#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Right wing SCOTUS rulings, Dems fret over Biden, Kamala Harris hits Trump HARD

Episode Date: June 29, 2024

6.28.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Right wing SCOTUS rulings, Dems fret over Biden, Kamala Harris hits Trump HARD The Supreme Court released several decisions today, from criminalizing the unhoused to limiting the power of prosecutors to pursuing obstruction charges against Jan. 6th rioters to making it more difficult for federal agencies to issue rules.  We'll break down the implications of each of these rulings.  Two former Texas jailers are indicted for murdering Anthony Johnson Jr.  We'll talk to the Johnson family attorney about the latest developments in this case.  It's the tale of two Joes. Biden was in North Carolina today, and he was more fiery than he was at Thursday night's debate.  And we'll find out about Biden's economic plan for the rest of 2024 from Hillary Holley, the Executive Director of Care in Action, who was in a meeting on Capitol Hill today.  #BlackStarNetwork partners:Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase  🌠 Join a powerful assembly for the Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C. on June 29 at 10AM EST 👉🏾 https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ We’re engaging 15M voters to transform politics! #PoorPeoplesCampaign 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 platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. Thank you. Today is Friday, June 28, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. While Democrats are fretting last night's debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the Supreme Court today made several decisions that could dramatically change the landscape of this country. We will talk about what they had to say about criminalizing folks who are homeless,

also limiting the power of prosecutors to pursue obstruction charges against the January 6th domestic terrorists. And there's even more of what is called the Chevron decision, where literally they are taking the power away from. Political bureaucrats and putting it in the hands of judges. Wait till you explain this. We'll talk with Damon Hewitt,

who leads the Lawrence Community for Civil Rights under law. Two former Texas jailers have been indicted for murdering Anthony Johnson Jr. That took place in Fort Worth, Texas. We'll talk to the Johnson family attorney about these developments. Again, we'll also talk about the tale of two Joe Bidens. Last night, he was off for the debate against Donald Trump in Atlanta, but he was 180 degrees different today at his rally in North Carolina.

Plus we'll find out about Biden's economic plan for the rest of 2024. From Hillary Holly, executive director of Care and Action, who was in a meeting on Capitol Hill today discussing the very issue. Also, Vice President Kamala Harris steps up big time to defend the

president as she stumps around the country. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Sun Network. Let's go. I just believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling Yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah

It's Roland Martin Yeah Rolling with Roland now Yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martel. Martel. You can get caught up in performance last night of the debate when it comes to President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

You can even be angry, if you will, with how bad performed. It was not the greatest in the world. But today's decision, today's decision by the Supreme Court shows you the importance of the Supreme Court. Three rulings came down today that are dramatic. One of them could literally transform the power of governmental entities on a variety of issues, including the law, including environmental issues, you name it. Joining us right now is Damon Hewitt. He, of course, is the president executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Damon, there's a lot I want to get into is three separate decisions. First of all, let's talk about the January 6th decision where these justices ruled that, oh, prosecutors were too broad in charging these domestic terrorists for obstruction of justice when they attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021? Exactly. You know, I mean, I think the through line for all these decisions is a lack of apparent motherhood, which we know in our community is common sense. You know, these are very smart justices, very smart people,

but it doesn't reflect the common sense of everyday people. We know that an angry, violent, and sometimes armed mob of people stormed the Capitol. We're suing at the lawyers' committee a number of these folks in a civil case, a civil rights case, for a conspiracy to violate civil rights. And what this court has determined is that a number of these people were improperly charged because there wasn't enough connection to show that they tried to attack the documents, the instrumentalities, the records. They were attacking everything, windows, doors,

people if they could have. So it's very strange. The bright side, I would say, Roland, is that of all the charges, all the people who were charged, this only impacts a certain number of them. And even those people, many of them had other charges as well. And you know, sometimes defendants have concurrent charges, meaning you get 10 years on this and 10 years on something else, a different charge at the same time. So it's not clear exactly what the direct impact would be, but it just really shows where this court's bread is buttered, at least the majority of this court. And it's quite disturbing. I was reading a piece, folks at the NPR that did analysis and

they suggested that this decision is only going to affect about five point nine percent of the folks charged. But it also gives you an indication on how they potentially may rule when it comes to immunity for Donald Trump. That, of course, we're still waiting on that. That oral arguments were heard six months ago and we're still waiting. Exactly. And so Chief Justice Roberts did announce that Monday will be the last decision day for this term. So we're expecting that decision. That affects our civil rights case, too, Roland, because Trump has alleged immunity not just in a criminal context, but from all civil claims, the one that we brought, which is the broadest of the claims, the one that the NAACP brought on behalf initially of Congressman Benny Thompson and other members of Congress.

He's claiming immunity for everything. And the question is going to come down to whether he was engaged in official acts of a president or personal slash selfish actions of somebody who just didn't want to give up power. Let's now go to the second case where these justices made a decision regarding the homeless. They basically said they do not have they were not in a violation of Eighth Amendment rights. So it allows for folks, these cities to target the homeless, literally potentially putting them in jail. You said exactly right. It's target the homeless. You know, the late Johnny Caprio once said that his role was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Well, this decision and the ordinances in play do the exact opposite.

They afflict the afflicted and they comfort people who are already comfortable. We're talking about Oregon. I know everybody's not rich in Oregon, but it's not as if it's a densely packed in the city where it's very dense and very dangerous, allegedly, in terms of crowded conditions that is. And so what the court essentially has done is said the Eighth Amendment essentially doesn't apply here. It gives carte blanche to jurisdictions to penalize what essentially would be called rolling status offenses. It's a status to be unhoused. It's not an act, a conduct, like people intend that this is what they want to do and how they want to live the rest of their lives. People get trapped into homelessness or being unhoused.

And so is your very status that is being punished. But the really ridiculous part is this doesn't help anybody, because it actually traps people into an ever-ending, never-ending spiral. Because if you are unhoused, if you don't have a way to put one foot in front of the other financially, how are you going to do that once you have a criminal record? How are you going to do that once you have to pay fines and fees? This is just essentially similar to debtor's prisons, except this is a different kind of

penalty and it's a darn shame. So the pressure now has to go to state and locals to make sure that they don't take this carte blanche and actually broaden the criminalization. One last thing I'll say is Oregon actually has one of the highest rates of unhoused people in the country. I think it's the second highest rate in 2023. And so the notion that they could just push people down the road in a state that has that high population suggests that there's a lot of nimbyism, people protecting their little enclaves, and frankly, not thinking about the bigger picture, let alone their neighbor down the street. It was interesting here. This is the SCOTUS blog. And so the law in Oregon, the law, what it did was it, quote, prohibited people

who are homeless from using blankets, pillows, and cardboard boxes for protection from the elements. And then what they were doing is it says violators face steep fines. Two hundred ninety five dollars, which increases to five hundred and thirty seven dollars and 60 cents if not paid. When individuals receive two citations, police and grants pass can issue an order banning them from city property. Anyone who violates such an order can be convicted on criminal trespass charges, which carries a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $1,250 fine. And so, oh, people go overboard with this, expect our jails to be absolutely brimming with people who are homeless. And here's what's so crazy. It's going to cost taxpayers more money to house them in jails than it would in the other area.

It is so short-sighted. You know, in the Amicus breach, a front of the court brief, we filed at the lawyers committee. We joined others in saying that these ordinances have no penological purpose, meaning they're not going to deter people from engaging in crime because the alleged crime is your very status. And it's going to make things worse, not just for the people who are unhoused, but for everybody, frankly, in that community. I think they're going to learn a really tough lesson in that place. Now, let's talk about what is arguably the most important decision. And it is one that people don't even realize how significant

this is. This is the headline on the SCOTUS blog, Supreme Court Strikes Down Chevron, Curtailing Power of Federal Agencies. What is stunning in this 6-3 decision is that these justices rule that, frankly, judges should have the power because they have the expertise when it comes to these critical issues. And so we're now talking about, I mean, let's go down the line. We're talking about labor laws. We're talking about civil rights laws. We're talking about environmental laws. And so what they're suggesting is, is that, well, unless Congress spells all these things out explicitly, agencies don't have the, quote, expertise to issue

rulings on this matter. Only the court does. This is putting power in the hands of unelected individuals. That's exactly right. It's really a form of what the conservative scholars call textualism, but it's on steroids. Basically, unless you spell out every single thing, every I, every dot, every T, cross, not of everything that's happening now that has to be prohibited or regulated, but everything that's ever going to happen for the life of a statute, then they're

saying the agencies can't actually interpret it based upon reasonableness, which has been a standard for, I think, decades, over 40 years now. You know, around the office, we've been calling this the slap your mama case because that's essentially what Justice Gorsuch has done here by voting in favor with this majority, because it was his mother who actually was at the EPA on the other side of this issue that brought us the initial doctrine in the first place when she was at the Environmental Protection Agency. So, you know, this is a kind of a figurative slap your mama as far as not in a good way, as in your food tastes good or the hot sauce is hot, but in a way of, you know, hey, how could you actually turn your back on, again, a very common sense provision? Now, look, anyone who's ever read a federal statute, I defy anyone to understand all the potential applications on the first read, the second read, or even the third read. So these cases have to be—the laws have to be not only interpreted by the courts, but also enforced, right?

That's why we have regulations to help enforce statutes. And so it's appropriate for federal agencies to fill in the blanks. They're not making up new laws. They're applying the law. And so what this does, though, is it puts the action back on Congress, right? All elections have consequences, not just for the White House, for the House and the Senate as well. So Congress has to be super explicit.

You know, I wonder if we ever get a John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act again to strengthen and rebuild and restore and make even better the Voting Rights Act, how tight do we have to make that so it doesn't fall subject to something similar when DOJ tries to enforce it in a favorable administration? So there are stakes and implications that could boggle the mind that we've only begun to think through how much could actually happen here. So we have to be on guard all the time now. Well, and let's also be clear.

Clarence Thomas originally opposed Chevron. But when those billionaires begin to fly him out to various places, give him gifts, all of a sudden his decision changed. Folks like Harlan Crowe and others, they wanted this case to be overturned because they could not stand the fact that when Democrats were elected, you had these agencies making rulings that were in opposition to their financial interest. And so, look, it's hard to know for certain motivations, but what is clear is whether it be those kind of things with Justice Thomas, whether it be upside down flags and what have you, what's clear is that you have a majority

of this court that is simply changing the law in the landscape of rights and opportunity in America just because they can. But the autonomy, environmental protection, all of it. Yeah, what gets me here is go back to my iPad. Since Roberts rejects any suggestion that agencies rather than courts are better suited to determine what ambiguities in the federal law might mean. Even when those ambiguities involve technical or scientific questions that fall within an agency's air of expertise, Roberts emphasized Congress expects courts to handle technical statutory questions, and courts also have the benefit of briefing from the parties and friends of the court. Yeah, but this is the same court. This is where Justice Gorsuch had to actually that he had to correct one of his one of his rulings because he got laughing gas mixed up with air pollutants.

So that's what flies. That sort of says to Chief Justice Roberts. Yeah. Y'all don't have expertise on every damn thing. Without question. Right. And that's why, you know, you know know, having not just more eyes on the issue, but trained eyes, experts, you know? It's not just political appointees in these agencies. These are civil servants who have dedicated their lives and their careers to building a body of expertise. They've been tracking the developments in law.

They've been tracking the pollutants, for example, from the EPA perspective. And so the only folks who benefit from this are industry and the people in industry and the companies in industry who actually finance their political campaigns or other side hustles and aspirations. Again, a 6-3 decision here. And this is what people need to understand. The right wing has a 6- 63 lock on this Supreme Court. The election is critically important because with the age of Alito, the age of Thomas, you have the potential of seeing the next president appoint two Supreme Court justices.

That cannot be overstated when it comes to who folks should be looking to vote for come November? Without question. Look, we're a nonpartisan organization, but we're also not blind to what's happening here at the lawyers committee. This is why we help co-convene the Election Protection Coalition. Everybody or your entire audience, we should say it as much as we can. Eight, six, six hour vote is the hotline, the voter protection hotline. We received a quarter million calls from voters in the 2020 election cycle. Who knows how many we'll receive this time? But a lot of people do get out the vote. We're trying to get out the message about the importance of voting, about what your rights are, and about

what's at issue, what's at stake. And I think the three cases you've highlighted today really demonstrate that. People think it can't get worse. It could always get worse. That's why folks have to stand up, cast that ballot, make your voices heard. Absolutely. Damon Hewitt, we appreciate it, my brother. Thanks a lot. Thank you, man. Appreciate you, Fred. All right. I appreciate it. Going to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk to our panel about this again. We cannot overestimate, folks, how critically important what took place today coming out of the Supreme Court. Don't think for a second that judges do not matter.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Hello, my brothers and sisters. This is Bishop William J. Bob, the second co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival, and president of Repairs of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get everybody you know to join us on Saturday, June 29th at 10 o'clock a.m. in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania and 3rd for the Mass Poor People's Low-Wage Workers Assembly and and moral march on Washington and to the polls, and the post effort to reach 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low-wage persons,

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Hello, I'm Paula J. Parker. Truly proud of the Proud Family. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Proud. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Mama on Disney's Louder and Prouder Disney+. And I'm with Roland Martin on Unfiltered. All right, folks, now let's introduce our panel. Matt Manning, civil rights attorney joining us out of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Michael Imhotep hosts the African History Network show out of Detroit. Derek Jackson, Georgia State representative out of Atlanta. Glad to have three of you here. Matt, I want to start with you. We talk all the time on this show. Courts, courts, courts, courts, courts. Why the courts absolutely matter. And what we are seeing is a right wing court impose their agenda, their ideology on this country. And for folks who, you know, play games in 2016 said, oh, I'm not feeling Hillary Clinton. Guess what?

That's how Donald Trump got to appoint three Supreme Court justices. Mitch McConnell blocked President Obama from appointing 100 federal judges. That's why Donald Trump, when he came in, was able to appoint those 100. He ended up in four years appointing 237 federal judges. So people need to understand that what we're seeing from this court, they are taking power away from the executive branch and pulling it for themselves in the judicial. I'm really glad you mentioned that last part, Roland, because I think that's one of the most astute parts of your observation and one of the most necessary parts of this is we can't really look at this in a vacuum. This is not just the courts making legal decisions. This is the court, as I think Justice Kagan said, usurping power from other branches. And what's interesting about the Chevron decision in particular, I haven't read it,

but from my understanding from the distillations, is it really kind of goes against what judges often say, which is that they want to make their dockets smaller. A lot of times judges don't want to wade into the waters unless they have to, so to speak. So, here, I think this shows the ideological focus on conservatism being played out through the courts via legal rulings that are really proxy for policy. And it's interesting, because that Chevron decision, it looks like it has the possibility to really put a glut of cases into the courts that would otherwise be resolved on the regulatory level.

So I think that this is exactly right. I mean, this is a concerted effort to put these judges in. And obviously it's worked, and it's worked to the detriment of the American people. And it feels really tough as a lawyer, especially a lawyer dealing with these constitutional issues and stuff all the time, because it feels very much like we just have no recourse. You know, if people don't go vote and the president is able to put these judges into office, then it doesn't matter how novel my argument is or how interesting it is. If the judge is predisposed to do something that's ideologically in lockstep with whomever appointed him or her, you know, I'm at a disadvantage on behalf of my client. And that's what I feel like

this is just another part of. Another thing in that, you know, this list of things we're seeing the Supreme Court do that really just kind of defies logic, especially here. It's a judicial economy issue. I think there are going to be way more cases filed than would otherwise be filed because the regulatory agencies no longer have this power. And then the other thing, really quickly, on the homelessness decision, I am interested in seeing if there was some part of the way they brought that being wrong. The Eighth Amendment, cruel and unusual punishment, normally applies to prison context. So I'm interested in how that factored in, if at all. But the larger point is we cannot, you know, criminalize poverty and

homelessness and unhoused people in this country. And that's frankly what our carceral system has done for a long time. And I think this just adds greater emphasis to that. Look, what we're seeing here, Derek, is again, we're seeing all these folks freaking out. Oh, my God, how Biden performed, things along those lines. Well, less than overlooked the fact that Biden Harris has appointed 200 federal judges in the last three and a half years, 58 of them African American. And so when the Supreme Court makes this ruling, that means that those federal judges are

the ones who are going to be getting those cases. If you have Biden elected again, the potential of him and Harris appointing another 200 federal judges to the bench, that's going to be crucial, having those judges in their perspective on the bench as opposed to far right wing federal judges. You know, Roland, being at ground zero, that's what I call Georgia now, ground zero. As we were with Biden on yesterday, even after the debate, he came out there to this huge grand room and gave us an overview. Here, after 90 minutes of performance, this man was still filled with energy and excitement. And nearly 1,000 people are in there. And so today,

though, you would think that he lost miserably. And I and I share your thoughts when you start talking about judges. We don't often talk about the judicial branch as a legislator. We don't talk about the judicial branch because we kept our eyes off the ball. And now you have a Supreme Court who are overturning precedence of laws and procedures. I mean, so it's not just the recent rulings, Roland. I mean, we're talking about Roe v. Wade should have been brought up last night. We should have talked about affirmative action. We should have talked about, there was another one that I forget, bump stocks. Well, again, so what you had, it was all over the place. But what I need people to understand that elections are also about federal judges.

And when people are sitting at home and they're sitting here going, well, I don't know if I'm going to vote, do understand class action lawsuits. I can go down the line, all of the type of things that federal judges rule on. And so people need to understand if you're going to vote or if you're not going to vote,

that has an impact on who picks judges, who confirms judges. And so the Supreme Court and the federal bench is on the ballot in November. You're exactly right. And I'm glad you brought me to the point where I was going because I was going to use the federal court judge down in Florida that has no experience. And we constantly, and even on your show, we talk about what she's doing, which is a travesty to the judicial system. And so now you have a Supreme Court saying that they're now going to become the subject matter experts.

Come on, Roland. And so we have to make sure that on November 5th of this year that we have to say that federal court judges are on the ballot as well. And our democracy doesn't depend on one person, Roland. Our democracy depends on us all. Indeed, indeed. Look, this is real, Michael. And when I say, again, federal judges are on the ballot, the right has always understood that. You've often had Democrats, progressives, who've not really focused on that. These rulings, and with the immunity ruling we're going to probably get next week,

we talk about the affirmative action decision, obviously the Dobbs decision overt Obviously, the Roby Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. I hope folks now understand that what this court, there's no facet of your life that judges can't have a role in. Absolutely.

Judges, the judicial branch of government interprets law from the legislative branch of government and policies and executive orders from the executive branch of government interprets law from the legislative branch of government and policies and executive orders from the executive branch of government. And for all the economic empowerment gurus out there who say, we don't need to vote, we just need to do like Asians and build businesses and invest in the stock market, things like this, well, look at the federal court of appeals that just ruled against the fearless fund, the African-American women who you have here on the show, Roland, and they have the grants for, actually, businesses for women of color. It's not exclusively for

African-American women, but they were sued by Ed Bloom, white conservative activist Ed Bloom, the same Ed Bloom who got affirmative action in college admissions overturned by the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court that Donald Trump put in place. The federal court of appeals ruled against the fearless fund. Now, they're trying to decide, you know, what's the next step? Are they going to try to appeal this to the Supreme Court? But no, a lot of us were taught to vote for president, but never to really understand that third faction of government, which are the courts, and how the courts impact every

aspect of our lives. And you look at—once again, dealing with economics, you look at the executive action, executive order from President Biden dealing with student loan forgiveness that would have impacted 40 million student loan borrowers, would have moved 500,000 African-American families from a negative net worth to a positive net worth, struck down in Donald Trump's Supreme Court once again. So we have to understand this is about self-preservation. It's not about one person.

It's not just about a president. It's about the federal court nominations, federal judge nominations a president will make, Supreme Court justices, but also cabinet appointments, U.S. Department of Education, Small Business Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, all this. All thisS. Department of Education, Small Business Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, all this, all this impacts every aspect of our lives. So this is all-out war. This is basically war. Republicans understand that.

We need to pull us out of our—we need to pull ourselves out of our—our heads out of our collective asses and vote like our life depends upon upon it because it actually does folks we're going to see uh the final ruling coming out from the court next week and we'll see what they have to say all right going to break we come back uh president joe biden at the last night's disastrous debate uh was in raleigh north carolina today we'll show you what he said today and trust me he looked and sounded totally different than what took place last night. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do. Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.

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RM Unfiltered, Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.M. Unfiltered Zelle. Roland at Roland S. Martin dot com. Roland at Roland Martin Unfiltered dot com. Moses was a stutterer and was 82 when he was called to leave. Jeremiah had depression. Esther lost both of her parents at an early age. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. Jesus was acquainted with sorrow.

Harriet Tubman had epilepsy. FDR had polio. And this nation better learn quick. Jesus was acquainted with sorrow. Harriet Tubman had epilepsy. FDR had polio. And this nation better learn quick. Stop focusing on foolishness. Argue about making a decision on foolish things. Age. Who can insult who? Who the last one touched the porn star? You're going to make that the standard of U.S. presidents. You're going to have to go back and undo a whole lot of them. Whether Biden walks fast or not, I don't walk fast. But he could be walking fast, head toward evil, head toward destruction. The greatest president in this country was Roosevelt, and he couldn't walk at all.

Better stop this foolishness. This election better be about issues. What are you going to do about the 295,000 people dying every year from poverty? 87 million people underinsured or uninsured. The 1,000 plus voter suppression cases. What are you going to do about the fact that we still have to feed the hungry in the wealthiest nation in the world? That in the 21st century we still have human trafficking.

This nation better wake up. This election cannot be about foolish things. It's not even about will we have a democracy, It's about what kind of democracy will we have because democracies can elect dictators. Putin was elected. Netanyahu elected. Will we have a democracy that establishes justice? Anything else is foolishness. 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. Thank you. Last night's debate was not a great one for President Joe Biden. Even he admits that.

Today he was in Raleigh, North Carolina for a rally, and it was a totally different looking and sounding President Joe Biden. Here is some of that rally. Today we have the strongest economy in the world without exception. Fifteen million new jobs. Eight hundred thousand manufacturing jobs. Unemployment under four percent for a record two years in a row. Historic black and Hispanic unemployment down. Historic creation of small businesses in black and all communities across the nation, particularly

in rural areas. Historic economic growth. Inflation has dropped from 9 percent to 3 and is still going down. I know we have more to do to get prices down. We have to take on corporate greed. They're making twice the profit they were before the pandemic. We've got to make housing more affordable. Provide child care.

Make the tax code fair. Sixteen Nobel winners of the economic Nobel Prize have looked at my economic plan this week. They issued a report in a Trump's plan. Here's what they concluded. They said that my plan would continue to grow the economy and bring down inflation. Sixteen Nobel laureates. And that Trump's plan was send the nation into recession

and inflation soaring through the roof. Don't take my word for it. Folks, let me close with this. I know I'm not a young man. State the obvious. Well, I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to.

I don't debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know, I know, I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. I know like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up. I know what it took to take our economy to the depths of pandemic to where it is today, the strongest economy in the world. I know what it'll take to bring this

economy to everybody. I know what it'll take to rally the world to stand up against Putin and defend freedom, not yield to him. And I know it'll take to keep the world safe and free for the years ahead. Folks, I give you my words of Biden, I would not be running again if I didn't believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job. Because quite frankly, the stakes are too high. The stakes are too high. Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He's a threat to our freedom. He's a threat to our democracy. He's literally a threat for everything America stands for.

Look, he doesn't understand what I think all of you do. America is the finest and most unique nation in the world. We're the only nation in the world, and I mean this sincerely, it's a fact statement, not a hyperbolic statement. It's fact. We're the only nation in the world built on an idea. All the nations built on ethnicity, geography, and other religion, but we're built on an idea. That we're all created equal. We deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.

We've never fully lived up to what I'll be damned in the year 2024, just two years — just two years before the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, that I'll let Donald Trump walk away from it. I give you my word. I give my word as a Biden. We're still a nation. I believe we're still a nation that believes in honesty and decency and treating people with respect. I still believe we're a nation that gives everyone a fair shot and leaves nobody behind. We're still a nation that gives hate no safe harbor. And we're still the beacon to the world. We can never give up what makes America America.

Donald Trump is motivated by revenge and retribution. But revenge and retribution never build a damn thing. You and I, we Americans are a nation of hope, optimism, and possibilities. That's what always built America. That's going to continue to build America today. The choice in this election is simple. Donald Trump will destroy our democracy. I will defend it. So, folks, are you with me? Donald Trump's the first president I've heard of that stood up there running for president, having been one for one term, saying America's a failing nation. Where the hell does he think he is? I'm serious. A failing, I don't know a president wouldn't trade places with America in a heartbeat. He's dead wrong. America's not a losing nation. America's winning.

As I stand here today, I can honestly say I've never been more optimistic about America's future in my whole career. We just have to remember who we are. We're the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity, nothing when we act together. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was very strong last night at appearances on CNN and MSNBC, has a variety of campaign stops across the country. This is her speaking today in Las Vegas. For all of that, our president made clear.

There is a contrast between someone who lies and someone who leads. Let's start with the thing we have always known. Donald Trump is unburdened by the truth. It's not a burden he carries. Case in point, last night, a nonstop stream of lies. He said the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville was, quote, fabricated. Well, let us speak the truth. That's a lie he said the mob he incited at the United States Capitol on January 6th was only a quote small number of people who were quote ushered in by the police a lie He claimed he never called our troops suckers and losers.

As General John Kelly can tell you another lie. Friends, most of us agree. In a real leader, Character matters more than style. And Donald Trump simply does not have the character to be president of the United States. To that point about Charlottesville, this could have my iPad. This is a tweet.

Former mayor of Charlottesville here. Joe Biden did not make up the Charlottesville story. The reality, Derek, last night, it was not a good performance by President Joe Biden. But the reality is when you look at what's on the other side, massive, massive lies, massive, massive lies from Donald Trump. And there was a tweet I saw earlier from Mark Cuban that I thought really was a very strong one that really spoke to this issue here. And again, you see folks back and forth talking. And so this actually was in response to a tweet from Piers Morgan.

I don't give a damn about Piers. I'm not going to show it. Go to my iPad. This is Mark Cuban. His performance was awful, but so was Trump's. Biden was feeble. Trump couldn't directly answer a single question. It lied with every response. The question is what features voters believe make a better POTUS? Feeble, capable, and ethical versus vigorous, unethicalical and incapable of telling the truth. I'll vote ethical every time. The reality is Joe wasn't capable last night of debating someone who only lies. He doesn't have the energy or ability to shout him down, hold him accountable and laugh at Trump's responses.

Joe could have held his own against a candidate that actually can discuss policy, but that wasn't the challenge last night, and Joe wasn't prepared or capable of dealing with Donald and his style. That aside, there is no way you could listen to Donald last night and come away feeling confident that Trump has the ability to go deeper than his practice soundbites. He repeated himself often and never directly answered the moderator's questions. There was nothing that would give anyone confidence he could hold his own in any complicated situation

or that he could intellectually go toe-to-toe with any world leader or adversary. In fact, his non-answers about J6 and election acceptance should scare every American about his interest in upholding his oath to the Constitution. That doesn't make Biden's performance any less awful. But he answered the questions he was asked, even if the presentation was underwhelming. And we have the last three plus years and of his being POTUS without his getting laughed at, getting laughed or smirked at. No tell all's or leaks discussing his incompetence,

no former advisors or cabinet members saying they won't vote for him. That gives me confidence that in the normal duties of the presidency, he can hold his own and do the job. Unfortunately, this election is not about policies. It's about soundbites, social media, and who delivers them better and the algorithms that deliver them to voters. Trump is far better than Biden at soundbites and marketing. That's reality.

For that reason, I'm also open to the discussion to replace Biden and or Harris. It's not like Trump's approval ratings are high. They aren't. It could be an open door to find someone that immediately outperforms Trump. Beyond the loyalty of his hardcore 30% or so, I think a large number of people who currently support him would walk away to a better alternative. But if that doesn't happen, I'm still voting for Biden, the ethical candidate who unquestionably stands by his oath and puts country over self-interest. Derek? Roland, what you just articulated,

my good brother, was succinct and to the point. But let's face it, we have a binary choice come this November 5th. We either want someone that preserves and protects democracy, or we want someone that's going to be a dictator. We either want someone that has a future vision that will include us all, or we want someone that's want to be a dictator. We either want someone that has a future vision that will include us all, or we want someone that's going to take Project 2025 as his Bible. When we put age aside, as I told the reporters today, because you can only imagine here in Georgia the number of reporters, I said to them, well, Warren Buffett is 93.

Nobody says Warren Buffett too old. The Pope is 87, right? So when we put the age aside, Roland, and start looking at the characteristics and doing what you just, you know, articulated and line these two individuals up, Biden will come out on top every time. Four years ago, Roland, I'll end with this. Trump lost. Who beat him? Biden. Why? Because four years ago, we were dealing with COVID.

Over a million Americans died, Roland. Four years ago, we had an individual that was in front of the White House at a podium that told individuals to go down 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and convince folks on January 6th to overturn the government. We also, within the last four years, rolling is this. This individual, he's a convicted felon. As a retired military officer,

you cannot even get a top secret clearance if you are a felon. And so this binary choice is not the lesser of two evils or which old man that we want to lead us. It is very clear that President Biden today, he took ownership. He said, listen, I'm old. I can't do what I did 30, 40 years ago. But the former President Barack Obama said, when I was 51, you all wanted to write me off, too, when I debated against Mitt Romney.

And so we got to keep this thing with a clear conscience. And when you think about a person that stood on that stage last night, Roland, that say he took a cognitive test and he got an A plus. Well, Roland, I took a cognitive test. It's called an IQ. And they don't give you a grade letter. They give you a number, a numeric value. And so we don't want someone that lie, lie, lie, and so all this disinformation and misinformation and cannot answer the question. If you brought someone on your show as an interviewer and you said you cannot answer the question, not one, I would like to think that you would never hire that person to work in your company. So why should we hire someone like a Donald J. Trump that did not answer the question about climate control? He said something about immaculate water, which I still don't know what immaculate water is.

He said something about immigration and black jobs. I'm still looking for what a black job looks like, and so this person could not answer not one question during that 90-minute debate. That's the period. That's where we are. And so as I told everybody, Democrats, you got to fight. You got to get tough. Stand behind Joe Biden. This conversation about a broker convention in August makes no sense, Roland, because they tried that in 1968. And guess what happened? The Democrats lost miserably. And so I don't want to hear no conversation about broker convention. That makes absolutely no sense to me. Democrats need to get tough and let's go to war. Michael. This is war, like I said. And, you know, I was watching Deadline White House today. I saw,

number one, I saw Joe Biden in North Carolina, Riley in North Carolina, did a fantastic job. He needs to do rallies like that, like, twice a week. He should do one two times a week. Vice President Kamala Harris should do one two times a week, especially throughout the summer, and get that energy going. But I was watching Deadline White House today, and Cornel Belcher was on, the poster, African-American poster, Cornel Belcher. And he talked about how you have Republicans who are circling the wagon around Donald Trump

to support Donald Trump. He's been convicted on 34 felonies. He was found liable for sexual assault in New York. He was also found liable for committing fraud when it came to inflating the value of his properties, right? You have someone as flawed as this, and Republicans are circling the wagon around him to support him no matter what. And you have Biden, who had a bad night but still answered questions more truthfully. Now,

he stammered and stuttered, things like this, but he still answered questions more truthfully. Biden and Harris saved the economy, got us out of COVID. They're actually rebuilding America with the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, 56,000 construction projects being funded, OK, because of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. And you have some weak-ass, punk-ass Democrats who are talking about a broker convention and running away from Donald Trump. And, you know, this—now, I'm neither Democrat nor Republican, but I sure as hell ain't stupid. OK? You continue to support people who continue to vote for policies that are beneficial to

you, and we have to learn how to use Biden and Harris and use these Democrats as a tool, as a political weapon, to fight the MAGA extremist domestic terrorists who are working to implement Project 2025, who want to continue to stack the courts, who want to continue to roll back any type of progress African-Americans have made. And they're using the courts to do it as well. So we really have to understand what is at stake here. You know, they're trying to take us back to 1890, the Mississippi State Convention, when they imposed poll taxes and literacy tests to suppress the African-American vote.

This is war. You're right. It is war. And I keep trying to tell people that in battles you swing and what you don't do is you don't run from a fight. Matt. I think these brothers have, you know, covered most of the substantive issues very well, but all I'll add is a couple of things. I mean, first, the reality is we're talking like people at large care about the policy, but they don't. It's the pageantry. And the reality is if people

in the Biden camp knew that he was prone to the pauses and some of the things mechanically, physically last night that made him look old and out of ability, I guess, out of shape to handle the rigors of the presidency, then they should have been sounding the alarm a lot earlier. I think Democrats now look extremely weak and they look like, you know, rats trying to flee off a sinking ship, talking about a broker convention and other things getting away from Mr. Biden. And I agree with Michael and Derek insofar as I agree with the policy points in the platform. And, you know, I personally would be voting Biden-Harris. However, I think this does call into question why are these conversations being had at this 11th hour? I mean, we talked about this on the show months ago.

You asked me a question and I mentioned to you he looked old and we had a whole dialogue about how that's not what we should be talking about. But the reality is, for some people, that's going to move the needle. And I'm wondering why Democrats did not have a more serious conversation about this before this point. Notwithstanding that, yes, it's war, and it's war on the platforms and war on the policy. But at the end of the day, it is a popularity contest, largely. And I think it is a huge misstep strategically for the Democrats to wait until the 11th hour to try to triage this, right? I mean, that's the reality of it. I think Mr. Biden is where he needs to be in terms of his platform and policy,

but the presentation is a problem. And the issue is with Donald Trump, as Mark Cuban said, it's all about marketing. It's all about marketing and it's all about presentation. And I don't know how the Democrats did not consider that this very thing could happen, that they are now, you know, trying to triage. I mean, on the shows I watched last night, they were talking to people real time and the Democratic pundits were, you know, mortified as to his performance. And I don't understand how there were not greater indicia of this potential thing happening in the lead up to this performance. It just seems to me like there's some strategic missteps. And I don't know how you you triage it at this point.

Well, it is one of the things that actually also happened. There were different focus groups on different networks. And the reality is there were a number of the people who were watching the debate who were undecided voters. And they started trending towards Joe Biden. I think the other deal is, look, CNN dropped the numbers. It's some 51 million watch. This was the lowest watch debate since 2004. The other thing is this here, Derek.

It's June 27th. The reality is you have four months to continue campaigning. I also say this here, and my pal disagreed with me last night. I'm in this group chat. Folks disagree with me. I dare say if there's a debate September 10th, you do it. You don't run from it. Listen, if he was cold, if he had a cold last night, if his throat was messed up, guess what? You simply pare down all the damn talking points. I thought he had too much data. Okay, so what happens is too much data in the head. Bring that down and hit and hit critical points.

But also you want him as healthy as possible. The Joe Biden that was in the rally in North Carolina was one hundred and eighty degrees different than what we saw last night. And so I dare say you don't run from another debate Put this one in the can what you do is you say hey Joe you got a it's so like when a Teddy Atlas sat on the stool To Michael Moore it was like yo, do you want to win this? I mean, that's what that's really what you have to do And so if you're gonna be in this thing run If you're not gonna run if you're not gonna do so if you're going to be in this thing, run. If you're not going to run, if you're not going to do interviews, if you're not going to do rallies,

if you're not going to campaign, well, damn it, drop out. But if you're going to run, damn it, run. You know, I told a local reporter here today, they asked, what would I do differently? I said, yeah, I need to have Roland Martin as one of the moderators because, see, a Roland Martin ainall need to have Roland Martin as one of the moderators because see, Roland Martin ain't going to let Donald Trump continue to filibuster and not answer his question.

See, nothing against the moderators last night, Roland. So everybody was expecting for President Biden to fact check his opponent. And that's not the way, having been in many debates, that's not my job to fact check my opponent. Now, every now and then I may say, hey, my opponent is lying.

But not everyone should be fact checked by the candidate. The moderator should say, no, sir, no, ma'am, you're wrong. You did not reduce the cost of insulin during your administration because you were not in office in 2023. Is that clear, Roland? Media needs to take some responsibility, too, because they're allowing for Trump just to have a full range of lying to the American public and using their platform to push these lies. You can't bank on them doing that. And so you're you're the candidate. You're going to have to have to push back on the lies. You can't. CNN abdicated the responsibility last night. They allowed the lies to go unchecked. And so that's what you have to deal with. That is a reality. I know, Roland, but there is a part in journalism.

I understand that, but they're not going to do it. The next debate is supposed to be on Fox News. They damn sure not going to do it. And so when you know somebody is not going to do it, well, damn it, you got to do it. The next debate is supposed to be on Fox News. They damn sure not going to do it. And so when you know somebody's not going to do it, well, damn it, you got to do it. And see, there were a number of times that he said he called Trump's out on his lies, but you got to be more emphatic with it. And so there's

some changes to me. Listen, I don't need to moderate, but I tell you what, I damn sure can have his ass ready in debate prep. I can tell you that. Michael, this was a memo. Brian Stetler posted this. This is a memo from Reid Hoffman. Of course, he is founder of Netflix.

So he dropped this memo here. He said, first, Joe is our nominee. Any decision to step aside is up to him and his family, period. If anything, a public effort might compel the Bidens to try to prove the doubt was wrong. Joe is a resolute fighter after all. Second, last night's debate revealed nothing new. Not about Biden, not about this racist dynamics and stakes.

I tuned into Biden's rally in North Carolina this afternoon. He was energized and brutally effective in taking down Trump's vitriol and lies. See for yourself. I wish we'd had that Biden last night, but that's the nature of Joe Biden. When he does poorly, he tends to bounce back and then win. Third, we should note how MAGA responded when Trump was convicted of 30 to four felonies by unanimous jury of American citizens. They ruthlessly and immediately closed ranks because they understand that at this stage

of the race, they must spend every minute and dime either boosting their old man or tearing down others. If we're musing on Biden's flaws, we're not organized around Trump's flaws. That's bad for us and good for them. Fourth and most importantly, being a good president has little to do with being a good debater. Whether an American president succeeds ultimately depends on if A, they have the right values, instincts, patriotism, and courage, and B, they have a fantastic team of leaders around them. Biden demonstrably meets both conditions. Trump is demonstrably a narcissistic criminal whose close allies either desert him or go to jail, which is why his presidency was a festival of corruption and chaos that left

the economy in ruins when Biden took office. Fifth and finally, all of the above means Joe Biden can very much still win this election. The fundamentals matter vastly more than a single debate. Perhaps the best historical analogy is from 1984, when Ronald Reagan's first debate performance raised concerns about his age. He turned things around in the next debate and won the election in the landslide. This is real simple, Michael. Democrats, shut the hell up, get your asses in line, and focus on winning.

Absolutely. And back up and surround and support and block for and defend your candidate. This is what I was just saying. You know, this reminds me during the 2020 presidential campaign, and you had one of the debates, you had, what, 12 people, for the Democrats, 12 people on stage, and they were attacking policies from the Obama-Biden administration, acting like they were Republicans. What the hell are you doing? You know, but the other thing, when we look at Joe Biden's history, Joe Biden really has never been a good debater, but he's good at retail politics. OK, Joe Biden there in Raleigh, North Carolina, that's the Joe Biden retail politics. He needs to do a lot more of that. OK, do two of those, do at least two of those a week,

especially during the summer. And I would say the next debate is September 10th. The day before that debate, he needs to do one of those rallies also and feed off that energy, allow that momentum to take him into the debate. But, God damn, do you want to win or do you want to lose? What is it that you're doing? Let me know so I know what to do. See, here's the deal, Matt. All of this back and forth about, oh, replacing folk,

it's also grossly disrespectful to the woman who's the Vice President of the United States. And that, to me, is shameful and despicable, where these people, oh, let's call Gretchen Whitmer or Josh Shapiro, or let's call Gavin Newsom. And even with Cuban at that point, there's no

guarantee that these folks could all of a sudden hop into a national campaign in less than six months and just swoop in and folks gonna be like yay the cavalry has arrived actually that as as hoppin says that creates more problems and you have solutions because here's the deal if you say go to a broker convention their convention is in the third week of August. That means that, okay, you do a broker convention, you literally then will have September and October to actually get together.

I remember when people demanding, when a lot of Hillary Clinton's white women supporters were going crazy after Obama won, and they were talking about creating drama at the convention, and it was like, what the hell y'all think y'all doing? That's the dumbest thing in the world. Yes, you do exactly what Republicans did. Circle the wagons and say

we gonna kick y'all ass together. Yes. Yes, yes. Take a page out of Bob Menendez's playbook. You get indicted, you're about to go to trial, you just double down. That's what they need to do, is ride Biden into the future, and they need to put him in better circumstances so that they can control performances like this.

Because the reality is this. I don't want to sound ageist, and I'm absolutely not ageist. If it was my 86-year-old big mama, she ain't lost a step. But Joe Biden has. That's the reality of it. And you have people who are watching the pageantry of this, not the optics of it. So what they need to do is feed on, I think, a lot of the soundbites that Trump is going to, you know, is going to put in the debate. For instance, in that long thing you just read from the gentleman from Netflix, what stood out to me? A festival of corruption. Festival of corruption. If they ran an ad with festival of corruption, that's the kind of thing that your average voter is not going to forget. And I think going forward, they need to employ a better strategy in leveraging the marketability, but also using Mr. Biden's superior knowledge as it

relates to policy, especially as to Mr. Trump. But to your point about Kamala Harris, we are not surprised that they didn't call the black woman who's eminently qualified and who has been doing the job, you know job of the number two at this point throughout their entire administration and is uniquely qualified as compared to these governors of other states who may not be able to jump into a national campaign. But beyond that, I mean, it's just too late. We're at the point where they need to dance with the one they brought, and that's Joe Biden. And they need to put him in circumstances where he can flourish, because as it relates to substantive policy, there is no question that he is far more qualified than Mr. Trump. But you don't have people who are voting on the deep policy.

You have the few undecided voters primarily who are voting on soundbites. And if you don't leverage that, I think you lose an opportunity. And again, and I think if you're going to talk about soundbites, what you then have to do is actually play soundbites, such as this. The Trump list, it is way, way longer. So deep breath. He said some Democratic states allow people to execute babies after birth, an egregious lie that is illegal in every state. He said everybody, even Democrats, wanted Roe v. Wade overturned. Roe was supported by two-thirds of Americans, even more Democrats. He said every legal scholar wanted Roe overturned, abortion returned to the states. Legal scholars

have told me directly this is not true. He said the U.S. currently has the biggest budget deficit ever. No, that happened under Trump in 2020. He said the U.S. currently has a record trade deficit with China. That also happened under Trump in 2018. He said Biden personally gets a lot of money from China. Zero evidence of this. He said there were no terror attacks during his presidency. In fact, there were multiple attacks. He said Iran didn't fund Hamas, Hezbollah, other terror groups under his presidency. Iran, in fact, did. He said Biden wants to quadruple people's taxes. That is pure fiction. He said the U.S. has provided way more aid to Ukraine than Europe had. It's actually the opposite. He said the U.S. has provided about 200 billion in Ukraine aid. It's closer to 110 billion. He said 18 or 19 million people have

crossed the border under Biden. That is millions too high. He said many of these migrants are from prisons or mental institutions. His own campaign cannot corroborate this. He said Biden has only created jobs for illegal immigrants. Total nonsense. He said Nancy Pelosi turned down his offer of 10,000 National Guard troops on January 6th. There's no evidence she even got such an offer. It was the president, not Pelosi, who had the power to deploy the D.C. Guard. He said Pelosi now acknowledges she turned down the troops.

No, her office tells me this claim is still a lie. He said he deployed the National Guard to Minneapolis in 2020. Actually, that was the Democratic governor. He spoke of, quote, ridiculous fraud in the 2020 election. Zero evidence of any widespread fraud. He said NATO was going out of business before he took office. Completely, clearly absurd. He said the U.S. was paying 100 percent of NATO before he came along. The U.S. made up about 71 percent of NATO defense spending, not 100. He said he, not Biden, is the one who lowered insulin prices in Medicare. He did it for some seniors, but Biden did it for far more.

He said Biden indicted him. Again, no evidence Biden has had a personal role in any of these four prosecutions. He said Europe takes no U.S. cars. Just not true. He spoke of food prices quadrupling under Biden. That's a wild exaggeration, though they are up. He said Biden made up the idea he called dead service members suckers and losers. No, the Atlantic magazine reported that, and then former Trump chief of staff John Kelly corroborated it.

He said Biden called black people, quote, super predators for 10 years. Biden never once deployed that phrase, let alone for 10 years, though he did at least once speak of, quote, predators without specifying it was about black people. He said his Trump tax cut was the largest in U.S. history. Not true, though, in fairness, Biden also said this. Trump said China and others stopped buying from Iran under him. China never stopped. He revived his pet lie. I don't know how many times I've done it, that he signed the Veterans Choice Program into law. Barack Obama did that in 2014. Trump signed an expanded version in 2018. And finally, Trump said Biden got rid of that veterans program.

Biden has not done that. Now, here's what I don't understand. I don't understand, Derek, why in the hell you're CNN and you don't have Derek Dale, I mean, Daniel Dale sitting right there going, where'd he go? Daniel, in the last round, there were a lot of statements made by Presidents Biden and Trump. What's the fact check? Fact check in real time. CNN abdicated responsibility.

And this is for me where you don't just say, hey, voters, we're just going to let you allow you to hear them talk. And then you decide, no, you stand on truth. And this is the point that I was attempting to make, and I'm glad you circled back to this point, Roland, because we all know a lie can travel around the globe much faster

than the truth. It can go viral faster than the truth. And I don't see this video going as viral as it should. And so and to the point about the broker convention, just to add to your point, people don't understand what a broker convention is. You got 4000 delegates and of that 4000, that individual needs to get 2000 of the delegates to vote with them, but they need to have 600 of those delegates to even qualify.

And then to your point, Roland, they're going to have two months to raise money and if they can get on a ballot in all the 50 states. So when people start talking about broker convention, yes, they are disrespecting Kamala Harris, but they don't understand what a broker convention and what is required. And so, yeah, that fact checking is spot on. I'm glad you highlighted because, as I often do, I'm just going to push it. And I know it won't go viral because people are like, yeah, that's CNN or that's Roland Martin.

We ain't going to believe all that. It's just crazy. It's just crazy to me, Michael, that they could sit there and literally allow lie after lie after lie after lie and not one time say,

sir, that's wrong. Right. I agree. I watched the entire debate, and it was a 90-minute propaganda infomercial for Donald Trump, lie after lie after lie after lie. And even as it's hard, as he's saying the lie right after that, it may be hard to, like, fact-check every single one. But when they came out from commercial break, that first commercial break, you could do fact-checking of some of those previous lies that he told, things like the biggest whoppers that he told. You may not hit everything.

But I would encourage people, NBCNews.com has a good one, fact-checking Biden and Trump's claims at the first debate. They go through and look at different statements they both made, and overwhelmingly Trump told a lot more lies than Biden. And they provide the evidence as well. And this is a good learning tool to help people understand politics also. But I agree with you, Roland, and Biden is going—even though Biden did call some of those lies that Trump told, even though he said they were lies, I think he's going to have to be more forceful in the next debate when Trump spews those lies.

Matt? I don't think they should be allowed to lie with impunity, but I think the focus should be less on just the lies and should be on the comprehensive policy. And I think Derek said this earlier, but if you listen to the debate, I didn't watch the entire thing. The part I got to watch, virtually every question, the answer that came from Joe Biden was full of policy. Even if there was a misstep or maybe a slight mischaracterization, there was policy. With Trump, it was all vibes. And vibes are cool, but they can only take you so far. And I think hopefully the people that are watching are recognizing that that's really what's on display here, even outside of the fact checking.

You have someone who is actually able to have discourse in the policy because they understand how things work, as opposed to someone who is trying to just dismantle everything and put in his own, you know, way approach to things. And we know that that didn't work during his administration. So I think that's what's really salient here. And I do think they should have real-time fact-checking. But more than that, I think they should press him even harder on the policy. I mean, he got asked unequivocal questions and answered them—didn't answer them at all, right? I mean, just completely provided no policy basis. And that's what should have people concerned.

If you are truly an undecided voter, even if you're considering Mr. Trump, you should say this guy obviously can't answer the question and does not know enough about how it works to put my mind at ease that he can do this job effectively. That should be really the questions we're looking at. A little bit early, we played some of what Vice President Kamala Harris had to say in Las Vegas. I think it's important for us to actually hear all of it and so here is the VP earlier today. That's right, that's right, that's right. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It is so good to be back in Nevada and thank you all, all the leaders who are here.

Thank you. Thank you. And can we please hear it for Dr. Norma and her extraordinary life and leadership. Please. So I want to thank everyone who is here today. I want to thank all the elected leaders who are here. I know Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was here earlier. She and I were AGs together. She is doing an extraordinary job as a senator. Senator Mark Kelly, who is just always fighting for the people of Nevada and using his lifelong dedication to our country in a way that is about service and uplifting so

many people. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, thank you for your leadership. And of course, Senator Jackie Rosen, who we will re-elect this November. And on behalf of my husband, the second gentleman of the United States, we together thank all the friends and the longstanding supporters who are here, including the leaders of LULAC. It is so good.

It is so good to be with all of you. All right. So last night, President Joe Biden and Donald Trump had their first debate. And earlier today, the president said himself it was not his best performance. But there are three things that were true yesterday before the debate that are still true today. Let's level set on this. All right.

First, the stakes of this race could not be higher. Second, the contrast in this election could not be more stark. And third, we believe in our President Joe Biden, and we believe in what he stands for. And to that point, we all know, let's not forget, he beat Donald Trump once. And in Nevada, with your help, we're going to do it again. And we're going to win because for all the punditry last night, for all of that, our president made clear, there is a contrast between someone who lies and someone who leads. Let's start with the thing we have always known. Donald Trump is unburdened by the truth. It's not a burden he carries.

Case in point, last night, a nonstop stream of lies. He said the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville was, quote, fabricated. Well, let us speak the truth. That's a lie. He said the mob he incited at the United States Capitol on January 6th was only a, quote, small number of people who were, quote, ushered in by the police.

A lie. A lie. He claimed he never called our troops suckers and losers. As General John Kelly can tell you, another lie. Friends, most of us agree, in a real leader, character matters more than style. And Donald Trump simply does not have the character to be President of the United States. For further context, consider more than 20 of his former top leaders, from his former Secretary of Defense to his National Security Advisor

to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, have spoken out against Trump. And note, between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, only one candidate on that stage has the instrument of his own vice president. Joe Biden. And former Vice President Pence is evidently not supporting a second term for Trump because he knows Trump is a threat to our democracy and he only fights for himself, not you. Now, some of you might remember that recently, when Donald Trump was here in Las Vegas,

in 104-degree heat, he told a crowd, quote, I don't care about you, I just want your vote. Well, that's about the only thing he's said lately that rings true. Nevada, as vice president, I see Joe Biden when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off. In the Oval Office, negotiating bipartisan deals. I see him in the Situation Room, keeping our country safe. On the world stage, meeting with foreign leaders who often ask for his advice. Joe Biden is a leader who always fights

for the people of our nation. He fights and he wins. And he wins. And he wins. Think about it. Think about it in terms of who our president is. Guided by the knowledge that Latinos are 70% more likely to have diabetes, Joe Biden took on in generations, and the first major gun safety law in nearly 30 years. And Las Vegas knows why that is important. He strengthened NATO and stood up to Putin, bringing together our allies around the world.

Nevada last night clarified the stakes of this election. On the economy, Joe Biden pointed out how economists, including Nobel Prize-winning economists, have determined — check this out — have determined Trump's economic plans going forward would raise inflation and send us into a recession by 2025. This is their findings based on reviewing his plans. On democracy, last night Donald Trump repeatedly refused to commit to agree he would accept the results of the 2024 election. And finally, on the subject of reproductive freedom, last night Trump called the overturning of Roe versus Wade a, quote, great thing. And as President Biden has said, we know Trump will sign a national abortion ban

if he gets the chance. But we won't let him. We won't let him. Because we trust women to know what is in their own best interest as opposed to having their government tell them what to do with their bodies. So listen, we've got 130 days, I'm counting, until election day.

130 days. And this race will not be decided by one night in June. This race will be decided by you, by us. Who sits in the White House next year will be determined by what we together do in these next 130 days. And ultimately, in this election, we each face a question. What kind of country do we want to live in? A country of freedom, compassion, and rule of law,

or a country of chaos, fear, and hate. We each have the power, each of us has the power to answer this question with our vote and with our voice. So today I ask, Nevada, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it?

And when we fight, we win. God bless you and God bless the United States of America. Thank you. That was Vice President Kamala Harris earlier today in Las Vegas. Real quick, Matt, I'm telling you, you're going to see a lot more of her on the campaign trail. And as for the Biden-Harris campaign, they better buckle up because they're going to need her

aggressively doing things like that all across this country. In all the battleground states with all the soundbites, you're exactly right. I mean, they need to let her do what she does best, which is rhetoric. That's what this is about. That's what's driving the undecided voters, or I think will drive them to make the right decision. And I think they need to use her in that capacity as forcefully as possible. Matt, excuse me, Michael.

Oh, absolutely. They need to have her out pretty much every day, every other day. That was fantastic. And she fact checked Trump as well. And you need that energy. And she resonates better with younger voters also than Biden does. So they see she's she's his best weapon. Derek. Yeah, I agree with Matt and Michael. The only thing I would add went to to deploy Kamala in all 11 southern states, all 11 of them. Louisiana, Texas, all of them, not just the battleground states, but in all of them. All right, folks, appreciate a whole tight one second.

We come back. We'll talk to the family attorney for a black man who was killed in the Tarrant County Jail. Murder charges came down today. We'll explain. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. 7196 Washington DC 20037 0196 Dallas sign RM unfiltered PayPal are Martin unfiltered Venmo is RM unfiltered Zale rolling at rolling S Martin calm rolling at rolling Martin unfiltered calm Download the Black Star Network app Apple

phone Android phone Apple TV Android TV Roku Amazon Fire TV Xbox one Samsung Smart TV. We'll be right back. Hello, my brothers and sisters. This is Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, a national call for moral revival and president of Repairs of the Breach. And I'm calling on you to get everybody you know

to join us on Saturday, June 29th at 10 o'clock a.m. in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania and 3rd for the Mass Poor People's Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the polls and the post effort to reach 15 million poor and low-w wage infrequent voters who, if they vote, can change the outcome of our politics in this country. Our goal is to center the desires and the political policy agenda of poor and low wage

persons along with moral religious leaders and advocates. Too often poor and low wage people are not talked about, even though in this country today, there are 135 million poor and low-wage persons. There's not a state in this country now where poor and low-wage persons do not make up at least 30% of the electorate. It is time that the issues of poor and low-wage people

be at the center of our politics. Living wages, health care, things that matter in the everyday lives. We will no longer allow poverty to be the fourth leading cause of death in this country. We must let our voices be heard. Join us. Go to our website, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org, RSVP, get others to come, get a bus, get a van, get on the train. Come and let our voices be heard and our votes be felt. Lift from the bottom so that everybody writes. We won't be silent. And we won't be silent anymore. Hey, what's up? Keith Turner here in the place where we got kicked out your mama's university.

Creator and executive producer of Fat Tuesdays, an air hip-hop comedy. But right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Two former Tarrant County, Texas jailers have been indicted for the death of jail inmate Anthony Johnson. Junior is this been called a homicide. The 31 year old died from asphyxia

from the use of force and pepper spray. Johnson died at the Tarrant County Jail on April 21st after being arrested during what his family says was a schizophrenic episode. Reports say he resisted jailers doing a cell check. Jailers pepper sprayed him, handcuffed, and held Johnson on the floor improperly. A detention officer had a knee on Johnson's back. Darrell Washington is a Johnson family attorney.

He joins us right now. Darrell, we had you, of course, on the show when the folks were, you know, really raising this issue before the commissioners court. And the sheriff, this MAGA sheriff, clearly did not care whatsoever. Now a grand jury has now weighed in. Yes, it's not rolling, but I just want to say something before we talk about the case, man, because I appreciate the coverage that you're giving on the election. I want people to know, man, it is so very important for Donald Trump not to get elected, because if Donald Trump has an opportunity to appoint these federal judges, people don't understand how our civil rights are going to be in jeopardy. So I appreciate you on that, Roland.

I mean, the indictment came down today. Two of the jailers were indicted for murder. And this is something that's almost unheard of. But I know, Roland, it's because individuals like yourself who have that national platform, you gave us that platform to talk about these issues. You showed the video, and you allowed people to see just how bad this situation was. So I've said all the time, when this grand jury had the opportunity to look at the evidence, they didn't have to consider what I had to say.

They didn't have to consider what the prosecutors had to say. They had that independent witness. And that independent witness was the video. So we are just simply pleased that this grand jury came and indicted two jailers. Well, and again, we're talking about when you look at Texas,

the reality of this is the same DA's office has been going after Crystal Mason, and they had no other way to go. Bottom line is it was without a doubt. And this is, but also the attention that was put on this by the family as well, by your black county commissioners, as all that played a role in this. Yeah, Commissioner Lisa Simmons is just fantastic. If I can roll it, if we can get 20 Commissioner Simmons, we would have some serious changes made here in Texas because she's powerful. She believed in fighting for the people. I think that really helped us out.

You know, and right now we understand that we have a long way to go, but this is a step in the right direction. We believe that more people should have been indicted, because the video clearly shows that there were multiple individuals who was holding Anthony's leg as he pleaded to them that he could not breathe. So, you know, as you know, for the ones that we can't get criminally, we plan to prosecute these people civilly because we want to make sure what happens to Anthony never happens. Sixty people died in that jail before Anthony's death. And there are families who still have not gotten any answers. And that's just totally unacceptable. Obviously, this was the Tarrant County DA's decision. You talked about, obviously,

federal judges, but this is also the difference between an aggressive Biden-Harris Department of Justice and one of Trump, where they really don't give a damn. They would not go after cases like this. At all. Trump has basically made it clear that one of his first things that he's going to do when he gets in office is to try to give police officers and law enforcement officers full immunity. People do not understand the significance of that. Basically what he is saying is they're going to have an open pass to kill black people. That's dangerous.

We do not want that to happen. We should not even take a chance for that to happen. We have to make sure, irrespective, I don't care what people are saying about Biden's performance during the debate, we need to make sure that Biden is elected. Trump cannot be in office. When we talk about justice in this country, and it was always crazy to me. I mean, you've done stuff with Ben Crump and others and I see these people, they jump on social media, they jump in message boards and chat boards

and they sit here and say, oh man, here we go again. They plan to race card, all they doing. They never win any cases, but they don't understand. You are a representative of the family. You're not a prosecutor. You can't prosecute a case, but they don't understand. You are a representative of the family. You're not a prosecutor. You can't prosecute a case. But your responsibility is to heighten

the awareness of a case. Otherwise, these cases don't get the attention. I get people who... I'll never forget when I was at TV One, we had a president who was white, and he said, well, it seems like you keep doing the same stories. I said,

yeah, because black people keep getting killed. And so he wanted me to sort of do an explainer to the audience why we're doing the story. And I said, Brad, I don't need to explain to black people why I'm interviewing attorneys about their clients who got killed. I think black people know why I'm talking to them. And this is what people have to understand. The most you can do legally is on the civil side. But your job is to ring the alarm to get action on the criminal side because you don't have any jurisdiction. We have none. And Roland, people don't understand. Lots of times

when we get involved in these cases, because we know that prosecutors don't have as much experience prosecuting a police officer, we get involved because we want to be able to share experts with them. We want to share some of the knowledge that we've learned over the last 25 years. What people don't understand is that police officers are prosecutors' number one witness. So you can imagine that now you're going to a prosecutor and asking him to get an indictment on one of his best witnesses. So it's a process that people don't understand. People are going to always talk, Roland. People are going to always have complaints. But at the end of the day, if people just sit down with us

and understand and realize that we are putting time and efforts into a part of a case that we don't even get compensated for. And we don't want to get compensated for it, because what we want to do is somehow make sure that the system doesn't take advantage of the family. Indeed, Darrell Washington. Bro, I appreciate it. Keep up doing the great work. Keep us abreast of what happens next with this story. And rolling a family, say, man, please let you know that you their favorite. And they appreciate everything that you're doing and they watch you every single day. So I just thought I would let you know that they love you.

So thank you, man. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. All right. Thank you, folks. It is always difficult when we do these stories. But the reality is it does. They don't get the attention of mainstream media, not just this story, but also many other stories.

Let's talk about a story that is out of Baton Rouge. And when I say these things happen over and over and over again, it gets some local coverage. But the reality is it gets very little national coverage. Four Louisiana former officers associated with a now disbanded unit of the Baton Rouge Police Department, they have been indicted on charges alleging that they covered up the beating of a suspect in custody in September 2020. Douglas Schultz Jr. was indicted on obstruction of justice,

criminal conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, and two counts of malfeasance in office. Troy Lawrence Sr. was indicted on criminal conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and four counts of malfeasance in office. Todd Thomas was indicted on obstruction of justice, two counts of criminal conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and three counts of malfeasance in office. Martel Jackson was arrested after becoming a target for the grand jury proceedings. He was indicted and charged with one count of obstruction of justice and

one count of malfeasance in office. The officers are still on the force, but have been placed on administrative leave until due process has been completed in accordance with state law. Although indicted, Jackson currently has a warrant out for his arrest. Jesse Barcelona was another officer who was arrested in the 2020 incident but was later cleared by the grand jury. In Chattanooga, a former police chief has been indicted on charges that she illegally registered to vote in Tennessee

and falsely filled out government documents. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Hamilton County Grand Jury handed down a 17 count indictment against Celeste Murphy, the city's first black female police chief. Mercer Murphy is charged with one

count of illegal voter registration, one count of false entries on official documents, three counts of falsifying government records, three counts of forgery, three counts of perjury and six counts of official misconduct. 56 year old had been overseeing the Chattanooga Police Department since 2022,

resigned on Wednesday without publicly giving it a reason. She turned herself into the Hamilton Hamilton County Jail on Thursday was later released on a $19,000 aggregate bond. She is scheduled to appear in Hamilton County Criminal Court on Thursday was later released on a $19,000 aggregate bond. She is scheduled to appear in Hamilton County Criminal Court on July 12th.

Matt, I'm going to talk about the case out of Fort Worth, but also that other cases well in Baton Rouge. Again, when we talk about what is happening with these officers in terms of their conduct and their behavior, we cannot overlook what continues to happen.

And thank goodness in the Fort Worth case, you have there a state grand jury that made those decisions. But we have had a federal Department of Justice that's been very aggressive, U.S. attorneys very aggressive under Biden-Harris, holding police accountable. Yes, you're exactly right. And first, I want to give Darrell Washington his flowers. He's one of the first people I called when I

started doing this work. Didn't know me from Adam, and he showed me super love. So I always have a great appreciation for him. They couldn't be in better hands. But I think you're exactly right. I think the DOJ being aggressive is really incredibly important. Just yesterday, I was mediating a case with TDCJ, and a client of mine got just absolutely brutalized by the guards. And our case didn't settle, but one of the biggest things that he wants is for them to be held criminally accountable. And I'm really glad that you made that distinction for the viewers, because when a person is prosecuting a civil case, they are not also acting as the criminal prosecutor, which is why DOJ is so important, because DOJ is able to

do the civil rights prosecution that is a companion to the civil case that Daryl Washington or myself or any other civil rights lawyer would bring. And if you have a DOJ that is disinclined to hold officers accountable, then you don't have indictments, at least on the federal level. I do think that this is especially telling— I mean, they knew there was some obvious problems with this case because Tarrant County is probably the most conservative big county in the state. I think you said that before. And they don't generally indict officers. I mean, I can't imagine it's happened any time recently. So this is telling. And it may be a consequence of the fact that they have just so royally flubbed and attacked this Crystal Mason in this Crystal Mason case.

And maybe they're trying to save a little face. But I think it is a good sign. And as it relates to the officers there in Baton Rouge, you know, the scary thing about that is that kind of thing happens all the time. And until Tyree Nichols, I don't think people saw it on as grand a scale. But in that case, what happened is they did a search of somebody at a facility and then they covered it up and the officer who was the supervisory officer told the other officers to lie on the documentation despite there being body cam footage that directly controverted that so those kinds of situations are incredibly

important because those things happen daily and And unless you have, you know, prosecutors who are willing to hold police officers accountable, they get away with that conduct when, you know, normal people would be prosecuted for conspiracy. So I think it's a good thing that they're being held accountable. And finally, with that chief, I think that those charges stem from allegations that she was dishonest about her residency. And, you know, I've seen officers get fired for lying on overtime forms, but they should get fired for the smallest of lies,

because if they are tasked with holding us accountable for following the law, they don't get to step around the law at all. So anytime you allow them to do that, you're creating two different systems of justice, which we know are in play in this country. So I'm glad that they're being held accountable because it's necessary. And Michael, the Baton Rouge officers, that was a Louisiana grand jury that had died at them as well. So here you have state grand juries, not a federal grand jury, but state grand juries in Fort Worth and then in Baton Rouge. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, especially the Baton Rouge incident. One of the questions I had is, well, this incident took place in 2020. Why did it take four years for these officers to be prosecuted, number one?

But I'm all for this. Now, I am for responsible police officers. I've said that here on the show before. More African Americans need to apply to these police departments and get these jobs, African Americans with the right mindset. But officers who, if they are convicted, because they're innocent of proving guilty, but officers that would do something like this, oh, absolutely, they need to be prosecuted and put in prison, and we need to get those type of officers off of these police. And again, this is good.

And here's the deal, Derek. Three of these cops were black. So this ain't a black thing or white thing. This is a blue thing. Yes. Yeah, it is not a black thing. This is a blue thing. And when you think about it, Roland, if we may zoom the lens out,

because I appreciate you highlighting these particular cases. But over the last 15 years, 3,238 cases, criminal cases, were brought against police officers. But of that 3,238, only 98 percent of them did not go and see a conviction. That means only 2 percent of those of that 32, 38 were convicted. And so police accountability begins with ending qualified immunity. When a police officer violate their oath, when a police officer abuse their power and authority, when a police officer misuse of deadly force,

then the rule of law should be just like any other situation. They should be found guilty and go to jail as if anyone else who commits murder. Absolutely. Absolutely. Can I add something, Roland? Yeah, go ahead. Just very quickly, we've talked a lot tonight about the courts, but what I wanted

to add is that, you know, the courts operate from the standpoint of judicial review. So really a lot of emphasis, and we always talk about it, but really a lot of emphasis needs to be on our legislatures and on Congress. Because if the courts are making ridiculous decisions, Congress and the legislatures are the ones who are able to define the parameters of the law such that the courts don't have the opportunity to make a lot of those ridiculous decisions. And if you look historically, that's how our federal courts developed the influence that they have now. They started out as the weakest branch until they developed judicial review.

So I say that to say, when we have a Congress that won't pass laws, Congress is the one that is able to fix a lot of these gaps in the state legislatures. And if we don't impress that upon people when they go vote, then we're passing the buck and putting a lot of emphasis on the courts when there is an equal duty, a co-existent duty between the courts and the legislatures. Folks, let's go to Uvalde with a former school district police chief there, Uvalde, Texas, who oversaw the response to the 2022 deadly elementary school shooting that killed 21 people, including 19 children, was arrested for not stopping

the mass shooting quicker. Pete Anaconda was taken into custody and charged with 10 counts of abandoning, dangering a child. The Uvalde jail official confirmed that the former chief was being booked into the facility Thursday afternoon. His bail was set at $10,000.

Serious bond and $10,000 personal reconnaissance bond. He, of course, posted bail and was later released today. Look, I'm sorry, yesterday. This right here, Matt, I mean, this guy's actions was an abomination. I mean, literally, it was an entire mess. The state investigation of Texas Department of Public Safety was a joke. Republican leadership in Texas did not really want the truth out there. The report they released was nonsensical. And this guy talk about just standing around and doing nothing as kids are being slaughtered.

I mean, he needed to be charged absolutely but what's so ironic about this is this is a conversation we had one of the first times i was on this show was about exactly how you could prosecute these officers and this is what we discussed about how they would have to do it under the theory of abandoning abandoning or neglecting the child and i do think from a legal standpoint there may be some difficulty to the extent that police don't generally have a legal duty to intervene. However, I think in this situation, they were there. So standing on scene is much different than either not responding or responding too late or any of the other variables. And I'm glad that he's being held accountable. This is a tragedy that is not far from where I live. And it's just extraordinary that you have

this many police officers standing in the school and they couldn't stop a single gunman or didn't even try. So I'm glad that he got indicted, but I'm interested in seeing if there will be further indictments to follow because there were a lot of officers in that hallway, none of whom intervened to save those kids.

So they should all be held accountable. Derek? You know, I agree with Matt. But the only thing I would add to Matt's point is that the Supreme Court just overturned the banning of bump stocks. And so if we're going to start blaming who should be held accountable in trying to prevent or mitigate these kind of situations from happening in the future, Roland, now we got to point to the Supreme Court, because the Supreme Court just said it's OK to have this small device that can turn a semi-automatic into a fully automatic where you can take a clip of 60 bullets and exhaust them in a matter of seconds. Michael?

Yeah, you know, I think this is good that he's being charged. Looking at the case, it looked like just gross malfeasance. It looked like he was incompetent. And I remember when the whole debate was taking place and people were calling for the banning of assault rifles right after the assault at Uvalde took place. And you had Republicans there in Texas who were against that. They wanted—they were talking about arming—if I remember correctly, arming more—having more armed school guards and things of this nature, which is—no. So, yeah, this is good. We'll see how this plays out. But, you know, this was a tragedy once again, what happened to those children.

And it deals with the devastation that assault rifles do to people. And assault rifles were never meant to be on the street. Assault rifles were never meant for civilians to have them when you study the history. Well, that was certainly the case, but we know that folks really don't care about those things in this country. And we've seen that all far too often in terms of how this country has responded to the issue of guns. All right, we're going to go to a quick break. We'll be right back.

I'm Roland Martin on the Filtered on the Black Star Network. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. If you look at all the best men, the movies, and then, of course, Sears on Peacock, why do you think it resonated so well? Well, I think it's a reflection of us. I think it's a reflection of authentic black people, the way they see themselves. And in some instances, aspirationally so. and executive producer of The Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. You're watching Roland Martin on Tilted.

Before we go, folks, we remember a great character actor, Bill Cobbs, passed away this week at the age of 90 years old. We have seen him in any number of movies. He played, of course, in The Bodyguard, Night at the age of 90 years old. We have seen him in any number of movies. He played, of course, in The Bodyguard, Night at the Museum, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3. Appeared in more than 200 film and television shows. Also appeared on various TV shows such as The Sopranos, The West Wing, Sesame Street, and Good Times as well. Again, lots of time spent on the stage. He was 90 years old and so many folks have paid tribute to him for the for the for the work that he did on the stage. Wendell Pierce, the actor out of New Orleans, also paid tribute to Bill Cobbs,

as so many others did on their social media platforms. Bill Cobbs, again, an amazing actor. And this is what Wendell posted. He said, days after his 90th birthday, let me pull this up for y'all. This is the tweet that he posted. He said, days after his 90th birthday, Bill pull this up for y'all. Now this is the tweet that he posted. He said days after his 90th birthday, Bill Cobbs died today.

A father figure, a griot, an iconic artist that mentored me. By the way, he led his life as an actor. He played my father twice in I'll Fly Away and the Gregory Hines show, each time imparting wisdom with a word of encouragement. Bill Collins was born and raised in Cleveland.

He shared so many stories about the city he loved. It's serendipity that I'm here in Cleveland as I learned of his passing. He comes from a great legacy of the black theater. Caramu House here is a historic landmark. From one iconic theater to another, Bill Cos went to New York

and worked at the Negro Ensemble Theater. His passing reminds me of the talent pool that populated the black theater at that time. They were that Moses generation that is leaving us now passing on a great responsibility. We owe a great debt to Bill Cobbs, along with Mary Alice, Sam Art Williams, Ron Milner, Lou Gossett Jr., and others we have lost recently. To honor Bill and his memory, I will dedicate myself to creating work he will be proud of. Rest in peace, Bill Cobbs. God bless.

And of course, he posted the photo there, him along with Gregory Hines. And so we certainly give our condolences to the family of Bill Cobbs, 90 years old. He passed away this week. Big thanks to our panel today, Derek, Michael, as well as Matt. We appreciate you all being on today's show. Folks tomorrow we are going to be broadcasting live from the poor people's campaign their mass rally here in the

nation's capital our coverage will be beginning in the morning around 9 AM. It's supposed to start at 10 o'clock and so we will look forward. So be sure to check us out on the Black Star Network. So, of course, right there you can text MORAL to 38542. We'll be covering it in its entirety. Real quick, Michael, you had an announcement.

Real quick, go. Yeah, join me Sunday, June 30th, 2024, for my new 10-week online course, Black Resistance Movements from the Haitian Revolution, U.S. Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement, 1800 to 1968. Most importantly, we look at how we fought back against white supremacy and racism, the various ways we did that. Visit my website, AfricanHistoryNetwork.com, AfricanHistoryNetwork.com. Register today.

Watch the class live or on demand. We'll see you in class. Thanks, Olu. All right. Thanks a bunch. And again, folks, we'll see you all tomorrow from the Poor People's Mass Assembly here in the nation's capital. That's it, folks. Don't forget, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Fuck fan club. You can see your check and money order at the P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196.

Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo's RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Also, download the Black Star Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, and be sure to get a copy of my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America

is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, available at bookstores nationwide. And several of you have asked about my shirt. Let me go ahead and stand up. Y'all zoom the camera out. Actually, I forgot. So someone actually sent me two of these, one in black and white in this one. So yes, this one said vote like

your ancestors died for it. And so you know a lot of people sent me a lot of different voting shirts. And so this is one of my favorites. And so some of y'all were posting there on social. They were like, hey, what does your shirt say? So here you go. So don't forget, vote like your ancestors died for it.

I'll see y'all tomorrow from the Poor People's Mass Assembly. Holla! Thank you. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastain. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad listen to absolute season one taser incorporated on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

i'm clayton english i'm greg lot and this is season two of the war on drugs by sure last year a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.