#RolandMartinUnfiltered - VP Harris Live in Flint, Mich. Sept. Jobs Report & Tariffs, Texas Teen Locs Dispute Can Proceed

Episode Date: October 5, 2024

10.4.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: VP Harris Live in Flint, Mich. Sept. Jobs Report & Tariffs, Texas Teen Locs Dispute Can Proceed Vice President Kamala Harris will be speaking live in Flint, Michigan.  We'll bring that to you live.  I spoke with the Harris-Walz Deputy Principal Campaign Manager about the HBCU Homecoming tour and other initiatives they are implementing to engage voters.  Cliff Albright will be here to discuss Black Votes Matters' investment in Divine Nine's Get Out The Vote Initiative. We'll look at some new ads from the Lincoln Project and Business Leaders for Harris. Good news from September's Jobs Report - Black unemployment took a decline.  We'll talk to economist Morgan Harper about those numbers.  And she'll explain how tariffs can support domestic industries.  And the attorney for Darryl George, the Texas teen who was suspended for his locs, will be here to discuss the federal ruling allowing the teen's case to move forward. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. is here. Hold no punches! I'm real revolutionary right now. Like, wow! Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Be Black! I love y'all! All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network

and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Today is Friday, October 4, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered,

streaming live on the Black Star Network. Vice President Kamala Harris is in Flint, Michigan, as we speak. There's a lot we're going to cover, including the jobs report, but right now, Hall of Famer Irvin Magic Johnson is introducing her. Let's go live to Flint, Michigan. Oh, that's number one.

Kamala's opponent promised a lot of things last time to the black community that he did not deliver on. And we got to make sure we help black men understand that. So that's why I'm here to make their own decision with their body. We got to clap for them. Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Now I'm about to bring her out because you came to hear her. You had some great speakers here. I see the UAW president. I was really blown away because not only did my father work there, my brother Larry, my brother Michael, his wife Ronnie. I got now nieces and nephews who belong to the union.

So thank you for what you're doing. She's always been for labor and union. Kamala Harris has always been for labor and union. That's never going to change. Now, this is the year for women. We just, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We just saw what Mexico did. Elected its first woman president ever. So you know where I'm going with this. Let's make sure we here in the United States elect our first woman president in Kamala Harris. Thank you, Michigan, for allowing me to come home. I always love coming home. is we got to do a lot of work before November the 5th to elect Kamala Harris as our next president of the United States.

So please, we're going to be motivated when you leave here, but let's go to work. When we fight. We will win. When we vote. We will win. God bless you, thank you. You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over people. You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over people.

You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over people. You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over people. You can feel it all over people. You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over.

You can feel it all over people. You can feel it all over people. You can feel it all over. You can feel it all over. The urban Magic Johnson, native of Michigan, a star at Michigan State University, led them to a national championship, then, of course, a winner for the Los Angeles Lakers. The crowd is hyped there. Earlier today, the vice president spoke.

The vice president spoke in Detroit. And so Michigan is a critical, critical state. Here is some of what she had to say earlier today in Detroit. We fight for a future where we protect the fundamental freedom to organize. We fight for a future where workers, all workers, are treated with dignity and respect. A future where we tap into the ambition and the aspirations of the American people and build what I call an opportunity economy. So that every American has an opportunity to buy a home, start a business, build wealth, intergenerational wealth for their family.

Over the last three and a half years, our nation has seen historic small business creation as an example of that focus. In Michigan alone, we have seen more than 500,000 new small business applications. And when I am president, I plan to build on that progress and that success, including by raising the startup deduction, tax deduction for small businesses from $5,000 to $50,000 to help more entrepreneurs start a small business. I'll tell you guys, my sister and I were raised by our mother who worked very hard, and we lived on an apartment above a daycare center. And it was run by and owned by the woman that we called our second mother who lived two houses down. She was a small business owner, and her name was Ms. Shelton.

And I grew up as a child knowing about who our small businesses are, right? They're leaders in the community. They're civic leaders. They hire locally. They train. And so that's one of the reasons I'm focused on small businesses is part of how we lift up the middle class in America's economy. We need to also build more housing in America.

Housing is too expensive. My mother saved up for years until I was a teenager when she was able to buy our first home. And right now we have a serious housing shortage in America, and that's part of what is driving up costs. And so we're going to cut red tape. We're going to work with the $25,000 down payment assistance so they can just get their foot literally in the door to be able to invest in the American dream, which not everyone has access to these days.

We need to lower the cost of living. Because, look, our economy, while we're making good progress, just this morning, in fact, we got a solid jobs report. Over 250,000 jobs created last month. Unemployment fell. And just a few weeks ago, the Federal Reserve cut down interest rates, which is going to be great for a lot of folks.

But there's still more work we need to do. Prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high. You know it and I know it. And so we have a plan to lower costs on everything from health care to groceries, including what I've done in my career as Attorney General, which is we got to take on corporate price gouging. We got to take on what we need to do to understand that if you want to grow the middle class, we need more middle class tax cuts. And the tax cut that is part of my plan will give a tax cut to 100 million Americans. We need to expand child tax credit, and I will do that to expand it to $6,000 so that for the first year of a child's life, their parents have the resources that they need

to be able to buy a crib or a car seat. And in that very critical stage of their child's development, just be able to do more than get by, but be able to get ahead. And I say all this to say, I will always put the middle class and working families first, I come from the middle class and I will never forget where I come from. I will never forget where I come from.

And we know we cannot have a strong middle class without American manufacturing. Over the last three and a half years, we brought manufacturing back to America. We created 730,000 manufacturing jobs and announced the opening of more than 20 new auto plants in the United States. And we did it by investing in American industry and American workers. And I want to make sure that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century. So under my plan, we will invest in the industries that built America, like steel, iron,

and the great American auto industry. So we can ensure that the next generation of breakthroughs from advanced batteries to electric vehicles are not only invented but built right here in America by American union workers. Oh shit, hold on, hold on. All right folks, that was Vice President Kamala Harris earlier in Detroit. As I said, we are preparing for her to speak, I believe right now, that looks like Quentin Fulks, who is the deputy campaign manager. Let's go live to Flip Michigan.

So, 18 years ago, I hired in in the shop. So, and the benefits that the UAW has given me and my family has been a tremendous help. And it's been a wonderful blessing for me and my wife, Tashara, to raise me and my two kids, Eric Jr. Yeah, that's actually, I apologize, that was a UAW worker who was speaking earlier. We did get a chance to speak with Quinton Folks,

who is the deputy campaign manager. We will, of course, show that to you. Right now, though, while he is introducing Vice President Kamala Harris, I want to show you this ad that the Lincoln Project put out working with actor Wendell Pierce. So really, really strong ad. So let's go ahead, guys, if y'all can set that up, and let's roll it. The story of being black in America is filled with never-ending chapters of challenge. Driving while black.

Banking while black. Parenting while black. But what about voting while black? They always tell you this election will be different. And it rarely is. So many promises made. Promises of economic justice and social equity that never quite make it to your pocket or your porch. But this election, there really is only one choice.

This time, she is the choice. Now I know, you're thinking, I've never voted for a woman and I'm not going to start now. Ask yourself, why not? And maybe you'll find it's not about her. It's about you. What you want for your family, for your future. Because if you vote for what you want, the choice becomes clear. It's Kamala.

Listen to your gut. Your heart is telling you that Kamala Harris is the right person for the job. It's time for courage, for boldness. It's time to come together for change. It's time to be a man. Vote for a woman. That, of course, is the second ad that Lincoln Project has put out, specifically targeting men. Of course, Sam Elliott, the actor, did one earlier. We showed that to you last week.

And it speaks volumes, if you will, because when you look at men in terms of who are voting, Vice President Kamala Harris is behind white men, Latino men, and also was showing the numbers with black men. Some polls are showing anywhere from 16 to 26 percent. We've had Chris Toler with the Black Voter Project saying he thinks that number is way too high. But the campaign recognizes it is an issue that they actually have to deal with. And so, you know, we were talking to Chris just the other day, and one of the things we were talking about is that historically what the numbers actually show when it comes to black men voting in these various elections. And it also goes to show you what these numbers look like in terms of historically.

The lowest Republicans have ever gotten was 5 percent in 2008 when President Barack Obama ran. And so, again, this is an issue that the campaign really, really has been confronting, has really been dealing with. So this is the chart right here. And so there's no coincidence. We had those two black men who were introducing Vice President Kamala Harris, who now has come out in Flint, Michigan. Let's go live to that rally. I'm a-riding, I'm a-riding through the waters Till the tide don't move

I'm a-riding, I'm a-ade, I'ma wade through the waters Till the tide don't move I'ma ride, I'ma ride through your borders I'll be good and it proves Don't forget me, I've been Good evening, Michigan! I'ma ride, I'ma ride through your borders Hey! Hey!

Oh! Oh, it's good to be back in Michigan. Hey, everyone. Can we hear it for Eric Price? Oh, it's good to be back in Michigan. Thank you all so very much. Thank you. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank you so very much. And Eric Price, thank you for your leadership of UAW 651

and all the work that you do. And I wanna thank all the leaders who are here. This is, I mean, this is, we got thousands of leaders who are here, this is, I mean, this is, we got thousands of leaders who are here, and I thank you. Including all our friends in labor, Sean Fain, April Barrett. All the incredible elected leaders, starting with the Governor Whitmer, who is amazing, and is my friend, my dear friend, Mayor Neely, Senator Stabenow, Senator Peters, Representative the United States Senate. And did you all see Magic Johnson? Remember his number, 32.

Today we got 32 days until the election. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. So 32 days. 32 days. Okay, we got some business to do. We got some business to do. All right. 32 days. And we know we will do it. And, and this is going to be a very tight race until the very end. This is going to be a very tight race until the very end. This is going to be a very tight race until the very end.

We are the underdog, and we know we have some hard work ahead. But here's the thing about us. We like hard work. We like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work is good work. And with your help in November, we will win. We will win.

We are not playing around. So listen, we know this election is about two very different visions for our nation. One focused on the past and ours, which is focused on the future. We are fighting for a future where we tap into the ambitions and the aspirations of the American people and build what I call an opportunity economy so every American has an opportunity to own a home, build wealth, start a business. And I'm going to speak about small business. Do we have small business owners in the house right now? Right?

Okay, so on the economy, I'm just going to spend a minute on small businesses. So, because let me tell you, so growing up, our mother often worked very long hours. And so my sister Maya and I, we would go over to Ms. Shelton's house. Ms. Shelton was from Louisiana, and we called her our second mother. And Ms. Shelton's house. Ms. Shelton was from Louisiana, and we called her our second mother. And Ms. Shelton was a small business owner. And so from being a child, I know who our small business owners are. They are community leaders, civic leaders.

They mentor. They hire locally. They build up the community. They are part of the fabric of the community. And small business owners are the backbone of America's economy. So, in my plan to build an opportunity economy, one of the things I will do is raise the startup deduction from $5,000 to $50,000 to help entrepreneurs start their small business. You heard Eric talk about it.

We need to build more housing in America. You know, my mother saved up for years to buy our first homes. I was a teenager by the time she saved up enough to do that. And right now we know there's a serious housing shortage in our country, and it is part of what is driving up costs. So we will cut the red tape and work with the private sector to build 3 million new homes and provide first-time homebuyers with a $25,000 down payment assistance so you can just literally get your foot in the door and you'll handle the rest.

We need to lower the cost of living. Look, our economy is making good progress. Just this morning we got a solid jobs report, right? Over 250,000 jobs created last month, unemployment fell, and just a few weeks ago, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates, which helps. But there's still more we need to do. Prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high. You know it and I know it. And I have a plan on lowering costs on everything from health care to groceries, including taking on corporate price gouging.

Because as Attorney General, I saw what happens, where there are a few of them, not everybody, but those who take advantage of desperate people, in particular in the middle of an emergency, and there needs to be consequence. I will give a tax cut to 100 million Americans, including $6,000, extending and expanding the child tax credit, so during the first year of a child's life, young parents have the support they need to be able to buy a car seat, to buy a crib, to take care of their child during that first year of their life, knowing it's about setting them on a path to do everything they have a natural desire to do. And look, let me—I say all this to say I will always put the middle class and working

families first. I come from the middle class, and I will never forget where I come from. I will never forget where I come from. And we know we cannot have a strong middle class without American manufacturing. So over the last three and a half years, we have brought manufacturing back to America, creating 730,000 manufacturing jobs. We announced the opening of more than 20 new auto plants in the United States. And we did it by investing in American industry and American workers. And I will make sure that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.

Which is why, under my plan, we will invest in the industries that built America, like steel, iron, and the great American auto industry. I see you, Sean. And we will ensure that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to electric vehicles, are not only invented but built right here in America by American union workers. And, Michigan, let us be clear. Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.

But here's what I will do. I will invest in communities like Flint, Flint, which helped build the auto industry and the UAW. We will retool existing factories, hire local workers, and work with unions to create good-paying jobs, including jobs that do not require a college degree because we understand a college degree is not the only measure of whether a

worker has skills and experience to get the job done. In fact, part of my plan is to outline all of the federal jobs that should not require a college degree and make that clear. And when I'm elected, I'm going to challenge the private sector to take on the same approach. And then there's Donald Trump. So Donald Trump has a very different approach. So Donald Trump makes big promises, and he always fails to deliver. He said he was the only one who could bring back America's manufacturing jobs.

Remember that? And then America lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs when he was president, including tens of thousands of jobs in Michigan. And those losses started before the pandemic, making Donald Trump one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs in American history. And his track record for the auto industry was a disaster. He promised workers in Warren that the auto industry would, I'll quote, not lose one plant during his presidency. And then American automakers announced the closure of six auto plants when he was president. We need a medic over here.

We need a medic over here. Right here. Okay, can everyone part so the medic can come through, please? Let's let the medic through. Okay. Okay. Let's let the medic through. OK. OK. OK.

He's OK. All right. We're good. We got each other. Good. Good. Good. So, remembering again what Donald Trump talked about versus what he did.

Then automakers, American automakers, announced the closure of six plants when he was president, including General Motors in Warren and Stellantis in Detroit. Thousands of Michigan autow auto workers lost their jobs. And when it came to building the cars of the future, Donald Trump sat on the sidelines and let China dominate. And then he talks down to American workers saying we can't compete with Chinese workers. And make no mistake, Donald Trump is no friend of labor. He encouraged automakers to move their plants out of Michigan so they could pay their workers less. And when the UAW went on strike to demand higher wages that they deserved, Donald Trump

went to a non-union shop, don't forget, and he attacked the UAW. And he said striking and collective bargaining don't make, quote, a damn bit of difference. He talked about striking workers that you should fire them. That's how he talks about union labor. That's how he talks about workers. But Flint, we know, we know strong unions mean higher wages, better health care and greater dignity for union members and for everyone. And on top of all of that, Donald Trump signed a $2 trillion tax cut that mostly went to the wealthy and big corporations, not to working people.

And now he is making the same empty promises to the people of Michigan that he did before. But we will not be fooled. We will not be gaslighted. Donald Trump's track record is a disaster for working people. And if he wins again, it will be more of the same. Check this out. Two days ago, his running mate, maybe— How about that Tim Walz, by the way? That's right. So two days ago, Donald Trump's running mate suggested that if Trump wins,

he might let the Grand River Assembly plant in Lansing close down. The same plant that our administration helped save earlier this year along with 650 union jobs. Michigan, we together fought hard for those jobs. And you deserve a president who won't put them at risk. And for anybody watching, you know, if you want to learn more about Donald Trump's plans, just Google Project 2025. It is a detailed and dangerous blueprint for what he will do if he is elected president. Donald Trump will give billionaires and corporations massive tax cuts, attack unions, cut Social Security and Medicare, and impose a Trump sales tax, a 20 percent tax on everyday basic necessities, which will cost the average family nearly $4,000 a year.

And on top of all this, Donald Trump intends to end the Affordable Care Act. Even after he tried to repeal it time and time again when he was president and still has no plan to replace it. You watched the debate. You watched the debate. You saw that. He said he, quote, has concepts of a plan. Concepts!

No, you know, I have said that I do believe he is an unserious man. And the consequences, and the consequences of him being president again are absolutely critically serious. Because think about it. Even on health care, he has a concept of a plan. So he's going to threaten the health insurance of 45 million people in our country. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Based on a concept? To take us back?

You remember that? When insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions? Remember what that was like? Well, Michigan, we are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back. No.

Because we will move forward. Ours is a fight for the future. Ours is a fight for the future. And ours is a fight for freedom. Like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do. And these 32 days out from the election, it's important that we remind people how we got here. Donald Trump handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention

that they would overturn Roe v. Wade, and they did. And now more than one in three women in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions even for rape and incest, which is immoral. And when Congress Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law. Proudly. And here's what I want to say. And that's not our only battle. Across our nation, we are witnessing a full-on assault on other hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights, like the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to join a union,

the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride, and the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Flint, you know all too well, Flint, that clean water should be a right for everyone, not just for the people who can afford it. And as president, I will continue to work with communities like Flint to ensure you not only have clean water, but the opportunity to recover economically and thrive.

So, Michigan, it all comes down to this. We are all here together because we know what is at stake. And we love our country. We love our country. We love our country. USA! USA! USA! We love our country. And because we love our country, we know it is one of the highest forms of patriotism to then fight for the ideals of our country and to fight to realize the promise of America. That's what this is about.

That's what this is about. So, Election Day is in 32 days. And already nearly 2 million ballots are in the hands of Michigan voters alone. So, if you have received your ballot, please do not wait. Fill it out and return it today. Early voting starts statewide on October 26th. And now is the time to make your plan to vote. Because, folks, the election is here.

The election is here. And we need to energize, organize, and mobilize. And remember, your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power. So Flint, today I ask, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it? And when we fight, we win.

God bless you and God bless the United States of America. Folks, that's Vice President Kamala Harris finishing her rally there in Flint, Michigan. Earlier today, she was in Detroit. Michigan is crucial to the she was in Detroit. Michigan is crucial to the blue wall for Democrats. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, those are what they consider the must-win

states. Of course, they also are leading, narrow leads, in Nevada and Arizona. Nevada looking a little bit better than Arizona. And then, of course, you have the battleground states of North Carolina as well as Georgia. But these three are absolutely crucial for the prospects of Democrats winning.

Keep in mind, Hillary Clinton lost that blue wall in 2016, and that's how she lost to Donald Trump. I want to go to my panel right now. Michael Imhotep hosts the African History Network show out of Detroit. Also, Kelly Bethia, communications strategist out of D.C. Matt Manning, civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi. All right, let's start. Michael, I'll start with you. Again, Michigan, vital. The vice president is going to be meeting with some Arab American leaders. Obviously,

that has been a huge issue, what's happening between Israel and happening in Gaza. And that's also one of the reasons why this race is so close. Muslims are a significant voting bloc in the state of Michigan. But also, black turnout has to be crucial. You saw Magic Johnson, also a UA UW leader there, both of them introducing her. And Magic Johnson specifically spoke about the importance of black men supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Yeah, Roland, you know, it's a number of things going on. This is fantastic what's taking place. She was in Detroit as well well as Flint, Michigan, today. Michigan is crucial. You mentioned 2016. Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, two-tenths of a percentage point. I want to point out that there were 50,000 people who voted in Michigan who voted down ballot but left the top of the ticket blank. OK?

Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes. So I know you have some people who are disaffected and saying they're going to vote down ballot. That's one of the ways that Trump won in 2016. Two, I think it's important for Vice President Kamala Harris to meet with Arab leaders as well. There was a piece that came out from ABC News this morning. There was a poll that came out. Israelis broadly favor Trump over Harris.

And it was something like about 54 percent of Israelis prefer Trump over Harris. We know that Benjamin Netanyahu wants Trump back in office. So as I posted on social media today, voting noncommittal is stupid. I'm just going to put that on the record. Voting noncommittal is stupid. I understand people are concerned about Palestine, but you have to look at the big picture. Donald Trump has already said he will withdraw all humanitarian support to Palestine. He will let Benjamin Netanyahu do whatever he wants.

And keep in mind, when he was president before, he imposed a Muslim ban on Muslims coming from seven countries, which also increased anti-Muslim sentiment here in America. OK? So, Donald Trump has to be defeated. African-American men also have to be micro-targeted. So, yes, she is behind with white men who are college uneducated, as they talked about this morning on MSNBC. I think it's good that Bruce Springsteen put his endorsement in the video he did. But don't forget about African-American men, because recent polls are showing about 25 or 26 percent of African-American men under the age of 50, under the age of 50, are saying they're voting for Donald Trump. So we have 32 more days.

But here's the deal with that, Matt. I mean, the reality is when you look at that, an NAACP poll, a lot of those folks didn't even vote in 2016 or 2020. So obviously that is a concern. I understand. As we said, Matt, we had Christopher Toler on the show the other day, and we talked about the numbers, and he showed the data from 1970 to present day in terms of black men voting. Of course, the highest was 72 with 23%. Then, of course, it was 18%, 13 in 2016. Go to my iPad. It was 13 in 2016. Go to my iPad.

It was 13 in 2016, 19 in 2020. But again, the key is not just black men. Again, you've been seeing the increasing numbers even when it comes to young black women. And so it's been a steady trajectory up. That's really what their focus is. So they want to close strong in the last 32 days. I think that's right. And it's interesting you say that because I saw a headline today that said women, despite whether they're black or white, are generally becoming more liberal is what the

study that I saw was mentioning. So I think there's a question of, you know, one, you're right that that's what they're doing in these final days. But I think there's a question of how many of those voters are going to come out and vote, you know, for Harris-Walls the way that they need to. And, you know, polling is kind of a tough thing because you just obviously never know exactly what's going to happen. But I think especially following that vice presidential debate, you know, that's not going to really move the needle. I think it's, one, people need to get out there and vote, number one. But, number two, I think the Harris-Walls campaign needs to do what they've done thus far, which is talk about numbers and talk about, you know, I don't remember the name of the types of issues, but I guess kitchen table issues, where they're talking about economics

and what kind of credit they're going to give you for this, what kind of credit they're going to give you for that, because that is what I think will get people out to vote, number one. And number two, if there really are people who are truly undecided at this point, get them over the fence, because once they see deliverables, that's really what I think will turn the tide for those who have not decided which lever they're going to pull yet. Kelly, again, right now, at the end of the day, it's turnout, turnout, turnout, turnout, turnout. And that really is reaching as many people as possible. And it's really what the focus is in the last month. You don't have the time to really to be explaining various policies. It's all about reaching those folks because voting has already

started. Not only has voting already started, but as far as Election Day itself, we are literally a month and a day away from Election Day. So time truly is of the essence. But to Matt's point about the study coming out saying that women and other marginalized groups are becoming more liberal, especially regarding polling, there is a reason for that. It's not like we are just saying, oh, I don't want to be a Republican anymore. I just decided to be a Democrat. No, our freedoms are literally at risk here. Our humanity in this country being recognized is at risk here. It is on trial here literally every day in somebody's jurisdiction. And we are

trying to align ourselves with a party, with an ideology that prevents that, frankly, so we can live. And when you look at the right, I don't care if you want lower taxes and you're more of a capitalist than a tree hugger or whatever you think the stereotypes are for either side. It almost is irrelevant when you have one side that is so against your presence on this planet, specifically in this country. It makes no sense to be aligned with that type of ideology so long as the powers that be are coming out against your humanity. So there's a reason for studies showing these findings. It's not just, you know, oh, I like Harris. I see a woman and I want a woman to be president. No, our freedoms are literally on the line and we have less than 30

or we have exactly 31 days to decide whether our humanity is worth fighting for. Folks, and a little later in the show, we're going to be chatting with, I interviewed I did with Quinton Folks, who is the deputy campaign manager for Folks in a little later in the show, we're going to be chatting with my interview idea with quitting folks. Who's the deputy campaign campaign manager for the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz will have that for you right now that we will talk about the

September jobs report. Big numbers and a surprise for many folks. They were very surprised by these about the September job report. Some 254,000 jobs are created. Unemployment dropped to 4.1%. You see in July. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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

And so, very good news. I've been getting kick out of, frankly, listen to all of these different folks. Of course on Fox News it drives them crazy when the jobs reports come out because they don't know what to do because they always expect it to be horrible that's a one video was hilarious. They were talking about.

Well, if you remove the top two areas, it's not a great report. Dr. Walter Kimbrough had a great one. He said, that's like saying if you remove all the losses from we had in the football season, wow, we had an undefeated season. I mean, it's just stupid. I mean, in terms of just what they do. It's just absolutely stupid.

Joining us right now is Morgan Harper. She's an economist with the American Economic Liberties Project. Morgan, glad to have you here. I mean, it is always guaranteed, Laz Morgan, to listen to right-wing folks when the jobs I remember they were all cutting these jobs, preparing for the recession, and it never came. The reality is, and in fact, a question was asked today of Trump. They said, so you keep saying the economy is bad, but job support, showing a strong economy, stock market. Don't you think you're wrong? He's like, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not. I mean, they desperately want to say the sky is green, that it's not blue. It does seem so. And yeah, I mean, like you were saying, Roland, it's hard to argue with the numbers here. I mean, this is just across the board,

positive indicators. Like you said, unemployment going down. We are still in historically low levels of unemployment overall. It's going—black unemployment is going down, also at historically low levels. Black men, unemployment also going down. The number of people that are just engaged in the workforce overall is hitting levels not seen since the early 2000s. I mean, on the point of really just trying to search for some kind of bad indicator, one I saw today, too, was I think the overall number of hours worked per week might have ticked down a little bit. But there could be a lot of reasons for that. And some people might even consider that a positive thing if they have other things

going in their lives, like children and family commitments, et cetera. So, yeah, this is across the board a very strong report. I think this, in combination, like we heard in Vice President Harris's remarks mentioning the Fed cut, that's going to eventually, not immediately, like we chatted about before, lead to more small business lending opportunities. We're in a good spot, it seems. Month to month, we have to keep monitoring, but this is a very, very strong set of indicators for this past month. We got to keep reminding people, people that this is the biggest thing. Our economy sucked. I mean, Trump hand delivered an economy that was woeful.

And you do not turn a nation's economy around in a matter of months. It's a steady build. And what I'm looking at right now with this economy is similar to what happened when Obama-Biden came in. They were handed an awful economy by President George W. Bush and VP Dick Cheney. And so 2009 was rough. 2010 was rough. 2011, the first half was rough. Then you begin to see the economy picking up in the second half in 2012. And then it takes off in 13, 14, 15, 16. So when Trump comes in, he's handed a great economy.

So this notion that, oh, he was just killing it. No, that's just a flat out lie. Yeah, and exactly right. The data plays that out. I mean, a lot of the trends, I know a lot of times, and you all are discussing how folks will say, well, you know, life was better for me in 2019. I had more money in my pocket. You know, we've seen a lot of changes in prices, that's for sure. But a lot of the positive indicators on fronts like unemployment and some of these labor numbers, the positive numbers during the Trump administration, those trends were already in motion starting in the early 2010s during the Obama administration.

So, you know, I'm not here in a political capacity, but just the facts are the facts. Yeah, facts are facts. And, you know, in this, oh, go ahead. This was a graphic that the Biden folks put out on social media. Boom, jobs created by president average per month. You see Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, all positive growth. Trump, negative. Then you see Biden, highest of the past six president. Again, these are facts.

Yeah. And I and I think we can also even dig a little deeper here into what kind of jobs. And there's a range. I mean, like, you know, we saw this month manufacturing was going down a little bit. There was growth in health and education. But overall, during the Biden administration, we have seen over 150,000 manufacturing jobs created. And during President Trump—again, these are just facts. This is just data. You know,

there were 200,000 jobs during the Trump administration offshore. So, you know, that's getting into this whole other topic of, you know, trade and some of these tariffs, which, you know, I think we can touch on. But again, just looking at the numbers, this has been a strong track record. And here's why it's important that people have a handle on the data, because this is what's going on in the background, is even within, you know, intra-party, I would say, there is a real battle about what our economic policy should be. We've had one way of doing things for quite some time that has, as President Biden has been pointing out, had a really bad impact on the middle class. And now Vice President Harris also is, you know, speaking about a lot of these critiques from the past few decades of economic policymaking.

There have been a lot of changes during this administration. And my sense is there's a lot of folks within, you know, the business community, a lot of traditional economists that want to believe it won't work. That is the narrative that we have been told. If you start to invest in people, invest in the middle class, that somehow, you know, the floor is going to fall out from the whole economy. And what these numbers are continuing to show us is that is just not the case. This is a strong, stable economy. And it doesn't appear that we have to have this false choice between investing in working people, in working class communities, or keeping up a strong economy. In fact, the way to get to a strong economy is perhaps putting that population first and foremost in your policymaking.

Indeed. Morgan, we really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. Folks, going to go to break. We come back. We will show our chat with Quentin Folks, the deputy campaign manager for the Harris-Walls campaign. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. He told us who he was. Should abortion be punished? There has to be some form of punishment. Then he showed us. For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it.

And I'm proud to have done it. Now Donald Trump wants to go further with plans to restrict birth control, ban abortion nationwide, even monitor women's pregnancies. We know who Donald Trump is. He'll take control. We'll pay the price. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. In 2016, Donald Trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his White House.

Now those people have a warning for America. Trump is not fit to be president again. Here's his vice president. Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States. It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year. His defense secretary. Do you think Trump can be trusted with the nation's secrets ever again? No.

I mean, it's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation's security at risk. His national security advisor. Donald Trump will cause a lot of damage. The only thing he cares about is Donald Trump. And the nation's highest ranking military officer. We don't take an oath to a king or queen or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator. Take it from the people who knew him best. Donald Trump is a

danger to our troops and our democracy. We can't let him lead our country again. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. I get it. The cost of rent, groceries, and utilities is too high. So here's what we're going to do about it. We will lower housing costs by building more homes and crack down on landlords who are charging too much. We will lower your food and grocery bills by going after price gougers who are keeping the cost of everyday goods too high.

I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message because you work hard for your paycheck. You should get to keep more of it. As president, I'll make that my top priority. Bob and I both voted for Donald Trump. I voted for him twice. I won't vote for him again. January 6th was a wake-up call for me. Donald Trump divides people. We've already seen what he has to bring. He didn't do anything to help us. Kamala Harris, she cares about the American people. I think she's got the wherewithal to make a difference.

I've never voted for a Democrat. Yes, we're both lifelong Republicans. The choice is very simple. I'm voting for Kamala. I am voting for Kamala. I am voting for Kamala Harris. I am voting for Kamala Harris. I am voting for Kamala Harris. IVF is a miracle for us because it allowed us to have our family. After having my daughter, I wanted more children. But my embryo transfer was canceled eight days before the procedure.

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

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

All right, folks. Earlier today, I chatted with Quentin Foulkes, the deputy campaign manager for the Harris-Walls campaign. I'm going to show you that in a minute. I actually have to step away. And Michael, Matt and Kelly will take things from here. But first, here is my conversation with the number two person in the Harris-Walls campaign, Quentin Fulks. All right, Quentin, we are inside of what, 32 days, 31 days. I can't even count. It's been crazy busy. In terms of African Americans, how are you making the closing argument? How are you driving surrogates, whatever? What is that Black plan to close out this election

leading to November 5th? Yeah, thank you for having me, Roland. I think the first thing is that we got to do everything. We got to do it well. We also got to be conscientious of the fact that people are voting already. And I think we have a number of things. One, pushing early vote. We have to make sure we're doing that. And we're doing that by using surrogates and getting people out and about in the communities,

using influencers, celebrities, surrogates to really drive home the message about what's at stake in this election. We also are going to continue to utilize the principles. People are going to see the vice president, Governor Walz, the second gentleman and the first lady of Minnesota all across the battleground states also making the case and pushing people to vote. And then we're also capitalizing on big events that we know. Obviously, we have to drive up turnout margins and also continue to persuade African-American men. And I think one of the places that we know we can do that is by utilizing influential celebrity influencers like athletes

and people like that, but also at the same time, making sure that we're in front of where a lot of these voters are going to be tuning in. It's political season for us, but a lot of people that we need to persuade, they're still at home watching football, baseball, sports. And so we have to make sure that we're advertising in those places. And then on top of that, specifically, one thing that we're doing for African-American voters, not all African-Americans attend HBCUs, but we are leveraging, again, that type of sporting vibe and making sure that we're going to be at all the HBCU homecoming games that take place in the month of October to make sure that we're also boosting turnout specifically among young African-American voters that we know are all going to be participating in those HBCU events.

What about your black media strategy? Of course, I saw I heard the Ricky Smiley interview. You got you did the up and smoke interview in terms. And so when you talk in terms of in terms of reaching folks there, obviously, there are other black targeted black on radio shows as well and other outlets in terms. So how are you having those policy conversations? So I get using athletes and folks along those lines, but you still have folks when I look at the data who still say, hey, I'm unaware of what actually took place, and there's still some softness there and still some growth opportunities among Black voters, not just Black men, but also young Black women.

Yeah, man, I think we have to utilize opportunities to have surrogates like myself in this instance on shows like yours. We've seen the vice president attend a lot of these, but I really think really drilling down, as you said, into the policy about what's at stake and about what the vice president wants to do. I think we have to go right at it. In some instances, I think it's sort of breaking down sort of stigmas and thought processes about what Donald Trump offered the black community and deal with that. But above and beyond that, it's also about what the vice president wants to do and her plans. And so when we talk about things like making costs more affordable, we know African-Americans spend more on groceries. The vice president has a plan to stop price gouging, not based on supply and demand, but based on people just raising costs. When it comes to sort of rent and mortgage affordability,

the vice president is continuing to make sure she is putting forward building more affordable homes through private and public partnerships, which will, one, create more jobs, but two, also lower the cost of rent and mortgages in the country by having more affordable housing. And then thinking about starting small businesses, one in five businesses, small businesses in this country are minority owned. And even when you think about black specific small businesses is less than that. And so the vice president's offering tech credits from five to fifty thousand dollars to allow people to be able to start a small business.

Removing a lot of the red tape because this will do two things. One, create just more African-American owned small businesses. But two, also, when these businesses are created in the communities, it will create more jobs for African-American-owned small businesses, but two, also when these businesses are created in the communities, it will create more jobs for African-Americans. And job growth is obviously one thing, too, as well as when you look at things like health care continuing to go on after capping the cost of insulin and prescription drugs and protecting the Affordable Care Act. 300,000 Black Americans lost health care coverage when Donald Trump was president, and he is now continuing. And we saw yesterday with Senator Cotton coming after the Affordable Care Act that a lot of

African-American voters in this country depend on. And so when we talk about the policy things and what's at stake, we have to make sure that we're getting on the right platform, shows like yours, D.L. Hughley, Steve Harvey, et cetera, and really drilling down into those specific policy agendas and what's at stake and what the vice president intends to do about it. And what you laid out there speaks to a black agenda. But I've heard folks say, OK, what is her black agenda? What is her what is her agenda for black men? Are people able to go to the site to see those things specifically?

And again, how do you still drive that? Again, look, it's not as easy with the runway being this short, sort of explaining to folks a lot of the policy stuff. But every vote absolutely is going to matter, especially when we talk about Milwaukee, when we talk about Philadelphia, when we talk about North Carolina and Georgia as well. And so how do you convey that? Because it's not as easy to do so in a 30-second radio spot. Yeah. I mean, look, I think it's leveraging everything. I think it's, I know people are being inundated in their mailboxes right now. It's a lot going on politically. And so it's hard for any message to break through. And also everything that I just read to make sure that that is breaking down. We are focused on doing

a lot more canvassing into African-American communities. One, it's a visibility thing, but two, because we can have those individual conversations. But in places where we can't do that, we have to just continue to sort of drill down and drill down and drill down to make sure we're getting in front of the places where, one, we have the opportunity to have these type of long-form conversations, but also understanding that there might not be. I think it's a lot of canvassing and stuff going on in traditionally African-American spaces, whether it be small businesses. I don't think it's always beauty and barbershops. That is obviously a place where we know we can go to inject and have those conversations. But I think it is also going to influential businesses and communities that we know people frequent and trying to have these

conversations. And also, I think the who of what is being said really matters. And I think that a lot of times it's not just the burden of this campaign and the vice president. I mean, it is because we are in charge of turning this out. But we have to make sure that we are using local validators or people that are trusted in communities to also tell this story, because sometimes people are more likely to listen to these longer-form conversations or more of this sort of dense policy stuff when it's coming from people that they can relate with and people that are in their communities. You can absolutely go to our website and see our fact sheets on what this administration has done for African-American voters, what Vice President

Harris intends to do for African-American voters. And one thing I will also push back on a little bit, it's not pushback, but just say out loud, is that a lot of the stuff, because it doesn't say this is for African-American voters, a majority of these policy proposals overly index on benefiting Black voters in this country. And I think we, as a campaign, are as explicit as we can be when it's something that is extremely targeted. But a lot of the proposals that the vice president is laying out will be demonstrably helpful within the African American community. And we have to also make that case and also round out the things that are specific that say HBCU. But as I said at the beginning, not all Black voters went to HBCU.

So when we talk about continuing to double down on the things like continuing to give more student loan relief, $167 billion has already gone to that. The vice president wants to continue to do that. When we talk about sort of housing, there's also other pieces within that aside building it. It's also about how we create in generational wealth. And when we sort of look at the disparities of sort of where a house is located or whose name is on the mortgage, that dictates how much that house is worth, even if it's the same. And so one of the ways that we know is the quickest way to build wealth in this country is through real estate. But if black voters are getting less on their property than

their white counterparts, that's a problem. And the vice president is also going after that, too. So there's a lot that goes into this. And again, depending on who we're speaking to, where they're at, obviously voters in Philly and Atlanta are going to be completely different that we have to get into. They frequent different things. They go to different places. We have to tap into all of that and make sure we're building a cohesive strategy to make sure we're getting that information into the fold and then also going back and turning out these voters to make sure they can vote when early voting starts in their states? Obviously, ground game is important. How are you engaging organizations that do this work on the ground, Black focus groups, Black-led groups who do this, the folks who go door-to-door, who are doing door-knocking? Because, look, a lot of times in these campaigns, millions of dollars is dumped on television and radio. But this is this is going to be a margins election.

And so turning out, you know, taking up voting in a precinct by 50 percent could be the difference between winning and losing. And so let's talk about a ground game, specifically talking to African-Americans. Are you are you driving rural North Carolina, especially eastern North Carolina, rural Georgia as well? Yeah. So, I mean, one, when you look at those two states in particular, Georgia and North Carolina, just because you mentioned them, about a quarter of African American registered voters in both of those states live in rural communities. And I've been really big on this because I think it really, really matters. I think the rural Black community gets left out a lot. And when we talk about some of these things, when Democrats don't take

advantage of it, one of the things is like payments to Black farmers that like, honestly, the Biden-Harris administration got that money. And then in states like Georgia, Governor Kemp held up and then doles out when he sees fit. We have to go there and make the case that no, no, this money came from Democrats. And in this case, specifically, Vice President Harris pushing for those type of resources. But then when it comes to the ground game, we're obviously building our own organizing apparatus. We have volunteers, coordinated offices, hundreds of offices across the seven battleground states.

We're focused on thousands of campaign staff that we are paying directly full-time. And then they are bringing in more volunteers, but then really get into what you're talking about directly. Campaigns giving over $20 million to grant organizations that are mostly C4s that are focused on doing a lot of this work that is specifically going at it, whether it be targeting African-American men. And some of the things are a bit different. Obviously, we can't be overly partisan when we are paying or are giving grants to groups that are focused on voter registration. But we can't be overly partisan when we are paying or are giving grants

to groups that are focused on voter registration. But we do that because, obviously, we feel like the more people vote and the more people turn out, that generally bodes well for Democrats. And if you are involved in sort of being able to register a voter, the likelihood that you can convince them to turn out to vote. And so there are groups that are focused specifically on making sure that Black men, Black women, younger African-American men are registered to vote. And so there are groups that are focused specifically on making sure that black men, black women, younger African-American men are registered to vote. And then on the flip side, there's also those groups out there that are just doing that sort of hardcore persuasion messaging, which is talking about that policy, talking about what's at stake, talking about the danger and the threat and the risk of Donald Trump for a second term. And we are giving resources to

those organizations to do that beyond what we are just doing and building organically with volunteers and paid staff ourselves on the campaign side of things. All right, Clinton folks, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. Appreciate you having me on. All right. So that was a fantastic interview that Roland did earlier today with Quinton Fulks, deputy principal campaign manager for Harris-Walls campaign. He talked about a lot of policy, a lot of what they have going on with the campaign and how it impacts African-Americans. I want to go back to my panel on this, Kelly and Matt. I'm going to go with you, Kelly. So, what are your thoughts on this interview that we just saw? And what do you think the Biden-Harris campaign has to do in these last 32 days to win this

election? I think this is truly the quintessential definition of getting out the vote. I know people who are in the political spaces right now, we are very familiar with the phrase GOTV, get out the vote. That is what they have to do right now we are very familiar with the phrase GOTV, get out the vote. That is what they have to do right now. And frankly, they're doing a great job of it because people are already voting, right? Early voting, yes. As far as—I'm sorry? Yes, early voting.

Early voting, yes, yes. When it comes to what this advisor just said, I was really interested in his approach to reaching out to HBCUs, because that's very unique, in my experience, to go directly to lot of consideration and time and resources to target approximately 105 schools throughout this country and to give these schools the consideration and care that, frankly, Ivy Leagues have been receiving for decades, that other PWIs and institutions have been receiving for decades. And it's nice to have—it's nice to be seen. As an HBCU grad, it's just nice to be seen. Right, yeah.

On the tour that's going on right now, I think they're hitting seven HBCUs, if I remember correctly. There's an article from rollingout.com. But that's critical. That's building on top of the tour that was done last year that Vice President Kamala Harris went on last year at HBCUs. Matt, before we have to end this segment, what were your thoughts?

Well, you know, what I thought was really interesting that struck out to me was his comment about rural Black voters. I don't think I'd ever consciously thought about that. But especially, you know, being in the South and living in the South, there are a lot of Black people who live in rural spaces who are not included in these conversations. So I thought that was particularly important for him to talk about that, especially in states like Texas, but more so Georgia, North Carolina, places where you have large rural populations that may have a lot of rural Black people.

I think it's important for them to speak to that contingency, because I imagine that a lot of Black rural voters do feel left out in conversations, because there's a lot of focus on your metropolitan areas and your HBCUs and what have you. So that one really stuck out to me. And that's probably why the brother's in that position, because he has to think holistically about how to approach it. So that's really what I thought stuck out to me. And I thought the rest of what he said about how the campaign is approaching getting out the vote is important. You know, having gone to an HBCU, I feel like there's always some measure of GOTV at HBCUs. But I do think, especially with her being a graduate of HBCUs, there's a different level of globalization that they can do now. And I'm sure they're leveraging that.

Absolutely. Well, everybody keep in mind, HBCU's got $17 billion from the Biden-Harris administration. That's a record amount of funding. That doesn't just impact the people who go to HBCUs. That impacts the communities around them and the families that these students come from. Something that really stuck out to me, 300,000 African Americans lost healthcare under Donald Trump. Now, this is the same man. And J.D. Vance, he—I don't know what type of class or training J.D. Vance took to be able to lie so much and keep a straight face when he does this. But at the debate on Tuesday night, he lied and said that Donald Trump saved the Affordable

Health Care Act. Donald Trump put together a coalition to save the Affordable Health Care Act. Donald Trump put together a coalition to save the Affordable Health Care Act. No, Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act about 60 times, and Donald Trump antagonized and still ridicules Senator John McCain for giving a thumbs-down vote that saved the Affordable Health Care Act. Not only that, it's important for people to really understand the power that a president has without even going to Congress. Donald Trump cut the funding for the advertising for the Affordable Health Care Act by 90 percent,

and he reduced the amount of time for open enrollment by 50 percent. He cut it from 90 days to 45 days to reduce the number of people who enrolled in it. And now he's talking about once again repealing the Affordable Health Care Act, and he has nothing viable to replace it with. Also, Quinton Foulkes talked about policy. He talked over and over about various policies and how it impacts African Americans. And I think that's really, really important in talking to African American men who may have voted in 2020 because they wanted to get rid of Trump, but now they're saying they're not—they're not but now they're saying they're not

sure if they're going to vote. What are your thoughts about that, Matt, actually communicating policy and how policy impacts African-American men and African-Americans? MATTHEW MCDONALD, Well, I think that's indispensable, and I think it's necessary, because at the end of the day, people need to feel like there's some measure of deliverables, right, coming from their government. I was talking to an investigator related to a case of mine the other day, and we were talking about politics, and he said, look, too many people focus on the federal system. We need to talk about the locals, because that's who's actually filling your pothole. But in my conversation with him, you know, to make it germane to this, a lot of what

he focused on was what is the politician going to do for me? What is the deliverable going to be? So to that extent, you know, Rowland said earlier, he didn't think they needed to talk about policy at a certain level of granularity. And I think at a certain point, that's right, because you're so close to the finish line. You just got to get people there to vote. But what would make me encouraged to vote if I were on the fence would be just in balance, who is going to measurably affect my life and how do they intend to do that? And that's what I think the purpose of policies are, because you can say we recognize this problem. We have a solution for that problem. And I think health care is the best example of that because our health. I know a lot of cops and they get

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

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

Exactly. And if you don't have politicians do that, they're missing the issue. And I hate to wrap up this segment, but we have to do that. Roland Martin and Filter Rebill will be right back after this break. You're watching the Black Star Network. Of 100 Republicans who worked in national security for Presidents Reagan, both Bushes, and for President Trump, now endorsing Harris for president. She came up as a prosecutor, an attorney general, into the Senate.

She has the kind of character that's going to be necessary in the presidency. Vice President Harris is standing in the breach at a critical moment in our nation's history. We have a shared commitment as Americans to do what's right for this country. This year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former generals, secretaries of defense, secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, CIA directors, and National Security Council leaders, under Democratic and Republican presidents, Republican members of Congress, and even former Trump administration officials agree, there's only one candidate fit to lead our nation, and that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message.

Kamala Harris has never backed down from a challenge. She put cartel members and drug traffickers behind bars. And she will secure our border. Here's her plan. Hire thousands more border agents. Enforce the law and step up technology. And stop fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking. We need a leader with a real plan to fix the border and that's Kamala Harris. I'm

Kamala Harris and I approve this message. The overturning of Roe almost killed me. I had a blood clot in my uterus that caused my labor to have to be induced because of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. I wasn't able to get life-saving treatment sooner. I almost died. And that's because of the decision that Donald Trump made. I was able to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I'm proud to have done it.

The doctors and nurses were afraid that if they treated me in the incorrect way, that they would be prosecuted for that. And that's appalling. Donald Trump says that women should be punished. Do you believe in punishment for abortion? There has to be some form of punishment. For the woman? Yeah. I believe that women should have reproductive freedom to make the choices about their own bodies. Four more years of Donald Trump means that women's rights will continue to be taken away one by one by one by one. This has to stop because women are dying. I'm Kamala Harris and I approve this message. Here's a 78 year old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems. Oh, she had a big crowd. Oh, the crowd. This weird obsession with crowd sizes.

It just goes on and on and on. America's ready for a new chapter. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris and I approve this message. Carl Payne pretended to be Roland Martin. Holla! You ain't got to wear black and gold every damn place, okay? Ooh, I'm an alpha, yay. All right, you're 58 years old. It's over. You are now watching...

Roland Martin, unfiltered, uncut, unplugged, and undamned believable. The Black Voters Matter is committing $300,000 to the Divine Nines Get Out the Vote initiative. black population to mobilize voters through direct contact, texting, and phone banking, and focusing on neighborhoods with high concentrations of black voters. Cliff Albright, the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, is joining us now from North Carolina. Hey, Cliff, how you doing today? Hey, I'm good. How you doing? All right.

All right. Well, look, it's good to have you back. This is something fantastic. You know, as a member of the Divine Nine, 580 Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, I think this is something that's excellent. Black Voters Matter is committing $300,000 to this D-9 get-out-the-vote effort. So can you give us more information about this? And how did you all go about selecting the 11 states?

Yeah, so this is a partnership that we've really been doing to different degrees ever since 2018, where we partnered with Divine 9 here in Georgia. I'm actually in North Carolina right now, but in our home state of Georgia. And in 2020, we expanded it to make it even bigger and had more resources available. And so this has been something that we've really been doing for about six years. And pretty much in terms of the states that we selected, those are all states that are part of the overall We Fight Back campaign that we're doing, where we're targeting like 12 states. Most of those are battlegrounds, but not just battlegrounds in the usual sense that people talk about, you know, in terms of the presidential. You know, they're also battlegrounds in terms of Senate races.

And even in the case of Alabama, you know, in terms of the new congressional seat, the majority black or at least black opportunity congressional seat there. So these are all states where we know that black voters are gonna play key roles in making decisions. And we believe that it's important that we have some of the oldest institutions in our community involved in that process. They're already involved, they're already doing stuff,

but we're just trying to see a little something into them to make it easier for them to do, you know, text banking or phone banking or doing sign waving or door knocking or whatever it is that they're doing. Absolutely. Well, I see you coming to Michigan. So I'm going to. Are you coming to Detroit? Oh, yeah. Are you coming to Detroit?

OK, you have to. OK. So we're going to have to connect because I live in Detroit. OK. So Roland just played the interview he did with Clinton folks earlier, a deputy campaign manager for Harris Walls. And I know you all are nonpartisan, but I wanted to understand, explain how you all communicate policy when you are having these engagements, like especially these face-to-face engagements with people and people saying, well, I voted in 2020, but we didn't get the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. We didn't get the voting rights

act. I don't know if I'm going to vote today, OK? Because I hear things like that. How do you communicate policy and what is at stake for them to understand they need to vote in 2024? Yeah, yeah. And just as a side note, just to be clear, we are largely nonpartisan, but we do have C3, C4, and we have a separate PAC entity. So today I'm speaking in terms of our C3, C4 work. But, you know, when we need to go hard in the paint, we can do that too. But, yeah, you know, we actually just earlier today had one of those conversations that you talked about

with Sister that, you know, she voted in 2016 and was disillusioned. And, you know, now she's like, you know, I just, I'm not seeing, you know, all the stuff that I want to see get done. And so we had that conversation a lot. And one of the things I said to her just literally today, no more than an hour or so ago, was, look, you know, all the stuff that I want to see get done. And so we had that conversation a lot. And one of the things I said to him just literally today, no more than an hour or so ago was, look, you know, when we when we vote and we win some stuff and we get some power, guess what? We get

some stuff done. Right. And so we've been able to get some stuff done. We've been able to get student debt cancellation. We've been able to get infrastructure investment. We've been able to get a gun law, which wasn't the best or greatest gun law, but it's the first one in decades. And that means something to our communities, right? We get some stuff, but if we want to get more stuff, guess what? We need more power. And if we want more power, that means we've got to come out and we've got to win more seats, right? We've got to get a real majority in the Senate and not a fake majority because you've got two somewhat whatever non-team members in there.

But we got to get more power. And we got to make sure that we're getting as much as we can. We got to even push them after Election Day to make sure that we're getting all the things that we want. But there's only one way that we're guaranteed to not get anything that we want. And that's if we're not involved in the process. And so we have that conversation all the time. And the key is by really centering what it is that that person is most concerned with and showing them the connections in terms of like how things have gotten done or have not gotten done

and what changes we have the power to make. Absolutely. And the other thing that I think is important to explain to people is how to remove obstructionists. Why did we not get this? Why was President Biden's executive order on student loan forgiveness that would have helped 40 million people and lifted 500,000 African-American families from a negative net worth to a positive net worth, why was that overturned by the Supreme Court? That's because of the 2016 election, and Donald Trump won by 78,000 votes, right? And he got three Supreme Court justices, and it was a 6-3 decision, OK? So I think it's also important to understand why something didn't happen and how to remove

the obstruction. This is always not about what somebody can do for you. It's also understanding how to stop and block what people are trying to do to you. So we have to vote also not just for a candidate, but against other agendas. Go ahead, Cliff. You know, you're exactly right. And we say it all the time. This is not a popularity contest and this is not a referendum on whether this person is like everything you want to be or achieve everything that you want them to achieve, but it's a choice. And it's a choice between the people that are actually trying to get something done for you and the people that are literally running on anti-blackness. Right.

And so you give me that choice and that's that's really not a choice at all. Absolutely. Absolutely. I want to go to my panel and see if they have any questions. We're going to start with Kelly first. Kelly, you have any questions for Cliff? Hi, Cliff. I guess my question is, as far as what BlackVote, are you going to be on the campaign trail with the Harris campaign at these HBCUs? What is the format? And are you able to list out which HBCUs they're going to be

visiting? Well, I can't list out which ones they're going to be visiting because we're not traveling with them. We can't travel with them and coordinate with them. You know, like I said, we wear many hats, and in one of our hats, we will actually be doing actual independent expenditures in support of the Harris campaign. So we can't coordinate with them in terms of, like, traveling with them on campuses. But there's a lot of overlap, you know, like, you know, they've been to the AUC, the Atlanta University Center, Morehouse, Bellarmine, Clark. We do a lot of stuff there.

You know, today we're in North Carolina. In fact, we were at Shaw yesterday, and some of the students said that the campaign is going to be coming there in a couple of weeks. And I think maybe even had already visited there a couple of weeks ago or even just a couple of days ago. And so there's obviously going to be a lot of overlaps, especially in some of those critical states, so like in Georgia, in North Carolina, in Pennsylvania. I'm sure that we've been to Lincoln several times, and I'm sure her campaign will be at Lincoln. And so there's overlap, but we can't, like, travel with them and coordinate with them

like that. All right. Thanks, Kelly. Matt, did you have a question for Cliff? Yeah, I do. And first, let me thank you, Cliff, for the necessary work you do, brethren, for coming on and keeping us informed always. I guess my question to you is, what do y'all expect the impact to be in terms of with this $300,000 donation? I mean, have you,

I'm sure you have, but what do y'all think that's going to turn into in terms of how many people you interface with? What's your projected hopeful number of votes? What are y'all seeing in metrics in terms of that? Yeah, I mean, we know that in those states that we've targeted, you know, if we're involving, and we're not, you know, we're not necessarily doing all the divine nine in each of those states because, you know, that 300,000 can only go so far. But, you know, if we get chapters and get like a hundred, say we get a hundred um um chapter members involved in in one of those states you know we think for every one of those members that's involved that easily they can we were just at an event just tonight um um at livingstone in north carolina and we had students doing text

in there some of them were divine nine members on campus and we had who, in the span of an hour, who texted 12,000 people, right? And so you get 100 or so Divine Nine members who are each doing that. And, you know, that adds up. You know, you talk about 1.2 million voters that you could potentially reach. And so, you know, we think that in each of those states that this partnership is going to allow us to touch in one way or another, you know, around a million voters, whether that be by text, whether that be by the visibility things that they'll be doing at polling places, whether that be through social media outreach that some of them will be involved in. We think that in each of these states that this partnership has the ability to touch a million people. So that was 12 states that we had on there. So, you know, you could easily see us reaching 12 million people.

All right. Excellent. Excellent. I'm excited about this. Let me ask you a question, Cliff. More and more people are learning about Project 2025. Now, I was on a virtual—I was speaking at a virtual town hall last Sunday for the National Association of Black Counselors, dealing with the impact that Project 2025 will have on the Department of Education, because they want to dismantle the Department of Education. What type of conversations are you having on the ground with African Americans as part of this initiative, this D-9 initiative, when it comes to Project 2025? Yeah. of this initiative, this D9 initiative, when it comes to Project 2025? Yeah, I mean, we're having conversations around Project 2025 and education, as you've said,

the threats from not even just K-12, but even, you know, at the college level, like the HBCUs that are under threat, like Black History, at all levels. But when you look at 2025, you know, one of the main pieces that we often talk about is the impact on law enforcement, right? We know that Trump always loves to talk about, I'm going to send the troops in to Chicago. I'm going to send the troops in to—you know, he tried to have troops shoot the George Floyd protesters in 2020, right? But this isn't just words, right?

It's a part of Project 2025 where in there they talk about federalizing local jurisdictions, not even just in terms of the police, which, by the way, we also know that Trump believes in them having absolute immunity, but not only just in terms of the police, like in terms of targeting district attorneys that they feel are not being tough enough on crime, right, that they'll have the ability to remove them. And guess what? Like many things in Project 2025, this isn't just them talking about what they want to do.

This is an extension of things that they have already done. They have already removed DAs in certain places, whether it be Florida or they've tried to do it in Georgia with Fannie or some other places. So some of the things that they're talking about in 2025 are things that they've already started doing, and it's just a matter of them now taking it and putting it on steroids. These are not just bad words. These are not just mean tweets that Trump is talking about.

This is an entire framework embedded in Project 2025 that they are prepared to implement on day one, and it is targeting black folks, whether through education or through law enforcement or through their economic policies. It is a very real threat specifically—not just to the entire country, but specifically to our communities. Right. Absolutely. African Americans and Latinos are going to build a brunt of it.

We see the attack on diversity, equity and inclusion in it. We know that Donald Trump on the campaign trail has been saying that if he's reelected, he will give 100 percent immunity to police officers against criminal prosecution for doing their jobs, okay? So, people really have to understand the consequences here. In the remaining minutes here, I wanted to ask you, what are some—what has been the response when you talk to HBCU students, when you talk about the $17 billion in funding that HBCUs received from the Biden-Harris administration? OK, that's a record amount of funding. OK? We know Trump likes to talk about the bill that he signed, the funding, which is Representative Alma Adams' bill, the Futures Act, I think it was called.

And when you really break down the funding, it was actually $85 million going to HBCUs. All $250 million wasn't going to HBCUs. OK? What is the response when we talk to some of the students, even before they're talking about, like, the stuff going on in the wider society, in the cities where they come from or in the cities surrounding the campuses where they're at, a lot of times the main issues that they're concerned about are their issues on campus, right? It's the cost of tuition. It's the amount of housing that's available on campuses or the quality of that housing sometimes. You know, it's sometimes it's even safety issues, right? And so, you know, when you raise this issue, because and sometimes the interesting thing is that they don't see that being connected to politics. They don't see that as being, some of them do, right? To be clear, some of them do,

but you've got a significant chunk that are like, oh, that's that policy thing and something else, but that's not connected to like the housing on my campus. And so sometimes the conversation is just around helping to connect those dots. Like, where do you think some of these resources come from, right? Where do you think student aid, how do you think that that's determined, and who it is that you

think is able to make these decisions? And so the first step is just connecting those dots. And then you can get into, like, the differences between, oh, yes, the Biden administration made, you know, this amount available, as opposed to the Trump administration that, you know, didn't do nearly as much. But the first, most basic step is oftentimes just getting them to see the connection between their daily lived experiences on their campuses and federal policy and federal offices and these elections. Exactly.

You know, as I explain to people, politics is the legal distribution of scarce wealth, power, and resources. And one of the examples I give is the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that was passed in March 2021. It brought us out of COVID. It distributed stimulus checks and $1,400-plus stimulus checks, which were larger than the ones that Trump signed. OK? I still encounter people that think Donald Trump gave them some money, so this is why they want to vote for Donald Trump. But it saved the economy.

It opened us back up, brought us out of COVID, things like that. So what are some of the maybe one or two key pieces of legislation, besides the $17 billion for HBCUs, that you—when you explain it to people, they say, oh, I had no idea this is where this came from, like the $1.2 trillion American Rescue Plan. That fund is $56 million in construction projects. What are one of the pieces of legislation that you hit people with and knock them out? You know, I think that the student debt, you know, often raises eyebrows, like people

say, oh, I didn't know, because they're so used to hearing nothing's been done on it, right? Right. And then when they hear— $167 billion in student loan forgiveness for about 5 million people. Yes, go ahead. Right. Right.

So that raises some eyebrows and gets people talking about, oh, I didn't know that. The other piece— Right. —and this is really, really interesting, and this is a particular case with the young brothers on the campuses, is the economic stuff. Because that is often one of the issues that

particularly younger brothers feel like, not so much that they like Donald Trump, but when they talk about what they think somebody might be better on. Even some of the ones that say, oh, I don't like Donald Trump, he's racist. DONALD TRUMP, BUT WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY THINK SOMEBODY MIGHT BE BETTER ON, EVEN SOME OF THE ONES THAT SAY, I DON'T LIKE DONALD TRUMP, HE'S RACIST, THE ABORTIONS, EVERYTHING, THEY SAY, OH, YEAH, BUT I THINK HE WOULD BE BETTER ON THE MONEY THING.

A LOT OF IT IS JUST BECAUSE OF A LOT OF DISINFORMATION OR ASSUMPTIONS AND SOMETIMES GENDER-BASED ASSUMPTIONS, JUST KEEPING IT REAL, THAT IT CREATES THESE PERCEPTIONS OF DIFFERENCES. and sometimes gender-based assumptions, just keeping it real, you know, that it creates these perceptions of differences. So when we say things like, oh, well, you know, did you know Biden-Harris achieved the lowest black unemployment rate? Or did you know that that inflation that we're complaining about, that it actually didn't start under Biden, that it actually started under Trump because of some of his policies and the way that he handled COVID and the way that he, you know, negotiated the oil deal and all that stuff. And so when we point out some of this, then they'd be like, oh, yeah, you know, I guess that does make sense. And then when you add into it talking about, like, the future policies, like the differences in Kamala Harris's tax policies,

which is tax cuts versus Donald Trump trying to do tariffs, which amounts to national sales tax. When you talk to them about some of those policies or around the housing policies, we talk about here you got one person who discriminated against black folks in housing and another person who's trying to make sure that housing is more affordable for black folks. So when you get into the actual details, then people do say, oh, I didn't know that. The same way that a lot of people who didn't really know Kamala Harris's history as a DA and pretty much as a progressive DA before we started talking about progressive DAs, right? Exactly. You know, when you start explaining some of that, we get a lot of people that are like,

oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know about the back on track program. You know, so really, it's a lot of disinformation and just a lot of lack of information. And we've come across a lot of people where, as you said, once we have a conversation and that's the key part, you've got to be having these conversations. Right. Once we have the conversations, we get a lot of people like, oh, I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm going to vote. Yeah. I think I've made up my mind about a candidate or whatever, you know, whatever it is. But once they get good information, then they're able to make better decisions. We've got to be willing to have those conversations with them. And that's part of what we're hoping this Divine Nine partnership helps us with. Absolutely. Well, how can people find out more information? How can people find out where you're going to be, Things of this nature.

Yeah, well, you can check us out. You can always connect with us on our social media, Black Voters MTR on all platforms, Black Voters MTR. You can send us a text. You can text We Matter, one word, We Matter to this number, 25225, 25225. That'll get you connected with us. We'll let you get more information. We'll let you get more information. We'll let you get updates about our bus tour. It'll bring you to our website where we have our bus tour stops, all the states that we're going to be going to over the next 30 whatever days. And you can come out and meet us, right? Because we got the blackest bus in America and we're going to be on your street. So get out your seat. All right. Well, we have to connect when you So get out your house. Get out your seat.

All right, Cliff. Well, we have to connect when you come to Detroit, brother. We have to connect, man. Well, look, it's always good to have you on. Great work that you're doing. Tell Natasha we said hi as well, OK? Absolutely. Thank you. Good to see you.

All right, you too. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. There's nothing socialist about Kamala Harris. Trump says Harris is a radical. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I don't buy it. Conservatives have a super majority on the Supreme Court. With a likely Republican Senate, those checks and balances will keep our country sane. If Trump wins, he could end up with total control.

I'm a conservative. I don't agree with Harris on everything, but she was a tough prosecutor and she put bad guys in prison. I voted for Donald Trump three times. I'm voting for Kamala Harris in November. I'm voting for Kamala Harris in November. I'm voting for Kamala Harris this fall. Winners never back down from a challenge. Champions know it's any time, any place. But losers, they whine and waffle and take their ball home.

Trump now refusing to debate a second time. He did terribly in the last debate. He's so easily triggered by Kamala Harris. Well, Donald, I do hope you'll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. If you've got something to say, say it to my face. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message.

In 2016, Donald Trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his White House. Now those people have a warning for America. Trump is not fit to be president again. Here's his vice president. Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States. It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year. His defense secretary.

Do you think Trump can be trusted with the nation's secrets ever again? No. I mean, it's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation's security at risk. His national security advisor. Donald Trump will cause a lot of damage. The only thing he cares about is Donald Trump. And the nation's highest-ranking military officer. We don't take an oath to a king or a queen or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wann or queen or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator. Take it from the people who knew him best.

Donald Trump is a danger to our troops and our democracy. We can't let him lead our country again. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. He told us who he was. Should abortion be punished? There has to be some form of punishment. Then he showed us. For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it, and I'm proud to have done it. Now Donald Trump wants to go further with plans to restrict birth control, ban abortion

nationwide, even monitor women's pregnancies. We know who Donald Trump is. He'll take control. We'll pay the price. I'm Kamala Harris and I approve this message. Bob and I both voted for Donald Trump. I voted for him twice. I won't vote for him again. January 6th was a wake-up call for me. Donald Trump divides people.

We've already seen what he has to bring. He didn't do anything to help us. Kamala Harris, she cares about the American people. I think she's about the American people. I think she's got the wherewithal to make a difference. I've never voted for a Democrat. Yes, we're both lifelong Republicans. The choice is very simple. I'm voting for Kamala. I am voting for Kamala Harris. IVF is a miracle for us because it allowed us to have our family. After having my daughter, I wanted more children. But my embryo transfer was canceled eight

days before the procedure. Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade stopped us from growing the family that we wanted. I don't want politicians telling me how or when I can have a baby. We need a president that will protect our rights, and that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message.

When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, we're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it. And you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us.

Invest in Black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Waits $100,000. We're behind $100,000.

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at 770-513-5700. More political ads dropped this week. This may be one of the best ads the Harris-Walls campaign has released. Kamala is mentally impaired. Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay? It's like incredible.

They're poisoning the blood of our country. That's what they've done. They poison mental institutions. I'm repeating them because my constituents are saying these things are happening. But there's no evidence. A video came out of a migrant 30 miles away eating a cat. Clearly these rumors are out there because constituents are seeing it with their own eyes and some of them are talking about it.

Now, look, we also have to talk about that here in this country. Anything is possible that nothing is out of reach in America where we care for one another, look out for one another, and recognize that we have so much more in common than what separates us. Now, that's a powerful ad dealing with the impact that a lot of this rhetoric, especially coming from the Trump campaign, has on children. There's another ad, the Veterans for Responsible Leadership ad. They dropped this ad as well. Let's take a look at that one. I served in the U.S. Navy.

United States Army. Lieutenant Commander. U.S. Navy. Blue F-18s for 12 and a half years. Former captain of a nuclear submarine. Donald Trump has called veterans losers and suckers. I'm not a sucker. I'm not a sucker.

I'm not a sucker. And my friends who died were not losers. I'm not voting for Trump. Because Donald Trump is unfit. Unfit for office. Unfit to be commander in chief. America is better than Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump is unfit. Unfit for office. Unfit to be commander-in-chief. America is better than Donald Trump. Don't be the sucker that Trump

thinks you are by voting for him. Alright, that's another powerful ad and I want to bring Matt in on this and talk about these two and then we have one more to play as well. So so far, Matt, what do you think about these two ads? One is showing the impact that this rhetoric has on children and showing the distinct difference

between the Harris-Walls campaign and the Trump-Vance campaign. And another one, you have veterans who are basically saying they're not voting for Donald Trump. What are your thoughts on this? MATTHEW WALLACE, I think the ads are effective in what they communicate, but I don't know if they're effective in moving the needle to get somebody who's going to vote for Donald Trump to come over to the other side or for people who are truly undecided at this point, because the reason I say that is we've had so much evidence of the caustic rhetoric he's had when he was

president, before he was president, after he was president, well before he ever considered running for president. So, you know, I like that it's strung together. I think for the few people whose heads are in the sand out there, they may be persuasive. But I'm worried that people who are inclined to vote for him are going to do so, irrespective of that. So hopefully that has an effect on enough people to tip the balance maybe in some states or in some precincts. But we're used to it. So that's kind of old hat. What I will say that is interesting, though, is one of my partners is actually a former

Air Force aviator. And all the things those veterans were saying are exactly what he says in the halls of our law firm, just that Mr. Trump is so unfit and as a veteran that he's just, you know, incensed that he would talk about people who put their lives on the line the way he has. So I don't know how large that contingent is in terms of voting, but I'm hoping that it turns into measurable effects in these battleground states and across the country, because it doesn't make sense that you get to beat the drum of national security all the time and then, you know, denigrate the people who actually sacrifice for national security. It doesn't make sense. Well, we know that September 22nd, 2024, New York Times reported more than 700 current and former national security officials back Harris. These are officials who served in

the Reagan administration, Bush administration, et cetera. And we also saw Donald Trump on the campaign, who tried to equate traumatic brain injuries that some in the military suffered, tried to equate that to a headache. So it's clear that he does not respect the military. He only wants to use them as props, only wants to use them to his advantage. We have one more dealing with business leaders that we're going to go to. The business leaders for Harris released this ad. ... and partner Greylock. The most important issue in this upcoming election is our economy.

Voters want the candidate who's going to make it easier to get a job, buy a house, keep up with their household expenses. And a lot of people think that Donald Trump is that candidate. But here's the thing. Donald Trump's policies, his divisive rhetoric, and his disregard for stability in the rule of law would hurt our economy. Most CEOs I talk to agree. And that's why we started this project, Business Leaders for Harris, where I sit down with CEOs, founders, and business leaders to discuss why Kamala Harris is the right candidate to build a healthy, strong, and growing American economy. Now, I think that one right there is really powerful, especially targeting men who think that Donald Trump would be better on the economy, because they think Donald Trump is a billionaire

because of the TV show The Apprentice. We saw Magic Johnson today on the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris, successful businessman, multimillionaire. What are your thoughts on this ad right here, business leaders for Harris, Matt? You know, I think this is brilliant, especially because I think you hit the nail on the head, as you usually do. That's one of the things you hear from people who say they're going to vote for Trump. One of the first things they tout is he's a businessman. He knows business. He's going to make the economy good. That's the drum they're always beating. So I think it's very, very, very important to have people who are in corporate leadership saying he doesn't have the

policies that are going to affect the economy. Now, it wouldn't be me if I didn't say some of that is ironic because we know that corporations get to run roughshod over the American people, right? So some of it is a little bit self-serving, if we're honest. But I do think it's important rhetorically to get people into the fold for Harris-Walls, because that is almost universally the first thing you hear about Mr. Trump, is that he's got this business acumen, and therefore he's going to be better for the economy. And if you have people who are big engines in the economy saying they don't believe that to be the case, that might be persuasive for a lot of people. Absolutely. You know, I don't know a lot of business people who are successful, who say

that Donald Trump is a successful businessman. We see that Mark Cuban has been doing interviews, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. We see Mark Cuban on the TV show Shark Tank, billionaire Mark Cuban has been doing interviews, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. We see Mark Cuban on the TV show Shark Tank, billionaire Mark Cuban. He's been speaking out about Donald Trump, talking about how harmful his policies will be. We know there was an excellent article from Black Enterprise about a week or so ago that broke down how the Vice President Kamala Harris' economic policies would be beneficial for African Americans as well. So, I think it's going to take a combination of these type of ads, but also the work that people like Cliff Albright are doing and LaTosha Brown as well on the ground. But when you have successful business leaders, you have close to 100 business leaders who

have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and say that her economic plan is going to be better than Donald Trump's economic plan as well. When you have people who know this better than most of the people on cable news, things like that, coming out endorsing her, I think that's going to move the needle as well. So we'll see what happens. But we have 32 days, and the fight continues. We can do this, OK? You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

We'll be right back. He told us who he was. Should abortion be punished? There has to be some form of punishment. Then he showed us. For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated. And I did it. And I'm proud to have done it. Now Donald Trump wants to go further.

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Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. With plans to restrict birth control, ban abortion nationwide, even monitor women's pregnancies, we know who Donald Trump is. He'll take control. We'll pay the price. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message.

Bob and I both voted for Donald Trump. I voted for him twice. I won't vote for him again. January 6th was a wake-up call for me. Donald Trump divides people. We've already seen what he has to bring. He didn't do anything to help us. Kamala Harris, she cares about the American people.

I think she's got the wherewithal to make a difference. I've never voted for a Democrat. Yes, we're both lifelong Republicans. The choice is very simple. I'm voting for Kamala. I am voting for Kamala Harris. IVF is a miracle for us because it allowed us to have our family. After having my daughter, I wanted more children.

But my embryo transfer was canceled eight days before the procedure. Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade stopped us from growing the family that we wanted. I don't want politicians telling me how or when I can have a baby. We need a president that will protect our rights, and that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. Kamala Harris has never backed down from a challenge. She put cartel members and drug traffickers behind bars. And she will secure our border.

Here's her plan. Hire thousands more border agents. Enforce the law and step up technology. And stop fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking. We need a leader with a real plan to fix the border. And that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris and I approve this message. Of 100 Republicans who worked in national security for Presidents Reagan, both Bushes

and for President Trump, now endorsing Harris for president. She came up as a prosecutor, an attorney general, into the Senate. She has the kind of character that's going to be necessary in the presidency. Vice President Harris is standing in the breach at a critical moment in our nation's history. We have a shared commitment as Americans to do what's right for this country. This year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former generals, secretaries of defense,

secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, CIA directors, and National Security Council leaders under Democratic and Republican presidents, Republican members of Congress, and even former Trump administration officials agree there's only one candidate fit to lead our nation, and that's Kamala Harris. I'm Kamala Harris, and I approve this message. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. This is your boy, Irv Quaid.

And you're tuned in to... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. A federal judge in Texas says Daryl George can proceed with his case against Barbara Hill High School for suspending and keeping him out of the 2023-2024 school year for not cutting his locks. George was suspended in the fall of 2023 for violating the school's dress code. George's hair, quote, fell below his eyebrows and earlobes, end quote. Joining us now is attorney Allie Booker, who represents the George family. George family, how are you doing today, Allie? I'm doing fantastic. All right. It's great to have you here. And I understand there's an update that you have for us in this case? Yes. The judge just handed down some pretty significant rulings in this case. And I would like to start off by saying happy birthday, Daryl George. Okay. Happy birthday, Daryl.

Yeah, it's going to be a better day for these rulings that we just received. So the court denied the emergency relief only because Daryl is not there. So he doesn't need emergency relief. But the court has stated that at the time, whenever we are ready, they're ready to hear the case for the relief so that he can go back to Barbers Hill. That is significant. He did rule on that today, and he stated why he ruled on that today. And he said, because Daryl can come back, we are correct. He needs to hear that case because he doesn't want Daryl to go back and

him not already handle the issue of injunctive relief. So that is a win for us. The second order that he handed down is regarding a motion for summary judgment, which is what we call a dispositive motion. It's a dismissal motion. The court denied their motion and granted our motion, stating that we are correct, we have a right to prove our case before the court tries to throw it—I'm sorry, we have a right to prove our case before opposing counsel, Barbersville ISD, attempts to ask the court

to throw our case out. This is monumental because in the DeAndre Arnold case, they have a big issue pending at the Fifth Circuit. And that issue is whether or not they can be deposed and it can be used. So we will be moving forward with that position. OK. Now, Ali, I know that this story has made national news, OK? I remember hearing about it last year as well.

And there have been updates here on this show. So, the case that—explain to us the case that you all are trying to make, okay? Because I know that the school is saying that his locks were below his eyebrows and his earlobes. And I remember reading before, he said, well, I'll pin my hair up. If I remember correctly, he would just pin his hair up so it wouldn't hang down. And for some reason, they said that's not good enough. So explain to us, if you can, the case that it is that you all are trying to make. This is the case we're trying to make. Long story short, there are two types of people that Barbersville ISD does not want in their school. I'm going to have to use flat language

because that's the best way that I can describe it. One being thugs. Two, now we are understanding being probably LGBT or transsexual identifying students. So what they've done is they've created this rule stating that your hair can't hang down a certain length, which is preposterous to us because you need a certain length of hair in order to lock it up or in order to braid it. So what they're trying to do is effectively determine how a male is going to dress and or look in their school. Here's

the problem. The problem is our gender claims survived. That means they have to prove that there is a reason behind their policy for gender. Meaning if you say that your policy is to promote, you know, that children have to learn how to be obedient. And one of the things that they discussed yesterday was the military. We have to, you know, get children ready for the military. We have to teach people how to be respectful of the government. We have to teach them how to follow rules. And our goal is to have them succeed in life and make good grades. Well, you have to tell us now.

You're going to have to prove how that's different for girls and boys. They're going to have to show statistics and research that show that girls and boys learn differently so that a girl whose hair is long can learn, but a boy cannot. Okay. So when they make the argument, and Matt knows this because he's a defense attorney, when they make the argument, they ask they have to prove in court they have to provide evidence to back up that argument. OK, this is what you're saying. OK, absolutely. I totally I totally understand that. Matt, do you have a question for Ali?? Yeah. First, though, I want to give her flowers. I have actually read your complaint in this case because I had somebody walk in my office that I thought was going to be bringing a similar case. And I want to commend you first. You've done fantastic lawyering from the beginning on how you set this complaint out.

And I want everybody listening to know what makes this case especially hard is the Fifth Circuit. And our courts here have given so much latitude to school districts. It is almost impossible to get a school district basically off the decisions that they make, because the courts give them so much latitude to let them make these asinine rules. So this case is harder than most. So I want to commend you first, Ali. And my question to you is just, how do you all—first, how was the interplay between the Crown Act and any federal claims that you may havefirst, how was the interplay between the Crown Act and any federal

claims that you may have brought, how is that kind of being fleshed out right now in the summary judgment posture? And then, secondly, what has the court said specifically about, you know, why essentially they denied that motion for summary judgment? I know it's a scintilla of evidence in a small amount, but the reason I ask is these substantive and procedural due process claims in schools, they get so much latitude, they just pour them out all the time. I just lost a couple of them. So I know how hard it is to get there. And I'm interested in seeing what the judge's rulings have been in that respect. Yes. Well, first, I would like to say that the Crown Act will have to say this right. I have to I have to say it right.

Technically, in the federal court, there's almost no place for the Crown Act. I'm going to tell you why. The Crown Act is a act and a law that is for all races. Anyone can utilize it. It gives you race protection, but it's going to go. It's going to go along with anyone who commonly wears those types of hairstyles. So that we're not using a form of reverse racism because, you know, we've had issues with affirmative action and things being overturned and trying to use equal protection against us. Right. So when the law was written, they made sure not to typically use race so that any race can use it, although it has race protection. So, with that being said, it won't be within the claim now, right, because we don't have a race claim. And technically, the Crown Act doesn't protect only blacks. protects anyone who has that type of hair, anyone who needs to wear that type of hair,

so that we can get around that reverse racism argument that we know they are going to try to throw out there. But the issue with the Crown Act is, and I tell people this, there's no carve-out. They're trying to carve out an exception that doesn't exist. And we know, you know, being lawyers, the way that laws are written, you have to put the exception within the law. So if you're looking at a Sikh, a Punjabi individual, a Navajo, in Barbas Hill ISD, and they have been deposed in the past, they're allowing those students to wear their locks long.

And they may allow, yes, and they're arguing, although we don't have the evidence, that they have allowed other blacks to wear their hair long. Our thought process is those blacks are running underneath a religious exemption, but we don't need that religious exemption. That is the purpose for the Crown Act, because our culture is embedded in who we are, not necessarily a religion. We may be different religions, but we all wear locks and we're all spiritual, which is why there's no religious foothold to it. However, if you look at a religious exemption and you honor it and you don't make them cut their Navajo braids above the earlobes and whatnot, then you can't do it to someone underneath the Crown Act. So that's the implication on the

state side behind it. Okay. So very quickly here, two quick questions came to mind. Number one, you mentioned that the school was saying they have the standards for the hair because people may go into the military. They're trying to teach them discipline, things like this, right? But the military, if I'm correct, has relaxed their standards on hair to at least some branches. Don't they allow braids now? You are correct. And one of the, it was a complete, I couldn't believe they said it because number one, Bartleville is a public school. It is not a military school by any stretch of imagination. Yes. And it's not private. And so, and people are forced to go there. I mean, you know, if you don't go to school, you're, you can wind up with severe consequences and this is

the law. Therefore, they can't impose these unreasonable restrictions on people going to a public school. And the problem is, I believe that Barbers Hill thinks that they're not—they forget that they're not a private school. And counsel is right. It's hard. I mean, we're fighting cases from the 1970s here. They've left schools alone for a long time. But one of the problems now is we are edging up and accepting differences now. And because of that, and you have children that are identifying different ways. And I honestly believe Barbers Hill wanted to get a jump on it. And they wanted to go ahead and start banning these particular children before it came to fruition, my next thing.

Okay. Excellent. Excellent. And the school, just for the record, the school does allow braids and locks, right? But they're saying that they can't be below your eyebrows or below your earlobes. Am I correct? That is their argument. But if that is the true argument, then we go back to what you started off with. Then why is him gathering it an issue? Right. If he puts the hair up, why is that an issue? Absolute. Absolute.

Okay. So what are the next steps here in this case? You just came out of court. The judge, you have some new developments you just shared with us. What are the next steps in this case that you can share with us? We are going to have Barbers Hill look underneath every rock on Barbers Hill and give us the stats. I mean, they've already said that there are none, but we get a chance to ask them. And we want to see what statistics they're looking at, what research they looked at at the time that they employed this rule, because it honestly doesn't make sense.

I don't know the difference between girls and boys, and I don't understand why you would let a boy wear his hair long. I mean, I'm sorry, a girl wear her hair long but not allow a boy. To me, it doesn't make sense. And that's what we're getting ready to do. We are getting ready to depose them, and we are going to ask them for the statistics. We are going to have to get information about the students, the individuals who have been granted exemptions, to see what exemption they're running underneath. So now we are getting to the nitty-gritty, and they will not like that. They have fought us tooth and nail in all three cases of discovery.

Well, one question. Attorney Allie Booker, keep us up to date on this, and keep us up to date on this, because we know this is a big case, okay? Yes, sir, we'll do. Can I ask one more question, Michael? I think we're out of time, Matt. I'm getting a wrap-up call. OK, quick question.

A quick question. Go ahead, Matt. Just a question real quick is, did y'all bring a Minnell claim? And if so, how are they defending the constitutionality of this policy? And I ask because this is exactly right for for the idea that you can't, you know, have an equal application and you're going to have some constitutional issues. So is that a part of your case? I don't recall from your complaint. It is not, but they have raised it. And what they have stated is that just because they are a school, they meet intermediate scrutiny. So this will be very interesting because that is not

the law. Right. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Attorney Allie Booker, well, keep us posted on this case. Okay. Yes. And happy birthday to Darrell as well. Absolutely. All right. All right, Matt. Hey, thanks for hanging with us today, Matt. We know Roland had to leave early. Thanks for watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. I'm Michael M. Hotel. Holla. Have a great weekend. Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches.

I'm real revolutionary right now. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal.

See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time't be black on media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.