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Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 1: There is breaking news today as we have just been
Speaker 1: told that Don Lemon was arrested and last night covering
Speaker 1: the Grammys, by the way, and so was Georgia Ford,
Speaker 1: who's become a dear friend to us, has been wonderful
Speaker 1: on this show.
Speaker 2: As you all know, Georgia Ford.
Speaker 1: Joined me just last Tuesday for a solo pod talking
Speaker 1: about the threat of arrest, talking about everything that was
Speaker 1: going on on the ground in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today, Georgia
Speaker 1: Ford was served with an arrest warrant where they claimed
Speaker 1: emphasis on claims that there was a grand jury impaneled.
Speaker 2: She was charged with both.
Speaker 1: The Face Act and the KKK Act of eighteen seventy one.
Speaker 1: For those of you who have been watching, you know
Speaker 1: what we have to say about the KKK Act of
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one.
Speaker 2: For those of you who have not.
Speaker 1: Been following, we will get into that today, but before
Speaker 1: we get any deeper, joining us right now is this
Speaker 1: tremendous constitutional law expert, a commentator, and a columnist for
Speaker 1: the nation. He is a friend to this show. Ellie
Speaker 1: missed out. Please tell us what in the world is
Speaker 1: going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no point of having constitutional expertise because nothing
Speaker 3: happening right now is constitutional. Right. The white supremacists running
Speaker 3: this government do not care about the Constitution. It's not
Speaker 3: clear that they've read the Constitution, and they certainly don't
Speaker 3: understand the Constitution because arresting journalist is unconstitutional one oh one. Right,
Speaker 3: it's right in the very first Amendment to the Constitution
Speaker 3: that the freedom of the press will not be abridge.
Speaker 3: Don Lemon, Georgia fort were covering a protest. They were
Speaker 3: doing journalism. You can't arrest people for doing journalism. Again,
Speaker 3: that's the first amendment of the Constitution. So not only
Speaker 3: are these arrests unconstitutional, plainly, blatantly obviously unconstitutional, they're also
Speaker 3: plainly illegal, right, And the difference there is that there
Speaker 3: the Trump administration went to a federal magistrate judge in
Speaker 3: Minnesota asking for an arrest warrant for Don Lemon, and
Speaker 3: the judge told them no. The judge said there was
Speaker 3: no probable cause for an arrest warrant. So then they
Speaker 3: appealed that ruling and they went up to an appellate
Speaker 3: court and the appellate court said no, there's no probable
Speaker 3: cause for an arrest warrant, and they arrested him anyway,
Speaker 3: So that's illegal right now, Pambondi or Trump people have
Speaker 3: now come out and said like, oh oh, we had
Speaker 3: a grand jury and paneled and they issued the arrest
Speaker 3: warrant for Lemon and for it. Well, first of all,
Speaker 3: going to a federal grand jury to get an arrest
Speaker 3: warrant that you couldn't get from the state court is
Speaker 3: you know, weird, is highly unusual. A and B. They
Speaker 3: haven't said that they have paneled the grand jury for
Speaker 3: the other two p people, the activists they arrested Cruise
Speaker 3: and Lundy, Right, so we don't even know what the
Speaker 3: legal justification is for arresting those other two people. And
Speaker 3: then you have to be like, is what was this
Speaker 3: grand jury?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: What was this grand jury? How did that process worked work?
Speaker 3: If what we're talking about is a blatantly unconstitutional arrest
Speaker 3: in the first place, right, So the whole thing is
Speaker 3: goatka right to use a yiddishism like it is. It
Speaker 3: is an expression of white supremacy. And so when I
Speaker 3: look for constitutional justification for these arrests, it's obviously not
Speaker 3: in the Constitution. It's obviously not well, it's obviously not
Speaker 3: in the constitution anymore if there wasn't something in the
Speaker 3: original Constitution that would have allowed them to arrest a
Speaker 3: black journalist like Don Lemon. And that was called the
Speaker 3: fugitive Slave Clause in Article four of the original Constitution,
Speaker 3: which allowed the government to reclaim escaped property should that
Speaker 3: property have successfully made it to a free state. And
Speaker 3: the reason why the fugitive slave clause is, you know,
Speaker 3: actually relevant to what's happening in the Lemon right now,
Speaker 3: is that you have to understand what the fugitive Slave
Speaker 3: Clause was meant to counteract. Right, And the fugitive State
Speaker 3: clause counteracts the Tenth Amendment.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: The tenth Amendment says explicitly that the police power is
Speaker 3: reserved to the states. I'm sure, Angela, I'm sure Andrew,
Speaker 3: you have heard Maggie talking about states rights.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: States rights is why I get this. States rights is
Speaker 3: why I get that right. Well, states rights is in
Speaker 3: the Constitution, right, it's the Tenth Amendment. To what part
Speaker 3: of states rights is that states have the rights to
Speaker 3: police themselves, States have the right to determine for themselves.
Speaker 3: Who is to get arrested and who is not to
Speaker 3: get arrested. The Slave Clause suit ceded states rights. Right
Speaker 3: a Minnesota could say no, no, we're not going to arrest
Speaker 3: future of slaves. The future of the Slave Act says, oh,
Speaker 3: actually we have to. The federal government can supersede States
Speaker 3: rights and arrest whoever they want as long as they're black. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's what's happening to Lemon. He's getting arrested because he's black,
Speaker 3: and the federal government is ignoring states rights, is ignoring
Speaker 3: a federal magistrate, is ignoring a federal appeals court to
Speaker 3: arrest the black man. It is a new story, but
Speaker 3: actually it's a pretty old sea.
Speaker 4: Yeah they can. I can I ask you real quick?
Speaker 4: The the so we know that they are using a
Speaker 4: prosecutor out of somewhere to to to pursue a case
Speaker 4: in Georgia around elections. Supposedly, we don't know a whole
Speaker 4: bunch about that. I'm curious in the and paneling of
Speaker 4: a grand jury, would they have had to and panel
Speaker 4: this grand jury in the state of Minnesota or could
Speaker 4: this grand jury be anywhere America?
Speaker 3: It could be anywhere America, right like again, they're they're
Speaker 3: not telling us what they did and how they did it.
Speaker 3: But the thought here is that you get a willing,
Speaker 3: a USA Assistant Attorney General who's like, I will bring
Speaker 3: an unconstitutional so and we know they have I mean Lisa,
Speaker 3: you know, I always call her miss Hannigan, Lisa Halligan,
Speaker 3: h Lindsay Halligan has been clowning herself all across the country.
Speaker 3: So you find a Lindsay Halligan type, they say that
Speaker 3: they have a claim under the Clan Act, under the
Speaker 3: Face Act, or the perversion of those acts that the
Speaker 3: Trump administration is using to arrest them. And then you
Speaker 3: panel the grand jury in the state where you found this,
Speaker 3: uh fascist prosecutor, right like, so, so we don't know
Speaker 3: that it has to be in Minnesota. It could have
Speaker 3: been in Minnesota, but it could have not been in Minnesota.
Speaker 3: And the grand jury process is a black box, like
Speaker 3: we're not supposed to know what goes into it. The testimony,
Speaker 3: it's supposed to be sealed. Now, you can get in
Speaker 3: trouble when you lie to the grand jury.
Speaker 4: I would imagine, no, not everybody. Prosecutors don't get in
Speaker 4: trouble for lying to the grand jury.
Speaker 3: You're you're supposed to get in trouble for lying to
Speaker 3: the grand jury. And again, I don't see how you
Speaker 3: can get this arrest warrant out without lies, because you
Speaker 3: have to proactively not tell the grand jury that what
Speaker 3: you're asking for is blatantly unconstitutional. So I don't know
Speaker 3: how you do that, but we know. But Andrew, You're right,
Speaker 3: we know that those prosecutors probably will not be held
Speaker 3: accountable because we live in effectless country that doesn't hold
Speaker 3: any white supremacist accountable for their actions.
Speaker 2: I want to just thank you, Ellie.
Speaker 1: I know that you have a deadline, a writing deadline,
Speaker 1: so I really appreciate you. Coming on, we're going to
Speaker 1: back into now this story. Some of you may still
Speaker 1: be floored learning that Don Lemon was arrested last night
Speaker 1: covering the Grammys about the alleged actions he took in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: which we're merely covering a protest, but somehow now that
Speaker 1: is criminal conduct in Trump's America. Also getting to into
Speaker 1: Georgia Fort, who is an Emmy Award winning journalist in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: has been on the ground every single day, and we
Speaker 1: will run her Facebook live where she was detained this
Speaker 1: morning from her home in front of her children. So, Ellie,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for what you're doing. You know,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to read what you put out.
Speaker 2: We love you.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you, Ellen, thank you.
Speaker 1: So let's go ahead and run the clip. Andrew, if
Speaker 1: you don't mind of Georgia Fort being arrested this morning, you.
Speaker 6: Guys, I wanted to alert the public that agents are
Speaker 6: at my door right now. They're saying that they were
Speaker 6: able to go before a Grand Jerry sometime I guess
Speaker 6: in the last twenty four hours, and that they have
Speaker 6: a warrant for my arrest. I've talked to my attorney
Speaker 6: and I'm being advised to go with them.
Speaker 2: I guess down to Whipple and my children are here.
Speaker 6: They're impacted by this. This is all stemming from the
Speaker 6: fact that I filmed a protest. As a member of
Speaker 6: the media. We are supposed to have our constitutional right
Speaker 6: of the freedom to film, to be a member of
Speaker 6: the press. I don't feel like I have my First
Speaker 6: Amendment right as a member of the press because now
Speaker 6: federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming
Speaker 6: the church protests a few weeks ago. Again, I don't
Speaker 6: have a long time here you guys, but I wanted
Speaker 6: you to know for me. Agents are at my door
Speaker 6: right now. My attorney has spoken with them. I did
Speaker 6: send a relative outside to talk to them. They're showing
Speaker 6: some type of documentation apparently that they got in an
Speaker 6: indictment from a grand jury. I knew that I was
Speaker 6: on a defendants list. I did not publish it because
Speaker 6: it was under sealed.
Speaker 2: I I'm floored by that.
Speaker 1: Andrew, you know, this is someone who was with us
Speaker 1: on stage just two days ago.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, well Tuesday.
Speaker 1: You know, in that moment, Georgia showed the courage that
Speaker 1: she always has, and she is reporting what's happening on
Speaker 1: the ground and putting her life on the line.
Speaker 2: She said.
Speaker 1: When she was on the podcast The Solo Pod with
Speaker 1: Me the week before, so literally back to back weeks
Speaker 1: we've had Georgia on. She talked about Ida b Wells
Speaker 1: being her inspiration, and of course the very next day
Speaker 1: we had Don lemonon as a guest co host.
Speaker 2: And so to.
Speaker 1: See people who are our colleagues, who become kind of
Speaker 1: chosen family put in harm's way for doing the thing
Speaker 1: they do so well is mind blowing. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to take just a moment, Well one, Andrew, I want
Speaker 1: you to react to the clips are so emotional.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, you know, I have PTSD. Yeah, I know
Speaker 7: what it is to surrender yourself to the government, and
Speaker 7: even when you have right on your side, it's it's
Speaker 7: it's hard. And I heard her family members emotional in
Speaker 7: the background.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 4: I think in the long run, y'all, we're gonna fight,
Speaker 4: and we're gonna win. We will win, Don and Georgia,
Speaker 4: and I think the other activists who have been arrested,
Speaker 4: who also and I know we're not focusing so much
Speaker 4: in on those individual stories, but who I also believe
Speaker 4: were exercising their constitutional rights. But the fight is going
Speaker 4: to be real and for them individually. I just because
Speaker 4: I have had federal you know, agents show up at
Speaker 4: my house and I know what it was like to
Speaker 4: have my ankles chained and my arms cuffed in and
Speaker 4: and that never leaves you right. And so I think
Speaker 4: what I'm emotionally reacting to one is just it threw
Speaker 4: me back to that instance. But I also know, as
Speaker 4: these folks stand in their truth, in their innocence, that
Speaker 4: these are moments that they will never forget the impact
Speaker 4: here is real. It's deep, it's cut, it's cutting, it's frightening,
Speaker 4: and I have to imagine that it's even the fright.
Speaker 4: The fright of this is amplified by the fact that
Speaker 4: you know, you have a lawless president and a lawless
Speaker 4: Attorney general, and a bunch of stoogents who work beneath them,
Speaker 4: who are more than happy to carry out their unlawful
Speaker 4: wishes with joy. Right. The truth is, Angela, is that
Speaker 4: both Don who was who was arrested in the late
Speaker 4: night Georgia and in her case early morning Don I
Speaker 4: believe it is overnighted in jail. These law enforcement folks
Speaker 4: had the opportunity, had they wanted to schedule those folks
Speaker 4: to come in and see them, they could have told
Speaker 4: them in advance that they are, that there's an indictment
Speaker 4: for them, and that they must surrender themselves. They could
Speaker 4: have offered that opportunity. They didn't do that, And what
Speaker 4: that underscores for me is the theater of it. These
Speaker 4: folks want. They want the theater, they want the They
Speaker 4: want us to be shaken by what we saw. I'm
Speaker 4: shaken from having my having had my own experience, but
Speaker 4: like them, not bowed and not running the opposite direction.
Speaker 4: Like you said, we were just there this week, and
Speaker 4: we know that as we talk and as we move
Speaker 4: that we are at risk as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know what, so what Yeah.
Speaker 4: Because the absence of it, we're at risk anyway. We're
Speaker 4: at risk anyway.
Speaker 1: And speaking of that risk, Andrew, there's a gentleman by
Speaker 1: the name of Eli Dares who runs the the Minnesota
Speaker 1: Freedom Fund. He had this to say earlier on a
Speaker 1: Facebook live. Eli also joined us this week in Minneapolis.
Speaker 8: Georgia Ford and Don Lemon. We're both arrested for filming
Speaker 8: a church protests. So now we're responding with handcuffs to cameras. Now,
Speaker 8: the so called free press is on the direct assault,
Speaker 8: as you would see in any totalitarian government. In fact,
Speaker 8: media it's the first entity that a totalitarian regime goes
Speaker 8: after to silence this sent to silence questioning, to silence
Speaker 8: people being able to hold governmental officials accountable. It is
Speaker 8: unconscionable what we witness today. It is a direct assault
Speaker 8: against the constitution. It is a direct assault against basic
Speaker 8: pillars that we all have come to just accept as life.
Speaker 8: The press has a freedom to film and to record
Speaker 8: the people have the freedom to film and record, and
Speaker 8: the moment that becomes under attack, nothing is safe. You're
Speaker 8: not safe in California. You're not safe down there in Florida.
Speaker 8: You're not safe down there in Texas. You're not safe
Speaker 8: over there in New England. And none of y'all safe
Speaker 8: if we're not safe here in Minnesota. This is a
Speaker 8: direct assault. Every last single one of you should be outraged,
Speaker 8: should be incensed at the attacks on basic liberties. You
Speaker 8: have to have a warrant. You cannot stop someone and
Speaker 8: ask them questions without reasonable, articulable suspicion. You can't use
Speaker 8: force unjustifiably. You cannot attack oppress, you can't shoot munitions
Speaker 8: at them, you can't shoot rubber bullets at them. And
Speaker 8: now today you cannot arrest them. And yet what we're
Speaker 8: seeing is the eroding of basic, basic principles that have
Speaker 8: been foundational to the way that we have expected to
Speaker 8: live life here in America. Everybody is waking up to
Speaker 8: a reality that many of us in the African American
Speaker 8: community have known for a very long time. And now
Speaker 8: we're trying to fight to once again say this democracy.
Speaker 8: It's not a Minnesota thing. This is an US thing,
Speaker 8: what said, who cares about truth in the last morning
Speaker 8: seen it?
Speaker 1: Joining us now is the executive director of Minnesota Freedom Fund,
Speaker 1: Eli Darrison, as well as the honorable Zeena Muhammad, who's
Speaker 1: a Minnesota state Senator, joining us as well.
Speaker 2: Thank you both for being here.
Speaker 1: Of course, there was just a press conference at Minnesota's
Speaker 1: or Minneapolis's City Hall about the arrest of Georgia Ford,
Speaker 1: Trey Earn Cruz, and Jamal Jamel Jamel Lundy, my apologies.
Speaker 1: I want to know what chu All's reaction is to
Speaker 1: that pressor and to these arrests, these very unlawful and
Speaker 1: unconstitutional arrests.
Speaker 2: And Senator I'll come to you first.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, I'm grateful that community is organizing in
Speaker 9: such a quick way to do a press conference. We
Speaker 9: all got the call this morning. I think many of
Speaker 9: us who've worked with Georgia. I worked with Georgia and Eli.
Speaker 9: I think we were on the ground all of twenty twenty,
Speaker 9: and Georgia is you know, what's happening to Georgia and
Speaker 9: Don is horrible, but it's also like what is happening
Speaker 9: across the country, which is an attack on freedom of press.
Speaker 9: It's ensuring that people only tell one narrative. But what
Speaker 9: we know about Georgia, those of us who know her personally,
Speaker 9: is she's a mom first and foremost, who cares deeply
Speaker 9: about her family, and she's somebody who is an honest
Speaker 9: truth teller. She has been on the ground for communities,
Speaker 9: for the movement, and it's not in a point where
Speaker 9: she agrees or not. It's telling the truth of what's happening,
Speaker 9: the facts on the ground of what people are experiencing.
Speaker 9: And you know, I think for many of us were
Speaker 9: like blindsided by this, but not shocked. We have been
Speaker 9: seeing the attacks in the community, but the attack, the
Speaker 9: liberate attack on press who's there to report a story
Speaker 9: or our news for doing their job is beneath any
Speaker 9: administration and certainly beneath the job that they're supposed to do.
Speaker 2: And I talked to Georgia last week.
Speaker 9: I talked to her the other day when we were
Speaker 9: all together too, But when Nakima got arrested, she was
Speaker 9: very shaken up, and we talked a little bit about
Speaker 9: just like how she's feeling as a person and the
Speaker 9: fact that she was worried about her family. Because I
Speaker 9: think very often when we tell these stories of what's
Speaker 9: happening to the individual, it becomes a story. But we
Speaker 9: forget the fact that this woman has young kids, young
Speaker 9: children and a husband, and they expect her to come
Speaker 9: home at the end of the day. When she does,
Speaker 9: when she goes out there and puts her life on
Speaker 9: the line, and you know, I'm worried about them, but
Speaker 9: I know she has a lot of grit and she's
Speaker 9: a very strong person. But we're all going to be
Speaker 9: out there fighting for her as she's been doing for
Speaker 9: communities for a long time.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and Eli, I want to come to you thankfully.
Speaker 1: You you knew that this was coming. Minnesota Freedom Fund
Speaker 1: has been set up to be a bailout resource to
Speaker 1: folks who have been arrested today, as well as to
Speaker 1: so many others.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about what you're feeling right now? You're live?
Speaker 1: Earlier was very powerful calling on all of us to
Speaker 1: save democracy. But for those who still feel like it
Speaker 1: has not yet knocked on their front door, what's the
Speaker 1: wake up call to those folks?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 8: Good good morning to you both, And good morning senators.
Speaker 8: It's actually not a good morning. It's not a good
Speaker 8: morning at all. You know, I don't know what the
Speaker 8: wake up call is going to be for them. It
Speaker 8: will it will probably be the knocking on uh their doors.
Speaker 8: Here in Minnesota, we're on the front lines of all
Speaker 8: of this. And you know, as an organizer, as an activist,
Speaker 8: I've been tear gas. I've been shot with rubber bullets.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 8: Before or uh the Senator became one of the great
Speaker 8: senators here in Minnesota, she and I were both on
Speaker 8: the front lines.
Speaker 4: Uh. Uh.
Speaker 8: Those type of tactics come with the territory. They are expected.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 8: You know, we have a role and a position that
Speaker 8: we're pushing, and and you know, state has a role
Speaker 8: in a position that is pushing, and it uses violence
Speaker 8: oftentimes to push his position, and and you know we
Speaker 8: we resist that.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 8: And oftentimes what we see is media. They're recording, you know, documenting,
Speaker 8: you know, both sides of what's happening, so that the
Speaker 8: public can have an opportunity to see what is you know,
Speaker 8: happening on the ground and then arrive at their own conclusion.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 8: During the uprising, uh, in which we were fighting for
Speaker 8: justice for for George Floyd who was murdered here by
Speaker 8: by the Minneapolis Police Department. Uh, what we started to see.
Speaker 8: And at the time I worked for the a c
Speaker 8: o U of Minnesota, UH, and what we were seeing
Speaker 8: was a deliberate and an intentional targeting of media, UH
Speaker 8: to such a tune that our organization at the a
Speaker 8: c AU we had to put a lawsuit in in
Speaker 8: order to to get retribution and to stop UH, the
Speaker 8: targeting of media. Who was there to do a job.
Speaker 4: Georgia Ford.
Speaker 8: UH was in a very comfortable and acclaim role inside
Speaker 8: of media. And you know, because of what she was witnessing,
Speaker 8: she realized that she needed to step back, step out,
Speaker 8: and to take the risk of beginning to bring stories
Speaker 8: that were underreported or completely unreported. And she has been
Speaker 8: able to bring out, UH some some of some of
Speaker 8: the darkest, most harrowing tales that never would have seen
Speaker 8: the light of day at all, that never would have
Speaker 8: given been given.
Speaker 4: Voice at all. UH.
Speaker 8: And and UH to to set a Zadam's point, she
Speaker 8: has always brought those stories out in a fair and
Speaker 8: unbiased kind of way. And so to wake up today
Speaker 8: to see those demons go to her house with her
Speaker 8: sleeping babies and to and to to drag her out.
Speaker 8: And yet you know, for some reason we can't muster
Speaker 8: up the courage to put handcuffs on actual killer cops
Speaker 8: that have killed multiple of our community members just in
Speaker 8: the past few weeks. Weeks, you all, weeks. It just
Speaker 8: goes beyond my comprehension. This federal government, this this lawless
Speaker 8: regime is pushing its agenda with strength and with vigor.
Speaker 8: And my frustration, and I'm sorry, let me let me
Speaker 8: rein it in My frustration is.
Speaker 4: That you know, we can't muster.
Speaker 8: The courage and the ability to send the counter messages
Speaker 8: to a lawless regime, Whereas we have the authority to
Speaker 8: arrest if we believe a crime has been committed against
Speaker 8: one of our community members, and we haven't done it,
Speaker 8: and yet this regime is sending out law enforcement to
Speaker 8: arrest reporters to arrest peaceful protesters. So do we have
Speaker 8: a separation of church and state or not. I'm just
Speaker 8: I'm really trying to understand what is happening here. Because
Speaker 8: we had a minister stand up and challenge another minister
Speaker 8: inside of a church and to say, I don't believe
Speaker 8: this is right what you were doing, and we had
Speaker 8: reporters capture the interchange. And I've seen both reporters Don
Speaker 8: Lemon and Georgia Ford give equal opportunity to everyone to
Speaker 8: voice what their perspective was and what their views was
Speaker 8: in terms of in terms of the protest.
Speaker 5: That was happening.
Speaker 8: And so yeah, I'm just I've waken up to some
Speaker 8: really horrible news. I'm truly incensed at, you know, at
Speaker 8: the crumbling of this democracy before our eyes. It's almost
Speaker 8: like the nineteen thirties didn't happen at all.
Speaker 1: I want to it's such a profound point. And Eli
Speaker 1: can hear you speak all day on this. You are
Speaker 1: the clearing call that we need in this hour. So
Speaker 1: thank you for all that you're sharing.
Speaker 2: Andrew.
Speaker 1: I was just going to say that right now, doctor
Speaker 1: Resma Menikim has joined us. Doctor Resma Menichem is a
Speaker 1: licensed cycle psycho therapist and also trauma expert, and he
Speaker 1: has spent a lot of his time in Minnesota trying
Speaker 1: to heal the land, and yet the terror comes back,
Speaker 1: and so a resume. I would love to hear from
Speaker 1: you in this moment. And I also want to bring
Speaker 1: up right after that, doctor, I'm sorry. Attorney Leslie Redman,
Speaker 1: who was streaming the press conference in Minneapolis City Hall
Speaker 1: live just moments ago. So we want to hear from her,
Speaker 1: get her reactions, and as you all have to drop off,
Speaker 1: you can throw up peace signs. We know it's a
Speaker 1: busy day. We know you got constituent Senator Eli. I
Speaker 1: know you are on paternity leave and cannot leave the
Speaker 1: city alone because the city won't leave the people alone.
Speaker 1: So thank you for pulling double duty. Doctor Resmond Menikan.
Speaker 5: Hey, first of all, I just got to say my
Speaker 5: heart is broken right now. This sister Georgia has been
Speaker 5: doing this work for our people here in this city
Speaker 5: for a very long time. We count on her to
Speaker 5: to be in places that we can't be, to show
Speaker 5: us what's actually going on, not what they're telling us
Speaker 5: is going on, and and to to you know, to
Speaker 5: watch her have to deal with that and having these
Speaker 5: terrorists at her front door and hearing her babies cry
Speaker 5: in the back. I you know, this is what I
Speaker 5: said the other day. You know, if anybody's trying to
Speaker 5: take your anger and and and and molded into something
Speaker 5: that's usable for them, you have to reject that. You
Speaker 5: we we we we have to understand that what's happening
Speaker 5: to us right now will not go away because we're nice.
Speaker 4: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 5: I understand that the only way forward for us is
Speaker 5: to be unpermissioned and ungovernable. Part of the way that
Speaker 5: they keep doing this ship to us is that we
Speaker 5: are too governable, we are too permissioned. We have to
Speaker 5: stop asking for permission to do things, and we have
Speaker 5: to just do them with each other. Make the mistakes,
Speaker 5: not like each other, come back, tend to each other,
Speaker 5: do all the things that human beings do in order
Speaker 5: to in order to UH birth the future that tends
Speaker 5: to us, not to them, not to these, not not
Speaker 5: to be listen this. At the same time that this
Speaker 5: governor and this mayor here are talking about they have
Speaker 5: contacted the federal government. They've they had a good conversation
Speaker 5: with this uh with this with this brutal dictator. At
Speaker 5: the same time, they are right now figuring out if
Speaker 5: they can open up for smelling so they can have
Speaker 5: house more ice agents there. Pete headsais is right now
Speaker 5: has petitioned the Department of War to see if they
Speaker 5: can get that open. Why would they do that if
Speaker 5: they're talking, if they're really pulling out ice agents. Yeah,
Speaker 5: if they're really pulling off ice agents, Why would they
Speaker 5: do that, because they're selling you one thing in order
Speaker 5: for you to go to sleep. This is what I've
Speaker 5: been saying. The fact is is that these folks, these
Speaker 5: folks want you to believe something that absolutely your body
Speaker 5: knows is not true. You everybody who's jumping up and
Speaker 5: down every time they think Ice is gonna leave, and
Speaker 5: like they want this is this is what I'm what
Speaker 5: I'm fearing. What I'm fearing is that all of these
Speaker 5: white folks and all of these people that are that
Speaker 5: think that this is about an episod battle mm hm
Speaker 5: and and and when when when four Ice ages leave,
Speaker 5: we jump up and down and we forget and we
Speaker 5: don't we don't understand that this is not an episode.
Speaker 5: It's structural and that and that we are not conditioned
Speaker 5: for the long haul the things that we're putting it
Speaker 5: right now in terms of our ability to be uh
Speaker 5: mutually care for each other and develop mutual aid. That's
Speaker 5: the life we have to craft.
Speaker 10: That's not just an that is not just responding to uh,
Speaker 10: responding to what Ice is doing and what Trump is.
Speaker 5: To need to craft a different way of being with
Speaker 5: each other. So that's that's where I'm at right now.
Speaker 5: I I we if we think we're gonna get out
Speaker 5: of this ship alive, we're thinking about this in the
Speaker 5: wrong way. We're not gonna there's the we. This is
Speaker 5: the beginning of what they're getting ready to do. And
Speaker 5: if you don't understand saying that, I don't know what
Speaker 5: to say to you. I don't. I don't know what
Speaker 5: to say.
Speaker 10: If you don't, if you're not if you're not talking
Speaker 10: with with with each other, if you don't have a
Speaker 10: plan with each other, if you don't if you don't
Speaker 10: know how to, if you don't know what self defense is,
Speaker 10: if you don't know how to, how to, how to
Speaker 10: how to develop uh ways of watching and caring for
Speaker 10: each other and making sure we keep receipts for all
Speaker 10: of these folks.
Speaker 5: If you don't know how to do that, and and
Speaker 5: when they come back and let you do, I don't
Speaker 5: know what to take.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to say, uh, resma, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: If it weren't for you, we would not have been
Speaker 1: able to be on the ground in Minneapolis earlier this week.
Speaker 1: And we did not know that that was merely a
Speaker 1: time to prepare us for what was coming next. I
Speaker 1: remember asking you you know what you would say to
Speaker 1: us for about where do we go from here? And
Speaker 1: rightfully so it was almost a loving rebuke. You were like,
Speaker 1: we need to sit right here in this rage, and
Speaker 1: you're right because we have to keep moving. To that point.
Speaker 1: Somebody who always keeps moving is Attorney Leslie Redman, who
Speaker 1: just finished streaming live the Minneapolis City Hall press conference,
Speaker 1: is on her way to the rally. Leslie, please give
Speaker 1: us an update of what you know.
Speaker 2: Grays in peace everyone.
Speaker 11: We were just here at the Minneapolis City Hall, a
Speaker 11: place that many of you have seen us stand time
Speaker 11: and time again. We were there in twenty twenty when
Speaker 11: after brother George Floyd was murdered, and I said that
Speaker 11: it was said then in twenty twenty that there was
Speaker 11: a state of emergency, and now it's even more of
Speaker 11: a state of an emergency.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 11: George's daughter and her husband spoke at the press conference
Speaker 11: today really emotionally about the fact that her seven year
Speaker 11: old and her other young child had to wake up
Speaker 11: this morning without their mom, and we talked about how
Speaker 11: our constitutional rights are under attack, that this is not
Speaker 11: a drill, this is not a joke. Donald Trump thinks
Speaker 11: that this is a TV show, and we need to
Speaker 11: really continue to stand up.
Speaker 3: Because we are all in danger.
Speaker 11: When they start taking the journalist, when they start taking
Speaker 11: the reporters, when they start taking the truth tellers, we're
Speaker 11: all in jeopardy. And so there's a hearing at one
Speaker 11: thirty for Georgia fort right across the street. We're headed
Speaker 11: to the rally at one pm and then the hearings
Speaker 11: at one thirty. We have very limited information at this time,
Speaker 11: but I would tell people to just you know, keep watching,
Speaker 11: keep watching local media outlets. I'll keep reporting all day.
Speaker 11: And then also, is not a coincidence that there is
Speaker 11: another national strike right now today that's happened. Oh, they're
Speaker 11: just trying to distract us and target us. And then
Speaker 11: also two other Organs, So Trey Horn Cruz is a
Speaker 11: well known organizer in Minnesota. Also notably, I'm a Bush fellow,
Speaker 11: George is a Bush Fellow, Trey Hank Trey Horn Cruise
Speaker 11: is a Bush Fellow. And then Drew mail Lundy, who
Speaker 11: I went to We were in law school at the
Speaker 11: same time in Black Law student associations at the same time.
Speaker 11: He's a local attorney works at the Hennepin County Prosecutor's office.
Speaker 11: He is running for office right now. It's supposed to
Speaker 11: be caucus next week. Like this, this is just very targeted,
Speaker 11: it's very strategic. As brother Rasma said, it's very systemic.
Speaker 11: And you know, I talked to Georgia a lot. You
Speaker 11: all got a chance to meet and talk with Georgia
Speaker 11: when you all were in town, and you know, she
Speaker 11: was worried that she was going to get arrested. And
Speaker 11: I kept telling her, like, well, they can't arrest Don Lemmon.
Speaker 11: They can't arrest you. You know what I mean, Like
Speaker 11: you all are journalist, you all protected with our constitutional rights,
Speaker 11: and y'all were just reporting and telling the truth. And
Speaker 11: then they got Don Lemon and Georgia for and so
Speaker 11: it's just heartbreaking, is devastating. Then this should be a
Speaker 11: major wake up call that none of us can stay silent,
Speaker 11: none of us can stay complicit. And then also you
Speaker 11: all know a year ago, almost to this date, the
Speaker 11: kim O, Livi Armstrong, Jaylini Monique, they stood in front
Speaker 11: of Target headquarters saying that we need the boycott. Georgia
Speaker 11: four used to have contracts with Target. They stopped funding her.
Speaker 11: It's important to connect all of this of like the
Speaker 11: corporations have abandoned us, the churches are abandoned. Where is
Speaker 11: that church that they went into? Why are they not
Speaker 11: saying release Georgia four and don limit right? Why are
Speaker 11: they not speaking of saying nobody was hurt, no property
Speaker 11: was even damaged. Why are we more concerned with these
Speaker 11: people speaking truth to power if we remember about Renee
Speaker 11: and the Cold Good than we are because those officers
Speaker 11: do have not been arrested. Nobody's been held accountable for
Speaker 11: Renee or Alex killing right, but yet we want to
Speaker 11: hold peaceful protesters.
Speaker 10: And journal accountable.
Speaker 5: We should all be preached.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you joining us, Leslie.
Speaker 1: I know you are actively organizing right now, so we
Speaker 1: will hopefully follow up again with you later. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for streaming the press.
Speaker 12: Nobody knows go ahead agent and no I just said doctor,
Speaker 12: both poignant points made.
Speaker 4: I don't know if doctor Resmond is still with us
Speaker 4: or if he's uh yeah, if he's left us.
Speaker 2: Not buy by resume comeback, res I.
Speaker 4: Just want to it was what he said is prescient.
Speaker 4: It's also terrifying, but we have to hear the difficult News.
Speaker 4: He talked about us not just preparing for an emergency, right,
Speaker 4: not organizing for the exceptional moment that is happening in society.
Speaker 4: He's saying, we have to create.
Speaker 13: A new normal, our new normal in the environment that
Speaker 13: we have right now with a lawless federal government treading
Speaker 13: on the rights of individuals, treading on the rights of states,
Speaker 13: treading on the rights of journalists to simply bear witness
Speaker 13: and report what you.
Speaker 4: See the point around them going after journalists before they
Speaker 4: go after murderers. Yeah, that's not that's not a tagline
Speaker 4: there that that that's that's real. The same agency that
Speaker 4: has refused to investigate Renee Goods killing, right, the Department
Speaker 4: of Justice would not allow the Civil Rights Division to
Speaker 4: open an investigatation against the lawless killing of her or
Speaker 4: if alex is the same goddamn entity that decided they
Speaker 4: had the time to go to a federal judge, to
Speaker 4: be denied by that federal judge, to then go to
Speaker 4: an appellate a federal appeals court, to then be denied
Speaker 4: by that federal appeals court. No, you cannot arrest them.
Speaker 4: I will not sign an arrest warrant for them to
Speaker 4: then go and panel and somewhere America, Minnesota or elsewhere
Speaker 4: a grand jury. And by the way, are they going
Speaker 4: to tell us how many grand juries they in panel
Speaker 4: before they got an arrest warrant? Are they going to
Speaker 4: be transparent and say whether or not they were refused
Speaker 4: by a grand jury before they found one that would
Speaker 4: would issue an indictment? Did they tell the truth? And
Speaker 4: by the way, we don't have to know, We don't
Speaker 4: even have to query ourselves about whether or not they
Speaker 4: told the truth, because all we have to look is
Speaker 4: that passes prologue, that what they have told the American
Speaker 4: people at every turn has been a lot lie. Don't
Speaker 4: believe our line in eyes?
Speaker 2: Yeah right, I think you're so right on so many points. Ag.
Speaker 1: I've always said that so long as the Department of
Speaker 1: Justice air Quotes is in the j. Edgar Hoover Building,
Speaker 1: we will be so far from actual justice. I want
Speaker 1: to pull up Attorney General Bondi's tweet about Don Lemon earlier,
Speaker 1: and Jamel Lundy and Georgia Fort and Trey Hearn Cruz,
Speaker 1: and I want to get your reaction to this. Andrew,
Speaker 1: at my direction. Early this morning, federal agents arrested Don Lemon,
Speaker 1: Trey Arn, Jean Cruz, Georgia Fort, and Jamail Lidale Lundy
Speaker 1: in connection with the coordinated attack. Listen to the words
Speaker 1: with the coordinated attack on city's church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Speaker 1: This was six h nine am Easter in this morning,
Speaker 1: January thirty of twenty twenty six. She says more detail soon,
Speaker 1: Andrew wishoul your reaction to the Attorney General using Twitter
Speaker 1: as a space for her to report out that they
Speaker 1: have arrested for people in connection to a church protest.
Speaker 1: Two of those people we know for a fact we're
Speaker 1: reporting out. Don said that right here on the show,
Speaker 1: and we'll play that clip in a moment too.
Speaker 4: It's a shame that we have to refer to her
Speaker 4: as the Attorney General.
Speaker 2: Damn shame.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's it's a shame that she she gets
Speaker 4: the moniker of of of somebody of a title that
Speaker 4: we actually are supposed to have some some degree of
Speaker 4: faith in, some some belief in. We know that it
Speaker 4: hasn't been fair to us always. In fact, in instances
Speaker 4: where it has been fair to us, I would consider
Speaker 4: that an exception to to to to the rule. But
Speaker 4: but she's so lawless she is. She is the queen
Speaker 4: of lawlessness right now. And I don't believe a thing
Speaker 4: that comes out of their mouths Angela, I don't believe
Speaker 4: anything her tweets to me alive the words selection is deliberate.
Speaker 4: But I also saw that there were three million likes
Speaker 4: or something like that underneath that her statement, her posts.
Speaker 4: And I think one of the things that a lot
Speaker 4: of us are not paying attention to is the fact
Speaker 4: that their lawlessness also has a constituency. That there are
Speaker 4: people in our communities, people we work with, that we
Speaker 4: live in neighborhoods with, that we are in social organizations
Speaker 4: with who are cheerleading what they're doing. I understand that
Speaker 4: the polling by and lawge is not necessarily popular, but
Speaker 4: there's a constituency for their lawlessness. And when that extreme
Speaker 4: right wing returned to White America constituency thought that Donald
Speaker 4: Trump was going to pull up on his efforts in Minnesota,
Speaker 4: they got loud. They didn't get loud to us, they
Speaker 4: got loud to the White House through their leaders and
Speaker 4: their organizations. They got loud with the chiefs of staff
Speaker 4: and all those special advisors that the president has, and
Speaker 4: they said hold up. We told you we sent you
Speaker 4: here for this complete the mission. And that's why Donald
Speaker 4: Trump has backtracked yet again, and that's why Pam BONDI
Speaker 4: had to turn their eyre toward him. And by the way,
Speaker 4: just dot dot and you can then take the mic
Speaker 4: Epstein files. Three million documents release today right a document
Speaker 4: dump on a Friday, and also on the friday that
Speaker 4: they choose to arrest people in our community who we
Speaker 4: care deeply about, and they do it lawlessly. So let's
Speaker 4: not forget. There are a lot of moving parts and
Speaker 4: pieces here. There's a lot that this administration has to
Speaker 4: distract the American people from. So I just we have to, guys,
Speaker 4: we have to move with our eyes wide open and
Speaker 4: increasingly our eyes and our mouths and our feet walking
Speaker 4: and our hands working. We have to. This is when
Speaker 4: we throw our shoulders to the wheel, because if we don't,
Speaker 4: we ain't gonna have no goddamn wheel to throw a
Speaker 4: shoulder to.
Speaker 2: There's that.
Speaker 1: And speaking of that, look at this tweet two Andrew,
Speaker 1: I just pat it up, Okay, thank you. I'm very
Speaker 1: happy this is Matt Walsh, another alleged church white supremacist.
Speaker 1: I'm very happy that Don Lemon was arrested, but there
Speaker 1: is one extremely important.
Speaker 2: Caveat in now.
Speaker 1: Caveat now that it's been done, he has to be
Speaker 1: convicted and sent to prison for an extended length of time.
Speaker 1: If he is not convicted or not seriously punished, then
Speaker 1: this whole thing is an unequivocal.
Speaker 2: Win for him.
Speaker 1: It makes him a martyr and ten times more famous
Speaker 1: with no significant consequence. Limit was totally irrelevant prior to this,
Speaker 1: not true. Donald Trump was tweeting about Don Before this,
Speaker 1: nobody watched his show or even knew that he was
Speaker 1: still alive. This is inflammatory. Now he's relevant again. He'll
Speaker 1: almost certainly get another job in cable news on the
Speaker 1: heels of this. The only way to make this a
Speaker 1: win for the good guys. I wonder who the good
Speaker 1: guys are in his mind is to punish it severely,
Speaker 1: correct make the reward of fame and martyrdom not worth
Speaker 1: the cost. If you won't do that, then you never
Speaker 1: should have arrested him. As you know, Andrew, we had
Speaker 1: done on with us as a guest co host just
Speaker 1: this week. I just want to roll this clip really quick,
Speaker 1: because I know we got a heart out at well
Speaker 1: twelve year time.
Speaker 2: Roll this clip. Please.
Speaker 14: Yes, I was there reporting and I don't even know
Speaker 14: the name of the church. I don't even know the
Speaker 14: name of the pastor who was there. But I do
Speaker 14: know the name of the pastor who was alleged to
Speaker 14: be and now has been confirmed by the church to
Speaker 14: be like the I forget some sort of coordinating agent
Speaker 14: or something of ICE, a directing agent of ICE.
Speaker 2: Actink Field director David.
Speaker 14: Was right, David Eastwood, and that he was a pastor
Speaker 14: in the church. And so that group said that they
Speaker 14: went there to protest that I didn't even know what
Speaker 14: the what, you know, what place they were going. It
Speaker 14: was an organization that people said were doing. They had
Speaker 14: sent out a flyer and they were a protest and
Speaker 14: they had been protesting what was happening in Minneapolis. And
Speaker 14: I landed in Minneapolis, said sure, I'll go, I'll follow them.
Speaker 14: I'll just go chronicle what they're doing. And so when
Speaker 14: I found out it was a church, I sat back
Speaker 14: for a bit and I said, let them do their thing.
Speaker 14: Did I know they were going to go in there?
Speaker 14: Of course, of course they're going to go in there,
Speaker 14: that's what they do, or go in there around the
Speaker 14: church well, I wasn't sure if they were going to
Speaker 14: go inside or go around the church or whatever. I
Speaker 14: didn't know what their actions would be, but I knew
Speaker 14: that I wanted to report on it because that's part
Speaker 14: of what was happening that day. And so when they
Speaker 14: went into the church, I stood there and waited for
Speaker 14: a bit and waited and waited, and I saw other
Speaker 14: members of the press going in, and so I walked in.
Speaker 14: When I saw the when the unrest happened, I walked
Speaker 14: in and just started started saying, Hey, look this group
Speaker 14: is over here.
Speaker 4: It's chaos right there.
Speaker 14: They're channing this. They're parishioners and church members over here
Speaker 14: who are upset. And let me go over and talk
Speaker 14: to the pastor, pastor, how do you feel about this?
Speaker 14: About this happening in the church. And then he did
Speaker 14: this thing, and I went over to one of the
Speaker 14: some of the Prissians, I said, what do you feel
Speaker 14: about this? If they said they didn't want to talk,
Speaker 14: I said, I understand, and I moved on and uh,
Speaker 14: And then I talked to the afterwards, the members of
Speaker 14: the group that had organized the protest, and that was it.
Speaker 4: I left, and then.
Speaker 14: So I became the yes. Somehow I became the face
Speaker 14: of it. I'm like, I'm not the face of it.
Speaker 14: I'm not a protester. And I kept saying to them
Speaker 14: when people would say, why are you going you guys,
Speaker 14: what do you I said, sir, I'm not part I'm
Speaker 14: not one of the protesters.
Speaker 4: I'm just here. I'm a journalist and I'm here reporting.
Speaker 2: Here reporting.
Speaker 1: I want to Andrew, I know that this is something
Speaker 1: that you would want to do. In the spirit of
Speaker 1: my brother, who's very detail oriented. Let's actually throw to
Speaker 1: the clip where Don Lemon is interviewing the pastor.
Speaker 14: Yeah, what do you think of it?
Speaker 4: I mean, this is unacceptable, it's shameful. It's shameful to
Speaker 4: interrupt a public gathering of Christians in workship. But there
Speaker 4: were folks. I have to take care of my flow.
Speaker 11: Listen.
Speaker 14: We live in there's a Constitution in the First Amendment
Speaker 14: to freedom of speech and freedom to assembling protest.
Speaker 4: We're here to worship. We're here to worship Jesus because
Speaker 4: that's the hope of these cities, that's the hope of
Speaker 4: the world is Jesus Christ. We're very respectful, but please
Speaker 4: don't push me. Then we're here. We're here to worship Jesus.
Speaker 4: That's why we're here. Okay, that's why we're here. Hopefully
Speaker 4: that's what we're about.
Speaker 14: Which you think Jesus would be understanding.
Speaker 4: And we're about the mode. We're about spraying the love
Speaker 4: of Jesus.
Speaker 14: But did you try to talk to them as a
Speaker 14: as a christone is willing to talk.
Speaker 4: Okay, I have to take care of my church and
Speaker 4: my family, so I asked this, you actually would also
Speaker 4: leave this blod you don't.
Speaker 5: Want us to worship.
Speaker 4: I'm always worship. I'm a Christian. We're here, well, we're
Speaker 4: here to worship.
Speaker 5: We're here to worship.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I mean, he says repeatedly in the clip, Andrew what
Speaker 1: he's there to do. He's documenting it, he's chronicling it.
Speaker 1: He's he asked the man to please take his hands
Speaker 1: off of him. A g wish your reaction to that,
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 4: So one, I think hopefully, First of all, I hope
Speaker 4: this case doesn't get any further than than what we've
Speaker 4: seen up to this point. But should should it go further,
Speaker 4: hopefully this will be evidence that that as as Don
Speaker 4: has said consistently while at the protests, because I went
Speaker 4: back to look at the live stream to see him.
Speaker 4: He's at before he goes into the church. You know,
Speaker 4: actually he's as he's outside again the church. One of
Speaker 4: the parishioners who is leaving the church because of the protests,
Speaker 4: you know, says, I don't you know, I just want
Speaker 4: I don't want to talk to you guys. He said, Oh,
Speaker 4: I'm not a protester. I'm just chronicling what's happening. I'm
Speaker 4: a journalist. And then he proceeds to answer Don's question
Speaker 4: and then they have a back and forth. So he's
Speaker 4: consistently said that he's there as a journalist. I don't
Speaker 4: even think that is in repute. What is crazy is
Speaker 4: that this indictment alleges that he was violently involved and
Speaker 4: holding that ground at the church, right, And there's no
Speaker 4: I just can't wait to see the evidence. What what
Speaker 4: are they going to produce as evidence to back up
Speaker 4: to substantiate their having done this. But you know what,
Speaker 4: I don't have a real belief that it will go
Speaker 4: that far. And if it does, I believe he will
Speaker 4: emerge on the side of right. But but but but
Speaker 4: but I think all of this is done for the theater.
Speaker 4: I don't think they care whether or not. You know,
Speaker 4: they're gonna disappoint that man who's supposed to be just
Speaker 4: put up, who made my point right, which was there's
Speaker 4: a constituency out there who who are one thousand percent
Speaker 4: behind what this administration is doing with this regime is doing.
Speaker 4: And that's and we heard one of the voices there.
Speaker 4: But I think they're gonna be solwly disappointed because to
Speaker 4: prosecute this man is a violation of the Constitution his
Speaker 4: constitutional rights. And I know that they are selective about
Speaker 4: the application of the Constitution in this country who gets
Speaker 4: to exist under the banner of it and who doesn't.
Speaker 4: But it's gonna be hard for any any person to
Speaker 4: turn away their eyes and and act like this didn't happen,
Speaker 4: or that it happened differently than what we're witnessing.
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for what you're what you're saying, Andrew.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a just like a mind blowing reminder
Speaker 1: of where we are and versus where we should be.
Speaker 2: We have, uh hopefully soon.
Speaker 1: The statement from Don Lemon's lawyer, Abby Lowell, who's a
Speaker 1: legend and what he said in response to Don's arrest.
Speaker 1: If we don't have that yet, we can end with that.
Speaker 1: But I do want to play this clip too of
Speaker 1: Georgia fort speaking.
Speaker 2: Uh to us about being outa b Wells today.
Speaker 1: So what drives you to keep cause you're not just
Speaker 1: like reporting on it from videos you're seeing online. You're
Speaker 1: going to the heart of the protest, You're going to
Speaker 1: the heat of the action. What is driving you to
Speaker 1: be at ground zero in spite of that fear?
Speaker 6: We cannot be neutral about the dismantling of our demidocracy
Speaker 6: and still expect to be protected by it. We cannot
Speaker 6: allow our fear to paralyze us to the point where
Speaker 6: we decide to do nothing, that we just become spectators
Speaker 6: and then just live with the consequence of whatever this
Speaker 6: administration is doing. And so I am activated by my ancestors.
Speaker 6: I feel like I stand on the shoulders of I
Speaker 6: to b Wells, who documented lynchings that was probably extremely
Speaker 6: controversial at her time. I imagine that because she had
Speaker 6: such a narrow focus, and because she decided to tell
Speaker 6: the stories of people who are lynched in their families
Speaker 6: and not so much so of the people who are
Speaker 6: lynching them. She was probably accused of not being objective
Speaker 6: and being an activist, and probably all the same things
Speaker 6: that I hear. But it did not It did not
Speaker 6: prevent her from continuing to do that documentation, which now
Speaker 6: fast forward years late, is extremely essential to us understanding
Speaker 6: that era. It is extremely essential because of the continued
Speaker 6: attempts to erase our history. I stand on the shoulders
Speaker 6: of David Jackson, the photographer who took the horrific image
Speaker 6: of Emmitt Till which touched the hearts, the minds, and
Speaker 6: the souls of so many white Americans and activated them
Speaker 6: to do something. And so I understand the power of
Speaker 6: media and the power of storytelling. And if I allow
Speaker 6: my fear to paralyze me, then I feel like they
Speaker 6: have won. I feel like in twenty years we won't
Speaker 6: have an accurate reflection of what is happening. And I
Speaker 6: think it's essential because you mentioned this, like in your opening,
Speaker 6: this administration has a history of lying. So who is
Speaker 6: going to be the archivist of this moment? Who is
Speaker 6: going to gather the truth and hold it so that
Speaker 6: future generations can have an accurate reflection of what this
Speaker 6: moment is really like, oh, pressure.
Speaker 2: So Andrew, as we get ready to sign off.
Speaker 4: Angela before a week before we go, I just want
Speaker 4: to say a lot of people have listened to different
Speaker 4: you know, We'll hear a clip from Don Lemon and
Speaker 4: they'll say, well, he's got an opinion. Listen, journalists are
Speaker 4: allowed to have a if you are confused about whether
Speaker 4: or not journalists can be can have opinions and perspectives
Speaker 4: and lenses by which they see things. I don't know
Speaker 4: a journalist who doesn't have a lens by which they
Speaker 4: see the world. And so if you are looking at
Speaker 4: clips that show him expressing an opinion, that does not
Speaker 4: remove from him the designation of a journalist. He still
Speaker 4: has the credentials, the background, and considers himself a journalist
Speaker 4: and allows equal forum for all sides. Period.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I want to pull this statement up from Don's attorney,
Speaker 1: Abby Lowe, and I will read it for the folks
Speaker 1: who are listening and not watching, or who will listen
Speaker 1: and didn't watch. My eyes are bad, Nick, help us
Speaker 1: stout the magistrates reported actions confirm the nature.
Speaker 2: That's how rude's not that bad.
Speaker 1: Nick of Don's First Amendment protected work this weekend in
Speaker 1: Minnesota as a reporter. It was no different that what
Speaker 1: he has done for more than thirty years, reporting and
Speaker 1: covering newsworthy events on the ground and engaging in constitutionally
Speaker 1: protected activity as a journalist. Should the Department of Justice
Speaker 1: continue with the studying and troubling effort to silence and
Speaker 1: punish the journalists for doing his job, Don will call
Speaker 1: out their latest attack on the rule of law and
Speaker 1: fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court. This is
Speaker 1: actually the first statement, So I pulled the wrong one.
Speaker 1: But here's what we know, Andrew, our work as far
Speaker 1: from over. As we continue to get information throughout the day.
Speaker 1: Hopefully the three of us can rejoin and bring back
Speaker 1: our friends, our allies in Minnesota and really make sure
Speaker 1: that we raise attention right now, Andrew, You've always been
Speaker 1: my favorite person to tell me what is required of
Speaker 1: us in this moment. So I would just ask you,
Speaker 1: you know, in the spirit of always doing great calls
Speaker 1: to actions, what you would ask calls to action young people,
Speaker 1: our elders, people at home who aren't in Minnesota but
Speaker 1: want to do something.
Speaker 2: What is the thing that you will recommend we all do?
Speaker 4: Now, you know, first of all, we all have voices.
Speaker 4: Whether I mean that literally, you can speak, whether it's
Speaker 4: in your writing, whatever we can do. If we are
Speaker 4: sitting silent right now waiting for this thing to come
Speaker 4: up our block, y'all it in the house, Yeah, it
Speaker 4: is in the house. We have to wait for our neighborhood,
Speaker 4: our street, our driveway. It is in the house. They
Speaker 4: are challenging the very basic fundamentals of this society that
Speaker 4: we consider a democracy. And I think what's become most
Speaker 4: apparent to me right now, Angela, and this time, is
Speaker 4: how much this democracy relied on our belief in a
Speaker 4: subscription to a set of ideals not necessarily codified in law.
Speaker 4: Not necessarily I mean in this case, we've got a
Speaker 4: lot of it written down in law. It's called the
Speaker 4: Constitution and the first ten Amendments, the Declarations of Independence
Speaker 4: and so on and so forth, but so much of
Speaker 4: it requires an action from us to be preserved. Right.
Speaker 4: That's why the position man Franklin said, we give you
Speaker 4: a republic if you can keep it. If you can
Speaker 4: keep it, part is right now, if we're going to
Speaker 4: keep this thing, we have to raise our voices right
Speaker 4: now to the illegality. That's taking place in relation to yes,
Speaker 4: these journalists, but across the whole system. They are coming
Speaker 4: for us. We know what's happening in Georgia and those
Speaker 4: and the taking of the those ballots. That's yeah, a
Speaker 4: little bit about religating, religating twenty twenty, but it's mostly
Speaker 4: about twenty twenty six and twenty twenty eight and the
Speaker 4: elections that come after. Right, they want to stifle the
Speaker 4: ability for us to get access to that. This fight
Speaker 4: is everywhere. If you are waiting for it to come
Speaker 4: up your block, it's already in your house is on fire,
Speaker 4: and we all have to get a hose, right, We
Speaker 4: all got to put our shoulder to the wheel. Right now.
Speaker 4: I'm so anxious about this because I'm gonna be researching
Speaker 4: the recesses of my mind around what more, what more?
Speaker 4: What more? What more? What more?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 4: What more? And if you're feeling like you're not doing enough,
Speaker 4: you're probably right do more. And maybe some of that
Speaker 4: doing more means enlisting others to join you, But the sidelines,
Speaker 4: if you own it.
Speaker 5: All.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you this, brother, the one thing again
Speaker 1: that I know you've come up with some of the
Speaker 1: most creative responses to these kinds of attacks that I
Speaker 1: know of, So please tell me if there's something that
Speaker 1: you need me to do to help amplify whatever strategy
Speaker 1: you got. You know, I'm ten toes down for you, always,
Speaker 1: the other friend I know, all of us. Yes, indeed,
Speaker 1: So with that, we actually do have Abby Loyle's latest statement.
Speaker 2: We're going to read that as we go out.
Speaker 1: Please remember, even though we're reading the statement from Don
Speaker 1: Lemon's attorney, Georgia fort Our, dear sister journalist extraordinaire Emmy
Speaker 1: Award winning journalist at that in Minnesota, was also arrested
Speaker 1: this morning in front of her children inside of her home.
Speaker 2: Also Trey Earn Cruz, a Bush.
Speaker 1: Foundation fellow who is the co founder of Black Lives Matter,
Speaker 1: you can put the statement back up. And Jamel Lundy,
Speaker 1: an attorney who's running for office, who of course they
Speaker 1: are trying to stifle Don Lemmon. This statement from Abby
Speaker 1: Lowell for those listening. Don Lemon was taken into custody
Speaker 1: by federal agents last night in Los Angeles, where he
Speaker 1: was covering the Grammy Awards. Dona has been a journalist
Speaker 1: for thirty years and is constitutionally protected. Work in Minneapolis
Speaker 1: was no different than what he has always done. The
Speaker 1: First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is
Speaker 1: to shine light on the truth and hold those in
Speaker 1: power accountable. There is no more important time for people
Speaker 1: like Don to be doing this work. Instead of investigating
Speaker 1: the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the
Speaker 1: Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention, and resources
Speaker 1: to this arrest. And that is the real indictment of
Speaker 1: wrongdoing in this case. This unprecedented attack on the First
Speaker 1: Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many
Speaker 1: crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight
Speaker 1: these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court. I want to
Speaker 1: remind our listening audience that the charges against these individuals
Speaker 1: include the eighteen seventy one KKK Act and then section
Speaker 1: eighteen USC. Code A, Section two forty eight eighteen USC.
Speaker 1: Two forty eight Freedom of Access to clinic entrances. If
Speaker 1: you go back to listen to our podcast with Dawn,
Speaker 1: we talked about the Face Act, which was a bill
Speaker 1: that was sponsored by the late Senator Ted Kennedy, and
Speaker 1: what it is really about, you will see that neither
Speaker 1: eighteen USC. Section two forty eight and neither eighteen USC.
Speaker 1: Section two forty one apply. Section two forty one is
Speaker 1: the KKK Act. These do not apply here. These charges
Speaker 1: will not stand. Hopefully they go before judges with good
Speaker 1: intention who can actually read and interpret and apply the law.
Speaker 1: Until then, Welcome home, y'all.
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