network, you actually have seen the fruits

of our labor. You've seen what happens when you invest in this show because we'll be seven years old on September 4th. The network will be four years old on September 4th. You've seen multiple shows on the Black Star Network. So, when you give via cash app

and PayPal and Zelle and Venmo, and all those platforms, and you send checks and money orders, I built it in seven years, unlike some people who haven't built anything in 10 years. Folks, cash app, use the Stripe Cure Code. You see it right in front of you. Here's a Cura Code right here.

Click the Cache Up, first of all, click the Cache Up button to contribute. If you want to send a check of money order, make it payable to roll a martin to unfilter. P-O-box 5-7196, Washington, D.C., 203-7-0196, pay panels are Martin unfiltered, Venmo, RM Unfiltered, Zail, at RowlandSmartin.com, rolling at Rolandmartin Unfiltered.com. Download the Black Star Network app.

That's right, which y'all help pay for, and we actually launched. It's amazing what happens when you ask for donations and you actually do what you say, you're going to do. iPhone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One,

Samsung Smart TV. Get our Black Star Network, rolling on the market unfiltered swag by going to Shop Blackstar Network.com. We got t-shirts and hoodies, mugs, we got leggings, we got all kind of stuff. Go to Shop Blackstar Network.com or point your phone to the QR code right there.

Hey, to my right, all these Blackstone products from companies, skincare products. We got toilet paper. Man, we got barbecue sauce. We got other sauces. Man, we got desserts. We got popcorn. We got shirts. All kind of stuff. Go to our marketplace at shop, blackstar network.com. You can see all of these items, all of these items right here at shop, the marketplace, at shop blackstart network.com. Let's support these black owned businesses. They're doing a great job. And so again, the research, sources are all right here.

Don't forget, folks, if you want to get the Fanbase app, download Fanbase. Get the app. And if you want to invest, go to startagent.com for fan base for more information. We also have been airing the fan base podcast. You can also go to our YouTube channel, the Black Star Network app.

Check that out as well. And remember what I said, if you want to get that shirt, man, people are stopping me in the airport in Atlanta today. I was coming back with Chris Tucker, Tournament. Folks really will, like, man, I love that shirt here in D.C. in Atlanta, everywhere I go, they love the shirt. And so you can get this here. Don't blame me. I voted for the Black Woman. And if y'all get the shirt, do me a favor,

post it social media, tag me or email it to me, and I'll show it on the air. Those of you have bought this shirt. So we'll love to show all of you. Y'all, that's it. I hope y'all have a great day. Hey, what we got? What interviews coming up next? Who we got? All right, y'all, Tili Poulet, his interview is coming up next, so don't go anywhere. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Hala! Carve my path with data and drive.

But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tetherpapersealing.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Our IHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital.

1 is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas. September 19th and 20th. On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen. Brian Adams. Ed Shearin. Phade.

Glorilla. Jelly Roll. Sean Fogarty. Lil Wayne. L.L. Cool J. Mariah. Maroon 5. Sammy Hagar.

Tate McCray. The offspring. Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com. This is an IHeart podcast. Thank you.