May 12, 2026 • 23 mins
Today on the Breakfast Club, Mayor Ras Baraka Talks NJ Mayoral Race, Trump, ICE; Lawsuit After Arrest. Listen For More!
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FM
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day a week ago, clicks.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Up the breakfast club. You don't finish for y'all done morning.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Everybody is the j Envy Jess hilarious, charlamage the guy.
We are to breakfast club lawn the roases here and
we got a special guest in the building. Elections are today,
ladies and gentlemen, and we have Mayor ros Baraka back
of the building.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, Good morning. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
How are you feeling?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm good, brother, I'm good, I'm good. Good to be you.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Never tied of this. This is what your fourth term.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I'm always tired.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So let me ask you, as you know, your your
three terms and what could be done different in Newark,
New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
A lot, man, there's a lot of stuff that we
still have to finish. I mean, obviously we still need
to create the twenty four hour night life, you know,
and there's a lot of things that has to happen with.
We're building a walking bridge like the high Line h
in north to connect the eastward to the downtown area.
That will trigger a bunch of development downtown, thousands of
units of housing, retail, commercials. So that's exactly what we need,
(01:00):
you know, uh, to make happen.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
There's more affordable housing that we have to build. We
have to build.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
We're trying to build these two thousand more units affordable houses,
some transitional housing as well. And then lastly, we're gonna
attack this food desert stuff that that that Newark has
uh in various communities. We're building five and we were
doing this a long time before these folks for New
York did it. But you know, y'all got a lot
more money than us.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So five.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
You know, we call a mutual aid grocery stores where
you pay based on your income.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Uh. But they're run by nonprofits.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Uh. And we're doing some public private ones as well,
so uh you know that. Uh, you know, continue to
reduce violence and crime, continue to raise people's quality of life,
invest in black and brown businesses.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So we'll continue to do those things.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
How do you like, you know, measure your success throughout
the terms? Like what was success for you? First time?
Second time, third time? Like what are you what are
you measuring against your goals?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
What the objectives were in the beginning. I mean, most
people who run the one run because they think they should,
they could do better. They want to do this or that,
but specific goals, like our specific goals when we first
came in was to reduce violence. We had one hundred
and thirteen hundred and fourteen homicides, right, it was to
begin to build affordable housing in the city, balance our budget.
I mean, the budget was in bad shape. So it
(02:16):
was very specific things that we needed to do and
turn the economy towards black and brown folks, and we
began to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So violence in the.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
City hasn't been as low as it is since nineteen
fifty three. So we started. You know, my first year
when we got there, we were down gradually but not significantly.
But then you know, we began to get the hang
of it and it began to reduce year by year
by year.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I was gonna ask, you know, a lot of people
say it sometimes that long term leadership is not too great,
right because it gets people comfortable, right. But I feel
like with you, it's a lot different. And why is that?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well, I live in NewYork.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I mean my family and friends and community people I
love the most, and my pride is there.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I got see people every single day.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
So at the end of the day, I feel like,
like I said earlier, there's a goal there's an end,
uh that that we have to reach, you know. And
you know, I feel like in this race that I'm
in now. You know, I had the ability to run
for governor last year. I mean I came in second
in the field the sixth. It was incredible, and I
felt like I was defending the city for the most part.
(03:22):
Now and I feel like I'm defending myself right uh
and and and I.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Think that's for a reason.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And so I feel like this I'm on the backside
of my career, on the decline side, you know, And it's.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
About legacy at this point.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Like what I'm gonna leave when I walk away, What's
gonna what will I be able to say that we've
actually accomplished.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
And you talked about the governess race. Why don't you
think you won the governess race.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Well, I don't think we raised enough money. We'd have
enough time by the time we started to catch on,
and you know, we broke through. Uh you know, we
needed a you know, I would say another month. We
came in second. We had more less money than anybody
in the race.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Uh. You know, six people running, six very.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well known statewide candidates were running, and uh, you know,
we did very, very very well.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
People thought we wasn't gonna do that well, but we did.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
But you were favored, Like, there was a lot of
places that you were favored. So to hear you say that,
it's like, I mean you still had a lot of
strong support.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Oh yeah, we and in most of our areas.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We want ES's County, we want Pa Sae County, we
want Union County.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So we won a lot of places where we are
in the majority black and brown folks in the majority.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
We basically ran away with those areas.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And we did very well in uh, a lot of
progressive suburban white communities as well. I mean, the progressives
in New Jersey came out strong for us big time.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
One thing you've done with Newark is slowly you've been
able to change the stereotypes of of Newark. Right, you
said that Newark is not broke, it's not failing, it's
not criminals, We're beautiful people. Why do people still give
Newark that bad stereotypes? Even though like when you go
downtown in Newyork's beautiful restaurants. You know, there's amazing concert
there's so much to do in Newark. I think it's
(05:05):
it's so hard to change the stereotype of Nework.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, those stigmas stick, you know, unfortunately, they unfortunately long stigmas.
You know, we were the car theft capital of the world.
You know, the crime was out of control. You know,
people were used to that, and a lot of times
we wore that as residents of the city. We wore
it like we wore it almost as a life vest.
Like we walked around and talked about how tough and
(05:28):
rigging and rough NewYork was.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We were a brick city.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
And so to change your persona and the culture, the
way people view you. But there's a lot of things
that that that have to change, and one of it
is the way we view ourselves and the way we
talk about our city and the way we present it
to other people. Uh, you know, we got something out
of it. I think now, you know, it's time for
us to grow up and move away and do something else.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Leave that behind.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
One thing I would say, you know when I knew
you were coming, that's just reached out to a bunch
of New York people.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
They see, you know, what are your thoughts? What do
you need?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
What could have asked the Maya? A lot of these
I don't know if you can't help, but you've been
able to help people and things that didn't necessarily you know,
mean this to them. But people say that food is high, right,
They're saying when they're gonna get groceries, groceries are high.
They say that a lot of times the rent they're
raising rent and people can't afford it. They're saying, the
gas prices are high. And I don't know you can
(06:16):
help the gas prices, but you know, so what do
you tell you know your Newark residents, in your Newark
family members, or what they can do, and how well
we have.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
To learn like us our folks in these communities, we
have to learn civics, like we have to don't know
the relationship between city government, county, state, federal government. All
people know is the mayor, the governor, and the president.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
All the same. Right, my gas is how I'm blaming
Mayor ros Baraka, And.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
So we have to figure that out, right, And it
means that we have to vote in every election and
participate all the time and push back against a lot
of things that are happening. And food prices are high,
which is why we're building these grocery stores, which is
why we are creating opportunities people have access to food,
put more money in people's pockets so they could do
more with the with the cash that they have. That's
something that we can do right with the help obviously
(07:00):
at the nonprofit in the private sector. The community can't
do it alone. You have to have a nice, unified
group of folks that are willing to collaborate around that.
So yeah, I mean the gas prices and everything else.
We got to talk to the president about this one.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I ran.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I mean the crazy thing about the gas prices that
affects everything. So it's affecting what it costs for us
to pave the roads, like because the fuel in the
trucks that come out to pave the roads, they're giving
you higher costs, so we have to pay more as
a city.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So it's gonna raise everybody costs.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I think something simple as that, like trying to get asphalt,
the prices are way up.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Can you talk about can you talk about how the
things that Donald Trump has affected your city and what
he has done to affect your city?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, I mean, like people said, indirectly, well that directly food, gas,
you know, all of those things, but ultimately his attack
on social services, the attacked on snap benefits right, the
attack on housing right, making it more difficult for us
to give people vouchers or deal with invest in public housing,
(08:05):
which means you know, it's gonna be the rent is
gonna continue to increase, right because it'll be a seller's
market because you have more people that need housing than
the housing that exists. Right, So all of those costs
are gonna increase. And people just think the gas and
like I alluded to, the gas go but the gas
effects the supply chain altogether. That means all prices are
gonna go up, and it's gonna go in your in
(08:26):
your hand. You have to pay for it, right as well.
I mean cutting those services and giving more money to
the to the super wealthy, it's gonna affect working class
people all up and down the state and throughout the country.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Do you think you talk about people understanding civics and
do you think that people not understanding what putting you
in a governor's seat would have meant? Was that like
a big issue that you guys saw when you were
out there campaigning for yourself.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah, I mean, I mean people were excited, but you know,
people were nervous, like, you know, because automatically they think
you can't win. So they feel like, oh, I want
to vowe to somebody that these people are not gonna
vote for us. They're not going to We can't do this.
It's impossible for us to be the governor. It's not
gonna happen, you know. And I got that more from
us than from other folks, right, and so you know,
ultimately just fighting that, us beating through that, beating through that.
(09:12):
And it took us a long time to beat through that,
like people be like, oh, this man, he actually can win.
You know, when polls were coming out and people were talking,
oh he man, he might win. Then people get excited
and say, let me get involved, let me participate. But
it took us a minute to get people to even
realize that.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
And what about the voter apathy, right, like people not
even wanting to come out because from the Trump election,
a lot of people black and Latino people they're not
voting Democrat, like they're.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, well, a lot of folks are staying home more
than anything. I mean, we don't have a whole swath
of people like converting into Republicans.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Most people just stay home it's.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Not participating because they think the elections don't affect them.
I bet you some people are changing their mind as
we speak. They didn't know how dangerous we were this
situation would be, or how far Trump would go. I
mean all of the from federal judges to the Supreme Court.
So everything that's happening here and now right make it
difficult for your kid to go to college, for you
(10:07):
to get a scholarship, people that invest in you, all
the people that are losing their jobs, Black and brown
folks that are losing their jobs because people are afraid of DEI.
I mean, all of this is affecting our bottom line,
our pocketbooks. Whether you live in the projects or whether
you live in the suburbs, is affecting people's pocket.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
When you first jumped into politics, did you foresee all
the stuff that's happening now? And if you did foresee it,
would you still jumped in politics? Because it seems like
this political game is a nasty game.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, it's got worse. My father warned me about it
that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He never he never wanted
me to be involved. He was like, oh, what are
you doing? Like especially when I when I ran for mayor.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I was a counselman and a school principal, and it
was like you just became the councilman, like give it
a little time. And then Corey went to the United
States Senate and I just jumped in, uh, you know.
And he was looking at it from a point of
view of his time, like of you know, us fighting
against the machine and cointel pro and you know, all
of the things that would happen. And he grew up
(11:06):
when King was assassinated, both Kennedy's were killed. You know,
he looked at his mindset was a little different than
everybody else is, and knowing where I was and what
I was thinking in the direction I was going in.
He was very nervous about that, but didn't anticipate how
ugly politics is today because there was no Internet at
(11:26):
this level.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
But even with dealing with Ice, right, like I saw
you tweet out about that multi car accident that happened
when Ice was chasing the band, and it just seems like,
because I know, y'all have police have rules about winning
how they can chase people, but Ice, they're able to
maneuver a bit differently. But that's causing issues for you
on the other end in your own city.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, every state in city has that, especially if you.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
A city that is telling folks you can't participate with
ICE the police. The reality is it's something called deconfliction.
That means we have to know you're in you're in
our city. One agency goes into a city, we have
to know you're there. Even if you don't, you don't
have to ask our permission. We have to know what
you're doing, what's going on, because anything can happen. We
go to the police go to the scenes as a
car being chased, they don't who's chasing the car. They're
(12:13):
leaving abandoned cars on the block. When they take people out,
you know, they find an abandoned cars, you might find
a gun, you might find whatever. They don't know if
it's a robbery, like if it's a crime and action or.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
What's going on.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
They just show up to a scene. Because people are
calling the police. They say, oh, we want don't want
the police to participate. But when residents call the police,
they have to come. So if a car is chasing
another car, that might be ICE, the police gonna show up.
The city police can be hey, what's going on, and
then people getting loud.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Now they got to create order, and.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
It creates the kind of conflict that takes place between
both agencies soon you know it's gonna be. And how
prayerfully it doesn't get to a point where both agencies
are at each other's throat in the middle of the street.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I was gonna ask you as mayor right and running
for this next term, like, because when that happened, your
team at literally said, y'all reached out to Ice for
certain comments explanations, and they didn't even return their response, right,
So what communication flow have you created or plan to
try and create so that we don't see that.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well, the only real interaction we have is, you know, luckily,
the North Police Department is the largest one in the state.
So most of the federal agencies need our help and
support with most of the things that go on, whether
it's you know, AFT or DA or any ex people
Homeland Security, they need our support, right, And so we
have people in different places and we communicate with them
(13:29):
to at least get some kind of feedback about what's
going on. And we've had a working relationship with these
you know, agencies for years, whether it was Republican or
Democratic administration. So because of those relationships, were still to
have some modicum of you know, civility that happens between
the agencies.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
How do you move on from there? And how do
you proceed right because obviously ICE feels like they're gonna
do what they want to do. You're arrested by checking
out the ICE facility. It did absolutely positively nothing to
be seen there on TV. So how do you move
on as mayor to say, hey.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Do we work with them?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Do we have to work with them? What happens from here?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Well, we can't work with ICE to violate people's constitutional
rights because we'll never come back from that. Once you
begin that, it's a slippery slope, and the city agencies
just can't. We just can't participate and pulling people over.
We just got out of consent decree, pulling people over
because they look different, because they got a different accent,
and so we can't do that. We can't participate in that.
(14:23):
So we'll never be able to do that. So that
that has to change. The problem is we work with
these agencies in other kind of ways in criminal you know, investigation,
So if they're investigating the cartel or something that's going on,
that involves homeland atf DA, our folks have to get involved,
and we'll get involved in that, and we just have
(14:45):
to make a distinction between one or the other. And
most of the ICE agents that are coming on now,
they're not trained. They're not even involved in those activities
because they're not trained to be involved. Most of them
got to they go through like a forty five day training.
Our police officers the six months of training, they are
forty five days of training. They barely know what they're
doing out there, right, and so they would never be
(15:06):
involved in a high level kind of criminal takedown because
they just don't know what to do.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
But how do.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You protect in Newark residents?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Because if you ever been in New York, there's so
many different nationalities.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Right, Yeah, how do you protect those people?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And I'm sure some of them might be immigrants, so
their parents are immigrants, So how do you protect those residents?
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Well, we have to stay in constant communication with them,
which is what we do, especially through our community based organizations,
to make sure that we let them know if it's
safe or it's unsafe, or you know, they still have
access to materials, to resources the city to the city
agencies and go through our nonprofits to make sure we
are giving them what they need, even through with lawyers
(15:46):
and through support that we do that as well, so
they know that there's some recourse or a place for
them to go to for comfort other than these people
who are chasing them around the city.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I also read an article that said a lot of
people are coming in the next couple of months for
feet for Right, and they said a lot of people
are staying at airbnbs in Newark. So with the you know,
the city's gonna be packed, the city's.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Gonna be Airbnb prices crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Airbnb prices is gonna do the rule though, So what
do you do for those people trying to get to
you know, MetLife or whatever they call met life now
to make sure they can see the game? Because I'm
seeing prices are crazy. I see a bus from New
York to the thing, it's like two hundred dollars. So
what do you do to make sure that people will
have a great time in a safe time.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Well, we we've already galvanized all of the you know,
uh resources in the city, all of the institutions and
j Pad prew Center Museum Library, Newark alliance. So the restaurants,
everybody's prepared. We're gonna have one concerned effort to kind
of really give people the atmosphere that they need in
a safe, uh kind of way, and and so they
(16:46):
able to have fun, watch the games, uh, you know,
enjoy the culture of the city at the same time.
And there's there's the federal and state kind of legislators
are trying to push for legislation now, you know, to
make sure that ice is not empowered to chase people
around while these FEFA games are going on. Right, that's
(17:07):
a serious concern because you have you'renna have hundreds of
thousands of people coming to the United States and people
who already here and they're.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Not gonna be able to tell difference.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
No, No, Now I want to ask too. You know,
first of all, congratulations they said Newark had its lowest
murder ray since nineteen fifty three. Is amazing because we've
all seen the ups and downs and trials and tribulations
that Newark has had. Well, what is your biggest accomplishment
that you would say personally from the last decade of
you being mare Personally?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I think just really changing those less service lines in
the city that I mean that affected me personally, my family,
my community, we all lived there, you know, changing them
in less than three years, twenty three thousand less service lines.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
And just to put it in.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Perspective, like in twenty fourteen when I became the mayor,
that's when Flint figured out that they had the less
service line crisis and they still trying to change their right.
They told us it would take us ten years. That
means I would be still doing this, right, I would
probably be gone and still doing that. It would take
us ten years, and we did it in less than three, uh,
you know, by God's grace and the galvanizing all the
(18:10):
resources in the city, and we made it happen. You know,
besides all the you know, affordable housing and you know,
reduction in crime and you know, getting people in from
the projects into homes. All that is is great, but
the less service line thing, to me was a serious
battle and we overcame it and I feel great that
we were able to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
That was also reported that.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
You you sued the federal government for defamation and prosecution
following your arrest. Are you still seeing them?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Are we still in the process of that? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, it takes some time. We still we just had
a hearing a couple of days ago.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
How does that work with you being like a person
of like politics, right, but then you're suing the government
like I know you have by by law, you have
the right to do that. But does it mess up
internally the relationships that you have when you're trying to
figure out these ecosystems of community all the things we
talked about, Like, is.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That a thing? No?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Not not the institutions itself. I mean people we suing
each other all the time, but not the the institutions itself. Individuals, yes,
and the way the unfortunately, the way government is run today.
It is run very like in a vindictive kind of way.
And and ultimately people come after people, right and that's
what this Trump administration has has represented, like they'll come
(19:24):
and get you right away everybody, which is like there's
nobody off off limits. I mean they indicted the former
FBI director.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I mean these people it's now, let me ask you
this to you know, we're young black voters especially, what
do you think young black voters are demanded from leadership
right now that the previous generation didn't, Well.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
They want more inclusion, like they want to be involved
in all of this stuff. Before we was trying to
get young people to be interested. Now they want to
be in it like they want.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
To be involved.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
They in all aspects of it, whether it's marketing, media.
Because of all of this stuff, they want to be
heard and listen to. I think all young people want
to be heard and listen to. But I think it
is becoming more and more. Is getting louder and louder
now more than anything, and they want to be able
to participate in the city. They want to engage in
(20:17):
the economic night, the economic life in the town as well.
If they see development of housing going up, they want
to be a part of it. They think they're smart
and they feel like they should be a part of
all of the stuff that's happening in the city.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And what's one thing that you feel like your administration
might have fell short on that you didn't get a
chance to knock out yet.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
There's a few things, actually, man.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I mean one is this food, desert stuff, which is
what we're working on down I mean, I think we
still moving a little slow on affordable housing because the
market is moving faster than we are able to put
them up and some of it has to do with
the way the tax credits are constructed by the state
government that are given to us like one project at
a time, which means that you're doing very little out
(20:59):
of time. You years and years and years to amount
the massive number of housing that you want to build.
But you know, we're working with them and trying to
figure out how to do more and more in a
shorter period of time because it's an emergency at this point.
I mean, that's that's clear, and I think you know
in terms of our investment in the actual workforce that
(21:21):
we have to do, us have to do a better
job and invested in the workforce, expanding their resources more people.
Newark is growing, and we're still trying to operate the
city from the same numbers that it was.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
We have a three hundred something thousand people.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Were still trying to operate like we have two hundred
and seventy five hundred and fifty thousand people. We have
not expanded the police, the fire, ucc DPW all that
has to advance and all the equipment has to advent.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
We need more, which.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Is crazy because Newark is like everybody's coming.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, we and we have to act like that, and
I don't know if we have invested in our own
selves in a way that we need the infrastructure to
be able to support all the things that are happening now.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
The next governor race, you said this one, you guys
were a little late. You didn't raise as much money.
Are you thinking about the next governor race yet? Yelp, man,
give yourself enough time that now not yet felt it tired.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
In words bombed. I'm in the middle of this thing,
you know.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And uh, you know, I think that I owe the
residents of New my attention, my full time and full
commitment mentally, emotionally, and like I said, this is about
legacy for me. So when I walk out of here,
I'm going to be able to point to a few
things that we were able to do in the city
that will last through generation. And I'm more excited about
(22:40):
that than anything else.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
I think God sent me back. It was like, now
you got to defend what you've built. You went out
here and talked to all this junk. Now and go
back to the city and defend the stuff that you
said you built.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well, that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Well, elections are today. Make sure you get out there
and vote and one thing I will say about Mayor
ros Baraka. I've been in a lot of different cities.
I spoke to a lot of different mayors. Mayor ros
Baraka is probably one of the very few mayors that
is actually outside with the people. I mean, ros Baraka
will pull up at an event, he will pull up
at the gym, he will walk down your block. He
will ask you what's wrong? What could I do better?
(23:14):
And I think we need more of that. And I
love the fact that you do that. And sometimes I'm
there and I don't even say hello because I just
want to see. And the fact that he will walk
into an event, major HBC event, speak to people, shake hands,
kiss babies. He'll walk down the block, He'll go to
the gym, and I think a lot of mayors can
learn from that. Just see the people, touch the people,
talk to the people, and speak to the people. And
I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Brother.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Get out there and vote ros Baraka. He's running today
mayor of Newark. And it's the breakfast Club. Good morning.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Every day.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Click up the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
You don't finish for y'all done
Every day a week ago, clicks.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Up the breakfast club. You don't finish for y'all done morning.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Everybody is the j Envy Jess hilarious, charlamage the guy.
We are to breakfast club lawn the roases here and
we got a special guest in the building. Elections are today,
ladies and gentlemen, and we have Mayor ros Baraka back
of the building.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, Good morning. How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:22):
How are you feeling?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm good, brother, I'm good, I'm good. Good to be you.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Never tied of this. This is what your fourth term.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I'm always tired.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So let me ask you, as you know, your your
three terms and what could be done different in Newark,
New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
A lot, man, there's a lot of stuff that we
still have to finish. I mean, obviously we still need
to create the twenty four hour night life, you know,
and there's a lot of things that has to happen with.
We're building a walking bridge like the high Line h
in north to connect the eastward to the downtown area.
That will trigger a bunch of development downtown, thousands of
units of housing, retail, commercials. So that's exactly what we need,
(01:00):
you know, uh, to make happen.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
There's more affordable housing that we have to build. We
have to build.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
We're trying to build these two thousand more units affordable houses,
some transitional housing as well. And then lastly, we're gonna
attack this food desert stuff that that that Newark has
uh in various communities. We're building five and we were
doing this a long time before these folks for New
York did it. But you know, y'all got a lot
more money than us.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So five.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
You know, we call a mutual aid grocery stores where
you pay based on your income.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Uh. But they're run by nonprofits.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Uh. And we're doing some public private ones as well,
so uh you know that. Uh, you know, continue to
reduce violence and crime, continue to raise people's quality of life,
invest in black and brown businesses.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So we'll continue to do those things.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
How do you like, you know, measure your success throughout
the terms? Like what was success for you? First time?
Second time, third time? Like what are you what are
you measuring against your goals?
Speaker 3 (01:54):
What the objectives were in the beginning. I mean, most
people who run the one run because they think they should,
they could do better. They want to do this or that,
but specific goals, like our specific goals when we first
came in was to reduce violence. We had one hundred
and thirteen hundred and fourteen homicides, right, it was to
begin to build affordable housing in the city, balance our budget.
I mean, the budget was in bad shape. So it
(02:16):
was very specific things that we needed to do and
turn the economy towards black and brown folks, and we
began to do that.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So violence in the.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
City hasn't been as low as it is since nineteen
fifty three. So we started. You know, my first year
when we got there, we were down gradually but not significantly.
But then you know, we began to get the hang
of it and it began to reduce year by year
by year.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
I was gonna ask, you know, a lot of people
say it sometimes that long term leadership is not too great,
right because it gets people comfortable, right. But I feel
like with you, it's a lot different. And why is that?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Well, I live in NewYork.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I mean my family and friends and community people I
love the most, and my pride is there.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I got see people every single day.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
So at the end of the day, I feel like,
like I said earlier, there's a goal there's an end,
uh that that we have to reach, you know. And
you know, I feel like in this race that I'm
in now. You know, I had the ability to run
for governor last year. I mean I came in second
in the field the sixth. It was incredible, and I
felt like I was defending the city for the most part.
(03:22):
Now and I feel like I'm defending myself right uh
and and and I.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Think that's for a reason.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And so I feel like this I'm on the backside
of my career, on the decline side, you know, And it's.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
About legacy at this point.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Like what I'm gonna leave when I walk away, What's
gonna what will I be able to say that we've
actually accomplished.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
And you talked about the governess race. Why don't you
think you won the governess race.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Well, I don't think we raised enough money. We'd have
enough time by the time we started to catch on,
and you know, we broke through. Uh you know, we
needed a you know, I would say another month. We
came in second. We had more less money than anybody
in the race.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Uh. You know, six people running, six very.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well known statewide candidates were running, and uh, you know,
we did very, very very well.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
People thought we wasn't gonna do that well, but we did.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
But you were favored, Like, there was a lot of
places that you were favored. So to hear you say that,
it's like, I mean you still had a lot of
strong support.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Oh yeah, we and in most of our areas.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We want ES's County, we want Pa Sae County, we
want Union County.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
So we won a lot of places where we are
in the majority black and brown folks in the majority.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
We basically ran away with those areas.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
And we did very well in uh, a lot of
progressive suburban white communities as well. I mean, the progressives
in New Jersey came out strong for us big time.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
One thing you've done with Newark is slowly you've been
able to change the stereotypes of of Newark. Right, you
said that Newark is not broke, it's not failing, it's
not criminals, We're beautiful people. Why do people still give
Newark that bad stereotypes? Even though like when you go
downtown in Newyork's beautiful restaurants. You know, there's amazing concert
there's so much to do in Newark. I think it's
(05:05):
it's so hard to change the stereotype of Nework.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Well, those stigmas stick, you know, unfortunately, they unfortunately long stigmas.
You know, we were the car theft capital of the world.
You know, the crime was out of control. You know,
people were used to that, and a lot of times
we wore that as residents of the city. We wore
it like we wore it almost as a life vest.
Like we walked around and talked about how tough and
(05:28):
rigging and rough NewYork was.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We were a brick city.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
And so to change your persona and the culture, the
way people view you. But there's a lot of things
that that that have to change, and one of it
is the way we view ourselves and the way we
talk about our city and the way we present it
to other people. Uh, you know, we got something out
of it. I think now, you know, it's time for
us to grow up and move away and do something else.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Leave that behind.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
One thing I would say, you know when I knew
you were coming, that's just reached out to a bunch
of New York people.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
They see, you know, what are your thoughts? What do
you need?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
What could have asked the Maya? A lot of these
I don't know if you can't help, but you've been
able to help people and things that didn't necessarily you know,
mean this to them. But people say that food is high, right,
They're saying when they're gonna get groceries, groceries are high.
They say that a lot of times the rent they're
raising rent and people can't afford it. They're saying, the
gas prices are high. And I don't know you can
(06:16):
help the gas prices, but you know, so what do
you tell you know your Newark residents, in your Newark
family members, or what they can do, and how well
we have.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
To learn like us our folks in these communities, we
have to learn civics, like we have to don't know
the relationship between city government, county, state, federal government. All
people know is the mayor, the governor, and the president.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
All the same. Right, my gas is how I'm blaming
Mayor ros Baraka, And.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
So we have to figure that out, right, And it
means that we have to vote in every election and
participate all the time and push back against a lot
of things that are happening. And food prices are high,
which is why we're building these grocery stores, which is
why we are creating opportunities people have access to food,
put more money in people's pockets so they could do
more with the with the cash that they have. That's
something that we can do right with the help obviously
(07:00):
at the nonprofit in the private sector. The community can't
do it alone. You have to have a nice, unified
group of folks that are willing to collaborate around that.
So yeah, I mean the gas prices and everything else.
We got to talk to the president about this one.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I ran.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
I mean the crazy thing about the gas prices that
affects everything. So it's affecting what it costs for us
to pave the roads, like because the fuel in the
trucks that come out to pave the roads, they're giving
you higher costs, so we have to pay more as
a city.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
So it's gonna raise everybody costs.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I think something simple as that, like trying to get asphalt,
the prices are way up.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Can you talk about can you talk about how the
things that Donald Trump has affected your city and what
he has done to affect your city?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, I mean, like people said, indirectly, well that directly food, gas,
you know, all of those things, but ultimately his attack
on social services, the attacked on snap benefits right, the
attack on housing right, making it more difficult for us
to give people vouchers or deal with invest in public housing,
(08:05):
which means you know, it's gonna be the rent is
gonna continue to increase, right because it'll be a seller's
market because you have more people that need housing than
the housing that exists. Right, So all of those costs
are gonna increase. And people just think the gas and
like I alluded to, the gas go but the gas
effects the supply chain altogether. That means all prices are
gonna go up, and it's gonna go in your in
(08:26):
your hand. You have to pay for it, right as well.
I mean cutting those services and giving more money to
the to the super wealthy, it's gonna affect working class
people all up and down the state and throughout the country.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Do you think you talk about people understanding civics and
do you think that people not understanding what putting you
in a governor's seat would have meant? Was that like
a big issue that you guys saw when you were
out there campaigning for yourself.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Yeah, I mean, I mean people were excited, but you know,
people were nervous, like, you know, because automatically they think
you can't win. So they feel like, oh, I want
to vowe to somebody that these people are not gonna
vote for us. They're not going to We can't do this.
It's impossible for us to be the governor. It's not
gonna happen, you know. And I got that more from
us than from other folks, right, and so you know,
ultimately just fighting that, us beating through that, beating through that.
(09:12):
And it took us a long time to beat through that,
like people be like, oh, this man, he actually can win.
You know, when polls were coming out and people were talking,
oh he man, he might win. Then people get excited
and say, let me get involved, let me participate. But
it took us a minute to get people to even
realize that.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
And what about the voter apathy, right, like people not
even wanting to come out because from the Trump election,
a lot of people black and Latino people they're not
voting Democrat, like they're.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah, well, a lot of folks are staying home more
than anything. I mean, we don't have a whole swath
of people like converting into Republicans.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Most people just stay home it's.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Not participating because they think the elections don't affect them.
I bet you some people are changing their mind as
we speak. They didn't know how dangerous we were this
situation would be, or how far Trump would go. I
mean all of the from federal judges to the Supreme Court.
So everything that's happening here and now right make it
difficult for your kid to go to college, for you
(10:07):
to get a scholarship, people that invest in you, all
the people that are losing their jobs, Black and brown
folks that are losing their jobs because people are afraid of DEI.
I mean, all of this is affecting our bottom line,
our pocketbooks. Whether you live in the projects or whether
you live in the suburbs, is affecting people's pocket.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
When you first jumped into politics, did you foresee all
the stuff that's happening now? And if you did foresee it,
would you still jumped in politics? Because it seems like
this political game is a nasty game.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, it's got worse. My father warned me about it
that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He never he never wanted
me to be involved. He was like, oh, what are
you doing? Like especially when I when I ran for mayor.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I was a counselman and a school principal, and it
was like you just became the councilman, like give it
a little time. And then Corey went to the United
States Senate and I just jumped in, uh, you know.
And he was looking at it from a point of
view of his time, like of you know, us fighting
against the machine and cointel pro and you know, all
of the things that would happen. And he grew up
(11:06):
when King was assassinated, both Kennedy's were killed. You know,
he looked at his mindset was a little different than
everybody else is, and knowing where I was and what
I was thinking in the direction I was going in.
He was very nervous about that, but didn't anticipate how
ugly politics is today because there was no Internet at
(11:26):
this level.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
But even with dealing with Ice, right, like I saw
you tweet out about that multi car accident that happened
when Ice was chasing the band, and it just seems like,
because I know, y'all have police have rules about winning
how they can chase people, but Ice, they're able to
maneuver a bit differently. But that's causing issues for you
on the other end in your own city.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, every state in city has that, especially if you.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
A city that is telling folks you can't participate with
ICE the police. The reality is it's something called deconfliction.
That means we have to know you're in you're in
our city. One agency goes into a city, we have
to know you're there. Even if you don't, you don't
have to ask our permission. We have to know what
you're doing, what's going on, because anything can happen. We
go to the police go to the scenes as a
car being chased, they don't who's chasing the car. They're
(12:13):
leaving abandoned cars on the block. When they take people out,
you know, they find an abandoned cars, you might find
a gun, you might find whatever. They don't know if
it's a robbery, like if it's a crime and action or.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
What's going on.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
They just show up to a scene. Because people are
calling the police. They say, oh, we want don't want
the police to participate. But when residents call the police,
they have to come. So if a car is chasing
another car, that might be ICE, the police gonna show up.
The city police can be hey, what's going on, and
then people getting loud.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Now they got to create order, and.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
It creates the kind of conflict that takes place between
both agencies soon you know it's gonna be. And how
prayerfully it doesn't get to a point where both agencies
are at each other's throat in the middle of the street.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I was gonna ask you as mayor right and running
for this next term, like, because when that happened, your
team at literally said, y'all reached out to Ice for
certain comments explanations, and they didn't even return their response, right,
So what communication flow have you created or plan to
try and create so that we don't see that.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Well, the only real interaction we have is, you know, luckily,
the North Police Department is the largest one in the state.
So most of the federal agencies need our help and
support with most of the things that go on, whether
it's you know, AFT or DA or any ex people
Homeland Security, they need our support, right, And so we
have people in different places and we communicate with them
(13:29):
to at least get some kind of feedback about what's
going on. And we've had a working relationship with these
you know, agencies for years, whether it was Republican or
Democratic administration. So because of those relationships, were still to
have some modicum of you know, civility that happens between
the agencies.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
How do you move on from there? And how do
you proceed right because obviously ICE feels like they're gonna
do what they want to do. You're arrested by checking
out the ICE facility. It did absolutely positively nothing to
be seen there on TV. So how do you move
on as mayor to say, hey.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Do we work with them?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Do we have to work with them? What happens from here?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Well, we can't work with ICE to violate people's constitutional
rights because we'll never come back from that. Once you
begin that, it's a slippery slope, and the city agencies
just can't. We just can't participate and pulling people over.
We just got out of consent decree, pulling people over
because they look different, because they got a different accent,
and so we can't do that. We can't participate in that.
(14:23):
So we'll never be able to do that. So that
that has to change. The problem is we work with
these agencies in other kind of ways in criminal you know, investigation,
So if they're investigating the cartel or something that's going on,
that involves homeland atf DA, our folks have to get involved,
and we'll get involved in that, and we just have
(14:45):
to make a distinction between one or the other. And
most of the ICE agents that are coming on now,
they're not trained. They're not even involved in those activities
because they're not trained to be involved. Most of them
got to they go through like a forty five day training.
Our police officers the six months of training, they are
forty five days of training. They barely know what they're
doing out there, right, and so they would never be
(15:06):
involved in a high level kind of criminal takedown because
they just don't know what to do.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
But how do.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You protect in Newark residents?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Because if you ever been in New York, there's so
many different nationalities.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Right, Yeah, how do you protect those people?
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And I'm sure some of them might be immigrants, so
their parents are immigrants, So how do you protect those residents?
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Well, we have to stay in constant communication with them,
which is what we do, especially through our community based organizations,
to make sure that we let them know if it's
safe or it's unsafe, or you know, they still have
access to materials, to resources the city to the city
agencies and go through our nonprofits to make sure we
are giving them what they need, even through with lawyers
(15:46):
and through support that we do that as well, so
they know that there's some recourse or a place for
them to go to for comfort other than these people
who are chasing them around the city.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I also read an article that said a lot of
people are coming in the next couple of months for
feet for Right, and they said a lot of people
are staying at airbnbs in Newark. So with the you know,
the city's gonna be packed, the city's.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Gonna be Airbnb prices crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Airbnb prices is gonna do the rule though, So what
do you do for those people trying to get to
you know, MetLife or whatever they call met life now
to make sure they can see the game? Because I'm
seeing prices are crazy. I see a bus from New
York to the thing, it's like two hundred dollars. So
what do you do to make sure that people will
have a great time in a safe time.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Well, we we've already galvanized all of the you know,
uh resources in the city, all of the institutions and
j Pad prew Center Museum Library, Newark alliance. So the restaurants,
everybody's prepared. We're gonna have one concerned effort to kind
of really give people the atmosphere that they need in
a safe, uh kind of way, and and so they
(16:46):
able to have fun, watch the games, uh, you know,
enjoy the culture of the city at the same time.
And there's there's the federal and state kind of legislators
are trying to push for legislation now, you know, to
make sure that ice is not empowered to chase people
around while these FEFA games are going on. Right, that's
(17:07):
a serious concern because you have you'renna have hundreds of
thousands of people coming to the United States and people
who already here and they're.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Not gonna be able to tell difference.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
No, No, Now I want to ask too. You know,
first of all, congratulations they said Newark had its lowest
murder ray since nineteen fifty three. Is amazing because we've
all seen the ups and downs and trials and tribulations
that Newark has had. Well, what is your biggest accomplishment
that you would say personally from the last decade of
you being mare Personally?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I think just really changing those less service lines in
the city that I mean that affected me personally, my family,
my community, we all lived there, you know, changing them
in less than three years, twenty three thousand less service lines.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
And just to put it in.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Perspective, like in twenty fourteen when I became the mayor,
that's when Flint figured out that they had the less
service line crisis and they still trying to change their right.
They told us it would take us ten years. That
means I would be still doing this, right, I would
probably be gone and still doing that. It would take
us ten years, and we did it in less than three, uh,
you know, by God's grace and the galvanizing all the
(18:10):
resources in the city, and we made it happen. You know,
besides all the you know, affordable housing and you know,
reduction in crime and you know, getting people in from
the projects into homes. All that is is great, but
the less service line thing, to me was a serious
battle and we overcame it and I feel great that
we were able to do that.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
That was also reported that.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
You you sued the federal government for defamation and prosecution
following your arrest. Are you still seeing them?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Are we still in the process of that? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah, it takes some time. We still we just had
a hearing a couple of days ago.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
How does that work with you being like a person
of like politics, right, but then you're suing the government
like I know you have by by law, you have
the right to do that. But does it mess up
internally the relationships that you have when you're trying to
figure out these ecosystems of community all the things we
talked about, Like, is.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That a thing? No?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Not not the institutions itself. I mean people we suing
each other all the time, but not the the institutions itself. Individuals, yes,
and the way the unfortunately, the way government is run today.
It is run very like in a vindictive kind of way.
And and ultimately people come after people, right and that's
what this Trump administration has has represented, like they'll come
(19:24):
and get you right away everybody, which is like there's
nobody off off limits. I mean they indicted the former
FBI director.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I mean these people it's now, let me ask you
this to you know, we're young black voters especially, what
do you think young black voters are demanded from leadership
right now that the previous generation didn't, Well.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
They want more inclusion, like they want to be involved
in all of this stuff. Before we was trying to
get young people to be interested. Now they want to
be in it like they want.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
To be involved.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
They in all aspects of it, whether it's marketing, media.
Because of all of this stuff, they want to be
heard and listen to. I think all young people want
to be heard and listen to. But I think it
is becoming more and more. Is getting louder and louder
now more than anything, and they want to be able
to participate in the city. They want to engage in
(20:17):
the economic night, the economic life in the town as well.
If they see development of housing going up, they want
to be a part of it. They think they're smart
and they feel like they should be a part of
all of the stuff that's happening in the city.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
And what's one thing that you feel like your administration
might have fell short on that you didn't get a
chance to knock out yet.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
There's a few things, actually, man.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I mean one is this food, desert stuff, which is
what we're working on down I mean, I think we
still moving a little slow on affordable housing because the
market is moving faster than we are able to put
them up and some of it has to do with
the way the tax credits are constructed by the state
government that are given to us like one project at
a time, which means that you're doing very little out
(20:59):
of time. You years and years and years to amount
the massive number of housing that you want to build.
But you know, we're working with them and trying to
figure out how to do more and more in a
shorter period of time because it's an emergency at this point.
I mean, that's that's clear, and I think you know
in terms of our investment in the actual workforce that
(21:21):
we have to do, us have to do a better
job and invested in the workforce, expanding their resources more people.
Newark is growing, and we're still trying to operate the
city from the same numbers that it was.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
We have a three hundred something thousand people.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Were still trying to operate like we have two hundred
and seventy five hundred and fifty thousand people. We have
not expanded the police, the fire, ucc DPW all that
has to advance and all the equipment has to advent.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
We need more, which.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Is crazy because Newark is like everybody's coming.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, we and we have to act like that, and
I don't know if we have invested in our own
selves in a way that we need the infrastructure to
be able to support all the things that are happening now.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
The next governor race, you said this one, you guys
were a little late. You didn't raise as much money.
Are you thinking about the next governor race yet? Yelp, man,
give yourself enough time that now not yet felt it tired.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
In words bombed. I'm in the middle of this thing,
you know.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
And uh, you know, I think that I owe the
residents of New my attention, my full time and full
commitment mentally, emotionally, and like I said, this is about
legacy for me. So when I walk out of here,
I'm going to be able to point to a few
things that we were able to do in the city
that will last through generation. And I'm more excited about
(22:40):
that than anything else.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
I think God sent me back. It was like, now
you got to defend what you've built. You went out
here and talked to all this junk. Now and go
back to the city and defend the stuff that you
said you built.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Well, that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Well, elections are today. Make sure you get out there
and vote and one thing I will say about Mayor
ros Baraka. I've been in a lot of different cities.
I spoke to a lot of different mayors. Mayor ros
Baraka is probably one of the very few mayors that
is actually outside with the people. I mean, ros Baraka
will pull up at an event, he will pull up
at the gym, he will walk down your block. He
will ask you what's wrong? What could I do better?
(23:14):
And I think we need more of that. And I
love the fact that you do that. And sometimes I'm
there and I don't even say hello because I just
want to see. And the fact that he will walk
into an event, major HBC event, speak to people, shake hands,
kiss babies. He'll walk down the block, He'll go to
the gym, and I think a lot of mayors can
learn from that. Just see the people, touch the people,
talk to the people, and speak to the people. And
I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Brother.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Get out there and vote ros Baraka. He's running today
mayor of Newark. And it's the breakfast Club. Good morning.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Every day.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Click up the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
You don't finish for y'all done
The Breakfast Club News
Hosts And Creators
Charlamagne Tha God
DJ Envy
Jess Hilarious
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Hey Jonas!
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.