The Breakfast ClubINTERVIEW: Hill Harper On Senate Run, Who Controls Our Money, Student Debt Relief, Biden Stepping Down + More
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Breakfast Club Morning, Everybody's teen j n V Jess hilarious, charlamage the guy.
We are the breakfast club. We got a special guest in the building. Indeed, got the brother Hill harp.
Yeah, good, good, good, good to be here. Man, this this is a new studio to me. This is beautiful. I haven't been in this this studio a.
Year and a half.
Yeah, year and a half. Yeah, it'd be two years in like January.
Maybe they gotta pull pull out couch.
Maybe I could just.
Exactly. It's very nice.
You got a bigger things to be doing, man, Yeah, Senate in Michigan. Run for US Senate in Michigan.
We're gonna we got this primary August sixth, which is a huge deal. Man. It's about turnout. We it's a huge challenge to get communities out because so many of our people don't even know what a primary is.
Right.
People come up, man, I'm vote for you in November.
I got you.
I'm gonna vote for you, and comlin, no, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. And I'm like dog, if you don't vote for me August six I won't be on the ballot in November. And in many ways I blame the Democratic Party for that. They show up with tens of millions of dollars in October saying save the country. Come on, come on, y'all, turn out, But they want to place their establishment candidates in the primary, so they want low turnout in the primary, so they're doing no GOTV work. So my campaign literally has to try to educate folks, this is why you need to vote. The primary is actually more important than the general because if you can't get the right candidates on the ballot in the general election, then you have a very limited choice. And therefore people keep saying, man, nothing changes.
Do you think that the Democratic Party wipe their ass with democracy by not having a primary to properly appoint a new top of the ticket for president?
You know, I don't know about that. I don't know because the time is so tight. You know, you're talking about less than one hundred days, so you know, it's almost that thing you kind of got to get in line and get organized. And you know, it's something I say all the time about many many of us that are you know, more progressive. I say, man, we can agree on nine things disagree on one and people are like, I can't work with them. And then you know the other side, they can disagree on nine, agree on one and go storm the Capitol together. So so I think that that, you know, when you look at the reality of the situation and timing wise, you got to make a decision and go. Folks have to line up, get behind folks and and and do that in that type of process.
Year though they were after for a year.
I mean, listen, I mean I think in hindsight, if I mean, we can even go back. I mean, you know, everything is much clearer in hindsight, right, I mean, Ruth beta Ginsburg should have stepped down, you know, I mean and made that decision. Uh. And certainly, I'm sure there would have been a process of uh President Biden having being able to do it in a way that you know, he's getting celebrated and all this, and it didn't feel like it's but day man, Sometimes I just say, you know, God is going to take care of things the way it's going to happen, you know, and that's just it. So so this this process is playing out the way it should.
Absolutely, But they also said it was a finance thing. Right, because Harris's name was on the ticket. It's easy to trans over, the transfer the funds over too.
They said that what we're talking about last year, like, you know, because I've been saying for the longest President Biden step down, but I just didn't think he could win in November. And I thought that was a fair question to ask. Is the Biden Harris ticket a winnable ticket in November?
Right?
So I've been asking that and people were saying last year they should primary them because everybody saw the decline.
Right, they saw it, So I mean it was it is definitely apparent. The question is, you know, is was that? And obviously, I mean, come on, I mean we saw what we saw. You can't unsee what you saw, right. You know, my mother's eighty six years old, God bless her. She lives with me in Detroit and me and my son, and you know, she's not moving the way she used to move, right, and that's not her fault. And she's one of the most brilliant people. First black female Lanta sez I is one of the first black female sez I was in the country. But at the end of the day, you know, time can't be for the two yes right time is one is undefeated.
That is a video of you fifteen years ago, right predicting that Kamala Harris was going to be the president.
That's right.
What did you see in her fifteen years ago that made you think that before people even knew who she was.
I think leadership tenacity. You know, at that time in two thousand and seven, Barack Obama had asked myself and Kamala to go to Iowa to stump for him to help him win the Iowa caucus. He felt that if he couldn't win the Iowa caucus, there was no way to win that primary because he was going up against establishment and establishment money, et cetera. And so folks stump for him. So we became friends. She asked me to contribute to her book, which I did. Eventually, I hosted the first fundraiser for her in southern California for her Attorney general's race, and then did some other things with you know, black professionals, different things, And that's where that quote was from, I introducing her to Black professionals event. And so you talk about someone with intelligence, someone who's work ethic, someone who you know just just also very passionate about wanting to make the world better and figure out ways to do that. And so there was no you know in my mind, you know, when I went to Harvard Law School with Barack. You know, you see things in people and you can see just who and how what they're made of, and and there's you know, you talk about uh, you know, there's there's a lot of things that I think that she's going to have to do to appeal you know, from a Michigan point of view, to clean up some of the problems with the Arab Muslim community in Michigan, et cetera. But she can do that work. There's an opportunity here. She can do that work. She can, she can, I believe, get that done.
I think her rhetoric around Israel and God that thus far has been stellar, I.
Really do, because we're not going to the net and Yahoo speech was it was definitely a step in the right direction. That was a step in the right direction, for sure.
Absolutely, But even the lame I mean, even when she says she's like, Israel does have the right to defend itself, but we still have to work towards a ceasefire. We need a ceasefire. As well watching innocent people get killed. You know, that's right, I mean, I and to me it's so big, it's common sense rhetoric. But for whatever reason, people are afraid to say that.
I say it all the time. There's no good war and there's no bad peace. I mean, that's just a simple fact. Is we want to save lives. At the end of the day. Humanity and human rights have to come first in every discussion. That's for everybody. And that's just. And the idea of if you say, you know, when I call for ceasefire, for instance, my social media got ratcheted down by ninety eight percent. And this is like last November when I called for I was one of the first US sent canons in the country to call for And the idea that if you're calling for ceasefire is some somehow that's pro terrorism or anti Israel or anti you know, human or this, it's not true. The thing is I can't stand terrorists. Terrorists, that's that's violence and malevolent and that's I can't stand hostages, that's violence and malevolence. But I also can't stand carpetbag carpet bombing, and and and and and ultimately covering places with indiscriminate bombing and killing women and children, and and and the injury and death death's toll. And so it's heartbreaking. I was in a meeting last night in Dearborn in Michigan with a number of folks from the Palestinian community, and their hearts are ripped out because they're seeing their family members and so. But at the same time, you have a whole set of folks who have you know, hostages have been taken and their hearts are broken. So there's so much pain and grief. But the idea is, how do we get to a place where we reduce the level of violence and the level of uh malevolent behavior. We can get there, but you don't get there through a bomb. We don't get there.
We had Governor Whitmer up here, and I'm gonna ask you the same thing, because you know you're in Michigan. How much of an impact do you think that's gonna happen November? Because when you see these hundreds of thousands of people who voted uncommitted, you know, you know during primaries, it's like, what do you think, how are you gonna that's what you November to be like? You know what we're going to show up Now.
Well, this may sound self certain, but I think if if I can come to and win this primary, we you know, at the top of the ticket in Michigan, Harris and Harper ticket there we're able to to unify those communities. Because the one thing I'm proud about, among among many things, with our campaign, as we'll be able to unify the Black community in Michigan as well as the Arab Muslim community. I have the endorsements from you know, most of the top leaders uh IN in Michigan that are from the Araban Muslim community, as well as the Arab American Political Action Committee, the Arab and Muslim Political Action Committee, but also all the endorsements from the top black political leaders, which is oftentimes communities that haven't come together. And so we have to figure out a way to unify communities. Because when you look back and you look at look at doctor King and Jim Crow, you look at Nelson Della and apartheid, we're in these types of seminal moments, chiros moments, moments that are inflection points, and this is one of them, and it's but it's reflective of a of a culture of violence in general. You know, there was two young two young kids, young people that were shot on the east side of Detroit just two weeks ago. Nineteen other people injured. And so violence is violence no matter of what happens on the east side of Detroit or if it's happening in Gaza. Death is death wherever it's happening. And are our eyeballs have to be about what how do we save humans? How do we create human rights, how we do create opportunity? That has to be our litmus test. It's not about trying to do political posturing.
Absolutely.
I was gonna ask you know last time you spoke about it a little bit. But for people that just tuning in now, you know, a lot of people will say they know you as an actor and a lot of the stuff that you did, But what got you into politics? What made you say? You know what, I'm gonna put this acting bag down, put it on hold for a little bit, and make sure.
My community is giving a good acting bag, good doctors, and don't remind it.
Don't remind you get a lot of please don't. At the end of the day, when I got into acting, I wanted to be like actors that were activists, Harrab Belafonte, Ozzie Davis. So I did, I did the movie, get on the bus with Ozzie. I got to sit next to him for you know, God rest his soul for weeks on end and him just counseling me talking about when Malcolm X would come to the house and doctor King and he did what he would do. Gil Scott Herron, you know, all this and one have impact, you know, in that kind of way that moves the meter. And it's clear that the days through that entertainment lens are gone. There is a level of collusion and corruption in our federal government through basically because of Citizens United. I mean, you know, many people think that the reaction to Obama presidency was the Tea Party. I think that's the beer. The true reaction to Obama presidency was Citizens United in twenty ten that said money is speech, called corporations people, and allowed unfettered dark money to rein into our political system electropolitic. Okay, okay, so check it out. So there was a court ruling that basically said, no matter who you are, you could spend unlimited money to get somebody elected and you don't even have to report who it is and how it's that's called dark money. That's dark money. So like a foreign country could be doing it if they if they washed the money through the process, yes they could. And so you don't know every time it Just for folks out there, every time you see an ad that says paid for by Patriots for America or paid for by moving Michigan for you know, pay whatever that is, just think a dark money or think whatever that is because you don't know it's called an independent expenditure. You don't know who paid for that. You don't know what it is. And the threats that have come at me, I've called for, like, for instance, shutting down a Line five, which is an oil pipeline that runs in our Great Lakes. Right, twenty one percent of the world's fresh water supply touches Michigan shores, and and it gets most of the benefit of this oil. I want to shut it down. So Enbridge, the oil company has they have independent expenditures, right, so they want to make sure someone like me doesn't get elected, right, and they're going to spend money to do that, to smear me, smear your name, et cetera. Right, because they have an interest. Same thing with the NRA and the gun lobby, Same thing with APAK, the American Israel Political Action Committee, Same thing with big oil, big pharma, big farmers. Spent three hundred and seventy five million dollars on elections in twenty twenty two. They're on course to spend over the four hundred million in twenty twenty four. So people know intrinsically that they're not being represented. They know that the big donors, the dark money is representing them. You know, seventy four percent of Michigan Democrats are in favor of sees fire, less than ten percent of the federal delegation has called for it. That's because of the money, right, that's because they've been bought. And so I'm running to show that you don't have to be bought. I say I won't be bought, I won't be lost, I won't be bullied. They offer me twenty million dollars to drop out of my Senate race and primary Rasheeta to leave. Right, they think that money that everyone's on the take, that only people just want power, and people just want money. But if you're not for sale, you can actually charte a path that represents people over politics, over party. I'm running to actually hold both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party accountable because they both have been derelict to so many community.
But it seems like it seems like every party has been bought. It just seems like you could see where people, you know, whether it's it's the gun lobbying or whatever it is, it seemed like everybody's being brought.
It seems like that's the thing in politics.
That's right, but money, See, money doesn't vote. People vote, and that's and see, this is what the big challenge has been. How do you get people to understand they still have the power even though they look and they're like, there's something. I was at the gas pump the other day and so I drive an F one fifty. So it costs over one hundred dollars to fill it up. And so the dudes I'm up and next toe he's say like, man, this is so expensive. And I said, yeah, did you know that your tax dollars are given big oil literal tax breaks. He's like, and the price are going up? He said yeah, And I said, did you know that virtually all Chevron exce on mobile all of them are posting over one hundred billion in profits every quarters. He's like, well, how come my prices are like this, I'm saying, because there's collusion, corporate collusion between your federal representatives and big oil. Right, and so people are like, they know something's wrong. They know they're getting the short end of the stick. They just can't figure out why. Because it's dark it's dark money. And so if we don't get rid of citizens United our democracy is done.
Okay, I'm sorry, No, no, go ahead, go ahead. I want to go back to what you said about the because I read that or I saw that somewhere where they offered you. I know, I didn't know how much it was. You said, twenty million dollars.
To go a giins receetd to me or talk no no no, to run against her. So, so the idea would be, I was, I'm running for United States Senate and I'm running against one of their CA antidates that they back. So APAC backs my opponent. Okay, so they would get a two fer Rashida to leave is the public enemy number one for them, right they you know, they just got rid of Jamal Bowman, right. So, but but she's even more.
Targeted, and Corey Bush. They got to talking on court.
They're going they're going after Corey Busch. And so so the guy down in Missouri took the deal, that same deal I was offered. So Wesley Bell was running for US Senate down there in Missouri. He took the deal, left the Senate race and and ran against Corey Bush. So so so what they did is they figure everybody's for sale, and they they figured with you know, there's no way ten million, ten million in hard dollars, which would be they raise the money, they bundle it for you. You know, they go out in thirty three hundred dollars increments. That's the max you can get for the primery. So they'll go out and bundle the money through through their network in thirty three hundred dollars increments. That's ten million and hard dollars and then ten million what they call soft dollars. That's a nice way of saying dar money that we talked about already, and that's unlimited. So they just they find a big donor most you know, a couple of big donors to stroke million dollar checks and then you get ten million in soft, ten million in hard much in your pocket. You know, there's none in the pocket. It's to win, right, They're they're they're giving that money to to win this camp. This is all campaign dollars, right, And so so they think that everybody wants that badge on the lapel to be in Congress. That's why you're running for office, not to actually help people, right. They think that you want power more because that's what they want, right, And that's what we're filled with. We're filled with a Congress of representatives that are more interested in power maintenance and helping people. And and that's what we as people have to realize, and we have to start electing candidates that actually want to help people and they're not interested in just powermats. That's because look at both both the Republican Democratic Party are complicit and not wanting to get rid of Citizens United. Because if you really wanted to represent people first, you'd be wanting to get rid of it. You don't, you would, you would not want to have it. It's going to take a constitutional amendment to do it, or expanding the court to get a new court ruling to get rid Oficisians United.
That's my biggest issue with the Democratic Party always is that they lack courage. I believe that they try a lot of political strategies, but courage and then one of them. That's why it was, you know, refreshing to see President Biden stepped down, whether they pushed them out, whatever it was, it was just refreshing to see that. But all these things that you're described or now, it takes courage to do. It takes courage to expand the Supreme Court. It takes courage to make these constitutional amendments.
I don't know if they have it. That's why we got to take it. I mean, that's that's the thing. I mean, my friend said to me the other day, Hey said, hell man, you're trying to save the Democratic Party from itself, you know, because at the end of the day, you're right, it's losing it. It's you know, it's losing its way, losing its sole and we got to bring it back because of the you know, people are checking out. I mean, when you just start to see and that's the challenge here, voter apathy. People are sole It's like that study, you know when the professor would shock the dog, the dog jumped and they kept it on the same setting and the next time a shock that the dog only jumps so high. Eventually the dog stop jumping. And that's what we've done to people in the electorate. People have seen so much corruption and they're seeing so much inaction that they've stopped voting and participating. And I'm trying to wake people up. It's like that scene out of school Days, wake up, trying to get people to say, we have an opportunity. Just in Michigan with my race, I'm running against someone who didn't co sponsor the George Floyd Justinson Policing Act, didn't co sponsor Medicare for All, actually voted to not fund the state Department to study the gods of health ministries death and injury records. I mean, I don't even know how you make that vote. I mean, obviously I do when you're getting funded from the other side, and that's how you make that vote. But the point being, we have an opportunity here to grab a US Senate seat. The US Senate, one hundred people in this country control the distribution of seven point two trillion dollars. People don't realize that. People think, oh, the president, the executive branch does not control the money y'all, it's the United States Senate. And if you if you know, if you want your money to be used for overseas violence or do you want to be used for healthcare at home? You want your money to go to the undergirding and giving tax breaks to big oil or big farmer? Do you want it to go to public education? That is directly who you put in the US Senate.
That's it.
And and but if we check out like like like I'm seeing so many foot man, it doesn't matter. I ain't voting. I don't even know what the primary is. I mean, I can't do this. If we do that, we have lost. Don't be the dog that stops jumping. We have a chance. This is this is an open US sendency. Now I'm only run against one person. I need one more vote than one person, and we and an activist, an activist can grab a Senate seat. It's unprecedented the opportunity we have. It's just hard to convince people to move.
Have you asked the I know you're in President Obama real close friends. Yeah? Have you asked them to endorse you yet? Yeah?
Yeah, he said that he would not endorse. He thinks it's not right for a former president to endorse in an open uh In party race. Right, so that's a primary and an open primary. He's like, hell, you win it. Obviously I'll come in and indoors. Uh you against the Republican person. Now at the end of the day, Uh, he's always done what is the right thing, because that's actually the proper thing to do, right, that's the right thing to do.
It's all because nobody on the other side.
There nobody on the other side, right, And well that's the thing.
Nobody on this side does the right thing too much.
When you think about this, there is that thing when you say they go they go low, we go high. The problem with that is you get your legs cut off.
That's the triangle offense in twenty twenty four that won a lot of championships in the nineties.
Okay, no, and and so you know, all I can do is try to fight to let people know, inform people, educate people, and hopefully create this turnout. Because there's no question I got the most supporters. The question is can I convert those supporters to vote because so many people like black. Turnout in Michigan in the last Democratic primary was less than ten percent. That's like you count ten people one person voted. I mean, I can't win. I can't win with that turnout. It's impossible. But if we don't start to realize we got to start taking our power back. We gotta own our power, we gotta grab it. If we don't start doing that, I'm talking about this is not even just my election. I'm talking about across the board. I'm talking about owning businesses. I'm talking about owning our education. I'm talking about owning our vote, owning our ability to self determination, all of that. If we don't start acting like that and understanding the power in that, we truly are lost. Because you know, surely Chisham said it. I mean, come on, this is a long time ago. So she said, if you don't have a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. Why because you have to have a seat at the table. And I say, if you don't have to see the table, you're on the menu, because that means you're getting ordered rather than do an ordering. And we and that's the situation we find ourselves, and we do want to empower ourselves. That's why this, this what you're doing here is so important because it's I believe it seeps into people's minds and be like, Okay, this conversation was important. You know what, I do have power. I do have the ability to affect and have some self determination. I can actually move my household, my community, my city, my state, my country, and my vote actually matters. And it does, or they wouldn't work so hard to make sure you don't vote.
Why did your opponent cancel debate?
Well, she is canceled every debate. We were supposed to have five debates across the state. She's pulled out of every single one of them. It's disrespectful. It's disrespectful to the voter. It's disrespectful to be you know, because she's she's doing a runout the clock mentality where if she has all the money, she has a lot more money than I do, so she's able to run ads and she just thinks ads do it, you know. And what she doesn't want is her really problematic voting record exposed. I mean, she's horrible in so many issues, and she's been wrong. You know, she voted against student loan debt relief in twenty twenty. How do you sixty How do you even make that but sixty three percent of black wealth goes to paying down student loan debt. Student loan debt is crushing. It's a regressive tax. If you're wealthy, and this has none to do with race. If you're wealthy, you can prefund your kids' education and therefore they're not saddled with lifelong debt. If you're not wealthy and you come from poor communities, you have to take out student long debt, and then what happens is you have lifelong debt and your education costs four x five x, seven x ten x more than somebody else. It is a regressive, wrong way tax and hidden costs on someone's life. And how you're going to vote against that, I don't even know how you make that vote debt. And that's an example. She doesn't want that exposed. So that's why she doesn't want a debate.
The stuff like you know, like you would be the first black US ended a Michigan indust right. What does that mean to you?
It means in a state that has so much proud history of black political activism and representation, the fact that we've never had a senator is crazy. I mean, you're talking about the state that had Coleman Alexander Young, who's the pioneering mayor. I mean, you know, Atlanta would not be what Atlanta is but for Coleman Young, right, he showed Maynor Jackson the way. Right, you have a Carolyn Cheeks kill Patrick, and then you have the legend John Conyers. You know, and watch this. For the first time in fifty seven years, Michigan does not have a black Democratic representative in the federal delegation. That's out of thirteen House of Representative seats and two Senate seats. It's ridiculous, the lack of representation. So yes, I would be the first, you know, we would break that cycle and also be the first black Senator. It would be huge. And this is why got to remember, though, everybody who's listening, even if you're not from Michigan, the US Senate is a federal body that makes decisions that covers everybody. So sure, I'd be the senator from Michigan, but what I would be fighting for would cover off everybody. Let's just take I'm gonna take George full of justice and policing. It's passed, it has passed the House of Representatives, but it never got through the Senate because someone was not there to be able to champion and fight for it and demand it. And you talk about no knock. When I say this stuff is a matter of life or death, it's not hyperbole, it's not exaggeration. No knock warrants, having a national database for police who misconduct these are things that are part of that that we got to get done. And you know, and in funding, funding for public education, funding for health care, all of these different things, common sense gun laws, these are things that we can get done federally, women's reproductive freedom, black maternal health. I mean, all these different things that have to get done that covers everybody. And that's why I'm surprised and invite people in to obviously support the campaign, because this is to be a national movement to grab this seat, and then we should pick off another seat in the next cycle, and pick off another seat in the next cycle. From a national perspective, there's only been twelve black US centers in the history of the country. If we had twelve right now, we'd still be underrepresented in terms of population. Right There's been a higher percentage of black US presidents than black US senators. It's the toughest position to get in. Then yes, Wow, so it's one out of forty six. I'm not a math genius Charlemagne, but that's two point two percent, twelve out of two thousand and three. Wow, that's zero point five percent.
Wow.
Think about that and why? The reason why is the real powers in the sent When I was at Harvard Law School, my constitution law professor would say all the time, the real powers in the Senate. It's the most powerful deliberative body in politics in the world because one hundred people make the decision about two crucial things in this country. Number one, confirming lifetime appointments of federal judges. We see how that affects us down the line. And number two, deciding how your money gets spent.
It's not glorified.
People don't talk about the Senate as much as they talk about being president, or talk about vice president, or talk about even some of the other things.
It's just not glorified.
The president doesn't control the money, right, you know, My grandmama used to say, if you want to know someone's priorities, if you want to know an institution or a person, see how they spend their money. And that's what it is you know, Mark Pocan and Barber put Forth the bill called People over the Pentagon. It was one hundred billion dollar reduction in Pentagon spending. You know, we have we have people in office that keep rubber stamping the National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA two percent, raises three percent. All of that doing is fattening the pockets and Department of Defense contractors. We virtually have a US Senate of people that have been bought and this is real. They've been bought by DD contractors, they've been bought by Big Pharma. They've been bought, and they make decisions based off that, not decisions in support of the people's best interest. And that's what people have to realize. Don't check out because of that, lean in because of that, take it back because of that, And that's the energy that's happening. If we give up, we've actually lost to the money interest in the corporate collusion. We got to lean in because people vote. We still have the power if we understand our power and lean in.
Grab it's new tax. What's your no new tax pledge? What is that?
Oh say, that's a pledge that the money's already there right The seven point two trillion annual budget. It was for the annual budget on Obama was four point two trillion, and that included bank bailouts, and then it went up to six point two COVID and Trump, and now we're up to seven point two. We can't just keep taking taking people's money because at the end of the day, all that money is going to, like I said, DoD contract is not going to actually solve the problems that people need healthcare, education, affordable housing. Imagine that, right, It's not going back to the people. So we're gonna keep taking the middle classes and the working classes money because that's literally the working classes and middle classes are literally who's supporting this country, right, Because if you make too much, you won't qualify for the earned income tax credit, and if you if you and then if you don't make enough to have offshore accounts and LLCs to hide your money, so you're really not paying your fair share. All of a sudden, who's really holding enough. We don't need to take more people's money, We need to spend it differently.
That's the key I want to ask you, because you're a constitutional laws resident.
Well, I went to Harvard Law School. I got my juris doctorate.
Yes, Okay, Why aren't more people talking about the Supreme Court being an illegitimate institution? Why aren't more people just calling out the Supreme Court saying it's corrupt? Because my fear, and I've said this to every elected official that's come up here, let's just say the VP wins in November, Donald Trump challenges the results of the election in light of all the recent rulings, the wilder rulings, the Supreme Court is done from presidential community, accepting bribes, all of that. What makes us think they wouldn't overturn the results of an election and then it would be a constitutional crisis? Why not declare a constitution from crisis now while you still got Democrats in office?
Well, I mean I think, I think there's a couple of things. But you're absolutely right. I mean you, but but this isn't new. You go back to the Bush v.
Gore.
That's right, you know, our Gore. A lot of these problems we have now we probably wouldn't even exist in this country. Again, I'll Gore won that election.
There's no question. I was sitting in my wife's dorm room. I wasn't even into politics, like that. But I used to always be watching CNN, and I'm watching and they announced them as the president. Right, they announced al going to the president.
And the court took up. So so a couple of things have to happen. I think that there's no question we need reform. I wrote an op ed about judicial reform. We need to expand the court. When the court was said at nine justices, there were thirty eight million people in this country. Now we have three hundred and sixty million, plus tens of millions that aren't even countered in that number. Right, So we need more people. They need they need to handle a bigger case load. I want to see to expand to fifteen justices. Number one, number two. I do believe that there should be a term limit in terms of how long you're on the Supreme Court. I believe you should still get a lifetime appointment to the federal bench, because we don't We want to try to limit the corruption and we don't want it to be like Congress, where you know, the private enity say hey, you going to be out in two years. You know, rule this way, and we're going to make you a partner and pay you millions of dollars and so so. But you only serve on the Supreme Court for eighteen years and then you cycle off. And that way, if it's on a cycle, every president could appoint two justices and then you don't have the jerremandering of withholding appointments and all the stuff that we've seen happen. So the system has to change the way the appointments has to change. We can fix it by systemically. It's just like anything else. You know, what's that quote by the guy I think it was John Clear or something like that. He says, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. We have broken systems now in government, citizens United We have a broken system of the Supreme Court and the way the appointments happen. We have broken systems that we have to fix for our democracy. And so if we don't fix the systems, You're right, you're going to continue to see these results. And there's no question it could play out the way you just said it.
Absolutely. I don't see why people don't think it will. Yeah, I mean he challenged it in twenty twenty, right, that's right. I just don't think in light of everything that they've done recently, I don't see why they wouldn't overturn it this year.
If it's close, that's why you know it shouldn't. It can't be close, you know, and in that state by state, right, and but there's no reason to think it won't be closed. One. Yeah, but that's the popular vote. So so here's an interesting statistic about the Supreme Court. You know, only one of the Republican appointees has been appointed by a president that won the popular vote. Only one.
Wow.
That that's wild. So you're literally talking about a representation in the on the highest court appointed by individuals who won the presidency that did not win more individual votes by.
Americans would be that one.
No, no, no, And I'm saying Republican Clarence Thomas, right, so so so George Bush one, you know that the first one. He So you think about this, think about how the manipulation of the system has happened to create the ability to govern by a minority rule. And but that's historic too. I mean you go back to I mean, listen, we got two senators in every state, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota. They got fewer people the Metro Detroit and they got two senators each. And so there's no question that there is an imbalance. And that's why I say to people, when we got an opportunity to grab a Senate seat, we need to grab at it, you know, because it's already imbalanced with with the fact that those those states like that that are solo population have two senators. I mean, California has forty million people. Niggas got two senators, you know what I mean, that's wild, that's wild.
If you lose, would you go back to acting?
Man? Haven't I've been working so hard, I haven't eve thought about it, you know. Maybe you know, I've never been the type of person that's think anything I do, I just I go all in and and then you know, I don't do plan bs. I've never imagined plan bees.
They still reaching out to you, agents to reaching out to you for parts and stuff.
I don't even know. I don't even talk to them. Yeah, yeah, it's not it's not even that, man, it's you know, I mean, I really and this may sound crazy to y'all, but like on the show, like The Good Doctor, I was saving lives, you know, and pretend and I really feel in this world, I can save lives for real, And so I'm so being so all in on it and just working as hard as I can, meeting people. And because I truly still believe, and maybe it's a Pollyannis view and maybe I'm totally delusional, I still believe. You meet people where they are, you look them in the eye, they feel you. Ultimately, we can win. If you do the right thing, we can win. And that's why I tell my eight year old son. So if I'm telling my eight year old son that, I gotta believe it. But he did say to me the other day, he said, Daddy, are you gonna win? And I said, if more people vote for me than the other person, I win. He said, well, but are you going to I said, I don't know. But the only thing I control, I said. I can't control the outcome, but I can control how hard I work. And so that's it, just working as hard as I can and allowing people to into the process. Senators get to hire sixty tow one hundred people think about this, No one even thinks about it, and I go everywhere else. How many y'all know you've had two senators your whole life?
How many.
Y'all know ten people that worked in those offices. No hands go five people, no hands go, three people, no hands go, two people, one person. People don't even know it's the most powerful federal body in their life that should be giving them direct constituency services. But they never even meant anybody that they've been completely under unrepresented. And that's what we have to change. We have to rethink what the Senate is. Senate has to be service. It can't be what it's been, which has basically bought politicians. Trying to figure out how to spend your money and distribute it in a way that's not in your best interest doesn't make sense.
I got one more question. What changes do the Democratic Party need to make now that they do have this new energy we've seen like over the last week and a half. You know what Vice President Kamala Harris, the way she's energized the party, the way she seemed to have bought in the party together. But what changes do the Democratic Party need?
I think you said it originally courage. Courage is my favorite word in the English language etymology or the rule of the word. If you speak French, you know at me his heart you gotta get it back to the heart and not you know, everybody, you can see the fake. You can see the fake. And that's what crushed Hillary Clinton. You know, I met you know, I got invited over to her house one time in Washington and I walked in with my friend who had worked for them, and I met this woman with some jeans and a T shirt charming, smart, funny, and I literally was sitting there having a glass of wine looking at her as just the three of us, and I'm staying in my head, if this woman had run for president, she would have wiped the floor. But that pants suit over fake version, there's no I don't The person I met in the living room was completely different and so in the same thing they were doing with propping up President Biden, that's not in the best interest of people. It's very easy, open up your heart. What's in the best interests of people? It's not about over coaching somebody. It's not about trying to prop them up and figuring out the machinations of how do we win. It's about doing the right thing. And if the Democratic Party gets back to that core, then we'd win every election, because how are you losing an argument to a populace on the other side. It just doesn't make sense. People are literally voting against their own self interest because they feel more authenticity from the other side.
Yeah, simple, I say it all the time, even with the Vice President's That's what I've been happy to see a lot more over the last few months, but especially over the last couple of weeks. The person that we know that we've had conversations with off the air, the heart that we see, we're starting to see that we are. And if we see that over the next hundred days, it won't it won't even be close.
I completely agree. And that's why I hope someone doesn't get in your ear and starts to try to over coach, and I don't think it'll happen. You know why, because it's not like she's got meaning. It's almost like, once you're in the seat, you can relax. So, yeah, she's not trying to outcompete somebody, and so it's not trying to figure out, well, what do I do to outcompete. It's just like, just be yourself because you already got it. You already got the experience, you already have the intelligence, you already have the infrastructure. Now just listen. You could be more bold, more full of heart and bring that it's beautiful. I think we're in a great inflection moment in this country, and I'd love to be her partner in the Senate for sure.
Now, if people want to support you, how can he support you?
They go straight to Hill Harper dot com. And your support means so much. We are one week away from August sixth, the election, and there's early voting happening right now, and basically anything that comes in now what we do is put a right back out for voter education. We buy time on radio, we buy time on television and all of that just to say, let people know we win this thing if enough people actually go vote. You know, no question. High turnout we win. Low turnout, we lose. That's just that's the real and so we have to it was a campaign. So if you go to Hill Hopper dot com, two dollars makes a difference, y'all. That's real. He buys a yard sign, It does all this stuff that we can actually repurpose quickly.
So thank you all right, Well he'll hop o.
Ladies and gentlemen, make sure you go out and vote August sixth in Michigan, and it's the Breakfast Club.
Good morning, wake that ass up in the morning.
The Breakfast Club
