The Breakfast Club - Gary Chambers Jr On Backwards American Policies, Taking Back Legislative Power, US Senate Run + More
Episode Date: June 28, 2022Politician Gary Chambers Jr. joins The Breakfast Club and discusses Backwards American Policies, Taking Back Legislative Power, US Senate Run + MoreSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
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                                         Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show,
                                         
                                         where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more.
                                         
                                         After those runs, the conversations keep going.
                                         
                                         That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about.
                                         
                                         It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories,
                                         
                                         their journeys, and the thoughts that
                                         
                                         arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app,
                                         
                                         Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
    
                                         Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16, 2017,
                                         
                                         was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks.
                                         
                                         She exposed the culture of crime and corruption
                                         
                                         that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state.
                                         
                                         Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app,
                                         
                                         Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle.
                                         
                                         We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other.
                                         
                                         So join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
    
                                         On Thanksgiving Day 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida.
                                         
                                         And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba?
                                         
                                         Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him.
                                         
                                         Or stay with his relatives in Miami?
                                         
                                         Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story,
                                         
                                         on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
                                         Hi, I'm Marie.
                                         
                                         And I'm Sydney.
                                         
    
                                         And we're Mess.
                                         
                                         Well, not a mess, but on our podcast called Mess, we celebrate all things messy.
                                         
                                         But the gag is not everything is a mess.
                                         
                                         Sometimes it's just living.
                                         
                                         Yeah.
                                         
                                         Things like JLo on her third divorce.
                                         
                                         Living.
                                         
                                         Girls trip to Miami.
                                         
    
                                         Mess.
                                         
                                         Breaking up with your girlfriend while on Instagram live.
                                         
                                         Living.
                                         
                                         It's kind of mess.
                                         
                                         Yeah.
                                         
                                         Well, you get it.
                                         
                                         Got it.
                                         
                                         Live, love, mess. It's kind of mess Yeah Well you get it Got it Live love mess
                                         
    
                                         Listen to mess
                                         
                                         With Sydney Washington
                                         
                                         And Marie Faustin
                                         
                                         On iHeartRadio app
                                         
                                         Apple Podcasts
                                         
                                         Or wherever you get
                                         
                                         Your podcasts
                                         
                                         Wake that ass up
                                         
    
                                         In the morning
                                         
                                         The Breakfast Club
                                         
                                         Morning everybody
                                         
                                         It's DJ Envy
                                         
                                         Angela Yee
                                         
                                         Charlamagne Tha Guy
                                         
                                         We are The Breakfast Club We got a special guest Joining us today Yes indeed Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy.
                                         
                                         We are The Breakfast Club.
                                         
    
                                         We got a special guest joining us today.
                                         
                                         Yes, indeed.
                                         
                                         The brother Gary Chambers Jr.
                                         
                                         Welcome back, brother.
                                         
                                         Thank you.
                                         
                                         Thank you.
                                         
                                         I appreciate y'all having me.
                                         
                                         Running for U.S. Senate in Louisiana.
                                         
    
                                         Yes, sir.
                                         
                                         Wanted to have you on, man, just because, Jesus Christ, what the hell is happening, man?
                                         
                                         It's wild.
                                         
                                         It's wild.
                                         
                                         You know, I can't tell if it's 2022 or 1873. Wow. The logic of the Supreme Court today, I think, is comparative to the Supreme Court in the 1800s. How do we get
                                         
                                         Supreme Court justices? The U.S. Senate. They vote and approve these people and they send them there.
                                         
                                         And these folks have worked for 50 years to get to this point.
                                         
                                         And I think that a lot of us thought it was a game that our rights could be stripped away.
                                         
    
                                         But this is step one. And to every black or brown person in America, if white men will take the rights of their own women and daughters from them.
                                         
                                         What about you? That's right. Let's talk about that big picture view,
                                         
                                         because today it is Roe versus Wade. But like you said, this is just the beginning. So what
                                         
                                         are your thoughts on just the Supreme Court overall and what it is they could potentially do?
                                         
                                         I think I'm going to go to the solution first. The solution is we have to pack the court.
                                         
                                         Yes. There's a lot of folks who are talking about not doing so. But that is the answer.
                                         
                                         The Supreme Court was not always the numbers that it is.
                                         
                                         Look in the history book and read.
                                         
    
                                         The reality is gay rights, voting rights, policing in America,
                                         
                                         there was just a ruling on Miranda rights by the Supreme Court.
                                         
                                         That went under the rug, too.
                                         
                                         There's a ruling about gun rights at the same time that they are stripping away women's rights.
                                         
                                         They're expanding gun rights while people are having a gun violence epidemic as well as mass shootings in this country.
                                         
                                         And so I think that we are headed backwards.
                                         
                                         Even the congresswoman making the statement the other night, thanking President Trump for protecting white life.
                                         
                                         Right. And then saying that it wasn't that wasn't what she was saying.
                                         
    
                                         The right to life. That's a lie. Yeah. She knew what she was saying.
                                         
                                         And everybody cheered when they heard white life, too. Correct. Crazy.
                                         
                                         Because she clapped. She clapped for herself.
                                         
                                         The mind thought and said what it was prepared to say inside. It came out. It just slipped out.
                                         
                                         And so, you know, you could walk it back all you want to. But this is the reality we're dealing with.
                                         
                                         And when you talk about packing the courts, who has the authority to do that?
                                         
                                         Because Joe Biden, they're saying, is reluctant and does not want to.
                                         
                                         The Supreme Court, I mean, the Senate and the president together.
                                         
    
                                         If the Senate decides that they want to change legislation to expand the court, the president has to approve that.
                                         
                                         And if Joe Biden doesn't want to do that, then he shouldn't be the president.
                                         
                                         So what can people do? Because we talk about they said, you know, everybody heard what happened over the weekend.
                                         
                                         Everybody goes, vote, vote.
                                         
                                         But for the last couple of years, they say that we had a record number of minorities come out and vote.
                                         
                                         So what can people do?
                                         
                                         So let me quantify that.
                                         
                                         We vote for the president.
                                         
    
                                         But when it comes to legislative seats, we sit on our tail.
                                         
                                         The senator that I'm running against, John Kennedy, and I sent these numbers to Charlemagne the other day.
                                         
                                         He was elected in 2018. Twenty six percent of black voters in New Orleans showed up.
                                         
                                         Thirty six percent of black voters in Baton Rouge showed up. Twenty six percent of black voters in Shreveport showed up.
                                         
                                         He won with five hundred and thirty six thousand votes and then nine hundred thousand registered black voters in the state of Louisiana.
                                         
                                         If black folks alone had showed up, John Kennedy wouldn't be in the U.S. Senate.
                                         
                                         That's another number that we have that helps us to pass all of these things.
                                         
                                         You can't just have 50 votes when you've got two U.S. senators who are voting against
                                         
    
                                         you consistently in Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, and you need to expand the margins.
                                         
                                         The solution is Charles Booker in Kentucky.
                                         
                                         The solution is Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin. It's me in Louisiana.
                                         
                                         It is Big John in Pennsylvania. Right.
                                         
                                         There are people who are running right now who share the same values, who have the same conviction.
                                         
                                         And they're not moderate Democrats. They believe that when you get power, you do something with the power that you're given.
                                         
                                         What's going on in Louisiana with Roe v. Wade?
                                         
                                         Because I know now it's a state-by-state decision.
                                         
    
                                         So we have one of the worst laws in the country as it relates to this.
                                         
                                         We only had three abortion clinics in the entire state.
                                         
                                         They're all shut down.
                                         
                                         One in Baton Rouge, one in New Orleans, and one in Shreveport.
                                         
                                         All three of them instantly closed because we had a trigger law.
                                         
                                         Signed into law
                                         
                                         by a moderate Democrat.
                                         
                                         OK, in Louisiana, we don't have a single woman currently in the state Senate that is pro
                                         
    
                                         choice, black or white.
                                         
                                         That's crazy.
                                         
                                         OK, so when you process that, it is because the masses of us stay home and let a minority of us decide who represents the majority of us.
                                         
                                         And so that's the problem in Louisiana.
                                         
                                         So women in Louisiana have no reproductive rights at this point.
                                         
                                         And who does that affect the most when it comes to women in Louisiana?
                                         
                                         Just to break that down.
                                         
                                         That affects black people, black women the most.
                                         
    
                                         It affects brown women.
                                         
                                         It affects poor people across the board.
                                         
                                         Louisiana is the 50th ranked state in the nation.
                                         
                                         So we have a huge poor population of Black and white people.
                                         
                                         It will affect them the most.
                                         
                                         Because if you have somebody who's in New Iberia, Louisiana, who gets pregnant and doesn't
                                         
                                         want to have that baby, that person now has to go to New Mexico or Illinois are the closest
                                         
                                         places that they can go.
                                         
    
                                         If I can't afford $350, $400 for a procedure in my state, how do I afford an $800 plane ticket, a $300 hotel room, and the procedure that I have to do?
                                         
                                         All of that, absolutely.
                                         
                                         And you're not going to go by yourself.
                                         
                                         Somebody has to come with you, so that person has to get a flight also.
                                         
                                         It becomes an impossible situation for women in our state.
                                         
                                         And to men, okay, you should be concerned, okay?
                                         
                                         There's a lot of men who have unprotected sex in this country.
                                         
                                         They're going to go after contraceptives.
                                         
    
                                         They've already said this.
                                         
                                         Clarence Thomas has already said that he believes that they should look at what we do as far as money on contraceptives.
                                         
                                         And then not to mention people who don't have the money to travel, they may try to find another means of having an abortion that would be illegal and also unsafe.
                                         
                                         I watched this documentary, The Janes, on HBO Max recently
                                         
                                         about abortion procedures in Chicago before Roe v. Wade.
                                         
                                         And there were terrible things that women went through.
                                         
                                         And I encourage everybody to go watch it because there's a perspective that we just don't know, especially as men.
                                         
                                         The emotional capacity of how women were treated, women having to do sexual favors in order to have a procedure.
                                         
    
                                         I'm a father of a 12 year old daughter. All right.
                                         
                                         I want my daughter to grow up, to have the ability to make whatever decisions in her life she chooses to make.
                                         
                                         That it would be
                                         
                                         the same if i had a son right america has not afforded that and and the reality is black people
                                         
                                         have only had their rights since the 60s and women have only had their rights in this country since
                                         
                                         the 70s so when we say that all of these sexist and racist things are ages ago. No. Roe v. Wade passed 12 years before I was born.
                                         
                                         That's right.
                                         
                                         Right?
                                         
    
                                         That's not a massive amount of time.
                                         
                                         My father was born without all of his constitutional rights.
                                         
                                         Right?
                                         
                                         That's not slavery.
                                         
                                         That impacts our lifetime.
                                         
                                         And I am the first generation in my family born with all my rights,
                                         
                                         while America tells us, oh, this is the greatest country on Earth.
                                         
                                         Since when?
                                         
    
                                         Exactly.
                                         
                                         That's why that's that's the problem with guys like President Biden.
                                         
                                         Right.
                                         
                                         They believe in the institution of America so much.
                                         
                                         But he's a straight white male.
                                         
                                         It's always worked for him.
                                         
                                         Since the founding, since the Constitution, you know, Frederick Douglass gave a speech about what is the 4th of July to the slave? What
                                         
                                         is the 4th of July to the Negro? We're going into Essence weekend, 4th of July weekend,
                                         
    
                                         next weekend. What do we have to celebrate about America today? Gas prices high as hell,
                                         
                                         bread, milk, your energy bill, you're taking away people's rights, you're building an unjust
                                         
                                         government and then telling us to be excited about it.
                                         
                                         No, I'm not with it. You know, you said something earlier about using power.
                                         
                                         And I asked you this this weekend. But, you know, we know elections have consequences.
                                         
                                         But I want to know what consequences consequences worse.
                                         
                                         Republicans who get in office and abuse power are Democrats.
                                         
                                         We put in office who don't use that power to protect us from that abuse.
                                         
    
                                         In my eyes, there's no difference between the two.
                                         
                                         If you're not helping advance the cause of people, the people that you represent,
                                         
                                         you're no different than the devil that we're fighting.
                                         
                                         That's why we have to be intentional about putting a demand on people up front
                                         
                                         and then making sure that there's the accountability measures.
                                         
                                         If you elect a president but you don't elect a House and a Senate that's going to check
                                         
                                         that president, I don't care if they're in your party or out of your party, you're never going
                                         
                                         to accomplish anything. I don't believe in blind political loyalty. I just don't believe in it.
                                         
    
                                         You give somebody a vote and then you hold them accountable after you give them that vote. And
                                         
                                         then if you don't do what you say you're going to do, we don't reelect you. The other problem is we
                                         
                                         have too many elected officials who have stayed too long.
                                         
                                         Their ideology and their view of the world is different than that of us. And we have to inherit
                                         
                                         their decisions, right? Some of them are going to be gone in 10, 15 years. And we'll be here for the
                                         
                                         next 50 years dealing with decisions that they made today. And what I would hope they would do
                                         
                                         is consider retiring. I'm not going to call out any of our favorite black or white older politicians that have been there since the 80s or the 90s.
                                         
                                         But how long are you going to stay?
                                         
    
                                         And the second question is, how long are we going to vote for?
                                         
                                         Yeah.
                                         
                                         You know, at some point we have to be accountable to ourselves that if I'm giving you numbers saying that in the Senate race, 26 percent of black voters in New Orleans showed up.
                                         
                                         We gave them the election.
                                         
                                         We gave it to him.
                                         
                                         You know, and let me say this.
                                         
                                         We gave it to him in part because the state party in Louisiana gave us a white Democrat
                                         
                                         that black voters did not want to vote for.
                                         
    
                                         Also, that's a part of the conversation.
                                         
                                         He's a moderate white Democrat, a moderate white Democrat that black folks had no relationship
                                         
                                         with.
                                         
                                         There's a moderate white Democrat that black folks have no relationship
                                         
                                         running against me.
                                         
                                         Right.
                                         
                                         What will the party do?
                                         
                                         Because the country is on the line at this point.
                                         
    
                                         We don't have time to play these games.
                                         
                                         And see,
                                         
                                         that's what bothers me too.
                                         
                                         It's like,
                                         
                                         okay,
                                         
                                         if we know we have these moderate white Democrats or these blue dog
                                         
                                         Democrats,
                                         
                                         as they call them,
                                         
    
                                         why not call them out?
                                         
                                         Like,
                                         
                                         why not say,
                                         
                                         look,
                                         
                                         look,
                                         
                                         we don't want y'all supporting him.
                                         
                                         We want y'all supporting this person because this person is going to actually get into the Senate,
                                         
                                         get into the House and, you know, vote to make change.
                                         
    
                                         Well, folks like myself do do that.
                                         
                                         Consistently, I've run against them to try to put them out of office.
                                         
                                         We have to have the resources.
                                         
                                         There are people challenging these people all over the country.
                                         
                                         We're not raising the money that the establishment Democrats
                                         
                                         are raising. We need to
                                         
                                         see the people who are making
                                         
                                         all this noise right now about caring about
                                         
    
                                         this issue showing up for
                                         
                                         us in hosting fundraisers,
                                         
                                         in galvanizing voters, because
                                         
                                         the candidates that are out here
                                         
                                         championing these causes cannot
                                         
                                         win without the resources. Charles Booker will
                                         
                                         not be victorious in Kentucky
                                         
                                         if he doesn't get every black influencer in the state of Kentucky
                                         
    
                                         to step up and have his back in a meaningful way,
                                         
                                         to at concerts register voters, right, to at clubs register voters,
                                         
                                         because brothers and sisters that's going to the club,
                                         
                                         when you leave the club, if you're not thinking about the consequences
                                         
                                         of your decisions that night, you no longer have the right to get
                                         
                                         the procedures or a Plan B pill in certain
                                         
                                         states. Has it been difficult for you
                                         
                                         to get influential people
                                         
    
                                         in Louisiana to galvanize for you?
                                         
                                         No, because we work really hard at it.
                                         
                                         We are aggressive at going
                                         
                                         after the influencers in our
                                         
                                         state, and we're grateful for their support, but I
                                         
                                         know that we could have more, and we
                                         
                                         could have more people who you don't have to understand at all to recognize that we're in a bad place.
                                         
                                         And what you have the capacity to do is raise money and influence people that. And it's that
                                         
    
                                         simple. What we need the people who have influence to do is raise money and influence people so that
                                         
                                         those of us who understand the policies and that you have seen consistently go out there and do the work, go in there and do it because a zebra does not change its stripes.
                                         
                                         If you have somebody who as a candidate was not out there fighting for your rights before, you never saw him at a protest.
                                         
                                         You never saw him advocating for certain things. Why do you expect them to do that when they become an elected official? Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series,
                                         
                                         The Running Interview Show,
                                         
                                         where I run with celebrities, athletes,
                                         
                                         entrepreneurs, and more.
                                         
                                         After those runs, the conversations keep going.
                                         
    
                                         That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about.
                                         
                                         It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories,
                                         
                                         their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once
                                         
                                         we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout?
                                         
                                         Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the
                                         
                                         people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run
                                         
                                         and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun.
                                         
                                         Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
    
                                         Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired? Depressed? A little bit revolutionary?
                                         
                                         Consider this. Start your own country.
                                         
                                         I planted the flag.
                                         
                                         I just kind of looked out of like, this is mine.
                                         
                                         I own this.
                                         
                                         It's surprisingly easy.
                                         
                                         There are 55 gallons of water for 500 pounds of concrete.
                                         
                                         Everybody's doing it.
                                         
    
                                         I am King Ernest Emmanuel.
                                         
                                         I am the Queen of Laudonia.
                                         
                                         I'm Jackson I, King of Capraburg.
                                         
                                         I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Mentonia.
                                         
                                         Be part of a great colonial tradition.
                                         
                                         The Waikana tribe own country.
                                         
                                         My forefathers did that themselves.
                                         
                                         What could go wrong?
                                         
    
                                         No country willingly gives up their territory.
                                         
                                         I was making a rocket with a black powder, you know, with explosive warhead.
                                         
                                         Oh my God.
                                         
                                         What is that?
                                         
                                         Bullets.
                                         
                                         Bullets.
                                         
                                         We need help!
                                         
                                         We need help!
                                         
    
                                         We still have the off-road portion to go.
                                         
                                         Listen to Escape from Zakistan.
                                         
                                         And we're losing daylight fast.
                                         
                                         That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
                                         As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions. but you just don't know what is going to come for you.
                                         
                                         Alicia Keys opens up about conquering doubt, learning to trust herself and leaning into her dreams.
                                         
                                         I think a lot of times we are built to doubt the possibilities for ourselves.
                                         
                                         For self-preservation and protection. It was literally
                                         
    
                                         that step by step. And so I discovered that that is how we get where we're going.
                                         
                                         This increment of small, determined moments.
                                         
                                         Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love.
                                         
                                         I forgive myself. It's okay. Like grace.
                                         
                                         Have grace with yourself.
                                         
                                         You're trying your best
                                         
                                         and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing.
                                         
                                         Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before.
                                         
    
                                         Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty
                                         
                                         on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
                                         
                                         or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
                                         Hi, I'm Marie.
                                         
                                         And I'm Sydney.
                                         
                                         And we're Mess.
                                         
                                         Well, not a mess, but on our podcast called Mess, we celebrate all things messy.
                                         
                                         But the gag is, not everything is a mess.
                                         
    
                                         Sometimes it's just living.
                                         
                                         Yeah, things like J-Lo on her third divorce.
                                         
                                         Living.
                                         
                                         Girls' trip to Miami.
                                         
                                         Mess.
                                         
                                         Ozempic.
                                         
                                         Messy, skinny living.
                                         
                                         Restaurant stealing a birthday cake. Mess. Ozempic. Messy, skinny living. Restaurant stealing a birthday cake.
                                         
    
                                         Mess.
                                         
                                         Wait, what flavor was the cake, though?
                                         
                                         Okay, that's a good question.
                                         
                                         Hooking up with someone in accounting and then getting a promotion.
                                         
                                         Living.
                                         
                                         Breaking up with your girlfriend while on Instagram Live.
                                         
                                         Living.
                                         
                                         It's kind of mess.
                                         
    
                                         Yeah.
                                         
                                         Well, you get it.
                                         
                                         Got it?
                                         
                                         Live, love, mess
                                         
                                         Listen to Mess with Sydney Washington and Marie Faustin
                                         
                                         On iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
                                         
                                         Or wherever you get your podcasts
                                         
                                         Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha
                                         
    
                                         And I go by the name Q Ward
                                         
                                         And we'd like you to join us each week for our show Civic Cipher
                                         
                                         That's right, we're going to discuss social issues
                                         
                                         Especially those that affect black and brown people,
                                         
                                         but in a way that informs and empowers all people to hopefully create better allies.
                                         
                                         Think of it as a black show for non-black people.
                                         
                                         We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you
                                         
                                         the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle.
                                         
    
                                         Exactly.
                                         
                                         Whether you're black, Asian, White, Latinx,
                                         
                                         Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, you name it. If you stand with us, then we stand with you. Let's discuss
                                         
                                         the stories and conduct the interviews that will help us create a more empathetic, accountable,
                                         
                                         and equitable America. You are all our brothers and sisters, and we're inviting you to join us
                                         
                                         for Civic Cipher each and every Saturday with myself, Ramses Jha, Q Ward, and some of the greatest minds in America.
                                         
                                         Listen to Civic Cipher every Saturday on the iHeartRadio app,
                                         
                                         Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
    
                                         Now, you also talk about expanding the gun laws. Break that down for people that don't know.
                                         
                                         Well, so what the Supreme Court did was basically say that states don't have the capacity to restrict whether or not somebody can conceal carry,
                                         
                                         that people can have a right to bear arms wherever they are in this country, that you can restrict certain locations like churches and schools.
                                         
                                         And that should be looked at. But Clarence Thomas even suggested we have to be careful when we look at what we're examining there.
                                         
                                         I posted a tweet the other day that I'm trying to find out
                                         
                                         where's the trade option for Thomas because I'm tired of it.
                                         
                                         You know, how do we get rid of this guy
                                         
                                         and we get rid of him by making sure that the next time
                                         
    
                                         there's a vacancy on the Supreme Court
                                         
                                         that there's a Democratic majority there
                                         
                                         that passes somebody forward that's going to be about justice, right?
                                         
                                         It's going to happen. They won't live
                                         
                                         forever. But do we have
                                         
                                         the mechanisms of power when
                                         
                                         it's time to make that change?
                                         
                                         Even when we have the mechanisms of power, we don't use them.
                                         
    
                                         For example, you know,
                                         
                                         RBG should have
                                         
                                         stepped down. She should have retired.
                                         
                                         And they should have forced her to step down.
                                         
                                         There's a lot of people who love to talk about
                                         
                                         Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
                                         
                                         and I don't even like giving her the RBG title because, you know,
                                         
                                         that puts a lot of stank on her name that I don't think is necessary.
                                         
    
                                         Like revolutionary black gangsta.
                                         
                                         She stayed on the court for selfish reasons, in my opinion,
                                         
                                         and nobody wants to say that.
                                         
                                         Did she do some great things while she was on the court?
                                         
                                         Yeah, but a broke clock can be right twice a day.
                                         
                                         That and when Mitch McConnell blocked, you know, Obama's pick in 2016 and saying it was
                                         
                                         too close to the election.
                                         
                                         Why didn't they push back?
                                         
    
                                         Why did they just allow themselves to get bullied?
                                         
                                         They did push back when Obama was robbed of their right to appoint a justice.
                                         
                                         Now, the deal is Republicans show you what to do when they get power.
                                         
                                         Yes.
                                         
                                         That when they get power, they are not playing by the rules.
                                         
                                         This whole notion that we would not end the filibuster. If Republicans were there today and they wanted to do something, they are not playing by the rules. This whole notion that we would not end the filibuster.
                                         
                                         If Republicans were there today and they wanted to do something,
                                         
                                         they are going to break the rule of the filibuster and they're going to pass it.
                                         
    
                                         Because at the end of the day, it's a stupid rule anyway.
                                         
                                         And the filibuster wasn't even always there.
                                         
                                         You know, these are things that we don't know in history,
                                         
                                         and they don't teach us that these are rules that were devised
                                         
                                         in order to make sure that they made the process
                                         
                                         more difficult for people like you and I to have rights. Listen, we know why Joe Manchin is not
                                         
                                         going to vote to get rid of the filibuster because he's he's just Democratic name only. But why
                                         
                                         wouldn't, you know, Joe Biden want to do things like expand the court? Why isn't he calling for
                                         
    
                                         the filibuster? I think and this is in fairness to the president. He's an old white man who went to the Senate in his 30s, right,
                                         
                                         in the 70s, and spent his entire adulthood growing up among these people who he refers to.
                                         
                                         And that's his lived experience. We cannot rob him of his lived experience. What we have to decide
                                         
                                         is we don't want people with that lived experience. You know, he has a right to believe what he believes.
                                         
                                         We have a right to not vote for him.
                                         
                                         If you will not change to the will of the people, it is our will by our vote. And if we don't want if we don't want what we see, then he needs to be challenged in
                                         
                                         2024.
                                         
                                         He needs to be primary.
                                         
    
                                         When it comes to these January 6 hearings that we've been watching, what can potentially
                                         
                                         happen to Donald Trump?
                                         
                                         Do you think anything will happen at all?
                                         
                                         Do you think he'll run for president again?
                                         
                                         I think Trump will possibly run for president again.
                                         
                                         And I don't think that they're going to do Trump anything.
                                         
                                         Man, they already said it.
                                         
                                         They already said it.
                                         
    
                                         What does it, to some degree, America, white America is going to say,
                                         
                                         how does it benefit us to arrest a former president of this country?
                                         
                                         That is just going to be their logic, that there is no gain for us in arresting him.
                                         
                                         But for somebody who commits a crime, they should be arrested no matter what your job is.
                                         
                                         Yeah, but we know the rules ain't fair in America.
                                         
                                         That's right.
                                         
                                         Never have been.
                                         
                                         You saw what Jamie Raskin said yesterday.
                                         
    
                                         He said that charges for Trump or others are not of principal interest.
                                         
                                         He said, we want the American people to know
                                         
                                         the truth so a coup can never
                                         
                                         happen in this country again. I'm like, well, how is
                                         
                                         it not going to happen again if you don't hold the people accountable?
                                         
                                         And he shouldn't even be able to run for president again.
                                         
                                         At minimum. He's going to run for president again.
                                         
                                         At minimum, it shouldn't even be allowed.
                                         
    
                                         I think that we have
                                         
                                         to recognize
                                         
                                         that in the hierarchy
                                         
                                         of rich billionaires and rich white folks in America,
                                         
                                         that they're just, they play by different rules. And if we want those rules to change,
                                         
                                         our power is there. We just have to utilize it. What do you tell somebody who voted for Biden,
                                         
                                         they feel like Biden did absolutely positively nothing, nothing that he agreed, nothing that
                                         
                                         he said he was going to do. Now, I don't think Biden is going to run again. Maybe he will. Maybe he won't.
                                         
    
                                         But then you have Donald Trump running again. So what do you tell those people now?
                                         
                                         I would tell them that even on his worst day, he's better than the other garbage that we had.
                                         
                                         And that if you want better, that the generations before us had to put in work to elect better leaders to do.
                                         
                                         This is the work. this this whole logic that
                                         
                                         things are just going to magically change is bs they never have uh we have to be committed to
                                         
                                         saying that we want to see change happen and doing the work we have to elect people on the local
                                         
                                         level the state level and the federal level and the legislative powers is where we really have
                                         
                                         uh the most the most of a deficit i believe And if we pay attention, we always pay attention to the executives,
                                         
    
                                         the mayor, the governor, the president.
                                         
                                         But the people who control the levels of power are your congresspeople,
                                         
                                         your senators, your city council people.
                                         
                                         And we just stay out of those races.
                                         
                                         Ask the next person who comes on your show,
                                         
                                         who is their city council member, school board member, state rep, state senator?
                                         
                                         Ask them, do they know him?
                                         
                                         I can tell you my school board member is Darius Landis.
                                         
    
                                         I can tell you that my house member is Edmund Jordan.
                                         
                                         I can tell you that my senator is Barrow.
                                         
                                         I can tell you that my congressperson is Carter.
                                         
                                         I can tell you every elected official from the lowest local level all the way up to the
                                         
                                         highest.
                                         
                                         And if you don't know that, that is a part of the problem.
                                         
                                         That's one of the reasons I wanted to have you up here, because, you know, I look and
                                         
                                         I see these establishment Democrats.
                                         
    
                                         They never seem to support the change agents.
                                         
                                         Right. Whether it's Nina Turner, whether it's yourself, like when I even ask about
                                         
                                         you, like, oh, they can't win.
                                         
                                         Well, why?
                                         
                                         I can't win if you don't help me.
                                         
                                         Exactly.
                                         
                                         If I'm telling you that this man won with 536,000 votes, that there are 900,000 registered black voters in Louisiana,
                                         
                                         1.2 million eligible black voters, and 30% of white voters in our state consistently vote for Democrats,
                                         
    
                                         and we have a Democrat elected as governor, how come somebody black can't do it?
                                         
                                         That's right. Because we don't have
                                         
                                         $10 million. Because the
                                         
                                         Democrat that's elected in my state statewide,
                                         
                                         the difference between him, there was a
                                         
                                         sister named Gwen Collins Greenup that ran for
                                         
                                         Secretary of State in Louisiana. She got 41%
                                         
                                         of the vote. She had $9,000
                                         
    
                                         in the bank. In the same year,
                                         
                                         John Bel Edwards won the governor's race.
                                         
                                         He had $10 million.
                                         
                                         That's the difference.
                                         
                                         The money gives you the ability.
                                         
                                         These pens, these shirts, these mailers, these commercials, they're not free.
                                         
                                         And the consultants and the staff that you see, you have to pay for the gas.
                                         
                                         You have to pay for everything that you see is a cost to it.
                                         
    
                                         And so for those of us who want to see it happen,
                                         
                                         this resource is not for me to get rich.
                                         
                                         Matter of fact, most of those who are running for office really championing, they're not winning financially.
                                         
                                         They are fighting for something bigger than them to get to a point to help all of us.
                                         
                                         And what we have to recognize is if they're going to make that sacrifice, what's the sacrifice that we're going to make?
                                         
                                         That's right. Did you get a lot of backlash for your promo that was in support of 2A rights?
                                         
                                         I thought it was right on the money. We didn't. We didn't get a lot of backlash for your promo that was in support of 2A rights? I thought it was right on the money.
                                         
                                         We didn't.
                                         
    
                                         We didn't get a lot of negative feedback.
                                         
                                         We didn't get a lot of national exposure to it.
                                         
                                         And I think that we didn't get a lot of national exposure is because we cut straight to the issue.
                                         
                                         That's right.
                                         
                                         I am a, when Buffalo happened, I didn't really know how to respond to that because I have a 76-year-old mother and a 12-year-old daughter, right?
                                         
                                         That my daughter goes to the grocery store with my mother all the time.
                                         
                                         She goes to the grocery store with her mother all the time.
                                         
                                         And when I watched that video and I saw this white dude walk in the store,
                                         
    
                                         shoot these folks, see this white guy?
                                         
                                         The white guy screams.
                                         
                                         He said, well, I'm sorry.
                                         
                                         Don't shoot him and walk out the door, right?
                                         
                                         How do I feel safe with my mama going to the store?
                                         
                                         He had a nigga written on his gun on the gun right so we made a video shooting klansmen to respond to that and we were going to release it
                                         
                                         the day after you've already happened but then you've already happened and we said well we can't
                                         
                                         drop a video with me shooting the klansmen uh under those circumstances and so then we retooled
                                         
    
                                         and we did a school shooter video. But I could not address
                                         
                                         gun rights in America without addressing what happened in Buffalo. And I'm a gun owner. And I
                                         
                                         know that millions of people in this country are gun owners. In Louisiana, since 2000, six million
                                         
                                         guns have been sold in our state. OK, you're not going to get guns away from people. This logic
                                         
                                         that we should just get rid of guns, there are too many guns in America.
                                         
                                         There are more guns than people.
                                         
                                         You're not going to get rid of guns.
                                         
                                         What you can do is have sensible legislation and a process to own a gun that makes it secure
                                         
    
                                         and understands who owns this weapon, and at least we say we try to make sure that responsible people have guns.
                                         
                                         And so if there's a choice between my mother going home,
                                         
                                         my daughter going home, and me going home,
                                         
                                         or you, me and my family going home,
                                         
                                         and I think that any American has the right
                                         
                                         to protect and defend their family,
                                         
                                         but do I believe that people need the ability
                                         
                                         to kill dozens of people in seconds?
                                         
    
                                         No.
                                         
                                         So I was going to ask you,
                                         
                                         so what is your thoughts on semi-automatic weapons
                                         
                                         and rifles and long guns?
                                         
                                         It doesn't matter what my thoughts are on it because there are too many of them out here for us to get rid of them.
                                         
                                         And I think that we need to be realistic with ourselves about that.
                                         
                                         I think that we need to have a process to owning any type of weapon in this country.
                                         
                                         I think that that is realistic legislation.
                                         
    
                                         I think that we can talk idealistic policy and we can talk about what we can actually get done.
                                         
                                         And what we can actually get done is a process of making sure.
                                         
                                         And even it's logic that 18 year olds should be able to get these guns.
                                         
                                         No, they shouldn't. You can join the military if you're 18.
                                         
                                         Yeah, but you get training when you join the military. Right.
                                         
                                         And so if you're going to use a weapon in the confines of a job that you're trained to use it in.
                                         
                                         Cool. But other than that, I don't think 18 year olds should have a gun.
                                         
                                         These are sensible things.
                                         
    
                                         What do you think about the gun safety bill that Biden just signed into law?
                                         
                                         What do you think about that one?
                                         
                                         Like that napkin right there?
                                         
                                         Just a little piece of paper.
                                         
                                         You know, it's not meaningful.
                                         
                                         It's to say that they did something.
                                         
                                         I think the red flag incentives actually have the potential to be beneficial.
                                         
                                         But if you ask any of the organizations that are really doing gun rights
                                         
    
                                         policy work,
                                         
                                         they would tell you that they would prefer much,
                                         
                                         much more. Yeah, I don't agree with nothing
                                         
                                         that says bipartisan nowadays.
                                         
                                         If Bill Cassidy is
                                         
                                         on the thing, who's the other
                                         
                                         senator from Louisiana,
                                         
                                         ain't nothing in it coming out there good for black folk.
                                         
    
                                         Okay? Ain't nothing good
                                         
                                         in it coming out there that's sensible in this country.
                                         
                                         Because he does not care.
                                         
                                         Yeah.
                                         
                                         You know?
                                         
                                         And so telling me that he's a part of it, he's only going to be a part of it if he thinks
                                         
                                         that it's beneficial for the community that he represents.
                                         
                                         I think it's safe to say that the Republican Party is just a party of white supremacists.
                                         
    
                                         It's the Klan.
                                         
                                         That's it.
                                         
                                         It's the Klan.
                                         
                                         And Hersha Walker running in Georgia is just a blackface
                                         
                                         Klan member.
                                         
                                         That's it. If you are a part of the Republican
                                         
                                         Party listening to the things that they are saying
                                         
                                         right now, and here's the other thing.
                                         
    
                                         The top ten states
                                         
                                         in America, seven out
                                         
                                         of ten of them are ran by either Democratic
                                         
                                         governors or Democratic legislators.
                                         
                                         The top bottoms, the top lowest
                                         
                                         states in America are either seven out of the ten of them are Republican legislators or Republican governors.
                                         
                                         So you don't even have to ask my opinion.
                                         
                                         Republican policies are failing.
                                         
    
                                         Look at the Deep South.
                                         
                                         Louisiana, Mississippi is almost completely ran by Republicans in our state legislature, as well as the governorship in Mississippi.
                                         
                                         We have a Democrat governor, but we have a super majority in the legislature and Republicans.
                                         
                                         And we rank 50 and 49.
                                         
                                         So if Republican policies are successful, why aren't they working in Louisiana and Mississippi?
                                         
                                         Why are we failing?
                                         
                                         Why are the number one through three states in this country run by Democrats?
                                         
                                         Why are the bottom three states run by Republicans?
                                         
    
                                         And now how can people support you if they don't know? How can they support you if they don't live in Louisiana and they just want to support you, whether it's financially, whatever they can do, how can they support you?
                                         
                                         They can go to chambersforlouisiana.com to make a contribution. We need contributions. The end of the quarter is coming up. We want to be as strong as possible.
                                         
                                         As we come to this end of the quarter, we need folks to phone bank for us toward the end
                                         
                                         of this summer. We're going to start phone banking heavily. You can call from anywhere in this
                                         
                                         country. You can make calls for us. So you can sign up at chambersforlouisiana.com to volunteer.
                                         
                                         There's a take action tab. You can click for that. There's a donate tab. You can click for
                                         
                                         the contributions. And then leaning on the Democratic Party to step up for us. The National Party and the state party in Louisiana,
                                         
                                         we're the only person with the shot at sending John Kennedy home in this race.
                                         
    
                                         We have proven that we can build a national conversation
                                         
                                         from the worst-ranked state in this country,
                                         
                                         and we need them to get off their ass and do something.
                                         
                                         What do you say to people who say Gary Chambers does not have a chance at victory?
                                         
                                         I'd say they're lying, and how do you know?
                                         
                                         In my last race, I missed it by 1,500 votes.
                                         
                                         Okay?
                                         
                                         If you add up all the other people who ran in the race
                                         
    
                                         that I said for six months,
                                         
                                         for the 90 days we were in the special election,
                                         
                                         I said none of them could win.
                                         
                                         The amount of votes of those people
                                         
                                         was the amount of votes I needed to make it to the runoff.
                                         
                                         Wow.
                                         
                                         And you did mention the Essence Festival is coming up this weekend.
                                         
                                         So are you doing anything?
                                         
    
                                         We have an event Saturday at the Jazz Market.
                                         
                                         We're going to drop out, flyer today.
                                         
                                         Tisha Campbell is actually going to be hosting a day party with us at Essence Festival this Saturday.
                                         
                                         So that's going to be a great thing.
                                         
                                         We want to just connect with people, make sure folks are registered to vote,
                                         
                                         and then just enjoy the culture of our state and our city.
                                         
                                         And we want you to come to Louisiana.
                                         
                                         We want more of you to move to the South.
                                         
    
                                         Saturday where?
                                         
                                         Saturday at the Jazz Market in New Orleans.
                                         
                                         All right, I'm going to pull up.
                                         
                                         I'll be there Saturday.
                                         
                                         I love it, man, because, you know, like I said, I don't understand how when you see people like the Joe Manchins, the cinemas, why Democrats aren't speaking out against them.
                                         
                                         And I don't understand why they're not supporting people like yourself, actual change agents.
                                         
                                         I think we have the capacity in the culture to send them all home.
                                         
                                         We just have to organize to make it happen.
                                         
    
                                         We are the most powerful weapon in this country.
                                         
                                         We show it consistently.
                                         
                                         Every business in this country is trying to figure out how do they capitalize off of us.
                                         
                                         We need to figure out how we mobilize that to make the change we want to see happen for
                                         
                                         all of us.
                                         
                                         And when black people are good in this country, everybody's going to be good.
                                         
                                         That's right.
                                         
                                         There you have it.
                                         
    
                                         Gary Chambers Jr., we appreciate you for joining us and we'll see you this weekend out in New
                                         
                                         Orleans.
                                         
                                         Thank y'all.
                                         
                                         All right.
                                         
                                         It's the Breakfast Club.
                                         
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                                         Hey, guys, I'm Kate Max.
                                         
                                         You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more.
                                         
    
                                         After those runs, the conversations keep going.
                                         
                                         That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about.
                                         
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                                         Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
                                         Hi, I'm Marie. And I'm Sydney. And we're Mess. Well, not a mess, but on our podcast called Mess,
                                         
                                         we celebrate all things messy. But the gag is not everything is a mess.
                                         
                                         Sometimes it's just living.
                                         
                                         Yeah.
                                         
    
                                         Things like J-Lo on her third divorce.
                                         
                                         Living.
                                         
                                         Girl's trip to Miami.
                                         
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                                         Breaking up with your girlfriend while on Instagram Live.
                                         
                                         Living.
                                         
                                         It's kind of mess.
                                         
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                                         Well, you get it.
                                         
                                         Got it.
                                         
                                         Live, love, mess. Yeah. Well, you get it. Got it? Live, love, mess. Listen to Mess with Sydney
                                         
                                         Washington and Marie Faustin on iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
                                         
                                         Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017,
                                         
                                         was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks.
                                         
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                                         Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app,
                                         
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                                         On Thanksgiving Day, 1999,
                                         
                                         five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida.
                                         
                                         And the question was,
                                         
                                         should the boy go back to his father in Cuba?
                                         
                                         Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home,
                                         
                                         and he wanted to take his son with him.
                                         
    
                                         Or stay with
                                         
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                                         Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha.
                                         
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