Speaker 1: We have to lay the blame fully at the feet
Speaker 1: of white supremacy, and if we allow people to have
Speaker 1: this kind of tragic comparative conversation the entire time, then
Speaker 1: no one will take responsibility, no one will be held accountable,
Speaker 1: and we'll just kind of move on as Wow, you
Speaker 1: remember that while week in the beginning of where we
Speaker 1: thought all the hell was over in it's it's so
Speaker 1: interesting that you that you put it that way, And
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing all of that, all of it, Brittany,
Speaker 1: because I'm feeling the exact same way. What's up, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'm dammy And this is Positively GAMP. Every week I
Speaker 1: have raw, in depth conversation with inspirational people pushing for
Speaker 1: change on everything from aging, relationships, politics, wellness, to the
Speaker 1: current issues facing the black community. This episode was recorded
Speaker 1: January eight, so some news headlines may have changed. Today
Speaker 1: I'm going to be discussing the insurrection at the Capitol
Speaker 1: and the Georgia runoffs. Joining me on Positively GAM today
Speaker 1: is Tia Mitchell, a Washington correspondent for the Atlanta newspaper.
Speaker 1: Tia was actually inside the Capitol as it was being invaded.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Tia. For joining me today. I
Speaker 1: know this has been a very stressful time for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It has been, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: the opportunity to talk about it on your podcast. Yeah, mentally,
Speaker 1: how are you processing all of this? Like what a
Speaker 1: way to start the new year? I don't think I
Speaker 1: really allowed myself to do too much processing because quite frankly,
Speaker 1: we still were busy trying to report the news, even
Speaker 1: you know, on Wednesday we went back to the Capitol
Speaker 1: and still covered Congress, and then on Yesterday Thursday was
Speaker 1: still very busy covering the aftermath of what happened on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I don't you know, part of
Speaker 1: me is a little bit scared to like let it
Speaker 1: all out because then in all the flood and I'll
Speaker 1: say part of one of the reasons why it's been
Speaker 1: easy to kind of compartmentalize is that in real time,
Speaker 1: we really didn't know what was going on outside of
Speaker 1: the House chamber because there are no windows. We were
Speaker 1: focused on the debate on the floor, so we didn't
Speaker 1: see like the videos and the pictures that were circulating
Speaker 1: on TV and cable news until after we had been evacuated.
Speaker 1: So I think we didn't know what to be fearful
Speaker 1: of in the moment. Only now are we seeing it.
Speaker 1: Let me take you back a minute, though, because as
Speaker 1: a black woman, I want to ask you, did you
Speaker 1: have any trepidation at all for even being in d C?
Speaker 1: Knowing that this group of Trump supporters had been there
Speaker 1: three weeks prior, protesting and causing a bit of havoc.
Speaker 1: And I actually would compare them two the KKK because
Speaker 1: they actually erected a news in the capital and they're
Speaker 1: running around with Confederate flags. So some people might take
Speaker 1: issue with that. I do not. So did you have
Speaker 1: any trepidation just about even being in d C? Or
Speaker 1: did you feel totally safe because you were going to
Speaker 1: be inside of the Capitol Building? So I don't. I
Speaker 1: did not anticipate that the Capitol Building would not be safe.
Speaker 1: But I think when you're a journalist and you're going
Speaker 1: into a situation that might be dangerous, we kind of
Speaker 1: again have to put that aside because that's what our
Speaker 1: job requires us to do. I cut my teeth as
Speaker 1: a young journalist covering crime in Jacksonville, Florida. So it's
Speaker 1: like I've seen some things. I've been in some scary situations,
Speaker 1: and you kind of you know, being a journalist, a
Speaker 1: good journalist requires a level of boldness and you know,
Speaker 1: an ability to kind of navigate tough situations. Not that
Speaker 1: you know it's a good thing, but unfortunately a lot
Speaker 1: of times that's what journalists are called to do. And
Speaker 1: so I knew, you know, we knew that the protests
Speaker 1: were planned, and it was like, but I can't be
Speaker 1: fearful of that because my job is to go to
Speaker 1: the capital and report what's happening. And so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do my job and then when other things come with that,
Speaker 1: then I've got to work through that. But again, I
Speaker 1: don't think, you know, part of the breakdown that members
Speaker 1: of Congress in the law enforcement community have to deal
Speaker 1: with now is that it's clear that they did not
Speaker 1: anticipate the level of violence and that violence entering the capital.
Speaker 1: And you know, that'll be for those who are studying
Speaker 1: it to figure out where the breakdowns were and who
Speaker 1: should have anticipated it. But you know, it really just
Speaker 1: wasn't on the radar that level of violence coming to
Speaker 1: the you know, to the chambers of the House and
Speaker 1: the Senate, desecrating kind of what for America is like
Speaker 1: the symbol of our government. You know, the capital is
Speaker 1: the symbol of our government. Right exactly where were you located?
Speaker 1: I was in the House chambers. The House was debating
Speaker 1: Arizona's electoral college votes. They were in joint session to
Speaker 1: you know, tally the electoral college votes, and it's like
Speaker 1: the final official step to Joe Biden becoming president. But
Speaker 1: usually it's very ceremonial. But as we know, Republicans mainly
Speaker 1: in the House, but a few in the Senate were
Speaker 1: hoping to challenge some of the state's electoral college votes,
Speaker 1: and so they came in a joint session successfully challenged Arizona,
Speaker 1: and so then they had to separate. So the Senate
Speaker 1: went to its chambers to debate for two hours. The
Speaker 1: House was in its chamber to debate for two hours.
Speaker 1: And because I covered Georgia for the Atlanta Journal Constitution,
Speaker 1: six of our eight Republican House members were in favor
Speaker 1: of that challenge. So I was paying attention to Arizona
Speaker 1: because at the time we knew Georgia would be challenged next.
Speaker 1: Georgia was the next kind of on the list, and
Speaker 1: so again I was just really focused on covering how
Speaker 1: the debate was going and how it was unfolding, because
Speaker 1: I knew my state was going to be the next
Speaker 1: one to go through that process, and so we didn't know.
Speaker 1: The first thing I saw was that some of the
Speaker 1: other buildings in the Capital complex were evacuated because they
Speaker 1: said there was some type of security threat. Later we
Speaker 1: found out it's because the bombs were discovered at the
Speaker 1: r n C and the DNC headquarters, so they evacuated
Speaker 1: some of the buildings. But again, the House is still
Speaker 1: debating like everything's normal. And then we started getting told
Speaker 1: by staff to like get everything we needed and put
Speaker 1: it in the chamber because they were gonna lock down
Speaker 1: the chambers to make sure that no one can come
Speaker 1: in and out. But still there was no panic. Debate
Speaker 1: was still ongoing. It wasn't until they stopped the proceedings
Speaker 1: and hustled out the leaders, you know, people like Stenny
Speaker 1: Hoyer and I believe Nancy Pelosi. Where I sit, you
Speaker 1: can't really see Nancy Pelosi, but I'm pretty sure Nancy
Speaker 1: Pelosi was escorted out Vice President Pence. So were you
Speaker 1: on the floor. We were up. The media sits up
Speaker 1: like if you can picture the House chamber and you
Speaker 1: can picture where the speakers sit. Yeah, that's like a balcony.
Speaker 1: That's where visitors normally sit. And then above and behind
Speaker 1: the speaker's chair is where media sits, so we can
Speaker 1: kind of look down on everything. And at some point
Speaker 1: they stopped it, hustled the leaders out, and they started
Speaker 1: to tell us, you know, people are trying to enter
Speaker 1: the capital. And again, at that point, we didn't know
Speaker 1: if they meant two people or two hundred. We didn't
Speaker 1: know that there were hundreds, if not thousands of people
Speaker 1: at that point right outside the capitol. I had last
Speaker 1: looked outside around one one pm, and at that time
Speaker 1: there was a protest of I would say several hundred people,
Speaker 1: but they were behind barricades and they were about a
Speaker 1: hundred yards away from the capital steps. So that was
Speaker 1: the last image I saw was like of a It
Speaker 1: was just a regular old protest. There was nothing violent
Speaker 1: about it at the time, and they were behind barricades
Speaker 1: in a way. So you know, when they said, oh,
Speaker 1: people are trying to enter the capital, I think, in
Speaker 1: my mind, I'm thinking one or two rogue people, not
Speaker 1: the entire protest had pushed its way to the capitol.
Speaker 1: But then the next thing is they started handing out
Speaker 1: gas masks and said there were people in the rotunda.
Speaker 1: They were trying to use gas tear gas to push
Speaker 1: them away, and they gave us gas masks, and so
Speaker 1: that was clearly an escalation. And then soon after that
Speaker 1: is when they started. At the time, I would say,
Speaker 1: there were one to two hundred members of Congress in
Speaker 1: the chamber at that moment, and they started evacuating the members.
Speaker 1: But again, most of the members were on that ground floor,
Speaker 1: but there were some members up in the visitor gallery
Speaker 1: because they were socially distancing, you know, and so it
Speaker 1: was harder for us on that second floor. So eventually
Speaker 1: they were trying to evacuate us. They said, nope, you
Speaker 1: gotta stay right where you are. We gotta lock these
Speaker 1: doors again, and they said just get down, and there
Speaker 1: were I would say at that point there were about
Speaker 1: fifty people still inside the chamber, members of Congress, the media,
Speaker 1: and some of the Capitol police. And that's about when,
Speaker 1: you know, we could hear people banging on the doors,
Speaker 1: but again we didn't know if that's one person running
Speaker 1: around banging on different doors, it was multiple. We didn't know.
Speaker 1: We heard aloud, pop we didn't know if that was
Speaker 1: a gunshot. And then you know that picture that a
Speaker 1: lot of people have seen, the members of the Capital Police.
Speaker 1: They've got a piece of furniture barricading the door and
Speaker 1: their guns are pointed as the rioters are trying to
Speaker 1: knock down the windows to get into the chamber. We
Speaker 1: saw that happen, you know, because those were the Capitol
Speaker 1: Police officers trying to keep people from coming in the chamber,
Speaker 1: knowing that there were members of Congress still in the chamber.
Speaker 1: And that lasted for about I would say a few minutes,
Speaker 1: maybe no more than ten, and then they were able
Speaker 1: to get it under enough control to then finish evacuating us.
Speaker 1: And so when we left the chamber, we could see
Speaker 1: where the rioters had been subdued by police who had
Speaker 1: them at gunpoint, had them laying face down on the floor.
Speaker 1: But you never came in contact with any rioters yourself,
Speaker 1: not the active rioters. Now there are other journalists who did,
Speaker 1: who were covering the protests, but again because I was
Speaker 1: in the chamber covering the actual proceeding, the only time
Speaker 1: I came in contact with the rioters is again when
Speaker 1: we had to kind of walk past them a little bit,
Speaker 1: but they had been subdued at that point, and we
Speaker 1: were with the way to a different location. But even then,
Speaker 1: you know, what we didn't know was even then there
Speaker 1: were probably at that point hundreds of people in the Capital.
Speaker 1: They had gone into the Senate chamber and started to
Speaker 1: vandalize it and things like that, gone into other people's offices,
Speaker 1: Speaker Pelosi's offices. All that was going on at the
Speaker 1: same time. We just didn't know. So let me ask
Speaker 1: you this, because so few people were arrested during this insurgence,
Speaker 1: and you say you walked by and there were rioters
Speaker 1: who were they were down on the on the ground
Speaker 1: right when you say they were subdued, Yeah, face down.
Speaker 1: So about how many people was that? Would you say
Speaker 1: that that US I could see I would say four
Speaker 1: or five. But there was like a corner, so you
Speaker 1: know it was it was very short hallway where I
Speaker 1: could see four or five. I have no idea if
Speaker 1: there were more around the corner or not. You know,
Speaker 1: the US Capital, for those who have never visited it,
Speaker 1: you know, it's an old building full of like corridors
Speaker 1: and hallways and in columns and statues, so it's not
Speaker 1: a wide open buildings. You know, it's not the open
Speaker 1: floor plan if you will, of modern architecture. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of hallways and corridors, right, I get that. I
Speaker 1: just find it very interesting once again that these people,
Speaker 1: though they were subdued, it doesn't seem like they were
Speaker 1: actually arrested, right, And that's a good point. We don't
Speaker 1: know if those people were arrested. We do know that
Speaker 1: if you look at the pictures of the number of
Speaker 1: people in the capital, that the amount of people who
Speaker 1: were arrested is a small fracture. And of that you
Speaker 1: are absolutely correct, exactly. And I find that very very strange.
Speaker 1: But so okay, So after things got under control, you
Speaker 1: are allowed to leave or did you stay because you
Speaker 1: had to? Yeah? We stayed. We stayed. Um. First of all,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to leave in pandemonium. And at that point,
Speaker 1: when we were evacuated to a safer location, we could
Speaker 1: watch cable news and we actually got to see what
Speaker 1: it looked like outside the capitol. And we stayed there
Speaker 1: for several hours, and then we were told that Congress
Speaker 1: was making plans to go back into session. The members
Speaker 1: of Congress were very and yet you know, the Democrats
Speaker 1: are in leadership in the House, but the Republicans are
Speaker 1: in leadership in the Senate. But both parties were very
Speaker 1: resolute that, like, we're not gonna let this violence deter
Speaker 1: us from this constitutional duty that we have to tally
Speaker 1: the Electoral College votes. So, you know, at six pm
Speaker 1: is when DC's curfew went into effect, and that gave
Speaker 1: law enforcement, you know, the legal standing to disperse the crowd.
Speaker 1: And so by around eight pm is when we went
Speaker 1: back to the House chamber. Literally I went back to
Speaker 1: the same seat I was earlier in the day. They
Speaker 1: picked up where they left off, and I didn't leave
Speaker 1: the capital till about one am. I really handed to you,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not sure how I would have handled
Speaker 1: a situation like that, but you know, as you say,
Speaker 1: as a reporter, it's part of your job, part of
Speaker 1: your responsibility to remain calm, and I guess just follow
Speaker 1: the procedures that are being you know, follow the instructions
Speaker 1: that you're receiving from the people in charge. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: and I think every journalist handles it differently. You know,
Speaker 1: for me, it was going into reporter mode. So I
Speaker 1: dictated a first per us an account to a colleague.
Speaker 1: I did Facebook live and a periscope on Twitter to
Speaker 1: kind of communicate what I was seeing, and then I
Speaker 1: made sure to post on all my social media, and
Speaker 1: I made sure to call my mom, one of the
Speaker 1: in the house chamber. When we were on lockdown. I
Speaker 1: called my mom because at that point I didn't know
Speaker 1: how long we were gonna be in lockdown, and she
Speaker 1: is not on social media, and I knew that in
Speaker 1: short order folks were gonna start reaching out to her
Speaker 1: about me, and I didn't want her to not have
Speaker 1: heard from me and to not know what was going on.
Speaker 1: So I did call my mom. And you know, I
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people who those you know, the
Speaker 1: unread text messages and unread emails bothers me. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm responding to text messages and people, you know, checking
Speaker 1: up on me as much as I can. But you know,
Speaker 1: another colleague of mine told me. He he was like,
Speaker 1: I had a panic attack, and I just had to.
Speaker 1: I had to go ahead and have my panic attack.
Speaker 1: And then he regrouped and I we were talking on
Speaker 1: our way back to go back to work. He was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a panic attack earlier, you know, so and
Speaker 1: you didn't experience any of that. I think because for me,
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people when when I release, I release,
Speaker 1: it is a release. So I gotta give myself some
Speaker 1: space to to know that my emotions may have a
Speaker 1: powerful release. And you know, I just haven't I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: I haven't really given myself that space yet. You know,
Speaker 1: There's been a lot going on, and and again, I
Speaker 1: think also part of it is reconciling what could have
Speaker 1: happened is probably the toughest part for me. You know,
Speaker 1: if those people had infiltrated the House Chamber knowing that
Speaker 1: the officers there would have been outnumbered, and if they
Speaker 1: had got inside the House Chamber and realized that there
Speaker 1: were members of Congress and members of the media there,
Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine some of the worst case scenarios.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad it didn't come to that. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sad for those who did die. We're at five
Speaker 1: people now dead. But there were members of Congress there
Speaker 1: that were the targets of the misinformed and disinformed anger
Speaker 1: that had been radicalized and and riled up even by
Speaker 1: our president and so. And they also it was clear
Speaker 1: they didn't have a plan. It was complete anarchy and chaos.
Speaker 1: So it could have been worse. It was bad, it
Speaker 1: could have been worse. When they got to the Senate chamber,
Speaker 1: all the senators were gone. When they the offices, there
Speaker 1: were members in their offices. It's just lucky enough. The
Speaker 1: offices it appears that Rioters entered were empty of people.
Speaker 1: And that's the part that I, you know, haven't really
Speaker 1: allowed myself to get too far down the rabbit hole.
Speaker 1: And I also, you know, I'm a praying woman. I
Speaker 1: prayed in the chamber, you know, before I began speaking
Speaker 1: to you, I found out that my church home in Louisville, Kentucky,
Speaker 1: even Wednesday night, during midweek Bible study, pastor Kevin Cosby
Speaker 1: told you know, it's a online service and he said,
Speaker 1: we're praying for Tim Mitchell. She's locked into the Capitol
Speaker 1: right now. And so I had an entire church family
Speaker 1: praying for me on Wednesday. And I don't take that
Speaker 1: for granted either. Absolutely. What final thoughts would you would
Speaker 1: you have on this situation? And what what is you know,
Speaker 1: one thing you want to get off your chest, it
Speaker 1: is the power of media in that mainstream media, your
Speaker 1: your local newspapers, your national papers, your local TV stations,
Speaker 1: you're for the most part, your cable news like your
Speaker 1: MSNBC and CNN. We have been working hard to bring
Speaker 1: accurate news, to bring people news that is not directed
Speaker 1: by someone with a political agenda or with an exta grind.
Speaker 1: But what is the actual truth? And I think what
Speaker 1: happened Wednesday shows us how dangerous it is when people
Speaker 1: are misinformed and disinformed and lied to. And it shows
Speaker 1: to me I just want to stress like how important
Speaker 1: it is like the media, and I know we get
Speaker 1: a bad rap. And let me be clear, We're not perfect.
Speaker 1: I'm not perfect. But to have a news source that
Speaker 1: you can trust doesn't mean that they'll always be perfect,
Speaker 1: but that means you can trust that they're always trying
Speaker 1: to do the right things for the right reason, and
Speaker 1: when they fall short, they'll be accountable. And I hope
Speaker 1: people are. You know, I know, I'm a journalist. It's
Speaker 1: self serving, but like those people at the Capitol have
Speaker 1: been radicalized by media who has lied to them and
Speaker 1: by people who they look up to, their leaders, who
Speaker 1: have lied to them. And and I'm hopeful that as
Speaker 1: a nation we can start saying let's speak in truth.
Speaker 1: Let's speak in accuracy. Let's speak in the real Even
Speaker 1: as we now reckon with the the racial differences and
Speaker 1: how this riot was treated compared to other protests throughout
Speaker 1: the year in America, We've got to deal in truth
Speaker 1: about white supremacy and institutional racism. Absolutely. Absolutely. Do you
Speaker 1: have any feelings or any thoughts about who you think
Speaker 1: should be or the persons that should be held accountable
Speaker 1: for this breach? I don't, you know, my journalism had
Speaker 1: I'm gonna not go too far into my opinion, but
Speaker 1: I will say this, as they identify five people who
Speaker 1: were breaking the law, it would make sense to charge
Speaker 1: them appropriately because that's what we've been told, and not
Speaker 1: charge them for merely violating curfew, right, I mean, you
Speaker 1: charge them for whatever laws that they've been proven to
Speaker 1: have broken, because that's how our system is supposed to work.
Speaker 1: And again it goes back to the white supremacy and
Speaker 1: institutional racism. Because the Republican Party told us over the
Speaker 1: summer they were the party of law and order. So
Speaker 1: where is that law and order now? You know? And
Speaker 1: again there's a lot of reckoning that's gonna happen with
Speaker 1: you know, the leaders, the law enforcement leaders, and who
Speaker 1: was called in to help and win and why? And
Speaker 1: again that's accountability, and that's very needed because there was Again,
Speaker 1: it could have been so much worse. And and we're
Speaker 1: looking at people who are still as of right now
Speaker 1: radicalized to not trust the Biden administration, not think Joe
Speaker 1: Biden was elected with a fair election because they've been
Speaker 1: fed lies. So where are we going to move from here?
Speaker 1: Is something that I think our government leaders are gonna
Speaker 1: have to reckon with and and I'll be you know,
Speaker 1: the journalists TIA will be watching and reporting it and
Speaker 1: bringing it to the readers of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being with us, TIA. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you taking the time, and please take time for
Speaker 1: yourself to heal and released and whatever you need to
Speaker 1: do to recover mentally, emotionally and spiritually from this event.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Gammy, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Keep doing the good work. We need you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Tell the listeners where they can find you on social media, Oh,
Speaker 1: thank you. Listeners can find me on both Facebook and
Speaker 1: Twitter at TIA Reports. T I A r E p
Speaker 1: O r t s. Excellent take good care to you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Now in the second part of my conversation,
Speaker 1: welcome to positively gam Today I have with me jareded Hill,
Speaker 1: Award winning journalist, writer, host of the podcast Fanti and
Speaker 1: is most notably known for breaking the TWI six Team
Speaker 1: Melania Trump, Michelle Obama r n C plagiarism story. Also
Speaker 1: with us is Sarah Riggs, AMIKO business leader and Georgia
Speaker 1: politics expert. She has been working on flipping the state
Speaker 1: blue since when she ran for Lieutenant governor alongside Stacy Abrams.
Speaker 1: After conceding in the Georgia Senate primary election, she hit
Speaker 1: the ground running and campaign for both Warnock and oasof
Speaker 1: congratulations and thank you for your hard work and flipping
Speaker 1: this the Senate. And lastly, but not least, we have
Speaker 1: Brittany Packnett Cunningham, an activists who was part of Obama's
Speaker 1: task Wars for police reform. She's a writer and host
Speaker 1: of the podcast Undistracted. Thank you all for joining me today. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, let me just start by saying Happy
Speaker 1: New Year, and what a hell of a way to start.
Speaker 1: I'm not someone that I don't consider myself politically astute,
Speaker 1: but I have been glued to the TV over the
Speaker 1: past two days watching the news, and I am just
Speaker 1: emotionally uh drained from all the footage and commentary. The
Speaker 1: Capitol hasn't been breached since the War of eighteen twelve.
Speaker 1: So to each of you, what is your initial reaction
Speaker 1: to this and just jump in. Who wants to go first? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to start. You know, gave me. The thing
Speaker 1: that strikes me first and foremost is we told you so.
Speaker 1: You know, for those of us who knew who Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was from the day he came down that escalator
Speaker 1: and spouted xenophobic, racist nonsense to launch a presidential campaign,
Speaker 1: this is exactly what we feared. For four years. We've
Speaker 1: been ridiculed by the Republicans who did absolutely nothing but
Speaker 1: enable him during that time. We've been called snowflakes, and
Speaker 1: that's the most polite word. But the reality is we
Speaker 1: knew this moment was coming. This is exactly the kind
Speaker 1: of despotic, authoritarian, anti democracy behavior he has done and
Speaker 1: made himself proud of from day one. So I think
Speaker 1: the thing that comes to mind for me is we
Speaker 1: told you so. What about you, Brittany? You know I
Speaker 1: will say yeammy and First of all, thank you for
Speaker 1: having me and for having this conversation, because so many
Speaker 1: people need to be having it. The capital hasn't been
Speaker 1: breached since eighteen twelve, but white supremacy has been breaching
Speaker 1: our boundaries for generations since the founding of this country.
Speaker 1: People who have claimed shock and surprise have not been
Speaker 1: paying attention to Sarah's point. We have been telling you
Speaker 1: so not just about Donald Trump, but about how violent
Speaker 1: white supremacist patriarchy functions. It functioned that way when it
Speaker 1: stole this land from Indigenous people. It functioned that way
Speaker 1: when it enslaved Africans here in America, my ancestors. It
Speaker 1: functioned that way when it spit on Elizabeth Eckford when
Speaker 1: she was trying to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Speaker 1: It functioned that way when Mike Brown was killed, when
Speaker 1: Brianna Taylor was killed, when Tamir Rice was killed, when
Speaker 1: George Floyd was killed, when Tony McDade was killed. None
Speaker 1: of this is new. All of this is deeply familiar, and,
Speaker 1: as we so often say, is as American as apple pie.
Speaker 1: And so the question that I have on this morning
Speaker 1: is why did it take so long for people to
Speaker 1: heed the warnings of those of us who were at
Speaker 1: the most risk under this presidency that did not create
Speaker 1: the problem, but most certainly campaigned on it, one on
Speaker 1: it and emboldened it. Why did it take so longer
Speaker 1: people who should have removed their approval, support for and
Speaker 1: perpetuation of this administration. Why did it take the literal
Speaker 1: insurrection of the US capital for them to finally say
Speaker 1: enough is enough and I'm no longer going to sign
Speaker 1: on to this. We have to be sure in this
Speaker 1: moment that we do not let the people who are
Speaker 1: accountable for what happened, not just Wednesday, but certainly over
Speaker 1: the last four years, that those folks are not able
Speaker 1: to just re enter polite society and re establish their
Speaker 1: reputations right. And that's elected officials, that's appointed officials, that's
Speaker 1: journalists who have humanized these folks. That's police officers who
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, we're opening up barricades and taking selfies and
Speaker 1: not only failed to prepare, but chose not to prepare
Speaker 1: for what was a clear threat. So so that's that's
Speaker 1: where I am today, hoping, we really hope people accountable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's so interesting that you that you put it
Speaker 1: that way, and thank you for sharing all of that,
Speaker 1: all of it, Brittany, because I'm feeling the exact same way,
Speaker 1: and I'm feeling like, oh so now the good wife
Speaker 1: folk feel threatened. Right now, the good white folks feel
Speaker 1: feel threatened? You know, but we've been dealing with this
Speaker 1: kind of terror and and and destruction for centuries centuries.
Speaker 1: What what is your feeling, Jarret? Well, when you when
Speaker 1: you say that, it makes me think about I was
Speaker 1: up really late last night writing because I've been really
Speaker 1: frustrated by all of this language about you know, we
Speaker 1: are better than this, this is not who we are,
Speaker 1: all of that kind of language that is incredibly frustrating
Speaker 1: to me. And every time I hear that as a journalist,
Speaker 1: there's always this conversation about objectivity and journalism and all
Speaker 1: of that kind of stuff, and I've never really believed
Speaker 1: that that was true. And when I read news newspieces
Speaker 1: that say that, it centers whiteness in a way that
Speaker 1: really really frustrates me, because if you are a black
Speaker 1: person in this country, if you are a brown person
Speaker 1: in this country, if you are a queer person in
Speaker 1: this country, if you are any marginalized group in this country,
Speaker 1: you know that, no, this is who we are, right,
Speaker 1: this is who we have been, This is who we
Speaker 1: were will probably be for the foreseeable future. And it's
Speaker 1: frustrating to continue to hear people talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: our better angels in this virtuous thing that America is
Speaker 1: supposedly supposed to be but continues time and time again
Speaker 1: to prove itself not to be. And I know that
Speaker 1: for myself when we look at Donald Trump, when we
Speaker 1: look at the way that Republicans have allowed this kind
Speaker 1: of thing to continue to happen. When Brittany says, like,
Speaker 1: you know, we are that people have to say stand
Speaker 1: up and say no more. Like I don't see enough
Speaker 1: people standing up and say no more now, right, Like
Speaker 1: we are days removed from this, We've not had a
Speaker 1: briefing from from any kind of security agency. We've not
Speaker 1: heard you know, Congress come out with you know what
Speaker 1: they're going to be doing next. We were now starting
Speaker 1: to see that there's movement for impeachment and things like that.
Speaker 1: But but what about the fact that these people got
Speaker 1: into the capital, The people in our presidential line of
Speaker 1: succession were in like great harm, right, or we're at
Speaker 1: great risk. There's so much to consider with what just happened.
Speaker 1: And if I think about like the foreign actors who
Speaker 1: might want to attack this country, or the other people
Speaker 1: who are around this country that are waiving that same
Speaker 1: Trump flag, that Confederate flag, in that American flag, as
Speaker 1: if they are all the same thing, they are now
Speaker 1: emboldened to maybe go into their own state houses or
Speaker 1: to this state house and do the same thing. Sarah,
Speaker 1: I see you shaking your your head. Did you want
Speaker 1: to add something? Yeah, I just look. I'd say to
Speaker 1: white folks out there who are listening, you need to
Speaker 1: hear this. And it's not comfortable, and it's not pleasant
Speaker 1: and candidly, that's not relevant, it's necessary. This is the
Speaker 1: kind of work. And you know, Jared, I appreciate what
Speaker 1: you're saying about the language. This is not who we are.
Speaker 1: And I know that's something actually that in recent months
Speaker 1: I've used once that I can remember, and I think
Speaker 1: what we're trying to say and what we maybe need
Speaker 1: to be more careful about in the language is this
Speaker 1: is not who we want to be. And if we don't,
Speaker 1: then we need to recognize the violent nature of white
Speaker 1: supremacy and we need to understand how deep its roots
Speaker 1: are in a nation that was built with enslaved labor
Speaker 1: on lands that were confiscated from indigenous peoples. And and
Speaker 1: that's a tough thing for folks to hear. But you know,
Speaker 1: I run a trucking company and for our drivers, you
Speaker 1: can't drive just looking in the rear view mirror. You
Speaker 1: gotta drive looking through the windshield. But you need that
Speaker 1: reference point, right. You need to know where you've been,
Speaker 1: and you need to understand any hazards that were in
Speaker 1: your way so that you can avoid them in the future.
Speaker 1: And if we continue to deny the kind of white
Speaker 1: supremacy that fueled not just the Trump presidency but the
Speaker 1: entire state of the GOP and the people who have
Speaker 1: held their nose and voted for him or turned a
Speaker 1: blind eye when he called people like journalists the enemy
Speaker 1: of the state, when he derided black athletes and called
Speaker 1: them curse words, when he called Mexicans rapist. When you
Speaker 1: ignore that, when you ignore the small lies he tells,
Speaker 1: you're not entitled to be surprised and offended and woke.
Speaker 1: Now that somebody breached the capital in his name and
Speaker 1: four people are dead, you know, work needs to be
Speaker 1: done by us, but it requires that we listen and
Speaker 1: that sometimes you're gonna have to hear things that that
Speaker 1: you didn't want to or you don't want to talk about.
Speaker 1: But it's the necessary work for progress to happen, right,
Speaker 1: And and we actually have to really re American history
Speaker 1: by telling the truth about American history because we've been
Speaker 1: lying to ourselves all of these years, and and it's
Speaker 1: time for all of that to stop as well. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, Joy Red gave a really explicitly accurate explanation,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and why these white insurgents and writers
Speaker 1: were not afraid, and I encourage everyone to go to
Speaker 1: YouTube and just look it up and listen to it.
Speaker 1: But basically, she said, they weren't afraid because they see
Speaker 1: themselves in the police and they're not in jeopardy. So
Speaker 1: they felt comfortable taking selfies and taking pictures of themselves
Speaker 1: and in their crimes as the police were helping them
Speaker 1: down the stairs and giving them a you know, pouring
Speaker 1: water in their eyes, because they know that they were
Speaker 1: not in jeopardy because they are not us, they are
Speaker 1: not black, and we all know, and we listened to
Speaker 1: commentators over and over again all all Day yesterday talked
Speaker 1: about had they been black, they would have been brutalized,
Speaker 1: arrested or dead, and Brittany, you've had personal experience with this,
Speaker 1: so share with us, please, your experience in Ferguson. Where
Speaker 1: you you were in Ferguson marching about Michael Brown, were
Speaker 1: you not? Yes, indeed, I'm a native St. Louis and
Speaker 1: i grew up fifteen minutes from Ferguson. I've been an
Speaker 1: activist my entire life, but that was certainly a moment
Speaker 1: of international attention on our city and one of the
Speaker 1: things people really don't remember. And I talked about this
Speaker 1: on MSNBC the other night with Brian Williams. It was
Speaker 1: illegal to stand still in Ferguson because the people who
Speaker 1: were raising their voices on West Florest and Avenue were
Speaker 1: young and old and almost exclusive lee black. The police
Speaker 1: were literally creating rules in order to suppress and terrorize us,
Speaker 1: so we would be told that this was no longer
Speaker 1: a peaceful assembly and tear gas promptly thereafter. Even though
Speaker 1: we'd be standing there with cell phones and cardboard signs,
Speaker 1: we'd be pepper sprayed and mace. People would be would
Speaker 1: have guns in their faces upon getting off of a
Speaker 1: city bus right and trying to get home or go
Speaker 1: pick up their child from school. This was the kind
Speaker 1: of terror that was occurring in a residential neighborhood. And
Speaker 1: for a portion of that time, there was something that
Speaker 1: the police created called the five second rule that if
Speaker 1: we were found to be standing still for more than
Speaker 1: five seconds, we could be summarily arrested. And after that,
Speaker 1: god knows what, So we literally walked in circles. It is.
Speaker 1: It is wild because the police just knew that they
Speaker 1: had the authority to operate that went until and unless
Speaker 1: someone told them that they couldn't, And it took lawsuits
Speaker 1: and judgments and judge rulings for them to actually say
Speaker 1: this is unconstitutional. But in the meantime, we were being terrorized. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I've experienced that in bad Rouge, I've experienced
Speaker 1: that in Baltimore. I've experienced that all over this country.
Speaker 1: And the hypocrisy present in the police response is an
Speaker 1: important part of the conversation. But we have to make
Speaker 1: sure it's not the only part of the conversation because
Speaker 1: when it for two reasons, one, we have to lay
Speaker 1: the blame fully at the feet of white supremacy, and
Speaker 1: if we allow people to have this kind of tragic
Speaker 1: comparative conversation the entire time, then no one will take responsibility,
Speaker 1: no one will be held accountable, and we'll just kind
Speaker 1: of move on. Is wow? You remember that while week
Speaker 1: in the beginning of where we thought all the hell
Speaker 1: was over in we cannot afford to simply dismiss this
Speaker 1: this moment with it just being kind of full of
Speaker 1: hot takes. Right. The other reason why we have to
Speaker 1: not limit the conversation to that specifically around of police
Speaker 1: is that what we know to be true and what
Speaker 1: we are finding out more and more is that it
Speaker 1: is highly likely that members of the Capitol Police force
Speaker 1: that we're supposed to be holding the line did not
Speaker 1: because they were participating in the insurrection, that they helped planet,
Speaker 1: that they helped creative that they we know. For example,
Speaker 1: we've got witnesses who are saying that Capital police officers
Speaker 1: lad insurrectionists to certain members offices. We have video of
Speaker 1: police officers, like I said, taking selfies with insurrectionists. We've
Speaker 1: got reports that people were coming in dressed as insurrectionists
Speaker 1: but flashing their police badges to say I'm one of you.
Speaker 1: And you're you're just like me. Right. If you look
Speaker 1: at this last campaign season, across and police unions were
Speaker 1: tripping over themselves to endorse Donald Trump. If seventy plus
Speaker 1: million Americans voted for Donald Trump a second time, don't
Speaker 1: you think that a bunch of those people are on
Speaker 1: police forces. Don't you think that, perhaps, especially given the
Speaker 1: union response, there may be a disproportionate amount of police
Speaker 1: officers in that crowd. This is a guy who encouraged
Speaker 1: the police to rough us up, not telling them to
Speaker 1: behave more equitably and more justly. These are people who
Speaker 1: this is a guy who encourage police violence. So we
Speaker 1: have to recognize that not only um with the response,
Speaker 1: I've been very different, that the choices here were deliberate,
Speaker 1: and the Capital police deciding not to prepare or hold
Speaker 1: the line was a deliberate choice, not just because they
Speaker 1: were okay with what happened, but perhaps because some of
Speaker 1: them wanted it to happen. And that's what we have
Speaker 1: to talk about exactly exactly, Brittley. So uh, I so
Speaker 1: agree with you, Jared. Yeah. I the one of my
Speaker 1: friends text me, we've been the group hats have been
Speaker 1: very active. I'll tell you that and that we've we've
Speaker 1: seen on social media, you know, white folks that were
Speaker 1: part of it, that we're saying, like they're not supposed
Speaker 1: to treat us like that, right, like when when there
Speaker 1: was any resistance to them there. We see that there
Speaker 1: are various kinds of things on social media over the
Speaker 1: course of months where they have been preparing for this.
Speaker 1: Right So it's not even like the Capitol Police could
Speaker 1: say that they were surprised they didn't see this coming,
Speaker 1: because Donald Trump himself has been talking about this from
Speaker 1: his own Twitter feed. There's very there. There are accounts
Speaker 1: from journalists that have been talking about this for months
Speaker 1: back into saying this kind of thing is going to happen.
Speaker 1: So the idea that the Capitol Police had no idea
Speaker 1: that this was gonna happen, the idea that they could
Speaker 1: not have been prepared, but also the fact that those
Speaker 1: people were in the capital for three hours it was
Speaker 1: really telling to me. Right Like, I was out working
Speaker 1: on something else and started getting text messages like what
Speaker 1: the hell is going on? By the time I got home,
Speaker 1: we were still like seeing video and photos were starting
Speaker 1: to come out. The idea that our Congress people, we're
Speaker 1: ducking and hiding and locked into their offices, their offices ransacked.
Speaker 1: We saw a representative saying that those people the insurrection
Speaker 1: is the domestic terrorists, calling them what they are, right,
Speaker 1: they were getting to places. He was like, I have
Speaker 1: a hard time finding those places, and I don't and
Speaker 1: I work here, right, and I've been here for years,
Speaker 1: So we know that there were people that were that
Speaker 1: were guiding them to the right places to go to
Speaker 1: be able to get into Nancy Pelosi's office, to walk
Speaker 1: out with the speaker's podium, to be able to ransack
Speaker 1: these offices, and who knows what they took, who knows
Speaker 1: what they found? Right, And we haven't even had a
Speaker 1: plaything to be able to talk about where they went right,
Speaker 1: to be able to know where they were inside those offices,
Speaker 1: And the fact that you know, minimal arrests have been made,
Speaker 1: and the excuses for why arrests haven't been made, and
Speaker 1: the fact that most of the charges have been merely
Speaker 1: been for violating curfew is actually it's just I'm just incensed.
Speaker 1: How do we well? Before I move on to that question,
Speaker 1: I want to ask what you're feeling is about invoking
Speaker 1: the men it I mean we should have been having
Speaker 1: that conversation, I mean a long time ago, right, Like
Speaker 1: the amendment is one of those things where it's like
Speaker 1: Donald Trump has shown us week after week after week
Speaker 1: four for four years and and and and for the
Speaker 1: year and a half prior to him being elected, right
Speaker 1: or and I use air quotes around elected because I
Speaker 1: feel a way about that too. But like, but we
Speaker 1: have seen every week a different reason for Donald Trump
Speaker 1: to have that twenty amendment invoked, or for the House
Speaker 1: and and for the full Congress to impeach him. And
Speaker 1: so when people are are talking about what we're considering
Speaker 1: the twenty five amendment, now we're considering impeaching him, we're
Speaker 1: considering resignations and all that, it's like, well, since where
Speaker 1: have you been all of this time? Right? We've see
Speaker 1: these people, these officials from the White House who are
Speaker 1: considering resignation and it's like, sweete, you got ten twelve
Speaker 1: days left. What are you talking about? Like, oh, this
Speaker 1: was the straw that broke the camel's back. Like Donald
Speaker 1: Trump has been inciting this for years. He summoned these
Speaker 1: people to d C to do this. And so when
Speaker 1: we think about the twenty with amendment, that would take
Speaker 1: some courage from Mike Pence that we have not seen.
Speaker 1: It would take some courage from the cabinet members that
Speaker 1: we have not seen. And it would take some kind
Speaker 1: of like some kind of uh, some kind of integrity
Speaker 1: from our government that we just haven't seen. We've seen
Speaker 1: Mike Pence ducking calls from Majority Leader now Chuck Schumer
Speaker 1: and the Speaker of House, Nancy Pelosi. He doesn't want
Speaker 1: to deal with this, just like he hasn't wanted to
Speaker 1: deal with it since the day he signed onto that ticket.
Speaker 1: If this is you know, a day late and a
Speaker 1: dollar short, to be sure, but it is the fastest
Speaker 1: and most efficient way to remove Donald Trump from office.
Speaker 1: You know, whatever we thought about what happened at the
Speaker 1: Capitol this week, this is still the man who controls
Speaker 1: the nuclear codes in this country, exactly, exactly. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I want us just to be clear on the technical piece.
Speaker 1: Because government is I used to work on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 1: Government is incredibly opaque on purpose. It's important that people
Speaker 1: understand the ins and outs of this. The twenty five
Speaker 1: Amendment requires action from the Vice President and a majority
Speaker 1: of the members of Cabinet. We've had we've had and
Speaker 1: we've had two members of cabinet, Secretary Chow and Betsy DeVos, resigned.
Speaker 1: If enough of them resigned, there will not be a
Speaker 1: majority of cabinet to invoke the twenty five Amendment. So
Speaker 1: Ayanna Pressley, the congresswoman from from Massachusetts, are are good sis.
Speaker 1: She reminded us that we have to see through these
Speaker 1: calls for the twenty fifth Amendment from people who have
Speaker 1: no intentions of invoking it, that actually, if we're going
Speaker 1: to take action, that on the technical side of things,
Speaker 1: impeachment and removal are actually the best course of action.
Speaker 1: And to Sarah's point, we have to be very very
Speaker 1: careful because so much can happen in twelve We saw
Speaker 1: what happened in three hours. A lot can happen in
Speaker 1: twelve days. Action has got to be taken. And Corey Bush,
Speaker 1: my congresswoman from my hometown of St. Louis, has said,
Speaker 1: not only do we have to go after the president,
Speaker 1: we need to get all of the Congress people who
Speaker 1: sold the idea that this was a fraud election up
Speaker 1: out of Congress too, and that those people on the
Speaker 1: Senate side and the House side need to lose their
Speaker 1: job and she's drawing up papers for that too. So
Speaker 1: those are two things that people should be paying attention
Speaker 1: to because government is confusing on purpose, and we got
Speaker 1: to see straight through to what's happening. I don't care
Speaker 1: what anyone thinks. I'm gonna say it out loud. They
Speaker 1: don't deserve the public trust, they don't deserve to hold office.
Speaker 1: They're no longer qualified. If you turned a blind eye
Speaker 1: to the kind of things we've seen Donald Trump do
Speaker 1: for years, you shouldn't be there. You don't belong and
Speaker 1: you don't have anything to add to strengthen our democracy
Speaker 1: in our union. I just really quickly, I would say
Speaker 1: one of the other important elements of this with Donald
Speaker 1: Trump being impeached, the importance of him being impeaches that
Speaker 1: he can't run for offic He can't run for president again, right,
Speaker 1: and like we know that he plans on running for
Speaker 1: president again. We know that I would expect him to
Speaker 1: counter program with the rally on on the day of
Speaker 1: the inauguration, and like the fact that that impeachment would
Speaker 1: stifle him from being able to do that, I think
Speaker 1: is a really important element of why impeachment is so important.
Speaker 1: Exactly good point now to all of this too. Will
Speaker 1: we're talking about accountability. How do we hold the new
Speaker 1: administration accountable, particularly to the black community. How do we
Speaker 1: do that? What does that mean? So it means a
Speaker 1: couple of things. One, it means being engaged in politics
Speaker 1: at every single level. Part of that is because a
Speaker 1: lot of the policies that affect us every day, that
Speaker 1: we think are being decided at the White House, are
Speaker 1: actually being decided in governor's mansions, on the floors of
Speaker 1: state legislatures, with your all your people, and your city councils,
Speaker 1: and in your mayor's offices. So it's actually really important
Speaker 1: for us to get into the weeds of this thing
Speaker 1: to make sure that the things that we want to
Speaker 1: see be true in our communities that we are pushing
Speaker 1: on at the local, state, and federal level. The second
Speaker 1: thing we need to do is to be part of
Speaker 1: an organizing community. Sarah will tell you Georgia has been
Speaker 1: blue for a long time. Georgia wasn't read, Georgia was suppressed,
Speaker 1: and it was a collective of organizers, activists, community members, volunteers, canvases,
Speaker 1: everybody playing their part to make what people thought was
Speaker 1: impossible happen. After ten years of work, right, So you
Speaker 1: have to be a part of a community of people
Speaker 1: who are working on the things that you are passionate about.
Speaker 1: It is one thing to tweat about it or to
Speaker 1: Facebook about it. Is another thing to put your money
Speaker 1: behind it, and it is another thing to get with
Speaker 1: other people who help you strategize and organize around it.
Speaker 1: That last part is so important. And you don't have
Speaker 1: to be a part of the big national organizations if
Speaker 1: you don't want their organizations right in your community that
Speaker 1: deserve your support, your funding, and your volunteerism. The last
Speaker 1: thing that I'll say is I fully believe in the
Speaker 1: concept of critical friends. I believe that real love is
Speaker 1: actually telling people the truth, and the same is true
Speaker 1: in politics. So I have developed a relationship with now,
Speaker 1: thank you, Madam Vice President Kamala Harris over over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, the last year in particular, and
Speaker 1: she calls me we have really forward, honest, candid conversations, right,
Speaker 1: And that's what she wants. She doesn't want a boiler
Speaker 1: plate answer for what's happening in our streets regarding policing.
Speaker 1: And guess what, I'm not gonna give you one, even
Speaker 1: if that's what you wanted. The good news is that
Speaker 1: she wants the truth. We have to be willing to
Speaker 1: speak up and tell the truth. So when the bill
Speaker 1: is not reaching the kind of heights of policy that
Speaker 1: we want, we have to say so. When the action
Speaker 1: that is being taken by the White House or by
Speaker 1: Congress is not going to the places where we where
Speaker 1: we wanted to go, we have to say so. And
Speaker 1: we have to come forward with the ideas that say,
Speaker 1: instead of do this, do that. So here's what I
Speaker 1: want the cancelation of my student debt to look like.
Speaker 1: Here's what I want transformation and public safety in my
Speaker 1: community to look like. Here's what I want the Green
Speaker 1: New Deal to look like in my community. Right, we
Speaker 1: have to get clear about all of these things and
Speaker 1: continue to raise our voices as if these people work
Speaker 1: for us, because they do. I think a really important
Speaker 1: part to that is Brittany is kind of laying out
Speaker 1: all of the different ways that it looks practically applied. Right.
Speaker 1: I think so many of us get really wrapped up
Speaker 1: in voting and think that that is the avenue for
Speaker 1: democracy to be to be seen. But I think realistically,
Speaker 1: when it comes time to when when the inauguration is over, right,
Speaker 1: there is still work to be done. And I think
Speaker 1: that's so much of America, as we've seen in turn
Speaker 1: out with voting in so many other places, like so
Speaker 1: many people are way more engaged than they've ever been.
Speaker 1: My parents were never people who could tell me who
Speaker 1: the Secretary of State was and you know who the
Speaker 1: senator of that was. But now they are able to say,
Speaker 1: did you hear about what so and so just did?
Speaker 1: And I think it's important that people continue to stay
Speaker 1: engaged because this is the time that we can make
Speaker 1: the most moves. Right. We have a democratic House, a
Speaker 1: democratic Senate, and a democratic president. We can talk about
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court on another day, but like what we
Speaker 1: have so many we have so many different things that
Speaker 1: we want to get done, and we've got to make
Speaker 1: sure that we stay engaged, that we stay organized, and
Speaker 1: that because I think during the Obama era, so many
Speaker 1: people were so excited that Barack Obama got elected, and
Speaker 1: he was saying immediately right like no, no, no, this
Speaker 1: isn't over. We still have work to do, and I
Speaker 1: think people got comfortable and lazy, and that that was
Speaker 1: why so many people were so surprised by Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: and it's like, no, We've seen this rising on the
Speaker 1: other side the entire time Barack Obama was president, and
Speaker 1: so Donald Trump was not a surprise for a lot
Speaker 1: of people. So it's important that you don't just you know,
Speaker 1: vote in your election or vote in your runoff or
Speaker 1: whatever it is. You have to stay engaged to be
Speaker 1: able to make sure that we're able to affect the
Speaker 1: change that we need, because getting someone elected is not enough. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that too. I think it's really important we elevate individual stories,
Speaker 1: especially from marginalized communities, whether that is the LGBTQ community,
Speaker 1: whether it is communities of color, the black community, also
Speaker 1: rural right in places like Georgia, our rural communities are
Speaker 1: are in desperate situations both economically and in terms of
Speaker 1: access to healthcare, in terms of access to equitable education.
Speaker 1: You know, the color of your skin or the zip
Speaker 1: code where you're born may well determine the kind of
Speaker 1: access you have the opportunity for the rest of your
Speaker 1: life in some of these places. So at think the
Speaker 1: other thing we can do to keep people accountable, and
Speaker 1: we've recently started a platform to do this is is
Speaker 1: let people tell their stories. Right, millions and hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars are spent by political interest groups, parties
Speaker 1: packs to elevate the narrative that they want. But the
Speaker 1: more we can elevate the stories of how these policies
Speaker 1: and the failure or the lack of accountability for politicians
Speaker 1: impacts real people in our communities, the better impact we're
Speaker 1: going to have in terms of holding elected officials accountable,
Speaker 1: making them look at what those decisions have cost to
Speaker 1: real people in our communities. Now, Sarah, I want you
Speaker 1: to really talk about Georgia, because you know, everything that
Speaker 1: happened at the Capitol really overshadow the winds that we
Speaker 1: had for Warnock and John also in Georgia, and it's
Speaker 1: really really hugely important, and it's important for black people
Speaker 1: in particularly, not just black people, but black people in
Speaker 1: particularly that don't believe in the government that a lot
Speaker 1: of times don't believe in the vote. This was an
Speaker 1: opportunity where we really really put tent Toes down and
Speaker 1: got it done. Georgia really got it done and we
Speaker 1: were able to flip the Senate. So talk talk about
Speaker 1: the importance of that win. Absolutely, we saw a couple
Speaker 1: of things. So first of all, John Asoff made history
Speaker 1: as the first Jewish American elected to the U. S.
Speaker 1: Senate from Georgia. He's the youngest senator in forty years
Speaker 1: since Joe Biden actually entered the Senate. And you know,
Speaker 1: I heard on Twitter the other day I thought was
Speaker 1: something was funny he should name his first child Rafael,
Speaker 1: because the Reverend Raffael Moreno was a fantastic partner for
Speaker 1: him in this election. And John and Rafael are both
Speaker 1: good friends and I couldn't be more happy for their win.
Speaker 1: But the reality is that Reverend more Knox deep route,
Speaker 1: not just as the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church and
Speaker 1: in the Black church at large, but his deep, deep
Speaker 1: roots in the social justice movement on everything from ending
Speaker 1: mass incarceration, to protecting access to the ballot box for
Speaker 1: communities of color, and to engaging with the black community
Speaker 1: on every aspect of economic opportunity and jobs in our
Speaker 1: state really brought a lot of balance to the ticket.
Speaker 1: And I think it motivated people. Let's be clear, black
Speaker 1: women organized in Georgia and lead to this happening. You know,
Speaker 1: from Stacy Abrahams to in SUFO, two writers like a
Speaker 1: Noah Chonga who have been out there sharing this message
Speaker 1: for a long time, and I think having more Knock
Speaker 1: on the ticket also energized black men. And I suspect
Speaker 1: that when we deep dive into the numbers from this win,
Speaker 1: the Black belt, that southwestern part of Georgia and the
Speaker 1: rich agricultural area across the southern half of the state,
Speaker 1: the rural places that we think of as traditionally white
Speaker 1: Republican counties, those are very diverse counties. It's just a
Speaker 1: lot of times black voters in those areas haven't had
Speaker 1: anything to show up for. And I think to his credit,
Speaker 1: you know, John ass Off really came to bat for
Speaker 1: Raphael Warnock and vice versa. There was a great piece
Speaker 1: in the Atlanta Journal Constitution this morning by Jim Galloway,
Speaker 1: who's kind of the senior writer for the last forty
Speaker 1: years of the a j C and politics, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, where Reverend Warnock had to be very careful
Speaker 1: sometimes in avoiding stereotypes of black men running for office.
Speaker 1: John Assoff would come in and and get his back.
Speaker 1: And when the right attacked Reverend Warnock for his positions
Speaker 1: on Israel, John Assoff, as a young Jewish man with
Speaker 1: deep roots in that community came in and had his back.
Speaker 1: It was this beautiful, elegant alliance that really is reminiscent
Speaker 1: of the great partnerships of the civil rights movement in
Speaker 1: the South. So I, for one think that this, you know,
Speaker 1: this is an election where Rio entirely the flipping of Georgia,
Speaker 1: and not just in these two Senate races, but delivering
Speaker 1: sixteen Electoral College votes for commonis and Joe biden Um
Speaker 1: electing the first Black and South Asian woman to be
Speaker 1: the Vice President of the United States. We owe that
Speaker 1: a lot too, to the Black community, and also to
Speaker 1: our Latin Next communities, to our Asian American Pacific Islander communities.
Speaker 1: You know, these are voters who for too long have
Speaker 1: been marginalized and sideline, left out, left behind, And nevertheless
Speaker 1: they showed the greatest hope in this democracy of any
Speaker 1: demographic in the entire state. They showed up, They made
Speaker 1: their voice heard, they made history happen. And I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna see great things from both Warnock and ass Off.
Speaker 1: And you know, I say that as somebody who lost
Speaker 1: in the primary to John Also, right, I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: and I meet it with all my heart. I mean
Speaker 1: nobody's twisting my arm here to give compliments. He is
Speaker 1: an idealistic, forward thinking, honest person. I think he'll do
Speaker 1: the right thing. And Reverend Morknock, we don't, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't have to guess he's been getting arrested in
Speaker 1: the capital, you know, if you want to talk about
Speaker 1: the difference in police presence between what happened on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: Reverend Warnock was arrested in the rotunda for prey with
Speaker 1: Reverend Cynthia Hale. I mean, this is this is the
Speaker 1: kind of work that he's done for decades, and I
Speaker 1: honestly couldn't be prouder to have these two minutes my
Speaker 1: U S. Senators. Yeah, well, you know, we haven't had
Speaker 1: a Democratic senator in Georgia, so I'm feeling extremely hopeful
Speaker 1: that the Democrats are in power. Just just to add
Speaker 1: on too Sarah's point really quickly, I think it's also
Speaker 1: important to recognize that we have Rufhael Warnock being the
Speaker 1: first black person that has ever been elected from a
Speaker 1: Confederate formerly Confederate state. We have John Austin that is
Speaker 1: the first Jewish Man. But we also know what it's
Speaker 1: like to be the first right or to be the
Speaker 1: only or one of the few when you're in those rooms.
Speaker 1: And I think it's important that we recognize that when
Speaker 1: those people go into those those rooms, into those committees,
Speaker 1: into all of those all of the different ways that
Speaker 1: they have to work to be able to get things
Speaker 1: done for us, the challenges that they're gonna face are
Speaker 1: going to be great, and it's going to be important
Speaker 1: that we are they're supporting them and back in them
Speaker 1: and also in their ear for the things that we need. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we've only had eleven black senators in the history
Speaker 1: of this country. I mean, that's just impossible for someone
Speaker 1: like me to believe. And so what what we're not
Speaker 1: has done and he has, he has everything. You hope
Speaker 1: he'll be in that office. I'm confident he'll do a
Speaker 1: great amount of work. But you know, he's the twelfth
Speaker 1: in the history of the country. It's in a remarkable
Speaker 1: thing we've accomplished, and it's a shame that yet again
Speaker 1: the maga hat folks have overshadowed what should have been
Speaker 1: a real triumph of the resilience of our democracy and
Speaker 1: of the black community, especially in Georgia. Yeah, we could
Speaker 1: go on forever. I really feel like we're not done,
Speaker 1: but I know we have to wrap it up. I
Speaker 1: know Brittany has to leave one last question. One I
Speaker 1: just want to ask each of you, and we'll start
Speaker 1: with you, Brittany, what is one final thing that you
Speaker 1: want to get off your chest? Oh? Gosh, one final thing.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's to have disciplined hope. We have done
Speaker 1: hard things. We have done them many times before. We
Speaker 1: have done them during a pandemic and one of the
Speaker 1: most unprecedented elections of our time. We are capable of
Speaker 1: greatness when we decide to get together and make it happen.
Speaker 1: So as to remain committed, because as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 1: no insurrection is still my joy and they certainly can't
Speaker 1: stop this work. Yeah, I think the thing that I'm
Speaker 1: most hopeful about going forward is this rising multi racial,
Speaker 1: multi generational coalition that can do those hard things Brittany
Speaker 1: talked about, that can put the first black senator in
Speaker 1: office from the state of Georgia that I have hoped
Speaker 1: my kids will not be dealing with pay equity and
Speaker 1: the kinds of racial justice strife we saw, especially with
Speaker 1: the amad are very shooting and in Rachiard Brooks in
Speaker 1: Atlanta as well over the summer. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: everything from making sure no one in this country is
Speaker 1: sick because they're poor or poor because they got sick,
Speaker 1: to having clean air and clean water in an environment
Speaker 1: that's treasured and valued the way it should be. All
Speaker 1: of it's possible now, Like voters did that. So every
Speaker 1: time you you think your vote doesn't matter, you know,
Speaker 1: just remember the year we took our country back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what about you, Jarrett, I'm thinking about mental health, to
Speaker 1: be honest with you. I'm thinking about the mental health
Speaker 1: of the organizers, of the journalists, of the electives, of
Speaker 1: the staffers, of all of the people who are going
Speaker 1: to have a mountain to climb in the coming weeks, months,
Speaker 1: and years of this next administration. I serve as the
Speaker 1: vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists here
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, and I'm always thinking about our journalists
Speaker 1: and what it is like to have to cover these
Speaker 1: stories day to day, what it is like to have
Speaker 1: to be in the field, to hear these stories, to
Speaker 1: see the things that you see every day, and how
Speaker 1: disheartening it can be, how depressing it can be, how
Speaker 1: difficult it can be on your psyche. And you know,
Speaker 1: my friends work in various different levels of the of
Speaker 1: the federal government and it is a stressful, stressful job.
Speaker 1: It is a stressful place to work. And I just
Speaker 1: wanna to to send out, you know, the thought that
Speaker 1: we should be thinking about these people and supporting them
Speaker 1: in various different ways, because it is not an easy
Speaker 1: thing to do to be the person who has to serve,
Speaker 1: who has to vote, who has to write, who has
Speaker 1: to speak, who has to stand in front, who has
Speaker 1: to stand in back, who has to do all of
Speaker 1: these different things. I think it's really really important. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys. This was This was I'm telling you. I
Speaker 1: just feel like we we just just touch just a
Speaker 1: little bit of everything that's going because there's so much,
Speaker 1: so much to talk about that we just didn't have
Speaker 1: time to do. But I certainly appreciate your time. Tell
Speaker 1: the listeners where they can find you on social media, Brittany,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for having me. You can follow me.
Speaker 1: People can follow me at miss pac Yetti on Instagram
Speaker 1: and Twitter. Yes, you can find me everywhere at Jarrett Hill.
Speaker 1: It's Jarrett with two Hours and two Teas on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Um,
Speaker 1: and the show that I host, Fantai is about the
Speaker 1: complex and complicated things that we love and have challenges
Speaker 1: around UH and we talk about all of those things.
Speaker 1: That comes out every Thursday. Fanti is available on all
Speaker 1: podcasts platforms spelled f A M T I GAM. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for having me. Folks can follow me on
Speaker 1: Instagram or Twitter at Sarah rigs Amico. That's s A
Speaker 1: R e h R I g G s A M
Speaker 1: I c O. And I'd love for folks to take
Speaker 1: a minute and check out my new project, Rediscovering our
Speaker 1: American Dream. We are working to redefine the American Dream
Speaker 1: to be inclusive of all communities, communities of color, rural communities,
Speaker 1: poor communities, immigrant communities, people who have been traditionally left
Speaker 1: out and left behind. So we've created a platform where
Speaker 1: you can upload your story on everything from immigration to
Speaker 1: starting a small business, to why you vote or the
Speaker 1: importance of access to affordable healthcare. So folks can visit
Speaker 1: our website at www Dot our American Dreams dot org. Again,
Speaker 1: that's www dot our American Dreams dot org. So grateful
Speaker 1: and look forward to talking again soon. We'll have to
Speaker 1: do it again. Thank you so much. Thanks for having
Speaker 1: us Gamy. Absolutely, thank you, guys. So here's my takeaway
Speaker 1: from this conversation and forty five most recent speech on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Not only does he continue with his lies. Katie Currik
Speaker 1: described his final statement as the most chilling in Lindsey
Speaker 1: Graham said, if we nominate Trump, he will destroy us
Speaker 1: and we will deserve it. Well, he has and you
Speaker 1: do as you all sat by complicit as forty five
Speaker 1: ran rampant viewing, hate, fear, and destruction through our democracy.
Speaker 1: The American people have suffered literally through his sickness. He
Speaker 1: must be impeached so we will never be subjected to
Speaker 1: his reign ever. Again, thank you to my guests Tea, Jared,
Speaker 1: Sarah and Grittany. We had so much to unpack in
Speaker 1: so little time. We just may have to do this again.
Speaker 1: If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, be sure to rate
Speaker 1: and review the episode. Follow me on my Instagram at
Speaker 1: Gammy Narris to share with me your thoughts on the episode.
Speaker 1: I'm here, I'm talking, and I'm listening. As always, Stay grateful, y'all,
Speaker 1: Happy New Year. Positively. Gam is produced by Westbrook Audio
Speaker 1: Executive producers Adrian Banfield, Rrisa Ada Pinkett, Smith, Amanda Brown
Speaker 1: and Fallon jethro Co Executive producer sim Hoti, Segment producer
Speaker 1: Ash Francis, Associate producer Eric Iron, editor and mixer Calvin Bayliss.
Speaker 1: Positively gam is in partnership with Art nineteen