#RolandMartinUnfiltered - TX Senate passes voter bill; 150 companies support voting rights act; Who's funding CRT hysteria?

Episode Date: July 15, 2021

7.14.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: TX Senate passes GOP's evil voter bill anyway; 150 companies urge Congress to enact the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act; Senate Dems reach agreement on a $3.5T budget plan; Republicans are attack Democrats' $579B bipartisan infrastructure agreement; Who's funding CRT hysteria?Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. today is wednesday july 14 2021 coming up on roland martin unfiltered after democrat texas lawmakers left the state to stop promoting the voting laws being passed the texas senate passed

the bill anyway we'll talk to one of the members of the Texas Black Caucus. Over 150 corporations are urging Congress to enact the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. We'll talk about that. And also, AT&T, their Texas PAC, gave $100,000 to Governor Greg Abbott on the day he called for the special session. Really? Senate Democrats have reached an agreement

on a $3.5 trillion budget plan. Also, tomorrow, black women are going to be taken to the streets to fight for voting rights. Republicans, they are criticizing the Democrats' $579 billion bipartisan infrastructure agreement. Well, that's no shock because they have no plan. We'll also talk about who's funding the critical race theory hysteria. Yeah, I told you all about that yesterday. Plus, we'll show you a clip from a black man who says, well, you know, slavery was not racist. And he's an idiot. And, cash out, they have blocked those fraudulent accounts that were impersonating Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, it's time

to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the smooth, the fat, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' Yeah It's on for Royal Yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's fresh, he's real, the best you know He's rolling Martel Martel Just today, after Democratic Texas lawmakers left the state to stop restrictive voting laws from being passed, the Texas Senate passes the bill anyway. But if those 51 lawmakers don't return before the end of the special session,

the bill will not pass in the House. Republicans are leaning on Governor Greg Abbott's threat to arrest those who left to bring them back for a quorum. Yeah, but the problem is they have no jurisdiction outside the state of Texas. So who the hell can they actually arrest? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized Texas Democrats by saying, he described, first of all, he said they should grab some beer, hop on a private plane and flee the state in what they're pretending is some great moral crusade. In reality, they've just come here to Washington to snap selfies and bask in the limelight.

No, that's actually not what legislators have done, Mitch McConnell. It's because people like you are stopping them from passing voting laws. Despite some disapprovals, the NAACP shows its support by buying a paid bail to those who get arrested, those Texas lawmakers. Democratic leaders plan to remain out of the state until the special session ends on August 7th. Representative Jarvis Johnson is the Secretary of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and Barbara Girvin Hawkins also joins us. Glad to have both of you folks. How you doing? I'm doing fine. Doing great. So Mitch McConnell says Glad to have both of you folks. How you doing? I'm doing fine. Good. How are you?

Doing great. So Mitch McConnell says y'all are just here on a nice little vacation and you're basking in the limelight. How do you respond? Well, I think no doubt he's trying to detract from what the real issues are. And the real issues are they're trying to take us back to the days of old. And we cannot put up with that. My colleague and I know that we fought hard to make sure that our forefathers will not be rolling over in their grave because of what's happening. Representative Johnson, again,

Republicans are whining. They're complaining. Governor Greg Abbott says this is all fetal. It doesn't matter. He'll call session after session after session. He doesn't think y'all are serious. Well, if he doesn't think we're serious, just to keep trying, because at the end of the day, we're going to stay focused on what we need to do, and that is to make sure that we stop this hater, hateful, harmful bill. The fact that we know Governor Abbott and all the Republicans operate from a showmanship governance, we're not here to showmanship, but to make and stop this hateful bill. Representative Bourbon-Hawkins, one of the things that people don't realize, they don't realize that really what Abbott is doing, they are ticked off that Republicans

have gotten their butts kicked in Harris County, where Houston is, in Dallas County, where Dallas is. They've been getting just killed in the large counties in Texas where Democrats were within five seats of regaining the Texas House. That's really what this is all about. They do not want to see black and brown voters exercising their power in Texas. Right. You know, Roland, we were nine seats short. We worked real hard to get it. We weren't successful, but I'll tell you, we're going to continue to work hard for our folks. Now, no doubt they're angry. They see more black and brown people turning out to vote, and they're trying to provide intimidation to suppress the vote. On that particular point, Representative Johnson,

again, when you start looking at the numbers, when you start looking at what the turnout is, how many seats are up next year in 2022? Isn't this really about the Republicans being scared to death that Democrats could regain one of the chambers named largely the House. Looks like we've lost Representative Johnson, so we're going to try to get him back. We lost his signal there. I'm going back to Representative Gervin Hawkins. What conversations have you all been holding here in Washington, D.C.? You have yesterday Senator Joe Manchin said he does plan to meet with Texas Democrats.

Have any of y'all had any conversations with Senator Kyrsten Sinema? They are the two holdouts. If they would commit to ending the filibuster, specifically when it comes to voting, then these two bills could pass. Right. So we've been meeting with quite a few senators because it's going to take all 50 so that our wonderful vice president can break the tie. But we've got to educate our senators, our U.S. senators on what's really going on. I think they don't really understand the gravity of what's happening. They see across the country the voter suppression movement, but in Texas, I mean, they're really setting up.

Think about it. A poll watcher can come and look over your shoulder. Well, guess what? Your vote is supposed to be secured and private. It's an intimidation tactic. Poll workers have been given so much leeway that they can almost do anything. And I think many of our folks know they show up at the polls trying to vote, and then they get an irate or a right-wing type poll watcher, and then they get discouraged.

And sometimes they send you to the wrong poll and that's a problem so we're meeting talking to our senators talking to our congressional people and trying to highlight what's really happening and and all of the deflection that our governor lieutenant governor and speaker of the house is doing is wrong um just for folks to understand where does it stand right now how many how many republicans are in the texas house how many democrats there's a total of 150 and there's 83 republicans and 67 democrats so so they have uh a a 16 seat uh majority. And are all seats up for re-election in 2022? Everybody. We run every two years.

So every seat is up for re-election. But as you know, Roland, there's those swing districts. So we've got some swing districts that we're working very hard to see if we can get a Democrat to take those seats. So again, we were unsuccessful last time two years ago, but, you know, now with everything that's going on, with the permitless carry and a lot of egregious bills that went through this session, we believe we have a great opportunity to appeal to the people to flip some of those seats. And it has been nine years, Representative Johnson, since Democrats have been in control of the Texas House. Can't hear you. There we go. Go ahead.

We don't want it to be longer than that, and that's why I think it's important that we stop these type of hateful bills that they're trying to put forth. So the fact is that Republicans understand that their days are numbered and their numbers are short. But we have a sleeping giant in our voting base. And that's why they're trying to suppress these votes, because they understand that we're coming for those seats and we're definitely going to take those seats back to bring sensible government back to Texas. Before you got cut off, I was specifically talking about, again,

the impact of the large counties and how Republicans have been beaten, and they are scared to death also how they've been losing ground in the suburbs. That's why they are so desperate to pass these restrictions, especially trying to keep Harris County from being able to do what they're doing. These bills are only been directed at municipalities where the population obviously has become stronger, democratic and absolutely black and Hispanic. And so that's why they're only targeting. I got you. Did you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you. Keep talking. Go ahead. Well, and I think that's why it's important that we continue to to to to fight because they're thinking suppressing our votes are going to stop their efforts to keep the House and keep this power. But I won't allow this type of American apartheid that's going to take place if we allow this minority to be, to stay in power, to pass hateful legislation that they're passing.

All right, then. Representative Gervin Hawkins, Representative Johnson, we surely appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. Appreciate it. Keep highlighting it, Roland. We need your help. We need the media's help on this. Well, being native of Texas, of course, we're going to focus on this every single day and keep the light on it. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Let me go to my panel. A. Scott Bolton is the former chair of National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Robert Petillo, executive director of Rainbow Push Coalition, Peach Tree Street Project. Robert, I want to start with you.

A lot of people are not happy at all with the speech that President Joe Biden gave yesterday. Charlamagne Tha God gave him donkey of the day on the Breakfast Club this morning. Cliff Albright has been extremely critical of that particular speech because he didn't even bring up Cine Cinema or Manchin, didn't even mention the filibuster. And so this is what's going on. And I was sitting here looking at this. Here's one of the tweets. Go to my computer here. This is what Cliff tweeted. It does little good for Polis to give a speech emphasizing the history of civil rights battles while absolutely ignoring the role the filibuster has played historically and how it's blocking voting rights today. Historian Kevin Cruz tweeted this filibuster against civil rights bill 1874 filibuster against civil rights bill 1875

filibuster against a pension for a black official in 1906 filibuster against confirmation of a black official 1909 and then he had a filibuster against anti-lynching bill 1921 filibuster against anti-lynching bill 1922 filibuster against anti-lynching bill 1925 filibuster against monument to black world war one veterans 1926 uh filibuster against anti-lynching bill 1935 against anti-lynching bill 1938 against bill targeting racial discrimination and unemployment 1945 filibuster against truman's civil rights proposals 1948 uh he then filibuster against Truman's civil rights proposals, 1948. He banned filibuster against Truman's civil rights proposals, 1949, 1950, against measures to fight housing discrimination, 1954, against the Civil Rights Bill, 1957,

against the Civil Rights Bill, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1972, against Civil Rights Bill 1976, against Extending the Voting Rights Act 1982, against the creation of the MLK Day Federal Holiday 1983, against Civil Rights Bill 1984, on and on. Well, one thing President Biden has to do is exert some real presidential leadership. He was elected kind of as this LBJ figure, this figure who is a master of the Senate, who knows every hallway inside the Dirksen building, so to say. But we have not seen any type of legislative pressure that LBJ put out in 1964 that Joe Biden could put out right now in 19 or in 2021. This is crucial. And I know the argument is always, well, what's going to happen if you eliminate the filibuster when Republicans get back in power? Let's look at the numbers and just be for real right here. The 50 Republican senators represent 41 million fewer people

than the 50 Democratic senators. Republicans have not won a popular vote in a national election since 2004. So if you have a 17-year-old sitting here listening right now, they have never in their lifetime seen a Republican win the popular vote. Indeed, they won the popular vote one time in the last 30 years. So if you have a 30-year-old, they've only seen a Republican win the popular vote one time in their lifetime. So this idea that somehow they will be able to bounce back and take back over power is not evidenced by history. They do not have the numbers without voter suppression. They have no ability to win elections. We're seeing this in Georgia, where suddenly for the first time in a decade, Democrats won two statewide seats, and they immediately changed the voting laws. We see this in Texas right now in the instant case, where Democrats are making inroads, and many of the statewide elections are maybe

able to challenge for a Senate seat coming up, so you have to change the voting laws. So Democrats have to get off their butts. They have to act the same way the Republicans are doing. Republicans can lose an election by 8 million votes and then tour the country for the next year, claiming that they won. Democrats can win the election and still act like they lost. They're going to have to get some real strong presidential leadership, put some pressure on these people. Kyrsten Sinema out West, I guarantee you, sir, pulling some highway funding, pulling some water funding from her state, she'll get on board. Joe Manchin right there in the rest boat, you start getting, closing down military bases in his state, I guarantee he'll get on board.

We have to take a tough line with these people. Otherwise, they will compromise and compromise and compromise you right out of office and right out of power. This year was, I mean, you know, one of the things that if you understand what's going on here, Ron Brownstein has a piece out, Scott, and then he this is what he wrote. The repeated White House suggestion that voters, especially voters of color, can overcome these restrictive laws with more effort has infuriated civil rights activists. They say it deflects responsibility from the real issue, whether Biden and the Senate Dems are making enough effort to pass new legislation. Yeah, I agree. The speech was quite weak. And the disappointment in Biden is that he's committed, but he seems like he's this willing prisoner of the filibuster, willing prisoner of losing Manchin and the Arizona senator who may go to be Republican. But for Black people, this is everything.

And you don't get a sense from Biden that it means everything. He still thinks he can cut a deal. Well, tell us what deal you can cut. Or tell us how you're going to hammer those two senators on the Democratic side who support the filibuster. Because otherwise, you're a willing prisoner of the system, and the system has never been helpful to black people. So what are you going to do to hammer them? What are you going to do to avoid the filibuster or overcome it? What are you going to do to craft something to get through, get it approved, so that we can vote and get criminal justice reform, get legislation against voter suppression and what have you?

But if you're not willing to do that, then you're not down to do that. And so for black people, it's everything. And the future's now. Robert can talk about the future and votes and how we can win and so forth and so on. But the bottom line is Democrats don't have the votes right now. There's only so much Biden can do unless he's going to put it all on the line. And he needs to show America and show black people he's willing to do that. To date, he certainly hasn't crossed that line to give it his all. Robert, Ron Brownstein also shared another tweet from Cliff Albright. This is what he said. Don't come relying on activists to out-organize voter suppression to compensate for your legislative failures.

This ain't the Green Mile or Bagger Vance, and we're not your magical Negroes covering up your broken promises. Cliff ain't holding back, Robert. He's 100 percent correct. Let's understand, we are expecting activists and people on the ground and nonprofit groups not just to win elections, but to win by landslides just to barely win. We have to overcome all of the voter suppression. We have to overcome voter ID. We have to overcome changing polling locations.

We have to overcome many of these schemes and what Reverend Jackson calls tricky leaks, which are used to suppress the vote in many states. We have to overcome all that. Even when you do, like we did in Georgia, as most deaths say, you start keeping pace, they start switching up the tempo on you, and they change the rules right under you. You have to have federal oversight. The reason that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was so crucial is because the right to vote is dispositive of all other rights. Nothing else you do matters unless you have a vote. No other legislative package that you pass matters unless you are able to secure the right to vote for African-Americans or black and brown people in this country. Because otherwise, in 2022, if they take back the House or in 2024, they take back the White House.

They can reverse everything if you don't secure the vote first. And it's not this sexy issue. I understand that. It's not the thing you toured the country on. But I understand it's just as lowly old black folks wouldn't have a voice in politics. And that's not the sexy thing that gets you on billboards. And that's good for reelection campaign as many areas. But it is the one thing that will secure our democracy going forward and prevent the rise of the authoritarian to people who stormed the Capitol or in the minority. That's why they're trying to stop us from voting. I want to bring in Melanie Campbell.

She is, of course, with the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation. They have been engaged in activism all week on this whole issue. They're going to be, of course, having a rally, an activation tomorrow outside of the U.S. Capitol. Melanie, again, activists are not saying they're giving up. They're not saying that they're going to quit. But what they are demanding is more from this White House and saying, you know, again, Biden giving a speech in Philadelphia, never mentioning filibuster, never mentioning cinema, never mentioning a mansion, never mentioning any of that is kind of sad. And it speaks to, again, people want to hear a real plan of action as opposed to say, hey, activists, y'all do more.

Thanks for rolling for bring me on. What I thought it was a lot of strong things that he said, but what I heard missing in that speech was really wanting to hear him talk about what he was going to do about the process, right, the people over the process, and're doing this week of action, Black women and allies, is because we want to also put the pressure on the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, most especially because that's where right now we want them to take and put back on the front burner before the people act, because we know a lot of what, if nothing gets passed now, the sense of urgency is there, because redistricting is right down around the corner, and we can look up, and we can lose a whole lot of elected officials that we voted for in 2020, in 2022. So we are unmoved, and we're going to have to keep fighting. And people say, well, you know, they don't have the votes. People say that, well, whatever it was, Black folks showed up, Black women, we showed up, Black men, of course, you showed up too. We have to demand

from our elected officials, those people who won by our vote, and I apologize that I'm where I can't be. I think I'm shaking a little bit. I apologize for that, but I'm just out where I couldn't get this technology straight. But for us, it is do or die. It is a state of emergency. And so we have over 40 organizations nationally, as well as folks coming from Georgia and Texas tomorrow, that we're going to be on the hill on the call of action, as well as a little bit of civil disobedience tomorrow. And again, okay, but you're going to be there at what time tomorrow? So if people want to join y'all... It's 1 o'clock.

Okay, hold tight one second. Hold on, Melody. If people want to join y'all. One o'clock. Okay, hold on one second, hold on, Melody. If people want to join y'all, what time should they arrive and where should they go? One o'clock at the United Methodist Building, which is 100 Maryland Avenue Northeast, right next to the Supreme Court. And so, again, they can go to blackwomentakeaction.org and they can see all of the organizations and also sign up to stay involved. And, Ro, this is not a one off. We will continue to be there every week as long as the Congress is in. We will be on the House side next week as well. And this is the idea is that we want to keep the street heat going. We can continue to meet.

We also plan to continue to engage the senators. But also we think it's also time to keep pushing on activism. And so that's what we're going to do. And that's what's needed. I mean, I've long said that what has to happen is they've got to see and feel that heat every single day. And it must be in their face so they can understand that the issue is not going to die. We're not going away. Thank you. Got to happen. Melody Kimmel, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. I'm going to go back to Scott and Robert here. Robert, at that point,

yo, heat has to be constant. And, you know, and this is one of those things that, and Robert, I'm just curious, have you seen the NAACP? I mean, normally, when it comes to activism, this is the role that they play. Do you see them putting boots on the ground? Well, I'm not talking about any other organization, but what I will say is we have to put together... No, no, no, I'd actually talk about them. I asked a very simple question, and that is, when I look at the activism that is going on, I see on-the-ground action from Poor People's Campaign.

I'm seeing Black Voters Matter. I'm seeing the National Coalition on Black Theory Participation. I'm asking, have you seen the NAACP with boots on the ground? Well, Rolla, as I said, I don't look at what other organizations are doing, so I can't say one way or the other. But what I will say is that we have to put together the same coalition, the same effort that we put into the 2012 election, that massive turnout, 8 million-plus people, our 8 million-plus margin of victory back in November. We have to do the exact same thing to push this thing through the Senate. What those Texas legislators did this week have drawn more attention to the issue of voting rights

than anything that Chuck Schumer has done in the last six months. So we need to see this across the board, across the country, because otherwise, if Republicans are able to win the PR battle on this, to turn this into, what are they talking about now? Well, the Democrats ran away on private jets to hang out in Washington. That's what they're trying to turn this into. If you're not able to control that PR battle and get the American public on your side and help them to understand the urgency of now, as the book says, the fierce urgency of now, then that's the only way that we can get people like Sinema and Manchin and even some leaning Republicans to come across the board to break the filibuster just on the issue of voting rights so that we can pass those things going forward.

Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Here's the deal. What's really frustrating about all of this and what the complaints against Biden really are is, listen, we don't have the votes. The protests and boots on the ground, that's really important. But who are you? But the pressure on these senators and pressure on these representatives, what are you going to turn? The Republicans aren't turning. They're lock and step behind their leaders, right? You're left with two Democrats that aren't going to turn, but Biden needs to do something about those two in regard to the filibuster. So you can protest, you can walk out of the Senate,

I applaud all of that. The public pressure is there. But who are you going to turn? Because all of that, they're people who support the protest. They don't need to turn. They're on our side. And so you either got two Democrats or some Republicans. And the only thing that's going to happen who's going to turn any of those people, it ain't going to be public protest, it's going to be Joe Biden. That's it. And so it gets real frustrating for people like me and others because we say, I'm with you, right? But what is the path to victory? What has to happen to make this happen regarding a passing of Voters' Rights Act or passing police reform? And we just don't have the numbers now. And you're left with saying, OK, we got to win another election to really make these things happen. The problem is with voter suppression

widespread in all these states, we may lose in 2020. We're expected to lose seats in 2020. And so the urgency of now is on Biden, because it's easier for Biden to turn those two or get some Republicans as opposed to protest and public pressure on these communities to put pressure on senators because those senators are locked in. They're not moving because of public protest. Only Biden can move them, and he's simply not doing enough. That's what this debate comes down to. That's what this issue is with Biden and the disappointment of the people who supported him and put him in the White House. And of course, the folks want to see corporations step up. More than 150 corporate companies have urged Congress to enact the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Companies that are part of a group of corporate executives called Business for Voting Rights came together to write a letter supporting updating the Voting Rights Act. Amongst those companies, F.S. companies, Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, Ben & Jerry's, Homemade, Best Buy, Etsy, Eventbrite, Facebook, Google, H&M, USA, The Hershey Company, Ikea, U.S., Levi Strauss & by updating the Voting Rights Act's coverage formula to prevent voting discrimination, as well as establish a more transparent and accountable system for states to report election law changes. Legislation amending the Voting Rights Act must help ensure that voters of color who remain the targets of voter suppression have equal and unfettered access to the democratic process. Hmm. Okay. I got you on that one but here's the deal robert i think what's more powerful is that those companies added any member of congress republican or democrat who does not vote for this we will offer no financial support and will support their opponent. That gets their attention.

I think you're exactly right. And we saw that with the voting rights fight here in Georgia after the state passed their voter suppression law. Many people, including Reverend Jesse Jetson, Bishop Jetson, the AMA Church, were supportive of a boycott of the state. We asked corporations to defund and divest from these candidates and people like Governor Kemp who were pushing voter suppression, which on Major League Baseball moved the All-Star game, which was in Colorado this week instead of Atlanta. But the same people who were willing to put up all these signs about diversity, who were able to run all these ad campaigns with people holding hands saying how we're all one and we're together,

they'll rename a lobby in their building after some civil rights icon. When it came down to the rubber hitting the road, were they willing to give up the tax breaks that came from Republican states in order to oppose voter suppression? Were they willing to give up the real estate breaks to have their corporations headquartered in the South or give up the employment law benefits they have by being in the South in order to fight back against voter suppression? No. They're willing to write a letter. They're willing to make a public statement.

But when the rubber hits the road and it's time to actually do something to put your money where your mouth is, we've seen corporate silence. And we have to start calling out these corporations who are more than willing to give lip service to the issue of voter suppression and racial issues. But when it comes down to money, well, money has no, money is blind. It knows exactly where it's going to go and what it's going to do. And they have no interest in the social justice aspects, which they are just simply advertising on because they know that makes them look good to the public. It makes them sell more sugar water or sell more hammers, whatever it is they sell. Well, Robert, Robert, until the pressure is put on those companies, right? Until pressure is put on those companies

vis-a-vis our black dollars not going to those companies anymore until they take a stronger stand, that's going to move them because their voting rights are being suppressed. Majority of their leadership and executive team and boards don't look like you and me and Roland. And so they'll, sure, they'll write the letter and they

support it, right? But what are they willing to put on the line for? See, the person who is the victim of voter suppression, Black people, are the ones who have the most vested interests. And it feels like Biden is showing us that. Well, my vote not being suppressed, and I'm going to use so much political capital here because I got other political interests. But until those companies start losing revenues and until black people are in a position of power where their rights are being violated in these positions of businesses, leadership of businesses or leadership of the Senate and the House, then you're going to get the political support, right? But you're not going to get political support that is dispositive of changing the vote,

passing the legislation. And I fear the Republicans at the state level and the federal level have just, regardless of the $40 million difference, right, they are all about power. They don't care about winning the argument. They care about winning the vote, the power. They're much better at it than Democrats are. And so, again, if King are able to move Scott, it's not going to happen. But it's not just black folks.

Look, what these laws are doing... Grow brown people. No, no, no. Follow me here. And this is the point where what I've said for years to civil rights activists and these voting rights groups, you've got to expand this. They are also specifically,

they are targeting white educated voters. They're targeting white students as well. And that's how this thing also has to be expanded to pull those folks in, Robert. That's correct. You're absolutely correct on that. And part of it is we've been in this fight for voters or against voter suppression since the 1960s. Very few people in Appalachia, for example, understand that when they start closing down voter precincts and making it more difficult for black and brown people to vote, your broke white self gets included in that also. They're taking away your voice and your vote also. You're going to have the same issues getting a hold of those absentee ballots. Those absentee boxes are going to affect you the same way. Cutting ballots. Those absentee drop boxes are going to affect you the same way.

Cutting down on the hours that you can vote are going to affect you the same way. So we have to make that argument, that rainbow argument, that Cesar Chavez argument, that across the board, this is a top of the economy versus the rest of us conversation and get those people on board because you have folks running around here living in trailers and in the backwoods of West Virginia and so on and so forth, having no idea what Joe Manchin is doing to their right to vote by standing with many of these Republicans and not standing up against the filibuster. So we have to make the argument to them so that they can understand the reason that you were in a, the reason you still work in a coal mine, the reason people are still getting black lung, the reason that you don't have infrastructure in your communities is because your vote does not count the way that it should and the way to secure that is by passing the John Lewis voting rights act, by passing the For the People Act. Well, yeah, but there are not enough of those people

right now, right? I mean, that's great in concept, but there's not enough of those people right now, right? I mean, that's great in concept, but there's not enough of those people. And then they're listening to the Republicans who are blaming black and brown people and Democrats for their poor plight in this country. And so poor people, just because you have poverty of the pocket doesn't mean you have to have poverty of the mind. And so many of our poor people in this country have poverty of the mind because they're listening to Republicans who don't have their best interests and will fool them every time. It is the second biggest lie of what the Republicans say to the poorest 10 states who get more benefits from federal government. And yet these white folks who are poor and

disenfranchised continue to support them because of the second biggest lie that the Republicans have ever told in this country. And so, again, all of this is about the future. But our future is now with this voting rights piece, because 2043 is right around the corner, and the Republicans are fighting for that. This is their last stand. And I got to tell you, we're not there and beating them yet because we don't have the votes. And at the state level, they continue to make it difficult for us

to exercise our rights to vote because that's the only way they can win. You wouldn't have voter suppression if they could win without it. They know they can't win without it. And they're going to fight to the death to suppress this vote because that's the only way they hold on to state power federal power political power economic power and hold on to some control in this country that's the problem what's the solution and that's why we got to keep uh giving them hail all right folks let's talk about this next story student democrats agreed on 3.5 trillion trillion budget plan that would expand Medicare, fund climate change initiatives, and universal pre-kindergarten, extend child tax credits, and fulfill other parts of President Joe Biden's economic agenda.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer explains the party's stance on the budget reconciliation package. We have come, the budget committee has come to an agreement. The budget resolution with instructions will be 3.5 trillion dollars. You add that to the 600 billion dollars in the bipartisan plan, you get to 4.1, which is very, very close to what President Biden asked us for. Every major program that President Biden has asked us for is funded in a robust way. And in addition, we are making some additions to that. Most important, something that Senator Sanders has led and convinced America is so important, which is a robust expansion of Medicare, including money for dental, vision, and hearing. Joe Biden is coming to our lunch tomorrow to lead us on to getting this

wonderful plan that affects American families in a so profound way more than anything that's happened in generations. We are very proud of this plan. We know we have a long road to go, but we're going to get this done for the sake of making average Americans' lives a whole lot. Now, of course, we know no Republicans are going to vote for this, which means that Democrats hope to pass this through reconciliation, which would allow them to pass the spending with a simple majority in the evenly divided Senate, avoiding a filibuster. You still haven't got the court, got the issue. Are all 50 Democrats are going to support this three point five trillion dollar spending plan?

Scott, right now, he doesn't have the votes on the Democratic side. He doesn't have the votes until he talks to Manchin and the Arizona senator to see what they like, what they don't like, and how he's going to negotiate with them, whether it's going to be $3 trillion or $3.5 trillion. If they're on board, then it's going to sail through. If they're not, because they want certain other issues or they want more money for their home states, he's going to have to negotiate that. But you won't have the filibuster piece. This is easier because the filibuster, this is the budget reconciliation.

So you're not going to have to kind of fit it in to avoid the filibuster. What you're going to have to do is make sure those two senators who've forgotten they're Democrats half the time or three-fourths of the time, if they're for it, then this sells through both houses. Go right ahead, Robert. We're about to see the most legalized form of bribery that's allowable in the American system because these two senators are about to grab the Senate by the ankles and shake every nickel out for their home states. Because right now, when you're in that type of power position, you know, there ain't nobody playing three-card Monty on the corner could ever shake somebody down for the types of billions of dollars that are going to flow into pet projects, into pork barrel spending, into

sweetheart contracts for their friends and donors, as what happens in a place like this where only one or two senators can hold up a $4 or $5 trillion bill. So they better run them coins. They better get their bag. They better get everything out of this that they can. And it's really a disgusting part of the American system. So, Roland, why not leverage this $3.5 trillion budget that they've just proposed, and leverage that beyond the numbers or the monies to Arizona and West Virginia, leverage it to get their support for the voting rights bill and the police reform bill, because money is your strongest leverage.

So if you're going to give them a bunch of money to get their vote on the budget, throw in police reform and the Voting Rights Act and see if that works. That's a question to you. Yes or no? I don't know. That's what I would deeply try to do. That would be my leverage

point. That's yours. Okay. All right. We'll see. All right, y'all. Republicans are criticizing the Democrats' $579 billion bipartisan infrastructure agreement. Eleven Republicans signed the agreement, making enough signatures for the plan to clear the 60-vote threshold if every Democrat senator votes in favor of it. Many Republican senators are saying they may withdraw their vote of support. Republicans are taking more interest in the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill. And actually, they're mad by saying that, well, if Democrats pass that through

reconciliation, then they're not going to support the infrastructure bill. You know what the hell? Pass both of them by reconciliation. All right, folks, I told y'all Cash App. We have these four fraudulent folks out there stealing money from our fan base by impersonating our accounts. Well, Cash App hit me about an hour and a half ago. Those four accounts have been completely shut down, and they've been banned. And so you can still support us by supporting us on Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle. Remember, what we do is your support is critical for us to do what we do. And just like the other day, so everybody who gives during the show, between the 6 o'clock hour and 7 o'clock hour,

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show, we'll get a shout out during the show. Okay. Uh, and so, uh, let's do that. They were great the other day. Uh, and you know what? I'm going to set a goal. I'm going to get a set a goal. I'm going to do this here. I want to see if we could hit twenty five hundred dollars giving during the show. Let's see if we can hit that goal. I'll keep a running tally, which I know how we are doing to actually do that. Coming up next, we'll talk to a journalist about the truth behind this whole critical race theory, who's funding it, where it's coming from, and also how the media, mainstream media, is helping push the GOP talking points on this idiotic stuff. That is next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing? The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex and we need to be moving to

address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this girl. That is so freaking dope. No. George Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the call for the racism. You talk about awakening America. It led to a historic summer of protests. protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Right. Hello, I'm Nina Turner. My grandmother used to say, all you need in life are three bones. The wishbone to keep you dreaming, the jawbone to help you speak truth to power,

and the backbone to keep you standing through it all. I'm running for Congress because you deserve a leader who will stand up fearlessly on your behalf. Together, we will deliver Medicare for all. Good jobs that pay a living wage and bold justice reform. I'm Nina Turner, and I approve this message. I'm Bill Duke. This is DeOlla Riddle, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Stay woke.

All right, folks, we've been talking about critical race theory. Actually, Republicans have been doing, and mainstream media fell for the banana in the tailpipe. And the reality is this here. You have rich, white, conservative Republicans who are funding all of this. That's what they're doing. And then, of course, you had these idiots running around all of a sudden showing up at school board meetings. and then you have Fox News say, oh, this is a major, major issue. No, it's a major issue that Fox News actually created. In fact, the folks at Media Matters have put out a new chart, OK, a new chart showing how

major this is, showing how Fox News and the right, how they have blown this issue up to turn it. And so this is what they do. This right here is the chart that they put out, folks. OK. And it shows you there were three mentions, three mentions in June 2020 of critical race theory. And you see it went from 3, 6, 3. All of a sudden in September of 2020, it jumped to 69. All of a sudden, election season, it fell back 6, 4. All of a sudden, then it jumped. Then all of a sudden, 23, 21, 29, 107, 226, 537, 901.

Hmm. Hmm. Do y'all see what's happening here? This is what happens when the right, they begin to drive these messaging messaging. Well, Judd Legum has actually been doing a lot of research, and he's been breaking down exactly, exactly where the funding is coming from, where it started. Now, before I go to Judd, he's, of course, he's with the Popular Information Newsletter. We had this idiotic brother, and he was one of the fools who were running his mouth out there, critical race theory. And, you know, Fox News loves a black person who speaks against race. Listen to this dumbass on Fox News. Yeah, because they're very invested in this whole idea that the nation was founded on the idea of systemic racism,

that it's built into every single institution in America, even in the military. Folks are worried that this is something that they need to address within the military. And we just did a story about how the Navy is underprepared right now, but they're spending a heck of a lot of time on this. What do you think about that? It's absolutely absurd because nobody really wants to get the real history of it. America was not founded on racism. Don't get me wrong. Yeah, there was slavery going on, but slavery itself was not initially a racist thing. It never was about race initially. So to sit there and take it like America was founded on racism, it's a complete lie.

Yeah, there was slavery going on, but slavery was going on in all the world. It never was a race thing. So why are we making it a race thing now? Ty Smith, thank you for being here. Good to have you with us today thank you martha mccallum are you that stupid are you that stupid where you could that as a white woman you couldn't even correct that brother who was that dumb but again y'all understand the game what they're doing joining us right now is Judge Legum. Judd, how you doing?

Good. How are you, Roland? All right. So you've done a lot of research laying this thing out. You've had this fool, Christopher Ruffo, with the Manhattan Institute. That's the same place where you had that other idiot, Heather McDonald. Anytime Fox News needs someone to say that white cops aren't killing black people in huge numbers, they run ahead of McDonald as she somehow is the so-called political, the police expert. Lay out what your research has discovered as to really who is funding all of this critical race theory drama? Yeah, so what I observed is just a whole host of different kinds of organizations, campus organizations, activist organizations,

think tanks, and they all were pushing mostly misinformation about critical race theory and injecting it, as that chart you showed before I came on indicated, just injecting it straight into the political conversation, making it virtually the number one topic that you hear about if you're watching Fox or many different news outlets. So I looked at all of those organizations and then tried to find out everything I could about who was funding them. Now, some of their donors are secret, but if you get a donation from a private foundation, they have to file with the IRS and say

who they're giving it for. So I looked at all the private foundations that were funding these organizations, and one just kept coming up again and again and again, and also with large donations. And that was an organization called the Thomas W. Smith Foundation. Over $4 million from the Manhattan Institute that you talked about, but also all of these different organizations that are pushing critical race theory into the center of our discussion, from the Heritage Foundation to right-wing media outlets like the Federalist and the Daily Caller to some places that are less well-known but have played a big role in kind of pushing this, like the Claremont Institute, the heterodox organization, the PragerU, which is big on YouTube. So all of these have been getting funding from the same source, and they've all been saying virtually the same thing about critical race theory.

And you mentioned PragerU. The New York Times, when they did a big feature on them, I think it was a year ago, showed that they'd been funded by right-wing billionaires. They got the initial $7 million from two conservative billionaires out of Texas. That's the game that is played. That's how they do this, how these rich conservative, these white billionaires fund these conservative digital operations, fund these nonprofits, and then they get tax breaks. PragerU is a nonprofit, the Daily Caller, nonprofit. And so the Manhattan Institute, again, they create these fellows who essentially create these salary positions. And then that's how Fox News puts them on the air, OAN, Newsmax,

all these entities, that's how they do this. Yeah. And Thomas W. Smith, who's a hedge fund guy from Florida, is on the board of the Manhattan Institute. And the person that he pays to distribute this money, a guy named James Pearsons, is also a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. And he's written a lot about race and his views of it. And really what it reveals is that what's coming up and the reason why they're pushing critical race theory, it's not about what critical race theory is, which is something that is taught mostly in law school about how systemic racism is embedded in the laws and in court decisions, but it's a person who really opposes all efforts to reduce racial or economic inequality, even if it's done by a private foundation, doesn't want

Black studies or women's studies to be taught in school, opposes all diversity efforts. So that's really the viewpoint of the people that are pushing this, and critical race theory is just a new vehicle for a lot of these old ideas. And that's a lot, I think that's what my research helped show. And Eric Bullard wrote a particular piece about this, where he talked about how mainstream media is failing at this. He is founder, editor of Press Run Media. And he was clear in terms of what happens. And I've walked our people through this, Judd, so they can understand the game. They can understand how the game is played. Steve Bannon actually

said it a few years ago. They conceive and they concoct these things in their conservative circles. They then say, they then weaponize it by saying we need all conservative media pushing this thing out. Then they go, mainstream media, why aren't you covering this? This is a big issue. Then they flood the people over to, oh my goodness, look at these school boards. Look how many people are showing up. This is major news. And I talked about it yesterday, how Joe Concha, who's supposedly a media reporter, who's now all of a sudden a political columnist with The Hill, who's also a Fox News contributor. He goes on with Harris Faulkner and goes,

critical race theory is going to be a huge story and a huge issue in the 2022 and 2024 election and makes no mention that his employer is the reason why it's all of a sudden a, quote, huge story. Yeah, I think that's right. And Steve Bannon himself has talked about how, you know, he sees a lot of political benefit in talking about critical race theory. a coincidence that this really started in the summer of 2020 when you saw more movement, more talk about racial equality, economic equality after the murder of George Floyd. And as that started to pick up steam, this is really the response to try to make this so toxic that people just, if they're not talking about it, want to run away from it. And I think that's the issue about establishing critical race

theory as a brand, is sort of to take all efforts to talk about racial inequality and brand them as radical and subversive. And in fact, in this pretty stupid headline with the New York Times, and this is how dumb, this is what Eric Bullock was talking about. This is this is the opinion piece that dropped yesterday in the New York Times. Why is the country panicking about critical race theory? Jeff, the country is not panicking about critical race theory. They're not. You have a few of these conservative yahoos are, and in fact, Charlie Sykes, this is what he said in the piece here. He said, quote, people were looking around for some way to play this card of racial grievance.

Okay. This is what he told Sarah Jones at New York Magazine. They were looking for another cause in the cultural war, and this happened to be it, and he happened to be on it, and he's speaking about Christopher Ruffo. Yeah, and I think one of the things is we're only really understanding the tip of the iceberg as far as what's behind this, because the nature of these financial disclosures, I'm able to look at the money that was donated between 2017 and 2019. Many of these groups, there's a bunch of new groups that were just formed this year. And those are the people who are contesting school

boards elections, rallying parents to show up and shout at school board meetings. They were created just this year, and we don't know who's behind them. My guess is it's probably a lot of the people that are behind the groups that we do know about and have some information about. But it's really been a huge effort, not only to inject it into the media, but also to turn out people and really terrorize a lot of these school boards to make this a salient political issue. And in fact, there have been superintendents and board members who've actually had to get security because of death threats. Judd Legum, great job with that research. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks.

Robert, Scott, see, this is the thing that we have to learn to explain to others. And what happens is, Scott, you know, these mainstream networks be real quick. You know, on stories like this, all of a sudden they can find all the black people to talk about it. And see, we have to, again, game has to recognize game and be willing to go on and say, no, we're not going to talk about this because actually it's dumb. We've got to call it what it is. See, they want us trying to delve into it and break these things down because it feeds their purpose as opposed to calling it what it is. And what they want to do is they want to label anything dealing with race or diversity under critical race theory and go, it's all bad, throw it all out. Well, it fits into their big lie narrative, too.

I mean, you're denying that slavery occurred. You're denying systemic racism. You're denying that the laws in the country's founding was based on a constitution that said slaves were three-fifths of a human being and had no rights. Are you kidding me? I'm a human being, and my descendants were slaves. The problem, the other challenge I thought you were going to raise is, do you ignore it, or do you address it head on and oppose it at every level? No, no, no, no, no, no. Now, follow me here.

Follow me. Here's what I say. No, no, I'm not saying ignore it. What I'm saying, call it out what it is. See, here's what they want. What they want is, and mainstream media is so dumb, they give it to them every single time. They actually want you to go book Kimberly Crenshaw to have a common sense discussion on exactly what critical race theory is. They see they because they win when you actually are taking their criticism seriously. What they hate is being dismissed. They hate it

when you mock them. And that's what I would do. I mean, I would mock them. I would go, oh, really? I'm sorry. Oh, your feelings are hurt? Really? So this is a major deal? No, it's not. That's a lie. No, it's not. And that's why the New York Times headline is stupid, okay why the New York Times headline is stupid. OK, the New York Times is feeding into the right wing narrative. They love seeing this headline. They are sitting here going, we won because this is the headline. Why is the country panicking about critical race theory? The country isn't. That's right. Hold on, Robert. Hold on,

Robert. Scott, go ahead. I'm going to go back. We certainly are, because it's stupid to deny that slavery occurred or Jim Crow occurred or that millions of black people were enslaved or thousands, multiple thousands were, or that we were abused and had less citizen rights and housing and voting rights and what have you. It's stupid to ignore the civil rights movement. But then why don't we, so why are we so afraid to teach that to our children in public schools and private schools? It's the truth, basically. So it's not a big deal. You're just fighting the truth or fighting windmills to have this social or cultural debate to offset black lives matter.

But hold on. But see, we start killing us. But Scott, this is what you just did. You just walked into their trap. Well, saying that it was a lie. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on, Robert. You walked into their trap when you took the critical race theory and then talked about what we should be teaching our kids in school.

Follow me here. But we certainly have to teach them the truth. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. But critical race theory is such it's being taught first of all theory is such is being taught. First of all, it ain't being taught everywhere. Right. Right. Right. There you go. So not not undergrad, not high school, not junior high.

So what happens is the moment again, I'm just I'm just I'm just this is this is how they think. This is why I'm saying when we debate, what we can't do is even bring up elementary school, middle school, and high school, Robert, because that's what they're waiting for. Because they want to equate anything dealing with race

under critical race theory. You're absolutely right, Roland. I was on Fox a couple weeks ago, and we were debating this issue, and I said it's the weaponization of the Dunning-Kruger effect. And then I realized later on, ain't nobody watching what the hell that is. The Dunning-Kruger effect is this idea in psychology that the less somebody knows about a topic, the more confident they are in their assertions about it. So these people aren't looking for truth.

They aren't looking for fact. They aren't looking for truth. They aren't looking for fact. They aren't looking for reality. If you start breaking down race conflict theory from W.E.B. Du Bois and then transitioning to Derrick Bell, they don't care anything about that. These are the monster truck rally going, red hat wearing people, and all they're looking to do is distract from the fact that they have not put forth the education policy in the last 20 years besides private schools and defund public education. That is what they don't want to talk about. So any minute that we've been talking about their issues and addressing them as if you're

having a serious conversation is a complete waste of time. You just have to transition it into a conversation on what they aren't doing and why they're scared to have these conversations. And the fact that it hurts red state America, it hurts those same people in Appalachia just as much as it hurts black folks to not have a real conversation on public education, then all they're doing is trying to distract away from coronavirus, distract away from impeachment, distract away from January the 6th, and they create a new boogeyman every couple months in order to do so.

Remember before this, it was Common Core was going to destroy education. Then before that, it was Michelle Obama was going to put lettuce in your kid's lunchbox. So that was going to destroy education. Before that, it was prayer in school or corporal punishment, evolution, work and creationism. It's always another conspiracy. If you try to logic your way out of it, you're going to lose every time. But why does America or conservatives and Republican, the voting public, why are they so gullible and so willing to believe that though? Because they don't. I understand the leadership sharing that, but that's just bullshit. No, no, Scott, Scott, because this is the thing that we have to understand. Democrats,

just comparing the two. Democrats, more logical, thinkers. Hear it? Let me check it out. Republicans, you tell me, what, Robert?

This is them. Well, Sean well sean said it gotta be true they ain't checking nothing they ain't listening to nothing they ain't studying nothing that's why more you call it low information voters yeah when they say low education voters, those are largely Republican voters. So we're in Republicans know it Republican. When you had these broke as people with no in Kentucky who in 2016 elected a Tea Party governor, voted for Donald Trump, and literally the week after the election were going, you know, I'm really concerned about us and our losing our health care. And they were like, you know, damn

that Obamacare, but I don't want anything to happen to my Affordable Care Act. Right there. That is the core dumbass voter on the right. That's right there. Right there. Roland, on that point, their go-to uh you uh i you know i debate a lot of people and some very intelligent uh conservatives people like bruce lavelle is great to debate

against or some other people but then there's some complete i mean let the open the gates at the zoo idiots that you have to debate and you they go to the same talking words whenever they start talking about marxism socialism communism that means they don't know what the hell is going on the rest of the conversation and they're just trying to filibuster to the commercial break and that i as soon as somebody starts saying someone said cultural marxism and i asked them what was mark's first name and they got quiet because they hear little slogans here and there on the internet or they'll hear see a headline and they'll put no more thought into it and so when you're trying to have a logical argument with somebody who has put no thought into a subject you might well be talking to a horse there's absolutely no difference you're

gonna make the exact same amount of leeway and again folks that that's exactly that's exactly what they do this is the game i just need people to understand the game. You got to understand the game. And Fox News, they'll call you, Robert. They ain't going to call me. I'll be on tonight at 1240. Because they know how that's going to go down. They ain't going to call me. They'll call you and Scott. You're going to be on at 1240 a.m.? Yeah, you know, what's called Shannon shows late night now, so hop on.

Hell, she ain't... I'm not going to be up at 1240. I'll be up at 1240, but she ain't going to call me either, because I'm telling you, like, I watched the other day, Peter Hexeth, I saw it on Mediaite, he was debating this House Democrat,

and he was being arrogant, condescending, and wrong. Then he had the nerve to call the Texas Democrat condescending. And then I'm like, no, fool, that's you. But see, they loved to try to change the subject. But, again, game recognized game. Y'all just got to realize what these fools are doing. And so that's what they're doing with critical race theory. All right, folks, so here's the deal. A lot of you, I need y'all to double check. If you,

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Send it to Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And I'm going to try to see if they could do a refund on that. So I'm working on that. Also, I said that I was going to go to a break right now, but I said I was going to shout out the people who have given to us during the show. Our goal is to do 2,500 bucks while we are live on the show. Let me see. Let me go back to my email so I can pull y'all up because y'all been sending stuff. Let's see here.

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Thank you so very much. Folks, got to go to break. We'll be back. Roland Martin Unfiltered. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. We got to deal with it. It's injustice.

It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction.

Conflict's going to happen. Before Till's murder, we saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. If you can come in, but let's not bank on that. We'll have both just in case. But we'll definitely have one of them. Racial injustice is a scourge on this nation, and the black community has felt it for generations.

We have an obligation to do something about it. Whether it's canceling student debts, increasing the minimum wage, or investing in Black-owned businesses, the Black community deserves so much better. I'm Nina Turner, and I'm running for Congress to do something about it. Hey, I'm Amber Stevens-West. Yo, what up, y'all? This is J. Ellis, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

All right, folks. In North Carolina, attorneys for the family of Andrew Brown Jr. filed a $30 million federal lawsuit against the officers who shot and killed him. The sheriff of Pasquotank and Dare County are among the defendants listed, claiming sheriff's deputies intentionally and recklessly killed Brown during a 44-second interaction on April 21st. Since the DA Andrew Wombo declined to file criminal charges against the deputies in the case, Brown supporters believe the civil case is the only avenue remaining to get justice for the killing of Brown. In the news conference today, Attorney Harry Daniels explains why filing this lawsuit was a no-brainer.

This lawsuit was easy to draft because the facts in this case is very easy that anybody can see. This is unlawful killing or murder of Andrew Brown. The disc attorney stood before you guys sometime in May and talked about that he utilized the law to make his decision. Well, he somehow missed the law in North Carolina. He somehow missed the law in the Fourth Circuit that covers the state of North Carolina that is abundantly clear and has been established since 2005 that you cannot shoot a person who is driving away from you. That's right.

That's right. In fact, if you look at a case law that has been cited inside our brief, that case, the Strickland case, that individual admitted, he admitted that he tried to hit the officers. But once he left, fleeing away, they had no authority to shoot him. That's exactly what happened to Andrew Brown. That's exactly what happened. We brought claims under the United States Constitution, the Fourth Amendment, the unlawful seizure of this person, of his body. Intentional wrong for death, and I mean intentional wrong for death, because those officers intended to fire the weapon and do harm to Andrew Brown.

Negligence. We also brought claims under assault and battery. But one claim that we brought under federal law is that the customs, the policies of Pasquotay County Sheriff's Office. That's right. The customs and the policies of Derrick County Sheriff's Office enabled these officers to go to Andrew Brown House on April 21st, 2020 to execute him. No checks and balances. So we're not just here to file a lawsuit on behalf of the Brown family. We filed a lawsuit for anybody who has suffered injustice on behalf of this Sheriff's Office, this administration, their county at all. The lawsuit is seeking $30 million. Somebody asked me, why so much?

Why is Andrew Brown dead today? Answer that question with that question. Two deputies involved in the shooting have returned to work for the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office. One other deputy involved resigned from the force. Scott, your thoughts about this federal lawsuit? It's expected. You know, we often talk about criminal justice versus civil justice. Neither one will bring the victim back. But civil justice is a lot more accessible for the victims and their families and their lawyers simply because they get discovery, they get depositions, they get

questions, interrogators and documents to lay out not only custom and practice of the police department, but what actually really happened. car, touch these officers or not, or whether the driver's intent, who is the deceased and who is essentially the plaintiff or is the plaintiff, whether he intended to get away from the police or he intended to harm them. That blocked the criminal justice, them from being charged. But the civil justice piece will certainly be in play. They've got to prove custom and usage. But the other thing is the standard to proof is much lower. It's not beyond a reasonable doubt. It's by preponderance of the evidence. And so whoever puts the most evidence in, the most credible evidence, the jury will

most likely believe them. Got to get past the motion for summary judgment, though. And judges in the Fourth Circuit, judges in the federal district court in the Fourth Circuit, it's a toss-up. Robert? Well, I piggyback on what Scott says. This is a course not going to bring back the decedent, but it is the best that our system can do. And then often, sometimes evidence will come to light during the discovery process in a civil case, which can be brought to prosecutors, which can result later in charging, or if the information was not presented in the first place, that information can later result in charges sometimes, depending on what is seen during the course of the discovery process.

Of course, they should not give up on the criminal proceedings. There's always a Justice Department review of the local decisions. The state attorney general, as we saw in the Ahmaud Arbery case, can step in to file charges. I would not set these things aside. One thing I think the public needs to understand is just because the family accepts a settlement does not mean that they've been, quote unquote, paid off and that the case is over. I've heard that so many times. That's not what happens. The family still needs to be made whole. This individual's life had to matter, had to have value. And because of that, you have the civil process. More than likely, this case will end up settling before going to trial. But don't think that the family simply takes the money and runs because there's a settlement in the case. They still grieve. They

still lost a loved one. And this is just the least that the system can do in order to try to make them hold for their loss. All right, folks. In Florida, the former Jackson County Sheriff's deputy, convicted of planting drugs inside cars during traffic stops, is going to prison. Judge James Goodwin sentenced Zachary Weston to 12 years, six months, and eight days to the Florida Department of Corrections. The 28-year-old former deputy was arrested in 2019 after investigators discovered drug paraphernalia in his car, matching items he planted on drivers. He faced 67 charges, including racketeering, official misconduct, fabricating evidence, and false imprisonment, and was found guilty of 19 of those charges. Hmm. Ain't that something, Robert?

You know, it's about time. And I think people have to understand how pervasive this is in law enforcement. Me and Harry Daniels, who was on the last case, me, he worked on a case out in Carroll County, Georgia, where they mistook a, I believe it was a broken tooth, and they claimed it was crack cocaine. So things like that happen in law enforcement all the time. So we have to stop rushing to judgment often on cases. We have to provide an independent method by which individuals can challenge the discovery process that takes place in their case and also challenge police procedure. Look at chain of custody. Look at what exactly happens between the time someone is arrested and when that evidence is presented at trial. And often, particularly when individuals cannot afford private counsel, those inquiries are not

made. So I'm glad this happened in this case, but I think it gives us more reason to look into policing nationwide and understand that when we talk about police reform, we're not just talking about not getting shot or beat by the police. We're talking about reforming the way that policing is done in this country, reforming the incentive process, reforming the training process for law enforcement so we can have actual just results, not simply results by fiat or by an individual officer. And we always say it's one bad apple, but the saying isn't one bad apple and everything's fine. It's one bad apple rots the bunch, so we have to get the bad apples out. Yeah, but wait a minute now. Wait a minute. Hold on.

Who are we hiring for these jobs? You're right, Robert. But who are we hiring for these jobs? You're right, Robert. But who are we hiring? We hired somebody, or the police department there hired somebody, Roland, who actually engaged in systematic corruption and was so committed to the proposition that he carried the planted drugs of paraphernalia in his police car in anticipation of planting these items in regard to cars that were stopped. Here again, who are we hiring? There's got to be a reform of the hiring process. But more importantly, he might be one of the dumbest criminals because he kept the things that he was going to plant in his police car versus in a separate car or in his home. So every day that he

went to work, he kept them in his car because he was his home. So every day that he went to work, he kept them in his car because he was committed to planning those drugs and that paraphernalia on public citizens who may have run a red light or may be illegally parked. That's unbelievable. Well, it's not unbelievable because we've seen other stories like that as well. It's just still unbelievable.

Just crazy. Well, and... Go ahead, Robert. Well, I was going to say, just like Dave Chappelle said 20 years ago, just sprinkle some crack on them. And that's just what they do. Just have it in the car, just wait, just in case, sprinkle some crack on them. But here's the thing. The three of us believe this occurred, right? The people who don't look like us, who see the police as there to protect and serve, officer friendly, you can't convince them that this is pervasive in the police department. They will say one bad apple, but one bad apple means you got a whole bad orchard.

But they won't believe it. They just think it's a one-off, as opposed to people like the three of us who have seen the stories but lived it, many of us have lived it too and seen that type of corruption. And this is why we do these stories. All right, let's go to California where eight women, including one African-American, four men, and three alternates will listen to testimony and determine the fate of Ed Buck. He is the Democratic Party donor accused of luring and giving fatal doses of narcotics

to two black men who died in his West Hollywood apartment in 2017 and 2019. Today, both sides delivered opening arguments. Buck's attorney, Christopher Darden, told the jury his client was an advocate for civil rights for African-Americans, and the men who frequented Buck's apartment were there on their own will. However, according to political strategist Jasmine Koenig, she's been filing this case since it began. Testimony from another victim depicts the wealthy white man as a predator who didn't want another dead nigger on his couch. Several more men will testify about Buck's willingness to pump drugs into others,

regardless of consequences. This has been one of those stories that Jasmine Canning brought to us. We were one of the first national outlets to actually give her an opportunity to come on and talk about this story on our TV One show, when I was on Tom Jonah as well. And there were a lot of white gay folks in LA who did not want to say anything about Ed Buck when Jamel Moore was killed. And then when Timothy was killed, the second guy, then it was kind of like, oh, yeah, now we've got a problem. And so it's going to be very interesting to see what happens in this case, Scott. Yeah, going to be a tough case to prove, although I don't believe in the defense, meaning they were there on their own,

because just because they were there on their own didn't mean that Ed Buck didn't purposely put drugs in their veins or put them in a situation where they had no choice. But remember, some of the claims and charges are that he berated these black people, he lured them there, he killed them, and then he called the police, at least for the first and the second black men that at least died there. This was a pattern in practice. And in this case, you got to watch and see, will the government be able to put on other homeless men, black men who were lured there, who didn't die, to show a pattern of practice that he lured them there with drugs and sex and so forth and so on. But that being

said, the mindset of someone who's a Democratic donor and supposed to be supposedly, you know, all about Democratic causes and pro-civil rights, pro-Black, pro all these things, then there's another part of them that wants to see Black people drugged up and dead and has no problem being a full participant in it if you believe the allegations and the charges. It's a bizarre case. But intent and whether others can show that pattern in practice, because he could say it was just a mistake or these two men shot up themselves. They can say all kinds of things. But if there's several men who went through this and just didn't happen to die, that's a big plus for the government if they can get those similar bad acts in.

And again, two black men who died in the department of Ed Buck, Robert. Look, Roland, I think if you want to know what white privilege and wealthy privilege is in this country, think about the fact that they were willing to spot him one dead negro that he could have just if he had just stopped at one dead negro on his couch people were fine with just letting that go it wasn't until he got to the second one didn't they say oh hey now you're going overboard you can't have this many but one was just fine for most of america well well actually actually actually it wasn't. It really was. It really it really it really was the advocacy of Jasmine raising this story. And again, she couldn't get a lot of media folks in L.A. to pay attention to it. And there were Democratic officials who kept accepting Ed Bucks donations who would not say anything.

Yeah. Yeah. And in the first case, they suppressed the drugs. They suppressed the drugs because when they were saving the life or trying to save the life of the first one or the second one, there was drugs and drug profanity all around. And the courts or the government, the prosecutor said he wasn't going to charge him originally because the drugs they need the drugs and that he didn't think it was a legal search even though the police and the um and the ambulance personnel were there trying to save someone from an od and they're looking around and the place is full of drugs and drug paraphernalia what is that that's that's open view right there we live in a country where if you are rich and if you are white, there is very little you can do. When one of them ends up going to jail, you have to think about just how bad you had to mess up in order for that to happen.

They will spot you a couple of dead Negroes in your house. You have to mess up real bad in order for that to happen. I think this does put a focus on some of the people who claim to be our allies. Because when they say they're our allies, often they mean they're our allies for us to get them elected. They're our allies for their political agenda. But when it comes down to it, they have no problem having a couple of dead Negroes on their couch from time to time. So a white person to get arrested and charged for murder for killing two black people they gotta be twice as bad than for a black person but look scott think about what you just said or maybe even sexually assault

a white woman think about it you just said they found a dead negro on his couch with a bunch of drugs and drug paraphernalia everywhere and they were willing to just let it go. Like, okay, cool, that's what you do. They said, oh, we can't use those drugs. That wasn't legal. That is it, folks. Also in California, five Palo Alto police officers are suing the city over a now-removed 245-foot-long Black Lives Matter mural across the street from City Hall. The officers say the mural was discriminatory and harassing and included anti-police imagery, creating a hostile working environment. The mural was a temporary installation in June 2020.

The city's public art commission got different artists to paint Black Lives Matter near City Hall. The second E of the mural included a picture and a quote from former Black Panther member Asada Shakur. The suit states it also included the new Black Panther Party logo, which officers complained to the city constituted a violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act. Palo Alto City Council had the mural removed in November, saying the anticipated shift in weather and concerns over public safety and traffic impacts. Rob, we're talking about these old whiny-ass cops. Over the next 20 years, expect to see a lot of this.

Between now and the singularity, as Scott mentioned earlier, when America will become a majority-minority nation. We're going to see a lot of this white grievance, this white discriminatory grievance. This is what we're seeing in the critical race theory conversation. This is what was in the reparations conversation, where now they have to make themselves the victim. The idea of anybody else's thing being recognized somehow scares them and shakes them down to their core, down to their soul. They cannot process the concept of someone else actually having a voice and not being the old Western good guys versus bad guys. We're always on the right side of things, a narrative that Americans always had. So America is going to have to adapt to white people adapting to no longer being in power in the country.

It's going to be a growing pains issue. It's going to be a growing pains issue. It's going to be a contentious issue. But this is why they want to build a border wall. They don't want to stop people from Norway from coming into the country legally. They want to stop brown people from coming into the country legally. This is why you see them this week celebrating, trying to bring more Cuban refugees over because of political unrest there. But the president of Haiti gets assassinated.

They said nothing about bringing any Haitians over here. So they're afraid of what is coming. And because of that, we're going to see more of this continuously. This is why you see these carers break down in every Victoria's Secret around the country, because they can't take what's going on right now, then becoming a minority. Folks, let's go to Utah, where a 19-year-old is facing a hate crime charge for allegedly taunting a police officer. Lauren Gibson and several of her friends were heading home on a camping trip when one of the cars got pulled over. Gibson says the Garfield County Sheriff's deputy who pulled her over her friend's car was aggressive and wrote her friend a speeding ticket.

After watching the interaction, Gibson picked up a back the blue sign she said her friends found on the side of the road and waved it at the officer then she stepped on it and threw it in the trash the california college student was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief with a hate crime enhancement for her attempt to quote intimidate law enforcement gibson said she tossed the sign because she was angry over how the officer treated her friend. My turn. It's got to be my turn on this. Go ahead. These laws, this was a hate crime is what you're saying. She was charged with a hate crime, and I think she can get up to a year or maybe 20 years in jail if she's convicted. But since when were the police become a protected class or someone that has a history of hate being used against them simply because they're the police? Or your last story, where black lives matter doesn't mean blue lives don't matter.

It means black lives are for good policing, not bad policing. And so you see these statutes and these regs popping up locally because of the police union pressure. But the fact of the matter is, all of them eventually are going to be found unconstitutional. They're not in a protected class, if you will. And when juxtaposed with the First Amendment right of this young lady in Utah, or any of these other cases where I speak out against the police, or I rip up something, or I say I hate the police, basically, I've got a First Amendment right to do that, and the courts are going to agree with me. I don't care whether you're in the Fourth Circuit or the Ninth Circuit and hopefully the Supreme Court, that the First Amendment rings, because there's

got to be an important state interest in order to infringe a compelling state interest. I'm sorry, Robert, a compelling state interest to infringe on my First Amendment and say I don't like the police and rip it up a sign is not a compelling state interest simply because that's my opinion of the police. You don't don't you wave a sign at me and stop on it. Robert, go ahead. Look, one of the things this is another place where we're going to have to grapple with the singularity that's coming, because many of the laws that were put in place to protect African-Americans and other minorities were written so ambiguously back in the day in order to maintain, as Scott said, strict constitutional

scrutiny, that now they're going to face new judicial challenges from people who are trying to use them for the exact opposite of what they were initially intended for. So we're going to see hate crimes laws being used to support and defend police officers who are committing hate crimes. At the same time, we should see the affirmative action field where white students are now arguing, well, I need to be a protected minority. And therefore, I need to be protected by these laws. This is going to continue to happen. No majority nation has ever become a minority nation peacefully. So hopefully all they do is fight through the court systems.

Hopefully all they do is break down and get mad and fake angry tweets online. But it's going to be a growing pain process for this country. These people learn how to live as minorities. And the first time we have President Juan Santo of the United States of America, followed by Barack Hussein, followed by Kamala, so on and so forth. These people are going into panic mode and they don't know what to do about it. All right, folks, got to go to a break. I again, let me just shout out to people who actually given during the show.

Let's see here. Give me a second. Let me pull folks up again. Let's see. Nearly see Allison Kinsey. Appreciate it, Allison. Thanks a bunch. Tommy Butler. Thanks a lot. Aaron Tuff. Sonia Jenkins. Meredith Burton. Let's see here. Gloria Middleton. Raymond Kennard. Ida Jenkins. Earlier i said rachel harrison i appreciate that it's also benson kemp kalinda lee tania williams charlotte gulat more elrida rogers phyllis bill cordell mcmillan uh and so folks we are up to almost 1300 bucks and so we got one more commercial break i got 10 minutes support us cash app dallas at rm unfiltered we want to hit 2500 and so let's go folks if we can do 1200 more we hit our goal uh let's go uh cash app dallas at rm unfiltered. We want to hit $2,500. And so let's go, folks. If we can do $1,200 more, we hit our goal.

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When you study the music, you get black history by default and so no no other craft could carry as many words as rap music i try to intertwine that and make that create the whatever i'm supposed to send out to the universe a rapper you know for the longest period of time, has gone through phases. I love the word. I hate what it's become, you know, and to this generation, the way they visualize it.

Its narrative kind of, like, has gotten away and spun away from, I guess, the ascension of black people. Women have always been essential. So now how are you going to pay us like that? And it's not just the salary. I mean, there are a whole number of issues that have to support us as women. Yeah. But that's what we deserve. We shouldn't have to beg anybody for that. I think that we are trying to do our best

as a generation to honor the fact that we didn't come here alone and we didn't come here by accident. I always say every generation has to define for itself what it means to move the needle forward. Carl Payne pretended to be Roland Martin. Holla! Hi, I'm Chaley Rose and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Alright, gotta get y get your thoughts on this. Have you all seen the juvenile vax that thing up video? This is a headline in Politico. Biden's COVID vaccine campaign is sputtering.

Juvenile thinks he can help. The 90s rap star was vaccine hesitant, too, but he changed his mind and remixed his classic tune in hopes of convincing others, too. Here's the deal, Robert. I would probably say the plan is sputtering because the ad agency, they ain't spending money with black media. It's very interesting. I can tell you, we reached out to Forrest Marsh, presented a plan back in April, was asked to scale it down. Then they went ghost on us for about a month. And then we followed up by saying, okay, what the hell? And then the assistant working the plan was like,

wasn't happy that I had criticized Forrest Marsh. Well, hell, y'all ain't supporting black media. And here's my whole deal. Whenever something comes up, do you see Eminem or Iggy Azalea in ads? It always amazes me. Black people got to be entertained when it comes to these sort of campaigns. And again, nothing against juvenile, but it's with these agencies that think that's the only way to reach black people is if you go to black entertainers, as opposed to also utilizing trusted black voices, experts, things along those lines. That to me, it just bothers me in so many different ways. You're correct. But I think the more interesting thing is that

black folks aren't the people driving the vaccine hesitancy as was initially thought to be the case. There is these white maggots who are out there spreading this disinformation, who are telling their communities not to get vaccinated. That is for a completely nefarious purpose, if you really think about it. What they want is for more people to get sick with COVID so that people will blame it on Biden the same way they blamed it on Trump. That's why you see the Candace Owens of the world. That's why you see the Charlie Kirks of the world.

That's why you see all the Republican voices coming out against vaccination and against mask mandates because they want as many people as possible to get sick and die under Biden's watch. So they can say, oh, look, see, it wasn't Trump's fault after all. They are willing. Think about how sick and perverted that is. They are willing to let people die by the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands in order to prove Trump right and to help get them back in office. So I think people have to realize that and start going to the NASCAR races, start going to the Country Music Awards, you know, get Taylor Swift and then get them on board,

making remixes also, because those are the people who are driving the vaccine hesitancy. Country music stars, have them get involved, because if you look at the numbers, Democrats are being vaccinated. I think it's something like 80 plus percent. And if you look at the Republicans, like 80 to 90 percent of them haven't been vaccinated. And so the country music stars or people who appeal to those audiences, they need to get them involved, if you will, because Robert's right. It's not black people. There's some people who just won't do it for nonpolitical reasons. I got it. It's the most crazy debate you have with them. But the bottom line is, you're just telling me you don't really care about me and others. You

care about yourself. You don't care about others. You don't care about others dying and those who have died before. And so I get tired of debating whether the Republicans are individuals in our communities who don't want to be vaccinated or have some other alternative conspiracy theory about this. Even if you got one, it's better to be vaccinated for all the right reasons so that we can have herd immunity, so we can eliminate this deadly disease that's killed over a half a million people, and we can move forward as a community, as a world community. And the only way we're going to do that is get the vaccination. That means you won't get sick. It means you'll be less sick, right? And if you give it to somebody,

you're more likely not to. But if you do, they'll be less sick. And that's really important to getting the herd immunity and eliminating the disease. How complicated can that be? How political is the statement I just made? It's completely nonpolitical. It's rooted in health. And I don't understand why America just can't get it right. Because you got a whole bunch of crazy white folks who are running around listening to Donald Trump and listening to these fools like Charlie Curt and Tucker Carlson and all these fools on Fox News. When all them same fools on Fox News, all they dumbasses have been vaccinated. Exactly.

Exactly. They've been vaccinated. It's unbelievable. Well, I keep saying it's unbelievable. You're right, though, Roland. It is believable because it's unfolding before our very eyes. It really is. It's just completely crazy.

Well, just remember, the whole point of this is electoral politics at the end of the day. You have the major voices in conservative media pushing back against a vaccine that was developed during the Trump administration. You could rightfully call this the Trump vaccine, and they are even against that because they want enough people to die to help them win in their midterms. It's got to be the craziest thing I've ever seen, and it's to the point where most of us are thinking about moving to an island somewhere just to be away from these people. But this is the reality of the America we live in. These folks done lost their mind.

That's what's going on. All right, folks, that is it for us. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much, Robert and Scott. Let me see. Did you get to 2 much, Robert and Scott. Let me see. Did you get to 2,500? Hold on. Let's see here.

Gabrielle Furtnay and Mary Carruthers. Let's see here. Give me a second. Venus Keith. Also, Darren Jones. Randall Shambly. Nakesha Stanfield. LaBrenda Williams.

Brian Hall, Chappelle, Mark, Mr. Fun, Malik Shakir. Let's see here. All right. Then Gabriel,

Olivia, Kimberly Snodgrass. All right. So let me add this up. I gave, I gave to sell, you don't see mine. I don't get it.

You lying. You, you a lie. No, you must, you, you, you, you, first of all see mine? You lying. You a liar. No, you must... First of all, Scott, you lying. I ain't seeing your name at all. Look. Right up there. Look. Let's see. Hold on. Where is it?

I don't see your name at all. I don't see your name. I don't see your name at all. No, we're at 1877. Hold up. I don't even... Hold on. Let me check. Hold up. I don't even. Hold on. Let me check. Hold up.

That was Zell? When did you do that? While we were on break. Okay. That ain't come through. Oh, it ain't come through yet? Well, I gave it to you, so you had to get the $25,000. No, I ain't.

I'm looking. I'm looking at all the Zells, and I don't see your 1,000. What time was that? Hold on. Hold on. Did you hit send? Yeah, it says pending. Look.

It's pending. It ain't come through. Well, it came through, but I got to get credit for it anyway. Okay, bro, I want you to give me the best shout-out you can come up with because I just gave you a thousand dollars. Say something nice about your boy. First of all, Scott, I sent you a text today.

I sent you a hell of a lot more today. So, yeah. Yeah. Nice try. Nice. Well, I was trying to give you a little bit back. I was giving you a little bit back. You gave me a little bit back? You ain't giving me 10% back. I ain't got yours.

Yours is 50, too. I told you. Check with your accounting department. Mine went through July 1st. You didn't have my money for 13 days. Anyway, if y'all want to support that's the nicest I'm going to say. money for 13 days. Anyway, if y'all want to support Robert Martin, that's the nicest

I'm going to say. Check with your accounting department. Everybody who gave today, I guess includes Scott. Y'all, thanks a bunch. So with Scott's $1,000, we're at $2,877.

Ray Wilson, Joseph Hayes just gave. So we're actually at 2,892. If y'all want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered, remember, every dollar you give goes to support this show. Tomorrow, see, this is why y'all got to support what we do. Tomorrow, we're going to be actually at the U.S. Capitol with the National Coalition

of Black Civic Participation live streaming their event on Capitol Hill, Fighting for Voting Rights. We're gonna be out there. We're gonna have two of our cameras. Hey, Anthony, bring me that live view. And so we're gonna be out there for, of course, with our cameras live streaming that event.

And so that's why we do what we do. When y'all watch us every single day, we were streaming earlier, the unrest in South Africa, Associated Press. Look, we pay $101,000 a year for that. I just want y'all to understand what your money goes to. And so this here is called the Live U. This is the Live U, L-U 800.

This is one of the live streaming units. This is ABC, NBC, CBS, all the networks. This is the top of the line live streaming unit. We have two of these. Do understand, this unit, two of these, along with the RAC unit, actually cost us $80,000. So y'all just need to understand. So I believe in showing y'all what y'all money goes to. And so by us being able to have two of these, we can be live streaming events in different parts of the country. And so that's why we appreciate all of your support.

More than 3,000 of y'all watching live on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And so thank you so very much. And so when you give and trust me, we got to pay. We got to pay for the broadband costs every single month for both of these. Your money goes to support that. And so we appreciate it. Our L.U. Smart app when black voters matter, when they're out, we send them that app. We can live stream their events as well. And so that's why we that's why we encourage you to support what we do here. I can't wait to show you all our new studio once we finish having this thing built up. We literally have ordered six new of our Sony robotic cameras. Those cameras, folks, were $3,000 each.

We've gotten all kinds of different stuff built. Again, our green screen is going to be over here. The black drape company we feature on the show, they're actually going to be making that for us as well. And so do understand, when you give to Roland Martin Unfiltered, you're also giving to support black-owned businesses as well. And so Cash Shappers, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. Roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. That's it, folks.

I'll see y'all tomorrow. Don't forget, 1 p.m. 1 to 4, we'll be broadcasting from the U.S. Capitol of the protest happening there for voting rights. Then we'll see you live at 6 p.m. right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Holla! I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

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

I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios.

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves.

A wrap-up way, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.