#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Ohio Fighting White Supremacy, Fla. Special Election, Unemployment Claims Rise, Crockett Chronicles

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

2.27.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ohio Fighting White Supremacy, Fla. Special Election, Unemployment Claims Rise, Crockett Chronicles Black residents in a Cincinnati, Ohio suburb are taking action to protect their neighborhoods after being targeted by neo-Nazi groups. We'll speak with a local lawmaker and a pastor about the recent racist marches in their community and their feelings of being unprotected. We'll show you the moment a MAGA senator warned some judicial nominees about upholding court rulings during a recent confirmation hearing.  We'll also examine whether recent federal firings contributed to the unexpected rise in first-time applications for unemployment benefits. Florida's special election could reshape the congressional makeup, and we'll talk to a candidate looking to fill Matt Gaetz's seat. In tonight's "Crockett Chronicles," Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett calls out hypocrisy during the first hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Thursday, February 27th, 2025. Coming up on Roller, my unfiltered, Jimmy, live on the Black Star Network.

Black residents in an Ohio town are doing what they can to protect themselves after neo-Nazis protested there recently. We'll talk to a local lawmaker as well as a pastor about what is going on there. A MAGA Republican actually challenged judicial nominees saying they must do their job to uphold the rule of law. We'll show you what they have to say. We'll also look at recent federal filings, how they've contributed to the unexpected rise in first-half applications for unemployment benefits. I told y'all that was going to happen.

For the special election, we should reshape the congressional makeup and we'll talk to the candidate department. Look at the field of state. They can't divide that. It's like Texas. It's like. I like Texas. I like the rock. I like the rock. I like the rock. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it.

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I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like it. I like 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

It's on go-go-go, y'all It's rolling, Martin Yeah, yeah, it's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yell. Yeah, yeah, it's Rollin' Martin. Yeah, yeah, rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah, he's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yell. Martin! Our town Folks, three weeks ago in a historically black town in Ohio, neo-Nazis hung a flag as opposed to other signs

linking heights to the historically black community where residents, and when they saw this, those residents took action and took a stand against these white supremacists. The issue is how the police handled the situation. No arrests or citations were issued. Evandale officials hired a third-party team to evaluate their handling of the demonstration. The Evandale Police Department released a body cam video of 10 officers on the scene. Here is that compilation.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. I know. I know. What's up? It's a war, bitch! Sir, you don't mind? I know. I know. Get them the out of here. But it was his boss. I know.

It's causing a what? You're about to get out with us. We're in our own neighborhood. Sir, get back. Stop playing. Sir, get back, okay? Thank you. Thank you. We here. We here, sir. Sir, get back. Don't get mask on because y'all bitches. Sir, get back.

You got a mask on because you a bitch. Sir, get back. Stop playing. Sir, get back, okay? Thank you. Thank you. We here. We here, sir.

Sir, get back. Don't get mask on because y'all bitches. Sir, get back. You got a mask on because you a bitch. Sir, get back. Don't get mask on because you a bitch. Sir, get back. Don't get mask on because you a bitch. Sir, get back. Sir, get back. Sir, get back, okay? Thank you, thank you. Sir, get back. Sir, get mask on because you're a bitch. Sir, get back.

You got a mask on because you're a bitch. Sir, get back. Sir, get back. Sir, get back. I got my own house. I pay property taxes, bitch. Sir. I owe my. Sir, get back.

I owe my. Sir. Don't do it. I owe my. Don't do it. Sir. Do you understand why we're out here? My guys aren't going to get on the plane.

That's been resolved. Nobody's got time. Get out of here. Okay. We might need an escort. We got a vehicle right over there. We got a dog in it. One of our guys need to be escorted right over there.

Okay. You guys start by taking the bag. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. How y'all going to let them come in our community and do this, man? They are allowed to protest.

And we are too. Right. But how? This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want.

This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want. This is what they want. Hey, come on. It's not worth it. I got the wrong neighborhood. Guys, it's not worth it. It's not worth it.

They ain't gonna come to y'all neighborhood and do this. It's not worth it, guys. Hey, it's not worth it. They gotta go. Hey, nobody heard me. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go.

They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go.

They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go.

They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go.

They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go.

They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go.

They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go.

They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. They got to go. right now Get out of here. We'll get that.

It ain't worth it. It ain't worth it. It ain't worth it. Back. Back. It ain't worth it. Back. Back. Guys, back.

Bro, it ain't worth it, man. It is. You know it is. It's not worth it. You know it is. It ain't worth it for these ignorant ass people. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, y'all gotta get out of here.

It's not worth it, man. Get that up out of here. Get your asses out of here. You're out of here! Yeah! You ain't got to kill us! We got you! We got you! We're out of here! Hey!

Hey! We're really out of here! Bitch asses! Bitch asses! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here!

We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! We're out of here! I got to go talk to them.

They got a car up there still. So we're going to figure out how the hell they're going to get back. Cause they can't just walk up there and grab it now. Watch out. We'll play. Yeah, I don't know. Who made y'all come over here? Blue? Yep. Yes, but unfortunately they left one of their vehicles here.

Residents have started to destroy it. They blasted all the tires. Unfortunately, there's a service dog inside. Lincoln Heights. Yeah. Yeah. So we don't know what to do with the thing that we actually got. Yeah, so.

We're going to need you to tell. We're going to have to tell without you. He know it without a shadow of a doubt, and that's crazy that you allowed him to do that. I like how you're putting words in my mouth. That's how you feel because you allowed him. You stood on it because you allowed them. You're here to protect and serve. You did not serve because guess what? You allowed them to drive off in the U-Haul, man.

You allowed them to drive off in the U-Haul. Human beings are not allowed to drive around in the back of the U-Haul. It's illegal. We were dispersing them because you guys were coming up. You let them drive off in the U-Haul. That's wrong. Yes, and then we got them in vehicles and they're heading back home. So you protected them there.

So you cool with it. How do you feel? How do you feel? You feel how they feel about us, man. What do you think I do? I protect and serve. Guess what? Not black people.

Listen. Not black people. Listen. You don't protect and serve us, man. Because guess what? If you did, you wouldn't have to do all this. I know you're upset. I'm upset, too.

Do you think I want to be out here? Do you think I want to be doing this? Do think i agree with their ideology i don't but listen okay when the blm when the blm protests guess what when they were saying kill officers kill pigs guess what i did i sat there and protected their rights of free speech i have to do the same for them. I disagreed with the BLM ideology, and I disagree with their ideology. Folks, joining us right now is Pastor Julian Cook, who leads the Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church. He is leading a boycott of the Evandale Police Department. Also, Hamilton County Commissioner Elisa Reese. Glad to have both of you here. Commissioner Reese, I'll start with you. First off, who is leading this investigation into the police department?

What is the focus? Yes. So thank you, first of all, Roland, for having us on. First of all, the people who are leading this investigation is very interesting because we've got multiple jurisdictions. And so, Evendale, which we have a lot of questions, and we had a meeting, I had a 14-day investigative report coming from the county administration, bringing together the sheriff's office, who the sheriff is independently elected, bringing the prosecutor's office, who is also independently elected, bringing the city of Evendale, their mayor and chief of police, the mayor of Lincoln Heights, and also our emergency

management. And so we wanted to get an investigative report on where is everyone and what has happened. And let me say that day that that happened, I did get a late call and I did get out to Lincoln Heights. What we wanted to do is have the questions that the people have been asking and have them answer the questions. And so there are a lot of questions that have to be answered. So yes, just this week. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need

to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early

and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. They came together in 14 days and we've been working with Pastor Cook and all of the Lincoln Heights as well. And they came together.

And we asked directly to Evendale because what we saw on the video was unacceptable. As you know, Roland, I stood up to the KKK. We took on David Duke down at Grambling State University all the way to Cincinnati as the vice mayor of Cincinnati, trying to stop the KKK from putting a cross on Fountain Square. And now we've got the neo-Nazis coming into our county. And we're saying, listen, we're not going to have a welcome mat. We're not going to roll out the red carpet.

We're not going to make it comfortable. We've got to make it hot on the block. You can't set up here. And so there are a number of questions that I asked directly to the chief of Evendale, because as you can see on the video, they were the ones that their police officers led the neo-Nazis out, and it appeared to have something that people feel was an escort service out. They were the ones saying they're going to go back to Lincoln Heights

and pick up their vehicle and drive their vehicle out of Lincoln Heights. They were the ones that also led this group into another community, another city called Lachlan. So we got Lincoln Heights, we got Lachlan, and we've got Evendale. And then the other thing, Roland, they are on an overpass of a major interstate highway. And they were quick to say that these folks were peaceful. They put out a press release that they're peaceful, and they left on their own. But the video says differently. And we believe that there are laws on the books where folks should have at least gotten their—should have got detained, should have got their ticket, should have been ticketed and possibly arrested.

And so we're trying to get down to the bottom, and now we have turned it over to the prosecutor's office, who now has agreed to come in to help lead the investigation. And Lincoln—I mean, Rowland, we didn't even have where they were taking the statements. No statements have been taken, witness statements. And now we will have witness statements. The prosecutor's office will come in and take the statements, and they'll do it at Lincoln Heights Baptist Church. Pastor Cook, what do you think the cops did wrong? Well, I think they did several things wrong. The first would be that they escorted these neo-Nazis to the community in the first place, right? To do so is just egregious.

Furthermore, they also took a stance where it really seemed that they were there more— they were more interested in the protection of the neo-Nazis than they were in caring for a community. Obviously, Nazis coming into a historic Black community presented existential threat. There's no question about that. And so for the police to be more interested in making statements—and we've heard these statements that were made before, and Commissioner Reese is very familiar with them—that this was hateful but lawful. Those are not things that need to be said, right?

Lastly, to help to load these neo-Nazis back into the back of a cargo truck, when we know that it is illegal to do so in the state of Ohio, is egregious. There was no way that if the tables were turned and black folks from Lincoln Heights community had loaded a cargo truck and gone to Evendale with AR-15s, that we would not be looking at a different situation totally. So I think the list abounds, Roland, of all of the infractions and the ways that the police department failed this community, and they need to be held accountable. And particularly, Evendale needs to be held

accountable for the way that it has proceeded with this process. Commissioner Reese, how long do you expect this investigation to take place? Well, I'm asking them to move as quickly as possible, because we cannot be the place where people feel like they can set this type of behavior up. We're seeing a tone coming out of Washington. Absolutely. It's hitting the streets, and it just can't hit the streets here at Hamilton County. And I want to say that Lincoln Heights stood up.

They came out. The community ran them out of town. It was not the police that ran them out of town. Lincoln Heights said, we're not having it. And they were targeted. This group targeted Lincoln Heights because it is a historical black community. They thought they were going to make a stand. And they messed around and found out. And they got ran out. Now where we are is to make sure that this cannot happen again. We cannot be rolling out red carpet. We cannot be going and

giving them escort services on taxpayer dollars. We cannot be making it comfortable for them. And then when the community stands up, then all of a sudden we go into what you call de-escalation, where there never should have been any escalation if we would have handled business. We've got guys in all black with masks jumping out of a U-Haul van—that's already suspicious—going over an overpass of a major highway into a historically black community, and we just cannot tolerate it. So one of the things that we say we've got to have an investigation, that's going on. But we also have to secure Lincoln Heights and other communities, and particularly Lincoln Heights right now,

because others have come in since that time throwing around flyers for the KKK anniversary celebration. And so this is a serious matter. But we've seen that tone start when it started from the White House, and now it's trying to get down to our house. And we're saying that we're not going to have it down at our house. We got to fight this type of behavior. So we got that investigation. Even Dale has also hired some people to also investigate. So we got several investigations going. But again, having the prosecutor in, I want a swift look at what violations may have happened right now and if there needs to be consequences right now.

My understanding, these are some groups that came from out of our state. They don't pay taxes here. And yet and still, they were, in some cases, when you look at the videos, treated with a more welcoming spirit by some than the taxpayers who've been here their whole lives and are paying taxes to be able to live in their own communities. I also want to say that they were led to a school. So we've got children involved. Kids were in school and were coming out of school and were met with this on the buses, some walking home from school. So this is a safety and justice issue.

And we're demanding that we move quickly. I'm glad that in our meeting we were able to get the 14-day update quickly and bring all the parties together, because we didn't have that. And now we are saying—and we were able to get the prosecutor now to step in to investigate. We now will be able to get the people's—get their statements, their witness statements. We didn't have any of those. That will happen now. We also have an alert system that will be going in place for Lincoln Heights, because

things are still going, and now people will be able to get alert on their phone. And we're working on a safety plan. So we've got a right now plan, but we also got to keep the heat on. And we've got—it's turned over to the prosecutor's office, and they will be the ones moving forward from here. Lastly, Pastor Cook, what do you make of the police officer invoking the Black Lives Matter protests? Oh, I think it's another example of just

how horrible the police response, how irresponsible the police response was. There's no comparison, Brother Roland, no comparison whatsoever to what we saw here at 2.30 in the afternoon when children were being dismissed from their school, neo-Nazis coming into their community, pointing a gun at a Black man who was a Black business owner and resident of the community who was leaving his office, to point a gun at him, to call him the words that they called him over and over and over again, and then to proceed as if this is nonthreatening behavior. That's the language that we've heard used, that this was a peaceful demonstration. It was absolutely not a peaceful demonstration.

And to depict it in such a way is unbelievable. Once again, it's another example of why the trust of this community for law enforcement has been so low. I mean, could you blame them? How could you believe that these folks are here to defend and protect you when these types of things are going on? And it is why we have launched and will be launching beginning tomorrow into a boycott of Evendale. We are asking that all people of goodwill from our community in Lincoln Heights, but all over Cincinnati, all over our area, do not spend your dollars in Evendale. And the goal of that is not simply about punishing Evendale. It is to push for the moral imperative, right, in Evendale. We are asking for business owners, and we do believe that there are good people of goodwill in Evendale.

We are asking you, you should not be okay with the fact that your tax dollars are being used to support this type of behavior from law enforcement and this lack of accountability from your city officials. So if you believe that, let's put your money where your values are, and let's do the best we can to push this community to be held accountable. Commissioner Reese talked a little bit ago about the investigation that has ensued. They brought in a private investigator in Evendale. They've done so, though, without any collaboration with leaders in Lincoln Heights. So the investigator—we have no idea if this is someone that we trust, if this is a reputable entity. We don't know because we've not been included in that conversation. If we are your closest abutting neighbor, it would seem to me

that you would include us in that conversation if you were really about the work of restoration and repair. And there can be no restoration and repair until there is true accountability. And that's what we are planning to do through this boycott of Evendale. And we are asking all people of goodwill to participate. And we know that there are folks all over this state who have said they are going to support us in this boycott.

All right, Pastor Cook, Commissioner Reese. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much for carrying the story. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Introducing my panel right now, Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University, joining us out of D.C., Reese and Colbert host the Reese and Colbert Show on Sirius XM Radio, also out of D.C., and Dr. Nola Haynes, Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, also out of D.C. Glad to have all three of you here.

It was quite interesting, Recy. Some of the videos were circulating. It showed some of those African-Americans brandishing their weapons. And I remind some people, Ohio, open carry state, applies to Black people, too. Right. Well, I mean, I want to see more of the footage of the cops' interactions with the Nazis, with the neo-Nazis. They're more than happy to release video of black people being irate, which I think we need to see more of. Be clear, I'm not opposed to that. But they didn't show us much of their, obviously, extensive interaction protecting those people who, as they just pointed out, are not residents. They don't have equal rights in the sense of, you know, the police force should really be more focused on protecting their residents than protecting them from are then protecting outside agitators. But, you know, I just I respect that the residents forced this so-called demonstration, this is really actually terrorism, to come to an end. Because if the police had, they would have just been sitting up there,

a lot of gagging all damn day, brandishing neo-Nazi flags and things like that. And so we are on our own in this environment, in this society. We always have been. I'm sure most people would argue. But we are on our own, and we have to make them uncomfortable to come into our spaces. And, you know, what would also make them more uncomfortable if the police did not basically provide armor for them? They don't do that for Black people. If this was Black people protesting, they would have been up there with tear gas and all kinds of shit. But when it comes to the neo-Nazis, they are trying to escort their cars. They're trying to escort them and all kinds of stuff. But when it comes to the neo-Nazis, they are trying to escort their cars. They're trying to escort them and all kinds of stuff. So, I mean, I think that, you know,

when it comes to this environment, we have to protect ourselves. And I'm happy that, you know, the police didn't do anything to the Black people, because we know that regardless of who is antagonizing us, regardless of who's in the wrong, they tend to exert more force on black residents. But this is definitely an indication of things that are to come. Those neo-Nazis fucked around and found out they're in the wrong neighborhood. But I don't think that they'll be stopped from trying this again in other neighborhoods, but they'll feel a lot safer. Nola, it was clear that residents were having none of it, and we have seen this happen beforehand. And so folks got to be on guard.

NOLA HILLS- Absolutely. Unfortunately, we have all been talking about this collectively for a long time about what Black folks will have to do to protect ourselves. And, again, I want to reiterate, tell all women out there to get self-defense training classes. I am so serious about that. We are living in very different times. One of the things that's... I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser

Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Suck out to me as I was watching the video was how the cops were talking to both groups. The way in which tone went up, tone went down.

At times, there was kind of Black speech to kind of, I guess, assuage the Black people by saying, this ain't worth it, and putting the emphasis on ain't, and then speaking really calmly to the white supremacists who came into a neighborhood that was not theirs. And it's all of these different things that, um, that, that not only make us feel the way that we feel because it's, it's beyond a feeling. I mean, we, like Recy said, we are on our own. So what does that mean? A lot of us are going to have to start thinking about things that are maybe uncomfortable that we don't want to think about. And to be perfectly honest with you, I am one of those people. I don't want to have to think about how to protect my life, right? Because, you know,

we were brought up in a world, we were brought up in a country that said, that's not something that you were supposed to be thinking about. It's okay, little Black girl, to go to college, right? It's okay to get married and have a family and live the American dream. And here we are in 2025, and Trump's America. Well, that American dream is a lot of people's living nightmares right now. And so we have to start thinking about different ways to protect ourselves. To that point, Greg, you don't have a federal government that will be protecting folks. You've got a federal government, we'll talk about a little bit later, that does give a damn about black people,

that believes that white people are victims, and you see it in all of their actions. Yes, yes, yes, we do. And Commissioner Reese hit the nail on the head when she said that the tone has been set, the message has been sent out. The first thing that white nationalists do, of course, is wrap themselves in the First Amendment and talk about freedom of speech. And they're absolutely right to do so. They wrap themselves in arming themselves, Second Amendment, and they're absolutely right to do so. The standard, of course, that we are all talking about now that we heard you talking about

Pastor Cook and Commissioner Reese is the question of, you know, if the people are different, would there be a different standard applied? One of the restrictions on the First Amendment of freedom of speech is, of course, the time, place and manner restriction. That would could easily be triggered, say, if there had been other types of flags. And clearly those white nationalists are putting a Nazi flag out there to intimidate. And there are certain contexts where intimidation could be considered a time, place and manner restriction, if those flags had been, say, a kill white people, kill white people flags, people would say, well, that's not the same as a Nazi flag. Absolutely, the Nazi flag is meant to send a particular message.

Some protected classes, the idea of non-whites and, you know, so forth. You could say that you might be able,you could certainly do that on private property. You can even do it on public property. However, to do it on an overpass that could trigger car accidents or people looking up and coming in very distracted, you know, you could make the argument that the municipality would be well within its means to say you've got to come off that overpass. I mean, there are exceptions and restrictions is what I'm saying. So beyond the offensiveness of the speech, if we're just talking strictly legally, there were some options that could have been available to law enforcement, it seems to me.

And there should be some civil lawsuits or at least looking into some possibilities of taking some legal action. Now, setting that aside and holding that distinct, again, finally, as Commissioner Reese said, the message has been sent. I take no pleasure in continuing to say that this criminal enterprise is going to come apart. These are the same confrontations we have seen at every moment in this funky criminal enterprise's history, when whiteness has been emboldened enough to act boldly with the thing that has been in its heart since the inception of this criminal enterprise. The difference between now and previous iterations, previous generations, is that the demographics continue to shift. And as we saw those brothers and sisters get ready to handle their business, we are simply not going to take it anymore.

Law enforcement better be very careful as these white nastas purge the military in preparation to use the military as a weapon against folk, you're going to find out that this violence will not only go unchecked, it may be that this violence assumes a kind of critical mass that once you have crossed the threshold, you can't return to normalcy. They're playing with fire at this point. And I'm talking about beyond the law. I'm talking about the literal sentiments being expressed in this country are lighting matches.

And, and then once we cross that threshold, I'm not sure what happens after that. I agree. Hold tight. One second. Go on to a break. We come back more unfiltered right here on the black star network. Back tight one second. Going to a break. We come back more on Roland unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network back in a moment. in line with President Elon Musk. In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reeve's primetime show,

The Readout, Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reeve's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you, and the latest updates on the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks

who understand the power of Black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Black Star Network app. Hey, y'all. Welcome to The Other Side side of change only on the black star network and hosted by myself ria baker and my good sis jamira burley we are just two millennial women tackling everything at the intersection of politics gender and pop culture and we don't just settle for commentary

this is about solution-driven dialogue to get us to the world as it could be and not just as it is. Watch us on the Black Star Network, so tune in to the other side of change. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Folks, tragedy has struck the Southern University of Family.

A 20-year-old student has died while pledging. Caleb Wilson, a member of Southern's renowned human jukebox marching band, was rushed to a Baton Rouge hospital early Thursday morning, but did not survive. Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death. An autopsy is underway to determine the exact cause. Meanwhile, Wilson's family, friends, and classmates were left grieving an unimaginable loss. Southern University released the following statement. Southern University and A&M College is aware of an off-campus incident that may have resulted in the death of student Caleb Wilson, a junior from New Orleans majoring in mechanical engineering. The campus

community extends condolences to his family, classmates, and loved ones. Southern is cooperating fully with the Baton Rouge Police Department, which is in charge of the investigation. No further information is available at this time. Counseling services are available for Southern University students, faculty, and staff. Now, according to several stories, Caleb was pledging Omega Psi Phi, which are incorporated. I'm not sure exactly, again, what the further details are. And, you know, unfortunately, Greg, we've seen these stories before where individuals have died pledging fraternities. And again, you know, the thing that I continue to say, when I did an interview with Vlad TV, a lot of people were really upset on there, but also on this show, because I took such a hardcore stance against hazing.

And what's interesting is that, one, I don't give a shit what they think. But I had those. And in fact, what's interesting, there was a young brother, actually several brothers who have emailed me, approached me, who said they appreciated those particular comments because they needed to be said. And as I keep saying over and over and over again, no black family sends their child to an HBCU and expects them to return home in a body bag? No, sir, Roland. And we both pledged long enough ago to remember that, you know, these things have been around for quite some time. And the generation before us, you know, who would talk about the dark ages, so to speak.

And we know that this isn't exclusive to HBCUs. We know it isn't exclusive to Black sororities and fraternities. When I was an undergraduate working in a third shift at Crystal's in Nashville, Tennessee, 10 to 6 a.m., I remember one morning, about 4 o'clock in the morning, these white boys came in who went to Vanderbilt. I was at the Crystal's across the street from Vanderbilt. I was at the Crystals across the street from Vanderbilt. And they were coming in laughing, punch drunk drunk, laughing about having put some of their pledges on a southbound railroad car, bound and gagged and blindfolded. And now they were coming in to eat some crystals and finish drinking before they went back to the dorm. All that is a prelude to this. We live in a country that makes spectacle of violence and it becomes even intimate, even intimate in every area, including these rituals.

It's indefensible. It's inexcusable. And at the same time, it is so continuing, continuing pervasive in this spring season. We'll soon be seeing the folks come out. The new pledge lines will be coming out, that we have to have a serious conversation among ourselves about how we're not only going to stop this, but repurpose how we think about these deep roots of rites of passage rituals for people of African descent that have found their way into these schools. You know, you know, of course, finally, who is really somebody who has been a champion in talking about reform and getting rid of hazing and all this. And it is our frat brother, Walter Kimbrough, who has written extensively about that, including in our magazine in the Sphinx of Alpha Alpha about this.

But, you know, no parent, as you say, nobody sends their child home to come to this pass. Now, according to WAFB-TV, Wilson was taking part in what is described as a fraternity ritual where pledges stand in line when the student collapsed. As we said, an autopsy was going to be performed. And, you know, so we don't know any further details. We don't know if they were having to do exercises, how long they'd been standing, if he had a previous health condition, we have no idea. But this should be extremely alarming to any parent whose child seeks to pledge as a fraternity or sorority.

You know, yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. And coming from New Orleans, I can tell you that this is definitely part of the culture. I didn't go to an HBCU, but I grew up on Xavier's campus, and I saw firsthand since since I was a little girl, just how integrated the fraternities and sororities are into everyday campus life. It is part of Southern culture. It is a place of pride, legacy, history. One of the things I've never understood, though, was that aspect. I remember I kind of sometimes joke and say I'm a reformed mean girl.

And the closest thing, since I'm not in a sorority, the closest thing that I could even kind of think about is maybe when I was a cheerleader or beauty pageants or, you know, things like that when women, you know, we have to go through some sort of weird ritual, not only just to be part of the group, because supposedly those sadistic, some of those sadistic activities are supposed to bring you closer together. But what I really was able to figure out is a lot of those things are to test your boundaries for one, um, see how just, just to test how far you would go to be loyal and to see if you are, um, if you're one of those who takes one for the team or you just say deuces, you know, I'm out. So it's, it's really the psychological component of it has always been fascinating to me. And this resulted in a fatal situation that should have never come to be. And honestly, I'm kind of sitting here clutching my little

pearls a little bit because I honestly thought that a lot of that was gone from the fraternities and sororities. At least that's what they've been saying for quite some time. Well, keep in mind, fraternities and sororities, many of them have absolutely changed their pledge process. It has been drastically shortened. But what you have is you still have individuals who are graduates, who are in grad chapters, who are in undergrad, who still believe in underground pledging, who still believe that that process needs to still be continued. There is a really fundamental problem that we face because I guess, I'm going to use the N-word for example. If somebody white calls you the N-word, you will be hot, you will not be happy. If somebody calls you a paper member,

that has the same psychological effect on a lot of people. And the thing is, not everybody is mentally strong. So again, I'm not speaking about this young man. I'm speaking about my experiences and my process in that, for me, there were things I would not tolerate. I would not tolerate. So first and foremost, I've never drank in my life. I've never smoked in my life. And I remember before we went online, we knew the five of us who were going to pledge. And we pledged 36 years ago at Texas A&M. I literally said, point blank, I don't drink.

And that idea of one drink, all drink ain't going to happen. And I'll never forget a situation where I was number three, my LB was number two. One of the big brothers said for us to kneel down, and my man number two said, I don't kneel down before no man but God, but Jesus. And so the request actually to me wasn't that big of a deal, but when I touched his shoulder, it was as if I was touching a brick house. Because I remember turning to number four, I was like, I remember turning to number four and saying, I don't think we're going to be kneeling.

Because he was like, no, that ain't going to happen. And so the reality is that doesn't always happen, Reese. And unfortunately, unfortunately, there are people, and this is not just fraternities and sororities. We've seen hate. You mentioned cheerleaders, Noah. We've seen it there. I remember that they were hazing in my high school band.

And I was like, it was at Jackie Hayes High School and Cortex of the University of the Ocean of Souls right across the street. And they were mad at me because I came in as a freshman first chair. And the rule was you couldn't haze folk who were first chair. So I wasn't touched and folk were mad. And I'm like, don't hate because I can know how to play. But we have this thing. So we have hazing rituals, cheerleading teams, dance teams, football, sports teams. And it creates this notion of, oh, you have to do this.

I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar

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We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

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Or to be fully accepted as a member of the team, of the organization, and people then hear that and go, well, I need to go through these things in order to be fully accepted as a member of this group. Yeah. I mean, I'm a GDI, so, you know, I didn't go through any of these processes, but I will say I observed the kind of behavior and the pressure that penalized people for having boundaries. If you pledged and you decided that you were going to stand in your boundaries, then you were, you know, you got harassed for dropping the line. If you did not get brutalized enough, then you were called a skater, if you, you know, reported mistreatment to people, you know, grad chapter or whatever else, because, like, to already point out, a lot of this stuff is outlawed by these organizations, then, you know, you were harassed for that.

And so I saw a lot of harassment. I saw a lot of mistreatment of people that did not just go along with, you know, the process. And then there are people who maybe they did go along with the process, but people didn't deem it tough enough on them. And so then they were treated a certain way. But my message to people, especially young people, is that there are going to be times, particularly in college, where you're going to feel like this is the most important thing. There are going to be people that are going to treat you a certain way. You're going to be times, particularly in college, where you're going to feel like this is the most important thing. There are going to be people that are going to treat you a certain way. You're going to feel like it's the end of the world. The sky is falling, but life will move on.

A lot of these people now, where are they? They're not going to be anybody to you. So don't take something and don't beat yourself up over something that is very fleeting. Most of you are going to graduate and go on about your life and never see these people again if you don't want to. Or you can go through the process and you might have lifelong friends and make lifelong connections. But there are a lot of people that do engage in predatory and abusive behavior towards people that they deem did not go through a tough enough process. But even those people can be avoided in the future. So I just would encourage people to, you know, do what you feel is best for you, hold the boundaries that you have. And if

that involves consequences that might make you uncomfortable for a period of time, then just understand that that's a season and that season will pass. Again, Greg, we do not know the details of what happened here. So we are speaking in general terms here. But I'll say this here. The onus when it comes to anything dealing with hazing, and let me be perfectly clear, we do not know if that was the case. We don't know the case here, but we do know of so many other cases where hazing has actually taken place. The onus, though, is on the actual members. The onus is on checking other

members, making it clear that, like I've literally said to folk, I'm not going to allow you to put the organization and its future into financial jeopardy and eventually being closed because of your actions. Folk don't think about those. I remember that was a case at Southern Methodist University

where pledges, and I think they were pledging alpha, I think, basically had water poisoning. They were forced to drink so much water they were hospitalized. And again, I'll

tell, this is where members have to say, check in and stop things from actually taking place because you're putting the chapter in jeopardy. You could be booted off the yard. You have legal liability. Some of those folks went to jail because of their actions. And so people have to understand this. It ain't fun and games when all of a sudden you got a prison number as opposed to a line number. No, it isn't. No, it isn't.

April will mark my 40th year, from April 1985, at Omicron, Tennessee State. And I remember coming on the campus of Tennessee State just as the queues were getting suspended. I've been at a university, whether it's been Tennessee State, Ohio State, or Temple, where some Greek letter organization wasn't getting suspended or had already been suspended or was just coming back from suspension. And I'm saying, in the case of Ohio State and Temple, it wasn't only Black organizations. Thinking about this, and it's funny, Reese, that you mentioned GDIs, because my students, because this is the season for pledging, and many of them say, I don't want to be in a

fraternity school where I sell you a G and many of them say, I don't want to be in a fraternity school. I say, well, you're a GDI. And they say, what's that? That term, which, of course, really, I think, came really into wide prominence in the 1960s and 70s, the black power, the height of the black power era, rejecting even the notion of any free legalization, is something that this generation doesn't know as much. I do, though, agree with you, Dr. Haynes, that in terms of reform, like you were saying, Roland, there has been a much more deliberate attempt, because I remember when we went out to law school, that that was the period where you saw some of these cases doing exactly

what you said, Roland, making it to a judge, making it to courts, and people then beginning to question this question of violence. And in the immediate wake of that, and then for decades after the—in the intervening decades, the crackdown, for example, the imposition of caps of numbers of people, because you remember, we all probably remember, particularly in the Deep South, those huge lines, particularly for the sororities. And now, for example, I think Deltas have a cap of 50, at least that's the cap at Howard. And I'm an advisor.

Mario Beatty, my colleague in the Department of Affirmative Studies, who's also an alpha, is the advisor for Alpha Alpha at Howard. I'm the advisor for the African Students Association at Howard. And we have to, all advisors have to go through extensive training. And if they even have a hint of hazing for any organization, there is an immediate investigation. And that isn't just it's not just physical. We're talking about verbal. And, of course, finally, that's where you see the thing begin to really kind of the rubber meeting the road. As you said, everybody isn't strong minded. But even the idea that these are head games, and so that pledging isn't just about physical games, it's about the mental games, it's about attempting to build camaraderie, all those things get so deeply intertwined.

And we're in a litigious society, one that has become even more so, where people are now, at any moment, even the perception can trigger an investigation. And then you got the accusations, as Reese said, your paper, you called somebody. You know, it just makes me question sometime the future of our sororities and fraternities, which do so much good work. And you wonder, you know, I, too, share a bit of surprise. I know it's not gone, but there's a reason they're saying it took place off campus. There's a reason they say it took place off campus. But this is, you know, this is something I thought we were past, but clearly we're not. I'm going to say this again and again.

In this case of this young man, a southern 20-year-old Caleb Wilson, we do not know the circumstances regarding this off-campus incident, what they were engaged in or whatever. But in general, I'll say this, and I have no problem saying it. I don't care what the organization is, including my own Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Corporate. There's no fraternity, no sorority, no football team, no band, no cheerleading team, no dance team, no organization, the letters or whatever are not worth compromising your health or your life to get. It simply ain't worth it. I do not care what anybody else has to say. And I've had folk who come to me and they said, man, I just thought you were too harsh. And my response was real simple. You can kiss my ass because I really do not care. I will not.

I will not apologize. This was the position that I had before I pledged in spring of 1989. This was a position that I took at my first national convention in San Antonio in the summer of 1989. And as long as I have breath in my body, I will never, ever, ever compromise my position when it comes to hazing, because some folk got a problem with it. They can truly, truly go to hell. Got to go to a break. We'll be right back. I'll be in studio when we get back. Traffic has been absolutely insane in D.C., and so I'll be in studio when we get back. Traffic has been absolutely insane in DC. And so I'll be inside. Don't forget, we want you to support the work that we do.

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MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you, and the latest updates on the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief, Donald Trump, and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover

of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks who understand the power of Black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Blackstar Network app. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase.

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These extreme weather events are becoming more disastrous and it is Black and brown communities that are often hit first and worst. Watch us on the Black Star Network so tune in to the other side of change. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach.

Have you ever had that million dollar idea and wondered how you could make it a reality? On the next Get Wealthy, you're going to meet Liska Askalise, the inventress, someone who made her own idea a reality and now is showing others how they can do it too. Positive, focusing in on the thing that you want to do, writing it down and not speaking to naysayers or anybody about your product until you've taken some steps to at least execute. Lease gut, ask a lease. On the next Get Wealthy, right here, only on Blackstar Network. Coming up on the next Black Table, a conversation with Professor Howard W. French

on his new book, Born in Blackness, covering 600 years of global African history and helping us understand how the world we know today is a gift from Black people. There could have been no West without Africa and Africa. That's on the next Black Table with me, Greg Carr, only on the Black Star Network. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself

to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir.

We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn lives there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what i call white minority resistance we have seen

white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys.

America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Coming soon to the Blackstar Network. Well, y'all, when you're on that stage, and you're seeing two and three, four generations in the audience, that's got to speak to you about the power of what y'all have become.

Oh, most definitely. I think we were doing our show before our break, and remember, I was watching this kid. I could not take my eyes off him because he was about nine or so. He was sitting in the front row with his parents. Over on the right hand side, yes, yes, yes, yes. I was amazed that this kid knew everything.

And he was, I was like tripping to see how many songs this kid actually knew. And he knew them all. And he knew them all. And he knew them all. We had to go over there and bring him on stage and take a picture with him at the end of the show and stuff, because it was just that amazing. It was like, this is crazy.

You know, the music travels everywhere. You know, like what Phillip was saying, seeing this young kid. Then you see, hear our songs on commercials, cold commercials. Then you have the younger ones that's seen out here, our music and animation. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture. Covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting.

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Those of you who are watching on YouTube, y'all be sure to hit the like button. I see all y'all commenting, making all kinds of comments like that. A lot of y'all are freeloading, so be sure to hit the like button. That impacts the algorithm, of course. And so we want more people to be able to experience our videos and the shows on our network. All right, folks, let's get to it. Back on the show. All right, folks, let's get to it. Back on the show. All right, folks, Florida, a lot of things are happening there, of course. And you've got special elections taking place. We're going

to be, of course, focusing on that, covering that. And not only that, those special elections, that could very well decide the future of the Democratic Party. Right now, Republicans only have a three-vote majority in Congress. And so, barring anything, you could have all sorts of action taking place. Now, we previously had one of the candidates on, Gaye Vallemont, as a candidate for the state's first congressional district. She joins me now alongside Nikki Freed, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party. Glad to have both of you here. Before I go to Gayle, I'm going to start with Nikki.

I'm sorry, before I go to Gayle, I'm going to start with Nikki. Nikki, I've heard people say, man, listen, long shot, long shot. But this is what we know. We've seen the special elections districts that went plus 20 for Trump where Democrats have won. And what I've always said is, especially in special elections, they typically are low voter turnout. So if you never actually run or compete, you're guaranteed never to win. Yeah, that's exactly right. First of all, it's good seeing you again, Rolanda. Last time we saw each other was at national convention, things didn't end up the way we all had anticipated. But yeah, that's exactly the point. You know, we have seen not just here

in the state of Florida, but across the country, when you have these special elections, it's a different kind of dynamic between the issues that are being discussed, the dynamics of the candidates than it would have otherwise been. We saw even in a Miami-Dade seat at the end of 2023 where there was a 25-point shift in that race. So everything is possible, but not, again, the whole theory of you get zero shots if you don't take them. And so that's what we're doing. We're organizing on the ground. We're helping our two great candidates. You're going to hear from Gay momentarily and Josh Wheeler over at CD6. We're organizing our volunteers.

And of course, the issues today, people are seeing what 30-plus days of a Trump administration looks like. And there is a lot of frustration from Democrats, Republicans, independents of what is happening already in Washington, D.C. You've had a very tall order trying to rebuild the Florida Democratic Party. And one of the reasons you're in the hole that you've been in is because folks just gave up. They didn't really go out there, recruit people to run for state rep, state Senate, congressional races. And so Republicans were able to go hard and lock in a super majority because in many ways, Democrats just said, oh, hey, we can't compete. Florida's just turning red. So let's just do nothing. And so what does that do? That decreases enthusiasm. You don't get volunteers. You don't get donors.

And so all of a sudden it becomes like a domino effect. Yeah, and that's exactly what's happened here. We've been digging this ditch here in Florida for 30 years, whether it is on voter registration, a lack of investment in the state. You know, in the comparison, in 2020, there was over $300 million spent in the state of Florida. Fast forward to 2024, it was less than $20 million. That prevented us from hiring more field staff and getting into our diverse communities, making sure our voter registration numbers are up, making sure we can compete at the doors and on the air lightways. And unfortunately, that money wasn't there. But the Florida Democratic Party showed up throughout the

year in 23 and 24. And we showed that even without that hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, we held the line. And so now it's time for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, we held the line. And so now it's time for people to start investing back in Florida, and not just Florida, that by the time we get to 2032, 40 percent of the American population will be moving to the South. If we as Democrats do not invest in the South today, we will have the risk of losing the White House in 2032 for generations. This is a lot

of our rural parts of our state, a lot of Black communities still from the Old South, a lot of areas where Democrats have been just giving up. And thank God for Stacey Abrams, because we have two U.S. senators in Georgia. But if we don't continue doing that type of investment in the off years, that means now. You and I have talked about don't come to me in 2026 talking about a gubernatorial campaign and the U.S. Senate race if people aren't looking at what is happening in the state in the off year in 2025, giving us the resources to continue building on the momentum that we have going into the cycle. And our CD1 and CD6 candidates are going to show that everything is possible when we truly move that needle back to the right direction.

Well, to your point, when you talk about population shift, what was happening is it's expected after the next census in 2030 that California, New York State, Wisconsin and several of the Midwest states will lose congressional representation and those districts will actually be going to the South. So what has been called the blue wall is going to get even more difficult. And so more than likely, Democrats are going to have to be able to flip consistently a state like North Carolina in order to get to 270. So people need to understand, we talk about population shifts, the impact that has on the electoral college. Gay, I want to go to you. People describe the district you're running for, the seat formerly held by the nutcase Matt Gaetz. That's my language, not yours. I'll share that with you. It's girl, any underage girl there, beware.

But this described as a ruby red district, as you look at it, how are you approaching this to be able to win? Oh, yeah. Roland, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yes, it's been described as a ruby red district, but we have had Matt Gaetz at the helm for eight years sowing hate between Democrats and Republicans. I have spent the last — and I think this may be a record. I have been running for Congress for 19 months now. I ran against Matt Gaetz and the general, and we made strides with Republicans. I got 15 percent of the Republican vote, which is unheard of here for a Democrat. The moderate Republicans here, they understand what's going on. They understand the mission.

Our district has been hit hard by all of the dose changes and fake policies that they are making. And it's scary for our district. We are made up of active duty military veterans and civil servants. We have 20,000 civil servants who are on the chopping block, and it's causing chaos. I am hoping that this time around that Republicans will vote based on what's going on in their home, based on what's going on in their wallet. And I believe that we can win it. Talk about that, because the chaos that we're seeing, we're seeing the Republican town halls, our folks are upset. The House passed this resolution where they're looking to cut $800 billion from Medicaid.

When you start talking about Medicaid, Medicare, when you start talking about the Affordable Care Act, that is a huge problem for Florida voters, whether you are Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, red, blue? Absolutely. Absolutely. What's happening in our district is that a lot of our service members, our junior enlisted, rely on SNAP benefits to feed their families. That's on the chopping block with Medicaid. We have so many disabled people in this district who rely on Medicaid to simply have their office visits via telemedicine. People are wondering what's going to happen to their health care, and that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable in America any day of the week.

But the bill that they put forward, the budget bill, is a disgrace. Questions from my panel. Let me start with you, Nola, go. Nola? you're muted. There you go.

There we go. There we go. Thank you so much for being on the show. This is kudos to your folks for booking you on this important show. Roland has a huge Southern following. I think that more of this needs to happen as people turn away from legacy media. You know, these are, you know, places like Roland Martin, Unfiltered is where you want to go to talk to the people. So first and foremost, I'm very happy to see you here for

this very important election. And secondly, do you have an inclination about what it is that people liked about Matt Gaetz? Because there is one vision of him that you get when you watch certain media outlets, when your algorithm points you in one direction. And I'm always very curious about what local voters see. You know, what is it that you see different from the way this person is presented in the national media? So do you have an inclination about what is it that the voters liked about Matt Gaetz? I do. They like his father. His father is Don Gaetz. He has been a politician on the panhandle for a very long time. And he's a nice, older gentleman who's

jolly and happy and people can relate to him. And so he raised Matt. And then Matt was elected the first time around and he built off of the Gates name. And then he became this polarizing mess that I knew in the first election, Matt could have literally shot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. And he still would have won. I knew that, but I made inroads because we knew there was going to be a special election because we knew there was going to be, the ethics report was going to be released and he was going to be expelled from Congress. It didn't all happen the way we thought it would technically, but we knew it would come to this. And we knew that we had to get the Gates out of the way because they're not voting for Matt Gates. They're voting for the hometown guy, Don's son. And when you meet Matt

Gates, and I think I don't know that I've ever shared this, but when when you meet Matt Gates, he's a very meek kind of quiet person and and complimentary. And then when he goes on stage and a microphone is put in his face, he turns on Super MAGA, the Matt Gaetz show. So I think it was partly fame, partly family name, and partly just Don Gaetz. And I also want to come in here, too. I think that part of it, it goes back to some of the conversation that we were just having, Roland, is that Democrats haven't always been showing up there because it is such a ruby red area. And so when you have a void of another option or a void of other people coming in there and showing the policies that Matt is either voting for in the legislature or now in Congress, people didn't know. And Democrats didn't have the time and energy and resources

to get into these communities to see that all the things that have been passed by the Republican Party are detrimental to these communities. And even going back to all of the cuts that are going on in Medicaid, we know that there is an oversized proportionate impact on a lot of our black members of our state and black residents of our state as well as the nation because of the, you know, it's just, it's going to have such a drastic impact. And no one else is talking about this at the local level until Gay has been able to get in there, get in roads and have these really hard conversations and trying to show people that there's another way for this to be done and another way to have leadership and representation. Gracie. Thank you for being here. If I'm not mistaken, your opponent is Jimmy Patronus.

And I saw that when he ran statewide in 2018, he only beat his Democratic opponent by about three percentage points. He seems to be bear-hugging Donald Trump and embracing Elon Musk and Doge. What are you finding is resonating in terms of the conversations you're having about that particular candidate that you're opposing? Do you find that it's more effective to contrast yourself with him personally or to more so talk about what's happening in D.C. and that's resonating more with your with your prospective voters. As we've gone about, you know, the last couple of weeks, as soon as the Trump administration came in, you know, the news changes every 15 minutes. So you have to be on top of everything. But my opponent is Jimmy Petronas. He doesn't live in this district.

He's a politician for the past 30 years. He's never lived in this district. And he is the CFO of Florida. The CFO of Florida is the one that is solely responsible for the insurance industry in Florida. We are currently in an insurance crisis and it falls solely at his feet. And so I'm asking people, why would you send an arsonist in to put a fire out? That's good. He happens to be the fire marshal. I like that one, Gay. I like that. You're right. Red car. That's true. Thank you, Brooklyn. Thank you, Chairwoman Freed. And Ms. Bellum, I love what you said, Chairwoman Freed, about him. You call him a talentless carpetbagger. I was reading that.

But, you know, is it possible in a district that, correct me if I'm wrong, is little south of 800,000 people, don't have many people that are registered to vote? Between, you know, obviously voter registration isn't in play right now, but turnout, as you say, is. Given that there isn't the money that hasn't been invested as it should have been, what's the voter turnout strategy for now? I understand that, you know, it's really close in the game, but we can't rely on people to do the right thing. Otherwise, you'd be winning in a landslide. But is there something in place in terms of non-money-related kind of turnout efforts and strategies for this coming election? Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, Gay is responsible for turning out, you know, Democrats, talking to independents and talking to those Republicans who are willing to listen.

Myself, as chair of the Democratic Party, our goal is turnout. And so we have an entire—so go to floridadems.org. There is an entire hub for volunteering. We actually—two nights ago, we had a—for Black History Month, our Black Caucus called in a phone bank, called in to CD1 and CD6. We also had a national organizing call on Monday where 1,800 people from across the entire country came on this. We have opportunities for people to come into the state for phone banking, for canvassing, for letter writing. We have Democrats from all over the state that are actually piling in. The head of our Miami-Dade Black Caucus, I was on the phone with her earlier today, she and other members of our Miami-Dade Black Caucus are actually door-knocking in CD6. So we are all boots on ground, text messages, phone banking, all the things that are possible

to turn out the voters as far as Democratic voters are concerned. Because, yes, the panhandle, we call it the blue drip, because they have been increasing the percentage of the turnout. Some of our districts have been turning out at 93 percentage points in the 2024 election cycle. So we are spending a lot of time and energy making sure that the volunteer apparatus is ongoing consistently and turning out those voters. And Gay's message is going to be the one convincing NPAs, our non-party affiliates, and our Republicans to give Gay a shot and to create balance back in Washington, D.C.

Thank you. All right, then. Gay, final comment. Taking everybody to invest in our campaign, not just their money. I want to let people know that this is what's happening. This is how important this election is. We have 200... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. It's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content subscribe to lava for good plus on apple podcast 115 democrats and 217 republicans we have an opportunity in this district to actually change the trajectory of this Doge takeover. We can stop bills in their tracks. If we win these two seats, there is no

Speaker Johnson. And if we can win that last seat in New York, there will be another Speaker Jeffries. It is time that Democrats get out of the hole of being sad about what happened. I'm not ashamed to be a Democrat. I am super proud to be a Democrat. And we can do this if everybody digs in. All right, then. We appreciate it. Please join us. Gay Valamont. It's GayForCongress.com. And remember, you can't say gay in Florida, so it's easy to remember.

Well, I was waiting for you to drop your website, because a lot of candidates always forget that. So, GayForCongress.com. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Gay. Nikki, thanks a lot as well. Thank you. Thank you. All right, folks. Going to go to a break. We'll be right back. Roland Martin, unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding Black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly through their community through the Jobs Act. This week on the other side of change.

Environmental disasters and systemic exploitation. From the wildfires in California to the unexpected snowstorms in the South. We are in the climate collapse. These extreme weather events are becoming more disastrous and it is Black and Brown communities that are often hit first and worst. Watch us on the Black Star Network. So tune in to the other side of change. Hello, I'm Marissa Mitchell, a news anchor at Fox 5 DC. Hey, what's up? It's Tammy Roman and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Wow. Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crock has been on the roll this week. She called out the GOP's hypocrisy during the first hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight. The Republicans continue to argue that January 6th defendants were political targets of the Biden administration's Department of Justice.

Crockett was like, uh, that's bullshit. I will now recognize the ranking member from the great state of Texas, Ms. Crockett. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I just want to level set on a few things because my head has been spinning from some of the testimony that we have heard today. So just to level set really quickly, all of you have been involved with the criminal justice system in some way at some point in time in your lives. As it relates to January 6th, I just want to be clear. If anyone was incarcerated because of what happened on January 6th, they either went to trial or they enter pleas of guilty. Is that true or false? I'll start with you, Mr. Swecker.

I really don't know. Okay. That's fine. Mr. Fahey, yes or no? Mr. Fahey, I ain't got that much time. It's not a yes or no. Okay, then I'll move on. I'm going to reclaim my time. I'm going to reclaim my time. So that's a separate category, but the people that were sentenced and incarcerated, yes. Okay, thank you. Mr. Breen? Yeah, I'm assuming that that was the process, although I understand the trials were not fair. Oh, interesting. Okay. Mr. Ballou?

Every January 6th defendant who was incarcerated was charged or found guilty. Thank you so much. It's interesting that we're not having a conversation around January 6th and we're talking about school boards and we're talking about people that never ended up being arrested. We're talking about the process seemingly working because there were people that felt like there should be an investigation, but ultimately they did not feel like there was anything that warranted going forward. But I can tell you for sure that we as Americans watched in despair because we did not know what was going to happen on January 6th.

And as a result, over 1,000 people were arrested and or convicted. But the first day, the first priority that the sitting president had was to release these criminals. So while we're talking about whether or not we're going to be safe, I want to clarify these weren't little innocent folk that were running around and were persecuted as it was made out to be.

In fact, we know that the day after one of those defendants got out, he was rearrested on a firearm charge. We know that soon after another defendant got out, he was arrested for child solicitation. We know soon after another defendant got out, he was arrested for child solicitation. We know that after another one got out, he was actually killed by law enforcement in a confrontation. And we know that after another one got out, she was sentenced because of a fatal car crash that she caused. So I want to be clear. In this country, we should believe in law and order. And I am going to be honest because, much like Mr. Breen,

the only time that I ever entered a criminal courthouse was in defense of someone, in defense of the accused. And it is because I believe in the Constitution. I believe that everyone has the right to due process. And as a defense attorney, I should show up ready, and I am hoping that the system works. But I say hoping because nothing on this earth is perfect. And one of the things that I actually used to take a lot of issue with was the fact that I did believe that there was a two-tier justice system. This is not something that the black community somehow woke up and said, oh, this is a new thing, although we're talking about it and we're meaning it in different ways because all of a sudden you had somebody with more power

than arguably anyone in the world, and somehow Lady Justice found him too. And I say Lady Justice somehow found him because it was grand juries that had to indict him. And then ultimately, he was found guilty of 34 counts of felonies, at least in one courthouse. We know that the other cases never proceeded for various reasons. We also know that when he entered into civil courthouses, he was found liable for various things. Listen, I don't want to have the American people get it twisted. I don't want them to be confused and believe that just because somebody is a

prosecutor or just because somebody brings a case that somehow that is weaponization. If they bring it forward and if the justice system works the way that it's supposed to be, Mr. Brain, you talked about how your client was found not guilty. And I'm guessing that you accept that jury's verdict. Certainly. You accept that jury's verdict for your client? Absolutely. Okay.

But I got to move on to a few other things really quickly. Christopher Wray. Mr. Ballou, do you know who that is? Yes. Was Christopher Wray appointed. Ballou do you know who that is Yes Was Christopher Wray appointed by Joe Biden No he was appointed by President Trump He was appointed by President Trump Now Christopher Wray

For those that don't know Was the head of the FBI And Christopher Wray Was he fired by Joe Biden Just because Joe Biden was a Democrat that came in No In fact Christopher Wray left the FBI when Trump threatened to fire him. But Christopher Wray still had time on the clock, didn't he?

He did. So any prosecutions that took place, they actually took place under the Wray FBI department. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. And the last thing, I know, Mr. Chair, I'm running out of time. Just real quick. The last thing that I want to ask, because we've talked about the mayor of New York,

is he a Democrat or a Republican? He's a Democrat. And he was prosecuted under a Democratic DOJ or a Republican DOJ? A Democratic DOJ. Thank you so much. And I will yield. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. You're welcome, Rankin.

You know, it's amazing listening to these idiots who over and over and over again act as if these thugs, these white domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are just innocent bystanders. I sat there even looking at the news today, Greg, how the Trump administration went to bat for the Tate brothers, who are accused of sex trafficking. When asked about Donald Trump, he goes, oh, I know anything about it. Yeah, but Rick Grinnell, who works for you, pushed Romania to release them to the United States. They get off a plane in Fort Lauderdale. Rhonda Samuels goes, we don't want them in our state. Donald Trump is in love with criminals and thugs and racist. All these people who, oh, I know he's bad, but I voted for the policies.

No, you voted for all of it. These people are beyond despicable. And thank goodness folks like Congresswoman Crockett are challenging them, forcing them, but they got to go, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah, the trials were unfair. Why? Because they had video evidence? Because the folks were guilty as hell? Yeah, okay, gotcha. Yes, sir.

I mean, I must say, while I enjoy Congresswoman Crockett's delicious shade, her ability to throw shade, I think that I certainly enjoy more, and I think that it is more unavoidable when she turns on the prosecutorial litigious talent, like we just saw today, the leading questions that lead people to clown themselves. I think that's very effective. Clearly, there is a split in MAGA world. This Tate issue, splitting those more, quote-unquote, conventional social conservatives, the handful that are left,

from the white nationalist manosphere types like Donald Trump. Clearly, there's going to be fracture and eventually civil war, maybe sooner rather than later, with Musk sliding around the cabinet meeting with that black hat on his head looking ridiculous. Certainly there will be a civil war in the white nationalist faction. And we have to put the pedal to the metal. Certainly Congressman Jeffries is not built like that.

He's more in the conventional mode. Certainly identifying someone like Elise Slotkin to give the response to Donald Trump's State of the Union is a signal that the Democratic Party leadership still doesn't get it. So the question facing the Democrats now is the one that is always facing them, except now all the hiding places have been laid bare. And it is this. Are you going to yield more time and space to the Jasmine Crockett's, to the Maxwell Frost's, to the Ocasio-Cortez's, to the Johanna Hayes, who was incredibly effective in some questioning I saw her engaged in a couple of days ago? Are you going to get out of the way of these people and let people fight? If you combine that with the kind of whistle past

the graveyard, hope and pray strategy of the Jeffries and the Schumers and the Slotkins of the world, then you might be able to cobble a coalition together that will be able to move and do something once this civil war bursts into open conflict as these benefits and as these jobs continue to be hacked away at by the white nationalists like Elon Musk. But I guess time will tell. Ola. You know, like Greg, what I really enjoyed, I completely agree with you. Like, I love her read, Tani, the way she can read you all the way down and change your whole life because that lady, she did that thing too. Anyhow. Um, I love the way that she used the law. Um, not only because that's, that's her profession, but it did several things. So it exposed the hypocrisy that was intentional.

And secondly, sometimes you really do just got to pop out and show them. You know, like, people have to be reminded that Jazz McCrocket just isn't the fiery Black woman that has the great zingers and one-liners, you know, and who can take down, you know, fellow colleagues in Congress. No, this woman is a trained lawyer, you know, as she outlined for you. And then she showed us without being, you know, over the top, you know, without making it a performance, that professional black woman showed up and showed y'all what her job is, right? Jasmine showed up for her black job today, right? And so I really enjoyed how she really unpacked that methodically.

And then the next thing I'll say is, you know, I've come to believe that the narrative around January 6th is just that. I mean, Greg, you know this better than all of us. You're an attorney. It's about the thing that's going to win you the case, right? It's about whatever that winning argument is. And I think that these folks are just so focused on owning the libs and getting the W at all costs. That's the difference between how Republicans fight and have always fought

and how Democrats fight. It's the at-all-cost part. So it doesn't matter if January 6th harmed, you know, law enforcement, and it doesn't matter that they stormed the Capitol and that it was an insurrection. None of that matters. It's the win on the other side that it was an insurrection, none of that matters. It's the win on the other side that matters. So if you have to tell a false narrative to get that job done, that's exactly what you're going to do. But Democrats, on the other hand, that at all costs part,

that's where the line is drawn. And that's where there's always this tension. And I'm not saying that the line shouldn't be drawn. But the fear prevents them from going in a direction that they should be going in. Because right now, I can tell you, I'm part of a rapid response network called the Persist Network. And what we do is we rapidly respond to counter myths and disinformation. And I can tell you, being out here on these messaging streets, the folks are looking for a leader. It is not about who's going to bring the coalition together and who might be more palatable to one group. No, people are looking for a leader. People are looking for someone who is strong and,, at times loud and who is not fearful. At the very least, Dems are saying we want someone who isn't fearful and who cares more about, you know, how things look and how we appear as a party. We are decimated, y'all. We got to change the playbook. Them people been changed the playbook i'll i'll leave it there before let me relinquish my soapbox because i was about to go in a whole

another direction racy yeah i mean why are we even still talking about january 6th like who give a fuck obviously nobody cared you know dems hung their hat for four whole-ass years on January 6, and people shrugged their shoulders and went and voted for Donald Trump to get back into the White House. So all of the propaganda that the Republicans are pushing about this, it is not moving the needle, because people don't really give a damn one way or another. Maybe the Republicans do. But people who saw that, we all witnessed and we were all aghast by it, didn't give a damn when it came time to the elections. And so, you know,

Jasmine Cronkite was doing her job. She did it brilliantly, as always. But I said back during election, does democracy shit? Does January 6th stuff? Move on. Move on from that. Democrats should really be focusing. And I'm not—this is not a criticism towards her, because I know that was the purpose of that particular hearing. But Democrats really need to move on from this whole frou-frou idea that January 6th is something that we still need to keep relitigating. All the trial charges are dropped. The shit's in the past. We got bigger fish to fry with Doge, with Musk, with Trump, with these tax bills, this tax bill, with these deficits,

with everything they're throwing at us. I really, I don't really care. If Republicans want to keep with their rhetoric, who cares? That's how I feel about it. Now, I know that that may not be a popular take, but the more that we're talking about that, they get away with a whole bunch of other shit. Mm-hmm. The smile for me. A broken clock is right twice a day. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people,

real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Twice a day. And the fake country boy, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, made some surprising comments in a committee hearing. Listen to this.

You're all adults. You're all officers of the court. So I'm going to give you some advice. I may be wrong, but I doubt it. Don't ever, ever take the position that you're not going to follow the order of a federal court. Ever. Now, you can disagree with it.

Within the bounds of legal ethics, you can criticize it. You can appeal it. Or you can resign. For four years, I have watched people in this town, not everybody, but many, try to undermine the legitimacy of the federal judiciary. And it triggered each and every time my gag reflex. I've watched them try to pack the Supreme Court. I have watched an esteemed member of this body

on the steps of the Supreme Court threaten Justices Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh. I've seen that. I've seen this body, some in good faith, but some in bad faith, try to impose an unconstitutional, violative of the separation of powers doctrine ethics code on the Supreme Court just to try to undermine their legitimacy. Now, all our judiciary has, an equal branch of government has, is its legitimacy.

It doesn't have an army. Don't ever say you're not going to follow the order of a court. You may not agree with it, but that's my advice, and I think you ought to take it. The hearing was for nominees chosen for Aaron Wright and Dean John Saar, who have been nominated

as Assistant Attorney General and Solicitor General. It would be nice, Recy, if Senator Kennedy actually said those things directly to Donald Trump and the idiots in his administration because they consistently say they're going to just ignore federal judges.

Yeah. Blah, blah, blah. Get that shit out of here. You tell them the low-level people this stuff. Meanwhile, did you not vote for Cash Patel, crazy ass? Did you not vote for Pam Bondi, crazy ass? Did you not support Donald Trump, who had how many indictments?

Who had convictions? Did you not support J.D. Vance for VP? So get that shit out of here, all that grandstanding. You don't get a cookie from me. Go talk to Elon Musk. Why don't you go take that speech to the White House, to the Oval Office, or go find where Elon Musk is sleeping on the floor

in some cots in one of these buildings if you can get in and go give him that damn speech. Now, I will say, though, these people need to hear it, too. Everybody needs to hear it, but you don't get me a cookie until you bring that energy in every room that you in and you bring that smoke to all these people who are blatantly

breaking the law as we speak. And fuck the Supreme Court, too. They can kiss my ass. Nolan? Louisiana. My first response was, who this man? That man is a clone, which I did with him. That was my first response was, who this man? That man is a clone, which I did with him.

That was my first response. That's your senator. Huh? That's your senator. Uh-uh. I don't have one. I live in D.C. No, boo, you from New Orleans.

Nice try. Nice try. Don't be any other time you be running your mouth by New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans. Hell, you're named after New Orleans. Stop tripping. Let me finish my thought. Dang. So my second thought is this. You know what that remind me of?

Is when you are going through stuff with your guy and you laid up online on Instagram and you post something that's about that person, but you're not going to come at that person. You know what I mean? So you're like projecting the abuse and trauma that you're going through, but you're not putting a name on it. That's what that felt like to me. It felt like he was taking out all of that whipping, all those whippings he had taken over the year to show up and perform for that one human being.

And to Reese's point, taking it out on a lower level person because you don't have the you can't stand up to that one person, you know. So here you are. You put an all your little business out on blue sky or threads or spilled or whatever, but you're not putting a name on it because I kind of read that as you really talking about somebody else, especially when you bring up the Supreme court, I've seen them try to pack the court. That was a very specific shot. I mean, that's just how I took it. Um, but like Reesey said, he needs to pull up to, to the white house or tomorrow logo. And he needs to say it to that one person's face and then get in front of those cameras and repeat and repeat and repeat the same way he's done all the lies over all the years. Well, I don't subtweet. I will tag your ass. Yeah, I don't give a damn. I will tag your ass every time. Even if you got one follower.

Say what? Even if that person has one follower. Right. You bring your ass on social media, open your mouth, and you got something to say, I'm going to hit your ass back. No question.

I'm a living witness having been tagged myself in the beginning. It was a beautiful thing. Roland Martin is the master of the Twitter. I ain't scared of nobody. Not scared of nobody. No question. But, you know, John Kennedy gets absolutely no credit for that corpse. I don't know whether he or Ron Johnson are deader in terms of the United States Senate. But one thing is clear. In addition to being living or at least animated corpses, Ron Johnson

and John Kennedy, Wisconsin's Ron Johnson and Louisiana's Kennedy, along with Kurt Tuberville out of Alabama, have no morals, have no ethics, and will say anything. John Kennedy used the lie, and I will call it a lie, that he would not back the law-breaking, court-ignoring Trump-Musk administration as an excuse to attack Democrats, because that's all I heard. First of all, I haven't gotten over the fact that in the wake of the tragedy in New Orleans a couple of months ago, that he had the nerve to put both his hands on the shoulders of that federal officer trying to move her away from the podium. This is a man without honor, without ethics, without character, an animated corpse. He is an affront, not only to the United States Senate and to the United States of America,

he's an affront to our common humanity. So, not only does he not get any credit, the only thing he can be held up to, or held up for as an example of, is the deep, irrevocable, permanent hypocrisy of white nationalism. John Kennedy

is a fraud. Now stop. He's a fraud because he got that fake-ass voice. Exactly. That ain't how he talk. That ain't how he talk at all. All right, y'all. Going to a quick break. I'll be right back. Rolling Mark on Filters

on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, join our Bring the Funk fan club. You want to use Cash App? Use the Stripe QR code. It's right here. You're listening. Go to BlackStarNetwork.com. Also, send your check and money order.

PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo, RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Get the Black Star Network app.iltered, Zelle. Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Get the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV,

Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Be sure to get my book, White Fear of the Browning of America, Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. Get the audio version I read, of course, on Audible. And don't forget to get our Roland Martin Unfiltered merchandise. Go to RolandMartin.Creator-Frame.com or go to TheBlackStarNetwork.com. We'll be right back. Next on A Balanced Life, we're talking everything from prayer to exercise to positive affirmations and everything that's needed to keep you strong and along your way. That's on a next A Balanced Life

with me, Dr. Jackie on Black Star Network. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Dr. Gerald Horne, a man regarded by many as the most important historian of our time. He provides us a history lesson. I'm betting you've never heard before. Texas enslavers who plan to continue the conflict even after Appomattox, even after the formal surrender of Robert E. Lee. Dr. Horne talks about his new book, The Counter-Revolution of 1836,

Texas, Slavery, and Jim Crow and the Ro roots of U.S. fascism. You do not want to miss this conversation. Only on The Black Table, right here on The Black Star Network. Farquhar, executive producer of Proud Family. Bruce Smith, creator and executive producer of The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin. Ulysses Anderson, a Selma, Alabama firefighter, was last seen on February 8th.

He is 45 years old, 6 foot 2 inches tall, weighs 170 pounds, has black hair and brown eyes. At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing a red sweater and blue jogging pants featuring a Selma Fire Department logo. Anyone with information about Ulysses Anderson is urged to call the Selma Alabama Police Department at 334-874-6611. 334-874-6611. Well, surprise, surprise, new numbers from the Department of Labor show a sharp rise in first-time unemployment claims last week, jumping to 242,000, far above expectation. That's a 22,000 increase from the prior week and the highest since early December.

These weekly claims can be unpredictable, often shifting due to weather, temporary layoffs and holidays. But the spike comes at a critical time as the idiot Trump administration aggressively cuts federal jobs and contracts. Economists say between two to three hundred thousand federal employees and nearly half a million contractors could lose their jobs. And that impact won't stop there. Experts warn that these layoffs could ripple through the private sector, creating one of the largest job losses in U.S. history. But I thought they voted for eggs, Recy. Hmm. And eggs are up 41% last I checked.

Oh, okay. But look at Donald Trump's record. He had the largest job losses of any president in a very, very long time. So you fuckers saw a person who completely ruined the economy because he botched the COVID-19 response. He couldn't just do the he couldn't just maintain the plan that President Obama had put in place for a pandemic response. And you said, let's do that again, despite the fact that Biden-Harris had a really impeccable job growth record, GDP growth and all of those things. So this was entirely predictable. Every single independent economic analysis said that Donald Trump's policies would plunge us into a recession, would hinder our growth. And that's before anybody knew anything about this mass cancellation of congressionally

appropriated funds, of shutting down agencies that actually provide hundreds of millions of dollars of federal government spending towards farmers. The federal spending in this country accounts for 24 percent of our GDP. That's not just handouts. That's economic activity. That is people who are going to the grocery store. That is federal contractors who employ people. That is people in our government agencies that are actually doing services that keep our country going. And as a result of them being compensated for their labor, because we're not technically in slavery, and you don't count what's happening in the prisons, then now they also contribute to our economic growth in this country. And so this is a full-scale, multi-pronged attack on this country's economic

well-being. And when we throw in what's happening with measles, which is now being transmitted in New Jersey, we have a full-scale attack on our health system, on our economy, on our federal government, and our civil rights. I don't see not one single solitary bright spot in any of the things that they're doing. And I don't even see how the Republicans can withstand the amount of carnage that's heading their way for that much longer. I know a lot of people are mad and they're going to be with him. But what he's doing is going to be undeniable and so persistent throughout the entire country that its impact is going to be undeniable and so persistent throughout the entire country that its impact is going to be something that they will not be able to tolerate, at least

not all of them. And we know how these crazy-ass Republicans act when shit don't go their way. So I think that the administration, at least somebody, got to pull the brakes. But unfortunately, the people who are actually in charge, like Musk and Trump, this is entirely the point. As much carnage, as much damage as possible is what they intend to inflict. It's not just incompetency. It's actually strategic incompetency to ruin this entire country so they can. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Put pillage and plunder and enrich themselves.

Last thing I want to say is, I want to know, is anybody looking at who's shorting the markets? Is anybody looking at what these Congress people... I know Marjorie Taylor Greene is buying Tesla stock and Palantir stock and all kind of stuff. I want to follow the money, because this is a setup for something. And we know that you don't do this much damage

to this country unless somebody's going to get paid on the other side of this. People who are fighting, frankly, are folks who follow the law. If you look at my iPad, a federal judge in California says the mass firing of federal workers are illegal. This literally just came down moments ago. A federal judge in California temporarily banned the Office of Personnel Management from ordering federal agencies to terminate probationary workers, adding that the firings were illegal, should be stopped, and rescinded. Nola?

You know, a lot of this is kind of a playbook of authoritarians. You need an impoverished society. You need an illoverished society. You need an illiterate society. And what's so interesting about this plan, which I don't know when, but that I feel will fall flat on its face, if America is not one thing, it definitely doesn't like to be deprived of what they perceive their freedoms are. And the more and more people feel like things that are happening to them that's not supposed to happen to them, they are going to respond. And there are a lot of cray-cray people in the United States, so it's going to be very

interesting to see what the response is. But really and truly, this idea of hitting it fast, going hard, you know, dismantling as much as possible, that is also strategic. Because if you do it drip by drip by drip by drip, you know, then people can have time to think and strategize and figure out a way to stop you. But so much has happened so soon, what's baked into the pie is the fact that we won't be able to catch everything. I actually heard from—I actually heard this from a very good source on the right,

is that part of the plan is even if we get 25% of what we want, they consider that a win. So you have to put that into context. They are well aware of everything that they are doing, which is why they do around the loophole things. It's not that they don't inquire about the law. They absolutely do. They try to figure out how to work around it, right? And the judiciary is so overwhelmed right now that it's impossible for them to stop

all of the things. And that's what the Trump administration is banking on. And I know we're talking about the job loss and, you know, as a, as an SGE, you know, I have many friends who were, you know, career folks who are. All right. What the hell is the SGE? The same thing. Musk is supposed to be a special government employee. Thank you for the person at home. They't have no idea what SGE is. My bad. I messed up my rhythm.

What was I saying? You talking about SGE? You have a lot of friends. Your friends are losing their jobs. Thank you, boo. Thank you, boo. My friends losing their jobs, you know, who are senior executives and, you know, career folks. Like, this is a very real thing. And there is no way that the economy is going to recoup those losses,

right? So it is intentional. It is intentional to weaken the government, to centralize the government, to keep people poor, and that will then keep them illiterate. Look at the same thing that's also happening in higher education institutions. One of my raggedy alma maters just yesterday sent out an email that I guess they thought nobody read, talking about they're going to stop all DEI programs. So this is strategic. Again, keep people in poverty and keep people illiterate. And that is the narrative that we have to keep reminding people of. This is intentional. This is intentional. Greg? Thank you, Roland. I'm trying to read through the order now a little bit. You know, it's interesting because we saw what happened in the Massachusetts case, where the federal

judge said that the unions didn't have standing to sue. So nobody has reached the substance of the issue, the legal issues. It's been a question of jurisdiction. And, of course, in D.C. last week, I guess that was Judge Shutkin denied the motion from unions because—no, no, the other judge has said the complaint couldn't—had to be heard in federal labor courts. So they were saying it was the wrong form. In this case, this judge, who was Clinton appointed, interestingly enough, 78, 79 years

old, William Alsa, I love this quote where he says, OPM does not have the authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire or fire any employee but its own. And so NSF, for example, said they were going to retain theirs, and then OPM overruled them. He is getting close now to the substance, the underlying issue, not the question of procedure, jurisdiction, or form. That is interesting. Just like NOLA said, they know damn well they're going to lose in court. But they're throwing this was Steve Bannon's thing. Throw everything against the wall.

Try to engender some terror. Get some people to quit in first, which is Timothy Snyder's book on fascism. Do not. And so the courts are doing what you could expect them to do. This is going to be very interesting for folks who really haven't been paying much attention. Understand that this is unfolding the way that everybody knew it was going to unfold. It was going to the courts. And so, and Recy, I think you really hit the nail on the head, sis. They are trying to crack this country open like a walnut and get the meat out. Elon Musk has no loyalty to any flag. You see he hasn't done anything with regard to China because they just built this big-ass battery factory in Beijing. He's trying to make money. If they put these 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, the estimate is that that's going to

cost U.S. taxpayers between $120 and $225 billion annually. They don't care, of course, because the goal is to crack the thing open like a walnut, give the money to their friends, and pass on the responsibility of funding the federal government to you and I and increase tax bills. If they double this 10 percent tariff on China, that's another up to $25 billion. This is a straight criminal enterprise. And we just have to fight and also understand, don't jump the gun and think they've already won, because that sends that message. That's that fear. That's that panic. We've got to fight these MFs straight up.

And that means fighting them also means not responding to the fake news, not responding to the alternate reality they are trying to create. And that's a key element of it as well. Yeah. Well, you know, you have Elon now is trying to get rid of a Verizon contract at the FAA to use his Starlink. Can you say you're a grifter?

That's what this is all about. He has $38 billion in federal contracts, and he wants more. That's how his company has been built. Folks, that's it. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Reece, Greg, and Nola. I appreciate it.

Folks, if you want to support the work that we do, please join our Bring the Funk fan club. You want to give via Cash App, utilize the Stripe QR code. It's right here on your screen. If you're listening, go to BlackstarNetwork.com. Also, senior check and money, order the PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered.

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Oh, no punch. A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. 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 scared. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? This is an iHeart Podcast.