The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Keisha Lance Bottoms Talks Running For Governor Of Georgia, Black Leadership, Kamala Harris + More

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club, Keisha Lance Bottoms Talks Running For Governor Of Georgia, Black Leadership, Kamala Harris. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Charlameenegade, DJ Envy, Jess, hilarious. Envy and Jess are gone, but L.L. Cube, Lauren LaRosa is here. And we got Teslin Figaro sitting in because we have a very special guest, the former mayor of Atlanta, and she's running for governor of Georgia. Ms. Keisha Lance Bottoms is here. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming. How do you feel? I feel great. It's great to be here.

I had a fundraiser in New York, and great to see you in person. Absolutely. How many made you want to run for governor, Georgia, in these crazy times? Yeah, we are living. It's like in the twilight zone right now. So I woke up the day after the election in November, like so many people wondering what it meant for me personally and just for us as a nation for Georgia as a state. And I did a lot of praying, a lot of talking and then some more praying. And I decided in this season to get back in the rain. We need strong leadership. And people are looking to states and to local guns. governments to stand in the gap because we've got so much craziness and chaos coming out of D.C. right now. You know, Stacey Abrams ran for governor twice and she fell short, even with massive national attention. What would you do differently? So Georgia, you know, doesn't be like, oh, another almost. Well, you know, Charlemagne, one of the first national interviews I did was

when I was a candidate for mayor and you had me on. And we did it the old-fashioned way. You go knock on doors, you call people. Now we've got TikTok and all these other ways that you have to communicate with people sitting here. I mean, your audience is massive. We have to cover it all. And what you do, you look at every election from Stacey's elections to the VP being on the ballot. In November, you take what work, you keep it. And then what didn't work as well, then you fix it. And the reality is this, you know, there is, you know, there is, you know, a reason that Georgia went blue in 19 and 20 we've got two state senators who are two senators from Georgia who are Democrats so it's possible it just hadn't

happened yet but it's certainly possible you know a lot of critics say Democrats in Georgia can't win statewide unless they run more moderate like would you play to the center or lean fully into like progressive well you know my mom always says you only have to tell the truth once and the truth the truth is I mean, I am a moderate. You know, you're just standing your truth in what you believe in. And I believe that there are some policies that work from the left. There are some policies that may be more conservative.

But at the end of the day, it's about getting things done. And when I served as mayor, we got a lot of things done from adding and preserving 7,000 units of affordable housing to getting our city workers up to a minimum way. wage of $15 an hour because in Georgia it's just over $5 an hour to, I mean, I can give an entire list of things that we were able to accomplish, but it was standing in our truth and what our values were. I'm glad you brought that up because you were known in Atlanta for really standing up for people against the predatory lending and how the homebuyers were getting things taken

and things like that, the homeowners. Can you speak a little bit about that? Well, affordable housing was a big push from our administration, and it's not just an issue in urban areas. It's happening in rural communities as well. We've been traveling around the state. It's happening around the country, and you all know, as people are paying attention to the mayor's race in New York, affordability is an issue. So we did focus not just on affordable housing, but also helping the unbanked. We had programs that would help people who were underbanked or couldn't go to traditional.

institutions to even cash their checks at the end of the work week, making sure that we could help build up their credit, making sure that they had a relationship with the bank. We were able to do that through the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Financial literacy is so important, whether it's from helping somebody get a down payment on their first home to helping to create credit. That allows them to even think about getting their first home. So it's like the approach is layered, we know that there are a multitude of challenges that people are facing, but government can and should help address some of those, and sometimes it's in conjunction with the private sector. I want to ask you, 49 women have been elected as governor, and not one

has been a black woman. When you talk about what hasn't worked and what didn't work, what are some of the challenges that you see that although successful in Atlanta, which is the black mecca, how will you, I guess, galvanize when you look at Georgia as a state, which is very different than Atlanta being, I would say, its own, you know, own state by itself. How are you going to, you know, reach out to those communities that are not interested, you know, in electing and not just a woman, a color, specifically a black woman, how do you plan on dealing with those challenges? Well, the reality is this, we've never had a woman elected governor in Georgia. And it is about meeting people where they are.

So we've been traveling around the state. Atlanta is a great place, but I can't rely just on Atlanta. If I did, if any candidate did, we wouldn't win. So we've been making Warner Robbins, Augusta, will be in Albany next week. We have been to Savannah, Chatham County. We're moving around the state, talking directly to people. So I've got this whole list of issues that I want to focus on.

focus on, eliminating state income taxes for our teachers. We've got a teacher shortage, expanding Medicaid in our state. We've got nine rural hospitals who have closed. We have half our counties who don't have OBGYNs, don't have pediatricians, more deaths than births in more than half our counties in the state. That's unacceptable. So we're moving around talking to people. I've got my list of issues, but as I'm hearing from people, I'm adding to that list. And it's about reaching everybody, black women, black men, brown people, white people. It's about listening and being willing to course correct when necessary. You know, Republicans in Georgia don't play for it, though. You got voter suppression, gerrymandering, coach awards. Like, do you think you can

really out-scrategize that? Or you feel like you, like, kind of walking into a trap? No, we've done it before. I mean, and I know you all are paying attention to what's happening in Georgia. 500,000 people have been removed from our voter rolls. There are hearings happening right now in the state where they're trying to reduce early voting and remove absentee voting in this whole list. And when you look at a place like Georgia where the margins are so thin, it matters. So you mentioned Stacey, Stacey's first race, 55,000 votes. She lost five. The vice president. 100,000 votes.

That's not a lot when you have millions of people showing up to vote. So again, what we got to do is keep talking to people, get them energized. Listen, listen, listen. I've got four children. Three are teenagers. One is 23. I got to stop clutching my pearls when they say things I don't agree with because it's their reality. And as candidates, you know, it's great that we go up on television.

and do all these fancy things. We gotta go into the barbershops, the beauty shops. We gotta listen to people and then act accordingly. In the beginning of the interview, Charlemagne asked you like, why now in these crazy times that I'm hearing you talk about like going out and doing things. And the first thing I thought of,

especially with you being the first, if elected, it was Kamala Harris's book. And she talked about, you know, just a lot of the struggles she went through because as a black woman, they weren't, they didn't know, not only did they not know what to do it wasn't built for her, but they didn't support.

And she dealt with a lot behind the scenes. I know you worked with the Biden campaign. What did you experience then, if at all anything, that is preparing you for what you're potentially about to walk into as first woman, black woman, governor? Yeah, I worked in the White House, and you can't work in the White House and sit in that senior meeting every morning just a few steps from the Oval Office and not be a better leader. You see how things get done, and it is challenging any time that you are the first in room, but it's also this opportunity. I would always chuckle to myself when the president

would say, Keisha, what do you think? And I would think, I bet nobody's ever been asked that in the over office. Keisha. What do you think? So, you know, there are challenges, but there are also a lot of opportunities there. And a lot of times when we are the first, it's hardest for us in those spaces. But you're opening doors so that hopefully you won't be the last and it won't be as difficult as people coming behind you. How do you navigate supporting the president like Biden while still being honest about what he could have done better and he could have done better for black communities? Because I'm on record of saying the now of the Democratic Party and the future of the Democratic

party, you got to throw that old regime under the bus. And the VP does a great job of doing that in her new book. I don't know if you read it yet, but yes. No, I haven't read it yet. But, you know, there were a lot of great things that happened from the Biden-Harrison administration that delivered for our communities. And I think unfortunately right now, like just a couple of days ago, I was speaking with someone about black farmers on all the strides that have been made in our rural communities specifically to support black farmers. Trump administration

has already clawed it bad. So there were a lot of things that were done well, and I'm very proud of that. Hindsight is always 2020. You think about things that perhaps could have been done differently, but at the end of the day that administration delivered a lot of wins for our communities and now we've got to look forward and figure out how do we

keep going? How do we keep building? How do we keep moving? Even when I talked to you when I was running for mayor several years ago, Instagram was this new thing, this new communications tool that we were using. We're light years away from that.

And if we are staggered, then we're not going to progress as a party. But what I know is this, this democracy that we live in for now, it's a work in progress. And we've got to be nimble. The Republican Party, you know, I compare these MAGA Republicans. A broken clock is right twice a day. They've hit it on messaging and they've hit it on the long game.

And I think we can learn some lessons in that. I guess that's it for me, right? like Democrats, you know, Democrats couldn't message when they were winning, right? At least on a federal level. So now that they're losing, what can the party message to people? And I know it's just a state race, but you're still representing the Democratic Party. So what is the message now? Well, I think Charlemagne, like, we'll be looking at you all to help us with that, too.

Like, how do people get their messaging? How do we communicate with people? We perfected political messaging and ads and all these things that we, We've done for decades on end. What we've not perfected is, and I'll just go back to this example. I remember my now 15-year-old son was like looking at some NBA something or another on television, and I heard Trump's voice coming through. I'm like, what is Donald Trump?

Like, what are you watching? He's like, oh, yeah, he's on here all the time because he was talking to our kids when we were still on cable TV. So I think it's going to take all of us It's going to take us thinking differently You know, the way that we've traditionally done politics Clearly doesn't always work It's not always effective You can still be principled

But you can still be willing to learn something new And that's a challenge and for me Again, I'm listening when I go into barbershop with my kids I'm listening when my son tells me, you know, which he did two, three years before the election, that we had a problem with young black men. I'm like, no, you know, our polling saying X, Y, Z. He's like, no, y'all got a problem.

So I'm learning, I'm learning to listen. You know, you know, Keisha, a black mother from the South. She said, my son was watching some NBA, something, something odd, something, something. I want to go back to when you said a part of it is, leaning on us. And I want to talk about pressure that a lot of us, we put on, you know, Democrats as well. I know Charlemagne's taking a lot

of heat for it. I've certainly talking a lot of heat. I want to go back to what you said about the black farmers. And so although the Biden administration did deliver, still pressure had to be put on the Biden administration to do the right thing. In 2022, Attorney Benjamin Crump had to file a lawsuit against President Biden.

So I think it's fair to say that yes, the Biden administration delivered. Yes, they certainly did more than and what a previous administration would do or perhaps what another administration would do. But he also, because I remember he was very conflicted about having to do that. And so how do we be honest enough for people to say that,

yes, we are putting pressure on possibly your favorite president or whoever you may like in order to get things done and how can we be honest about that when we're doing our advocacy in the media? Basically, when you respect that, that I may have to say, this ain't it, y'all not doing the right thing. because it's traditionally been this, well, you're helping Trump or you're helping the other side. When that's not it, we're trying to just actually help the black farmers.

Yeah. And what I'll say is this is we can't let perfection get in the way of us participating. I'm not saying the Biden-Harris administration was perfect. Clearly, it wasn't perfect. But I'll put the worst day of the Biden-Harris administration up against this Trump administration any day of the week. Because at least I knew we had a chance. And again, elections are about looking forward. We want to make sure that when we elect people, that we have a chance to have a seat at the table.

I've been inside the White House with Ben Crump. So I know he gets to walk through the door and have those hard conversations. Sometimes you agree. Sometimes you disagree. But as we look to 2026, we got to think about do we want to have a chance again? Do we want to have a fighting chance? And my concern right now is that the rate that we are going and the way our democracy is being unraveled, literally hour by hour, that if we surrender our right to participate, we're not going to have anything to participate in. John Lewis was my congressman.

He represented my district. And I'm often reminded of his words, our vote is the most powerful. weapon that we have in a democracy. If we don't use it, we will lose it. I get that people are frustrated and people are choosing the couch. They're not choosing Democrats. They're not choosing Republicans. They're just disgusted. They're like, I ain't going for none of y'all. And that is the worst thing that we can do is to give up and not be a part of the conversation and not be counted. So no, no administration gets it all right. The Obama administration didn't get it all right.

The Clinton administration didn't get it all right, but we at least had a chance to try again. I don't see that with this Trump administration. You know, one thing you did when you was mayor, you gave raises for police officers and firefighters. And I always say I feel like, you know, more money should go in police officers' pockets, right? I feel like, you know, if you have a higher salary for police officers,

you'll get a higher quality of a person for the job, right? Why did you decide to do that? We had a retention issue. We were really struggling, and we were, our officers were leaving, they were coming to get trained in Atlanta. They were leaving to go to other surrounding metro area, cities, and counties because we were not on part, not just locally, but nationally as well. Our firefighters hadn't gotten their money,

their appropriate raises in 50 years. And at the end of the day, it's, you know, whatever your position is on police officers or public safety in general, you know, it's not just about calling somebody when there's a crime. When you have a car accident, when somebody breaks in your car, you got to have somebody who can come and investigate

and then be able to go show up in court and testify and do all those things. it was important and you know it was um i didn't get the support of police officers or firefighters when i ran but i thought that it was the right thing to do and it was the right thing to do for our city did they did um they did some of your kids i know you got four kids yes your wife and some of your kids are older i heard you say some help you with like social media stuff like that like how do you balance because what you do in politics is very demanding how you balance just like life outside of that with everything else balance for a lot of people yeah yeah i mean you know

thankfully i have a an incredible family that sacrifices more than anybody could possibly understand um and my therapist said something to me that i i keep in my heart a lot she said you were a strong mayor. I want you to be a powerful governor. Strong women push through. They have heart attacks. They have strokes. And they die. She said powerful women stop. They learn a lesson. And then and only then do they move on. So for me, it's about balance. So if I have to stop what I'm doing and be balanced when it comes to the needs of my kids or my family, my husband, that's what I have to do because that's power. Because when I'm out of sync, my family's out of sync, my community is out of sync.

So I'm focused on being powerful as a mother, as a wife, and as a leader. And balance is hard, but it's a choice. You think women get that grace, though? Because you don't really hear men saying, I'm going to be balanced, I'm going to be a mother. Do you think that's why people have a problem with women leadership? Yeah, exactly. When they say things like they don't want a leader that's going to be balanced. They want to completely off balance and totally focused in on that.

So, I mean, do you think that plays a part in wide? Yeah, I mean. You don't want women leadership. Life and fair. People are going to always take exception to what you choose and how you choose. But for me, I know that I'm a more powerful leader when I'm balanced. And when I take the time to take a walk or when I take the time, to do something like listen to a book.

It makes me stronger and it makes me more focus. It makes me a better mother. It makes me a better wife. It makes me a better leader. And a lot of times, you know, whatever your profession is, we often don't find that balance and we don't choose it for ourselves. So we go, you know, I was strong and I pushed through. And then we pass out somewhere because we've been pushing through.

and power is saying sometimes I got to put me first you know we often hear this metaphor when you're on the plane you got to put your oxygen mask on first well that's true because if I'm not right nobody is right in my house what are your therapy as much as you want to share what are your therapy sessions like how do you separate kisha lands bottoms as the person the mom the wife versus I'm coming here because my job in politics are putting me in a bad mental space or do they all come together in therapy? It all comes together. I love therapy.

It's wonderful. I highly recommend. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born

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All I know is what I've been told, and that to have truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved. until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know. A story that law enforcement used to convict six people, and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, And I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

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Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Hey, everybody, this is Matt Rogers. And Bowen Yang. And you're never going to guess who's our guest on Lost Cultureistas. It is Bradley Jackson, L. Woods, Tracy Flick, herself. Reese Witherspoon. It must go in a girls' trip.

I have to have a tequila. We must. Oh! The Q rating. Q rating. When they run diagnostic on you guys. I'd be scared. You don't run the Q rating.

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or wherever you get your podcast. You know, because you get to unpack all these things. You know, we live our lives and we think they're like these segmented spaces in our lives. But through therapy, what I've found is it's all related. You bring all that childhood stuff with you, the good, the bad, the ugly. It comes with you into adulthood. It comes with you into marriage. It comes with you into parenthood.

Like you bring it all. And if you don't understand it, sometimes it just doesn't make sense. And the thing I love about therapy is that it's somebody who, it's not like you're arguing with your spouse. Like, you're not taking a position. It's somebody who's neutral and who's helping you unpack it. My therapist can talk to me for 10 minutes about something. I've been talking to my husband about for 10 years. And I'm like, oh, okay, I understand that.

I get it. because it's this neutral person who's trained to help you process and unpack and quite frankly given all of the challenges we're having with mental health, especially in the black community. Like I'm really proud to speak about it publicly because it is taboo. And we know people are dealing with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and all these things that we often don't identify or that we even call a weakness sometimes in the black. community. But it's just like if you had high blood pressure or diabetes, we say, you need to go see a doctor. Well, it's the same thing with mental health. If you're struggling, sometimes you got to go talk to

somebody who's a trained professional who can help you unpack and process. You know, you talked about a servant leadership a lot, right? Like, is it possible for a politician to actually be a public servant? Because I always see a lot of people who were servant leaders, right? They were public servants. But boy, when they get into politics, they, you know, compromise themselves real quick. Yeah. Well, one, I say, I don't think people, I don't think you should be a broke politician because, you know, and sometimes people don't have the choice in terms of their income.

But I've seen that sometimes that can be challenging for people, that if, you know, you're signing a stack of contracts like this worth hundreds of millions of dollars for some people it can't be tempting to kind of you know not not be honest brokers out of necessity or whatever the reasons I would say you know for a lot of people we want everybody at the table we want representation of a cross-section of people but what I tell people especially younger politicians is you can have a life after politics. So even if you go in and your income is not great and you're looking at these contracts

you're signing for people getting millions of dollars in contracts, then plan for your future. Don't touch it now, just plan for your future. Because at the end of the day, you're there to serve and you're there to stay free. And for black politicians, especially, we are often targets. And unfortunately, sometimes, you know, it's, we make it too easy to get in trouble.

So basically do right by the people when you're in office and get that money once you get up. Do right by the people. The best political advice I got was from a friend of mine who said, whatever you do, make sure you can always go home. That's right. And what he meant by that was like when I walk in the grocery store, I'm not afraid. I can hold my head up high. People may not agree with me,

but I can defend anything I've done, any decision I've ever made, even if it's as much as saying I made a mistake, I do it differently. But I still live in the same house, same community, I shop in the same store. All the things are still the same because when I left office, I was able to go back home.

I want to ask your thoughts on, because I'll be honest with you. I'm an independent. I used to be a Democrat, And I'm going to be honest, the messaging on, well, at least we have a chance that don't really land with me. Like, I want the straight, you know, we going in, we are taking whatever we can get, which I get, you know, and I understand your point. But I'm loving the energy that Governor Newsom is on right now. And he's been inspiring to a lot.

A lot of people may not agree with his politics. I think everybody has a role to play in politics. Your personality is your personality. His is his. Do you see him being helpful over? because I know you're running for governor, but the Democrat Party as a whole, bringing the smoke,

would have been your thoughts on him being able to play that offense, defense, you know, to kind of say things that maybe other politicians cannot or to kind of run that play. How have you been receiving, have you been clutching your pearls? No, I have you been loving some of the pennies even on? I love it. I love it. I mean, and that's his personality.

So I love it. I think people are looking for people who are authentic and genuine and their leadership. That's his style, and I mean, I'm here for it. And what I would say, you know, even with you identifying as an independent, the respect that I have for that is that we can't take anybody for granted. And what I'm seeing in this season, people are so much more informed. And I'm a Delta.

I did something with a group of deltas. And when I tell you, they asked me the hardest questions of any group that I've been around, you know and I was like oh wow okay and they were there in support of me but you want it is but they want to like like and that makes a difference like so you know I'm not taking anybody for granted we shouldn't take anybody for granted I think at the end of the day you know a lot of people are are more not Democrat not Republican and more in the middle than even we self-identify as. But going back to Gavin Newsom, I love what he's doing. I love that he's owning it. I think that he is brilliant. I love that it is authentic to him. And I love that he is meeting the moment. I think

the biggest danger for any of us would be to engage in ways that's not authentic to us. Because people see it. And, you know, people have a high BS radar. And if it's not real, people are going to pick up on that too it's real for him what have your thoughts been around your safety going back into office like i know you had like you got your security was extended for some time because the death threats you were receiving and yeah trumps in office and you guys had your back and forth with the whole resignation thing where your thought it's just a crazy time with your thoughts around that yeah i mean as a person of faith i plead the blood of jesus over me and my family because it's real

when I was mayor I had a lot of credible threats including a credible kidnapping threat I remember going for a walk one day and a man pulling up on me saying oh I didn't think it was

going to be this easy to find you thankfully he didn't mean me harm but he did find me out walking by myself so I'm constantly I know I mean I just I understand you enjoy your freedom and you got faith in God, but why would you be walking by yourself?

Like, you still got to protect yourself. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but, you know, I left out my door and I went for a walk and I didn't think, you know, this man was going to drive over from DeKalb County and look for me that day. Now, was it smart? No. But, I mean, that was, I wanted to walk by myself that day.

And so back in this season, I am. mindful of it. I'm cognizant of it. Any time I'm speaking before a group, I find I'm like, I'm looking around paying attention to who's moving, who's, you know, where's the exit, you know, layering on security. I mean, it's just, it's, it's the nature of the times that we're living in. And it's, it is unsettling, but it's our reality. Do you think that there's an attack on black mayors? I think there's an attack on black leadership across the board. I think the attack on black mayors is like, that's generational.

Really? You know, even Ambassador Young was called before a grand jury. You know, so it's, yeah, I mean, I think that's real. Why, though? Like, why is it, why black, why does black mayor leadership get targeted in that way? Well, I mean, so I'll give Atlanta as an example. The mayor of Atlanta is the CEO of the city. It's a strong mayor form of government with over a billion dollar budget

between the airport, the warder department, and the city's general fund budget, actually probably closer to billion dollars. That's a lot of money and a lot of contracts. contracts that you're signing. So even in Georgia and in Atlanta, the guy who's the frontrunner on the Republican side for governor put forth legislation to take the airport from the city of Atlanta, to take it, to take it over, because the city runs the airport, because there are contracts there. Some would say it had a large part to do with in helping to build the black middle class in Atlanta.

So anytime you have money involved and you have a singular black leader who can sign those contracts, who cannot sign those contracts, it's going to get attention. It's going to get scrutiny and it's going to make you susceptible to investigation. It's not fair, but that was happening when Maynard Jackson was the mayor of Atlanta.

And it happened to Ambassador to Young. I mean, it happens. So basically you're saying that's where the power is. I'm always talking about local and state. Local and state, that's where the power is. That's where things get done the most. The quickest, the fastest. And you're saying that the local level, the mayors,

is targeted because of the power that they have. Talk about a little bit about the governor. Because we love the sex appeal. You know how sex it is talking about Congress and president and all that. But talk about the power that a governor has that can literally change somebody's life overnight. opposed to being in Congress where you have to argue with hundreds of people. So when federal money, for example, comes into a state, it often flows right through the state government

through the governor's office. Governor can determine budgets. The governor can determine how much we're allocating toward this community as opposed to that community. The governor of Georgia is one of the most powerful governors in the nation because they had the power of a line item veto. So when legislation comes to the governor, he can scratch out the line and change it just with the, or she will be able to change it just with the stroke of a pen. So it matters. You are allocating budgets. You are setting priorities.

You are appointing people to boards, whether it's the Board of Regents, which oversees higher education than the state, to the Port of Savannah. that deals with export and import that's coming in and out of the state to infrastructure projects, to public safety, all of that flows from the governor's office. What do you think about, you know, people in Atlanta are very critical of Cop City. How would you address that? My concern about that is that when you are not investing in public safety

that you are getting out, which you are putting in. So with the police training facility, there were two places that firefighters were being trained, police were being trained. The place that firefighters were being trained ended up being condemned because of mold, a bad mold infestation. The place where police were being trained was like a 50-year-old school building. The facilities were just, they were awful. And I believe the prior police training place was condemned as well. They were awful. I mean, the reality is that they have to be trained somewhere.

And we needed a new facility in Atlanta to train our police and firefighters. And it was costing us a lot of money because we didn't have a state-of-the-art facility. And, again, going into the morale and whatever your thoughts are, again on public safety. When you have police officers, when you have firefighters, when you have people, EMS, paramedics, they have to be trained somewhere. They don't just show up and get put out on the street. And we needed a new facility in Atlanta to do that. One of the things I give you credit on, I still like to call you Mayor Lancebottom, so you don't mind it. It's still your title. you building in non-traditional coalitions.

A lot of times people just tap into hip hop and tapping who they think is cool for the moment. You've done an excellent job of building relationships, you know, Witt Tip and Killer Mike and really understanding how entertainment and hip-hop is a part of Atlanta culture. Culture. How do you plan on still, you know, building those non-traditional coalitions and how they can benefit you through the state of Georgia? A lot of times, like you said, people just do the hot sauce in my bag, you know, to say, you know, I'm cool for the moment. You've really built some authentic relationships.

How are you able to do that and how do you see that benefiting you in your race? Because you got to hear from everybody. And I love TIP. I love Kela Mike. Those are my brothers, genuinely. And I know they bring a voice in a perspective that I'm not going to always hear in a boardroom. But by the same token, I have to build relationships or have had to be. build relationships with CEOs, whether it's the CEO of Delta Airlines, UPS, or Home Depot.

You have to build those relationships, too. And Ambassador Young used to call it the Atlanta way, where government, philanthropic groups, civic community, come together, business community, to be able to get things done. And we've been the beneficiaries of that. So when Killer Mike and TIP served on my transition committee, I'll know. never forget, we're sitting in the metro chamber of commerce. And you got all these Orchon 500 CEOs and Tip and Killa Mike, like watching these CEOs smitten that they were in the room. Like, it was priceless. And in that room, Chip and Killa Mike met a man named Noel Khalil, who was also on the transition committee. He's since passed. He was a wonderful man, affordable housing

builder, Columbia Residential. From that transition committee, they built a partnership that's now allowed them to put affordable housing on the west side of Atlanta. It came out of that room. So that's a responsibility that I felt I had as a mayor, not just to hear from them, but also to make sure they were present in rooms. Put them in position, not just entertaining, but in position.

That's it. I mean, and it's, their influence is huge, but again, also they're bringing up perspective. You know, Killer Mike very proudly said, like, he's an independent. He likes Brian Kent. There are things that Killer Mike believes in that some people may see as extreme right wing. You know, I see it just as him being an independent black man making decisions based on what his value set is. And who loves Atlanta and who loves Georgia and who is going to talk to whoever's in office and build whoever's in office to do what's best for that state and that city.

And it's not person-based. I mean, it's not politically-based. It's people-based. Yeah, he's talked to the governor about the programs that he's doing for trade. I don't know if he likes him personally or not, but I know he likes the programs, you know, that he's been able to have that relationship with to talk about. That's right. And, again, this coalition building, when I was mayor, we closed this transaction.

If you've ever been to Atlanta outside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it was called the Gulch. largest real estate transaction in the history of the city. Out of that, we put money towards vocational training because Delta Airlines said I got 10,000 mechanics I need train. Home Depot said I need some plumbers. Truis said I need coders. We put money into this program to help train people to fill these great jobs. We were able to create an affordable housing trust fund that's citywide now. So if you got some rising property taxes, you can go tap into this trust fund to help pay your property taxes, a child savings account. All of our public school kindergartners now have this child savings account that will follow them through high school.

I couldn't do that just as the leader, just from our budget in the city. It took all of us being at the table, being able to get it done. And what a tip and killer might are very astute with is understanding. understanding the needs of our community. Everybody's not going to college. Everybody didn't want to go to college. Everybody shouldn't go to college. But they still need to be able to get some training

so that when the unions are saying, you can come through our program. We'll pay you to train $42 an hour. And then you'll have a six-figure job coming out. You know, we have to have people advocating for that. That's right. That's right. I got a couple more questions.

I know you got to go, we'll keep you on schedule. When you look back, what do you feel was your most misunderstood move as mayor? And what would you want people to know about the thinking behind it? Probably my choosing not to run a second term. I was thinking that. Yeah, that was it because it didn't make sense to people because nobody had ever done it. And my poll numbers were at 68%, which was exceedingly high for any urban mayor. So I knew it was very likely that I would win if I ran again and I made the decision not to run.

And people thought it was from a position of weakness, but it was like one of the most powerful things I've ever done. What did you learn about yourself from that decision? What I learned about myself is that sometimes you, things that you do just won't make sense to anybody else. And you got to be okay with that. also that in the absence of your narrative somebody's going to fill that void with something and I tried as best I could to articulate it to people quite frankly a lot of it I had to unpack in therapy

on why I chose it why I chose to make that decision but what I do know is had I not made it based on where I was personally and my family personally in that season I wouldn't be ready to step back in the ring in this season. Wow. If you became governor, what's the one change you'd want people to remember you for?

Not just in Georgia, but nationwide. The biggest thing right now, the affordability piece is huge. That's an overarching thing. But Medicaid expansion is huge in our state. We've got people dying because they can't get to a hospital. And I think if we can expand Medicaid immediately, it will change the trajectory of a lot of communities in our state. And at the end of the day, I want people to know that I was there, that their lives were better, their communities were better, because I was there to serve. Absolutely.

Ms. Keisha Lance Bottoms, tell them where to support your campaign. Kisha for governor dot com please go online follow me sign up the volunteer and people say what can I do if I'm not in Georgia everybody has a cousin or a friend somewhere in Georgia

everybody has a checkbook we need the resources and we need the energy and Kisha for governor K-E-I-S-H-A Kisha for governor.com Thank you Ms. Bottoms I appreciate you for stopping Bye, don't be a stranger.

Thank you. All right. It's the breakfast club. Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. You're all finished or y'all done?

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