#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Sen. Amy Klobuchar & Voting Rights, Jason Walker Murder, Bobby Sneed Released, SpenDebt

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

1.12.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Sen. Amy Klobuchar & Voting Rights, Jason Walker Murder, Bobby Sneed Released, SpenDebtThe black man shot by an off-duty white North Carolina deputy is claiming self-defense. Witness statements contradict the deputy's claim. Ben Crump is representing the family of Jason Walker. He's here to give us an update on the investigation.Tomorrow, President Joe Biden is expected to rally Senate Democrats on election reform. I sat down with Senator Amy Klobuchar to talk about voting legislation and changing Senate rules to debate.  Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is not too happy with Biden's speech yesterday in Atlanta. He went on an extended rant; I'll break it all down for you.Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick will fill the congressional seat left by South Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings, who died last year. We'll talk to her about last night's victory.The Louisana man rearrested at the prison gates the day he was to be paroled is finally free. We'll talk to his attorney.The DOJ is creating a domestic terroristic unit. And cutting down your debt while spending money. We'll explain in our Marketplace segment sponsored by Verizon.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partners: Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3zSX7aJNissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee 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. Today is Wednesday, January 12, 2022. Coming up, Roland Martin unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. The black man shot by an off-duty white North Carolina deputy is claiming self-defense. Witness statements contradict the deputy's claim. Ben Crump is representing the family of Jason Walker. He is here to give us an update on the investigation,

along with the brother of Jason Walker. Tomorrow, President Joe Biden is expected to rally Senate Democrats on election reform. We will hear from Senator Amy Klobuchar about what they are doing to convince their fellow Democrats to support ending the filibuster to carve out for voting rights. Also, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, ooh, he is not happy at all. And so he blasted the president on the floor of the Senate today. We'll show you that nonsense.

We'll also talk to activists in Georgia who are on the ground fighting for votes. They, again, make it clear they want to see action from Senate Democrats. Congressman Alcee Hastings passed away last night. The person who won his seat, the special election, should be joining us right here on the show. The Louisiana man re-arrested at the prison gates for after spending 47 years in prison

has been finally released. We will talk with his attorney. And the DOJ is creating a domestic terrorism unit. Yep. For them white folks losing their mind. And of course, in our marketplace segment sponsored by Verizon, we'll also share with you in terms of how to cut down on your debt while spending money. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the miss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks

He's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Now. Martin. The family of the black man who was killed by an off-duty North Carolina deputy sheriff, they are demanding answers and they have hired attorney Ben Crump to help them. Jeffrey has shot and killed 37-year-old Jason Walker after he alleged that Walker ran into traffic and jumped onto the moving vehicle that the sheriff's deputy was driving.

So he said self-defense, but witnesses contradict what he has to say. Joining us right now is Attorney Ben Crump, as well as Marlo Walker, the brother of the deceased. Certainly glad to have both of you with us. Marlo, I'm so sorry for your family's loss, and you have to deal with all of this. First and foremost, Marlo, just give folks a sense of who your brother was. Jason was a kind-hearted gentleman. Loved people, showed you he loved you by being personable with you. It was nothing he wouldn't do for you.

If you asked him to do something for you, he would go out of his way to make sure he would do it for you or get it done for you. If you asked him to do something for you, he would go out of his way to make sure he would do it for you or get it done for you. And at the time of his passing, what was he doing? What was he doing there in Fayetteville, North Carolina? We grew up in Fayetteville. Grew up in Fayetteville, and so he was working there? Was he going to school there? Yes, he was working here in Fayetteville. Ben, we've been looking at this, and again, it's very interesting. The sheriff announced that the vehicle the officer was driving, the so-called black box, wasn it working or was it turned on? He's given a particular statement.

Now witnesses are saying totally different. Has any video come forward, anything else showing what happened? No video has come forward, Roland. And obviously the thing that is so heartbreaking to the family is the white woman, who is the only eyewitness that has come forward, said she was down trying to help save Jason's life. But yet the police, when they came to the scene, they did not even respond to him. they all went to this off-duty police officer, the person who hadn't shot anybody, even though the crowd was saying

this man is shot. And it reminds you, Roland Martin, of Ahmaud Arbery, how when the police got there, they didn't have any care for Ahmaud Arbery. They went directly to try to help this police not offer any compassion or humanity to the unarmed

black man that had been shot. And I get to learn more about Jason. He was a single parent raising his 14-year-old son and was a very thoughtful person. And it's just, this could have been avoided based on the witness account. There was no reason she believed for him to shoot her, shoot Jason. And she,

she, and I, and nobody with common sense believes a black man jumped on top of a moving truck. And more likely, like the witness said, he slammed on brakes, he hit Jason,

and more than likely, Jason slapped his hands on the hood. But we are waiting for the witness statements to come forward so we can get to the bottom of this.

We know a man who was inside a truck got out of a truck at some point and continued to shoot this man, per the witness. Shot him once from in the truck, but then shot

a total of four shots. And she believed he got out of his truck shooting. Well, the thing that's just, again, confusing here is, okay, so he jumped on the vehicle. So that's enough to kill somebody? I mean, you don't call for help, so your automatic instinct is to shoot and fire to kill as if he was attacking you?

I mean, I'm just trying to think, you know, if your officer was reasonable. Yeah. And what about de-escalation? And, and what Marlo and I talked about earlier, Roland, if this was a black man who has shot a white man in this instance, you know, they would have taken his gun on the scene. They would have detained him. They would have probably arrested him and took him into custody. But they didn't take his gun. They didn't detain him. They talked to him and took apparently everything he said is the gospel. And that's why people are so outraged, because people were on the scene and started gathering on the scene and saw how they treated this white, uh, off-duty deputy

versus how they gave no consideration to this unarmed Black man. And I think what we're gonna find, Roland, is that these witnesses have no dog in this fight. This white lady did not know Jason Walker. So why would she have any reason but to tell the truth as she saw it?

Marlo, again, it is, you know, as we're sitting here trying to understand what went on here, it's just still baffling to me that him running the traffic and jumping on a vehicle results in his life being taken.

Marlo, it looks like Marlo's video has frozen. Hopefully we get him back. Ben, where does this case stand? Who's actually investigating as well? Right now, Roland, they said that the mayor and the city council has asked the FBI to come in. They have been daily protesting since this happened, shutting down highways and protesting out in front of the police department. But where we stand right now, Roland Martin, and you and I have seen far too many of these, an autopsy was performed. We're going to get an independent autopsy because we think, in this case, trajectory of the bullets and entry wounds are going to be very important.

They believe he was shot in the back at some point. We need to know that. Whether they're going to be transparent and let out where the entry and exit wounds were on Jason Walker's body, we wait to see. We know, they already know now, Roland, because they did the autopsy. So are they going to be transparent? Are they going to tell us what they always tell us? It's a pending investigation and we can't reveal it. All right then. Attorney Ben Crump, we certainly appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much.

Absolutely, Roland Martin. All right, folks. Voting rights continues to be an issue that we have been focused on. The message by President Joe Biden yesterday and now is it's time to end the filibuster. Now, several voting rights groups sent their own message to the president, don't come to Georgia without a plan.

They made it clear that speech is one thing, but he has to do more. One of those organizations is the New Georgia Project. Nse Ufo, CEO of the New Georgia Project, joins us right now from Atlanta. Nse, glad to have you back on the show. Thanks for having me. Hi, Roland. So, you know, a lot of black folks upset with y'all. How dare y'all not go to the speech? What's wrong with you?

How dare you show up, President Biden, Vice President Harris? They were running around posting photos of MLK meeting with LBJ. Clearly they haven't read because there were many instances where Dr. King did not come to the White House, refused to meet with LBJ, especially when he opposed the Vietnam War. And one of the things that I have continued to tell people is that you need to learn the difference between an inside and an outside strategy.

There are people who are on the outside whose job is to push, push, push, and they don't have the same job as those who are sitting on the inside drinking coffee is to push, push, push, and they don't have the same job as those who are sitting on the inside drinking coffee, drinking tea, and having meetings. Absolutely. Listen, I think that folks got me mistaken for some social justice socialite. I'm an organizer.

I'm accountable to a base of people. We've helped 600,000 black folks and young people and Latinos and Asian Americans register to vote in all 159 of Georgia's counties. If I was focused on a photo op, if I was focused on getting invited to the cool kids parties, we would not be able to do that work in such a hostile environment like Bryan Camps, Georgia. And so I'm super clear about what our goals are and how we are to, and the plan that we have to advance towards those goals. And so I would argue that our approach is bearing fruit already. That, you know, breaking news today that there's going to be a vote on the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Now, we still have to overcome the filibuster hurdle. And so we still have to overcome cloture. And that will take a couple of days to play out. But that was not on

the agenda when the president was on his way to Atlanta yesterday to give a speech. And I would say that organizing did that. Well, and that's the thing that I keep trying to Atlanta yesterday to give a speech. And I would say that organizing did that. Well, and that's the thing that I keep trying to get folks to understand, because even what he said yesterday, Biden was not there three months ago, six months ago, nine months ago. It was the relentless pressure. It was the protest in front of the White House by Black Voters Matter and y'all and others. It was a poor people's campaign.

It was the arrests taking place at the U.S. Capitol. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, Congressman Hank Johnson, and others. It was that level of intensity that caused him to get off of that position. And so for all of these Twitter activists, these YouTube yakkers, and these folks who all they do is run their mouths on TikTok and Instagram,

and what I said to them, y'all ain't put y'all body out there. Y'all ain't going to no rural county in Georgia or Alabama and Mississippi in the middle of COVID, risking COVID, contracting COVID, and then you want to tell the actual people who are what to do? Kiss my ass.

Come on. Listen, we have boots on the ground in all 159 of Georgia's counties. They cannot say that. And again, I feel confident and anchored. So it's funny, because I got a call from our elders, Courtland Cox, who I'm going to shout out right now, an original member of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coalition. Student SNCC, ooh, they're going to kill me.

The Student Nonviolent Committee. Coordinating Committee, that's SNCC. Yes. Gave me a call and gave me the strategy documents from 1963 and 1964 that they were using in advance of the passage of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. Right. And told us, keep going. Right. That you're absolutely right. That there are people who are going to criticize you and attack you because they want to be invited to the White House Christmas party. And they have different goals than we have.

Our goal is to make sure that we are able to stop these attacks on our country's election infrastructure, that the attack is coming from inside the House. And this isn't some garden variety partisan bickering. This has the ability to destabilize our nation and interfere with our ability to self-govern. And it is also a direct attack on the growing Black political power that is happening in the Deep South. And that challenges the status quo, including Black Democrats who have enjoyed sort of acting as our representatives and as our spokespersons for far too long without actually getting anything done.

That's not everybody, but there are enough of them and they are vocal and they've been really critical of our organizing in this moment. And again, I'm gonna to listen to Cortland Cox and people who actually built, who took arrests, who took bricks to the face alongside John Lewis, who are telling us we were in this exact position in 1962, 1963. You're on the right path. Keep going. Well, in a moment, we're going to hear from Senator Amy Klobuchar, who I talked with, who laid out the kind of pressure that they are applying to their fellow Democrats.

At the end of the day, they've got to get all 50 Democrats on board. And there are two major senators, Sinema and Manchin, who are holding out. And again, the thing that I really wish all of these people who are running their mouths understand is the role of activists is not to make elected officials comfortable. In fact, your job is to make them uncomfortable, provide as much discomfort as possible. And here's the deal.

Y'all didn't go to the speech. It was on television. It was on radio. You could have streamed it, so it's not like you didn't hear it. Right. I heard the speech, right? We went on Instagram Live afterwards and, you know, gave some feedback and gave some commentary.

Again, I think that we all have choices to make, right? I got the same 24 hours as everyone else. And when I think about all that we have ahead of us in Georgia, right, we're talking about the legislative session that started on Monday, and Republicans weren't happy with the trash anti-voting bills that they passed last year. They came back this year and said, you know what, we're getting rid of drop boxes, right, that they just signed into law, Governor Kemp just signed into law, these trash, super-gerrymandered maps that are going to bind our hands for the next decade or more if we don't get the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed that will prevent these kinds of things or reverse them now that they're already happening.

So, again, there's going to be a vote tomorrow. And that was not the case before the speech in Atlanta. That was not the case before, you know, we drew a line in the sand. And organizing gets the goods. Being accountable to our people. I am facing the people. That's who we take our marching orders from. That's who we take our directions from. All right. N.C., we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.

Where can people, they want to support what y'all do, where can they go? I'm at N.C. Ufot on social media, but we're also at New Georgia Project all over. Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. Come look at these auntie dances if you want, if you choose. But the work continues. We would love, love, love to have your

support. Please put something in the collection plate or sign up to volunteer. All right. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Take care. All right. Scott Bolden, former head of the National Bar Association Political Action Committee, Robert Portillo, Executive Director, Rainbow Push Coalition, Peach Street Project.

Glad to have both of y'all on the show. Look, this is real simple. I mean, I just watched all of these whiners, these complainers, and I'm sitting here going, y'all ain't done a damn thing but just sit your ass in your comfortable crib and watch other folks do the work. You know, I mean, Robert, we were there in Georgia in 2020.

We were there as Black Voters Matter and New Georgia Project and all of these folks. They were on the ground. They were in Clayton County, in Marietta. They were out there in Athens and they were in Warner Robins and all these places. And so I'm sitting there going, how the hell y'all going to tell the folk doing the work what work they should be doing? Well, you know, I agree with you, Roland. The only issue that I would have is I think we have to get rid of this distinction of inside versus outside pressure. We've got to work from all angles concurrently.

So it's not that the people who are in the meeting with the president where, you know, I want to hobnob and rub elbows, I'm not going to pressure him. It's that there's a different role that Andy Young or that I was there with Reverend Jackson yesterday or Al Sharpton play on the inside versus what the activists do on the outside. And the issue that I had with the protest yesterday was we found out about the protest about an hour before. We were in the car headed to the actual speech of the president when we found out that people were boycotting outside.

Call me. I am the easiest person on earth to find. Now, Robert, you clearly didn't watch yesterday's, the Monday show because you had them on the show. They were all over media, so they didn't just tell everybody.

Hold up. They didn't tell everybody an hour before they were not showing up. They had a news conference on Monday where they disseminated Cliff Albright was on this show Monday saying why they were doing it. Roll it. My point is

we got Rainbow Push, NAACP, SELC, Urban League. We have a panoply of organizations. Okay, Robert froze. But Scott, those organizations were already gone. Sharpton was going to the speech. Derek Johnson, CEO of the NAACP, was going to the speech. So let's do this. But what I'm saying is we

have to deal with each other when we're all headed in the same direction. So let's figure out the ways to do this so we can be playing inside baseball, outside baseball, and work towards the same goal. That's the only issue that I have with it because I think that at any period of time, any energy that we're spending fighting each other is wasted energy because

that energy has to be directed at people like Joe Manchin, people like Christian Sinema, because right now, even if we do end the filibuster for voting rights, we don't have 50 votes. We don't have Manchin. We don't have Sinema. We don't have Hester. Other moderate, quote-unquote, Democrats, we're probably in about 45 votes

if you were to whip the vote right now. Ain't nobody fighting y'all. But what I'm saying, but Robert, Robert, what I'm saying is, just because you didn't get a call didn't mean folk were not talking to everybody. I mean, literally, literally, on Monday, on Monday, they were on this show. On this show. I mean, it was all over social media that they were not going. They disseminated a letter on the weekend.

It was in the New York Times on Sunday. They had a news conference on Monday. Scott? Yeah, they were all over. But here's the broader issue, right? I got what you're saying. But the fact that you got black folks who are on the ground protesting the president and Harris going to D.C.

I'm sorry, going to Atlanta for a speech is worth a deeper exploration. We've been saying it for months. We're going to protest outside and there'll be people on the inside. But I'll be honest with you. You got to take care of your base. And the Democratic base is not happy, angry, disappointed... That's why they didn't go to the speech! I... That's what I'm saying.

But-but that's the issue. The fact that you can work against Manchin all you want, but the White House has allowed this anger and angst to build up against them, because they put him in control. And they're talking about the Build Back Better bill more than they're talking, and infrastructure, more than they're talking about voting rights. And if you don't pass the voting rights bill, the Democrats are going to lose the House and Senate and probably the White House, too. And it's like,

all of a sudden, the bulb went off in Biden's head and said, hey, I'm losing a lot of Black political capital here. Let me run to Atlanta and do a speech. And, you know, you can't fool the people, the real activists like that. They looked at that speech and said, oh, yeah, talk is cheap, basically. Talk is cheap. And that's Biden driving that negative narrative,

not the activists. And here's the deal. NSE is still with us. NSE, all we heard last year, wait, wait, wait for after the COVID bill. Wait, wait for after the infrastructure bill. That's bullshit. Wait to after BBB. And it was kind of like, all right, how long we got to wait? When, in fact, you don't even had a majority.

Biden, you ain't even president without winning Georgia. Exactly. Hold up, hold up, hold up. Intay, you're on mute. Apologies. My apologies. Can you hear me now? Yes, hold on. Intay, you're on mute. Apologies. My apologies. Can you hear me now? Yes, go ahead.

It's absolutely true. Listen, I am, I grew up poor. I'm an immigrant in the deep south, right? My mom cleaned offices, right? And my dad was a faith leader. So when I think about all the awesome stuff that's in Build Back Better, the way that the Biden administration intends to expand the definition of infrastructure to include human capital and essential workers, like that speaks to me, my lived experience.

You don't think I want that to become our reality? I do. And what I also know is that if you're looking at it in terms of the politics of it or if you're looking at it in terms of as a domestic policy issue, there is nothing more important than expanding voting rights protections, federal voting rights protections in this moment. The Republicans are not playing that in the marketplace of ideas. Fewer and fewer people are buying what they are selling. But the way that they've been able to hold on to power is by cheating, is by rigging the rules and holding on to seats that they do not deserve, that they would not win in a fair fight. And so we have to go after that because we can't win on policy if we can't secure people's ability to participate in our elections. And we've been saying that.

And when Build Back Better crashed and burned at the end of the year, that's when they finally realized that we were right. Too little, too late. Well, no, first of all, well, first of all, look, it's not a question of too little, too late, because you won't know if it's too late

until they actually have a vote. That's the whole point. It certainly feels that way. No, it's not too little too late until you actually vote. Now, when we're supposed to take a vote, and if it goes down 50-48, or what the number is, then we actually know what's going on. So it ain't too little

too late until you actually see it. Look, what happens tomorrow, what Biden does, is going to be critically important. Going to the United States Senate, how he's going to rally those Democrats, How is he going to get in the face of Manchin and Sinema and say, look, I need y'all to step the hell up. That's the whole case. The House has already done their job.

Now it's time for the Senate. When we talk about the House, of course, Democrats, of course, they've had 221 votes, a very small margin in the House. Now it's back at 222 after last night's election in Florida, where Sheila Scherfelis McCormick won a special election in South Florida, becoming the nominee, becoming the first Democratic Haitian American in Congress.

And not only that, she succeeds Congressman Elsie Hastings, who passed away due to pancreatic cancer in April. She got 78 percent of the vote against Republican Jason Mariner. Of course, joining us right now is the Congresswoman-elect McCormick. Glad to have you on the show. You're walking into a very contentious Washington, D.C. Folks are demanding Democrats do their part. Look, you're in a state where they're using gerrymandering, they're passing voter suppression bills in order to change the outcome of what happened in 2020. Yes. I mean, right now, what we see going on, we saw even during my election that we had white supremacists who were on our sacred lands at the African-American library, at our E. Pat Larkin Center. We had many people who were coming out there, the proud boys who were trying to intimidate and actually exercise voter suppression in our district,

which we've never seen before. So voting rights is so important right now. And the reason why I was even elected was to fight that and ensure that the Black voice is being heard and that everything we ran on will be delivered. So it's so imperative right now that we can stand up in Congress

and make sure we're delivering what the people need, which is economic relief, housing and the ability to fight for our democracy by exercising their right to vote. Obviously, people want answers. They are holding Democrats responsible. They control the House. They control the Senate. Even though it's 50 50. One senator says no. Then that's it. You know, it collapses. They also hold the White House. Are you also, will you be saying to your new Democratic colleagues, the Democratic leadership, y'all had better pay attention because if you don't, Val Demings ain't going to have a shot

against Senator Marco Rubio in Florida. You're going to be losing other places as well if you do not respond and pass the kind of legislation that African-American voters want to see. Exactly. That's exactly the message we have for them, because even as I'm running, I see so many people who are coming over to me asking to help them, families who are homeless. I saw one the other day who had four daughters who was living in the park, and she was asking us to help her find housing. She had Section 8, but she couldn't find a Section 8 voucher, but she couldn't find a place where she could use it because the housing prices are so astronomical. Right now, the community wants results. And if we cannot have the Democratic Party actually standing up and fighting for the

community, acknowledging the community, especially Black communities, it's going to be extremely hard for us to bring that percentage that Val Demings will need. And the unfortunate thing about it is that she's such a great candidate that right now we need the Democratic Party to step up and step up so strong so we can actually get that seat. And there's no reason for us not to have that seat. Right now, with the Black voting power we have in my district who are coming out with this election, we brought up record numbers of Haitian Americans and Caribbeans. We can actually take this election, but we can't do it by ourselves. We need people to stand up strong and actually fight for us and make sure even immigration policies are fair, because we saw how the Haitians Americans were treated wasn't the same as the ones

who were at the border. And even when it comes to people of color, immigrants who are black and brown are not treated the same. So if we can't deliver, especially in Congress right now while we have the majority, it's going to be extremely hard to push everybody out and say, hey, take a chance because we can do it this time. For you, I take it that Haiti is going to be something that is important to you, representing those constituents there. You know, your Cuban Americans have significant power there in South Florida. They impact Cuban American policy. And the reality is having a first Haitian American

on the Democratic side is important to speaking to how America treats that country. It is. It's extremely important, especially after we saw Haitians who were at the border being whipped, who were actually being yelled at. Just the treatment that we've been seeing when it comes to Haitian American immigrants has been despicable. And I'll be honest with you, a lot of Democrats here were upset with the administration about it. But we believe that if we had a member in Congress

who understood the pain that Haitian Americans feel, the pain that Haitian people feel, continuously having to suffer from these policies that are clearly racist and will have a huge stench of racism because we've never been treated the same as our white counterparts. And it's something that we've been seeing going on continuously. Even in the Hispanic community, we see that when it comes to other nationalities. So it's right now the time for the administration and members of Congress to stand with me as we act and demand for equality when it comes to immigration, especially when it comes to a pathway to citizenship. All of these

issues are so important, but it's compounded in my district when you're also facing the problem of being Black in America. That's when you have a twofold problem, and that's what we're trying to do right now, is to solve those problems and ensure that everyone knows that the Democratic Party is actually fighting for us in our time of need. My district is one of the districts that has the highest poverty rates in the entire country. And that's what makes it even more imperative that we're here to meet those needs. So what also your what's going to be your focus? My focus is economic development, especially when it comes to opportunities. We see that build back better. And even in the infrastructure bill, there's a lot of opportunities there for Americans living in this country.

However, we've seen the inconsistencies and discrepancies when it comes to black and brown people even attaining contracts. As a businesswoman, I've seen that my whole entire life. We're always the subcontractors. We're never the prime. When it comes to women, how much we're being paid. As a single mother, I struggled to pay my bills because I couldn't get paid the same amount as my white counterparts. If we're going to start equality and talk about social justice, we have to confront the economic discrepancies when it comes to Black and brown communities. And that

starts now. All the money that's coming down from the federal government, we need to make sure that we're actually on the forefront and we're being systematically written into those contracts that we actually have a chance at it. The second thing that we're focusing on is health care. There are so many mental health issues in my district and so many people who don't have access to health care. So right now, as we're in the pandemic, they're still being forced to take care of themselves, figure it out. And unfortunately, a lot of people who need money, they're even willing to go to work having COVID because they know they can't take time off. We cannot live in one of these countries that has so much money, and we're still living under these terms. And the worst thing about it, if you look at zip code, it really is proportionate

to the races that live in the zip code who have access to jobs, who have access to health care. And that's why I keep going back to this social justice issue is not over. It's far from over. And the activists are right. We have to fight hard to bring it to the forefront, because if we can't do it at a time like this, it will never be done. And everybody knows that. And every voter knows that. And that's why it's so crucial that we do this before the elections. All right, then. Well, Congresswoman-elect McCormick, we certainly appreciate having you here right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Look forward to seeing you here in the nation's capital.

Thank you so much. And thank you for having me. All right. Thank you so very much, folks. We talked to Senator Amy Klobuchar about the battle in Congress as we speak. And so right now, let's hear what she had to say earlier today. Senator Amy Klobuchar, glad to have you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's hop right into it. Big speech yesterday by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris. He finally comes out and says that use in the filibuster for a carve out for voting rights.

The question is, how do you get it done when you have six to seven Democrats who are waffling on the issue, two who say they are adamant they're not going to do it? Well, from my perspective, the focus is on two. And you know who they are, Senator Manchin, Senator Sinema, who've been public issues with this. And I'll just tell your viewers what I've told them. When President Biden said that time stopped when that bomb went off in Birmingham at that church and killed those little girls, and when he said time stop, when John Lewis was trying to cross that bridge and got beat up and bloodied, time stopped on January 6th. And this attack on our democracy started before that

and it continued after that. And this is our moment. So that's the first thing. The second thing is, this is just complete absurdity that the Senate rules are static or they stay where they are. 160 times you've had various votes where it was not 60 votes, it was 51. That includes things like turning down arms sales,

Roland, turning down arms sales. It includes things that are huge, like the reconciliation tax and spend bills. And that's how, of course, we got through that rescue plan earlier this year, or how they got the Trump tax cuts done. So let's start with that. Big things, small things, numerous times. It was Senator Byrd himself of West Virginia who said, well, you need to change the rules when the circumstance change. And I think an all-out assault on our democracy is it. So that's what we're focused on right now, is the continued negotiations, including one at 8 this morning, a number of senators, including Senator Padilla and Warnock

and many others, negotiating to get these guys to change the rules. There really is no other way. Now, you don't have to get rid of the filibuster. I would do that, but you don't have to do that. You can literally take some of the examples of history and make changes to the Senate rules so that we can actually have a debate. It's not even a question of history. How about recent history? Oh, last month, it was changed to raise the debt ceiling. Exactly. And both of them were open to doing it. I mean, you really, at some point, you've got to decide, as the president so beautifully pointed out yesterday and the vice president, you know, what side are you on here?

And to me, it's really obvious. And you and your program have featured incredible experts and others that will tell you what's gone wrong with voting. But I like to throw out a few examples. Montana, fifth is where John Tester is. Good guy helping us out here, right? Moderate, but firmly believes we have to change the filibuster rules. Changed his position on it after seeing that the Senate's broken.

Fifteen years, they had same-day registration in that state. The last election in 2020, 8,000 people took advantage of that. Of course, they changed their address because they moved. They did other things. They just took it away because that was how they could target it with a few number of votes in Montana. It's how they could do the most damage. Or what we know they did in Georgia when you saw Warnock and Ossoff win

in that last month by registering 70,000 people, which was completely the right thing to do with our democracy. They took away that right in Georgia. So you can just march through the country and see overhauls of the election system. Usually you change election laws to make it easier to vote, like some states, Republicans and Democrats, secretaries of State did during the pandemic. This is a full-out effort to make it harder for people to vote. And that's where party aside, no matter where people are,

left, right, conservative, liberal, we cannot have that in a democracy. You've got to make it easier for people to vote, not harder. Those are the impassioned arguments we're making to our colleagues, and they've got to decide. Well, here's the other thing that jumps out at us on this particular issue here, that I don't understand how Democrats are blind. Senator Mitch McConnell changed the rules to allow for a simple majority to get Supreme

Court justices on for life. Now, all those Republicans say, oh, it was Senator Harry Reid who did it. No, Senator Harry Reid changed it for appointments and for lower courts, not for the Supreme Court. So no, any Republican who's whining about this, they changed the rules. McConnell did it nine days before an election. Unbelievable. And that's exactly what he did with Amy Coney Barrett. That's exactly what he did when he rejected Merrick Garland being put on the court in the last year of President Obama's term. We know what they've been up to. It's very obvious. And we got to call them out on it. And I do like that you got to this because, of course, my focus right now being here is on our two colleagues to make the case to them, something President Biden will be doing tomorrow when he addresses our caucus.

But the other piece of that has to be out there and strong is that every single Republican in the U.S. Senate and the president explained yesterday, Strom Thurmond was even for voting and making it easier to vote in the Voting Rights Act. Every single Republican right now, under the spell of Donald Trump, the gray cloud of him hanging over every single thing we do, has refused to make the changes necessary. The Voting Rights Act, that's a John Lewis bill, have refused to acknowledge what is going on where they're making it harder and harder for people to vote. And as you know from that House investigation where only Liz Cheney and one other congressman have stood up, I've refused to acknowledge that we need to get to the root causes. This is serious stuff. And so it's really, really important that people understand that Democratic Party with moderates like John Tester and Mark Warner are on our side here. Right. We don't have some big divide in the party rolling right now.

We're working on two people and it's not that they don't agree with the bill. Joe Manchin's name is on the bill. Co-sponsor. The Vote Act. It's co-sponsor. Sinema co-sponsored the bill. Yep. So it's not that. What is actually going on here is their belief in these Senate rules. And the more I look at it, the more ridiculous it is. You also have other examples of bills that they played a game to get them passed

and by changing the rules. Selective service one year, a bill about endangered species, the Bush tax cuts. It just goes on and on. Literally every few years you see a bill pass, some big, some small, where people went around that 60 vote requirement. And this is our democracy at stake. Also, I think what jumps out at me here is I'm not quite sure what reality that they're living in. Republicans are passing voter suppression bills in the states with simple majorities. And it is abundantly clear. We are seeing right now in Tennessee, there are seven Republicans in the House from Tennessee, two Democrats. They want to change it to where they want to break up Nashville into four pieces,

where there's only one Democrat in the whole state. They got a 7-2 majority. They want to have an 8-1 majority. Yesterday, a court in North Carolina said, well, let the gerrymandered maps go forward. The Supreme Court already ruled, hey, we can't get involved in political gerrymandering. I don't understand what the holdouts are doing because they are guaranteeing, Republicans literally are on a path to guarantee they could pick up 15 to 20 seats before a single vote is cast. And the bill stops political gerrymandering. Yes, one of the things, and by the way, Senator Manchin felt strongly about this, was to put standards forward

so you do not allow for that partisan gerrymandering. It's actually not that hard to do. It gives the courts an actual standard that you can't do that. That is in the bill. Stopping that dark money that's been polluting our politics with the Disclose Act, that is in the bill, something else he strongly supports.

And then of course, getting at all of this undemocratic stuff, and I mean like anti-democracy stuff that they're doing, by we now can guarantee with this bill, the vote to vote by mail. Once it passed, we would be guaranteeing that people didn't have to get a witness or a notary. They need a witness right now in South Carolina, even if they've got COVID, a witness to get their application for their ballot. There have been bills introduced,

like in Milwaukee, a bill was introduced to have only one drop-off ballot box in the entire city of Milwaukee. And they know they got a Democratic governor out there, so they didn't push that one. But they did pass other things that he had to veto. That is the kind of thing we're seeing across the country, concerted effort, as one North Carolina court said about a bill a few years ago, discrimination with surgical precision. And I just thought the president's words yesterday when he talked about how this is a moment where time stands still, and everyone's going to remember what he did at this moment. They're going to remember it right away, but they're also going to remember it in the long term when they're standing in 10 hours

in the sun and they got to go back to work, like happened in Georgia to a bunch of people. And so then they can't vote or what you've seen in Arizona, or when they've got a sham audit that somehow overturns results, or when they throw out an election board like they're trying to do in Wisconsin and then turn over the actual counting of the vote to a state legislature. I don't think anyone thought any of this possible a few years back. And then Donald Trump came into the world, and then he decided that he didn't want to win an election by winning voters. He's going to change the voters. Find me the votes in Georgia. Remember that? Find me the votes, he said after the election. So that's what's going on. And we've got to be really honest

about this because people got a lot going on. We've got we got the Omicron going on. They're dealing with schools. They're trying to keep their kids strong. They've got all this stuff getting a booster shot. A lot is on people's plate right now. They know what they got to do to keep their families safe. And you got to listen to the science. But it makes it even harder to realize if we want to move the way we need to move and get things done for this country and actually compete with the rest of the world, we've got to be a functioning democracy. That's what's always held us apart of so many other countries. Well, I'll tell you what, Senator Klobuchar, when I see any of these Republicans and some of these holdout folks quoting Dr. King this weekend, I'm going to say he spoke against the filibuster. So don't talk about his life if you don't want to follow what he believed in.

Completely. That's the way to do it. Senator Clover, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Bye. Take care. All right, folks.

A little bit later in the show, we've got some shits and giggles breaking down Mitch McConnell's speech today on the Senate floor. Utterly hilarious. I can't wait to y'all actually see that. Folks, 10 years ago on November 19, 2011, in White Plains, New York, police were dispatched to the home of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. after his medical arm went off. Police tasered and then fatally shot him. Everything that happened can be seen in the movie The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain.

Of course, it stars Frankie Faison, one of the seen in the movie, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain. Of course, it stars Frankie Faison, one of the producers of the movie. Also, it's Morgan Freeman. And joining us right now is Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. Glad to have you on the show. Morgan, it's been a while since I've seen you at the NAACP Image Awards. Glad to see you looking well, looking prosperous.

I think you're on mute. Yeah, and thank you for having there we go go can can go and talk to make sure we got you. Can you hear me now got you more can go and talk to make sure I got you. Yeah, there we go all right then OK here we go. Glad to have a both of you. Morgan, I want to start with you.

Look, there are a lot of reasons, a lot of things that you could be doing, things you could be involved in. Why did you decide that, you know what, I've got to be involved and be behind this film? Just look at recent history. There have been in recent memory, mainly because of cell phones, cameras, that these killings of a black man by police have been documented. This one was documented also, but it happened 10 years ago. The phenomenon has been since George Floyd that all of these people have been brought to task or made to account for. This is a story in which the authorities have not been held accountable. And I think the only

way that they would be held accountable is if this story is publicized. And so that's primarily what we're trying to do. Correct or wrong. One of the things, Frankie, the role that art plays is not just in terms of retelling of a story, but it also has the opportunity to spur people to action. We've seen previous documentaries and movies do the exact same thing.

What do you hope your portrayal, what do you hope this film does to make people aware of this story, but also that, as Morgan just said, folks involved have not been held accountable? Well, I think that they have not been held accountable. And I think that the thing that I wish in this film is for people to understand and see the roles of police officers when they have confrontations with civilians, and that it's not just a bang, bang, I'm the police,

you're the civilian, do as I say, but to find some sort of sensitivity and understanding and deal with each case as an individual case. And I hope that they see that because otherwise you can cause great suffering and great pain and anxiety as you see Kenneth Chamberlain experiencing for the last 90 minutes of his life. Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., I started this show off with the story out of North Carolina, uh, where a black man, uh, where this North Carolina off-duty deputy

shot and killed him, claiming that he, uh, jumped on his vehicle in traffic. Um, folks are demanding answers there. We've done numerous stories. We were down in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, covering the protest there of a brother who was shot and killed by SWAT officers. We've done another. As a matter of fact, while we were there, we met the family of another young man who was shot and killed by cops at a funeral when he was trying to protect others. And that case hasn't been resolved. Yet you hear folks say, well, look, this is really not that major of a deal. No, justice is justice. Well, I agree with you. And I can just say from my perspective,

I mean, we have 10 years now and there hasn't been any justice. So I actually stopped saying it. I now ask for accountability because I say that when you talk about justice, justice should be immediate and not carried out later. And this is my argument around the whole statement when people say, you know, justice delayed is not justice denied. But I could argue that. So we push for accountability and we push for a culture of accountability, even in law enforcement, if we're going to try to build trust between the police and the community. But far too many times we hear the same thing over and over again, and that is after an exhaustive investigation, the grand jury has determined that there's not sufficient enough evidence to charge the officer

in the killing of, and then you add the name at the end. I remember this story vividly, but for the folks who do not know the details, just share with us exactly what happened to your father a decade ago. Well, on November 19, 2011, my father, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a heart condition, and bipolar disorder, inadvertently triggered his life-aid pendant that he wore around his neck. The monitoring station attempted to contact him. They were not successful. They contacted the White Plains Police Department, who are first responders.

They arrived at my father's apartment in an area that they consider low-income but high crime. They knocked on his door. He came to the door. He said he was okay and that he didn't call them, but that wasn't enough. So for over 90 minutes, they would bang on the door, yell at him, scream at him, mock his military service.

At one point, he says, I'm telling you I'm okay, and an officer could be heard using the N-word and an expletive. They eventually take the door off his hinges, fire an electronic taser at him, beam bag shotgun four times, and then they shoot him and killing him, alleging that he posted them in a threat to life and well-being. Morgan, as I sat there and listened to Kenneth give us those details,

I thought back to Kojima Powell, a young brother who was shot and killed by cops in St. Louis not long after Michael Brown was killed. It was 16 seconds, 16 seconds from when officers arrived on the scene with the door open to where the first shots rang out. They said he was charging at them with a knife when they could have easily just stepped behind the car, and then he's alive. In this case here, my God, the man is telling you I'm fine. 90

minutes and you take the hinges off, you storm in, and you shoot and kill. Seriously. That's the thing that drives black folks so crazy is that even when we're in our home,

we aren't safe. Well, that is just one of the truths, Roland. In this case, they also, police have been contacted by the 911 dispatcher and told that it was a mistake, it was an unnecessary call, and they should stand down. Their argument, however, was in court that once called, they have an obligation to check out the call, to investigate, to see with their own eyes. That's how they got away with it in court, in a way, I think. Am I right, Kenneth? Well, yeah. I mean, Dan, you're talking about

the whole argument around qualified immunity, which is supposed to protect officers from frivolous lawsuits. But this is, you know, far from that. We did lose the original decision in court, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals actually restored some of the original rulings, kicked it back. And I keep telling people one of the more powerful statements with that is that the Second Circuit said that instead of treating Kenneth Chamberlain or Mr. Chamberlain like a critically ill patient, you treated him like a criminal suspect. So we're back in court now. We're hoping for a different type of decision now. And the current Westchester County District Attorney is also reviewing the case. And that point right there, Frankie, is also

what we're dealing with. People are saying, oh, Democrats, you want to defund the police, when actually what people are saying is stop sending police, people who are trained to, frankly, shoot and kill people, to situations that might require mental health experts, that might require medical experts. If you sent, let's say, a wellness officer, if you will, but who wasn't armed with a gun, Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. doesn't get killed at 68 years old. I agree 100%. And I'm often thinking in conversations I've had about this film and

this character, I'm often thinking that if the police, if they tried any kind of a different angle at trying to get inside this house and see this man, rather than brute force, you would have a different outcome. If they had maybe implored his niece or anybody in the hall to say, maybe you can go up and speak to him. Or if they tried to say to even Kenneth Chamberlain, all right, let's take five minutes here. Let's think about this situation. Take a softer approach. But they didn't. They took, from the moment that they knocked on that door, it was bam, bam, bam, slam, we getting in. I want you to open the door. And they had no consideration or no training or understanding

as how they could use some other resources, somewhat a different kind of approach in trying to get into this home. And that breaks my heart because this should not have ended the way that it ended. And even once they got inside the home, you got six, five, six police officers against one man. Old man. You're still saying you have to...

A 68-year-old man, a 20-year... a veteran of the Marines and a 20-year corrections officer. Right. So it's, you know, you do the math. You know, you weigh them against him, and you know that it was not necessary. Indeed.

I can't think of any kind of scenario, unless he had a gun, a shotgun, a rifle, or something like that. That's different. So it breaks my heart to think about it. I just... Well, I've had to interview a lot of mothers and fathers and family members in similar situations, and it's unfortunate that we have to do a lot of these stories.

Folks, this is the film poster, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain. Kenneth Chamberlain accidentally triggered his medical alert pendant at 5.22 a.m. By 7 a.m., he was dead. Frankie Faison stars as Kenneth Chamberlain. Before I let you go, I would be remiss to ask you, Morgan, and ask you, Frankie,

both of you, just to simply share your thoughts about the loss of the great Sidney Poitier. Yeah. Sidney and I were friends. Became friends some years ago. It's always been my beacon in life. I wanted to be an actor. And when I saw him in the movies,

I knew that I could be an actor. And I've just sort of tried to pardon my life after him. I'm, I don't feel a loss at his death because he lived a full life. I just want to, I want to do that too. Frankie. And I want to just say that like Morgan said, he saw him and he wanted to be an actor

and he thought that that was opening the gateways so that he could do it. And I felt the same way coming up a little bit behind Morgan. I saw Sidney Poitier and the man carried himself with such dignity and-and-and-and self-esteem, and also, he was such a talented, talented man.

Every time you saw him, you would believe everything that he says and does on that screen. And he was a force to be reckoned with. And without him, I mean, I... I don't know if I would be where I am today. I, too, wanted to be like Sidney Poitier. I wanted people to look at me and think of me and think of me as a person who could be a role model

or someone who really glorifies and dignifies the art of acting and as a human being. And I think that he had both. So. Well, I certainly do. acting and as a human being. And I think that he had both. So, well, I certainly do. And I, like Morgan, I celebrate his life. Yes, indeed. Yeah.

Now I'm back. There you go. Well, that's my answer. Well, that's why on Friday we did, we did a whole two hour tribute to him. We had some great actors, Glenn Turman, and so many others, Blair Underwood, who joined us to celebrate his life. You know, other people, other news outlets

just sort of did a three or four minute package. I said, no, that brother deserves a little bit longer. So that's why we did that. And that's why we have this show because we get to, because I own it. We ain't got to ask nobody permission what we talk about and who we talk to. So that's why we have y'all on. So I appreciate

y'all coming on, folks. You can check out The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain on HBO Max. Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., thank you so very much for joining us. Again, we are sorry for the loss of your father in these tragic circumstances and hopefully this film will bring about some justice. Morgan Freeman, always

good to see you. We thank you and appreciate, love your work and all that you do as well. And Frankie, thank you so much as well, who will go down in film history with great movie lines from Coming to America. Y'all take care. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have your back. Great to see you guys.

Great to see you guys too. All right, folks. I'm going to go to a break. We come back more roller Martin unfiltered on the black star network. We got lots more to talk about deconstruct Mitch McConnell. Also, I'm a pop into the birthday celebration for Baltimore state's attorney,

Marilyn Mosby to wish her congratulations. And again, man, lots more we gotta cover, including crazy-ass white people. A school board member in Texas, he gonna blame black teachers for dropout rates of black kids? Yeah, I'll be back. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Hi, how's it going? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Seals.

Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. What's up? Lonnie Wells, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. Senator Mitch McConnell, he wasn't happy at all with what President Joe Biden had to say. So today on the Senate floor, the grave digger himself, the crypt keeper, he chose to weigh in. We're going to deconstruct. This is pure comedy, y'all. So just go ahead and roll it. Twelve months ago, a newly inaugurated President Biden stood on the West Front of the Capitol. And here's what he had to say. My whole soul is in this, bringing America together, uniting our people, and uniting our nation.

Yesterday, that very same man delivered a deliberately divisive speech that was designed to pull our country further apart. Twelve months ago, this president said we should see each other not as adversaries, but as neighbors. Yesterday, he called millions of Americans his domestic enemies. Twelve months ago, the president called on Americans

to join forces, stop the shouting, lower the temperature. But yesterday, he shouted that if you disagree with him, you're George Wallace. George Wallace. If you don't pass the laws he wants, you're Bull Connor. And if you oppose giving Democrats untrammeled one-party control of the country, well, you're Jefferson Davis. Twelve months ago, this president said disagreement must not lead to disunion. Ah, but yesterday he invoked the bloody disunion of the Civil War. The Civil War.

To demonize Americans who disagree with him. He compared, listen to this, a bipartisan majority of senators to literal traitors. How profoundly, profoundly unpresidential. Look, I've known...

Profoundly unpresidential, Scott? Mmm, somebody upset. Sit. You're on mute. Damn. Okay. I mean, it's hard to accept Mitch McConnell for being objectionable or disillusioned or angry about the president's remarks. As he was talking, I was thinking about how the majority of the Republicans in the House who don't support the January 6th commission.

I think about McConnell who voted not to impeach Donald Trump but then suggested that DOJ should prosecute Donald Trump if he did anything wrong. The January 6th commission, who wants to get to the bottom of an insurrection that the Republicans, many of them, have denied that this was an insurrection or domestic terrorism. And then the complete hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell in regard to Biden, who has tried to build one nation, has argued unity, and yet at every juncture, the Republicans have stifled him, including voting rights, including his buyback, better America. But more importantly, let's not forget that the

infrastructure bill that was passed was the Republican version of infrastructure. No unity there between the Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats took what they could get. And then the Republican legislatures across this country who are making it harder to vote than easier to vote. And they're making it harder to vote because they need to reduce the number of people voting because that's how they went and if they reduce the ability to vote then they take over the country well that's what that's why that's so funny like oh no they're trying to do this to take over the country yeah i'm like uh hold on one second for more comedy press play liked and personally respected Joe Biden

for many years. I did not recognize the man at the podium yesterday. American voters... Pause. Come on. Well, Monique, I'm sure. Did nobody recognize

punk-ass McConnell for the last four years of Trump? Still in Supreme Court. Scott, I said, Monique, I wasn't done. Well, guess what? You are done. Monique, go. But the fact of the matter is that is Joe Biden. So that's the part that's absurd about what Mitch McConnell is saying. He knows the Joe Biden that led Justice Committee in the Senate. He knows the Joe Biden that used to bang on the desk and have his head sweating and look like he was about to start spinning around in his chair. So to say that he does not get animated, to say that he's not passionate

about his ideas is ridiculous. The problem is that he has reverted to that Joe Biden because of the complete and total shutdown and made-up minds of the Trump Party to not work on anything. So he is in the corner. They put him in, and Joe Biden knows how to fight. And that's what he did yesterday. It's game on. All right. Play a little bit more of the Crypt Keeper. Not give President Biden a mandate for very much.

He got a tied Senate. Negative coattails in the House. The narrowest majorities. And over a century. Robert, I thought Republicans said winning has consequences. I thought they said when you win, you get to lead. Wasn't that how they operated in 2016? That was indeed. I think what we have to remember is think back to what the Republican Party used to be. When I first got involved in civil rights, it was Janice Mathis organizing the march for the reauthorization of voting rights back in 2004. And eventually we had a Rose Garden signing ceremony with the Bush administration after the voting rights reauthorization passed 99 to nothing with a voice vote in the Senate. Now here we are, you know, 14 years or 16 years later, and you have to suspend

the filibuster rules because the Republican Party has become so entrenched, so intransigent, so partisan that you can't get a single Republican to cross party lines to support that exact same legislation's reauthorization. And that's before you even get to the 40 People Act or for the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act or anything else. What Mitch McConnell knows is the simple math of America. They are no longer a majority party. They are no longer the second majority party in America right now. You have the Democratic Party followed by independents, followed by Republicans coming in third at 28% of the American people supporting their agenda. The 50 Republican senators represent 41 million fewer Americans than the 50 Democratic senators. In the House of Representatives, they represent

something like 4 million fewer Americans than the Democrats in the House of Representatives. It's been 17 years since a Republican has won the popular vote in a presidential election, and that was the only time they've won in the last 32 years since George H.W. Bush in 1988. So what they understand is if you give every American the protected right to vote, they won't be able to get elected at any level of American politics. That's why they're standing in the way of voting rights. That's why they're fighting against this. This is why you can't get a single Republican to cross party lines, because if you had a protected right to vote, if they weren't able to cheat, they will. Their party will be extinct tomorrow. And that's why they will take this to the grave, this fight against the right to vote.

All right. Actually, so y'all pause one second. Let's do this here. Let's. So right now, I was supposed to do this about 10 minutes ago. Let's go live to right now, Marilyn Mosby has a birthday party that's going on right now. Can she hear me? Marilyn, can you hear me? Can y'all hear me? We can hear you rolling. All right, y'all gonna put me up?

Yes. Come on, boo. Let's come to him now. We will come to him now. All right, Marilyn, how you doing? I'm good. Thank you for coming on, Roland. So we're actually live on my show right now. So we actually have this feed broadcast on my show.

Huh? I said this black man is doing big things. We got to support you. So that's exactly what we're doing. Things are going quite well. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Of course, y'all having a great time. You're having a virtual party.

I see my man Kevin Liles there. I see Shalonda Stokes and Liz Smith and so many others. I saw Anthony Anderson earlier being in front. We had him on top of the show. And so I got Scott Bolden on the show as well. But we muted his mic. He be holding me down. We got to represent for Scott.

We got to represent. But we muted his mic. He talked too damn much. So his microphone's on mute. Monique Presley's here. Robert Portillo's here as well. So I want to certainly support what you do. Happy birthday, sis.

Happy birthday. So they all shout. Happy birthday. So they all shout you happy birthday. I want everybody to, of course, support Marilyn and what she's doing. She's running for re-election. And look, we've always had her back. And folks are going after folks like her and her brother, Alvin Bragg,

and New York and all these other DAs. But let's have sensible people who are operating as attorneys. And so, again, happy birthday. Enjoy the party. And so I'll try to pop in after we get done with the show. But I got to get back to work. Thank you, bro.

I appreciate you, Roland. I appreciate it. I'm proud of you. We got to represent for this, brother. We got to... Y'all better stream him. Okay, y'all. We'll stream him.

We'll stream. Thank you. That's right. Do it. Do it. All right, then. Look, y'all on screen. Thank you. That's right. Do it. All right, then. Look, y'all go back to the party. I see the DJ is ready.

Kevin Louse, return a brother's phone call. Oh, he's going to snap his finger at you if you don't return his phone call. Well, I'm waiting to get Kevin back on the golf course. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Oh, shit. Deal.

All right, I'll be waiting. You too, Shalonda Stokes. All right, Marilyn, take care. Thank you. Love you, Roland. Love you as well. Thanks a lot. All right, y'all. See, we multitask on the show here. All right, let's get back to our conversation. Here's more of the Crypt crypt keeper. Mr. McConnell

President did not get a mandate to transform America or reshape society But he did arguably get a mandate to do just one central thing That he campaigned on Here's what that was. Bridge a divided country, lower the temperature, dial down the perpetual air of crisis in our politics. That is the one central promise that Joe Biden made. It is the one job citizens actually hired him to do. It is the one project that would have actually been consistent

consistent with the Congress the voters elected. Ah, but President Biden has chosen to fail his own test. The president's rant, rant yesterday, was incoherent, incorrect, and beneath his office. He used the phrase Jim Crow. Larry is listening to this whiner. He was elected to bring the country together. This is the same man, Scott, where the House passed 400 bills

and he wouldn't even take them up. This is the man who actually kissed Donald Trump's ass so much he probably was leading in blackface. Give me a break. He's feigning that he's offended by Biden, and yet he's the nemesis and the enemy of unity and dialing

down the political rhetoric. And the one who was driving the political rhetoric up was Donald Trump, as you said. I mean, the bringing the country together, if there's one thing that we can bring the country together on, it's got to be January 6th and the loss of police officers, the loss of life, and the injury of 140 police officers on an attack on the Capitol. And the Republican Party, he's a Senate majority leader. We've got Republicans on the House side who won't cooperate, who won't even show up to a vigil to recognize the insurrection

and honor those who gave their lives, trying to protect them. Listen to that. They were trying to protect them, and they won't even acknowledge or show up for an anniversary vigil or program and will not cooperate with the commission, probably because the commission's going to find out how deeply our Republican elected officials were tied up in the lead end to that resurrection and the goals and objectives, including Donald Trump. And yet he's offended because voting rights cannot...

We can't bring the country together on voting rights. He's offended that he... that Biden chastised the Republicans about this issue. He's feigning being offended. He actually loves being the enemy and the nemesis against unifying this country and unifying the Republicans and the Democrats. Monique, my position is very simple.

I ain't taking no speeches from nobody who defended Donald Trump. Mm-hmm. Right. Well, I mean, he did until he didn't, but that doesn't matter. He's also he's not correct. The one mandate, if there if there was one mandate for President Biden, the first one for many voters was that he would be someone other than Donald J. Trump. So he's meeting that mandate. And then any other mandates behind that came from the people who actually got him elected. So, of course, I'm first talking about Black women. I'm talking about Black people generally.

I'm talking about people of color. I'm talking about the goodwill of people who are progressive, who are liberal leaning. I'm talking about those who cared about voting rights and knew that they would expect him to do something about it. Those who marched in streets for police reform, for justice in policing and still expect for him to do something about it. I mean, people who cared about this pandemic and expected and are appreciating him having an approach that follows the science and is attempting to do something about that. People who appreciate infrastructure work and who appreciate money in their pockets. Those are the things that we voted for him to do. And that's why he's up there in Georgia like yesterday saying, I understand you brought me here and I intend to do something about it. So I don't pay any attention necessarily to Mitch McConnell's ongoing power grab to me. As I've said many times on this show, he's the real

devil. He's the real Lucifer. He's the real monster. He's the real dictator. He's the one with darkness where there should be a heart. He does not care about the citizens of this country. He cares about holding on to power for power's sake, and he is not at all concerned about getting anything done. He's proven that over and over again. This was the man who said his one job, one mandate during the Obama administration was to ensure that he didn't get

anything done. Right. He's just wrong. He's wrong on all counts. Okay, damn. How long when are your ass gonna be? You getting like Scott. I got something else to say, too. Nah, damn. I didn't get a lot. Nah, nah. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ass going to be? You're getting like Scott. I got something else to say, too. Nah, damn. I didn't get a lot of Wi-Fi. Nah, nah. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

Earlier. That's your janky ass cricket Wi-Fi at your house. Well, just a lot to say. Don't be coming on an hour late, then your ass want to catch up. Nope. You missed your shot. Well, I'll yield. You missed your damn shot.

Robert, here's the thing. Scott, be quiet. Robert, here's the thing. Here's the thing for me. I'm so sick of this bullshit mandate stuff. I mean, oh, oh, you have a mandate. Son of a bitch, we won. Now, let me tell you something.

If you win the World Series 4-3, if you win the World Series 4 games 3, your ass won. It's the same shit as if you won 4-0 to 4-3. If your ass win the Super Bowl by a point or 30 points, they call you world champions. But this bullshit about mandate

or you don't have a mandate, yeah, we had a mandate 270, bitch. That's the mandate. The mandate is 270. And so... And I need people to walk like that, to sit The mandate is 270. And so...

Is bitch some political speech? And I need people to walk like that, to sit here and say, look, Trump was like, y'all kiss my ass, we won. That's true. McConnell was like, yep, we won. He told Senate Democrats, I don't want to hear y'all mouth, we won. Matter of fact, I just pulled a story up. Senator Marsha Blackburn got an attitude

because the Democrats, Biden has appointed a brother to a judicial nomination out of Tennessee. Blackburn, like, well, she, in her feelings,

because the White House did not, did not engage in sufficient, they didn't sufficiently seek out the opinion of her and the other dude, the U.S. Senator from Tennessee. And now they're trying to play games because they say, here she's saying, first of all, she's saying this brother, Andre Mathis, has a rap sheet for speeding.

One was five miles over the limit for ten years ago. Okay? And then they called it insulting. Now, this is what Dick Durbin said. Dick Durbin said, well, when y'all last, we're in charge. Y'all didn't give nobody the blue slip, so all we gonna do is do what y'all did. So then Durbin, being nice, apologizes,

saying, well, they should have given them. It was a mistake at the Senate that they did not receive those blue forms. Man, I'm sick and tired of Democrats apologizing to these punk-ass Republicans. Senator Tom Cotton, oh, Durbin, you need to apologize for interrupting me in a hearing. And then Durbin went ahead and did it so they can release the appointees. And so I get why he did it.

But this is where Democrats should say, hey, your punk ass is lost. We won. And spoils go to the victors. Sit your ass down. Well, look, Roland, all this idea of the mandate. Donald Trump didn't win the popular vote. Neither did George H.W. Bush. Barack Obama

had a mandate from the people. Did Republicans get on board with Obamacare because he had a mandate? No. So it's complete malarkey. And I'm going to agree with the 45th president of the United States, Donald John Trump, when he said on NPR on Tuesday, Mitch McConnell is a loser. And I think that's the one thing that we can say in bipartisan agreement that Donald Trump is right about. Mitch McConnell is a loser. And because of that, he knows he does

not have the support of his caucus. The MAGA wing of that party is who's in charge of that party. Mitch McConnell is a vassal to that MAGA wing of the party. So he can stand there and make all the speeches that he does. It's almost like a relationship. You ever seen a dude who talked big talk about what he's going to do and what he's really going to do, but then when he's around his wife, he shut up?

Because she's the one who got the real hands in the relationship. So Mitch McConnell can talk all he wants. But we know. Hey, Monique, he talking. Stop interrupting. Hey, hey, hey, he talking. Robert finish.

Robert finish. Robert finish. You always let him talk. Mitch McConnell knows he does not have any real hands in the Republican Party. So he tries to make these statements to act like he's doing something. But in reality, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and those crazy insurrectionist senators and Donald Trump are the ones who control

the Republican Party. And that's why he's trying to make himself relevant. Before I've got to go to break. And so I'm just going to end it with this. Senator Mitch McConnell all into all the Republicans out there whining about Biden's speech yesterday, evoking

the segregationists and Jeff Davis, I'm just going to let Della Reese say all I need to say to all of y'all. It's Thursday at 6 o'clock at New Roge.

That's right, this is DJ's venue, so let's support that. It's Thursday at 6 o'clock at Little George. And that's right. This is DJ's venue, so let's support that. It's 6 North Reef Avenue, and we're going to be rolling at 8 o'clock. Thank you, Shalonda and everybody else for trying to get me on. Thank you, Larry. Thank you. All right, love y'all.

Peace out. Love you. I had the Zoom going, or the Mary Moza thing. Y'all didn't sufficiently hear that. So I just want y'all to hear it exactly how I feel about Senator Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn and the rest of y'all. Go.

Thank you. Thanks, Joe. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Thank you. Kiss my entire ass. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black,

the Black Star Network. Oh, God. Pow. Wow. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА It was murder. We saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. I'm Chrisette Michelle.

Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. Of course, you know, we always keep our eyes on black folks who are missing. Lizette Patch was last seen on December 22nd, 2021, in Bakersfield, California. The 15-year-old is 5 feet tall, weighs 110 pounds, and black hair and brown eyes. If you have any information, call the Bakersfield Police Department at 661-327-7111. 661-327-7111. All right, folks, remember the story that we did last week about the black man in Louisiana.

47 years he has spent in prison. The day he was said to be paroled, he was arrested at the prison gates, a parole violation, which is kind of hard to violate your parole when you are actually in prison. Well, he's now out. How did that happen? His attorney, Thomas Frampton, joins us again.

Thomas, glad to have you back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Okay, he's out. What happened? He's out. We won. So after 47 years and about nine extra months of essentially being kidnapped by the state of Louisiana, shortly after appearing on your show, the state of Louisiana caved entirely, gave him everything that he has been asking for, namely his freedom. And Bobby is home now. So all of that back and forth, all of that, I mean,

forcing him to go back in, doing all they can. And what, they finally came to the conclusion, yeah, he needs to go home. So, I mean, we already won in court several times by the time I was with you last. And the most recent judge we had been in front of asked the lawyers for the state of Louisiana very candidly, is there an ongoing criminal conspiracy to violate Bobby Sneed's rights?

I think at a certain point, the publicity, the attention, and actually having threats of criminal sanctions for the government officials responsible reached the point where they felt like they just had to surrender. So that's what happened. And, and, you know, at least in this case, uh, we have won though. It's kind of hard to talk about what happened to Bobby as a victory in any sense, right? It shouldn't have to take, uh, sort of the, the ordeal that we've gone through. It shouldn't have to take at one point, there are 11 different taxpayer funded lawyers for the state of Louisiana fighting to keep this man in prison. So, you know, it's not like anyone is walking away feeling good about this story, although we're, of course,

grateful that Bobby is finally home. So where is he? Is he still in Louisiana? Is he still is he is he is he paroled? Does he have to check in or is he completely free? He is going to be on parole. His original sentence was going to require parole for the rest of his life anyways. So he is back to where he should have been on March 29th. On March 29th, he was scheduled to be released on parole and they just didn't do it. They kept him kidnapped. And so he is now back on parole. He is in Baton Rouge and he is out of the immediate custody of any Louisiana prison or jail official. And that's the most important thing. So he's working on rebuilding his life now.

You know, for the last 40 some odd days, prison authorities in Angola lost his teeth. He didn't have his dentures. He's been toothless ever since then. So, you know, he needs to get a dentist appointment. When he thought he was being released on December 10th before they rearrested him, he gave all of his personal property to other incarcerated people. Right. He figured they would need it more than he would. So he literally came out of prison with absolutely nothing. No, no property after 47 years. So so he's working on, you know on rebuilding his life now, which is definitely going to be a hard road to hoe. How old is Bobby? He had his 75th birthday in December, if I'm doing this right. So he has spent nearly two thirds of his life in cages and on a prison plantation, Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. him up from the jail release. And basic things like the car talking that gave directions as they drove to Baton Rouge were bizarre to him, right? Seatbelts in a car, right? These things did not

exist in the 1970s when Bobby was first arrested. So it's going to be a process, but we're grateful that he gets to live his final years with his family and with other free people. Have you guys set up? People are asking on my Facebook page and YouTube channel and the Black Star Network channel. People are asking, have you all set up a GoFundMe page? Because people would like to offer some support for him to help him out now that he's free. I mean, that's extraordinary. And thank you. We, as of a little while ago, set up

some other supporters of Bobby, set up a GoFundMe. So if you search on GoFundMe for Bobby Sneed, I think if you search on Google for Help Bobby Sneed Heal, you will find it. 100% of anything that gets donated will go to Bobby Sneed. So if your viewers are inclined to help out, it would be greatly appreciated. He's also going to be working with a fantastic organization based in Baton Rouge called the Louisiana Parole Project that helps people come home from prison. And so that's a great organization for folks to check out if they are so inclined. And so we're going to pull that up. How long have you worked on this case? So I've been working on this case since sort of day one, which was back in March.

So Bobby was minutes or days away from his parole release. And we got word that he had collapsed, been taken to a hospital. And then shortly after, got this word that they were going to try to strip him of his parole after all this time. So, you know, since March, we've been asking the state of Louisiana to do the right thing. If they cared about the Constitution, they would have released him when we asked on March 29th. If they cared about Bobby supposedly needing drug treatment, they would have given him some over the past nine months. And if they even cared about the taxpayers' funds, we offered back on December 10th, when it looked like they were going to try to pull this rearrest nonsense, we said, look, we'll waive Bobby's civil rights claims.

I know you're worried about getting sued. We'll waive all of that if you just follow the law? And they said no then. So it wasn't until a federal judge started suggesting that someone from the state of Louisiana might go to jail that they released him and gave us what we've been asking for from day one, which is just follow the law and let Bobby go out on parole. All right, Dan. So we have the GoFundMe up, folks. I have it up right here. I would just have one recommendation. Y'all need to raise the amount, $5,000. That's a little low.

So, Thomas, y'all might want to take it up to about $25,000. I think you're probably going to hit that. So I'm just saying. I will pass that along. I appreciate it. It's great to see this is just set up a few moments ago. So it's great that people are already chipping in. But yeah, I mean, it's it shouldn't be on us. Right. It shouldn't be on your viewers to make Bobby whole, to support him.

That really, you know, there is a debt to be paid from the state of Louisiana. And it's it's it's still shocking. I mean, at very least, an apology. Right. The Louisiana Supreme Court already said that y'all violated the 14th Amendment, that Bobby was kidnapped for nine months. And, you know, we could start with saying, hey, we screwed up. Shockingly, that hasn't been forthcoming. But but we'll you know but we're going to keep pushing and make sure that there's some accountability here. But in the meanwhile,

anything that your viewers can do to help Bobby would go a long way and be greatly appreciated. All right, then. Thomas Frampton, attorney, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. These are the stories that, again,

Robert, Scott, Monet, that we're dealing with. And the fact that the man clearly should have been freed. They arrested him at the gate. This man was leaving prison, Robert, leaving prison. And they went, oh, you've been violating your parole. How the hell do you violate your parole and you're still in prison?

Look, Roland, I would love for this to be an isolated case and an isolated incident, but this happens often. I've had clients where suddenly the court system has lost their paperwork, so their release date changes from 2020 to 2024. In the system, there's nothing anyone can do about it unless you have somebody with enough funds and a legal team that can fight your way through it. When we talk about criminal justice reform, when we talk about police reform,

it's a systemic issue. From the moment of your first contact with police officers, all the way until your release and even your post-release relief that you may pursue, the entire system has to be fixed from the root of to the to the, as we say in the South. It is broken all the way through. People get lost in the system. Paperwork disappears. People spend far too long in prison. Even when they are supposed to be released, they still end up staying, and there are so

many people who are still currently serving sentences who never should have been convicted, who there was misconduct, malfeasance in the trial. And until we can root those things out, people will not have any confidence in our criminal justice system. If I think of it as a phrase we often hear, that's that bullshit, Monique, that probably applies to cases like this.

Well, there is a complete lack of humanity that is involved with having your liberty taken from you. And many times people who have had no connection to the system

don't understand how heinous the treatment really is just regularly. And so none of these, unfortunately, as Robert said, none of these situations are a surprise to people who have been involved in any way, shape or form of the criminal justice system. And that is why reform for all of the system is so important and why I'm going to keep saying George Floyd Justice and Policing Act as popular as I possibly can and every other associated piece of legislation that makes the situation for predominantly Black and brown people better than it is right now. Scott? Yeah, this sounds like the movie Brubaker, where the animus and the physical violence

against prisoners in dilapidated prison buildings just rings so true with this case. I'm not sure he was wrongfully convicted, but what they were holding him for had to do with his drug abuse. He conceded he was a drug addict, but if he's got lifetime parole, he could have done a program on the parole to resolve that issue. They held him, arguably, at least what they said, they held him because he had been doing, they realized when he fought the drug test, he had been doing drugs in the system

before he was sent for parole. That made no sense to keep him. But you got to remember, this is Louisiana, and you have several jurisdictions where it's just animus. But don't blame it on the system. Blame it on the bad actors, the judges, the parole officers,

that parole committee. I've had cases where judges have had defendants sit for 10 years before even giving them a hearing. And they've gone to federal court to get their justice, even though the federal court or federal judge may not even have jurisdiction. And so let's remember, the lab technicians, the judges, the prosecutors, they may not care, but all of their jobs is to do justice. And here, that justice wasn't done. And unfortunately, there are a lot of other cases like this. I must get 10 cases a month or 10 letters enough

from defendants who are incarcerated who are asking for my help or my law firm's help. Uh, look, and as you said, this is Louisiana. Enough said. All right, yeah, before I go to break, Cleveland's 58th mayor has been busy during his first week in office. Justin Bibb, who became the second youngest person

to be elected mayor of Cleveland, was sworn in last week. The ceremony took place at the East 131st Street branch of the Cleveland Public Library. The library Bibb frequented growing up in Cleveland. He said it was in that very library he learned he could be anything. On this historic occasion, I can't help but think about my journey to this office. And that journey started right here at this library, in that seat, in that chair, at a computer. And as a poor black boy from the Southeast side

who was 10 years old, trying to find my way into a very complicated world, this place, this place was my refuge. And I'll never forget Ms. Cunningham, who was the head librarian here at the time, when I was struggling to find out my path in this life. And I asked Ms Miss Cunningham what do I have to do to stay out of trouble he said young man read them books mind your elders and keep showing up at the library and thank God for the Miss Cunningham's of Cleveland because it was the Miss Cunninghamams of Cleveland that made my story possible in this great city and that's why nearly a year ago we made

this audacious dream come to fruition to become the next mayor of Cleveland well congratulations again to Mayor Bibb taking office. Sorry, Scott. He's an alpha man. Sorry. Man, I looked it up before I did this show tonight. Oh, well. Congrats, I guess.

Look, everybody ain't able. Everybody ain't able. Everybody ain't able. Oh, well, we'll watch his record closely. Trust me. I am thankful he did not join a secondary youth group. All right, y'all, we'll come back. Y'all took him that young.

Y'all take him young, boy. Well, actually, because we understand that when you have a high enough grade point average, when you have leadership skills, and when you don't want to look silly shimmy, that's what we do. All right. Got to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk with a black-owned tech company. How you can spend money while chipping away at your debt.

And, y'all, y'all don't want to miss this crazy-ass white person out of Texas. Seriously. Blaming black teachers for a high dropout rate. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. Download our app on all platforms. Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Samsung TV, Amazon Fire, Xbox as well, plus Roku. And, of course, please support us in what we do by joining our Bring the Funk fan club, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered,

PayPal, R Martin Unfiltered, Venmo is RM Unfiltered, Zelle is rolling at rollingmartin.com, rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com. And, y'all, if y'all want to understand why this show matters, today's show is all you need to know, whether it's Ben Krupp and the story of North Carolina, Sarah Amy Klobuchar, the sister who elected in Florida, then of course Morgan Freeman, Frankie Faison,

Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., Papa to Marilyn Mosby's deal, Thomas Frampton, plus our guest coming up. So for all the rest of these people who love running their miles out there, want to call themselves black media, and all you do is just smack your gums, this is how a real black-owned news show is run.

Take notes. The OG is teaching y'all some new tricks. I'll be back in a moment. Nå er det på veien. Thank you. You know how some carriers give you so little for your old or busted phone you just end up living with it? I don't think so. Verizon lets you trade in your broken phone for a shiny new one. You break it, we upgrade it. You dunk it, doggy bone it. Slam it, wham it, strawberry jam it. We upgrade it. Get a 5. Doggy bone it. Slam it. Wham it.

Strawberry jam it. We upgrade it. Get a 5G phone on us with select plans. Every customer, current, new, or business. Because everyone deserves better. And with plans starting at just $35, better costs less than you think. All right, folks. It's an app that allows you to chip away at your debt with each purchase you make.

After Houston husband and wife team got out of debt. They wanted to help others, so they created SpendDebt that allows people to pay off debts by leveraging micropayments with every banking transaction. Joining me now are SpendDebt co-founders Kylie and Tyleesha Summers. How y'all doing? Good. Doing pretty good. Okay, all right. So how does this work? How does this work? Man, it's real simple. You link your bank account you want to pay from, such as your Bank of America checkers account. Then you tell us the debt account you want to pay. We can pay any consumer debt. Let's say you want to pay that credit card bill just after Christmas shopping. Then you define the micropayment, anything greater than 50 cents.

Let's call it $1. After that, you begin spending. So let's say you buy the favorite latte at Starbucks for $1, excuse me, for $5. Automatically, $1 adds to that transaction. $5 will go to Starbucks. $1 will go towards that credit card debt. And over the course of a month, we aggregate all those transactions to the one-time payment on your behalf every month. Just that simple.

Okay. Got it. So you like what I said, that's simple. And so it sounds far and tight for somebody to say that I'm getting out of debt by spending money. That's right. That's right. A little bit, but as you spend, we are deducting micro payments as Kylie is calling, but we're deducting small amounts of money. So we like to think of it, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you eat an elephant one bite at a time how do you pay off debt one micro payment at a time so by taking these small amounts out of your bank account you don't notice it but then

you're very surprised at the end of the month how much you've either swiped your debit card or have banking transactions and so how much money we've actually collected and then we send that to your creditor of choice so it ends up up quickly. You'd be surprised. So for y'all, how long did it take for y'all? About seven years. It took seven years. Seven years. How much debt were we talking about?

Over $140,000 plus for consumer debt. Wow. Yeah. Student loans, credit cards, auto loans, you name it, we had it. We're first-generation graduates, so it costs to be the first. It's good to be the first, but it costs to be the first because you have to pay off or buy things for the first time, and we have to do that.

All right, so I got somebody on YouTube who goes, I'm suspicious of all these apps trying to siphon spare change from everybody. Just saying. You're not siphoning from everybody. You're actually rounding off. So it's actually not round up. In fact, like I was in the store today, and I bought some water. It was like $12.39, and they said, hey, do you want it to be rounded?

Do you want it to be rounded off to go to a food bank? So how is this working? So give me an example. If I go spend $2.39, what's going, what's happening? Yep. So you as a user define or set what that micropayment is. So it's not roundup. So you as a user know every time you spend money, a dollar is going to come out or 50 cents. Whatever you set it to be, you know what that amount is gonna be so you rollin you're gonna set your micro paying to a dollar every time you spin regardless of what the amount is a dollar is gonna come out every time a dollar a dollar you're gonna see spend

it the dollar you know taking a dollar out and then at the end of the month we send that to your creditor of choice. So one big difference is that we don't set that money aside where you still have access to it. And like, oh, it's in the month. I saved a hundred dollars. Let me move that back to my checking. No, upon setup, you tell us where it's going to go and we're going to send it to that creditor at the end of the month. All right. So for these creditors, though, is there a minimum amount? Because so what? Are they getting $3? I mean, so is there a minimum?

How is that happening? So that's a great question. So we work independent on what the consumer owes, right? So whether we send it $1 as that monthly payment, if that's what they accumulated in their Spend That Account, or we send $100 or $1,000, it doesn't matter. We send whatever the consumer has with their Spend That Account to the creditors because we are in addition

to what they're already paying, such as their minimum payment to their creditors. So when y'all started this, were your family and friends going, y'all crazy? Well, whenever you have an idea, people always kind of, you know, think

like, man, is that going to work? Or they'll tell you it won't work. But God gave me this vision, you know, and I'm running with it. And we stepped out on faith, and here we are. And, you know, we I'm running with it. And we stepped out on faith, and here we are. And, you know, we are seeing God's pro vision show up for the vision that he gave us. All right, questions. Robert, you got a question for our guests?

Yeah, one of my questions will be, so when you're talking to people who are signing up for the app, when you're talking about the fact that you guys were able to pay off that one's debt over the course of seven years, how is it advantageous to do it this way versus someone just saving up and just making a lump sum payment of $500 or $1,000 to one of their creditors? Yeah, we both got opinions on this, but here it is. The bottom line is people don't, they have the right intentions to do the right thing or to pay that bill. But if something comes up, that new shirt, them shiny shoes or the gold chain, they're going to get it right.

And they leave the bills left to be paid. That's why the, in some cases, the debt bubble has grown, particularly in our community. So if we can help them establish great payment history, payment habits with our platform, we can put them in better situations so they can improve their credit rates and credit score over time. We've had a lot of customers say, I've always said I wanted to do more and put more to the side or put more on my bill, and I never did. And now here's a way where I don't have to think about it, and it's done automatically for me. Yep. Scott.

Yeah. Listen, I think it's a wonderful app, but I'm not sure it answers all the questions regarding debt management. So, for example. It ain't meant to answer all the damn questions. It's not. Well, but let me get my question out. It's a dumbass question, but go ahead. Here it is.

Here it is. While I'm putting money aside because I'm doing transactions, the death knell for debt management is the interest rates on those credit cards and stuff. And so let's say $1 for 20 transactions is $20. That's really not helping me attack the interest rate on that. And that's really what you're trying to get under control. And so

if you can save or even borrow money to pay that down, you're saving money on the interest. This app doesn't really do that. Or tell me why I'm wrong about that. I don't think you're wrong at all. I think it's a lot of different ways to manage debt, right? We are a simple platform that allows people to spend money and pay off debt and to help them want to commit to paying because there's some things that people just ignore. They're scared to

go to the mailbox. They're scared to open up the text messages or email. Hey, they can commit to paying their debt using a platform like ours. The other thing is some people want to accelerate paying off their debt. They want to pay more than just the minimum. And so we can help on any end of the – And you help them do that? Exactly. Yes, we can. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Monique? Yeah, no problem. Monique? I'll take her question because I've got one. All right, Monique, back to that cricket Wi-Fi. All right, Kylie and Talisha, final comment.

One, we appreciate you, Brother Roland. You know, I'm an alpha man just like you. Oh, Scott. Oh, Scott. See, Scott. See, Scott, you can't handle when them alphas do their thing. Scott, you can't handle when them alphas do their thing. Scott. Oh, yeah. You're 50 years old and stepping on they thangs, Scott. You can't handle when them Alphas do they thangs, Scott. Oh, yeah.

You're 50 years old and stepping on that street. No, Scott, I'm 50. Scott, I'm 53. See, Scott, because see. Look at you. See, Scott, you can't just hit that step on demand. Yeah, I can. I'm a step master.

No, you're not. No, you're not. Your ass going to pull. You're going to pull a muscle. Your ass going to pull a muscle. You're going to pull a ass muscle. You ain't fooling nobody. Kylie, go ahead and finish your comment. No, man, we appreciate you allowing us to talk with the viewers.

For those out there who are interested in Spendette, please visit us at Spendette.com. You can find us on all platforms at Spendette. Only on Instagram, you can find us at It's Spendette. It's I-T- platforms at Spendette. Only on Instagram, you can find us at itsspendette, it's I-T-S underscore spendette. We would love to have you as customers to try the product and let us know what your feedback is. But also, we want to help people. At the end of the day, this is about helping people manage and control their debt because finance is at the core of everything that we do. Before we became debt free, we were stressed out.

We was working for the things that we do. Before we became debt-free, we were stressed out. We was working for the things that we had, but when we became debt-free it unlocked us to become entrepreneurs, us to become healthier. And so finances are so powerful, uh, and not just becoming debt-free, but really controlling the lifestyle of the other things that you may want to see and do. Um, and so we encourage everybody to really put heavy emphasis on focus on controlling them and not let them control you.

All right. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And y'all repping like alphas do. All right. Thanks a bunch. And from A-Town. All right. Thanks a lot. Scott don't want no more. Scott, see that little

crap y'all do? That ain't nothing. All right. Y'all know what time it is. We're okay. No charcoal grills are allowed. I'm white. I got you, Carl. Illegally selling water without a permit. On my property.

Whoa! Hey! I remember. Give me your ID. You don't live here. I'm uncomfortable. All right, folks are demanding a Texas school board member resign after he made comments suggesting that the more black teachers in a school district, the higher the black dropout rate.

Monday night, Scott Henry said this during a Cypress Fairbanks ISD equity audit report. Now, go ahead and play it. We have such a hard time getting teachers. I know it's such a hard, hard job. Y'all have a hard job getting teachers. Very hard. People just don't want to be teachers anymore, and I get that. It's hard.

But Cyfair has, what, 13% black teachers. I know you mentioned it earlier. Do you know what the statewide average is for black teachers? Not at this moment, sir. 10%. You%. I looked it up. The statewide average for black teachers is 10%. Houston ISD, which I'll use the shine example. You know what their average number of percentage of black teachers is? 36%. I looked that up. You know what their dropout rate is? 4%. I don't want to be 4%. I don't want to be 4%. I don't want to be HISD.

I want to be a shining example. I want to be the district standard. I want to be the place, the premium place where people go to be. And quite frankly, we have a limited budget with limited resources. We have a great place. And let's don't mess it up for everyone else. All right, Robert. Henry says his words are getting

twisted for political purposes. We heard what your punk ass said! Well, look, his words are getting twisted by y'all repeating them. Y'all should just ignore what he said and just let him say that I want to have fewer black people because black people make kids drop out. That's clearly what he

meant. Look, these are the things that have always been going on in our educational system. And the problem has always been that they happen behind closed doors, only now because we have cameras, because we have live access to the things that are going on, and sunshine being brought upon this. Where are all those critical race theory white people at protesting this? Why aren't they there marching and holding signs saying that you want to get rid of this? Because the agenda has always been to continue the indoctrination of black children into a white supremacist system, and they want to keep that going. And the one thing that messes

that up is having conscientious, hardworking black teachers who are going to teach them their real history. And that's what he really wants to happen, a continuation and an entrenchment of white supremacy into the hearts and minds of black children, because that makes them easier to control. They want to learn that George Washington would not chuck down a cherry tree because he can't tell a lie. Not that he owned 300 black slaves and wouldn't let them leave. Scott? Yeah, you know, he's the one that brought up black teachers.

I don't understand why he went to black teachers and those percentages gratuitously. He gratuitously did that, and then clearly he was making a comparison between if you had 36% teachers, black teachers, and then you had a 4% dropout. I don't want to be a 4% dropout. But what do black teachers have to do with dropout? But more importantly, what does that have to do

with being hard to find teachers generally in whatever district he was in? It made no sense. And so even if his words are being misconstrued, he voluntarily brought up the race question with teachers. I don't think he tied it up very well because I was confused listening to the point he was making, but it was a racist point. And so he ought to be, you know, he can't get forgiveness because he confused himself, basically. He's the one that tied those words up. It had no place in his comments.

Doesn't matter what color the teacher is. It's academic excellence and people not dropping out of school. This is real simple. Say dumb shit, take that heat. That's all. That's all it is. So, suck it up. So, I don't want to hear nothing. No blame on everybody else. All right. Scott,

Robert, Monique, I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Scott, again, you don't want none of this. You don't want none of this. Yo, yo! Scott, you don't want none of this. First of all, that little OK sign, that's the white power sign. That's the white power sign. So, just so you know, that's also the white power sign. So, to let you know. That ain't what I'm saying. Yeah, but here's the whole deal,, too. So just so you know, that's also the white power sign. So don't let you know.

That ain't what I'm saying. Yeah, but here's the whole deal, though. You know who your daddy is. Because remember, without Alpha, y'all are just known as Kappa Psi. All right, I'll see y'all next week. Folks, y'all want to support what we do here at Rolling Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. Y'all know how we roll.

Of course, we're doing great. You'll see our new set here. We got a lot of things happening. You need to humble yourself. No, please. I'm an alpha, son. Humble yourself. First of all, servants of all, we shall transcend all. All.

You should humble yourself. All. Y'all are Black Network. This is how we do it. All. This is how it is. Y'all mute his microphone. We done with him.

Y'all, of course, support us in what we do. Of course, joining our Bring the Funk fan club, Cashout, Dollar Sign, with him. Y'all, of course, support us in what we do. Of course, joining our Bring the Funk fan club, Cash Out Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal is rmartinunfiltered, Venmo is rmunfiltered, Zill is rolling that, rollingthatsmartin.com, rollingthatrollinmartinunfiltered.com.

I appreciate it, folks. Of course, download our app, the Black Star Network app. It's available on all platforms, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox, Samsung Smart TV as well. All right, y'all, we didn't get to some stories today, such as the domestic terrorism story. We will do that on tomorrow's show.

Looking forward to that. Man, we got some great stuff lined up for y'all as well. And coming soon, y'all, we launching four great stuff lined up for y'all as well. And coming soon, y'all, we launching four new shows on the Black Star Network beginning on February 1st. Next week, the next episode of Roller with Roller,

y'all, that Richard Lawson interview was like crazy. Folks have been talking about it. Glenn Turman, interview with him, yo, crazy, hilarious, but also really wonderful, powerful. He talks about his long story career in Hollywood. And I told y'all, y'all see what we do.

Today's show was absolutely bonkers with Ben Crump at the top. Of course, Marlo Hunter, brother of the cat who lost his life in North Carolina and then the sister who won in Florida. And again, Senator Amy Klobuchar, of course, having Frankie Faison, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., Morgan Freeman on the show as well. And then, of course, having the tech segment.

I mean, we're just going on and on and on. Y'all, this is what we're doing. This is what we're building. Y'all, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, they are not doing any of this the way we are doing it. I want y'all to understand that. That's why we need your support. We need your help.

And look, all these people here just chattering, these black people running their mouths, all these folks with bad lace fronts, and the rest of these people who just trip, we don't care about them because you know what? All they're doing is smacking gums. We are putting in the work, educating our people, informing our people, letting them know about the issues that matter to them. And so I don't waste time talking about any of the haters because you will never see me spend even 15, 20, 30 seconds on them because they don't matter.

Because you know what? 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. 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. This is an iHeart Podcast.