#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Senate Rules GA voting rights hearing; TX Dems hold voting rights workshops; Billionaire space race

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

7.19.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Senate Rules takes voting rights fight to Georgia; Texas Dems to hold voting rights workshops; Billionaires Branson and Bezos race to expand commercial space travel; Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agrees to review Crystal Mason case; Update on the trial of sexual predator and big time Democratic donor, Ed Buck; Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman about his book, Stealing Our Democracy: How the Political Assassination of a Governor Threatens Our Nation; Fit!Live!Win! Working out while traveling.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Thank you. Thank you. Martin! Today is Monday, July 19, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. For the first time in 20 years, the Georgia, first of all, the U.S. Senate Rules Committee heads to a field hearing. It took place in Atlanta. Will talk with the head of the Georgia Coalition for the people's agenda about that US Senate Rules Committee

hearing led by Senator Amy Klobuchar, Texas Democrats who left the state to block the passing of voting laws, organized events to draw attention to the issue this week. Also, five of them actually tested positive for COVID. Will talk with one of the House members.

Billionaires course two billionaires, big billionaires are ahead to outer space. One last week, one this week. We'll talk to rocket scientist Aisha Bo about that will also be joined by Crystal Mason, the Texas woman who was convicted of voting illegally.

She is a hearing that is taking place. We also get inside of the courtroom report from Jasmine Canning on the trial of sexual predator Ed Buck and my book club segment will hear from former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman about his book stealing our democracy. How the political assassination of

a governor threatens our nation. Plus, in our fit live win, Win segment, working out while traveling. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. When it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling Best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's on for a royal It's rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's Georgia, the U.S. Senate Rules Committee held their first field hearing in 20 years,

focusing on the issue of voting rights. You might recall we had Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who was the chair of that committee, on the show on Friday, and she talked about why it was important to actually go there. Guess what? No Republicans chose to travel to Georgia for this hearing. It was only Democrats who heard testimony about the need for federal voting rights legislation, such as the Voting Rights Advancement Act, named after John Lewis, but also for the For the People Act. Now, folks, the meeting took place. We live streamed it on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

And so the meeting comes two days after the first anniversary of the death of the late Congressman John Lewis, folks. And so to talk about just, again, a significant issue here. Joining us now is Helen Butler, convener of the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda. She testified at today's hearing. Glad to have you on the show. First and foremost, Georgia, first and foremost, I'm sorry, Helen, explain why was it important to have this hearing there in Georgia today? Well, Roland, thank you for having me on and for carrying this information. It was important to have the hearing in Georgia because we were ground zero. We were the beginning of all of this voter suppression laws.

Sorry, Helen, go ahead. Georgia was the model for all of these voter suppression laws. We started it off. We were at ground zero. So it was important that we hear from Georgians of how this voter suppression laws are impacting voters in Georgia, especially black voters and people of color. So we were happy that Senator Klobuchar and all of the committee members that showed up came to hear from us today. So obviously when it came to this hearing, no Republicans showed up. No, they didn't. And that tells you that they weren't concerned

about our right to exercise our right to vote, nor are they concerned with democracy. So we are glad that, again, that Senator Klobuchar had this hearing so that we can put it on the record. Martin, we've been registering people, mobilizing them, and we take to the court when we have to. So, again, this was a great way to get it on record as to what has happened in Georgia, how it will impact Black voters in Georgia and other people of color.

So we were happy to have them here today. Obviously, Republicans do not want to move on the For the People Act, but this is a part of the sustained pressure that has to happen in order to get action from the U.S. Senate and these holdout Republicans, Kristen Sinema of Arizona, excuse me, the holdout Democrats, Kristen Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. The art is the choice for me.

It's an instance of urgency. It is now. We cannot wait. As I said in our vigil that we had on Saturday in remembrance of Congressman John Lewis, this is our Selma moment. We have to have a Voting Rights

Act. We have to have S Voting Rights Act. We have to have S-1, the For the People Act. And we want to have Senator Warnock's bill that would prevent the takeover of a board of elections so that there's not total control by a majority of one party or the other. We want to have the continuous of democracy for all voters. All right, then. Well, Helen, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Keep the pressure up. Thank you, Roland.

All right, let's go to my panel. Dr. Julianne Malvo, she's the Dean of the College of Ethics Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. Dr. Omokongo Dabinga, Professorial Lecturer at the School of International Service, American University. Glad to have both of you with us. First and foremost, Julianne, pressure, pressure, pressure. That's really the only thing folks have to apply pressure on these two Democrat holdouts in the United States Senate to push them as much as folks can. We saw the action last week when Congressman Joyce

Beatty and others got arrested. There's going to be action planned this week. There's going to be a massive march in Texas next week. I mean, this has to be looked at, as I said before, as Freedom Summer 2.0, this sustained action all across the country to keep this issue front and center. You know, today, Reverend Liz, Theo Harris, who was the co-chair, the Reverend Barker of the Poor People's Campaign, was up at the Supreme Court.

I don't know if they were arrested or not. They were prepared to be arrested. They asked 100 women from around the country to come on the filibuster, on voting rights, on the minimum wage. And that's what we have to keep doing. These people don't get it. And they're not going to get it unless we make them get it. Not only should we be outside their offices, we should be following them around. I'm not saying stalking. This is not permission to break the law. But we

will definitely be following them around, be raising issues, because this is insanity, that it's a year after John Lewis died, and he wanted those, that Section 5 restored. And they don't want to do it, because what they know is that, when they deal with this stuff, they're really dealing with the voices of the American people. Roland, I owe you a solid. Last week, we were on the show, and you raised the issue with Rich Lowry of school boards. This week, I wrote a column about it.

We have to look down about. We don't, you know, you get excited about we have a president, Madam Vice President, fine, whatever. But what we see in terms of state legislatures is that these people are down ballot. A lot of people ignored their elections, and now they're there writing the rules. And so, you know, right on to Reverend Liz Theoharis, right on to Reverend Barber, There is a lot of work that needs to be done. Congo, on this particular issue here, again, what has always worked historically is the level of sustained action.

I think people have to understand, and we have to put these things in historical context. You don't just get it just because. It takes time. Let's go back to 1965 in the Voting Rights Act. Democrats control the House. Democrats control the Senate. Democrats control the White House. And the 1965 Voting Rights Act was not easy. They had to contend with a filibuster led by Southern Dixiecrats, who were Democrats, who were joined by some conservative Republicans. That existed. That took time, but it took pressure. It was the events in Selma that actually caused the nation to see what was going on and say, we must do something about voting rights. Absolutely. And I think we also have to be

mindful of the fact that back during that time, there were a couple of Republicans who actually went over and supported that. And right now we don't have any of that. Biden didn't come in with the same level of support in the House or the Senate that LBJ had. And so he has these thin margins. And when you talk about Sinema, when you talk about Joe Manchin as well, those guys who are—and actually, quite honestly, there are actually some other Democrats who are just very silent. They don't want to be the face of it, who actually are with Manchin and Sinema as well, which we're going to have to pay attention to. And so you're right. It's a sustained effort. LBJ basically said, make me do this. And we have to make people do this right now, because so many of us have this idea of, well, we're just going to vote them out in 2022.

Well, I'm sorry. If they make it that so that you can vote or if they have these guys who can overturn elections and the like, who will favor the people who won that they like, you're not going to have that opportunity. So it starts now. And too many times we have this mentality, okay, we'll see you in four years. No, it starts now. We got to get Congress back. We got to get Manchin and Sinema and all of these other guys, keep that corporate pressure on and keep calling on anybody who's standing in the way of our voting rights. That's what Congressman Lewis would want and that's what we need to keep doing. And that's why Julian,

what we have to understand on issues like this here, you're in it for the long haul. We kept saying during the election, folks, elections is the end of one process, the beginning of another, and people just can't go, all right,

election's over, we did our part. No, the work continues. Well, you know, voting is not the most you can do, it's the least you can do. I mean, you vote, but then there's so much more to do. The piece I wrote this week is called Please Run for School Board. I mean, Rich Lowry is saying we can take over education by taking over school boards. So we don't go so far down the ballot as to pay attention to school boards. But as you often said, school boards determine what kind of books you're ordering, you know, what kind of contracts you have, all of that. Who maintains the facilities? Zoning boards.

When we look at the fight around gentrification, zoning boards make a difference there. We talk about voting rights, but it's not just voting for president every four years. It's about voting, not only voting, but being in these people's faces. I mean, because again, it's the least you can do to vote. More is to be in these people's faces. I mean, because again, it's the least you can do to vote. More is to be in these people's faces, to say to them, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. We're seeing what's going on. Our democracy is being eroded and we're allowing it to be eroded because of our inattention in action. And so, you know, the action that Black Women took last week with NCNW, Latasha Brown and the others, the action that's been taking place this week, it's important.

But who stayed home? And the people who are staying home, I'm just saying to y'all, shame on you. Shame on you. Don't look up here in another couple of months and say, oh, you know, this happened. It happened because you let it happen. And that really, I think, is what we're seeing. We're hearing from folks on the Congo, from Black Voters Matter, Reverend William Dr. Barber and others, that it has to be sustained action, constant pressure being applied in

this country and constantly raising the awareness of Americans. And one of the things that's beautiful about it is with so many of these new organizations, I'll be very honest, there are a lot of younger people who weren't veterans of the civil rights movement who said things like, you know, oh, I don't believe in marching. I'm not really down with that. I'm going to do it this way. And these newer organizations that have come up with people of my generation and younger, they are seeing that that works, that taking to the streets works and taking it to corporations works and taking it to corporations work and taking it to social media you can't just share something on facebook kick

like and tweet and call it a day you need that sustained effort in front of the people and one of the beautiful things about it like when you do your next generation segments and programs young people are learning from the old people not taking you know there's this mentality of we got this your time is up we are building this together. I mean, John Lewis's last public appearance, last protest in Black Lives Matter Plaza. And so I'm so happy to see that the generations are connected. But like Dr. Malveaux said, there are too many of us across all age groups that are staying home like this isn't as serious as it is. Absolutely. Of course, we're seeing Texas House Democrats, they're still in the nation's capital, dealing

with this issue. But they're also now dealing with another issue. Five of them have now tested positive for COVID-19. That is one of the issues they're also dealing with. The names of those members actually have not been released, but Texas lawmakers, those that here in isolation, and to be safe, Vice President Kamala Harris, who met with them, is being tested regularly as well.

Joining us right now is Texas State Representative Retta Bowers. Glad to have you and Roland Martin unfiltered. First of all, how are your colleagues doing? You know what, Roland, thank you so much for having me on tonight. They're doing well. We are still hard at work. They are isolated, but we just had about an hour ago or two a COVID protocol session and, you know, with an infectious disease doctor from back home.

So they're doing well. Many of them, we're all vaccinated. So many of them are having low to no symptoms. And so obviously y'all have been moving all about Washington, D.C. Is that now going to change how y'all do business? Are you limiting meetings? Are you going to be more virtual?

Are any members beyond those five, are they in isolation? Just want to make sure how y'all maintaining safety and your health. We are. We are definitely maintaining our safety and health by going virtual. I mentioned earlier today, that's the beauty of some of the things that came out of this pandemic. We do know how to work remotely. So we have been in a national voting rights conference this week, and many of our guests have been virtual. Members are testing daily, and we are taking best care with those members by sending them positive notes, dropping

off food at their doors, and keeping them hydrated. So we're doing well. The momentum is still there, and I heard one of my Saras say we will not shrink. What is happening now? We've been hearing or seeing different reports that y'all are continuing to plan activations, public demonstrations, other events. And so what's going to be happening this week? I know there's a big event being planned for Texas next week. We're going to be there from the 27th through the 31st. What are y'all going to be doing here in D.C.? We're still here. As I said, we started that conference today. So the conference is with

Mi Familia Vota and SEIU Texas, they're our sponsors. We've been hearing from many activists. We've been hearing from—we'll hear from some secretaries of state. We'll hear from other legislators across the nation. And we're just here continuing the fight for the freedom to vote and access to the ballot. We are giving updates back home, so I'm glad to have this chance to talk to you. But even though we are faced with this situation,

the momentum continues. So in terms of meetings, one of the things that we talked about before, Senator Joe Manchin said he was going to meet with Texas Democrats. Has that happened yet? That meeting has happened already. That meeting, thankfully, took place last week. Members met with Senator Manchin as well as Schumer.

And they do understand the urgency of now, especially Senator Schumer, from what I'm hearing from colleagues. And Manchin just mentioned being aligned, that we need to make sure that what I heard you all say earlier on the show tonight is that we just continue applying the pressure as best we can. And unfortunately, now it will have to take a virtual, we will have to take it to a virtual space. What are you calling, are y'all also calling your constituents to participate in the mass rally that's being planned for the state capitol next week on July 31st? Most definitely. We're making calls back home, giving updates, encouraging people. We were so very encouraged to see the pastors in the last week. Many of our pastors took busloads.

So we are encouraging people and working with organizations on the ground back home in Texas to take people to the Capitol and to be present at those events. The larger the group, the better. I mean, one thing we do know is that moving around now, you just have to be a lot more careful. Absolutely. All right, then. Representative Bowers, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. You take care. Democrats is important. They're going to be sticking out until at least August 7th, which is the end of this current special session that was called by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

I really have to commend Representative Bowers and her colleagues for doing what they're doing. I'm hearing stories about some of the situations that they left behind. Aging parents, one person canceled their wedding because of this work. They're making the sacrifices needed. And we really have to make sure that we have their back. We have to be doing more. We don't live there, but we could be making phone calls. We could be emailing. We can get out on the streets with them, participate in these virtual programs right now, because really, at the end of the day, what Governor Abbott is doing is draconian. They show that they don't care. All they care about is power, and they are willing to

arrest their own members. And look what's happening across the country right now. You know, they're passing these laws. No filibusters allowed in these state houses, right? They don't care. All they care about is maintaining power, and so I commend them for standing up, and we have to do more to stand with them, because it's incredibly heroic.

Julian, again, you use every single power that you can. Republicans are running roughshod. Democrats gotta respond best way possible. This is what they've done here. The Texas Democrats should be commended, as Oba Kongo has said. They should be commended for their courage.

They got out of town really quickly, and good for them. But that's, again, it's step one. The fact is that across the country, Republicans are trying to snatch back voting rights. They do not want a democracy. They do not want people to vote. They want to have their way. And they're very adamant about it. They want to have their way. When it becomes a criminal act to hand somebody a bottle of water standing in the sun waiting to vote, that lets you know how desperate they are.

When you want to arrest members of the Texas legislature because they refuse to allow you to ram draconian legislation down to people's throats, we know how insane this is. When 40 states, 40 states are considering similar legislation, we know that this is crazy. So what we know is that we do have to surround these people, not only with our love, prayer, and support, but you know, love, prayer, and support is going to get you but so many places. We've got to throw our money in there. We've got to put our bodies in there. We have to make sure that we have their backs

because they're fighting a fight that is actually over 100 years old. They're fighting a fight, you know, post-Reconstruction. We had to fight for the right to vote. And here we go again. And all we know about that is that these folks don't want us voting, because when we vote, human rights, civil rights, women's rights, they win. When we vote, we win. And so we just have to be supportive.

This is, bro, I can't tell you how frustrating this is. I'm in a state now in California. This is not an issue, although we have other issues with the governor's recall. But this is not an issue. But you know what? It's an issue nationally and we've got to fight. Absolutely. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We'll hear from a black expert regarding Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos going to space. What does that mean for Americans who are not astronauts? We'll talk about that. We'll also talk about, talk to Crystal Mason, the sister out of Texas. Remember who went to prison for voting illegally.

Her appeal is being heard by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. And so we look forward to hearing, talking to her about getting an update from that as well. All right, folks, we'll be back on Roller Mark Unfiltered in a moment. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road.

That is so freaking dope. Racial injustice is a scourge on this nation. And the black community has felt it for generations. We have an obligation to do something about it. Whether it's canceling student debt, increasing the minimum wage, or investing in Black-owned businesses, the Black community deserves so much better. I'm Nina Turner, and I'm running for Congress to do something about it. GEORGE FLOYD, Former President of the United States of America, George Floyd's death

hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America, it led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Right. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. Hello, I'm Bishop T.D.J. What up? Lana Well, and you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Alright, folks, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agrees to review a heavily argued illegal voting conviction. Crystal Mason faces five years in prison for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. At the time, she was unsupervised released for a federal conviction

and did not see her name on the voter roll. Mason submitted a provisional ballot at the advice of a poll worker, not knowing she was ineligible to vote. Although Mason has claimed she unknowingly voted illegally, prosecutors convicted her of a second-degree state felony. Now, keep in mind, this case is similar to Herbis Rogers, who was arrested and charged last week in Texas with two counts of illegal voting. Rogers cast ballots while on parole. He said he also wasn't aware. Now, attorney generals from Connecticut, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon,

and the District of Columbia released a joint statement regarding Rodgers' arrest. Now, this is what they say. The unwarranted criminalization of Herbert Rodgers' error is a grave miscarriage of justice. By casting his ballot in the 2020 primary, Herbert Rodgers was simply attempting to fulfill his civic duty. Now he's potentially facing decades in prison. The prosecution is a clear attempt to intimidate voters, deter participation, and stoke fears of fictitious voter fraud.

Texas is disguising voter suppression as election security and disenfranchising millions in the process. The voting system needs reform, not restrictions, and we stand with all the champions of justice in Texas, including the state's House Democrats, in fighting for fair and accessible elections. We will continue to do everything in our power to protect and expand voting rights throughout the nation.

Now, Crystal Mason, her attorney, Kim Cole, join us right now. I'm glad to have both of you back on the show. So what's the status of the case, Kim? Where does this stand right now? So obviously, as you mentioned previously, Crystal's appeal has been filed with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The state has filed their response to our appeal, and we are currently finalizing our reply to their response. And as soon as that is in,

then the court, it's in the court's hands. They will review it and they will make a decision as to whether or not Crystal will have to serve five years in prison, or they will send it back to the lower court. They can reverse it. They can, or they can uphold it. So for folks, again, who are unfamiliar with the case, just walk people through what happened because two things were going on. First of all, Crystal was previously in prison on the federal level, but this is a state issue.

And so explain to folks so they understand what's going on here. Okay, so Crystal was, she pled guilty to a federal charge related to her tax preparation business. So she pled guilty to that charge, the federal charge, and served out her sentence. She was sentenced to five years. I mean, I'm sorry. She served out that sentence. And then she got out and thought she was

performing her civic duty and went to vote. However, apparently, her name was not on the voter registration rolls, and they ended up charging her. And, actually, she didn't actually vote. She filled out a provisional ballot because her name was not on the list of registered voters there at her normal polling place. So she filled out a provisional ballot, went on about her business. A few months later, she was arrested for illegally voting. And no one there at the polling place, no one in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, no one advised her that she was not eligible to vote. She was

on supervised release from her federal sentence. And so she had served all of her prison time. However, she had a period of three years of supervised release, and she was still on that within that three-year period. And no one ever told her that that would render her ineligible to vote. So she had no clue that she couldn't vote the day that she cast her provisional ballot. And she was tried, convicted, and sentenced to five years in prison. As a result of that, they violated her federal sentence and sent her back to prison for an additional 10 months and also added some additional time of supervised release to her sentence.

So she has already done time for this particular, for voting and that's on the federal side. Crystal, the amount of time, money and resources that Texas is expending on this is ridiculous. At your trial, Kirk, if I'm wrong, didn't your parole officer say you weren't told you couldn't vote? The supervised release officer, my supervised release officer supervisor testified on the stand that, no, we never told her she couldn't vote. No, she never signed anything.

There was no paperwork in place. And yet I was still found guilty of illegally voting and sentenced to five years. So no one told you, but you're supposed to just somehow know just because. Correct. Correct. So how do I know I'm doing something wrong if I was never informed? Do you believe that Texas is trying to make an example out of you in order to intimidate others? Definitely. Definitely. And when they sent me back to prison right before

I think it was an election going on in September. Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing. This is... Yeah, Kim, go ahead. They even said in her trial the state, the

district attorney even said, Your honor, let's send a message and please sentence her to a stern prison sentence to send a message. So yes, they're trying to make an example out of her. They don't want people that look like Crystal to vote, period. This is, I mean, it's just incredible. Also, Krista, when you look at other cases where people mistakenly voted and they were like, okay, you know what? They were let off real easy, but they happen not to look like you. Yes, I see that all the time. I just, I think I just seen one today where you go to the Capitol, you commit a crime, and they give you eight months in federal prison, and yet the act that you committed was so

outrageous. And here I am. Didn't even vote, but I'm charged with illegally voting. And I'm fighting. I've been fighting for four and a half years, waking up every day, not knowing if I'm going back to prison over illegally voting, and I never voted. It's just incredible that this thing is still ongoing. And it just makes no sense. Any idea, Kim, when the Court of Appeals is going to issue their ruling?

None whatsoever. It took them several months to even agree to a discretionary review of her case. So it could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. It just depends on the court and when they decide to make their ruling. And so we have no clue, but as soon as we file our reply, which we will file this week, it's in their hands and they will make the determination as to whether or not this five-year prison sentence will be upheld.

Oh, man, just unbelievable. Crystal, I mean, you're sort of left in limbo because, you know, before, you know, you were getting your life together, you were trying to live, and all of a sudden it got upended. You went back to prison. Now you're out. Now you may go back. I mean, that has to be nerve wracking. Well, and it is. But what I did is I started an organization, Crystal Mason, to fight against voter suppression.

So what I do now is I go out and I encourage people on how important it is to vote and try to educate them if they're if they're eligible to vote now and what i said was i'm going to keep moving forward trusting god that things are going to work out in my favor and i'm going to keep living and um just trusting god through this process and i met i met harvest and this is a 62 62 year old man that been on parole for a very long time and was giving a voter registration card and this man did not mean to do anything wrong he he cried like a baby like i can't believe that i'm in this position, you know? And this is just so heartbreaking because it reminds me of when I first started this journey. So I'm just glad that he has support, and I just pray that everything works out in his favor as well.

All right, then. Anything, any final words, Kim? Certainly, Roland. This Crystal's conviction, the new charges against Mr. Hervis Rogers, all of this new legislation that's been presented is clearly, it's all clearly efforts to intimidate voters, to suppress votes. They don't want people who look like Crystal, people who look like Harvest, people who look like me and you, they don't want us to vote. And that's what all of this is about, not just in Texas, but all across the country. And that's why I am very proud of the Texas Democrats for standing up and holding up this egregious voter, supposedly voter integrity,

which essentially is voter suppression laws that they are trying to pass here in Texas. We have got to stand behind them. We've got to stand behind Crystal. We've got to stand behind Harvest Rogers because they are actually trying to send a 62-year-old man to prison for up to 20 years, which could essentially be a death sentence for him. So we've got to stand behind them and get these egregious charges dropped against him, as well as overturn Crystal's conviction. All right, then. And also, I think before there was a GoFundMe, is that for Crystal, is that still active? Yes, it's Justice, the number four, Crystal Mason.

Justice, the number four, Crystal Mason. All right, folks, be sure to pop that into GoFundMe. Kim, Crystal, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. Again, you know, these are the things that, you know, keep going over and over and over, Julianne. And again, we see these white folks who vote illegally. Whole different response than when the black folks do it.

Slap on the wrist when they do it. They didn't mean it. Oh, let's just overlook it. This is absurd. This woman has been in limbo for five years, just as the other brother has. But this is reminiscent of what happened post-reconstruction, is reminiscent of my auntie Anna Mae, Moss Point, Mississippi, died at 101, was canned in a jar of jelly beans and told,

how many jelly beans in this jar? Of course, she didn't know, so she couldn't vote because she couldn't count the jelly beans. We've seen this crap happen time and time and time again. And the problem is that we keep thinking that when we win one battle, we won the war. But the fact is that we have not won the war and we will not win the war until we get these devils, yes, I said devils, D-E-V-I-L-S, D and evil,

get them out of power. A Mitch McConnell devil. Get them out of power. They don't want a democracy. They want an oligarchy. They want to run the show. And I just got a shout out to Crystal and her attorney, Kimberly, for the work they're doing, because it's just so very important.

Omokongo? First of all, thanks for getting that GoFundMe information out there, because she definitely needs all of our support. And when you talk about these other cases, I'm thinking about the case with Bartman in Pennsylvania, who got five years probation for voting twice and admitted to it, admitted to everything that he did, five years probation. This is a war. And many people said that when Trump came into office, it was actually the end of a second reconstruction, really, at the end of the day. And we have to get our minds historically around that fact, that history is repeating itself. People think that just because people aren't out there with nooses and burning crosses and the like, that somehow everything is fine.

These guys are smart. They're intelligent. And they're doing this stuff in very subtle ways, chipping away every single day and in every single way at all of the opportunities that we have to advance ourselves in this country. And we have to support Crystal. We have to support Rogers in every way possible. When she said that, he cried like a baby when they spoke. 62 facing 20 years, we have to, as Dr. Malibu said, there's no other option. They have to be taken out of power. And for those of us who would think,

oh, it can't happen to me, oh, she's a quote-unquote criminal because of whatever happened in the past, you gotta be ridiculous to think that because they are going to come for you. They start with cases like this where they think people won't care, and then before you know it, they're knocking on your door and you're like, hey, I don't even have a record. They don't care. They see us all the same. Wake up now. Support Crystal. Support Rogers. Because if we don't change it now, it's just a matter of

time before it's you. And go ahead. Go ahead. I'm sorry. He says it's subtle, but it isn't subtle. That's the thing we have to think about. This is frontally attacking people's voting rights. There's nothing subtle about the ways that they insist on cleaving to the filibuster. There's nothing subtle about these laws that are being passed. This is deliberate, as deliberate as anything else. And we have to be clear.

Let's not look for nuance. Let's just look for truth. Well, and the thing here, to hear the prosecutor say, oh, yes, send the message. I mean, give me a damn break. I mean, this is, I mean, that amount of time for this is just silly. At best. It is ridiculous.

It is ridiculous. And, again, we got these activist courthouses right now where they feel like they can do anything, probably a Trump-appointed judge. And this is another reason why this voting matters. You know, people just focus on the Supreme Court, you know, that they got during the last election. But there was, what, over 200 judges

that were appointed across the country. So we're going to see more of this. Why isn't the person who made her fill out a provisional ballot being questioned or having any charges brought up on them at the end of the day? Every time we look, they're taking another opportunity to

steal our opportunities and our rights in this country, and we just can't let it happen. And again, this is the kind of stuff that we're fighting against because it is specifically targeting people of color, Julianne.

It's specifically targeting people of color, also older people who have limited access, also poor people who don't have the automobiles or other transportation to get to the ballot. The fact is that these folks want to have

a white oligarchy. They want the country to, even as they're losing population and losing everything else, they want to keep this power. And too many of us, Roland, are afraid to call them out on it. Now, many do. You do. Others do. But there's so many people who are in the elective office who are silent. That's a problem. You know, the Democrats, the Democratic Party has a lot to answer for here. Jamie Harrison, appreciate him, but not as aggressive

as we'd like right now. Democrats need to be speaking up. Madam Vice President doing the right thing, but she needs to be a little bit more aggressive. This is not about going to do square dancing and do the dukes, whatever. I don't have the metaphor correct. But this is really about the fight of our lives.

If these people are able to take these voting rights away, we're back in the 1940s, if not earlier. And I got to, if I can, we also have to, another community we have to add is our families within the, what people call, you know, the disabled community when they talk about limiting access. And what these Republicans do is they are so, when they frame it as a Black issue, you know, issue that faces us, all of these other communities sometimes act as if they're not also being targeted as well. And again, it's a situation, oh, well, that's just their problem. And then before you know it, you can't do it. Every community that doesn't have

money, that doesn't have access, and in many of these cases at the end of the day are just not white, are going to have issues with access to the vote. We have to stop it now as they're building day by day, chipping this right away and that right away. Otherwise, we're going to lose issues with access to the vote. We have to stop it now as they're building day by day, chipping this right away and that right away. Otherwise, we're going to lose it all. Well, yeah, and again, this is why we focus on these issues. Some of you have asked about the Justice for Crystal GoFundMe. Go to my computer, please, if y'all see it. Let me know if you have it up. And again, one second let me do screen mirroring here this should do it here I believe all right here we go right here all right folks they've so

the goal is a hundred thousand000. They raised $78,015. So just simply, if you type in Justice for, the number four, Justice for Crystal, it'll come up right there. And so go ahead and do that to support Crystal Mason as she continues to battle the state of Texas, who are just being complete idiots when it comes to her voting. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, let's talk space. Does it really matter that Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, they're trying to do what NASA used to do? Got a black rocket scientist up next to tell us it doesn't matter.

We shall see. It's coming up next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. We gotta deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation,

we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's going to happen.

Hello, I'm Nina Turner. My grandmother used to say, all you need in life are three bones. The wishbone to keep you dreaming, the jawbone to. My grandmother used to say, all you need in life are three bones. The wishbone to keep you dreaming, the jawbone to help you speak truth to power, and the backbone to keep you standing through it all. I'm running for Congress because you deserve a leader who will stand up fearlessly on your behalf.

Together, we will deliver Medicare for all. Good jobs that pay a living wage and bold justice reform. I'm Nina Turner and I approve this message. The King Movement of 1955 is the first time in a very violent civilization, Western civilization, any sizable group of people started to work to change by insisting we can use nonviolence power to create the change. Gandhi said that nonviolent power, the power of life,

is the greatest and most creative force, power of the universe. And that if we human beings turn away from conventional wisdom towards using the gift of life, which is ours at birth, we would be surprised what the future of the human race will look like. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin

Unfiltered. And well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered. Alright, folks, a lot of attention has been focused on space travel. In the last couple of weeks, we've seen Richard Branson, the billionaire, travel to space. Or did he really travel to space? This week,

in a couple of days, Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder, he also is going to be in the clouds as well. So what does this actually mean? Does it matter? Does it really impact us? Could we really do more with it? So what's the real deal here? So I reached out to Aisha Bo. Of course, she's a rocket scientist, worked at NASA, now owns her own company. To get her thoughts on this. All right, Aisha, so all all right explain this to me why is this important to regular ordinary folks or is this two rich ass guys just playing with expensive toys roland branson and basis going to into space matters and let me tell you why first let's start with the money i believe you're watching the creation of what

could be the next best investment to Dogecoin. Sure, you got a couple of rich guys in space, but the stock in Virgin Galactic was up 4.1% from the flight. Now, the ticket prices, no, they're not cheap. It's rumored that they're going to be $250,000 per seat, but you don't have to have that to get in on this action. A stock in Virgin Galactic is $32, and there's about 600 people that are rumored to be on the waiting list to take a flight. In fact, there was a poll of people with a net worth of $5 million, and over 39% of them said that they would be willing to launch themselves into space, Roland. Now, Bezos' flight, it's not as cheap as Virgin Galactic.

His fourth seat went to an 18-year-old from the Netherlands for the bargain basement price of $28 million. And guess what? There are other people who want to pay that price because the teenager was the second person on the list who was willing to pay that. So the first thing here is, even if you're not interested in space, even if you're not motivated by the idea that we've got billionaires competing for space territory, I don't want black America to miss out on what could be a really good investment. But what, okay, I'm still confused here. Okay, first of all, you talked about $28 million. If we look at the net worth of African Americans, it's about $5,000.

And you talked about also buying the stock. All right, I mean, again, how does that help the average person when you've got half of the country who isn't even in the stock market? And so how how does Branson and Bezos advance the future of of of space and America? And again, the average person, I've got people, again, who are going, all right, I got two rich white dudes who talk about going to space. We got other issues down here on earth. So what is it? So again, let's say if I'm not in the stock market

and I ain't got $28 million to give away to hop out my ass on a plane, how does it benefit the average people? Well, first of all, Roland, a flight is more expensive than a single stock in Virgin Galactic. That's only 30 bucks. So if you've got 30 bucks,

you can afford to play this game with us. The second thing is what you're watching is the creation of an industry called space tourism, which was made viable by the Virgin Galactic flight. There's the history-making elements of having the oldest person in space and the youngest person in space and all the capacity that's going to be provided by both of these vehicles. But the real thing here that everybody at home can connect with is being able to profit off of what's going on without having to pay that price per seat. The other thing that I really connect with is the advantage in science that happened from space exploration.

Many people are not aware that vaccines are tested in space. And so the vehicles that are created by Brantos and Basin and Brantos actually help further space exploration, which allows for us to create the next generation vaccines to combat things like antibiotic staph and even the pandemic we're experiencing now. Okay, so we've seen the federal government back away from the investment in space. For people who are baby boomers that grew up in the 60s when you had the space race between the Americans and the Russians. For me being Gen X,

I remember when the space shuttle was launched and it was exciting. Then all of a sudden, you know, the interests begin to wane. We had two explosions. Then America went away from that. And so what what how do we get Americans back interested in space and launch that took astronauts to the International Space Station and included a black man by the name of Victor Glover as part of their flight. astronaut, becoming somebody who can make strides in space is going to be open to so many more by these private companies playing a part. At first it was SpaceX and then it was Branson and now it's Bezos. And as the price to play continues to go down, we're going to see more missions and a more inclusive environment. Okay, so that's the price going down. What, from a scientific standpoint, what advancements can we, what advancements have we gotten in the past

that have been beneficial to the everyday person as a result of space exploration? Sure, so there's actually a really long list that NASA publishes called the Space Technology Transfer Guide. I invite those who are out there to look it up. There's all hosts of things beyond, you know, the Fable Tang and satellites and all the communication devices. There's a lot of medical research that comes from space exploration. The reason why the price going down, Roland, is so important is that we are then able to create more experiments that can be launched what you're going to see is a rapid acceleration

in technologies that allow us on Earth to live more comfortably. All right, then. I'm a Congo. Got a question for Aisha regarding these space adventures. Yes. Ms. Bo, first of all, thank you for your information and knowledge on this issue. I was wondering if you could possibly indulge the conspiracy theorist in me. I'm thinking of movies like Elysium and the like.

And do you feel like this space tourism is something that could eventually one day lead towards things like space colonization, where people are like, well, you know, we got to cut out and have these outposts on the moon for people who have the ability to do so. Am I really kind of just on a conspiracy theory, Ben, right there, or is that a real possibility? We're on a conspiracy theory. Let's say I hope so. So, you know, let's kind of frame this conversation a bit here. So, the Virgin Galactic's ship did what we called a suborbital jaunt, meaning they didn't go all that high. We're talking maybe 50 miles off the surface of the Earth. The International Space Station is about 254. And so there's no way that with that craft, they could actually get that far. Now, what you saw with SpaceX was, well, they were able to get to the International Space Station.

And so there's a possibility that you could have to get to the International Space Station. And so there's a possibility that you could have more astronauts on the International Space Station. But what private companies have yet to do is take us to another world. And so I think that that's still quite a bit of a ways off. Thank you. Julianne? Aisha, first of all, thank you for being there. It's just good to see a sister lost in space or found in space. There have been many things that we've gotten from space exploration. Some of them have been medical.

What have been some of the medical advances that we've got because of space travel, space exploration, and that kind of thing? I believe you said what have been some of the medical advances that have come out of space experiments. Yeah, space travel, exploration, yeah. Yeah, sorry, the audio on my side cut down.

So one of the things that I love about space experimentation is it's helping us understand how people on Earth can live longer. You may have seen that there have been experiments that included mice, that were looking at how the mice were impacted by microgravity. And maybe you wondered, what does that have to do with me here on Earth? Well, the very same conditions that a human must withstand in order to go, you know, to the moon, to the Mars or beyond are helping scientists here understand how somebody might be able to live to be 100 or 150 years, which is the amount of time that it may take for us to go to some of these further destinations. And so you're seeing a lot of advancements when it comes to research and longevity. I know I, for one, would like to be 80 years old in my 20-year-old body. And if space is going to take me there, I'm here for it.

All right, then. Aisha Boat, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Why can people get information to reach you? You can stay tuned to my Instagram at AishaBowe.com. I will be covering all the launches and more news on space. All right. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks very much.

All right, folks, let's go to California, where jurors got a break from listening to testimony in the Ed Buck trial. He's a white Democratic donor accused of administering a fatal dose of drugs to two black men in 2017-2019. The trial will resume tomorrow. Joining us now to tell us what's been happening in the courtroom is Jasmine Koenig. She, of course, has been involved with this story from the beginning. Jasmine, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. And so, one, it's been a long time getting to this particular point when Jamel Moore was found dead. There were a lot of people, a lot of Democrats, white folks, a lot of gay white folks, real quiet. Nobody wanted to say anything, do anything. But it took a second black man dying in Ed Buck's apartment for folks to realize, oh, there might be a problem now.

He's on trial. Absolutely. And it's so good to see you, Roland. I just want to always just say thank you to you because you believed from day one and kept this story on all of your platforms. So thank you. Appreciate it. You're exactly right. Not much has changed. We are not hearing much here in L.A. from the mainstream media or LGBT advocate groups or Democratic Party or anyone. And it's very telling. Friday was definitely the hardest day for all of us. We sat through, Ed Buck had over 2,400 videos of him torturing, injecting, you know, Black men with methamphetamine, unconscious Black men that he was sexually assaulting. It was so incredibly brutal on Friday, having to watch video after video of this black man with nooses around their

necks. Some black men who didn't even know they were being recorded, others who asked for him not to record them or for him not to put their face in the video. So there's no denying now exactly who Ed Buck is, even for me, right? So I went back because I wasn't even really sure when I started covering this. It was August 10th, 2017. Jamel Moore died July 26th, July 27th, 2017. And I knew he was a bad person then, but now we all know exactly how bad he is. And it was way worse than we could have ever, ever imagined looking at the videos, reading the text messages that he sent to people. I mean, this man is Jeffrey Dahmer 2.0. And it's really sad that people don't know about this case.

They're unaware of it. I even had a council member here in LA refer to his victims as just disadvantaged Black hustlers. The only one who was doing the hustling was Ed Buck. He loved to make these men unconscious and to take advantage of them, slip them GHB and take advantage of them. And so, yeah, you know, we didn't have court today. We resume court

tomorrow. Over this next week, we're going to hear a lot of testimony from his victims. And so I'm sure it's going to be even more horrific. He also hired two black attorneys to defend him. Clearly, that was by design. He did. And I got to say, Christopher Darden and Ludlow Creary will not be getting any invites to the barbecue ever again in life. You know, we say in dominoes, right, Roland, all money isn't good money. It's very interesting watching Ed Buck's pasty white butt sitting between these two hefty black gentlemen in court who are doing his bidding. And their whole entire defense is around AIDS, right? So their defense is that Jamel Moore died of AIDS, full-blown AIDS, as they like to say, and not the methamphetamine that was injected into

him. And that Timothy Dean was living on borrowed time and had a heart condition. And that's what killed him, not the methamphetamine that was injected into him. I'm so ashamed of Christopher Darden, but I'm not surprised because remember, he did take Eric Holder as a client, the man who killed Nipsey Hussle. And he only dropped that case because he couldn't handle the death threats that he was receiving. He's been on the wrong side of a lot of battles lately. He continues to lose in court. I hope that that streak continues. His mini-me Ludlow query is no better. They are definitely earning their million-plus-dollar fee that they are getting from Ed Buck. But it is really embarrassing

to see these two black men use the HIV status of Ed Buck's black victims against them. It is horrific. In terms of, I talked about how folks were so silent on this. And Ed Buck was a major Democratic donor. And the state Democratic Party was extremely reluctant to say anything because they wanted to keep getting his checks. And even after Jamel Moore was killed, he was still giving money and they were still accepting money. Sure was. And I got to tell you, as an elected member of the Democratic Party, publicly elected here in California, they still haven't said much, haven't said anything at all, nothing about justice for the victims. Everyone sort of has their head buried in the sand. What was very interesting to me during the testimony on Friday was that the prosecutor

showed a text exchange that Ed Buck had had with one of his victims, where he was trying to set up one of his party and play sessions. And in the text message, Buck says, oh, I'm getting ready for tomorrow. I got an endorsement panel. And it just made me think again. Here is this man who's showing up at all these Democratic fundraisers, all of these events with Democrats, and he's either coming or going from shooting men up with meth, drugging men, and doing all of these things. We have people in L.A. who refuse to acknowledge that they took his money but returned Harvey Weinstein's money to the Time's Up Foundation without even

being asked. And so, again, I think it just speaks volumes about the lives of Black people, the lives of Black men. And it's really, really sad, because Ed Buck was a serial predator. He was a serial predator. There was a point in the trial where the prosecution showed that Jamel Moore died on July 27th, and within two weeks, back to back to back, every single day, Ed Buck had another, a different young man coming and going from his house. I remember one particular thing, Roland, that I will never forget. It was either Christopher Darnold or Ludlow Cleary, but the defense for Ed Buck was cross-examining Ed Buck's next-door neighbor who said that all of the mostly African-American men he saw leaving

seemed to always be in a stupor or under the influence of something. And the defense said, well, could it not be that they're under the influence of anything but that they just have AIDS? They literally said that in court. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's pretty crazy there, Jasmine Koenig.

We certainly appreciate you giving us this breakdown. And then we'll be following up what happened in this trial. Thank you so much. I appreciate you so much, Roland. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it, Jasmine. All right, folks, we've got an update on Haiti, where the elections minister says the Caribbean nation is moving forward after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph is going to step down from his position,

and the man President Moise appointed to replace Joseph the day before the assassination will take over. Ariel Henry will be the country's new prime minister and organize an election for the presidency as soon as possible. Investigators say President Moise made a phone call to the Haitian National Police Commissioner the night of his July 7th assassination. He pleaded for help for 10 minutes. No one came to his rescue. He called another officer who sent backup, but not before Moise was killed and his wife was shot.

Over a dozen members of the former president's security team have been detained and questioned. More than 20 suspects have been arrested in connection with the shooting, including two Haitian Americans. Martine Moise, the wife of slain President Moise, is back at home in Haiti. The widow arrived Saturday at Port-au-Prince Airport in an arm sling and wearing a bulletproof vest. She was greeted by Haitians. Prime Minister Claude Joseph, the president's funeral is going to take place on Friday. When you think about when you see that video of her getting off the plane when you think about all the drama I mean it's just one of those things where Julian where

you just wish my god can Haiti get a sustained period of peace as opposed to just this constant upheaval?

Well, that's the question, Roland. Haiti has been unstable since it had to pay France, repeat myself, since it had to pay France reparations for its freedom. This allowed all kinds of instability to be introduced. The United States, of course, has played a significant role in the instability. And even though President Biden has said they're going to have some investigation over there, I'm not sure that the U.S. role is helpful at all. I'd like to see CARICOM or some other Caribbean organization involved more in the stability issue. Because what we have now is, first of all,

people think of Haiti as a black country, but in fact, it's got black faces and white rulers. And white folks are running the economy. They are cutting deals right and left. They don't care whether it's unstable or not, as long as they get their money. I said their money. I do understand English from Ebonics. As long as they get their money. I said their money. I do understand

English from Ibanis. As long as they get their money, they're okay. And the instability basically benefits petty, predatory capitalists. And so if CARICOM were able to come in, if you had someone like some of the brothers from Jamaica or other places come in, brothers and sisters, and to look at governance, I think it would be very different. But as it stands now, they'll get this straight for about five years and then here we go again. I'm a Congo. It is

again, because of Americans' history here, it's a little hard for people to trust that America has Haiti's best interests at heart. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when has the United States had, I mean, the United States occupied Haiti for a while as well in earlier days. And going off of Dr. Marveau's point, Haiti's actually still paying France for defeating them. And a lot of people don't even understand.

I mean, we all know here America's connection to it. I mean, Toussaint Louverture's defeat of Napoleon led to the Louisiana Purchase, which helped the United States grow as a country. So there's always been a direct connection. And it's sad that too many of us don't really understand Haiti's history. And we continually want to look at it as a failed Black state. But look, there were international assassins who were involved in this. There weren't just people in Haiti who rose up one day and decided to commit this assassination. There were people from the United States, from Colombia, from other people. And so when Dr. Malvo is talking about CARICOM as well, yes, we need to

get this in the hands of people who are from the region, because as long as we have people who might have been involved in the assassination, doing the investigation, we're not going to get real answers. I hope that with this new leadership, it's going to be a time for Haiti to start to see a turnaround, because they're suffering on so many different levels. So many people are still not vaccinated there as well. Coming off of the earthquake a couple of years ago is issue upon issue. But we within the diaspora, we have to do more to rally behind Haiti. And maybe that may be supporting local organizations on the ground, educational institutions and the like.

But I do agree that we also have to get some Caribbean influence there as it relates to doing these investigations and seeking justice. Well, again, we certainly hope that happens. And then, of course, the funeral taking place on Friday. Again, hopefully there is going to be peace in Haiti. My goodness, we hope that is the case. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about how to get your fitness in when you travel. And also, our book interview.

We're going to talk with the former governor of Alabama who talked about how Republicans took him down to keep Democrats from being in power in the state of Alabama. You don't want to miss this conversation on Roller Mountain. I told you. We saw struggle for civil rights as something grownups 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 to jump I'm in the world of fiction what I mean that's what I do I'm an actress has spent 35 years in this business I've been in the business since I was 14 I was discovered in a basement theater

in Philadelphia basically called freedom theater and that's what I do. I play for a living. And I look and see that we're in a world that, I mean, it's bizarre when you can't tell the fake from the real. These people are not faking it. That's what they're going to, they're going to, that's, that's, they're willing to put their whole lives, their family's lives, their whole, everything they've accomplished around looking pathetic and weak around a table because this man showed up and told them that, you know, that he was the one and everybody should follow him. He didn't even have a good, he didn't even have a good argument. He's not Martin Luther King. He

has no, he has no, no words. He has no, he has nothing. He's just rich have a good argument. He's not Martin Luther King. He has no words. He has no beat. He has nothing. He's just rich and white and male. And so people want to see that power on display and then tell us that we're not, you know, that we're crazy. They can't do it anymore. That's a good thing.

Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. He was considered one of the most successful and promising politicians in modern Alabama history. For three decades, former Alabama governor Don Siegelman held all the top elected offices in the state. It is in his new book, Stealing Our Democracy, How the Political Assassination of a Governor Threatens Our Nation.

He tells the tale of what happens when you mix politics and federal prosecutors. I talk with Don Siegelman about his ordeal, how he went to prison, and who he blames. Don Siegelman, glad to have you here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. I am delighted to meet you and be on your show. It's an honor. Well, let's talk about it. Actually, our paths have crossed before, so I have met you before, and I'm familiar with your story. You say, a couple of your books, you call it Still in Our Democracy, How the Political Assassination of a Governor Threatens Our Nation. THE POLITICAL ASSASSINATION OF A GOVERNOR THREATENS OUR NATION. YOU CALL YOURSELF POLITICAL PRISONER NUMBER ONE. EXPLAIN THAT. EXPLAIN FOR THE PEOPLE WHY YOU

SAY YOU'RE A POLITICAL PRISONER. GO AHEAD. WELL, ACTUALLY, THAT WAS A PHRASE THAT WAS ATTRIBUTED BY THE NATIONAL TRIAL AUDIORS IN AN ARTICLE THEY WROTE ABOUT MY CASE. BUT MY BOOK IS ABOUT NOT ONLY ABOUT HOW I WAS TARGETED BY about my case. But my book is about not only about how I was targeted by Karl Rove and the

Bush Justice Department and their abuse of power and their misuse of the Department of Justice as a political weapon, but it's more than that. It's about how the steps we need to take to balance the scales of justice and save our democracy. It's about holding police, prosecutors, and presidents accountable for their abuses of power. And for folks who don't realize, Alabama didn't always have Republican governors. You were a Democratic governor elected in that particular state, highly popular.

And you say the President George W. Bush White House and Karl Rove, they came after you. They wanted to take you out. They not only wanted to, they did take me out. It was Karl Rove's client, the state attorney general who started the investigation. I WAS A CRIMINAL IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. I WAS THE STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL WHO STARTED THE INVESTIGATION. IT WAS HIS FRIEND'S WIFE, HIS BUSINESS PARTNER'S WIFE WHO WAS ELEVATED TO THE U.S. ATTORNEY WHO KICKED THE FEDERAL

INVESTIGATION INTO HIGH GEAR. IT WAS CARL ROVE'S BAG MAN, JACK ABRAMOFF, WHO PUT IN $20 MILLION TO DEFEAT ME. IT WAS CARL ROVE'S CLIENT, THE STATE ATTORNEY GENER, I PARTICIPATED IN STEALING MY 2002 ELECTION. I WAS BROUGHT TO TRIAL ONE MONTH

BEFORE MY REELECTION BID IN 2006 BY THE U.S. ATTORNEY WHOSE HUSBAND WAS RUNNING MY OPPONENT'S CAMPAIGN. THERE WAS SWORN TESTIMONY BEFORE CONGRESSMAN CONYERS, WHEN HE WAS CHAIRMAN OF THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, THERE WAS SWORN TESTIMONY THAT CARL ROVE HAD DIRECTED THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TO PURSUE ME.

THERE WAS 113 FORMER STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL ALL AGREED THAT WHAT I DID WAS POLITICAL AND NOT CRIMINAL. SO THERE'S AMPLE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE CLAIM THAT THE TRIAL LAWYERS MADE THAT I WAS AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE POLITICAL PRISONER. I WAS A POLITICAL PRISONER. I WAS A POLITICAL PRISONER. I DIDN'T HAVE THE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE CLAIM THAT THE TRIAL LAWYERS MADE THAT I WAS AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE POLITICAL PRISONER.

YOU, YOU, YOU, FIRST OF ALL, YOU LAY OUT IN THE BOOK, YOU WERE SENTENCED 88 MONTHS IN PRISON. AND THEY WENT AFTER EVERYTHING. YOU TALK ABOUT LOSING YOUR LAW LICENSE, LOSING YOUR CAREER. YOU TALK ABOUT SPENDING TIME IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN PRISON AS WELL. AND SO TAKE US THROUGH HOW MUCH

YOUR WORLD CHANGED WHEN ALL OF THIS WAS GOING ON. WELL, I WANT TO MAKE A COMMENT. RIGHT AFTER I WAS CONVICTED, I GOT A PHONE CALL FROM ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS AND POLITICAL WELL, I WANT TO MAKE A COMMENT. RIGHT AFTER I WAS CONVICTED I GOT A PHONE CALL FROM ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS AND POLITICAL

ALLIES, SENATOR HANK SANDERS FROM SELMA. HE SAID, GOVERNOR, NOW YOU KNOW HOW BLACK FOLKS FEEL. BUT GOING THROUGH THE PROCESS OF BEING CONVICTED OF SOMETHING THAT I KNEW WAS NOT A CRIME AND BEING ACCUSED OF SOMETHING THAT

NEVER HAPPENED, BEING FOUND GUILTY AND BEING SENTENCED TO of something that I knew was not a crime and being accused of something that never happened, being found guilty and being sentenced to prison for 88 months brought it home to me as a former attorney general and governor that our system of justice was broken. You know, some of us, you know, WHILE I HAD FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AGAINST GEORGE WALLACE AND DID ALL KINDS OF GOOD THINGS IN MY POLITICAL LIFE, I WAS NAIVELY ENTERING INTO A PROCESS, THE

CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESS, THAT I THOUGHT A JURY WOULD FIX. YOU KNOW, SURELY, EVEN THOUGH I WAS TARGETED, EVEN THOUGHT A JURY WOULD FIX. YOU KNOW, SURELY, EVEN IF I'M EVEN THOUGH I WAS TARGETED, EVEN THOUGH THE PROSECUTOR WAS MARRIED TO MY CAMPAIGN MANAGER, I MEAN, THE CAMPAIGN MANAGER OF MY OPPONENT, I THOUGHT THAT THE

JURY WOULD FIX THIS, THAT I WOULD NOT BE CONVICTED. AND WHEN I WAS, YOU KNOW, THE AIR JUST WENT OUT AT ME. I THOUGHT, YOU know, the air just went out at me. I thought, you know, what could I have done differently as attorney general or as governor to have helped those who were in a similar situation? And then being thrown into prison, I was fortunate to be put in situations where I learned even more about how particularly men and women of color are targeted, targeted by police, by investigators, how prosecutors abuse their powers, how they present false evidence or THEIR POWERS, HOW THEY PRESENT FALSE EVIDENCE OR FALSE TESTIMONY OR WITHHOLD EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE, AND HOW

THEY WANTED LONG-TERM CONVICTIONS, SENTENCES FOR PARTICULARLY MEN OF COLOR. AND IT, IT, IT, THE WHOLE PROCESS I LOOK AT NOW AS A BLESSING BEC THING. IT'S A PRETTY GOOD THING. IT, IT, IT, THE WHOLE PROCESS I LOOK AT NOW AS A BLESSING. BECAUSE NOW I'M ABLE TO ADVOCATE

FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM WITH A BACKGROUND AND AN UNDERSTANDING OF NOT ONLY FROM MY DAYS AS ATTORNEY GENERAL OR GOVERNOR BUT AS AN UNDERSTAND HOW THIS SYSTEM IS BROKEN AND HOW IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED. YOU WERE, THEY HIT YOU WITH CORRUPTION CHARGES. INITIALLY ALL OF THE CHARGES

WERE THROWN OUT BY A FEDERAL JUDGE, THEN THEY REFILED, INDICTED YOU ON NEW CHARGES. IT WAS TIED TO RICHARD SCRUSHY OF COURSE WHO WAS who was a health CEO. And so you were then eventually convicted seven out of 33 counts by a jury. But explain to the folks the number of Democrats and Republicans who felt there was prosecutorial misconduct, the number of people who came out on your behalf and say you actually got a raw deal. REPUBLICANS WHO FELT THERE WAS PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT, THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO CAME

OUT ON YOUR BEHALF AND SAY YOU ACTUALLY GOT A RAW DEAL. SO THIS BOOK ISN'T JUST, OH, YOU'RE DON SIEGELMAN JUST SAYING, HEY, I GOT A RAW DEAL. I MEAN, YOU LITERALLY HAD FOLKS ON BOTH state attorneys general, rally to my cause because they saw this as a turning point in our criminal justice system. I was convicted of really a bribery for accepting a campaign contribution to a ballot initiative. It wasn't to my campaign. It was to a ballot initiative to provide better education for Alabama's children. And there was no evidence of a quid pro quo, much less an express quid pro quo. The judge allowed a conviction based on an implied or an inferred quid pro quo, an inferred agreement that never took place. But he allowed the jury to convict. So I became the first and only person in American jurisprudence to ever be sent to jail for bribery where there was no self-enrichment scheme and where I didn't benefit by a single penny.

So, you know, but I knew where this was coming from. I knew who was behind it and why they were doing it. This was not a situation where I said, oh, woe is me. How did this happen? I knew why it happened and how it happened, and I knew who was behind it. So my quest throughout my my term in prison was to expose the injustice and then to do what I could to fix the justice system. I WANTED TO FIX THE JUSTICE SYSTEM. I WANTED TO CLOSE THE INJUSTICE AND THEN TO DO WHAT I COULD TO FIX THE JUSTICE SYSTEM. IF IN EVERY SITUATION THERE IS A

PURPOSE OR IF IN EVERY SITUATION ONE SHOULD FIND A PURPOSE, THE PURPOSE I FOUND WAS TO TRY TO FIX THIS JUSTICE SYSTEM. AND BEFORE WE GET TOO FAR, FIELD, I WANT TO TELL YOU HOW WE MUST PUT THE BRAKES ON POLICE WHO MURDER BLACK PEOPLE.

YOU KNOW, THERE'S BEEN SO MUCH DISCUSSION, ROLAND, PARTICULARLY AFTER, WELL, AFTER SO MANY, SO MANY BLACKS HAVE BEEN MURDERED, SHOT IN THE BACK, YOU KNOW, TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS, KIDS, YOU KNOW, LIKE, you know, traffic violations of kids, you know, like Tamir Rice shot because he had a plastic gun or men choked on the streets of New York or George Floyd. But people talked about what's wrong with this. And of course, we need to pass

the George Floyd Act. We need to pass H.R. 1 as well. But of course we need to change policing. We need to change politicians as well. But we've also got to change privilege. It is this blanket umbrella of privilege that hangs over the injustices in our criminal justice system. OF THEIR PRIVILEGE THAT HANGS OVER THE INJUSTICES IN OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. IT IS POLICE PRIVILEGE OR THE PERCEPTION OF THEIR PRIVILEGE THAT CAUSES THE DEATH OF SO MANY BLACK PEOPLE. AND IT'S GOING TO TAKE CONGRESS TO ERASE QUALIFIED IMMUNITY. BUT IN THE MEANTIME, THE WAY TO PUT THE BRAKES ON POLICE MURDERING BLACK PEOPLE IS TO ALLOW THE FAMILY MEMBERS OF VICTIMS OF THE EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE BY POLICE TO HAVE A LAWYER PRESENT

IN THE GRAND JURY. DO YOU THINK THAT GEORGE ZIMMERMAN WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO WALK FREE IF BENJAMIN CRUMP THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS,

THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS,

THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY MEMBERS, THE FAMILY across the board, state, local, federal prosecutors get 99%, 99% of the indictments they want. But when it comes to holding police accountable for murdering a black person, the percentage drops precipitously. And there are reasons for that. THE DEMOCRATS ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS.

THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS.

THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS. THE DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEIR PAYMENTS. thousand dollars pocketing that money the prosecutors said asked for probation no jail time um then of course when 60 minutes did a story on your particular case uh the cbs affiliate uh in town did not even air uh that segment claiming there were transmission issues do you believe uh first of all now do you believe but you lay it out that uh that clearly there were forces who TRANSMISSION ISSUES. DO YOU BELIEVE, FIRST OF ALL, NOT DO YOU BELIEVE, BUT DO YOU LAY IT OUT, THAT CLEARLY THERE

WERE FORCES WHO WANTED TO TAKE YOU DOWN AND, OF COURSE, LEAD TO REPUBLICANS BEING IN CHARGE IN ALABAMA. BUT NOTHING WAS EVER DONE TO CALL ROVE. THERE WAS NO ACTUAL INVESTIGATION.

EVEN WHEN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REQUESTED DOCUMENTS FROM THEN ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO GONZALES, NO DOCUMENTS WERE ACTUALLY PRODUCED. Even when members of Congress requested documents from then Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, no documents were actually produced. And so what do you want folks to take away? Is there a next? You know, where do we go with this? What is the lesson we ought to learn or take away from what you went through and what you are alleging with Stealing Our Democracy? THEM. I'M SURE YOU'RE GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT THIS. WHAT IS THE LESSON WE OUGHT TO

LEARN OR TAKE AWAY FROM WHAT YOU WENT THROUGH AND WHAT YOU ARE ALLEGING WITH STEALING OUR DEMOCRACY, THIS BOOK AND ALSO THE DOCUMENTARY THAT WAS DONE ON YOUR CASE AS WELL? WELL, CONGRESSMAN JOHN CONYERS DID EVERYTHING HE COULD TO HOLD CALL ROVE ACCOUNTABLE, he could to hold Karl Rove accountable, not only for the selective prosecution

and prosecutorial abuse in my case, but he wanted to hold him responsible for what he did in leaking about Valerie Plune. And he did everything he could to get him held in contempt. He wanted him arrested and handcuffed to the basement of the Capitol. But Karl Rove was was let off the hook. No one was held responsible for the abuse of power of the Department of Justice under the Bush administration. And what we have seen under under Trump. Let me back up from it. THE DIRTY TRICKS CAMPAIGN. IT WAS A SCANDAL. IT WAS A SCANDAL THAT WAS SEEN UNDER TRUMP. LET ME BACK UP FOR A MINUTE.

DONALD SORGRETTI HAD A PARTNER IN THE DIRTY TRICKS CAMPAIGN IN THE NIXON DAYS. IT WAS CARL ROVE. ROVE CAME WITHIN A HAIR OF BEING INDICTED IN THE WATERGATE SCANDAL. IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR GEORGE HUBERT WALKER BUSH, HE WAS THEN CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL REPUES, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, GEORGE HUBERT

WALKER BUSH, WHO WAS THEN CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY, ROE WOULD HAVE BEEN CAUGHT UP IN THAT SCANDAL. BUT MY POINT HERE IS THAT IF WE DO NOT HOLD POLICE AND PROSECUTORS AND PRESIDENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ABUSE OF

POWER, IT'S SIMPLY GOING TO GET WORPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS.

THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE

REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE

PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBLICANS. THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THE PARTY ARE NOT GOING TO BE REPUBL. I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT JEFF SESSIONS SAYS I HAD NO IDEA. ROSENSTEIN, I HAVE NO IDEA. YOU'RE SITTING THERE GOING WHO THE HELL WAS RUNNING THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT THEN?

EXACTLY. CONGRESS, AND I HOPE THAT THE HOUSE SUBPOENAS OR GETS BILL BARR AND JEFF SESSIONS, JEFFREY BEAU REGARD SESSIONS BEFORE THE UNDER OATH, BEFORE ONE OF THE COMMITTEES IN THE HOUSE. THEY'VE GOT TO HOLD THESE PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE. AND ACTUALLY, I'M KIND OF GLAD THAT THERE'S BEEN THIS REVELATION THAT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WERE TARGETED BY AN ABUSE OF POWER BY THE

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. YOU KNOW, IF THE UNITED STATES SENATE, THE REPUBLICANS,ED STATES, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. IF THE UNITED STATES SENATE, THE REPUBLICANS, HAD DONE WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE SECOND IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF DONALD

TRUMP, IF THEY HAD CONVICTED HIM OF THE OUT AND OUT BRIBERY ATTEMPT OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE, WE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD THE INSURRECTION, WE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD THE, YOU KNOW, A LOT OF THIS THAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING NOW WOULD NEVER HAVE

HAPPENED. BUT WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW IS A DIRECT RESULT OF US NOT HOLDING PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE ABUSES OF POWER WHEN IT IS BEING DONE RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSES. YOU KNOW, THIS, THE FACT THAT WE'VE GOT 30 STAT got 30 states passing, I don't know how many bills, trying to suppress votes is just another way for Republicans to try to steal an election. This way,

they don't have to go to the trouble of stuffing ballot boxes. They just want to legitimize THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BE RELEVANT. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BE PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON BALLOT BOXES. THEY JUST WANT TO LEGITIMIZE RESTRICTING THE RIGHT TO VOTE. AND, YOU KNOW, JOE MANCHIN NEEDS TO BE, I STARTED TO SAY RED THE RIOT ACT BUT THAT DOESN'T APPLY ANYMORE.

BUT, YOU KNOW, JOE BIDEN NEEDS TO GET SERIOUS WITH JOE MANCHIN AND WE NEED TO MOVE ON WITH HR I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA. WE NEED TO GET SERIOUS WITH JOE MANCHIN AND WE NEED TO MOVE ON WITH HR1 AND GET THESE BILLS PASSED. ACTUALLY, ACTUALLY, ARI BERMAN JUST SENT A TWEET

OUT, INTERESTING, HE SAYS MANCHIN AND SINEMA DIDN'T ATTEND SENATE DIM LUNCH WHERE TEXAS DEMOCRATS SPOKE ABOUT NEED TO PASS FOR THE PEOPLE ACT TO STOP GOP VOTER SUPPRESSION. I MEAN, WHAT IN THE HELL ARE THESE TWO DEMOCRATS DOING, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND THE GOP VOTER SUPPRESSION. I MEAN, WHAT IN THE HELL ARE THESE TWO DEMOCRATS DOING,

SENATOR KRISTEN SINEMA OF ARIZONA WHILE THE GOP IS LEADING THIS BOGUS RECOUNT AND THEN YOU GOT MANCHIN WHO IS ACTING LIKE A DAMN SOUTHERN DIXIECRACK IN THE 1950s AND 60s. YEAH, HE NEEDS TO JOIN THE CAUCUS OF CONGRESSMAN DANIELS. IT IS, YOU KNOW, WHEN I WAS ELECTED LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR,

I HAD SOME QUALMS ABOUT, BECAUSE I WAS GOING TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE, PRESIDING, I HAD TO KNOW HOW TO USE THE GAVEL. AND I TALKED TO THE SECRETARY OF THE SENATE WHO HAD BEEN THERE FOR SOME 40 OR 50 YEARS. AND I TOLD MCDOWELL LEE THAT I WAS A LITTLE BIT OF A DEMOCRAT, I WAS A DEMOCRAT, I HAD BEEN THERE FOR SOME 40 OR 50 YEARS, AND I TOLD MCDOWELL LEE THAT I WAS A LITTLE, EVEN THOUGH I HAD STUDIED THE RULES AND MASTERED THE RULES AND I

KNEW THEM BETTER THAN ANYBODY IN THE SENATE, I SAID I JUST DON'T KNOW IF I'M GOING TO BE ABLE TO RULE QUICKLY ENOUGH. HE SAID YOU'RE GOING TO DO FINE BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHO YOUR FRIENDS ARE. WELL, I DON'T KNOW THAT JOE MANCHIN KNOWS WHO HIS FRIENDS ARE. IF HE DID, HE WOULD SIDE WITH THE DEMOCRATS ON H.R. 1 AND NOT WITH THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO SUBVERT OUR DEMOCRACY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE AISLE. It makes no sense at all.

Got to ask you this here. You're there. Just your assessment of Alabama politics right now. I WANT TO ASK YOU THIS HERE. YOU ARE THERE, JUST YOUR ASSESSMENT OF ALABAMA POLITICS RIGHT NOW. THE STATE WHERE YOU SERVED IN POLITICAL OFFICE FOR A QUARTER OF A CENTURY, I'LL BE HONEST,

YOU TRULY HAVE THE DUMBEST UDINNAN STATE SENATOR I'VE EVER SEEN IN TOMMY TUBBERVILLE. I WAS GOING TO SAY WHICH ONE, BUT YES, I KNOW WHICH ONE. I MEAN, I know which one. I mean, I thought Roy Moore was a true idiot. Tuberville is even dumber. And when you look at just some of the decisions being made,

you look at how the state just loves Donald Trump despite his lying, despite him not being a Christian, despite his values, all that sort of stuff. And so when you hear these, and I'll say these white conservative evangelicals in your state just talk about the Lord and Jesus and all those different things, you got to say, well, what the heck, do y'all even know Jesus when you go vote? YOU KNOW, I'M A LIBERAL BY JUST ABOUT ANY STANDARD. I'M SURE YOU'RE SOMEWHAT FAMILIAR WITH MY BACKGROUND. BUT I WAS ABLE TO BRIDGE THE GAP

IN ALABAMA BECAUSE I TALKED ABOUT THINGS THAT SEEMED TO MAKE SENSE TO A MAJORITY OF PEOPLE. AND I WAS ABLE TO, YOU KNOW, TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT SEEMED TO MAKE SENSE TO A MAJORITY OF PEOPLE. the gap in Alabama because I talked about things that seemed to make sense to a majority of people. And I was able to be elected Secretary of State and expand the right to vote for

blacks and people with disabilities. As Attorney General, I settled a case which forced the redistricting of every city and county election so that there were hundreds of blacks elected in subsequent years to those offices. And as governor, I was pushing for quality education, early learning, and free college education or free higher education paid for with an education lottery. AND I THINK IT'S A GREAT IDEA TO HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE LEARNING AND FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION OR FREE HIGHER EDUCATION PAID FOR WITH AN EDUCATION LOTTERY. AND, YOU KNOW, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

WE CAN CHANGE THINGS. WE CAN MAKE THINGS BETTER. AND IT DOES TAKE HARD WORK AND LONG HOURS AND A LOT OF TIME AND ENERGY TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR THE RIGHT THINGS. SO EVEN THOUGH I WAS THE LAST

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR, AND THAT WAS BACK IN, I WAS ELECTED TWICE, INAUGURATED ONCE, BUT ANYWAY, THAT'S A STORY OTHER DAY. BUT I SERVED UNTIL 2003. AND I DO HAVE HOPE THAT THERE WILL BE A CANDIDATE, A DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE WHO WILL

COME ALONG AND WILL BE ABLE TO RELATE TO THE PEOPLE OF THIS STATE AND THAT THEY CAN THEN, YOU KNOW, JOIN FORCES AND MOVE THE STATE IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION. WHAT I ASK EVERY AUTHOR THIS. What, I ask every author this, and obviously this is your story, I always ask them, was there a particular wow moment for them as they were writing the book, as they were researching

the book? Obviously, you lived it and experienced it, but as you were putting this book together, was there that moment that caused even you to say, wow, this is unbelievable, this is crazy, this is just outlandish? Yeah, there was this, I may not be able to say this without getting emotional, but there was this one African-American young man. He was younger than me.

He had been arrested at 17 for marijuana. It was a felony, put on probation. 19, marijuana, felony, put on probation. When he was, I think, 23 or 25, he was arrested again, this time with a small amount of powder cocaine. And, of course, if you're black, it's crack, so they sentenced him to 25 years plus. Anyway, he served all of his time. He's out now. But I asked him to tell me his story,

and he did. And it's just one of those stories where he was trying to help his mother pay the water bill, the light bill, to keep who have been imprisoned by the abuse of power by prosecutors and police and investigators. Let me remind you of this, too. This is something that will shock your listeners, and that on January the 4th, 2010, during the Obama administration, there was a story written in the Los Angeles Times by David Savage, the Los Angeles legal correspondent, who said that President Obama's lawyer, Elena Kagan, argued to the United States Supreme Court yesterday, that was January, he wrote the story January the 5th, but that U.S. citizens do not have a constitutional right not to be framed. U.S. citizens do not have a constitutional right not to be framed. Of course, the fact is Elena Kagan was right because the Supreme Court in 1976 gave blanket immunity to prosecutors to knowingly and

willfully present false evidence and false testimony or withhold exculpatory evidence with no penalty. They can do this right thing and abolish immunity for prosecutors, President Biden can at least tell his Merrick Garland to inform the U.S. attorneys that if they are caught, if they are caught presenting false evidence or testimony or withholding exculpatory evidence, they will be fired. We've got to begin to change the dynamics in our justice system. And in my view, it starts with holding police and prosecutors and, yes, presidents accountable for their abuse of power the book folks is called stealing our democracy how the political assassination of a governor threatens

our nation uh by don siegelman this is the book right here so uh don where can people get the book they can oh you know what i would suggest is they that they get the audible version because I did it in my own voice. Amazon offers all kinds of artists to read the book for you, but I wanted people to hear the inflection in my voice and the sadness in my voice and the happiness and joy in my voice or the pain in my voice

as I was experiencing things, the injustices that many, many particularly black families have experienced themselves. So I'd suggest that people go online to Amazon and get the audible version. If they can tolerate my voice for a little while, I think they'll enjoy listening to my side of the story. All right. Don Siegel, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Yes, sir. Thank you.

All right, folks. A lot of us are busy traveling. Vacation is coming up. Still means you got to get your workouts in. So how do you do so when you're on the road? Dooley from Effect Fitness

joins us now with some tips on staying fit away from home. Dooley, what's up? Roland, how you doing, man? Thank you for having me. All right, then. So people are going to be on vacation. They're going to be going to family unions. COVID still impacts us.

So what do you tell them how to keep it going? First and foremost, you know, I think most people when they're traveling, the first thing they're going to do is they're going to make sure they got their phone and their ID. But you need to make sure you download a good app. And what better way to do that with the Effect Fitness On Demand app? Like I said, literally right at your hand. Everybody always got their phone in their hand. So with that being said, you find you're good at what this YouTube, Peloton, whatever you get.

And that's the most important thing. You find something you relate to, whether it's the music, whether it's the workouts, whatever it is, and you're going to be good to go. So, look, if you're on vacation, it's not like you're really trying to think about working out. So what do you tell people? You tell them, like, hey, if you do something, if you don't want to work out,

what? Go walking for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour? Keep your movement going as much as possible. What are you telling? That's the most important thing. Just find a way to keep moving. Like I said, if you don't do nothing but get out, you find you one CD, one playlist, one something, you turn it on, and you say,

hey, I'm going to work out. I'm going to walk to this whole CD or this whole album, and I'm going to make sure that I don't stop. Just something as simple as that. Even if you're just walking and punching. One of the things that I do is also I bring my bands with me so that way I can just attach it to a door

and not worry about if they're in a weight room. Also, if I'm not trying to be around other people dealing with COVID, I can just go ahead and sit there and use my bands in the room, on the patio or wherever I am. Absolutely. Like I said, that's the best way to do it right now.

Like I said, workout equipment and gyms are becoming almost obsolete in terms of just walking around with a bunch of equipment. But if you've got your set of resistance bands, you've got your set of arm bands, you've got some type of a step or a stool or a brick or anything you can step on, man, you will get a full workout in with just that. You don't need these four gyms anymore.

And again, that's again how things are certainly changing for lots of folks. And obviously, you don't want to go crazy when you're on the road, when it comes to your meal plan as well.

That's one of the things that I even when we're covering stuff, like I'm going to be in Texas next week, so we'll be there Tuesday or Wednesday through Sunday. No, no, no, no, no. When I go to Houston, I will go to the Turkey Leg Hub one

time. You cannot go more than one time in a week or it's going to completely throw everything, all your work you put in the previous month is gonna be gone. I agree, I agree. Couldn't agree more.

So now one of the things that we did this here when we were in Tulsa was, you know, we had our Sprinter, our RoRo Mobile, that's what I call it. We got a refrigerator in it. So what I do is I immediately, once we got there, went to the grocery store, got a rotissro mobile, that's what I call it. We got a refrigerator in it. So what I do is I immediately, once we got there, went to the grocery store, got a rotisserie chicken, sliced it all up, put it in some containers, popped it into the refrigerator.

So boom, it was always in there as we began to travel. Do you also encourage your clients, when they do hotel rooms, make sure they have a refrigerator in there so they can put their stuff in there? Absolutely. And I want them to do a scout report. Find out when you know where you're going, search the local stores.

Make sure you got something that you know you can go to. The worst thing that you can have happen is get to a place, a location, wake up in the morning, and then find out that I can't eat nothing, then you end up starving for half the day. And now you're gonna eat some crazy stuff just because you ain't ate nothing all morning. So before you go to where you're going, you already know. So like I said, you find out, you do your scout, you get your scout report.

You find out what's the nearest grocery store or just any place to get you something healthy to snack on. And once you get that mapped out, you'll be fine. Last question for you in terms of, again, when you're traveling. I've had some folks say you shouldn't do more than one protein shake a day. Others say it's okay if you do a couple. What do you say? I say do one. I say one, some type of fasting to kind of start the day. Like I said, I'm, I'm big on literally just like trying to start the day and, and, and making sure that I keep it lean in life. Like I said, you, people don't realize how much you're overeating on the road. We don't even realize it.

But just keep it lean as possible. One is enough. One is more than enough, actually. Now, do you pair that with an apple or a banana? Like, for instance, when I play golf, I try to eat every three hours. So typically what I'll do is when I make the turn, I'll do a protein shake and a banana just to keep my energy. Absolutely. I'm big on absolutely. Banana, orange protein shake and a banana just to keep my energy. Absolutely. I'm big, yeah, absolutely.

Banana, orange, apples, anything like that to go with it. Anything like that to go with it. All right. Dooley, where can people get more information? Effect Fitness. Add Effect Fitness on Instagram. Facebook, same thing. Follow us.

All right. We appreciate it, sir. Thank you so very much. Thank you, man. Pleasure having you. Final thoughts here. First of all, I got to ask Omokongo and Julian this. So y'all might've seen Naomi Osaka.

She actually put out a tweet. She was talking about her being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Well, that didn't sit too well with these whiny conservatives. This is the, this right here is the cover. And she calls this, she says, first Haitian woman and first Japanese woman on the SI cover. And so this is right here, what she put on Twitter.

And so these are the images right here. Well, that didn't sit too well, these whiny conservatives. And so you had Clay Travis and Megyn Kelly. They decided to weigh in and get upset with her because she chose not to do interviews. She's talked about her mental health, things along those lines. And so Megan Kelly, who remember Megan Kelly, Santa Claus is white, Megan Kelly, what she did was she put out this tweet here

that was a joke that, let me just pull, let me try to find it. Let me try to find where she whined about it. And she, oh, so this is what this fool Clay Travis said. Saying she's too introverted to talk to the media after tennis matches, Naomi Osaka has launched a reality show, a Barbie, and now is on the cover of the SI Swimsuit Issue.

Swimsuit Issue, okay. So then Megan decided to chime in by saying, let's not forget the cover of an interview in Vogue Japan and Time magazine. Well, that caused Osaka to fire back by reminding her that you do know the lead time to magazines are several months. And she said she did these interviews months ago. And so now poor little Megan and Pierce Morgan, who is 100% bitch assness, they are now complaining because Naomi Osaka

has blocked them. Well, punk ass, well, here's the deal, punk ass Pierce Morgan, you blocked me last year. Oh, so you mad because Osaka blocked you and your sorry behind blocked me? Go to hell, Piers Morgan. And Megyn Kelly, shut the hell up. Juliana, these people are a trip with their nonsense. Go ahead. Well, you know, first of all,

Megyn Kelly just needs to disappear. Like you said, Santa Claus is white. Da-da-da. Just go away, girl. Just go away. Bye, Felicia. Pierce Morgan even worse than that. Naomi Osaka needs to be commended for taking control of her mental health. The fact of the matter is

we are in a mental health crisis here in this country. Some fool's shooting up outside the National Park in Washington, DC. Post-COVID, all kind of people who's if this young lady has enough priesses to say, I don't want to talk to the media, it causes me anxiety, good for her.

She doesn't have to. And all Piers Morgan has to do is just, you know, get on a horse, you know, and ride it. And Megyn Kelly should have been canceled a long time ago. But I give her props. July is Minority Mental Health Month. We're looking at people of color and mental health issues. And anything that causes you anxiety, got

to go. Period. It amazes me again when you have this poor little... And I wonder, since Megan is complaining about Naomi Osaka, well, Megan, your former Fox News colleagues, Eric Bolling,

Sean Hannity, Lou Dawes, Maria Bartiromo, all four of them blocked me. Y'all gonna complain about that? You know, the hypocrisy is amazing. And, you know, we want Megyn Kelly to disappear from these airways, but she ends up on Sirius. And so it's like they keep finding ways to keep her, whatever she's doing, going. And I'm like, yo, one of the things you didn't mention, Roland, is that Naomi also has a special on Netflix as well. So my thing is like, what I love about what she's doing is that she is, and many athletes out there,

the LeBron Jameses of the world, they are flexing their muscle. They're showing their power. They're letting people know that y'all need us to make these for the ratings, for the endorsements and all these other types of things. But you know what? Iian community that she represents as well where there's a stigma around a stigma around mental health and mental illness and so for her to speak up and then to come out on these covers like a boss like that and do all of these specials

more power to her and we have her back period bottom line again uh pierce morgan kiss Again, Piers Morgan, kiss, in the words of Della Reese from Harlem Nights, kiss my entire ass. Entire ass. I mean, Piers Morgan, he is 100% bitch ass-ness. All of his whining about Meghan Markle, because she ghosted to him cuz you probably sucked on the date and he can't get over it now he wants to trash her that's why you look punk ass walked off the set when you got criticized because you couldn't take him with heat that was in your face and so I'm like shut the hell

up folks that is it for us shout to Carrie Hilson Carrie sent me this shirt. Carrie has a line of shirts that says, my soulmate is black. So Carrie sent me a couple. So I told her I would go ahead and wear it on today's show. And so Carrie, thank you so very much. Folks, tomorrow on Roland Martin Unfiltered, our marketplace segment sponsored by Nextdoor. We're talking about small businesses, how they can actually grow their businesses by being on the Nextdoor app. We'll talk about that on tomorrow's show and lots more.

I'll see y'all then. Y'all know how we always end the show. How? I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling.

The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart podcast.