INTERVIEW: Laura Coates Talks American Legal System, Diddy Trial, Tory Lanez, 'Jeopardy!' Hosting Snub +More

Today on The Breakfast Club, Laura Coates Talks American Legal System, Diddy Trial, Tory Lanez, 'Jeopardy!' Hosting Snub. Listen For More!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day of click your ass up the breakfast club
finish for y'all done more than everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
We are a breakfast club.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Long the Roses here as well, And we got a
special guest in the building.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yes, indeed we have Laura Coats.

Speaker 4 (00:17):
Welcome, Hey, you happy to be here, y'all.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome, welcome, welcome you wake up Laura at midnight?

Speaker 5 (00:23):
Right, I go out midnight, I go to bed probably
by two am.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
I'm by six.

Speaker 5 (00:28):
Wow, nice, I have I have babies. I call them
baby because that's why I have baby. Wait, so it's
eleven and twelve year olds. Therefore I'm up with them,
getting them ready or trying to or you know, piddling
like an old person trying to figure out how to
start my day.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
But I can't sleep long any longer. I can't.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
We just ended, because is it?

Speaker 6 (00:45):
Because your brain is always wired to be a part
of like the news cycle.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
I'm constantly thinking, Like last night, I think I got
an hour and a half asleep because my mind could not.

Speaker 7 (00:54):
You couldn't.

Speaker 5 (00:54):
You can't wait come down because you for me, I'm
always navigating minefields.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
You all know how to is.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
And so when you're constantly sort of being your own champion,
being a businesswoman navigating mine fields.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Then I'll be trying to educate and inform. Your mind can't.

Speaker 5 (01:11):
Shut off very well, and so I'm always battling with
how to do my go to bed routine. I mean,
I'll do like the bath, I'll watch some Golden Girls,
but it still takes some time.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
You take naps at least I do.

Speaker 5 (01:24):
Oh my god, if I if you talk me right now,
you have an hour, I'd be knocked out right now.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
But I can do that quick.

Speaker 5 (01:29):
I'm like, yes, I have not seen one of those
safety things on the plane in like years.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Damn.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
You're like, I haven't had a pretzeul. No sprite with
me without ice doesn't matter. I just I can't have it.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
I can't help it.

Speaker 8 (01:48):
I do how you turn it off and all with
your kids though, because like sometimes they just want mom.

Speaker 9 (01:51):
That's just about to be whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:53):
My kids don't care at all about the work they
for me. I'm very intentional because look, I I want
I wanted to be a mom.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
I really wanted to be a mother, and I wanted.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
To be their mother in particular, and so I have
to be present and really, if you don't sort of
leave work. When I'm not working, my mind might be racing,
but I'm with my babies or with my man.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (02:15):
Like I'm with them. That's all there is to it.
And so they try to come with me a lot though.
That's why I try to incorporate. My daughter comes every
Friday night to the show, and because my producer, she's eleven,
she's tall than me. Now, my son, he plays basketball,
and so he's always I'm always trying to be with
him when he's on the three and a half.

Speaker 9 (02:37):
I was.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
My nickname as a kid was baby Huey.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
I'm the.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Baby. So I had to have.

Speaker 5 (02:51):
A to counteract that because my mom is four eleven,
my dad's five four, and they're like, how.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Do you get so big? I'm like, I'm five three
and a half. But that half.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Half used to be a federal prosecutor.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
I did.

Speaker 6 (03:05):
I want to go back from the beginning. You went
to college for law clearly, yeah, okay, what's cool.

Speaker 5 (03:10):
I went to Princeton undergrad. I'm from Minnesota. I went
back to Minnesota for law school. I didn't think I
was going to do be a prosecutor. Honestly, I thought
that I was going to go into the law, and
I thought, you know, at the time, you think, oh,
corporate law, and that's some kind of nebulous.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Term or whatever that means.

Speaker 5 (03:25):
But really I knew I was going to become in
criminal law and probably a prosecutor. When the whole Kemba
Smith story came out back and along it was like
the nineties Emerge magazine, remember that.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
And she was a young black woman.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
From Virginia who had met the wrong man, had gotten
accused and being a drug mule, right right.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
And my mom brought home the magazine. There's three of us.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
She's like, girls, I want you to read this as
a cautionary tale. And I think what she wanted as
a mom was for me to see like the idea
of what type of man to get involved.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
With the story of what happened the time she got
some people understand. I was there, so I know, were
you wow?

Speaker 4 (04:03):
So spirit there you go. Damn Look I'm forty five.

Speaker 7 (04:07):
You know how old she is.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
But you know they've picking the I TA the Amazon thing.
So I was here, I saw so I understand. Well,
Kemba So she was a college girl. The world was
her oyster. Long story short, she meets a man who
is manipulative and convinces her to get involved in crime.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
She doesn't think she's getting involved.

Speaker 5 (04:39):
I think she's just kind of carrying something for someone
and doing what she thinks she's supposed to be doing.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
But it wasn't.

Speaker 5 (04:46):
And while he got sort of a slap on the wrist,
she got the book thrown at her. She became the
example of you know what goes wrong in this sort
of crazy, mischievous black woman coming into this town, and
she deserves everything she gets.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
What was the man.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Commonwealth kind of make up their rules, laws and regulations.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Risk for him? How the time to need you?

Speaker 5 (05:10):
I don't think he got much time at all. I
think he got like I mean, she was in there
for years. And the sad thing was, of course, you know,
as black women, as black people, as young women, as
young people, we can't make a mistake. You know, you
don't get the idea of I understand I see myself
and you. Therefore, let me try to get you on
the straight and narrow yet again and give you a

(05:32):
chance again at life. So when my mom sent the
article to us and showed us her, I think role
for us was listen this is the tale of what
not to do in terms of the type people you
associate yourself with. But my take on it was this
was a prosecutorial error. This was somebody who refused to
see themselves in another human being. And therefore this young

(05:52):
woman was going to serve life, or not life, but
serve her life at that time with that burden on
her back. And so when I realized in law school
what I wanted to do, I had her in mind.
I've met her since and talked to her about this,
and we've shared some tears about what it's like to
really be a prosecutor, because you really you have this responsibility.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
It's overwhelming. You're human, you're flawed.

Speaker 5 (06:16):
There's no resources that are going to be able to
provide for all that you have to do. And yet
you have someone's life in your hand, their entire life,
not just their life, but people in the court who
were their kids who were there, their loved.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
Ones, their parents who were there.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
And it was a time was it wore on me,
even though I thought what I was doing and I
still believe was the right thing.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Wow, she got twenty four years, she was let out,
an she was let out. She only get six, but
she got twenty four years.

Speaker 6 (06:45):
So as a form of federal prosecutor, how do you
balance explaining the law for everyday viewers without losing the complexity.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Of what law is.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
I think you don't understand something unless you can explain
to a child, right.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
I mean, there's a phrase.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
And when I was in trials, I did a lot
of trials, it was never use.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
A twenty dollars word when a quarter word will do.

Speaker 5 (07:05):
Right. You want to talk to people and meet them
where they are, not because they know less intellectually, because
or they're not as smart, but because you and I
would never sit here and say the door was a jar.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Don't open like I gave chase.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
Do you mean you ran somewhere? Because you want people
to understand what's happening. And I think there's an elitism
with vocabulary where people want to show that they're smart,
to distance themselves from you, to make sure you see
them above you and that they can no longer participate
in the system. And the longer people feel like, well

(07:39):
I don't get it, so therefore I hands off their reflexes.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
Well I don't care about that. It's rigged. It's a
whole game of the system. That was the point.

Speaker 5 (07:48):
They want people to not participate, They want people not
to understand, and we have an elitism about the law
that we see right now in real terms are heard
the nation because the more people are like politics, I
don't get that, I don't get that, what's passekoma, what
I don't get it? Never mind whatever, then you don't

(08:08):
check in and you're not actually maintaining the system, and
you become a part of your own demise. And so
for me, it was easy to make sure that Look,
if I want to understand something, I have to really
distill it down so that I can explain it in
a two minute elevator in a thirty second clip down
the street wherever I am to my kids because they're

(08:31):
also who's watching me? And when I was during the
whole COVID during the pandemic, I had a studio on
my home and I remember I was covering the George
Floyd murder trial, which I'm clear not the George Floyd trial,
that's Derek Chauvin trial, the George Floyd murder trial, and
my kids were on the floor literally because it was homeschool.
Don't get me a starting They're sitting there watching me

(08:54):
explain something, and the why.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
The why was always the hardest question.

Speaker 5 (08:58):
Like I could explain the Constitution, I can recite the amendments,
I can explain the different case law. But the hardest
question to answer, especially when you have your babies looking
at you.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Why.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
You know who told me that? Larry King?

Speaker 4 (09:10):
Really?

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Larry King said God, Larry King said, he said Charlamagne.

Speaker 6 (09:15):
The toughest question you can ask a person is why why?
Because people really don't ever think about the why. Usually
they have their talking points, or they have their things
that they've been taught, but they've never actually thought about
the why of something.

Speaker 5 (09:29):
And it makes you think ahead in the future and
explain the past simultaneously, because the why requires you explain
the way it was, how you've let it be, and
also how you could change it. Because in that one
three letter word you're being challenged. It's almost like the
question is why did you let that happen? Or why

(09:51):
is it still that way? Or why haven't we changed it?
You have to think about all those things. And you know,
one of things I love my job what I'm doing
is because for me, I would have talked anyway. I
would have tried to explain anyway. I have a real
desire to democratize information because I can't stand elitism and
I can't stand people feeling like they don't have a

(10:12):
voice because someone took it away.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
But that why question, man?

Speaker 5 (10:16):
When it comes to my kids, like my son the
other day asked me a question about why the National
Guard was there?

Speaker 4 (10:22):
You were driving by? Why and why there? I thought
this is going to take a lot to unload.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
But you know, I try not to shy away from
my kids, and they ask a question because when they're
asking it, they're ready to receive the information. Even though sometimes,
you know, it breaks my heart. I think of my
kid's childhood, whether this is right or wrong. You guys,
I think of it like a museum, right, and there
are museum floors and wings, and I'm navigating one area.

(10:50):
I'm like, Okay, it's time to go to this wing,
and all of a sudden something happens and I'm on
the third floor trying to explain the exhibit in front
of me, trying to make sure they realize what to
do or what not to do. And I'm not always
prepared in those moments, and so I just try to
be very confessional about what I do and do not
know and try to find answers.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
So, what is the.

Speaker 6 (11:10):
National Guard, because I'm sure it is a letter of
a law, letter of a law, letter of the law.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Answers. Yeah, but what's.

Speaker 5 (11:15):
The Well, the why they're saying they're there is because
of the crime rate in DC and the only way
they believe they can change it is to have the
presence of the National Guard to try to deter crime
or to.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
Supplement what the cops are doing.

Speaker 5 (11:30):
What the other reason is legally is that they have
the ability to do so.

Speaker 4 (11:33):
In Washington, d C.

Speaker 5 (11:35):
It's not a it's not a state, it's not a territory.
And the President of the United has has.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
A lot, a lot, a lot of power there.

Speaker 5 (11:42):
So much so that other governors and other hitcher think
of themselves, well, how can we stop it from mapping
our own states? But the real reality is he has
power to do so for a certain amount of time
thirty days. If there is an emergency situation, they can
do it. He wants to delay it or prolong it
longer than that. But the reason they're having it in
reality is because politically it is advantageous to show that

(12:05):
you are tough on crime, and Democrats have a very
difficult road ahead trying to, on the one hand, explain
the problems of a police state and the presence of
the National Guard. I'll our civil rights there are with
people coming into your towns and also using data to
say no, no, I don't know how you feel, but
here's a number.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
Does this number make you feel better? Here's a number, right,
this is better, and they're trying to capitalize on that
as Republicans.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
I was going to ask, you know, do you think
the judicial system could be fair with everything going on
in the world with social media or television? Is the
way it is because you know, you look at some
of these cases and a lot of times people get
wrong information misinformation, and it's difficult to take that out
of your mind if you're a juror, because you already see.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Most of the things that's happened. So could it possibly
be fair anymore?

Speaker 5 (12:54):
The bate of my existence and trial with law and order,
My damn dn't sound everything else right?

Speaker 4 (13:02):
Why?

Speaker 5 (13:03):
Because people have an expectation about the ability to meet
your burden approof number one. Right, every crime you think
has a video, a DNA sample, you can have everything
solved in forty six minutes with commercial breaks and Sam
Waterson is ready to go. That hurts the ability a
real and reality based case. You don't have all that

(13:23):
information all the time, so that's hard to be able
to meet your burden approof. On the other hand, it
helps to make it a little bit more fair if
we have access to technology and you don't use it,
or that you have the cameras and you didn't find it,
or you had a new bout of form that many
people who are armchair lawyers know about now and say,
shouldn't there be this form from this FBI agent because

(13:43):
I saw this in such and such and such and such.
An answer is yes, it probably shouldn't have been. Now
you have a more fair system in that way. But
also you have people who are getting misinformation, and people
have this tendency if it's in writing, it must be true.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
That's why scam artists are so successful.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
Right, I have authoritative voice, I'm telling you this, I'm
asking a question, and therefore they think this must be
real and people are getting scammed in real time on misinformation.
But then they refuse to let their ego down to say,
you know, I could be mistaken. I could be wrong,
but it goes back to mistrust. You get misinformed if

(14:20):
you don't trust the source. We kill the messenger every
single day because the messenger well has been inaccurate at times.
But in a twenty four or seven news cycle like
I'm in, you know, sometimes you are informing. But that's
just part of the story. It's not the wrong story.
It's the beginning of this story.

Speaker 4 (14:40):
Right.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
You look at say a trial, for example, if you
judge an entire trial by the charge or the arrest,
you never get to the fairness part of it. You
just say, oh, they got them. They might they wouldn't
have stopped them, they didn't have something. But there's so
many things that go into that, whether it's was it
a re the will stop?

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Did they have problem cause? Was it racial profiling?

Speaker 5 (15:04):
Do they have evidence? Is it the right person? Do
they have the right people to testify let alone? Did
they actually have the burden of proof met So fairness
is so flexible, unfairly and unreasonably, but really it's in
the eye of the beholder. But in a way, that's
kind of how the jury of our peers envisioned it.

(15:25):
Because I want your take I want your take. I
want your take, I want your take, and hopefully the
result is fairness.

Speaker 8 (15:35):
I was going to ask, when you look at Chris
like you did a lot of coverage on a Diddy trial.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
Yeah, so did you this? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (15:41):
Thanks for having me. But from the beginning right you were.

Speaker 8 (15:44):
There were times where you did make predictions or just
like follow the story as it went. Was there any
time where you flat out were like, this is ridiculous,
they're overcharging him, and you wanted to say that but couldn't.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
I did say it, and I could. But you're right
to question the ability to.

Speaker 5 (15:59):
Be as vocal and as forthright put me in an
anchor position right when I was just being a contributor.
I had a different role, right because then I could
be a little bit more flexible. I'm still very honest
and candid, but I have to moderate a conversation where
I can't answer every question that I'm asking other people.
So sometimes I agree with the person who's answering it,

(16:21):
I don't agree with the person's answering.

Speaker 4 (16:22):
I try to say that.

Speaker 5 (16:24):
But one thing that was really bothering me about that
trial in particular is and you can set aside frankly
all the backstory of violence, and that's hard to even
say because there's a huge backstory of violence there.

Speaker 9 (16:35):
Then y'all broke the video they brought We broke the video, but.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
They didn't charge that.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
And I think what happened in that case is it's
that prostitual discretion that is very difficult to navigate. On
the one hand, just because you can do something, should you,
And the reason you have to balance that test is
because everything one government prosecutor says binds the next one.

(17:00):
So you can imagine the cases you go in and
you even know that somebody before you came in and
argues them to the court, But now whatever that judge
heard is now assigned to you. I walked into courts
before and done at fianceing and argued my case. As
you said, well, yeah, but the government hasn't always take
that that's the wrong position. They just said that twenty
minutes ago. You're like, well, who said that?

Speaker 4 (17:23):
The government?

Speaker 5 (17:24):
Which prosecutor the government, and so you're tied to that.
So one of the issues of having that case is
that is that the new standard to bring RICO for
that type of case. Were there other matters to bring
or other cases to bring other charges, and should we
have caught it much sooner? Why was the original case brought,
why were the violence cases not brought sooner?

Speaker 4 (17:44):
And what messages that.

Speaker 5 (17:45):
Send in the long run to victims that you try
to bring in and tell them because it's a grind.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
I want you to.

Speaker 5 (17:51):
Testify, it's it's worth it. Please you're arguing, and not
to fear yourself. But the next person down the line
doesn't want to be victimized. You try to convince that
person to come forward. Well, now you wonder if a
very public trial and the person comes forward and tells
the most intimate, horrific details of their life, how much

(18:11):
harder is it now for the prospert to come back
and say, no, no, forget what you saw. You should
still go forward because it will still matter theoretically in
the end. She's a harder case. And so you know,
we don't go up there and say you are a
private attorney.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
I've been a private attorney before.

Speaker 5 (18:28):
As a prosecutor, you represent the state, or the jurisdiction
or the country. And so even if that person doesn't
want to go forward, there's a callousness you have to
have that says, well, I'm not here for you. I'm
thinking about the next person who does not want it
to be them.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
But now it makes it harder.

Speaker 8 (18:46):
But I was going to ask you were on a
you were an assistant US attorney, this attorney when you
saw that, because remember they made a big deal about
it being all white women that were prosecuting, did you
feel like race played a card.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
I think that had a very big part in the
assessment of this trial and the court of public opinion,
because people thought, why this particular person is it because
this is a black man who has achieved a certain
level of income.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
It is the.

Speaker 5 (19:14):
Hearkening back to the high falutin negro syndrome that they
would try to put on the man act use in
terms of how that was looked at. Remember that was
the case involving you know, Jack Johnson, who was a
boxer who was convicted of it for had the audacity
to date a white woman who happened to also be
a prostitute one time and married somebody else as well.

(19:37):
So I wonder if that was a part of how.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
People perceived it.

Speaker 5 (19:40):
But there is always going to be with the messenger
for a jury, how condescending you might appear, how judgmental.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
You might come across.

Speaker 5 (19:51):
And there were certainly elements where I found myself wondering,
watching the jury and watching the presentation of evidence, how
did that read? For example, when someone would say something
like he took his right as an example, yes, that
came to mind, but you know, or that might be
a comment and the person was to thinking, well, who
would ever do that? That's just and just very sort

(20:12):
of disgusted by it. Now you could be disgusted by it.
Maybe it's your thing as well. The problem is, and
this jury they weren't asked that question. I don't know
in this jurney of twelve or how many people, how
many of you might get off on that, or how
many of you might feel as though, well, you shouldn't
be in my bedroom, so don't judge that.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
Why are we here about that?

Speaker 5 (20:31):
And so you always run the risk of coming across
as you know, whether actually as a black prosecutor or
not as a Karen as somebody who is who knows
better than you is going to elevate it to the authorities,
and you have.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
To balance that.

Speaker 5 (20:46):
They were good prosecutors though, But I think just the
image of and how it was portrayed, especially outside of
the courtroom and the court of public opinion. You cannot
separate race and power and sex and rock and roll.
In that instance, you think they got it right the jury,

(21:07):
you know, based on the presentation of evidence.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
There was no other result.

Speaker 5 (21:13):
And I was surprised that so many people who weren't
inside the courtner every day and weren't watching it and
maybe we're reading Transcift thought there's no way he can't
be con Rico, and I thought, well, based on what's
been presented, you are making people connect so many.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
Dots and Rico's complex.

Speaker 5 (21:32):
You guys, right, it's not just your average you know,
walk by someone's bar and say, it's a shame. You know,
you have some nice windows here, someone's gonna blow them
unless you pay this amount of money and pay this
person like a mob boss hair or mob boss whatever.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
It's much more complicated. You got to bridge all these gaps.

Speaker 5 (21:48):
And when they didn't call people like the right hand
men and women of Ditty, I wondered if the jurors thought, well, I've.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
Heard a lot about these people. Why have I not
seeing any of them?

Speaker 6 (22:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (22:02):
Why is that? And the thing is you could technically
one person for conspiracy is enough.

Speaker 5 (22:08):
But again back to your question about how fairness operates
and how the law. People have so many questions about
how can that be and is that fair?

Speaker 4 (22:16):
And in a way we.

Speaker 5 (22:17):
All become through the thirteenth juror and we have our
minds going all right in the grand scheme of things.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Why are you so focused on this? Why this right
or wrong? That's their question.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Well, let me ask one other question.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
You know, so what he was charged with, right, do
you think he should have got a bond or do
you think that he should still be sitting there now?

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Because when they did research, they said anybody with this
type of charge usually gets slap on the risk, community
service weekend in jail. But it seems like faird charges.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
I ain't heard no community service from the FED.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Or for prostitution.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
You mean to leave pay until your head's in October? Right,
So normally, if it's a very violent crime, you weretil
your sentence because the expectation is you're going to be sentenced,
so why not just don't get used to being out.
But it wasn't, and that's important to the point you raised,
because what the the conviction was not a crime of violence.

(23:13):
It didn't even require coercion like say, sex trafficking did.
But because the lawyers argued as a given, yeah, he
was violent, you didn't charge him with that. The judge said, well,
this could qualify under the umbrella of the types of
matters that are violent by your own admission.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Counsel, even though he wasn't charged.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Even though he wasn't charged that now. That why this
is why there's a fairness issue here is because they
tell the jury at the beginning the attorney's arguments and
say they're they're not evidence. You cannot consider what the
attorney says, right, but the judge did. The judge considered
like he said, well, he's yes, he's he was violent. Yes,
that happened in the hotel lobby or the hotel hallway.

(23:55):
That absolutely happened. But he can he can actually look
at those things to hold the person longer, although I
do wonder if in holding him now it makes the
judge appear that much more objectively harsh. Therefore, when he sentences,
if it's less than what the prosecution wants, you can't

(24:16):
accuse him of going light and soft on diddy, Right, what.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Do you think he's gonna get as a former prosecute, I.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
Would be surprised if it went beyond two or three years,
with one year being credited to him time his time
already in. The reason for that is although you have
ten years per charge, normally you wouldn't run those consecutively
like where that's you know, back to back up to twenty.
Because the nature of the crime and because he's a
first time commits a defender in this context, sentence and
guidelines have kind of a chart that says, you know,

(24:46):
this crime gives you this point, this other, this point,
and now I have a little category. Now you're over here,
and you're in this range. The judge can still say
less or more, but it would be in line with
other cases if it was in the lower end. The prosecution, though,
they want their bone and their dogs about it, because

(25:06):
they have to be for the reasons, are going forward
and thinking we put these resources in. We feel that
he's violent and that there should have been longer and more.
They're gonna go hard.

Speaker 7 (25:15):
But with the.

Speaker 5 (25:15):
Judge I think will be in his right judicial mind
if he's in the same range that Diddy has based
on nothing a prior offender.

Speaker 10 (25:24):
Wow, I'm glad I don't get in trouble no more.
I don't understand none of y'all talking about. Really, I'm
telling you, well, yeah, you see, ain't none of y'allways,
But y'all understand is this?

Speaker 7 (25:35):
I'm just being there like all right? So does that
mean I'm going to jail?

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Not like you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (25:39):
Like I have no Yeah, And and then the thing
is right up here.

Speaker 10 (25:43):
Lauren reports on a lot of these type of cases, right,
And I understand, Yeah, she does a great job. I
understand a little bit when she breaks the own things.
I understand a lot more of it.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Right.

Speaker 7 (25:53):
But have you been following the Tory Lanez case? Right?

Speaker 4 (25:57):
I have?

Speaker 10 (25:58):
Okay, So Lauren just reported something basically like he's asking
for his team. It's asking for evidence to be re
invented and resubmitted.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Right.

Speaker 10 (26:09):
Do you feel like, just with your expertise, right, that
is smart or could it be something there? Or is
they already just beating a dead horse at this point?

Speaker 5 (26:18):
No, you have to exhaust every avenue you possibly can.
And even though people think that the conviction is the
end of the story until you get home, really you're
fighting from the time or cricket to the time that
you actually get out, because you really want everything to
be analyzed. You want to suggest that the prosecution knew

(26:39):
something and didn't tell you, right. You wanted just that
that the cop was a dirty cop, that there was
evidence it didn't come in, that the jury should have
heard this, they didn't hear it. That's important because all
of those things and all those arguments you make when
you're in a trial, you're objecting to, all those things
there really become placeholders. You object because on a pe

(27:00):
if you didn't, you can't raise them every again, and
then it becomes the end of the road for that defended.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
So he needs to try to submit whatever he can
for his own ability.

Speaker 5 (27:10):
To try to get out of prison. They'd mean it's successful.
And judges and the peal courts always know, they know, Okay,
you're gonna tell me that this piece of evidence should
have come in but didn't, or this evidence was heard
hearsay wise was allowed in. They shouldn't have been there,
And they get almost like callous to people and their

(27:35):
arguments that they make. And that's why you think about
the lifetime araditions people have as judges. Sometimes it can
be a good or a bad thing, because they're so
they've heard it all right, you've heard imagine having a
teenager and they're like, oh, nothing, I didn't. They have
that look at the in the face of the yeah,
you're right right, and you're like, really, I haven't been
a tenanger before.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
I haven't.

Speaker 5 (27:56):
Like my son's like, I need to close the door
in my Bedroomok. Really I haven't been twelve before.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
Keeps her open.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
No, what do you mean he thinks he's slick on something? No,
I know what's going to happen, or I think I know,
so I haven't. I think yes, damn mom.

Speaker 9 (28:09):
My son.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
And I tease girls in the Oh, I'm not that mom.
They would never be a girl in the room in
my house. No, no, this is my daughter or grandma.
Absolutely not, no, no, no. But you think that they
know full well they think they're being slick, and a
lot of judges have that mentality of oh that's cute.

Speaker 4 (28:30):
Oh really is that what happened? Or are you just guilty?

Speaker 5 (28:32):
And so he has to exhaust everything for his own
really legal peace of mind, But it doesn't mean there's
anything there.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, when you're sitting down for ten years trying every time.

Speaker 5 (28:42):
You know, I get a lot of prison mail and
a lot of conversations people who really they they hear
they fall the news and they hear about you know,
this prosecutor getting fired or this cop having this case,
and they go, that was my person.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
What does that mean for me? And the reality is
it could mean nothing, but it could mean them.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
I want to ask one more Diddy question, of course,
I want to ask one question. You know, we see
his attorneys come out, and to me, it doesn't seem
like they're doing a good job when they're talking about
did he wants to come out and do Madison Square
Garden again?

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Just talking too much? Do you feel that way as well?

Speaker 5 (29:22):
Try shutting up a lawyer. That's that's number one, right,
and and that's that's part of it. But I think
they want the impression that this is such a minor
offense that he should be able to do that.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Right.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
You wouldn't for a murder suspect. You wouldn't be like, oh, well,
you know, when he gets out, let's do.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
Meadowlands right now. You wouldn't do that.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
But you're talking about someone like Diddy who their counsel
wants to project the image that this is so minor,
come on and come on that they want that to
be heard by the course, you would you would think
they would do that after. But remember they're building their case,
and they know a public case of this stature is

(30:05):
very different than their regular riga moreau very different. The
choices that are probably made, they amount of eyes on it,
the celebrity factor, people think, oh, they'll get a sweetheart
deal because they're celebrity. Oftentimes, I mean, you've got more
heat on the prosecutors and the defense to do this
case a certain way because they don't want the impression

(30:27):
that they are giving anyone to pass. And the defense team,
remember they have other cases. They've got the Luigi Mangioni
case right coming up. They know full well they've got
a jury pool that's going to be hearing from them
in New York where they're gonna want the impression that
they are advocates and zealous advocates throughout the duration of
any case. And they want the impression. But no big deal.

Speaker 10 (30:50):
What he said about when he just asked you about
did these lawyers, Yeah, does one just say that or
do you get could they be.

Speaker 7 (30:59):
Getting that from their client?

Speaker 4 (31:01):
It could be lawyers just go.

Speaker 10 (31:02):
And say things on their client's behalf like that without
even checking with.

Speaker 5 (31:05):
Them or I My impression is that nothing is just
said without Diddy's involvement, right, and that's a good thing.
You want his buy in. I don't know that he
has agreed to that statement, but you want your clients
buy in because you need to instruct them not to
be their own worst enemy.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
And there has to be a collaboration about that.

Speaker 5 (31:27):
You know, you have a lawyer to be your advocate,
not to be your echo, because your echo gets you
in trouble. It's had what you said, but your advocate
is helping you to spend what you have just said
so that you're not going to hurt yourself in the end.
And so, on the one hand, his lawyer saying it
means digging, but I ain't say that, your honor. I

(31:47):
take it seriously. I'm in the class. I'm doing the
work that's them. The other hand, if he buys it,
I'd like to move a out my life. As my
attorneys have said.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
So it gives you enough cover. Language, It gives you language.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
It gives you cover, and that's your job of your
lawyer because there's a myth that defense words. You're like,
they approach it and go, I'll only do this if
you tell me did you do it?

Speaker 4 (32:08):
You really do it?

Speaker 5 (32:09):
Because my conscience tells me this and reality they're like, okay,
here's a charge.

Speaker 4 (32:13):
Don't tell me, but can I prove it?

Speaker 5 (32:16):
What might there be out there that I don't know
about that proves what they said? It's a different conversation,
and that's how they're advocating, you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (32:24):
See, I learned that from powers.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
You like being a moderator or an anchor more?

Speaker 6 (32:31):
And the reason I ask is because sometimes you have
people on and you're way more interested.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Than people that's your host. So what do you like more? Moderating?

Speaker 5 (32:42):
Thank you for saying sometimes, you know, I like. Then
you have to be both. I mean I an effective moderator.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Is the anchor. It keeps people there.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
The job is not just to be like you know,
vanilla and now you talk no opinion? Okay, right now
you talk. I can't say anything. Okay, here's my muscle again.
The point of an anchor, in my book is to
make sure that the conversation goes in the direction it
stops where the people want to hear it right. Other

(33:12):
shows can float all around and do whatever they want
to do. But I am an anchor that ground the
conversation and what the people want to hear and what
they actually care about. By the time you et eleven
o'clock at night, you all have heard everything. You probably
haven't you've chewed over so you've maybe you heard about it,
maybe you didn't. You have an opinion on something, so
now you have the why. Now you've got the real

(33:33):
why questions that come out, And that's where I think
an effective moderator and anchor comes in. But it is hard.
Sometimes I tell you, I assume I have blood in
my mouth. Some days I'm biting my tongue because I'm like, well,
that didn't make any sense what you just said, and
I'll say that, but I have to be diplomatic right.
Other times you have to get people's opinions in, even

(33:54):
when I believe they're the wrong opinion because they're based
on misinformation.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
And so that that's where my anchor comes down. Anchor
comes down again. Stop, let's not.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
Move past this, because people hear it and write it.
People hear it, they believe it, they see it, they
trust it. No one contradicts it.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
It's fact. So I've got it at every level. Stop
it from happening. It's hard, Oh yeah, it's hard.

Speaker 8 (34:20):
What was your journey like when you first decided to
get onto TV? Like you would just pop in sometimes
and kind of be like a legal analysmah, because you're
so in tune with like pop culture and like you
understand what's happening. You're on social media, and a lot
of times the older networks or older anchors, they don't.

Speaker 9 (34:35):
Like to accept that at all. So was your journey
welcoming when you came in? Or were you.

Speaker 4 (34:42):
What's my journey?

Speaker 5 (34:43):
Is it welcoming now to me? Let me think about that? Well, well,
I didn't come at this like most people did. So
when I left the DJ, I didn't really have a
plan to go into television. It wasn't like I was
thinking my whole life, I want to be on television.

Speaker 4 (34:57):
If anything. I thought I would.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
Do scripted TV I wanted. I didn't stage acting. I
thought maybe I'll do theater as part of my that'd
be fun to do. I wanted to follow my passions.
But then my husband came home one day after I
had my first and second child, and he came home
one day. They're back to back and he was putting
a camera on the car and he calls me out

(35:18):
to tell me there's this camera.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
I go, I don't need this. What is this? I
need a camera?

Speaker 9 (35:21):
What is this?

Speaker 4 (35:22):
What's going on?

Speaker 5 (35:23):
And it was the same year of Brown Trayvon Martin
and Sandy Hook frankly happened that year. And I said,
what is this? And my husband's from the Bronx, right,
and so people in America come from the Bronx and
floor and sexius. And he he's very stoic, not emotional,

(35:46):
like I'm the hurricane, and he's like the grounding forest
and he had tears in his eyes and he's like,
maybe it's not it's not really for you, it's it's
also for me because if I'm ever stopped by police,
I want.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
You to know what really happened.

Speaker 9 (36:00):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
And I mean I was a prosecutor then, and I
was the one he was asking questions of about can
they do this and can they do that? And I
thought I was giving answers that not only made sense
but emotionally resonated, like Okay, I can accept that. But
it turns out In that moment, it was very clear
that it didn't because there was an inevitability in his mind.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
This is his demise.

Speaker 5 (36:24):
And I thought, I'm maybe an exception to the rule
for him, but it won't save his life. Yeah, And
so I remember that day thinking I need to make
a change because I have this muzzle on in DOJ
as a prosecutor. You can't speak to the press, you
can't inform people, you can't do that and stuff. And selfishly,
between him and my baby boy who's the oldest, and

(36:46):
then my daughter, I thought, selfishly, I love them so much.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
I have to say to their lives.

Speaker 5 (36:53):
And the only way I knew how was to use
my mind as a weapon and as a tool. And
again three half like my stature wasn't going to do it,
but a platform could. And so I didn't have a
plan then to pick up and leave one day, and
I made it come dramatic. I made it MLK day
so I can say free at last. I left the building.

(37:14):
People laughed at me. They said, my just said not
fifteenth and my laugh. You know, when you come back,
could you write your review in advance? I don't have
to do when you come back, And I thought there
was kind of a taunting. I just couldn't do it.
And I remember having nothing like I had, you know,
I had my mind, I had my husband.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
I had a dream. I didn't know how to form it.
I had a Panera bread, thank you, m.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
Okay, I had had my top, I had a I
had a Panera bread in my neighborhood. And I literally
had put a business card into a firehouse subs like
wind subs for a year bucket and I won the
year of Firehouse Subs.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Okay you not?

Speaker 5 (38:01):
And that was like I was nursing my daughter still.
My son was only about a year or so. There
were eighteen months of parts the Liberal over a year,
and I remember like posting up in a pin air
bread saying myself, how do I do? How do I
go from I want to speak truth to power by
telling people the truth is? How do I do that?
I don't know anyone in media, I don't know anything
about it.

Speaker 4 (38:20):
What can I do?

Speaker 5 (38:21):
And I just sat there day in day out, writing
and trying to get my op eds written?

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Going on radio. I was on Serious XM.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
Karen Hunter helped me out and she put me on
to do like commentary I didn't know anything.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
My daughter.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
One of my first episodes with them, my daughter was
nursing cause I didn't have daycare with I didn't I
couldn't leave, and you know, as a woman, I wasn't comfortable.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
You know, I trusted my husband. I believe in him.
I couldn't just leave the baby. I leave the babies
or mean, I couldn't.

Speaker 5 (38:52):
No, I couldn't just say you take care of all
the finances and I'll figure this out. I had to
do something, and so I remember having my kids with
me at one point and just figuring it out. But
that turned into television and doing hits and then being
then consistently never slipping, consistently being authentic in the information,
being truthful, having the wit, having the charisma, being able to,

(39:17):
you know.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Slap down the disrespect, which often happened.

Speaker 5 (39:21):
People would sort of do the pat you on the head,
and I look young, and this is ten years later,
I looked even younger, and people want you want to
make you feel as though you don't know as much
as they do because you saw the Watergate movie and
they lived through the Watergate era, and you're like, you
know what I mean, but now I'm like, well, I
remember saying one person, I said, well, I get that,

(39:41):
but neither of us was here for the Constitution.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
And so what's your point, right?

Speaker 5 (39:48):
But having to do that on air, having to make
in that moment be your own champion and just do
what I tried to do for other people for myself.
But that was a that was a ten year and
it's still on going to this day.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
To this day, I.

Speaker 5 (40:02):
Have to figuratively put on a coat's jersey before I
walk into my own studio because there are people who
will every day try to you think getting to the top.
If I'm there or not, I don't know, but getting
to a a top is hard. Try staying there, and
so I just go back. I sign every new deal

(40:24):
I ever do, whenever I have a book deal, whatever
I'm doing, I make them sign it in Panera.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
So I'm sitting there look and going I.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
Remember with my daughter nursing, not knowing what the hell
I was doing, and I get a firehouse hub the
engineer turkey with mushrooms and some Swiss cheese because it
was free for a year, which could might explain sometimes
with the waistline, but whatever, and that's how I remember,
and keep grounded because I hope I will never be

(40:53):
the person who's more comfortable in the upper echelons than
why looking through my own neighborhood, I got so many questions,
but about can just in general, like.

Speaker 6 (41:05):
Look because as I'm hearing you talking and I'm hearing things,
it's coming to me. Lauren said something and you talking
about being welcomed, and I thought about that.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
I'm like, yo, there are a lot of clicks.

Speaker 6 (41:15):
It seems like in this media space, you know, and
it's like you have groups of women that are in
news and sports there then they all hang out and
then you see groups women over here.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I will never see you with them clicks.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
I'm a mommy, Yeah, well that well they they mommy
differently than I'm mommy. I And I'm okay with the
way that I'm social. I'm on my own terms and
I really am somebody who values like I. I I
love my remember whens. If you can't look at me
and have remember when moment, you're not going to be

(41:48):
part of my everyday crew right like it. And because
I think so many people, especially in this industry, they
want to post their life. I want to live my
life and with my children in particular. I'm sensitive, right,
so I can't guarantee you that I'm not going to
come find you if you post a bad comment of
my child. And but I have a mortgage, so I

(42:09):
can't do that for a stuff, right, I can't be
that scrappy. So I'm sensitive about preserving like my peace
by keeping my life private.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
But on the other hand, it's part of the job.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
It's part of and I wrestle with this every single
day because I'm at as many events as probably anyone else.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
I see them as any people.

Speaker 5 (42:28):
I don't just I don't post it, and that can
be a problem for people they think, oh well, and
that translates to something. But I have to and I'm
not always the most I mean, I'm bury out going,
but I love my circle and my life and they
are full of remember whens, and I love that. But
the clicks, they're real, and the clicks, I think can

(42:50):
sometime and you know, I'm cool with everybody. Not It
doesn't mean that I'm not cool with them, but the
clicks can sometimes operate to make you think that where
you are is the top, and they want you to
compare and think, well, if you're not doing what you're doing,
then you're doing nothing. And in my mind, I let

(43:12):
you climb. Your peak is not my peak. Climb, but
just don't step on me on the way, because then
you will be talked to about it. I'm not I'm
nice and I'm friendly, and I have a you know,
I'll speak and everyone, and I'm always going to be
very especially among my peer group, very respectful until and.

Speaker 6 (43:33):
I think a lot of those cliques have forgotten those
neighborhoods you still want to remember.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
Yeah, don't. I mean, look, I'm not. I don't pretend
to be anything I'm not.

Speaker 5 (43:39):
I'm I grew up in Minnesota, So what I look
like acting like I didn't right or you know, I
went to Princeton. So I'm not gonna pretend that I'm
something I'm not. I'm not gonna you know, I grew up,
I'm a youngest girl. We're all lawyers. My three sis,
two sisters, all lawyers. Like I'm not going to pretend
that we have not climbed as well. But I'm also

(44:00):
the daughter of a man whorew up in Foster Care.
I'm you know, I'm a daughter of you know, my
mom's parents left North Carolina to go to Stanford, Connecticut
to work in the homes of people who become my
clients when I was a lawyer. Right, I know where
I come from. I'm a black woman in America, African
American in this country, and so when I see people

(44:23):
trying to make you think that you're only phenomenal if
you are the exception to your race, I'm not having it,
and I don't want to be involved in it. But
I do tell you that the cliques can make you
sometimes you feel little. I mean, this is a very
lonely field, you know. There are times when I ought
that I absolutely feel very lonely because I don't see.

Speaker 4 (44:46):
What I give out return to me. But I also
feel like.

Speaker 5 (44:54):
Everyone in the end will will have to reckon with
whatever their own demons are, and I'm not the person
to point them out every single day. But it's lonely sometimes.
That's why I turned to my family a lot, and
I remember whens and I am very discerning about who
I let into my private thoughts because there are so

(45:16):
many people who will take that just enough to try
to turn it against you, and I'm just not that interested.
I didn't come into it because I wanted to be famous.
I didn't come because I wanted to wear makeup. I
already wore makeup. I was already cute as hell, I
already dressed well. You know, I already took care of myself.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
I already, you know, had the shine that I wanted
in my career. I was.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
I was very proud of what I was doing. I
came into it because it was a love letter to
my family. So I'm not gonna rip it up just
to have a follower.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
I want to go back to that because you said something.

Speaker 6 (45:50):
I don't know why my brain thought of this, but
you talked about your husband putting the cameras in the car. Yeah,
and you're a federal you're a prosecutor. It made me
think of Queen and Slim. That's the thing that frustrat
be about that movie. I'm sorry, Lena, I gotta get this.
You are a prosecutor. If you was in that situation
the cops shotted you and your man, as a prosecutor,

(46:10):
would your mind say I'm going on the run.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
I would not run. But I don't.

Speaker 5 (46:16):
I don't necessarily have the same relationship in actually with
the police that they did.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
I wouldn't. I don't.

Speaker 5 (46:21):
I don't always have the same fears. I have a
very different take. Not that I trust police officers inherently,
but I don't distrust them inherently, And so I would
I would think I could fight That's I would that
I could fight it. Now, would everyone that they could
fight it with a sixteen year old version, that I
could fight it with a sixty year old version, that
I could fight it.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
I don't know, but I would.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Try to fight because then the movie she was a lawyer.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
But why not fight?

Speaker 1 (46:48):
That's what I thought.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
No, but that's a movie. I don't I don't know.
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (46:52):
I wondered about that it could be real.

Speaker 7 (46:56):
Like it could be a real life situation. Now what
never bred you.

Speaker 5 (47:01):
Panera bread would have nurse that arm scone all day
on the run, on the run. But you know, but
that's best thing. Every you know, every year I feel different.

Speaker 4 (47:12):
I know, my No, I still love it. I still
love it.

Speaker 9 (47:16):
I still love it.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
But every year, every year, one day i'mna, how you
come in not own all Panera breads? That's the end
of the story.

Speaker 5 (47:23):
Amazing, But like I you know, one day, I mean,
I think You're just different who you would be and
what you have and what you what Your optimism level
dictates what you're willing to fight for. Like I I'm
still on the optimistic range where I'm like.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
I can make because she'll call me and check me
into absolutely I do.

Speaker 6 (47:44):
I want to ask this to you were a federal
prosecutor in the Civil Rights Division of the US Department
of Justice during the Bush and Obama. What I wanted
to ask you is, you know, we hear people say
things like Donald Trump is taking us back. He's you know,
all these executive voters have repealed these rights and he's
taking us back to this time. People have come up

(48:04):
here and asking what year we think we live in.
I'm like, we're in twenty twenty five. But I want
to ask you, simply to the people that are listening,
what rights are being stripped away from us right now?

Speaker 5 (48:14):
Number one voting? Okay, voting. It's almost like you think
about your health. If your health fails, nothing else matters.
You know, if voting goes away, almost nothing else you
want to argue about is important enough to conteract that,
because if you don't have a say, then you cannot
speak Later in a way that's actually going to fall

(48:36):
in the right ears and voting does that. And so
the rolling back of rights. When I was in the
civil rights vision of the voting section, we still had
section five, which is the formula you use to determine
whether in the area of the country that traditionally violated
civil rights laws or had skewed voting rights and laws
that impacted black people.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
Period.

Speaker 5 (48:56):
There's a formula you'd use to figure out how you
whether that person that jury and was qualified to have
to ask for permission for any change they wanted to make.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
When I was here, that was still there. That's gone.

Speaker 5 (49:06):
The formula's gone because Supreme Court said it's outdated. You know,
we're in a sort of a post racial world. We've
had a black president now, so the same rules won't apply.
So therefore Congress, think of a new formula. And while
you take your sweet time and then goes astray. Well,
that was the entryway point of why everything else is
starting to fail in terms of the Section two, which
is the race based and jerry mandering aspects of it.

(49:30):
So that's the number one thing that people are rolling
back the voting Number two. Don't sleep on the Fourth Amendment,
reasonable search and caesars and stops. You know, anytime you
hear about a police brutality case of a driver or
someone in their home wherever it is talking about the
fourth of thement, what right the officer has to stop you,

(49:50):
question you, touch you, arrest you, all those things.

Speaker 4 (49:53):
The more power you give.

Speaker 5 (49:56):
Officers without having to stantiate that power based on probable
cause or the constitution, the more you live in a
place where that goes away. So for example, with the
National Guard or the FBI as president in Washington, d C.
Where I am, the question is not just whether they're

(50:18):
supposed to be there because it's an emergency quote unquote,
but whether they're gonna abide by the same principles under
the Fourth Amendment.

Speaker 4 (50:25):
The standard right.

Speaker 5 (50:26):
Now is it's only unreasonable if a reasonable officer would
feel it's unreasonable, not whether you think it's reasonable, not
whether you or you or you, whether a reasonable officer
would think so, which incentivizes people to say, well, I'm
not going to call out my fellow officer because it

(50:48):
could connect to haunt me. So I'm gonna have sort
of a yeah, it's reasonable, kick him in the head.
I mean I can see why that could happen shot
him accidentally. Oh well, you know, I could see what
that would happen, and they become the reasonable standard.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
So that's what the cops know. There's already that issue.

Speaker 5 (51:04):
Now you add the National Guard, you add in the FBI,
who they don't do average traffic stops.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
They don't even equip they're.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
Not but also not necessarily used to adhering to the
same standards because the nature of their work is so
much more of an emergency that they have to be
a little bit more aggressive at times.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
They say.

Speaker 6 (51:25):
So.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
Now, trying to balance all that out means that the
more accepted it becomes that law enforcements has power, the
less you have to say, wait, I have my rights,
you can't do that to me, more becomes laughed at.
So I think those are two areas to me that
are the most problematic.

Speaker 4 (51:45):
There are others voting them.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Yeah, we appreciate you for joining.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
One final question.

Speaker 7 (51:53):
Oh and okay, grow up.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Nobody said that.

Speaker 8 (51:59):
Now I'm curious I got the two Well one question
I could put in one. When you didn't get jeopardy right,
you kept your response to how you felt very diplomatic,
but a lot of people feel like you weren't in
the thought even though he said you should be because
you were a black woman. Did you feel like it
was a race thing of the reason why you weren't

(52:19):
even considered as like in the guest hosting slat or
just called in even tryout.

Speaker 5 (52:25):
I thought it was bullshit that I wasn't asked to
try out. I thought it was something that was the
masch nations behind the scenes where people decide who their
heroes and celebrities ought to be and merit didn't matter.
And that's how I honestly feel about it.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
I feel like, I mean, so.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
Whether it was a race I don't even I don't
know if as much as it was a race thing
as much as it wasn't a youth thing. Now who
I am is a black woman, so if it's me,
then it was that. But I was always very resentful
of it, and I still am because I think it'd
be much easier to have a job where the answers
are already in front of me, like on Jeopardy anything else.

(53:05):
But as I see, they say, everyone's journey is their journey.
For me, I was honored that he was specific. He
was kind when I reached out to thank him. I
was grateful to have a chance to get to know
him a little bit during that, but it wasn't his call.
But here's what that told me, and the lesson I

(53:27):
never forget the fact that it wasn't Alex Trebek's call.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Who replace him?

Speaker 5 (53:32):
Told me, I have to examine power differently, right, And
I had to examine who really is in control very
differently and in what In many ways, I'm happy that
it happened because I approached all my negotiations and business
dealings that if my name's on something, it.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
Belongs to me, and that includes the agency to do
with it what I want.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
And if I had gotten it just because someone's, oh,
I think it'd be her, it's great be her, I
might not have approached.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
The same way. And but I still think it's I
think it's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
But I died.

Speaker 5 (54:11):
But he did die before he passed that along before
he passed, he asked what he who he'd want to
replace him, and he said he passed away from pankrant
cancer sadly, which is just that my grandmother had the
same thing, and it was just so, it's what a
horrible disease and cruel, but I was honored to even
be mentioned in it.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
But I still feel some kind.

Speaker 7 (54:30):
Of way about it.

Speaker 8 (54:31):
Before he died, said that she's one of the people
that should be considered, but he never even got to
see her be considered.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
But I was told.

Speaker 5 (54:38):
I was told when I would when I had, when
I spoke to I'm telling too much information. When I
did try to fight for it, they said, well, maybe
a particular person who the name I came recall, he's
that irrelevant to me now.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
I can't I care his name.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
I don't remember I care.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
For his name.

Speaker 5 (54:55):
But he was like, but you know what, if you ever,
you can be my assistant on a podcast, you know,
to research on a podc I fel like, I'll be
your assistant to research on the podcast.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
Who do you think you're talking to?

Speaker 9 (55:05):
Not me?

Speaker 1 (55:05):
What game showed it that with to you?

Speaker 5 (55:06):
Hope that he I hadn't he he watched me on
CNN wow Wow.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
And he also I did radio.

Speaker 5 (55:11):
I did serious XM for a long time, and so
he would he was a radio guy himself when he
started started out, and so he said that he respected
the work that I did and and the mind.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
And thought it would be a beautiful match. Wow, that
was really cool, really cool.

Speaker 8 (55:28):
And my last question I was did that help in
how you navigated because people started having a conversation about
you and Kitlyn Collins when people felt like you were
shorted in that situation with getting a full time anchor roll.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
Well, I had the anchor roll. You mean I didn't
have the nine o'clock hours. You mean, okay, you know,
I think people have a tendency to always ask, you know,
and why her and not this person, and they assume
that that there is beef.

Speaker 4 (55:56):
But I I really I believe that I am.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
I'm where I'm supposed to be in this moment, and
let everyone climb the way they want to climb. Let
people enjoy the fruits of their labor, because I enjoy mine.

Speaker 4 (56:12):
But the work is so far from being done.

Speaker 5 (56:14):
So I think you know, where I am and where
I'll end up are two different.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Things by far.

Speaker 6 (56:21):
When the strongest line up on cable, dudes, I mean
I can literally go from Andazon Cooper, Anderson Cooper to
Abby and then you like, yeah, that's by far the
strongest linele.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
Well, we appreciate that.

Speaker 5 (56:36):
I mean we're we I know, at CNN are very
grateful for the audience because you know, trust issues can
change people, right, And also there is the emergency and
you said not even negative CNN, but there's the emergence
of new media right there are I mean there is
we talk about this that you know, there is the
the old guard of legacy media, who some people think

(56:59):
is all that should be, and then there are people
who actually have it right. Who's up in that mindset
of I want to access as many people as possible
where you are, and that needs being to say on
the medium that you think it is. But I hope
that our audience conf used to grow and that people
appreciate every person on our line up for what they bring,
because every single person contributes in a different and unique way,

(57:22):
and the format of the show is unique and different
in a way that helps people to find their truth
seekers and that's important. And if you don't feel that way,
then you should tell people let them.

Speaker 4 (57:35):
Let give people a chance to hear what you need
and what you want.

Speaker 5 (57:40):
But I don't want to be like in an ivory
tower or I'm like here's the way the news does.
I'm not stuffy, I'm not you know, I'm not trying
to be Walter Cronkite. I don't want to be. I
want to be Laura Coates, and I'm cool with that.
But what I don't want to be is who you
think Laura Coates ought to be. I am at the
eleven o'clock hour. I hold it down as an anchor.

(58:03):
I'm strong willed about that, but I think there's always
room for improvement.

Speaker 6 (58:09):
My last question, you know you're a mother, your wife,
you know, former prosecutor on CNN.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
When do you have time to be this fun ratchet
lord coach. I keep hearing about.

Speaker 6 (58:21):
Everybody, everybody that I know that hung out with you,
and they see something else that's crazy.

Speaker 7 (58:27):
You got you up here to call.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
And they were like, yo, lower coach though.

Speaker 5 (58:38):
Right, I hope I'm the same person. But you haven't
talking about the Constitution here. But I really mean, really,
I make time for fun. I make time for for
love and joy.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Because the whole interview, but that's.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
What happen was.

Speaker 5 (58:57):
No, you know what, I got to be who I
can be, and I want there to be a through line.
You know, the best advice I ever got was from
Steve Harvey, who said to me that, you know, Laura,
I am the same person no matter where you see me, period,
and I hope.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
That that's me.

Speaker 5 (59:17):
Just may be a little bit different outfit, different hair,
different heel colored, different lipstick, different eyeliner, But I'm the
same person.

Speaker 4 (59:25):
It's just that you know who else I may be.

Speaker 5 (59:28):
I would never want to try to be who I
was not, But every circumstances not called for my wretchetness.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
Some really do. And sometimes I'm like, oh, you think
this is not let me tell my hold on one second.
I'm not the one or the two.

Speaker 10 (59:48):
You guys, there's things that we can thank you for.

Speaker 6 (59:54):
I appreciate, appreciate that you said earlier you talked about
armchair attorney. Then I feel like we have a lot
of those, a lot of those, And I don't know
if people are becoming more legally literate, are getting worse
than understanding the constitution and all right, so we need
people like well.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
I appreciate that, and I'm honored to be here, and
I respect you all so much.

Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
Thank you for letting me come.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Thank you so much, Laura Coates.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
It's the breakfast Club.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Good morning.

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
Every day a week ago.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Click your ass up, the Breakfast Club. You don't Finish
y'all done,