Native Land is still killing it at DNC y’all!! And this time hosts Angela Rye, Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillum are doing it with none other than Charlamagne Tha God! It’s Charlamagne’s first convention but y’all know we’re not taking it easy on him.
Tonight’s show is jam-packed with Democratic movers and shakers — you’re not even ready for this list of guests:
It’s a NIGHT! And we’re not even done yet. Make sure to tune in for one more exciting night LIVE from the DNC tomorrow!
If you’d like to submit a question, check out our tutorial video: www.instagram.com/reel/C5j_oBXLIg0/
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We are 76 days away from the election. Welcome home y’all!
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Thank you to the Native Land Pod team:
Angela Rye as host, executive producer and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Tiffany Cross as host and producer, Andrew Gillum as host and producer, and Lauren Hansen as executive producer; Loren Mychael is our research producer, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Special thanks to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media.
Theme music created by Daniel Laurent.
Natively and pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Welcome, Hey, everybody, we are back.
It's day three, it's the Democratic National Convention. We are here, live in the Shy and it's not just the Native Lamb Pod. Today we are joined by Charlemagne the God. It is a breakfast team moment.
He's Angelai, Andrew Gillim, Tiffany cross Man.
Welcome, and I guess you can welcome us, but welcome.
What do you say? What do y'all say? Welcome home?
Welcome home, y'all put that seven Twain.
You don't have to say. I feel super live.
I still am high off Michelle Obama's remarks last Yes.
That's what he said, was it, Michelle?
Although you're trying to say you were smoking?
How you trying to put me onst No me, they't know what I do anyway.
Hey, Hey, throwing shame, I'm just saying.
Shame or throwing shape Shane Day three, Day three, Yeah, your highlight was Michelle Obama?
Yes, Angela and I gotta tell them like we talked about that. Andrew left us well. Bakari left us.
Don't start Andrew, so you know they'd be saying that Andrew.
Crazy.
Anyway, it was an amazing night last night, Leonard. I don't know if you watched, but it was so Angela I both thought that she was the closer.
The audacity of President Obama to go after Michelle Obama like he should have.
Absolutely, it wasn't even close.
And lit, President Obama is an amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing speaker, but last night, compared to Michelle, he just seemed kind of made yeah.
Well, so so I said this, I think we have an audience here again, guys, people walking by seeing us that you can't see. But I said that I need to watch President Obama's speech again later because it's not fair to make the comparison so quickly after Michelle Obama. It's like anybody who tries to speak after Latasha Brown last night. You know, she had such a gifted speaker, and she was so impassioned. And we when we got off the air last night, we asked, you know, four years ago or eight years ago, she said, when they go lo, we go high.
Will she abide by that? And last night she did not.
Shed yesterday that it was too personal. Yes, and that's why I thought I said I was looking most forward to her. But I don't think we have to make the comparison between the two speeches.
We're in heavilyly gonna do it. But they had two different jobs.
The problem is, but they did a joint endorsement, that's fine, But.
For the purposes of last night, they had two different jobs.
The problem is is he was the good cop, and the good cop doesn't follow the bad cop.
That's right.
But I don't know that she was the bad cop. I think that she was the truth telling.
And President Obama was still like in politician more, I'm like, you're not running for nothing.
You can speak.
You know what.
I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I know I'm probably gonna get dried again. The thing that I will say that I'm probably gonna get dragged for again in real time is.
I feel like I didn't even like when he.
Said yes, she can like it felt like everything had to be about him.
It had to be about.
His way of doing things about It had to be two thousand and eight, it had to be when you know, when I was working on these homeowners, whatever it was I came remember the homeowners policies, and he was like, Kama, push my administration and then we did.
X y Z.
That was that was even problematic to me, that like, why can't she just have her moment? Why can't you just talk about all of her accomplishments. Why does it have to be in your vein, in your light. Yeah I get it, I get it. But sorry, y'all, I know you're about to drag they be dragging me.
Answer that you thought that on Monday that the President should have given her more shine? And I told Tiffany, we were all fair, and I said he did. He gave her all the shine that was necessary on that faithful Sunday when he was when he said them out and by the way, dot dot she that's that's all I expected.
I mean, you know, I just feel like if people are saying she's been in obscurity for so long, then you have to let people know all of the ways that she shined where y'all didn't necessarily enable her to shine's job.
But President.
Saying when did he talk Monday? Think no, he was talking about Biden Monday.
Off.
Michelle, you are still I'm.
Still sleeping from Monday night because they had him speak way too late.
Because past they're talking every.
Dingy over them two minute speeches.
You guys, I do want to know, is there a particular line from Michelle Obama? It sounds like everybody's favorite is Michelle Obama? Was their particular line?
Escalator to the top.
Yeah, that was a good word. And when you say affirmative action for what was it.
Of generation was better.
Than a quip she hit.
It was so multi dimensional when you start to pull that statement apart, it gave us life because it hit different audiences differently.
Yeah, and that's what she intended.
It was a double triple, quadruple ondra because it hit folks right where they stood in their own lived experience.
Yeah, written wise, written speech wise.
I thought it was great.
And she was able to like address her blackness and black people without turning out, turning off the white electort, you know what I mean, because she has.
Been It came across to me as that she did not care who it turned us.
Yeah, she operated and the conviction of her beliefs she delivered. Someone tweeted that this was the second time the Secret Service failed and assassination attempt of Donald Trump because she assassinated. Yeah, obviously we're not condoning by violence or encourage you want to do an assassination attempt, but it was it was allegory. It was symbolic of what they were saying. And I just thought the line that I like the most is when she said, when we meet a mountain, we do not have an escalator to carry us to the time. And I the cable news media has called it zingers, and I just think that's such a miss because it's not zingers for us. This is our lived experience in this country as black people, more specifically as black women, at a time when all we have poured into this country, a black woman has ascended to the highest heights of the United States government, and now we are poised to be led by a black woman. I love the intimate we are part of the largest most intimate sorority of anyone, the black women when we come in our space. And I love when she came on stage and said, Kamala Harris, my girl.
We know what that means.
Can we just say, she said, my sister there, Can we just tell take this moment to.
Tell white people, y'all don't try that at home.
Now you see a black woman, no, no, no, no, even my sister, you see a black woman, don't say my girl. It means something different for y'all than it does for us. They don't need Yeah, please don't say boy to grown as buddy.
I found out yesterday that the boy buddy is white people's boy. White men don't like to be called buddy. Hey, buddy. Really, that's what I found out.
Yes, no, that's we always have to have our ears open to each of the news in community think they feel it.
I mean, boy is a slavery.
Pace to debate.
I just want to know where it came from.
Well, I think when President Obama spoke this was my favorite line from him.
Look we on YouTube. I'm gonna keep it a buck.
When he was basically saying Donald Trump gives a little dick energy. When he was talking about what's the obsession with this crowd size?
We all understood what that meant.
And these were I think two people who were in the public eye for so long and they were somewhat handcuffed, you know, they were imprisoned by the White House. Michelle Obama's often described it that way, that she didn't have her freedom and now that they are let loose, they just came out and I think it was eight years of built up. Can you believe this ship that this man has put us through? And here we are today with our get back.
President Obama was given like late night talk show host energy yea last night.
I did feel that.
You know, I still don't understand how Dave was at the house listening to both of them speeches and he said, you know what, I'm gonna go after you ain't no way he heard that speech. You know, she was supposed to be the protocol. Wise, she should have been the closes because we have, you know, the vice president Kamala been running for president.
Let a woman close.
Out and not even let a woman let give spaces, simple as that. It is like she literally was like hands down. Everybody that we talked to today, they're like, man, Michelle Obama.
And here's the other thing that's funny.
You know, people are obsessed with Michelle Obama running for president. She's been like so clear, but you see in those moments why, like you're like, there's there's she is brilliant addiction.
I think the attraction to Michelle Obama, at least for me, and I can't speak for everybody else is in politics, you hear so much subterfuge, You hear so much color language. You have to always look for the subtext because the politician can never just say it like it is. And she has been she was last night who she has always been a truth teller. She came, she told the truth, and people were in tears off being blessed being an earshot of the truth being told in this kind of a line.
Why is that, though, Andrew, Why is it that politicians still can't speak truth to power?
Because I feel like the language of politics is dead.
I feel like, you know, if it's one thing that former President Trump did, he killed the language of politics. So I feel like everybody can speak truthfully and freely if they.
Have the courage to. I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, I think he killed it for him, right, but for everybody else we are measured by a different static.
So he wasn't the first to do it.
There have been plenty of black politicians who came out and spoken honest truth. They won their district. They are congressional Black Hawkas members who have done that. There are people who run at the local level who have spoken truth to power. They may not have the national stage. I have a testimony when you speak of truth on the national stage and commit the cardinal.
Sent of maga, doesn't you give me?
But But I'm just saying it doesn't mean that Donald Trump somehow innovated this.
On that level. I think that on that level.
He's raggedy.
He's raggedy out loud, and his raggedy is acceptable in the political arena. That does not translate to everybody else. I don't want folks going out there and trying that believing that it's possible. Madam President, we are core Secretary.
We have been we have been joined. We've been joined by Congresswoman.
Marsha Fudge is Secretary the titles Secretary Marsha Fudge as well, who has who has served as let her.
Put her headphones, yes, let her put her headphones on?
Secretary, served as the Housing and Urban Development Secretary.
Most recently.
She is also the co chair of UH Harris Walls UH for President, and as Andrew has said, he was kept saying, Madam President, I was just at the mid Western conference for Delta Sigma Theta, where I got to speak and the love that she has as a past president of Delta Sigmath Data is beyond and so.
We are so so happy to see you and have you. How are you doing?
I am wonderful.
You know.
I don't do interviews.
I'm not doing with you all because I like him. I don't do that.
You did Breakfast Club before, and.
You did so she left you.
That's why she ran that thing, backing the work, That's why you're interview.
I have no time for TV.
I'm so happy that you're joining us. You led the Housing an Urban Development Agency, cabinet level agency during this administration.
I'm curious your thoughts because there are a lot.
Of people who are very eager to hear specific policy points coming from Vice President Harris's campaign. She alluded to some housing policy when she did her economic rollout in North Carolina.
What did you make of the specific points that she made about housing?
Because so many people in our community, generationally, we've had to battle redline communities. Now we're battling challenges with banking and financing. I know in Georgia that's a big issue. What did you make of her policy points and what advice might you offer when it comes to home ownership? And the policy that she builds around now.
She wrote them the list of her I had a little input on that. I did have some input in it. What we are talking about is making sure that we can have home ownership we have for so long. You said it right, whether it be redlining, whether it be the increasing rents. What we know is that housing is a crisis in this country, but it is especially a crisis in core communities and communities like ours. What are you going to hear is how we're going to address down payment assistance. What you're going to hear is how we can keep people in their homes. What you're going to hear is we have started programs. We have actually sued appraises and they have now finally decided that they're going to change the way they appraise properties in our neighborhoods. We are looking at how we can make more people of color credit worthy by not counting double basically for student loan debt credit card. So we are finding ways to make an easier process. But in the meantime, what we are doing is we are also making it easier for people to live in housing that we have by assisting with more resources for rent more resources for public housing and the one thing that I'm really, really very proud of, and she probably won't mention it, but I think that you need to know. When I first came to HUD, if you had a criminal record, you could not live in public houses. We changed that.
Yes, I did it on my way out the door.
Because we have.
Secretary of Judge. Like, that's something that y'all should be making billboards about.
We should, but you know, sometimes you can't tell people what you.
Do it until it's done.
But now it's done, and so we're telling people because it brings families together. If people come out of out of incarcerated situations and they have no place to go, the rate of citivism goes up really, really hot. So we're trying to do away with that. But we are working very diligently and you will see some I don't want to preempt her speech, but you are going to see that she is serious about housing in this country, whether it's private equity people coming in and buying houses up in our community. They literally told me that they will buy a house in six minutes. They'll make a decision to come into my neighborhood and buy a house in six minutes, they put a few thousand dollars in it. They raise the rent so that the people who live there can't live there anymore. So we're dealing with those issues.
So her speech tomorrow is going to be heavy on policy, because that's one of the thing that you know, listeners were calling in the breakfast club this week saying that they don't feel like they're hearing enough policy talk here at the DNC.
So is she going to focus on that heavy tomorrow?
She is going to focus on policy, and she is going to address housing. Wow, not as in depth as I have, but you will know that it is a priority, and it is a.
Priority I You know, one of the things Vin Special I think is so important is a black woman is running for president.
You are serving as a.
Black woman campaign the co chair, and I have never known you to back away from any black issue. You are a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and there are folks who are literally questioning her blackness. This aka from Howard University, this prosecutor with the progressive record that has always fought for and on behalf of black people, black mothers in the Senate. But can you please tell the listeners who are somehow still skeptical, the viewers who are somehow still skeptical.
Why this is not a question for you at all? Why you're very clear about that.
Let me say first this, she's black, and in the other one, let's start. Let's start there. When I first met Kamala Harris some years ago, the reason we met is because I was working in black communities to make sure that my people got something out of our vote.
There you go, and.
Even today, she understands I hold this campaign accountable.
That's right.
I was on a call last week and I was asking how much money have we put into our community? How many grassroots organization have we given money to? That It wasn't a comfortable conversation, but it's a conversation that we needed to have, and she made clear to them. Give Marcia Funch what she wants because she knows that I am her voice for black people, because you know, I'm an apologetically black, I said, and she is as well. You know she has a persona that is going to be important for all people. But do not underestimate her blackness ever.
Secondary For if a black man in Chicago walked through you right now, say tell me three tangible things that the Biden has administration did over the last you know, three and a half years, almost four years.
What would you say, Well.
Let me start. I can start and give you a whole lot of them. I'm gonna start with getting us out of COVID when black people were dying disproportionately, a fourteen hundred dollars checks, child text credit where we gave children, every child in the family three hundred dollars a month for a whole year.
That's right.
Then I can go to the money that we put in education, in healthcare, the fact that we have done away with student debt, and I can go on and on. You want me to do some more?
Answer who.
I think what's so important about that? Though in Charlottage, to your point, disinformation is readily available. So if people have those questions as listed, their accomplishments are listed on the Biden the White House website. And I encourage people to go and seek information yourself, share information responsibly, because there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation. Specifically, as you know, Charlemagne targeted to black men, and speaking of black men, we do want to bring into the conversation.
Democrat Joe Biden nominated and confirmed more black women to the federal mix. All other presidents come by, not just he picked up a black vice president, a black Supreme Court justice, and I can go on, but I'm gonna leave it to.
Team Child before you in the reason why that's important because it's not just symbolic because there's a black face. It's because there's a collective lived experience that when you're sitting on that bench and you look out into the courtroom on the events and the prosecution side, and you've grown up understanding that there's an over incarceration and over prosecution and over surveillance in our.
Community, then you just happen to take a different approach.
You've seen white judges sit up there at the bench and say, if it wasn't for your father, right, I would have you in the slammer because they have personal relationship, and we don't criminalize that when they have personal relationship.
Judges that kind of humanity when they see us, though, because a lot of times you see those black judges understand they don't have that, but you're public defender.
You're any more public defenders to be elevated. So often we pay an outsize on ation to the Supreme Court, but the lower courts are also incredibly impactful, specifically specifically when it comes to us in a very unforgiving criminal justice system. But mister chair, I know you've been trying to get in here, so thank you for doing it.
North Carolina connection.
That my partner right over there. Okay, Now, my Auntie, my Auntie secretary.
You know I executive produced Jamie's documentary in the Bubble.
In the Bubble, that's right.
It's the phenomenal film. We did a panel on it this week.
Jamie.
I want to hear from you because I know you have to go. He literally carved out a little bit of time for us. I want the people to hear from you about why this moment, how this moment feels to you, what you are expecting tonight. We haven't even got into the jendad that we know. We'll hear from Tim Wallas tell us all the things well.
Onar one, I want to add something on the black judges job I and Kamala Harris. Over two hundred judges, fifty nine of them may have been black. Now, black people I'm doing my black man only represent about thirteen percent of the populations fifty nine over that's over twenty five percent of the judges he has appointed have been black.
This is exactly exactly.
Trump appointed over two hundred white men the lifetime appointments on the federal bench.
That's that's exactly right. But when you think about it, he's appointed, as the Secretary said, more black women to the Pelic Court than all presidents combined. And so we got to give him credits, right, and we got to say, there's still more work to do. Yes, But when you think about this administration, what they have done is that they have transformed things. They even changed the political process. Right all of my life. We have started the political process in Iowa, New Hampshire.
And ain't nothing wrong with Ivory in New Hampshire. I love him.
Good Democrats in that state have been but not very many of us that live in those state outs.
But this president and this vice president said, we got to change that.
If we keep saying that black folks make up the heart and the soul in the backbone of the Democratic Party, then why are they relegated to the back of the bus to choose the next president instead of being at the front of the US and that's why Joe Biden, Kama Harris, and yours truly at the DNC changed the schedule. We moved South Carolina to be the first the state where forty percent of enslaved people came through the port of Charleston, which exactly where many of their progeny pick cotton. Now are the first people to pick the most powerful person on the face of the earth. And then he added Georgia, and he added Michigan, and he moved up Nevada, and as a result of that, for the first time in American history, four out of the five early states were led by black women.
Now, Jamison, here's the only thing.
Yes, I love that you are a foot soldier for the party and you are faithful to it, and I love then no matter what we.
Try to do, we always hell staffers.
Sir, I'm going to need you to take some ownership for some of you are pomplishments as chair, and I want the folks to know about the work that you're doing.
It's so important, Jamie.
There's a lot of investment that you've made in our communities before you got up here. Misbudge was like, no, I'm asking about where the money is being spent. Even when I am friendly, we still have demands to make. So talk about some of those things and what else you're expecting from the convention. But save your voice, and we need to find you a mint tea right away.
I'm here.
I've been drinking tea all day, Jesus.
But you know that's when you have a family reunion and everybody get together and everybody is happy and dancing, and.
You the cousin that got to speak to everybody.
You drinking connact man.
Please don't listen.
Sometimes the tea got a little bit in it.
But listen.
I'm so proud and I'm proud to do my black job as share of the DNC along with my sister in the struggle menyard More, who I know is going to be here right now.
Y'all.
We have put on and that, and I'm not just bragging on us, but people are telling me this is the best convention that you've ever attended ever in their lives life. We gabbled in think about the history of this moment. Sixty years ago, Fanny lou Hamer testify at the Credentials Committee of the DNC Convention and in that it was an all white delegation.
Black folks couldn't be a part of it.
And you fast forward sixty years and a black woman from South side of Chicago and a black round headed kid from Orangeburg, South Carolina gabbled in a convention of the Democratic Party where we are nominating a black woman to be President of the United States.
Folks.
Think about the moment, folks, and I think, I think sometimes we get so caught up in it.
We got to step back and really think about the.
Moment that we are in and what Mignon and I We're not just there because you know, people like to call.
You token head. We're not just sitting there. I'm looking at the money that we utilized.
We made sure that the first contracts that we offered at this convention, we're going to black folks. The production, a lot of the production for this convention, it was a black production team for the first time in the history. What we have done in terms of diversity, equity inclusion at the DNC, I've made sure that the contracts, our largest contract on DNC goes to the black firm, our security firm.
So we are making progress. Are we there yet? Hell? No? But do are we making progress?
To get there.
We are having Marsha Fudge and Cedric Richmond over in the campaign and Jim Cliburn over the campaign as co chairs, and Secretary Fudge.
Is on it. I already on staff at the.
Campaigner tell me, oh Man, I was on with Secretary Fudge and she was asking some questions.
I wanted to ask you, Secretary Judge, how does this energy, you know, as a woman, different from Hillary in twenty sixteen, like the energy around the vice president.
That's very, very different. First, let me you say that I was very involved in the Hillary Clinton campaign, and I believe that because of people like Hillary Clinton and Barbara Jordans and Shirley Chisholm, that Kamala has a chance. They started kicking in that ceiling for us, and so now it's just full of cracks and we're just gonna tear it down. But it's different because she is mine. Yes, she is one of mine. The history that was history, but not like this. I got chill set kids. She is one of mine. I love them, and I'm so proud to be able to work with somebody who I believe is going to bring this country together, who is going to show people that we are not just competent, we are superior in many ways. So they think because it's just because she's black. No, it's not because she's black. It's because she's the best. She's qualified, she's educated, she has worked hard. I mean, nobody gets to that place just by the work. And I feel it every single day.
I know you are having so much to do, and so we're so so grateful missus Fudge. I am ever grateful that you made time to do an interview. She was like, I'm doing this for y'all. We you keep asking the tough questions and tell us where we can lean in and support you.
His administration accountable, keep holding them all account.
I was getting to say that, because listen, when I walk in the room, they just like Lord. But let me just say this one thing. To black men in particular, I hear a lot about she was a prosecutor. I was a prosecutor too. But but what I don't hear is who speaks for that mother whose son or daughter is killed. What I don't hear is when George Floyd was killed, they wanted a black prosecutor. When Taylor was killed, they wanted a black proctor. You can't have it before. They want a diversion program, you want a black prosecutor. We do our jobs, but it's also us to give you a second chance. It's also black prosecutors that will say, you know what, I know that you should be in jail, but I'm going to give you a break.
She's done that with the Back on Track program.
Absolutely, you want to tell that part of the story.
Yeah, let me tell you what you have been summoned. You have to do more interviews. Jamie's staying with us. I want you to say, okay, I say, for like five more minutes, thank you.
Sectary.
Yes, he doesn't want to leave because he's with family.
You guys. Just so you know, I they.
Said they said five minutes.
I didn't get thirty minutes. I didn't get to I didn't get to say this.
When Jamie was come on because we were in the middle of a conversation. But Jamie, I just want you to know, as your sister from the Hill, I'm so very, very proud of what you've done. I know that you've caught hell in this position. He's laughing, but I'm so serious.
I cannot wait for.
Domary, and I just want you to know Jamie, take every moment that you can't speak to appreciate all that you've accomplished, and know that without your work, brother, we would not have had a Kamala Harris at the top of this ticket. I want you to know Fanny Lou Hamer is so proud of you pursuing and carrying on her legacy.
Now.
I got goosebumps telling you this, but I want you to know there are so many young black boys and young black girls who are looking at you now and they know that even this lane is possible for them to They may not ever want to run for office. You've done both. You know I recruited you to go back and do it again. We go see what happens. But I just want you to know.
That can I I want to get some contact to you because I want our viewers to understand what it meant to disrupt that primary schedule. For so long, the primaries were led by Iowa and New Hampshire. These are states that are ninety three and ninety four percent white, respectively. So when you disrupt that cycle, by the time they went through those populations, it was really difficult for black people or any people of color to ascend beyond that, compounded by the fact that the donor base is largely white and male. So when you empower our people in South Carolina to be the leading voice on how this country will be run at a time when the demographics are so changing, because that's what a lot of this disruption is about.
I don't think people can fully appreciate.
The size, the gigantic, and the sizable impact that we'll have on the American body politic and the political landscape. I think that's such an important context, given that we know that there are a lot of people who are grossly uncomfortable with a black woman ascending to the highest office of the land, and they've made it known that they will not accept election results that they don't like.
Do you have concerns about this November?
I always have concerns, particularly when I know the people on the other side of the.
Out You know, they're going to try to still the election.
Come on, They're gonna refuse to certify the results of the election.
You know that if it gets to the Supreme Court, they might even overturn it.
You know that, Charlie Mane, I ain't confused.
I know and that and that's why for the last three and a half years, I've been building the biggest voter protection program in the history of the Democratic National Committee.
Gotcha, it is.
Because I understand and I know. I come we come from South Carolina. We know that they like to do all of the little high jacks and the things that you know. I remember going to the campus of Benedict College and young lawyer coming out of Georgetown and having to be there and stand with those young people because the Republican Party there sent some goons from Georgia to try to keep the kids at Benedict from voting. So I know all of the tricks in the trades and the things that they like to do. And that is why we built this biggest, the largest voter protection program.
Ever in the history of the DNC.
And that is why I know my team is saying like, you need to go, you need to go. That is why we have been working at this. But let me just say this and then I'm a rap. Why this moment is important. Republican Party is a party built on the foundation of fear.
We are the party built on a foundation hole.
Republican Party believes that our better days are in our past. But we know that our better days are in the future. Let me give you all a glimpse of the future, the glimpse of the future which motivates me each and every day. January twentieth, twenty twenty five, We're in Washington, d C.
Is a coal and breast day.
We're at the US Capitol, a building built with a hands of slaves, and standing on adist there is a black woman, a delta in a black.
You're reclaiming my time living, I said.
Standing on that dice is a black woman in a black robe, a delta now hushman, the first black woman Justice of the Supreme Court. Her name is Kantanji Brown Jackson. And they're in her hand. She is holding a bible, the Bible of Fi Frederick Douglas. And then another black woman steps out, wearing white or maybe even a tan suit, and she steps up and she puts her hand on that bible.
This black woman an a ka.
A graduate of a historically black college and university, and she puts.
Her hand up and says, I.
Swear to protect and defend the constitution of these United States, folks.
That is what we are working on here. That is what we are working for each and every day, and it gives me chills.
And you're making us cry, tells me chills to.
Think about that. So folks, don't sit on your damn mans. You get it off and you better work. You better work to make this happen. That's right.
That is our future. It is only our future though if we make it.
Jamie, can you please take Leonard off the stage, because.
But I want to say that you guys, we have recreated on Native Lampard at Breakfast Club right now this moment of the Chair of the d n C and the Chair of the Democratic National Convention Flowers.
Has joined the day.
Jamie has to go.
She's coming up to we have Make sure you're watching the bubble with James doc and Charlomagne. I got a challenge to you, a voter registration challenge. I want to put up one hundred k to get black voters of four hundred thousand black voters in South Carolina, Wretchard, I need you to match it.
Match one thousand, one hundred thousand. I got you.
Let's do it.
Let's kind of challenge for.
We got Bishop Leadaughtry.
Also be careful because I fellow.
Madam Chair minyall More. We are so so very very proud of you. We are thrilled to be sitting with you today.
Y'all should know.
Does not do interviews like that. She made time for us because she loves us too. And we have Bishop Leadaughtry also joining that she will be on with us, and just a moment, Bishop Daughtry is here as well.
This is two of the colored girls.
You should break down what Minyon More does.
Going to tell us a little bit about what she does everything. We have Congressman Waters join us in just a moment as well. But we have this tremendous moment, and I want folks to know, Mignyon, you have been counseling and advising Kamala Harrison's before the transition in twenty twenty. You have been advising presidents, You and Lea and Donna and Yolanda and Tina presidents since Jesse Jackson's campaign. You all held the line and we didn't even know that you would be holding the line for us. Please talk about the significance of this moment.
You know.
I tell you I really haven't had a chance to take it all in because it has been so much just trying to pull all the pieces of the convention together. But it struck me when they brought Reverend Jackson out on Monday night and they gave him his flowers while he was alive. Many of us came through when there was no body to blaze the trails. So he gave us the seat at the famous table that Shirley Chisholm always talked about. And we didn't have a lot of money working for him or working for his campaigns, but what he allowed us to do was to learn, and we were able to match our white counterparts.
With the skill sets.
And it was all because we learned through the Jackson campaign. And to see this come full circle me, Donald, Leah, Tina, We've been working together for a long time. But we also believe that it's also a baton moment for us. You know, I love Angela, I love Brittany, I love Tiffany, I love all these women because they are fierce fighters for our people, and we don't sometimes we don't even have to say anything. All we got to do is say we got you. And so I want to say publicly we got you. We got all of you. Every time you go through the fire, just know if you pick up the phone. We got you, and thank you for all that you're doing. And so this moment represents all the hard work that you young women have been out here telling us, fighting for justice, fighting for social rights. It's because of you we also sit here, and this moment means you have a seat at the most powerful table in America if we do what Jamie has said, vote.
I want to give our viewers some context because not everyone knows who the colored girls are, So I think it's important for you all to know. It was a coalition of women who worked in politics, black women who worked in various different industries. You were in the church, among other things, as a bishop, but all of you all worked on campaigns. But you assented to become so powerful in your reach and expertise that anyone who wanted to run for president of the Democratic Party would first come and sit at your.
Table, the table that you helped build.
That was happening long before the Obamas were in office, that was happening during the Clinton years, and so I just think it's so impressive. I also think Mignon and thank you for your wonderful words. You know, I've loved you for a long time. I also think minon. A lot of people don't really know what the chair of the DNC convintion actually does. So if you could give our viewers and listeners some insight into what your role is here.
You know this role was I was asked by the White House to assume this role. It originally started as a role that would come in and help a young man by the name of Alex Hornbrook helped pull the pieces of this convention together. And thank god, my sister Leah has already paved the way for us, so I'm not breaking any ground here because she had already paved the way. So and this is my hometown. So I came back to Chicago thinking I was just going to spend a couple of days a week. It turned into a couple of months and now it's been many, many months. But virtually we build the infrastructure, and what we say is we build literally and figuratively the stage that the nominees have to stand on. We also play a strong hand in the programming of this convention. It's a lot of different pieces. People don't see behind the scenes. When you look at all these mags you're going through. That took a year's worth of work with the Secret Service. It took a year's work for work with the Cargo Police Department, took a year's worth of work with the city to make sure our delegates were safe, our visitors were safe. And so that's one big part of it, because you got to remember, we came in at a very troubled time, and so we had to ensure the first part of our journey was to ensure that we could make sure that our delegates and their families were saved. The second part of this is just to make sure that people can hear the message because it's the largest stage that our nominee will get, and our nominee just happens to be Kamala Harris.
Now, we did not know.
Six weeks ago, three weeks ago that we would be building the stage for the first black woman to take that stage over. But we had put all the pieces together and so the transition just came with the program. And Leac can add more to it because you know, it's.
So much also been at convention.
CEO, Yes, answer has a question for you, Lisa, You're right on que.
I actually just wanted to pass out some roses, y'all's way, not that I have the position to pass out anything, but to say that you didn't have to be a woman, black woman organizer to fall under y'all's clutch. I remember when I got invited by Bill Clinton to come and sit at a table of mayors and help to engineer this mayor and I ran into I ran into you, madam chair, and I mentioned and you said, well.
How you think you got that? Baby?
And it was just a subtle way of saying how you all even for I understand the connection that y'all have. Y'all were, y'all were burnished through the fire together. I wasn't with you, right, I'm you know, Florida, and came up and you couldn't name me from out of me but you but you looked out anyway, and you said, take a place here, learn what you need to learn, and take it from there.
And I got it. I just I want to I would.
I just want to extend my heartfelt appreciation for what you all do do. The names that I cannot call, the people whose faces I will not recognize, but that y'all know because you stood in the gap and bend the bridge for them.
So your sisterhood of.
Four extends out to a plethora unnamed dun check number of acolytes all over this country and probably the world.
So we thank you for it.
Thank you and Nataliah. We didn't get your prayer. We weren't in there, did you? Did you bring the word for the opening because we were up here doing the show. I just I just as a woman of the cloth. Obviously there's that, but you are also one of the most polished, direct, accomplished and accomplishing women that any of us know. And I just wonder from a training standpoint for young folks who are coming up after, we're often getting questions on this show, what could I do? How do I find purpose? How do I find me? How do I exercise a role bigger than where I am? What advice would you give to this next generation of young people who want to emulate?
Well, first of all, thanks for having me.
I appreciate being with you and spending this time. I would say to young people, purpose isn't something that drops out of the sky, right, It doesn't just drop out of the sky and you know, oo angel singing, and there's your purpose. You learn your purpose through the doing, through the work, and sometimes you gotta try a whole lot of things. When I was in college, I thought I was gonna be an investment banker, all right, And then I went to work for a bank and as an internship, I said, this is not it. I'm not gonna spend my time denying people's mortgages.
So I need it.
So I tried something else, and then I tried something else, and then I tried something else, and eventually went back to my training in the church, which was a political and how do you change people's lies through using the political power that we have?
So I said, test it out.
There's no one answer.
Try something, step out there, experiment until you find the thing that sings to you. Katie Canna says, find the work that your soul must have.
And so you won't know by sitting on Google.
You gotta get out there and just try a bunch of things and find the thing that works for you.
I love it.
We know that you have so much to do for the convention. Alex Is almost jumped on the stage to go, and we're so so grateful for your time. We are cheering for you.
We are right here. I'm checking on you every night, too. Leah Bishop, Leah, we love you.
Thank you all so much for paving the way and for can you continuing to carry this.
Is our mentor getting ready to.
She's coming.
Thank you so much.
We're welcoming to the stage, Congressoman Maxine Waters. This is a very special guest because she happens to be Angela Rized Mentor, so this is an exciting time to have her joined. She's also the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee in the House of Representatives. And when we say ranking member, that's because Democrats do not control the lower chamber in Congress right now. Uh so, when should Democrats take back the House, she will become the chair of Financial Services.
But what touches me about.
This moment, Angela, is that we are welcoming your mentor to this set. And I know how much of this moment must mean to you to have her here.
Absolutely, and and and just so you all know, as you see her walk up here in her stilettos, she still got her.
She does, she put a little bag up, she does her marches and her protests like this, Honey.
I want you, I'm good.
I'm absolutely enthused for the first time in a long time. You know, I usually don't get excited you know, I usually don't get with the masses when they're talking about ya ya yay, things are so good.
But I am inspired, you know, I really am.
And I feel like a cloud is being lifted because Trump has been just such a nasty, dirty, deplorable human being that he has caused us to feel almost depressed. And so I feel that this cloud is being lifted and we have an opportunity to go forward with some hope.
As an Ogmus Waters, you know who has seen America change so much throughout your lifetime, you know, how does it feel as a black woman to see another black woman in a position to potentially be the next brother?
Well, you know, I really do feel that change has come about. I really do think that we're in a period of time where we're seeing America face the truth about the citizens of this country and the fact that they have been excluded and denied. And you have competent, capable, talented women men and women, but black women who have really been undermined us consistently in this country now rising to the position of power and influence. So I feel really good about being a black woman right now.
Yes, Well, you know the thing that I think is so important about this moment, Congresswoman, is I've watched you labor a long time, and before that you were still laboring. You've done the work from divestment in apartheid in South Africa to paving the way for moments like this. Yes, do you feel like you can celebrate some of your work? I know you're not done, but do you feel like you know what, I'm just gonna take this all in because I know this wouldn't have happened without my contribution.
Well, I'll tell you what I feel. I really do feel.
I want the young people to know and understand the history from whence we have come, and the struggles that we have faced and the sacrifices that we have. Oftentimes, you know, they think that everything is new, that's just happening now, or because they have arrived. But I am grateful for their arrival, but I want them to know what has gone into them getting to this point.
Yeah.
Yeah, I asked Secretary for it the same thing. And I want to ask you as well, how different is this moment now as opposed to twenty sixteen with Hillary.
Well, I think if the fact that it's a black woman is different, you know what I'm saying, this is something that America never dreamed really about.
I never thought about the possibility of. And so yes, Hillary.
Was a woman and had women behind her, Black women, white women, women, you know, hoping that she could be president. But to have a black, capable, competent woman whose career has led us to this point, who has done everything anybody could have told her that she should have done in order to get to this point in her life, in our lives, it's different, and it's inspiring. It's motivational, and it's like, you know, you can sit back and you can watch it and you can say, yeah, we knew that someday it might happen, but we weren't sure.
But we're gonna keep on fighting for it.
Yeah that congress woman, I'm across the hall over here, how are you good?
Well, we've we've been joined by a woman, a guest to be granted, grant.
I love it to be a movie. I feel like.
Super But before before we get to the governor, I just want to say, growing up in Florida and where I grew up, I didn't have a black representative in Congress. I didn't my member of Congress. Uh uh it was Republican, and I you know, we never met him, but I was. I was a nerd and would watch c SPAN as a sixth Greater all the way through high school, and any time I would talk about my member of Congress, I would name check you because you were the voice for not just folks in southern California. You were advocating for black folks all over the country.
When you took banks to task, when you took.
Mortgage lenders to task, when you held folks accountable for their racism, their redlining. You were doing that for everybody, not just South Los Angeles.
That's right.
So we want to thank you for that dedicated service.
And now I want to ask you, because you're about to be the chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee when we take back the.
House of Representatives.
I'm curious to know whether or not you've got a top three that you just got to when you get there, that you're going to be dismantling, raising up, expanding as you take leadership there.
Oh my goodness, Thank you so very much, firt. Thank you for thanking me for the work that.
I have done.
It was just part of what I signed up for, and I enjoyed every minute of it, and no matter the sacrifice of the toughness, sometimes it was.
What I was prepared to do. But let me tell you.
I served as chair of the Financial Services Committee until we lost the House, and now I'm hopeful that I'll get that gavel back because once I got it back, I know what to do. That's and so let me tell you. Top on my agenda is housing. We have a housing crisis in this country. Every night in the Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles area, there's seventy thousand people on the streets. In this country, there are seven hundred and fifty three thousand people sleeping on the streets at night. We have a housing crisis in this country, and we can do better. As a matter of fact, in addition to the bills that I have one hundred and fifty billion dollar bill, I've had a bill for three hundred and fifty billion dollars. It was killed by Cinema and Mansion. But we now have the bill redone one hundred and fifty billion dollars. We also have the President Biden who's already talking about creating new units, affordable units and doing something I never thought I would agree to, and that is given tax credits to the developers who are willing to build affordable units and do it in such a way that not only are they affordable, but they're safe and they're secure. They're not only in the inner cities, but they're in the rural areas, in suburbia and in all of the country because it's needed everywhere. So that's one of my top priorities. The second thing that we've got to do is we've got to make sure that the banks and financial institutions of this country, first of all, a paying the affair taxes. Number two, that they're not ripping us off with predatory lending. We've got to do more than we ever did with the Dodd Frank reforms and make sure we bring them in and we make sure that we move with diversity and inclusion and get some black people up in the c suits so that the influence that they can have to make things right in some of our banks. We've got some gangster banks, absolutely, and they're stealing from us every day.
So I want to make sure I do that.
But we've got to move forward with a I, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and all of these things that are new to us that we've got to get more, you know, learn to mad we have to learn more about and so it's a lot of work that you have to do on financial services.
But I'm ready to do it.
Thank you so much, Congress.
Are you saying I know that we that we are, that we have not limited time because they have you doing all the things.
I see her team.
Over here, and you're okay, Governor, And I'm going to.
Make Angela a little jealous over here because I got a gift.
I got the whole.
I got the whole, so I get to hold this.
Yes, the governor has very kindly brought us a gift.
This is the lip Bar. It is a black owned business.
The CEO Melissa Butler, who's a friend a.
Member of Delta Sigma Data.
They say, I give a lot of D nine love, but this is a wonderful the lip Bar. We give you free advertising. A girl's amazing. Yes, she has been so supportive to us, called big grutch Bright.
I love it.
It's literally you see. So thank you so much, Governor. We're so honored to have you with us. You were the talk of the town for a while when all this conversation came and I want to ask because we have a very diverse audience listening tonight, and it's so significant to have Vice President Harris as sind to this level. There there is some conversation about a divide among us as women. You know, will women who you know previously supported Trump?
White women say it?
Will?
Will white women consider Thank you, Leonard.
I appreciate that white women who.
Has previously not voted in their interests, or perhaps voted in their interests, if we're honest about what some of their interest is, will they consider this a victory for them as well, that a woman has ascended to this ticket.
Not that you speak for all guess let me real quite disclaimer.
I do not speak for all white women.
Yeah, this white woman is so excited. My kids are excited. I'm here with my two daughters are twenty two and twenty years old. And I remember driving to Philadelphia in the twenty sixteen convention and my kids were in the backseat and I thought, oh my god, these girls have only known eight years of a black president and we're on the cusp of a woman president. And these are two things I never could conceive of growing up in this country. And obviously twenty sixteen did not turn out the way I was hoping it would. We're as excited, if not more, about Kamala Harris and Tim Walls.
I mean, this is a huge, huge chapter in.
America leaders who And yes, I'm excited because she's going to break the last very but I'm excited because she is the most qualified kid.
She is strong, she has smart, she knows how to get.
Shit done, and she is the type of person who's lived a life that we can relate to.
You know, she's a normal person.
She took care of her mom at the end of her life, she took care of her sister's kids at the ganders.
She's going to deliver.
And so I do think we can pull a lot of white women who maybe were on the sidelines or maybe went the other way thinking Trump would make their lives better than they realized that's not the case, and we're going to pull people more people into the right now. We're excited, we're feeling it. We got a lot of hard work to do in the state of Michigan. It is a dead heat right now, which is a vast improvement from where we were a month ago. But it's sobering when you think about how much work we got to do.
Yeah, I want no one to ask you because I saw a day that said she had the vice president had a three point lead on Trump in Michigan. What can she do to keep that momentum going and not fumble Michigan the way Hillary Clinton did in twenty sixteen.
Well, I mean, we're on the ground in Michigan. I don't think anyone's going to out Yeah, I was going.
To get to that.
No one's gonna take Michigan for granted. But you know, doing that voter contact, it's so important. We cannot write anyone off. We can't make any assumptions that people okay, but the black community is just going to show up because it's Kama hairs. No, we got to do the work. We got to show up, We got to earn people's support, and that is true in every community, and so that's what we're doing.
Yeah, I got a question for you in a queen vaccine.
You know, we know that a lot of Republicans probably won't certify the results of the election coming over them. But if it gets to the Supreme Court, in light of a lot of their recent rulings, I think they might overturn it if the vice president wins.
How concerned to y'all about are y'all about that?
I'm very concerned that Trump has been able to put in place people in several states who are in charge of the election system, and that's real. And some of them are going to be turning people away. Some are going to be finding they did not dot the I across the t all kinds of little tricks. And so we've got to be on top of this. Not only do we have to have monitors, we have to anticipate when we learn things are going on. We have to move very quickly to get our lawyers out there, you know, challenging because I think this is real, that's right.
Yes, I want to because Charlie wrote up a point about a fumble in Michigan, and I think it speaks right to the question about, you know, will people accept election results that they don't like? You know firsthand, Governor, about the dangers of fanatics and what I would call cult members who literally try to kidnap you. Thank god their plan was foiled. But also in twenty sixteen, the seventy five thousand votes out of Detroit that were discounted. As you know, Hillary Clinton lost Michigan that year. Had she carried miss and she lost by ten thousand votes, Had she had those seventy five thousand votes out of Detroit been counted, she would have won Michigan and thus won the presidency. How concerned are you about the infrastructure of this country and voting voting rights and voter suppression when it comes to November and it being a fair playing field.
Well, I am concerned about it, But I want to make a couple important points. We know four years ago when Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden by one hundred and fifty thousand votes, a landslide. Comparatively, he challenged the votes in Wayne County, not the other eighty two counties, but Wayne County.
Where Detroit is based.
Right, so we know the game that they want to play. I'll just share this. In twenty twenty two, I won reelection and we flipped both the House and Senate. And in the week of that, with just a one seat majority of both chambers, we enhanced our election laws. We made it easier for people to participate. You can vote three weeks in advance in person, no reason.
The absentee greater.
Penalties for people that mess with and threatened election workers. These are good strides we've made. All that being said, we got to get ready because, as a Congressman said, now, one thing that I want to point out that I think should give us all some hope, not false hope, but some hope is in the most important swing states in the country, we got Tony Evers as the governor in Wisconsin. We got Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, were Katie Hobbs in the Arizona. We got Roy Cooper in North Carolina, and me and Michigan. We got Democrats who are going to make sure these votes are protected and counted. It's still going to be a challenge, just go by to challenge.
If any of our.
Opponents had been in the position we're in, I'd be a lot more work.
I agree with you, Governor, and I think the beauty of it is is that we do have you there as hopefully feel safe. My concern is, as you know, most of these elections are run municipally at the county.
Level, and you may have these conservative counties that may.
Want to flaunt, you know, the rule of law. You've got great Secretary of state, so and so forth. I'm i am having been in Florida in two thousand, come from the state where the US Supreme Court waited in three four and said this is not President said, and it will never be repeated.
We have got to be on guard.
I think we've got to let everybody raise the symbol before they ever do. And I just want to say you have been an outstanding governor, holding the banner, looking these terrorists straight in the face and letting them bring it.
I'm big wretch.
Worried about making thank you coman Michigan as we get close to this election, we welcome you.
Thank you so much for this.
And you were so happy to have Congresswoman Maxine Waters joining us today as we have.
We're welcoming the senator who's in our camera shop, Senator Schubert, come to a thank you.
Congresswoman.
We love you.
We have Chuck Schumer, who is the majority leader in the United States Senate, who will be joining us just momentarily.
What's up, man, How are you to.
See you wherever your most comfortable.
Yes, we're going to get his to have sit on because he can't hear anything we're saying. But has that happened. Thank you.
What a phenomenal moment to have that generational conversation.
Yeah, I'm trying to take a breath. But it's a lot. Right When you have a Queen.
Maxine Waters come up here, and then you got big Wretch come up here at the same time, it's a lot.
And then we have Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who's joining us now.
Quite a big difference from just a few weeks ago.
Huh, oh man, are we cooking? I have been at every convention since nineteen eighty four. None is as happy, none is as unified, and none is as committing to win as this.
One that's going all away.
That's right, It is so great.
I cannot tell.
You even more than eight and more than eight.
Even because you know why, there's a that we have the positive we have Kamala, we have walls, but you know there's a negative. We cannot let that son of a gun get back into office.
So it's both ways.
Hey, bitch man, say son of a bit, it's okay, it's okay, the.
Son of a gun.
Okay, some of a gun.
I'm gonna tell you that that president is no effing good.
How's that?
You know?
Senator, you introduce them from Brooklyn.
You know we use these words.
You know, I like that you introduced that and no King Zach after the Supreme Court Presidential Community ruling. In light of the Supreme Court recent rulings, how concerned are you about them potentially interfering in this election because you know Donald Trump's.
You bet Trump has no principles, He has no morals. He will do anything he can to win, no.
Matter what corner he has to cut, no matter how many rules and laws he has to break. That's why he's going to go to jail, but in it because of the previous stuff he's done. Right, And so let me just say we are vigilant. We got the best election lawyers on the case. We are training thousands of lawyers. We are making sure on election day they don't screw around and deter people from voting. You know what they used to do, they used to tell they used to send out African American neighborhoods. Voting day has been changed, vote Thursday. These guys won't stop at anything. That's what the Republicans used to do. But we are now prepared. We were not prepared years ago.
We are Majority Leader Schumer.
You know, one question that I have for you, based on what you just said, I think is so important because folks regularly are donating to campaigns or to campaign committees, and you're just talking about training a bunch of lawyers. Is that some of the ways that you all are using the contribution this money.
Is using every way, obviously obviously digital. But we're getting out the vote, you know, the best way to get out the vote, particularly among our young people who aren't voting that much, knocking on doors and explaining it better than an ad, better than anything. We're putting close to half our money into door knocking and talking to people. But we're also putting our money into just what Charlemagne said, and that is preventing them from stealing this election. They'll stop at nothing.
Why are more people in your position just calling out the Supreme Court as an illegitimate institution?
They should, you know, the right wing, these very rich, greedy people who didn't want to pay any taxes, who didn't want the government to do any you know, they said, I built my company with my own hands, although half of them inherited it, And how dare your government tell me how I had to treat my workers, my customers, or the landing, air and water that I own. That's what they did. And they realized Charlemagne that they couldn't get this done even when they controlled the elected branches of government House, Senate, because they were and president, because it was so far to the f and right, so far to the right, and so they tried to take over the courts. We have an obligation to try and stop them. The Supreme Court is a more rass now. Who would have thought of this, the ethics of that court. So these rich, fact rich people are paying for cars for trips at the same time they're paying somebody to some law firm to go to lawyer and make their case. That is outrageous. And I'll tell you who should we should blame, among others, the Chief Justice John Roberts, who once said he's calling balls and strikes. He could stop this with the flick of his pen. Where the hell is he lies?
I just so the President.
Has made it a stated goal to get reform on the Supreme Court. I'm just I what's your prognosis for a week between now lamed uck and obviously a new presidency?
Framed Uncle hard because the Republicans control the House. A few right wingers seemed to run the show, and they will at nothing to keep the court the way it is.
But if we and please vote, vote, vote, vote.
If we keep the Senate, win the House, win the presidency, Supreme Court reform is going to be at the top of our agenda because we cannot let these unelected people take away women's rights, take away others' rights. You know, we talk about freedom. They used to talk about freedom. They don't believe in freedom.
We do.
So we also believe in economic freedom. We believe you should have a good education so you can get a decent job. Freedom to be able to pick your job. We talk about freedom to be able to afford a house. You know, one of the great things Kamala just did. Kamala just did is this young people. A lot of young people have enough money to pay the monthly mortgage, but they don't have any money for the down payment. Yeah, no one can save that much these days. And so what she said, what Kamala said is very simple. Twenty five thousand bucks the federal government, if you're a first time home buyer, to help you with that down payment. People when they hear that particularly younger people, and when we have to make sure vote, they're gonna love that. She knows what she's talking about. I knew her in the Senate.
She was great.
I'm sorry going to no no.
I was actually gonna piggyback on your question about the Court. You know, Charlie called it an illegitimate institution, and I have to echo that sentiment for the people out there who may not understand the severity of what is the power of this court and what they've done, what specifically can be done as soon as possible. Do we expand the courts? That has to go through the Senate. If we do, I mean because at this point our democratic institutions are corona.
The first step in getting it, getting rid of the morass on the court, is to vote. Because if they keep the House, if they win the Senate, or if they win the presidency, any one of the three, they will block it.
They will fight for this court.
But once we get it, there are very There are a lot of proposals out there on the table. There's expanding the court, there's term limits, there's I have a proposal that's much simpler. It's limiting their jurisdiction. In certain areas. You know, Justice Alito said, Congress can't regulate the courts. Well me, sir, mister Justice, you didn't either read or understand the Constitution that he says it explicitly in this and so we can do that relatively easily and limit the kind of jurisdiction that they have.
But they expanded the fact that you've got a justice who's prepared to expand the power of the court do their own word or do their own written opinion, absolutely with no accountability, no teeth and ethics, and you know, to hold them account in the past, maybe peop said they'll never get it done.
Well, we saw what happened with choice.
Absolutely.
We heard what one of.
The justices I think it was, I can't remember which one, Maybe it was Justice Thomas. He said, next is gay right? He sure did gay marriage.
But he's not gonna go after biracial marriage exactly.
You never know what you never know what these guys will do.
But he can't the hypocrisy of these folks. You can hold them to any standard of consistency. Look at this when Justice when Mitch McConnell said that you should not you don't can't vote on a justice within about.
Six months before the election.
A year and then there was another vacancy, and he puts someone in several a month before. If no consistency, they will do anything to keep this court.
Intact because they.
Know that their agenda is so fiduring the bedding that no one will accept it in the elected ranches. This has to be you are right, this has to be one of our biggest fights.
We doesn' to take more courage from Democrats when it comes to situations like that. Democrats have a reputation for being cowards because they don't push back on things.
Like well, hey Charlemagne, I'm from Brooklyn. We fight.
So I want to just say Senator Schumer.
Staff is waving him down so hard he almost lost his train of thought.
Yea, I am afraid of my stand.
We are so grateful for your time tonight. Thank you, Thank you the majority of the leader Schumer.
We are looking.
Let me just say, folks, on to victory. We must win to future this country, the future of the world democracy depends on this. And and by the way, can I just say one of the very first things we're going to do if we keep the get the power is put the John Lewis right, Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote Act on the floor of the Senate, changing those rules, and we will get it done it.
We appreciate.
Your sentiment.
All that. Be careful.
We got a big agenda.
We got it.
We need to be in there. Thank you so much.
Last time we had the power, we had the most successful congress, most sexual presidency. Give Joe Biden credits since Johnson and maybe since Roosevelt. It'll happen again even more. You ain't seen you ain't seen nothing. And yet we're not trying to get.
Careful.
Okay, be careful.
Thank you so much for joining.
Us, for doing this.
Chuck Schumer, who is the majority leader in the United States Senate, U tapping him up.
As he departs.
This is Native Lampard in partnership with Breakfast Club, and we are getting ready to welcome our next guest. But in the meantime, be careful, Senator Schumer, that step is insane.
He agrees with expanding the Supreme Court.
Yes, he did, and we also asked for some reparations. Uh, we also asked for a reparations to be able to hit that floor.
We'll see.
Be careful that that.
To take somebody up.
We're being joined by Alexis McGill Johnson, who is the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
You're not to be able to hear until you put your heads in, but we love you.
We love it wherever you live.
You like.
Jo Alexis Miguil.
Yes, we are being joined by the lovely So Alexis, you just were on the.
Floor giving a rousing speech.
Talk to us about why this moment is so mission critical for Planned Parenthood and everything that's at stake.
Oh my, well, look we welcome home.
Welcome home, y'all, welcome home exactly.
Look, we have the opportunity to elect the most pro reproductive freedom ticket this nation has ever seen.
Right, we lift your mic.
We want to make sure you do.
Look, we have an opportunity to elect the most pro reproductive freedom fighter ticket that we have ever seen. And we have been living in a public healthcare crisis for the last two years. Right, we are living in a world where twenty two states have banned acted us through abortion, and that impacts over half of all black women living in those states. And so when we have Vice President Kamala Harris, who has traveled around the world who understands this issue inside and out for sure, deeply, and we have a movement that is united and poised around what possibility we could bring in terms of federal legislation.
It just feels like we're like, we're in a.
Moment where you can really do this, and we know it's also going to energize the party of the base as it has been over the last two years.
I have to say on Monday Night, I mean truly, abortion took the stage. People spoke about their own heartfelts, heart.
Wrenching, gut wrenching experiences.
From the young woman who spoke about being raped by her stepfather, and she was saying, you know what is so beautiful about having to carry your father's child?
Essentially?
You know, there's a lot of polling data, a lot of conversations that happens around abortion, and they say, oh, ex percent of people support a woman's right to choose. And I always say, I don't really give a damn how many people support it. The only person that matters is the person this body. It is, oh, our bodily autonomy. Absolutely So I'm curious for you because I asked Big Gretch the Michigan governor. She was on with us earlier about white women and the voting block. In Georgia in twenty sixteen, white women outpaced even white men in voting for Governor Brian Kemp, Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who ran on anti choice an anti choice platform. How do you think that crucial voting block who can impact all of our lives will show up given the change and historic nature of this ticket.
Look, here's the thing we have seen.
We have seen since a LA in the last two years, ballot initiatives that have driven kind of participation across party, across race, across demographic, across rural urban, right because it got really personal really quickly. Yeah, right, you have right now, Obgyns are many Obguans are leaving states with bands mass exodus. Many Obgan residents are not even matching into those those band states. They are seeing the hurt and the burden and they have driven these ballad initiatives.
Right.
So that's like kind of our first proof point that we have seen kind of a I think a realignment that is possible when you put reproductive freedom at the center, and when you center the experiences of the people who are most harmed.
Now.
Our job, you know, at Planned Parent, had Action Fund, other organizations actually make the connection between the ballid initiative, the policy maker, and the people who are making the bad policies right, because it's one thing to come up and say, yeah, I really want this right in my in my state, but we also got to remind people that these are the same people who to get away from you in the in the first place.
So, you know, I think.
White women will will have come on reproductive freedom. Think what Donald Trump has put forward and JD Vance had put forward in terms of their uh you know, connection to twenty project twenty twenty five is terrifying and we've lived through that.
So you know, that's where we're working.
And we hope they channel the spirit of Shirley Chisholm and not Phylish Slaughly.
But time will tell, you know.
But the other thing I would say is that the upside for this election, this is always going to be a tight election.
It was always going to be a turnout game.
And you know, every candidate from every Democratic candidate, since I believe since Clinton has really only maxed out at around of the white vote, we weren't we weren't we weren't they tried so hard to get it, That's what I'm saying, And that's what I'm saying, like, like it actually is the upside and the energy that we are experiencing for the folks who are are being our joyful warriors right now.
Yeah, did you ever think that you would see a time where women's reproductive rights were so blatantly under attack?
Like no, absolutely not.
No.
I mean I'm born, you know, five months five months after row, right, or five months before depending on how which which year I use?
Who are you talking to? Who are you're talking to?
But She's like, either way, I still got it kept. So no, I mean, honestly, it's like it's it is.
It's not only witnessing the fact that my two daughters who are here twelve and fifteen, that they are growing up with less rights right than my eighty four year old mother did, but the fact that they are coming after other things, right, They're coming after IVF they are coming after contraception, They're coming after.
No fault divorce.
I mean all of the ways in which they can control our bodies, our relationships, our minds. Like that's the thing that I the kind of going back piece that is so resonant with the vice president's campaign.
Man, President, Can I ask so Leader Schumer was up here talking about potential reforms to the court. Yes, love to know how you all, once we are beyond this November election and hopefully save bodily autonomy, democracy and all the other stuff that's on the line, can we expect planned parenthood, the force that you all bring to the table to the political discourse, to be engaged on this fight around the courts? And if so, what does that look like? What is the what is the gold standard of what you'd like to see by way of a reform around this haphazard, almost illegitimate And my eyes, I think we I think we can all say that court that is ravaging the constitution absolutely.
I mean, look, you know, so we actually just put out our court reform platform just within the last year or so, right, because we've always relied on the courts as a backstop for protecting reproductive freedom. We've always focused on that. But you know, to your point, the the you know, illegitimacy of watching these decisions that are blatantly, you know, in our opinion, unconstitutional come down and the impact in the horror that we are seeing, so, you know, supporting first of all, we can we can we can start with the easy lift, right.
We need some court reform ethics, We need some some ethics.
We also need term limits, right right, there's there should not be a lifetime appointment with young justices that are being put in as chief justice to run the table for generations and in fact generations to come. So I think those are the things that that that at minimum we need to start thinking about.
I think we need to talk about expanding the court.
Right.
Uh, we expand the court in lower district.
Courts all the time, right, I think we get exactly, And so how are we living in a world right now where we've had nine justices who are completely out of sync with where Americans are in understanding their interpretational constitution.
Right, Well, we just want to thank you so much for taking It's a busy time.
I know our viewers at home Kans, but there are people out there watching and we appreciate the work that you do. You and I have shared the stage a few times and it's always an honor to it.
It's also impressive to see isn't it crazy that black women are at that at the intersection of the biggest fights right now taking place in the country biggest fights is not an accident.
Thank you so much for being here.
We have been joined by Melanie Campbell, who is the founder and uh she runs a tremendous organization with the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation as well as Black Women's Roundtable mentored by Dorothy Hite, and has been a big sister, a leader, a bright shining star for so many of us. And mel you know, I just want to say, we talk about it all the time, but in this work as a part of the civil rights movement, so often the women who do the work every day are not given the attention, the shine, the respect they deserve. And what I love about you is you are going to claim it. You are going to make sure that you make space for all your sisters, and you do it with such grace. Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you.
This is all all of my favorite I'm a fan girl of all four of you are.
Only because you're raised more than half of us.
Yeah you know, oh you know.
Maybe over here go two thousand.
That's right. I was on the board. You honored me.
The boy black you vote.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, yeah, you know the folk.
You Yes, I mean I'm.
And I met you in New York doing your thing early.
Okay, absolutely, it's been a minute.
Absolutely I watched you for far and awesome work.
But I want to know about your work right now because you are never you are tireless in the fights you are doing it. What are you looking at doing as we get closer to November? You know we are seventy six days now away from the election. So what does that work look like about tell the election?
Well, you know, we started in October last year because we knew we had a problem down in Florida. We used Florida as a backdrop with to your with the Fam, you to your Alma model and started its Power to Ballot campaign, going and going in the community, really listening to our folks, especially our young folks, about what was concerned.
So we're going to pick up on.
Our Power to Ballot campaign right now. We try to make sure people are prepared, right are you vote ready? Because I'm excited about this. You know, I'm here in my personal capacity so I can say.
What the heck I want right now, and so say you didn't need a name out of the titles.
Right.
So but you know, I told folks, don't call me by no inauguration. You got to get across the finish.
His people teach us.
Folks will call it and give away jobs in twenty sixty. Hello, we walk up the next morning, nobody got no job.
So nobody got no job, got no black job. Right, They're gonna be no jobs.
So that's what I'm trying to get folks to be really serious about.
One, it's okay to.
Have Latasha tell us it's kay to have joy, right, but we have to be strategic about what we need to do. And so to me, it's like we're gonna leave this place. We're gonna get on the ground, and we gotta make sure because because the enemy never sleeps.
Yes, right, all right?
And when I like about what Michelle Obama did last night, she was unapologetic with black and that was so refreshing, right because she used that platform. And we gotta we gotta get our folks out and we gotta make.
Sure they're coming for us.
Right, We're gonna you can have when an enemy coming for you and you might we're gonna go. We're gonna turn to look at the enemy in the eye. And we gotta do that so that every chance, every opportunity where they think they're gonna try to suppress us, we got to be in their face. Yes, that's what I'm gonna I'm gonna be on the ground, folks, And so.
I love that. So can you. What's your prognosis?
A lot of people when talking about young people, young young organizing, give a glass half empty sort of reflection on young people. They're not engaged, they're not interested, they got other things to do. I have a suspicion that that's not been your experience when it comes to organizing and raising up the next generation of young leaders in the country. I love for you to just give us some bright spots on your prognosis of what this next generation leadership looks like. Those folks that are coming through and are coming across your path, the folks you're training and seeing on college campuses around the country.
I'm gonna start with you, yes, maam, because you know they say the same thing about your generation.
So you show that when you did all that you did.
From when you were on the campus all the way up to when you ran right on several cases and took on that public service. Right, they are still that's still happening, right, I was on I was at FAMU. Those students were fired up and ready. So the idea that they're not when you got a twenty five year old and Frost who became a congress person.
It's like, folks to step it up.
It's like the reality, though, is that there are those who don't see that this thing is this this system is working for them, right, and so we have to be real about that right and call it. It's not about being an operative of the Democratic Party. It's about being strategic about how we leverage our power. And my thing has is when young people have the opportunity, like you have the opportunity I had the opportunity to give space.
To leave well, Latasha and.
I were on a panel with Brittany earlier today, Packney earlier today. And the thing is that we have to keep building institutions right and giving space for young people to step up and organize.
You know, I'm.
Considered legacy now, I'm like, Lord, I don't like that word. So, but I'm but I've been around. I've been around because I don't have a second husband yet, but.
We rather have let you go to go find.
Y'all.
Notice I'm working, working, No, she's gonna find me.
Shot up, Welcome up, our brother.
Shot.
Yes, I didn't see you.
I'll find but we're gonna come on, come on, we're Shot Robinson, Color Change, Maw.
We're gonna tell you. Thank you so much.
Hope you get.
Why she did start it though she did. We love you man, Shot Robinson from Color of Change, And I'll find David, who oversees the Global Black Economic Forum for Essence and is working on quite the venture to ensure that black folks turn out to vote in November.
Soft folker, We'll start.
With you and then come to your shot. Talk to us about what you have going on.
So this, as everyone knows, is one of the most important election of our lifetime. I mean, I think we hear about this all the time every four years, but this is really an existential threat to our economic freedom whether we can actually be free moving forward. And what we're doing at the Global Black Economic Form working along with Essence, is we launched an initiative called Paint the Polls Black.
That's it.
We want to make sure people understand that our rights are on the line. And so this is about voter education, voter registration, voter mobilization, and importantly voter protection, because if you show up to vote and they tell you that you need a third form of ID or they tell you that the polling station is closed, when in fact is open for another two or three hours, that's voter suppression. And if you don't know what your rights are, you don't know who to call all. So we entered into a partnership with the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights to make sure that people have the information right.
We can't be in.
A position now where people are mobilized, they're registered to vote, and they show up but they can't vote. We see what's happening in Georgia, we see what's happening across the country. They just passed a piece of legislation where anyone can challenge can challenge your ability to vote without any evidence. So you may register to vote, show up to vote in a month from now, two months from now, then they tell you you're no longer in the voting roles. No one told you what do you do.
Democracy?
Exactly exactly exactly, and know the.
Vigilante you're empowering these these A carry only says, these people got carry laws right, open carry laws, and now it can come to you and check you on whether or not you can vote.
And tons of black folks start showing up with guns to check white people. They got the right to vote. Then you'll see those laws change. I want to bring in Rashard Robertson in the conversation who runs Color of Change, and I you know, I think for a lot of us who have worked in this space covered politics for a long time, you guys are household names for us.
We know your organizations and what you do.
But for a lot of the people out there, they may not know what Color Change is and the significance of your organization. You are a civil rights organization. The unique thing about your organization. You'll correct me if I'm wrong. You don't take corporate money. Correct, so you you do. You are not beholden to anyone's agenda, So you can be truthful and stay true to the agenda and goals of the people. Talk a little bit about what Color Change does and your role in that organization.
Yeah, so Color Change is going to be twenty years old next year.
Believable.
Special Justice organization. It's just that's incredible. And we were actually founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and that's important because it does speak to what you were just saying, Tiffany. We were founded when black people were literally on their roots, begging for the government to do something and left to die. And that moment that really illustrated a whole set of things that we already knew, right geographic segregation, generational poverty, the impacts of what's been done to our planet, and so many other systems. But at the heart of it, no one was nervous about disappointing black people at all. And if folks are not nervous about disappointing your community, doesn't matter what kind of research report you have that illustrates a bunch of facts and figures, doesn't matter what kind of app you have. You can't code your way out of systemic oppression. You can't nonprofit executive direct your way out of systemic oppression. And so what we do is we leverage people power and narrative change. We were founded with a single email to about one thousand people saying join a new movement, and since then we have grown to a movement of millions of folks, black people, and allies of every race, and we run strategic campaigns and so you're not going to see a campaign from Color of Change, it says, tell Mitch McConnell to stand up for affirmative action, because who cares how many people sign that petition. Mitch McConnell's not going to stand up for a permative action, right, But there are corporations that say, buy our products or use our services, and we can't have them, you know, coming to us by day and then taking away our vote by night, taking away our freedom by night, taking away our ability to access education and employment opportunities. And so the millions of members at Color of Change, we leverage them three hundred and sixty five days a year, and so that's not just about coming out to vote. And so one of the things that's been really exciting is the work we've been doing around prosecutor reform, because so much of the criminal justice system, we get angry about what's happening, and so we've over the last several years, we have both put prosecutors in office and we've taken some out. And what we do is we leverage our members to use technology and we build this back end system that allows our members to reach out to irregular voters, voters who don't show up to every election. Oftentimes they don't care about what's happening at the top of the ticket, and we give them very real things to do. But we also let the prosecutors know that when we endorse them, we're gonna put you in there, but we might take you out. And over time, we're gonna show up after the election for accountability, and so up and down the ballot we try to do that. We've endorsed, obviously Kamala Harris this election cycle, but we've also over the years pushed Vice president or Center Harris. But that is actually how democracy works, and that is what we have to do. And so part of what does it mean to be not just present, not just visible, but powerful is that our ability to constantly be in this space. We also endorse Andrew Gillim up here, and that's my dear brother, and we've worked with all of you on this stage in different ways.
You know, it's so interesting as we sit here, we've been talking about it every day, but as we're sitting here, you talked about holding folks accountable and including prosecutors that you would both support and not be afraid to take out. And as you said that, there were a couple of mayors that walk by, Eric Adams, Well, and you haven't seen them yet, but the mayor of Chicago is also walking around.
Thank you.
I was okay, I was definitely about to call him the mayor of Baltimore's name, but I was thinking, Alfonso, if you could way in here on the importance of not just engaging folks around the voting part of our civic responsibility and engagement, but also on the accountability part. We have a job to do just like they have a job to do for us.
We pay them. So what happens on the other side of the election.
Look, I think as we talk about the importance of voting, if we don't hold our elected officials accountable, we devalue our vote. Yeah, right, So if you show up to vote for an elected official and you cast your ballot and then six months later or a year later, they failed to follow up on their promises, your vote is devalued, and you're telling them that your vote is devalued. So it's important that we hold them accountable. Is important that we follow up and all of our organizations, the Color of Change, the Global Black Economic Form. We're here to make sure that we hold these elected officials accountable. We can talk about the issues. We can talk about employment, housing, public accommodation, credit. In all of those categories, Black people suffer significant disparities. So if we're electing people to address those disparities, we have to hold them accountable. And if we don't, all they have to do is the following two or four years or six years, depending on where they are. They'll say what they say every election cycle. We vote for them every election cycle and nothing changes. So part of the apathy that I'm concerned about is people say, I vote every election cycle and nothing changes. Well, nothing changes because we're not holding our elected officials accountable.
Heartly, Well, can I get off of the other side of that, which is we're in Chicago. Kim Fox came in as a prosecutor and ushered in reforms across this community, and now she has decided not to run for reelection, largely because the police union and all of the institutions that she upset with her reforms challenged her and said we will come after you, we will take you down. The same thing happened with Aramisayala. There are cases that we can cite all over the country where we have gotten behind these reform oriented prosecutors, these reform oriented elected officials, but nobody has been there to have their back to make sure that we got some protection for our folks. And this may not be y'all's job that are sitting here.
That.
Is our job.
And Kim was the first prosecutor we elected. We actually then showed back up for her re election, and I remember we had people at the doors knocking our members that the door is knocking, and this is just important for the community understand. We have people are knocking before COVID hit and we had to like go everything digital, and folks were mad at her for prosecuting r Kelly and mad that she didn't prosecute Jesse Smollett, And we had to spend a lot of time trying to help people make sense of all that and really talk big picture around all the things that she was no longer prosecuting, the people that had been released, the things she had done on drugs, the reduction in size of Cook County Jail, which is one of the largest jails in the country. This was very clear because I just saw Kim yesterday and yes, the police union we have a police union prosecutor kind of engagement program. Just recently, we've had victories at the City Council here in Chicago where we've been reducing the power of the police unions. They were actually trying to bring the cases when against police where they are being held accountable. They tried to make all those hearings private and we won at the City Council recently mobilized our members to hold them accountable. But we need more people. No single organization can do it alone. And the attacks on Amorousyola and Kim Fox are not just about attacks on prosecutors.
I think people have.
To understand the larger thing we're going to be facing selection cycle. They are not attacking Kim Fox the same way they are attacking Larry Krasner, a district attorney in Pennsylvania Philadelphia, who's doing the similar work. They are attacking them in very unique ways, going after them as black women, going after their families, working to try to make them unsafe. And part of the work that has to be sort of recognized. The muscle we have to build in our community is understanding that we won't have good people to go in those positions. Yes, if we don't sort of constantly build power to protect recognize, accountability and protection have to go hand in hand, and when someone does the things that we want them to do, we have to champion it, not just so that they see it, but others who might not yet be there see that there is hope on the side of freedom, is hope on the side of doing the right thing.
I just really quickly, I just wanted to say, I think that's such important work shop because Republicans take a victory lap frequently on the First Step Act that is at the federal level, and they are eroding.
What that that did at the federal level at the local levels.
The First Step Act, that's called the First app First Step aact because there needs to be a second step and a third step and a fourth step. All those federal policies only apply to federal police.
Is over eighty eighty to eighty five percent of people are prosecuted and put behind bars at the local level, right right, right, So, yes, we can win a lot of things at the at the federal level, and we should, but so much of this happens at the local level.
And parathetically, just so that we keep some context of the national election, Donald Trump wants to give immunity to all law enforcement officers. Okay, so let's be clear about the differences as well as this dells down.
Man, you want to know what the Biden administration has done, think about what it would mean for you to have a Donald Trump who wants to grant every law enforcement on community for the unity community.
And let's be clear.
They are not prosecuting crimes on Wall Street and on Capitol Hill. We're at the highest level. This is not about the kind of big, systemic level crimes that they're putting people behind bars for that actually hurt people. They're attacking people for low level crimes, one on one crimes. But the sort of big, high level sort of crimes that that that fleece and steal our communities, that put us in harm's way, that that that that steal people's paychecks, that make people unsafe, that steal people's health. Those things are not being prosecuted at the high levels.
Right then, Yeah, oh.
No, I was.
I was thinking about something else earlier.
You know, tip uh tiff reference of Victory leap, and I thought that was such a good term because it feels like Democrats are already taking one. It feels like it's not enough energy going into energizing people to vote, registering people to vote. It feels like it's almost a coorination happening here. But the election is not a guarantee, So how do we make sure people are focused on actually voting over the next eighty days.
I would say everyone, if you if you didn't listen to Michelle Obama's speech last night, we should have it on repeat. We should have it on repeat. It was one of the best, if not the best.
Do you think it should have been last we've been talking about it.
You should have been that easily.
Yes, I'll just say I think it was the best National Convention speech.
I've ever heard in my life. So good period.
But what about Barack Obama in two thousand.
Y opinion about it?
But you know, we have to understand that this is going to be a fight over the next few weeks, over the next few months. This is great, we are mobilizing here. There are folks that are that are coming with the same vision and the same perspective. But when we leave the stadium, there are a lot of people who disagree what's happening here, and so we have to be mindful about the work that we need to do. As she said, we have to make sure we're standing up, we're doing the work. And for those who think that we've won this election, you just have to talk to people in your own family that you know well.
He just says something that's real. An event like this energizes the opposition.
We also shouldn't be afraid of our own shadows that we can stand in. We can stand in excitement and victory and enjoy about our nominee. But what people don't get to see at their home screens is what these delegates are during during the day. I've been a delegate several times. They're in workshops, they're learning trainings, they're doing door to door training in the morning, all the way up until they have to check in here in the afternoon. So I don't want folks to have the illusion that they are in any way drunk with joy and not sobered by the work that can.
I just say, we're going to close our Rashida, speaking of the work we all got to go do.
Ashat, We're gonna close out with you.
I just want folks to join us over the next seventy six days in doing voter contact work. We are in Michigan, we are in North Carolina, we are in Pennsylvania, we are Wisconsin, and so people we we are having a conversation, we are doing analysis, and people want to know how to take action. Join us at the Color of Change pack. We are going to be doing Volunteers will be reaching the voters who are not yet voted, not yet committed to vote, voters who may have skipped some elections, and we are going to be communicating, engaging, and so you can text the word commit to five five one five six the word commit to five five one five six. I'm just all about action in this moment because we are talking a lot about everything that we need to do, and so I want to just demystify it for everyone. There's a lot of places you can go, not just Color of Change Pack, but I want to invite you that we have a tested, true data driven program that's going to be reaching voters. And we've proven over the the years that we are able to turn voters out that don't regularly vote in elections through the power of people like you who are listening, who do want to get involved and who want to volunteer, and that's a way to engage.
Thank you so much.
Where can people find out more information about your initiative as well?
I would say go to painthoposed black dot com, go to gbet dot com.
As Rishad said.
That many of us doing this work, you can go to a variety of organizations. We're going to have events over the next few months. For the first event, we have more than two hundred thousand people participate.
Wonderful.
So I want to come.
Thank you all for having me.
Thank you for sure.
This is my first DNC convention. I didn't notice was so exhausted say that this is so exhausted convention, he said, because I was exhausted watching it Monday right because it stayed up, stayed stayed up so late.
And last night was was good.
It was energizing.
But then being here today exhausted again but still energized.
Exhausted and energized at the same time.
I feel that too a headache, you know, I promised Tiff and Andrew.
I've been looking the whole time.
I'm surprised and I feel like I'm about to be ghosted, and I'm frustrated. But tomorrow, but maybe I don't know if I'm gonn run that thing back. But here's what I was gonna tell y'all. Tonight is a unique night. We've seen so much on the convention stage, including moments where you see uh passing of the proverbial torch from generation to generation. Right now, Bill Clinton is on the convention floor speaking tonight. We'll also hear from vice presidential candidate Tim Walls. I also just want to take a moment to acknowledge, in the midst of us being here, Congressman Bill passed. Girls passed away from New Jersey, so you also saw moments where they were recognizing him from the convention floor. I like to know what you all are looking forward to tonight.
Well kind of, I just say quickly, Angela to bring you all in on the conversation, the inside conversation. She promised Andrew and me, She said, have a surprise guest for you all.
At the end.
I trust her.
I said, don't let it be a dog. She said, it is not a dog. Get the dog off your mind.
I love you, I love yes Strange and so the whole.
Time I've been looking out in this audience, like, who is this? If one of my exes come up here, I'm about to walk off somebody.
Do you like that girl?
I like somebody out about that? I don't know, but I've been looking at everybody in the audience. I ain't see the surprise.
So maybe you can just keep your eyes over here and talk to us about what you what you are looking for, maybe a concern that you have about tonight.
Is there anything.
Charlotte, I want to hear, Charlotte, what are you looking for?
I know he's concentrating.
Any I was thinking about it, you, so I knew what I was looking for Monday night. I was looking for the Hillary Clinton. I was looking for the Jasmine Crockett, And I knew what I was looking forward to Tuesday night. I was looking forward to the Obama's tonight maybe Secretary of People. But I'm really honestly thinking about tomorrow. I'm really thinking about tomorrow because I feel like just listening to the callers that I've been calling into the breakfast club and the things that they've been saying, a lot of them feel like they.
Haven't heard enough policy talk all week long.
I feel like Bernie Sanders laid out some things that he wanted, you know, the Harrison administration to do if they get in. So I think tomorrow the VP really has to talk to the issues. We got the hope, right, we got all the hope we needed yesterday.
Hope is great.
Hope is like a light in darkness, like give us a little glimpse of light in darkness.
And we definitely got the fear. We know the fear. We know we're up at this.
But tomorrow she has to really come in here and just lay out policy. She has to speak to the issues. She has to speak to the people who you know, are barely keeping food on their table and a roof over their head. So that's what I'm really hoping that she nails the speech, especially being that she hasn't done any interviews right in the.
Last few weeks of all eyes.
Are really really going to be on her in a real way tomorrow, So she has to nail it. Because she doesn't, she's gonna get very scrutinized, well, you know, unjustly.
Scrutinized for sure.
And I just want to remind the viewers that this campaign took off in a very uh not a non traditional way, and it normally takes a campaign two to three months to pull together a policy plan. It has been I think a month today when she became the presidential candidate. She did enter the foray into the policy with her economic address in North Carolina a few weeks ago, and she called for the expandon of the child tax credit, which we talked about. That includes a six thousand dollars credit for parents in the first year of a child's fire.
She proposed forty billion.
Yes, y'all, Andrew.
Native Lampard, She's proposed forty million dollar tax incentive for a new housing construction. And she endorsed a federal ban on price gouging. So this this is the bit of policy we've heard from her. She does not have a policy plan on her website just yet, but I can't show you, Charlotte Meane that she will.
We'll talk about that yet, to add.
To what you've already laid out.
So she did a special speech around the economy, and that speech hope to close the gap between she and Donald Trump around credibility. Who do you trust more on the economy? That was crucial.
But what's his policy plan?
Nobody's asking nobody's asking. Nobody ask.
But the other thing it's important for those who are not as familiar with the Democratic Convention on what happens here is that there is a policy agenda that must be approved by the Convention that states what the administration's goals must be moving forward from this place.
So there's there, there, and this thing is chalk full.
If you can think of an issue, there is a policy prescript that is coming out of this convention that is intended to address it. Now, she won't be able to parade all over the country giving policy pieces every day, because the truth is is that voters.
Want to know her better. They don't know her.
In fact, the big criticism is that she's been aidden in the closet for two or three of the four years, which is well. But but to the to the person who has limited line of sight and attention, you haven't seen.
They haven't put her.
Out for sure.
So so I actually think policy, yes, she will need to talk about some big ideas, big ideas. I don't want to hear the policy prescript. I want to hear the big ideas. The other thing that she's got to do is I think she has to demystify and get in front of what we can expect over these next few weeks, which are going to be a whole bunch of lies, untruth, mistruce, half truth about who she is. They've already begun that on walls going after his IVF. He used her on terminology going after his military service. Where's yours? Trump bone, spur, Where's yours? But so so so, I think she's got to get in front of that. And this will be the largest stage of audience eyes that she will have between now an election day, this this this night, tomorrow night, and I think that it would be a loss, It would be a fail if she got up there and talked policy prescript all night, your big ideas, and introduce herself in a way that makes people comfortable with looking at her for the next four years as our president and commander in chief.
And the best way for her to do that is for her to rest in her own the comfort of her own being, like knowing who she is and being comfortable with being Kamala in front of everyone. I think one of the things we talk about at nauseum is the Kamala Harris that we know is so dope and so cool and so chill.
I love even.
Yesterday we talked about some of our highlights from last night, but I forgot to say this about Doug m hof. He talked about the one thing he knows about Kamala Harris that she will never stop fighting for us. She does it on a micro level. She does it in conversations.
One on one.
When my mom got diagnosed with cancer, Kamala Harris was the first phone call when we got the podcast. When we announced the podcast, Kamala Harris was one of the first phone calls. She is one of the most genuine carrying people, and I think that this nation is starving for that.
I kept a voicemail from her on my first show. She called Angela knows I'm horrible on my phone. I didn't miss a call from the Vice president twice because I didn't answer the phone, and I kept a voicemail because she was just saying, Bravo, Tiffany, I'm so proud.
I love the show.
I watched the show, so she is me one.
She's a regular person. She's just you just adore it.
It's like, oh you, I get why you say you're my girl, And I think what the country is going to have to get used to. What they're gonna learn is black women. It's a duality of our kind. We can sit on a national stage and talk policy, domestic policy. We can kill you on the spades table. She can kill it in a stroll line on the campus. I know you do dominoce, you throw bones. She can kill it in a stroll line on Howard University's campus with the aka's. She can smile in your face and be saying f you. At the same time. This is we've always had to be.
And we don't need America to receive all of that right, but.
We do know the same.
Going to Andrews point, if she shows up tomorrow and she's just herself and she is, you know, showing her person, all of that's gonna show up regardless, because none of the stuff that she's saying is new. If you've been following her, she's been talking about rebuilding the middle class. She's been talking about wanting everybody to have the opportunity to own the business, opportunity to own a home. She's been talking about putting money, you know, into in the in the more working class people's pockets.
So if she just shows up and be herself tomorrow. I think we're in for a treat.
Yeah, I love that. I love that so much.
Well, we are almost to the end of our show and I'm still counting all my special guests to show that I am so you got me nervous.
No, no, I'm not killing time.
You got plenty to talk about.
Definitely do what you got, Tiff.
Well, I want to tell charlet Mane what happened to our friend the other day.
Today, not until we are all stalized grounds.
We're gonna tell you, but you gotta start later. Congressman Lucy macbeth is walking by you all.
We love we have you, Congress, and you want to come say hide to the native lamb Bam. You don't have to.
She's like she has business. Is a picture?
Oh he wants to come up here and take a picture. Okay, let him take him.
He wasn't taking.
We are not done yet.
If you were saying that you wanted to talk about something, I hope it was the.
Table the story I want to tell our viewers when we leave Chicago. We do have a story to tell you that happened to our friend, but I will table it.
But there's a whole convention happening with the whole robust agenda, including Nancy Pelosi, who's up speaking right now.
Gotta be something else before her.
Yes, you do.
Here's a question.
Here's a question I have for you all. Some people say that former President Bill Clinton, because of his complicated history not complicated. Let me not say it's not complicated because of his history. He is somewhat of an anachronism here at the convention because of what happened with Monica Lewinsky, and we're looking at him in twenty twenty.
Four pales in comparison to what Donald Trump got going to run its But if we're.
Only going to compare ourselves to the lowest common denominator, what does that say about the Democrats?
They're not in the same category.
You don't think that, of course not, But but do you all have I don't have an issue with him speaking, you know, I think if we you can look at my personal life and have you know something to say?
Is this my surprise?
No?
No, no, no redemption.
Look, we're just saying what is redemption?
Yes?
Well, I mean when do I mean that legit? I love to hear your thoughts on this.
Charlemagne like, when when do we get to stop judging people forever by their worst day.
Yeah, I'm there experience. I'm not driven off. Bill Clint gets some head in the White House.
That happened.
It happened a long time ago. That's between him, between him Hillary. If Hillary's forgiving him, who were we to stand around and be like, oh, he shouldn't be on you know the stage in twenty twenty.
That's the extent of the issues.
Well, there were multiple iss no need to be visited, it was twenty but.
The private consenting adults, she was a young adult. No, no, When you said other things, I'm sorry, I'm also her.
You said, I get it, but.
I don't have an opinion about it. I just threw it out there. Yeah, a question.
I guess my bigger issue, if I could be honest with y'all, is there hasn't been enough. We actually met a young man earlier who's one of the youngest delegates at d n c's from Oklahoma's name was Antoine Jackson.
I thought, oh, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no no no.
I don't know what exactly.
There was, but I was just saying that my bigger issue is is the fact that there hasn't been as much.
I think since Monday, inter generation. I want to see more young folks.
That's what I was thinking.
Now.
Absolutely, it was like, why Bill Clinton didn't Nancy Pelosi?
No, I have some.
Of the young people, which man during that primetime moment. Jasmine Crockett was great, AOC was great. Keep that same energy. If they don't have big platforms yet, find the dopest person and create that platform like Barack Obama did.
I said that before you know the convention even happened. We were talking about just the lineups, and I was saying to myself, this is the week that the Democrats should showcase that new generation.
Right.
I want to see governor with Governor Shapiro, Governor Wes Moore, Jasmine Crocks.
It's more spoke today. So that was them.
So I didn't eve se him come up here.
Okay, he was much earlier, but that's my point, and that's my point.
Why was he so early?
That's right, And they don't even have them, like they weren't listed as prime time slots. When you saw the Week of Speakers, he was like, where where where? I don't even think Javin Crockett was on the lineup on Monday, she wasn't in the listing, she was.
Saying.
When you went to the schedule of speaker she was, she.
Was definitely in the lineup. I remember us talking about But you're saying an earlier version. Maybe earlier, maybe he had he had one embargo. Don't fancy pin This is.
A challenge though, I do think because as we expand the tent, you know, there are a lot of Republicans who have come over to call Republicans for Kamala Harris.
And I do.
I think we have to be vigilant and as we expand uh the tent on this side of the divide, we have to hold this party accountable to us. Do not extend the platform that we help build and uphold the infrastructure of this country to then accommodate these never trumpers who created this, uh, this predicament that we're in now. You cannot reward the people who helped to put this man in office, who changed their mind later by ignoring the interests of the people who have danced with you since the beginning that if that was what they did, No, I'm not, but we haven't seen it yet.
So I'm saying we have to continue to hold well.
We don't know because we haven't seen the other side of what this election looks like. So once it's a president Kamala Harris, we have to make sure this party does not start going out of their way to accommodate conservative Republican voters who they are consistently so excited to seduce.
That's I agree with you, Tiff.
I think right now that's important to do only because you have a woman of color at the top of the ticket and you still have not convinced those white people in the Midwest, you know that, to go out there and support her.
Yeah, we want to convince them.
I'm just saying, once you get in office, like, don't be trying to turn this into a Republican light.
Yeah, but that's why we have an agenda coming out of this convention which is sign sealed, you know, only prepared by Democrats.
Andrew.
You know, I'm just gonna have to eat crow real quick because as we're speaking, Latifa who is running for Congress in Barbaraly's old seat, literally Barbara.
Ly who was passed as a baton from Shirley Chisholm.
It's speaking, Uh, Latifa, who's running for and I cannot why can't I think that her last name right now, Latifa Simon is running for Congress out of Oakland.
She's speaking right now.
So I just was criticizing that we're not seeing that intergenerational pieceship right now.
So my business.
But this is after to This is after two institutional pieces, right, so it's like that's two older pieces.
But that's so this is still dope. It's more in prime time.
Good right like this is and we like her like she came up and she was hilarious. She's so dope, really smart. Shout out to our girl.
A g.
This is one of Alicia Garza's besties too.
So did was supposed to speaking it, I.
Think broke some news.
Op to come on the show either.
I think you just broke some news on this.
I didn't break news that that's started on CNN's website.
To surprise Angela.
No girl, but I'm gonna tell you what this.
Is, she coul We do know.
Tomorrow, Wow, tomorrow will be back. It was the day four of the Democratic National Convention, and we will be joined by some phenomenal guests and we will be so excited to hear from Madame Vice President Kamala Harris and see what her plans are for the country as we move forward. Y'all, it is seventy six days until the election.
Welcome home, y'all. And what do y'all say?
What do you say?
Yo yo yo yo? You unders him because it's his breakfast club too, we say welcome home. You want to say yo yo yo yo yo yo yo.
No?
I forgot how I close this show? I'm tired.
You can close. You can close it a union.
You want to say, welcome home.
We're going home.
You have to go to a suite.
I think home, y'all.
Welcome home, y'all. Well see you tomorrow.
Last morning.
Thank you for joining the Natives intentional with the info and all of the latest rock gulum and cross connected to the statements that.
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