#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Top Black experts talk #Coronavirus; Kamala wants low-level prisoners out; Trump keeps lying

Episode Date: March 29, 2020

3.19.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Top Black experts talk #Coronavirus; Sen. Kamala Harris wants low-level prisoners out; Trump keeps lying; Churches are shutting down over the coronavirus. Don't miss what Rev. Dewey Smith, Senior Pastor of the House of Hope Atlanta has to say about it. #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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today's Thursday, March 19, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Donald Trump continues to lie when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. Folks, Brooklyn's Bureau President will join us to talk about what local government can do to stop the spread of the virus.

Also in Prince George's County, H. Attorney Aisha Brayboy, the ACLU, are calling for the release of some prisoners who are at the risk of contracting COVID-19. We'll have her on the show. Plus, a lot of misinformation circulating on social media. We'll have a black health care expert breaking down the facts and what is fiction. Also, we'll show you what a pastor in Atlanta said about why churches should be closing in response to

coronavirus. Folks, we've got some of the top black experts. You're not going to see them on cable news or broadcast news because you swear black people aren't experts when it comes to this health crisis. That's why we have this show and why we do what we do every day on Roland Martin Unfiltered. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go. From sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's Rollin' Yeah! With Uncle Roro, yo Yeah! Yeah!

It's Rollin' Martin Yeah! Yeah! Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah! He's broke, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's rolling, Martin. Now.

Martin. As of today, 11,015 cases of coronavirus, COVID-19, in the United States. More than 2,700 cases were reported in the United States between Wednesday and Thursday morning. At least 164 patients have died. Now, of course, you have the White House who continues to say that they have been on top of this from the beginning. That's an absolute lie.

Of course, there was a news conference that was held today, as they do every single day, where Donald Trump talked about the latest, and now he was focusing on praising this potential drug that could help when it comes to coronavirus. Here's part of today's news conference. The administration is working every day to protect American people and the American economy from the virus. Yesterday, I signed into law a critical support for American workers, families, and small businesses. It's a big thing.

We're providing sick leave and family medical leave to those affected by the virus, and more help is on the way as we speak. Our entire team, headed by Secretary Mnuchin, is on the Hill. We're working with Democrats and Republicans, and there's a lot of goodwill going on. This was something that happened that was, some people would say, an act of God.

I don't view it as an act of God. I would view it as something that just surprised the whole world. And if people would have known about it, it could have been stopped in place. It could have been stopped right where it came from, China. If we would have known about it, if they would have known about it.

Actually, the first case was back in November, and you might recall, and we're going to actually show you a video of the timeline. So, guys, get that video ready. There's some folks who put together this timeline of a video of Donald Trump, again, showing you exactly why he did not see this as a big deal. Now, on March 19th, he wants to give this

impression that he's been on top of this and, oh my God, we've been just doing this. But if you actually go back to January, you'll see how he has downplayed this and did not take it seriously. Watch this show. better. They're all getting better. And the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. It's going to disappear one day. It's like a miracle. It will disappear and you'll be fine. They're going to have vaccines, I think, relatively soon. Not only the vaccines, but the therapies. Therapies is sort of another word for cure. We're talking about very small numbers in the United States. Our numbers are lower than just about anybody. It's really working out and a lot of good things are going to happen. And we are responding with great speed and professionalism. It's gonna go away.

Yeah, no, I don't take responsibility at all. It'll all be great. We're gonna be so good. This came up, it came up so suddenly. This is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do is look at other countries.

The coronavirus, you know that, right? Coronavirus. And this is their new hoax. We're 15 people in this massive country. And because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that. We're doing great. Our country is doing so great. That's what happens when you lie, and then we have the video to show that you're lying. Now, all of a sudden, again, he wants to play a commander-in-chief, now says that we are on war footing as a result of what we're dealing with. Today, after this morning's news conference, he went over to FEMA where there was a discussion with the American governors, and he has been touting this particular drug that has been used for malaria.

The problem is we've known about it for quite some time, and they haven't even actually done testing yet. See, here's why you have to be very careful. And see, mainstream media too often isn't doing this. They cover this big Trump announcement, and oh my goodness, breaking news, but then all of a sudden you realize that he's lying. And so we're not going to believe anything that he says until frankly four or five other people actually confirm it, know whether it's true. He stood before the cameras and said how the Department of Defense is getting ready and we're gonna be moving these

hospital ships to New York and other places. But they're still in dock. They're docked in Virginia under maintenance. And it may be two to three months before they can even get out. That's why you got to be real careful when Trump starts talking, because the moment he says something, you can pretty much assume he's lying. But again, this was the call that took place today with the governors at FEMA. I don't want to get into no fights with pastors, but let me say this. I know the Chiatown Church is $100,000 a month. Kill that video. That's a pastor's. This here is a video. So that video is wrong. This is the video of Trump today at FEMA talking to the governors.

He has approved a compassionate use for a significant number of patients. We have a drug called chloroquine. A derivation would be hydroxychloroquine, which I hear even better about. It's a common malaria drug. It's been available, so therefore the safety level we understand very well. It's been relatively safe. And it showed very encouraging early results, really encouraging. If this works as well as hopefully it might.

The FDA, which would have taken normally much longer to do under our great secretary, has been fantastic. The head of the FDA has been Dr. Hahn, Dr. Stephen Hahn. He's been fantastic. He got it approved very quickly. The FDA has approved a completion. If it works, if it works, the federal government is preparing for the possibility that the pandemic could last up to 18 months or longer and include multiple waves of illness. That's really what changed his tune.

When the Department of Health and Human Services presented this report that said upwards of 2.2 million Americans could actually die over 18 months, then all of a sudden, he wants to now begin to play president. That really only lasted 24 hours. Now, there's also continuing to be a shortage of medical equipment and the spread of the virus is showing no signs of slowing down.

Now, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the government is looking at mailing Americans cash assistance and legislation that's passed by Congress could provide paid sick leave to some workers. But again, they're still trying to figure out exactly what that is. Going back to this whole issue of medical equipment, today's news conference, they talked about the shortage of masks in hospitals and how they talked about, oh, how

Pence said he met with 3M and they can do $35 million a month. Okay, guys, so let me do this here. So this is what I want you to control room. I want you to get that video ready because I want you to look at that calendar. Trump said, Pence says Trump sent him to Minneapolis to meet with 3M

and how they can mass produce 35 million a month. They can do 420 million masks in a year. He mentioned another company that can do around 100 million or so masks a year. Okay, it's March 19th. Now you remember, and you're going to play that video again, January 22nd, Donald Trump said on CNBC, oh, one person from China. We pretty much got this whole thing contained. So if you go to February 1st, had this administration used their brains and looked forward, if they had ordered the companies to begin to produce the mask needed, guess what? Today, you would have been able to have 35 million across the country, high quality mask.

In hospitals, as well as to emergency workers, but get Trump to all of a sudden take it seriously. And now you have the Fox News personalities who are now saying, oh, we always told you this was going to be a major deal when, in fact, they were parroting Donald Trump and not taking this seriously. So we're going to play for you again that video that was put together so you can actually see the timeline and why these folks are lying. Here it is. We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. We think we have it very well under control. We pretty much shut it down coming in from China. You know, in April, supposedly it dies with the hotter weather. When it gets warm, historically, that has been able to kill the virus. People are getting better. They're all getting better.

And the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. It's going to disappear one day day it's like a miracle. It will disappear and you'll be fine. They're going to have vaccines, I think, relatively soon. Not only the vaccines, but the therapies. Therapies is sort of another word for cure. We're talking about very small numbers in the United States. Our numbers are lower than just about anybody.

It's really working out and a lot of good things are going to happen. And we are responding with great speed and professionalism. It's going to go away. Yeah. No, I don't take responsibility at all. It'll all be great. We're going to be so good. This came up, we came up so suddenly. This is a pandemic.

I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do is look at other countries. The coronavirus, you know that, right? Coronavirus. And this is their new hoax. We're 15 people in this massive country and because of the fact that we went early, we went

early, we could have had a lot more than that. We're doing great. Our country is doing so great. We had 15. Now we have 11,000 in 15. In Italy, the death toll has risen to 3,405, overtaking China, of course, where all of this began. It is just unbelievable to what is happening here.

Let's bring in our panel. Dr. Greg Carr is the chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Recy Colbert, which one is it? Colbert. Ha, ha, ha! Black Women Views, and also join us via Skype.

It's Erica Savage-Wilson, host of Savage Politics Podcast. Greg, I want to start with you. The moment he opens his mouth, he's lying. And what happens is, how the media treats this, he talks and they say, oh, new, something new, something new. No, no, you can't assume that because he lies. And we'll stand there and repeat a lie. And then Fauci or someone else will step up and actually give the truth when he just lied three minutes ago.

That's exactly right. Our brother Kamau Bell tweeted something a few minutes ago. He said, what if they just put him in front of a fake camera with nobody in the room and let him talk to that fake camera while the rest of us go try to work this out? I tweeted him back. I said, there it is, brother.

Because, you know, I mean, looking at the people behind Trump has become an exercise akin to, I don't know if you remember this, the Politburo used to watch the people standing behind Khrushchev or Stalin looking for any, and you see these people tortured. The other day when your colleague and our dear friend, Yamiche Alcindor, asked him about that China racist remark, you could see the woman on the left kind of squint like, what the hell's going on? But every calculation they've

made has been a political calculation. Hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about Andrew Ross Sorkin, who wrote in the New York Times today that one solution, while they're going to cut everybody a thousand dollar check, might be actually to give a no interest loan payable over five years to the businesses and employ everybody. I mean, it's a really fascinating thing. But Trump is not thinking like that. Everything is being made with political calculation in mind, from his China racism to the call. I listened to the call with the governors.

I watched the call. Brian Kemp laid out, Mr. President, thank you so much. Sounded like everybody on the stage, thank you so much, thank you so much. Will you leave this hospital ship afterward? And then you hear the governor of Louisiana don't nationalize the federal, don't federalize the National Guard. Everything is being catered to one man. This this is turning into something very ugly. So I agree with Kamau. Put him in front of a toy camera and let's get to work trying to solve this, because that dude is going to run us into a ditch.

And what we're dealing with here, Erica, is a growing, growing problem. Um, when the question is asked about testing, they say thousands and thousands and more are being made available. You notice no specific number. When they say we have more and more labs that are coming online doing testing, they don't give a specific number on how many,

how many labs, how many tests are being processed by each one of those labs. Then today is news conference when a reporter began to ask about the issue with hospitals and shortages. And then Trump goes, oh, well, that's not what I'm hearing. I'm hearing everything is fine. And you're sitting here going, what the hell are you talking about? Yeah, this is the moment that we're in. And what Dr. Carl was saying, the suggestion that was made, I've been thinking to myself for over a week now,

I don't think that any of these news conferences need to be televised. I don't think that they need to be breaking news. I think what needs to happen is that they need to be recorded. It needs to be fact-checked. And if it proves to be factual, then that needs to then be released to the public. You know, he's touting himself as a wartime president. I don't know that there are really any heroes at war. And in talking about wartime, this is something that was completely preventable and that there is going to be so much collateral damage that I don't believe that the public is prepared for. So now that we have governors essentially functioning

as presidents of their own state, I'm really, really hopeful that people will begin to see the seriousness of what's happening, not only within the United States, but all across the globe, because it does impact each and every one of us. Recy, at the news conference today, Trump says, well, you know, these governors, they should be getting, you know, they should be going out and getting this equipment themselves, that, you know, the federal government is not clerks. Yeah. I mean, actually, that is a role that you serve. Right, right. I mean, he obviously doesn't understand

the power of the government, but it's also an indication of how ill-prepared we are. I mean, I listened to a New York County, New York City commissioner, and she said they requested 2 million masks, and they received 76,000 expired masks. What? And this, you know, to your point about Mike Pence, you know, this meeting, that meeting happened where he talked, where he touted the 3M thing. That happened over a month

ago or back in February. And 3M came back and said, well, we're not on contract for that volume of production. And so what we consistently see from this administration is lying, frankly lying or misleading people about the capacity that the government has. And they're not keeping up with what their promises are. They're not keeping up with the testing. They're not keeping up with the masks. They're not keeping up with the masks. They're not keeping up with anything. And now the CDC is actually telling workers, reuse masks, use a bandana if you need to. This is absolute insanity.

We are so far behind other countries in our capabilities. And we are, the fact that we're hobbling this together at this point is really scary. You're right. Anybody, anybody who understands, who understands scale, who understands forecasting, we have the experts who can do that, who can sit here and say, okay, if this happens based upon what's happening in other countries, we can project this is where we'll be in a month, in two months, in three months, and beyond.

You swear these folks didn't do that. And again, this whole idea of... And then you have this idiot Bill O'Reilly who tweets that, oh, the nation was distracted from coronavirus during impeachment. See, that's the whole new one, which is a joke because, again, you use him as the example. January 22nd, on one person, and then not now.

I love this here. And I was sitting trying to think of the best analogy to do this. It's sort of like every time he says, well, you know, no one gives me credit because I stopped all travel from China. And had we not done that, it would be far worse. That's sort of the equivalent of somebody, of a friend riding with you, and they gave you $10 for the gas in the car one time. Yes, sir. And every time they ride with you, they remind you,

I know I gave you that $10 one time. You're like, oh, so you think that one thing you did, it just makes up everything else. That's what you're dealing with here. And then you have the people like, oh, no, we should, the great goat fields of the world on Fox. Oh, no, we should stop all this stuff and band

together. No, not when this lying dude is standing at the news conference taking shots at everybody. He's taking shots at Governor Inslee in Washington State. That's right. Taking shots at Governor Cuomo. That's right.

Taking shots at the governor in Michigan. He takes shots at, he stood yesterday, he said, sleepy Joe Biden. I mean, that's what he does. And so you somehow expect us to respect you and listen to you when that's what you do? Hell no. No, Roland, in fact, you know, this is where, you always make this point when it comes to journalism, this is where journalists are separated

from people with access to public forums. There has been so much good reporting in the last month in the Times and the Guardian, so many other places, and every night on this show, all you folks out there who have your young people now sequestered, all the school districts and every college in the country, you need to now be directing them as part of their curriculum

to read the best information, to look for the best sources. Grandma, you may not be able to turn on a computer. Big mom and them, big papa, get your child, get your teenager to now go surf the web and find this information. Why do I mention that? Listen to Ayanna Pressley today had a press conference with a with a with an M with a doctor who explained very easily they're taking calls. This is happening all over the country. But, you know, we're dealing with disaster capitalism. Bottom feeders like the far right race mongers, Fox News saying they're now going to provide free access to everyone because they see this as a moment to make gains. They are spreading disinformation.

It's in the newspapers. The Times did an extensive report, for example, on the fact that the Obama administration ran a model of what would happen with a virus coming out of China, turned it over to the Trump administration and many layers below the political appointments. The Trump under the Trump administration, they did a similar model. And guess who was getting the Intel all the time? It's been leaked now. Somebody surreptitiously surreptitiously recorded Richard Burr in North Carolina at a conversation where he admitted as much because he's on the Senate Intel committee. And guess what the paper just reported? This dude sold between half a million and a million and a half dollars worth of stock over the last month before, just before the thing cratered.

He's insider trading on the information they knew. And it's in the papers. It's on your show every night. Young people turn off the Netflix or whatever y'all doing and inform yourselves and turn off Donald Trump because every decision they're making is a political decision. You talk about the folks who are doing this thing right, Eric. You look at Governor Andrew Cuomo today. He talked about mortgage relief for folks in New York. Henry, go to my iPad. Here's what he had to say.

I'm also going to take a bold action, but a necessary action, that offering 90-day relief on mortgage payments, waiving mortgage payments based on financial hardship, meaning if you are not working, if you're working only part-time, we're going to have the banks and financial institutions waive mortgage payments for 90 days. That will be a real-life economic

benefit. It will also be a stress reliever for many families. Waiving these payments will not have a negative effect on your credit report. There'll be a grace period for loan modification. We're not exempting people from the mortgage payments. We're just adjusting the mortgage to include those payments on the back end. No late fees or online payment fees. Again, that's Governor Andrew Cuomo. You see again governors who are having to take the lead because, frankly, you're not getting the kind of information that you should be getting out of the federal government. This, Erica, is a problem because, again, the problem that we're having is we're not getting enough testing. And the fact that we're now on March 19th, they stood a week ago, a week ago Friday,

with Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, talked about using parking lots, drive-thru testing. None of this happened. There are no details. It was all for show for the purpose of a short-term gain in the stock market last Friday. That's right. Right.

I mean, Donald Trump is essentially a magical elf, and that's how he's presenting himself, always trying to find a short-term solution to something that literally requires a level of critical thinking. And so what Andrew Cuomo, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and other officials are exhibiting is something that has been lacking since this regime has been in place, which is leadership. When you think about the global supply chain that's really now bottleneck, I'm from Albany, Georgia, and there's a piece where it talks about specifically my hometown. We only have one hospital, Phoebe Putney Hospital, because it bought another hospital, Palmyra Hospital, one hospital that services roughly about 90,000 people in the city and the county, but then their surrounding counties as well.

When you're talking about towns where there are only a few thousand, maybe 30,000, 40,000 people, HBCU, Albany State University, all these other different school entities that rely on one hospital. That hospital now is making DIY masks because this incompetent and sycophantic regime did not find it important enough to put people in front of Donald John Trump Jr. So, you know, as we continue to absorb all of these things and the impact that it's having, you're seeing people then at the local and state level having to make disastrous decisions so that they can continue to serve people who may be impacted, but not or maybe are not impacted with coronavirus, but then also to protect themselves because they have families that they have to go to as well. And so again, like, as you said, if back in February, there

would have been some level of decisiveness, there would have been some actual leadership to happen after he dismantled the global health team that, again, under President Obama had been established back in 2014, handed off so that, listen, if there was any type of crisis, especially the ones that were forecasted to come down the pipeline, that there is an infrastructure in place. So since that's been dismantled in 2018, and since he continues to lie and all of these individuals surrounded by him are spoon-feeding him what truths they want him to have, we are all in the public and really globally paying the price. So my hope is that as we continue to move through this,

that people will actually take these unfortunate, painful decisions with them as we near going to November. Greg talked about the story that Tim Mack did for NPR. Henry, go to my iPad. It says, Intelligence Chairman Raised Virus Alarms Weeks Ago, Secret Recording Shows. See if we can pull this audio up. I think the audio is playing. Gosh, DOC.

NPR has obtained a secret recording taken three weeks ago. You're going to hear the voice of Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, Republican in the Senate. You're going to hear him warning a private audience about how the coronavirus would impact the United States. There's one thing that I can tell you about this. It is much more aggressive in its transition than anything that we have seen in recent history. It's probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic. More akin to the 1918 pandemic is what you heard him say there. This was a stronger message than most Americans were hearing at that time. And Burr's comments

raised questions about why an audience at a lunch on Capitol Hill would get what seemed to be a more frank assessment than the general public. And here's Tim Mack is the one who got his hands on this recording. He was with us this morning. Hi, Tim. Hey there. Okay. So who was the senator speaking to in this clip and where'd the tape come from? Well, the luncheon was organized by the Tar Heel Circle, which consists of businesses and organizations from North Carolina, the state that Senator Burr represents. Membership in the Tar Heel Circle costs between $500 and $10,000. Burr was talking candidly about his assessment about how bad the coronavirus might become in the U.S. And the tape comes from an attendee who became alarmed about Burr's dire warnings, so began to record. I was so worried in saying this. If you go to

go to NPR.org, you can actually hear Tim's whole report. Here's what is so great. This is the guy who is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Right, right. This is the guy who is getting information that is classified. We know that there is a unit of the intelligence community that was tracking the coronavirus very early and alerted folks all the way up the chain of command. Right.

To Greg's point, the folks at ProPublica actually broke the story. And then this is the headline right here. Go to my iPad, Henry. Senator Burr sold up to 1.5 million in stock one week before the market tanked. The story was done by the folks at ProPublica. Folks, check this out.

It says Burr's committee was reportedly receiving daily briefings about the coronavirus at the time of his February 13th selling spree. Look at the date, folks. February 13th. During which he sold off anywhere between $582,029 and $1.56 million worth of holdings.

Specifically, he sold off up to $150,000 worth of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts shares and up to $150,000 worth of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts shares and up to $100,000 of Extended Stay America shares. One week after Burr sold his stocks, the markets tanked and have lost about 30% since.

Wyndham Hotels stock has reportedly lost two-thirds of its value while extended Stay America shares are worth less than half of what Burr sold them for. Where you see, here's what's interesting about this here. If you actually looked at the economy at that time, travel was fine. Yeah.

Hotel stays were up. Yeah. What stays were up. What other rationale would you sell them than, uh-oh, something's about to come down. I need to unload my stocks. Yeah, I mean, it's Republicans doing what they always do, which is putting profits and self-interest before party, before country, rather. That's the same time that Senator Kamala Harris

was calling the administration officials for a public hearing and taking them to task for not bothering to show up and not having a good excuse. And then on the other hand, you have a Senate leader, you know, Senator Burr, who is trying to, you know, protect their pockets. So that is just a classic case of how the Republicans operate versus how the Democrats operate in this situation. Senator Burr definitely has the power to call hearings. He has the power to help get this information out there. And he's instead giving a private audience to his donors. And it's just appalling.

And this is the information gulf that we're seeing. We're the ones that are being kept in the dark. And what we are given is mixed messages, a lot of times disinformation, even from the administration themselves. The Republican and Senate, that's a whole different story of just flat out apathy and not giving a damn about what's happening to people, not to corporations, but to people. Folks, joining us right now is the Bureau President in Brooklyn, Eric Adams. He joins us via Skype. Glad to have you here, President Adams.

I'm Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Thank you, Roland. Good to speak with you as well. You're also running for mayor of New York City as well, so we want to go ahead and make that point. Let's talk about this here, this whole issue of what's happening in places like New York City. The reality is we've heard Mayor de Blasio say, shelter in place, prepare for the worst.

Today, Governor Andrew Cuomo, yesterday he said companies, no more than 50% in terms of employees, now it's been raised 75% where the folks, non-essential folks, can't be in the office. And I made this point a couple days ago. I think that we're doing this thing piecemeal.

You had Bill Ackman, who went on CNBC yesterday and said, look, you've got to shut this thing down for 30 days. At what point do leaders step up and say, you cannot do mass testing unless you actually shut it all down to get a true handle on what's happening in this country? Agree or disagree? I agree. I agree 100%. And in addition to that, we need to do a real analysis of how we are approaching this crisis. To the heads of my hospital in Brooklyn, for those who are not familiar,

Brooklyn is one of the five counties in New York that's the largest. If it was a separate city, it would be the third largest city in America with 2.6 million people. 47% of them speak a language other than English at home. When I spoke to the heads of my doctors, presidents of my hospital,

they told me all the testing, you had to go through the Department of Health, the State Department of Health. For every request they requested to have a test, nine of the people were denied, one were allowed to get the test. That's extremely significant because you're seeing in, particularly in Brooklyn, there's an undercount because nine out of 10 people were denied the test. I believe if you do analysis across America to those communities of color, you're going to see that there's an under-testing problem.

So we really don't know how much this virus is impacting those communities of color. If it's happening in New York, I assure you it's happening across the country. And I think it's imperative that we have a real conversation about how do we shelter in place to really deal with this issue. And again, the last thing in the world I want to see is a national shutdown where everyone is sheltered in place. But you look at, finally, where you have the governor of Florida who's been shameful because they were sitting here scared of losing spring break money.

You had thousands of people congregating on beaches. Initially, you had states who were moving to say no more than gatherings of 1,000 people. Then some said 500. Then some said 250. Then the CDC said 50. The next day, the CDC said 10. And the reality is there's no way to get a handle

on who's infected and who isn't unless you do massive testing. Look, and his was unbelievable. You talk about nine out of ten. Sean Payton, head coach of the New Orleans Saints, has announced he tested positive for coronavirus. You have, of course, Kevin Durant there in Brooklyn with the Brooklyn Nets and three other players as well. And I'm not singling them out, but you have to ask the question,

how in the world are eight NBA teams getting fully tested and NFL people are getting tested, but regular ordinary people can't get tested? There's a problem. And then Trump goes, well, hey, you know what? That's the way life goes. Essentially saying, hey,

the rich actually get these things. This is maddening. I read this New York Times story where this matriarch of a family, her and two of her kids have died. Twenty family members are quarantined and trying to figure out what's going on. And then you can have it and show no symptoms. So how in the hell do you know somebody else has it? It's just sort of maddening watching this every day and this piecemeal hoping

that this thing just sort of just, to Trump using his own words, goes away. It's so true. And you touched on two things that I want to touch on temporarily. One is that we stated in the state that the only time you get to test if you are really hospitalized

and you are showing advanced signs of coronavirus, yet you're watching those without any signs at all receive testing. So you're sending a mixed message to the American public. And advanced signs means you're damn near dying. Without a doubt. without a doubt without a doubt and and then when you look at uh the methods of testing uh how are we allowing everyday people to receive the test and that is what we're fighting for now but also are we using technology effectively i'm speaking to you um via skype you know why are we using telemedicine telemedicine is a powerful tool to screen out those individuals who have questions that they want to ask. We just opened a telemedicine command center at my Brooklyn Hospital, and it allows people not to overclock emergency rooms. And this is something we need to

infuse into the health care prices. But the real question Americans need to be asking is, we said a year ago, no no this has been predicted for the last 10 years or even more we know we have super bugs we know we're going to get a virus where's the playbook how come we're not ready and we're caught flat-footed on these issues that we should have been prepared for not only on the national level but the state and the city levels we knew this was happening we should not be trying to figure this out right now. Well, first of all, the Obama folks before Trump was sworn in, they went through an actual exercise that dealt with this. And pretty much the Trump people just blew it off and didn't take it seriously. And then wiped out many people who were actually

supposed to be doing it. You talk about with the Brooklyn Hospital Center in Fort Greene, with this outdoor tent facility to prescreen people for coronavirus. That makes sense because unfortunately we're seeing a Parkland Hospital in Dallas shutting down visitors. I saw a tweet from Mark Lamont Hill. His dad has been ill, 92 years old, has been going there helping feeding him. He's now moving to a nursing home. He can't go see his dad. And he literally said to me, he said, I may not see my dad ever again if he doesn't get well. Eric Deggans, who's a media reporter for NPR, same thing. The hospital where his mom is ill had him ordered all folks to leave.

And he detailed how he was caring for her and was staying on the nurses when it came to changing her IV bag, her saline solution bag, things along those lines. And so you got people who are saying, they got ill parents who are saying, because I can't even visit them now, I may not never see them again.

And so with this tent that y'all have set up, so essentially explain to folks what it does. So is it pretty much that you still have the hospital that's operating and then that people are not entering the actual hospital? They're going in this tent. It's so important because here's the problem that we're facing across the entire country. We're running out of emergency room beds and we're running out of beds. And so what we set up here in Brooklyn is two things. Number one, we set up a command center for the telemedicine. This way we can stop people from coming to the hospital. Then we set up this tent here that's connected to our emergency room. We have a team

of doctors and physicians and nurses who would actually prescreen the patients to determine if they need to go inside the emergency room and be treated for coronavirus or any other illnesses. Because just because coronavirus has appeared, it doesn't mean other chronic diseases have disappeared. And so by filtering out those and using a triage method, we're allowed to treat those who are in real need and those who won't clog up the health care center. It's a great program. I was there this morning and watching the hundreds of people online.

I saw the telemedicine center as well. All of our hospitals in our country must start looking towards telemedicine and looking towards how do we prescreen people. This is obviously a continuing problem, and unfortunately, we are not seeing the kind of results. I do have to ask you this here. I saw one story, I saw several stories.

How are you dealing with your employees? I saw a story that said that 60 or 65 out of your employees have to come in, and you made a point that you said it was unfair to hourly workers compared to higher- paid salaried workers. Explain that. That's a great question. First, none of my employees that wanted to stay home, I refused to allow them to stay home. Five employees came to me, they said they wanted

to stay home. I said, you have a right to do so. We're not going to do that. I'm so proud of my employees because they stated we want to be in the office. We have all of these people who are in crisis. We want to deal with them. What the city put out, they stated that all non-essential employees, those are managers. They told them they could stay home with their families and all the other employees, they have to come in. I said that is not right. My managers are paid more. If you pay more, you do more. I'm not going to sit home my managers who are paid at the highest end and tell my everyday hourly employees you have to come in. And that is what when you hear the term of telecommuting. Telecommuting is something that is given to the high end of the employee and civil service pool. Over 250,000 New York City employees, 10% of them are telecommute,

non-essential. That's the high end of the spectrum. That is not my bus operators who are predominantly black. That's not my 9-11 operators who are predominantly black and women. That's not my nurses there. So I say no to saying the high end can go home and the everyday people who are making the city run between them differently. That's unacceptable to me. I told my managers that you will stay with the team and we will all get through this together. All right. Brooklyn Bureau President Eric Adams, we appreciate you joining us. Roland Martin on the filter. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks. We talked a lot about hospitals. We talked about schools,

but also what about the people who are actually incarcerated? What is happening there? Although there have been no coronavirus cases reported in Prince George's County Correctional Center, state's attorney Aisha Braveboy says reducing the numbers is a good idea. Here's a video that she put out. Hello, I'm Aisha Braveboy, state's attorney for Prince George's County, Maryland. As everyone knows, the coronavirus is seriously impacting our communities

as well as others throughout the county and world. In light of this, drastic steps have been taken to curb the spread. It is important that we take steps to ensure that the virus doesn't spread among our jail population. The jail is a place that could present a breeding ground and further prolong this crisis. Therefore, my office is working with the Public Defender's Office to review release conditions for inmates. We will consider cases in which individuals are charged with low-level offenses, non-violent offenses, or who have a short time left from their sentence.

Our goal is to safely and judiciously reduce the jail population. While no cases of the virus have been confirmed at our jail, it is important that we work proactively. Together, I am confident that we can contain this deadly disease. As state's attorney, my top priority is the security of every resident, including those housed in our jail. I will continue to implement common-sense strategies to promote safety and justice for all. I urge you to be safe and take care of yourselves and your families. Also, please look out for our seniors and those with disabilities. We are a strong county because we care about each other.

I am confident that we will get through this and come out stronger together. The ACLU is also sending a letter to Attorney General William Barr saying, quote, the public health crisis presented by the coronavirus highlights the need for the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons to take immediate action to safeguard those under its care. Time is of the essence and the Bureau of Prisons must act swiftly and responsibly to ensure that the 122 facilities in its system

housing nearly a quarter of a people, over 10,000 who are over 60 years old, are safe. Joining me now to talk about this is Prince George's County State's Attorney, Aisha Brayboy, as well as Dylan Hayry, ACLU Justice Division strategist. First and foremost, Aisha, the thing is, Senator Kamala Harris also has called on the Bureau of Prisons to also release low-level offenders as well. And so, but it's interesting that we're looking at a situation now where this is where we are forced to look at every single facet of our society.

Whether we're talking about schools and hospitals, we're talking about whether you're poor, whether you are at the top 1%, whether you're NBA players, whether you're inmates. I mean, this has a dramatic impact. We do know of one particular state where a corrections officer tested positive and they've had to quarantine upwards of 20 inmates, a person that we're in contact with. And now you're also dealing with inmates who are in much different environments than, frankly, a lot of us. Aisha, go ahead. You know what? Yes, you're going in now with your question. One second.

It's breaking up right now with you guys. Let me know about her Skype. Let me go to Dylan. Dylan, go ahead and comment on that, please. Yeah, I mean, as you said, Roland, we're going to have to reexamine how we do a lot of what we do in society on an everyday basis. And first and foremost among that has to be the way we treat currently incarcerated people and General Barr. And across the country over the course of the last two days, about 20 affiliates of the ACLU have also sent letters to their local criminal justice system leaders, urging them to do really three different things, right? Stop the flow of people coming into the system. For the people who are in the system now, find a way to get as many of them out as possible so they can be home with their loved ones or seek adequate medical care back in their community. And for those people who remain incarcerated,

to make sure that there are plenty of services available, to make sure there is hygiene products available for free, to make sure visitation is not cut off and where it is cut off at the recommendation of local health experts, to substitute free calls, video calls, phone calls. All these things are things that could and should have been done all along the path, right? But here we are in the midst of a national pandemic, a national crisis. And to your point, we have to really rethink what we're doing and why we're doing it. And I think it's becoming more clear than ever that a lot of what we do in the criminal legal system, a lot of how we treat incarcerated people doesn't make a lot of sense. It's not fair and it's going to hurt more people than it helps. So how do you, in the

case of what Senator Kamala Harris is talking about, how do you release folks when the Bureau of Prisons just can't release them on their own? There has to be a court order or something from the Attorney General's office to release low-level inmates? Sure. And I would just say, too, that whether it's the jails and prisons at the state level or at the federal level, you know, there is going to be some level of executive action required to get incarcerated people out of jail and prison, right? So, yes, Attorney General Barr needs to act. Governors across the country who have the power of clemency and commutation need to act. Judges who are holding fines and fees over people's heads and keeping them incarcerated for nonpayment need to act. Executives at every level of the system need to act.

And one of the challenges in the criminal legal system, as you probably know, as your viewers definitely know, is that it's a very decentralized system, right? Very rarely can one single person do something that affects the entire system. But the exceptions to that are the governors and the Attorney General of the United States, who tomorrow could get hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people out and into the services they need. And to your question about where they go or what they do, folks are going to be released eventually anyway. We should be asking that question anyway. But yeah, now we absolutely need to make sure that people are getting treated, screened, sent to medical facilities where

necessary, but most importantly, returned home to care for themselves and their loved ones who are at home and who may be suffering from this or who may be struggling under the economic hardship of quarantine. Greg, this is the point that I keep making, what this coronavirus has done. It has completely exposed every facet of the American system and way of life. It absolutely has. I mean, in this case, and again, kudos to this work, you know, people forget the Constitution. The U.S. Constitution is a very short document.

The Eighth Amendment, preventing cruel and inhuman punishment, has been interpreted by judge-made law. There's no statutory reason for people to by judge-made law. There's no statutory reason for people to be treated a certain way. It's not written in stone, you have to treat prisoners this way. And everyone out there, think about this. Think of the burden that you feel being isolated in your house, in your apartment. Now, imagine if you are a prisoner and that has become your way of life. Everything from mental health. I mean,

you literally go crazy. And think about people who are in solitary confinement. I mean, this is a crisis that's unfolding on a global level. Absolutely. It is also a moment for us to be able to rethink everything that is being exposed in this system. Aisha, we have her back. Again, when we talk about most vulnerable, people just pretty much ignore those who are in prison. But the reality is this year, there are 2.3 million people in America who are in prison, 200,000 on the federal level. And so most of the people in prison in this country are in local county and state jails. Yeah, absolutely. There are about 723 inmates in our local county jail. And today, I went into court with my team as well as the Office of the Public Defender, and we were able to agree to the all of the inmates for potential release. So we're going to work overtime.

Right now our court is actually closed to the public, but I have a few members of my staff who are coming in really to ensure that this safe release initiative that we have undertaken is actually done and done well. So we're, I'm very proud of the work that my office is doing, and I hope that other prosecutors will follow suit. When you talk about, again, moving forward, what we also have to deal with is also what is happening with people who, let's say, who still get in trouble. I know that Marilyn Mosby in Baltimore, Baltimore state's attorney has said, look, don't arrest people for some of these low-level crimes. Have you actually said the exact same thing? How are you dealing with that? Sure. Well, the truth is the police department and the state's attorney's office, we don't control the police department. So even if I were

to say to the police department, don't arrest for these reasons, they can still make those arrests. So what we're doing is once those arrests are made, my office will weigh in very quickly on conditions for release of those individuals so that they don't have prolonged stays in our jail or they may not even be committed to the jail if we agree that that's someone who would otherwise be safe in the community. So I think we're trying to be responsible. We are also trying to recognize the fact that we don't control what the police do, but we can do our part to ensure that those who are arrested for committing certain types of offenses don't have to be exposed to the inside of the jail.

Dylan, last question for you before I let both of you go. Again, that's something that's important there. Again, how police are responding to this, because, again, they can make decisions as to, okay, what's serious, what isn't. Stuff, you can let some stuff go. You can stop some folks and give them a warning as opposed to going through a system

because now you arrest somebody, now you're bringing them in contact. You don't know if they've been tested. They're in close proximity. Now they're going through a court system. And so now all of a sudden, you know, the jails could become an incubator, if you will, coronavirus. A hundred percent correct. And to be blunt about it, you know, police don't have any problem not enforcing certain things in white and wealthy communities across this country every single day. So they are making a choice every time they choose to put handcuffs on someone and bring them into a confined space.

And we are urging the ACLU sent a letter out to state affiliates that they're using to send letters to their local police departments to say, listen, stop arresting people for low-level offenses. And where you need to make an arrest, issue a citation in lieu of arrest. Do everything you can to minimize the risk that you are putting on people and frankly the risk you're putting on yourselves. If you bring someone into your department who may have COVID-19 but isn't symptomatic right now, you could be infecting an entire police department. And frankly, we are beginning to see some police departments begin to make better decisions here. And we're also beginning to see prosecutors and some judges make better decisions.

But I would just echo what your panelists said said earlier a minute ago. You know, it is good to see relief happening across the country where it is. It is good to see some modicum of justice being instituted where it is. But it should remind you that that ability to deliver relief is a choice, which means that the willingness to harm and oppress was also a choice that was being made for a very very long time and hopefully this pandemic helps us you know understand better what people are experiencing every day and as we continue to get through this as a country and deal with the health and economic crisis that's upon us you know i hope we're also again reflecting on the things we can do to make systems across the country more fair and equitable for everybody particularly the black and brown people across this country more fair and equitable for everybody,

particularly the black and brown people across this country who've been under the thumb of the criminal legal system for centuries. Dylan Herr of the ACLU, Aisha Braveboy, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Erica, I want to go to you. This is a statement from the Baltimore Police Department.

Henry, go to my iPad. Quote, for the safety of our residents and officers, the Baltimore Police Department is Henry, go to my iPad. Quote, for the safety of our residents and officers, the Baltimore Police Department is assessing and evaluating what calls for service our officers will be responding to in order to minimize the potential for exposure to COVID-19. This includes giving guidance to officers and using their discretion to further minimize arrests on low level and nonviolent offenses, especially those outlined in the state's attorney's letter. Speaking of that, Marilyn Mosby announced that her office will stop prosecuting, go back to the iPad, please. They will stop prosecuting drug possession. Let me pull it up. They will stop prosecuting drug possession, prostitution, and other crimes amid coronavirus. Erica, again, that's smart. And

you're saying like, look, these are extreme circumstances. And so what's normally things we're normally doing, we shouldn't be doing. And you've had these state's attorneys on your show before. And this also is hashtag Black Women Lead, the attack that these Black women prosecutors have been under since they assumed office.

And what you're actually seeing is justice actually playing out, that these folks know that the people that bear the Aisha Bravewood shared with us in PG County. To read that 623 of those people are awaiting trial, 623 people out of the 700 plus that are actually jailed that she and her office are going through and they are pulling people together to say, who is it that we can release? Who needs to remain in jail? Because of course, we have a lot of the courts that are closed amid this global pandemic. It goes back to what you were just saying, that a lot of how we operate and operate with impunity is really being laid to bear. And so those are things that we have to deal with it as us in the general public are dealing with some of the isolation pieces that folks in jail have to deal with.

And then the other piece that I just want to add to that is that what the ACLU is doing as well in advocating for folks to be released is around saying to prosecutors to avoid cash bail. So what we've been hearing, prison abolitionists and even prior to that, groups that are really ensuring that folks who are incarcerated do have some level of humane treatment and just advocating on their part, we're seeing that these different pieces that these black women prosecutors have been advocating for, receiving threats, not receiving support even from their own office, continue to go after and how that

would be a benefit to society as a whole and to those people who are incarcerated. It only makes sense, Recy. It only makes sense because, again, these are extraordinary times. It requires extraordinary measures. Right. And it doesn't make sense.

I mean, I remember I was... Tashara Jones, sister who is the treasurer in St. Louis, when she announced, we're not going to be giving out parking tickets. Yeah. And then so the St. Louis newspaper attacks her, well, you don't have the authority. Her whole deal was like, what the hell is wrong with you?

Yeah. It doesn't make sense to sit here and be slapping people with fines for parking when we're in this extraordinary crisis. Plus, a lot of people are staying at home anyway. It's just smart things to do right now. And some of these people are so ignorant, and they don't take into account the difficulty, frankly, other people are having on an everyday basis.

This exacerbates it. Right. And I think, you know, if you're a person who, for some reason, you just don't give a damn about prisoners because you don't have any morals, the fact of the matter is these it's still a public health issue because you have workers that come in to work these prisons that then go back into their communities. And so we have to really look at this as a public health situation. The same thing with when we had the immigrants and people felt like, oh, immigrants shouldn't be getting flu vaccines and different things like that, flu shots. You know, we can we have to stop looking and picking and choosing who was worthy of having consideration. And so I think that the work that the ACLU is doing, Ayesha Brayboy, I think that's amazing work that she's doing. Senator Kamala Harris has been all over this.

March 5th, she sent a letter to the Bureau of Prisons requesting their preparedness for this outbreak. So this isn't even something that she just is new to. And to Erica's point, yeah, this is absolutely hashtag Black woman elite. I've seen as a prosecutor, Kamala Harris got raked over the coals and these black women continue to go through this. But this is a prime example of why it's important that we have a seat at the table because we do take different considerations into mind. We have compassion for people in a

different manner and people who would not normally get this consideration because Attorney General Barr is not leading the charge on this. The Bureau of Prisons director is not leading the charge on this. It's these black woman leaders, it's ACLU, it's these different organizations that are leading the charge. And so I think that we have to continue to recognize who the leaders are and how they lead differently and how we need to continue to put

those particular people back in power. Greg, moving, again, moving forward, what we're, we are dealing with, I mean, look, we already hit a report this may go up to 18 months. I mean, you know, we're now talking moving towards 2022. Man. And I really think people have to get prepared We're now talking moving towards 2022.

And I really think people have to get prepared mentally for this and to understand what is actually happening. I mean, this is not something that, and again, because the federal government has been so lousy with testing, we do not have a handle of what's going on. And as each day progresses, we're left in the same situation of really not knowing what's on the other side. We have to get a handle of what's going on here. And now we're talking about Howard,

other colleges, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, jails. We're talking about small businesses, black-owned businesses, mid-sized businesses, large businesses. Every sector of it. Ain't nobody. Even if your ass rich,

the State Department and the CDC has just issued a travel advisory. Do not leave the country. Yes, sir. You can have your private jet all you want to, but you can't, I mean... The countries don't want us either. No, no, I'm just saying, I mean, what Canada's doing,

and so this thing, I don't just believe people are really taking into account what the hell is going on here. You're right, Roland. I mean, let's take Trump saying they're going to retrofit private business to do these masks and do some of this. That's under something called the Defense Production Act.

That was an act that was passed by the federal government during the Korean War. And signs it, but then it goes, I don't want to use it. Right. It's the whole point of the damn law! That's the whole point. It's to use it!

But this is the point, Roland, as you're making this. And listen, like you said, all these children who are home from school, K-12, and all those students, including Howard, who, like everybody else, has canceled their commencement. My man Nick Cannon's supposed to graduate. I'm like, Nick, you say, bruh, look, I'm good. I gotta be with my kids. I'm sequestered in Jersey. I understand.

But my point is, everybody's at home. Y'all need to support Roland Marlin. Get this thing. keep this thing going. Come online and listen to this very carefully. How many times have you said this, Roland, when we talk about elections? There's no federal election. There are 50 state elections.

The United States of America, civics lessons K-12 and college. There is no such thing called the United States of America as one concept. There are 50 different states and municipalities within those states. And then there's a federal government and you pay taxes. So watch this. The Fed cuts the rate to zero. The Fed is not the federal government. The money is in the banks. So now what you're saying is,

what is the role of the federal government? The role of the federal government is to enhance the life quality and protect the 50 states. So what we're watching, what people don't understand is, at any moment, you can do that taking measures that are only the federal governments to take, like that defense production, like the fact that Mitt Romney and everybody else saying, well, give everybody $1,000. And then they pass a bill.

Then they pass another bill. Now they're talking about passing yet another bill. And we have Elizabeth Warren and Ayanna Pressley and them are saying saying and put loan forgiveness in it. They can do that. But this is the point I want to end with, Roland, to your point. Again, this Andrew Ross Sorkin thing really, really is very interesting. Today's New York Times finance page, he says the government could offer every American business, large and small, and every self-employed and gig worker a no-interest bridge loan guaranteed for the duration of the crisis

to be paid back over a five-year period, the only condition of the loan to businesses would be that the companies continue to employ at least 90% of their workforce at the same wage that they did before the crisis. When we heard President Adams from the People's Republic of Brooklyn, when we heard him say he's not going to let

his manager class work from home and these folks, like the people who are cleaning Howard's campus right now and cleaning Georgetown's campus right now and UCLA, where I'm going to be teaching from home with technology and partnering with these black bookstores like Sankofa and SO1 to upload content because they could go out of business. People wiping the tables and the floor. They got to go to work. The government could right now. This is what Sorkin is saying. It might cost us several trillion dollars, but it would be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States federal government. You could give businesses money to keep everybody employed and say you pay this back over five years. But the condition is you've got to keep everybody employed and relieve that burden.

But that will require this to be a nation. And it is not a nation. You've got to think like that. And at the state level, Cuomo could try it. The governor of Texas could try it. Larry Hogan could try it. But unless the federal government does this, and you're right, Roland, we're not thinking that way. I'm going to pick up on that. First of all, I'm going to go to a break. And look, a lot of y'all always leave on YouTube and Facebook. We go to a break. But we go to a break for a reason, to reset. We got a guest coming up because we want to deal with this disinformation that's out there that too many people are sharing, especially a lot of black people are sharing. But after that conversation, we're going to pick this up because the details have now come in in terms of what the Senate is proposing in terms of money to taxpayers, but also corporation tax cuts.

I'm going to unpack this thing, and there are a lot of people out there who are saying, well, why is it Nancy Pelosi? Why isn't Schumer signing on to this? The devil's in the details. And we're going to break some of that down when we come back on Roller Martin Unfiltered back in of that down when we come back on Roland Martin Unfiltered, back in a moment. Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each

for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, so a lot of y'all always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one have one on now I don't particularly like the white pocket squares I don't like even the silk ones and so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago and I saw this guy who had this this pocket square here and it looks like a flower this is called a shibori pocket square this is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect so I'm gonna take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool.

And so I tracked down, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they're basically about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear. So we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket square and what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket you know it gives you that flower effect like that but if I wanted to also unlike other because if I flip it and turn it over it actually gives me a different type of texture and so therefore it gives me a

different look so there you go so if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares we have them in 47 different colors all you got to do is go to rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares so it's rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares all you got to do is go to my website and you can actually get this now for those of you who are members of our bring the funk fan club there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares that's why you also got to be a part of our bring the funk fan club and so that's what we want you to do and so it's pretty cool so if you want to jazz your look up you can do that in addition uh y'all see me with some of

the feather pocket squares my sister was a designer a designer, she actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And, of course, that goes to support the show. And, again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. All right, folks, there's a whole lot of misinformation circulating on social media about how to protect

yourselves from COVID-19. You got these people walking around, wrapping themselves in trash bags, going to grocery stores. I don't know what the hell. Some people talking about you can eat garlic to prevent infections. Alright, joining us right now is Dr. Sedrina Calder, a board-certified preventative health physician.

Doc, how you doing? Hi, how are you? I'm doing great. All right, so you're hearing a lot of this crazy stuff out here, and then you got people who are coming up with their grandmother, grandmama, granddaddy, back-in-the-day remedies, all this sort of stuff like this here. In fact, I had a tweet a little bit earlier,

even Trump, all the lying that he did about this particular drug. In fact, he stood before the cameras and said that the FDA approved it. That was actually a lie. FDA did not approve it. They're still sitting here. Again, here it is.

The FDA has issued a statement clarifying the chloroquine situation. Trump wrongly said the anti-malaria drug was approved for coronavirus. The FDA statement says there is no approved coronavirus treatment. And so what are some of the crazy stuff that you're hearing out there as well? So I'm hearing a lot of misinformation just across the board, all over social media, probably on a daily basis. One of the first things I heard was that black people couldn't get

the coronavirus. That's a lie. Exactly. We've already seen a few NBA players that have been diagnosed with it. Eat Yourself, etc. So, yes, that is definitely a myth. I don't know how we came up with that, but the coronavirus does not discriminate

against anyone. Another myth. I don't know how we came up with that, but the coronavirus does not discriminate against anyone. So, another myth... Another myth is that antibiotics can treat it. That's completely incorrect. So, this is a virus that we're dealing with. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial

infections. So, that's definitely not true. Okay. So, what about all these people who, again, like we showed these foods who were spraying their kids with, I'm sorry, you can't spray your kids with Peral and think that that's going to ward off coronavirus. I agree. Dousing yourself in disinfectants is not the appropriate way to prevent getting the disease. You can actually be doing harm to yourself. Those are chemicals that you're putting on your skin and potentially inhaling into your lungs. So this is not something that we recommend at all. We continue to recommend the same preventive measures that we've been pushing, social distancing, washing your hands, avoiding sick contacts.

If you're sick, keeping yourself away from everyone else and at home, covering your nose and your mouth when you cough and sneeze. Those are the types of things that you can do to properly prevent it. What about this? Okay, so first, is there anything, what can we do that, is there anything that we can do to fortify our immune system that would keep us strong? So even if someone does contract it, you still have a strong enough immune system. Anything we should be taking?

So there's nothing that you can do in terms of boosting enough immune system. Anything we should be taking? So, there's nothing that you can do in terms of boosting your immune system to prevent it from happening, but you can kind of continue to maintain a healthy immune system if you do have one. And that's just by eating a proper diet. So, you want to eat enough protein, healthy sources of carbohydrates,

healthy fats, get enough sleep. That's a big thing. Getting at least seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Exercise. Seven to nine? Yes. Hell, that'd be a miracle if I slept nine hours. Yeah, I think most people have difficulty

getting that amount of sleep, but that is the recommended amount. Doc, how many hours you sleep? Half that from nothing. But I'm listening to the doctor. I want to live, brother. is the recommended amount. Doc, how many hours do you sleep? Half that if I'm lucky. I'm listening to the doctor. I want to live, brother. I want to live. Dr. Carl, how many hours do you sleep? Dr. Carl, how many hours do you sleep?

I'm sorry. I'm still trying to make sure I get to that seven every day. I have trouble with that as well. Child, please. If I get to six, that day, I have trouble with that as well. Child, please. If I get the six, that's a miracle. No question. Yeah, for me too. Six is doing pretty well for

me, but I'm still aiming to try to get seven every night. That's something I struggle with now and I continue to work on. But in addition to that, just making sure you're eating enough fruits and vegetables so that you get all the proper vitamins and minerals that are needed to maintain a healthy immune system. Folks, for y'all on Facebook or YouTube, you got any questions or Periscope, go ahead and post your question and I'll ask you real quick.

Risa, you got a question? No. Erica, you got a question for Doc? Absolutely. Good, Doctor. Thank you so much for joining us today. I wanted to find out how can we, the general public, communicate the severity of the virus to the younger population? I have a 20-year-old son who's college age, in college, and so in talking with him about it

for quite some time, because of spring break and the different things that people around him were doing, he kind of did not understand the global pandemic event that we're in. So in this hour, how do we kind of move forward and not have to, I guess, maybe have as many conversations to really kind of make it understood to them that this virus impacts everyone of every age demographic. Better call her. Yes. Well, I think it's important that we address one of the myths that is causing, I think, young people to believe that they're not at risk. And that myth is that only older people are affected by the virus.

That is definitely not true. We're seeing about 20% of people that are infected with the virus in the U.S. are in the 20 to 44 age group. So it does affect younger people. And these are hospitalizations I should mention. 20% of 20 to 44-year-olds are being hospitalized because of disease. And what young people, I think, don't understand is while they may not be at higher risk for severe illness if they're healthy or death, not as high risk as 65-year-and-older individuals, they are at risk to pass the disease along

to people who are unable to deal with it. So, yes, you may walk around and feel okay, but you may be a carrier of the virus and may be passing it on to an older individual

or someone with a depressed immune system. So I think that information is what we need to focus on. But you know what, Dr. Calder, I think part of the problem, though, is, and frankly, we've got to blame all those folks who have been at these news conferences. The problem is they said, hey, if you're young, you know what, you're good. And that was the problem.

Now all of a sudden we're seeing these cases of 20 people who are 20, who are 25 or 28, who are 30. In fact, almost 30 percent of the people who have been infected with coronavirus of the CDC study between 20 and 44, 29 percent of them between the ages of 20 and 44. And so the people who are talking have got to stop saying it because it's created this whole invincibility. That's why you got all the people who are out there on South Beach and everywhere else in Florida and other places saying, hey, yeah, we all good because all they kept hearing is you're young, you can't get it. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that is information that we need to really stop saying and stop putting out there at this point, because so many people are being

infected with the virus. It's spreading everywhere. It's spreading very rapidly. I think initially the reasoning behind that was to not cause too much fear and hysteria. So I think they wanted to emphasize the fact that about 80% of people that are infected with the virus have a mild or moderate type of illness. But I think at this point, what we need to emphasize is that it can affect people of all ages, including children, and it can be passed on to people who may have severe illness if they were to catch the virus or who may, you know, have a higher risk of death. So I think that's what we need to now focus on because it's pretty much, it's now in all 50 states and it's every day, the numbers are just going up and up and up.

Dr. Calder, one of the biggest things that people used to kind of dismiss it is they say that this is just like the flu and, you know, putting people get the flu every year, putting people die from the flu every year. Why is this even a big deal? Can you kind of address that a little bit? Of course. So I know, yeah, people do tend to compare this to the flu. I think one of the differences between this disease that we're dealing with and the flu is that this virus seems to spread a lot easier than the flu from what we're seeing. And that could be due to a number of reasons. One of the reasons is because we do have a vaccine for the flu. And while everyone does not get that vaccine,

a number of people do. So that helps to keep it from spreading the way we're seeing COVID-19 spread. So I think that's one of the reasons. So because we don't have a vaccine, because at this point we don't have a treatment, that goes to show that at this current moment, this virus, this disease is more detrimental, I think, to the public than the flu is. Can you also, one more thing, I saw on social media, there are various athletes and famous people who have been, who've been, who've tested positive, even though they don't have symptoms. And so some of the comments that I've read within those is that people, well, how will, you know, why are you even being tested if you're,

if you don't have any symptoms, are these people are lying, they're being paid to say this? You know, can you just kind of address kind of people who think that, well, because these people aren't symptomatic and they're positive and they appear to be doing fine, that there's some sort of hoax going on? Okay, so yes.

So, well, first of all, there's an incubation period for the virus. It's anywhere from about two to 14 days from what we can tell. So you can potentially have the virus for up to two weeks without any symptoms. That's number one. So if someone were to test you, you could be positive and maybe just asymptomatic at that point. Secondly, some people are being tested who may have had a contact with a positive. And while they don't have symptoms at the time, they were in contact with someone else who was positive. So just because that person tests positive and they were tested,

but they hadn't developed any symptoms prior to testing, that doesn't mean that this is a hoax. It's very possible and it makes absolute sense. All right, Dr. Sedrina Calder. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right. Let's talk about, again, folks, this whole economic piece.

We were discussing that before. Details are in where what Senate Republicans, first of all, what they've done is they've negotiated among themselves. And then now they're going to go over to now meet with Democrats on this whole deal. And then what so what they are proposing is I'm going to pull up in a second, folks. They are proposing this is a story that's in Politico and it's a trillion dollar economic package. We're trying to bring it up here. It's a Politico. And it's a trillion-dollar economic package. We're trying to bring it up here. It's a little slow. Trillion-dollar economic package.

$1,200 in terms of cash payments going out to folks. Not sure why this thing is moving a little bit so slow, so I'm going to try to do it on a different iPad here. And then what it's also going to call call for is give me one second, folks. Literally, the details are just coming in right here. Here we go. Direct payments here. You can go to my iPad. The centerpiece of the Senate Republican proposal crafted with support from the White House. Direct payments to qualified Americans of up to twelve hundred dollars.

Married couples could get $2,400. Taxpayers who earn more than $75,000 annually will begin to see payments reduced by $5 for every $100 they earn over the $75 threshold, with those who make more than $99,000 getting nothing. Families with children would get $500 per child. Now, the GOP plan also outlines provisions to give small businesses federally guaranteed loans, moving the income tax filing deadline from April 15th to July 15th, and that's one of the idea as well. Provide numerous tax cuts for corporations and financial support for hard-hit industries such as airlines. So let's

unpack this. I got a problem, if you will, and here's the deal. To me, I think, Greg, before you give any corporation a tax cut, as Mark Cuban said,

you got to factor in all of those people who did the stock buyback, who took all that cash and did the stock buyback, which helped their investors. Did not help the employees. That's right. Helped their investors.

I think you got to deal with that. And also, you have to deal with the likes of a Boeing. Also, a story came in. So Nikki Haley, okay, eyeing the White House, has resigned from the Boeing board of directors. Come on. Saying that because she opposes a government bailout, she has a philosophical difference with that.

Yeah, you're eyeing a run for office one day because you wouldn't be able to say, I oppose that. But that's what we're dealing with. But take a Boeing. They want $60 billion. And it's like, no, Boeing, your problems were caused by your 737 MAX. That's what your problems were. This simply exacerbates your problem. I'm sorry.

Federal government should not be bailing out Boeing because they screwed up. That's right. Mitch McConnell, a titan of cowardice, invisible until today, gets together with his crew of thieves and proposes this. Look, first of all, $1,200 checks, that's politics. They're giving out cash. Now, what you going to do next month when the rent is due? And the governor is saying, like Cuomo, you got to suspend these payments, these mortgage payments and these rent. What's going to do the month after that? Again, I go back to Sorkin's point. If you're serious about this national economy, then you give small businesses interest-free loans they can pay back over five years on the condition they

don't let anyone go. Why? Does somebody want $1,200 and a check or do they want to keep their job? You've got to think differently. This little money here is buying. Meanwhile, you use this opportunity, whether Naomi Klein calls it disaster capitalism, you use this opportunity to raid the public treasury and pay your friends. That's what McConnell and them have been sitting back trying to figure out. How are we going to steal some more money? But here's where the thing is going to go off the rails.

Once you've given those checks out and you've demonstrated that you can do that, now what you're going to do, because two months from now, as you said, you're talking 2022. That's not sustainable. There's another way to do it that may even cause you to spend more money, but that ultimately not only restore, it might establish for the first time in this country a unified economic philosophy that could guide. Because guess what? This has been a socialist country from the beginning when it comes to corporate payments when they're in trouble. And it's a capitalist country when they come to divide up the profits.

If McConnell and them do this, the Democrats may be forced to go along because they want people to have some relief. But ultimately, this may finally take the United States of America over the edge. Here's an item Adam Serr posted this year. Congresswoman Katie Porter, this is what she said. She said, the speaker wants to explore refundable tax credits as a tool to help. First of all, that's bullshit because most people don't even... This whole issue with tax credits, I'm sorry. That's right. Porter says that it's too slow in my opinion. We need to get

actual cash assistance to American families right now. Many of them are going to see paycheck cuts or lost jobs entirely. I've been calling along with Mitt Romney for an immediate cash stimulus. I shouldn't say stimulus because I really don't think it's a stimulus. It's a $1,000 cash payment

to stabilize American households to be delivered before that crucial first of the month, April 1st, when so many people's bills become due. And then, of course, Trump has said he supports it as well. And so what's interesting here is that Democrats are about to be in a conundrum.

Mm-hmm. Because you have Democrats who are trying to hold the line. I saw one story where they have a $750 billion package. Yeah. You have Republicans over here talking about a trillion dollars. Yeah. And so, to me, they're getting outflanked to some degree. And I think this is where you have to deal

with these structural changes, these structural issues in our economy. And this is the moment. A crisis is always the moment. I said Obama did not seize the moment in 2009 when they could have actually completely changed Wall Street. No, they mollified them. This is a moment where they have to be

thinking about this, not from a short-term standpoint, but long-term standpoint. Your thoughts? That's a very challenging thing because at the end of the day, Americans are... They just... They hop on to what's shiny, right?

So it's a $1,000 payment. There was a big flap yesterday because Senator Kamala Harris talked about her LIFT Act, which is $500 in the tax credit every month. So that's $6,000. Mitt Romney is saying a one-time $1,000 payment. People are like, she's to the right of Mitt Romney. So people just don't really get the difference between a permanent investment and the people that need it versus a one-time quick fix. And so it's really, really,

really hard to win a substantive messaging war. It's a lot easier to win a headline, everybody gets $1,000 versus, well, we're going to give you paid sick family leave. We're going to make sure that you have health care. We're going to shore up unemployment insurance. We're going to give small business loans. That's a list. That's a bullet point list. And people will just want the headline. And so that's the real challenge that the Democrats have is substantively and policy-wise, they have better, more tangible, more permanent solutions to the crisis that we have.

But Americans are hearing $1,000. Now, they're going to complain about that too because as soon as they get $1,000, it's going to be, well, this isn't enough, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. But when you... And it won't be enough. And it's not. It's a legitimate point, but they're winning the messaging war

as Republicans always do. But, Erica, what I don't understand is if you're a Democrat or you're a Republican and you're having these conversations about a trillion-dollar plan, please explain to me how hard is it to say, um, we're about to wipe bite as a part of this deal we're gonna wipe out student loan debt and that is for every

individual up up to you know who has student loans up to you know May 2020 we're gonna do a complete forgiveness of student loans. Okay. First of all, if you are spending two, three, four, five, six, seven, $800,000 a month paying back your loans, that's an immediate economic stimulus. All right. That's, and here's the piece with that. You're not going out and increasing your debt. No, you're simply forgiving those student loans. That's now up to about a trillion and a half dollars. Okay. To me, I think you do that. Also, there's this notion of a thousand dollar check or $2,000 check. That's one month. Okay. You have to be thinking about this in terms of a thousand dollar check for the next three,

three months. And to me, it's going to be three months. Okay. So it should be April, May, June, a thousand, the parameters they've said a thousand dollars per month for the next three months. And then we see where we are with testing. We see where we are with this coronavirus. And then you might have to come back for another phase. To me, that's what the thinking has to be. Conversation, that's not what happens. Thinking about when Trump actually began to take this seriously, it was when the stock market began to plunge and the recovery was not even happening with the halt. So when you then also look at people who not only their paychecks support their households, but also other people as well, the forgiveness of student loan debt would definitely be a relief to those people and

many other people. And so I think that this is really the time where people have to be paying attention. Recy talked about just folks wanting to grab towards the highlight headlines and not really getting into the minutia. And I think that because we're being steeled in a way, and you said three months, you're thinking three months, it could be even longer than three months, because if we're not still all tested by the end of that time, you're talking about another episode of a resurgence of this. I mean, because we're not in a place where we actually have our plane built because we're actually building our plane as it's flying, we don't know yet. And then you're talking about vaccinations, 18 months, that's almost two years.

So to actually sit down and think about what is going to make sense so that the economic recovery will not be as deep as it could be, would be absolutely ensuring that student loan debt, which is like myself and many others, a part of how we budget and pay bills every month and also how we, that money also used to support other people in our families, that that could actually be a way that the economy could begin to see some level of stimulation so that when we're fully operational, that we'll be dealing with a more healthy economy as we would have been if we would not have taken these steps to actually alleviate the people that are actually having to suffer in this manner.

One of the things that Reverend Barber has been talking about, Greg, is that 700 people a day die because of poverty. And his whole point is, he said 140 million Americans living in poverty, 700 dying a day is a quarter of a million a year. And you juxtapose that to how many people are dying with coronavirus. Again, to me, this is where, if you're Democrats and Republicans,

but especially Democrats, you have two teams working. You have a short-term economic team, and then you have a long-term economic team. Because if this thing goes 18 months, that's a year and a half, you're now talking about, oh, they're going to have to come back

and do this again and again and again and again, which now is going to actually have to cause a complete rethinking of this entire infrastructure in terms of the amount of money we spend on defense, in terms of how we use those defense dollars, in terms of taxes, in terms of

and look, you might have to return to the days where the federal tax rate was what it was when Eisenhower was president. Sure. Those are the sort of different things where the federal tax rate was what it was when Eisenhower was president. Sure. Okay?

I mean, those are the sort of different things. You might have to have a Congress that gives the IRS an additional $5 to $10 billion to hire people to do real audits of the super rich. No question. I'm thinking about the Panama Papers. I'm thinking about all these offshore companies and things along those lines. This actually might require Congress to say,

oh, we now got to get serious with where all the money's been going because we have allowed rich folks to literally steal for decades now and then we want poor and middle class people to be the ones to have to pay for this whole deal. That's absolutely right.

Roland, as you were talking, I was thinking and listening to you and thinking about what Reverend Barber has said. Wouldn't it be ironic if what Martin King wrote about and where do we go, chaos or community, would be the thing that we are faced with now, a generation later? We know, of course, about the flu of 1918,

the global virus. You know, that came at the end of World War I. What happened a decade later? The Great Depression. And people think that the United States was pulled out of the Great Depression by great ingenuity. No, World War II really is what pulled them out.

But what aided them as well was the New Deal. This is is the largest infusion of public dollars into an economy in history up until now. So when you say that, Roland, it's very interesting. You know, I'm thinking about this. What is a loan after all? What is a student loan? What is a loan for a home? A loan that a bank makes, that a private lender makes or the government makes is a loan that is betting that the person or the entity you're loaning money to will be productive enough to repay the loan

and give you some interest. So if the United States were to expend trillions of dollars right now, it would be a bet against the productivity of the American people. So the money that the United States would be injecting into the economy would not be from the savings of the American people. So the money that the United States would be injecting into the economy would not be from the savings of the United

States. It would really be borrowed. That's what they're doing. For example, Italy, the EU, now has said they're going to go up with a trillion dollars. They're infusing that into bonds. In this case, they would be putting it into the hands of businesses that would keep people employed before it goes. Because this gang that can't shoestrike, the Three Stooges, Mnuchin,

Kudlow, and Leland, these clowns don't know nothing about it. Even Mnuchin is saying it could be 20% unemployment. Ain't nobody listening to you, man. But ultimately, if you loan that kind of money to private industry and to individuals, gig economy people, people driving Lyft and Uber

and everything else, and you put them in a position to keep working, you've then given them a loan that will allow you to them in a position to keep working, you've then given them a loan that will allow you to get past a year, two years, three years, a vaccine, a resurgence, as we just heard Erica say, because when you come back in the fall, if this follows the pattern of most other diseases like this, there's going to be a resurgence. One of the reasons why you maybe don't want to test everybody at the same time is because there is no healthcare system that could contain all those people showing up. But my point is this.

If you give a loan, if you think differently, you're betting against the productivity of the American people, finally, to Reverend Barber's point, what you're really saying is now we're going to invest in the people in this country. And if you invest in the people in this country in this way, you might have a country at the other end of this instead of pretending that the world is defined by the lines around nation states because, as we just heard Erica say, and you said it as well, Recy,

there are global supply chains. What happens when the stuff at Walmart runs off the shelf because it can't come in on the boats in San Francisco from China? What happens when the food in the grocery stores is not on the shelf? So when Dr. Calder tells us to eat fruits and vegetables, they're not there. Why? Because they can't come in from Mexico

or Canada. But you've got to think differently to your point and to Barbara's point. And if you don't think differently, this whole thing could collapse. And now you've got a problem because you can't bet against the full faith and credit of the United States economy because the United States economy has been ravaged by the capitalists, by the elite, by the economic elite. These people got to

think differently. Right. And Erica, again, what I keep saying is that what this thing is doing, it is exposing every facet of this economy. Yesterday, we talked about 40% of

the kids in Dallas Independent School District don't have Internet at home. So you got all these people who are all these policymakers who are making decisions about folks in terms of, you know, pads and computers. And they make the assumption, well, everybody has Internet, but they don't. All the people who were bitching and moaning early on about, well, what do you mean we have to keep the schools open to feed children? Because they didn't understand the number of kids who at school was the only place where they're getting regular, getting at least two meals, breakfast and lunch. And so that's what this is doing. And again, I think what has, I think you've got to have individuals who are in Congress.

To me, if you're Nancy Pelosi, you've got two work groups going on. You've got your short-term work group who has to deal with this pandemic over the next 30 to 90 days. Then you have another team who is saying, if this thing goes 18 months, we now have to be thinking completely different about this because see look unemployment uh applications benefits uh i mean are exploding yeah where's the money going to come from uh and so now you got to start looking at again this this entire economy and because what this thing is exposing, it is exposing the guts of the economy. And people are now going, oh, dang, I didn't realize that.

So you've got 800,000 people who work for hotels who may very well be out of a job in a week. That's 800,000 people who are not going to have income, who are not going to be able to pay their mortgage or pay their rent or their light bills or their food bills. I mean, that's just that particular sector. We can go on and on and on. That's what this whole thing is exposing. And I think it's making it real for the people

when Senator Burr sells off his stock what this whole thing is exposing and I think it's making it real for the people when a Bob when when a when a Senator Burr sells off his stock because guess what his worth also is largely in that stock so we know exactly what he was doing I saw they pulled they said his worth is 1.7 million dollars most of that stock most of that was in the stocks he actually sold so we know exactly what he was doing was protecting his money. Absolutely. And the most vulnerable are the ones who are going to pay the price for that. And then I'm thinking about, you're thinking about all the

college campuses that have closed, that have canceled. And so those students are coming back home if they have a home to come to. We also have first-generation students who college is home for them, right? We have, and that's how they eat. I think that when you're talking about exposing all the vulnerabilities of our democracy, that this is a time that we really see why government is important

and the ways in which government is, has definitely, has had several social safety nets for all of us to protect all of us, whether we like it or not. I don't know anyone who really just enjoys paying taxes, but knowing that I am paying taxes so that in the event or, you know, for Social Security, Medicare, to ensure that hospitals have money, that schools are able to run as functionally as possible. Like, all of these things are the reason that we pay taxes and that we're seeing now that there are people who even as we speak, that even though we're in perilous times, are looking at ways to take advantage of the greater majority of the population and they call themselves patriots. So I think what one of the things that through this,

as we continue to move through this, and you talked about those two different work groups, that this is also an opportunity for us to actually see what the functions of government are and have another level of appreciation of that. Because even while this crisis is happening, we have the census. A lot of people, I know I received my census notification a couple of days ago. We have the census actually happening and that the census, those trillions of dollars to help protect communities

and make sure that government is functioning is at risk right now because look at where all of our attention is being pulled. So I think that the House really, really, really needs to find ways, and Recy talked about that messaging piece, I think that there really needs to be very, very strategic ways as well that as we move through this pandemic and have a new normal that will be temporarily in place for some time, that we also do message the importance of other things that are still happening we don't know you know what the delays will be but things that are still happening um that folks need to actually be participatory in as well this also reese exposes this this republican mantra of tax cuts tax cuts cuts, tax cuts. Right, right. Because at the end of the day, you have to have revenue.

You have to. You have to. And so that tax cut that was given, the corporations took it. 96% of the corporations took the trillion dollars and reinvested it right into a stock buyback. Yeah. And they were selling it.

Oh, it's going to go back into the economy. It's going to stock buyback. Yeah. And they were selling it all. It's going to go back into the economy. It's going to go to workers. Never. They were not going to build enough facilities because, first of all, productivity was already high. They had not replaced a lot of the jobs that were lost because of the economic crisis in 2007, 2008.

And so it was kind of like, oh, we can get by with less. That's what you're dealing with here. And again, I think at some point, you're going to have to have your big thinkers and the people who are in Congress are going to start yelling from the rooftops, hey, we had better start thinking about this entire economy and how we fund it in a completely different way.

I agree, but I also think that the onus is also on the American people, because what's going to happen is the Republicans are going to push through their tax cuts again. And the Democrats are going to be there. All the pressure is going to be on the Democrats to fold like they always end up having to do because this more pressing hair on fire need is it needs to be met. And so the American people should be calling their senators right now, particularly the Republican ones, and they should be calling their house, their Congress people and saying, we don't want money for, we don't want tax cuts for businesses. We want direct relief for the American people. We have to start stepping up an election, provided that we still have one, is in November.

The earliest that we would even have a change of government is in January. That's a long time, so we have to work with the government that we have right now. What was trending yesterday? People versus Pelosi. Today it was people versus Schumer. And so this is where the Democrats that are actually trying to have a broader approach,

a more effective approach, are being outgunned because the pressure is coming on them. The pressure is not going on Mitch McConnell. And people are, you know, holding up Mitt Romney's proposal of $1,000 as like the Holy Grail. And meanwhile, like Roland are, you know, holding up Mitt Romney's proposal of $1,000 as, like, the Holy Grail. And meanwhile, like, Roland, like you're saying,

they're sneaking in all this other kind of stuff. And so as long as the Republicans can get away with it, they're going to continue to get away with it. And check this out. Here, go to my iPad. So someone just posted this here. So I told y'all about the Republicans' plan of $1,200 and then $2,400 for a family

and then $500 for every child, okay? But read that last paragraph. Taxpayers with little or no income tax liability but at least $2,500 of qualifying income will be eligible for a minimum rebate check of $600. $1,200 merit. Qualifying income includes earned income as well as Social Security retirement benefits and certain compensation and pension benefits paid to veterans. This ensures relief gets to low income seniors

and disabled veterans. Y'all. This is a monthly? Well no, this is- I know 2,500 is what, per month? Or is that the total savings? No, no, no, that's the, no, no, this is the recovery checks.

I know, but I'm saying- No, go back, go back. If you've got 2,500, taxpayers with little or no income tax liability, but at least 2,500- No, no, that's one time. Aha. But the problem with this is, and again, is that people are gonna see least $25,000. That's one time. But the problem with this is, and again,

is that people are going to see the $1,200. So basically what they're saying is, if you pour, you're screwed. You're going to get $600. To Reese's point. Yes, messaging. But if you are, but if you're making up to, you see it, these checks

are reduced for higher income taxpayers and begin phasing out after a single taxpayer has $75,000 in adjusted gross income and $150,000 for joint filers. So what they're saying is that, oh, if you're single and you're making up to $75,000, well, then you can get up to $100. So basically what they're saying is,

if you're making more, this is what they're saying, if you're making more money, you get more money, right? But if you are a poor American, Erica, you get less. You would think that those at the bottom

will be getting the $1,200. No. No, no. They're not a corporation. And the poverty is a business and there are too many people too many institutions that actually do flourish in poverty if the people that that suffer and so until people are seen as actual human beings and not um pawns on a chess board then that and i'm thinking about that and thinking about the ways with which this regime has totally bungled what we are experiencing now. So until that becomes a level of priority, and for me, I would be able to see that and take that in a little bit

more with the student loan debt cancellation, that for me is definitely a demonstration of people as a priority. But until we actually see that as a real model, something that people are actually advocating and actually demonstrating and actually doing, we'll continue to see proposals like this brought forth or actual pieces that are brought forth as a way to move through what we're all experiencing right now. We're going to continue, of course, having this economic conversation as we move forward.

I do want to do this here. Of course, a lot of churches who have gone to this whole issue of live streaming their services because they can't meet and gather. There were some people, though, who still had services on Sunday,

frankly putting their congregations at risk. E. Dewey Smith, a pastor out of Atlanta, posted a video explaining why his church chose not to have service. And he was real frank and honest as to why some pastors did have service. I want you all to watch this. I don't want to get into no fights with pastors, but let me say this. Our mortgage-y endowed church is $100,000 a month. Our light-billed endowed church is $40,000 a month. We have 50 employees. We've got a counseling center we have uh we have a human trafficking program that

we sponsor we're building a church in africa when we don't have church that dreads our operation we're like other so for us when we made a decision to close our church uh put in worship services that was not a fear that was because we had regard and for me I love my members and they want to put them in a position where they be saved. The faith for me was not in having church. Some of you guys had church because you need that offering. And you put people in jeopardy. Some of you did that. Now, I'm not speaking favorably about it. But for us, we decided to not have worship because we didn't want to risk our susceptible demographic, those who are over 60. Because all the scientists, all the medicine people are telling us, health, CDC, CDC, who all the organizations saying this thing

is pandemic. So for us to have a global pandemic and risk our membership, we felt that we want to love our members enough to let them stay safe, to follow the doctor's recommendation and then trust that God's going to meet the needs. And, and, and I'm just believing and trusting God that we put people first. So just because somebody had church, sometimes people use those scriptures, twist them because they need the offering. Roland, I was a usher at Canaan New Missionary Baptist Church as a young man, a teenager.

And every time we passed a collection play, it was the same verse, Malachi. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. Wherein do you say ye have robbed me in thy tithes and offerings? That brother right there gave a word. That's a word, brother.

And you know what? Mitch McConnell, you clown. Donald Trump and all the rest of you people trying to figure out how to steal, as you heard Reesey just say, with both hands trying to figure out a way to steal. That brother right there just showed you what the African in this criminal enterprise

that you call the United States of America has kept from the time we came here, before we came here and got on the boats with it and brought here and have remained with it. Did you hear what he said? He said, I want to make sure my faith is in my people and that God will help us provide. And guess what? Those people will be the ones to come out of their pocket and send that money in by any means necessary. Why? You're trying to figure out how to steal with both hands.

You better go read the Bible, Old and New Testaments, and go back to that Old Testament when you start dealing with Sodom and Gomorrah, and figure out as the Rastas know what happens when Babylon fall. You don't have no faith in nothing but money. Forget in God we trust on your dollar bill, but let's be clear, what that brother just said, that is

character. That's hard to replace, brother. That was very powerful. All right, folks, listen up. That's it for us today, but here's the deal. I told you why this show matters, why we do what we do. When you turn on television and when you see these doctors, frankly, you're not seeing many black doctors discussing coronavirus.

You're not seeing black infectious disease experts. We've had those folks on here. But you also have, again, the role of what we talk about the military. Last Friday, we had retired General Russell Honoré on. Of course, many of us know him after Hurricane Katrina, talk about disaster preparedness. Yesterday, we had General Kip Ward, who was a retired three-star, but actually he had four stars when he was in the army, and he was the first leader of AFRICOM. And so we are moving to that point, and if we are being honest, the role that the military can play in terms of dealing with this issue. If you look at mainstream media, broadcast, you swear the only black person who's ever been a four-star general was Colin Powell.

You swear he's the only one. Nobody else has ever been a four-star general except Colin Powell. Well, the fact of the matter is just this week you will see two African-Americans who've actually gotten to that rank. You've never had more in history, more than 10 African-Americans who've ever attained the rank of four-star general. One of them, I say, was General Kip Ward. We had him on the show yesterday. Well, tomorrow, right here on the set, we're gonna have Lloyd James Austin on the show, folks. He served as the 12th Commander

of the United States Central Command, called CENTCOM. He was the first black commander to head CENTCOM. He also was the vice chief of staff for the United States Army. And he, of course, was commanding general of the United States forces in Iraq. And again, he was nominated to lead the U.S. Central Command by President Barack Obama. He is going to join us tomorrow and we're gonna talk about again, from a military standpoint, how you prepare for one, this type of disaster.

How do you implement the military in this? Go ahead and go back to it. So I want y'all to share this. We're gonna post this graphic on our Instagram page, Twitter as well as Facebook. And the reason I'm saying this to all of you so you understand why these things matter is because these are African Americans who've been there.

This is somebody who understands when you send in hundreds of thousands of troops and how you can build and erect hospitals, buildings, how you can do emergency relief. The fact of the matter is we're going to see the need for the National Guard if this thing gets worse. If you look at how the cases, bottom line is this here, folks, the more testing we do, you're going to see more positive tests come out. We're already seeing that. That is going to be a problem. New York Times alert, I just got a dire shortage of gowns and masks in hospitals as well. And so we're going to have retired General Lloyd Austin on the show

tomorrow to talk about again, how the military would, how would the military attack a coronavirus? The coronavirus is a national security issue as well. So you do not want to miss the conversation tomorrow. And so we certainly look forward to having him. And there are a couple of other retired black four-star generals who I've been communicating with, who we want to have on as well. Why is that important?

Again, whenever these stories happen, it's amazing how you can't find black experts in mainstream media. Oh, if it was a so-called black story, oh, you're going to see. I told y'all, if I turn the TV on and there's five black people on MSNBC or CNN, something black happened.

It's amazing how quickly they can find black experts when it's so-called it's a black story. But when it's a story like coronavirus, it's as if we don't a black story. But when it's a story like coronavirus, it's as if we don't have black experts. Well, that's why on this show we do. Also,

I want to thank all of y'all watching. In fact, we've never on YouTube had more than 4,000 people watching at one time. We actually crossed that threshold today for the first time. 4,035 of you watching. We've had more than 1,100 watching on Facebook. I think the most people

ever had on Facebook watching at one time was around 2,700 or 3,000. That's not good. You think that number's going to go up now? Oh, yeah. Numbers have been going up. And so we've seen that increase. We want y'all, though, to keep sharing our show, supporting what we do. I've seen some of you

who have been giving to us on YouTube, and I certainly appreciate that. Because again, folks, you're not getting this information other places as well. You're not actually seeing that, and that's why we do what we do. So we certainly appreciate it. All right, folks, I want to thank Erica.

I want to thank Recy. I want to thank Greg for being on our panel, all of our guests as well. We'll see you guys tomorrow right here, Roller Martin Unfiltered. Stay safe. Wash your hands. Do not congregate. And tell your kids,

watch this show and read. Don't have them playing games all damn day. Come on, brother. Feed the minds as well. You got it? I'll see y'all tomorrow. Holla! This is an iHeart Podcast.