The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Hill Harper On Senate Run, Who Controls Our Money, Student Debt Relief, Biden Stepping Down + More

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed. We got the brother, Hill Harper. Welcome back, brother. Yes, yes. Yeah, good, good, good, good. Good to be here, man. This is a new studio to me. This is beautiful. I haven't been in this studio.

Now, you've been in about, what, a year and a half? Year and a half. About a year and a half, yeah. It'll be two years in, like, January. Man maybe they gotta pull pull out couch maybe i could just you know exactly this is very nice you got bigger things to be doing man yeah we do senate in michigan run for u.s senate in michigan we're gonna we we got this uh primary augustth, which is a huge deal. Man, it's about turnout. It's a huge challenge to get communities out because so many of our people don't even know what a primary is. People come up to me, man, I'm going to vote for you in November.

I got you. I'm going to vote for you in Kamala in November. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And I'm like, dog, if you don't vote for me August 6th, I won't be on the ballot in November. And in many ways, I blame the Democratic Party for that. They show up with tens of millions of dollars in October saying, save the country. Come on, come on, y'all, turn out.

But they want to place their establishment candidates in the primary. So they want low turnout in the primary. So they're doing no GOTV work. So my campaign literally has to try to educate folks. This is why you need to vote. The primary is actually more important than the general. Because if you can't get the right candidates on the ballot in the general election, then you have a very limited choice.

And therefore, people keep saying, man, nothing changes. Do you think that the Democratic Party wiped their ass with democracy by not having a primary to properly appoint a new uh top of the ticket for president you know i don't know about that i don't know because the time is so tight it's you know you're talking about less than 100 days so you know it's almost that thing you kind of got to get in line and get organized and you know it's something i say all the time about many many of us that are you know more progressive i say man we can agree on nine things disagree on one people like i can't work with them and then

you know the other side they can disagree on nine agree on one and go storm the capital together so so i think that that you know when you look at the reality of the situation and timing wise you got to make a decision and go folks have to line line up, get behind folks, and do that. In that type of process. People were asking for a primary last year, though. They were asking for a primary last year. I mean, listen. I mean, I think in hindsight, if—I mean, we can even go back.

I mean, everything is much clearer in hindsight, right? I mean, Ruth Bader Ginsburg should have stepped down, you know, I mean, and made that decision. And certainly I'm sure there would have been a process of President Biden having being able to do it in a way that, you know, he's getting celebrated and all this. And it didn't feel like it's. But at the end of the day, man, sometimes I just say, you know, God is going to take care of things the way it's going to happen. You know, and that's just it. So so this this process is playing out the way it should absolutely they also said it was a finance thing right because harris's name was on the ticket it's easy to transfer over to transfer the funds over to it so they said that we talked about last year like you know because i've been saying for the longest president biden should step down right like i

just didn't think he could win in november And I thought that was a fair question to ask. Is the Biden-Harris ticket a winnable ticket in November? So I've been asking that. And people were saying last year they should primary him because everybody saw the decline. They saw it. I mean, it was definitely apparent. The question is, you know, was that an obviously?

I mean, come on. I mean, we saw what we saw. You can't unsee what you saw. That's right. Right. You know, my mother's 86 years old. God bless her. She lives with me in Detroit and me and my son. And, you know, she's not moving the way she used to move. Right. And that's not her fault. And she's one of those brilliant people. First black female anesthesiologist, one of the first black female anesthesiologists in the country. But at the end of the day, you know, time.

Can't beat for the time. That's right. Time is won. It's undefeated. Now, there's a video of you 15 years ago. Right. Predicting that Kamala Harris was going to be the president. That's right.

What did you see in her 15 years ago that made you think that before people even knew who she was? I think leadership, tenacity. At that time, in 2007, Barack Obama had asked myself and Kamala to go to Iowa to stump for him, to help him win the Iowa caucus. He felt that if he couldn't win the Iowa caucus, there was no way to win that primary because he was going up against establishment and establishment money, et cetera. And so folks stumped him so we became friends she asked me to contribute to her book which i did eventually i hosted the first fundraiser for her in southern california for her attorney general's race and then did some other things with you know black professionals different things and that's

where that quote was from is i was introducing her to black professionals event. And so you talk about someone with, uh, uh, intelligence, someone who's work ethic, someone who, um, you know, just, just also very passionate about wanting to make the world better and, and figure out ways to do that. And so there was no, you know, in my mind, you know, uh, when I went to Harvard law school with Barack, you know, you, you, you see things in people and you can see just who and how, what they're made of. And there's, you know, you talk about, you know, there's a lot of things that I think that she's going to have to do to appeal, you know, from a Michigan point of view to clean up some of the problems with the Arab and Muslim community in Michigan, et cetera. But she can do that work. There's an opportunity here. She can do that work. She can, I believe, get that done.

I think her rhetoric around Israel and Gaza thus far has been stellar. I really do. Well, not going to the Netanyahu speech was definitely a step in the right direction. That was a step in the right direction, for sure. Absolutely. But even Elaine, I mean, even what she says, she's like, Israel does have the right to defend itself, but we still have to

work towards a ceasefire. We need a ceasefire as well. Watching innocent people get killed, you know. That's right. I mean, I,

and to me, it's so big, it's common sense rhetoric, but for whatever reason, people are afraid to say that. I say it all the time. There's no good war and there's no bad peace.

I mean, that's just a simple fact. We want to save lives. At the end of the day, humanity and human rights have to come first in every discussion. That's for everybody. And the idea of if you say,

you know, when I call for ceasefire, for instance, my social media got ratcheted down by 98%. And this is like last November when I called for it. I was one of the first U.S. Senate candidates in the country to call for it. And the idea that

if you're calling for ceasefire, somehow that's pro-terrorism or anti-Israel or anti-human or this. It's not true. The thing is, I can't stand terrorists. Terrorists, that's that's violence and malevolent. And that's I can't stand hostages. That's violence and malevolence. But I also can't stand carpet bag carpet bombing and ultimately covering places with indiscriminate bombing and killing women and children and in the injury and death death toll. And so it's heartbreaking. I was in a meeting last night in Dearborn in Michigan with a number of folks from the Palestinian community. And their hearts are ripped out because they're seeing their family members. But at the same time, you have a whole set of folks who have hostages have been taken, and their hearts are broken. So there's so much pain and grief.

But the idea is, how do we get to a place where we reduce the level of violence and the level of malevolent behavior? We can get there, but you don't get there through a bomb. We don't get there. We got Governor Whitmer up here, and I'm going to ask you the same thing because, you know, you're in Michigan. How much of an impact do you think that's going to have in November? Because when you see these hundreds of thousands of people who voted uncommitted, you know, during primaries. It's like, what do you think? How are you going to flip that switch in November to be like, you know what?

We're going to show up now. Well, this may sound self-serving, but I think if I can come through and win this primary, we, you know, at the top of the ticket in Michigan, Harris and Harper ticket there, we're able to unify those communities. Because the one thing I'm proud about among many things with our campaign is we'll be able to unify the black community in Michigan, as well as the Arab and Muslim community.

I have the endorsements from, you know, most of the top leaders in Michigan that are from the Arab and Muslim community, as well as the Arab American Political Action Committee, the Arab and Muslim Political Action Committee,

but also all the endorsements from the top black political leaders, which is oftentimes communities that haven't come together. And so we have to figure out a way to unify communities, because when you look back and you look at Dr. King and Jim Crow, you look at Nelson Mandela and apartheid, we're in these types of seminal moments, kairos moments, moments that are inflection points. And this is one of them. And it's but it's reflective of a culture of violence in general. You know, there was two young two young kids, young people that were shot on the east side of Detroit just two weeks ago, 19 other people injured. And so violence is violence, no matter if it happens on the east side of Detroit or if it's happening in Gaza.

Death is death wherever it's happening. And our eyeballs have to be about how do we save humans? How do we create human rights? How do we create opportunity? That has to be our litmus test. It's not about trying to do political posturing. Absolutely. I was going to ask, you know, last time you spoke about it a little bit, but for people that are just tuning in now, you know, a lot of people will say they know you as an actor and a lot of the stuff that you did, but what got you into politics? What made you say,

you know what, I'm going to put this acting bag down, put it on hold for a little bit and make sure my community's straight? You was getting a good acting bag. I mean, the good doctors. Don't remind me. You was getting a lot of good acting bags. Please don't. Please don't remind me. At the end of the day,

when I got into acting, I wanted to be like actors that were activists. Harry Belafonte, Ozzie Davis. I did the movie Get on the Bus with Ozzie. I got to sit next to him for, you know, God rest his soul, for weeks on end. And him just counseling me, talking about when Malcolm X would come to the house. And Dr. King and what he would do. Gil Scott Heron, you know, all this.

And wanted to have impact, you know, in that kind of way that moves the meter. And it's clear that the days through that entertainment lens are gone. There is a level of collusion and corruption in our federal government through basically because of Citizens United. I mean, you know, many people think that the reaction to the Obama presidency was the Tea Party. I think that's the beard. The true reaction to the Obama presidency was Citizens United in 2010 that said money is speech, called corporations people, and allowed unfettered dark money to rain into our political system and our electoral politics. Break that down for politics for dummies now.

Okay, okay, so check it out so so there was a court ruling that basically said no matter who you are you could spend unlimited money to get somebody elected and you don't even have to report who it is and how is that's called dark money that's dark money so like a foreign country could be doing it if they if they if they wash the money through the process yes they could and so you don't know every day. Just folks out there. Every time you see an ad that says paid for by Patriots for America or paid for by moving Michigan for, you know, pay whatever that is. Just think a dark money or think whatever that is, because you don't know. It's called an independent expenditure. You don't know who paid for that. You don't know what it is. And the threats that have come at me, I've called for like, for instance, shutting down a line five, which is a oil pipeline that runs in our Great Lakes. Right.

Twenty one percent of the world's freshwater supply touches Michigan shores. And Canada gets most of the benefit of this oil. I want to shut it down. So Enbridge, the oil company has they have independent expenditures. Right. So they want to make sure someone like me doesn't get elected. Right. And they're going to spend money to do that, to smear me, smear your name, et cetera. Right. So because they have an interest. Same thing with the NRA in the gun lobby. Same thing with AIPAC, the American Israel Political Action Committee. Same thing with big oil, big pharma. Big pharma spent $375 million on elections in 2022. They're on course to spend over $400 million in 2024.

So people know intrinsically that they're not being represented. They know that the big donors, the dark money is representing them. 74% of Michigan Democrats are in favor of a ceasefire. Less than 10% of the federal delegation has called for it. That's because of the money, right? That's because they've been bought. And so I'm

running to show that you don't have to be bought. I say I won't be bought, I won't be bossed, I won't be bullied. They offered me $20 million to drop out of my Senate race and primary Rashida Tlaib. Right. They think that money that everyone's on the take, that only people just want power and people just want money. But if you're not for sale, you can actually chart a path that represents people over politics, over party. I'm running to actually hold both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party accountable because they both have been derelict to so many communities. But it seems like every

party has been bought. It just seems like you can see where people, you know, whether it's the gun lobbying or whatever it is, it seems like everybody's being bought. It seems like that's the thing in politics. That's right. But money, see, money doesn't vote. People vote. And that's, and see, this is what the big challenge has been how do you get people to understand they still have the power even though they look and they're like there's something i was at the gas pump the other day and so i drive a f-150 so it costs over a hundred dollars to fill it up and so the dudes i'm pumping next to he's like man this is so expensive and i said yeah did you know that your tax dollars are giving big oil literal tax breaks? He's like, and the prices are going

up? He said, yeah. And I said, did you know that virtually all Chevron, Exxon, Mobil, all of them are posting over a hundred billion in profits every quarter? That's crazy. He's like, well, how come my prices are like this? I'm saying because there's collusion, corporate collusion between your federal representatives and big oil right and so people are like they know something's wrong they know they're getting the short end of the stick they just can't figure out why because it's dark it's dark money and so if we don't get rid of citizens united our democracy is done okay i'm sorry no no go ahead go ahead i want to go back to what you said about the, because I read that or I saw that somewhere

where they offered you, I don't know. I didn't know how much it was, but you said $20 million to go against Rashida Tlaib or talk down on her? What was it? No, no, no. To run against her. So the idea would be, I'm running for United States Senate and I'm running against one of their candidates that they back.

So AIPAC backs my opponent. Okay. Okay. So they would get a twofer. Rashida Tlaib is the public enemy number one for them. Right. They, you know, they just got rid of Jamal Bowman. Right. So, but, but she's even more targeted. And Cori Bush, they got a target on Cori Bush. They're going, they're going after Cori Bush. And so, so the guy down in Missouri took the deal that I, same deal I was offered. So Wesley Bell was running for U.S. Senate down there in Missouri.

He took the deal, left the Senate race, and ran against Cori Bush. So what they did is they figured everybody's for sale. And they figured with, you know, there's no way. When they say $20 million, is that 20 million? $10 million in hard dollars, which would be, they raise the money, they bundle it for you. They go out in $3,300 increments. That's the max you can get for the primary. They'll go out

and bundle the money through their network in $3,300 increments. That's $10 million in hard dollars, and then $10 million in what they call soft dollars. That's a nice way of saying dark money that we talked about already. That's unlimited. They find a big donor, a couple big donors to stroke million dollar checks and then you get 10 million in soft 10 million in hard how much in your pocket you know there's none in the pocket it's to win

right they're they're giving that money to campaign to win this camp this is all campaign dollars right and so so they think that everybody wants that that badge on their lapel to be in congress that's why you're running for office not to actually help people right they think that everybody wants that that badge on the lapel to be in Congress. That's why you're running for office, not to actually help people. Right. They think that you want power more because that's what they want. Right. And that's what we're filled with. We're filled with a Congress of representatives that are more interested in power maintenance and helping people. And that's what we as people have to realize. And we have to start electing candidates that actually want to help people. And they're not interested in just power. That's because, look, both both the Republican Democratic Party are complicit in not wanting to get rid of Citizens United.

Because if you really wanted to represent people first, you'd be wanting to get rid of it. You don't you would you would not want to have it. And it's going to take a constitutional amendment to do it or expanding the court to get a new court ruling to get rid of Citizens United. That's my biggest issue with the Democratic Party always is that they lack courage. I believe that they try a lot of political strategies, but courage isn't one of them. That's why it was, you know, refreshing to see President Biden step down, whether they pushed him out, whatever it was. It was just refreshing to see that. But all these things that you're describing now, takes courage to do it takes courage to expand the supreme court it takes courage to make these constitutional amendments i don't know if they have it that's why we got to take it i mean that's that's the thing i mean i i my friend said to me the other day he said hill man you're trying to

save the democratic party from itself you know because at the end of the day you're right it's losing its it's you know it's losing its losing its soul. And we got to bring it back because people are checking out. I mean, when you just start to see, and that's the challenge here. Voter apathy. People are so, it's like that study, you know, when the professor would shock the dog, the dog jumped and they kept it on the same setting. And the next time it shocked it, the dog only jumped so high. Eventually the dog stopped jumping. And that's what we've done to people in the electorate.

People have seen so much corruption and they're seeing so much inaction that they've stopped voting and participating. And I'm trying to wake people up. It's like that scene out of school days. Wake up. Trying to get people to say we have an opportunity just in Michigan with my race. I'm running against someone who didn't co-sponsor the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, didn't co-sponsor Medicare for All, actually voted to not fund the State Department to study the Gaza Health Ministry's death and injury records. I mean, I don't even know how you make that vote. I mean, obviously I do when you're getting funded from the other side, that's how you make that vote. But the point being, we have an opportunity here to grab a U.S. Senate seat.

The U.S. Senate, 100 people in this country control the distribution of $7.2 trillion. People don't realize that. People think, oh, the president, the executive branch does not control the money, y'all. It's the United States Senate. And if you want your money to be used for overseas violence, or do you want it to be used for health care at home? Do you want your money to go to undergirding and giving tax breaks to Big Oil or Big Pharma, or do you want it to go to public education?

That is directly who you put in the U.S. Senate. That's right. That's it. But if we check out, like I'm seeing so many folks, man, it doesn't matter. I ain't voting. I don't even know what a primary is. I mean, I can't do this. If we do that, we have lost. Don't be the dog that stops jumping. We have a chance. This is an open U.S. Senate seat now. I'm only running against one person. I need one more vote than one person. And we and an activist, an activist can grab a Senate seat. It's unprecedented. the opportunity we have. It's just hard to convince people to move.

Have you asked, I know you and President Obama are real close friends. Have you asked him to endorse you yet? Yeah, he said that he would not endorse. He thinks it's not right for a former president to endorse in an open, in-party race, right? So there's a primary, an open primary. He's like, hell, you win it.

Obviously, I'll come in and endorse you against a Republican person. Now, at the end of the day, he's always done what is the right thing, because that's actually the proper thing to do, right? That's the right thing to do. It's hard because nobody on the other side does it right. Nobody on the other side does it.

Nobody on the other side does the right thing. And nobody on this side does the right thing too much. When you think about this, there is that thing where you say they go low, we go high. The problem with that is you get your legs cut off. That's the triangle offense in 2024. That won a lot of championships in the 90s, okay?

They ain't going to win no championships now. They're not. No. And so, you know, all I can do is try to fight to let people know, inform people, educate people, and hopefully create this turnout. Because there's no question I got the most supporters. The question is, can I convert those supporters to votes? Because so many people, like black turnout in Michigan in the last Democratic primary was less than 10 percent. That's like you count 10 people. One person voted. I mean, I can't win.

I can't win with that turnout. It's impossible. But if we don't start to realize we got to start taking our power back, we got to we got to own our power. We got to grab it. If we don't start doing I'm talking about this is not even just my election. I'm talking about across the board. I'm talking about owning businesses. I'm talking about owning our education. I'm talking about owning our vote, owning our ability to self-determination, all of that. If we don't start acting like that and understanding the power in that, we truly are lost because, you know, Shirley Chisholm said it. I mean, come on, this is a long time ago. So she said, if you don't have a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. Why? Because you have to have a seat at the table.

And I say, if you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu because that means you're getting ordered rather than doing the ordering. And that's the situation we find ourselves. And we don't want to empower ourselves. That's why what you're doing here is so important because I believe it seeps into people's minds and be like. 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. Okay, this conversation was important. You know what? I do have power. I do have the ability to affect and have some self-determination. I can actually move my household, my community, my city, my state, my country, and my vote actually matters. And it does. Or they wouldn't work so hard to make sure you don't vote. Why did your opponent cancel his debate? She has canceled every debate. We were supposed to have five debates across the state. She's pulled out of every single one of them.

It's disrespectful. It's disrespectful to the voter. It's disrespectful to the people. You know, because she's doing a run out the clock mentality where if she has all the money, she has a lot more money than I do, so she's able to run ads. And she just thinks ads do it, you know. And what she doesn't want is her really problematic voting record exposed. I mean, she's horrible in so many issues, and she's been wrong. She voted against student loan debt relief in 2020.

Why? How do you even make that? 63% of black wealth goes to paying down student loan debt. Student loan debt is crushing. It's a regressive tax. If you're wealthy, and this has nothing to do with race, if you're wealthy, you can pre-fund your kid's education and therefore they're not saddled with lifelong debt. If you're not wealthy and you come from poor communities, you have to take out student loan debt. And then what happens is you have lifelong debt and your

education costs 4x, 5x, 7x, 10x more than somebody else. It is a regressive, wrong way tax and hidden costs on someone's life. And how are you going to vote against that? I don't even know how you make that vote. And that's an example. She doesn't want that exposed. So that's why she doesn't want a debate. The stuff like, you know, like you would be the first black U.S. Senator of Michigan.

What does that mean to you? It means in a state that has so much proud history of black political activism and representation, the fact that we've never had a senator is crazy. I mean, you're talking about the state that had Coleman Alexander Young, who was the pioneering mayor. I mean, you know, Atlanta would not be what Atlanta is, but for Coleman Young. Right. He showed Maynard Jackson the way. Right. You have a Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, and then you have the legend John Conyers, you know, and watch this for the first time in 57 years, Michigan does not have a black Democratic representative in the federal delegation. That's out of 13 House of Representative seats and two Senate seats. It's ridiculous, the lack of representation. And so, yes, I would be

the first, you know, we would break that cycle and and also be the first black senator. It would be huge. And this is why I got to remember, though, everybody who's listening, even if you're not from Michigan. The U.S. Senate is a federal body that makes decisions that covers everybody. So, sure, I'd be the senator from Michigan, but what I would be fighting for would cover off everybody. Let's just say I'm going to take George Floyd justice and policing is past. It has passed the House of Representatives, but it never got through the Senate because someone was not there to be able to champion and fight for it and demand it. And you talk about no knock. When I say this stuff is a matter of life or death, it's not hyperbole. It's not exaggeration. No knock warrants. Having a national database for police who misconduct. I mean, these are things that are part of that, that we got

to get done. And, you know, and funding, funding for public education, funding for health care, all of these different things. Common sense gun laws. These are things that we can get done federally. Women's reproductive freedom, black maternal health. I mean, all these different things that have to get done. That covers everybody. And that's why I'm surprised and invite people in to obviously support the campaign, because this is to be a national movement to grab this seat. And then we should pick off another seat in the next cycle and pick off another seat in the next cycle from a national perspective. There's only been 12 black U.S. senators in the next cycle and pick up another seat in the next cycle from a national perspective there's only been 12 black u.s senators in the history of the country if we had 12 right now

we'd still be underrepresented in in terms of of population right there's been a higher percentage of black u.s presidents than black u.s senators it's it's the it's the toughest position to get in the country yes wow So one out of 46. Okay. I'm not a math genius, Charlemagne, but that's 2.2%. Yeah. 12 out of 2003. Wow.

That's 0.5%. Wow. Think about that. And why? The reason why is the real powers in the Senate. When I was at Harvard Law School, my constitutional law professor would say all the time, the real powers in the Senate, it's the most powerful deliberative body in politics in the world, because 100 people make the decision about two crucial things in this country. Number one,

confirming lifetime appointments of federal judges. We see how that affects us down the line. And number two, deciding how your money gets spent. It's not glorified. People don't talk about the Senate as much as they talk about being president or talk about vice president or talk about even some of the other things. It's just not glorified. The president doesn't control the money. Right. You know, my grandmama used to say, if you want to know someone's priorities,

if you want to know an institution or a person's priorities, see how they spend their money. And that's what it is. You know, Mark Pocan and Barbara Lee put forth a bill called People Over the Pentagon. It was a $100 dollar reduction in Pentagon spending. You know, we have people in office that keep rubber stamping the National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA, 2% raises, 3%. All of that doing is fattening the pockets of Department of Defense contractors. We virtually have a U.S. Senate of people that have been bought. And this is real. They've been bought by DOD contractors. They've been bought by Big Pharma.

They've been bought. And they make decisions based off that, not decisions in support of the people's best interest. And that's what people have to realize. Don't check out because of that. Lean in because of that. Take it back because of that. And that's the energy that's happening. If we give up, we've actually lost to the money interest and the corporate collusion. We got to lean in because people vote. We still have the power. If we understand our power and lean in, grab it. What's the no new tax?

What's your no new tax pledge? What is that? Oh, say, that's a pledge that the money's already there, right? The $7.2 trillion annual budget. It was for the annual budget under Obama was $4.2 trillion. And that included bank bailouts. And then it went up to $6.2 trillion, COVID and Trump. And now we're up to $4.2 trillion, and that included bank bailouts. And then it went up to $6.2 trillion, COVID and Trump. And now we're up to $7.2 trillion.

We can't just keep taking people's money because at the end of the day, all that money is going to, like I said, DOD contracts. It's not going to actually solve the problems that people need. Healthcare, education, affordable housing. Imagine that, right? It's not going back to the people. So we're going to keep taking the middle classes and the working classes money because that's literally the working class and middle class are literally who's supporting this country. Right. Because if you make too much, you won't qualify for the earned income tax credit. And if you and if you and then if you don't make enough to have offshore accounts and LLCs to hide your money, so you're really not paying your fair share.

All of a sudden, who's who's really holding up? We don't need to take more people's money. We need to spend it differently. That's the key. I want to ask you because you're a constitutional law professor. Well, I went to Harvard Law School, so I got my juror's doctorate. Yes. OK, why aren't more people talking about the supreme court being an illegitimate institution why aren't more people just calling out the supreme court saying it's corrupt because my fear and i've said this to every elected official that's come up here let's just say the vp wins in november donald trump challenges the results of the election

that's right in light of all the recent rulings, the wild rulings the Supreme Court has done from presidential immunity, accepting bribes, all of that, what makes us think they wouldn't overturn the results of an election and then it would be a constitutional crisis? Why not declare a constitutional crisis now while you still got Democrats in office? Well, I mean, I think there's a couple things,

but you're absolutely right. But this isn't new. You go back to Bush v. Gore. That's right. You know, Al Gore, a you're absolutely right. I mean, you, but this isn't new. You go back to the Bush, Bush v. Gore. That's right. You know, Al Gore,

a lot of these problems we have now, we probably wouldn't even exist in this country. Again, Al Gore won that election. There's no question about it. I was sitting in my wife's dorm room. I wasn't even into politics like that, but I used to always be watching CNN.

Right. And I'm watching it. And I, they announced him as the president. Right. They announced Al Gore as the president. And the court took it. So, announced him as the president. Right. They announced Al Gore as the president. And the court took it. So so a couple of things have to happen. I think that there's no question we need reform.

I wrote an op ed about judicial reform. We need to expand the court. When the court was set at nine justices, there were 38 million people in this country. Now we have 360 million plus tens of millions aren't even counted in that number. Right. So we need more people. They need they need to handle a bigger caseload. I want to see it expand to 15 justices, number one. Number two, I do believe that there should be a term limit in terms of how long you're on the Supreme Court. I believe you should still get a lifetime appointment to the federal bench because we want to try to limit the corruption,

and we don't want it to be like Congress where the private entity, hey, you're going to be out in two years, you know, rule this way. And we got we're going to make you a partner and pay you millions of dollars. And so so but you only serve on the Supreme Court for 18 years and then you cycle off. And that way, if it's on a cycle, every president could appoint two justices. And then you don't have the gerrymandering of withholding appointments and all the stuff that we've seen happen. So the system has to change. The way the appointments has to change. We can fix it by systemically. It's just like anything else. You know, what's that quote by the guy? I

think it was John Clear or something like that. He says, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. We have broken systems now in government. Citizens United, we have a broken system of the Supreme Court and the way the appointments happen. We have broken systems now in government. Citizens United, we have a broken system of the Supreme Court in the way the appointments happen. We have broken systems that we have to fix for our democracy. And so if we don't fix the systems, you're right. You're going to continue to see these results. And there's no question it could play out the way you just said. Absolutely. I don't see why people don't think it will. Yeah. I mean, he challenged it in 2020. Right. That's right. I just don't think in light of everything that they've done recently,

I don't see why they wouldn't overturn it this year. If it's close. That's why, you know, it shouldn't and can't be close, you know? And that's state by state, right? But there's no reason to think it won't be close. Yeah. Well, Biden won by $7 million in 2020. Yeah, but that's the popular vote.

So here's an interesting statistic about the Supreme Court. You know, only one of the Republican appointees has been appointed by a president that won the popular vote. Only one. Wow. That's wild. So you're literally talking about a representation in the highest court appointed by individuals who won the presidency that did not win more individual votes by Americans. Would that be Katonji? Katonji would be that one. No, no, no. I'm saying Republican Clarence Thomas. Right.

So so so George Bush won, you know, that the first one he so you think about this think about how the manipulation of the system has happened to create the ability to govern by a minority rule and but that's historic too i mean you go back to i mean listen we got two senators in every state wyoming north dakota south dakota they got fewer people than metro detroit and they got two senators in every state, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota. They got fewer people than Metro Detroit and they got two senators each. And so there's no question that there is an imbalance. And that's why I say to people, when we got an opportunity to grab a Senate seat, we need to grab it. You know, because it's already imbalanced with with with the fact that those those states like that that are so low population

have two senators i mean california has 40 million people they just got two senators you know i mean that's wild that's wild if you lose would you go back to acting man i haven't i've been working so hard i haven't thought about it you know maybe you know i've never been the type of person that's, anything I do, I just, I go all in. And then, you know, I don't do plan Bs. I've never imagined plan Bs. Are they still reaching out to you? Are they still reaching out to you for parts and stuff like that?

I don't even know. I don't even talk to them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not even that, man. It's, you know, I mean, I really, and this may sound crazy to y'all, but like on a show like The Good Doctor i was saving lives uh you know and pretend and i really feel in this world i could save lives for real and so i'm so been so all in on it and just working as hard as i can meeting people and because i truly still believe and maybe it's a

pollyannish view and maybe i'm totally delusional i still believe you meet people where they are. You look them in the eye. They feel you. Ultimately, we can win. If you do the right thing, we can win. And that's why I tell my eight year old son. So if I'm telling my eight year old son that I got to believe it. But he did he did say to me the other day, he said, Daddy, are you going to win? And I said, if more people vote for me than the other person, I win. He said, well, but are you going to? I said, I don't know. But the only thing I can try. I said, I can't control the outcome, but I can control how hard I work. That's right. And so that's it.

Just working as hard as I can and allowing people into the process. Senators get to hire 6,200 people. Think about this. No one even thinks about it. And I go everywhere. I ask, how many of y'all know? You've had two senators your whole life. How many of'all know? Ten people that worked in those offices. No hands go. Five people. No hands go. Three people. No hands go. Two people. One person.

People don't even know it's the most powerful federal body in their life that should be giving them direct constituency services. But they never even met anybody that they've been completely under unrepresented. And that's what we have to change. We have to rethink what the Senate is. Senate has to be service. It can't be what it's been, which is basically bought politicians trying to figure out how to spend your money and distribute it in a way that's not in your best interest. Doesn't make sense. I got one more question. What changes do the Democratic Party need to make now that they do have this new energy? We've seen like over the last week and a half, you know, what Vice President Kamala Harris, the way she's energized the party, the way she seemed to have brought the party together. But what changes do the Democratic Party need?

I think you said it originally. Courage. Courage is my favorite word in the English language. The etymology of the rule of the word. If you speak French, you know what it means? Heart. You got to get it back to the heart and not, you know, everybody, you can see the fake. You can see the fake. And that's what crushed Hillary Clinton. You know, I met, you know, I got invited over to her house one time in Washington. And I walked in with my friend who had worked for them. And I met this woman with some jeans and a T-shirt. Charming, smart, funny.

And I literally was sitting there having a glass of wine, looking at her. It was just the three of us. And I was saying in my head, if this woman had run for president, she would have wiped the floor. But that pantsuit over fake version. There's no I don't. The person I met in the living room was completely different. And so. In the same thing they were doing with propping up President Biden, that's that's not in the best interest of people. Oh, it's very easy. Open up your heart. What's in the best interest of people? It's not about overcoaching somebody. It's not about trying to prop them up and figuring out the machinations of how do we win. It's about doing the right thing. And if the Democratic Party gets back to that core.

Then we'd win every election, because how are you losing an argument to a populist on the other side? It just doesn't make sense. People are literally voting against their own self-interest because they feel more authenticity from the other side. It just doesn't make sense. People are literally voting against their own self-interest because they feel more authenticity from the other side. Simple as that. It's that simple. I say it all the time. Even with the Vice President, that's what I've been happy to see a lot more over the last few months,

but especially over the last couple of weeks. The person that we know, that we've had conversations with off the air, the heart that we see, we're starting to see that. We are. And if we see that over the next 100 days, it won't even be close. I completely agree. And that's why I hope someone doesn't get in your ear and try to overcoach.

And I don't think it'll happen. You know why? Because it's not like she's got it. Meaning it's almost like once you're in the seat, you can relax. Just be yourself. Yeah, she's not trying once you're in the seat, you can relax. Just be yourself? Yeah. She's not trying to out-compete somebody. That's right.

And so it's not trying to figure out, well, what do I do to out-compete? It's just like, just be yourself because you already got it. That's right. You already got the experience. You already have the intelligence. You already have the infrastructure. Now just listen. You could be more bold, more full of heart, and bring that.

It's beautiful. I think we're in a great inflection moment in this country. And I'd love to be her partner in the Senate for sure. Now, if people want to support you, how can they support you? They go straight to HillHarper.com. Your support means so much. We are one week away from August 6th, the election, and there's early voting happening right now. And basically anything that comes in now, what we do is put it right back out for voter education. We buy time on radio. We buy time on television and all of that just to let people know.

We win this thing if enough people actually go vote. You know, no question. High turnout, we win. Low turnout, we lose. That's the real. And so we have to as a campaign. So if you go to Hillhopper.com, $2 makes a difference, y'all. That's real.

It buys a yard sign. It does all this stuff that we can actually repurpose quickly. So thank you. All right. Well, Hill Hopper, ladies and gentlemen, make sure you go out and vote August 6th in Michigan. And it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up.

Early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.