#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Midterm Countdown w/Reps James Clyburn & Greg Meeks, DOJ Election Monitoring, Virginia Key Beach
Episode Date: November 8, 202211.7.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Midterm Countdown w/Reps James Clyburn & Greg Meeks, DOJ Election Monitoring, Virginia Key Beach We are hours away from polls opening across the county for the 2...022 midterm elections. The Department of Justice will monitor election sites in 24 states to ensure compliance with voting rights laws. We'll show the list of states and cities. House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn and the Vice President of Strategy and Programs at the national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law will join me in a pre-midterm discussion. Earlier today, I talked to Representative Gregory Meeks of New York about how democratic campaigning and messaging could influence election night. I'll share that conversation with you. Cheri Beasley is vying to become North Carolina's first Black U.S. senator. The former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court will stop by tonight to let us know what she's doing in these final hours. The future of Miami's historic Virginia Key Beach is in limbo after the city ousted the entire Virginia Key Beach Park Trust. The former chairman of the board will explain what prompted the takeover. A white University of Kentucky student gets arrested and fired for her drunken, racial assault on some black students caught on video. Roland shares his thoughts on MSNBC's firing of Tiffany Cross. Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ roland@rolandsmartin.com Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This is an iHeart Podcast. You're a revolutionary right now. Black power. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told.
Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller.
Be Black. I love y'all.
All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.
The video looks phenomenal.
See, there's a difference between Black Star Network
and Black-owned media and something like CNN.
You can't be Black-owned media and be scape.
It's time to be smart.
Bring your eyeballs home.
You dig?
Today is Monday, November 7, 2022.
Coming up on Roland Martin on Filter, streaming live on the Black Star Network.
It is election eve.
Candidates are making their final stand.
Polls will be opening early in the morning.
We'll talk about the importance of what it means for black voters.
Also, the Department of Justice sending monitors to 24 states to ensure compliance with voting rights laws.
We'll talk with Congressman Jim Clyburn about the election.
Also, we'll talk with the Lawrence Committee
for Civil Rights Under Law about voter protection.
Plus, we'll hear from Congressman Gregory Meeks
of New York as well.
Folks, Sherri Beasley is vying to become
North Carolina's first black U.S. Senator.
We'll talk with her on the show as well.
It is a jam-packed show.
It is time to bring the funk.
I'm Roland Martin on the filter on the Black It is a jam packed show. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on a filter
on the Black Star Network.
Let's go.
He's got it.
Whatever the piss, he's on it.
Whatever it is, he's got the scoop,
the fact, the fine.
And when it breaks, he's right on time.
And it's rolling.
Best belief he's knowing.
Putting it down from sports to news to politics,
with entertainment just for kicks.
He's rolling.
Yeah, yeah.
It's Uncle Roro, yo.
Yeah, yeah.
It's Roland Martin.
Yeah, yeah.
Rolling with Roland now.
Yeah, yeah.
He's broke, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's rolling, Martin.
Polls open just under 12 hours all across the country.
Critical midterm elections, folks.
Lots, lots going on in this country. Critical midterm elections, folks. Lots, lots
going on in this country. Democracy
is at stake. So the
question is, are we going to see a
massive turnout? Republicans are
enthused. They normally do well on Election
Day. Democrats must ensure
they close that gap. Joining us right now
is the highest-ranking African-American in
Congress, Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.
Congressman, glad to have you on the show.
You have talked a lot lately about this election, what you're seeing from folks on the right,
how they are operating when it comes to democracy.
And the fact of the matter is, and I've been saying to people on this show,
you do not want to see what these people have in store if they control the House and control the Senate,
what that means for black folks.
You're absolutely correct.
And thank you so much for having me, Roland.
You know, I have been in about eight or nine states in the last two weeks.
And the enthusiasm in the union halls, in the fellowship halls, every place I go, the
enthusiasm is there.
For some strange reason, the reports seem to be to the contrary.
And I was kind of interested to see this morning,
the reports are the enthusiasm level for Democrats, 73, Republicans, 73.
Now, a week ago, they had us way down on the enthusiasm level.
Enthusiasm is there.
The problem we've got is that in so many places, like the reports we got out of Philadelphia today,
over 3,000 early votes are being challenged.
And for what reason, nobody seemed to understand yet.
So we expect for a lot of shenanigans to take place, but that should not discourage people
from voting. Get out there and vote. The early vote all over seemed to favor Democrats.
Now what they're saying, on Election Day tomorrow,
that the other side will make up for that.
They don't have to.
There are a lot of people, Democrats, who have not voted during the early voting period.
We should get to them as best we can.
Making phone calls, phone banks,
robocalls.
Get on the Roland Martin show.
Get on Black Radio.
Do what we can all day tomorrow
and see can we get those people
who are not regular voters, who do not ordinarily
vote in off-year elections, but will vote in presidential elections.
We can identify the people who vote in presidential elections.
If they have not voted, let's get to them tomorrow.
I've made it clear to folks to remind them what took place in 2010.
So many people turned out in big numbers for President Barack Obama in 2008.
The folks did not come back in 2010.
Republicans flipped 16 state legislatures.
They also took control of more governor's mansions.
And that's when you begin to see the voter suppression laws.
That's when you begin to see the closing down of polls.
That's when you begin to see voter ID as well. And so
what I keep explaining to people, sure, you can come out in big numbers in 2020 to elect President
Joe Biden, to elect Vice President Kamala Harris. But if you don't come back in the midterms in
2022, you can frankly undo all the good because what the Republicans are planning to do,
if they assume power, they
will end the January 6th committee.
They'll be investigating this administration on every level.
Then, of course, Democrats will not be able to control federal judicial nominees as well.
We could go on and on and on.
And you know this because you sent me the data.
All of these black folks who say Democrats didn't't do anything the six billion dollars that HBCUs have received
It's because of congressman Bobby Scott sitting on the Education Committee if Democrats don't control the house
Democrats don't control the money and then don't control the committees and you're gonna see those things drying up
You're not gonna have Congresswoman Maxine Waters over the over that committee as well to deal with the banks and redlining and things along those lines.
And so for people who say, oh, it's no big deal,
who's in power, they're wrong.
Absolutely wrong.
Let's start with that.
Maxine Waters, financial services, that will be gone.
Barbara Scott, education and labor, that's gone.
David Scott, agriculture committee, gone. Bennett Thompson, the Homeland Security that's gone. David Scott, Agricultural Committee, gone.
Bennett Thompson, the Homeland Security Committee, gone.
And the January 6th Committee will be shut down.
This is real.
And for us to sit here, not to mention, you're going to have him on, I heard.
Aren't you going to have Gregory on?
Yep, yep, Congressman Gregory Minx.
I talked to him earlier.
He chairs foreign affairs. That will be gone.
These are five African-American chairs who will be gone if we lose this House tomorrow.
But that's not all that's going to be gone.
Let's talk about you. This president, whatever you may think,
he forgave loans up to $10,000 for a regular student loan
and up to $20,000 for a Pell Grant.
That will be gone.
He forgave.
They've already filed lawsuits against him,
and so you know what they're going to do if they get the authority.
Look at Social Security.
They've already told you if they get the power, they are going to sunset Social Security.
And let me tell you what that means.
Because I was at Union Hall out in Indiana, I believe it was, and somebody came up there and said, what do you mean by sunset?
Here's what I mean.
They will say, in two years, three years, or five years,
the sun will set on Social Security.
That means the sun goes down.
It's set.
Social Security goes down.
That's what it means.
Medicare.
They're saying they're going to means test Medicare. Here's what it means. Medicare. They're saying they're going to means test Medicare.
Here's what that means. That
means that you will get Medicare
based upon your
need. What they determined
to be your need.
They didn't ask you what your need was when you were paying into
Medicare. Every time you got paid,
you paid in it.
I've been paying Social Security since I
was 16 years old. And all of a sudden now, all these years, I'm paying in it. You've been paying. I've been paying Social Security since I was 16 years old.
And all of a sudden now, all
these years, I'm 82 years old.
That's a long time paying
Social Security. And then you're going to tell
me you're going to sunset Social Security
and my money that I put into
it, they're telling you
that's what they're going to do.
Student loan debt, you'll be gone.
Social Security, gone. Social Security gone.
Medicare gone.
And look at what you...
I tell everybody, look at that concurrent opinion
written by you-know-who, Clarence Thomas.
I mean, Clarence Thomas voted to take away
a woman's right to choose. He didn't sign on to the opinion
for the majority. He wrote his own opinion. And in his own opinion, saying it was up to him,
he would take away contraception and the rights of contraception. This stuff is real. They do not plan to have a democracy.
They are planning for an autocracy.
That's what will happen if we lose the House and Senate tomorrow.
That is what's going to happen.
Now, here's what Joe Biden can veto stuff,
but they're going to start investigating him and his family.
And when you ask him, what are you going to investigate him for?
No, we're going to impeach him.
Well, we'll find something out.
But this, rest assured, he will be impeached.
All it takes to impeach is to get the votes in the House.
And if they take over the House,
they will have the votes to impeach Joe Biden. And then he's
going to be, all this time, fighting off impeachment and not able to do the other things that we
thought would get done if we had the House and the Senate.
A lot at stake. And a final question for you. Again, I talked the House and the Senate. A lot at stake.
And a final question for you.
Again, I talk about the United States Senate, and we keep going over the importance of black
voters.
When you look at what's happening in these elections, African-American voters have to
turn out.
And I keep saying we've got to maximize our numbers.
I was in Houston on Friday, Dallas on Thursday, and I sat with Claude Cummings of
the Communication Workers of America, and he said that of the early voting turnout, African-Americans
were around 8.8 percent. He said if black voters got to 12 to 15 percent, then Democrats could
actually flip Texas. We're going to play a video a little bit later of Gary Chambers reading off
the abysmal numbers of black folks voting early in Louisiana,
even though we make up a third of that particular state.
If black voters turn out, again, at 65, 70, 75% of our numbers,
Georgia is a cakewalk.
North Carolina, cakewalk.
In fact, we could actually win races in South Carolina statewide
if we vote our numbers?
Absolutely.
That's what's bothering me so much.
I've been doing robocalls.
I'm going to tape some more tonight for Election Day because, as you just mentioned, in some
parts of South Carolina, the black vote is down from the last, what, 2018. Other parts
is way up. But there are areas, as you said, where we can take over legislative seats.
There are places where we can win statewide offices. And we've got somebody running for
superintendent of education here in South Carolina, who's all for taking public money
away from public schools and giving it to private schools, schools that can reject any student they
want to for any reason they can make up. That's the kind of stuff that's on the ballot. We have
got to turn out and vote tomorrow like we never voted before. And let me say this. You know, I used to teach history. And I remember my students used to
tell me all the time, why we spent so much time talking about stuff that happened way back
yonder. And I would always say to them, because anything that's happened before can happen again. Now, a lot of people introduced me as the first Black
congressman from South Carolina. No, I'm the ninth. There were eight Black people from South
Carolina serving in the United States Congress before me. The problem is there are 95 years between number eight and number nine.
Why?
Because in 1896, Placid versus Ferguson, they took all of our voting rights away, and black folks got out of Congress, out of legislative halls.
And it was 95 years before another one came
from South Carolina.
That is what's in store when you've got a law on the books in Georgia that says you
can nullify votes, that says it's a criminal act to give somebody a bottle of water waiting in line to vote.
These kinds of things are just as onerous as it was back in the 50s and the 40s
when you had to tell how many bubbles were in a bar of soap,
how many jelly beans in a jar in order to register to vote, interpret the Constitution
to the satisfaction of somebody sitting in the chair who probably, I would bet, money,
could not read, could not spell Constitution.
So this is what we are up against.
These MAGA or MAGA Republicans, whatever they call themselves,
they are planning
a legitimate
insurrection.
They tried one on January 6th.
It did not work.
They are going state by state,
precinct by precinct,
trying to install
autocracy
in this country.
Congressman Jim Clyburn, we certainly appreciate it.
You know, we've done as much as we could
to sound the alarm on this show.
And in my interview with Congressman Gregory Meeks,
one of the things that we talked about also
was the need for these, and I'm going to say it,
these white strategists in the Democratic Party,
they have got to put the resources
to turn out black folks, especially black men.
They've got to be able to have a dedicated program to do so.
You turn your core voters out, and also they've got to spend the money on black-owned media.
I can tell you what was spent with us was poultry,
and then all of a sudden people started blowing my phone up last week,
and I'm like, we've been waiting on y'all for six weeks.
Sorry, for six months.
So I think that, look, if Democrats don't win tomorrow
and we look at those numbers and we don't see where black voters
could have been or should have been,
there needs to be some serious discussions at the DSCC, DCCC, DGA,
all of these liberal progressive PACs as well,
because at the end of the day, they keep chasing suburban white women, DCCC, DGA, all of these liberal progressive PACs as well, because
at the end of the day, they keep chasing
suburban white women, but you've got to pay
attention to your base, and the base of the Democratic
Party are black people.
And let me just say this.
Even if you were to win tomorrow,
that is a conversation
that we've got to have
going forward,
because we have got to regain those legislative seats that we've got to have going forward because we have got to regain those legislative seats
that we lost.
Indeed.
Congressman, we appreciate it.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you, buddy.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Folks, voter protection is critically important.
The Lawrence Committee for Civil Rights Under Law,
they are absolutely focused on that.
You might have been seeing this ad.
We've been running this ad beginning last week that's been focused on protecting the vote.
Here it is.
The one from Lawyers Committee, folks.
The vote of protection, an 866-hour vote.
That commercial's been in our control room.
Get that commercial ready.
Then I'll have that in a second.
Joining us right now is Dorian Spence, the Vice President of Strategy and Programs at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Dorian, you heard the Congressman there talking about what Republicans have been doing,
challenging ballots all across the country, sending in these monitors, Texas sending in
monitors to Harris County. They've been doing that. We also have been seeing, again, just these folks
in Arizona, you know, with weapons, you know, looking over these ballot drop boxes. I mean,
you have serious intimidation efforts by folks on the right, and that's really what 866-OUR-VOTE
is all about. That's absolutely accurate, Roland. First and foremost, thank you for having us on.
We truly appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about election protection, which is the nation's leading nonpartisan voter protection program.
We've been active since the year 2002, and we stand at the vanguard, ready to protect anyone's vote who seeks to cast a ballot.
We're active in over 31 states this election cycle. We have over 300 national partners. We have volunteers on the ground. We have volunteers in call centers ready to take calls from people who run into problems
when they go to cast their ballot. We just heard earlier today that the Department of Justice
is deploying poll watchers in I think 64 jurisdictions in 24 states. And this is welcome
news, especially given the downturn in observers
that we saw during the Trump administration during the Trump years. So this is a good uptick,
an increase in almost 40 percent. But the election protection program is designed
to make sure that anyone who is legally eligible to cast a ballot can cast that ballot. We answer
questions as small and benign as I don't
know where my polling place is to something as big. And his owner says, you know, I went to the
polling location. I have my voter registration card and they're not letting me vote. We have
fixes for all problems in between. And we already and we already seeing what's going on. You seeing
a thousand ballots that they've now extended in Cobb County. We're seeing in Pennsylvania the Supreme Court turning back the effort by Republicans
when it came to the ballots that are being mailed in.
We're seeing in some places, I forgot the city, where ballots flew out the back of a truck, you know,
and all of a sudden they're trying to figure out, you know.
So we're seeing these things happen. And trust me, we're going to see people tomorrow challenging as many black voters as possible, trying to keep them from voting.
We've already seen these challenges by the thousands in Georgia.
Right. And this is a direct reaction to the election of 2020, just to be frank. We know what the reaction is gonna be when Black people,
when people of color broadly,
but Black people specifically,
exercise their constitutional right to vote.
So this is nothing new,
but we tell people to stand in the pocket,
resolve and resolute, and cast their ballot,
even if it takes a long time if they have to stand in line.
But if you run into problems on election day,
I want you to program this number into your phone.
1-866-OUR-VOTE. Once again, you've seen the ads on
Roland Martin's show. We really appreciate you running these ads, Roland.
But 1-866-OUR-VOTE will try to help you get an answer to
the problem that you're running into at the polling location.
And so, again, for the people who might have issues,
all of a sudden something crops up, and if they can't sell it, they can.
Now, because so many places say you can't use cell phones.
So they can call that number as they're standing there in line, correct?
That is correct.
And we want to hear about problems, even if you're not sure if it's a major problem.
For example, let's say you go vote at lunchtime and it's taking longer than you anticipated and the lines are long.
Give us a call. We'll see if we can get in contact with somebody on the ground to figure out what's going
on, whether it's a polling machine malfunction and you might just need to go and come back later.
Or if you're in line and the polling location closes at seven o'clock and they try to close
the doors on you, but you were already in line at the closing time, we'll get somebody on the
phone to make sure that that polling location does not close before you have the opportunity to cast your ballot.
So 1-866-R-VOTE.
If you're running into problems, we want to hear about it.
We really want to hear about it because we want to help you and make sure that you can cast your ballot.
So the main thing is for anybody, if you have issues, don't get pissed off.
Don't get angry.
Don't leave in protest.
Make sure you have to cast your ballot. Call that number.
And no matter what goes on, call that number and y'all can help them through that process.
Don't get frustrated and just leave. Absolutely. Absolutely.
We need your votes. We need your votes. This is your constitutional right.
But it's also your duty. There's a lot on the ballot this November.
Our democracy, and I don't mean to fear-monger,
but I'm glad Representative Clyburn said what he said before I hopped on.
Listen, the core tenets of our democracy are under attack.
This is one of the most critical elections of my lifetime,
so we need you to get out and exercise your vote.
Absolutely. All right.
Dorian Spence, we certainly appreciate it. The Laws Committee, Pacific Rights Under the Law, thanks a lot.
Truly appreciate it, Shirella. Thank you.
I appreciate it, folks. Here are
some of those ads we're talking about. We've been running them
and so these are the ads they have put
together. It's important for you to lock
that number into your phone. Go ahead and play it.
Know your rights before
you vote.
If you have any
questions or a problem voting, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE. Exercise your right to vote.
If the lines are long or you're getting turned away, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE. For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
Know your voting rights.
If you are unsure where to vote,
or don't know if your polling location has changed,
call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
It's time to know your rights.
If someone is questioning your right to vote, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
Folks, and so again, that's the good with the Lawyers Committee.
The Civil Rights Under Law is doing all critically important.
Gotta go to a break. We'll come back.
We'll talk with our panel. We'll come back.
We'll talk with our panel.
We'll hear from Congressman Gregory Meeks,
also on the show.
We're going to hear from Sherri Beasley,
who's running for the United States Senate
in North Carolina as well.
Plus, we'll show you that video Gary Chambers
is putting out talking about the low and abysmal
early voting numbers happening in Louisiana.
We'll talk about all of that.
And plus, Nikki Haley.
Do you know what her trifling ass said?
She actually said that Senator Raphael Warnock
should be deported.
He's from Savannah, Georgia.
You an immigrant, not him.
And a group of African Americans
has sent a letter to MSNBC President Rashida Jones
demanding a meeting over the firing of Tiffany Cross.
We'll break it all down right here
on Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.
Download the Black Star Network app, folks.
We've already hit 50,000 downloads.
Now let's go to 75,000.
Hit download on your Apple phone, Android phone,
Apple TV, Android TV, Roku,
and what's on Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, and join our Bring the Funk fan club.
Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do.
Send your checks and money orders to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.
Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.
Zale is Roland at RolandSMartin.com.
Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.
And get your copy of your book, White Fear,
How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose
Their Minds, available at all bookstores
and also Amazon, Barnes & Noble.
You can also, of course, get it
from your favorite black bookstore. Download your copy
on Audible. We'll be right back.
When we invest in ourselves,
our glow,
our vision,
our vibe,
we all shine.
Together, we are black beyond measure.
It's time to know your rights. If someone is questioning your right to vote,
call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
We've got to stand up.
Republicans are banning abortion rights,
tearing down democracy, blocking progress.
But when Democrats stand together, we win.
Because we voted, Democrats stood up for black lives,
voting to ban police chokeholds,
stood up for black women, putting one on the Supreme Court,
stood up for our families,
lowering cost of health care and prescriptions
and capping insulin,
and stood up for millions by slashing student debt.
This November, let's stand up together
and keep making progress.
It doesn't happen like we think it does.
No one rolls the tanks.
No armies meet in pitched battle.
It happens quietly, little by little.
And because so many think it can't happen, it does happen.
Little by little, the rules change.
It doesn't seem shocking or sudden.
And that's the point.
Fewer places to vote, longer lines.
Don't worry, they say.
We're just improving the system.
They hope we won't notice the rules are changing because they lost the last election.
They hope we just won't care enough to stop them.
They believe they can take America away from us,
and we won't even notice.
We know who they are.
We know what they want.
The question is, who are we?
Do we let them get away with it, or do we fight?
Democracy is on the ballot.
Vote while your vote still counts.
The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising.
You know what's on the ballot.
It's not just legislation and policies we believe in. It's democracy.
Our democracy.
There's a choice on the ballot between freedom and fear,
between cruelty and compassion, between chaos and community,
between voting or violence. And the end of rights generations have fought for. The extremists have
a plan, a roadmap for a nation where your voice is silenced and your vote is a memory, where they
count their votes and cast ours aside. That's why this year, this fight,
this vote is so important. Register, engage, volunteer, fight back against the disinformation
and despair, and most of all, vote. Because your vote is all that stands between our future and theirs.
My name is Charlie Wilson.
Hi, I'm Sally Richardson-Whitfield.
And I'm Dodger Whitfield.
Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man,
Unfiltered.
Folks, as I was saying, the power of the black vote is huge.
When you start breaking down these states where we are,
you will understand what happens when we don't show up.
And frankly, we're allowing our power to be unused.
And so how do we complain about what we're not getting? How do we complain that, oh, we're not getting these
billions of dollars coming from out of Washington, D.C., and this is not happening on the state level,
on the county level, and the local level? Well, again, voting is a part of that. You've never
heard me say that voting is the be-all to end-all, that everything with black America is based upon voting. You've never heard me say that.
But you have heard me say that voting is a part of this process.
We cannot complain about policies if you then don't change out the politicians.
We can't holler tangibles and we want this and want that if we are not maximizing our votes.
Gary Chambers, who's running for the United States Senate in Louisiana, put this video out, folks,
and listen to how he breaks down the early voting turnout in the largest cities where black folks reside in Louisiana. In Jefferson Parish, 7,745,000 eligible black voters, only 16,000 showed up to vote. In Caddo Parish, there are 73,000 black voters,
only 6,955 showed up to vote early.
In Jefferson Parish, 73,000 black voters,
6,428 showed up to vote early.
In Lafayette Parish, 37,000 black voters, 2,751 showed up to vote.
In Ouachita Parish, 37,000 black voters, 2,928 showed up to vote.
In Calcasieu Parish, 31,000 black voters, 2,260 showed up to vote.
St. Landry, 25,000, 3,038 showed up.
St. Tammany, 22,000, 2,409 showed up to vote.
And in Tangibahoa, 21,000 eligible black voters
and 1,541 showed up to vote.
There are 900,000 registered black voters.
96,000 black voters have showed up so far.
That means for every black person in Louisiana right now that you see, when you see 10, only one of them voted.
John Kennedy was elected with 536,000 votes.
He is talking about crackheads, and I'm talking about change.
The question is, how bad do you want change?
Get up and do something.
Share this video so that people in our state know.
And I'ma watch the numbers to know if you're sharing
because that's how we know that people in our state know. And I'm going to watch the numbers to know if he's sharing
because that's how we know that we are communicating with people.
The revolution may not be televised, but they ain't saying nothing about it.
Dr. Julianne Valvo, Dean, College of Ethnic Studies,
California State University, Los Angeles.
Renita Shannon, Georgia State Representative.
Dr. Jason Nichols, Senior Lecturer, African American Studies Department,
University of Maryland, College Park.
Look, bottom line, Julian, 10%. 10%.
That means there's going to have to be a massive number of black people
turn out tomorrow in Louisiana
to even get close to 30,
40, 50 percent.
And this is early voting over a period of days
in Louisiana.
You know, Roland,
our indifference
is galling.
These are people, as you said earlier,
as Congressman Clyburn said,
these are people who will complain.
They will be on the telephone when
their Social Security check does not come,
when they have a problem, but they will not vote.
John Kennedy doesn't give a hoot about them.
They need to get out and vote.
And this brother's video is staggering, literally one in ten,
and he goes through parish by parish to look at what's going on.
But the indifference that our people have, it's, you know,
people like Melanie Campbell, Tasha Brown, these folks are out there beating drums saying, come on,
guys, vote. We shouldn't have to beg people to do something that will make a difference in the
quality of their lives. And if you stay home, don't complain. That's all. Just don't complain.
When somebody beat your child upside the head, don't complain. You went for it. When inflation
goes up and the cost of food goes up, don't complain. When the schools close or they outlaw
our books, don't complain. Because we have too many Black people
who are just too apathetic and indifferent to the process.
Now, I get it.
I just had a young brother on campus
who said to me he wasn't going to vote.
But we've got a pivotal election here in L.A.
Karen Bass, a wonderful former congresswoman,
and what's his name, Caruso, Rick Caruso,
the multimillionaire who believes he can purchase elections.
He's been outspending her like 13 to 1.
And this young brother says he's not going to vote
because whoever he votes for is not going to solve the homeless problem.
And I told him, I said, but I guarantee you this,
nobody can solve, solve the problem,
but Rick Caruso will make a profit out of the homeless problem, a profit because he's a predatory capitalist.
So, I mean, I'd argue with a young man for about 15 minutes and I had something else to do.
And I told him, I said, you know, Dr. King is rolling over his grave.
And, you know, that but that argument doesn't work for young people.
And I don't know what we can say to them to get them to understand this is connected to their lives and their livelihoods.
But so many of them, just whatever happened to them, they didn't have the enthusiasm.
I remember the first time I voted in 1972.
I remember.
I couldn't wait to vote.
I wanted to vote.
And I think a lot of people in my generation, we boomers, we felt that way.
But I don't know what we lost along the way with these younger people, but our entire community suffers
when people say, like this young brother,
well, it really doesn't make a difference.
It does make a difference.
I think right there, Representative Shannon,
that again, okay, so someone says,
well, you know, none of these folks
are going to solve the homeless problem.
Okay, what are you solving by actually not voting?
To me, to me, this? To me, this is, and I get it.
I get folks being frustrated.
I get them being upset.
I get them being angry.
But I keep saying, you know one of these folks
are going to win.
And so if you care about the homeless issue,
what we should be doing is mobilizing and organized so whoever wins, applying that pressure to deal with that problem.
Well, so I'm going to give the voters of Louisiana the benefit of the doubt because we don't know if there was any organizational support to tell folks to vote early.
Our early voting in Georgia has been historic and you've been hearing about it around the nation, but that's because organizations for
the last couple of years, pretty much at the same time that we saw Republicans ramp up and start to
do more and more voter suppression tactics, left-leaning organizations, voting rights
organizations, as well as candidates, all came together to start telling people, listen, you
must early vote, and here's why it's important,
so that you can fix issues
and not wait until Election Day
and then have issues that may not be fixable,
and as a result, your vote may not count at all.
If you're not having all those systems come together
and you're not having everybody sing together
on the same page about the importance of early voting,
you're not gonna get that result of folks early voting.
I mean, I get...
I mean, look, I totally understand that.
I totally understand that.
But let's just be real clear.
If you're living in Louisiana,
you are being inundated with political ads on television,
on every radio station.
You're seeing billboards.
Something is telling you,
yo, there's an election going on around here.
And I get it.
You absolutely have to have the organizations that are on the ground.
And there are organizations that are on the ground in Louisiana that have been doing that.
Have they gotten the level of attention with what New Georgia Voting Project did?
No.
Have they gotten it?
But you have had that.
But still, what I'm trying to say, though,
is our people are going to have to assume responsibility.
As Dr. King said, you have to write your own emancipation proclamation.
And so we're going to have to say, hold on,
what's my part? What
have I done and who am I reaching
out to as well? Because
those numbers that he gave, we could go
back multiple elections and that's
one of the reasons why folk don't have power.
But here in Georgia,
like I said before, year after year, we've had
everybody get swamped with election
ads. We had the same thing going on that every other state had going on.
I'm telling you that our numbers being historic for early voting did not change until
we started with the specific messaging of why it was important to early vote and
teaching people to use that as a way to beat voter suppression and having problems at the
polls. So until everybody's on that same page talking about, hey, you need to early
vote specifically instead of waiting until Election Day,
Georgia looked a lot like what's going on in Louisiana.
Everybody just waiting until Election Day.
So I do think that that is the difference.
Jason.
So it's interesting.
I was just on television earlier with a pollster, and this pollster said that 14% of African Americans were undecided,
and that basically indicates that they're not going to vote at all.
So I think it's really important for us to get out there and cast our ballots.
Is that national or is that a state?
That's a national. That's not state.
Okay, got it. Okay.
But, yeah, I mean, nationally he was saying that about 14% were going to go,
say they're going to go to Republicans, and another 14 percent says that they're not going to or that they haven't decided, which indicates generally that they're not going to vote.
I hope none of that is true.
Democrats need about 90 percent of African-American votes to win. And I think one of the things that I would always say to people when I encounter students who say something similar to the student who spoke to Julian or Dr. Malveaux,
I would always say there would not be, if voting were not important, they would not put so many obstacles in the way of you voting.
And they've always done it.
And it goes back, they put obstacles in the way
of your parents voting, of your grandparents voting,
and now they're trying to put obstacles
in the way of you voting.
If voting were not important, they wouldn't do that.
And again, part of this is our responsibility
after Election Day, as you stated, Roland,
and that is that we have to hold our election,
our elected officials accountable.
You don't just elect your school board.
You go to school board meetings.
You go and you say that you don't like the curriculum.
Guess who's doing that?
Not the people that support what we support, not the people that support the education that we want for our children.
But we need to do the same thing.
And we need to hold our vote, our election,
our elected officials accountable. We have seen the Republicans primary tens, dozens of their
people, whether it was the Tea Party movement or the Trump movement, where they come through,
and they primary people that they don't agree with. We need to use our ballot as power and not
say that it doesn't do anything,
because if it didn't, they wouldn't put so many obstacles in the way of us voting.
Absolutely. I had Walter Hudson in our YouTube chat. He said, I totally understand what she is
saying because I have two ignorant, illiterate, and foolish sons who are determined not to vote.
Just pray and move on because this new rebellious in the black community is real.
Well, I tell you, Walter, I don't know how you handle it, but I'm just letting you know right now.
If I had two sons and they were acting a fool and wouldn't vote,
they punk asses couldn't come nowhere near my house for no Sunday dinner or anything.
I'll be laying down a law when it comes to that.
So I'm just saying, you know, keep trying.
But I don't understand what these folks out here think who yell,
holler, and scream.
They want to see tangibles.
They want to see results.
They want to see stuff. But, again, and let me say it again for the folk in the back,
voting is the end of one process and the beginning of another.
And so just like we are mobilized and organized to vote,
we've got to also stay mobilized and organized to then demand the very things that we say that we want to get.
That has to happen. That has to happen.
And look, if all y'all, all y'all want to be so-called radicals,
what does Stokely Carmichael, Kwame Ture say about this very issue?
He said, show me somebody who has been able to achieve something for black people.
It was done through black organizations, not individuals.
What he's saying is you must be mobilized as a group to move.
It's called collective action.
And so, again, folk can get together.
They can yell, holler, and scream.
They can say, we need to see this, this, this.
But if you then don't do anything about it,
it's an absolute waste of time.
Going to a break.
We come back.
We're going to hear from Congressman Gregory Meeks
of New York about the election.
Also, what must Democrats be doing better,
especially when it comes to resources for African Americans?
I asked him that question.
In the next hour, we'll hear from Sherri Beasley,
who's running for the United States Senate, North Carolina.
We'll also talk about this white girl in Kentucky
who lost her mind, called this sister the N-word,
and almost tried to, she actually
was assaulting her. Hmm.
That white girl's been arrested, and she's
lost her job with Dillard's. I'll explain
all of that. You're watching Rolling Mark
Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Download
the Black Star Network app, folks. Apple
Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android
TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV,
Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.
Please join our Bring the Funk fan club.
Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do.
Senior checks and money orders to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196.
Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered.
PayPal is RMartinUnfiltered.
Venmo is RMUnfiltered.
Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com.
Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And of course,
please be sure to get your book
White Fear, How the Browning of America
is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds.
Ben Bella Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
IndieBound, Bookshop, Chapters, Books A Million,
Target. Also order through your favorite black bookstore
or download the book on Audible.
We'll be right back.
When we invest in ourselves, we all shine.
Together, we are black beyond measure.
Exercise your right to vote.
If the lines are long or you're getting turned away,
call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE. For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
For more information, call or text 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
We've got to stand up.
Republicans are banning abortion rights,
tearing down democracy, blocking progress.
But when Democrats stand together, we win.
Because we voted, Democrats stood up for black lives,
voting to ban police chokeholds,
stood up for black women, putting one on the Supreme Court,
stood up for our families, lowering to ban police chokeholds, stood up for black women, putting one on the Supreme Court, stood up for our families,
lowering cost of health care and prescriptions
and capping insulin,
and stood up for millions by slashing student debt.
This November, let's stand up together
and keep making progress. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine.
Together, we are Black beyond measure.
I am Letitia Hill-Gadet, owner of Adendorf Laboratories.
In America, our freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest is a wonderful thing,
but faith without works is dead. Will you take
souls to the polls? If you don't vote, all of your activities were done in vain. I am an ordained
minister, a presiding elder in the AME Zion Church, a wife, a mother. I am spending my time and my
resources to encourage you to vote. Paid for by Eidhoff Laboratories. It doesn't happen like we think
it does. No one rolls the tanks. No armies meet in pitched battle. It happens quietly,
little by little. And because so many think it can't happen, it does happen. Little by little,
the rules change. It doesn't seem shocking or sudden. And that's the point. Fewer places to vote,
longer lines. Don't worry, they say. We're just improving the system. They hope we won't notice
the rules are changing because they lost the last election. They hope we just won't care enough to
stop them. They believe they can take America away from us, and we won't even notice.
We know who they are.
We know what they want.
The question is, who are we?
Do we let them get away with it, or do we fight?
Democracy is on the ballot.
Vote while your vote still counts.
The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising.
Hey, everybody, it's your girl, Linnell.
So what's up? This is your boy, Irv Quake.
Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.
All right, folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network.
The stories that we're covering, we're going to get back to politics in just a second.
We're going to talk about this story that is out of Virginia.
You've heard us discuss.
Again, Florida's, well, first of all, folks,
Florida's Virginia Key Beach Park Trust Board.
So, members, they are in jeopardy of losing control
of one of Miami's historically black beaches.
Virginia Key Beach is a landmark in the U.S. National Register of Extorted Places
because it was one of the first black-only beaches in Florida.
Well, a board has overseen the coast since 2008,
but this year the City of Miami Commission proposed that a majority non-black commission
take over managing the Virginia Key Beach Trust. This year, the City of Miami Commission proposed that a majority non-black commission take
over managing the Virginia Key Beach Trust.
Commissioners accused the trust, current board of malfeasance, despite no evidence presented
to the public.
The predominantly black community opposes the removal of the board and wants to keep
the trust in charge of what happens to the historic landmark.
Joining us right now to discuss this is attorney and former chair of the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust in Patrick Range.
All right. So first of all, I don't understand.
How can you accuse someone of malfeasance, but you present no evidence of the malfeasance?
That's a great question, Brother Martin. and thank you again for having me this evening.
Great question. It puzzles me to this day how an elected official could on the record accuse a citizen of malfeasance or financial impropriety with no evidence.
So they're just saying, sorry, these folks are screwing up and they got nothing.
I mean, like literally, there's no report. There's nothing read to the public record.
Nothing. Just, hey, they're doing something wrong. We can't tell you what it is, though.
There was an audit that was conducted over the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust, which is the entity of which I was chairman. And that audit did have some findings within it,
but they were mostly clerical items, nothing suggesting malfeasance or anything of the sort.
And the odd thing is, Brother Martin, is that they actually mentioned this report before,
this audit before it was even finalized. And the auditors even said that they should not have brought it up.
So what it was, was a tool in order to remove us and using these lies, blatant lies,
to impugn the trust's character and go forward with removing us.
So, okay, so if they're over this, what are they
actually over? What are they controlling? Is it resources? What's really the issue here?
Well, that's the funny thing in all of this, Brother Martin. The fact that they have
moved to take over the trust, the city commissioners, they already had oversight over the trust prior to them coming in and placing themselves as the trustees.
So it's very puzzling. And the speed with which they did it simply says to me that there is something untoward going on,
some plan that they have. And we must have been seen as obstacles to that plan. So what's next?
I mean, what's going to be, you know,
who actually makes the final decision if this happens?
The city of Miami is the body that controls
the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust.
So they will make decisions as it relates to the trust itself.
Miami-Dade County, however, which is the larger body, which includes, of course, the city of Miami, Miami Beach and many other municipalities.
The county is the gateholder for the dollars that we are awaiting for the construction of the museum,
which would be the first museum dedicated to black history in the city of Miami, if you can believe that we don't have one.
Gotcha. Well, well, certainly let us know what the heck happens here.
This is it's somewhat very strange, but it also goes to show what we've always dealt with,
where folks want to take control of those things that Black folks have always controlled.
Well, we're not going to be silent, Brother Martin. We're going to fight, and providentially, it would have been
my grandmother's birthday today.
She was the founding chair of the
Virginia Key Beach Park Trust. She passed away in
2006, but I'm sure she would be
turning over in her
grave to know what's going on here
and that the community's voice is being taken away.
So we're going to fight.
All right. Patrick Grange, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, Brother Martin.
All right, folks.
Again, we talk about this election and what's going on.
Well, that's a perfect example.
When you talk about these groups, these commissions and who controls them,
that also is tied to votes.
Why? They're people who appoint commissioners.
I can't keep explaining to folks over and over and over again
why voting matters in terms of who's in power. When you have power, then you're the one who
gets to call the shots. I talked with Congressman Greg Meeks of New York about this election,
what matters, and also what Democrats should be doing, and also what happens if they lose the
House and or the Senate. There needs to be a reckoning when it comes to what they've done with Black
voters. Here's our conversation. All right, Congressman Greg Meeks, let's get right to it.
Election is tomorrow. Look, Democrats are desperately trying to hold on to the House.
You've got a lot of tight races. You've got Maloney there in New York in a dogfight.
A lot of these prognosticators are
saying that Democrats are going to lose the House. What do you see happening tomorrow?
I see Democrats holding the House. I think that when you look at the procrastinators
and what they're saying, there's a whole, you know, they're going by some of the polls
and polls have proven to be wrong. Number one, when you look at the number of individuals
who are newly registered, they're not being polled.
And we saw a whole slew of newly registered individuals,
especially young people, in August and September.
And I think that when it comes down to the fact that
when folks look at what we have done
as compared to what the Republicans talk about,
that ultimately they are going to vote for Democrats.
Is it going to be a close election?
Absolutely, it's going to be close.
But I do think that,
and the reason why it's going to be close in my estimation
is only because we had so many Democrats that retired.
And so they have more seats that,
we have more seats that are open
that used to be held by Democrats than the Republicans have to defend. But I think that
if we come out to vote, especially black and brown people, if we come out to vote in the same way that
we did in 2016 and in the way that we did for Barack Obama. If we come out to vote, we win.
But on that, I mean, here's the reality. The reality is Obama brought out those who were
Black voters because he was African-American. Let's just be straight. And I have been critical
of him and the Democratic Party infrastructure because what happened was a lot of those white media consultants,
I'm going to be very specific, were like, cool, we don't have to sit here and do what we did before.
Now, here's the problem with that. You still need that black infrastructure when he was no longer president.
And since he is, he left, Democrats have been desperately trying to put that infrastructure back together.
And I can tell you, Congressman, I have spent a lot of time on the ground with grassroots
organizations, with activists, myself and Black-owned media, that a short shrift is being
paid and the resources are not being put into Black communities to turn them out. We're seeing
what's happening with Black men
that, you know, a lot of us sounded the alarm and there was no significant, you know, infrastructure
put in place or a plan to really talk to them. And so, look, if Democrats lose the House tomorrow
night and lose the Senate or lose either one, there has to be a reckoning in this party when it comes to the soul and the backbone of the party
and the unwillingness to properly fund and go after Black voters.
Well, I think that what we're seeing is happening.
I know, for example, there's been more individuals as chair of the Congressional Black Caucuses Political Action Committee.
We put more money into it and and we had it focused on black men.
And we've talked within the DCCC and others, and we've watched the vendors.
And I can tell you that with reference to the dollars that the DCCC has put in, I think part of the problem is, though, when you look at what takes place at these elections and the reason why you look at the money differential that's's compared there into the Democratic Party or not is because of the Citizen United case. And you see these
multi-billionaire Republicans at the last second putting in all of this money, and it makes the
scale go, you know, lopsided. Oh, no, no, no. I totally get that. I'm not speaking of the actual
scale. What I'm speaking of are real dollars. And what I'm talking about is, and I'll go ahead and say it, all too often, and I've heard this from way too many Black folks who've been in this game for quite some time, that Black folks are asked to volunteer and not be paid. I can tell you, look, we were reaching out six, seven months ago in terms of my media company,
others in Black-owned media weren't hearing back, weren't getting back.
Then all of a sudden we do get a phone call in September and what was being discussed was so trifling that I simply rejected it outright on principle. What I'm saying is,
look, the Black voter today is different than it was 20, 30 years ago. Older Black voters
self-identify as Democrats. You go 45 and below, they're not. So Democrats are going to have to
work a hell of a lot harder to get Black folks a message to them. And what I'm saying is that's a problem.
And we're actually seeing it in the research and the data that exists before us. And I think that
is going to be something that they are going to have to address. They lose tomorrow. It's sitting
right there. And the black pollsters have been saying it. I don't know if these white strategists
in the party are listening. Well, I'm not going to, you know, dispute what you're saying in that regards. I will say this,
that midterm elections, at least from my viewpoint on the House side, is different than when you have
a presidential election. Very true. We've always had a lower turnout in midterm elections. And in
midterm elections for the House, we're trying to fight for seats to keep in the majority in that regards.
And too often, the districts that we've got to win have smaller numbers of African-Americans in those House seats.
And so, for example, those House seats that we need to win in and to maintain the house, you know, they have and we're investing in trying to get the maybe to the 9 percent or the 10 percent or the 5 percent of black folks that are in there to get them out and to try to convince the candidates and others that we've got to put money in there to get that.
Because that 10 percent admittedly could be the difference between winning and losing.
And what they don't understand is that's the fact.
So you look at it and you say, oh,
there's only 10% African-Americans in this particular house seat.
And so you don't invest in that community.
That's wrong because that can be the difference between winning and losing.
And so we try to get that message out.
Now you're absolutely
right when you talk about on a larger scale, trying to win a state with the gubernatorial
elections, the Senate elections, there's got to be a new way to look at who, you know, and make
sure that it's equitable, because I also will agree with you on this. Your company, for example,
they offer you one amount of dollars,
and somebody else is going to do something else with other folks, et cetera.
They will pay you.
They pay them substantially more.
So I don't blame you for saying that I'm going to only accept what you are paying other people.
And so I'm going to fight again for the Congressional Black Caucus to make sure that there's parity
and it's equitable
in who you're hiring
and how you're paying them.
And so I clearly understand.
So I don't want to make it seem
like I don't understand what you're talking about.
I understand that that's a fight
that we do have to make
and make sure that we fix come 2024.
I think that we have,
I know with the DCCC, we've made a significant
change there. I could see the numbers and the percentage of black folks involved in the DCCC,
as well as those that they've been hiring, et cetera, as far as consultants are concerned.
But we had a broader problem. I don't disagree with you at all.
When we talk about messaging, there's been so much focus on, obviously, from a Democratic standpoint on Roe v.
Wade. But when you look at what people are talking about, they talk about economy, economy, economy, economy.
And as somebody who has watched y'all pass bills, watched the Senate do things, and then Biden signs them,
I sort of go back to when Obama was president, and that is, okay, signing a bill is one thing,
but going hard and messaging and letting folks know what you did is another thing. Do you believe that that's also one of the weaknesses that Democrats did not properly define themselves on what happened with this economy?
I mean, I look at this election and I saw very few people reminding who sent those checks out.
They helped people pay their rent.
They helped people put gas in their car.
And who screwed up the earned income child tax credit? And I was just sort of like sitting
here going, there is an economic story to tell. They're just not telling it.
Roland, you are 1000% right. I'm looking at all of the ads that everybody put on television.
I've seen not one talk about what we've done. Not one.
We've taken care of veterans with the PACT Act.
We have the Inflation Reduction Act.
We did a infrastructure bill.
We passed the CHIPS bill, all of which brings jobs back,
creates better opportunities, makes a prescription.
You can negotiate your prescription drugs now,
caps the amount that seniors would have to pay for health care, extended.
Everybody saves money, money that we put people's in pockets.
They forget about when Trump was president.
We didn't have, you know, what he was talking about as far as the pandemic is concerned.
And there is not one commercial that I've seen to articulate what we have done.
I know in my district, I say that all the time.
I said, do I have to remind you?
Let me remind you of this fact.
And we did it.
And we did it with a 50-50 split Senate and only a five majority in the House.
So the motivation of what should have been, especially in the Senate,
is because we had times where we had one or two senators,
because we had zero votes on the Republican side.
Remember that? Zero.
Right, right.
And where one or two senators,
thereby who comes from different kinds of districts,
could hold it up.
So we should have had the momentum,
and the objective is,
let's elect at least two more
senators. So therefore, we don't have to worry about just that one or two. But we have not talked
about that at all, at all. Yeah. Yeah, that's been I'm just kind of like, OK, what's going on
here? I got to get this here. President Biden gave a strong speech last week talking about democracy. And I saw this piece in The New York Times where it said that Biden was hoping to preside over, you know, ending this polarization.
And I just think that's Pollyanna, to be perfectly honest.
I think at some point President Biden and Democratic leadership are going to have to accept the reality that that stop saying this is not your grandfather's Republican Party.
That ain't coming back. The Republican Party today is who they are.
They are who, as Dennis Green said that video, we knew who were they.
We knew who they were. OK, and that's And that's the deal. Okay. They're not going back. This notion of ultra MAGA,
no, MAGA is the GOP. And I think part of this thing moving forward, Democrats are going to
have to take an aggressive posture and understand you're not reasoning with people who have decided
to be a hundred percent in bed with Donald Trump and the crazies. That is now the
party. They believe in power, not principles, not morals, not values, not ethics, not character.
They want to hold on to power. And I think that has to be how you treat them and deal with them.
And I think that's why they should hire you.
We should hire you because that's exactly the truth.
That's exactly the truth.
The Republican Party, look at all of those folks that the Republican Party of the past, they got out of the party themselves.
Look at Joe Scarborough.
You know, he was one of the biggest Republicans.
He's got out of the party.
And all of those kind of, so that's, they tell you that's not our party anymore.
So if you see the Republicans of the past saying that's not our party anymore,
and they had to leave the party, then you should believe them.
And that's who they are.
The Republican is the Magna Party.
This so-called, you know, they try to call themselves the Freedom Caucus.
They're really the caucus of January 6th,
the insurrectionist caucus.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
And trying to rationalize and deal with them
does not make any sense.
When you look at those individuals,
they're not rational.
And that's what that Republican Party is.
And that's what should be said.
Because if you talk to privately, as I have some of the Republicans that say,
they'll say behind the scenes that they don't agree with this, agree with that.
But they know if they did that, it's against their party.
And they will get rid of them so they thereby fall in line with what the party is today and will be tomorrow.
Well, I think we're going to be on for six hours tomorrow night.
And this is a perfect example of why I go so hard when it comes to the dollars.
There's no black-owned media outlet that's going to have six hours of live coverage tomorrow night.
We shouldn't have to depend on MSNBC or CNN or ABC or CBS from our perspective.
I can guarantee you there will be more black people rolling Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network tomorrow night than probably all those networks combined.
And that's why we fight so hard for the dollars, because we've got to be able to tell our story, control our story and not have to wait for other folk to do it.
Well, I couldn't agree with you more. And no one does it. You know, you know, when we look at you and who's better to tell our story and talk to our people than us?
And why you are tremendously important and needed and others like you.
I can tell you, you know, whether you look at this whole political aspect, and that's how I also tell some of our young folks, that, you know, let's not.
And this is what part of my responsibilities are also, because everybody can't run for office.
But there's other professions that we've been locked out of politically.
Let's get in those spaces, but let's make sure that they are paid like others that are in this also.
Because I'm and I will admit, you know, it's a capitalist society and I'm a capitalist.
And the whole problem is don't keep us out of the money.
We need to be in the money like everybody else.
So that's how we can be free and helpful like other people have done.
That's what it is.
So we can't sell ourselves short
and let's make sure
we're getting into, and my job is to help
opening some of those doors and making
sure that we have equity, which is
what we've been doing with Maxine, why these
elections are important, what Maxine Waters, for example, has been doing as chair of the Financial Services
Committee, putting George Beatty and creating a committee for diversity and inclusion, and then
bringing CEOs and others and saying, these boards got to open up and putting people in responsible
spots where they could make some money, but also change the industry itself
so that we can benefit from and have more access to capital and have more businesses, big, small,
and medium. Same thing with me on foreign affairs. I mean, that's what's a whole lot of why these
elections are important. As chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I can say that we've got to
make sure that we have Black investors throughout the world and get us at the table.
I mean, so the same thing, if we don't win tomorrow, and I still think that there's a
slim chance, but if we don't, the historic six members of the Congressional Black Caucus
who are chairs of four committees, who all have this as part of their agenda, we lose
all of that.
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee on Financial Services is gone. The focus on the Foreign Affairs Committee,
on Black America, on Caribbean America, on Africa, on Blacks in Central and South America,
and all around the world is gone. They're not interested in any of that. What we've done,
what Bobby Scott has done with putting investment in HBCUs,
more money has gone to HBCUs, that's gone. In fact, even with what Benny Thompson has been doing
with Homeland Security and trying to make sure that the dollars go, defense money and other in
that regard, and we've seen the job that he's done to preserve democracy on the January 6th committee.
And finally, there's been no Black man.
I'm the first Black person to chair the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, but David Scott's
the first one to control the Agriculture Committee.
And we know how much food, particularly
in the South, Black farmers, etc.,
that David Scott, all of that's gone
and becomes no longer part of
the dialogue and conversation
even on these committees to set those policies.
So, you know, a lot, there's a lot on the line.
But all that you say, I cannot disagree with,
and hopefully we'll get better at it
because the election's coming up.
The election tomorrow is very important,
and we got to get folks to turn out.
And if we can get them to turn out,
we could also make sure that we
even more in 2024.
There you go. It all comes down
to turnout. I keep saying that.
And so that's what it boils down to.
And so, Congressman Greg Meeks, always a
pleasure to have you on the show. It's always good to have
alpha men handling their business.
Yes, sir. Thank you, my brother. I appreciate it.
Take care.
All right, folks.
Renita, Julian, and Jason,
I think a significant part
of this, and I talk about
this all the time, and I've said this to
CBC members,
you've got to tell your
story. You've actually
have got to do a better job tell your story. You've actually have got to do a better job
explaining your story.
And a lot of people who don't live and breathe this stuff
don't have any clue what it means
when you are the chair of a committee,
what it means when it comes to resources.
And then you have these people who say,
well, folks in Congress, why our community look this way?
Well, first of all, we start talking about money,
which is what drives me crazy.
Federal money, state money, county money, city money.
Okay, that's four different layers of government.
Most people are directly impacted by local government.
And so when people go,
oh my goodness,
these folks, CBC ain't done
nothing, they ain't worth it.
Folk have no understanding
because typically what happens is money
that's coming from D.C. is actually going to the states
and block grants.
And so when you have Republican governors,
they are controlling the flow of the
money that's coming from Washington, D.C.
Renita?
Well, and this is one of the reasons why my head does not explode at some of the comments that you say make your head explode,
because dealing with constituents, you know, as an elected official for the last six years,
I do realize just how much people don't understand the different levels of government and who does what within government. So political education has got to be a part of our strategy, as well as stressing to
folks the importance of voting. But the other thing is, and I think that this is really important,
you brought this up in your conversation with the congressperson, talking about the investments in
Black voters. The DNC still needs to do that. And so what's interesting is, you look right here in
Georgia, and we've already got some folks blaming Black men for what they think may be some losses tomorrow. But what I never see
happen is the DNC never holds white moderates accountable, which they continue to overinvest in.
We have not won white women since JFK nationally, the majority of white women, as Democrats. But
they never fail to continue to invest in these
mythical voters. And we never see any type of accountability campaign. We see people continue
to shout at Black folks about not voting and, you know, just not showing up in the way that folks
want. But the DNC continues to throw lots and lots of money of these voters that really don't show up
for us. And there's never any talk or accountability about these voters not showing up for Democrats.
So I think, to your point that you were making with the congressperson, Democrats have got
to understand and remember who their base is and actually invest as if they know who
their base is.
And that would be Black and brown women.
I mean, I'm sorry, Black and Black men and Black women.
Jason?
Yeah, I'm in agreement.
I think Democrats, it is incumbent upon the people,
the elected officials, and the party to earn people's votes.
Now, I do think it's important for us, you know,
to take responsibility as voters and to vote.
But in order to get them to vote for a particular party,
you have to earn it. You can't expect it.
And you also have to tout your accomplishments the right way.
You have to let people know what your agenda is.
And you have to let people know how your agenda will affect their everyday lives.
And if people aren't given that information, what are they supposed to be voting for?
Just because you have a D behind your name?
I don't think that that's enough.
So I definitely put a lot of the onus for this.
If there is a smaller number of African-Americans voting in particular places or nationwide,
that's on the Democrats. That's on their messaging. That's on their effort to get people out to vote.
It seems like African-Americans who aren't even elected officials, who aren't necessarily tied
to the DCCC, excuse me, to the DCCC or any other kind of organization like that.
They're organizing on their own.
They're getting people out to vote.
It's the churches.
They're doing all of that.
Where is the support coming from the party?
And yet, as we saw in 2016, Democrats are really quick to be ready to blame black folks when they lose. Um, and rarely don't,
they don't necessarily give all of black folks, particularly black men, the credit when they win,
you know? So they, they sometimes finally, after the election of Doug Jones, they started to
recognize black women, but they didn't do that for Black men and then wonder why some Black men might be frustrated.
So it's time for people, you know, the Democratic Party to really take this seriously, to go out to their base.
Republicans do it. They give their base what they want and they speak directly to their base.
And it seems like Democrats sometimes are lacking in that category.
Julianne?
Democrats shilly-shally around Blackness.
They are afraid of Black people, so they do not basically target Black people, even though
we are their base.
The fact is that they don't want to alienate white people.
Therefore, they will not talk directly to black people.
And that's how they lose, black women and black men. I mean, sisters like Melanie, LaTosha
Brown, so many others are out there, Barbara Arnwine, just beating the drums, come on and
vote. But they don't have a lot of support from the party. They're doing it on their
own. Why will the Democratic Party not support black voting organizations? And you know, you've
got Jamie Harrison there as a chair of the DNC, and I have to say, extremely disappointed
in him. He came in after doing fairly well in South Carolina, running for Senate against
Ms. Lindsey. And he did fairly well, and Willard thought he took that momentum
to do something with it, but we didn't see that from him.
And I'm sick... I'm sick of that...
Because he doesn't... Because... Because...
Let's-Let's be clear.
The only time you truly run the party
is when your party is not in power.
The reality is this here.
No, this is the reality.
We've seen numerous stories
over the past
18 months. You haven't seen them in the last
six months, but in the first 18 months
there were at least three or four stories
of
stories talking about how Jamie was threatening
to quit. It was a power
struggle. The reality is
when your party is in power,
when you're in the White House,
Biden runs the DNC. His aides, his deputy chief of staff, Jen O'Malley, they run the DNC. And so
he's not making those decisions. But here's the other thing that we have to also, we've got to
broaden this, because this is the mistake that I saw. Again, this'm not defending Jamie. I'm not saying that I'm not supporting this.
This is the mistake that I
saw.
Again, this is not defending
Jamie.
This is actually stating fact.
It used to be the DNC or the RNC
was the primary vehicle for
funds.
The problem now is you've got
the DNC, you've got the DSCC,
you've got the DCCC, you've got the DCCC. You've got the Democratic Governors Association. You've now got
progressive PACs. You now have a PAC. Pelosi has her own PAC. Schumer has their own PAC. And so
actually, when you look at the amount of money that's coming in, the DNC actually has one of the
smallest fundraising vehicles.
And their money is going not just to the DNC, but the 50 states.
And so Jamie's marching orders come from the White House.
And so that's why when we're talking about what has to happen, we can't say, what's Jamie doing, and leave off all the rest of these other entities that actually have more money than Jamie has.
Yeah, Roland, but at the same time, I agree with you about the number of funding arms they have.
I agree with you that is, you know, the party, that if the White House runs the DNC,
as an example, and they, you know, I agree with that.
But at the same time, I really would have expected and hoped that this brother would have taken
a stronger stance.
How?
You don't, again, though.
Okay, define a stronger stance.
What does that mean?
Put some more money in some black people's hands.
Okay, but again.
Okay, let me say it again.
When you're the DNC chair, your money goes to 50 states.
You fund state parties.
That's where your money goes.
When you look at the amount of money, you can actually pull the numbers.
The amount of money that is actually given to the DNC pales in comparison to what the DSCC and the DCCC have gotten.
That's actually what the money is.
The money is not the DNC.
The money is the...
Again, I'm telling you what the money is. As somebody who has been and let me say this.
Who has spent more
money with us?
DNC.
Okay.
The DSCC.
The DCCC.
We just got something last week.
The DNC came in in August.
Point I'm making is the bigger budgets, zero or minimal.
That's all I'm saying.
So if we're going to focus on something, focus on where the money is that's all i'm saying
well roland okay i got you with the dnc and i'm glad that they did um support roland martin
unfiltered i'm happy for that but let me say this as well about jamie and again i'm not picking on
him it's really the whole democratic party that refuses to deal with black people and to deal with racism.
If they could deal with racism, if they could
say, this is our base,
black people. We get our votes
from black people. But they're not gonna say
that. They're afraid that when they say that,
white people are gonna be afraid.
And why? Now ask the next
question. Why? No, no.
Ask the next question. Why?
Who actually controls the Democratic Party? White folks. Why? No, no. Ask the next question. Why? Who actually
controls the Democratic Party?
White folks. Huh?
Not black folks.
White strategists.
Okay? Yes. And again, that's a
decision. That's a decision that people have made
to have white strategists for
a party that is mostly black.
But that's also...
And the people who make those decisions
are the donors.
And where's the money coming from?
White folks.
So here is, here is the
battle, here is the battle that's
going on right now. And this is
the battle, and I remember, Renita, when
I was, I remember in 2008,
I was,
we were at a, we were at a, we were having dinner.
It was a bunch of us after we were on the air at CNN.
And I remember Hillary Rosen.
We're at the table.
And Hillary Rosen is sitting there.
Anderson Cooper is sitting here.
Some other people. And Hillary Rosen was going off
because she felt Obama should have been
doing more about something,
doing something dealing with LGBT.
I think it was the whole thing
with Donnie McClurkin and Mary Mary
and some comments they made.
And I said, Hillary,
let me explain something to you.
You want Obama to do that because of money, but he ain't winning nothing without votes
I said y'all gonna have all the money you want to but money don't mean nothing if your ass ain't got votes and
She was like, you know, you got a point there. I'm like no I done. I know I have a point
I said so what you don't want to do is you want to piss off black people because, and in fact,
what ended up happening was that was a huge battle and the black gay folk on the campaign
had to call a meeting to talk to the white gay folk and let them know, y'all might want
to back up because Mary Mary and Donna McClurkin, how black folks feel about them.
And then Obama actually had to get in there and explain to them and say,
hey, there are going to be moments where we're all on the same team.
We ain't always agreeing, but you've got to understand we're all on the same team.
So the point I'm making there is what has to happen,
this is one of those things where, and this is what I'm trying to say here,
the mistake that we make is if we say, Jamie, Jamie, Jamie.
I'm following the money.
And what I'm saying, no matter what happens tomorrow night, what should be happening for getting rid of 2024 is we want to meet with Jamie, the head of the DSCC,
the head of the DCCC,
the head of Democratic Governors Association,
the head of the five largest PACs,
and the reproductive rights people,
and the climate people.
You want to meet with all of the money people and say, now, how much y'all spending on black people? I can tell you right, I've called
out, I called out the climate people and they jumped on the phone call with me. Several of them did.
One group, Climate Power, I'm gonna throw their name out, came back with 10,000. I said, I get
15,000 for a speech. I said, we ain't even responding to that crap. $10,000. And we challenged them, what are y'all spending on black-owned media
dealing with the whole issue of climate?
Oh, they all said, so the point I'm making is,
and I know we naturally do it.
I'm saying, Jamie, we want you at the meeting.
Everybody else there.
And that needs to be held to pay.
And this is where, Renita, where it literally has to be black caucus,
where it has to be black leaders of the Democratic Party say,
uh-uh, I need to see the numbers.
I need to see how much did y'all spend on targeted investment on the ground,
directly to campaigns, and to black-owned media.
Let me see the number. I saw a tweet today where somebody pulled and they said
that the Democrats have spent $40 million on Latino-owned media
and Republicans have spent $9.3 million.
But the narrative is Democrats don't target Latinos. Well, the number, $40 million versus $9.3 million. But the narrative is Democrats don't target Latinos.
Well, 40 million versus 9.3.
That has to happen.
So that's why I'm saying we can't say Jamie.
I'm saying, no, no, no.
I want the whole apparatus at the table and say, put your numbers up.
I don't want to hear antidotes.
I want to see actual numbers.
And now we're going to have a conversation, Renita.
Well, and there needs to be.
It's a two-part thing.
There are things that the DNC, that Jamie can do,
like changing the strategies.
He has control to be able to do that.
Donors...
White House does.
But the party...
White House does.
...has a detailed list of vendors that are approved.
And I can tell you this, as an elected official,
every party has this. State-level party, national-level party.
They can have influence over who the strategists are.
And it all goes on who they say is good.
And they need to really look at who they are telling campaigns to use and get more black folks involved in that.
But to your larger point, it doesn't matter where the money comes from.
All of them need to be investing in black voters and black media, because statistically, we are the voters that the Democratic Party
can count on.
So whether that be money from the reproductive rights community, which consistently fails
to invest in the Black community, and they continue to try to invest in bringing Republican
light, as they want to call it, white women over to try to vote only on the basis of what's best for their
reproductive rights, not realizing that statistically they're always just going to vote Republican
as the majority of them.
And so everybody, as you mentioned, reproductive rights, LGBTQ organizations, which have a
lot of money, all of these organizations, all of them need to be investing in black
voters and also black candidates.
The majority of our base, the voters you can count on, are Black.
And as a result, we need to have Black candidates who are talking about Black issues,
because that's another problem that the Democrats have is running away from Blackness
and not wanting to allow candidates to discuss Black issues when you get into some of these higher-level races.
There are many, many things that I hope Democrats will learn from tomorrow
and take seriously about some of the changes that need to
be made, regardless of how many
seats we win and how many we lose.
But Jason, none of
that happens
unless we are
organized and
mobilized to make
the demands.
No, absolutely. And
you know,
speaking of the DCCC,
we see where they spend their money.
They spend their money on ads
for election deniers
trying to boost them because they think it gives them
a chance to win.
And now they put them in a position to actually win.
Right, but rather than
spending their money on their base
and trying to turn their base out, you know, regardless of who's on the other side, they spent tons of money on these election deniers.
I personally don't like that strategy.
I don't think it was the right strategy.
And I think that you're going to get more election deniers in Congress because of that strategy.
But I think they should have been spending their money, as you said,
on Black-owned media. As you said, they're spending money on Latino media. But I think
part of the problem with the Latino media is that Republicans are already entrenched in that,
where they don't have to spend a ton of money. They've got, you know, the talk radio in Spanish
in South Florida. They've got a a bunch of Cuban Americans who do that and
don't need money. They do it because they believe in it. Democrats haven't established that kind of
an apparatus in a lot of parts of the country, and they're not going to win. So I think,
honestly, we also need to acknowledge, number one, it came out that Russia is interfering in this election again.
And who do they target but black voters?
We don't know how effective it is.
Hold on, brother. I can tell you right now.
I have the uptick in the trolls that have been coming at me.
And, y'all, this is real simple.
When y'all see a tweet, the first thing you need to do is click the bio.
And if they open their account in October or November and
they have
Zero to six followers
That's a bot
See you can you you I ain't nobody black just all of a sudden
Opening a Twitter account in November, and it's always, like, six followers.
Like, it ain't 12.
It's always six.
And you would think the dumbass trolls
would have figured it out by now.
But again, y'all, I mean, I pick them off every time.
And so you're right.
They are out.
They are deliberately spreading disinformation
specifically to black people.
And I'm seeing the uptick in the Asians got a hate crime bill. Lie.
Democrats ain't done enough of black people. Lie.
When we going to get a specific lie?
I mean, you can point it out if you're smart enough not to get caught in the game.
Jason, go ahead and finish your point.
And, uh, the last thing I'll say is, um,
I haven't read the book yet, but I know that Sheldon Whitehouse,
uh, who is a senator from, uh, Rhode Island,
has a book that alleges that Republicans have spent
a billion dollars of dark money.
So you don't know where that money's coming from.
I agree with you that votes win elections,
but let's not downplay what
money does, like, in these elections. If you see somebody enough times, it's kind of like listening
to a song on the radio. Have you ever listened to a song and been like, I don't like that song?
And then you hear it played nine times and you're like, oh, it's growing on me. You know, I think
that one of the things that we've seen, it makes it in the numbers that we see, it may seem kind of even what Democrats and Republicans are spending.
But when you bring in the dark money that Republicans are putting in, and according to this book, a billion dollars of it, like it's pretty hard to compete with that.
And so this is why we need to get big money out of politics.
You know, this is why I think Bernie Sanders, you know,
you can think what you want about him,
but I think he brought a really important issue to the fore
about getting all that money out of politics
and making it about me and you and people who can afford,
you know, $5 to give to a candidate
and $5 to give to Roland Martin unfiltered.
You like that plug, I hope.
Well, of course.
I always got you the plug, right?
All right, y'all.
If y'all want to see some bullshit,
just watch this here.
Nikki Haley, of course,
former governor of South Carolina.
She worked as the ambassador to the UN for Donald Trump.
Let me tell you what her trifling ass did.
I'm just going to go ahead and play for y'all
what her trifling, sorry-ass had to say
at a Hershel Walker rally about Senator Raphael Warnock.
Here, play.
Legal immigrants are more patriotic
than the leftists these days.
They knew they worked to come into America,
and they love America,
and they want the laws followed in America.
So the only person that we need to make sure we deport
is Warnock.
Play that bullshit again.
Legal immigrants are more patriotic
than the leftists these days.
They knew they worked to come into America, and they love America,
and they want the laws followed in America.
So the only person that we need to make sure we deport is Warnock.
First of all, Nimrata.
Your name ain't Nikki.
Your name is Nimrata.
Haley.
Um...
Cynthia Raphael Warnock
was born.
In fact, your Nimrata Nikki Ronhawa,
that's actually your name.
Your daddy, Nikki,
sorry, your daddy, Nimrata,
immigrated from India.
Your daddy.
Senator Raphael Warnock, Nimrata, is from Savannah, Georgia.
His daddy and mama are from Savannah.
Nimrata, Warnock, doesn't have an immigrant history.
You do.
Your daddy is from India. Your daddy Is from India
Your daddy not from Indiana
You were born in South Carolina
Nimrata
But your daddy wasn't born in South Carolina
Yeah
Your mama wasn't born
In South Carolina
Your mama and't born in South Carolina.
Your mama and daddy came to America. So if anybody would get deported, it would be you, Nimrata, Nikki, Ronhawa, Haley, because your lineage ain't in this country.
On the other hand, Raphael Wardock, his ancestors didn't have the option to be immigrants.
His ancestors, Nimrata, Nikki, Ronhawa, Haley, came here in chains.
They were stolen labor.
They were property.
Nimrata, Nikki, Ron, Hauer, Haley.
So for you to stand at a rally.
And you are campaigning.
For a black man.
Who if we were in Georgia. a couple of hundred years ago
absolutely would have been a mandigo.
Absolutely would have been
in the field.
And all of these Republicans, they ain't saying nothing.
Nobody wants to say a word.
Nimrata, Nikki Ronhawa, Haley.
Renita, you can go ahead and comment,
because she's going to make me cuss.
You already did cuss.
Renita, go ahead.
This is what I think is interesting.
First of all, what was Nikki Haley even doing in Georgia?
Because I can tell you in the six years of serving in the House of Representatives in Georgia,
I've heard exactly zero Republicans ever be excited about Nikki Haley.
I think this is a sign that Herschel Walker's campaign is desperate
because what we've seen on the ground here is that ever since his son, Christian Walker,
came out and basically said, hey, listen, I know the man and he can't stop lying,
Republicans have really fallen back on defending,Georgia Republicans have fallen back on
defending Herschel. They are sick of defending these lies all the time, and they're sick
of defending his behavior, like pulling out fake cop badges.
So I think that really this is just a sign of Herschel being desperate and bringing in
somebody that nobody cares about. We hadn't heard anything from Nikki Haley in years, I
would say, as a country,
and I think everybody pretty much preferred it that way. I know I certainly would like to go
back to not hearing from Nikki Haley. Jason? Yeah, so a couple things. Number one, I think
what your other guest said was 100% correct. I haven't thought about Nikki Haley at all.
She hasn't even come up in conversation. I haven't, you Nikki Haley at all. She hasn't even come up in conversation.
I haven't, you know, there was one point where people were talking about she may run for
president. I don't hear those conversations. And I'm around some of those right-wing people,
and I never hear her name come up anymore. She's an afterthought. And I don't think she's going to
make any kind of difference. I will say, I don't want to get into making fun of her name.
No, no, no, no, no.
I didn't make fun of her name.
I actually pronounced her name.
Because, see, if you don't give the history, if you only say Nikki Haley,
but if you don't explain to people where her mama and daddy are from,
then they'll think, well, why are you bringing this up?
No, she is a child of Indian immigrants, not Warnock.
Go ahead.
No, absolutely.
I agree 100%.
I just want to make sure that the audience understands
that it's not, we don't want to do the whole
Barack Hussein Obama thing.
You know what I mean?
No, no, no, no, no.
What I'm doing is, what I'm not doing, first of all, you ain't got to throw Hussein Obama thing. You know what I mean? No, no, no. What I'm doing is
what I'm not doing. First of all,
you ain't got to throw Hussein in. Hell, the man's
first name is Barack, last name Obama.
Hell, you figured his whole
damn name black.
He wasn't running as Barry.
He ran as Barack.
She's running as Nikki.
She's Nimrata, Nikki,
Ronhawa, Haley. And I'm
going to establish that because she's going to
say somebody should get deported. Only
two people we're talking about right now
ain't from here.
Right. No, I hear you. I'm just
I was just pointing that out.
But you ain't got to point it out. I know what her name is
and she know what her name is.
And her mama and daddy ain't from here.
No, they're not.
They're not. So,
she gonna how about deport somebody?
Nikki, there's a country you can
get sent back to, not Raphael.
He can go back to Savannah,
but that's where
he's home from. Real quick, Julian,
real quick, Julian, your comment, before I go
to my next guest.
Raphael Warnock is a descendant of enslaved people.
He's talked about his background.
How dare she?
You say, you need to stop cussing.
I had something, and I can't say it on the air.
But that...heifer, that's the nicest thing I can say,
has nerve, the temerity,
to talk about a black man who's a descendant of slaves.
But that's why she's going making the money she's making.
Her children's book has failed, and she has failed.
She is irrelevant.
As everybody else has said on the panel, a footnote.
And it's kind to call her a footnote.
What she is is a blip in the wind.
And let's leave it at that.
All right, folks.
Again, election is taking place tomorrow all across the country.
Folks are going to the polls.
Races are very tight in Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania.
And one of the places where Democrats are hoping for a huge win is in North Carolina.
Joining us right now is Sherri Beasley, who is running for the United States Senate from North Carolina against Congressmanman ted but uh sherry glad to have you
back on roland martin unfiltered uh the polls are very tight there early voting is over there
and and one of the things that uh when i keep telling people about why every vote matters
the reason you're actually sitting here right now is because two years ago you lost by 401 votes
to be the chief Justice of North Carolina
State Supreme Court. And that's a perfect example of where every vote can absolutely matter. And
I'm sure there were thousands of Black folks who did not vote in North Carolina that could have
voted and made you the Chief Justice. You know, Roland, you're right. Every vote really does
matter. And you're right,
with 5.5 million votes cast, I fell short by 401 votes. In North Carolina, judges run in
contested statewide elections. Thankfully, I've had two successful ones. And we really can win
this race. I think your point also shows us just how important not just voting is,
but the power of voting and the fact that there is a real
attack on our right to vote.
And so that's part of my promise to North Carolina and to this country.
I will work really hard to protect our right to vote and all of our rights, because all
of them are really under attack right now.
And we talk about the critical issues, but the reality is, I keep explaining to people this,
when you look at votes, first of all, Richard Burr,
you look at even right now, the senator right now
that's there from North Carolina,
look, they stopped several black women
from being on federal benches.
They've supported these voter suppression laws.
And frankly, they have not been advocates
for health care, Medicaid expansion.
Obviously, when it comes to a woman's right to choose,
we could go on and on and on.
And also, but he's not going to support
the John Lewis Act, the other voting law.
He's not going to stand there and support
the George Floyd Justice Act.
And so when it comes to black voters,
to me, the choice is real clear
who you want representing you in Washington, D.C.
Well, Ted Budd didn't vote to support
the Freedom to Vote Act or the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
And you're right, he has aligned himself
with the most extreme faction of his party
and is leading the charge on an absolute ban on abortion
without exceptions for rape or incest
or risk to a mother's health.
And so that means that a woman who's been sexually assaulted will be forced to carry
the child.
It also means that a woman who has an ectopic pregnancy or a septic uterus or miscarriage
that her body won't release will not be able to get the lifesaving treatment that she needs,
which is an abortion, and it means that women will die.
And, disproportionately, we know that it will be
black and brown women. We just can't
let that happen. Anytime our freedoms are on the line,
I will be fighting, and I will fight hard to make
sure that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land.
One of the things that we saw
in the last election in
2020, we saw
Tom Tillis,
we saw him really
reach out and get a significant number of black men supporting his campaign.
What has your campaign been doing to really speak to black men in North Carolina,
but to also speak to black rural voters? A lot of attention is always on the large cities,
but when you look at those numbers, you have not seen in the past
the real effort to touch African-Americans
who in rural parts of North Carolina.
You know, you're right.
And it's been really important to me to visit every single one of our 100 counties.
We're a big state.
We're the ninth largest in the nation.
And there are people who live in Halifax County or Mitchell County or Robinson County who
have felt left out of the state. And they see that politicians don't come their way
and don't respect their values.
And they really do feel disenchanted
by the entire voting process.
We've worked hard to try to change that,
to let folks know that it really is a different day
and a new day, to really reach out.
I've been present with Black folks, with Latinos,
with AAPI communities,
and with everybody to let them know that I'm really running to represent all of North Carolina.
I don't think any of these issues are partisan. Environmental justice or clean air, clean water,
I mean, these are not partisan issues. If you don't have access to affordable health care,
it doesn't matter whether you're an independent Republican or Democrat. I mean, these,
the issues that are impacting North Carolina, freedom is not a partisan issue. These are critical issues impacting North Carolina.
And we need someone, not Ted Budd, who has in six years of Congress, put corporate interests and his own ahead of the interests of folks here in North Carolina. We need someone who's
prepared to fight for North Carolina, who will stand for what's right, call out what's wrong,
and lead courageously. When we talk about, again, uh, uh, you know, that,
uh, you know, pushing those folks out,
um, you know, what has been the response there,
uh, from, uh, religious leaders?
Uh, when you talk about grassroots campaign,
Moral Mondays was very huge in North Carolina,
starting with 17 people, and began to grow,
and it really began to attract not just African Americans,
but also, uh, whites who live in other parts of the state as well. And so,
you know, what is your campaign been doing to rev them up and, again, to really drive them to the polls? Because Republicans are counting on their voters showing up en masse on Election Day.
Democrats focus on a lot of early voting. North Carolina is one of those states where Republicans
targeted early voting because they saw when black folks were voting. North Carolina is one of those states where Republicans targeted early voting
because they saw when black folks were voting.
And so, you know, what is your focus to really have a strong election day turnout?
You know, we have, we are literally all over the state
and we have great volunteers who are working so hard and really engaging voters,
especially many of them who may not be inclined to vote in
this election. We want to let them know why we must all feel a sense of urgency in this election.
And I will tell you, we've had lots of folks who've come here, lots of senators,
Cory Booker, John Ossoff, and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn came here and he said, you know,
I don't know why we ever call the 2020 election the most important election of our lifetimes.
He said this election is the most consequential election of our lifetimes. And we're spreading that message to folks all over the state.
We're letting folks know that we have a lot to lose if we don't get this right,
and that I really am working hard to, and I always have. I have 30 years of public service here
in North Carolina as a public defender judge and chief justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. And I've always worked really hard to uphold the rule of law and
to uphold the Constitution for all people. So I'm excited about this race. There's a lot of energy
here and enthusiasm. And I'm really encouraged that things are looking so good. Even in these
last few hours, I would ask folks, if they want to know more about my candidacy, to please go to
SherriBeasley.com. And that's C-H-E-R-I, SherriBeasley.com and that's C-H-E-R-I
SherriBeasley.com for more information.
We are still out there and so if folks want to be engaged
with the campaign, we'd love to have them.
Last question for you.
The X factor here
for tomorrow. Women
and young voters. We saw what happened in
Kansas where women turned
out. We have seen significant
registration all across the country.
A lot of these polls are not actually showing those voters. And the same thing with young
voters. And so has your folks also been really focused on those college campuses,
turning out young voters? Because if young voters, it was the 25, 28 percent in 2020. If young voters go past 30 and get to 35 percent, that's going to be huge.
And that actually could be lead to major wins for you and other Democrats on tomorrow.
You're absolutely right. And we have seen great interest and great excitement and great determination from women to make sure that they're getting to the polls and to
share the message with others about why it's so important to vote. And we've seen young people.
I think often young people get a bad rap about not voting. We've seen young people engaged. We're
excited about so many that we have engaged in our campaign. And we're reaching out to folks,
to young folks and to seniors, to let them know that their issues are certainly on the line as well.
So I'm excited about really excited about where we are in this race.
I'm looking forward to good things happening tomorrow. And we're just going to stay the course.
All right, then, Sherry Beasley, good to see you.
I don't think you're going to be getting any sleep tonight.
Then again, you can always sleep after tomorrow night.
And but hopefully we'll know
exactly what happens. It was a long time in 2020 before we found out the final results of that
campaign. And I really do hope folks turn out in huge numbers and elect you to the United States
Senate. And also, it will teach a lesson to Democrats, don't ignore the South. The South is changing.
And if you actually care about winning, you can win in places other than the Northeast or on the West Coast.
The South is a huge opportunity if they invest in voters in the South, especially black voters.
Well, we've been performing really well here.
We really have.
I have well outperformed my
opponent in this race. We know that national Republicans in Ted Butt are very worried.
They have spent millions of dollars in this race to distort my judicial record. And they
wouldn't be spending that kind of money if they didn't know we really can win this race.
So I'm very encouraged. We'll continue to work hard. And you're right, Roland.
We really honestly have a good chance
of pulling this out, and I'm
excited about that. All right.
We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland.
All right. Go back to my panel
real quick here. I mean, look, this is the point
I made there, Julian,
is that, look,
I never forget there was a
Tim Ryan criticized, it was a political that was a Tim Ryan criticized political article.
I think of the political article where I said where I said what he said was a Democratic strategist who said we need we need to stop focusing on a place like Ohio and only go with their college-educated voters. Strategies really mean white voters. And, again,
Georgia proved in 2020
what happens when people on the ground,
when they focus, invest,
mobilize, and organize,
and then you see what the result is.
And what has to happen is, but too often,
on the Democratic side, again, these white
strategists, they don't want to do the work,
they don't want to go into the communities, they don't want to
spend the money, and the reality is, you know, North Carolina,
they could have picked off North Carolina in 2020,
except Cal Cunningham decided to have a damn affair
during the campaign.
It became public, and the dumbass lost.
I'm like, dude, if you're gonna cheat,
cheat after the election.
But, I mean, that's sort of what happened there.
But again, when you look at North Carolina,
when you look at Georgia, if they actually get their act together in Florida, they can actually, that state can be going back to a
purple state. We can go on and on and on. Look, Mike Espy, when he lost against Sidney Hyatt Smith,
he lost by 65,000 votes. There were more than 65,000 black people who did not vote.
And so the opportunities are there, but like anywhere else, if you do not invest, then there's no chance you're actually going to be able to compete or win.
Well, you know, Roland, I'm sitting here in L.A. where Rick Caruso is running against Karen Bass for mayor.
In a half hour, I've seen in one half hour, six Caruso commercials.
He's spending the money. Karen is raising money. She's working really harduso commercials. He's spending the money.
Karen is raising money.
She's working really hard.
But she doesn't have the money.
He's outspending her 13 to 1.
So if we get out and vote, you have possibilities.
But money does make a difference.
The balance of power is in getting out to vote.
And, you know, we talked about it in the previous segment.
I don't know why Democrats won't recognize the power of the black vote. And this whole notion of going after the college-educated,
the majority of Americans do not have college degrees. Let me repeat that. The majority
of Americans do not have college degrees. So if you're just saying you're going after
the college-educated, you're writing off the rest of the country, black or white.
So these strategists basically
have, what did, I forgot
somebody talked about, but they've got
their heads in their hind parts.
So they can't really see what's going on.
They're studying each other
instead of studying the electorate
investing in the electorate.
You know, the thing here,
and Renita, it's not
just even black voters.
Reverend Barber talks about this here.
They keep ignoring poor and low-income white voters.
Again, the thing is, you have to do the work to reach the folk who ain't voting.
140 million low-income and poor workers in America.
The votes aren't trying to flip somebody else.
The votes are the folk who ain't voting.
Yeah, and I think Democrats really need to realize
that the choice most people are making today,
at least on the Democratic side,
is not whether to vote Democrat or Republican.
People are making the choice between voting
and not voting at all.
So what that means is if they don't see themselves
reflected on the ballot, they're not gonna vote.
If they do not see people talking about things
that really will make an impact
and have a difference in their life,
they are not going to vote.
The other thing that needs to happen is
the Democrats have got to really treat black candidates
as if they are valuable because we are,
and really invest in black candidates
the way that they invest in white people
who've never been elected to anything,
who are, you know, somebody that maybe was a legislative aide for somebody or somebody who previously ran
but has never won one successful campaign.
We see time and time again Democrats running this whole thing of anti-blackness of, hey, let's just put up this, you know,
middle of the road, never been elected to anything white guy, or let's just put up this person.
Meanwhile, you have qualified black candidates that don't get the shine and opportunity
that these white people who've never been elected to anything, don't have any
experience, no proof that they will be great candidates get as far as treatment.
Cheri Beasley is a great example. It took a long time for her campaign to catch fire.
And I remember looking at people continuing to talk, they would talk about her and Val
Dimon saying, why are they not getting the investments that other candidates are getting
from Democrats? Why are they not getting the attention? Why are they not getting the
support? Black Voters Matter sent out information quite a few times saying, you know,
asking the question about why these two candidates were not getting the support that
they deserve. Cheri Beasley is brilliant. She is somebody that they should have invested
in from the beginning. And I just think it really hurts campaign-it's hard to
talk to voters and campaign to voters to be invested in voting for Democrats if you are
not lifting up these candidates and waiting until the last minute to invest in them.
Invest in these great Black candidates that we continue to see pop up the way that you would
invest in these white candidates who have done basically nothing,
and Democrats run over, love them, and lift them up,
and open all kinds of doors for them.
We have to get rid of the anti-blackness in the party.
So, Jason, let me speak to this,
and I think I've seen Erickson complained about this,
or he was trying to throw shade,
and Meghan McCain asked this question today.
Go to my iPad, please, Henry.
So this is what Meghan McCain, she tweeted today.
She tweeted, genuine question.
When Beto and Stacey Abrams lose tomorrow,
how many more elections will they run in the future?
How much more money will be given to them?
How many more big magazine spreads and cameos on TV shows? At what point does winning start mattering to Democrats? Well, you know,
I had to respond to that, and I did in a series of tweets.
So allow me to explain it here
and unpack this thing for y'all.
And this is what I said to Megan,
which clearly you would think
somebody who is constantly invoking her dad's name,
who was a United States senator,
would have some understanding of politics.
You would think somebody who has worked at, oh, Pivot,
Fox News, MSNBC, The View, has a column,
has written books, has had a radio show,
has gotten all of these political jobs,
she would have any understanding of basic politics
or politics 101. So this is what I had to explain to Megan
on social media because she clearly has no clue about politics. In 1984 and 1988, Reverend Jackson
ran for president of the United States. There were people who were saying, Jesse, why are you running?
He was hearing the phrase run, Jesse, run.
It followed Harold Washington being elected mayor
of Chicago in 1983.
And so he runs in 1984 and is traveling around the country
and then he runs again in 1988.
What people don't understand is that Reverend Jackson's run
in 1988 led to
Ron Brown becoming the first black
chair of the Democratic National
Committee. That led to them changing the
rules of the Democratic Party
from winner-take-all to
proportional wins
because folks said, wait a minute, it's grossly
unfair that Reverend Jackson
was not able to win
delegates, even though he was winning many of these places where a lot of black folks
were.
And so the rules were changed in the Democratic Party because Reverend Jackson dared to run
for president.
And so what ended up happening 20 years later, a then-senator from Illinois, Barack Hussein Obama, runs for president.
Y'all talk, people talk about, oh, how Obama won the Democratic nomination.
But everybody forgets that Obama lost the major states in 2008 to Hillary Clinton.
She won California.
She won Texas.
She won Ohio.
She won Texas. She won Ohio. She won Pennsylvania. Because Michigan and Florida moved
their states, then their votes were not included. So, the fact of the matter is this here. If Reverend
Jackson does not run in 88 and then change the rules, Obama is not president. Reverend Jackson didn't win in 1984 and 88, Megan,
but Obama did in 2008.
See, Megan, winning is not always when you win a race.
It's when other folks are the beneficiaries of you running.
So you're critical of Stacey Abrams running and Beto O'Rourke running.
And let's just assume because, first of all, the folks, the votes have not been fully cast and not been fully accounted for. But let's just say, for the sake of this conversation, Megan, that Stacey Abrams
and Beto O'Rourke don't win the gubernatorial races tomorrow. What you don't understand,
Megan, is that by Beto O'Rourke running and losing by 2.5 points to Senator Ted Cruz,
he actually energized the entire Democratic base. And so when he was running, there were people who were down ballot who actually won their elections because of a turnout of Beto O'Rourke.
See, Megan, you don't know jack about Texas politics.
I do. I'm actually from Texas.
I'm born and raised in Texas.
I'm still a registered voter in Texas.
Mama and Daddy, 74, 75.
Mama be 75 in a couple of weeks.
So they have worked political campaigns.
See, I don't just yell, my daddy, my daddy, my daddy, like you do.
But I do understand politics, Megan.
And what you have to understand, Megan, is that Democrats used to be
in control of all statewide positions in Texas. John Tower, Republican, was the first Republican
elected statewide in Texas since Reconstruction. George W. Bush beats Ann Winters for governor
when he wins the second term. They win all statewide positions. They've since run the entire state.
What happened with Beto Runs, Megan?
Dallas County flips from red to blue.
18 black women run for judge in Harris County, Houston.
I helped campaign for them.
And they win in 2018, Megan.
What then happens? Black DA in Dallas County, black DA in Houston.
All of a sudden, Democrats began to win Dallas County, Harris County, Bayer County, Travis County, because all of a sudden of the amount of money Beto raised
and the organization and the infrastructure that he put in place,
and because he visited every county in Texas.
So he did what the previous folk who ran for governor wouldn't do, and that is travel the state.
And so, Megan, if you actually know anything about politics, which you clearly do not,
and I know you called it a serious question
or a generous or whatever you called it,
then you have to understand
that there are times when you lose but you win.
Because what Beto O'Rourke has done
by running twice, U.S. Senate and now governor,
he literally is reviving a moribund
Democratic Party that, frankly, has been demoralized the last 20 years.
See, they thought in 2008, when there was all of this energy and excitement around Clinton
and Obama, the party was ready to come back.
They said, man, this is a shot because so many folks were energized.
But guess what happened? Obama wins the nomination, becomes president, and he forgets Texas. He only
comes to Texas to pick up campaign checks, and he left. They literally never organized Texas.
So for eight years of the Obama presidency, Texas wasn't organized. And 16 wasn't organized. And all
of a sudden, Beto actually runs. And all of a sudden, Beto actually runs.
And all of a sudden, now Texas gets organized.
Now let's go to Georgia.
What happens there?
Stacey Abrams is sitting there in Georgia's house.
And they're saying, y'all, we can win Georgia if y'all put money in Georgia.
Democrats said, no, we ain't wasting our time with that.
Megan, you think I'm lying?
2012, Megan, I'm standing outside of CNN waiting to go on.
Who is standing right with me?
Congressman Chris Van Hollen.
Who is Congressman Chris Van Hollen?
At the time, he was a member of Congress of the House from Maryland.
He was the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
I say to him, Chris, if y'all invest money in Texas and register those 2 million eligible but unregistered Latinos,
and y'all register those 800,000 black folks in Georgia, y'all can win.
Chris Van Hollen tells me to my face, Megan.
None of those are red states.
I said, no, they are red if you never organize them.
So what does Stacey Abrams do?
Along with Raphael Warnock, along with other folks, they create an apparatus to do that.
They change the laws, make it a part of getting your driver's license.
All of a sudden, the number of unregistered people in Georgia
drops to below 2%.
And then what happens in 2020?
Warnock, Ossoff, Biden, Harris.
See, Megan, when you run, it's not always
about whether you win, but do you
have a larger mission or a plan where others can win?
So even if Stacey Abrams loses tomorrow in Georgia, even if Beto O'Rourke loses tomorrow in Texas, Megan, what they have done is left a blueprint that they can now hand to the
next Democratic candidate. They can now point to the people down ballot who have been able to win
and they can say, these are the ways that we can win in the future.
See, Megan, some of us were not born into political families. Some of us were
not born with silver spoons. Some of us actually had to read and study and talk to people and
interview people. And, Megan, if you leave your comfortable, rich home
in Arizona and actually spend some time on the ground,
you will understand what I'm talking about.
Jason, go ahead with your comment.
Yeah, I just wanted to say, first of all,
back to the point about Democrats
going after college-educated people.
Democrats used to be the union party. We used to be the party that got their hands dirty,
and now they're just going after college-educated people. It's a huge mistake. And that's why we're
effectively called elitist. And that's something that you wouldn't think would stick, but it does,
because you've got strategists out there with elite strategies. And it's ridiculous.
Now, you would think Meghan McCain would be intimately knowledgeable about 2008 in particular,
since her family was pretty involved in that. But obviously she doesn't. She wasn't.
And obviously she also is not aware of the fact that Richard Nixon, I believe,
ran for president three times, I think it was three times a charm,
before he actually won.
And, of course, that was in her party.
So this idea that you have to win every election and you can't come back, first
of all, I would tell Republicans, tell that to Trump, who's going to announce that he's
running again after being thoroughly defeated by 74 electoral votes and 8 million individual
votes in the last election. He's still going to run again.
And unfortunately, he has a decent shot of winning.
I hate to say that, but it's true.
So this idea that you can lose, you know, an election and then therefore your career's over is ridiculous.
You know, that's like a boxer getting beaten
and all of a sudden, ah, I lost my fight. I can't ever fight again. That's ridiculous. That's not how politics work. We've seen people come back and sometimes come back more than once and then finally win because their message finally resonates, whatever that message is. So, I mean, it was an absurd tweet by an absurd person. I don't think anyone in the media necessarily misses Meghan McCain.
But, hey, she's still out there making her voice heard.
Well, the reason I put that was important, Renita and Julianne,
Renita, I'll go to you first, is because I've heard other people say that.
And I think a lot of people just simply don't understand politics
and don't understand when somebody's
running. They're not necessarily just running for them. They serve a purpose that's actually
bigger than them. Yes, but Roland, you see, this whole thing is a great example of what I was
talking about before. Mediocre white person who is Meghan McCain floated up for no reason, no good
reason at all, as somebody who should be weighing in and telling
us who should be allowed to run and who should not. She has done nothing except have a father
who was elected. But meanwhile, she thinks that her opinion should count with as much
weight as people who, like myself and yourself, who've actually done the work.
I think the better question here is, why is she counting their pockets? Why is she counting
their opportunities? Like, she should not have anything to say about what these people choose to do if they do not win their elections. But to your point, everything
that you said was correct. People really don't understand what happens with the impact of
somebody running a campaign where you're galvanizing a lot of folks. Elections are
connected, and sometimes you may lose, but lots of people may win. And that is exactly what
we saw happen in Georgia when Stacey Abrams lost in 2018.
There were DAs across the state that got elected.
There were all types of local county commissioner seats that flipped that some have never even had black representation in their entire history.
They had historic elections because of Stacey being at the top of the ticket. So, I mean, again, Megan, prime example
of what I was talking about before,
mediocre white people talking loud and wrong
and being elevated for absolutely no reason.
Julianne, we often, on this show,
we talk about how so much focus,
whenever people talk about suburban women,
they also are talking about white women.
Well, guess what? Sarah Palin,
she just said it out loud. Listen.
What'd she say?
Hold on. I'm about to play it in a second.
Come on, y'all. The Sarah Palin soundbite.
Start it over. Start it over, please.
Start from the top.
Women, they're the ones in the grocery store. They're the ones out there making sure...
I need you to pull the audio up.
She's saying it from the beginning.
I'm going to replay it again.
Have the audio up, please.
The trajectory that we are on, Eric, in our country, it's not good.
It's going down and something has to change.
The audio up.
She says white women at the top.
Most women in general.
We're not stupid.
White suburban women.
We want to change.
We want to get back on track and we want safety for our kids. I think of it
more as a bunch of mama grizzlies out there looking to support and defend that next generation. And we
will rear up on our hind legs and we will do anything that we can to defend our cubs.
There was a Wall Street Journal. Hold on, wait, hold on, Julianne, slow down.
Now, remember, there was a Wall Street Journal article that talked about white women swinging Republican and them coming voting for more of them.
And so this is Palin on Newsmax. I'm going to play it again. So y'all can hear every word that she says. Go.
But yeah, white suburban women, they're they're the ones in the grocery store.
They're they're the ones out there making sure that their kids are safe walking to school and getting home. And they see that the trajectory
that we are on, Eric, in our country, it's not good. It's going down and something has to change.
White suburban women, most women in general, we're not stupid. White suburban women,
we want to change. We want to get back on track and we want safety for our kids. I think of
it more as a bunch of mama grizzlies out there looking to support and defend that next generation.
And we will rear up on our hind legs and we will do anything that we can to defend our cubs.
Now, y'all, the Wall Street Journal article, Julianne, was based upon 297 white women.
Well, if you only talk...
But I love how it's like, oh, it's always white women,
white women, white women.
Y'all, 35% of today's suburbs are non-white people.
But again, when y'all hear candidates and parties
talking about suburban women,
they ain't talking about nobody who look like us.
So, Roland, are we calling this segment
a Becky in politics?
Because between Meghan McCain and stupid Sarah Palin,
we got Becky in politics.
I mean, when she says women going to the grocery store,
black people eat, too.
We go to the grocery store, too.
She is doing the dog whistle that she's always done.
And the grizzly example is whatever.
I just think that when we look at these McCains, these Palins, you know, they're dog whistling white folks.
And when you say women, ain't I a woman, Sojourner Truth said.
So her comments are just out of order.
But just like Meghan McCain.
I don't know why Meghan McCain thought she should get into
what's going on in either Georgia or Texas.
It's none of her business, and she has no background there.
And whether Beto and Stacey win or lose,
they have mobilized people.
I think the example you used of Reverend Jackson
was a really good one.
Because if you remember
1984, how many people were empowered by Jackson's win? I could just call the role of the Donna
Brazil, Cleo Fields of Louisiana, Mignon Moore, who worked on the campaign, Yolanda Carraway,
who's now a strategist. I mean, you could just call the role of the people who basically were empowered by that
Jackson run.
And so she doesn't know what she's talking about.
And quite frankly, when she's talking about losers, she might want to talk about her daddy
if she wants to talk about losers.
And people basically respected John McCain for many reasons, but he was, and for giving
President Obama props when many other Republicans did not.
But still, she does not know what she's talking about.
Sarah Palin doesn't know what she's talking about because she's still looking for Alaska out her window.
Now looking for Russia.
Yeah, looking for Russia.
Looking for Russia out the window.
So, you know, I guess, I don't know where she's been, but wherever she's been, she needs to go back.
Well, trust me.
And thank you for Alaska for not voting for her for Congress.
And guess what?
We can blame Megan's daddy for giving us Sarah Palin.
Yes, we can.
Let's not forget that.
All right, folks.
Real quick, a couple of things.
A white University of Kentucky student gets arrested for assaulting this sister in the dorm.
This video went viral over the weekend.
Go ahead and play it.
I hope.
Could you stop, please?
No.
Could you stop?
No.
Thank you.
I'm going to go.
We heard it.
We heard it.
Oh, jeez.
I did not get paid enough for this. Exactly. I'm married. We are in the air and we're a bitch. Oh, jeez. We are a bitch.
I did not get paid enough for this.
Exactly.
We're in the air and we're a bitch.
Thank you.
We're in the air and we're a bitch.
We're in the air and we're a bitch.
Yeah.
I got the phone video.
Me too.
I got the phone video.
We're in the air and we're a bitch.
Okay.
Oh, come on.
You're trying to get me to get her to like a chair. No, I'm drunk. You're drunk. You're in the air. Okay. Oh, come on. You're trying to get me to get her to, like, get you.
No, I'm drunk.
You're drunk.
You're in your bed.
Well, y'all, Sophia Rosing attacked Kyla Spring,
who's a desk clerk at the dormitory,
and repeatedly called her the N-word.
Well, guess what?
Rosing was arrested by the University of Kentucky Police
and booked at the Fayette County Detention Center
on a $10,000 bond. She's charged with public intoxication, disordered conduct,
fourth-degree assault, and third-degree assault of a police officer. She also was fired from her
role as a campus influencer for Dillard's department store through a program run by
college fashionista and his parent company, Her Campus Media. In a tweet, the department store
chain wrote, Dillard does not condone this behavior. Her relationship with Dillard's has been terminated immediately.
Her campus media has also severed ties with Rosen and released this statement.
At her campus media and College Fashionista,
we vehemently denounce this abhorrent behavior
and do not condone racism or hate in any form.
We unapologetically support BIPOC communities
and affirm that Black Lives Matter full stop.
Well, here's my question for her at her campus media in college fashionista.
Did y'all replace her with somebody black?
In fact, why don't y'all give Kyla the job?
I keep telling y'all, when these white folks act a fool and lose their jobs,
they should be replaced by black people.
I'm just saying.
Speaking of black folks losing their jobs,
a group of African-Americans released a letter today blasting MSNBC's decision to part ways with Tiffany Cross.
This letter was, I was one of the folks who actually signed the letter as well,
was released today publicly, and I want to read it for you.
All right, folks, pull it up, please.
The letter states, Dear Ms. Jones, this is addressed to Rashida Jones,
African-American who was the president of MSNBC, the first African-American to be president of a news network.
We write to you on behalf of the Cross Connection viewing audience, which is made up of more than 35 percent of black Americans and other people of color who tune in every weekend.
Throughout her more than 20 years in media, Tiffany Cross has been a consistent light of truth.
Her integrity is a hallmark of her career on which her steadfast audience has come to rely. Ms. Cross is a trusted communicator, friend,
and validator to marginalized communities
who too often find their voices and valuable perspectives
missing from mainstream media.
Nowhere was this more true than on her MSNBC show,
The Cross Connection.
Her authentic audience connection
and intentional truth telling
made it MSNBC's highest rated weekend show,
becoming appointment
viewing for a committed audience that made the show's topics and host trend weekly.
That is why we are deeply disappointed in the abrupt cancellation of the cross-connection
and the unexpected ouster of its host just four days before a critical midterm election.
This decision was announced just two weeks after a targeted racist and misogynistic strike against both
Ms. Cross's reporting and character from a known racist and anti-Semite, Fox News host
Tucker Carlson.
His intentional misrepresentation of her platform amounted to no less than a direct attack and
should have engendered immediate defense and support of Ms. Cross by her parent network.
Instead, it appears that
NBCUniversal has allowed Fox News to dictate its hiring and unwarranted firing decisions.
We cannot afford to be bullied by those who willingly and wantonly drag this country
backwards. Given the undeniable rise of fascism and persistent threats to democracy we face in the current moment, NBC should be an unrelenting force for truth and a safe harbor for voices like Ms. Cross,
as well as those with whom she shared her broad and popular platform.
While other networks give voice to election deniers, Ms. Cross featured voting rights champions. Where other shows spread disinformation,
the Cross connection spotlighted justice. Where other outlets catered to the country's worst
instincts, Ms. Cross elevated the discourse and taught audiences how to protect democracy. There's
a persistent theme in the denigrating of black women's value and the silencing of black women's voices
when they speak uncomfortable but necessary truths
about the state of our society.
This season is too great a moment in American history
to silence the voices of black women
who, time and again, save America from itself.
Tiffany Cross has long been one of those black women,
and her voice is needed now more than ever. We believe you are clear about the dangers we are collectively facing and how reminiscent
it is of this nation's dark past. We would like to meet with you before Friday, November 11,
2022, to discuss a path forward that is restorative to the reputation and dignity of Miss Cross.
It was signed by Melanie Campbell, Cliff Albright, Black Voters Matter Fund, Latasha Brown,
Alicia Garza, Rashad Robinson, Derek Johnson of the NAACP, Lelita Baker, National Bar Association,
LaFonza Butler, Emily's List, Maurice Mitchell, Working Families Party,
Tamika Mallory, Until Freedom, David Johns,
the National Black Justice Coalition,
by myself, Angela Rye, Impact Strategies,
Jemele Hill, Unbothered Network, Carrie Champion,
Reverend Mark Thompson, Make It Plain,
Bishop William Barber III,
The Poor People's Campaign, Repairs of the Breach,
Ben Crump, Reverend Dr. Iva Carruthers,
Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis of the Poor People's Campaign, first of all, Carruthers with the Sarah DeWitt
Proctor Conference, Reverend Liz Theo Harris, Cairo Center and the Poor People's Campaign,
Savante Myrick, People for the American Way, Barbara Arnwine, Transforming Justice Coalition,
Hillary Holly, Care in Action. Also, Ajin Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance,
Kimberly Carter, Rep. G.A. Institute,
Teresha Brown-Wilkinson,
Our Women in Politics,
Jerry Gonzalez,
Rebecca Carroll,
Cindy Leib,
Rebecca Carroll, Cindy Leib,
Dorian Warren,
Tynesha McHarris,
Tiffany Flowers,
Patrick Gaspard,
Tarana Burke,
Janice Mathis as well.
Those are the folks who,
and Clayola Brown,
Mignon Moore,
Bishop Leah Daltrey, and Damon Hill with Lawrence Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The reality is this year, folks, also Keith Olbermann ripped Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O'Donnell for their silence after Tiffany was let go.
Now, her contract is up in a month.
They said it was her comments.
Well, no, they haven't actually given an official reason.
It's the sources that we've actually heard from that have been talking. MSNBC gave no statement.
But what they did do is, after the letter was dropped, they did release a statement. Lori
Ann Asio, vice president of communications for NBC News and MSNBC, gave this statement to the
GRIO that business decisions like this happen all the time.
Quote, we received a letter signed by several organizations.
We are proud of our long history celebrating diversity on and off air at MSNBC and throughout the news group.
This is an ongoing effort and will continue to elevate diverse perspectives and voices during this election season and beyond.
And they're going to have a rotation of hosts on the Cross Connection
until they finalize their programming.
And let me just tell you what's probably going to end up happening.
And so go ahead and write it down.
MSNBC is paying Jen Psaki a whole bunch of money to come host a show there at MSNBC.
And remember, they got rid of Amin's show and Zelina Maxwell's show on the Peacock channel, okay,
because they're saving money.
They're giving Rachel Maddow $30 million to host a show once a week, all right, to keep it from going to Sirius
XM or CNN or somewhere else. So here's what's going to happen. They're going to probably move
Jen Psaki into Jonathan Capehart's slot on Sunday morning. They're probably going to move Jonathan
Capehart into Tiffany's slot on Saturday. Watch it happen. Write it down. It's going to happen.
That's what you're actually dealing with there.
But really what you're dealing with here, and this is what I keep telling y'all about mainstream media.
I spent six years at CNN.
And when people come up to me like, man, I wish you could go back to mainstream media, I say, let me explain something to you. The only person who can fire Roland Martin is God.
That's the hierarchy here.
I'm the CEO.
I'm the owner.
God is the only person above me.
When you work in that environment, ratings don't matter.
They will fire you if they want to.
They will choose not to resign you if they choose to.
And that's what happened here.
And so I said this and I tweeted this, Rashida Jones, who I know, the president,
must speak to this issue why Tiffany Cross
was not given a new contract
and continued hosting her show.
Her boss, Cesar Conde, over NBC,
must speak to this.
His boss, Jeff Schell,
who's over all of NBCUniversal,
must speak to this.
They all must speak to it.
And black folks, this is real simple.
You got to make a decision.
Are you going to keep watching?
What did you hear when Jeff Carr in our promotion, when he says you need to bring your eyeballs
home to Rolling Mark, Unfiltered and the Black Star Network?
The reality is this here.
We are the most loyal audience they have.
Black folks
represent, we watch
MSNBC more than anybody else.
So,
we should be saying,
this how y'all gonna do a truth-telling?
And here's the other question.
You hired
Tiffany Cross for her opinion.
So, you getting rid of her because of her opinion?
Oh, you didn't realize she was a truth teller when she was trying out?
So you gave her a show?
Explain that.
Explain why would you hire somebody to be an opinion host
but then, well, we don't like it. Why would you hire somebody to be an opinion host?
But then, well, we don't like it.
And keep in mind, I've already heard people say, well, you know, she made that comment.
She made the comment on Charlamagne's show about Florida.
I use the word Dick.
Mark Halperin called Obama that on Morning Joe and got suspended.
He was back on the air.
The only reason he got fired was because of his Me Too problems.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Mark Halperin was a white guy who was a favorite of Joe and Mika.
Tiffany Cross was never a favorite of Joe and Mika. Tiffany Cross was never a favorite of Joe and Mika.
You never saw her on that show, did you?
Which is sort of weird because if you had a high-rated show on the weekends,
why wouldn't you have them on the morning show?
Hmm, that's the question.
And also, you've got to be asking the question,
why does the Lena Maxwell show get canceled?
Was it because of ratings? Did they ever tell? Was it because of ratings?
Did they ever tell her it was because of ratings?
Those are some questions that should be answered.
And let's see if MSNBC
schedules that meeting.
I'll let my panel weigh in.
Julianne, you first
about the decision by
MSNBC to part ways with Tiffany Cross.
Well, they're absolutely wrong. Tiffany is a truth teller.
And I didn't find her comments offensive at all.
I found them actually quite amusing.
One time she said something, I said, shoot, I wish I had said that.
She's a smart sister who is having a good show.
But, you know, black women take the brunt of so much.
And the Mark Halperin example is a great one,
but there are many other examples of white boys
who can get away with just about anything,
except for in this Me Too era,
you know, putting their hands on a woman.
But they can get away with almost anything else.
They can say anything.
And it's only when Black women step out there,
and more so Black women than Black men,
we step out there, suddenly we're under a microscope.
As you said, she was hired for her opinion,
and she's worked very hard over the course of her career
to get to where she is.
I'm sure she'll shine somewhere else,
but MSNBC needs to be shamed and rolling.
Maybe we should start talking about boycotting.
Maybe that's what we should be doing.
Well, the reason I, and I said this beforehand,
the reason you did not hear
me say that word is because
I follow the model of
Operation Breadbasket. Boycott
was the last thing that they did
because they had to do education up front.
One of the biggest mistakes that we make
is that we throw boycott out first.
My deal is, let's
educate our people, enlighten our
people. They met with them. And
then if the answer wasn't satisfactory, they got back. Then they went to the next step. And so
the worst thing in the world, that's why you will rarely ever hear me say it. I don't throw that out
there because if we have not prime positioned our people here to understand what the issue is,
then a boycott actually fails.
That's the only reason.
That's the only reason. Renita?
Well, I hope that my comments
will help with some of that education, because we need to quickly
get to the part where we boycott. Here's what
I've always noticed about MSNBC. This is
a left-leaning network, yet most
of the people that they have hosting the various
shows are not black people, who are the
base of the Democratic Party.
They've got Joe and Mika with a two-hour show every day.
No, no, no, no, no, baby.
After that, that got bumped to four hours.
Oh, okay.
Well, so, okay.
They were three hours.
Now they're four.
Okay, but you still got Joe and Mika, a Republican.
He says he's left the party,
but we also remember when he got caught
helping Trump to get elected.
And then you've got Nicole Wallace, who has a two-hour show. Meanwhile,
you've got brilliant people on MSNBC who've never been given an entire show, like Jason Johnson.
And so MSNBC, they do things that you would never see Fox do, which is, number one,
elevate what is supposed to be the opposite of what the network is about. You never see Fox
bringing up a whole bunch of Democrats to have two- and three-hour shows. And they don't really-most of the hosts do not represent the people
who actually vote for Democrats. This is a problem that MSNBC should be taking seriously, because
many people, especially Generation-the Millennials and Generation Z, I believe it is, they've done a
lot of cord cutting. Most people don't even pay for cable anymore. Yes, you can watch MSNBC
on the apps. But the point is, mainstream media has taken a hit over the years. And it continues
to take a hit because people can look at things that resonate with them more, like Roland Martin.
They can look at things online that resonate with them more. And so they really can't afford to be
not catering to the people who are actually keeping their eyeballs on MSNBC.
Jason?
Well, the one thing I'll say about Jen Psaki is whatever it is,
I've seen her on television when she's not at the podium and answering questions,
when she's literally in a box the way we are right now.
And whatever it is, she doesn't have it.
So if she's going to host a show, that show is going to bomb. I'll put it right now. I'll
put money on it. It's not going to work. She just doesn't have the charisma in that kind of a
setting. So she's not the one to host the show. I think there are other people that may take that
spot. But one of the things we have to know about MSNBC is that they've always ghettoized their Black talent
onto weekends. It just
so happened that they
put Joy Reid
on into primetime.
But for how long
was she basically their best
talent and she was put
onto weekends?
They had Reverend Al on the weekends.
They put all of the black people on the weekends.
I got to correct you.
Remember, Reverend Sharpton had a daily show
at 6 p.m.
Joy had an afternoon show.
Her afternoon show with Alex Wagner got canceled.
Then when they had
the TIFF with Melissa Harris Perry,
so Joy had a weekend show.
She went to a daily show in the afternoon.
And then she went from the daily show in the afternoon back to the weekends.
And then from the weekends to prime time.
Sharpton had a daily 6 p.m. show that got canceled.
Then he got moved to the weekends.
And then Tamron Hall had a morning show.
Craig Melvin had a show that was a midday show.
She, of course, left.
Craig got promoted on Today's Show.
And so now the only person, only African-American you see in the daily rotation is Joy's show at 7 p.m.
Go ahead.
Okay.
So I stand corrected.
I remember when I would watch, it seemed like I saw Melissa Harris-Perry, Reverend Sharpton, and Joy would be on weekends.
But, again, I don't watch a ton of MSNBC, and I know that there are a lot of people out there who do.
I really hope that they fix this situation. I had high hopes for the fact that they had an
African-American who was their president. And I hope it works out for Tiffany Cross,
because I actually enjoyed her show. I watched her show where you are on a few times
and also open who show.
So the guy right yeah, I just enjoy I've never I've never
ever done joy ratio.
I've been on Tiffany show but I've never ever been on joy joy
and ratio.
We can show us a weekend show or a daily show.
Right now that shot the Sharpton show one time.
But go ahead.
I've never done any of those shows. I was on
Craig Melvin one time, but
I have seen you on Tiffany's
show and the fact that she actually
had African Americans and African American
men and talking about the issue
of African American men
voting, and particularly
in Georgia, I thought was really important.
It followed my article in Newsweek.
So I was really excited about that
and seeing you on that panel
and talking about that issue.
I thought she did a lot of really good content.
And I hope that she bounces back.
I don't know where she's going to bounce back.
There's really, it seems like,
in terms of liberal networks right now,
it's only MSNBC in terms of the major networks.
Yep.
But I hope she starts something on her own the way you did
and, you know, gains the traction and gets the eyeballs that she deserves
and people bring their eyeballs home to her whenever she starts her thing.
Well, again, the thing that I want is want people to understand is that
and I really hope people let me be clear.
I support folks who work in mainstream media. I've been a three time board member of the National Association of Black Journalists.
We fought for those jobs. But this is also why we have to have independent black owned media to be able to cover the issues that we care about,
where we're not being beholden to somebody else
who are making those decisions.
That's why I started the Black Star Network.
That's why we have five shows.
That's why we have three shows in development.
This is why when I talk about you supporting us
with your resources, it matters.
Because here's the deal.
You right now, if you've got cable, you are sending...
Let me be just real clear with y'all.
Because, see, again, folks don't even
understand this, Julianne, Renita, and Jason. A lot of y'all who have got cable news right now,
you are spending more money per month on Fox News than you are on this show.
The cable fees that Fox News gets is what funds them along with advertising. So if you have cable,
you're actually funding Fox News.
You're funding Newsmax. You were funding
One American News when it was on AT&T
and Verizon Files. You might want
to understand the business of the business.
Fox News is the most profitable cable news network.
And they get paid a monthly fee.
Every cable bill you're paying if you have cable, you are sending money to Fox News every single month.
Just so you understand that.
And the same with MSNBC.
And the same with CNN.
So you literally are funding these networks.
And so when we're complaining about what they do,
we're funding them.
Just so you're aware.
Renita, Jason, and Julianna, I certainly appreciate it.
Folks, tomorrow, live coverage.
Six hours of live coverage beginning at 7 p.m. right here on the Black Star Network.
We've got more than 50 people who are lined up to speak.
It's going to be a phenomenal night.
Y'all, don't waste your time with the networks.
If y'all want the blackest, realest breakdown of the election, watch the Black Star Network tomorrow.
We're going to end the show with something
Reverend Barbara just sent me.
He asked me to play this, and I said,
I'll absolutely do it, folks.
This is him talking about the importance
of this election and what it means
and why it matters to us.
He's going to take us home.
Howard! home. How? Hello, North Carolina. I am here today representing William J. Barber II. I come here today because this moment demands clarity about who we are and who we want to be.
North Carolina, Guilford County, who are we?
As I was driving down the road, the Spirit said, preach to the Democratic Party tonight.
So I think I will.
In the fifth chapter of John, there's a story about a pool of Bethesda.
And Jesus comes to the place of the pool of Bethesda.
It's full of pain.
It's full of misery.
It's a place where the people are suffering.
They could not get help back home.
The people felt like their political leaders didn't care and their religious leaders didn't care. It is a place for those who know
that nothing is being done to reduce the misery index. And the Bible says that Jesus went where
the misery was. And this story says to me that if you're going to really shift public policy,
you got to first see the misery. You can't hide it. You can't refuse to talk about the large number of poor and low wealth people in this state.
You can't bypass it.
Do you know who we are, North Carolina?
We know who we are, whose we are.
We know what North Carolina has done.
Get up.
Organize your votes and decide to make a move.
If you're tired of politicians like Ted Budd who have gone to Washington making promises
that he's going to follow a faithful agenda, but then when he got to Congress, he did everything
Jesus wouldn't do.
He blocked living wages, he blocked healthcare, He blocked the child tax credit from being expanded.
If you don't like it, get up, organize your votes, and decide to make a move.
If we're tired of a Senate where 50 Republicans and one or two Democrats will obstruct actions
on voting rights and climate justice and living
raise.
If you're tired of it, get up and organize your votes and decide to make a move.
If we want a senator named Sherri Beasley who will stand up for North Carolina, if we
want a black woman in the seat Jesse Helms used to hold. If we want a woman that'll fight to protect women and protect workers and protect families
and protect the sick, then get up, organize your votes, and decide the most.
If you're tired of having an extremist Republican lead in the state legislature since 2012 and
all they've done since they've been there is attack gay people and attack
Latinos and attack Medicaid and attack voting rights if you're sick and tired of it.
Get up!
Organize your votes.
Act like you don't have to be here and decide to move.
If you're tired of a folk that would rather pack the Supreme Court with judges than keep people
out of caskets during COVID.
Get up, organize your votes, and make a move.
If you're tired of seeing 2.7 million people work hard every day without a living wage,
then get up and organize your votes and make a move.
If you're tired of Bud lying on Sherri, talking
about he's a Christian and she's not.
Get up and organize your votes and make a decision.
If you're tired of people saying they love the veterans, but then they won't even make
sure the veterans have healthcare and living wages. Get up! Get up!
Get up!
And organize your votes!
Make a decision and move!
And act like we don't have to be here!
North Carolina, we ain't never waited on nobody outside of North Carolina to help us!
We got up ourselves!
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again.
And we ought to do it again. And we ought to do it again. And we ought to do it again. And we ought to do it again. And we ought to do it again. Nobody outside of North Carolina didn't help us. We got up ourselves.
And we ought to do it again.
This is an iHeart podcast