The Breakfast ClubINTERVIEW: Ro Khanna & Ja Moore Talk Building Wealth, Bridging The Gap With Technology, Trump Vs. Harris + More
The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Ro Khanna & Ja Moore To Discuss Building Wealth, Bridging The Gap With Technology, And Trump Vs. Harris. Listen For More!
Wake that answer up in the morning.
Breakfast Club Morning, everybody is the j Envy Jess, hilarious, Charlamagne the guy we are to Breakfast clublow on the roster filling in for jests. We got some special guests joining us this morning. We got us representative of Ocanna from California and we got jay A. Moore from South Carolina.
Well fal Carolina state representatives.
Welcome.
How y'all feeling to say?
Great to be on, to be here. You guys have gone next level in terms of your show.
We've been working, working, you know, it's interested in every election season. You know, we get we you know, we're a stop for people. So I guess that's a good thing.
Great deal.
I think it's great.
I mean I was on, as you may remember, a couple of years ago when the during the pandemic. But since then, I think, uh, you know, people in the mainstream media now have figured out that they've got to come on this show and they're listening absolutely.
So what do you guys think about the rally over the weekend in New York and Madison Square Guard What were your thoughts?
Here's the thing, you know, Maya Angelo once said that words are things, and you've got to be careful about how you use words.
Now, I'm a.
Free speech person, but that doesn't mean old speech is good speech. And we teach our kids to be thoughtful about how they use words because of respect. We have had this situation in this country that if you think something is funny, that somehow that's a license to insult people. Just because something is funny doesn't mean that you can denigrate people based on their race and gender and just say.
Oh, okay, I was just making a joke. I thought the vile.
Attacks on racial groups in the context of a political rally was horrendous and someone needs to say, yeah, okay, you can have humor, but not everything in this country can be justified just because it's funny.
I just thought it was bad politics.
It's like, you know, a week before the election, you know, and you know you you're gonna need Latino people, you're gonna need Black people, you're gonna need you Ash people. You just put somebody up there to insult them. It's kind of crazy.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just another misstep by the Trump campaign and Trump himself. It was a I don't know it was in I don't even know if it was desperate and I was just nuts.
It didn't make sense.
I don't know why you would, you know, would all due respect I'm a Knicks fan, with all due respect to New York, why you would do a rally in New York anyway when it's not a battleground state it was a political didn't make sense.
It was a terrible move on this part.
What's the stop Wall Street, Landlord, leg bro.
You know what's going on right now is private equity. These big companies. They're buying up single family homes, and they're buying up largely in working class neighborhoods. And by doing that, they're making the prices of these homes go up, and they're making the prices of rents go up. And you're in my tax dollars or subsidizing them. So this says, up giving them a subsidy. You shouldn't have Wall Street firms getting tax dollars to go buy up single family homes. And by the way, they're doing them largely in black and brown communities across this country, and it's outrageous.
And so what are you all trying to stop?
Exactly stops the subsidies.
So right now, Freddie mac Fanny May basically finance their loans if they want to get a mortgage to buy up these homes. Four hundred and five hundred thousand, Freddie Mack and Fanny May are giving them subsidized loans with your tax dollars. We're saying no subsidies, no tax dollar subsidies for them. The reason it started is after the two thousand and eight crash, property values were totally depressed, and it made sense to say, okay, we needed some Wall Street investment to rebuild the home market. But that was two thousand and eight. It's now twenty twenty four and the prices are through the roof. People can't afford houses. It's one of the two things we could do, the biggest things to get housing more affordable. One is to stop subsidizing private equity institutional investors.
The other is to build more housing.
If you stop Wall Street from doing it, how do you make it the way people from the community can actually purchase those not just purchase those homes, but have the equity to reinvest into those homes and you know, renovate them.
Well, that's a big, big question.
Why home ownership has gone down. The biggest source of wealth. You know, home ownership is about sixty two percent in the white community, forty five percent in the black community.
One, you need to.
Build more homes so that you can bring the price down. But you know the bottom line is you got to have higher paying jobs. I mean, you've had jobs in this country with the working in middle class stagnate in wages. And one of the reasons I wanted to come on and JA and I've been working on is you know, I represent Silicon Valley twelve trillion dollars of value, Apple, Google, Intel, and Vidia.
We've got to create those.
High paying jobs in many other parts of America.
For you look at the bulk of wealth.
Generation in this country over the last forty years, a lot of it has come out of technology, and whether it's high paying manufacturing or high paying technology jobs. We've got to actually do that in communities so people could go have a salary to buy a house.
We built We.
Did a summit A and I and others in Claflet with forty historically black colleges and universities. We got Apple there, we got Google there, we got Nvidia, we got Microsoft. They've created a program seventy one percent placement rate, eighteen month course, ten hours a week. You end up with a sixty five to one hundred thousand dollars job in different technology skills. It doesn't even require coding. We've got to create more opportunities for people to actually build wealth in a modern economy. That's how they're going to be able to afford housing.
What what's your thoughts on you know, some people believe that these huge companies that you've name should be taxed more, and some people feel like they shouldn't be taxed as much. Give them the tax benefits because if not, they can take their business overseas. What are your thoughts on that.
They should be taxed?
I mean, look, we're producing in my district more wealth in one zip code than anywhere that has ever been produced in the history of humanity. You can tax these people more. Some of them aren't even paying Some of the companies aren't even paying the full tax because they are avoiding through having some of their operations offshore. And certainly you can tax the stock buybacks that they engage in more. You can tax them once they are passing money down to their kids more to provide people with the basic things healthcare, education, childcare. But here's and that's what Kamala Harris wants to do. But here's the thing. Just taxing the wealth is not enough. Just taxing and redistribution is not enough. We've got to figure out in this country, how are we going to get people to actually build wealth. How are we actually going to get people to have good paying jobs. How are we actually going to have wealth generation opportunities. Why in the world is it that all of the wealth largely has been concentrated in a few cities. Why is it that we're fine with black people, with Lataino people being users of technology. You know, all of the clips you have, they go viral, they're all over. You wouldn't have social media if it weren't for the creators of content. But where are they in the boardrooms? Where are they in the founder as founders? Where are they at venture capitalists? I taught at Stanford. My kids used to get funding before they had an idea. You know why, because they had the right email address, just like I had to fight to get on this show, Charlot min show.
You got to know the right people.
Well, a lot of people have to fight to get on venture, to get in the board the room with the venture capitalists. They have no idea how to get funding. Now, why am I passionate about this because when the Indian American community came here post sixty five, and there's a long history, and I just go into it for a one minute, because Vice President Harris went to Howard University, and it gets to this whole Trump thing with are you South Asian or are you black? The reality is there's a deep tie. Mordecai Johnson from Howard University went to India. He learned about Gandhi. Nineteen forty nine. He's speaking at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. A young doctor King is in the audience, and he talks about Satiegra in the freedom movement. My grandfather spent four years in jail alongside Gandhi as part of the Indian independence moment. King and John Lewis take those teachings. King has a Bible and the Gandhi Reader with him at all times. You go to his house today, it has those two books. And it leads to not just the Civil Rights Act, it leads to the nineteen sixty five immigration reformat that allows my parents to come to the United States. Indians and others weren't allowed to come to the United States. You know who hires the Indian American community when we come here in terms of jobs, It's not Stanford. It's not Harvard. You know who hired Nicky Haley's father, an HBCU historically Black college. By the way, they hired all of the Jewish professors who came when they were leaving the Holocaust. It wasn't Harvard or Stanford. Now you look today, I'm a product of the Civil Rights moan. I wouldn't be born in the United States. My parents won't be here. What is the endowment of Stanford University where I taught? Forty billion dollars? He had one hundred HBCUs. They've produced Doctor King, They've produced John Lewis, They've produced WB du Bois, They've produced thurgand Marshall, They've produced Kamala Harrison. What is the endowment of all hundred of those HBCUs combined?
Four billion?
One? Has Stanford produced Martin Luther King? Has it produced WB?
D Boys?
Now they got forty billion dollars? The HBCUs have four billion dollars one tenth all of them of one university, and then they're wondering, why is it that we don't have economic opportunity in this country. So my view is, yes, you got a tax the people. It's a valley, but we need massive economic investment in these HBCUs, in in young people to give them an actual opportunity.
To build wealth.
Biden Harris providing additional additional funding of seventeen billion.
They did, they did, but it was one time. It was an American rescue plan. And that's one of the things I think the Vice President needs to talk more about.
And she has, you know that, But it was one time.
Why can't we have ten billion dollars a year for historically black colleges and universities?
You know what we do?
We say, Oh, you're not at our one school, research one school, Well how are you going to be in research one school?
You don't have a resource.
Well you don't have the resource.
Let me ask you a question, though, right, So I believe in you, and I feel like, especially our community, most of our generational wealth starts from home ownership, right passed down from generations to generations. One question I do have is sometimes when they put these laws into effect, it just doesn't affect the people they are trying to get. It affects other people. Let me break it down, right, So, for instance, my dad was a police officer. A police officer he retired. My mother worked at a life insurance company. Didn't make a lot of money. They saved all their life. They bought their first house with twenty eight thousand dollars right, lived in that house for forty six years, So now it's worth let's say, five hundred thousand dollars, six hundred thousand dollars. When they pass they pay taxes on that house. They paid everything that they needed to pay for the rest of their life. When they passed that house down to their child, they have to pay taxes on that. That child who gets that house has to pay taxes on that. Again, that's behind the buck for somebody that's trying to make it. Now, if this was somebody else, like let's say Donald Trump that received a million dollar loan and his family has wealth, I understand it. But how can somebody in these communities create wealth when they're getting taxed twice like somebody else. They don't don't have the same tax breaks, they don't know the same accountants. That's my only problem when I hear some of these things, because I get it, Yes, people have to pay their fair share. When you have people that come from those communities that are trying to create generational wealth for the first time, first time millionaires, first time people making five hundred thousand dollars, it affects and hurt them as well.
Especially too, because a lot of times in those situations, by the time it's passed down to that second or third generation, the mom, dad, grandmother may owe money that now you inherit and it's a lumpsum. So it's not just like, oh, I got to pay the tax for this year. It might be like a lot of money that they've just been figuring it out and now you know, and now it's in your lap and you got to figure that out or you don't own that house anymore.
So what do you say to those people are saying like, yeah, I agree, but you know, my mom just saw she paid twenty eight thousand, I sold it for five hundred thousand, and now they're taking forty percent taxes on property that she already paid tax. How can they create generational wealth when they're starting behind the eight ball already.
I hear you.
I think we should have an exemption for passing down your actual house house to family. Maybe exempt the first two million or up to three five million, and we could figure it out, and that's not going to cost the federal government a lot of revenue. You know what's going on right now, because while you're taxing the guy you're talking about, or daughter you're talking about, or is getting a half a million dollar house passed to them, and they're having to pay tax. At the same time, you got these multi billionaires in my district in Silicon Valley. They buy Facebook stock for one thousand bucks, that stock goes up to one hundred thousand, They pass that stock, they don't pay capital gains tax on it. Then they pass that stock down to their kids, and their kids don't pay any of the appreciation. So you've got a rigged system that is hurting the working and middle class from building wealth and allowing the top one percent to continue to build without paying tax. And the Republicans are very clever. Every time we say we want to tax that top one or ten percent, and they talk about all the other eighty percent, They said, your taxes are going to go up but the Democrats have to say is no, you're working class, you're middle class. You want to build wealth, We're going to give you an exemption. We're going to shift the tax burden to the multi millionaires who have benefited from this system. But one more point to you, and look, I'm all for home ownership. I think home ownership is we've got to figure out more ways to get the disparity not to be sixty two percent in the white community of forties low forty percent of the black communities. But technology, here's what I fundamentally believe. It's a generational opportunity to overcome the racial wealth generation gap. One generation the.
Black community was excluded.
In the agricultural revolution with the loans from the USDA that we're targeted excluding the manufacturing revolution. Shame on US as a country in twenty twenty four. If we exclude communities from the digital revolution, there is an opportunity in one generation to build extraordinary wealth with AI, with new technology, with new industry. And that's what I want to try to say, is why don't we get these opportunities to do more of the community so they actually can build wealth that you never will overcome the racial wealth generation gap just with taxation and redistribution unless you overcome the racial wealth generation gap.
Thank you, okay, And that's one of the reasons I'm here too.
The work that Roe and I are working on, there's a nonprofit organization based in Charleston, South Carolina called the Next It Girl.
And what it does.
It works for girls from eight to twenty two, black girls, girls of color, introducing them to technology careers and concepts. Is a program that we're starting out in Charleston, branches in Atlanta, Georgia, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The work that Rowe has been doing around connecting Silicon Valley with black and brown communities and rural communities all over the country is vitally important. We can I mean, we we see the growth opportunities and technology and we have to really invest in that. And let me go back to your your other question about homeownership, especially when talking about past down economics inheritance. One thing I also think we need to do, and it's the work I've been doing in South Carolina, is that we have to bring back financial literacy in our in our schools.
Especially especially for our community.
I mean, uh, sometimes we're like first time homeowners and and we don't really know all of the tax opportunities and loopholes, and you know, not cheating on your taxes, but realizing that you may need to hire an accountant, and you know, for if your mama ain't had no account and how do you know that that that that's an important part of being an adult. So working with financial literacy in our schools is vitally important.
We need to invest in that.
I agree, you know, it's interesting, right, because that's why I like the Vice President's Opportunity Economy plan, because that's the type of conversations that she's having.
That's those the type of conversations that she's been having.
And it always it bugs me out right because for the longest, we always thought the economy did better under Republicans, Like I don't know why that's the narrative, but that's always been the narrative. But if you look the economy all since World War Two, the economy has always done better under a Democrat president.
Why isn't that messaging out there more?
I Richard was.
I know, I've heard you say this a number of times, And what pays me the most in this entire election is that we're down four or five points on the economy. We should be up ten points on the economy. And it's not rocket science. It's not just that you know, as Bill Clinton pointed out, there have been fifty million jobs created under the last few Democratic presidents compared to one million jobs compared to created by the last a few Republican presidents.
Is just look at the philosophy.
Eleven recessions, ten of them have been Republican presidents.
I think the problem to the saying, I think a Democrats we tell the truth, and Republicans don't mind being dishonest, and they'll take ownership and credit for the work that we've done on a democratic administration in Congress, for example, a perfect example is Trump with the stimulus checks, where.
It was it was a decisive yeah it was.
It was the Democratic Congress, Roll Connors, so many others that that passed it.
And all he did was sign his name on the front of it.
Good market.
But you look at it, you're unless, say you're twenty five thirty years old, you're thinking, Okay, who's going to help me build wealth in this country?
Now?
What what is Donald Trump? Actually?
I know he's got all this bs platinum plan. But what is he actually offering? So he's going to give you tax cuts if you've already made it, Okay, fine, you're in my district. You got a job already making millions of dollars.
He's going to cut your taxes. He's going to deregulate.
Okay, how does that help you as a twenty five or thirty year old that he's going to cut regulations for some of these businesses, that's what he's going to do, and maybe he's going to put tariffs on for some of the products. So how does that help you? How does it actually help you build wealth? Now you look at the democrats of the opportunity economy, what Kamala Harris is actually going to do. She's going to make sure that you have some shot of getting funding for your business because you don't have the connections that Donald Trump or his people have to New York or Silicon Valley to get financing. She's going to actually make sure your business plan gets a look and gets you funding. She's going to make sure that we're investing in you and your kids to get a credential so you can actually get a good paying job in this country. Because Donald Trump's not putting a dollar in actually getting you educated or getting the credential for getting that job. She's going to put financing to make sure that you get businesses in your community, and that off the tremendous federal contracting dollars that black and brown businesses start to actually get a fair share, a fair shared, not a disproportion, to share a fair share of those contracts. So I don't understand why this is even a contest if you're just looking at it from a person of like, who's going to help me make more money? It's obvious that Vice President Harris's and the Democratic Party is. And I there was once a New York Times articles I said, Americans love money. We should be the party that makes the case of helping them make more money. People said, oh, bro, this is too too crass, too crude. I was like, no, it's not. We got a better plan. We got a better plan for people to build wealth.
I think a lot of it is profiling too, though, because when you think wealth, you think old white men, and that's.
The Republican parties. And I think they taught business a lot like they taught business. Democrats tend to talk people.
Well, that's because we've been we've been. Sorry to cut you off, but we've been. That's how we talk in a lot of our households too, Like we always are so faith based, so much hope. You rarely like depend on what household you And you might not ever have heard your mom talk about her accounting money, you know what I mean, Like depending on how you grew up.
And and it's and it's, uh, it's a challenge because I talked to I got a buddy of mine that I grew up with and and and he's like riding on the fence whether he should vote for Donald Trump or not, which is insane to me. And what he's talking about is that this is the first time in his life of him and his partner.
They're both doing really well. They're they're finally making six figures.
And they have this fake narrative that somehow the Democratic Party is going to take away there there there, They're they're gonna pay more taxes under Democrats, and that you know that inflation hasn't actually settled under this current administration.
And so I'm having these conversations to.
Like, actually look at the policy, not what you're seeing on on acts.
So what you're reading, like you know, reading on these blogs or YouTube, and.
What they don't realize is that a lot of that stuff is like this disinformation is like targeting specifically young black men to like be apathetic and not vote or or thank somebody that the Democratic Party aren't supporting us, which which we have been or listening you know what I mean, and listen to or talking to language that we need to hear.
How do y'all feel? What we what do we a week away from election day? How do you feel?
I'm hopeful, I'm optimistic. I think that you know, I I believe the young people are going to come out.
And vote for for Harris.
I think this thing is overblown in terms of uh, just that you would know more of about the black vote Latino vote. I mean, I don't A lot of the men I meet they're voting for her Black men and a lot of Latino men are voting for her. So I think that there she's going to win the the Michigan Pennsylvania. Uh, it's gonna be close. But I think the polls actually are underestimating her support. And you know, you made a great point about this image of why is it that we think traditionally of the Republicans as the business party, because that's that's all that Donald Trumb's running on. You know, frankly, if he had never had a pre he never would have been president. Hates not enough to become president. I mean, the Madison Square Garden stuff wasn't enough. It's because he had fourteen years in people's living rooms as being this business guy and the Trump sign, and I think we've got to be Look all the new Wealth, the technology, the innovation, all of that's not being creating by the old class. It's a whole new generation. It's a whole new group of entrepreneurs. I consider you guys entrepreneurs. If that's the new Wealth, that's the new innovation. And I fundamentally believe that's when Kamala Harris say issues for the future, that's what she represents. And I think that's the image that's going to prevail.
And I think it's going to come down.
And maybe I'm biased something from South Carolina, but I think if we win North Carolina and we win Georgia, we win. And I've had the pleasure of traveling. I just got back from Nevada. I mean, I feel cautiously optimistic. And everywhere I'm going, I mean, I'm in the uberb and people is much. The more Donald Trump talks and that's crazy stuff like he did here in New York, the better Kama has has some I mean, I think I feel good about it. I'm cautiously optimistic about it.
It's just interesting to me that, you know, with all of the things Trump is that I don't even need to run down his whole resume, but when I just look at two impeachments, eighty eight criminal charges, thirty four he was convicted of, to me, that alone should be disqualified, Like, why isn't there anything that legally that prevents him from even being on the ballot. I know they got the the the section three of the fourteenth Yeah, yeah, but Supreme Court shot that down.
Well, you know, I put up the Congress.
The people who let him off the hook were Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy. I remember telling to Kevin McCarthy after we impeached Donald Trump in the House, and I said, and Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell are telling you about how terrible it was what he did and six and I said, well, this is the reason we've got to convict him in the Senate. And I said, oh, Donald Trump's done, He's not coming back. His numbers were thirty percent in the polls.
Wow.
They didn't think he would ever come back.
Wow.
And they let the guy off the hook in terms of if they had convicted him back then, he wouldn't have been able to run. And it was the biggest error. And I blamed the Senate for not having the guts back then to convict him. But this point in the media, which I've heard you make a number of times, is absolutely right. I mean, no one they're asking Kamala Harris every detail of every plan. I'm fine, but no one is pointing out the fundamental point of the convictions and the illegality and the total shocking nature of Trump's candidacy.
Oh, I want to ask you about the Section three or fourteenth A minment because the Supreme Court, you know, they say it's not up to the state when the States are trying to take him off to the ballot, not after the States is up to Congress. Congress would have never done that because it was a Republican led Congress at the time, right.
Was a Republican led Congress at the time, and the Senate would never have done it, and the Senate was not even willing to convict him of the actual charges. And they all thought, by the way, McConnell, you asked them, I'm sure it'll come out when their biographies. They all thought that what Trump did was an impeachable offense and convict them. But they said, why why should we upset thirty percent off base because his numbers were down at thirty percent? You know, why should we upset thirty percent of our base when the guy's going to go away anyway and we're going to have a new generation Nicky Haley. Ron you remember Ron DeSantis was their big thing. They all thought Ron DeSantis was going to win.
Yeah, they had written dot Trump off.
They thought Trump would go away quietly, and that's why they didn't want to put their nexts out to upset thirty percent of that base.
And now they think that because he never really went away like he like Trump has always just been around and doing things and same things. He never really went away.
I think it was naivete. I mean, they looked at the poll numbers back then. Today Trump said forty five forty six percent back then. You look at the pole numbers right after January sixth, he was down at thirty thirty two, thirty three percent.
But the fact that you would even have the power to make a January sixth happen, you have to know what you're dealing with, like he had. There's power in numbers of people, and just by words, he did that. So why would you think they're just going to disappear and like take a nap while we fixed the world.
I think that's been the miscalculation of all of us over the past almost ten years.
You Donald Trump, he thought he was gonna go away.
No, no, no, I think we I think we all, we were all surprised that he even began president. And I think we we we we too often have taken him too lightly because he's a buffoon, and we say it's no way, there's no way they're going to nominate him.
That he just waszman And I was at Hillary Clinton's celebration party.
I knew, knew that.
I never believe there.
My kids were there, my family was there, And.
That's why I'm scared to go next week, dress and everything.
I think I think the biggest problem is that nobody treats Trump like the actual threat that he is. The d J didn't treat him like that, the media doesn't treat him like that, voters don't treat them like that. And so it's just like, yeah, if there's no consequences to your actions, what what are we supposed to do?
And I think we also take for granted, uh, the segment of the population that he inspires.
Uh.
And I'm you know, good people on.
That, but it's it's something about that sect that that that thirty five percent that you're talking about, they're not going anywhere. And if you have that kind of base, especially going into a primary, you're I mean, you're well positioned. And then so many other people of my colleagues, even at the State House in South Carolina, just all keep falling in line because they're so worried about their own political futures and not about the country. And I think all of us over these next what's seven eight days left, we need to be aware of that.
And no one can sit home.
I'm telling all the brothers out there now that can hear me, don't have a non vote, protest vote against the Democratic Party. That we can't afford to do that this time, and we just cannot afford to do it. And after this election, whatever grievance you had, if you voted, just you know, you know, and fail whatever, just take it up with the elected officials and hold us accountable once we get elected. Elect Kamala Harris on November fifth, and then hold all of us accountable as elected Democrats. I mean, that's really my call for the brothers out there that can hear me.
And the media is scary.
I mean, look at all these people, these billionaires were owning the newspaper Washington Polls. Yeah, suddenly they're saying that, well, we may not want to endorse because Trump may win. Now what is that vote in terms of the media actually standing up to him if he wins. This is the classic tactic of authoritarian leaders that they intimidate any dissent. And it's not that people often wonder, well, how do they get to power. It's not that people suddenly all start rallying around them. It's that they get enough of a base rallying around them, and they put enough fear in everyone else to say, okay, we're gonna as long as they don't come after us, we don't want to get in the way.
All right, go out and vote, and we appreciate you guys for joining us this morning, really do.
Thank you. You got an election coming.
Up too, right, Oh yeah, no, I'm on the ballot, you guys. Jaymore stay representative.
Carolina South Carolina, and of course Representative.
I do too in California. And we got to win, not just Mi set, we got to win four Democratic House seats out of California to take back the majority so we can have a Keem Jefferies as Speaker of the House.
All right, well it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, Wake that.
Ass in the morning. The Breakfast Club
