9.15 #RMU: $12M Breonna Taylor wrongful death settlement; Biden's Black plan; Is free speech dead?

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:35):
Today, that's two September of two thousand and twenty. Coming
up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, a massive settlement in the
family of Brianna Taylor will still a no rest for
the officers who killed her. We will explain what Ward
and journalist Ellis Coles joint us to talk about the
death of free speech. We'll also talk with a Biden
Harry Surgan about Joe Biden's playing for Black America, and

(00:58):
Mike eSPI will join us discussed his race for the
United States Senator in Mississippi. We'll also show you laid
this anti Trump as in Today's Black Business owner is
pat Caasso. A live performance. Artists will explain, folks, it
is time to bring the phone call Rolling Martin Unfiltered.
Let's go whatever the mess. He's on it, whatever it is.

(01:22):
He's got the school, the fact, the fine and when
the briefs. He's right on time in this rolling. Best
believe he's going putting it down from this Boston News
to politics with entertainment, just books. He's scoring go rollingall.

(01:44):
It's rolling Martell rolling with rolling. Now he's spooky, spressed,
she's real question though, he's rolling Martell right, folks in Louisville.

(02:11):
The City of Louisville has settled a civil suit with
the family of Brianna Taylor. Taylor is a wrongful death lawsuit.
The city has agreed to pay twelve million dollars the
family of Brianna Taylor. She, of course, the black woman
who was shot and killed in March when police stormed
her apartment looking for a former boyfriend, but he was
already in police custody. But this is not necessary monetary settlement.

(02:33):
It also includes a series of police reforms for the
Louisville Metro Police Department that they are going to adopt
down the family southe the city again after Louisville Metro
police broke down the door of her apartment and fatally
shot her. Louisville Mary Gregg Fisher announced this ettlement today
in a news conference with Taylor's family an attorney, Ben Crump.

(02:55):
While we await a decision from Attorney General Daniel Cameron
on whether or not charges will be out in this case,
my administration is not waiting to move ahead with needed
reforms to prevent the tragedy like this from ever happening again.
That's why I'm here today with the family of Brianna
Taylor to announce that Louisa Metro Government has settled the

(03:16):
civil lawsuit with her estate. As part of this settlement,
Louisa Metro Government agrees to make several important policy changes.
In addition to these sea changes, this settlement includes a
payment to Brianna's estate of twelve million dollars uh folks.

(03:37):
Speaking of the news conference was Brown Taylor's mother, Tomka Palmer,
in addition to activists Tamika Mallory. As significant as today is,
it's only the beginning of getting full justice for Brianna.
We must not lose focus on what the real job is.
And with that being said, it's time to move forward

(03:59):
with the criminal charges because she deserves that and much more.
Her beautiful spirit and personality is working through all of
us on the ground, So please continue to say her name,
Brianna Taylor. Justice for Brianna Taylor, and if there ain't

(04:23):
gonna be no justice, there ain't gonna be no peace.
A settlement is restitution, but it's not in the cops.
And we want to say today that the police officers
responsible for killing Brianna Taylor must be arrested in order
for the community to feel calm. We understand that this

(04:47):
is an acknowledgment and a great acknowledgement of the wrongdoing
that has and it is important that our community understands
what happened here today is very significant. It is significant
because again there is an acknowledgement of Brianna Taylor is
life and the fact that those officers in this city

(05:11):
murdered her. Brianna Taylor has shifted the atmosphere. She shifted
it not just here in Kentucky, but across the country.
The ban on no knock warrants was where we begin
in terms of great reform. And to know that Attorney
Linita Baker and Attorney san Agi are continue to push

(05:35):
for reform in this particular settlement is extremely important and
it cannot be denied. We must acknowledge it. The reforms
are evidence that the city, unfortunately its police department, has
been exposed for some corruption that exists within the department.

(05:57):
The significance of this settlement is a small price to
pay for our sisters life, A very small price to pay.
They deserve all the money that we can muster up
in the world just to help a little bit with
the feeling of pain and turmoil that I know exists

(06:18):
within this beautiful family, But let us not lose sight
on the main focus. As to Meeka Palmer has said,
the officers Brett Hankinson, Miles Cosgrove, John Mattingley, and Joshua
James must be arrested. We cannot forget about Joshua James,

(06:43):
the man who lied on a no knock warrant application
that sent police officers charging into the home of Rihanna
Taylor and Kenny Walker. We cannot forget about any of
those officers. And if this police department is to do
right by this community, if you know of other officers

(07:04):
who were involved, they should be arrested and indicted immediately. Again,
the restitution portion is one part, but arresting officers is
what will make this city do right by its citizens.
And not Anna Taylor, but all the Brianna Taylors across

(07:26):
this city who are afraid sitting in their homes because
to not have an indictment happened in this city is
to say that no matter how much we pay, no
matter how much reform we do, we rather pay, we
rather cover it than to deal with the issue. Alright, folks,
then just a second We'll be joined by live by
Tamika Mallory. She's still in Louisville, Kentucky. I want introduced

(07:50):
our Paul Melakob Due Republican strategist Killy, but she's communication strategist,
and also Teresa Lundy, principal Faulder t mL communications. Uh.
And so what I want to do is, folks, let
me know when Tamika is on the line. So there
are a lot of people who are confused. There are
people out there who don't quite understand when you have

(08:13):
a civil settlement, a wrongful death settlement, and then you
still have the criminal side. There's two different things. Okay,
So this settlement is not the end of the Brianna
Taylor case. As you heard the mayor say, they're uh,
they were, they were. They're still waiting for the district
attorney as well as the Kentucky Attorney General to render

(08:34):
their decision whether they're going to seek charges against these cops.
Let's go to Jamaica. Valorie, who's there in Louisville right now. Jamaica, Oh,
it's good to see you. You you've been trying to
explain to people that that the that a wrongful death
settlement is separate from the criminal side, absolutely, especially in

(08:55):
this situation because in a lot of cases where we
do see and I understand that people are looking at
history and how sometimes in the city you have um
non indictments from the city's attorney who are the district
attorney are the commonwealth attorney, and then you will have
a settlement where the family is paid. But in this

(09:18):
situation it's even more separate than that, because the state's
attorney general has the case Daniel Cameron, and the city
is paying its settlement. So it's two totally different things,
and a lot of times, you know, for one, we
dealt with so much trauma it's hard sometimes to keep
up with how corrupt the systems are. But also some

(09:40):
people are just unfortunately uneducated about the process, and we
have a responsibility, as you're doing right now, Roland, to
make sure that we educate our community and let them
know that there is a very big difference between the
two and the family has every right to collect little
wrongful death uh settlement and have their civil case settled. Well.

(10:02):
It's also it amazes me but I hear people say,
why is being another case He's lost all the others
being Crump can't be being Crump cannot prosecute police officers.
I mean it's this. That's one of the things that
you know, how I am about all my brothers and sisters.

(10:22):
I fight for anyone of y'all that if you write
you right, and I'm gonna fight. And one of the
biggest fights that I get into on social media about
my brother Ben Crump is this idea that he loses
all his cases, but yet he never gets an opportunity.
He doesn't go into the courtroom to try police officers.

(10:43):
The only thing that Ben Crump can do, the only
control that he has is to settle or fight a
civil case to get a family paid. From a civil
rights perspective, he does not try police officers in a
criminal case. Those are attorney I mean, excuse me, district
attorneys or as we see in the in the attorney

(11:04):
general's case. And people are so gravely uneducated about that,
and it actually kills me. He cannot prosecute cops. This
also is a different type of settlement because police reformers
are attached to it. Normally, look at a lot of
other cases out there. You don't have an announcement like that.

(11:28):
Police reforms. Uh So this was a different also a
very different type of negotiation. Absolutely so, I haven't seen
and I'm not saying it hasn't been done, but I
have not seen, uh, in my twenty five years of
being a UH an activist organizer, a situation where uh,

(11:49):
the settlement is contingent upon like literally the families. The
last few days, they were haggling over a few different things,
and one of them was UM negotiations around the actual
reforms that the city would accept. And of course we
know that you know, the reforms that they told that

(12:09):
they're choosing to do with the reforms that are actually
uh in this settlement. They're not going to change the
entire system. But there's some actually some real important stuff. Um,
there's the issue around police officers with alcohol and drug testing.
I mean, what we know for sure is that the

(12:29):
police officer, uh Hankinson, who was fired when he left
after shooting the most we believe based upon preliminary ballistic reports,
that he was the one to do the most shooting
into the house. Um. And then after this shooting happened
and the incident was over, he left the scene and

(12:50):
was gone for over an hour, almost two hours where
he couldn't be found, so many are alleging or field
that he was possibly intoxicated. Even looking at one of
the photos of another officer, you could see something that
looked like a person who may have been intoxicated. And
they and their people from the community who say that

(13:11):
they were at a local bar recently right before the
shooting actually occurred before they executed and no knock marant.
So they're going to be dealing with alcohol and drug abuse.
Um oh, oh, sorry, gonna be dealing dealing with alcohol
and drug abuse. What's the other one? Angelo? Uh? Sorry,

(13:31):
the one that's the most important is the um no
that that one, Uh, I'm been crumps is actually trying
to reach me. There was one that was the most
important anyway, Um, there's there's a few. The body cam piece.
They're gonna be dealing with body cams, um, and a

(13:53):
bunch of reforms, and we actually need to pull them
up so we can actually tell them what which what
is the most the main one? Right, so within seizures,
which in this particular situation it actually doesn't apply. Um
that when whenever an officer is on the ground, his

(14:14):
body cam has to be on during this time while
he's dealing with any money. Uh, and that they have
to have another officer that is there because they there
is allegation, um that they that they actually have been
stealing money from people and it's not in this particular situation.
But there are other pieces of reform that that they

(14:36):
asked for. Can I see that? Because there's the one
that's the most important, um that we need to early action, right,
So there's also um oh okay, I know. The most
important one is that there's going to be a new
system set up to deal with the amount of warrants

(14:56):
that can be executed in one night or in one
day around one case because in this situation, the judge
signed off on a number of warrants at the same
time where they were executing warrants all across the city,
and that is going to change as well as how
a judge signs off on the warrant. In this situation.

(15:16):
We know that Detective Joshua James, he filled out an application,
he filed the application, and the application actually had lies
in it because he stated that the post office reported
Brianna Taylor receiving suspicious packages to her home. And we
now know for sure because the postal service came out

(15:37):
and said they never ever reported suspicious packages and they
had no suspicion of the packages that were being mailed
to her home. And so what we found out is
that Joshua James pretty much he filled out this application
and took it to the judge, and the judge signed
off on it. There's going to be a process put
in place where a high level commanding officer is also

(16:00):
going to have to sign off on these warrants to
make sure that it has been checked that the evidence
is within a fresh time period. Because even the package
that JaMarcus, the the the the guy who all of
this sort of centers around whether or not or JaMarcus
is alleged drug selling, drug dealing, um that that he

(16:23):
did receive some package or they think they saw him
walk out of her house with a package at one point,
and um all of that inform. Oh sorry, a lot
of things going on here. So so with JaMarcus with
the package that they did see him with, that happened
months before, so the warrant wasn't even executed at the

(16:46):
time that he that he was seeing with the package.
You can't do that. You can't have a no knock
warrant and executed as someone's home weeks and months after
a package was seen. And in fact, if you list
into the tape recordings of conversations between JaMarcus and Brianna,
she is telling him, when you come around, it makes

(17:08):
me feel nervous. You know, police are involved, there's a
lot going on. I'm not comfortable. You need to basically
get your life together. So she's telling her that, and
then she blocks him from her phone and she will
not speak to him anymore. So it's very clear that
at even if you want to say you are a
hundred percent sure in your mind that Brianna had a

(17:29):
boyfriend or a friend that she was seeing or whatever
at one point who was a drug dealer, what we
know is that on that particular night, she wasn't in
communication with him, he had not been in her home
in days, and he had not received any packages to
her home. So is she a candidate for execution as
a result of something that may have happened? That the

(17:51):
that the Post Office is saying that they don't even
agree with. I mean, there are so many details about
this case that people have to understand and um that
that does not justify her murder and the settlement today
one is the largest settlement that in that Louisville, Kentucky

(18:11):
has ever paid out to any any any police victim
of abuse of police no excuse me, a victim of
police abuse. And it is also, per Attorney Ben Crump,
probably the largest plaid settlement across the entire country of
anyone who had was killed by police in the wrongful

(18:33):
death suit. So, I mean, no, it is not what
we want to see. Daniel Cameron has the ability and
he actually is presenting to the grand jury at this time.
He has the ability to brain charges against these officers,
and that's what we want to see happen. And we're
actually going to be protesting again this week outside of

(18:55):
his office to make sure that that is what he's
seeking as an indictment from the grand jury. Well, the
reality is you and until freedom, y'all have been doing
the work on the ground. There A number of you
are there. You'll have been there. Folks have been getting arrested,
bailing them out of jail. Uh and uh that's you'll
haven't been sitting on Twitter and Facebook and just posting stuff.

(19:16):
They're actually on the ground, but also uh, pulling the
various factions together helping people also a partner as well,
because look, you know you've been in this for a
long time. What happens when major cases happen, they get
get international attention. Then it's all kind of different people
who are with different agendas, supposed to having a collective

(19:39):
agenda and seeking justice for Brima Taylor. That's right. Collective
I mean this week and thanks, thank thankfully you helped
us UM to boost the amount of participation and viewers.
We actually had a twenty six hour prayer service fast
thing actually UM a reference. William Barbara of the Poor

(20:01):
People's Campaign was one of the people along with Mary
pat And and a hundred people from Atlanta and New
York City to kick off off a fast where from
sun up to sundown they are fasting for Brianna Taylor.
We had people to pray for twenty six hours straight.
Bishop T. D. Jake's was one of those who was

(20:22):
a part of the prayer UM. Bernie's King Dr. King's
daughter was one of those who prayed with us. Our
Reverend Elaine Flake of Alan Anny a m e in
Queens Jamal Bryant Um Stephen Green was one of the
leaders Reverend Stephen Green, and so many others until freedom folks,
just we lad prayer for twenty six hours. So if

(20:46):
you're not a protester, you can pray. If you are
a protest, to hit the streets and organized. Let's keep
the pressure on. There's a way for every single person
to be involved. We asked people, if you're watching now,
do two things. Go and give Roland Martin some change,
because we need to make sure that when we start

(21:07):
a prayer service, and we only had at the time
about a hundred people watching, and it was when we
shared the service through Roland Martin's network that he is building,
that we were able to get up two hundreds more
than five hundred people who were with us. In the
middle of the night, we still had three hundred people
watching the prayer service, and throughout the day thousands. We

(21:30):
believe that somewhere around two million people UH tuned in
and out of the service, and that was because of
people like Roland and Shaun King and others keeping a
platform going. So we asked that you support Roland, support
him because without black media, we can't get our message out.
CNN wasn't gonna do it, MSNBC wasn't gonna do it.

(21:53):
It was through Roland Martin Unfiltered that we got the
numbers to get people into the prayer service. And in
the last thing I ask is that you support groups
like Until Freedom. You can go to Until Freedom on
our cash app give us five dollars, ten dollars. It
all matters because we are literally living in Kentucky, paying
rent on a home, uh several homes for all of

(22:15):
our people who are living with us, and all the
other things, eating and everything we need to be able
to stay in the streets. And we also Rolling and
I'll be quiet after this, but we also have been
supporting other grassroots organizations because listen, we've been the grassroots
group in New York that didn't have the resources to

(22:36):
keep our work going. And it was because of the
support of you, Rolling and others that helped us to
be able to get resources to keep going. And so
we have while we are here, when someone gives us
five dollars, we've been re giving and reallocating those resources
to local groups to keep them doing what they're doing.
So support us, ladies and gentlemen. And also let's not

(22:59):
let's not be small minded in terms of what has
happened here today. The settlement is significant. The twelve million
dollars is again something that is unprecedented in terms of
of of financial uh settlements. But also there has been
policy reformed that was included in the settlement package. There's

(23:20):
gonna be a number of things done. And then we
are still fighting for justice for Daniel Cameron to indict
the four officers responsible for Brianna Taylor's murder. Well to
make are you doing great work? Uh? To your Instagram followers,
my bad you alive on Instagram? I saw you and
I was like, hey, call get on the air. You

(23:45):
saw the message you like? I think Roland telling me
I need to get off and do his show. So
uh so we appreciate it. Y'all do a great job.
And y'all of you you can go to their Facebook. Hey,
how you're doing. I'm glad to see you and uh
how to my side? What's going on? Y'all? Stay safe
and again great job the cash appage dollar side until freedom, folks,

(24:07):
UF y'all want to give Jamica stay safe, get some rest.
Thank you, love you as well, Darling. Take care. Alright, folks,
let's go to our panel real quick. Here. Uh, let's
start with you, Teresa, what what what you heard? What
you heard to Mika layout And so many people don't
quite understand the nuances of this. Again, being involved in

(24:29):
negotiation and the rung death settlement, achieving these games, but
then also still pursuing on the criminal side, all of
these things matter, and I think our folks. You gotta
walk folks through to understand how how the system works.
And that's just what it's all about. It's educating the public.
Tamka hit it right on the nose when they're when

(24:51):
she said there was a difference between a civil action
and a criminal action suit because the civil action, yes,
it's ipop thing is I'm sit in it is twelve
million dollars, but it is the first step and everything
you know, from the last couple of months since the pandemic,
people have been screaming about true police reforms. And I

(25:12):
love when Tamika said, at the end of the last
bid of getting that settlement amount twelve million dollars from
the city, they then made sure that the policies of
criminal justice reform are actually implemented. So again, that is
the body cam, that is the searching sheet, seizure, checks.
That is the amount of warrants a judge can execute,

(25:35):
and how a judge signs off on a warrant, which
is truly a game changer. Here in Pennsylvania and other
larger states. People are saying those same exact reforms. But
it's it's really about, you know, ruling when you talk
about including it in the deal before we leave from
the table, it is how you actually get this stuff started.

(25:57):
So it's phenomenal. Type one second joining us right now
live has been Crump being glad to have you on
the show. Uh, I know it's being a quite a
long day. Uh this You've done a lot of these
these these cases. This is is highly unusual to negotiate
a financial settlement as well as police reforms. It is

(26:20):
quite significant. Roland Martin and you know you and I
have been over the decade fighting these cases. It is
highly unusual for them to settle with such a significant
monetary settlement. And also, uh conceit, I've demands for reform,

(26:40):
as Brianna Taylor's mother insisted, because that was her real conviction.
She wanted to make sure that this helped prevent future
Brianna Taylor. So it was significant and so many day
ways today Roland Martin. Uh. One of the things I
talked with tomik about, and trust me, I've had to
deal with this here. The people who say, uh, being

(27:02):
crump keeps losing these cases. You don't prosecute police officers.
You represent the families. District attorneys, state attorney generals, their
job is to prosecute police officers. Uh. And so people
think that, oh, my goodness, here's another cop who got off.
That's not your job as a representative for the family. Yeah, yeah, Roling.

(27:23):
You know they're gonna be negative people who I think
intentionally want to say stuff out of jealousy. It's the
most basic high school civics lesson. Ever, the only people
who can take care liberty, the only people can put
you in jail is the le that prosecutors. Daniel Cameron,

(27:46):
the young African American Republican a G, the first black
Kentucky Attorney General. It is up to him whether the
charge the officers or not. The only thing I, neither
Bacon I can do is sue for civil role for death,
which we do rolling and we always win. And every
one of these cases we've got money or in a

(28:08):
settlement or verdict for the family and then try to
put pressure in the court of public opinion, calling on
my heroes like you to say, Rolling, please cover this
case of this black person so they don't sweep it
under the road, and it's ultimately up to the prosecutor
to do it. Well. Absolutely, Look, I know your business.
Just want to get you on real quick. But the

(28:30):
fight for justice for Brian Taylor continues, UH, and so
we appreciate that to give our best to her family
as well, Win Rolling, Rolling. I can never say thank
you enough because when others don't cover our stories, you
always cover our stories. Brother, So this day is about
you too. It's addictive for all of us, especially black women.

(28:50):
Being crop is really appreciative and thank you so very much.
We'll quickly go to UH like as well as Kelly.
And again, the reality Kelly is that to change this system,
it's not going to be one law and it goes
all across the country. It's literally going to be a
city by city, state by state deal because that's how

(29:14):
law enforcement is set up. That's exactly right. Um My,
my spirit right now is conflicted. On the one hand,
like everybody is saying, I am elated that there was
a settlement, and that on the at least on the
civil side, Kentucky or whomever was the defendant in this

(29:35):
case was held liable. So on on the civil side,
they were found guilty. So that makes sense. Well, no, no, don't.
To be clear, they were not found guilty. That's actually
a legal distinction. Basically, I know I'm saying. What I'm
saying is for those who don't understand what liability means,
well no, no, no, no, no, no. Now, found guilty
on the civil side if there was an actual suit

(29:57):
and the jury found them guilty. So that's all I'm
simply stating. But there is no So it was just
a straight settled No, no, it's a it's a it's
a it's a settlement, which means that there's no admission
of guilt on the part of the city. So even so,
even then, the fact that there was a settlement at all,
that is that is great news. But on the other hand,

(30:18):
it doesn't mean that they were found guilty. So that
even emphasizes my point on the criminal side, the fact
that we still need to find the state accountable for
the murder of Brianna Taylor, and the only reason I'm conflicted,
is because a settlement cannot be used in criminal court
as evidence of admission of guilt. So it's almost like

(30:41):
you're starting from scratch on the criminal side in terms
of finding these people guilty. And then on the added
layer being that the A g Camera is just frankly
just not doing his job because clearly there was a
crime here, whether it was a settlement or not, there
was a crime here, and it it's clear that she
was founded by way of homicide, and he's just not

(31:04):
doing his job and at the very least arresting the
officers who murdered her, let alone convicting them. So like
the criminal side is just, uh, it's gonna be another journey.
Got it well? Well, and that's ready for that to happen, right,
And in all these cases, Malica a real quick your
comment for them my next gift. Yeah. I think that's
a good thing. I think it's great that they actually

(31:25):
got the settlement. I asked to ask to Mika said,
there are a lot of reforms that were in part
of this settlement that are really good. Um that the
things that she mentioned, and there were other things that
they were dealing with. Whether or not it was you know,
officers now having to do community service, making sure that
the officers lived within the census track access to personnel records.
Those are some reforms that are good. There are a

(31:46):
couple of things that UM, for instance, and they were
I think UM Attorney Crump mentioned that this was the
largest case. I don't think this is the largest case,
the largest case Louisville. Yeah, well, Tomika said, well, he
actually said it wasn't just logal to meet reiterated that
they thought that this was the largest case in the
country and it wasn't. I the one in Baltimore was larger. Yeah. Yeah,

(32:09):
so that is one of the things. But I just
wanted to add in addition to all of those reforms,
this is also why it's important for us not just
to get online and and it shouldn't be a Democratic
Republican thing. These things. There were things in the GOP bills,
specifically the Brianna Taylor Act. There was rand Paul introduced
that the Brianna Taylor Act, which is different from what
the Democrats introduced, and that Rand Paul wanted to ban

(32:32):
no knock warrants, not just at the federal level, he
wanted to ban them all across the board on the
Democratic side, what they wanted to do is just ban
it for drug cases. This is one of the things
that we actually should talk to members on both sides
of the OWL about because at the end of the day,
our color has no political preference, and so I think
we should just continue to push Yes. Is now in

(32:53):
the hands of Daniel Cameron. There were a couple of
weeks ago when he said he finally got the ballistic
reports back from the FBI. So we're expecting him to
make some type of announcement on the case. But I
do disagree that he hasn't done anything. He actually has
done something, and he just got the information back from
the FBI just a few weeks ago. Folks. That's one
of the things that we've been seeing the protests all
across the country take place around the country and even

(33:17):
involved this case here. And so the issue of the
issue of the issue of first the issue of free
speech is a critically important one. My next guest has
a book that speaks about that. Uh. Ellis Coles joins
us right now, folks, who you pull his book cover up?
That would be great? Uh do you do? You have it?
Go ahead and pull it up. Please, uh, come on,

(33:39):
let's pull a graphic up please of his book. His book,
please come on, Thank you very much. The Short Life
and Curious Death of Free Speech in America by Ellis
cos ellis always glad to have you here. Um, we're
just talking about the Brianna Taylor case. It's very interesting
what has been happening around this country. You had Tennessee

(33:59):
where all these people all of a sudden are passing
laws restricting folks from protesting. It's the First Amendment. And
in fact, in Tennessee they even passed a law that
would actually cause you to lose your right to vote
because you dare protest. We're in a strange We're in
strange times, as as you obviously know. We're in a

(34:22):
time when the Republican Party has claimed that they are
the champions the first of the First Amendment. You had
five or six different speakers to vote most of their
their talks of the Republican Convention to how they are
strong on the free speech. At the same time when
they have this recent history of the President's shutting down
a demonstration in Lafayette Park in order for him to

(34:45):
march violently setting down a demonstration in order for him
to march around with a Bible and stand in front
of a church for a photo of You have cities
states all over this place, you know where politicians, publican
politicians are trying to depress the black vote and the
minority vote. Um what is the the the large problem

(35:09):
you have currently in this country, It seems to me
is that you have a minority party, mean the Republican
party that is insistent on trying to stay in charge
against the will of a majority, and a lot of
the things that they adapt become outright violations of free speech.

(35:30):
And certainly if you count count the right to vote
as part of free speech, and most scholars these days do,
then all these efforts, the efforts in Florida to stop
people who were convicted of crimes even though even though
a um A proposition allows them to vote now because

(35:50):
they have to pay their fines first, and the efforts
you're talking about in Tennessee are are all part and
parcel of this. Well, the thing when you talk about
what would happened in Florida, First of all, Amendment for
passes took ten years to get that amendment passed, and
then all of a sudden, the Republican legislature says, oh,
hell no. And I kept warning people. I told, I told,

(36:12):
uh Shena Mead and Desmond Meade. I said, look, I said,
don't get too excited. I said, trust me. I don't
trust the Republicans in Florida. They are going to do
something because there they do not want to see all
of a sudden, one point four million people get the
right to vote. What soon happens. Uh. They have the
power there. The Democrats have no authority because frankly, Republicans

(36:36):
control legislature, passed the law. Republicans control the Supreme Court.
They affirmed that particular law. And then you go to
the federal court. You go to the leventh Circuit. Guess what,
Donald Trump is appointed more than two hundred federal judges. Uh,
they affirmed that decision. And so uh, now it's right.
Now you gotta pay all fines and fees. Uh. And

(36:57):
the total is up with a seven hundred million dollars collectively. Uh,
that is going to be old. Which is why you
have efforts like Lebron James and others to help people
pay off these fines. But but this is what we're
dealing with. What we're dealing with, ellis, we're dealing with individuals.
And I'll be real clear, you're dealing with a Republican
party and largely white party who was looking at the

(37:19):
demographic shifts and they're saying, how can we hold onto
power as long as possible, and we're going to use
the control of the legislatures to do so, oh precisely.
And in Florida, and Floridas as a belt not a
bell Waters the weather state, but it's a a state
that can go either way. And when you're talking about

(37:41):
over a million votes that are in play and most
of those votes will be democratic, that's enough to flip
that state. Uh. And and so you're seeing these measures,
as I said, all over the place, but you're seeing
a doubling down of on speech repression disguise as a
articulation free for free speech. And and then you're also

(38:02):
seeing just the bastardization of the whole notion of free speech,
or at least the whole argument for free speech was
which which goes back to the nineteen twenties and and
a lot of decisions that were written by Lewis Brandeis
who basically argued but the reason that you need free
speech in a democracy is that speech is the way

(38:25):
you get to truth, and that in order to get
to truth, you need as much speech as possible, because
ultimately good speech will drown out bad speech, and untrue
speech will drown out um an untruth and truth speech
rather will drown out untrue speech. What we have in
this age of disinformation and blatant government manipulation of information
and lying about information, it's a testing of that hypothesis,

(38:49):
and it seems to be not true because it's because
the government is capable and wealthy interests are capable passing
off their truth which is not true. That all asked truth,
which is which was fundamentally undermines the whole purpose of
the First Amendment and fundamentally undermines our democracy. We um

(39:09):
and the march that we're going on. And the reason
I brought those judges up because just this week eight judges,
Mitch McConnell is confirming and these are judges, so whatso again,
what happens here? And this is why I keep trying
to explain to people about understanding why the federal courts
play a role in this, so you can we can

(39:33):
argue yelling screen, which we should uh the importance of
electing people, electing African Americans as district attorneys, that state reps,
state senators to statewide races. Then you have this ballot
initiative that black folks lad gets past. Now all of
a sudden, Okay, Then the Republican legislature passes a law.
It now gets they suit, it goes to the federal court.

(39:55):
And so when people say I'm just gonna ignore the
top of the ticket, I'm gonna was below that. No,
understand that top of the ticket, that this thing is
like a domino effect. So you can get get a
law passed Bush your butt took a decade, and still
those federal judges can either invalidate it, affirm it, or

(40:19):
really unconstitutional constitutional. And that's why I'm just we have
to endless as far as I'm concerned, being a constant
state of civic lessons, teaching people to connect the dots.
And and as you imply, I mean those federal judges
are appointing for life, you know. And so the whole
idea and the federal society was very smart. I mean,

(40:41):
they basically decided they were going to make a mission
of picking the most conservatives of selecting the most conservative
judges they could and getting them installed by a Republican
president on the bench. And some of these judges are
in their thirties and forties. They're gonna be around for thirty, forty,
maybe fifty years. Uh, long after the so called non

(41:05):
whites become a majority in this country. They will be
determining what our fate is. Um. And we're just coming
late to the table as a group of people who
are not Republicans and recognizing how important this is. So,
what what do you see in terms of where we're
going to be in the next ten years? Well, what

(41:26):
should people be looking for when it comes to this
attack on free speech? Oh? I think that's I think
they're are a range of things. I think we have
to figure out as a society what we are going
to do about speech in the Internet age. Um. A
lot of hate speech, a lot of this misinformation is

(41:48):
spread through the Internet. UM. And I'm not suggesting that
we ought to censor the Internet. But what I am
suggesting is we need to have a better way of
monitoring the Internet. I mean the the the position, for instance,
that Facebook has taken consistently with line and political ads. Um,
it's crazy. I mean basically, what they are, what they
are saying is that it is perfectly okay to use

(42:10):
their distribution medium for propaganda that they know as propaganda,
that's easily recognizable propaganda, and that is injurious to our
country when we clearly need to get a you know,
we ctually need to get a handle on that. Well
that that's a new report out that got last night
that shows that that what one of their whistle of

(42:31):
whistle blore saying how other nations are purposely spreading disinformation
on Facebook that is impacting elections, and Mark Zuckerberg and
Facebook they know it and refuse to do anything about it. Yeah,
and that's that's totally unacceptable. UM. I mean the other

(42:52):
the other thing that we've seen, UM, and you've already
addressed this ramp up considerably, are these efforts to repress votes,
whether are through reimposing finds of ones order another way,
whether they're through putting reinstating in a sense the old
poll tax of UM of the post Civil war era. UM,

(43:12):
ways that in in any way possible just to call
the polls, you know, the roles and the stop minority
people from voting. UM, there are a lot of efforts
that have that have come up lately to a post
these and we need even more, uh, because this is
a this is a life and death issue at this point.
We um, folks again, we're talking with Ellis cos he

(43:34):
is the author of this book. Go ahead and pull
it up again. And it's really important, folks, Uh, where
we are in terms of our society, in terms of
free speech, and we should not take it for granted. Guys,
come on, pull the graphic up. Thank you. The short
life and curious death of free speech in America the
thing that we we have to understand also because when

(43:56):
you look at Donald Trump's constant attacks on the needient, uh,
fake news, fake news, fake news, it is all by design,
was by design, and it's been reasonably effective on in
in a few ways. I mean, if you look at
a recent all for instance, although nine of Americans support

(44:18):
freedom of the press, also believe that the president ought
to have the power to shut down those media's that misbehave,
and they specifically included among that CNN and The New
York Times. Um, So he has actually garnered a constituency

(44:38):
behind him that believes he should have the power to
violate the First Amendment. He should have the power on
on his authority to shut down newspapers, to shut down
broadcast entities. You Happily we're not at the point yet
where he can exercise that nonpower. But the very fact
that forty percent of Americans have been taken in by
his rhetoric and this this talk about the enemy, the pressing,

(45:00):
the enemy of the people, and are willing to see
him act on that, to me, that's a frightening statistic.
I want to pull in my panel here getting to
get a chance to ask you a question. I'll start
with Teresa London. Teresa, Yeah, I kind of want to
know um as much as I I'm really fascinated with

(45:23):
the points that you're making. But UM, I'm kind of
wondering where, UH did the idea of putting this into
a book? Because I'm sure there's probably been some stuff
early on that you know, we could addressed, but why
put it in a book? Um, you're basically asking why
I decided to write this book, Um, And there are
there are a few reasons. My most recent position was

(45:46):
as the writer in residence for the a c l U,
the American Civil Liberal Union and Ultimately I stepped down
from that because I decided to write a history of
the A Sail You, which was just published a couple
of months ago UM called Democracy We Can Keep It UM,
And I had had in thinking through them, and one
of the things that I also did they sell you though,

(46:07):
was to think through as a as a sort of
project for them, the education of of of of Americans
and particularly of college students in this on this issue
of speech, which is one of their big issues, and
this thinking that I did with that, And I should
say one of the places that I went after leaving

(46:28):
the A s LU was was to become a fellow
of the Free Speech Center at the University of California.
So I've been thinking a lot because for those several
reasons about where we are in speech, the history of speech,
what it means, why it's important, why we have it,
and where what its state is now. And I decided
that it was worth doing a book on. So that's

(46:49):
that's the short answer to why I decided to do
this book. Next question, Yeah, So, actually one of the
things that we know that just over the years, probably
since two thousand sixteen, there's been a big effort out
there in reference to free speech and blocking people's access
to free speech, whether there was blocking Trump rallies or

(47:10):
even um going after people at restaurants, going after people
for who were announced to attend commencement speeches and things
like that. So as you your overall picture of free speech,
is it just isolated to how it affects their left
or do you include anything as far as just the
efforts we know that are real efforts to block conservatives

(47:31):
from free free speech as well. Is it just limited
to the left. No, no, no, no, there's a whole
there's a whole chapter on that. But but I think
you you kind of you kind of misconstrue what the
argument is going on about free speech on campus, which
is a largely a manufactured argument and largely manufactured by
conservatives because they want to take possession of the free

(47:52):
speech debate. And if you talk about Milanopolis, you know
who who essentially took over you see Berkeley for a
huge event that he did which became violent, which was
shut down because it was violent, which which costs the
university millions of dollars in security as to secure in
the first place, and then he uses this as a

(48:16):
as a as a weapon to say his his free
speech has been violated. Uh and and on the basis
of that alone, the President issues an executive order telling
university have they have to respect free speech. I'm not
for shutting anybody down. I'm not for a canceled culture.
But when you have people like me, like my Loanopolis,
and like and Culture, whose whole reason for existing is

(48:37):
to say stupid, provocative things and then to get people
upset about them, and then to advent to say, oh
my god, I'm being shut down, the last person in
the world being shut down is and Culture. You hear
her everywhere. She's not being shut down. Her free speech
is not being denied. My Loanopolis free speech was certainly
not being denied by the universities. But I think that

(48:58):
what happens is conservatives want to take the issue and
and and and present it that way. So you know,
so so so so you have, like I said before,
you have Trump who shuts down a rally, marches through
a park with a Bible and then protects, you know,
then protests about free speech. Give me a break. You know,

(49:20):
it's it's yes, there, yes, there is an issue of
free speech on campus. And you do and you have
the University of Chicago, which came out specifically against that
and made made a big statement with many universities have
now joined saying that they don't like that, that they
don't back this idea of canceling people. They are not
going to permit this on their campus. They are going
to punish students who do it. Uh. You don't see

(49:42):
anybody on the right saying we're gonna punish, you know,
people who shut down people from the left. So so so, Yes,
I agree with you. It's an issue that should apply
to both sides, but it should also be analyzed from
both sides and fairly. See. The thing, the thing I
find here's the thing that people have to understand before
before I go to kill uh ellis is that on
this very issue, to your point, conservatives have always conservatives

(50:06):
played the victim game. Um, look when now was at CNN,
look it. They are people who make money just I mean,
I'm talking about and make money off of the liberal media,
the liberal media. I said, seeing it could go hire
one thousand conservatives tomorrow and the next day they're gonna
yell the media is still liberal. This is a part

(50:28):
of the game. Uh Adam Carolla and Dennis Pragert. It's
some documentary talking about how free speech is eroting uh,
and it was like this, well, look what YouTube is doing.
Prayer you hit a billion views on YouTube. But part
of the complaining is, oh, oh they're they're they're taking
our speech. That's why Zuckerberg right now, let's just be

(50:50):
real clear. He is scared of Donald Trump criticizing him
in tweets. And that's why this whole dancing. Oh what
can I do to to to to make conservatives feel
good is to see those two uh that that that
that minstrual show Dominant Silk. Before Congress, they were complaining, oh,
how they were censored on Facebook for the craziness. No,

(51:12):
you have people who want to say crazy stuff and
then if you say you can't do it, oh you're
sent three me. My speech is now being quailed. But precisely,
I think the other thing that's important to understand. I mean,
there's a fundamental, a fundamental misunderstanding about what the constitutional
guarantee of free speech is. It is not a guarantee
that anybody can can be granted must be granted an

(51:34):
audience wherever they want to speak. What it does specifically,
is it bars Congress and by implication, the federal government
from imposing limits on speech. I mean, just a little
historical note. Yeah, until the twentieth century, free speech and
even apply to state governments. That that came about as

(51:55):
a result of court decisions, and specifically of the decision
in nine called Getlo the New York where they decided
that the First Amendment applied to the states before that
it didn't, which which is why states were able to
abolish the distribution of abolitionist literature and so and so,
you know the reason why I wrote this book. You know,

(52:16):
it's promptly to just give that history because people need
to understand what this country means when it says free speech,
What is specifically protected by our constitution and what is
not caliber the question for else cos So, given the
current political climate, specifically when it comes to free speech

(52:39):
and and the assault against it more you know, more
or less, how exactly do you fight it? Because when
I was in law school, we talked about, you know,
I took First Amendment long, and we talked about, you know,
the free marketplace of ideas and how you typically or
at least the theory is that the truth will come

(53:00):
to light by way of more or less a flooding
of the truth coming in, drowning out the lies. And
right now, specifically and really during this Trump administration, it's
almost like the opposite is happening. So how do you
combat that when that theory of flooding the marketplace with

(53:21):
the truth isn't working in favor of the truth. Yeah,
I think that's a that's an excellent question. I'll say
out right out front. I don't have a total answer
to that. I really don't. I don't think we don't
think we've come up with one yet. But I think
part of the answer is that you insist on challenging
these lies, this misinformation and calling it what it is.
I think we have conventions in the press, in the press,

(53:45):
and I've been a member of the press my entire
adult life, we have conventions in the press that lead
us to respect people who are lying to us, because
we believe in giving both sides. And I think what
has become clear is that that's not adequate anymore when
you have an entire illistration practically that that lies all
the time, and it depends on you not to challenge them.

(54:05):
And so I think the role. I mean this this
became an issue doing McCarthy ism. When an editor suggests
that we that check everything, McCarthy says that never really happened.
But I think that increasingly needs to happen. What's when
in this age when propaganda misinformation has become a just
a part of politics. Also, I mean, despite the bleak

(54:29):
uh landscape in in in the judicial branch, um, there
are going to be more appointments made to to federal
as federal judgment and whatnot, which is why it's important
to have someone other than these conservative Republicans making these appointments. Uh.
And there will be a revisiting of some important decisions,
you know, including Citizens United, which was the decision that

(54:54):
in that in that eviscerated the Fine Goal Act and
which basically gives um Rich Core Operations and other institutions
the ability to flood money uh into these into political
races and to influence the result. Folks, UM fascinating discussion.
You definitely want to get this book. Uh. This is

(55:15):
the latest book by Ellis cos it's called The Short
Life and Curious Death of Free Speech in America. You
want to get that. Ellis I often talk often use
your book The Rage of Privileged Class uh in um
uh in many of my speeches and so it's always
good to chat with you. I'm honest, sir. You take

(55:36):
good care. Ellis. Thanks a bunch folks, Gotta go to
a break. When we come back more rolland Martin Unfiltered
in a moment, do you want filter YouTube dot Com, Forward,
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(55:57):
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you'll know it. It's rough out there. People are looking
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Census takes will be visiting households to make sure we

(56:20):
are counted, because an undercounted community could miss out on
billions of funding for schools, healthcare, and job assistance each
year for the next ten years. Too much is at stake.
We spun online today, shape your future and start here
dot com The community comes together to support the fight

(56:41):
against racial injustice. I want to take a second to
talk about one thing we can do to ensure our
voices are heard, not tomorrow, but now, have your voices
heard in terms of what kind of future we want
by taking the twenty cents today dot gov and folks,
let me help you. The Census is an account of

(57:01):
everyone living in the country. It happens once every teen years.
It is mandated by the U s Constitution. The thing
that's important is that the census informs funding billions of
dollars how they are spent in our communities every single year.
I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and
we want to We wanted new parks and roads and

(57:22):
Senior Citizens Center. Where the Census helps inform all of
that and where funding goes. It also determines how many
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Young black men, and young children of color are historically
undercount which means a potential loss of funding of services
that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to

(57:46):
change that. We have a power to help determine where
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(58:07):
or any government agency. So please take the censes today
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(58:29):
that liberates all of us to a write in my
est future. Hey, I'm Regina bellin it Roland. I love you,
you know. I follow you on Twitter. I probably retweet
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what you do and keep supporting us and keep being you,

(58:51):
and uh love you. Hi, my name is LaToya. Look
at and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered alright, f us.
According to a recent election prediction model developed by the
George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, home of

(59:12):
Vice President Joe Biden, will win no VI was presidential election.
Once that is accomplished, what's in it for black folks?
Vice President Biden recently announced Lift Every Voice, the Biden
Plan for Black America. Also on yesterday he released a
series of ads targeting African Americans. If y'all could get
those ads ready, I would appreciate it. Jointing me right now,
UH is South Carolina State Senator Marlon Kimpson. Senator Kimpson

(59:35):
is glad to have you on the show. Good to
be with you, Roland, South Carolina. Obviously it's gonna be
a huge state. Yesterday we had Jamie Harrison on the show.
He is running a course against a Senator, Lindsey Graham,
trying to unseat him. Democrats need to pick up four
seats in the Senate to take control of the United
States Senate. But when it comes to African Americans, the

(59:56):
plan that Biden has does it actually address then cerns
of African Americans, folks who are saying they want to
see UH, real strong results, UH, real initiatives when it
comes to our needs, I think it does. UM. With
all plans, UH always improve upon the plan. But I

(01:00:21):
have reviewed the lift Every Voice and Sing plan and
the racial equity component of the Build Back America plan
that was crafted with the input of many who have
been at the table advocating for economic parity and true
criminal justice reform. UH those uh, such as Jim Clyburn,

(01:00:45):
Maxine Waters and others have been doing this for a
long time now, and so they had substantial input for me.
The challenge being in a red state, UH is about money.
UH power ticks without economics as a symbol without substance.
And when I review this plan, it has real money

(01:01:06):
in here for black America. A hundred billion dollar housing
affordable housing fund, a fifty billion dollar UH investment in
incubator businesses for people that look like US UH seventy
billion dollars. Uh. I think you can appreciate this rolling

(01:01:28):
uh going towards historically by colleges. I'm a graduate of
more House College. UH pledge don't make a sci fi
and so we are uh right there. You just want
to calm that down, but go ahead. We are you know,
we need research institutions, and so if we look at

(01:01:48):
the money, the money file US. Now, let's talk about
criminal justice reform, because that's been the subject of a
lot of the discussion here tonight. Your your guests have
all been right. This is about appointing people of color
to the federal bench who have an appreciation for the
Voting Rights Act and the other civil rights initiatives that

(01:02:10):
many of our ancestors and people before me and the
State Senate fought for. And the fact is is that
the pluer crat Don Trump has not UH named any
significant people of color UH to judiciary positions. He's been
able to confirm more than two hundred judges who will
interpret UH. If we get a voting rights bill passed,

(01:02:33):
they will interpret that bill. And that means trouble UH
for all of the cries that you hear UH for
greater reform in terms of criminal justice reform, police misconduct,
voting rights and so UH, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

(01:02:53):
have a comprehensive plan for criminal justice reform. They call
to UH, let's look at are drug offenses and laws,
call for an independent or ending of mandatory minimums. UM.
They want to ban the box so that people coming
out of prison I won't have to answer job applications

(01:03:15):
that the first question is have you ever been arrested?
Or have you ever been convicted? And so these are
the types of the initiative when we start talking about
criminal just reform. I'll just finally say this one of
the things that we really have to look at when
it comes to the shooting depths and litigating these civil cases.

(01:03:36):
I'm an attorney by trade partner at Motley Rice and Charleston,
South Carolina. And one of the things that halts UH
these trials UH is the issue of qualified immunity. UH.
And then where an officer can't be personally held liva

(01:03:57):
as a lawyer, I can personally be held library in
a courtroom. Should I grossly negligence, UH, That's not so
the case and qualified immunity UH. And then once you
even get beyond that, you have the doctrine of sovereign immunity,
which often cats damages UH in the absence of proof

(01:04:18):
of gross negligence. So we have to have a whole
sale attack UH. As we move forward with the Black Agenda,
and I think the lift of revoice and the same
plan and the racial equity component of the Build Back
Better Plan addresses as many of our our our our needs.
This is an ad that was released yesterday by the

(01:04:39):
Joe Biden campaign. We want to play it, then we'll
talk about it. I'm Joe Biden. Can I approved this message,
But they've got the experience. I'm steal in shock three
or four years later that we're in this position now.
Our democracy is at a pivotal point. From the top.
We don't trust our government. We see the trouble where
in the economically we've got a hundred seventy thousand Americans dead,

(01:04:59):
and yet this president will do anything he can to
make it seem like things are better than they are.
I did more for the black community than anybody, with
the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln. It's our responsibility. If
we don't leave that effort to make things better, we
can't ask other people to do it. There is no

(01:05:21):
good reason not to vote right. We need to have
individuals at in office like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
They are best shot to take us forward. And that's
what makes me incredibly hopeful. But we really do have
to work for this thing. To the thousands and did
not vote, we need you to show up for our
feature and for our country. You cannot sit on the sidelines.
You kind of get in the game. Was pretty funny

(01:05:44):
in that to ask stay senators, as those brothers in
that barbershop laugh to hear don Trump say what he
he's done more for black people since Abraham Lincoln, which
is just beyond stupid. It is a it's a fan
of see and this guy is in a fantasy world.
As I mentioned earlier, he is an orange plural crat

(01:06:06):
who only caters to the wealthy. Uh. He has done
nothing for black people. Uh. And we gotta call we
gotta call him out. We cannot afford, particularly for African
American men to register the numbers that they did the
last election cycle. I think people were trying to give
him a doubt, but he has shown his true color. Uh.

(01:06:28):
This man, Uh is the reason why this nation is
in crisis. This man is the reason why that they're
over two hundred thousand deaths due to COVID. You compare
that number with a bola handful of deaths or h
one in one a couple of thousand deaths, and I
think under five thousand. Uh. This man has stole the

(01:06:51):
fuel of light supremacism. I mean, who would ever thunk it,
Who would have ever thunk it that we have p
pull in Charlottesville, Virginia walking down with tiki torches talking
about white power. I mean, this is you know, this
is ridiculous. And he says that they're good people on
both sides and so if anything, the black community, including

(01:07:17):
our brothers and sisters, we ought to be voting in
large numbers. The exhibit A, B, and C is the
record of the dismal failure of Donald Trump governing this country. Now,
let me just say this, also, the brother talked about voting, uh,
you know in that shot talk special what I've discussed

(01:07:40):
with many, including Congressman Clyburne, who is calling for a
month of voting like a tailgate party. We're gonna have
a tailgate party, uh, for a whole month in South
Carolina and starts early voting or absolutee voting starts October fifth.
I would encourage people not so much to lound the mail, right,

(01:08:02):
but but take your ballot to the polling praise, particularly
in those states that have early or absentee voting, to
make sure that ballot is counting. Alright, then, sir, you
certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining
US State Senator uh Marlin comes will keep pushing the

(01:08:22):
idea of the need for people to get registered and
be sure to vote in this election. Thank you, Thank
you so very much. Go to a panel here. But
one of the things that voice between this earlier and
I'm still waiting to see it, just trying to have
a black plan. Does he I mean, we know he is.
He's He's made no effort to talk to black media. UM,

(01:08:43):
I mean at all, UM doesn't do any black radio.
UM all off, all of us talk about how he's
just done so much for black people. I want to see.
I want to see a plan. Okay, so what's your
plan in a second term, second administration? Have you seen anything? No,

(01:09:03):
I haven't, And I think that's something that would be
good for the campaign to actually come out with. I
think probably part of the difficulty, or at least the
challenge in doing that is that Donald Trump has done
so much just in his first term. I disagree with
the Biden representative there. It's not Donald Trump hasn't done
nothing for black people. If you look at the plan
that UM, the Joe Biden plan, and if you look
at many of the things that Donald Trump has done,

(01:09:24):
there's a lot of overlap in there. Biden may have
a lot a bit more funding for this UM program
versus that program. But the representative was talking about things
like banned the box legislation. I'm not sure if he
realizes that the Donald Trump actually side banned the box
legislation at the federal level at the end of two
thousand nineteen. There are other things that the administration has

(01:09:45):
done around HBCUs, criminal justice reform, second chance hiring, many
things that actually affect the black community, but specifically other
things that we really don't get a lot of UM
doesn't get a lot of coverage. So whether that's business
development grants for businesses, is UM even grants for our
still research at our ahpC use in other schools. You're

(01:10:07):
saying that the administration has done all those things, is
he actually taking credit for stuff that he didn't even
think about? I mean things that you're talking about. I had,
I had common all my atoms on what you're just
describing right now when it comes to STEM funding. That
wasn't the administration, wasn't even their idea, it was her.
Well what that they They literally had nothing to do
with it. That was all my atoms drove that the

(01:10:29):
Trump adminstration had nothing to do with it. Once he
got passed, he signed it, but it stopped like he
didn't actually do he didn't do it. Well, let's be
honest to the role and if we're gonna have an
honest conversation. Let's be honest as far as um what
presidents do and how they get credit for. I don't
believe that during the eight years of Barack Obama that
we parsed out the things that Barack Obama signed. Actually,

(01:10:51):
actually that's not true. Republicans did, Conservatives did. I mean,
I know, I literally watched. I literally watched and listened
to because servatives say, oh that that was a bill
that we put forth, that was an administration priority, that
was our deal. So I actually saw that. So that's
not true. So I'm actually I'm actually glad that you
I'm actually glad that you said that, you actually pointed

(01:11:13):
that out, because it actually proves my point when I
was saying about the things that presidents are responsible for.
Some things that they're actively involved in. For instance like
criminal Justice performed, the Second Chance hiring and hbcuth funding.
Those are things that the White House have been actively
involved in. There are other things that is on the Congress,
so for instance, the band the Bok legislation, the recent

(01:11:33):
Commission on Um that Donald Trump signed where it's gonna
study uh black men and boys. That's something that actually
passed in not just the House and not just the Senate.
It's been to Donald Trump's desk and he signed it.
Donald Trump gets credit for that, whether or not he
is the person who was initiating that or not, in
the same way that all presidents get pres Second. Now

(01:11:56):
the stage, Senator, though, Teresa, when he talked about banned
the body, he was talking about across the board. What
Trump signed into law was not banned the box across
the board. It was only for federal agency and government contractors.
That's an important President can't do that. I don't think
president can dictates um state. I don't think that the
federal government actually dictate. I understand that the point I

(01:12:22):
am making. I am making is when people here banned
the box, it's important to list the distinction exactly what
does it do. So just like you earlier when you
said that Rampaul wanted to get rid of no not
warrants across the board, well again again, and what I'm

(01:12:43):
saying is the distinction is important, Teresa, I'm still waiting. Again.
I get all these emails from Paris den Art about
how Trump has just done all these these things for
black people. I've heard no agenda for a second term,
zero zilch. Yeah. I'm guessing the email was probably like
a one pager uh in a body message, no attachment.

(01:13:05):
Because here's the thing and the second term. We won't
hear an agenda for African Americans. What you will hear
is that we need more law and order. What you
will hear is that unemployment is down. What you will
hear is the economy is soaring and people are getting
back to work. But you won't hear a specific agenda
and the second term for Black Americans because we were

(01:13:27):
never on the agenda in the first place. And that's
partially why we're still having these conversations on divide and
lack of unity, because there is no plan by the
administration to be inclusive but more divisive, of which there
is no funding plan. There is no uh billion dollar
plan to invest in small businesses or a million dollar

(01:13:49):
plan to invest. The only thing Donald Trump is interested
in is getting back to business, to getting the stock
market up, to watching his investments and watching those of
his followers and consistuents to get on board. But unfortunately,
this is where we are, and that's why it's so important.
I think that was probably the best ad for me
that I saw with Biden and Kamala Harris putting that

(01:14:13):
in the barbershop, because it tells me that they're actually listening,
because the barbershop and hair salon conversations going back to
the roots are where conversations actually happened, and how people
take that message and pass it on. Kelly, the thing is, again,
and this is very simple. If you're talking about who

(01:14:33):
should black folks be voting for, I need to see something.
And literally, Donald Trump makes no effort to talk to
black people, none. None. He doesn't go to black organizations,
speak to their conventions. Um, he doesn't do black radio,
has not talked to black newspapers, has not talked to

(01:14:54):
black networks. Uh. And if he talks to anybody, it's
gonna be some black some some black conservative uh that
you never heard of, uh with uh with a so
called show that that's what you're dealing with here. And
so it's interesting to me that Donald Trump, Kelly wants
to communicate to black people without communicating to black people.

(01:15:19):
It's very frustrating, Um, for all the reasons that you
just listed, but when the only time that I see
Trump ever interacting with Black people outside of them being
tokens in a rally right behind him as proof that
black people are in attendance. The only time that I
actually see him engage with black people is when he

(01:15:44):
beckons them to the White House or to wherever he is.
He doesn't make an effort to go out into the
community and to reach out to black voters. He expects
us to come to him as if you know, he
is God. And I don't um ascribed to that belief
or that method of black outreach because it's quite insulting. UM.

(01:16:07):
But going to your previous point about how these bills
that have been passed that under the Trump administration technically
do uh uh benefit black people, There's something to be
said about Trump not promoting those bills right until after

(01:16:30):
he signs them. So, for example, in the Obama administration,
when bills were coming down and he had to sign them,
he would actually give credit to the Senate or to
the House or whoever was the author of the bill,
and if they were Republican, he would garner their support
and be like, hey, this is bipartisan working, um and

(01:16:50):
and and promoted that way. But with Trump, it's like,
oh I did this, Oh I did that. And while
it's under your administration. Like you said before, that does
not mean that he was the one who came up
with the idea. So the fact that it's under his
administration is almost irrelevant because it it could be argued
that it would have been passed anyway by way of

(01:17:12):
the cooperation between the House and the Senate, not necessarily
Congress and the executive branch. Rolan, Can I just say
something very quickly. I think it's important. We but because
we're talking, we're giving civics lessons, and this just in
partisan This is just a civic lesson on how these
things work. You can look at everything that you go
to the Trump's website, you can look at everything that

(01:17:35):
Trump has done around the economy, education, all of those things,
and you can compare it to what Joe Biden has done.
You will see a lot of overlap between those two plans.
I agree with you, the Trump administration definitely should pull
some of those things out and say this is how
we specifically help the black community. But Biden is in
a different position than Donald Trump. Joe Biden has to

(01:17:56):
present a black plan. Donald Trump has plans things that
he's done and as president already, and one of the
ironies is is that a lot of the things that
we're asking for it on the presidential level, things that
we know that a presidential should address, these are not
the things. If I'm sure all of us remember when
people like, for instance, to have a smiley. We're asking
those things. In two thousand and eight, there was a

(01:18:17):
different conversation and expectation we had of a president of
the United States than we had and not just two
thousand sixteen, but we're having now. So I encourage everyone
look at what the political climate is different now and
before as opposed to how it was before Trump it
came into office. Our political climate is way more partisan,

(01:18:39):
way more divisive, and way more dangerous, frankly, especially when
it comes to race relations because of what we are
seeing literally right now, and the fact that you know,
you can argue that Trump is doing stuff for black
people all you want, but at the end of the day,
when a president's response to police brute reality, specifically against

(01:19:02):
people of color and specifically against black people, when his
response is more law and order and more law enforcement
and more rules and more stringent policies and completely ignoring
the humanity of the fact that these police officers are
targeting us because of the color of our skin. And

(01:19:22):
he just had an entire week being the Convention to
address these issues head on, and he doesn't. And then
you have rhetoric like, oh, they're the people that's probably
that's factually Kelly, that's factually incorrect what you're saying. If
you want to know what the administration wanted to do
around things like policing, then look at the GOP bill.

(01:19:43):
He supported the GOP bill, Democrats supported of that field,
but because they didn't support the other temp person, Democrats
voted and walk step against it. So if you want
to talk about what the admitted, holo, hold on one second,
holo on, holdo on one second, one second. Let's correct
that that was on the Senate side. The fact of
the matter is, the fact of the matter is that
was a bill that was passed on the House side

(01:20:06):
that Republicans would not even consider on the Senate side.
As a distinction, Teresa, again, what I'm looking at here
when I'm talking about this election. Here again, what I'm
looking for is, Okay, what is the Trump administure again?
You you say you want to reach all votes, but
you won't even talk to black people. He won't. He won't.

(01:20:29):
Trump sat here and had a Latinos for Trump rally
or around. First of all, it was supposed to be
not a Latinos for Trump roundtable, was supposed to be
a White House event, but it really was. They really
just pimped the whole deal. It really was Latinos for
Trump rally. But again, Trump makes no effort to communicate

(01:20:49):
with Black people about his agenda. Trump goes to rallies
and goes on Fox News, how about black people? No,
damn well, black Poles don't watch Fox News. And I
think part of that is, um, it's part of like
the mindset I believe on some of these consultants when
uh they feel like they can reach it into certain communities.

(01:21:10):
You know, they come out to a campaign and they say, listen,
if you pay me twenty five dollars a clip, uh
per month, I can make sure you get you know,
right to the point. And and for somebody who's like
you know, Trumping and his his people around him are like,
you know what, that's exactly what we need to do.
That's exactly how we're going to communicate to African Americans,
which is essentially why they only focus I believe on

(01:21:34):
the electoral college and not the polls. Uh In So
I think right now we're really seeing uh. You know,
even if we look at the rallies, you know, they
keep saying Biden's in the basement, He's coming out the
clause and all this great stuff. I said. But at
the end of the day, anytime you see Joe Biden, uh,
either by himself or with his team, there's always people

(01:21:56):
of color surrounding him. And and that you don't see that,
you know, um, you know, I mean, yes, yes, Kamala Harris,
but there is a multicultural understanding that listen, I cannot
win without you. And thus I heard you. One thing.
What you'll get about people elect Biden or Harris, You'll

(01:22:18):
get a president who will listen, a president who says,
you know what, I'm looking at the polls. I'm I'm
looking at Twitter. I you know, I I surround myself
with millennials. I surround myself with the next generation, and
I am saying, I hear you, and thus we are
putting a fan together. Trump has heard as many people,
he's seen them stalky, he's seeing the yellow paint on

(01:22:38):
the Washington's pavement. And yet nothing is being done, and
this is and we'll see the results on November three,
actually probably in a couple of weeks after November three,
after the mail in, Ballace well again and continues to
talk to black people. We that's just this honest. No, no, no, no,
here's the deal though. Well, okay, when when as Trump

(01:22:59):
talked the masses of black people win? Well, I don't
know what environment. I get your point, because actually he hasn't. No, no, no, no,
I'm not not. I don't want no, I just want
to no win. Well, there are many things that Donald
Trump has done, whether it's at the White House or
in different communities. Yes, Donald Trump hasn't had a mass rally.

(01:23:22):
No no, no no no no no no no no no no.
When I say when I say, I ain't saying mass rally,
what I'm saying is show me the evidence where Donald
Trump has gone to talk to a black radio host.
Show me, show me, show me where. Look, I can
run down the line. You got Steve Harvey, you got

(01:23:43):
Erica Campbell, you got d O Heagley, You've got I'm
not hold up, hold up, you got Ricky Smiley, Uh,
you got Michael based In, you got Joe Madison. I
mean I can go down the line of now actually
syndicated radio shows. Not even he hasn't talked to him,

(01:24:05):
no effort, no effort, you not, not not even an attempt.
Has has he sat down? Has he sat down for
a conversation with American Urban Radio Network? Has he has
he sat down for a conversation with any of the

(01:24:26):
nine black networks? No? I mean, now, he did do
an interview with Kelly Wright for Black Black News Channel,
but don't nobody even get Black News Channel. I'm not
just being honest. I mean it's like, literally, um, I
probably get more people watching me car dance uh in
my navigator than the watch Black News Channel. I'm just

(01:24:47):
being straight up honest. So the deal, so the dealers
just here and here's a piece. I was a part.
He had a couple of meetings with TV anchors. I
was part of two of the first three. When he
got in and one of the those deals, he said,
he said, oh he was gonna set up a meeting
between uh Me and him and being cautioned to discuss

(01:25:07):
some issues, and I said, I'm gonna hold you to it.
I have sent in three years, like repeated emails to
Kelly Anne, to Mercedes, to Sarah Huckaby Sanders, to Hogan,
get Lee, to Helen Ferrar, it ain't never happened. Yeah,
you get no disagreement from me. And I've made this

(01:25:29):
point many signs. So you can't come talk to black people.
You ain't serious about black people. But go ahead, final comment,
go ahead and get no disagreement for me. As far
as black media is concerned, one of the things that
we have to take responsibility for is that black media
overall is essentially hostile to the President of the United States.
That doesn't that that doesn't excuse him from going into
black media. But black media overall is extremely host hold on,

(01:25:52):
hold on, hold on, hold on. Donal Trump has called everybody.
First of all, Donal Trump has called Fox News hostile
when he disagrees with him. Guess but but but he
was on Fox and Friends this morning, Donald Trump. Donald
Trump has dog John John. He has dog John Carl
with ABC News. But he's done Abc. He's done. So

(01:26:13):
here's the deal. He's on the media, but he here's
here's my whole point. Don't try to pimp me and
say you can't you've done more for black people any
president since since Abraham Lincoln, which is just a flat
out lie when you won't even come talk to black people. Yeah,
he wont I wish, I wish that Donald Trump would

(01:26:35):
actually stop saying that he's been the best president for
black people since Abraham. But we also have to acknowledge
that black media pretty much is hostile and you can't
you can't um see good damn raising. But again so
then so then nobody and I don't know who this

(01:26:56):
person is. And I used Barack Obama as an example.
Barack Obama didn't go to news. That's a lot. That's
a lot of two thousand fifteen. That's Barack Obama. That's
a hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
But did he have the guts to sit down with
Bill A. Rowley? Yeah, I think that was in two
thousand fifteen. Donald Trump ain't got the guts to sit

(01:27:17):
down with nobody who ain't kissing his ass, don't Donald Trump.
Donald Trump did an anyview with bar Stool with with
with bar Stool Sports, And he ain't done nothing with
anybody who's black, credible, none, He done none, He got
no points. And and I'm gonna take it even further,

(01:27:41):
at least even when Obama was president, and not even
just when Michael Steel was chaired. When Rice Preevious was chaired,
the RNC at least attempted Teresa to talk to black media. Hell,
I had Rice Previous on top drawing the morning show.
Ronand McDaniel ain't going to do that, but black but block,

(01:28:02):
but black media wasn't in opposition to Barack Obama, so
of course he's gonna do black He wasn't let me
chime in really quick because we keep saying that, you know,
and it's it's really hard for me to understand how
African American media is so hard to get Trump when
African American media doesn't even get the time of day
of Trump. Right, So yes, Friends at nine am. But

(01:28:24):
I also heard because I watched the entire interview from
start to finish because I was just up during my
morning workout, but I was up to the entire interview.
He said very specifically, he said, you know what, I
love Fox and Friends. I love you guys, and you
know what, we should make this a regular occurrence, right.
I could come on weekly for that type of commitment
for Fox and Friends and they're like, yeah, yeah, we'll
think about it. We'll talk about in the program. And

(01:28:45):
that was paraphrasing. But the other part was a commitment.
It was a commitment to be on a show that
you're comfortable with, a commitment to be on the show
that allows you to talk. And when they try to
cut you off their faces, solid stone, right, because you know,
when the President gets on the show, he's going on
and on and he's barely letting you in and he's repetitive.
But when it comes to African American media, there is

(01:29:07):
a pause and funding, there's a pause in digital. I
know because you are a media ad by agency and
I'm frustrated just to say, Roland when it comes to hey,
don't you guys want to advertise and make sure African
Americans know you've done all these great, wonderful works that
the only medium they plan on spending money on is
the black voices for Trump. And I'm like, if if

(01:29:28):
that's your only reliability to the African American community, you
guys are in a hardship. And I can't wait to
the end of November to see these resolves. Alright, alright, folks,
I gotta actually they actually I would probably put money
on them going to Fox News before Donald Trump even

(01:29:48):
bothers to go no, no, no, hold up, let me
say it again, Let me say it. Let let me
say it again. If I had to put money on it,
Joe Biden, Kama Harris will go to Fox News before
Donald Trump would even think about talking to anybody in
black media. Coming up next, we're coming up next, we're
gonna talk to talk with a black artist who's a
live performance artist. And also in the after this post,

(01:30:10):
we're gonna talk with Mike esp Was rather the United
States Senate out of Mississippi. We'll be back a roller
Martin Unfiltered. The community comes together to support the fight
against racial injustice. I want to take a second to
talk about one thing we can do to ensure our
voices are heard, not tomorrow, but now, have your voices

(01:30:32):
heard in terms of what kind of future we want
by taking the twin twenty cents today at twenty cents
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is an account of everyone living in the country. It
happens once every ten years. It is mandated by the
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census informs funding billions of dollars, how they are spent

(01:30:55):
in our communities every single year. I grew up in
Clinton Parks in Houston, Texas, and we want to be
one of new parks and roads and Senior Citizens Center
where the Census helps inform all of that and where
funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state
will get in the US House Representatives. Young black men,

(01:31:15):
and young children of color are historically undercounter which means
a potential loss of funding of services that helps our community. Folks.
We have the power to change that. We have a
power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal
funding go each year for the next ten years, funding
that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families

(01:31:39):
and friends. Folks. Responses are confidential and can't be shared
with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So
please take the Census today. Shape your future to start
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(01:32:25):
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(01:33:29):
with Roland Martin unfiltered al right, folks. Uh, My next
guest uh is somebody who operates in the tech space
of course, uh and then but that's what he does
in the daytime. Patrick Hunter is a technology consultant uh
in the tech space. But then he is a live
performance art hit artist. Uh and he joins us right now, Hey, man,

(01:33:52):
how you doing great? How are you so so so talking?
So talk, let's talk about this. Uh. So you do text,
you do education and stuff, but this what is your business?
This live performance art. Yeah, I'm in the business of entertainment.
So I marry entertainment and education, taking my background as

(01:34:13):
an artist and a computer scientists and then putting them together.
So as a performance painter, I'm using those elements of
science and creating a live performance to music that structure
but yet artistic. And then I'm taking the same learnings
and I've turned that into curriculum that I go into
classrooms and help students find pathways into careers and tech

(01:34:34):
by using art and pop culture. All right, we got
the video of that, So guys going to show the
video of one of the performances. Why don't you start
doing this. I started doing live painting about ten years ago,
but I was always an artist growing up, and then
once I got out of high school, I went into
uh went into computer science, and at the time I

(01:34:55):
thought that I was changing past in life. But the
discovery of recognizing how the science and the arts really
kind of work hand in hand. It changed my life.
And you know, I've gotten a chance to go around
the country and around the world using this platform to
inspire young young minds and then our season minds, helping

(01:35:16):
them to recognize that there's a purpose for their gifts.
There was a video one of the videos there, So
you did one of these pieces during an NBA game. Yeah,
I had an opportunity to be the halftime show for
an NBA Chi League team. But I also provided all
of the artwork for the jerseys for the Black History Months.

(01:35:37):
So it's the first time in any other major sports
where where artwork was displayed on jerseys. And so we
we took tim places, one of those being uh President Obama,
and we put them on jerseys and at the end
of the game, we auctioned off the jerseys to support
the local costs. Um this is uh So when don't

(01:35:59):
you first start painting? I started painting about ten years ago,
and uh, I didn't really really realize the connections between
the science worlds, but I just I had a I
was always jealous of my friends who were entertainers and
musicians and and so this was kind of my way
of finding the stage and being an artist or a

(01:36:20):
musician in a sense. So I consider myself a visual
musician because I take the same approach that a musician
would have in terms of, uh, choreographing the music to
an experience, and then bringing in live musicians as well
as bringing in DJs and my performances. Um, what has
been uh the most First of all, how fast do

(01:36:43):
you do these? I can't do a painting about three
and a half minutes, three and a half a minute,
around five or six. But yeah, three and a half minutes. Yeah,
that's all right, I'm playing I'm about to play videos
shortly of you painting I think a piece on dr
King Uh. And so somebody posted that video on YouTube

(01:37:05):
just wanted to go ahead and show that. Uh. And
so obviously, uh, that's not a normal time uh to
do one of these pieces. And so how did you
develop that? Um, that skill set? You know what's really
interesting is I took this engineering approach. You know, engineers
look at things as systems. There's a number of steps

(01:37:27):
to be able to create a system that's repeatable. And
in the same way, if I know, if I choreograph
where each pain stroke is going to be to the music.
Then it's just rehearsing it over time and speeding it
and uh kind of building in those elements that performers have,
you know, understanding your audience, understanding how to be a
bit dramatic, and again just rehearsing. So rehearsing really being

(01:37:51):
the key, that being that system of choreograph paint strokes. Uh.
Talk about the piece that you did on chat with
Boseman on how University campus. Yeah, So that was a
great honor to be able to be in DC at
a time where people were honoring his work and because
I'm such a huge fan of his work, and also
just what he meant in terms of understanding how representation

(01:38:14):
is so important. Um aligns with a lot of the
work that I do personally is going around the country
and helping kids of color, girls of all colors recognize
careers and stem uh by seeing images that look like them.
So for me to be able to go on Howard's campus,
which was the first time that I was able to

(01:38:34):
go on campus, and to be able to honor him
at that artwork that was done, and I believe it
was about ten minutes that I did the artwork. I
did it upside down, and I flipped it over, you know,
making it kind of dramatic and trying to embody what
I felt like a performer or how he would I
heard that he would approach a performance. So explain the

(01:38:56):
upside down thing, uh, because that's not normally how think
somebody can envision? Uh do starting in our piece? Yeah, well,
you know, if I don't do it upside down, I
don't get on your show. So so part of it
is the entertainment of it. But kind of going back
to the system of engineering. Yeah, there's only three shapes

(01:39:16):
in the universe circle, square, and wreck and a triangle,
and so any image is really a collection of shapes.
And if I can understand the collection of shapes, then
I can reorganize those shapes and just kind of create
a new a new normal and just rehearsing. So I
do that with most of the paintings. I choreographic to

(01:39:36):
the music. So if if I want to paint it
upside down, I typically will have music that will change
and and being more dramatic, and then I choreographed to
flip to that. All right, then well that's uh quite
impressive there. We certainly appreciate the work that you do. Uh.
What last question for you? Uh? What is who is

(01:40:00):
the one piece of you've done? Uh? Were even you,
let's say your head were taking a little bit, uh
and you were doing in front of somebody. Uh So
this one doesn't Uh, this one is definitely one that
I know. I had an opportunity to go to Atlanta
and work with Hughley Packard or a special event that
they have for some of their their clients and some

(01:40:21):
of their partners. But what we but we organized a
special performance with baseball legum hank Aaron. The room didn't
know that Hankar was going to come into the room,
but we knew that at about the five minute mark
he was gonna walk in and take a seat next
to the stage. And although I didn't see him walk
in to hear the room cheer, I knew it was
in me at that moment. But you know, I certainly

(01:40:43):
got a bit nervous when I heard that all the
voices in the cheering, but I fell right back into
my zone of painting and performing. And but I did
get a chance to watch it afterwards, and it was
pretty funny. I think the funniest part about that experience
was when I got done painting, they it to me
next to Mr Aaron to take a picture, and distinctively

(01:41:04):
he grabbed the painting with one hand, realized it was wet,
and then wiped it on me. Not a problem, Uh, folks,
this is a photo one of the pieces that you did,
uh the pieces you did for Chad with Boseman. Uh.
This was uh there uh that outside of the fire
Arts building on the campus after he passed away. So uh,

(01:41:25):
great work. We're now working, folks. Go check out more
of your work. Thank you. They can check it out
at pakasso dot com or they can go to at
uh Pacasso art on Instagram again. Uh, what's what's the
instagram again? At Pocasso Art? All right, and again I
get PATKASO p A T had pulographic up again folks,

(01:41:47):
p A T C A S s O uh dot com.
We'll so appreciated Patrick Hunter, Thank you so very much.
Crap all right, Alph was always doing doing something big.
All right, folks, I want y'all to We're gonna look
to a break, we come back. We're gonna talk with
Mike Espy. He is running against against Cindy height Smith
again to become the United States Senator Uh for Mississippi.

(01:42:12):
He joins us next the Rolling Martin Unfiltered Unfiltered being
sure to join, I'll bring the Funk Fan Club. Every
dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital
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Support the rolland Martin Unfilter daily digital show by going
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(01:42:33):
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can make this possible. Rolland Martin Unfiltered dot com. The
community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice.
I want to take a second to talk about one
thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard,
not tomorrow, but now, have your voices heard in terms

(01:42:55):
of what kind of future we want by taking between
twenty cents. It's today at twin twin census dot gov
and folks, let me help you. The census is an
account of everyone living in the country. It happens once
every ten years. It is mandated by the U s Constitution.
The thing that's important is that the census informs funding
billions of dollars how they are spent in our communities

(01:43:18):
every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas,
and we want to We wanted new parks and roads
and Senior Citizens Center. Where the Census helps inform all
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Young black men and young children of color are historically

(01:43:40):
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(01:44:05):
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(01:44:27):
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silk ones and So I was reading GQ magazine a
number of years ago, and I saw this guy who
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This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create
this sort of flower effect. And so I'm gonna take

(01:44:48):
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this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down that
they took me a year to find a company that
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seven different colors. And so I love them because again,
as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so
we don't have many many options. Uh, And so this
is really a pretty cool pocket screend. Well, I love

(01:45:10):
about this here because you saw when it's uh in
in the pocket. You know, it gives you that flower
effect like that. But if I wanted to also unlike
other because if I flip it and turn it over,
it actually gives me a different type of texture and
so therefore it gives me a different look. So there
you go. So if you actually want to get one

(01:45:31):
of these Shabory pocket squares. We have them in forti
seven different colors. All you gotta do is go to
Rolling This Martin dot com Forward Slash pocket Squares. So
it's Rolling This Martin dot Com Forward Slash pocket Squares.
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(01:45:53):
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If you want to jazz your look up, you can
do that. In addition, uh, y'all see me with some
of the feather pocket squares. My sister was a designer.
She actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when
you also go to the website, you can also order
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(01:46:17):
Rolling s Martin dot com Forward Slash pocket Squares, So
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join the fan club. So how does it make you

(01:46:37):
feel when you encounter somebody who says, this is a
waste of my time. This just means, this means nothing,
It is not gonna change anything. Well, I have to
tell you it's very hurtful. I can recall walking pre
sense and I do still walk pre sense and knock
on doors, you know, not only for myself, but in

(01:46:57):
different campaigns that I'm working in. I can recall knocking
on a door, uh in the city of Inglewood, which
is now part of my district, and the young lady
who answered the door was unkind and she says, I
don't vote, don't bother me. I don't want to be
bothered with that. And I can remember how hurt I

(01:47:20):
felt thinking about what we do, and you know how
we're in a constant struggle to provide for you know,
to work in the best interests of people. This is
Brad Jan, I'm Erica as I'm Jesse. Hi. My name
is Brecia Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered. Well,

(01:47:46):
I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered.
Drink our folks, got I won't drop a couple of
First of all, my guests here my guests ready, all right, folks.
Two thousand eighteen, Mike A Speak, Kingdom was short by
sixteen thousand votes against Senator Hindy Sydney Hyde Smith to

(01:48:09):
be the United States Senator form Mississippi. And he of
course is running again this time, he joins us right now. Uh, Mike,
gus be glad to have you back on the show. Man,
Hey Roller, her brother, I'm so much for the invitation.
I'm doing great. Let's just talk about um. Of course,
let's talk about um the last time again. Sixty eight

(01:48:31):
thousand votes, and I try to get people to understand that, um,
if black people had in black folks what had maximized
their vote, potentially you could have beat Cinndey Hyt Smith, know, right,
what what everyone needs to understand is that look at
Mississippi re right now, Mississippi twenty twenty, we have more

(01:48:55):
black voters per capita than Eddy stayed in the nation.
All right, any stay of the nation and population is
sixty forty white to black. You know. So if we
get nine percent, oh the African American vote, we only
have to get thirty percent of them turning out like
Obama in two thousand and eight got around thirty nine percent.

(01:49:19):
Eighteen months ago, we got thirty two and a half percent.
If we get three more percent, we can achieve that
portion of the equation that can be accomplished with black votes.
But now you can't win with black votes to load.
I'm not here to say that we need white votes,
but only about twenty of them. So we just have
We just stopped finished the poll that we announced rolling

(01:49:41):
about three years ago, and it says that we already
have that white support. So we have twenty percent white support.
I'd love to get maybe two more percent of it,
and it says that we have enough black support to win.
But uh, that's on paper, all right, that's on paper.
It's like Jesus on Easterday. It's gotta rise. Those numbers

(01:50:04):
have to rise into fruition. Those numbers have to rise
into real medifest station. And that's the the the the
obligation of our campaign. So we have the numbers of
Mississippi today to win, but we have to have the
resources and the message to get everybody out. And the
reality is that Democrats don't spend on these southern races.

(01:50:25):
They believe they can't win. But the most guaranteed way
you never can win if you don't compete. There you go,
there you go. If you don't run, you can't win.
If you don't compete, you can't achieve our run. You ever.
Hurricane coming in the south of Mississippi, and I heard
something today. I was shaving and I heard the newscaster,

(01:50:45):
one of the national newscast try to explain what that
hurricane is gonna land it did, said, Hurricane Sally, what's
it gonna land between? It was gonna hear a land
mass between Mobile, Alabama and the waters them. I'm shaving,
I'm within. That's Mississippi. That land mass that they just overlooked.

(01:51:07):
They missed the name of an entire state. So I
look at that and I think about what's being done
in our campaign from the Democratic establishment in Washington. You
know they're overlooking this Mississippi possibility. They really are one
of the in terms of the issues that you're driving. Uh.
Look in Mississippi, they love them some Donald Trump, but

(01:51:31):
you're making the argument that you, being in the United States,
said it will be better for the state than Cindy
Hyde Smith explain, I'm not gonna get those Donald Trump voters.
We don't need those Donald Trump voters they can vote
for for Donald Trump. I'm voting for Joe Biden and
Kevila Hairs. And there are no white votes in Mississippi,

(01:51:53):
in the suburbs of Memphis and in the college towns
of all these colleges. We haven't missed empy and on
the Missisipu Gulf Coast, we have enough white voters now
that are really even leaning Republican. They're coming to sp
We have independence right already in our camp, and we
have of those white voters already in our camp. And

(01:52:15):
what they're looking for is a new vision from Mississippi.
They want the new flag. You know, the Confederate flag
is now down, a flag that flew for hundreds of
years in Mississippi is now in the Mississippi Museum where
it belongs. And so we have now enough voters for
Mike Espy and they want a new vision. They want

(01:52:35):
to durn the page. They want someone who unites the state.
They want someone who will focus his attention on the
lord one third of the state when it comes to
poverty and uh, low income economic voters. Okay, so they
won't medicate expansion. They want fifteen dollar minimum wage. They
won't teach us paid properly. They want students that reduced,

(01:52:59):
and they want more jobs. They want someone to go
and focus on the what what the Bible calls the
least to lead the least of these, because if we
lift up the least of these, you lift up the
whole state, and we'll no longer be Number fifty would
be right like number thirty. That's by focus. I got
a couple of panels here. I'll let the Melick ask first.

(01:53:22):
He is from Mississippi, he's a Donald Trump supporter. This
should be interesting, Well, it shouldn't be too interesting at all. Actually,
I don't even have a question for um Mike here
because I I just wanted you to know that I'm
happy that you're running. I went to school with Carlos.
I'm from Jackson, so I went to school with some
of your relatives, and I'm happy that you're running the race.

(01:53:43):
What I will say is something that you've actually touched on.
It's I running that two years later, we're having the
same conversation on this same show that um Roland and
many of the panelists were having. Because I said then
that the interest in your race in two thousand eighteen,
was based on calm to Cindy Hyde. Smith made that
people considered racists and things like that. But nobody's interested

(01:54:06):
in your race this year. I said on this show,
then don't just pay attention to Mike Espie's race, because race,
if you will, it's now an issue. He's gonna run
again in twenty And here you are in saying that
you don't have the support that you should have. There's
no reason that you should have the support, not just
from the Democratic Party. Roland does Yeoman's work. You rolland

(01:54:30):
show shouldn't be the only show that you're on. I
watch enough news. I was. I even asked myself, why
aren't people talking to Mike Espy, whether they think he
can win or not? Why doesn't he Why doesn't Why
don't these media outlet's talk to Mike because they also
think the same thing as the Democratic Party that Mississippi
is read it does not matter. It's the same thing

(01:54:52):
with Alabama, That's why. And can I just can I
just ask something something that people really don't know is
that Mississippi actually has a history of electing democratic governors.
People really don't realize that Mississippi, Um Louisiana, those states
have histories of electing Democrats to the statewide positions. So

(01:55:13):
Mississippi good if they got enough support. Actually probably put
Mike esp In the Um in the Senate. But he
doesn't get enough support because people just throw up their hands.
And if it's not senator around race or the Confederate flag,
people aren't interested in Mississippi. Congratulations, continue what you were doing.
But I will just say another thing. You can actually

(01:55:34):
get people who support Donald Trump, so don't just write
them off. You can get people who support Donald Trump
because you're a model. I do know that, right, Thank
you man, I appreciate that, and thank you for the
reference to my to my nephew Carlos. He's now in Florida,
and uh, I appreciate that, big attorney. Yes, yes, yeah,

(01:55:54):
he's doing well. What I what I find. What I
find is that those who over the race uh the
is for is for two reasons. First of all, some
uh don't believe that the black voters will actually come out.
They already have these present predispositions that black voters will
not vote to strength and and for them. I say,

(01:56:16):
that's a little bit like what George W. Bush used
to say about the soft bigotry of low expectations. You
know that African Americans won't come out, they won't recognize that.
It's in their head. I don't even remember. I don't
remember what it was, righte Wright. Liberals, Uh, won't, won't, won't,
won't understand what what underlies that. So it's a soft

(01:56:38):
bigotry of low expectations. And I'm just I'm claiming that
phrase even though George W. Bush said it and the
others don't believe that white voters will both for the
Afrimerican candidate. And I will just tell you that's not true.
I read it one in six in the district that
was not a majority of black for Congress. I wouldn't.

(01:56:59):
I wouldn't g gret to see the first race ever
ran and I got ntcent of the Black votes and
about twelve percent of the white votes, and I won,
and I served eight ninety and ninety two. And when
I left to become the sector of agriculture, we were
getting of the white boat and of the black boat.
All right. So now I'm running state wide and we

(01:57:21):
have enough African American votes here to get to where
I want to get, well two thirds of where I
need to get to. And then the other one third
are white boats, and we already have twenty percent of
them according to my most recent poll. What we need
about twenty two. So I tell them you don't have
to say different things, two different racial audiences, the same thing.

(01:57:44):
And it's all about a health care education, lifting capacity
going to the bottom one third in order to give
them greater wealth, capacity to live them and that will
lift a whole state. And I'm just gonna be a
centage of everyone. Now we have taken down the Confederate flag,
that is this symbol is in the museum where it

(01:58:06):
should be. Now we need to move to material change.
And the first thing I have to do is Medicaid
expansion to make sure we can give medical insurance to
quarter of a million people in Mississippi. And some of
the conservative leaders say, well, we can't do that, but
I said, look, we're already paying for medicaid expansion for

(01:58:27):
Massachusetts and California, and now Oklahoma and Missouri have it
as well, so we're paying for their benefits to their
people to have medical insurance. I think we can get
it as well. Question from Cali Kelly, go get it here?
Can you hear me, Yeah, go ahead, Kelly, Okay, Uh,

(01:58:49):
I just want to say congratulations in advance for winning.
We need to put that energy out there. My question
for you is short, but in two parts. Number one, uh,
specific quickly when it comes to voting day, election day.
I'm not um all that familiar with the COVID protocols
of Mississippi, but COVID is still in Mississippi. It's everywhere

(01:59:10):
in the countries. So how do you plan on navigating
those waters and garnering people to vote? Are you saying,
you know, go to the polls because Mississippi is allowing
you to. Are you encouraging mail and voting? And then,
just as a personal know, what can non Mississippians do
to support your race because it's clear that we need

(01:59:31):
you in the Senate. Well, thanks, thanks so much for that,
for that that votal support. I appreciate you. So, yes,
we have COVID, it's real, it's still here in Mississippi,
and until very recently, Mississippi unfortunately lead the nation and
the rate of daily positives. So so it's something that

(01:59:52):
that we take very very seriously, uh, in my in
my campaign. So with specific reference to your question, we
don't have direct mail voting in the conventional sense that
most people in Mississippi are are used to and and
are fighting about. So we have absentee voting, and you

(02:00:14):
have to have an excuse to vote absentee. Okay, now
the first the first thing we're trying to tell everyone
is that the only direct in person voting that we
have before November three begins actually on September one. So
when the circuit clerk's offices open in the two counted

(02:00:35):
September twenty one, if you're sixty five are older, you
can personally physically go in and vote. So what we're
telling to everyone, well, everyone just vote. I mean, that's
just my admonition for everyone. But for those who won't
vote for me, go early, Go go on twenty one,
go and vote and book your vote. I'm not saying

(02:00:57):
vote twice like someone else we know as reasons said,
I'm saying go and be confident that you can go
in early if you qualify, and you can qualify if
you aid sixty five or older, and luck in your vote,
book it and book it for me, and then just
called me and tell me your vote it so we
can mark you down. All right, Now, we also have

(02:01:17):
absent devoting, So for those who were sent in and
get the ballot, then you have to have an excuse,
so either out of town or in the hospital. And
now we have a COVID excuse, but in Mississippi you
have to have certification, you know. But all I'm saying
there is that is that that is that is a

(02:01:38):
qualified excuse. So go ahead and write for that absotee ballot.
You'll get it market and as long as it's postmarked
by November three, your vote would be counted, even if
it's received within five days. So we tell everybody, like
what Michelle Obama said, make your plan and vote early,
and so on November three. We your think irrespective of

(02:02:02):
the pandemic, we think that it's going to be a
historic turnout. So we're just telling everybody to go early.
Uh you know, bring your a phone and bring your
paying for music, bring your hit phones. While you're sitting
in line where your mask. Have gloves that you need
it If you don't have to, we can supply them
and make your plan to vote early. All right, Mike Aspy,

(02:02:24):
We certainly appreciate it. Man, Thank you so very much,
Thank you so much. Roll with my friend, all right,
good luck, thank you very much. Days yes indeed, yes, indeed,
al right, folks, don't forget. We also want you to
double check your registration. Go to vote dot org vote
dot org to double check your registration of forty eight
days until election day. You can go right there on

(02:02:47):
the site check your registration. You can also register to
vote vote by mail. You can also feel out your senses.
All that is important, hey, and make gi a shout out, y'all.
I am wearing this shirt here voting because your ancestors
died for it. Uh. Tammy Green is one about followers,
and so she actually sent me this shirt with an
accompanying mask, and so Tammy I certainly appreciate it. Uh,
and so thank you so very much for doing that. Folks.

(02:03:09):
If you want to support Roller Martin unfilter is right,
here's the shot of the shirt. We're go ahead take it.
There's another shot of the shirt right here. Uh, and
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(02:03:30):
You can also go to UH send us a money
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Um UH and so the past worth there woman. Thank
Kelly Malik as well as uh Terse for joining us
with our palels today again. New Vision Media in six Street, Northwest,

(02:03:51):
ME four hundred, Washington, d C. Two thousand and six
are folks. Tomorrow's show, Charloagne and Guy will be here
talking about his new black podcasting network. Folks. I will
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