#RolandMartinUnfiltered - #RMU 6-year anniversary, VP Harris small biz tax plan, Ga. high school shooting,HBCU enrollment boom

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

9.4.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: #RMU 6-year anniversary, VP Harris small biz tax plan, Ga. high school shooting,HBCU enrollment boom Do you know what day it is? It's our anniversary, and here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. We will show you highlights from our first show and talk to one of our first guests, who joined us on September 4, 2018.  Vice President Kamala Harris laid out her new small business tax deductions plan.   Two students and two teachers were killed in a shooting at a Georgia High School.  You'll hear what Vice President Harris had to say about gun control.  An 11-year-old Louisiana kid is facing two counts of first-degree murder for killing two family members.  The Supreme Court's gutting of affirmative action boosts HBCU enrollment.  We'll talk to Johnson C. Smith University's president about their record enrollment.  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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend.

At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the 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. We'll be right back. Oh, Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? We'll be right back. Folks, today is Wednesday, September 4th, 2024.

Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. It is the sixth anniversary of Roland Martin Unfiltered, the third anniversary of the Black Star Network. And man, we've got some highlights from our first show and even talked to one of our first guests who joined us on that day. Vice President Kamala Harris laid out her new small business tax deduction plan at a rally today in New Hampshire. We'll tell you about it. Also, she commented on two students and two teachers shot and killed in a shooting in a Georgia high school.

We'll show you that as well. 11-year-old Louisiana kid is facing two counts of first-degree murder for killing two of his family members. Supreme Court's gutting affirmative action, some say has boosted HBCU enrollment, will talk to the new president at Johnson C. Smith University.

Also, we got some new political videos for you, including this one video, y'all, where they just nailed Donald Trump for all of his anti-black rhetoric. And the Department of Justice indicts two Russia Today employees and say they were funding a company where a number of large conservative YouTube commentators had shows. Oh, ain't that something? Oh, wait till we tell you about that indictment. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter on the Black Star Network.

Let's go. He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland, best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, yo

It's Roland Martin, yeah Rolling with Roland now He's funky, he's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Martin! Martin! Folks, six years ago, we launched Roland Martin Unfiltered literally across the street from where we are right now. A lot of folks were like, oh, man, this ain't going to work. Black news is not going to work. We don't know who's really going to watch. Well, guess what?

That wasn't true. A lot has changed. Three years after that, we launched the Black Star Network. This is our first episode. We had on the first panel Dr. Greg Carr, Liz Copeland. We had Spencer Overton. They were on our initial panel. I know it kills A. Scott Bolden.

He was on the second episode. He wasn't on the first, so that really messes with his little ego. He's on today's show. But it was, of course, fantastic. And listen, y'all, we didn't have much. Look, our studio, we were in basically an open area there. I was on the board of 50 Can, an education group, and they were going to sublet, and I was like,

hey, how about if we do this? And so we were able to get that space, three offices to do the show, and then of course we grew February 2021. We actually signed the lease to where we are right now. And so a lot more space, we could do a lot more things. We've grown in a huge way. And again, a lot of people were like, yeah,

this ain't going to work. And in fact, a lot of people don't realize, you know, when TV One canceled my show News One Now, I still had eight months of my contract and TV One offered me a new three-year deal. And my agent, my frat brother, Mark Watts, he was like, look, this is easy, $330,000 a year. I said, no, because I knew that if they didn't have any programming, I knew what I wanted to do. And so I was committed to doing this. And so we did. We had one sponsor, AFSCME, the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees, Lee Saunders, my alpha brother, the president. They committed to that first year. Then they committed to a second year. That's how we were able to get this thing going. And here we are now. Now we have multiple shows on the Black Star Network. We had 157,000 subscribers when we launched. We now are close to 1.4 million.

We have, I forgot, actually I think we're over 30,000 donors. The first check that we got was from a 92-year-old black woman in Long Island, New York, who sent us $500. And we've had so many supporters backing us since. And so it has been a hell of a ride. Lots has changed. And so we appreciate everybody who's helped us out. And so all throughout the show, we're going to have a look back on some of the stories that we actually covered and things that we focused on. And again, our mission has been the same, which of course is, of course, the lead. What's in the third paragraph of the nation's

first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, which they wrote on March 16th, 1827, we wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. And then we have been upholding that mission that has been our focus, and we will continue to do that as well. And so we'll be, of course, having different conversations, going back and forth, looking back at that first show. And in the next hour, we'll actually be talking

with the attorney of Crystal Mason, the black woman who they are still trying to put in jail in Texas for voting illegally. Do y'all realize she and her attorney were on our first show? So six years later, they are still dealing with this issue. So we're going to talk to her in the next hour. First, folks, Vice President Kamala Harris was in New Hampshire today and introduced

her expansion of tax incentives for small businesses. She presented a pro-entrepreneur plan in New Hampshire that may soften her previous calls for wealthy Americans and large corporations to pay higher taxes. This took place at the Throwback Brewery in Northampton, a women-owned business. The owner's got support to open its current location through a small business credit loan and install solar panels using federal programs championed by the Biden administration. Here's some of what the VP said today in New Hampshire. One of my highest priorities will be to strengthen America's small businesses.

And here I am in New Hampshire to announce a few elements of my plan to do that. So first, we're going to help more small businesses and innovators get off the ground. Okay. Now I'm setting what some I'm sure are going to call a very ambitious goal, but you know what? I think we should admire ambition in each other. So I want to see 25 million new small business applications by the end of my first term. And to help achieve this, we will lower the cost of starting a new business. So here's the thing. On average, it costs about $40,000 to start a new business in America.

That is a great financial barrier for a lot of folks and it can hold entrepreneurs back and the current tax deduction for a startup is just $5,000 okay so then you got to make up the Delta there got to figure out how you're gonna do that not everyone has access to that kind of wealth and capital so part of my plan is we will expand the tax deduction for startups to $50,000. It's essentially a tax cut for starting a small business. Second, my plan will help existing small businesses grow. We will provide low and no interest loans

to small businesses that want to expand. And we will, and this is very important, cut the red tape that can make starting and growing a small business more difficult than it needs to be, more difficult than it needs to be. For example, we will make it cheaper and easier for small businesses to file their taxes, similar to how individuals can take a standard deduction. You know, I said to my team, kind of like, now I'm going to date myself again because they no longer do it, but kind of like, you remember the 1040EZ? Like, that kind of like, now I'm going to date myself again because they no longer do it, but kind of like, you remember the 1040EZ?

Like, that kind of idea, right? Like, let's just take away some of the bureaucracy in the process to make it easier for people to actually do something that's going to benefit our entire economy. Third, my plan will invest in small businesses and innovators throughout America. And here's why. We know that talent exists everywhere in our country, from rural towns to city centers. But not everyone has access to the financing to venture capital or expert advice. It's not that they don't have the skills. It's not that they don't have the work ethic. It's access to these resources. So under my plan, we will expand access to venture capital. We will support innovation

hubs and business incubators. And we will increase federal contracts with small businesses. And we will have a particular focus on small businesses in rural communities, like right here in New Hampshire. Finally, my plan will make our tax code more fair while also prioritizing investment and innovation. So let us be clear. Billionaires and big corporations must pay their fair share in taxes. tax. Because here's the thing, here's the thing, it's just not right that those who can most afford it are often paying a lower tax rate than our teachers and our nurses and our firefighters. It's just not right. It's just not right. It's just not right. So that's why I support a billionaire minimum tax and corporations paying their fair share, we will tax capital gains at a rate that rewards investment in America's

innovators, founders, and small businesses. So here's the detail. If you earn a million dollars a year or more, the tax rate on your long-term capital gains will be 28 percent under my plan because we know when the government encourages investment it leads to broad-based economic growth and it creates jobs which makes our economy stronger all right folks let's talk about this with our panel rebecca carell is vice president fair elections center scott bolden of course a lawyer here in D.C., and, of course, has worked with PAX with National Bar Association as well as the D.C. Chamber of Commerce.

I'm going to have both of y'all here. So here's the thing here, Scott, that I think is important. Look, you've got your rich folks who are really upset with the proposals when it comes to capital gains, unrealized gains. You've got the Goldman Sachs report out today saying that the economic ideas of Vice President Kamala Harris will actually strengthen the economy and those of Donald Trump will not. That's pretty damn good news for the vice president.

Yeah, absolutely. And for the Republican narrative and even some of the media narrative in regard to her not having a plan or not sharing her vision for economic recovery, she does two things really well. She says, listen, first, unlike Biden, first, I know prices are still too high. I know it's still too expensive to do business. But then secondly, unlike Biden, first, I know prices are still too high. I know it's still too expensive to do business. But then secondly, she says, but these are all the statistics that you know we're doing. Eventually, it's going to touch you. So I like this small business proposal.

I like the capital gains tax piece, because why would you overtax if you've invested and made a million dollars or more from your investment? You want to encourage that investment. So as a former president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, that makes all the sense in the world, especially to small businesses. Listen, my clients who are large corporations, I've talked to several CEOs who happen to be clients of the firm. And I got to tell you, one thing they say is they don't really like Trump because of his personality and all the challenges that come with race and gender with him. But they say, listen, this just means we're going to go make more money. And I don't know one CEO or chairman of the board or entrepreneur that doesn't want to make more money. So I think this is... A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.

But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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

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

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

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

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

season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. What an issue for her. Well, the thing here, Rebecca,

I mean, folks who are at the top of the economic food chain, of course they want to make more money, but then you also look at the policies and how they impact everybody else below that. You know, I think it's important to point out, especially for all those who are crying out for tangibles with what would a President Harris administration looks like. You know what, this sounds like a tangible to me because we know that the largest growing demographic

of small business owners and entrepreneurs are Black folks, and specifically Black women. So this sounds like a policy that's targeted to make sure it's helping Black communities by making sure that those would-be small business owners have the opportunity to remove some of the financial barriers and some of the startup costs and sunk costs in starting a business. And then also for those who are currently small business owners, and just taking a step back, I believe the definition of a small business is a business that employs, I think it's 10 or less employees, Roland, or is it 50 or less?

I think it's 10 or less. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, it's even worse. A small business in the United States is considered 500 or less. Thank you. It's 500. Yes, 500. That and a small business, but go ahead. Yeah, so with the definition of small business being a business that employs 500 employees or less, even for those existing businesses, it provides some additional relief for them as well. And we

know the majority of Americans are employed by small businesses in this country. So not only does this help the business owners, it also strengthens those who seek employment from small businesses. And I was in Houston the other day, Scott, Friday after we went to see the body of my sister at the funeral home, and I took my parents out to the Breakfast Club in Houston, and I was talking with Marcus Davis, who's the owner, and we were talking about, and he said, listen, as a business owner, when the corporate tax rate was lower from 35 to 20 percent, he was like, yo, that was huge for me. And Vice President Kamala Harris is talking about raising it from 20 to 28 percent. And I said, well, this is one of those things that where we I said this is where it should be a threshold.

It should be. So there should be a revenue threshold that if your business generates, I don't know, $100 million or less, then $50 million or less, whatever number you want to give, then you pay a lower corporate tax rate. To me, I think that's fair. I don't think that I should be paying the same corporate tax rate as Apple or as Boeing or as another major company. And they know that reality. And they know that reality. They certainly know that reality.

These companies, but they want to pay as little as possible because they have an obligation to the shareholders. Okay, that may make sense in the business world, but it's just fundamental inequity. And I really think that her small business proposal, you know, Biden-Yerrick's team has created more small businesses in the last four years than probably any other administration. They've provided investment capital to it. And so this is just building on a great program already. Now, a lot of those businesses were started due to COVID, but it doesn't really matter. Collectively, small businesses hire more people

than large companies. And so she's hitting all the right numbers. I'd say something else, too. White women are going to benefit from this small business piece because they always do benefit from it because they have more access to capital. And this is just going to create a groundswell of business and economic support for her from white women, white suburban women, entrepreneurs, and those who even work out of their homes. So I was sitting next to some white conservatives yesterday on a panel, and they hated everything about the small business. I looked at them. I said, my goodness gracious, you're a small business owner. You're a woman-owned business. You have a consultant firm. This makes all the sense in the world for you, whether you

go through the SBA or not. And she didn't think the regs could be cut. I said, well, she's proposing the regs being cut. And so while the Republicans want to make it a political issue, the reality is this is just good for Americans, not only employees, but for small businesses. It just is. Rebecca, I made the point. Goldman Sachs says the U.S. economy will get a bigger boost in the next two years if Democrats, headed by Vice President Kamala Harris, wins the White House and Congress. This is a perfect example of how perception is completely skewed. You have people in this country who literally believe that the economy is better when Republicans are in control, which is laughable, because, as Bill Clinton said at the convention, what did he say? He said,

it's 50 to 1. Since the end of the Cold War, 51 million jobs have been created in the United States. 50 million were created under Democratic presidents, one under Republican presidents. The last three Republican presidents handed, or it was the last four, whatever number, handed the Democratic president a recession. I mean, so if I'm Democrats, they need to be figuring out, hell, I need to hire a communications firm to teach me how to communicate the fact that we're better than the Republicans when it comes to the economy. So here's the thing. It doesn't even have to be a partisan issue, because really what you're saying, Roland, is there's two competing sets of values. One competing set of values produces over 50 million jobs created. Another competing value only produces one million net jobs created. And so when you're looking at competing values and the competing value here is, are you providing tax benefits? Are you providing economic opportunities and economic agenda

that's serving less than a thousand people in this country? Or are you creating economic policy agenda that positively impacts over a hundred million people in this country? And when you look at it that way as two competing value systems, then it makes sense in this country. And when you look at it that way, as two competing value systems, then it makes sense in a country that's not just driven by a thousand people, but it's driven by hundreds of millions of people to churn and make this economy grow and to make this economy move, that it makes sense when you look at those two competing values, that one value has a greater impact on the country than the other value. I think it's unfortunate sometimes when we get into the Republican versus Democrat debate,

people once again are just listening to, like you said, some of the PR and the marketing, where Republicans have done a very effective job of making people think that they are absolutely better in experts and financial experts when it comes to long-term economic planning and strategy for this country, when historically that's not what we've seen since post-World War II. But, Scott, Rebecca just said there, she said she made the point about values, but the reality is that is political. When you talk about the values, that is political.

It's political but not necessarily partisan. No, no, no. I get that. But what I'm saying is you do have to make that particular point because you've got to make the point because you've got to say bottom line is. And, again, see, again, this is the hype. Republicans try to suggest that they're for the working class. And they literally have convinced people. You look at the polling data, they're for the working class.

But they vote against the working class. They vote against unions. They vote against unions. They vote against healthcare. They vote against food for people. They actually vote against it. And so the reality is they support big business. Their whole idea to any problem is tax cuts. I mean, we literally saw Donald Trump push forward, Scott, massive tax cuts.

And he was like, oh, the companies, the CEOs tell me they're going to use the savings for the employees. And the CEOs were like, no, we're not. No, we're not. The CEO literally said, we're going to do stock buybacks. That's what they said. And so what you're dealing with is you're dealing with one party that has successfully marketed themselves as being great for the economy. And when they say great for the economy, that means making rich people richer, as opposed to helping regular ordinary people,

which is Democrats, and that actually helps them. I got some dude sitting here emailing me talking about, oh how great Trump was for the economy and in the hood, we had money in our pockets and man, people were hustling, he in LA, things were great. And I was like, no. If I recall, we was in recession from 2009 to 2011, and that was the Obama-Biden economy, which they handed Donald Trump. And then he was talking about, well, opportunity zones.

And I was kind of like, no, you didn't benefit from opportunity zones. You can't even find a single report that actually shows that. And then I talked about, I said, all the stimulus money that went in folks' pockets. I mean, so he was giving all this credit to Trump. And I'm like, that's a lie. And again, they have successfully marketed themselves as being brilliant minds when it comes to the economy. And they've always tanked it. Yeah, but don't you give it.

You being too kind to them about their marketing skills, then just call it disinformation. Because in the last 40 years, that statistic you said, where it's been 50 to 1, and we've given, the Republicans have given us a recession economy. Well, guess what? In the last 40 years, the Democrats have done something else. We gave them a stronger economy than they gave us. It makes absolutely no sense. Oh, and by the way, add this to that statistic. Then the Republicans, with their disinformation, they criticize the Democrats, but not fixing

their shit. That's all you can say. And then they run on it. I mean, they're incredible disinformation squads. They just really are. I'll tell you another piece of disinformation, right, because you should repeat that statistic, Roland, throughout the show. But, you know, another piece is they're against entitlements. Who are the top ten states that I read that get the most entitlements from the federal government?

You can name them with me. Go right ahead. Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, West Virginia. You can stay in West Virginia. You can stay South. South Carolina.

South Carolina, North Carolina. We're almost at 10. And statistically it makes no sense. So not only is there disinformation to America and to the media, but their disinformation is to their own voters, right? They don't vote their interests. And yet these cats who revoke Republican men and women are just diehard Republicans. And I think it's rooted in race and gender when it's all said and done, the whole white fear thing and what have you, because they're the majority white party and the Democrats are a rainbow coalition.

I mean, you just can't get around that. So we've got to figure out a way to go against that disinformation as a Democratic Party, and then make sure that the Republican following, whose policies are not popular with the masses, whether it's abortion or being reasonable gun control, how to attack that disinformation and spend it in our favor, and we be bigger, better, and brighter marketers of our own information and our own statistics that's better for this country. Well, Rebecca, this is why

I think what's going to happen next week, September 10th, in a debate. Trust me, you're going to have Donald Trump sit there and say, oh, I left you guys a blazing economy, and that's when VP Harris goes, really? 16.9 million percent,

16.9 percent unemployment. Oh, the reason gas was so low so low don trump because nobody was driving because of covid then he's gonna say drill baby drill that's what she can say really that's interesting because under biden harris we've never produced this amount of domestic oil and we're now the leading uh in the world see See, to me, again, when he comes with the lie, I come back with boom. That's when she goes, to me, that's when she goes, hey, Donald, tell me how your infrastructure

plan went. Because you had four years of infrastructure week. Last I checked, Joe and I passed a $600 billion infrastructure bill, building products all across the country, the largest amount of infrastructure spending since Eisenhower was president. Did you do that? No, you didn't.

We did. So to me, that's how you have to expose his lies. And I think what she also has to say, and let me also remind you, the states where you went to and promised manufacturing jobs, you didn't bring it back. We did. Most manufacturing in the United States in 30 years. To me, that's sliced his ass on every single one of those economic points. Because he don't have facts.

Even looking at this through a diversity lens, I think what we're going to see is Trump as a mediocre white man who fails up, unfortunately does not fail down and go away. I think he's also going to try to take credit for some of the policy agenda that Kamala Harris is rolling out. to hit the stump. Last week, we started to see Trump going on various social media platforms and accusing Kamala Harris of stealing his plans, when we know that not to be true. But Trump is very typical of a mediocre white man in the workplace who is taking credit for others' works, especially minorities in that same workplace. So I think what we're going to see next week is a lot of cribbing, a lot of me too, what I did at first.

And, you know, hopefully we'll see the vice president punching back, but also in a way where the American public understands what's going on and they're moving past and not listening to the media, especially the media that's criticizing Kamala Harris for allegedly not having plans. Hopefully the voters will hear from her directly and tune in and understand, hey, she's the one with a plan. She's someone who has a track record versus this other person really doesn't have a plan other than to continue grifting and to make those around him rich. Again, to me, that has to be the posture next week, Scott. That is, every time he lies about the economy, come back and say, that's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. She can be a puncher, but she's got to be an even better counterpuncher when he starts his hyperbole. Because he doesn't come with facts.

And when he starts bullying and when he starts spewing these lies, her mental file cabinet, when you're preparing not only for your presentation, but your voice inflection and how you punch and counterpunch, it's like a mental file that just, right? Pull that fact up and fire away at him. The other thing is when he attacks her, if he's stupid enough to attack her on race and gender or he's racially or sexually offensive in some way, she needs, you know, I struggle with whether she lets that go and stays above the fray or whether she responds by attacking him on his sexual abuse, finding him liable for sexual abuse and tax fraud or other financial fraud, as well as the criminal convictions. Is she peppering with that in response to if he gets racially or sexually offensive. But I think the facts and counterpunch is just going to be awesome.

And she's got to stay focused and disciplined, right? I mean, you're in these debates, whether you're in court arguing or you're in an arbitration mediation or any debate, right, you've got to be disciplined, right? And you've got to take your time when you're cutting up the other side, whether it's cross-examination or otherwise. She's got the skill set to do that. She's got the experience to do that. And I got to tell you, I think this debate, when she tears him a new one, is going to be worth an additional one to three, one to two to four points. I really do.

People are waiting for this. She's going to set the record straight with him. And I'll be honest with you. I think they talk about how close it is. I don't think it gets closer. I think they start to separate themselves with her in the lead. I really do. She does what she's supposed to do in this debate.

Well, hold tight one second. Gun control is certainly going to be back in the news after today's mass shooting in Georgia. We'll talk about that next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network, our sixth anniversary show, folks. Support the work that we do. Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.

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So please assist us as best as you can. We'll be right back. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're going to be talking about common sense. We think that people have it, know how to use it, but it is something that people often have to learn. The truth is most of us are not born with it and we need to teach common sense, embrace it, and give it to those who need it most, our kids. So I always tell teachers to listen out to what conversations the students are having about what they're getting from social media and then let's get ahead of it and have the

appropriate conversations with them. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. Me, Sherri Sheppard with Tammy Roman. I'm Dr. Robin B, pharmacist and fitness coach. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. This court, not another court, this court that we have, the current Supreme Court, said surgical racism. Now, when people who tend to be racist in their decision have to call out the racist, that's pretty racist. And they said it was. True. No question.

No question. They said it was surgical racism. And what we have done, it wasn't just photo ID. They went after early voting. They went after same-day registration. We were able to prove that 50% of women didn't have, not just black women, didn't have the kind of photo ID they wanted. That it was impacting

older people. One lady was over 95 years old, and it would have stopped her from voting, and she'd been voting for 60, 70 years. But all of this is because, Roland, at the end of the day, the greatest opportunity is in the South. Southern states are really not red states or blue states. They are non-voting states. If you build black people and progressive whites and brown people in the southern states, you can turn about five southern states right now. North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, and even Texas. If that happens, the whole political concepts have been torn apart.

The solid South is down. The wall has been broken. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

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

at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care

for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Folks, today's deadly shooting in a North Georgia high school

brought this year's total of mass shootings to 285. Four people, two students and two teachers, were killed at Apache High School in Winder, Georgia, northeast of Atlanta. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the suspected shooter is in custody. Vice President Kamala Harris called today's shooting senseless and said it doesn't have to be this way. Before I begin, I do want to say a few words about this tragic shooting that took place this morning in Winder, Georgia.

We're still gathering information about what happened. But we know that there were multiple fatalities and injuries. And, you know, our hearts are with all the students, the teachers and their families, of course. And we are grateful to the first responders and the law enforcement that were on the scene. But this is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies. And it's just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. It's senseless.

It is. We've got to stop it. And we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know, it doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way. So we will continue, of course, to send our prayers and our thoughts to the families and all those who were affected including you know i i'm going off script right now but listen i mean you know at the last year i um i started a college tour and um i i traveled our country

meeting with our young leaders, right? And so it was college-aged young leaders. So I did trade schools, colleges, universities, community colleges. By the way, I love Gen Z. I just love Gen Z. But I'll tell you, one of the things I asked every time I went to the auditorium, and it would be filled with these young leader students, and I'd ask them, raise your hand if at any point between kindergarten and 12th grade you had to endure an active shooter drill. And for the young leaders who are here who are raising their hand,

I'm telling you, every time the auditorium was packed and almost every hand went up. You know, a lot of us, I'll speak about myself. You know, we had, well, I grew up in California, earthquake drills. We had fire drills. But our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big, beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of the classroom. It does not have to be this way. It does not have to be this way.

And, you know, this is one of the many issues that's at stake in this election. Folks, to understand this area, the represented by Georgia Congressman Mike Collins. He posted this on Twitter. Leanne and I are praying for the victims, their families and all students at Appalachia High School in Barrow County.

We extend our gratitude to law enforcement for their swift action to secure the school and get the shooter in custody. I've spoken with Sheriff Smith and told him my team and I are available to assist in any way necessary. We will continue to monitor and provide updates as prudent. This is the same Mike Collins who released this ad in 2022. Hey, Mike Collins here, your pro-Trump America first trucker running for Congress here in Georgia 10.

Well, I understand Joe Biden was in town yesterday to talk about our elections. It seems that he and Kamala Harris called anyone who disagreed with the federal hijacking of this election a racist. Well, Joe, I got some news for you. Let me tell you what Georgians really believe. First of all, you count the legal votes that were cast in the state of Georgia. Donald Trump won this state, period.

Number two, get rid of those voting machines. Go back to pay for ballots once and for all. Number three, get rid of those ridiculous drop boxes across this state that the Democrats use to stuff the ballots and steal our elections. Number four, let's go to national forensic audits in every election cycle across this country. As a matter of fact, it's one of the first bills

I'll introduce when I get to Washington. You see, Georgians are sick and tired of weak-kneed, spineless politicians who won't fight for Trump, get to the bottom of 2020, and fix our elections. Well, if they won't do it, Mike Collins will. Send me to Washington. I'll fix this election. I'll get to the bottom of 2020, and I will fight for Trump's America First agenda. And we wonder why folks shoot up schools, Rebecca. You know, when I saw this story, you know, I Googled to figure out exactly where was this winder, winder Georgia is.

And I saw that it's about 50 miles from downtown Atlanta, you know, just to get a sense of geographically where in Georgia this took place. And even listening to how Vice President Harris was talking about the experience of Gen Z and their experience of having to do these mass shooter drills. I think we talked about this during the broadcast in Chicago, that one of the things that is a hallmark of the millennial experience, especially people like me, I know, no, y'all say I'm not a millennial, but I'm an older millennial, is that I remember still being, you know, K through 12 when school shootings went from those, oh, East Coast or West Coast gang shootings to now Paducah, Jonesboro, Littleton, Colorado. When those things start to happen, that was really a big demarcation between what is a millennial versus a Gen Xer.

And so now understanding all of the trauma that Gen Z and then even now Gen Alpha is going through because of this country's inability of dealing with this crazed behavior and this gun culture. And, you know, I support people's right to have firearms, but I also know that we still have to put limits around 2A because having folks, and especially these young people who have access to these war machines, these killing machines, to turn around and do these mass shootings. And it used to be like once a year, twice a year.

But now for this not to just be monthly, but for it to be weekly. And as it's going towards like a daily happening, at some point this country has to say enough is enough. And even, you know, I know people have argued and said that, you know, 2A is what protects people from the tyranny of the government. But what we're seeing is that 2A now is making people afraid to be able to live their life, to be able to go to school, to go to work, to church. And, you know, finally, enough is enough. And I do think this is now going to become such a critical voting issue. And I think we're going to start to see in different segments of the country where this even transcends partisanship.

Because when people's close loved ones are getting killed and there isn't an adequate response from our government, that's going to trump red versus blue. And so at some point, we thought Sandy Hook was going to be the tipping point. It was not. But at some point, I think we're going to start to see local officials elected and they're going to start to be able to run in this particular issue. Like when we see what's happening in Tennessee, you know, if Tennessee's veto proof supermajority gets busted, it's probably going to be around the gun issue, because that's the issue that's really moving some of these voters who are independents, nonpartisans, or in the middle, because the idea of being shot and killed indiscriminately, it now can happen to anyone. It's not just an inner city problem. It's not just a poverty problem. It's not just a, quote unquote, black problem or Hispanic problem, but it is an American problem.

Well, Scott, it's going to take these white women to step up like we saw this in Tennessee to change this. Otherwise, you're going to have these shootings in Georgia, in Tennessee, in Texas, and they're going to keep voting for Republicans who do nothing about the problem. We got to, we all know the problem. We got to get it fixed. And I want to talk about, and I want elected officials to start talking about solutions. There are 387 mass shootings in America so far.

That's not weekly. That's daily. That's more than one a day, slightly more than one a day. The leading cause for the death of kids and children in this country is now gun violence. And still the NRA exists. And still Republicans don't want reasonable gun control. We forfeited the lives of those children because of our love of the NRA and our love for the Second Amendment, that it is worth killing our most innocent population to keep hold of our guns and to

keep hold of the NRA. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. I'm tired of being tired of these shootings and stuff. We hardly report on them. We haven't even reported on 387 shootings. So, you know, there's blood on all of our hands. We need to do something about it. If you—with this crisis, wouldn't you want to do something, anything that you know would stem the tide of gun violence? Even if it was directly or indirectly. You do it, right?

I own 10 guns. Robber who's not on probably owns 20 or 30. Who knows, right? And yet we're both responsible gun owners. And yet in STEM, white America primarily, white America, says it's okay, essentially. I'm sorry. Just looking at evidence and empirical data, it's okay to kill our young people, to take our guns,

because we love guns and Second Amendment and NRA. Got to stop, man. And it's not going to stop. You're going to report on this next week, next week, and next week, and you're going to report on police brutality, too, because we have a culture of violence, and we don't care.

Indeed. Well, we care. But the question is, the question is, will these white conservative folks actually care? All right. Going to go to a quick break. We're going to come back. The Supreme Court, of course, they knocked out affirmative action in college admissions. A couple of things. Wait till I tell y'all what happened to Asian enrollment at Yale. Remember there were Asians who led that lawsuit? They effed around and found out. And we'll talk about the impact of that decision on enrollment at HBCUs

with the president of Johnson C. Smith University. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. And for the folks who are giving on Cash App, there's an issue. For some reason, it keeps not going through. We're trying to sort that out. So if you want to support the show, please support the other means. That is, you can put it up, please, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle. So we're trying to figure out we're in contact with cash app right now to figure out what is going on with cash app on this uh why they're not processing our donations a number of you have tried to give looks like upwards of three thousand dollars and for some reason it's not going through so you can support us on paypal by going to paypal.me forward slash Roland R. Martin Unfiltered.

Paypal.me forward slash R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is venmo.com forward slash R.M. Unfiltered. Zale, Roland at Roland S. Martin.com. Roland at Roland Martin Unfiltered.com. We'll be right back. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, I'm sure you've seen all those commercials about reverse mortgage and how easy it is to get more money in your pocket. Well, this woman that you're going to hear from knew it was too good to be true. And because of it, she now has seven figures in net worth.

You know, wait a minute. This house is really valuable. And further, you can get money out of it to help you. And more importantly, you can keep your home. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. I am Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Right now, I'm rolling with Roland Martin.

Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. You hear me? Coming up next on the inaugural edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered, drama on Capitol Hill as Senate Democrats and Republicans clash on the first day of Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Kristen Clark, the Lawrence Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who was in the hearing room, will join us live. A black woman who has mistakenly voted in Texas is headed to prison. Yes, prison. She and her attorney are going to join us live as well. He has picked up the mantle of Dr. King's Poor People's Campaign. The Reverend Dr. William Barber will join us live to discuss that and why it's time to end voter apathy,

especially among black folks headed into the midterm election. We'll also recap the homegoing celebration of Aretha Franklin and discuss why her family is blasting the eulogy delivered by Atlanta pastor Jasper Williams Jr. Plus, Colin Kaepernick and Nike, they've got conservatives in an uproar over making him the face of Nike's 30th anniversary of their Just Do It campaign. And of course,

Black Twitter will be on fire tonight for the first night of BET's miniseries on Bobby Brown. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered. Let's go. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a

multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Sh Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now

isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. All right, folks, it's the attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion at college and universities across the country led to the Supreme Court ruling race could not be used in college admissions. You have seen enrollments surge in HBCUs, but they were actually surging in HBCUs even before that Supreme Court decision. What's going on? President of Johnson C. Smith University, Dr. Valerie

Kinloch joins us right now. Glad to have you here. First of all, Doc, so you say that that Supreme Court decision is the reason for Johnson C. Smith's record high enrollment? I mean, there are many reasons. And first of all, thank you for having me. But there are many reasons for a record enrollment. We are here at Johnson C. Smith University, founded in 1867. And in part, it is because of the Supreme Court decision that says we're not going to continue to support affirmative action. And we have lots of people who actually should be in universities, particularly Black people in this country, who now feel as if they cannot attend because they might not get accepted. But let me be clear. Historically, Black colleges and universities in this country

have always prepared Black and brown folks for excellence and success in the world. And a Supreme Court decision is not going to stop us from doing that, but it does help us when we talk about our enrollment. It does help us when we try to elevate our academic enterprise and we prepare students for success. And that's what we're seeing here at JCSU. What is your enrollment this year? So currently we are at 1300 plus students who are registered and cleared

and who are here taking classes, whether they are first-time students, transfer students, returning students, adult students. And so last year we were sitting at 1,100, and so we're seeing about 1,300, 1,314 currently as of today. What is your capacity? Hey, my capacity is what we need it to be. I want to get 1,300 students.

Well, first of all, when I say capacity, the reason I say that is because what we've seen, Tennessee State, Florida A&M, Morehouse, Spelman, Texas Southern University, that because of the increase in applications and enrollment, you got to have facilities. And so a lot of these folks have had to rent hotel rooms and things along those lines. And so when I say capacity, like, for instance, Fisk University, they had a capacity number. Their numbers dropped big time, but they're like, hey, this is what our capacity is and how we can go beyond this. So from a facility standpoint, from a dorm standpoint, what is your capacity for students on campus? And then what is your goal to be able to get to that and actually expand it beyond that? That is a great question. So currently we are at capacity at 1314. We are at capacity. The goal, however, is to revitalize our

residence halls. We have a large residence hall that unfortunately is offline that has the capacity to hold at least 235 more students. And so my goal is to work at ensuring that we open that residence hall, we renovate it, and we provide space for our students to be here. Now, where do I want to go? I want us to get to 1600 or more. Historically, we've hoovered around 1400, 1410. But I believe that if we have our residence halls where they should be, we would be able to have more students coming in to our university. And so and again, so I ask that because I've talked to so many other presidents and, you know, good problems lead to bad problems. And so, and also we talk about growth. I remember having this conversation with Dr. Van Newkirk when he was at Fisk. He's now in Wilberforce. He also was trying to explain

to the board of trustees there, folks kept talking about, you know, new dorms, new dorms. He was like, yo, slow down. We can also expand university enrollment by folks who want to go online, who want to be a part of Fisk University, but who may not be able to afford to come in Nashville. They can still go online. So when you look at your projections, what does that look like? Do you have students right now who attend Johnson C. Smith online? And if so, how many? We have a few. We are not offering a real online experience at the moment. What COVID did to so many HBCUs and so many universities, if not all of them, was to force us to pivot

by using Zoom. Zoom is not, Zoom is what it is. But when we talk about online education, we are trying to create a platform by which we can deliver better online educational experiences. We have some of our classes that are doing very well online. But the reality is exactly what you just said. When we talk about capacity, we have to be able to have hard conversations with our board of trustees, with our faculty and our staff about if we are going to increase enrollment, we do that by having housing available for students to live on campus. We are a residential campus, and we need to have adequate housing for our students. At the same time, we need to think differently about the population of students coming into the university. We don't just have 18-year- olds. We have adult learners. We have students

who are returning to the university campus. And we also need to have an online population of students. And we can get that done here, but we need to talk about the space that we need available, whether it's online and in our residence halls. And that's urgent. That's really urgent for many HBCUs. And so, and so with that, what is your growth plan? You talked about getting that dorm online. What is that going to take? How much is that going to take? And then from a standpoint of when, what? Will Kennedy be open by fall 2025? Or are we talking about 2026? All right, so what I'm talking about is fall 2025 is my hope, is my goal, and yet it takes funders to be able to see the value of investing in facilities infrastructure, and it's not the sexy thing.

It's not the thing that people want to invest in, but it's the thing that will support our students and get us our enrollment. But what's the number? But what's the number? But what's the thing that will support our students and get us our enrollment. But what's the number? But what's the number? But what's the number? In order to bring that dorm back online, what is it going to cost you? I mean, it's going to cost me at least $12 million. In order to bring that?

In order to bring it back online and have full capacity with every room renovated with the spaces that we need and with students who are able to occupy that building in its entirety. And so what is the tuition for a year for a student at Johnson C. Smith? Tuition and room and board for a year. Just give me a ballpark number. What's a ballpark number? I'm trying to figure that out right now. I got my colleagues here. What's the ballpark number? I mean, tuition can be like twenty thousand dollars. We're private. Right. Right. And yet we have tuition discounts like many universities do. And we have currently moving from eleven hundred to thirteen hundred students. And so that's that's what that's what it is at the moment. Got it. And so before I go to Scott and

Rebecca with questions, what would you say are your three main majors in terms of what do you focus on that gets students to come to Johnson C. Smith? Business and business administration is definitely a top major, including anything in business, finance and management in particular. We also have STEM. We have a great STEM program, a college of STEM and professional studies. We have a master's in social work. I mean, those programs get our students to come. We live, we're in Charlotte, and Charlotte is one of the top destinations for people who want to think about corporate America or businesses, marketing,

finance, the healthcare industry. And I believe that those are the areas that will continue to drive this economy, but also those are the degrees that students for the most part are coming to actually study at Johnson C. Smith University. Now, I would not be fair if I only talk about those majors. I also have to talk about the liberal arts. We have students who come here and who want to be political scientists. They want to be the next governor or senator or U.S. president. So they're studying political science. We have students who are also coming here who want to do music education and they can compete. They can combine music education with business to have a robust experience. And so those are some of our top majors. And apologies to my faculty if I missed

any of them. Questions from our panels. Rebecca, you first. Thank you so much for your leadership. So I lead a national voting rights organization, and we have the largest C3 civic engagement for campuses in the country. We do a lot of HBCU work, including North Carolina. We were on your campus in 2023 where we hire students. They work with administrators to make sure that there is a plan for civic engagement. I don't think we have a student yet on your campus this fall. And I want to hire a couple of your students to work with you and your administration to help organize civic engagement, everything from voting, but then also to make students more active. Because, you know, when students are active in that way, they have better academic success. So can I work with you to hire

one or two of your students to do some great work? That's my question. So that's a definite, that's an absolutely you can, and let's actually exchange contact information so that we can be in touch directly. And the reality is if we don't have a student yet, which you said we don't, then we need to. And I'm committed to making sure we have at least two or more students who are participating. We just had a meeting about voting and turning out the vote, coming out and supporting Black vote. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding,

but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms,

even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

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

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

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. It showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more.

Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. For participation, but also talking about civic engagement. And this is the work that we should be doing. So I am committed to this. Absolutely. We are C3. We're working on the majority of the HBCUs in North Carolina with North Carolina Black Alliance raising the bar.

I look forward to working with you offline. I would love to. Thank you. Scott. Hey, doctor. A. Scott Bolden here. Appreciate your leadership. I happen to sit on the board of trustees for Morehouse College and I chair the governance committee. That growth issue is a tricky thing. I live with it with Dr. Thomas and Chairman Willie Woods, but I will say this. Here's my question. You know, if 500 or 1,000 students show up and you don't have the capacity for them, so it's measured, if you will, and endowment is important,

but also being able to upgrade your facilities, expand your facilities. Are you looking at any creative financing mechanisms like tax increment financing, nonprofit bonds, partnering with housing authorities in your local jurisdiction, or even partnering with developers who will build it and then you finance it over several years by creating a student fee, say, for a student center. I think every HBCU has got to look at all of those issues when they grow and expand, because this influx of students from Morehouse and or Johnson C. Smith is not going to stop. And there's a lot of, well, most of us are free now, at least we were two or three years ago, based on federal legislation. So can you talk a little bit about how you get there sooner than later through non-traditional

financing means? Absolutely. And that's the answer, through non-traditional financing means. By looking at our property and understanding that some of them should be leased, how do we drive business and revenue into the university, but also, I want to be clear, into the historic West End District, which is where we live and where we work. And so, how do we do that by engaging developers? I have been meeting with so many developers who are committed to Johnson C. Smith, but who are also committed to growth, who are also committed to repairing relationships between the university and the surrounding community. And so I think that leveraging those partnerships will be so important, but also understanding we need to think about revenue generation in multiple ways. It's not

just about students and tuition. It's about students, tuition, but also how do we get more revenue from diversifying our portfolio? How do we think differently about growing our endowment? How do we think differently about the types of vendors who are on campus? And how do we support them as they are also supporting us? And then I think the last part I will add into this is, you know, I've been dreaming about a convocation center. I've been dreaming about a convocation center. I've been dreaming about a convocation center. And in dreaming about a convocation center, it would be a space where we own our lands. We would create this convocation center that would

be a multi-purpose space. And it would be for the community, for businesses, for industries, for the athletics teams in Charlotte and beyond, and it would also be a hub for our students' excellence. That would also increase revenue. But the days of thinking about revenue only by thinking about enrollment, those days are, if not over, very limited. Yeah. Good luck.

Thank you. I appreciate that. All right, Dan. Well, Doc, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us on the show. And good luck. All right. Well, thank you, Roland Martin. I appreciate you. All right. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. All right. Folks, we're just talking about, of course, the idea with, of course, HBCU enrollment and affirmative action. But I saw this today and I had to get a kick out of this.

So, you know, the lawsuit that was filed that went to the Supreme Court that got rid of affirmative action was filed by a group of Asian students and their parents. Well, check this out. In the first Yale class, since the end of affirmative action, black and Latino enrollment share remained stable, yet Asian American decreased. And so this is right here. You see right here with the year at the bottom where you see an increase with white enrollment. You see a drop for Asian American enrollment. Hispanics increased. Blacks went slightly up international, slightly down. Native Americans stayed the same.

So they stopped considering race, Scott. And then they started factoring in essays that dealt with character and things along those lines. And I guess a whole lot of these Asian fans learned real quick, guess what? Trying to depend upon your grades and your SAT score

didn't work and so um your lawsuit you didn't you didn't f the round and find out in all fairness the majority of asian students weren't supportive of that lawsuit there were a handful of them that were but they represent you know beyond those four or five that the lawsuit had as plaintiffs, that had no standing, by the way. You know, it's interesting. The international went down and the Asian students went down. I'd love to see more empirical data on that, but it does seem like the chickens have come

home to roost in regard to the lawsuit. But listen, I'm glad that black and brown students didn't go down. This is early data. But talking about their economic backgrounds, their communities that manifest themselves, whether it's poor or poverty, without talking about the color of your skin, not only have students and parents had to redefine how they approach this issue of getting them to a top school, a white majority school, but also the administrators and diversity officers, how they process applications, how they stay on the right side of the law. As a lawyer, I find myself advising not only colleges and universities, but even corporations

now about how they look at DEI because of the attorney general threats to companies operating in their jurisdiction, whereby that decision did not extend to corporations, but now we're all concerned about how we rethink DEI. Very powerful, but very negative for those of us who are black, brown, economically disadvantaged, and how we get an education, a reasonable one, a really excellent one, and be able to pay for it. So this is going to shake out at some point. And again, for those folks who filed that lawsuit, Rebecca, oops. You know? That's his proposition, and he's he go find it somewhere. And by the way, if you don't give it to him, Rebecca, he go say it anyway. No, no, no. It's like, OK, so y'all file a lawsuit thinking your enrollment was going to blow up.

Oops. So what Scott's telling me after I agree with everything he just said, because he quartered me in Chicago, Roland, and said, I agree with you too much over him. So Scott really is just saying he must be too agreed with him. Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. You know, only a weak-ass man would go to somebody and say, you know, you agree with Roland too much. You don't agree with me enough. Now, mind you, Roland, this was after he big-timed me and said he didn't

recognize me at first because I had braids in my hair in Chicago. You should have cussed his ass out. She was in a good mood. You should have cussed his ass out. You should have said, you little punk-ass little

capper. That's what you should have said. Go ahead, Rebecca. Unfortunately, I got some exes who are kappas, so that's probably the reason why I should have cussed them out. So, you know, here's the thing. There are some people who think

that they can be white adjacent or that they can cozy up to white supremacy in this country and somehow they'll experience that white privilege. And what's unfortunate is that there are some people in this country who bought into the model minority theory. And we know that theory is bunk. And so what people need to really understand, as we get closer to white people being the

minority in this country, and even when we think about the world and how the global South is getting ready to overtake the global North, it's going to be less than 10 percent of people around the world who are actually white. And so what's going to happen in this country, people got to learn really quick, is that you can't white identify or white align. And that's going to be a benefit for you moving forward in the future. And that's specifically I'm talking about racial minorities here. And people are going to have to quickly white people are quickly going to have to learn how to actually compete where they don't have in a world where they don't get unfair advantages, a.k.a. white privilege. And for those minorities who are thinking that they're

going to ride in the coattails of white privilege, you're getting a wake-up call because the world is changing. Power structures, that's really what DEI is about, is challenging power structures. Those things are rapidly changing in this country. Oh,

absolutely. And it's like, again, I mean, you can sit here, play games all you want to, but we're going to see how that works out. All right, y'all. We're going to go to break. We're going to come. We come back. We're going to talk with the lawyer of a woman of a woman who was on our first show six years ago. This sister is still catching hell in Texas over an attempt to vote. It's absolutely crazy. You have the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton. He's literally trying to target states who want to remind people or send out voter registration forms. We see what the hell is going on there.

Lots we want to talk about, y'all, including this indictment, exposing these big-time conservatives working for a company that was funded by Russia. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. That and more right here. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, we're going to be talking about common sense. We think that people have it, know how to use it, but it is something that people often have to learn. The truth is most of us are not born with it and we need to teach common sense, embrace it and give it to those who need it most, our kids. So I always tell teachers to listen out to what conversations the students are having about what they're getting from social media.

And then let's get ahead of it and have the appropriate conversations with them. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network. Farquhar, executive producer, a proud family. Thank you. And Crystal, take me through. So what election was it that you voted in? And you said, look, no one told you. So when you got out of prison, there was no paperwork. There was nothing there. But they say, look, these are your rights, what you can and cannot do.

Yeah, there was nothing there, but they said, look, these are your rights, what you can and cannot do? Yeah, there was paperwork. It was my conditions, but that was not in my paperwork at all. So in your paperwork, in your paperwork, when you got out, there was nothing that said anything about voting? No. So when you had to go back to court, what, the court just said whatever? I mean, I'm sure you presented the paperwork and said, here it is. There's nothing about voting in here. So how was I supposed to know I couldn't vote? My supervisor, at least officer, testified on the stand and explained that it was nothing in paperwork. No one told me. And I was doing my conditions as- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. So the person who is supervising you testified

that there was nothing in the paperwork that said you were not supposed to be able, that you could not vote and the court still said, what the hell, we don't care, you're going to jail? Correct. three Martin! Thank you. All right, folks, so let me give you an update. So Cash App is tripping. So apparently Cash App has some limit on how many transactions can happen in a month, which is sort of weird because the month just started.

So we don't know what the hell's going on. So I just checked and about 20 or 25, maybe actually about 30 or 40 of y'all have tried to give on Cash App today and it's getting rejected. And so I was on the phone with them trying to figure out what's going on. So it's not a dollar amount, it's literally the number of transactions. So we don't out what's going on. So it's not a dollar amount, it's literally the number of transactions.

So we don't know what's going on, so we're trying to get this thing fixed right now. And so if you have other forms, if you wanna support RollerBot Unfiltered and you have other forms, if you have PayPal, Zelle, or Venmo, you can support the show. I'll let y'all know when this gets fixed,

but this is weird. We've never experienced this before, and so many people want to support us on our sixth anniversary, so we're not sure what's going on. So I'm on it. I'm trying to get it fixed, and so again, you can support us on PayPal.

It's paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmartinunfiltered. Zale, our email is roland at rolandsmartin.com. It's PayPal.me forward slash R Martin unfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle, our email is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. So those are the emails. Those are the other ways. PayPal, Venmo, Zelle.

And again, we're going to try to figure out what the hell is going on with Cash App. But we don't know. But it's rejecting uh it's rejecting uh our um users for some reason and um in fact i just sent um an email uh to uh to someone actually showing them exactly uh the impact of this. And I'm going to pull this up in a second. And so here's a perfect example. This is, I made this video here. This is the number of transactions that were actually blocked, that were actually blocked in our cash app, all of those because whatever this glitch is.

So we'll figure out what's going on, and then we'll send those folks an alert once we actually get this thing fixed. All right, folks, six years ago on our inaugural show, we had on Crystal Mason and her attorney talking about this case, her attorney, Kim Cole, out of Texas. Now, this is a sister who voted, tried to vote. The vote was never counted. She found out later that she could not vote

after serving time, after serving in federal prison. But the Tarrant County DA has been, they have been going after this sister, y'all, for I think it's now going on, this is the seventh or the eighth year. So understand this. She was on our first show in 2000, in 2000, I mean, six years ago, y'all, 2018. She was on our show last year, our fifth anniversary show. Here we are still talking about her case on our sixth anniversary show.

And now the Tarrant County DA, they want the appeals court to review the last decision where they basically were like, OK, end this mess now. Her attorney, Kim Cole, joins us right now. And Kim, it is insane that we're still talking to you. It is utterly insane that Crystal tried to vote. The vote was not counted. As a result of them charging her,

she had to go back to federal prison to sentence her term. They extended her federal parole. Her supervisor released, I'm sorry. This has impacted jobs, her family, housing, all of this. And even after it goes through the Texas Appeals Court, this racist DA is,, oh no, we're going to appeal this and still trying to go after her, holding her accountable. And it's like, dude, what, I mean, which election was this? Was this, what year was it that this actually happened? 2016.

So this is the, we're in the eighth year. This is just insane. It is absolutely insane, Roland. First of all, congratulations. Second of all, we're here. Crystal was accused of voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election. We are looking at a new election eight years later. And even though the Court of Criminal Appeals has—the second court of appeals has sent sent Crystal's case back down to the lower court for her to be acquitted and for her

conviction to be overturned, the Tarrant County DA is still beating this dead horse and still pursuing these trumped-up charges— yes, pun intended, of voter fraud. They did not prove their case. The Second Court of Appeals said that they did not prove that Crystal knew that she was not eligible to vote. And here in Texas, felons do have the right to vote. However, they have to be done with any jail time and parole or probation. So Crystal didn't know that by her being on federal supervised release

that she was not eligible to vote. And in Texas, the law requires that an individual know that they're not eligible and vote anyway. That is the crime. It's not in voting and you don't know that you're not eligible. It's in voting or attempting to vote while knowing that you're not eligible. And that was not the case here. The second court of appeals agreed, and now the Tarrant County District Attorney has appealed

to the Court of Criminal Appeals. And since we last spoke, Roland, the Court of Criminal Appeals has actually agreed to take this case on yet again for another ruling. It's like, so the Court of Criminal Appeals already ruled, and now they're appealing, and now they're going to take this on again. Yes. So what happened the first time, okay, Crystal was convicted. We appealed it to the second court of appeals. They upheld Crystal's conviction and we appealed it further to the court of criminal appeals. Well, the court of criminal appeals looked at the second court of appeals opinion and said, you guys didn't apply the correct standard here, so you might want to take a second look at it.

So they did. And they reversed their initial decision, and they sent Remanded Crystal's case back to the original court for her to be acquitted. Okay, hold on. I'm sorry. Okay, hold on. Hold on. Okay, so I'm sorry. So the second court of appeals upheld the conviction?

Yes. Then it got appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. They kicked it back down and said, y'all didn't apply the law. Then when they kicked it back down, then the second court of criminal appeals said, oh, you're right. So then they kicked it to which court? Back to the original trial court. They reversed her sentence. So the original trial court reversed her sentence?

No, the second court of appeals reversed. So the second court of criminal appeals ruling to the Texas, to the higher, the one above them. Yes. Here's what I keep looking at. The amount of money the Tarrant County, the amount of money and time the Tarrant county da is wasting on this one case we're talking the exact same tarrant county um a district attorney's office that is dealing with the case where a man died in the in the jail there in tarrant county jail where they've had multiple issues with tarrant county jail you're spending this amount of time, eight years of time and money on one woman and one case as opposed to, okay, it gets overturned.

You move the hell on. Here's the reality. You want her to serve jail time. She actually went back to federal prison. How much time did she serve? She was sentenced to 10 months. And so, I mean, she was sentenced to. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters,

and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

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

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

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

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch.

What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes

one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. A year, I believe, and she served 10 months. Okay, so she had to go back to federal prison. She spent 10 months in federal prison. They're like, nah, nah, nah.

We want to send you to state prison. For five years. Scott. Thank you for joining us today. What do you say to the other side that says, well, yeah, you can talk about her not having the right to vote or not knowing she could vote, but this is really more about her violation of her supervised release, and that's why you get all these complicated and going back to jail and so forth and so on. It's not necessarily about her criminally voting.

Yes, it is. It's a question. No, but it is. It's bullshit. Her own lawyer. No, the reason I ain't got to be a lawyer was bullshit, Scott. Her own probation officer testified

in the trial that she was never told by anybody in the federal prison system she could not vote. Kim, in the trial.

Absolutely. Yes. That's correct. Tell everybody what the probation. So they're like, well, how is it you didn't know? The probation officer said it. Okay, watch this. Let me ask the guest a question.

Hold on, Scott. Hold on. She's going to answer that. Then we'll come back to you. Kim, go ahead. Because this isn't about her violating her supervised release. To Roland's point, the supervisor over the entire region testified that no one told Crystal that she was not eligible to vote. And he even went further to state that

in the federal system in their region, they have absolutely no program, no process or anything in place to inform their inmates of their rights with regards to voting, because it's a federal system. Someone could be from Hawaii, Oklahoma, Texas. They're all there together at the same place. So that's number one. And that is Roland's point's point that, you know, the, their own witness, this was the state's witness, mind you, um, their own witness contradicted their, their argument that Crystal knew she couldn't vote. But to your point, this is not about her violating supervised release because if it was, she served time for that. She actually was, was found in violation and she served that time.

They sent her back to federal prison. That time has been discharged. In fact, she's off of the additional three-year supervised release they gave her. So if it was only about that, this would be over. But this is about pushing a false narrative of widespread, rampant voter fraud, and they trumped up these charges against her and they will not let it go. I got it, guys. And thank you for your answer. And if I could get to my question, because I was going in another direction, that is, is it fair to say or is it true that no court of appeals has overturned her conviction.

They've overturned the sentencing. Am I right about that? No, the conviction was overturned. It was. It was overturned because in their ruling, the second court of appeals stated that the state did not produce sufficient evidence to show that Crystal knew that she was not eligible to vote because their own two witnesses contradicted that, including the gentleman from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as their local county elections officials who sent letters to her home address while she was doing time in federal prison. So those letters clearly never reached her. And I bet you there are not a lot of similar cases to this because that law on its face would seem to be unenforceable because how would you ever prove that an individual in her circumstance did not know she couldn't, knew that she couldn't vote, right? How do you

show that intent? Well, there are instances of people, and I'm sure you've seen this around the country, people who are voting using other people's names. There are people who are voting using false credentials. And there are people, had they produced a probation officer who knows i'm not sure what they do in the state because i'm not a criminal attorney i'm a civil rights attorney but if let's say in the state the probation officers tell people you can't vote until you're done dealing with me and your probation they would produce hey we told them that would that would prove their case. We told them. That would prove their case. Got it. Got it. Yeah.

This is, that's incredible Texas justice. God bless you for staying in there. This is Texas, right? Yeah. And this right here, this is no different, Kim, than what they did to that black man in Houston who waited in line for five hours.

And then they arrested him. Later, it was found out that he actually could vote. And they have scared that man to death so much. He said last year, you know what? I'm not even going to vote. And that's what's going on here. It's the exact same thing DeSantis did in Florida when he had people arrested who were formerly incarcerated. They want it's the same thing happening in Nebraska where the state attorney general, the secretary of state literally said that a law passed by the legislature is unconstitutional.

I ain't never heard of a state AG, not a judge, a state AG telling the legislative body, oh, y'all laws are unconstitutional, so therefore we're not going to enact it. What is happening in the Crystal, what's happening in all these places, they want to intimidate people who are formerly incarcerated to scare them to say if you try to vote, they're going to come after you. Absolutely.

It's absolutely a form of voter suppression, voter intimidation. That is why they do not—everybody knows—Roland, I believe you're a resident of Texas. Texas is not a red state. Texas is a non-voting state. And if people come out to the polls and actually cast their ballots, we could flip Texas. And they don't want that. Tarrant County's motto is keep Tarrant County red, period. Yep.

It doesn't matter. If everybody who doesn't know, Tarrant County is the last large county in Texas that is red. Travis, Harris, Dallas, Bayer, Williams, they've all flipped blue. And this is what this is all about. Rebecca, your question. Yeah, as the conversation was going on, I was on my iPad looking at the demographics of Tarrant County. Because I remember the 2014 cycle actually campaigned in Tarrant County. And so I was looking to see Phil Sorrells.

I think that's the current DA. This is the troublemaker here. He's up for reelection in 2026. It's almost the end of 2024. That means in 2025, there should be recruited someone who was qualified to take on the DA role, and there should be adequate fundraising to make sure that person has adequate money that they need, and that they are a pro-democracy, pro-civil rights district attorney in Tarrant County. So at this point, where we see where the courts, it's failing your client, quite frankly, then we have other avenues that we can do.

And one of the biggest avenues is vote. But it also requires recruiting a candidate who could take on someone who is being anti-democratic in Tarrant County. So for those of you who live in Tarrant County, you know, I'm saying this not in my day job as doing the work that I do, but as a former campaign manager, go find somebody to run against Bill Sorrells. There's more than enough money in Tarrant County. There's more than enough money in Texas to be able to put money behind that type of candidate. And with the demographic breakdown in Tarrant, there is more than enough voters and people who can be registered to vote who can choose a different DA in Tarrant County. Absolutely. I agree. I agree.

There are—Tarrant County also is like much of the U.S. It's a non-voting. They have very low, relatively low voter turnout. And I believe that if we put forth a candidate, first of all, Phil Sorrell should go just specifically because of the waste associated in continuing to attempt to prosecute Crystal Mason for a crime that everybody knows that she did not commit and a crime that they can't prove that she committed. I mean, it's been through the ranks. They can't prove and did not prove that she committed this crime. So for him to continue to pursue this is a waste of taxpayer dollars, especially in the face of multiple deaths in the county jail.

Yep. Yep. And they're not doing anything about it. So I agree with you. Let's get a candidate in there that can unseat Sorrells. Hopefully this case will be done by then. Yep. And multiple unarmed black men who have been killed by police in Tarrant County. Yep. Let's add that to. Absolutely. And there's no call for his removal, is it? Well, no, no, no. Female DAs around this country have been subjected to. Well, there have been there have been some calls there. But again, it's a red county. And what has to happen there, folks have got to turn out. I was down there when Deborah Peoples ran for mayor, and listen, the turnout was not what it should be.

Black folks in Fort Worth, Texas, in Tarrant County, have got to exercise their right to vote. And so, again, as Rebecca said, you've got two years to take this guy out. So hopefully, and here's the other thing, Kim, people don't understand. We don't know when the hell the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is going to look at this here. It took a whole year for the second court to issue that ruling. It was a whole year before they issued the ruling. Last time when it was before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, when we first appealed, it took, I want to say, 15 months. It took 15 months before they ruled.

It might have been more than that. But it definitely took over a year. And that was when I was on the cycle of where every Wednesday I would have to check. I had an alarm set to check every Wednesday to be able to inform Crystal whether or not she's stay free. So we're back in this cycle again. Unbelievable. Kim, keep up the fight. We appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. I will. All right. Back to the beat. All right. Thanks a bunch. Folks, I was telling you about what early again was happening there in Texas. You got that crooked attorney general in Texas,

Ken Paxton, who said, talking to Steve Bannon before, where he said that if he didn't take his action in 2016, Trump would have lost Hillary Clinton. Or I'm sorry, in 2020, he would have lost Texas to Joe Biden. So what he's doing is, he's literally using the power of his office

and sending out letters to officials in Harris County, which is the largest county in Texas with the most black voters, to Bexar County, telling them that they cannot send information out to the voters about registering. OK, I hope you heard what I just said. Ken Paxton is literally doing that. Okay, I hope you all heard what I just said. Ken Paxton is literally doing that. And so he is threatening to sue officials in Harris County and Bexar County, saying that if they send out any literature with regards to people voting, that he is going to prosecute them. In the last session, they passed new laws regarding this, literally telling elected

officials in Texas that they could not even inform voters about voter registration. Y'all hear what I said? This is what he claims. He claims that, oh, that voter registration applications could could end up in the hands of unverified recipients. This is what he put on Twitter. It is unlawful and reckless for counties to use taxpayer dollars to indiscriminately send voter registration forms with no consideration of the recipient's eligibility and without any statutory authority to do so. These counties attempt to do so after the Biden-Harris administration has allowed millions of illegal aliens to enter the country are especially troubling. It is more important than ever that we maintain the integrity of our voter rolls and ensure only eligible voters decide our

elections. Your proposal does the opposite by indiscriminately inviting county residents to register to vote regardless of their eligibility. I urge you to abandon this proposal. If you do not, I will see you in court. Last week, there were several organized raids across South Texas over yet unfounded allegations that Latino activists have helped non-citizens register to cast ballots in November. Folks, what this is, Scott, here is absolute voter intimidation by the attorney general. That's exactly what it is. So this idea that county officials can't tell county residents sending out voter registration forms, this is what they're trying to stop. It is blatant intimidation by that thug, A.G. Ken Paxton.

Under color of law. Let's not forget that. Under color of law, he is doing voter intimidation. And these raids DOJ is investigating right now, there's a whole other level of intimidation to get Texas to kind of no vote, if you will. It's just outrageous. You know, the Republicans, they know their policies aren't popular.

They know they're not a popular political organization, and they're not popular with most Americans because their policies are outside the mainstream of most Americans. Because, you know, they wouldn't be engaged in voter suppression and voter intimidation if it was otherwise, if they were partners. So they're not. And so this is what you're getting. And again, we always talk about voting, right? But this is the—when Republicans win after doing voter suppression or not, this is what

you get. This is Trumpism. This is MAGAism. This is extreme with no checks and balances. The feds may be able to help here, but, you know, you got to vote like this year. You got to vote like it's your life. You got, you can rest after you die, because there are going to be so many forces against black people and brown people and Democrats in this country to suppress the vote at all levels. Let's remember, voter intimidation, don't register, voter suppression, don't register, voter apathy, they don't come to the polls, right? So you got all that going on, right? Now, once you vote, at least in 70 counties or 70 nonbelievers in the 2020 election are

now in a position to not certify your vote. We don't talk enough about this, Roland, that in Atlanta and in Georgia, right? Yeah, we've talked about it., certification of voting is not discretionary, not ministerial. Those non-lawyers, discretionary, you know what that means. That means you may or may not. It's ministerial. That means you have to.

It's perfunctory. Whatever the numbers are, the numbers are. You sign off on it. You send it to the state, and eventually it sends it to the House of Representatives or the Senate. And so this fight is not going to be over for Kamala Harris in the winter of 2020 on November 5th. It's going to take several months to certify those votes, especially if she wins, which is why we're telling everyone, let's win big. Let's overwin.

So there's no question about here, though, Trump being in office, Biden in office, we'll prosecute him for their bad acts going forward. Bottom line, Rebecca, what we've got to realize is, again, we keep saying this, Republicans will cheat to win. The only

way they win if the electorate is shrunk. They have openly said that if people, if more people vote, they will lose. You know, Roland, I'm about to start quoting passages from White Fear here. Texas is literally the microcosm, meaning it is a small example of what the entire country is getting ready to go to. For folks who may not be aware, white people are the minority in Texas now, right? Hispanics have outpaced

and technically is the largest group of people in Texas. Well, in fact, black and Hispanics, excuse me, minorities in Texas make up 61% of the state. But 61% of the voters are white. Right, but this is where I'm going. Just like what

we're seeing in post apartheid South Africa. When we see the white majority now as the white minority, especially when it comes to the ruling class, there now is a struggle for who gets to rule Texas. And right now there are white people in Texas like Paxton who is very felonious, and his felony charges got dropped because the impeachment trial—he actually won his impeachment trial in Texas, but we know he's felonious based upon his actions in office. We know that this is a struggle for power and power in Texas, and specifically white power. So we're seeing the rise of white fear, which is why we're seeing these concerted

efforts of where you see a PACSID using his platform to tell counties not to do the work that those particular agencies are supposed to do. Election administrators are supposed to let people know how to register the vote, when to register the vote, and there's an election going. They're not supposed to be reactive. They're supposed to be proactive. They're supposed to be trying to get more people within their various municipalities to register to vote. So that is their job. So what I will say, once again, we know there's a lot of lawyers in Texas. There's a lot of money in Texas.

But I hope that some of those large law firms who see the writing on the wall, I hope they wake up and they let both Bexar County and Harris County know, hey, we're going to take on your case pro bono, so Paxton, bring it on. Because now you have all these firms going to be lined up against you, and we're going to be able to push all those resources compared to the resources in your office, which is finite, is not the same as many of the Texas law firms. But there's going to have to be a concerted effort to punch back and fight back on this, because this is not constitutional. And this is also a test case for

what we're going to see Florida try to do. We're going to see Tennessee try to do it. We're going to see Louisiana and Mississippi because once again, Texas is appearing to be ground zero on what's happening with the demographic shift in this country. And so we don't stop this in Texas. It's going to spread across the South and we're going to see it pushing across the country. Absolutely. All right, folks, hold tight one second. I'm going to go to break. We'll be right back. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network on our sixth anniversary. Back in a moment. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence.

On that soil, you will not reflect on it. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress,

whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at every university calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. Here's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain.

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subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Taking out women, this is white people. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show.

This is your boy, Herb Quay. And you're tuned in to... Roland Martin, unfiltered. We want this to be transparent. We already have a lot of questions about the legitimacy of the president who's in the office and how he behaves and the decisions that he makes. Why the Republicans should have gotten all the information that they had available to them and at least at a minimum given all of the members of the committee an opportunity to postpone so they could review it. However, you know, at the time, President Obama said elections have consequences.

And 60-plus million Americans voted for Donald Trump. And at that time, Donald Trump as a candidate said, hey, these are the people, and no other nominee had did this before. These are the people that I'm going to put on the Supreme Court. So the American people knew what type of candidate, what type of jurist would be presented by this president. And they went to the polls and they spoke on this very particular issue. But Liz, I got to push back on you and I'm going to go to Spencer on this one. Of course.

Elections do have consequences. And a black man won twice. Yes, that's true. Won twice. And there was some 200 plus days between Scalia dying and the election. And Spencer, they did not respect that election. That's right. 200 plus days between Scalia dying and the election in Spencer. They did not respect that election. That's right. And let's also remember, more folks voted for him than voted for Donald Trump. Ariana Collins has been missing from Chicago since March 23rd. A 17-year-old is 5 feet 1 inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about Ariana Collins should call the Chicago Police Department. Call that particular number. It's right there on the screen. Let me just pull this up. So 312. 312-745-5020. 312-745-5020. Folks, I always love, we were just talking about Texas, and in November there are three Republican Supreme Court justices on the ballot.

A lot of folks in the state have been really upset with the abortion rulings in that state, the voter rulings. It's a hardcore right wing Supreme Court. Yet. Polling data shows that when folks begin to talk about those three justices and their positions, a hardcore position on abortion, it changes voters minds. Now, keep in mind, in 2022, when Beto O'Rourke ran against incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, 75% of young voters under the age of 30 did not cast a ballot in Texas. 75%. So, Gina Ortiz-Jones and her PAC, they released this ad that's having a huge impact in Texas.

A woman miscarrying, left to bleed out and nearly die. A mother of two facing internal organ rupture. Doctors unable to provide life-saving care for fear of a prison sentence. These are real stories happening in Texas right now. Because Texas Supreme Court judges Blacklock, Devine and Bland are playing doctor from the bench, putting their politics over our health and risking women's lives. Hold them accountable by voting them out because medical decisions belong to women and doctors, not politicians. Republicans all across the country don't want to deal with this issue.

It is a galvanizing and mobilizing issue, Rebecca, and we're seeing that in Texas. And again, this is a state Supreme Court race, to all too often, people don't focus on the state Supreme Court races, but they're just as important as as the United States Supreme Court. And so you look at North Carolina, when you look at all these other Ohio, we saw what happened in Wisconsin. When that flipped from Republican control to Democrat control for three, they then guess what? Allowed ballot drop boxes, outlawed a political gerrymandering. And so this is one of those areas where I and I've been saying Democrats have got to put money in Texas and they can't stop saying, oh, well, you know, it's red. And we're never going to know, this is how you start winning. You may not win the governor and U.S. Senate races, but here's an opportunity to boot out those three Republicans on the Supreme Court.

That could change and have a huge impact. In Texas, also in Arizona, there's a Supremerizona Supreme Court judge retention that's on the ballot as well. But it also takes people who know how to—like, we just talked about in the last segment about the Hispanic population in Texas, the Black population in Texas. Quite frankly, in Harris County, there is one of the largest Asian American demographics in the country. You also have to have people and strategists who are from those communities, who know how to organize those communities. You can't just rely on, once again, your typical white D.C. political strategists and political consultants to then go into a state like Texas. We saw, I think it was back in 2010, 2012, when we saw, was it Texas Battleground 2020,

where you had people from outside the state going into Texas saying how they were going to make Texas blue based upon the demographics, rather than working with some of the existing infrastructure on the ground that actually understands how to organize communities in Texas and how to mobilize those communities. Because what we have seen in a state like Texas is that when you see an overwhelming of one party that's constantly doing things, like having an eight-plus-year prosecution against someone who was trying to vote who didn't know that they weren't necessarily eligible at that time to vote. When you see those things happening, there is a chilling effect. Like, you talked two segments ago about the man in Houston,

how he no longer wants to vote because how he is being politically targeted. So, unfortunately, when you have a state like Texas, one thing that contributes to a low-border turnout is people have been shell-shocked into submission. So we actually need to put resources behind the groups in Texas who are willing to take on that five-year fight of what it will take to make Texas more reflective of the residents who live there. When you start looking at, again, impact, Scott, again, Wisconsin, that Republican Supreme Court was rubber stamping everything in the legislature. Now they flip that, that judge won by 11 points.

It is going to change that state. It's going to equalize. You actually might see an even congressional delegation. You're going to see expanding voting access. The Republicans were stripping the governor of many of his rights. Now that court has switched. And, again, this is one. When Howard Dean was talking about a 50-state strategy, this is what he was talking about.

One of the reasons, and listen, people can love Obama, but there were a thousand seats lost when he was president, okay? Because the DNC was completely ineffective when he was president. And you see Vice President Kamala Harris providing resources for down balance. And I'm telling you right now, if Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the president, you are going to see an effort to restructure the Democratic National Committee, very similar to what happened after Reverend Jackson ran in 1988, where they changed the infrastructure, because she understands that Democrats have been getting their clocks clean on the state level because they kept focusing on the federal

level. Yeah, got it. And you're right, conceptually and theoretically. Conceptually, theoretically, my ass. I'm 100% right. Even philosophically. No, not philosophically. No, I am in real time correct.

You got one more time to interrupt me. I'm in real time correct. I can provide you with more examples. When North Carolina flipped from a Republican Supreme Court to a Democratic Supreme Court, they outlawed racial gerrymandering. They shut down voter ID. They also stopped the Republicans from passing some of the, they passed a bunch of crazy laws. It got stopped.

The Republicans were so, the Republicans were so angry that the Democrats took control of the state Supreme Court, they were literally threatening to strip the state Supreme Court of most of their power and giving it to a lower court. It didn't happen because they were like, you're out of your mind. I'm not telling you what's philosophical. I'm saying what's real.

We have real-time data to show what happens when Democrats get serious about state Supreme Court races. If you wouldn't interrupt me, I don't disagree with anything you said. Well, don't say it was philosophical. Well, don't say it was philosophical. Let me finish my statement. Go ahead. And then you can interrupt.

Go ahead. It's too late now. I don't want to talk anymore. Okay, fine. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, I'm going to the next damn point, so. As a former party chair, when I say you're philosophically right, it makes all the sense. But it gets expensive putting money in state races or down-ballot state races.

Duh. When you stay, hold on, in a state like Texas. Duh. Hold on. In a state like Texas, where you certainly have, you've got to put money where you solidify your base. And if you have a Texas Democratic State Party that isn't doing its job or could do better, well,

you put money in Texas, but do you put money in Pennsylvania? No, no. You put, no, you put money, no, you put money in Texas. Scott, no, you put, no, you put, no, you put money in Texas. Scott, there are 2.1 million. Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, you don't know Texas, Scott. So let me explain to you. Right now in Texas, black voters, the black voters in Texas represent the largest number of black voters in any state in the union. There are 2.1 million eligible but

unregistered Latino voters in Texas. 75% of young voters in Texas under the age of 30, as I said, didn't vote in the 2022 election. There are 254 counties in Texas. There are only 85 Democratic county parties. So the reason, so what Democrats have done in Texas, they have fixated, and I get it, on Harris, Dallas, Bayer, Travis. That's four counties. But they've been getting, I got that, but they've been getting slaughtered in about 230 other counties. And so, hold on. So when Beto ran, he ran a 254-county strategy. And so the problem in Texas has been,

they have been, and so here's the other deal that we also got to remember. In Texas, Texas used to be all blue. Governor Ann Richards lost to George W. Bush. When he ran for re-election, that's when they won all statewide positions except one. Now, in Texas, they have all major statewide positions. And so that's the problem in Texas. And so, four years ago, they were within five seats of taking over, of taking the majority of the Texas House.

When you don't invest, you're never going to control the House. If you take over the House, the Senate's going to be very difficult because there are only 31 state senators in all of Texas. But if you take over the House, if you take over the House, you can literally stop. They have to negotiate with you. But when you have a super majority, you can control the House, control the Senate, Governor's Mansion, and the courts, then you can run, you can just run it up. So the investment has to happen. So Democrats have got to stop only thinking about Texas in election years. They've got to mobilize and organize and invest in Texas in non-election years.

Now you can speak. Well, it's still money and it's still money not well invested by traditional means of where we put our money. How is it not money? Well, how is it not money? How is it not money? Scott. How is it not money well? How is it not money? Scott, how is it not money? Scott, that's a lie, Scott. How is it not? Scott, how is it not money well invested?

How is it not money well invested? Scott, how is it not money well invested when you haven't invested? Well, it's either the chicken or the egg. No, it's not. Money is a precious resource, and I've got to tell you, right now the DNC is investing in other areas. Why should I invest a bunch of money on a possibility? Not even a probability. Well, guess what, Scott?

People like you, that? Guess what, Scott? Guess what, Scott? People like you, that's exactly what they said in Georgia. Hold up. No, no, no. Wait, wait. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. I'm going to give you real time. I'm going to give you real data. No, Scott. No, you're wrong. No, Scott, you're wrong. Scott, you're wrong. I'm a party chair. Scott, Scott, I don't care if you're wrong. No, Scott, you're wrong. Scott, you're wrong. I'm a party chair. Scott, Scott, I don't care if you're a party chair. You're a party chair, D.C. That's not real.

Hold up, Scott. Scott, let me educate you on something. No, Scott, stop talking. That's not a real party, Scott. Scott, stop talking. Scott, a D.C. party chair ain't nothing. That's a guaranteed win. So let me explain

to you something, Scott, that you don't know. 2012, Obama beats Mitt Romney. I'm waiting to go on CNN the next morning. Who's standing next to me? Then-Congressman Chris Van Hollen. At the time, he was the chair of the DCCC.

I remarked to him about the need for Democrats to invest in places like Texas and Georgia to turn those purple. You know what he says? Oh, no, those are red. It's going to cost too much money. I said, are you aware? No, Scott. Scott, listen. Before you throw your little hands up, listen. Scott, listen. I then said, listen, before you throw your little hands up, listen. My hands are up. Scott, listen. I then said, well, are you aware? I said, are you aware that there are 800,000 eligible but unregistered African-Americans in Georgia? Are you aware? Scott, you're not listening.

Stop talking and listen. And I said, are you aware of the number of young white voters and Latinos not registered? He was like, oh, it's just too red. And that's why Democrats keep losing. And guess what happened after 2012? Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock and others created a group because they said, we're sick and tired of y'all saying we're red. So you know what they did?

They got the laws changed. There were 20-plus percent of people in georgia who were not registered they they made it where if you registered when you get your driver's license automatically registered it went for 20 plus percent down to two percent the reason georgia is purple the reason warnock and ossoff won had biden harris won is because they actually put the focus on mobilize, organize, and then said, the hell with y'all, the DCCC and the DNC. They went and raised money from other donors and they mobilized the state. That's how it happened.

So, Scott, when you, no, Scott, you were like, well, no, you don't put the money there. You don't put the money. That's just wasted money. That's just throwing money at it. You're talking about the DNC. I said earlier on that there was private money and nonprofit money that saturated Georgia. I agree with that. But that was necessary before the DNC put money in there because you had to get close or demonstrate that it was money well spent.

That's the only point I make it. So why in the hell did you say, Scott, it was a waste to do it in Texas when they did it in Georgia to prove to them they can actually win? So if you don't do it in Texas, you can never prove it can happen. Bring your nonprofits together, your voting rights group together, and do in Texas what you did in Georgia. What the hell did I just say? I'm sorry, Rebecca. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Rebecca. Rebecca, Rebecca, did not say that. Rebecca, I'm sorry. Rebecca, did not say that. And Scott's response was, oh, well, that's just throwing money and wasting money. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Rebecca. Rebecca, did you and I hear the same thing?

Yes. So here's. Rebecca, go ahead. Scott, Scott, Scott, Rebecca has the floor. Scott, Rebecca has the floor. Rebecca has the floor. Projects or campaigns in about three dozen states. So if we're going to talk about what works in different states,

I'm going to go with some of my personal experience, and not just no offense, Scott, but kind of offense. You know, being the D.C. chair of the party, well, yes, that's work. There's a lot of type As in D.C. who think they know politics. So you had to wrangle a lot of people. I'm talking about people with a D.C. Scott, Rebecca has the floor. Scott, Rebecca has the floor. Scott, Rebecca has the floor.

But if we're talking about how to win competitive seats, I'm the type of person that you bring in for that. Because I grew up, that's what was my bread and butter in learning how to actually campaign. I can tell you many times where I've walked candidates into the committees in D.C. asking for money, asking for endorsement, or just ask them to send around an email to some of the unions to raise money, and they did not. These were races where I lost by 1 percent, where we should not even have been that close, where we were out-raised $2 million to $500,000, right? The reason why I've been able to be very competitive, because I understand you have to talk directly to voters. But in order to talk directly to voters, that means you have to show up in different communities. One thing that we know that is free when it comes to party building is talking to voters,

not just in election years, but also recruitment of candidates. You can't—you have—you literally have to challenge every line on that ballot. What we've seen the Democratic Party do is the equivalent, if we're playing spades, for the Republicans to be able to walk with a ten of clubs, right? That should never happen in spades. But that's what's happening in this country, even Republicans walking with a seven of clubs. That's utter BS, and that is political malfeasance. So as much as people say, oh, well, that costs too much money, but guess how much money it costs the American people

when you have a president like Trump who's issuing trillion-dollar tax cuts that is exploding our national debt? So if we're talking about money and cost, it costs more than American people when there actually isn't competition on the ballot. Instead, you have one party rule. The other thing that I want to say is, if we don't pay attention to Texas, this is what's going to happen across the country. I understand the

three of us live in D.C., right? Or live in the D.C. I am still a registered voter in Dallas County. In Texas, that am still a registered voter in dallas county in texas that's this but still my homestead go ahead that's illegal by the way yes you know it's not no you registered in texas that's illegal actually actually it's not scott no it's not so you're domiciled in texas no Scott. You're not domiciled in the Jays? Scott, Scott, when it's your homestead. Scott, what you're not going to do is do this on camera.

But also, he's wrong. You ain't going to do this. And he's wrong. So he's loud and wrong. Loud and wrong. Vote where you live, brother. No, Scott, Scott, Scott, you're wrong. Scott, Scott, Scott, do you know the Texas?

Scott, do you know the Texas homestead laws? Scott, Scott, do you know the Texas homestead laws? No, you don't. No, you don't. Rebecca, Rebecca, finish your comments. Scott, Rebecca, Scott, Rebecca is finishing her comment. Stop talking. Rebecca, go. The bottom line is there are many areas in this country where Democrats could be competitive based upon the demographics. And Texas is ground zero for that. If Democrats don't figure out how to win a state like Texas, then the next 50 years is going to be extremely hard for them as we see people who are married to white supremacy trying to hold on to political power in this country.

So Texas has to be our canary in the coal mine. It has to be our wake-up call. And I would say people who care about democracy and civil rights in this country need to pay attention to what's happening in Texas. Absolutely. Last video I'm playing. Link in the project. Drop this video here. Roll it.

Roll it. No, you don't. Our nation with this election has a precious fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles

of the past. A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans. I promise to be a president for all Americans. I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations. Let us show each other and the world who we are. And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told. Damn, they good at making ads.

Damn, they good. making ads. Damn, they good. All right, Scott. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.

But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

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

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

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

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

or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend.

At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Final comment, you got 30 seconds, And you're on the clock. You all may believe Texas. You may be right. But here's the deal. Not maybe. If you all are so right and I'm so wrong, then how come the DNC

isn't following your lead and putting money in places that are red? How come they're not? Okay, I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. You may be right, you why. The reasons I gave you. Okay, I'll tell you why. You may be right, but it ain't happening. That's my only point. I'll tell you why.

Because what they do is they come into Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, hold fundraisers, raise four, five, eight, ten million dollars, and they leave the state. And what they have not done is build a party infrastructure. I go back to when Howard Dean was chair of the Democratic National Committee. He kept saying, we need a national strategy, a 50-state strategy. Then you had Paul Begaglia, James Carville,

and Rahm Emanuel who were clashing with him because they wanted the party to be a nationally focused party. Obama becomes president in 2008. What do they do? They get him to fire Howard Dean as DNC chair, replace him with Tim Kaine. That made no sense whatsoever. And so what then happens is they went from that strategy back to a national strategy.

What happened in 2010? Massive strategy. What happened in 2010? Massive losses. What happened in 2012? Obama wins, massive losses. What happened in 2014? Massive losses. Then Trump wins in 2016. Why?

Because they gutted the infrastructure. Not only that, with Obama running for president, he didn't need the black infrastructure that was in the DNC. So that got completely gutted and has not been replaced. And so now what you have is, and again, let's be real clear, Obama had Obama for America, he had OFA. He was not focused on the DNC. And so what you had is for eight years, no rebuilding of a party infrastructure with people, with support staff, with money. And so then Trump comes in in 2016. He wins. And then that's when Keith Ellison was going to run for party chair.

Obama steps in. No, we can't have that. And makes Tom Perez run for DNC chair. He becomes DNC chair. Obama steps in, no, we can't have that, and makes Tom Perez run for DNC chair. He becomes DNC chair. What did he not have? Didn't have money, didn't have infrastructure. And so the DNC right now, Jamie Harrison will tell you this, not on the record, but he'll tell you off the record, it has been held dealing with a party that you do not have a strong national infrastructure. So they have been methodically trying to build that. And so what you're now seeing is them understanding you cannot compete in places like North Carolina if you do

not have a party infrastructure. And so what Biden and Harris did, now Harris walls, you now see the field offices and the personnel that they have in place. But, Rebecca, here's the issue. That's for a presidential campaign. If you win in November, you've got to have an infrastructure that remains in place in 2025 for the 2026 midterms. You can't have it be candidate-driven. And that has been the problem of the Democratic National Committee.

They have been candidate-driven and not have a strong infrastructure. Rebecca. Because as Scott is saying, it's about money. But the thing that I disagree with Scott with his element of money that he's focusing on is also about the vendors who are making money. It's about the consultants that are making money. It's not like if this money, if the money that the DNC like over the last 15 years was spent directly on voter contact, then we will see different results happening at the ballot box. Instead, we're seeing certain consulting firms getting richer and richer, hopping from campaign to campaign. We see where the Democratic Party has spent money in races where we all knew that candidate was going to lose, but they still poured

money into that race rather than figuring out ways to invest in winnable races that were further down ballot. And part of that is it's because there has been a vanity project that's been happening at the DNC where certain names want to support certain people. We all know this to be true and we see this thing happening. So I'm not going to rely on people who have spent their time mainly clustered in one area in campaigning. But I want to talk to the people who have campaigned in different regions in the country to talk about what does it look like to party build? Because there is a necessity to party build because as we look at marching into the 2030 census, if the party isn't building now, then that means there isn't going to be adequate apparatus to make sure that Black and brown

people aren't undercounted the way they were in Texas during the census. And if people who care about civil rights and democracy and what's happening in this country, if they're not organizing now, then they're not going to be ready in 2029 when you need to have boots on the ground getting people ready to participate in the census through 2031, because usually there is an additional time to make up for people who were undercounted during the 2030 time period. So people aren't planning for that now. And you do that by exercising basic organizing principles every single year between now and

2030. That also includes the midterms. That includes 2028, the next presidential cycle as well. But you have to start this off in 2025 in order to prepare for those things that are coming up. Last point I will make on this. It also speaks to also media infrastructure. One of the greatest weaknesses of Democrats is they spend their time focusing on comedy and entertainment and not politics in news. I was one of the folks who interviewed for air America and not politics and news. I was one of the folks who interviewed for Air America and it was a joke.

Their deal was like, well, can you be funny? And I'm like, I'm sorry, aren't y'all trying to build a syndicated radio network to compete against conservative radio? And y'all sitting there asking about some damn jokes. I'm like, what the hell y'all talking about? And in fact, if you look at the biggest stars that came out of that, they were actually comedians. That was utterly idiotic. What have Republicans done?

Their billionaires have invested in media, digital media, daily caller, daily wire, daily signal, Breitbart. We can go on and on and on. That's what they've done. The problem for Democrats, they haven't done that. When think progress was probably one of the most broad, progressive media institutions, they had a deficit. They allowed that to die. That was the dumbest thing in the world. What do you do? You go to your rich ass donors and say, pay off the damn debt because we need a media infrastructure. So what are they complaining about now?

Right now, what do conservatives have? They got Fox News, hardcore conservative backing Donald Trump. They ain't no news network. They got Salem Radio. Salem Radio ain't dealing with no equal time provisions. They don't give a damn. Then you turn on AM radio, it's going to be 8 to 10 conservative radio stations. And then they have the digital infrastructure, PragerU.

You have two Texas billionaires that gave PragerU its first $7 million. They raised $22 million its first year, $25 million the second year, and their whole goal is to hit a billion views. And guess what happens now? PragerU has now PragerU for Kids. Because Republicans control the infrastructure in states. They now have PragerU for kids books and other information in school systems in Oklahoma, in Florida, in Texas.

So to Rebecca's point, if you let them have total control, that's the kind of crap that happens. And so Democrats need to be thinking you got to be funding media institutions. You got to be funding your party infrastructure in off years if you want to compete and want to win. We'll end with that. Scott,

Rebecca. Scott, Rebecca, I appreciate y'all being on. I'm talking about DNC shit. Gotcha. Okay, well, there you go. You now have been schooled, and I still be voting in Texas.

Scott and Rebecca, thank you so very much. Hey, folks, if y'all want to support the work that we do, please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Again, we're trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Cash App. So I'm not going to tell you to give there because for some reason it's rejecting a lot of folks giving. So if you want to support our show, you want to give us an anniversary gift, please support us via PayPal. It's rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered.

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I can't remember, Kenan, what are we up to now? Is it 33,000? I forgot the number you gave me. It was 29,33,000. So, y'all have been amazing. And I'm trying to tell y'all, without our fans, we would not be here. During COVID, when 2020 hit, man, advertising was drying up.

Everything was drying up. And our donors gave like $30,000 in three weeks. And it was amazing. They got us through. Our donors have contributed more than $2.5 million since we launched this show six years ago. And the reason that's important is because that money, that were months when, frankly, YouTube had dropped big time, external advertising wasn't coming in. And then that money is what paid the bills. It paid the rent. It paid the staff. And so I can't tell you how crucial that is. So when I tell y'all our goal annually

is to have 20,000 of our fans contribute on average 50 bucks each, that's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day to raise a million dollars. That's real because our monthly costs are $195,000. So we can't do this. We're not sitting in the basement. We're not at the house. We got staff. We got people we pay. We got facility. The streaming equipment, when something breaks. And so y'all have been so amazing. And so we want to honor you again. This is how you can give. PayPal R. Martin Unfiltered. Vimo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And here are all the people who have given to our show since we launched. If you don't see your name, send us an email. We'll get it on there. We thank you all for all of your contributions. I will see you all tomorrow.

I'm actually flying to Kansas City tomorrow to meet with our folks. They're rebuilding the Road Roam Mobile 2.0. I'm going to find out the status of that. And so I will give you all an update on tomorrow's show. I'm flying up for the Roadmobile 2.0. I'm going to find out the status of that. And so I will give y'all an update on tomorrow's show. I'm flying up for the meeting to Kansas City, and I'm flying right back. So I'll see y'all tomorrow. Howl! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm out. More time Thank you. 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 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family.

They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. 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 the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. 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.