Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony, the NBA. That is something to celebrate today.
Speaker 1: The politics in our nation's capital that is an entirely
Speaker 1: different matter altogether. As I will definitely express when Senator
Speaker 1: Corey book A rose up in the house.
Speaker 2: Stephen A.
Speaker 3: Smith Show coming at you right now.
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome to the latest edition of The
Speaker 1: stephen A. Smith Show, Coming at you. As I love
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Speaker 1: I'm standing because I'm a bit hyped today. I'm standing
Speaker 1: because I got to get started with some basketball talk.
Speaker 1: Remember Senator Cory Booker who gave that twenty five hour,
Speaker 1: four minute speech in the nation's capital and capital Hell
Speaker 1: the other day. He and I are gonna holler about
Speaker 1: a few things today with the Democrats and the Republicans.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be fair, but were gonna get into it
Speaker 1: because he needs to get into it after a speech
Speaker 1: that damn long, make no mistake about it. But before
Speaker 1: I get into that, I got to start off with
Speaker 1: some basketball because I got some stuff on my mina, right.
Speaker 1: I want to get props to the one and know
Speaker 1: only Carmelo Anthony, who was in full just yesterday. He'll
Speaker 1: be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five. The ten time NBA All Star
Speaker 1: was selected third overall in the two thousand and three
Speaker 1: draft out of Denver Nuggets, just two picks behind Lebron
Speaker 1: James and two picks ahead of Dwayne Wade Melos, a
Speaker 1: six time All NBA selection who quickly became one of
Speaker 1: the league's premier scorers, averaging twenty one points per game
Speaker 1: as a rookie. Before all of that, Cammeller burst onto
Speaker 1: the national spotlight, if you remember, as a freshman phenom
Speaker 1: at Syracuse University, leading the Orangement to their only national championship,
Speaker 1: which was back in two thousand and three. This brother
Speaker 1: right here is one of the elite scorers the game
Speaker 1: has ever seen. In the New York Nick uniform, he
Speaker 1: averaged about twenty four point seven points okay average about
Speaker 1: seven rebounds. The brother was a scoring machine. He was
Speaker 1: missed the buckets. This is what he did. His drops up,
Speaker 1: I mean, his jabs have everything. His jump shooting ability,
Speaker 1: his ability to post play with his back to the basket,
Speaker 1: play facing the basket. He is one of the elite
Speaker 1: scorers the game has ever seen. And I got to
Speaker 1: tell you something right now, I've known him for years.
Speaker 1: It's like family to me. That's how much love I
Speaker 1: got for that brother. Because He's a special dude. He
Speaker 1: got a perfect name, Mellow, because he don't bother anybody.
Speaker 1: He was never one of those dudes. He was an
Speaker 1: individual that just got along with everybody. Most folks, if
Speaker 1: not all of them, had mad love and respect for him.
Speaker 1: They still respect him to this very day. His business
Speaker 1: ventures off the side. He ain't poor. He ain't getting
Speaker 1: poor anytime soon. He's a wealthy individual, make no mistake
Speaker 1: about it. But he could ball. And when I think
Speaker 1: about him, I think about two things, two things, And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stand here for this one right here. When
Speaker 1: I see when I look at him in a Nugget uniform,
Speaker 1: two things come to my mind. He was drafted by
Speaker 1: the number three overall. That should not have been the case.
Speaker 1: He should have been drafted number two, directly right behind
Speaker 1: Lebron James. And it's a hard subject for me to
Speaker 1: bring up because one of the great executives in NBA
Speaker 1: history was Joe Dumar of the Detroit Pistons, who had
Speaker 1: guided the franchise as its President of Basketball Operations the
Speaker 1: six consecutive Conference finals appearances, back to back trips to
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals, and won a championship beating Kobe and
Speaker 1: Shaq and those boys in Detroit two thousand and four
Speaker 1: for the NBA Championship. What happened in two thousand and
Speaker 1: three though the Detroit Pistons had the number two pick
Speaker 1: and decided they wanted to go with Darko Milicic. And
Speaker 1: why did they do that? Because they had tay Shan Prince.
Speaker 1: They also had Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups as your
Speaker 1: back court. You had Ben Wallace and he ultimately had
Speaker 1: Rashid Wallace. And I get all of that, but in
Speaker 1: the end, because you had tay Shan Prince and you
Speaker 1: had a championship squad, you drafted based on need instead
Speaker 1: of grabbing the best available talent. And if Carmelo Anthony
Speaker 1: had been at the Detroit Pistons uniform, he'd have had
Speaker 1: a title because they wouldn't have lost it with him,
Speaker 1: whether he was starting or coming off the bench, they
Speaker 1: would not have lost the title with that crew. If
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthony was a part of that squad. That's one
Speaker 1: time that there was an opportunity missed, albeit that was
Speaker 1: not his fault. And again it's a subject it's difficult
Speaker 1: for me to bring up because I loved me some
Speaker 1: Joe Dumars, who I thought was absolutely positively exceptional at
Speaker 1: his job. But the biggest, most glaring mistake of his
Speaker 1: executive career, not his playing career, because he was playing
Speaker 1: alongside Isaiah Thomas in the backcourt and play with Billy Amber,
Speaker 1: John Sally Horne and all of these brothers, Adrian Dantley,
Speaker 1: Let's not forget him, Marc Guyed. Ultimately, remember Joe Dumars
Speaker 1: was a champion as a player. He became a champion
Speaker 1: as an executive. But by passing up on Carmelo Anthony,
Speaker 1: I believe it interrupted a lengthy period of time they
Speaker 1: would have been dominant, and it certainly coursed that brother
Speaker 1: a championship in Detroit. He should have been a Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 1: But I'm a walk over here to think about my
Speaker 1: next subject, because Carmelo Anthony ended up being a New
Speaker 1: York knickerbocker, and I understand that. Here's what happened, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. He was in Denver as a nugget. The
Speaker 1: year was two thousand and seven, Lebron, James d Wade, Mello,
Speaker 1: everybody was operating under their initial deal into the NBA
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and three, contract negotiations kicked in,
Speaker 1: and what Lebron and d Wade and ultimately Chris Bosh
Speaker 1: did was carve out and opt out in their clauses
Speaker 1: for the year two thousand and ten when they were
Speaker 1: do to become a free agent, rather than grabbed the
Speaker 1: whole five year deal for the bag, they said, no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna exercise a player option after year three. Melo
Speaker 1: didn't do that. He had a contract. He had a
Speaker 1: contract with Denver that it was for five years with
Speaker 1: no out because being a Baltimore native growing up, pulled
Speaker 1: that brother wasn't putting himself in a position where he
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be able to get that money. He wanted
Speaker 1: every dollar guaranteed, and so he signed on for the
Speaker 1: five years as opposed to taking the three and opting
Speaker 1: out because he didn't want to find himself getting injured
Speaker 1: or anything like that, and then after three years he'd
Speaker 1: be able to compromise his money. That was a risk
Speaker 1: he wasn't willing to take. Where's Lebron, d Wade and
Speaker 1: ultimately Bosh did. Why do I bring that up? Because
Speaker 1: whether d Wade, Lebron and the crew want to admit
Speaker 1: this or not. This brother right here, Carmelo Anthony would
Speaker 1: have been with Miami. It wasn't supposed to be Bosh.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be Mello. And here's what I'm
Speaker 1: saying to all of you right here in America, right
Speaker 1: now as we speak. I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: for the record, I am very very clear what I
Speaker 1: am about to say. I love me some Chris Bosh.
Speaker 1: What he did on the defensive side of the ball
Speaker 1: can't be minimized in any way. He's a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: Props to him. But I believe that if Carmelo Anthony
Speaker 1: was on the Miami Heat, Miami Heat doesn't have two
Speaker 1: titles out of four in the Lebron d Wade era.
Speaker 1: I believe they have at least three because that loss
Speaker 1: against Dallas, when Lebron struggled in those fourth quarters. The
Speaker 1: d Wade that was deferential because he knew that Lebron
Speaker 1: was the best, and even though he did his thing,
Speaker 1: he was being deferential. That wasn't Carmelo. Carmelo would have said, man, yo, y'all,
Speaker 1: give me the ball. I'm tired of this. Give me
Speaker 1: the ball and you handle business. That was the kind
Speaker 1: of our offensive juggernaut. That he was that level of aggression,
Speaker 1: that's who he was. He wasn't being deferential to anybody
Speaker 1: when the ball was in his hands, balls gonna be
Speaker 1: in his hands. That Carmelo Anthony I believe would have
Speaker 1: saved the Miami Heat final series against Dallas and Lebron
Speaker 1: James first she in South Beage. So that's not one
Speaker 1: but two opportunities, two bites at the apple, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: one not no fault of his own and the other
Speaker 1: is a ford of Carmelo Anthony because he didn't have
Speaker 1: that opt out in his contract. That ultimately cost him
Speaker 1: a championship. And that's the only thing that's sad about
Speaker 1: his career. Is a three time Olympic champion, but he's
Speaker 1: only won three playoff series in his career. He lost thirteen.
Speaker 1: He's one of the greatest offensive players we have ever
Speaker 1: seen in our lifetime. He's a Hall of Famer, a
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame without question now because he's won three
Speaker 1: Olympic gold medals. He's a ten time All Star scoring
Speaker 1: champion twenty thirteen average twenty eight points seven points a game,
Speaker 1: mister buckets. But no matter what he is as a
Speaker 1: basketball player, he's even better as a person. Be happier
Speaker 1: for him and what he's been able to achieve. I
Speaker 1: just wish that Carmelo Anthony had captured an NBA championship.
Speaker 1: He never played in the NBA finals, never won a
Speaker 1: championship in the NBA. It's the only place he's never won.
Speaker 1: That part saddens me because I think that messes up
Speaker 1: and otherwise flawless, impeccable basketball resume. Jim Bayheim coached at
Speaker 1: Syracuse forty years. There's only one man that delivered him
Speaker 1: a championship. He's had Derek Coleman, He's had Sherman Douglas,
Speaker 1: He's had the greatest show in the history of college basketball,
Speaker 1: and Dwayne Pearl Washington, but only one man delivered him
Speaker 1: a championship. It was Carmelo Anthony. Three time Olympic gold medalists,
Speaker 1: national champion, and now.
Speaker 3: A Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: I'm really, really, really happy for him. I just wish
Speaker 1: that I could have seen him in an NBA finals
Speaker 1: because it would have been something to behold. That's all
Speaker 1: I wanted to say.
Speaker 3: That's all I wanted to say.
Speaker 1: Coming up, he stood on the Senate floor for twenty
Speaker 1: five hours speaking out against the Trump administration, breaking the
Speaker 1: record for the longest speech in history. But was it
Speaker 1: worth it? I'm about to find out when I ask him.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about New Jersey Senator, the one and knowly
Speaker 1: Corey Booker.
Speaker 4: He's here next, right here on a Stephen Smith Show.
Speaker 4: Don't go away a light.
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Speaker 2: With the senator. Yield for a question, Chuck she Wert
Speaker 2: is the only time in my life I can tell you.
Speaker 5: No, I just want to tell you a question. Do
Speaker 5: you know you have just broken the record? Do you
Speaker 5: know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you
Speaker 5: know how proud America is of you?
Speaker 6: The power of the people is greater than the people
Speaker 6: in power. It is time to heed the words of
Speaker 6: the man. I began this whole thing with John Lewis.
Speaker 6: He said, for us to go out and cause some
Speaker 6: good trouble, necessary trouble to redeem the soul of our nation.
Speaker 6: I want you to redeem the dream. Let's be bold
Speaker 6: in America, not to bean into great Americans, not divide
Speaker 6: us against each other. Let's be bolder in America with
Speaker 6: a vision that inspires, with hope that starts with the
Speaker 6: people of the United States of America. That's how this
Speaker 6: country started.
Speaker 2: We the people.
Speaker 6: Let's get back to the ideals that others are threatening
Speaker 6: let's get back to our founding documents.
Speaker 2: That those are perfect geniuses. Had some very special words
Speaker 2: at the end.
Speaker 6: Of the Declaration of Independence was one of the greatest
Speaker 6: in all of humanity, declarations of interdependence, when our founder
Speaker 6: said we might mutually pledged pledge to each other our lives,
Speaker 6: our fortunes, and our sacred honor. We need that now
Speaker 6: from all Americans. This is a moral moment. It's not
Speaker 6: left or right, it's right or wrong. It's getting good trouble,
Speaker 6: my friend, Madam President, I.
Speaker 1: Yield the floor. Welcome back to the Stephen A. Smith Show.
Speaker 1: That was my next guest who made history this week
Speaker 1: on the Senate floor. He currently serves as the US
Speaker 1: Senator from the great state of New Jersey. Please welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Stephen A. Smith Show, the one and
Speaker 1: only Senator Corey book a Senator. First off, how are
Speaker 1: you Have you gotten any rest?
Speaker 2: I've gotten a bit. Body's still weary, but the soul
Speaker 2: is soaring right now. So I'm doing all right.
Speaker 1: I know your limited on time. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your time. Let's get right to it. On Monday,
Speaker 1: you stood on the Senate floor and begin a marathon
Speaker 1: twenty five hour plus speech, and you know, criticizing the
Speaker 1: Trump administration. You set the record for the longest speech
Speaker 1: in the chambers of passing the previous mark except in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven by segregation, the Senator strom thurmon Thurmann
Speaker 1: spent more than twenty four hours philibustering the Civil Rights Act.
Speaker 1: You aren't doing a filibuster. I want to know what
Speaker 1: the reason for this was for you, and what do
Speaker 1: you think you accomplished.
Speaker 2: I'm grateful for the question. You know, we started by
Speaker 2: being very plain what this was all about. A lot
Speaker 2: of folks are hurting in this country right now, and
Speaker 2: we wanted to center their stories. My office has gotten
Speaker 2: tens of thousands of folks reaching out farmers who are
Speaker 2: losing their farms because of the policies of this administration,
Speaker 2: Veterans who are being laid off or having their benefits undercut.
Speaker 2: We wanted to center their voices. We were having people
Speaker 2: who were receiving Social Security who couldn't get responses from
Speaker 2: the Social Security off office because of the tens of
Speaker 2: thousands of people that are being cut there as well,
Speaker 2: to tell stories, and we didn't want to make it partisan,
Speaker 2: so we brought in Republican voices, from Republican governors to
Speaker 2: Republicans afraid of losing their medicaid. We brought in Republican
Speaker 2: thank tanks like the Manhattan Institute and the Cato Institute,
Speaker 2: just to really lay it plain that this wasn't about
Speaker 2: left or right, it's about right or wrong. It's about America.
Speaker 2: It's taking care of each other. So when he asked
Speaker 2: what we accomplished, the first and foremost is most people
Speaker 2: don't pay attention to that institution, and probably for good reason,
Speaker 2: but we wanted to have people pay attention to the
Speaker 2: people who are hurting in America, whose voices often don't
Speaker 2: get told. Because I stood for twenty five hours, but
Speaker 2: you and I both know this. There are people like
Speaker 2: those folks working shifts at the ihop in Newark right
Speaker 2: now on Berghenm Street, who are working two shifts, no
Speaker 2: rest and hoping they can maybe get a third around
Speaker 2: the clock so that they can make enough ends meet
Speaker 2: to afford rent. Well, the rent's going up, price of
Speaker 2: groceries are going up, price of every day living, and
Speaker 2: so we've got to start talking about the real issues
Speaker 2: of our country, not in a way that talks down
Speaker 2: to each other but lifts folks up. And that's what
Speaker 2: I was trying to Senator.
Speaker 1: There were some people that were looking at you and
Speaker 1: in terms of what you had to say about fears
Speaker 1: of Medicaid being destroyed, and essentially they use that as
Speaker 1: an example to highlight that primarily some of the things
Speaker 1: that you were complaining about haven't even happened yet. So
Speaker 1: why is he doing this now? What do you say
Speaker 1: to those to such assertions like that that you were
Speaker 1: talking about things that haven't happened yet.
Speaker 2: Well, God, I mean, it's been seventy two days and
Speaker 2: a lot of things have happened that are real. Health
Speaker 2: insurance is up. He cut funding to the ACA portals,
Speaker 2: making it difficult for people to get health care, and
Speaker 2: rolled back things that the Biden administration did that brought
Speaker 2: down the price of prescription drugs. People are feeling that
Speaker 2: pain we know when it comes to healthcare. Those things
Speaker 2: have happened. What's happening to the VA? No president in
Speaker 2: my lifetime or yours has laid off more VA members,
Speaker 2: including many of them that are doing things to prevent
Speaker 2: veteran suicide, which is a shame of our nation. But
Speaker 2: when you talk about specifically Medicaid hasn't been cut. When
Speaker 2: do you want people to speak up? It's just like
Speaker 2: the ACA. You know, we started fight to protect the
Speaker 2: ACA months before it happened, but God, we had to
Speaker 2: garner and galvanize people to join us in the fight,
Speaker 2: and that public pressure made John McCain and Lisa Murkowski
Speaker 2: and Susan Collins change their vote. So you and I
Speaker 2: know you don't prep for game day on day day.
Speaker 2: You've got two A days during the summer, sometimes three
Speaker 2: A days. You start prepping long before the actual vote comes.
Speaker 2: And that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: I don't know if folks see this the way that
Speaker 1: I do, but when I was watching you, and I
Speaker 1: did not watch the whole twenty four twenty five plus hours,
Speaker 1: so I did not do that, but I certainly tried
Speaker 1: to watch some of it. Make no mistake about that.
Speaker 1: When I watched you talk about these things, I found
Speaker 1: myself growing a bit concern. And here is the reason
Speaker 1: why I give you credit, Because I thought that you
Speaker 1: greatly utilized fears pertaining to Elon musk indulge as opposed
Speaker 1: to going at Trump directly because I think that he's
Speaker 1: become the master at playing the victim, and every time
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party has come at him in such a
Speaker 1: way directly, it's worked to it's his benefit as opposed
Speaker 1: to his detriment. Nevertheless, I do find I did find
Speaker 1: myself asking where was this Cory Booker and where were
Speaker 1: the Democrats leading up to the election, because as outspoken
Speaker 1: as you were, there were an abundance of people clamoring,
Speaker 1: maybe not directly for you, but for the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: to speak on issues that were far more substantive than
Speaker 1: the stuff that we was hearing during the campaign. What
Speaker 1: do you say to that?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, what I said it on the floor,
Speaker 2: and maybe this wasn't the part you were listening to,
Speaker 2: is before you even get a Democratic Republicans. I just
Speaker 2: stood before the American people and said I could be
Speaker 2: doing better that I'm out here, because my we're saying
Speaker 2: exactly what you're saying is you're not doing enough. Do
Speaker 2: something different, Take a risk, show us how much you're
Speaker 2: how far you're willing to go to fight for the
Speaker 2: people who are getting hurt. I again, I keep bringing
Speaker 2: back to sports because I know that's a common plane
Speaker 2: we stand on. Yes, the team that loses if you
Speaker 2: don't learn from that loss. You're going to be a
Speaker 2: loser over and over again, and whatever you want to say.
Speaker 2: The Democratic Party has to own up to it. Now.
Speaker 2: It's not about pointing Blaine. It's about taking responsibility, right,
Speaker 2: And so I said that quite plain to the American people.
Speaker 2: Absolutely I accept responsibility. The Democratic Party has made mistakes.
Speaker 2: I said in the one hundred body, we've all made
Speaker 2: mistakes around it. Let's stop talking about each other and
Speaker 2: let's start talking about the possibilities of this nation. I
Speaker 2: asked folks that I said, it's a new generation of
Speaker 2: leadership coming in America. Baby boomers are leaving and they've
Speaker 2: done incredible things. My parents were baby boomers, the civil
Speaker 2: rights generation. With baby boomers, you know, we have this.
Speaker 2: This is the last baby doing President Donald Trump. It's
Speaker 2: time for us though in our generation, like the young
Speaker 2: John Lewis did, like a young Fred shuttles Work did,
Speaker 2: like a young Ella Baker did, It's time for us
Speaker 2: to redeem the dream and start talking about American a
Speaker 2: way that inspires people. Because this is what King did
Speaker 2: that was powerful to me. He didn't stand up on
Speaker 2: the march on Washington and talk about how racist Bull
Speaker 2: Connor was or how evil George Wallace was. He started
Speaker 2: to talk about us and who we could be together.
Speaker 2: He called us to our moral imagination. He redeemed the
Speaker 2: dream by saying I have one and put out a
Speaker 2: dream that nobody denied, is at which we should be going.
Speaker 1: But Senator Booker, respectfully, a lot of people will look
Speaker 1: at a certain thing and hear what you're saying, and
Speaker 1: it's very difficult to refute anything that you're saying at
Speaker 1: this particular moment in time. But in the same breath,
Speaker 1: there's a difference to being listened to and being heard.
Speaker 1: And when we think about the Democratic Party and you say,
Speaker 1: and you are absolutely accurate when you say that, you
Speaker 1: said on the floor, you've made mistakes, The party has
Speaker 1: made mistakes. What were those mistakes? What were those mistakes
Speaker 1: that need to be corrected by the Democratic Party. Because
Speaker 1: even though you're saying that you don't want to talk
Speaker 1: about party affiliations, you're talking about human beings. You're talking
Speaker 1: about American citizens and American lives. The fact of the
Speaker 1: matter is you're a senator for the Democratic Party. So
Speaker 1: people are looking at you and they're saying, there's one
Speaker 1: side or the other. If you're talking to folks they
Speaker 1: still see you as a Democrat. What did the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party do wrong that you felt compelled to take responsibility
Speaker 1: for it to some degree?
Speaker 2: Anyway, Well, forgive me for the inadequacies in my communicating
Speaker 2: right now, and I'll try to say it more plainly.
Speaker 2: The mistake that I spoke to on that floor was
Speaker 2: we didn't do what I did that night. We didn't
Speaker 2: do a good enough job of centering other people's pain,
Speaker 2: other people's hurt, other people's struggle. People don't care how
Speaker 2: much you know until they know how much you care.
Speaker 2: I started my career in Newark, New Jersey. I still
Speaker 2: live in that same neighborhood that I moved to be
Speaker 2: a tenant organizer because the worst slum lads were taking
Speaker 2: advantage of people. And I remember, as a bright young
Speaker 2: lawyer from Yale University and one of the old grizzly
Speaker 2: tenant leaders, a guy named Frank Hutchins. When I was
Speaker 2: sitting in the meeting, all all I needed to give
Speaker 2: me the information I need to file my complaint. But
Speaker 2: that meeting went on for three hours and more on,
Speaker 2: probably longer than that, And when we got out, I
Speaker 2: made some quip that a young lawyer probably would make like, God,
Speaker 2: we had everything we need in the first three minutes. God,
Speaker 2: that was a long meeting. I made some obnoxious young
Speaker 2: quip and he stopped in his tracks. This old tenant
Speaker 2: leader the record for the longest rent strike in Newark's history.
Speaker 2: He stopped and he looked at me, and he goes,
Speaker 2: we can't even begin to heal the buildings until we
Speaker 2: heal each other. You need to see people, Corey, you
Speaker 2: need to hear them. You need to love him. I
Speaker 2: think that the reason why neither party, either Donald Trump
Speaker 2: or the Democratic nominee, got the majority of votes. That
Speaker 2: means nobody more people voted against each candidate and voted
Speaker 2: for them both of them. Nobody got over fifty percent,
Speaker 2: is because Americans have stopped believing in their leaders and believing, frankly,
Speaker 2: in what we are capable of together. This dream of America,
Speaker 2: as lang Say Hughes said, there's a dream in this
Speaker 2: land with its back against the wall. Save the dream
Speaker 2: for one. We must save it for all. This idea
Speaker 2: that we're all into it, to get all into it together,
Speaker 2: this idea that we lean on each other, that we
Speaker 2: need each other. We're losing that we're so tribal now
Speaker 2: that we hate each other before we even listen to
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 1: Well, let me interject, because I'm talking about winning. I
Speaker 1: didn't vote for Donald Trump. I didn't want him to win.
Speaker 1: But he won the election. He won every swing state,
Speaker 1: he won the popular vote, he won the electoral college vote.
Speaker 1: He's got the House and the Senate. My god, I mean,
Speaker 1: the man won. And what I'm thinking about listening to you,
Speaker 1: I hear exactly what you're saying. My retort to that
Speaker 1: would be you were on the floor the word demogogue
Speaker 1: was mentioned. You've got people complaining about those You got
Speaker 1: folks out there attacking Tesla and what have you. You
Speaker 1: see a lot of the things that the Republicans are
Speaker 1: using on the right to point to the victimization they're suffering
Speaker 1: from and the fact that the Democratic Party hasn't spoken
Speaker 1: up about what's great about their party. They've spoken more
Speaker 1: about what's bad about Trump and the GOP. To that,
Speaker 1: you say, what, how do you explain that and how
Speaker 1: you feel about that people saying those things?
Speaker 2: Brother, I'll tell you this, Steven. I'm one guy, and
Speaker 2: every day I stand up and my mom tells me
Speaker 2: this don't define yourself by who you're against, but by
Speaker 2: what you're for. I remember Donald Trump the first time
Speaker 2: he mean tweeted me. I think Chris Como was interviewing
Speaker 2: me in a morning shows a Democratic convention, and he said,
Speaker 2: this is what Donald Trump said about you. What do
Speaker 2: you have to say back to him? And I looked
Speaker 2: at the kids, Chris Gold and I think I surprised him.
Speaker 2: I said, what do I have to say to Donald Trump?
Speaker 2: Because he said that about me? I have to say,
Speaker 2: I love you, man, I don't want you to be
Speaker 2: my president. I'm going to do everything I can to
Speaker 2: stop you, but you're never going to pull me so
Speaker 2: low as to hate you. I sat on a plane
Speaker 2: not too long ago, and you know how this and
Speaker 2: you get this. People look at you. I know you
Speaker 2: from somewhere. So a lot of people say things to
Speaker 2: me in airports, and mostly kind things, but sometimes I think,
Speaker 2: you know, it's May is almost here. I think you
Speaker 2: should send me a Mother's Day card because I hear
Speaker 2: it a lot.
Speaker 1: You mother, yep.
Speaker 2: But this time I'm sitting down and the couple next
Speaker 2: to me, it's a mom and a daughter sixty and eighty,
Speaker 2: and they look at me and they go, who are you?
Speaker 2: Are you a professional athlete? Now I'm a big black
Speaker 2: guy and stand for yeah. And you know my ego,
Speaker 2: you don't want to be insulted black guy. You're making
Speaker 2: an assumption. My ego is like, well, I could be yea,
Speaker 2: but I look at her and I said, no, ma'am,
Speaker 2: I'm not. And then she goes, well, who are you?
Speaker 2: Why are so many people saying take a notice of you?
Speaker 2: And I said, ma'am, I'm a United States Senator. And
Speaker 2: the very first thing she wants to know, which most
Speaker 2: Americans won't want to know when they meet some congressmen
Speaker 2: or congresswoman out about in the wild, is are you
Speaker 2: on their team or my team? And she looks at
Speaker 2: me and she goes, are you a Democrat Republican? And
Speaker 2: I go, ma'am, I'm a Democrat. And then she crosses
Speaker 2: her arms, looks sour at me, and swivels herself away
Speaker 2: from me, as she says, at the last moment, I
Speaker 2: should have brought my Trump hat, and then put turns away.
Speaker 2: And so here I am hearing the same old tune
Speaker 2: that is so hurting our country, it's now invading our
Speaker 2: own Thanksgiving tables. Okay, but hold on, okay, go ahead,
Speaker 2: go ahead, because I'm not blaming her. I am not
Speaker 2: blaming her. I look at the woman and I say, ma'am, ma'am,
Speaker 2: excuse me. Donald Trump, he signed two of the biggest
Speaker 2: bills I've ever written as a United States Senator. One
Speaker 2: called the First Step Act. Liberated thousands of people from prison. Too.
Speaker 2: I did with a man named Tim Scott, Republican from
Speaker 2: South Carolina, that brought hundreds of millions, one hundred and
Speaker 2: six c d pens of billions of dollars of new
Speaker 2: investment into the poorest rule in urban areas. And she
Speaker 2: looked at me. She turned back around, looked at me, confused.
Speaker 2: Here I was talking about the work that Donald Trump
Speaker 2: and I did together. By the end of that flight,
Speaker 2: we were laughing and talking and connecting and finding out
Speaker 2: that the lines that divided us are nowhere nearest the
Speaker 2: ties that buying.
Speaker 1: Okay, and I get that. So that tells me that you,
Speaker 1: as a politician, can work across the aisle and communicate
Speaker 1: and deal with somebody from the opposite party that happens
Speaker 1: to be in the White House. You ran for president
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty clearly you have aspirations to be a
Speaker 1: leader in this country. You already considered a leader in
Speaker 1: this country. So what do you say when you look
Speaker 1: at how you've conducted yourself, which appears to be the
Speaker 1: right thing to do because you're getting stuff done across
Speaker 1: the isle, like you just articulate, But clearly the party
Speaker 1: doesn't feel that way and it's working against them. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the Democratic Party right now, and I'm telling
Speaker 1: you send a man and man straight up. When you
Speaker 1: talk about individuals like yourself, like Governor Wesmore, like others
Speaker 1: that I have met, no problem. When I look at
Speaker 1: the party on the left right now, I've never been
Speaker 1: more disgusted with what I'm seeing because of the ineffecture,
Speaker 1: the ineffectiveness of the party in terms of competing against
Speaker 1: the other side. I'm not talking about you individually. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the party that doesn't seem to vibe with
Speaker 1: the kind of communication skills and the kind of message
Speaker 1: that you just finished preaching about a couple of minutes ago.
Speaker 2: Well, there's no singular party leader right now. There's all
Speaker 2: of us. And I'm gonna tell you this. I am
Speaker 2: a competitor. I want to win I'm gonna fight so
Speaker 2: my team wins. But what I'm gonna tell you right
Speaker 2: now might surprise you. My team is not the Democrats.
Speaker 2: My team is Team America. Okay, And the reason why
Speaker 2: I am one voice, but there's a lot of voices
Speaker 2: right now trying to talk about where our party is going.
Speaker 2: I believe that when we start talking about more about
Speaker 2: where America can go, will go, must go, than that person,
Speaker 2: regardless of party, is a person that's going to be followed.
Speaker 2: We need more up and coming leaders to let folks
Speaker 2: know they are more concerned and connected to community than
Speaker 2: they are doing a party's bidding. If you can't lead
Speaker 2: the people, if you don't love the people. And I'm
Speaker 2: looking for a leader I know we share a friend,
Speaker 2: Frank Lenz. He came into my office, Shock, now, what's
Speaker 2: this Republican poster doing up in here? And he said,
Speaker 2: we are at such a pivotal point in American history.
Speaker 2: He told me he's just looking for people that might
Speaker 2: be able to help heal this nation and lead us
Speaker 2: to the next generation. And he said, I got a
Speaker 2: few people on both sides of the aisle that I'm
Speaker 2: betting on, and so I'm telling you right now. I
Speaker 2: am a Democrat, as my grandfather was, who moved to Detroit,
Speaker 2: Michigan and got a job on an assembly line like
Speaker 2: many blacks did. He was one of the early black
Speaker 2: union organizers. And he used to tell me that Democratic
Speaker 2: Party ain't right all the time, but when you throw
Speaker 2: up the issues, they're the party of civil rights, They're
Speaker 2: the party of workers' rights, they're the parties of women's rights.
Speaker 2: They're the party of labor. They're the party of Medicaid
Speaker 2: and Medicare. He's like, when I just didn't, I'm going
Speaker 2: to be a Democrat. But he looked at me, but
Speaker 2: he looked at me, wanted to me to vote Democrat, right,
Speaker 2: But he said, your loyalty must always lie with your ancestors,
Speaker 2: calling your ancestors were Republicans and Democrats, because when my
Speaker 2: granddad started, most blacks were Republicans. It was the only
Speaker 2: thing turned Lincoln's picture to the wall. We're going with FDRs.
Speaker 1: Has the Democratic Party taken the Black community amongst others,
Speaker 1: for granted, think about what you just said. Think about
Speaker 1: all the things that the Democratic Party stood for according
Speaker 1: to what you just articulated, and think about the fact
Speaker 1: that we didn't hear much of that US is doing
Speaker 1: the election, because that's where my discussed lives, Sir, my
Speaker 1: discussed lives, was that we were involved in culture wars.
Speaker 1: We were involved in talking, you know, about ideology and
Speaker 1: identity politics. We weren't talking about the issues that you
Speaker 1: just finished articulating at all.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I don't know if I agree
Speaker 2: with that. Man, I'm the only hold on. I am
Speaker 2: the only United States Senator, the only one that lives
Speaker 2: in a black community that's edtterable of the poverty. I
Speaker 2: live in that same neighborhood I lived when I moved
Speaker 2: in after law school and started getting it.
Speaker 1: But I'm not talking about you.
Speaker 2: I got my VIE from Stanford, my PhD on the
Speaker 2: streets of Newark, right, and I still live there. I
Speaker 2: am connected to my community.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about you.
Speaker 2: I know you're not talking about me. But what I'm
Speaker 2: saying to you is I would get the same folk
Speaker 2: challenge of me in the barbershop. And yes, I know
Speaker 2: you're thinking, you go to the barbershop, I get the
Speaker 2: same folks challenge. I get the brother's challenge me in
Speaker 2: the barbershop. What have the Democratic Party done for us,
Speaker 2: and so here was the breakdown. I would say, open
Speaker 2: the door, let me point to stuff. Because we in Newark,
Speaker 2: from Flint, Michigan to NewYork had lead in our water.
Speaker 2: I worked to get the stuff in the bill that
Speaker 2: help us get every lead pipe out of the ground
Speaker 2: in the United States of America. Because lead poisoning may
Speaker 2: not be some sexy issue, but it was plague in
Speaker 2: our community. Let me give you another one. The maternal
Speaker 2: mortality rate in America is shameful. We're the wealthiest country
Speaker 2: in the world, but we have women dying in childbirth
Speaker 2: higher than any other countries. But for black women, it's
Speaker 2: three times the rate. We got Joe Biden working with
Speaker 2: him to expand Medicaid address this issue in a very
Speaker 2: significant way. They're rolling it back down in this administration.
Speaker 2: I turned around. I said, the ASMIR rates in our
Speaker 2: city are four times in suburban towns. I talked about
Speaker 2: literally the biggest tree planting and for urban areas in
Speaker 2: all of humanity. I would go through my list and
Speaker 2: seek and people would say, exactly what you're about to say.
Speaker 2: But I didn't know that. But I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: So now we're talking about a different issue comes from
Speaker 2: what they're doing for black people. Because I could go,
Speaker 2: I could go to SBA loans and coming in and
Speaker 2: making sure I could go to criminal justice. I could
Speaker 2: go through all the issues that I know my community
Speaker 2: cares about and often feels like no one else does.
Speaker 1: And I can, and I can, and I can point
Speaker 1: the finger right back to you about your your contemporaries
Speaker 1: on the left and say it would have been nice
Speaker 1: to hear about those things. And while they were campaigning
Speaker 1: for the presidency, how.
Speaker 2: About you let me tell you a job I took on. Okay,
Speaker 2: I was. I was a big group of people, about
Speaker 2: two three hundred people, and I said, everybody here was
Speaker 2: born It was March. I said, everybody here was born
Speaker 2: in March. Yell as loud as you can yell truth, truth, truth,
Speaker 2: And they sorted yelling. I could stop. I said, the
Speaker 2: rest of the audience, everybody here that was not born
Speaker 2: in March, yell lie loud as you can. They channel lie.
Speaker 2: So I go, now we're gonna do the experiment. Everybody
Speaker 2: do it at once, yell it. Everybody did, And I said, okay, stop,
Speaker 2: now let's find out about this experiment. How many people
Speaker 2: heard the word truth. Nobody sugarre head and I pointed
Speaker 2: to somebody was born in March. Did you hear the
Speaker 2: word truth even though you were chanting it? They said,
Speaker 2: I couldn't hear it. Did you know the Democratic Party?
Speaker 2: I went to my Chuck Schumer and I said, most
Speaker 2: voters now get their news here, especially low information voters,
Speaker 2: which I don't blame. You got so many other things
Speaker 2: to do in life. You don't have time to watch
Speaker 2: the news twenty four to seven, And I said, most
Speaker 2: voters get their news here on digital platforms, podcasts like
Speaker 2: this one and others. How many more times were Republicans
Speaker 2: on these platforms and Democrats about twelve to one? Donald
Speaker 2: Trump had about fourteen times that that podcast downloads and commas?
Speaker 1: And why was that?
Speaker 2: Why was that you weren't showing up. We're the voters,
Speaker 2: thank you. Back in the day, Mixon made the mistake
Speaker 2: Nixon versus Kennedy. You remember those debates. I think we
Speaker 2: had too young, but one person knew where the future
Speaker 2: was television. I could not believe. I went to Chuck
Speaker 2: before the last election and said, are caucus compared to
Speaker 2: their caucus on just the social media engagement? They're crushing
Speaker 2: us by orders of magnitude. So since I've been to work,
Speaker 2: it's only been eight weeks. Now with my own caucus,
Speaker 2: we've quadriz both the amount of impressions that we're getting
Speaker 2: on these things. I've been literally doing classes, bringing people
Speaker 2: in to talk to them about show you up on
Speaker 2: these platforms, show your authentic self. Don't have somebody polish
Speaker 2: it and do all that. Just talk to people, look
Speaker 2: them in the eye, direct the cameras you know this,
Speaker 2: and say what you do because I see your videos yes,
Speaker 2: And be mad, be angry, be yourself. One of my
Speaker 2: friends here, Mark Kelly, this amazing guy. He's a bad
Speaker 2: brother from New Jersey, but he's a senator from Arizona.
Speaker 2: He's in the New Jersey Hall of Fame because he
Speaker 2: was an astronaut out of this world. He started his
Speaker 2: TikTok count within two days had millions of views. So
Speaker 2: I'm just telling you a lot of people didn't hear
Speaker 2: this because we weren't in confect Communicating effectively. Communications is
Speaker 2: three things. Real quick communication is the message, the medium,
Speaker 2: and the messenger. You've got to do well in all three,
Speaker 2: and sir, the reason why you probably make a lot
Speaker 2: more money than I do. Because you've got the message.
Speaker 2: People want to hear what you have to say. You're
Speaker 2: on the right mediums. People are listening to you where
Speaker 2: you are, and you're a damn good mess. And the
Speaker 2: Democratic Party leaders in general, this is why, this is
Speaker 2: why Fred Shuttle's Worth and Martin Luther King and the
Speaker 2: man that was at the center of my speech, John Lewis,
Speaker 2: were so good. They had the right message. They created
Speaker 2: a way to capture the moral imagination of the country
Speaker 2: because they found ways to make the media pay attention.
Speaker 1: So I know, I got you for less. It's cool.
Speaker 1: I like it, But you the one living I got time.
Speaker 1: You the one that got to leave it a few minutes.
Speaker 1: That's why. So I got I got your point. Let
Speaker 1: me get let me get to some points quick before
Speaker 1: I let you get on out of here. You brought
Speaker 1: up you brought up Joe Biden, and you talked about
Speaker 1: what legislation he obviously he obviously signed off on. I
Speaker 1: asked this question, what about people that look at the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party right now and said, you know, this man
Speaker 1: was debilitating, and you have the Republicans leaning on the
Speaker 1: fact that you hid that from the American people, and
Speaker 1: they think that that plays a role and things that
Speaker 1: are being held against you right now as a party
Speaker 1: to that.
Speaker 2: You say what, I don't even know why that's an issue,
Speaker 2: right I talk her. By the way, Joe Biden called
Speaker 2: me today, he sounded very copis man just got very argumentative,
Speaker 2: not argumentated with me, but very fired up when he
Speaker 2: was talking to me. I don't know, man, and don't
Speaker 2: I never saw it. And he would call this man
Speaker 2: would literally call me up to discuss Potts. I've met
Speaker 2: no president like him.
Speaker 1: The reason why, the reason why I bring stuff like
Speaker 1: that up is for this reason, Like, for example, I
Speaker 1: love talking to you, you know one, but there's one
Speaker 1: person that I don't ever want to interview. I've never
Speaker 1: said this about any other human beings. And I respect her.
Speaker 1: She's a senator. I'm sure she works very diligently, she
Speaker 1: has passion in her heart. But Elizabeth Warren. I can't
Speaker 1: talk to her. You know why, because every time I
Speaker 1: see her, it comes, of course as if you don't
Speaker 1: agree with her, you're going to hell. You're going to hell,
Speaker 1: your destined for hell, just because you don't agree with her.
Speaker 1: And it's like, wait, a minute. Everything has to be
Speaker 1: an emotional tug of war. Sometimes it's got to be
Speaker 1: about beer bones and facts. When you when you were
Speaker 1: complaining about Elon Musk, what was your primary complaint as
Speaker 1: it pertained to him specifically? Is this? I know there
Speaker 1: is a multitude of things that you could provide, but
Speaker 1: a lot of Americans were looking at him and say,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, waste fraud. I saw Nancy Pelosi on
Speaker 1: video back in twenty ten talking about how Medicaid needed
Speaker 1: to be cut. I saw Chuck Schumer saying the same thing.
Speaker 1: But suddenly you know, he's saying stuff like that, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't a support to him being in that position either.
Speaker 1: Please don't get me wrong, but I'm like, do we
Speaker 1: not know that folks are gonna see those videos and
Speaker 1: they're gonna point to what appears to be a level
Speaker 1: of hypocrisy on the part of the left with that stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to make two points. I'll make it
Speaker 2: make a goal with Chuck. The first point is I
Speaker 2: was there's a guy influencer I love. He's a doctor
Speaker 2: and challenges the science of our now H H and
Speaker 2: S Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, And so he kept challenging him,
Speaker 2: bringing up the scientific research, taking him down, taking him down.
Speaker 2: And then one day he did a video. It blew
Speaker 2: me away. He did a video where he said, I'm
Speaker 2: reading my comments and people are attacking Robert F. Kennedy
Speaker 2: because of his voice. They're attacking his very perk. And
Speaker 2: he went off on his own people. He said, we
Speaker 2: should attack him on his science and where he's wrong,
Speaker 2: do not demean and degrade him as his character. And
Speaker 2: so I will tell you I've met Elon Musk. I
Speaker 2: met the man. I'm sure he did not have the
Speaker 2: kind of success he had. I don't want to to
Speaker 2: mean his character at all, but I'm telling you this
Speaker 2: what he's doing. He's even said it. They've had to
Speaker 2: pull down things off of this thing. He is ready
Speaker 2: fire aim. As a guy who played football, we prepared,
Speaker 2: we thought out our game plan, we did the strategy
Speaker 2: with the research, then we made our execution on the
Speaker 2: football field. He is not doing that. He's firing people
Speaker 2: from the FAA that we desperately need for our security
Speaker 2: and then trying to call and get them back.
Speaker 1: Slast and Burneth where to go? What's that blast and Burneth?
Speaker 1: The way to go? Completely But.
Speaker 2: This is really important is you need to have transparency.
Speaker 2: This man was being investigated by multiple government agencies that
Speaker 2: then he gets in there and he tears down the
Speaker 2: very people that were investigating his companies. And he's not
Speaker 2: coming before Congress to be transparent about it.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair, But to get on him about the
Speaker 1: cuts when even even though Clinton was an elected official,
Speaker 1: there was an abundance of cuts that he put forth
Speaker 1: towards the federal.
Speaker 2: He did, battles budgets. Obama reduced the deficit. He did
Speaker 2: the biggest person who has blown holes in our buggets.
Speaker 2: The biggest deficits have been accrued under Donald Trump's first term.
Speaker 2: And he's now putting a budget before this Congress that
Speaker 2: we're gonna voting on soon that's going to bust another
Speaker 2: three trillion dollars annually or more in our budgets. There's
Speaker 2: no physical responsibility in this man. So you know, his
Speaker 2: whole plan is to cut and gut medicaid in order
Speaker 2: to give more tax cuts to people in the highest
Speaker 2: income brack as disproportionately, and bull hole in the deficit.
Speaker 2: That's a pretty incredible to be able to do all
Speaker 2: three of the same.
Speaker 1: Well, somebody on the right wod ask what's wrong with,
Speaker 1: for example, let's touch on an issue of terrorists, real,
Speaker 1: real quickly, what's wrong with being reciprocal in that regard
Speaker 1: in terms of other countries are putting tariffs on you,
Speaker 1: why can't you put it on them? What do you
Speaker 1: say to that?
Speaker 2: Because this is not the playground. It's not the playground,
Speaker 2: my friend. This is a sophisticated, complicated economy. We're the
Speaker 2: biggest economy on the planet Earth, and we don't need
Speaker 2: somebody that if you mess with me or talk about me,
Speaker 2: I'm coming after you. We need somebody that says, what
Speaker 2: is the best using a surgical like precision and strategy,
Speaker 2: what is the best way to go about utilizing tariffs
Speaker 2: to ensure that we do what everybody wants to do,
Speaker 2: make America more affordable and create more jobs. Look at
Speaker 2: the stock market right now. The average family, because of
Speaker 2: the way he's going about tariffs, is going to pay
Speaker 2: three to four thousand dollars more. This is not a
Speaker 2: precision tuning of our economy for the outcomes that we
Speaker 2: all want. This is a guy that has just taken
Speaker 2: a sledge hammer to our economy and the global economy,
Speaker 2: and people all over the planet, especially the folks I
Speaker 2: care about in New Jersey, are going to be hurting
Speaker 2: because of these incredible trade wars. He's starting out.
Speaker 1: He started Chuck Schuma obviously went against you guys with
Speaker 1: the spending bill and what have you, because obviously you know,
Speaker 1: they didn't want the federal government to shut down. And
Speaker 1: then you had a whole bunch of Democrats speaking out
Speaker 1: against him, folks wanting him going. What's your position about
Speaker 1: him still maintaining a leadership role within the Democratic Party?
Speaker 1: Number one? And number two, how are you feeling about
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party right now moving forward in light of
Speaker 1: some of the things that we've been seeing not from
Speaker 1: the right, but from your own party in terms of
Speaker 1: how they choose to conduct themselves. I asked a Minority leader,
Speaker 1: Hakim Jeffreys, the same thing, and I'm asking it to
Speaker 1: you because looking at that full screen right there, voter's
Speaker 1: views of the Democratic Party only a twenty seven percent positive.
Speaker 1: It's pretty bad for the Democratic Party right now.
Speaker 2: Your thoughts, Sir, Mike Park is like, if you get
Speaker 2: up every day thinking about what can I do to
Speaker 2: help the Democrat Party? You're thinking about the wrong thing.
Speaker 2: You need to get up every day and thinking about
Speaker 2: what you're doing for the American people. I'm sorry. New
Speaker 2: Jersey did not send me here to try to repair
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party. They sent me to me to walk
Speaker 2: to the DC to fight for them. When I go
Speaker 2: home to New York this weekend, people are not gonna
Speaker 2: say what are you doing for the Democratic Party. They're saying, hey,
Speaker 2: what are you doing to fight for my healthcare? To
Speaker 2: fight for my veterans benefits, to fight for my social security.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm just not getting up every day and
Speaker 2: going to bed every night worrying about the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2: I'm worrying about the Americans that are suffering and hurting.
Speaker 2: But say, by the way, that's probably the best thing
Speaker 2: we could do Democrats. It's to be focused on people
Speaker 2: and concerned with people.
Speaker 1: Fair enough for Senator book And you just told me
Speaker 1: you're a competitor. I know you play football at Stanford.
Speaker 1: I know you know your sports. I know you like competition,
Speaker 1: which means you like to win. So what I'm asking
Speaker 1: So what I'm asking you is based on what you've seen.
Speaker 1: You see what he's doing. I saw the man get
Speaker 1: convicted of thirty four felon accounts and his campaign dollars rolls.
Speaker 1: That's what I saw. I saw the man in Peach
Speaker 1: twice and the popularity he didn't dissipate. I am asking you, sir,
Speaker 1: do you believe that what's transpiring right now in terms
Speaker 1: of how y'all are going after him because of tariffs,
Speaker 1: because of DOGE, because of whatever. Do you believe it
Speaker 1: as a winning formula, particularly and specifically for the midterm elections.
Speaker 2: I believe Donald Trump got elected because a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of swing voters heard him say, I'm going to lower
Speaker 2: your grocery bills. I'm going to lower your costs. That
Speaker 2: the number one thing people were talking to me about
Speaker 2: was ends aren't meeting, and this man was going on
Speaker 2: and on about that. That's the reason why, not because
Speaker 2: he was a Republican, but because people trusted and believed
Speaker 2: in him that he would do better for his family. Now,
Speaker 2: the most Americans are not better off than they were
Speaker 2: seventy two days ago. They're worse off. And again, that's
Speaker 2: how he won. And if I want to win, if
Speaker 2: our party wants to win, stop talking about parties and
Speaker 2: start talking about people, about purpose, about possibilities, back in
Speaker 2: the streets and help some folk before you ask for
Speaker 2: their vote. And that's why I stood up on the
Speaker 2: Senate floor to center folks in the conversation and to
Speaker 2: try to inspire some people to understand that we can
Speaker 2: do better than we're doing.
Speaker 1: Now, Senator, hold on for one second. Hold on for
Speaker 1: one second because I got to take a commercial break.
Speaker 1: But I definitely want to come back and ask you
Speaker 1: about a particular bill that you've introduced. It's very, very
Speaker 1: important for everybody to know. Please don't go away back
Speaker 1: with more of yours truly, Senator Book of the close
Speaker 1: out the chef in a minute, Welcome back back here
Speaker 1: with Senator Cory Book. I had one last question to
Speaker 1: get to before I let you get on out of
Speaker 1: here for the day. I write, Senator, i'd be remissing
Speaker 1: neglecting to ask you about a bill you know you
Speaker 1: introduce your establish and due process protections for college athletes
Speaker 1: during the NCUBA, you know, with these the nc DOUBLEA investigations,
Speaker 1: I just want to read from this article here yourself,
Speaker 1: along with Marshall Blackburn, introduced the nc DOUBLEA Accountability Act,
Speaker 1: which would establish due process protections for college athletes coaches
Speaker 1: and universities that are under investigation by the nc double A.
Speaker 1: Talk about that before I let you go, Please saut.
Speaker 2: That I wish we started the conversation here because.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of say please take it away.
Speaker 2: The NCAA for decades has been allowing athletes to be exploited.
Speaker 2: It wasn't remember when shabaznap here they win the Final
Speaker 2: four and then put a microphone in front of him
Speaker 2: and says, I go to bed Hungary because God forbid
Speaker 2: you accept some groceries from somebody or sell your jersey
Speaker 2: and they would kick you out of the sport. When
Speaker 2: the scholarships and the moneies that they were making available
Speaker 2: at NCAA was below what they would need to survive
Speaker 2: on campus. And then they leave campus and then their
Speaker 2: jersey with their name on is still being sold. They're
Speaker 2: putting people in seats making millions and millions of dollars,
Speaker 2: and yet I know guys who blew out their knees,
Speaker 2: have spinal injuries, and they're going in their own pockets
Speaker 2: right now to pay for their health care for injuries
Speaker 2: they got back when they played ball. So I've been
Speaker 2: on this issue for a long time to make sure
Speaker 2: that we have college sports that make sense, but where
Speaker 2: the athletes who are through their struggle, their sweat, their grit,
Speaker 2: sometimes their blood. There the wealth that is being generated,
Speaker 2: but they have not been taken care of. The concussion protocol,
Speaker 2: sexual assault, medical issues, academic issues, lots of promises made
Speaker 2: but not promises kept. And so there is a lot
Speaker 2: going on in college sports right now, and I'm working
Speaker 2: very very hard in a bipartisan way to try to
Speaker 2: create some fair rules, some real fair rules about what's
Speaker 2: going on. And it's not just with partnering across the
Speaker 2: aisle with the good senator you were talking about in
Speaker 2: the Republican Party, but I'm working with Moran and some
Speaker 2: others Bloomhaal on my side to try to make some
Speaker 2: progress where athletes get a fair shake and a more
Speaker 2: fair system. Because I know a lot of people are
Speaker 2: focused on the athletes. They're through all this nil and
Speaker 2: the portals who are making lots of money and all that.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, there are thousands of athletes. There should
Speaker 2: be a basic bill of rights. We put out an
Speaker 2: athlete's Bill of Rights that athletes should be guaranteed to
Speaker 2: guaranteed if they're entering this and helping universities and TV
Speaker 2: stations and all these people make a lot of money
Speaker 2: and long careers, but they wind up five years after
Speaker 2: they've played with medical bills, with the education that hasn't
Speaker 2: been completed, and a lot of bruises, a lot of beatings,
Speaker 2: but not enough to show for it, for the wealth
Speaker 2: that they created.
Speaker 1: Well, Listen, I'm a moderate, obviously, and so when you
Speaker 1: talk about crossing the isle and working in partnership with anybody,
Speaker 1: particularly for an issue like this, it's near and dear
Speaker 1: to my heart. I cracked my kneecap when my first
Speaker 1: gear in college. I know exactly the kind of stuff
Speaker 1: that you're talking about. I am here to help in
Speaker 1: any way that I can send it a book. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate your time. I really really do. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much.
Speaker 2: No, I'm a fan of yours and appreciate your because
Speaker 2: you do talk about sports. But I like how you
Speaker 2: stand up and when you say you're a moderate. That's
Speaker 2: really what I want to see more people say, not
Speaker 2: that they're moderate. I don't care what your politics are,
Speaker 2: but the key point is of people in this country
Speaker 2: that remind us that there is one American destiny, that
Speaker 2: we belong to each other and that those words that
Speaker 2: are over the Senate eplervispunum, they need something. And so
Speaker 2: I appreciate you, and especially in the context of sports,
Speaker 2: which is a great part of American culture where we
Speaker 2: do all come together. I was in the locker room
Speaker 2: next to Republicans and Democrats everybody else, and we found
Speaker 2: out that when we bled together, when we swept together,
Speaker 2: we still get together and love on each other because
Speaker 2: we know that the bond is deeper than the political
Speaker 2: parties we have. We disagree, but we still know we
Speaker 2: belong to each other with brothers. And so I appreciate you, man.
Speaker 2: I've looked up for you for a long time. I
Speaker 2: hope we can get back on it in the future
Speaker 2: and we can get into some of these issues because.
Speaker 1: I like sparring with you to that's right, we definitely
Speaker 1: will without question and disseminating that kind of message to
Speaker 1: the masses. I think that's what could potentially win for
Speaker 1: the democra.
Speaker 2: Well, let me just say this last thing, team, because
Speaker 2: I say it my colleagues in Caucus when we're driving
Speaker 2: down the field. I know I used to know when
Speaker 2: we were going to score a touchdown when the other
Speaker 2: teams start arguing in their huddle, started yelling at the
Speaker 2: meaning and degrading. I used to tell my guys in
Speaker 2: my huddle, we're gonna score. We're gonna score because that
Speaker 2: team is divided against itself. So I'm hoping that voices
Speaker 2: like yours are going to remind us we got to
Speaker 2: We may disagree with the play, you may have messed
Speaker 2: up on that play, but when we get back in
Speaker 2: that huddle, we got to regroup, come together because it's
Speaker 2: a crazy world out there, a lot more competitive than
Speaker 2: people know. And our adversaries who have a different idea
Speaker 2: about freedom and liberty and justice, or adversaries who want
Speaker 2: to see democracies die, they're coming after us, and our
Speaker 2: team needs to come together and be prepared to leave
Speaker 2: the world order and preserve the values that we fought
Speaker 2: in Normandy On, we fought in the Pacific. We fought
Speaker 2: to say that freedom and democracy should be the best
Speaker 2: form of government, and that's something we have to get
Speaker 2: together and continue to affirm to each other.
Speaker 1: Senator the Corey Booker right here on the Steven As
Speaker 1: Smith Show, really appreciate you, buddy, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We'll talk soon.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Interesting conversation. Obviously, we're gonna have a lot more of it.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of stuff to get into it
Speaker 1: with them. But you know, whether it's hard to interrupt
Speaker 1: politicians sometimes, you know what I'm saying. But I tried,
Speaker 1: I tried, and I'm gonna try again. I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: with a lot of them. Okay. So that's it for
Speaker 1: this edition of The stephen Ate Smith Show. Thanks again
Speaker 1: to Senator Cory Booker for being on the show. Needless
Speaker 1: to say, I think you can tell he'll be back
Speaker 1: along with various others. We're gonna continue to have these
Speaker 1: conversations over the next several years because every week, every month,
Speaker 1: every year, stuff is happening and it's impossible to avoid
Speaker 1: those issues. We're not going to do that on this show,
Speaker 1: not by a long shot. So stick around, keep watching sports, pop, coach, entertainment, politics,
Speaker 1: it don't matter. It's The stephen A. Smith Show, where
Speaker 1: anything goes. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, I'm signing
Speaker 1: off peace of love,