#RolandMartinUnfiltered - McConnell vows to fill SCOTUS seat; US nears 200k COVID deaths; Trump backers disrupt early voting

Episode Date: September 22, 2020

9.21.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Mitch McConnell vows to fill vacant SCOTUS seat; United States nears 200k COVID deaths; Early voting has begun across the country; Is it time for Dems to take a page out of the GOP's playbook in the battle for the White House? Trump supporters disrupt early voting in Virginia; Black folks win big at the Emmys; #FitLiveWin! How to deal with emotional eatingSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partners: 2020 Census In America, everyone counts. And the 2020 Census is how that great promise is kept. Respond today online, by phone or by mail and help inform hundreds of billions in funding for education, health programs, and more. Shape your future. Start here at www.2020census.gov. #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Whether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Monday, September 21st. We call this Earth, Wind & Fire Day. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Senator Mitch McConnell has vowed that he is going to put

a conservative on the Supreme Court to replace the deceased Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It has opened up a massive battle. Democrats say they're going to do everything they can to stop that from happening. We've got a great legal panel breaking it down. Plus, what does it mean in this fight, in this battle? I've been telling y'all these thugs do not care about principles. It's about power.

We'll break it all down. Also, more than 200,000. We have crossed the 200,000 threshold for folks who have died from coronavirus. How much higher will that number go? We'll talk with a virologist about that. Folks, again, we're breaking this whole thing down. All different actors. Bruce, Bree, I talked about all the things you got to do.

Remember, I told you all this means war. Activist Bree Newsome and attorney Monique Presley, they say Democrats had better learn to fight as ruthless as Republicans. We'll talk to both of them. Plus, early voting has begun across the country. There's still time to register in most states. We'll show you where and how to make sure your vote gets counted. Plus, people lined up to vote in Virginia

while Trump supporters tried to disrupt the process. Yeah. And about last night, black folks did well at the Emmys, including Stan Latham, Dave Chappelle, Regina King, and others. We'll show you the winners. Plus, our weekly Fit Live Win segment looks at emotional eaters. Do you use food to make yourself feel better? We give you some ideas for how to change that. It's time to bring the funk.

I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the miss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling it's rolling Yeah, yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martel Now Martel The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday night has opened a massive political fight that will determine the future of this country for the next 40 years.

She, of course, died on Friday at the age of 87 from pancreatic cancer. This vacancy, folks, less than 50 days before the election, gives Donald Trump the opportunity to install the third member of the Supreme Court since he has been in the White House. Joe Biden gave a compelling speech yesterday that reflected on the life and legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He also put emphasis on what's at stake now that she has died. The nation lost a heroine, an icon. They also lost a mother, a grandmother, and a matriarch. It was my great honor when I was in the Senate and chairman of the Judiciary Committee to preside over her confirmation hearings and strongly support her accession to the Supreme Court bench. Justice Ginsburg achieved a standing few justices have or ever will.

She became a presence in the lives of so many Americans and a part of our culture. I agree with what others have said, that she did as much to advance the constitutional rights, opportunities, and justice for women as Justice Marshall did for African-Americans. Her granddaughter said yesterday and said publicly that her dying words were, quote, my most fervent wish is that I not be replaced until a new president is installed. As a nation, we should heed her final call to us, not as a personal service to her, but as a service to the country, our country, at a crossroads. There's so much at stake. The right to health care, clean air, clean water, the environment, equal pay for equal work, the rights of voters, immigrants, women, workers. And right now, our country faces a choice, a choice about whether we will come back from

the brink. That's what I'd like to talk with you about for a few minutes today. Within an hour of news of her passing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Trump's nominee to replace Justice Ginsburg will receive a vote in the Senate within an hour of her passing. The exact opposite of what he said when President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace Justice Scalia in 2016. At that time, Majority Leader McConnell made up a rule based on the fiction that I somehow believe there should be no nomination to the court in election year. It's ridiculous. The only rule I've ever followed relating to the Supreme Court nomination

was the Constitution's obligation for senators to provide their advice and their consent to a president's judicial nominee. But he created a new rule, the McConnell rule. Absolutely no hearing, no vote for a nominee in the election year, period, no caveats. And many Republican senators agreed with him, including then chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, including the current chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, including the current chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who at the time said, and I'll quote verbatim, here's what he said, quote, I want you to use my words against me if there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs

in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make the nomination, continuing the quote, and you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right. End of quote. Folks, Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a joint news conference yesterday. They stood in front of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's high school alma mater fighting to honor her last wish. Here's what they had to say. We are here because of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing. We are here really for three reasons. To show how unified we are, the Democrats are,

in trying to make sure that her legacy is protected. And that's the second reason, to honor that legacy. She was an amazing woman, incredible. In a male-dominated legal establishment, she pushed her way through for brains and strength and fortitude and changed the world for women long before the rest of the world caught up. And when she got to the court, she was able to bring that same equality and strength to so many different people of all different types and kinds. And she was an amazing woman. And so the first reason we're here is for unity. And the second

is to honor her legacy, to demand that her last wish be fulfilled by the Senate. She said, my most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed. We believe that. So do the American people. Today, a Reuters poll came out and said 62% of Americans agree with her. So that means, that's such a high number, it has to mean that Democrats, Republicans and Independents all agree that it is only right and it is only fair for us to abide by RBG's last wish that she be replaced when a new president is installed.

We are here today to make sure that we honor the legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who came right here as a product of James Madison High School and as a proud New Yorker and Brooklynite. And it's extraordinarily important that we understand the stakes of this vacancy. Our reproductive rights are on the line. Our labor rights are on the line. Our right to health care is on the line. Labor and union protections are

on the line. Our climate is on the line. With an early appointment, all of our rights, the rights that so many people died for, voting rights, reproductive rights, health care rights, all of those rights are at risk with this appointment. And so we need to make sure that we mobilize on an unprecedented scale to ensure that this vacancy is reserved for the next president. And we must use every tool at our disposal from everyday people, especially in swing states. And we need everyday people to call on senators, to call on folks on the bubble, to call Republican senators to make sure that they hold this vacancy open. And we must also commit to using every procedural tool available to us to ensure that we buy ourselves the time necessary. We must commit to allowing and to considering and to utilizing every single procedural tool available to us, again, to buy that time. Conservatives are pushing hard for them to confirm a justice before the election. Others are saying

right during the lame duck session. Let's break it down. Kristen Clark, president, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Janice Mathis, she's executive director at National Council of Negro Women. Tricia Hofter, president of the National Bar Association. And Barbara Arnwine is president and founder of Transformative Justice Coalition. Kristen, I want to start with you. And that is when we look at this very issue, when we look, we start trying to trying to trying to break this whole thing down. This is about to be a massive fight. Conservatives, they are looking to appoint a young justice. They want to have a six to three majority.

Forget what they said in 2016. They have thrown those rules out. What how do you see this? We're on the brink of a constitutional crisis. We truly are. This is an unprecedented moment in our democracy. We actually have looked back at the history to the founding days of our nation and never, never, not once has there been a confirmation hearing that has taken place as voters were casting their ballots. Election Day is not November 3rd. The election has already started.

Tens of thousands of people have already gone out and voted during early voting, have cast absentee ballots. And for many of those voters, this is the issue that is number one, that is top of mind. Who are the senators who will provide advice and consent on a nomination? Who is the president who should put forth that nomination? So in a way, we're talking about disenfranchising Americans if we were to proceed with this nomination in an active election moment. And I think that AOC is exactly right, that this is a moment where we have to rise up in ways that we've never done before. You know, we need to make the Supreme Court a front and center issue for us as black people. And right now, every church, every fraternity, every sorority, every black business, every health care professional should be reaching out to their senator, regardless of

whether or not they are Republican or Democrat, and tell them that this nomination should not go forward until this election is concluded, until the voters have spoken, until the people have spoken. This is a life or death issue, whether you're talking about abortion, whether you're talking about voting rights, criminal justice, people on death row. This literally is a life or death issue for black people. Barbara, we've been dealing with this issue on this show,

talking about the judges, talking about the federal bench. Look, it barely came up during the Democratic National Convention. And I think one of the things Democrats have not been as focused on the courts as Republicans have been. But if you look at the history of African-Americans, when you look at dating back to the civil rights movement, look, that was achieved through the courts, which is why conservatives created these think tanks, the fearless society, because they knew if you control the courts, you control the laws. Absolutely. And, you know, Mr. McConnell doing this first Trump administration has been able to put on the court over almost 200 conservative, unqualified justices, judges. And I want to say to, you know, Kristen makes a wonderful point. We need everybody to be active, but let's be very clear. We don't

want anyone nominated or confirmed until after the inauguration in January. After the inauguration in January, not after the election, after the inauguration. Because what they're hoping to do is wait for a lined up section of Congress, and during that lined up session, they're going to try to, after the election, try to push through a confirmation. We want to make sure

that Justice Ginsburg's legacy, that we, is upheld, that the new justice has the ability to walk in her shoes and to represent the many interests in the theoretical, universal framework of equality that she so wonderfully embraced. This, though, is all about power. This is about power, Tricia. Republicans have made this perfectly clear. Mitch McConnell hasn't cared about anything

except confirming federal judges. They want to be able to control the judiciary for the next 30 to 40 years. I have been saying for the longest, trying to explain to people, they've been very purposeful. That is, they want to appoint judges 35 to 45 years old who they know who are going to serve 40 to 45 or 50 years. That's the strategy. They're clear. They're not hiding it. Absolutely, Roland. Please feel free to call me C.K. Roland, but absolutely.

They have been saying this forever. And I'm a trial lawyer. I'm president of the National Bar, but I'm also a trial lawyer. And I have seen front center the difference in the courts because I have a national practice. And it's unbelievable if you are a trial lawyer, the difference in the courts, because I have a national practice. And it's

unbelievable if you are a trial lawyer, the difference in the courts that you see now versus four years ago. This is deliberate, this is intentional, and it's by design. So we must go to the polls and speak truth to power. We must not allow this quick process of confirming someone. And that's why at the National Bar Association, we've got over 66,000 Black lawyers and African-American lawyers, jurists, judges, law students in this country. So we've already mobilized 10% of them. That would be over 6,000 of them to be in our nonpartisan election protection effort, because we've got to protect the right to vote. Justice Ginsburg was all about the right

to vote, protecting women's rights, protecting the rights of the least of these. So as African Americans, as women, as women of color, we must stand and fight for her last word because that's the right thing to do. We don't need to rush through this process. We need to go through the orderly process to vet the candidates, to have our candidates as well. The National Bar Association and other bar associations, we always have candidates that we propose, that we look at. And even if their candidates are proposed, we need to vet them as well, because after all, this is the highest judicial appointment of the land. And we will shape this country if we take it lightly. As everyone has all said, all of these issues are at stake, whether it's human rights, civil rights, labor rights, reproductive rights, the right to live freely in this country. So we can't take it lightly, and we must make sure

that we call our senators' offices over and over and over again until we make the point of letting them know that we feel that this appointment must wait until after a new appointment, a new president is installed

in January, after January, and not a minute before, and we should respect the wishes of our heroine, our hero who has meant so much to this country, so much to this country. Janice, I've had people tell me, look, I don't care about the top of the ticket. I want to focus on local issues.

And I keep trying to explain to them. I said, Florida is a perfect example. Amendment four grassroots initiative took 10 years. They get it on the ballot. Folks work their butts off to get it. Uh, they get it passed Republican legislature. Then passes a law saying you got to pay all your fines and penalties before you get your right to vote. They sue, they sue the state. It goes to federal court, the 11th circuit, they vote in favor of a Florida Republican legislature. And I keep trying to explain to people, this is what I'm trying to tell y'all. You can have federal judges who are impacting local issues. And so you can't act as if who's the president has no bearing on the local issues

because the president picks the judges, the Senate confirms the judges. And so who has control of the Senate and the White House can determine what local laws are passed in your particular city, county, or state. You're absolutely right, Roland. It's great to be in the company of these wonderful lawyers who I've looked up to. C.K. and Barbara and I know Reverend Jesse Jackson well, and we've heard him say many times, you know, you live in this, but you live under the law and there are no narrow Supreme Court decisions and federal courts have awesome amount of power. But, you know, it's almost like we're trying to be distracted. The solution to whether

we honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg or whether we retake the Senate, both those paths go through the ballot box. If you care about voting rights, if you care about the environment and doing something about these fires on the West Coast, if you care about the Affordable Care Act, if you care about the right to organize, all of those rights and privileges of citizenship get regulated to one degree or another. Even education gets regulated to one degree or another by a federal judicial system because there are federal statutes to be interpreted and federal laws to be enforced. So I would just agree the path is through the ballot box. But, you know, I want to challenge listeners who may be from my part of the United States down in the South. You've got Lindsey Graham and you've got Mitch McConnell. And at some point, you must ask

yourself, why are we so poorly represented? These men have awesome power in the federal legislature, but yet our states consistently lag in education and health care and infant mortality and maternal health care. Why are we always at the bottom? Are they too much focused on keeping artificial majorities that they can't represent the people that they're elected to serve. It is a conundrum, and people need to vote their interests. We're not electing friends or family members. We're electing a government and a set of policy choices. And that's what we've got to keep foremost in our minds, from my point of view.

Kristen, the thing that jumps out, and you talked about those issues, and again, a lot of folks who are on the left keep talking about Roe v. Wade. That is not the only issue we're talking about. The reality is the Supreme Court, as it stands, has had horrible rulings on voting rights. They went along with the voting purge that lawsuit that came out of Ohio. They went along with to allow political gerrymandering that came out of Wisconsin. And they gutted the Voting Rights Act as well. Also, you put the Affordable Care Act is also in jeopardy as well because the Trump administration wants to throw that out. So we're talking about voting. We're talking about health.

We're talking about a multitude of issues and also a Supreme Court. If you have a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court, they are very much pro-business. And so now you're talking about consumer rights as well. You know, there's not a single issue that impacts our lives as Black people that is not touched by the Supreme Court, that is not somehow shaped by the rulings issued by the Supreme Court, by the precedent set by that court. And, you know, it's very remarkable, over 200 judges installed by Trump in three and a half years. Some of those nominees were unwilling to recognize Brown versus Board of Education as sacrosanct precedent that they would uphold. Some of those judges had clear records demonstrating hostility when it comes to civil rights and racial justice

issues. We should expect more of the same if this president were to get an opportunity to fill that seat. We have to resist that with every ounce of our beings. I tell my 16-year-old son that, if, if they succeed in filling this seat, they will be talking about that justice. He will be talking about that justice with his friends well into the time that he is 50 or 60 years old.

Because President Trump is being very intentional. The short list includes three women, one who's about 45 years old. We're talking about our life is literally on the line with this vacancy, and it's time that we rise up and urge these senators to do the right thing, the principled thing, and let the voters speak. Let the voters speak and determine how this vacancy gets filled. CK, final comment from you. How do, again, how are folks mobilized, or how should they be mobilizing?

Should Democrats be looking at every single, putting every single thing on the table? Yesterday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi would not comment on whether or not they would pursue a second impeachment. To me, this is not hey, we're thinking about, no.

This is called, you're at DEFCON 5. Right. We should go for broke. Let me just break it down that way. We should go for broke. We need to act as though our lives depend on this, because in reality, our lives do depend on this. If we think things are funky now or bad now with COVID

and the response to COVID and all the other pandemics that we're facing in this country, election suppression, police brutality, how do we think these police brutality cases, if they go up to the Supreme Court,

are going to be resolved? If we think things are bad now, we should wait and see what it's going to be like if we don't go for broke. We have to act like we are on our last breath and we're breathing. We need more air to survive because if we don't, if we don't, we may very well not survive. We think people, a lot of young people think, oh, yeah, we have the right to vote.

No, you don't have the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act has been diluted. We have to protect the right to vote. We have to fight for the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act has been diluted. We have to protect the right to vote. We have to fight for the right to vote. And the Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, is going to have a say on everything that impacts our lives, especially the lives of Black folk, especially the lives of Black and brown people. So it's a wake-up call. It's a clarion call. We don't have the right to ignore it. So on all levels, Roland, we've got to pull out all the punches. Everyone, lawyers, non-lawyers, some lawyers,

it's not about your profession. It's about getting out and doing what's right, getting out and making sure your voice is heard and speaking truth to power. And the only way you can do that in this country is going to the polls. Right now. Barbara, Anaway and I have been saying that scene from Remember the Titans

when the coach said, Herman, leave no doubt. There has to be a blowout. This can't be closed. The Trump folks are going to contest everything. This is where if you're 18 to 29 and you're sitting there with the lowest vote numbers, this is where understanding. I'm being real clear. I expand.

If you're 18 to 35 years old, let's make this real plain. America's going to be a majority minority country in 23 years. That means that if you're 18 years old, okay, in 23 years, you're going to be 41 years old. If he appoints one of these Supreme Court justices, and if she serves the same number of years as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that means that this appointee will be on this court until 2060. And that is what we cannot have happen. You know, if you're listening to this show and you're watching this show,

the first thing you ought to be saying right now is not only am I gonna vote, I'm going to make sure at least 10 other people I know vote. Because, and we're gonna vote judges. We're gonna vote for judges. We're gonna get rid of the senators who do not support good judges. Let's be very clear, everybody, that Trump can nominate, but it's the Senate that confirms.

So what happens with the Senate in this election is the most critical of all of our votes. So people should be out there, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, you know, you gotta really, you know, get your vote on for Senator because you have the power right now, Arizona, all of these states where there are, you know, hotly contested races, Maine, you need to be voting. And I wanna tell people that don't sit back

and wait to the last minute to decide to vote. Vote early, right now, where you have that right. If you're going to do it by vote by mail, make sure you do it correctly. 6% of all black ballots are being discarded in North Carolina because people need to follow those instructions. They need assistance. That's why we're going to have what, CK?

We're going to have 3,000 to 5,000 black lawyers out there helping with election protection because we know that our vote is determinative. Remember that in April of this year, the most important decision that came down from this court was RNC versus DNC. And in that case in April, even though she was very ill, Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a searing dissent and said to the court, to the majority of the court, that you are denying people's voting rights. You're disenfranchising our voters and that you've got to do better. And she, so we need that voice.

We need that fight because if they take away our voting rights, it's going to be an impossible world to live in here in the United States. We have to vote, people. Vote with everything you got. You know, put it all on the line. Not only do you vote, you get others to vote,

and you go out there and you help others to vote. Everything you do, the churches, the civic organizations, the Greeks, everybody, we need you in this fight right now. This is, look, at the end of the day, look, Janice, we have some of these ads. Anybody who is trying to sit here and trust anything that a Republican said in 2016 is a waste of time. Mitch McConnell, if you talk about Chuck Schumer, excuse me, Chuck Grassley. In fact, this just in, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley indicates he won't oppose holding Supreme Court replacement hearings this year. This is the same person who said before they said it shouldn't happen until after a new election.

Same thing. Now, Alaska, Lisa Murkowski is on record as saying such. Now, when you start breaking this thing down, it's real simple. If Mark Kelly is able to beat McSally in Arizona, then he'll be seated before November 30th. That means that takes the Republican majority from 53 to 52. If you go by what Murkowski and Susan Collins said, if they actually believe that the next person, the next president should pick that nominee. That now drops the Republicans from 52 to 50. That means Lamar Alexander, the lame duck has already said he's going to go along with it.

Now you have Grassley. That means that the one person left, the only person who could potentially stop this Janice is Mitt Romney. And so I know people want to put the focus on McConnell, but really, to me, the focus has to be on Collins, Murkowski and Romney to not let this move forward. Well, I know that it's not a good idea to disagree. I think you're absolutely right about where the focus should be. And the question is whether the voters in that state, his constituents... And I want to say this to those handful of senators who are facing difficult reelection battles, whether you intend to vote with the president or not, the president has demonstrated time and time and time again that he has no loyalty to anyone.

Walk that plank with him on this issue of the Supreme Court, and you may lose your seat, and the president won't even come to your aid or your rescue. I think that they have to bear in mind that all norms, all bets are off. All norms are destroyed. We are giving up on the idea of equal protection under the law in favor of some kind of oligarchies, giving up majority rule for minority rule. And so I would say to citizens everywhere, if you can vote, vote. Call your senators. Make sure they know that this is an important issue to you. To be honest with you, rich folk can get along without a Justice Department,

but people of color, people who are marginalized, why do you think they're trying to suppress these votes? Dis no longer black people, brown people, women, gays. We are the majority in this country. You're talking about the majority in 2040. Right now, that generation, if you're under 25, you're part of a cohort that is already majority black and brown. They know that. It makes them anxious. And so that's why you see this total reckless disregard for the way the country is supposed to operate. But the people have a voice. And my co-panelists have already said that voice is to vote, not just you, but everybody in the House, the Lodge, the Union, everybody needs to express themselves. And I'm talking to low- to moderate-income white folk, too. You cannot – if he will let 200,000 people die while he knew that the virus was lethal, do not overestimate how much he cares about you and your family. Well, this is the thing here.

If you want to understand why federal judges matter, just a few moments ago, a federal judge ruled that has ordered Louis DeJoy to treat all election related mail as first class and restore overtime for U.S. Postal Service employees. I keep telling people that's why federal judges matter. So don't act like. So for all those people who I called out and I may be real clear who are full of shit in 2016 who said Trump and Hillary were the same. Yeah, this is an example of what I was talking about. OK, because I said it then the judges that Hillary Clinton would have appointed were not going to be the same judges Donald Trump would appoint. And so all these folks who were stuck on stupid got caught up in that whole deal who were not understanding the long game.

And this is the deal. The Republicans are about the long game. They want they the demographic numbers are not lying. They know what is happening. They want to be able to control the courts for the next half century. They say we can lose the presidency, but if they install 300 federal judges, which represents a third of all federal judges, and they've got a 6-3 majority, and here's the deal, Clarence Thomas Alito is 70. Gorsuch is, Kavanaugh is 55. And Gorsuch is 53. Take the high end. Just use Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a model.

That means if Clarence Thomas and Alito serve until they're 87, Stephen Breyer, who's a liberal, he's 82. If they serve until 87, that means Clarence Thomas is there for another 13 years. That's three presidential elections. Al Thomas was there for another 13 years. That's three presidential elections. Alito was there for another 17 years. Four presidential elections. That's why I keep telling people, stop playing games when it comes to voting. CK, Barbara, and Janice, I certainly appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. Thank you for having me. All right, folks, we're going to continue this conversation. Activist Bree Newsome and attorney Monique Pressley both say, when you say all hands on deck, that this is the moment to fight and fight vigorously for our right. We'll be talking with them next to Roland Martin Unfiltered. We'll also be talking about COVID-19 surpassing 200,000 deaths in this country, 7 million infected. Some are saying, oh, it's fading. Really? That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

The community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice. I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard. Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 census today at 2020census.gov? Now, folks, let me help you out. The census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas,

and we wanted new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the U.S. House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding or services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding

go each year for the next 10 years. Funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please, take the 2020 Census today. Shape your future.

Start at 2020census.gov. We have a lot of pain in this country. Trump can show up and say anything, and they can just go, oh, yeah. The African-American community was great to us. They didn't vote. You know, he just called you stupid. Did you hear that?

Oh, oh, oh, but he's for us. Really? And they were just regurgitating the things that they had heard on a radio or in the barbershop or something somebody had told them. They hadn't thought about it. Democracy is in danger because people don't know how to think. I'm done with trying to convince people

to try to vote for their, you know, for their life. You have to run for your life. I'm gonna go try to get people who are open to it and lead them. I'm done with hope. Fuck hope. Bye. -♪ Hey, everybody. It's your girl Luenell. So what's up? This is your boy, Earthquake. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Folks, 42 days. 42 days until Election Day. But the reality is we've already started voting. Early voting has also been taking place in various states as well. Ballots have gone out two weeks ago in North Carolina. We want you to go to please go to vote.org. I cannot implore you enough. I've had multiple people send me text messages and emails as well, stating that they thought they were registered until they checked. And now they realize that they have been purged.

And so please go to vote.org to check that first. If you have not registered, the deadlines are coming up. You must get registered, folks. This is huge. I'm telling you, you do not want to be waiting. Here are the deadlines. Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas 20 to 27 days before the election. Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia, 15 days before the election, Alabama, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota. Folks, that is going. Look, we can sit here and talk all day. We can sit here and say, well, hopefully Murkowski, hopefully Romney,

hopefully Susan Collins will do the right thing. When you put your trust in them, you got problems. Let's go to my panel, Gary Chambers, Jr., publisher of the Rouge Collection, Dr. Avis Jones, DeBeaver Political Analyst, Mustafa Santiago Ali, Ph.D. and former Senior advisor for environmental justice with the EPA. This, Avis, is, and again, I have been ringing the alarm and yelling and screaming and been doing this since the moment Trump got elected. All of these damn people out here who were saying that bullshit in 2016,

leave the top of the ticket open, hey, Trump and Hillary, they're the same. They're no different. Guess what? I said it then. I don't care what you had to say about Hillary Clinton and super predators and her emails. She was not going to appoint the same type of judges as Donald Trump. And now we know Bill Clinton has already said it. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hoping Hillary was going to win and she can get replaced by Hillary Rodham Clinton. That didn't happen. Trump won. Some Obama folks were trying to get her to

retire in 2015 saying, hey, don't chance it. She chose not to. Now we're at this juncture here. And look, it comes down to, look, the only, to me, the only way you can really impact Collins, Murkowski, and Romney's, if you've got a massive blowout in November where they say, hey, this is going to be grossly unfair to the American people for us to do this in a lame duck session. Otherwise, McConnell is going to push this through and they're going to have a 6-3 advantage on the Supreme Court. Yeah, this is the doomsday scenario that we're facing right now. And I completely agree with you.

I am still furious. Call me petty, but I'm just going to have to be petty, okay? I am still furious with people who oftentimes, people who have huge platforms. The lack of responsibility that they showed in 2016 is absolutely astounding. And the only thing that's worse than the lack of responsibility they showed by spreading misinformation

and potentially influencing God knows how many people to not take advantage of the right that their forefathers fought and died for, and ultimately find ourselves at the place that we're here now, on the verge of losing the Supreme Court for a good 40 years, on top of Black people being twice as likely to die of coronavirus than white folks and on and on and on and on. The only thing that makes me even more mad than that is the cowardice that we're seeing now by those same people for not even be able to admit that they were wrong and then to encourage other people today to not make the same mistakes that they made

in 2016. You know, none of us are perfect. All of us make mistakes, but adults can admit to their mistakes. And then they learn from their mistakes. And then they share what they've learned with other people so that we don't make the same mistake over again. But by sitting here in 2020 and acting like 2016 never happened, acting like they never said what they said, and allowing other people and not saying anything, when we have a new cohort of ridiculousness in this era telling people basically to do the same thing that they told people to do in 2016, And then not to say anything about that is unforgivable. We need to understand what's on the ballot right now, what's at stake right now. You are, we are facing a situation where it's not only going to impact our lives,

this is going to impact our grandchildren's lives. This is not an easy fix. And so what we need to do now is everything humanly possible to make sure that it stops. I don't care what it is. It's everything. It's being in the streets. It's calling your senator. It's voting at massive levels so that there is no room for equivocation in November. Humiliating defeat is what we have to deliver at the polls. And that requires that we don't fall for the same foolishness that far too many fell for in 2016. I'm real clear, Gary, in terms of making demands of any candidate. I'm real clear in terms of laying out an agenda. But I'm also very clear on opening my damn eyes and surveying the field. It's sort of like if I played football and I'm sitting here as a middle linebacker and all I'm doing is looking at the quarterback, I ain't paying attention to nobody else,

I might get my behind beat because I'm not surveying the entire field. The reality is this here, and this goes for Adas, FBA, Bernie bros, uh, every group you can imagine. I don't care who they are. This real simple. If you actually say you want reparations, you ain't getting it with a six, three conservative Supreme court. You ain't getting it with 300 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. You ain't getting it with 300 conservative federal judges.

You're not getting it. You're not getting environmental protection. You're not getting voting rights. I mean, we can go down the line of all the stuff that your ass not gonna get if

the Republicans stay in control of the United States Senate. Period. All of that's facts, Roland. And, you know, elections have consequences. And I think that it was short-sighted and foolish of anybody to, one, not vote in 2016 and to believe that Republicans, for whatever reason, will not get out and support their candidate. You know, I concur with the sister. I think it's foolish.

And as somebody that's 35, right, in that age demographic where my generation is not as active in voting, you know, many of them don't want to hear, you know, the age-old things about who sacrificed. But the real deal is you are screwing yourself by not voting, right? Because when you talk about all that's at stake, when you talk about the future of education for your children, when you talk about the future of health care in your community, when you talk about your ability to vote, right, if you so choose to, when you become a property owner, start paying some taxes on some property, right, and then your concerns are on the ballot, I think people will then take this more seriously.

But when you look at what happens, the courts are where major decisions are made. And it's also, it can be weaponized against us, right? The courts can be weaponized against us at any point. And conservative justices who believe that the Black Lives Matter movement is Marxist and all of these different things like that, they will take that ideology to the bench and they will use it against us. And so for those of you who want to be able to peacefully, freely protest when the government has done something against your will, For those of you who want to marry whomever you love, for those of you who want to be able to have civil rights

protections, to live where you want to live without being discriminated against, this is where it happens at. It happens at the bench. And so if there was anything for us to be concerned about as young Black people, it is how do we stabilize this thing by showing up? And leaving this to the older generation is how we got here. If you're not satisfied with the nominees at hand, the primary process is where we do that part, okay? We have gone past that. We lick our wounds and we move on.

The bigger question for me is, are we gonna be mad at ourselves, uh, because we didn't go vote right now, or are we gonna strategize and do the work over the next four years to ensure that we have a candidate of our choosing? It's not about, like you said, Roland, this is the long game. And so if we're going to play the long game, we got to be dedicated. We got to be organized and we got to strategize for the long game. And you don't just pick your toys up and go home because you didn't win in the primary.

We got work to do. Mustafa, I had a young brother text me over the weekend, tweet me over the weekend. He said, see, y'all older folks, y'all the reason why this happened. I said, bro, let me real clear. I said, let me be real clear with you. I said, I'm 51.

I'll be 52 in November. I said, you're 51. I'll be 52 in November. I said. You're in your 20s. I said the I said the likelihood of me hitting 90 is I said is rare. Not many people hit 90. Let's just be real clear. I said, yo, it's going to be 60. I said, so you might want to invest in this thing to see. I said, I said, it sounds dumb for, and I'm sorry, it sounds dumb for anybody 18 to 35 to say, well, y'all need to pick better people for me. No, your ass need to be picking people for you. Everybody got a role in this. And so for all these folks, Mustafa, who you talk to, who care about the environment,

I'm like, yo, you better understand what's here. Donald Trump has put in significant anti-environmental people who don't care about drilling in offshore. They don't care about drilling in natural parks. These folks want to rape the earth in order to make another buck. Yeah, without a doubt. You know, what we are talking about is the infrastructure in our communities. We're talking about the infrastructure in our country as well. And when you don't get engaged in this process, you're just giving away the opportunity for you to actually make real change. I don't let, because I work with all kinds of young people across the country, I don't let folks get away with talking about, well, older folks made the decision or older folks need to make the decisions. I'm like, if you don't see somebody who represents what you

believe in, my first question to you is, why didn't you run? Why didn't you get your friends together and identify somebody who you have trust in to run? So I just don't allow that conversation because it's a cop-out that we use whenever we don't want to actually get up off of our butts and actually get engaged in the process and have to do more than something

that lasts for an hour or a couple of hours. Folks need to understand, as folks have shared, that you are literally playing with your life and the life of folks in your community. Whether whoever it is you care about your community, find someone that you care about in your family or your community. It could be your grandma, it could be your auntie, it could be your niece. All of those folks are counting on not only you voting, but understanding the power that exists inside of that vote up and down the ticket in all kinds of different positions. We're talking about the Supreme Court,

but we also understand, and we've talked numerous times on this show, if you're tired of the police doing some of the things that you've seen, if you're tired of district attorneys not doing of the things that you've seen, if you're tired of district attorneys not doing the right thing, get engaged in the process, because your vote can actually help to change what's going on in that situation.

If you're not willing to do that, then you just have to be quiet, take the ass whippings that you're gonna get from the police and other folks, and excuse my language for being as real as I know how to be, because your vote can really help to change these dynamics. And we keep allowing people to pimp us by not allowing, you know, ourselves to get engaged in the conversation and think that what we do doesn't matter. It matters when we do it

in numbers. It matters when we do it through an intelligent set of actions. And again, that means really, again, being engaged in what is going on, folks. We're going to continue the conversation in just a second on that very issue in terms of what should we be doing with activist Bre Newsom and attorney Monique Presley right now. I want to talk about what's happening with COVID. We have crossed the 200,000 death threshold in this country. More than 7 million people have been infected. As a result, the Trump administration pretty much wants to say, yeah, this is all good. These things are just just moving along. The majority of our deaths have occurred within the three months. On

average, over a thousand people died every single day. Now, nearly four months later, the country has doubled that figure. As of Sunday evening, again, the official death toll has surpassed 200,000, the highest death toll in the world. Some experts think the numbers could double before the end of the year, bringing the death toll up to 600,000. Joining us right now is virologist Dr. Cindy Duke. Dr. Duke, I'm sitting here looking at, again, a lot of the people, these critics out here, people who say we're hyping this thing up, who say, oh, this thing is leveling off, that it's dissipating and disappearing.

As a virologist, are you seeing that? Unfortunately, no, we're not seeing that. We're seeing in some pockets of the United States where people have taken the precautions seriously, where people are wearing masks, where people are following those guidelines, we are seeing things plateau. But we're still seeing really high numbers in many other places where people are being very complacent with their strategies for protection, you know, wearing masks when they feel like it or not at all. People are taking unnecessary and undue risks at this point in many parts of the country. And unfortunately, what we're seeing is, yes, the United States now accounts for greater than 20, almost 25 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 globally. One country of almost 200

countries in the world, this one country accounts for 200 countries in the world, this one country accounts for one quarter of the deaths. So, again, so the people who say, hey, look, it's no big deal. We're also about to go into winter. What must we be preparing for with that? Because now you're talking about mixing COVID and the flu and mixing COVID and pneumonia. I mean, please talk about that. We are entering what is traditionally our respiratory virus season. And so that means now things are getting even murkier in the sense of

when someone starts having symptoms, what is it that they're having symptoms of? Is it COVID? Is it influenza? If it's a child, is it RSV? What are we coping with here? And so, the first thing to tell everyone is really, really, really, we should be wearing a mask. And this isn't something that's up for debate anymore. It's very well proven, very well established

that masks save lives. And I know some people are going to say, well, I know the one person who wore a mask and still got COVID. Sure, one person. But you know what? If we don't all wear our masks, hundreds, thousands of us will become positive and spread it to even more people. Now, that said, I would also like to encourage everyone to get their flu shot. This year, more than ever, we need to get our flu shots. The big issue about flu season coming and why everyone's so worried, particularly healthcare providers like myself, is our hospitals are still overwhelmed with COVID-19 and all the other things that people go to the hospital for. With flu season comes a surge and a need for the same

resources that COVID-19 patients also have to use at the hospitals. And so the fewer people who have the flu who end up sick and need to go to the hospital, the better. And so it's really important that everyone out there take these steps and take it seriously. Right. And in the communities of color across the nation, it's especially important that we have our children vaccinated, that our teenagers are vaccinated, our elderly are vaccinated. We need flu vaccine drives just as much as we're doing drives to get people tested, to encourage people to wear masks when it comes to COVID-19. We need them to get their flu shots as well. All right then. Well, Dr. Cindy Duke, look, we certainly hope people take that advice. Take this thing seriously. It is still real. We want them to understand that look, we certainly hope people take that advice. You know, take this thing seriously.

It is still real. We want them to understand that. So we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. All right, then. Folks, how hard do we fight? And what must we do?

We'll talk about that next with activist Bree Newsome, attorney Monique Presley, as well as our panel right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard. Not tomorrow, but now.

Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 Census today at 2020census.gov? Now, folks, let me help you out. The Census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the Census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year.

I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the U.S. House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding or services

that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years, funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 Census today.

Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's Lorenz Tate. You only have one vote. Use it. Hey, I'm Antonique Smith. Hey, I'm Arnaz J. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really, it's Roland Martin. Folks, we talk about the campaigns and voting.

Obviously, the candidates want to reach you on a variety of issues. This here, we showed this earlier, this is one of the ads that Joe Biden campaign has dropped when it comes to appealing to African American men, specifically. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. When it comes to criminal justice reform, history has not been on our side.

I feel as though the nation has become desensitized to these things, but black people have not. It's true pain, it's real loss when people die. As a father, I have to turn around and talk to my 12-year-old son about police interactions. It scares the hell out of me. You don't have time for a system that is stacked against you. We need to have individuals that are in office that are going to push the entire country forward.

That's what Joe and Kamala have is that plan for the future. They're willing to push Congress and say, we can get there. Cash bail reform, we absolutely need reform there. There's a lot of people in the justice system that are not criminals. How many people were in jail just because they couldn't afford that $400 court fee? Think about how hard it is to get a job

with a criminal record. Banning the check to box. It's just trying to get a job that's going to give you a better standing in society when you come out. Joe and Kamala uniquely understand. Those are the things I do trust them with. They are the candidates who lead us to that future.

Those are some of the issues raised in there. Talk about how people respond. Since the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, nearly $100 million has been donated to Unite Blue since her death on Friday. Folks, those are huge numbers. The Donald Trump campaign, they're texting out a fundraising email specifically saying President Trump will fill the Supreme Court vacancy with a conservative justice, make America great again. What does that mean?

It means that this is going to be a battle. So the question is, what must be done? How far must folks go? I keep telling you, Republicans are going to be ruthless. They have been ruthless. They don't believe in norms. Forget principles. Forget all the stuff they throw out. In fact, if guys, if y'all have one of the this is one of the ads that liberals have already put together since her death on Friday. To sort of show you exactly what Lindsey Graham said. So check these ads out, and I'm coming back to talk to Brie Newsom and Monique Presley. I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say, Lindsey Graham said, let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination.

And you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right. The next president, whoever that may be, is going to be the person who chooses the next Supreme Court justice. I believe the next Supreme Court justice ought to be chosen by the American people through the election of the next president. This is about principle, not the person the president has nominated. And it's why the majority of the Senate has chosen to use this unique situation as an opportunity to let the American people have a voice.

The only way to empower the American people and ensure they have that voice is for the next president to fill the nomination created by this vacancy. The confirmation of a lifetime appointee to our nation's highest court is far too important to become entangled in the partisan wrangling during a presidential election year. There is a long tradition that you don't do this in an election year. And what this means, Chuck, is we ought to make the 2016 election a referendum on the Supreme Court. The American people need a chance to weigh in on this issue, on who will fill that seat. They'll have that chance this November, and they ought to have that chance. The people deserve to be heard,

and they should be allowed to decide through their vote for the next president the type of person that should be on the Supreme Court. You can't have one rule for Democrat presidents and another rule for Republican presidents. If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term and the primary process is started, we'll wait till the next election. And I've got a pretty good chance of being the judiciary. You're on the record.

Yeah. All right. Hold the tape. take. This is the last year of a lame duck president. And if Ted Cruz or Donald Trump get to be president, they've say that you can't confirm or take up a selection by president Obama. So if a vacancy occurs in their last year of their first term, guess what? You will use their words

against them. I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say, Lindsey Graham said, let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination. And you could use my words against me,

and you'd be absolutely right. Here's the reality, Bree Newsome. None of that stuff means anything. Lindsey Graham has already said, oh, because of how the Democrats treated Brett Kavanaugh with moving forward. But those comments he made sitting next to Jeffrey Goldberg with The Atlantic took place after the Kavanaugh hearings. I'm like, y'all, you can run all the ads you want to.

You cannot trust them. And again, you know, when Michelle Obama said when they go low, we go high. I'm like, no, hell no. You've got to sit here and get nasty with these people and use everything you've got. Yeah, this whole situation to me feels very much like the lead up to the Civil War, quite frankly, you know, where the central issue, even though it's not really being named and discussed, the central issue is white supremacy, right? And black and brown citizenship. That is really what is at issue here. And then you have, particularly among white moderates and liberals, this focus on procedure, this focus on trying to

preserve bipartisanship in the union. And the other side has completely thrown that away. They're already ready to secede, right? They're already ready to overthrow the entire project rather than have a multicultural democracy. And so it's very much like that time period where Lincoln is focused on preserving the union as though that's going to be able to hold the whole thing together. And so I completely agree with you. I think this idea that we are dealing with anything other than an aggressive fascist takeover of our government is in denial. Monique Presley, forget all the people who are saying, oh, my goodness, this isn't normal,

this isn't right, this isn't fair. They don't care about fair. They care about winning and power. No, yeah, that's the only thing that matters for them. And I agree with Brie. I saw the thread that she posted on Twitter earlier today, and it was it can't be about the battle for who wants power and who wants to live with integrity. Righteousness means necessary at this point. And that doesn't mean that we're doing something we shouldn't do. There's right, there's wrong, and there's politics. If you can't play in the political lane, then you have missed the entire thing. So I need the people who are supposed to be leading us, who we have elected to office to do their jobs as politicians who've been there for 10, 20, 30, 40 years and get this done for

black and brown women, for people who are poverty stricken, for people who will be the most affected if the Supreme Court ends up being a 6-3 in favor of conservatives. Breed Newsome, you tweeted this here. The liberals and moderates making arguments about what constitutes proper and normal procedure because they think that's the number one concern in the midst of a fascist coup and genocide are the ones who will get us all killed. You also said,

I've never seen a group of people so desperate for camaraderie with an opposition that keeps telling them to go F themselves. When did you ever see Trump and Republicans talking at length about a need for bipartisanship or longing for such? It's real simple, Bri. Republicans only yell about bipartisanship when they're in the minority. And when they get in the majority, they rule. And so what should be the posture, Bri, of black folks? Look, it's 44 days to the election. We're trying to get people registered. You've now got the governor of Florida saying he's going to put forth a bill

that if any property is damaged during the protest, not make that criminal. You've got folks in Tennessee passing a law that says, oh, if you're out there protesting and you do something we don't like, we're going to strip your right to vote. That's what these folks are about. Yeah, I mean, we have to do everything we can. And I think that the issue really has never been what black people do. Like there's this constant effort to try to frame it as though, you know, white white supremacy persists because

of some failure on black people to turn out to vote. We are jumping through hoops. We I mean, we are doing everything that we possibly can. And that's what we need to do. And we need to do more of that. But we also have to do exactly what Ms. Pressley was talking about. We have to be on these folks who are in elected office. Like, like the, the lip service that they are paying right now is not enough. And I'm, I mean that very literally when I say they will get us all killed. I mean that like I am referencing history in terms of like how this has gone in the past. Fascists do not care about procedure and the whole way that they come to power is by plowing over norms while everybody else acts like things are normal. So

like this whole conversation that people are having about, you know, well, should we add more justices to the court? Well, no, we can't do that. I mean, that is so disconnected from the reality of where we are. And for people to be having those kind of procedural debates while people's lives are on the line, while people are already being killed, and we know there's going to be an escalation after that, is completely unacceptable. And we can't just keep offering up our votes. We know that the Democrats cannot get elected without us. They have to do more than lip service in this moment, or else they will render themselves completely null and void, completely irrelevant as a political party.

The thing, Monique, again, when we talk about how we move forward, and that is the posture of Democrats has to be just as vigorous and tough as you're hearing from Republicans. Already, Senator Cory Gardner, who was in that video from 2016, he's now saying, let's move forward. He's in a very tight battle with John Hickenlooper. So look, he thinks this is going to help him with conservatives. It's going to hurt him with independents. And here's the deal. Even if Republicans lose the Senate majority on November 3rd, they still going to have power through the lame duck session. And so, Monique, what should be our position moving forward? What should folks be doing? All right. So, look, I want to make an important distinction here, Roland. We are not answering they're ugly for ugly. We're not answering they're low for low. They, the GOP, for the past however many years,

some would argue decades, have stepped outside of the rules, outside of the norms, have broken every single constitutional rule of law policy norm that we know of in order to grab power. We are not doing the same thing. It's not that we are returning fire for fire. What this is, which I know you will understand, is war. It's when a faction shows itself as enemy to your nation state, shows itself as an enemy to everything that you hold inviolate. They're violating those things. And so then your righteous response is to snuff them. That's the only thing that you can do. The only thing that you can do is snuff them out.

I don't know if y'all lost me or not. The only thing you can do then is respond by canceling and annihilating the threat. It's not they did this so we do that. So directly to your point, it's not we march and or we protest and or we make it to the backdoor meetings and or we vote in high numbers and or. We have to do all of those things. We've got to call Gardner, Collins, McSally, you name it. I'm not giving up on Lamar Alexander, even though he said something, whatever. We put all the pressure there and we turn out in high numbers. And hey, maybe we explain to

Donald Trump with programs such as this. Right now, you know, dude, you're a punk. I mean, Mitch is running the show. He doesn't care if you get elected or not. Do you know that? He only wants his Supreme Court justice. That's all he wants. You can go down the tubes. Is that really the way that you want to end your presidency? You got what Mitch wanted and then you had to say bye-bye? Maybe you want to wait, President Trump, you know, and campaign on this for a minute and see if it can get you reelected instead of letting Mitch have everything that he wants. I mean, that's just me. That's what I'm saying. I'm going to pull in.

People will join. I'm going to pull in our panel here. Gary Chambers, look, as somebody who has been out there, who's an activist, meeting with people again, what should somebody watching right now, they're in Detroit, they're in Charlotte, they're in somewhere in Alabama, they're in Florida, in terms of what they should be doing, because the reality is this. If you just want to sit there on Twitter and complain, then all you're doing is just wasting your time. There has to be, this is where activists,

the word comes in, this is where activists the word comes in it's called this is where you activate yeah well yeah i i think it's i think it's really clear we need to start showing up at folks houses if it's necessary right um you need to make them as uncomfortable as possible up until election day we need to vote them out of office you got l Lindsey Graham, there's Jamie Harrison on the ballot. Every Black person in South Carolina needs to be doing everything they can to ensure that Jamie Harrison becomes the next United States senator for South Carolina.

Make our votes count, but make them uncomfortable at the same time, too. If they are in a restaurant, if they are at a rally, you need to be in their faces. They need to see you. They need to know that you are there. They need to know that you in a restaurant, if they are at a rally, you need to be in their faces. They need to see you. They need to know that you are there. They need to know that you give a damn. And they need to know that you will not be quiet while they rob this democracy of the

due process that it's supposed to have. And that is righteous indignation. And when you have the right side of history on your side, you stand up and you do so without hesitation. And so I think that we need to be making folks uncomfortable. I think that we need to be dogmatic about it. I think we need to be talking to their underlings who are state representatives and state house members

and city council members and telling them that you need, when you go into those Republican meetings, you need to let them know that you're gonna cost me this election if you do this. You need to let them know that not just the presidential election, not just the U.S. Senate elections in your state, but down ballot, your congressional races. You need to make it uncomfortable for members of Congress so that they roll over to the Senate and say, look, you're going to cost us the majority or the ability to gain more seats in this House.

You need to talk to people who are on city councils and say you're going to lose your council seat if you're not having conversations with your senators to tell them that this is unacceptable. The thing here, to that point, Avis, there were protesters this morning, early this morning, who met Lindsey Graham exactly where he lives, they were out there banging pots and pans this morning saying, OK, so you want to go back on your point of view?

We're going to make your life uncomfortable. Absolutely. And I say, amen, amen, amen. They need to keep doing that. I mean, and I have to agree with my sister. Listen, each and every lever of power that we have at our disposal, we need to display and we need to utilize it. And that means as a citizen, everything that you can do in the streets and in terms of putting pressure on your elected officials via calling them and all those other means. But also, I would argue that our elected officials after this election is over, hopefully we will take the Senate, all right? And that means we need to be bold

about doing what we need to do with the laws in order to correct course here. And for me, that means everything from statehood to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico to making sure that we have even extra seats on the Supreme Court to counteract this imbalance. If they want to play hardball, they need to learn that we can play hardball, too. And this is this is this is the thing here, Monique.

This is the letter for Lindsey Graham decided to send today to his two senators, Dianne Feinstein, Leahy, Durbin, White House, Clover, Charcoons, Blumenthal, Harano, Booker, and Harris. In his letter, he writes, he says, Because our Senate majority committed to confirming President Trump's excellent judicial nominees, and particularly because we committed to supporting his Supreme Court nominees, the American people expanded the Republican majority in 2018. We should honor that mandate. Also, unlike in 2016, President Trump is currently standing for reelection.

The people will have a say in his choices. Lastly, after the treatment of Justice Kavanaugh, I now have a different view of the judicial confirmation process. Compare the treatment of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh to that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, and it's clear that there already is one set of rules for a Republican president and one set of rules for a Democratic president. I therefore think it is important

that we proceed expeditiously to process any nomination made by President Trump to fill this vacancy. I'm certain if the shoe were on the other foot, you would do the same. Look, you know, so all that crap he said, we played in the video, means nothing. And again, the only way you can change this is if you take them out. That is Harrison beats Graham.

That is Espy beats Cindy Hyde-Smith. That is these idiotic, dumbass Democrats in Georgia need to drop out the damn race so Raphael Warnock can actually be in the top two, running against Kelly Loeffler, to be in the runoff, as opposed to her coming in first and Representative Doug Collins coming in second and locking them out. That means Cunningham beats Tillis in North Carolina. That means Kelly beats McSally in Arizona. That means Susan Collins goes down in Maine.

Ernst goes down in Iowa. It has to be a resounding defeat, not close. It has to be a resounding defeat, yes. And one of those that you named, obviously, is to me more. We've had this conversation the past 24 hours. Arizona is more important to me than the rest in terms of what might happen. Because it's immediate.

With regard to this appointment. But here's, I want to put a pin in it and say this. My favorite movie of all times is The Untouchables. And there's this scene where Sean Connery threw out, but when he is about to die, says, what are you prepared to do? To the Kevin Costner character. And, you know, they're trying to take down Capone.

Yes, yes. Actually, the scene when they were in the church, and then he said, everything within the law, and he says, then what are you prepared to do? What are you prepared to do? And so what I am saying, because I can't ask a question of anybody else that I'm not asking of myself,

what are you prepared to do? And I'm prepared to get in some good trouble. So I'm not just gonna be talking. I'm not just phone banking. I'm not just calling. I'm prepared to be in front of the Supreme Court, in front of the White House, because that's what I'm not just phone banking. I'm not just calling. I'm prepared to be in front of the Supreme Court, in front of the White House, because that's what I'm close to. I'm putting my body on the line. I'm going to have a mask. But if they lock me up, they lock me up. Somebody

have my bail. Because this is that important. I'm not saying they need to march. I'm saying we need to march. I'm not saying they need to protest. I'm saying we need to march. I'm not saying they need to protest. I'm saying we need to protest. We need to boycott. This is, listen, we will have a President Biden and a Vice President Harris, and we will have no voting rights. We will have no Brown v. Ed. We will have no Roe v. Wade. Y'all need to hear me and hear me plain. What we do November 3rd matters. These. And what we do between now and November 3rd and what we do after, whenever this vote is.

Right. Whatever our powers are. You know, I mean, I need Sister Brie to go up the flagpole once more and again. Because whatever it is, I agree with my sister Avis. Now is the time. But here's the deal. So this is the Sunrise movie. This is the video where they were outside Lindsey Graham's house earlier this morning, banging pots and pans, waking up him and his neighbors. Brie Newsome, I'm bringing Gary Mustafa and Avis's back in this well uh breathe this is this is also where if you're democrats this is where you say okay y'all y'all approve her go right ahead we get control of the senate

we we are expanding the supreme court that's gonna happen oh yeah to to to dc it's about to become a state okay and they're going to get two United States senators. See, this is not to me, this is not Chuck Schumer saying, hey, everything's going to be on the table. No. This is where they say,

listen to me clearly. You make this move, we are going to expand the court. And guess what? Joe Biden can talk all he want to about. OK, bipartisan. I disagree. We're going to pass the bill and dare your ass to veto it. Because guess what happened in Arizona? The Republicans did the very same thing in Arizona. They increased by two seats on the Arizona Supreme Court to maintain

the majority. And North Carolina, when the Democrats got control of the Supreme Court, Republicans actually tried to strip the Supreme Court of its power and give it to the court below them. That's how they play ball, Bree. Absolutely. And again, going back to the historical parallel of the Civil War, we have to remember, it wasn't Lincoln that forced slavery as an issue. You had to have people like Frederick Douglass. You had to have people who really understood what it was about and who forced the issue to be the central issue and who forced the decisions to be made. And that is exactly what we are going to have to do in this moment. And I think it's important for everybody to mentally, spiritually, whatever you've got to do emotionally, prepare yourself for the reality. This is not going to be over on November 3rd.

Even if we get the ideal scenario, we knock all of these folks out of the Senate, it's settled on that evening in terms of who won the races, we already know what these folks are capable of in the opposition. Again, this is a country that has fought a civil war over the issue of keeping us enslaved. This is a country where just 50 years ago, we had a prolonged fight to gain the civil rights that we have. And this is a country where they have been spending the past decade or so, trying to, more than the past decade or so, trying to undo all of that, they are not just going to simply pack up their things and go home. So we have to be prepared to do all of those things. And we have to be prepared, exactly like

you said, to push the agenda. It doesn't matter what the white moderates decide they're going to do. I mean, they are so focused on trying to maintain this mythical bipartisanship that does not exist with Republicans. They're more focused on that than the issue of making sure that we aren't killed, you know, and then the issue of making sure that we have voting rights and all these other things. So we have to be prepared as black people, as brown people to advance this agenda and to exercise every level, every lever of power that we have. And this right here, this right here, Gary, Avis, and Mustafa, is what pisses me off. Go to my iPad. Dianne Feinstein on ending the filibuster and expanding SCOTUS. I don't believe in doing that.

I think the filibuster serves a purpose. It is not often used. It is often less used now than when I first came, and I think it's part of the Senate that that differentiates itself. And this person here posted a chart that shows here's points right here. This is the arrow where Gary, when she got to the Senate, that's how much closure was being used. Look how it spiked from 2011 through 2016. Oh, Gary, I wonder who was president during the...

Actually, it began to spike right around 2007. I wonder who was president from 2009 to 2016. What the hell is Feinstein talking about? You know, we have a real problem with... You know, I respect institutional knowledge, right? But there comes a point when that same institutional knowledge that people have becomes a problem or a hindrance to the progress of all people. And so anybody who's saying that we need to keep things as they are, we are not in normal times. And as the sister said,

we are at war. This is a war of resources. It's a war for the courts. This is a war for our democracy. And if you're black, this is a war to live. And so I just can't understand how Democrats continue to play these games. But the truth is, Dianne Feinstein's life isn't on the line at this ballot because she knows she's going to be okay because her wealth and her privilege protect her. But for those of us who don't have that luxury, we are at war and we need to we need to act accordingly. Mustafa, look at this here. Adam Jentleson tweets. No idea what Feinstein is talking about here. She was elected in 1992 in her first two year session of Congress from 93 to 94. There were 80 filibusters from 2013 to 94, there were 80 filibusters. From 2013 to 2014, Democrats' last two years in the majority, there were 252 filibusters.

The reason there were 100 judicial seats waiting for Donald Trump is because Mitch McConnell blocked them. And then you have these Democrats who are like, oh, I saw them this weekend. We should be blaming Harry Reid. That's the reason we're here. I'm like, you, I saw them this weekend. We should be blaming Harry Reid. But that's the reason we're here. I'm like, you dumbasses are idiots. It didn't matter what Harry Reid did.

If Harry Reid kept it at a 60 vote threshold, when Mitch McConnell took over with Trump after 16, they would have dropped that 60 vote threshold in a heartbeat. So it comes down to this. Folks need to stop being so soft. If you remember the Tea Party movement, when they used to come into events, they used to shut stuff down. And folks is running around talking about,

well, why would they do that? Why are they being so boisterous and all these other types of words that they were using? If you remember just not that long ago when Republicans ran up into Michigan's state house with guns and shut stuff down, that's the reality of the mentality that they deal with. If they see something that they want, they go get it,

and they go get it no matter what the cost is. So I'm proud of the Sunrise Movement. Those are my, you know, the kids that I come up with and that I've helped. And when you look at the environmental justice movement, folks ain't talking about, you know, I'm going to wait for this process to work itself out. Those are folks who got up in people's faces.

Those are folks who laid their bodies down in the roads to stop stuff from coming into their communities. And until you have the mentality that you're going to stop being soft, that you're going to stop waiting for somebody to do the right thing and you do the right thing by making sure that you're getting what's necessary to actually protect people's lives, which has been a reoccurring theme tonight, then nothing's going to change. So for me, it's stop being so damn soft. Look, Avis, Avis, I'm going to Avis, I'm going to agree. Avis, this is real simple.

Either you're going to fight for something or your ass is going to get rolled. It's as simple as that. And it's real clear, okay? For all these folk who are sitting here, Democrats, same as Republicans, this is real simple

for me. There's one group that appeals to Confederates who want to keep up monuments and who's cool with white supremacy. It's real clear that there's one party that that is literally their official action. Today's Republican Party. Y'all can holler third party all you want to. Fine. All of us who voted for Jill Stein, what the hell happened to her ass? Nothing. We ain't seen her.

This is a true battle for the soul of this nation. Avis, go ahead. Absolutely it is. And Feinstein, and I will definitely get to that point, but I have to say Feinstein reminds me kind of of like a Democratic Susan Collins, except for she's worse. Because she sits here, she acts like she's in angst. At least Susan Collins, at the end of the day, is loyal to her own party. You know, Feinstein is in angst. And then she undermines the progress of her own party by trying to appeal to the opposing party who don't give a damn about her or our interests. And you're exactly right. The stakes right now are too high. You know, I want to put this in, you know, where my mom would say where the ghost can get it.

OK, here's what's at stake right now, the moment that we find ourselves right now. Not only is a woman's right to choose at stake, us to have the ability to determine what will or will not happen with our own bodies, which is a particularly potentially deadly decision for Black women who are three to five, four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than her white counterpart. I want the brothers out there to think about what is that going to mean to you in terms of child support when women no longer have the right to choose? Think about that too. I want you to also think about what is going to happen when Obamacare is obliterated. It's already on the docket. What happens if it's obliterated and then Trump gets a second term? That means millions of people will be thrown off their health insurance. That also means that those of you who have preconditions,

you might as well give that up too, because you're not going to have a way to get health insurance affordably or maybe even at all anymore. And then for those of you who have adult children on your health insurance, say goodbye to that. We've already mentioned voting rights are at stake. If you think things are tough now with criminal justice issues, you wait until you get those far right wingers in there. There are so many implications to what is at stake in this next election and to correct course. Once again, I believe we need to use every, every feather in or every feather in our quiver, I guess, as the speaker said, in order to correct course, if they go this far and they've already gone far enough. So we know who we're dealing with. Right. And that to me means taking charge when we get in the Senate, which means getting everything in order

in order to make sure that we correct course from everything from the Supreme Court all the way to statehood, D.C. statehood and everything in between, because we cannot let these people drag this nation down into an autocracy because that's exactly what they're trying to do. Bre, Justin, the federal judge in Battleground, Wisconsin, extends the deadline to receive absentee ballots for six days beyond the election there. Again, why judges matter. One of the other reasons, Bre, why they want the Supreme Court justice seated before the election is because if if this thing turns out to be like the year 2000, which is also why I keep telling every person with, you got to leave no doubt, they want another Bush v. Gore, where a 5-4 conservative Supreme Court gives the election to the Republican nominee.

Donald Trump literally said it this weekend. And so for people who are acting like there's no big, it's game on. And let me be real clear, Brie, you can speak to this here. I may give you a final comment, Monique. For every single one of these punk ass black men who have fallen for this nonsense about the first step act, let me remind y'all that it is a conservative state Supreme Court in Louisiana that affirmed a life sentence for the brother who was accused of stealing some shears. It is the state Supreme Court in Florida that affirmed the Republican law that allowed them to invalidate Amendment 4 saying you got to pay all your fines and penalties.

It is the state Supreme Court in Texas, the state Supreme Court in Mississippi, the state Supreme Court in Alabama, the state Supreme Court in Georgia that's rendering decisions that are negatively impacting black people. And so y'all can give Trump all the credit. And in fact, you can try to give him credit for the First Step Act, but if it wasn't improved by Senators Cory Booker and Senator Kamala Harris

and Senator Dick Durbin in the Senate, it wouldn't even been that strong of a bill. And so folk better recognize y'all playing games with the future lives of your black children by supporting these thugs. Again, I will end with where I began. This is about the modern civil war. This is about white supremacy, right?

The people who are supporting Trump, the folks who want to preserve the white, this is like a white country, right? They are very clear on what they are doing. I have been saying for some time now, this man is not going to leave office and we we need to be prepared for that, too. He's not just going to pack up his bags and leave. They are already laying the groundwork for him to refuse to leave office. So anybody, if you are not understanding that,

if you are not understanding that this is about white supremacy versus Black freedom, and that that is exactly what is playing out in this election, that is what is playing out in this era, then you are completely lost in not understanding what is happening right now. And I don't care how everybody keeps framing it and trying to talk about it as though it is all these other things. That is the central issue. This man was elected in the aftermath of us electing the first black president because

it scared them in terms of not only the possibility of having a black president, but what that said about the changing electorate, what that said about the changing attitudes in America. And they are going overboard. They are fighting to the death. They are fighting to the death to preserve this idea of a whites-only nation. If we are not understanding on our side what we are fighting for, then we are going to be completely lost. That is what is at stake right now, not just in the election, but being prepared for the aftermath of the election when they refuse to accept the results. We have to be prepared for this long haul and go for every tool in the arsenal. The last thing I will say is very much like in my mind, like if you're going up against a military that has an army,

right, a Navy, an Air Force, and you're standing on your side talking about, well, are we just going to use the Army or the Navy, you are not going to win that war. We have to understand this has been a war against us, and that is what we are facing right now. And if things don't go the way that we need to, we have to be prepared to shut it down. We never voted our way into freedom. We didn't vote our way out of slavery, and we didn't vote our way into civil rights. I mean, we have to remember this history,

and we have to carry this history with us so we can understand what to do right now. And the reason I, and look, some of y'all are brothers who are on YouTube who getting all assaulted. That ain't my point. If I ain't talking to you, I ain't talking to you. What I'm talking about, Monique, are the people who are falling for the okey-doke, are the individuals out

there who are making, saying, oh, but my finances are just fine. Yeah, but the finances of your children not going to be fine with the actions they are taking. It's abundantly clear. I've been yelling this for years. policymaking through the courts for the next 50 years because they're still pissed after the civil rights movement and how the courts rule in favor of black people, Monique. There are people who aren't gonna care that Brown versus Board of Education

may be turned back. People who aren't gonna care that we may never have a John Lewis Voting Rights Act. There are people who even aren't gonna care. we may never John Lewis voting rights act. There are people who even aren't going to care. They maybe don't want to have any more children or anybody in their family. So they don't care about Roe V. Wade. But when they think about preexisting conditions, when they think about the affordable care act, and when you think about the votes that are coming very soon,-existing conditions in the land of COVID, in the land of this pandemic, means not

just the 200,000 souls have been lost, but that millions of people have been infected and inflicted with this illness and that the ramifications are yet unknown. So when you think about being interested in judges and a Senate and a president who doesn't want you to have health care, what you really are saying is you think you came through COVID okay, but three weeks from now, three months from now, three years from now, your throat still hurts. You still get chronic headaches. You don't have a sense of smell. They're going to tell you that you don't have insurance for that. Does that matter to you, for you, for your mother, for your grandmother, for your children? Does it matter?

Figure out whatever your pain point is, because I promise you, whatever that pain point is, you need this administration out to do something about it, second and last. We have to do everything. Whatever your thing is that you can do, whether it's money, whether it's marching, whether it's boycotting, whether it's sitting in, whether it's phone banking, registering your neighbors to vote, voting early yourself, having a voting plan. Listen, it's all hands on deck to the mattresses. What are you prepared to do? And, you know, I'm open to whatever you think that should be. Hit me up, hit Roland up, hit everybody up. We need all ideas on deck right now

because I'm telling you, our very lives depend upon it. All right. Bree Newsome, Monique Pressler, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. We are looking at here, let's go to this here, go to my email. The Louisville Police Department are preparing for, they've already declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's announcement in the case of Breonna Taylor. What they have done, they have stopped all overtime for police officers already.

They're boarding up buildings there as well in Louisville. There are people who who believe, Gary, that what this means is that Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky Attorney General, black Republican Attorney General, is going to announce no charges against the three officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor. You know, that would be unfortunate, to say the least. I am hopeful that that is not what his decision will be. And that's all we really can have at this point is hope until that answer comes. I think that there's been consistent resistance by folks like Tamika Mallory and the whole Until Freedom movement that's been located in Kentucky since this is all popped off. You know, when you look at what Republicans are doing to us

in every corner of this country for people who are not staying locked in and engaged, you know, this is why, right? This is a state attorney general who has the power to decide what we know is an injustice. He has the power to take that before the courts and do something with it. And so it is my hope that he brings charges against these cops because the calls have been cleared and justice isn't in that

$12 million settlement. Justice is in what the Attorney General of Kentucky does. Avis, again, so this decision likely is going to come down tomorrow. Yeah. I mean, I would be shocked if he actually gives charges, provides charges. That's why they have called that state of emergency. That's why, quite frankly, it's taken that long. You know, here's the thing I always believe is the truth. You know, it doesn't take long to relay the truth. It takes time to

construct a lie. It is no excuse for this announcement to have taken this long unless they were in the process of attempting to construct a lie. We've already seen evidence of that. We've already seen where they had a police report that tried to suggest that there were no injuries. We already saw where they tried to have some sort of deal with her ex-boyfriend to get him to lie, to say that she was involved with his drug dealings. And so they've already shown us once again who they are. And I believe people the first time when they do that. So I don't expect any charges tomorrow, but I expect there to be some blowback and righteous blowback to that in terms of demonstrations.

And that's exactly what they're preparing for. Mustafa, they're already putting fencing around areas there. Again, they are anticipating, I mean, it's clear what they're anticipating there to be a visceral reaction to a decision not to indict the officers. Again, no decision has been announced. People are simply speculating that when you make that sort of announcement, that you are expecting a backlash from the community, whether the three officers were not faced charges. Yeah, and I'm with Gary.

You know, I'm hopeful, but I also understand when you put this type of infrastructure in place, there is a reason for that. They know if it was going to be something that was favorable, that people would then, they would not need to continue to protest and they would not need to do all the things that are necessary to let folks know that there is displeasure in what has been going on. So I'm real clear. I've been doing this a while, like most of us, and when you put that type of infrastructure

in place, there's a reason for it. All right, then. All right. Mustafa, Avis and Gary, I still appreciate y'all joining us on today's show. Thank you so very much. Thank you. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back Fit, Live, Win Monday. We'll talk about emotional eating.

Could that be the reason you cannot lose weight? That is next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard, not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 census today at 2020census.gov. Now folks, let me help you out. The census is a count of everyone living in the country.

It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the US Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year i grew up in clinton park in houston texas and we wanted we wanted new parks and roads and senior citizen center well the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes it also determines how many seats your state will get in the u.s house Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted,

which means a potential loss of funding or services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years. Funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends.

Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please, take the 2020 Census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. You know, he just called you stupid. Did you hear that? Uh, uh, uh, but he's for us. Really? And they were just regurgitating the things that they had heard on a radio or in the barbershop or something somebody had told them.

They hadn't thought about it. Democracy is, uh, in danger because people don't know how to think. I'm done with trying to convince people to try to vote for their, you know, for their life. You have to run for your life. I'm gonna go try to get people who are open to it and lead them. I'm done with hope. Fuck hope. Bye. All right, folks, the question is, how can you lose weight? Are you an emotional eater?

Well, that could be the case for folks. Joining us right now is Karen Nurse, founder and CEO of KNX, Journey to Wellness, author and coach of The Shift. The Shift is not only the name of her book, but also a workshop. She's a health and wellness agent that helps people to overcome emotional eating, unforgiveness, and negative thinking by using transformational coaching, nutrition, physical fitness, and spiritual healing. All right. So what is emotional eating? And how do you detect it? Well, first of all, Roland, thank you so much for having me. It's awesome to be here on your show. Emotional eating for me is just eating out of emotions. For me, I was, although you were able to say today all of the different things I have accomplished so far, being a speaker, a coacher, fitness, KNX, journey to oneness,

I haven't always been in this place. I've been one who ate out of my emotions you know out of fear loss of a mother and so my emotions tend to take over and I ate in order to deal with the emotions that I was going through and so

how does a person even recognize that or how can someone if you're married to somebody you could be a mother or a father, you could be a partner or a friend or whatever. How do you recognize that and help someone through that and help them identify that? Okay, well, for me, I had to go through a whole journey. I went through a whole process of knowing that's where I ran to. I ran to food for my,

for the things that I was dealing with in life. So as I ran to food, can you hear me okay? Yeah, no, we're fine. Go ahead. Okay, okay. So I ran to food. And so once I was able to identify the fact that one, I had lost my mom and thinking about the fact that I had lost my mom

and being stuck in that place of losing my mom and then trying to raise a son on my own, those were the areas that I went through my own journey. I had to first go through my own journey and identify that those were the areas that I was stuck in my life. And as I began to deal with those emotions, deal with the fact that I had lost my mom and didn't overcome it, that's when I began to see that I needed to first deal with those emotional eating.

And so in dealing with that, help somebody out there who's watching. And so how do they dig themselves out of that? Go ahead and pull a photo up, folks. So the photo on the right is where you were and then the photo on the left. And so was it was it a combination of diet and fitness? And where did you start? I mean, so what like like what was the starting point? I think a lot of times people focus on what somebody looks like afterwards, but they really don't get, people need to understand just where that starting point was that got you, that got you on the road to wellness. Absolutely. Um, well for me, it was a matter of, I'm just going to make sure I look at my notes here. Um, I was dealing with the fact that, you know, I'm in this place of being a single mom.

I'm 90 pounds heavier, and I'm trying to overcome this place. And I've been dealing with yo-yo dieting for years. And then after dealing with yo-yo dieting, finally being in a place of, one, let's stop and think about what it is that we're thinking about. You know, we have about 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day. And whether we realize it or not, these thoughts that we're thinking can either keep us feeling uplifted and motivated or feeling hopeless and bound. And for me, that's where I was and can be for a lot of us. We get stuck in this place of being, for instance, for me, like I said, being that single mom and not knowing I'm going to raise this young black man alone, right? And then the second thing,

like I said, the loss of my mom, the trying to work in corporate America, being unseen, being unheard, feeling underprivileged, right? And then finally getting into this place where you're using food to comfort, using food to try to overcome these places that I was in. And as I began going down this journey, God had to pull me out and show me, hey, Karen, what are you thinking about? What is it that you're thinking about? So many of these things happened a long time ago in my life. But because I was still stuck in that place and playing those same memories over and over and over again in my mind, that's where I stayed. And I used food as comfort. I used food to deal with those emotions. And once I got to a place of realizing, well, God had to show me. God had to show me that using food as emotions, if I didn't release those emotions, I would continue to feed them.

And once I began to release those emotions and allow them to free myself from them is where I started to overcome that waste that I was eating in. And again, going through that particular process, what outside help did you get? Okay. Well, for me, it was really eradicating that negative thought that I was thinking. I started, first of all, studying nutrition, very studying nutrition extensively. Many times, especially us as the Black community, we have no idea of the foods that we are eating. We have no idea of the processed foods that many times the sugar or sometimes even the meat or sometimes the processed foods that we're eating has an effect on our emotions and on our diet. So as I began to study nutrition, I started seeing, oh, my God, this is where these factors lay.

So first it was nutrition and then the importance of moving our bodies, getting up and physically moving. And it doesn't have to be this really big hit, you know, which is one of the classes that I teach now, hit CrossFit. It doesn't have to start there. It just has to start with getting up and physically beginning to walk and move your body. The other thing was, what was it that I was thinking? Beginning to change your mindset, what it is that you're thinking. If you can think about what it is that you're thinking and begin to change your thinking process around it, you can begin to shift your lifestyle. Absolutely. All right then. Well, where can people get more information

to follow if they're interested? You can follow me at KNX. You can check out my website, knx1.com. This is some of the new workshops that I have coming up. So we'll talk about weight loss, physical fitness, healthy eating, shifting your mindset, spiritual healing, and forgiveness. Our bodies is made up of three pillars, the mind, the body, and the spirit. If one of those pillars is out of whack, it can throw our whole being out of whack. So what area is it to begin to focus on

to bring those three pillars back into an alignment? And so this is one of the workshops that we have here. There's also the KNX Shift book that we have. Yeah, thank you so much. And you can start there. The book, you can get it on my website, like I said, knx1.com, or you can get it off of Amazon, KNX. Just look up The Shift by Karen Nurse.

And right now I'm doing a special just for your viewers only, Roland, where you can purchase the Kindle copy for $2.99 and then actually have an opportunity to set up a time where you can speak to me about enrolling in a workshop as well. And forgive me,

this is all very new to me, and so I'm a little nervous. So thank you so much for having me and bearing with me as I speak through this. All right, then. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Good luck. Thank you so much, Roland.

Have a good one. All right. Thank you very much. All right, folks. We want you all to support what we do at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Join in our Bring the Funk fan club. It is vital that you do so. It allows for us to be able to continue bringing you the great content that we do.

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All right, folks, that is it for us. We've got to go. Shout out to North Carolina A&T. When I spoke there earlier this year, this was one of the pullover zip-ups they sent me. And so shout out to the North Carolina A&T Aggies. I'm a Texas A&M Aggie, so shout out to the Aggies of North Carolina A&T. All right, folks, I'll see you guys tomorrow right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Don't forget,

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