Learn Before You Speak: Civics 101

This week, Mysonne was out but Tamika D Mallory held it down and spoke with Bishop Leah Daughtry about the importance of understanding how the government works and the need for civic engagement. They emphasize the need for accurate information and fact-checking, as well as the importance of holding elected officials accountable. They also discuss the challenges faced by Black women and the role  the media plays in shaping public opinion. They also, explain the role of delegates, the importance of knowing the rules, and the challenges of running a national primary. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika D.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Mallory and itshit boy my son a general.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are your host of TMI.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Tamika and Mysan's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration, New.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Name, New Energy. What's up, Family, it's your girl. Tamika D.
Mallory and my son is.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Celebrating his son's birthday today, so he is not with us.
Uh and I decided that rather than skipping a week,
we don't have time to skip a week. We got
one hundred days to an election. We are in the
middle of a war for the soul, not only of
this nation, but for us, for our souls, for our
children's lives, for our future, and so we don't have

(00:40):
time to skip. We have to keep information on the air,
on the air waves and make sure that there is
a place that our people can go that we can
receive information, we can share information, and we also are
fact checking information to.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Know that we are sure that we're sure that we're
sure that what we're saying is true.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Even if even if what we're saying does not sit
well or make certain people comfortable, even if what we're
saying goes against the audience, the crowd, the choir, still
it needs to be real and true information. And so

(01:24):
today I decided that I want to do something called
Civix one oh one, and I've asked my friend to
join me to talk about everything that we need to
know about how the government works. I hear so many
people and I read so many comments with misinformation, people

(01:45):
talking about things in ways that I understand. I can
hold on one hand, in one hand that they are struggling,
struggling with what's happening in the world, wanting to see
a change, and I can hold on the other hand
that there are people who are repeating information that they
have received, either from people that don't know, people who

(02:10):
don't want to know, or people who know damn well,
but they work very hard to misinform you. And so
I want to make sure over the next hundred days
that we have folks on our show that can talk
and pinpoint and give us clear information that we all
need to be armed with so that we can make

(02:31):
whatever decision we choose to make in in November, that
the decision is made because we know that we know,
and not because we heard on a clip on a
podcast somewhere that says something that is not the full
context of what an individual is saying, so we're all
about peeling back the onion having a difficult conversations. Let

(02:54):
me talk a little bit about Sonya Massey. You know
my heart is completely broken at as an organizer. For
thirty years I've been doing this work. I'm forty four.
When I was fourteen, even before fourteen, I was in
the movement. But at fourteen years old, I was given
my first responsibility and I have been since then receiving

(03:17):
whether it was fifty dollars a week just to show
up at a rally on every Saturday and help with
the organization, all the way to me actually receiving a
real salary to do real work, and of course all
that you all have followed in my journey for the
last several years. I've been in this work a long time.

(03:38):
And guess what, Sonia Massi She's in the top five
of police shootings that I have ever, ever, ever witnessed
to see what happened to this woman. And to be clear,
I didn't even watch the point that the actual bullet
was out of the gun and into Sonia Massy. I
did not watch the actual shots, but I know what

(03:59):
took place, and I have now been able to see
the blown up sort of the mockups of what took
place in that apartment. And it is traumatizing to know
that this sister said I'm sorry and suffered such an incredible, incredible, incredibly.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Painful, painful death.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
And now her children are experiencing this because at seventeen
and fifteen years old, not having their mother in their
life and then finding and knowing that how she died
is so graphic. And the whole world is now watching them,
and the whole world is looking for them to say
and leave. And thank God for Attorney Ben Krump, who

(04:43):
is there with the family doing all that he can
to ensure that justice is actually served. Listen, the same
state of Illinois, Lakwan McDonald was shot sixteen times, many
of those shots while he was laying on the ground.
The office a responsible receive sixteen counts. He was convicted

(05:05):
and he only served three years. And so when people
ask us, why would folks in thirty five cities as
happen as happened this weekend stood together throughout the day
and some will continue throughout this week to call attention
to the murder of Sony and Massy. Why would you

(05:27):
do that when an officer has been arrested, the officer
is in jail, being held without bail.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
That's it. That's what we fought for. No, that's not
what we fought for.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
We did fight to ensure that the process to accountability
is not five years and six years and some drawn
out time period that allows for the people to calm down,
the tension to come down, and then for the system
to say that this particular officer is not charged with

(05:59):
any wrongdoing. That's we definitely fought to change that, and
it is still not a process across the country that
happens the same way. In this situation, the circumstances are
so clear that I don't think that this particular police
department could do anything else. But I don't trust them.

(06:20):
I don't trust them at all. And so if we
know that this officer who killed lecran McDonald received only
only served three years, then I think it should be
said that we have to stay on the wall for
justice for our sister Sonya Massi and never go home
because we know that getting justice for a black woman

(06:42):
is extremely difficult. Getting justice for a black woman is
probably one of the hardest things that I do on
a daily basis, and that does not mean again, that
does not mean again that black men are receiving some
some some some massive number in terms of justice in

(07:03):
police shootings and other times when black men are being brutalized.
Certainly it doesn't mean that. But there is a difference
in terms of the groundswell and how you get people
to stay ignited and to stay in the movement. With
black women, the poll is different. It is much more difficult.
It is harder to get folks to sort of fall

(07:25):
in line. Usually when these incidents happen, people call me.
Everybody's calling me, celebrities, people calling me Sonia Massy. It
was okay, but to be quite honest, it was not
at the same level. And even the energy outside we
had to really pump it up to let people know
you made it here. I know you're tired, but we

(07:46):
still have work to do to shout and make sure
our voice is a loud enough for people to hear
us all over the world. That what happened to Sonia
Massy is an abomination, and not only should the officer
who shot her be held responsible, the officer who was
there inside the home should be held responsible as well,

(08:07):
because his job is to protect people from criminals, and
his partner was the criminal. His partner was dishonorably discharged
from the armed forces. His partner moved around to six
different police departments in four years. His partner had on
his record DUIs and other major issues. His partner is

(08:31):
charged with allegations or has received allegations of everything from
lying on documents official documents to unlawfully tasing a young
black boy. He was the criminal in that situation, and
I believe that the other officer should have turned his
weapon on him and told him drop your weapon right now,
because you are the criminal inside of this home. You

(08:54):
are the person posing threat in his home. And it
is my responsibility as an officer of the law, as
someone who is here and my job is to protect
against those people who would prey on the innocent. That
it was his job at that time to protect Sonia Massy.
Because he didn't do it, I feel I charged him

(09:16):
with her murder as well. So those are things that
we need to know about Sonia Massy. The fight continues.
There will be much more coming. There will be court
dates that folks need to attend because they will absolutely
say that the officer fell threatened by the pot of
water and by her saying, I rebuke you in the
name of Jesus. And as I said at our rally

(09:40):
this weekend, when people start talking about giving immunity to
police officers, we have.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
To rebuke that.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
We have to rebuke that as a community and as
a larger society. So we're going in the civics one
oh one. That's what today is all about. And everything
I just talked about, there is a way that you
can apply it, whether it's be to the George Floyd
Justison Policing Act and other bills that are out there
where people have really been intentional about figuring out how

(10:09):
we have less policing and more community safety measures. Much happening.
Much to hear about CIVIX one oh one. We're gonna
hear right now from Bishop Leah Daughtry. Now, let me
tell you why this sister is so important, because yes,
she does work within the Democratic Party one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Y'all folks that.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Are tied of the Democrats are going to say, oh,
I don't want to hear from a woman that's in
the Democratic Party. But this woman's family, where she comes from,
her lineage, her father for sure, and her mother. They
are true black power freedom fighters. I've watched her father,
Chris cross this nation fighting for black people, being one

(10:54):
of the most intellectual, intelligent black men. He can preach,
he can speak, he can teach, and his daughter comes
from that.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
And I know her, I've known her for a long time.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Sometimes she has to call me and say to Mi, ka,
let's talk about this because I heard you, I heard
what you said, and I feel you. But can we
level set. Sometimes she'll call me and say, I'm just
as upset as you are. Let's go harder, tell me
what the people are saying. Let me get out there
with you in the streets, and let me take this

(11:27):
information back. And so today I want Bishop Leon Daughtry
to come on and talk to all of you about
the actual process for how Bill's moved for the civic
engagement that we all should be involved in, and civics
one on one today is extremely important to me.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
It's okay if you don't know.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
I'm sure she'll say some things that I don't know,
and I know that I need to refresh myself all
the time. She talks about how she goes back to
read the Constitution, so that she can be clear. So
it's okay. They didn't teach us, they didn't want us
to know, but now we're going to educate ourselves. So
gather around, get your children, get mama and daddy, whoever
you think needs to hear this, and especially our black

(12:10):
men who need to hear the process so that we
can deal with alleviating the pain and the suffering that
we see happening on the ground around this nation. All right, y'all,
bishoply A Daughterry, she's coming up right now. So as
I've said, you know, Bishop Lea daughtery is a mentor,
a big sister to me and someone that I have

(12:31):
always admired, not just for her brilliance, because we're going
to get into that you all will be able to
see and to learn more about her brilliance, but also
because of her commitment, no matter what space she's in
to bridging the gap between those who may be in
the streets, those who may be inside the system. Some
radical voices, some voices that are more moderate. She knows

(12:56):
how to bring everyone together. And it's always monitoring what
is happening with the younger sisters out here, and so
you know, everywhere I go, I praise Bishoplyadaughtry, but I
want you all to meet her so you have an
opportunity to know that there are folks out here who
work within the system, if you will, that do a

(13:17):
hell of a job of fighting for us every single
day and speaking true to power. And so that's where
she comes from. Like her parents would disown her if
she was not doing that inside a government and outside.
So Bishop Leadaughtry, thank you so much. I think it's
okay for me to go ahead and call you Leah
for the rest of the time that we are.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Together, but thank you for joining TMMI.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
Thank you so much. To mek It is good to
be with you, and you know how I love you
and I so appreciate the work that you do every
day on behalf of our people, and so I'm happy
to be here and support you.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
And Any's not with us today because he is celebrating
his son's thirteenth birthday.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
He left the girls to talk.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
Right, okay, tell him, I said, Hey, of course, of course.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
All right, So before you came on, I've already told
people about Karen and Herbert Dorstry, okay, and I've already
explained to them. You know, your upbringing, just being raised
with two not just freedom fighters, but black power freedom fighters.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
They still today to this second.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
Are individuals who you will find in their elderly days
in the street if you call them and ask them
to show up. In fact, I needed your dad to
do something for me, and he was like, I ain't
gonna be able to make it because I'm going to
a prison. I go to this one prison and he
works with the young men in there. He at this point,

(14:50):
how old is Revendoortree?

Speaker 4 (14:53):
Ninety three?

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Ninety three years old? And this was the other day.
By the way, I'm not talking about something I called
him two years ago. He literally is working inside of
prisons today at ninety three years old. This is someone
who I have heard say things that I'm like, oh
my god, cover my mouth. Is he supposed to say

(15:15):
that in front of the governor, in front of presidents,
in front of mayors, in front of all types of
elected officials, business leaders, and otherwise, and calling us out
sometimes when we in the movement needed to get straight
on our comings and goings and dealings. And I think that,
you know, knowing that you come from someone like that,

(15:37):
you have your own style, but you really have not
departed much from the upbringing of your parents and your mama.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
She keep everybody street. So that's that.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
So talk about that, your upbringing, and then just take
us right into how you have gone into politics. You
now have assumed the position and after your father retired
as the bishop of the House of the Lord Church,
and that's a huge responsibility. So I guess it would

(16:09):
be good to figure out later on. Why would you,
knowing that you was in the line for succession of
the church and to be a bishop, want to still
be in politics dealing with the crazy stuff that goes on.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
So tell us all about it.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
So well, thank you. My parents are eighty three and
ninety three. They are busy. We can barely keep up
with them, but you know they trained us well. I
have two sisters and a brother, and our first our
family model is love God, love the people. Serve God
serve the people, and so that has been part of

(16:49):
our heart from the beginning. Our church is an activist
church and has always been so, from the time that
my grandfather founded that in nineteen twenty nine. I lead
the church now, but I'm not the first woman. I'm
the second woman. We had a presiding bishop in the fifties,
who was Yeah, when people weren't ordaining women. My grandfather was,

(17:12):
and that she was the second presiding Minister. So I
always tell people I am from the radical revolutionary side
of Brooklyn. That's where I was born and raised. We
called ourselves nationalist pan Africanness, and that's my identity. I'm
a Christian woman, i am nationalist, I'm pan African. I
love my people, and even in the roles that I

(17:34):
have been blessed to walk into, my priority is what
is this going to do to my people? How to
this affect my people? And you know, you walk into
these spaces that everybody walks into the room bringing something
with them, bringing all of who they are. And if
I bring all of who I am. I am Christian,
I'm Pentecostal, I am black, I am a woman, I

(17:57):
am a radical revolutiontionary. That's how I was raised and
that's who I bring. But that is also my power
because I bring the people with me, and I interpret
for the room what the people want and need, and
I interpret to the people what the room is saying,
and so we can figure out how we can move
together to help the people self actualized, to realize their

(18:22):
version of the American dream, whatever that looks like, and
to get the things they need to live full and
abundant lives. And that includes justice, that includes a freedom,
that includes economic equity, that includes all the things you know,
good schools and clean water and safe streets. All of
those things are critically needed, particularly in our communities. And

(18:43):
so my job is to help get that done in
the rooms where I.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Am in the rooms, what would you say set you
up to get in these rooms? I mean, you're a
girlfriend of mine, Timmy Raspberry, who we both know, works
for Mayor Adams, and she just told me that recently.
She was like walking through the halls of city Hall
and there was your dad, like, hey, I need to
see Eric.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
You know, no appointment, no, none of that. He's passed.
He's beyond that.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
And she said Eric was not there, The mayor was
not there, but when she called him, he got on
over there to city Hall to figure out what your
father needs to discuss. That's the type of that's you,
that's your dad, that's his legacy. So what would you say,
set you up on the road to politics?

Speaker 4 (19:36):
You know, our church was always a political entity. So
if you were running for office, or you wanted to
connect with folks, you came to the House of the
Lord because that's just where or it was the center
of activism in Brooklyn. And so seeing folks coming and going,
and part of our theology is about how we help

(20:00):
people to live full and abundant lines by using what
we have. And so that's not simply praying. That's how
do you leverage the systems that impact our community in
order to change those systems for good. There are people
who say change the system and the heart will change,
and there people say change the heart and the systems
will change. We believe we call it the imperative for

(20:21):
a duel. For us, you have to do both seek
to change the heart, but seek to change the system.
And so we were always encouraged to be politically active
to understand what was happening around us. My father made
us read the New York Times when we were When
we learned how to read, we didn't understand any of it.
But that's okay. After a while we did, that's right,
and so we knew who the elected officials are and

(20:44):
the people in our churches. That's part of our membership
process to be registered to vote and to know who
your elected officials are and how they represent you. Because
that concerns our tax status, that concerns the water that
comes into the building, that concerns our our real estate holdings,
that concerns the schools that our children, our members children

(21:05):
go to. All of that. So we just that was
one prong of how we move systems, how we get
people what they need to live the lives they want
to live. Was politics. So I chose to go into politics.
My sisters are educators, and I chose that level.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
How many of you, how many of you are there?

Speaker 4 (21:24):
There are four of us, so I'm the oldest, and
then my sister Sharon runs out not for profit and
my sister Dawn is a retired educator. And my brother
just retired. He's an educator. He's also an attorney, was
a public defender, and he said, I'm getting the kids
too late. By the time I see them in court,
it's too late. Let me be a teacher and try

(21:47):
to get these boys before they even enter into the
criminal justice system. Intentionality, yes, yes, intentionality. So that's I
chose electoral politics because that's where I thought that I
could help make a difference. And it was quite by accident,
I ended up interning for the Brooklyn Member of Congress,

(22:08):
Ed Pounds, who then offered me a job, and so
I moved to Washington, and I hated it and I
wanted to be back in Brooklyn. So he and I
had an arrangement where I would go back and forth
quite often, and from there I went to the Democratic
Party and the rest. As they say, it's history, but
it's really about how you use politics as one way

(22:30):
to impact the lives of people, how you press those levers.
Because so much of what we're dealing with in our
communities goes through some sort of electoral process. Somebody's making
the decisions. And to the extent that elected officials are
making the decisions, then we need to engage them and
force them and press them to do what's right for

(22:52):
our people.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
Forcing and pressing. We'll talk about that in a moment.
But you said, and then off to the Democratic Party.
Can you please folks about all of the prestigious positions
that you have held within the Democratic Party.

Speaker 4 (23:06):
Oh? Yes, I have been chief of staff at the
Democratic Party, working under both Governor Terry mccauliffe and Governor
Howard Dean. I have been CEO of the Democratic Convention.
I'm the only person to have been CEO twice, and
I produced the two thousand and eight Convention, which was
Barack Obama's convention, and the twenty sixteen Convention, which was

(23:29):
Hillary Clinton's convention. And presently I'm serving as chair of
the Convention Rules Committee that has put in place the
rules that will govern our nomination process.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Okay, so that's going to bring me to a question
about Black Lives Matter, because they put out a statement
saying that they wanted to see a process, and I
think I heard you say on our call that we
had when we're black women, which I'm super proud, and
I know you are of Joe Taka Edie and what
she's doing there. But I heard you say there is
a process, and so I loved it because I know

(24:04):
that our listeners respect the views of Black lives Matter
most of them and are interested in what's the nuance there.
So we'll go to that. But I just want to
talk about world leaders. I really am asking you these
questions because I want people to understand credentials. We have
a problem, in my opinion, you didn't say, I'm saying

(24:27):
with folks who just talk and they have no credentials, they.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Have no information, but they are hurting.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
And therefore, when you feel pain, you speak out right
like a baby. You feel pain, you feel hungry, you
feel discomfort, you scream and I am and you have
taught me to because if we surely didn't get this
from a core mass is bury out our big sister.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
So I lean on you for this.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
A little bit, to be patient with people who don't
have information, who just don't know, but they know something
is wrong and they want to see a change. And
so I'm just making sure when they watch this they can't.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
Say, but what does she do?

Speaker 3 (25:12):
You have been at the table with world leaders, you
have traveled the world, you have advised presidents. That has
been your background. So would you say through all of
this that what we see on TV right is what
you believe is very closely aligned with what goes on

(25:34):
behind closed doors? Or do you think there's a big
difference from how the media portrays elected officials. Some people
are saying Joe Biden wasn't the best president. Others are
saying he was great. And I don't need you to
give an opinion on that either way, But what would
you say people should know about the difference between sometimes
what they're reading and what's really really going on.

Speaker 4 (25:58):
You know, I was talking with our friend Michael McBride
about this the other day, Pastor Mike, and it always
surprises me the trust that black people place in mainstream media.
You know, we hate mainstream media except when it comes
to black people, and then it's the Bible, right, and

(26:18):
so what I try to check where you're getting your
information from, because what is the motivation? Particularly were talking
about mainstream media, who owns it? Who is who are
the news directors? Who's reporting it? Because the person on
television that's reading a script is reading a script something

(26:43):
they wrote that for them. There's a particular point of
view that they are pushing and pressing. Walter Kronqoitt is dead.
When I was a little girl with everybody trusted Walter
to Kronkott, those days are over. Journalists I have a
point of view and they are writing to prove their
point of view. Very hard to get an unbiased report.
So I encourage people read two or three sources, check it,

(27:07):
figure out who you are trusted. Cadre are including Tamika,
who are of those people who can help you pass
through what you're reading because it's all a game. And
my best example of this is Hillary Clinton's campaign. In
the aftermath, a couple of years after her campaign was over,

(27:29):
we learned that many of the news directors weren't involved
in me two lawsuits wow, were involved in sexual harassment lawsuits.
Many of them were fired. So what does that tell you?
When the news directors, the person who's shaping the stories
are sexual predators, who are also reporting on the candidacy

(27:51):
of a woman running for president, it's skewing their view
and you can be assured that how they are reporting
it is through the len of sexual harass because they
harass the people. So what is their view of women?
How are they valuing or devaluing women in their everyday life.
They're bringing that to their work and they were reporting

(28:13):
on Secretary Clinton. That's one example of you gotta be
careful about who you're listening to and what's the gospel
truth and the sources, because everything is not always what
it appears. They spend things. The current example is the
issue around Kamala Harrison and when Joe Biden was saying
I'm running, I'm running, I'm running. You listen to these

(28:35):
pundits shape the narrative about who should be the nominee.
If Biden was standing down and he was steady saying
I'm standing down, but they were listing these names, Josh
whatever is, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Witt and Mapete Boudage, all
of these names. They're listening and they're leaving out the

(28:56):
sitting vice president. It's a point of view. He was
at the oppressor. It's something they're putting in the atmosphere
and put it so that when people start chatting, oh, there,
the vice president's not qualified, well, yeah, they set that table. Absolutely,
we gotta be mindful and listen very carefully with a
people's eye on what are they saying and what does

(29:18):
this mean for us now? At the time, you know,
I was agnostic on whether she should or should not
be the nominee. But what I wasn't an agnostic on
is she needs to be considered and if you're listening names,
her name should be listed. Absolutely, not list to her.
Not list the sitting vice president. Is offensive, absolutely consultant,
and it's a rature it is.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
It was insulting to me, of course as a black woman,
but as a woman in general, and I felt that
all women should have been offended. In fact, I was
having a conversation with Cora Berry, who you know as
my mentor. I speak to her at least ten times
a day, and she was saying, you know.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
I get the black because I'm all black.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
But I think you guys are on the wrong tune
here because women in general, this is an intersectional issue.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
It doesn't matter what kind of.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Women you are, but we should all care that as
a woman we are not overlooked, and then certainly as
black women. So let's talk about CIVIX one on one,
because that is what this particular episode is designed to do.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
I am very very stressed.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
I'm not gonna I'm gonna use the word the truth
right and trying to have that patience. When I see
people say, why has President Obama? I mean President Biden
passed past the anti Asian hate crime bill, but not

(30:52):
in the other hate crime bill, which would be more
specific to black folks African Americans. I'm like, I want
to say, President Biden does not pass Bill's dummy, That's
what I want to say. But then my right mind

(31:12):
tells me that in the spirit of love, understanding, compassion
and all of those things that I have to leave
the dummy off.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
And so I notice it over and over.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
That has been a huge talking point against President Biden
for a while now, not just here in these last
few weeks, but in general. And I know and I
understand that the problem is when I was in school,
even though I went to Catholic school, and this has
been a long time now, it is twenty eight years

(31:44):
or twenty whatever the time is, they had a little
bit of something that you can learn about the government
and whatever.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
But now because of the efforts of people who do
not want us to know, because I believe they realize
that the more information we have, we will be armed with.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
The ability to fight for ourselves and to determine or
to have self determination here in this country, and so
they would like us not to have all the information
that we once had. And that's what I think is
the issue. You may have a different of opinion, but
there has to be in all of this discourse civics

(32:28):
one on one back to the very very basic basics.
So I'm gonna be quiet and I'm gonna let you
just go on what people need to understand about how
government and process and passing bills actually works.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Okay, well, thank you, and then I agree with you.
I have a bit more grace because, as you said,
Civics is no longer taught in school, and so people
are left on their own to figure out how government
works because they just aren't like we used to have
when I was in school. So here's what you need
to know. First of all, I encourage you, in your

(33:06):
spare time to go get a copy of the Constitution
of the United States. You can download it free of
charge on any just about any website. Just google it.
You get the Constitution and it's not long, it's about
seven or eight pages, but it really helps you get
a sense of how the government is formed and is structured.

(33:26):
So what we have in the federal government are three
branches of government. The executive which is the president, the cabinet,
the vice president. That's one branch. The second branch is
the legislative branch, which is the Congress, and the third
branch is the judicial branch. Each of them, in the
Constitution are intended to operate separately but together. It's called

(33:51):
the doctrine of checks and balances. So the president works,
but the president cannot pass legislation. That's the job of
the Congress. The president can nominate people to offices, he
can't just appoint his cabinet. He can't just appoint Supreme
Court justices. That someone has to approve that. That's called

(34:11):
the check and balance, so that the president is not
all powerful. The same thing happens in the legislative brand.
There's the House of Representatives and there's the Senate. The
House of Representatives is four hundred and thirty five people,
that's your congress person, and that those seats are apportioned
based on the census. This is how it's all interchanges.

(34:32):
So when you fill out your census form, it tells
the government how many people live in your city in
your state, and then the number of Congress people is
set four hundred and thirty five, but is divided up
based on how many people are living where. Right now,
it's the three biggest states of California, Texas, New York.

(34:55):
When I was a little girl in New York was first,
then californ your in Texas, and sometimes Florida would edge
up in there. It shifts because people left New York
and went down south. New York got less people. New
York has fewer congressmen, but that's based on you're filling
out the census. So when we don't fill out census,

(35:16):
we reduce our representation in Congress. We reduced the amount
of money that's coming into our state because it's all
a portioned by the numbers of the census. So you
have the four hundred and thirty five members of Congress
apportioned by population. Then you have the one hundred senators,
two per state. So if you think about a state

(35:38):
like Alaska, Alaska has one congressman for all of Alaska
because of the population, but Alaska still has two senators.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
It was intended by the founders to be a check
and balance because the House, you know, they run every
two years, and they thought that that running every two
years would make them beholden to donors, would make them,
you know, a little flighty because you know they coming
and going. So you have the Senate, they run every

(36:06):
six years. They're intended to be a slower, more deliberative body,
putting checks on the crazy people in the House who
want to do all kind of stuff. So the Senate
balances that out. They passed legislation they a member of
conferences can to say, I think we ought to have
a law that every school are to have a blue cafeteria.

(36:32):
So he introduces a bill that says, I want to
have a law that we're gonna have every school cafeteria
painted blue. He then has to get his colleagues to
vote for his bill. If they vote for his bill,
then that bill that was passed in the House of
Representatives now goes to the Senate. The Senate has to agree.

(36:56):
So the Senators take it up, and they have a
Senate bill that will map. Now the Senators may say, well,
I think I'm good with the cafeterias being painted, but
I don't want it to be blue. I wanted to
be red. Now you got two competing bills, red cafeterias
and blue cafeterias. Then they go to conference committee, House

(37:16):
and the Senate designate people that sit at a table
and debate and discuss and negotiate what color is the
cafeteria gonna be. Sometimes they can't agree, and then the
bill dies. Sometimes they can agree and they'll say, Okay,
it's not red, it's not blue, it's purple. Both sides agree.

(37:37):
Now it goes back to the House, back to the Senate,
to agree on purple. If they agree, it becomes a law.
It becomes a past legislation that then goes to the
president to sign. No legislation can be a law unless
the president signs it. If the President says, I don't

(37:58):
like purple, I don't know why, y'all peyt in the cafeterias,
this is dumb, I veto sending it back to you.
I'm done with this. I don't agree. They then have
to override the president's veto by a two thirds vote.
Sometimes they have enough votes to override, sometimes they don't.
If they have enough to override, they can override the

(38:20):
president and then it's law. If they can't override it,
then it's dead. So that's the legislative branch. Only members
of Congress can introduce legislation. The president cannot introduce legislation,
and the president has no vote in the House of
the Senate. If the president has legislation he wants to

(38:42):
have them considered, he has to find a member of
Congress to introduce it. The president has no legislative authority.
And here's some people don't know. President can't even go
to the House. In the Senate. He has to be invited. Wow.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
So he can't just walk up there.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
Can't just walk up there, can't just walk up there.
For the State of the Union, the date fluctuates sometime
like it did this year because the House would not
extend the invitation. Wow. So the President has to wait
for the House to extend the invitation for him to
make the State of the Union, which is in the

(39:19):
Constitution that the President will issue a State of the Union.
So that's how they keep the balance of House and
Senate and Congress and the legislative branch and the executive branch.
The third branch is the judicial branch, which is.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
A Supreme Court right right right.

Speaker 4 (39:35):
The President nominates the Senate, not the House. The Senate
has to confirm the last justice Wastaji Brown Jackson, and
we all went with that debacle and how they treated
her in the Senate side. But the President nominates, the
Senate confirms, and then they get an appointment, which right
now is a lifetime appointment. Joe Biden this morning said

(39:56):
he's going to try to change that so that they
have term limits so that they don't have lifetime appointments.
Lifetime appointment was so it was thought that if they
have a lifetime appointment. They wouldn't be influenced by money,
It wouldn't be influenced by donors. But we all know
Clarence Thomas, that's not happening, and they are being influenced

(40:17):
and they are part of the political process now. So
Joe Biden said this morning, and his pressurely is that
the system is broken. It's not as be attended. So
we need something different. And the president can nominate as
many Supreme Court justices as he wants. That's another thing.
We have nine now, the Constitution does not say a number.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
So he could put he could look more people, could
he could nominate more justices.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
But for some reason he has not. I think what
was the reason why.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
I think he's looking at the political calculus, because remember
he can nominate. But the city happened go before congressional members, right,
which is a mix of the Senate the Senate. Okay,
just the Senate confirmed, and so it could have been
a political calculation. I don't know, but my guess is
it was a political calculation. Now do you want to

(41:14):
have this fight? Do you have enough votes to confirm
more people? And the Democrats are on a razor's edge,
with one with a one vote margin, but you got
Christian senator and Joe Manchin right still still and who
knows what they're gonna do, And my guests would be

(41:36):
the day Democrats.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Well, now she's independent.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
He's independent, he's independent, which narrowed our margin to one.
Razors and slipper, which is why the vice president often
had to go to the Senate to break the tie.
And so people say we didn't see her a lot
of times. If the House is in session, senators in session,

(42:00):
she has to stay in Washington because she's the tiebreaker,
so she couldn't be out, and because there's a vote,
you need her to go, and she hot tailored up
there and cast the tie breaking vote.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
But you talked about free inch as the government.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Reading the constitution, you said you went back to it
just to make sure you knew what you were talking about.
What is the vice president's role?

Speaker 4 (42:26):
The vice president has two jobs mentioned in the Constitution.
One is to be the president of the Senate and
the second is to be ready. That's all so that
if anything happens to the president, and it's couched in
the context of if anything happens to the president, then
the vice president steps up. There's no other job description

(42:49):
for the vice president.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
It's all that the president's pleasure whatever else she does,
so he would have to sign her with responsibilities, or
he could say just hang out around in case I crow.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
And then just be ready.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
And a lot depends on what the relationship is between
the president and the vice president. Some are better than others,
and you're exactly right. Some presidents just say just go
sit over there, don't say nothing, don't go nowhere. I
don't want to see you, I don't want to hear you. Goodbye.
Then there are other presidents who make the vice president
more of a governing partner, and the relationship is much

(43:26):
better in recent times, recent years, that relationship has been better.
It's never perfect, but it's been better than it was
many years ago.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
And we're trying not to because I don't want people
to tune us out and say, oh, this was just
about Kamala Harris. But you know, when people say she's
not qualified, I just I have a prob I don't care.
You don't have to like her, right like, I'm okay
with people who say they don't like her. You have
folks from California who have real stories of things that

(43:59):
happened within the criminal justice system that they feel she
was either directly involved in or her office. And I
would tell you, Leah that if I was advising them her,
if I was advising her campaign, I would not go
to such an extent not saying that she has to
try to separate myself from any form of fault, right

(44:22):
because if you are a prosecutor, the nature of being
a prosecutor that is working with a white supremacist system,
there's going to be absolutely fault and things that happen.
So I would just say, you know what, I'm sure
that everybody is not wrong. You know what I mean,

(44:43):
and so that people feel heard and seen. But to
say she's not qualified to me is the most disrespectful
thing to all of us because they tell us.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
All we're not qualified. Would you say to two people
who say she's not qualified.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
Well, I approach it from the let's have a level
playing field here. So was Dan Quayle qualified, Was Dick
Cheney qualifying? Was our Gore qualified? Was Joe Biden qualified
when they were vice president? Maybe they were, maybe they weren't.
But we didn't even ask the question. Wow, people say,

(45:24):
what does she do all day. Did you ask when
dan Quayle was president? Did you ask when a'l go over? No,
we didn't ask, and we didn't care what the vice
president did all day? But now we care right now,
we want to know. We've had three years of I
don't see her, what she do? Did you ask that before?

(45:45):
And so I'm interested in the level play. Why do
we care now but we didn't care then? Why does
the media care now? But they didn't care then? When
Dick Cheney was shooting people in the face, nobody asked
a question about what he Why was he duck hunting
in the middle of the week. Wasn't you to be
in your job? Yes? And so I want us to
come to the question of her qualifications in the way

(46:10):
that we came to the question for the other what
forty six, forty seven, forty eight white men who had
the job.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Mediocre white men?

Speaker 4 (46:18):
I like to say, So, let's just level set right
there now. If you want to get into her qualifications,
then we could talk about for being a DA and
being a statewide elected twice, being elected to the Senate,
the legislation she's introduced when she was in the Senate,
the work that she's done. We can have that conversation,

(46:38):
but I want people to be honest about why we
are holding her to a different standard. Having seen this
over many years, I can tell you that I watch
vice presidents and they go on their little trips and
they do whatever they're doing. They might have three four
people press people following them, called the pool. We call

(47:02):
them the pool. This woman from the day, from day one,
has had a plane full forty I was just with
her at the she came to the teacher's conference where
I was speaking. It was a plainfull forty fifty press people.
The scrutiny is unprecedented, hardly because of the unprecedented historic

(47:26):
nature of her vice presidency, but to have that level
of scrutiny, forty fifty people following you everywhere all the time,
it's unprecedented. When when when Mike Pitts had three So
so of course it's generating stories of because they got
to make you know, they work, and they got to
come up with their stories now to justify them being

(47:48):
on the road. So I think we have to appreciate
the unprecedented nature of her vice presidency. What it's meant
in terms of scrutiny what it's meant in terms of
the demand. The demand on her calendar is unlike anything
any other vice president has ever had to deal with.
And so I would like us to come to it

(48:10):
with an honest, with an honest level setting, right, and
then we can have a conversation about qualifications, because I'm
you know, I can't recite a resume, but I know
more about her qualifications than I knew about Mike Pence.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
Right, absolutely, absolutely so, How did going back to the
branches and the process, how did they get How did
the Republicans under Donald Trump get so many federal judges
and then the Supreme Court seats?

Speaker 1 (48:44):
How did that happen?

Speaker 4 (48:45):
Because they had the Senate Chuck Schumer was not in charge.
They held the Senate. The Senate confirms judges, and so
all they had to do is agree Donald Trump would
not nominate whoever the Heritage Foundation or whoever they wanted,
and he had control of the Senate to get them confirmed.

(49:05):
And so they just jammed them through. And we're going
to be feeling the consequences of those of that time
for decades to come. Our brothers, our sisters who are
now being incrocerated at hire and higher rates. It is
that as a result of the judges that Donald Trump's
Senate and the Republicans and Senate were able to confirm

(49:30):
very tall. And you see the reverse happening with Biden,
who is nominated a record number of African American and
Latino men and women to the Court because he has
a Democratic Senate, he has someone Senate is controlled by Democrats.
You only need a majority vote, and so he's able

(49:52):
to get that through and you see that happening now.
And so it's but Joe Biden's nominated more folks to
the Court than Obama did, and plenty did. He's head
and shoulders above the others. And that's part of why
people have a favorable view of his of his term
because of some of the things he's been able to
move quite quickly. So you know, the courts are, we

(50:14):
don't know, pritically important. We've seen what the Supreme Court
has done in terms of rov Wade, in terms of
presidential immunity, uh, in terms of regulatory offairs, all of
these things. The Supreme Court has just decided that the
president has immunity and can commit crimes in office. How

(50:34):
they got there, I don't know. I don't. I don't
know what basis that. But now we have a president
who can kill stay in the over office and he's
a mute or she's a mute.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
That's wow, absolutely crazy, and I to go. So I
want to move us through that. You're giving me some
good stuff. I'm telling you.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
No point when people say Joe Biden didn't pass legislation.
Joe Biden can pass legislation. The House and the Senate
have to pass legislature.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
He can influence. He can influence.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Legislation by his position on particular issues, and more than
likely a member of his own party would pick up
his words, his ideas and try to draft something that
would align right. That's that's generally what happens.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
That's generally what happens. And in this period of time
right now, where you have a Democratic Senate Chuck Schumer
and you have a Republican House Mike Johnson, very little
that the president wants gets done because it can't get
through the House.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
He can't get through the House. They will not get
anyway any branch that they can.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
That's right, and that's why it's important for us to
vote up and down the battle. We can't do the
president and not do the others. We can't do the
others and not do President. I hear a lot of
folk in the street saying, I'm not voting the top
of ticket. I'm gonna vote for whoever they're voting for,
and I'm gonna just vote for the House and Center.
Here's what you need to know if you've seen Project

(52:08):
twenty five. All of what they are proposing can be
done by executive order. The President can just sign it
so and does not need the House or the Senate
to do any of it. So when you vote down
ballot because whatever, and you skip the top of the ticket,

(52:29):
you are in essence endorsing what he's saying because he
can just do it. There's no checking balance. Then the
president could just do it by executive order.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
All right.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
So I asked you about the Black Lives Matter. They
released the statement saying they wanted to see a process.
They believe that what is currently taking place is They
didn't use this language, but I would say somewhat of
a coup of just like a takeover, and there is
no process for the people to see transparency around how

(53:04):
the nomination would take place.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
What would you say to that, as.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
The person who is literally responsible chair of the Rules Committee.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
My first presidential campaign was Jesse Jackson in eighty four,
and one of the things he taught us and instilled
in us is you gotta know the rules. You gotta
know the rules in order to break the rules creatively.
You gotta know the rules in order to change the
rules effectively. And so I've always made it my business

(53:34):
to know the rules, so I know when I'm when
I'm whether I'm marching, whether I'm negotiating. Knowing the rules
helps me to come to the table with a demand
that is doable and achievable. So for the Democratic Party,
I serve on the Rules and by Laws Committee. We
start the process of the rules for a presidential cycle

(53:56):
right after a presidential cycle, So we will start the
twenty twenty eight eight rules in January of next year.
We are finished with the rules by twenty this time,
we were finished by twenty twenty two, so we'll be
finished by twenty twenty six. Then we're just tinkering around
the edges and those. Part of those rules. To make

(54:17):
us important for people to know is how delegates are selected,
what require and something that people don't know is every
state has a voting plan, a nomination plan, a delegate
selection plan. We require soon the black women who are
on that committee. We require that every state's delegate selection

(54:37):
plan reflects the Democratic electorate in that state. You are
in Arizona, you better come with your plan. Better include
how you're going to get Native Americans and how you're
going to get Latinos, because that's the Democratic electorate. If
you come with a plan, and some states try it,
come with a plan like California or some of these
are say we can't find black people, excuse me, plan

(55:00):
to go back and start over, because we require that
who's on the floor, who's voting for nominees, reflect the
people that vote for the party. So start there. So
when this all happened with Joe Biden, Joe Biden through
the electoral process January, when the primary start had a

(55:24):
mass delegates. Thirty nine hundred delegates is what he amassed.
There are I'm looking at my notes. I keep it
right in front of me. There are forty six ninety
nine delegates total. He had a mass, and some of
them a pledge, which means you vote for them. When
I went to vote in New York, they were my

(55:44):
delegates for my congressional district or on the ballot and click,
click click. You know, I punched each one, and that's
I was voting for Doe Biden all the way down.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
That's as a delegate, you get to vote no the people.
When I voted in the primaries, Wow, oh okay, yeah, yeah,
I was about to say I thought you were saying, like,
right now, we got somebody, you know.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Yeah, So I voted for my six people from my
congressional district. They then become delegates. They ran on the
Joe Biden line. They're pledged to Joe Biden under our rules.
They're pledged to Joe Biden, and they have to come
to convention and vote for Joe Biden in all good conscience.
We have that phrase in there. The Republicans don't have that.

(56:26):
They're stuck with whoever. They don't have a conscience clause.
We have a conscience clause. So as we get past
the primaries, we get to a pre convention, Joe Biden
walks in the door with thirty nine hundred of the
forty six ninety nine that he needs, and you really
only need because the super delegates. They talk about it

(56:47):
in a minute, we don't vote. I'm a super delegate,
we don't vote on the first ballot, so that we
don't influence the process at all. So Joe Biden walks
in with that number thirty nine hundred. Now he decides
he's stepping out. What happens to his thirty nine hundred
free agents?

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Free agents?

Speaker 4 (57:05):
They are free agents. They can do whatever they want.
They are not bound to anybody. He endorsed Kamala Harris.
That doesn't mean his delegates belong to her. She has
to earn them. Anybody who decides to run has to
earn them, because what this earning look like, Paul, talk
to him, get your tell them what you're gonna do.

(57:27):
You get their support. You have to campaign among the
delegates who are who are who are gonna be casting votes.
So the sixth that I voted for, I voted for them.
So now they represent my interests. So and that's across
the country. That's the system. From July twenty fifth to

(57:49):
July twenty seventh. Anybody can file a statement of candidacy
with the Democratic Party.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Anybody.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
They have to pass the constitutional requirements of being aged,
being a natural born citizen, and then they have to
pass the Democratic requirements, which is they have to sign
an attestation that says I am a Democrat and I
will run, serve and serve as a Democrat. They do those,

(58:19):
that's their statement of candidacy. They turn it and they
had until the twenty seventh to do that.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
And so Cornell West would never do that because he
is not a registered Democrat.

Speaker 4 (58:28):
He's a correct right, correct. And you even had Joe
Manchin talking about I think I'll run as a but
when we said, you know, you got to be a Democrat,
then he was like, Okay, never mind.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
And surely people thought about it.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
But a part of campaigning, a part of all of
the stuff that goes on in the background, they're getting
phone calls from folks who are saying, hey, don't think
this is a good idea. You know, I think we've
got a better shot going in this direction. I think
it would be good for you to step over a
black woman. I don't think you can get the delegates.

(59:02):
These people are looking at the count, the numbers, the
whole thing. This is all happening, not on Instagram, not
on Facebook, not on even TV, right behind the scenes,
and I want I think this is true there's some
folks that is like, hey, you definitely we want you
to be a part of our administration. We want to

(59:24):
continue to talk about that think you have XYZ. You're
great on this issue, that issue. If you don't run
to confuse the process. At this point, we could definitely
continue to work on how you can fit.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
These are things that are being said because as a campaign.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
You got to go figure out how to get everybody
to fall in line.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
That's right, that's exactly right. And so the period we're
in now until the thirtieth, whoever is running and has
filed their statement of candidacy now has to get three
hundred pledges, three hundred delegates to say I will support you.
Minimum of three hundred, no more than fifty from any
one state. And a delegate can only sign one petition

(01:00:08):
because we if you can't get three hundred people to
sign onto your candidacy the country from across the country,
or across the pledged delegates, acrous the delegates, or actually
all the delegates, you got to get three hundred, and
that's less than ten percent. The total is forty six
ninety nine, so it's less than ten percent of delegates.
You have to get to file their petitions. If you

(01:00:30):
can't get that, you ain't got no business money for president.
But anybody can do that, and we will know on
the thirtieth who's met that threshold. Thirtieth at six o'clock,
who's met.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
They are ready. The window has closed to submit your name.

Speaker 3 (01:00:43):
Yes, but now the taally is in process, that's right,
which means that kaand La Harris is the presumed.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
But not confirmed yet correct.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
So the media has been doing their own tally and
has by their tally decided that she's the presumptive nominee.
For my purposes, none of that matters to me, because
what matters to me is the actual pledges and the
actual vote. Because until a delegate signs their name committing

(01:01:18):
themselves to a candidate, it's not real. Purposes of tally,
it's not real. So that's where we're in now, and
our voting will start August first. We'll be voting virtually,
and we will in voting around August fifth or sixth,
and then we will know who the nominee of the
party is.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
So the process was open, but we have to know
the rules because there's some people that will say, well,
how the.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
Hell are we supposed to know that it should have
been blasted everywhere. But there are some things, in my judgment,
that we're going to have to go and research to
figure out how to actually enter a process. But you're
saying a process is in place that would address at
least some of the issues that were raised in Black
Lives Matters.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Press release.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
And the last thing I'll say on that is, you
gotta be practical in what you're at. And I have
all due respect for Black Lives Matter, but there was
really no way in a three week period to run
a national primary across the country to allow voters to vote.

(01:02:29):
The logistics of that and who pays for that, and
fifty seven state parties, and because recount the territory, recount
the district, the logistics of all of that to happen
while we're dealing with ballid access issues in Ohio, which
requires us to certify by August seventh, with Washington State,

(01:02:49):
which requires us to certify by August twentieth, with early
voting starting September twentieth in Minnesota and in Democrats of Ward.
There are six million Democrats abroad. Their ballots go out
September twentieth, all of.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
This has to happen.

Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
And when I say certified, I mean on a piece
of paper the candidates signed in blue ink. It has
to be notified and delivered to the Secretary of State's
office in these various states. And that week of convention
we got six states with deadlines, including California, and it's
fifty four electoral votes. So all of this has to
happen in the background, and it was logistically it would

(01:03:29):
have been logistically impossible to not have a second primary
season get all of that done, when in fact the
party has rules in place to govern a situation like this. Honestly,
I'll tell you we've not had the four We've had

(01:03:49):
a nominee drop out post primary, big catas right, So
you have to rely on the people who we elected
as Delais to represent us. And so what I would
have advisors who are the delegates from the dougates.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
And do a full court preson make sure that you
have your own campaign behind the scenes, because the delegates
actually are working for the people, so they should be
engaged as well. It sounds like a lot of engagement
needs to happen here. Thank you, Lead, Thank you for
your service, Thank you for your service, and thank you
for your sisterhood because it is real and I know you,
I know what you're doing, what you're saying. I'm not

(01:04:28):
saying you're fighting every battle. But whenever we come to
you with a perspective, I hear it from you later
in some way, shape or form. So that's all that
we can ask for. And just I love you so much, I.

Speaker 4 (01:04:42):
Love you too to say I love you too. The
last thing I'd say to people is listen, don't discount
the importance of your engagement. We see people fighting us
hard to get us not to be involved, to get
us not to talk about issues around justice, around education,

(01:05:02):
around safety, around freedom, to get us not to be
involved in an electoral process, and you have to ask yourself,
why are they fighting, Why they try so hard for
us to be quiet, for us to be unengaged. It's
because they recognize our power more than we recognize our power.
And so I just want to encourage you family to
don't let them diminish you, or demean you, or dismiss

(01:05:26):
you and the power and the authority that you have
given to us by Creator God, but also given to
us under this Constitution of the United States as amended.
Be involved. It's your life, it's your children's life, it's
your community's life, it's your parent's life. And you can
either be involved and help change things and make things better,

(01:05:48):
or you can sit on the sideline and say I
ain't got nothing to do with this saying about me,
and I can't change things. You can change things. Every vote,
every person matters. You are the most important person in
your life, on your block, and you can make the difference.
Thank you, Bishop Lea Daughtry. Thankye, sissy, So that was

(01:06:11):
bishoply A Daughtry.

Speaker 3 (01:06:12):
Hopefully you have more information about the process as the
Democratic Party sees it. This is not to say that
their process is the only process. I am a registered
Democrat and I do work through the system. I also
challenge the Democratic Party. There have been many times when
I've had to have conversations with Bishop Daughtry and others.

(01:06:38):
In this particular moment. The CEO of the convention is
a black woman by the name of Minyon Moore, who
is also a big.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Sister to me. But same with Mignon.

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
There have been many days and nights when I've called
and I've said I don't like this, this doesn't make
me feel comfortable, and they have educated me more on
the system and how it actually works and how we
can find ways to maneuver and also push.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
For things to happen.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
Sometimes it's deadlocked and there's no way, and that helps
me to see and understand how much it is how
important it is for us to have a viable third option.
I truly believe that that should happen, and there's nothing
just me being a registered Democrat does not stop me

(01:07:32):
from saying that I advocate for a viable third party component,
and not just one that any person can run on,
but a really true progressive and liberal party that centers
black folks right like. I want to see that happen
in my lifetime and I believe that it can happen.

(01:07:56):
But it will only happen if we are able to
have meeting of the minds to keep our at tension
and the issues that we may have with one another
in honest form, but behind closed doors. I do not
believe that we will be able to build a party

(01:08:17):
that people can truly believe in and get behind if
the process to getting there is a bunch of folks
just fighting on the internet and slinging shots at one another.
That's just my opinion. Others may feel it's the perfect
way to get there. They may feel it's the birthing.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Of a new nation.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
I don't know, but that's just not my opinion about
it because I've watched in many situations how these women
and others get together and work behind the scenes, through difficulties,
through differences, through great critique to ensure that a Kamala

(01:08:57):
Harris can become vice president and then ultimately be at
the top of the ticket as a presidential candidate. I
you know, watch them to help push to to for
the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act and other bills,
child tax credit. I've watched them do these things, and

(01:09:18):
do I think that we could all be doing a
better job one hundred percent. They know I feel that way.
They know that I believe there should, absolutely, one hundred
thousand percent be a universal call for a ceasefire, and
in fact, Bishop Daughtry is one of those who works
with clergy around a ceasefire.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
She sits on a calls.

Speaker 3 (01:09:41):
With the President's staff, with the Vice president's staff, and
she advocates for ceasefire. She signed on to a letter
with pastors all across this country that call for seaspire,
which is which is if you know, some people will say, Okay,
she signed on a letter and it was in the
New York Times, So what that is very controversial for

(01:10:04):
a person in her position because the way in which
all people, Republicans, Democrats, all groups work, they do not
want you to come out against what is happening with
the party right. They want you to side with them,
support them, and just push them and talk to them

(01:10:26):
about the changes that could be made on the sidelines.
They believe that it is embarrassing. They believe that it
is you know, it is in some ways it's a
lack of loyalty to that particular party. And so let
me just say it's two different things that I am

(01:10:47):
saying today. I'm not saying that we can't push one another.
And if we did have a viable third party that
had millions of dollars and people supporting and folks who
actually vote on that particular ticket, I am not saying
and there are some people who vote that way, but

(01:11:08):
not in the numbers that's needed to actually accomplish putting
an independent or third party candidate in the White House.
And so I'm not saying that we should not be
able to push the party publicly. What I'm saying is
that the development of such how we shape a party,

(01:11:33):
how we get really serious people to be ambassadors and
to go around this country bringing more minds, more bodies,
more energy into something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
I believe that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
Work has to be done behind the scenes. But I've
watched these women push, push and push, and they are
respected in a lot of circles, and so I listen
to them about the process because they know the details
very specifically. But it does not mean that I don't

(01:12:05):
have difference of opinion about whether the process is working,
whether it's the right process, how the process needs to
be changed, and so you know, I encourage you to
share your own opinions. I encourage Black Lives Matter and others,
not that they need me to do so, to continue

(01:12:27):
to speak out about process. But I also agree with
Bishop Daughtry that we have to understand the rules and
understand the process in order to be able to properly advocate.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
For there to be changes. So thank you all so much.

Speaker 3 (01:12:43):
You know, it's almost awkward to not have my song
tell us today what he doesn't get. And I'm sure
after these last two weeks of him being out there,
you know, debating misinformation, dispelling myths, and talking about UH
Vice President Kamala Harris her candidacy, that we will hear

(01:13:07):
a whole bunch of things that he does not get,
absolutely does not get. So we'll hear from him again
next week. And today I get the pleasure of saying
that my son is not gonna always be right, and
I'm definitely not gonna always be wrong, but we will
both always and I mean always, be authentic.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
He So check out the video version of TMO

Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
Every single Wednesday on Iwoman dot tv