Speaker 1: I'm Tamika D.
Speaker 2: Mallory and itshit boy my son a general.
Speaker 1: We are your host of TMI.
Speaker 2: Tamika and Mysan's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration, New.
Speaker 1: Name, New Energy. What's up, Family, it's your girl. Tamika D.
Speaker 1: Mallory and my son is.
Speaker 3: Celebrating his son's birthday today, so he is not with us.
Speaker 3: Uh and I decided that rather than skipping a week,
Speaker 3: we don't have time to skip a week. We got
Speaker 3: one hundred days to an election. We are in the
Speaker 3: middle of a war for the soul, not only of
Speaker 3: this nation, but for us, for our souls, for our
Speaker 3: children's lives, for our future, and so we don't have
Speaker 3: time to skip. We have to keep information on the air,
Speaker 3: on the air waves and make sure that there is
Speaker 3: a place that our people can go that we can
Speaker 3: receive information, we can share information, and we also are
Speaker 3: fact checking information to.
Speaker 1: Know that we are sure that we're sure that we're
Speaker 1: sure that what we're saying is true.
Speaker 3: Even if even if what we're saying does not sit
Speaker 3: well or make certain people comfortable, even if what we're
Speaker 3: saying goes against the audience, the crowd, the choir, still
Speaker 3: it needs to be real and true information. And so
Speaker 3: today I decided that I want to do something called
Speaker 3: Civix one oh one, and I've asked my friend to
Speaker 3: join me to talk about everything that we need to
Speaker 3: know about how the government works. I hear so many
Speaker 3: people and I read so many comments with misinformation, people
Speaker 3: talking about things in ways that I understand. I can
Speaker 3: hold on one hand, in one hand that they are struggling,
Speaker 3: struggling with what's happening in the world, wanting to see
Speaker 3: a change, and I can hold on the other hand
Speaker 3: that there are people who are repeating information that they
Speaker 3: have received, either from people that don't know, people who
Speaker 3: don't want to know, or people who know damn well,
Speaker 3: but they work very hard to misinform you. And so
Speaker 3: I want to make sure over the next hundred days
Speaker 3: that we have folks on our show that can talk
Speaker 3: and pinpoint and give us clear information that we all
Speaker 3: need to be armed with so that we can make
Speaker 3: whatever decision we choose to make in in November, that
Speaker 3: the decision is made because we know that we know,
Speaker 3: and not because we heard on a clip on a
Speaker 3: podcast somewhere that says something that is not the full
Speaker 3: context of what an individual is saying, so we're all
Speaker 3: about peeling back the onion having a difficult conversations. Let
Speaker 3: me talk a little bit about Sonya Massey. You know
Speaker 3: my heart is completely broken at as an organizer. For
Speaker 3: thirty years I've been doing this work. I'm forty four.
Speaker 3: When I was fourteen, even before fourteen, I was in
Speaker 3: the movement. But at fourteen years old, I was given
Speaker 3: my first responsibility and I have been since then receiving
Speaker 3: whether it was fifty dollars a week just to show
Speaker 3: up at a rally on every Saturday and help with
Speaker 3: the organization, all the way to me actually receiving a
Speaker 3: real salary to do real work, and of course all
Speaker 3: that you all have followed in my journey for the
Speaker 3: last several years. I've been in this work a long time.
Speaker 3: And guess what, Sonia Massi She's in the top five
Speaker 3: of police shootings that I have ever, ever, ever witnessed
Speaker 3: to see what happened to this woman. And to be clear,
Speaker 3: I didn't even watch the point that the actual bullet
Speaker 3: was out of the gun and into Sonia Massy. I
Speaker 3: did not watch the actual shots, but I know what
Speaker 3: took place, and I have now been able to see
Speaker 3: the blown up sort of the mockups of what took
Speaker 3: place in that apartment. And it is traumatizing to know
Speaker 3: that this sister said I'm sorry and suffered such an incredible, incredible, incredibly.
Speaker 1: Painful, painful death.
Speaker 3: And now her children are experiencing this because at seventeen
Speaker 3: and fifteen years old, not having their mother in their
Speaker 3: life and then finding and knowing that how she died
Speaker 3: is so graphic. And the whole world is now watching them,
Speaker 3: and the whole world is looking for them to say
Speaker 3: and leave. And thank God for Attorney Ben Krump, who
Speaker 3: is there with the family doing all that he can
Speaker 3: to ensure that justice is actually served. Listen, the same
Speaker 3: state of Illinois, Lakwan McDonald was shot sixteen times, many
Speaker 3: of those shots while he was laying on the ground.
Speaker 3: The office a responsible receive sixteen counts. He was convicted
Speaker 3: and he only served three years. And so when people
Speaker 3: ask us, why would folks in thirty five cities as
Speaker 3: happen as happened this weekend stood together throughout the day
Speaker 3: and some will continue throughout this week to call attention
Speaker 3: to the murder of Sony and Massy. Why would you
Speaker 3: do that when an officer has been arrested, the officer
Speaker 3: is in jail, being held without bail.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's what we fought for. No, that's not
Speaker 1: what we fought for.
Speaker 3: We did fight to ensure that the process to accountability
Speaker 3: is not five years and six years and some drawn
Speaker 3: out time period that allows for the people to calm down,
Speaker 3: the tension to come down, and then for the system
Speaker 3: to say that this particular officer is not charged with
Speaker 3: any wrongdoing. That's we definitely fought to change that, and
Speaker 3: it is still not a process across the country that
Speaker 3: happens the same way. In this situation, the circumstances are
Speaker 3: so clear that I don't think that this particular police
Speaker 3: department could do anything else. But I don't trust them.
Speaker 3: I don't trust them at all. And so if we
Speaker 3: know that this officer who killed lecran McDonald received only
Speaker 3: only served three years, then I think it should be
Speaker 3: said that we have to stay on the wall for
Speaker 3: justice for our sister Sonya Massi and never go home
Speaker 3: because we know that getting justice for a black woman
Speaker 3: is extremely difficult. Getting justice for a black woman is
Speaker 3: probably one of the hardest things that I do on
Speaker 3: a daily basis, and that does not mean again, that
Speaker 3: does not mean again that black men are receiving some
Speaker 3: some some some massive number in terms of justice in
Speaker 3: police shootings and other times when black men are being brutalized.
Speaker 3: Certainly it doesn't mean that. But there is a difference
Speaker 3: in terms of the groundswell and how you get people
Speaker 3: to stay ignited and to stay in the movement. With
Speaker 3: black women, the poll is different. It is much more difficult.
Speaker 3: It is harder to get folks to sort of fall
Speaker 3: in line. Usually when these incidents happen, people call me.
Speaker 3: Everybody's calling me, celebrities, people calling me Sonia Massy. It
Speaker 3: was okay, but to be quite honest, it was not
Speaker 3: at the same level. And even the energy outside we
Speaker 3: had to really pump it up to let people know
Speaker 3: you made it here. I know you're tired, but we
Speaker 3: still have work to do to shout and make sure
Speaker 3: our voice is a loud enough for people to hear
Speaker 3: us all over the world. That what happened to Sonia
Speaker 3: Massy is an abomination, and not only should the officer
Speaker 3: who shot her be held responsible, the officer who was
Speaker 3: there inside the home should be held responsible as well,
Speaker 3: because his job is to protect people from criminals, and
Speaker 3: his partner was the criminal. His partner was dishonorably discharged
Speaker 3: from the armed forces. His partner moved around to six
Speaker 3: different police departments in four years. His partner had on
Speaker 3: his record DUIs and other major issues. His partner is
Speaker 3: charged with allegations or has received allegations of everything from
Speaker 3: lying on documents official documents to unlawfully tasing a young
Speaker 3: black boy. He was the criminal in that situation, and
Speaker 3: I believe that the other officer should have turned his
Speaker 3: weapon on him and told him drop your weapon right now,
Speaker 3: because you are the criminal inside of this home. You
Speaker 3: are the person posing threat in his home. And it
Speaker 3: is my responsibility as an officer of the law, as
Speaker 3: someone who is here and my job is to protect
Speaker 3: against those people who would prey on the innocent. That
Speaker 3: it was his job at that time to protect Sonia Massy.
Speaker 3: Because he didn't do it, I feel I charged him
Speaker 3: with her murder as well. So those are things that
Speaker 3: we need to know about Sonia Massy. The fight continues.
Speaker 3: There will be much more coming. There will be court
Speaker 3: dates that folks need to attend because they will absolutely
Speaker 3: say that the officer fell threatened by the pot of
Speaker 3: water and by her saying, I rebuke you in the
Speaker 3: name of Jesus. And as I said at our rally
Speaker 3: this weekend, when people start talking about giving immunity to
Speaker 3: police officers, we have.
Speaker 1: To rebuke that.
Speaker 3: We have to rebuke that as a community and as
Speaker 3: a larger society. So we're going in the civics one
Speaker 3: oh one. That's what today is all about. And everything
Speaker 3: I just talked about, there is a way that you
Speaker 3: can apply it, whether it's be to the George Floyd
Speaker 3: Justison Policing Act and other bills that are out there
Speaker 3: where people have really been intentional about figuring out how
Speaker 3: we have less policing and more community safety measures. Much happening.
Speaker 3: Much to hear about CIVIX one oh one. We're gonna
Speaker 3: hear right now from Bishop Leah Daughtry. Now, let me
Speaker 3: tell you why this sister is so important, because yes,
Speaker 3: she does work within the Democratic Party one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Y'all folks that.
Speaker 3: Are tied of the Democrats are going to say, oh,
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear from a woman that's in
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party. But this woman's family, where she comes from,
Speaker 3: her lineage, her father for sure, and her mother. They
Speaker 3: are true black power freedom fighters. I've watched her father,
Speaker 3: Chris cross this nation fighting for black people, being one
Speaker 3: of the most intellectual, intelligent black men. He can preach,
Speaker 3: he can speak, he can teach, and his daughter comes
Speaker 3: from that.
Speaker 1: And I know her, I've known her for a long time.
Speaker 3: Sometimes she has to call me and say to Mi, ka,
Speaker 3: let's talk about this because I heard you, I heard
Speaker 3: what you said, and I feel you. But can we
Speaker 3: level set. Sometimes she'll call me and say, I'm just
Speaker 3: as upset as you are. Let's go harder, tell me
Speaker 3: what the people are saying. Let me get out there
Speaker 3: with you in the streets, and let me take this
Speaker 3: information back. And so today I want Bishop Leon Daughtry
Speaker 3: to come on and talk to all of you about
Speaker 3: the actual process for how Bill's moved for the civic
Speaker 3: engagement that we all should be involved in, and civics
Speaker 3: one on one today is extremely important to me.
Speaker 1: It's okay if you don't know.
Speaker 3: I'm sure she'll say some things that I don't know,
Speaker 3: and I know that I need to refresh myself all
Speaker 3: the time. She talks about how she goes back to
Speaker 3: read the Constitution, so that she can be clear. So
Speaker 3: it's okay. They didn't teach us, they didn't want us
Speaker 3: to know, but now we're going to educate ourselves. So
Speaker 3: gather around, get your children, get mama and daddy, whoever
Speaker 3: you think needs to hear this, and especially our black
Speaker 3: men who need to hear the process so that we
Speaker 3: can deal with alleviating the pain and the suffering that
Speaker 3: we see happening on the ground around this nation. All right, y'all,
Speaker 3: bishoply A Daughterry, she's coming up right now. So as
Speaker 3: I've said, you know, Bishop Lea daughtery is a mentor,
Speaker 3: a big sister to me and someone that I have
Speaker 3: always admired, not just for her brilliance, because we're going
Speaker 3: to get into that you all will be able to
Speaker 3: see and to learn more about her brilliance, but also
Speaker 3: because of her commitment, no matter what space she's in
Speaker 3: to bridging the gap between those who may be in
Speaker 3: the streets, those who may be inside the system. Some
Speaker 3: radical voices, some voices that are more moderate. She knows
Speaker 3: how to bring everyone together. And it's always monitoring what
Speaker 3: is happening with the younger sisters out here, and so
Speaker 3: you know, everywhere I go, I praise Bishoplyadaughtry, but I
Speaker 3: want you all to meet her so you have an
Speaker 3: opportunity to know that there are folks out here who
Speaker 3: work within the system, if you will, that do a
Speaker 3: hell of a job of fighting for us every single
Speaker 3: day and speaking true to power. And so that's where
Speaker 3: she comes from. Like her parents would disown her if
Speaker 3: she was not doing that inside a government and outside.
Speaker 3: So Bishop Leadaughtry, thank you so much. I think it's
Speaker 3: okay for me to go ahead and call you Leah
Speaker 3: for the rest of the time that we are.
Speaker 1: Together, but thank you for joining TMMI.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. To mek It is good to
Speaker 4: be with you, and you know how I love you
Speaker 4: and I so appreciate the work that you do every
Speaker 4: day on behalf of our people, and so I'm happy
Speaker 4: to be here and support you.
Speaker 3: And Any's not with us today because he is celebrating
Speaker 3: his son's thirteenth birthday.
Speaker 1: He left the girls to talk.
Speaker 4: Right, okay, tell him, I said, Hey, of course, of course.
Speaker 3: All right, So before you came on, I've already told
Speaker 3: people about Karen and Herbert Dorstry, okay, and I've already
Speaker 3: explained to them. You know, your upbringing, just being raised
Speaker 3: with two not just freedom fighters, but black power freedom fighters.
Speaker 1: They still today to this second.
Speaker 3: Are individuals who you will find in their elderly days
Speaker 3: in the street if you call them and ask them
Speaker 3: to show up. In fact, I needed your dad to
Speaker 3: do something for me, and he was like, I ain't
Speaker 3: gonna be able to make it because I'm going to
Speaker 3: a prison. I go to this one prison and he
Speaker 3: works with the young men in there. He at this point,
Speaker 3: how old is Revendoortree?
Speaker 4: Ninety three?
Speaker 3: Ninety three years old? And this was the other day.
Speaker 3: By the way, I'm not talking about something I called
Speaker 3: him two years ago. He literally is working inside of
Speaker 3: prisons today at ninety three years old. This is someone
Speaker 3: who I have heard say things that I'm like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, cover my mouth. Is he supposed to say
Speaker 3: that in front of the governor, in front of presidents,
Speaker 3: in front of mayors, in front of all types of
Speaker 3: elected officials, business leaders, and otherwise, and calling us out
Speaker 3: sometimes when we in the movement needed to get straight
Speaker 3: on our comings and goings and dealings. And I think that,
Speaker 3: you know, knowing that you come from someone like that,
Speaker 3: you have your own style, but you really have not
Speaker 3: departed much from the upbringing of your parents and your mama.
Speaker 1: She keep everybody street. So that's that.
Speaker 3: So talk about that, your upbringing, and then just take
Speaker 3: us right into how you have gone into politics. You
Speaker 3: now have assumed the position and after your father retired
Speaker 3: as the bishop of the House of the Lord Church,
Speaker 3: and that's a huge responsibility. So I guess it would
Speaker 3: be good to figure out later on. Why would you,
Speaker 3: knowing that you was in the line for succession of
Speaker 3: the church and to be a bishop, want to still
Speaker 3: be in politics dealing with the crazy stuff that goes on.
Speaker 1: So tell us all about it.
Speaker 4: So well, thank you. My parents are eighty three and
Speaker 4: ninety three. They are busy. We can barely keep up
Speaker 4: with them, but you know they trained us well. I
Speaker 4: have two sisters and a brother, and our first our
Speaker 4: family model is love God, love the people. Serve God
Speaker 4: serve the people, and so that has been part of
Speaker 4: our heart from the beginning. Our church is an activist
Speaker 4: church and has always been so, from the time that
Speaker 4: my grandfather founded that in nineteen twenty nine. I lead
Speaker 4: the church now, but I'm not the first woman. I'm
Speaker 4: the second woman. We had a presiding bishop in the fifties,
Speaker 4: who was Yeah, when people weren't ordaining women. My grandfather was,
Speaker 4: and that she was the second presiding Minister. So I
Speaker 4: always tell people I am from the radical revolutionary side
Speaker 4: of Brooklyn. That's where I was born and raised. We
Speaker 4: called ourselves nationalist pan Africanness, and that's my identity. I'm
Speaker 4: a Christian woman, i am nationalist, I'm pan African. I
Speaker 4: love my people, and even in the roles that I
Speaker 4: have been blessed to walk into, my priority is what
Speaker 4: is this going to do to my people? How to
Speaker 4: this affect my people? And you know, you walk into
Speaker 4: these spaces that everybody walks into the room bringing something
Speaker 4: with them, bringing all of who they are. And if
Speaker 4: I bring all of who I am. I am Christian,
Speaker 4: I'm Pentecostal, I am black, I am a woman, I
Speaker 4: am a radical revolutiontionary. That's how I was raised and
Speaker 4: that's who I bring. But that is also my power
Speaker 4: because I bring the people with me, and I interpret
Speaker 4: for the room what the people want and need, and
Speaker 4: I interpret to the people what the room is saying,
Speaker 4: and so we can figure out how we can move
Speaker 4: together to help the people self actualized, to realize their
Speaker 4: version of the American dream, whatever that looks like, and
Speaker 4: to get the things they need to live full and
Speaker 4: abundant lives. And that includes justice, that includes a freedom,
Speaker 4: that includes economic equity, that includes all the things you know,
Speaker 4: good schools and clean water and safe streets. All of
Speaker 4: those things are critically needed, particularly in our communities. And
Speaker 4: so my job is to help get that done in
Speaker 4: the rooms where I.
Speaker 3: Am in the rooms, what would you say set you
Speaker 3: up to get in these rooms? I mean, you're a
Speaker 3: girlfriend of mine, Timmy Raspberry, who we both know, works
Speaker 3: for Mayor Adams, and she just told me that recently.
Speaker 3: She was like walking through the halls of city Hall
Speaker 3: and there was your dad, like, hey, I need to
Speaker 3: see Eric.
Speaker 1: You know, no appointment, no, none of that. He's passed.
Speaker 1: He's beyond that.
Speaker 3: And she said Eric was not there, The mayor was
Speaker 3: not there, but when she called him, he got on
Speaker 3: over there to city Hall to figure out what your
Speaker 3: father needs to discuss. That's the type of that's you,
Speaker 3: that's your dad, that's his legacy. So what would you say,
Speaker 3: set you up on the road to politics?
Speaker 4: You know, our church was always a political entity. So
Speaker 4: if you were running for office, or you wanted to
Speaker 4: connect with folks, you came to the House of the
Speaker 4: Lord because that's just where or it was the center
Speaker 4: of activism in Brooklyn. And so seeing folks coming and going,
Speaker 4: and part of our theology is about how we help
Speaker 4: people to live full and abundant lines by using what
Speaker 4: we have. And so that's not simply praying. That's how
Speaker 4: do you leverage the systems that impact our community in
Speaker 4: order to change those systems for good. There are people
Speaker 4: who say change the system and the heart will change,
Speaker 4: and there people say change the heart and the systems
Speaker 4: will change. We believe we call it the imperative for
Speaker 4: a duel. For us, you have to do both seek
Speaker 4: to change the heart, but seek to change the system.
Speaker 4: And so we were always encouraged to be politically active
Speaker 4: to understand what was happening around us. My father made
Speaker 4: us read the New York Times when we were When
Speaker 4: we learned how to read, we didn't understand any of it.
Speaker 4: But that's okay. After a while we did, that's right,
Speaker 4: and so we knew who the elected officials are and
Speaker 4: the people in our churches. That's part of our membership
Speaker 4: process to be registered to vote and to know who
Speaker 4: your elected officials are and how they represent you. Because
Speaker 4: that concerns our tax status, that concerns the water that
Speaker 4: comes into the building, that concerns our our real estate holdings,
Speaker 4: that concerns the schools that our children, our members children
Speaker 4: go to. All of that. So we just that was
Speaker 4: one prong of how we move systems, how we get
Speaker 4: people what they need to live the lives they want
Speaker 4: to live. Was politics. So I chose to go into politics.
Speaker 4: My sisters are educators, and I chose that level.
Speaker 1: How many of you, how many of you are there?
Speaker 4: There are four of us, so I'm the oldest, and
Speaker 4: then my sister Sharon runs out not for profit and
Speaker 4: my sister Dawn is a retired educator. And my brother
Speaker 4: just retired. He's an educator. He's also an attorney, was
Speaker 4: a public defender, and he said, I'm getting the kids
Speaker 4: too late. By the time I see them in court,
Speaker 4: it's too late. Let me be a teacher and try
Speaker 4: to get these boys before they even enter into the
Speaker 4: criminal justice system. Intentionality, yes, yes, intentionality. So that's I
Speaker 4: chose electoral politics because that's where I thought that I
Speaker 4: could help make a difference. And it was quite by accident,
Speaker 4: I ended up interning for the Brooklyn Member of Congress,
Speaker 4: Ed Pounds, who then offered me a job, and so
Speaker 4: I moved to Washington, and I hated it and I
Speaker 4: wanted to be back in Brooklyn. So he and I
Speaker 4: had an arrangement where I would go back and forth
Speaker 4: quite often, and from there I went to the Democratic
Speaker 4: Party and the rest. As they say, it's history, but
Speaker 4: it's really about how you use politics as one way
Speaker 4: to impact the lives of people, how you press those levers.
Speaker 4: Because so much of what we're dealing with in our
Speaker 4: communities goes through some sort of electoral process. Somebody's making
Speaker 4: the decisions. And to the extent that elected officials are
Speaker 4: making the decisions, then we need to engage them and
Speaker 4: force them and press them to do what's right for
Speaker 4: our people.
Speaker 3: Forcing and pressing. We'll talk about that in a moment.
Speaker 3: But you said, and then off to the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: Can you please folks about all of the prestigious positions
Speaker 3: that you have held within the Democratic Party.
Speaker 4: Oh? Yes, I have been chief of staff at the
Speaker 4: Democratic Party, working under both Governor Terry mccauliffe and Governor
Speaker 4: Howard Dean. I have been CEO of the Democratic Convention.
Speaker 4: I'm the only person to have been CEO twice, and
Speaker 4: I produced the two thousand and eight Convention, which was
Speaker 4: Barack Obama's convention, and the twenty sixteen Convention, which was
Speaker 4: Hillary Clinton's convention. And presently I'm serving as chair of
Speaker 4: the Convention Rules Committee that has put in place the
Speaker 4: rules that will govern our nomination process.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's going to bring me to a question
Speaker 3: about Black Lives Matter, because they put out a statement
Speaker 3: saying that they wanted to see a process, and I
Speaker 3: think I heard you say on our call that we
Speaker 3: had when we're black women, which I'm super proud, and
Speaker 3: I know you are of Joe Taka Edie and what
Speaker 3: she's doing there. But I heard you say there is
Speaker 3: a process, and so I loved it because I know
Speaker 3: that our listeners respect the views of Black lives Matter
Speaker 3: most of them and are interested in what's the nuance there.
Speaker 3: So we'll go to that. But I just want to
Speaker 3: talk about world leaders. I really am asking you these
Speaker 3: questions because I want people to understand credentials. We have
Speaker 3: a problem, in my opinion, you didn't say, I'm saying
Speaker 3: with folks who just talk and they have no credentials, they.
Speaker 1: Have no information, but they are hurting.
Speaker 3: And therefore, when you feel pain, you speak out right
Speaker 3: like a baby. You feel pain, you feel hungry, you
Speaker 3: feel discomfort, you scream and I am and you have
Speaker 3: taught me to because if we surely didn't get this
Speaker 3: from a core mass is bury out our big sister.
Speaker 1: So I lean on you for this.
Speaker 3: A little bit, to be patient with people who don't
Speaker 3: have information, who just don't know, but they know something
Speaker 3: is wrong and they want to see a change. And
Speaker 3: so I'm just making sure when they watch this they can't.
Speaker 1: Say, but what does she do?
Speaker 3: You have been at the table with world leaders, you
Speaker 3: have traveled the world, you have advised presidents. That has
Speaker 3: been your background. So would you say through all of
Speaker 3: this that what we see on TV right is what
Speaker 3: you believe is very closely aligned with what goes on
Speaker 3: behind closed doors? Or do you think there's a big
Speaker 3: difference from how the media portrays elected officials. Some people
Speaker 3: are saying Joe Biden wasn't the best president. Others are
Speaker 3: saying he was great. And I don't need you to
Speaker 3: give an opinion on that either way, But what would
Speaker 3: you say people should know about the difference between sometimes
Speaker 3: what they're reading and what's really really going on.
Speaker 4: You know, I was talking with our friend Michael McBride
Speaker 4: about this the other day, Pastor Mike, and it always
Speaker 4: surprises me the trust that black people place in mainstream media.
Speaker 4: You know, we hate mainstream media except when it comes
Speaker 4: to black people, and then it's the Bible, right, and
Speaker 4: so what I try to check where you're getting your
Speaker 4: information from, because what is the motivation? Particularly were talking
Speaker 4: about mainstream media, who owns it? Who is who are
Speaker 4: the news directors? Who's reporting it? Because the person on
Speaker 4: television that's reading a script is reading a script something
Speaker 4: they wrote that for them. There's a particular point of
Speaker 4: view that they are pushing and pressing. Walter Kronqoitt is dead.
Speaker 4: When I was a little girl with everybody trusted Walter
Speaker 4: to Kronkott, those days are over. Journalists I have a
Speaker 4: point of view and they are writing to prove their
Speaker 4: point of view. Very hard to get an unbiased report.
Speaker 4: So I encourage people read two or three sources, check it,
Speaker 4: figure out who you are trusted. Cadre are including Tamika,
Speaker 4: who are of those people who can help you pass
Speaker 4: through what you're reading because it's all a game. And
Speaker 4: my best example of this is Hillary Clinton's campaign. In
Speaker 4: the aftermath, a couple of years after her campaign was over,
Speaker 4: we learned that many of the news directors weren't involved
Speaker 4: in me two lawsuits wow, were involved in sexual harassment lawsuits.
Speaker 4: Many of them were fired. So what does that tell you?
Speaker 4: When the news directors, the person who's shaping the stories
Speaker 4: are sexual predators, who are also reporting on the candidacy
Speaker 4: of a woman running for president, it's skewing their view
Speaker 4: and you can be assured that how they are reporting
Speaker 4: it is through the len of sexual harass because they
Speaker 4: harass the people. So what is their view of women?
Speaker 4: How are they valuing or devaluing women in their everyday life.
Speaker 4: They're bringing that to their work and they were reporting
Speaker 4: on Secretary Clinton. That's one example of you gotta be
Speaker 4: careful about who you're listening to and what's the gospel
Speaker 4: truth and the sources, because everything is not always what
Speaker 4: it appears. They spend things. The current example is the
Speaker 4: issue around Kamala Harrison and when Joe Biden was saying
Speaker 4: I'm running, I'm running, I'm running. You listen to these
Speaker 4: pundits shape the narrative about who should be the nominee.
Speaker 4: If Biden was standing down and he was steady saying
Speaker 4: I'm standing down, but they were listing these names, Josh
Speaker 4: whatever is, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Witt and Mapete Boudage, all
Speaker 4: of these names. They're listening and they're leaving out the
Speaker 4: sitting vice president. It's a point of view. He was
Speaker 4: at the oppressor. It's something they're putting in the atmosphere
Speaker 4: and put it so that when people start chatting, oh, there,
Speaker 4: the vice president's not qualified, well, yeah, they set that table. Absolutely,
Speaker 4: we gotta be mindful and listen very carefully with a
Speaker 4: people's eye on what are they saying and what does
Speaker 4: this mean for us now? At the time, you know,
Speaker 4: I was agnostic on whether she should or should not
Speaker 4: be the nominee. But what I wasn't an agnostic on
Speaker 4: is she needs to be considered and if you're listening names,
Speaker 4: her name should be listed. Absolutely, not list to her.
Speaker 4: Not list the sitting vice president. Is offensive, absolutely consultant,
Speaker 4: and it's a rature it is.
Speaker 3: It was insulting to me, of course as a black woman,
Speaker 3: but as a woman in general, and I felt that
Speaker 3: all women should have been offended. In fact, I was
Speaker 3: having a conversation with Cora Berry, who you know as
Speaker 3: my mentor. I speak to her at least ten times
Speaker 3: a day, and she was saying, you know.
Speaker 1: I get the black because I'm all black.
Speaker 3: But I think you guys are on the wrong tune
Speaker 3: here because women in general, this is an intersectional issue.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what kind of.
Speaker 3: Women you are, but we should all care that as
Speaker 3: a woman we are not overlooked, and then certainly as
Speaker 3: black women. So let's talk about CIVIX one on one,
Speaker 3: because that is what this particular episode is designed to do.
Speaker 1: I am very very stressed.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna I'm gonna use the word the truth
Speaker 3: right and trying to have that patience. When I see
Speaker 3: people say, why has President Obama? I mean President Biden
Speaker 3: passed past the anti Asian hate crime bill, but not
Speaker 3: in the other hate crime bill, which would be more
Speaker 3: specific to black folks African Americans. I'm like, I want
Speaker 3: to say, President Biden does not pass Bill's dummy, That's
Speaker 3: what I want to say. But then my right mind
Speaker 3: tells me that in the spirit of love, understanding, compassion
Speaker 3: and all of those things that I have to leave
Speaker 3: the dummy off.
Speaker 1: And so I notice it over and over.
Speaker 3: That has been a huge talking point against President Biden
Speaker 3: for a while now, not just here in these last
Speaker 3: few weeks, but in general. And I know and I
Speaker 3: understand that the problem is when I was in school,
Speaker 3: even though I went to Catholic school, and this has
Speaker 3: been a long time now, it is twenty eight years
Speaker 3: or twenty whatever the time is, they had a little
Speaker 3: bit of something that you can learn about the government
Speaker 3: and whatever.
Speaker 1: But now because of the efforts of people who do
Speaker 1: not want us to know, because I believe they realize
Speaker 1: that the more information we have, we will be armed with.
Speaker 3: The ability to fight for ourselves and to determine or
Speaker 3: to have self determination here in this country, and so
Speaker 3: they would like us not to have all the information
Speaker 3: that we once had. And that's what I think is
Speaker 3: the issue. You may have a different of opinion, but
Speaker 3: there has to be in all of this discourse civics
Speaker 3: one on one back to the very very basic basics.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna be quiet and I'm gonna let you
Speaker 3: just go on what people need to understand about how
Speaker 3: government and process and passing bills actually works.
Speaker 4: Okay, well, thank you, and then I agree with you.
Speaker 4: I have a bit more grace because, as you said,
Speaker 4: Civics is no longer taught in school, and so people
Speaker 4: are left on their own to figure out how government
Speaker 4: works because they just aren't like we used to have
Speaker 4: when I was in school. So here's what you need
Speaker 4: to know. First of all, I encourage you, in your
Speaker 4: spare time to go get a copy of the Constitution
Speaker 4: of the United States. You can download it free of
Speaker 4: charge on any just about any website. Just google it.
Speaker 4: You get the Constitution and it's not long, it's about
Speaker 4: seven or eight pages, but it really helps you get
Speaker 4: a sense of how the government is formed and is structured.
Speaker 4: So what we have in the federal government are three
Speaker 4: branches of government. The executive which is the president, the cabinet,
Speaker 4: the vice president. That's one branch. The second branch is
Speaker 4: the legislative branch, which is the Congress, and the third
Speaker 4: branch is the judicial branch. Each of them, in the
Speaker 4: Constitution are intended to operate separately but together. It's called
Speaker 4: the doctrine of checks and balances. So the president works,
Speaker 4: but the president cannot pass legislation. That's the job of
Speaker 4: the Congress. The president can nominate people to offices, he
Speaker 4: can't just appoint his cabinet. He can't just appoint Supreme
Speaker 4: Court justices. That someone has to approve that. That's called
Speaker 4: the check and balance, so that the president is not
Speaker 4: all powerful. The same thing happens in the legislative brand.
Speaker 4: There's the House of Representatives and there's the Senate. The
Speaker 4: House of Representatives is four hundred and thirty five people,
Speaker 4: that's your congress person, and that those seats are apportioned
Speaker 4: based on the census. This is how it's all interchanges.
Speaker 4: So when you fill out your census form, it tells
Speaker 4: the government how many people live in your city in
Speaker 4: your state, and then the number of Congress people is
Speaker 4: set four hundred and thirty five, but is divided up
Speaker 4: based on how many people are living where. Right now,
Speaker 4: it's the three biggest states of California, Texas, New York.
Speaker 4: When I was a little girl in New York was first,
Speaker 4: then californ your in Texas, and sometimes Florida would edge
Speaker 4: up in there. It shifts because people left New York
Speaker 4: and went down south. New York got less people. New
Speaker 4: York has fewer congressmen, but that's based on you're filling
Speaker 4: out the census. So when we don't fill out census,
Speaker 4: we reduce our representation in Congress. We reduced the amount
Speaker 4: of money that's coming into our state because it's all
Speaker 4: a portioned by the numbers of the census. So you
Speaker 4: have the four hundred and thirty five members of Congress
Speaker 4: apportioned by population. Then you have the one hundred senators,
Speaker 4: two per state. So if you think about a state
Speaker 4: like Alaska, Alaska has one congressman for all of Alaska
Speaker 4: because of the population, but Alaska still has two senators.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: It was intended by the founders to be a check
Speaker 4: and balance because the House, you know, they run every
Speaker 4: two years, and they thought that that running every two
Speaker 4: years would make them beholden to donors, would make them,
Speaker 4: you know, a little flighty because you know they coming
Speaker 4: and going. So you have the Senate, they run every
Speaker 4: six years. They're intended to be a slower, more deliberative body,
Speaker 4: putting checks on the crazy people in the House who
Speaker 4: want to do all kind of stuff. So the Senate
Speaker 4: balances that out. They passed legislation they a member of
Speaker 4: conferences can to say, I think we ought to have
Speaker 4: a law that every school are to have a blue cafeteria.
Speaker 4: So he introduces a bill that says, I want to
Speaker 4: have a law that we're gonna have every school cafeteria
Speaker 4: painted blue. He then has to get his colleagues to
Speaker 4: vote for his bill. If they vote for his bill,
Speaker 4: then that bill that was passed in the House of
Speaker 4: Representatives now goes to the Senate. The Senate has to agree.
Speaker 4: So the Senators take it up, and they have a
Speaker 4: Senate bill that will map. Now the Senators may say, well,
Speaker 4: I think I'm good with the cafeterias being painted, but
Speaker 4: I don't want it to be blue. I wanted to
Speaker 4: be red. Now you got two competing bills, red cafeterias
Speaker 4: and blue cafeterias. Then they go to conference committee, House
Speaker 4: and the Senate designate people that sit at a table
Speaker 4: and debate and discuss and negotiate what color is the
Speaker 4: cafeteria gonna be. Sometimes they can't agree, and then the
Speaker 4: bill dies. Sometimes they can agree and they'll say, Okay,
Speaker 4: it's not red, it's not blue, it's purple. Both sides agree.
Speaker 4: Now it goes back to the House, back to the Senate,
Speaker 4: to agree on purple. If they agree, it becomes a law.
Speaker 4: It becomes a past legislation that then goes to the
Speaker 4: president to sign. No legislation can be a law unless
Speaker 4: the president signs it. If the President says, I don't
Speaker 4: like purple, I don't know why, y'all peyt in the cafeterias,
Speaker 4: this is dumb, I veto sending it back to you.
Speaker 4: I'm done with this. I don't agree. They then have
Speaker 4: to override the president's veto by a two thirds vote.
Speaker 4: Sometimes they have enough votes to override, sometimes they don't.
Speaker 4: If they have enough to override, they can override the
Speaker 4: president and then it's law. If they can't override it,
Speaker 4: then it's dead. So that's the legislative branch. Only members
Speaker 4: of Congress can introduce legislation. The president cannot introduce legislation,
Speaker 4: and the president has no vote in the House of
Speaker 4: the Senate. If the president has legislation he wants to
Speaker 4: have them considered, he has to find a member of
Speaker 4: Congress to introduce it. The president has no legislative authority.
Speaker 4: And here's some people don't know. President can't even go
Speaker 4: to the House. In the Senate. He has to be invited. Wow.
Speaker 1: So he can't just walk up there.
Speaker 4: Can't just walk up there, can't just walk up there.
Speaker 4: For the State of the Union, the date fluctuates sometime
Speaker 4: like it did this year because the House would not
Speaker 4: extend the invitation. Wow. So the President has to wait
Speaker 4: for the House to extend the invitation for him to
Speaker 4: make the State of the Union, which is in the
Speaker 4: Constitution that the President will issue a State of the Union.
Speaker 4: So that's how they keep the balance of House and
Speaker 4: Senate and Congress and the legislative branch and the executive branch.
Speaker 4: The third branch is the judicial branch, which is.
Speaker 1: A Supreme Court right right right.
Speaker 4: The President nominates the Senate, not the House. The Senate
Speaker 4: has to confirm the last justice Wastaji Brown Jackson, and
Speaker 4: we all went with that debacle and how they treated
Speaker 4: her in the Senate side. But the President nominates, the
Speaker 4: Senate confirms, and then they get an appointment, which right
Speaker 4: now is a lifetime appointment. Joe Biden this morning said
Speaker 4: he's going to try to change that so that they
Speaker 4: have term limits so that they don't have lifetime appointments.
Speaker 4: Lifetime appointment was so it was thought that if they
Speaker 4: have a lifetime appointment. They wouldn't be influenced by money,
Speaker 4: It wouldn't be influenced by donors. But we all know
Speaker 4: Clarence Thomas, that's not happening, and they are being influenced
Speaker 4: and they are part of the political process now. So
Speaker 4: Joe Biden said this morning, and his pressurely is that
Speaker 4: the system is broken. It's not as be attended. So
Speaker 4: we need something different. And the president can nominate as
Speaker 4: many Supreme Court justices as he wants. That's another thing.
Speaker 4: We have nine now, the Constitution does not say a number.
Speaker 3: So he could put he could look more people, could
Speaker 3: he could nominate more justices.
Speaker 1: But for some reason he has not. I think what
Speaker 1: was the reason why.
Speaker 4: I think he's looking at the political calculus, because remember
Speaker 4: he can nominate. But the city happened go before congressional members, right,
Speaker 4: which is a mix of the Senate the Senate. Okay,
Speaker 4: just the Senate confirmed, and so it could have been
Speaker 4: a political calculation. I don't know, but my guess is
Speaker 4: it was a political calculation. Now do you want to
Speaker 4: have this fight? Do you have enough votes to confirm
Speaker 4: more people? And the Democrats are on a razor's edge,
Speaker 4: with one with a one vote margin, but you got
Speaker 4: Christian senator and Joe Manchin right still still and who
Speaker 4: knows what they're gonna do, And my guests would be
Speaker 4: the day Democrats.
Speaker 1: Well, now she's independent.
Speaker 4: He's independent, he's independent, which narrowed our margin to one.
Speaker 4: Razors and slipper, which is why the vice president often
Speaker 4: had to go to the Senate to break the tie.
Speaker 4: And so people say we didn't see her a lot
Speaker 4: of times. If the House is in session, senators in session,
Speaker 4: she has to stay in Washington because she's the tiebreaker,
Speaker 4: so she couldn't be out, and because there's a vote,
Speaker 4: you need her to go, and she hot tailored up
Speaker 4: there and cast the tie breaking vote.
Speaker 1: But you talked about free inch as the government.
Speaker 3: Reading the constitution, you said you went back to it
Speaker 3: just to make sure you knew what you were talking about.
Speaker 3: What is the vice president's role?
Speaker 4: The vice president has two jobs mentioned in the Constitution.
Speaker 4: One is to be the president of the Senate and
Speaker 4: the second is to be ready. That's all so that
Speaker 4: if anything happens to the president, and it's couched in
Speaker 4: the context of if anything happens to the president, then
Speaker 4: the vice president steps up. There's no other job description
Speaker 4: for the vice president.
Speaker 3: It's all that the president's pleasure whatever else she does,
Speaker 3: so he would have to sign her with responsibilities, or
Speaker 3: he could say just hang out around in case I crow.
Speaker 1: And then just be ready.
Speaker 4: And a lot depends on what the relationship is between
Speaker 4: the president and the vice president. Some are better than others,
Speaker 4: and you're exactly right. Some presidents just say just go
Speaker 4: sit over there, don't say nothing, don't go nowhere. I
Speaker 4: don't want to see you, I don't want to hear you. Goodbye.
Speaker 4: Then there are other presidents who make the vice president
Speaker 4: more of a governing partner, and the relationship is much
Speaker 4: better in recent times, recent years, that relationship has been better.
Speaker 4: It's never perfect, but it's been better than it was
Speaker 4: many years ago.
Speaker 3: And we're trying not to because I don't want people
Speaker 3: to tune us out and say, oh, this was just
Speaker 3: about Kamala Harris. But you know, when people say she's
Speaker 3: not qualified, I just I have a prob I don't care.
Speaker 3: You don't have to like her, right like, I'm okay
Speaker 3: with people who say they don't like her. You have
Speaker 3: folks from California who have real stories of things that
Speaker 3: happened within the criminal justice system that they feel she
Speaker 3: was either directly involved in or her office. And I
Speaker 3: would tell you, Leah that if I was advising them her,
Speaker 3: if I was advising her campaign, I would not go
Speaker 3: to such an extent not saying that she has to
Speaker 3: try to separate myself from any form of fault, right
Speaker 3: because if you are a prosecutor, the nature of being
Speaker 3: a prosecutor that is working with a white supremacist system,
Speaker 3: there's going to be absolutely fault and things that happen.
Speaker 3: So I would just say, you know what, I'm sure
Speaker 3: that everybody is not wrong. You know what I mean,
Speaker 3: and so that people feel heard and seen. But to
Speaker 3: say she's not qualified to me is the most disrespectful
Speaker 3: thing to all of us because they tell us.
Speaker 1: All we're not qualified. Would you say to two people
Speaker 1: who say she's not qualified.
Speaker 4: Well, I approach it from the let's have a level
Speaker 4: playing field here. So was Dan Quayle qualified, Was Dick
Speaker 4: Cheney qualifying? Was our Gore qualified? Was Joe Biden qualified
Speaker 4: when they were vice president? Maybe they were, maybe they weren't.
Speaker 4: But we didn't even ask the question. Wow, people say,
Speaker 4: what does she do all day. Did you ask when
Speaker 4: dan Quayle was president? Did you ask when a'l go over? No,
Speaker 4: we didn't ask, and we didn't care what the vice
Speaker 4: president did all day? But now we care right now,
Speaker 4: we want to know. We've had three years of I
Speaker 4: don't see her, what she do? Did you ask that before?
Speaker 4: And so I'm interested in the level play. Why do
Speaker 4: we care now but we didn't care then? Why does
Speaker 4: the media care now? But they didn't care then? When
Speaker 4: Dick Cheney was shooting people in the face, nobody asked
Speaker 4: a question about what he Why was he duck hunting
Speaker 4: in the middle of the week. Wasn't you to be
Speaker 4: in your job? Yes? And so I want us to
Speaker 4: come to the question of her qualifications in the way
Speaker 4: that we came to the question for the other what
Speaker 4: forty six, forty seven, forty eight white men who had
Speaker 4: the job.
Speaker 1: Mediocre white men?
Speaker 4: I like to say, So, let's just level set right
Speaker 4: there now. If you want to get into her qualifications,
Speaker 4: then we could talk about for being a DA and
Speaker 4: being a statewide elected twice, being elected to the Senate,
Speaker 4: the legislation she's introduced when she was in the Senate,
Speaker 4: the work that she's done. We can have that conversation,
Speaker 4: but I want people to be honest about why we
Speaker 4: are holding her to a different standard. Having seen this
Speaker 4: over many years, I can tell you that I watch
Speaker 4: vice presidents and they go on their little trips and
Speaker 4: they do whatever they're doing. They might have three four
Speaker 4: people press people following them, called the pool. We call
Speaker 4: them the pool. This woman from the day, from day one,
Speaker 4: has had a plane full forty I was just with
Speaker 4: her at the she came to the teacher's conference where
Speaker 4: I was speaking. It was a plainfull forty fifty press people.
Speaker 4: The scrutiny is unprecedented, hardly because of the unprecedented historic
Speaker 4: nature of her vice presidency, but to have that level
Speaker 4: of scrutiny, forty fifty people following you everywhere all the time,
Speaker 4: it's unprecedented. When when when Mike Pitts had three So
Speaker 4: so of course it's generating stories of because they got
Speaker 4: to make you know, they work, and they got to
Speaker 4: come up with their stories now to justify them being
Speaker 4: on the road. So I think we have to appreciate
Speaker 4: the unprecedented nature of her vice presidency. What it's meant
Speaker 4: in terms of scrutiny what it's meant in terms of
Speaker 4: the demand. The demand on her calendar is unlike anything
Speaker 4: any other vice president has ever had to deal with.
Speaker 4: And so I would like us to come to it
Speaker 4: with an honest, with an honest level setting, right, and
Speaker 4: then we can have a conversation about qualifications, because I'm
Speaker 4: you know, I can't recite a resume, but I know
Speaker 4: more about her qualifications than I knew about Mike Pence.
Speaker 3: Right, absolutely, absolutely so, How did going back to the
Speaker 3: branches and the process, how did they get How did
Speaker 3: the Republicans under Donald Trump get so many federal judges
Speaker 3: and then the Supreme Court seats?
Speaker 1: How did that happen?
Speaker 4: Because they had the Senate Chuck Schumer was not in charge.
Speaker 4: They held the Senate. The Senate confirms judges, and so
Speaker 4: all they had to do is agree Donald Trump would
Speaker 4: not nominate whoever the Heritage Foundation or whoever they wanted,
Speaker 4: and he had control of the Senate to get them confirmed.
Speaker 4: And so they just jammed them through. And we're going
Speaker 4: to be feeling the consequences of those of that time
Speaker 4: for decades to come. Our brothers, our sisters who are
Speaker 4: now being incrocerated at hire and higher rates. It is
Speaker 4: that as a result of the judges that Donald Trump's
Speaker 4: Senate and the Republicans and Senate were able to confirm
Speaker 4: very tall. And you see the reverse happening with Biden,
Speaker 4: who is nominated a record number of African American and
Speaker 4: Latino men and women to the Court because he has
Speaker 4: a Democratic Senate, he has someone Senate is controlled by Democrats.
Speaker 4: You only need a majority vote, and so he's able
Speaker 4: to get that through and you see that happening now.
Speaker 4: And so it's but Joe Biden's nominated more folks to
Speaker 4: the Court than Obama did, and plenty did. He's head
Speaker 4: and shoulders above the others. And that's part of why
Speaker 4: people have a favorable view of his of his term
Speaker 4: because of some of the things he's been able to
Speaker 4: move quite quickly. So you know, the courts are, we
Speaker 4: don't know, pritically important. We've seen what the Supreme Court
Speaker 4: has done in terms of rov Wade, in terms of
Speaker 4: presidential immunity, uh, in terms of regulatory offairs, all of
Speaker 4: these things. The Supreme Court has just decided that the
Speaker 4: president has immunity and can commit crimes in office. How
Speaker 4: they got there, I don't know. I don't. I don't
Speaker 4: know what basis that. But now we have a president
Speaker 4: who can kill stay in the over office and he's
Speaker 4: a mute or she's a mute.
Speaker 3: That's wow, absolutely crazy, and I to go. So I
Speaker 3: want to move us through that. You're giving me some
Speaker 3: good stuff. I'm telling you.
Speaker 4: No point when people say Joe Biden didn't pass legislation.
Speaker 4: Joe Biden can pass legislation. The House and the Senate
Speaker 4: have to pass legislature.
Speaker 1: He can influence. He can influence.
Speaker 3: Legislation by his position on particular issues, and more than
Speaker 3: likely a member of his own party would pick up
Speaker 3: his words, his ideas and try to draft something that
Speaker 3: would align right. That's that's generally what happens.
Speaker 4: That's generally what happens. And in this period of time
Speaker 4: right now, where you have a Democratic Senate Chuck Schumer
Speaker 4: and you have a Republican House Mike Johnson, very little
Speaker 4: that the president wants gets done because it can't get
Speaker 4: through the House.
Speaker 1: He can't get through the House. They will not get
Speaker 1: anyway any branch that they can.
Speaker 4: That's right, and that's why it's important for us to
Speaker 4: vote up and down the battle. We can't do the
Speaker 4: president and not do the others. We can't do the
Speaker 4: others and not do President. I hear a lot of
Speaker 4: folk in the street saying, I'm not voting the top
Speaker 4: of ticket. I'm gonna vote for whoever they're voting for,
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna just vote for the House and Center.
Speaker 4: Here's what you need to know if you've seen Project
Speaker 4: twenty five. All of what they are proposing can be
Speaker 4: done by executive order. The President can just sign it
Speaker 4: so and does not need the House or the Senate
Speaker 4: to do any of it. So when you vote down
Speaker 4: ballot because whatever, and you skip the top of the ticket,
Speaker 4: you are in essence endorsing what he's saying because he
Speaker 4: can just do it. There's no checking balance. Then the
Speaker 4: president could just do it by executive order.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: So I asked you about the Black Lives Matter. They
Speaker 3: released the statement saying they wanted to see a process.
Speaker 3: They believe that what is currently taking place is They
Speaker 3: didn't use this language, but I would say somewhat of
Speaker 3: a coup of just like a takeover, and there is
Speaker 3: no process for the people to see transparency around how
Speaker 3: the nomination would take place.
Speaker 1: What would you say to that, as.
Speaker 3: The person who is literally responsible chair of the Rules Committee.
Speaker 4: My first presidential campaign was Jesse Jackson in eighty four,
Speaker 4: and one of the things he taught us and instilled
Speaker 4: in us is you gotta know the rules. You gotta
Speaker 4: know the rules in order to break the rules creatively.
Speaker 4: You gotta know the rules in order to change the
Speaker 4: rules effectively. And so I've always made it my business
Speaker 4: to know the rules, so I know when I'm when
Speaker 4: I'm whether I'm marching, whether I'm negotiating. Knowing the rules
Speaker 4: helps me to come to the table with a demand
Speaker 4: that is doable and achievable. So for the Democratic Party,
Speaker 4: I serve on the Rules and by Laws Committee. We
Speaker 4: start the process of the rules for a presidential cycle
Speaker 4: right after a presidential cycle, So we will start the
Speaker 4: twenty twenty eight eight rules in January of next year.
Speaker 4: We are finished with the rules by twenty this time,
Speaker 4: we were finished by twenty twenty two, so we'll be
Speaker 4: finished by twenty twenty six. Then we're just tinkering around
Speaker 4: the edges and those. Part of those rules. To make
Speaker 4: us important for people to know is how delegates are selected,
Speaker 4: what require and something that people don't know is every
Speaker 4: state has a voting plan, a nomination plan, a delegate
Speaker 4: selection plan. We require soon the black women who are
Speaker 4: on that committee. We require that every state's delegate selection
Speaker 4: plan reflects the Democratic electorate in that state. You are
Speaker 4: in Arizona, you better come with your plan. Better include
Speaker 4: how you're going to get Native Americans and how you're
Speaker 4: going to get Latinos, because that's the Democratic electorate. If
Speaker 4: you come with a plan, and some states try it,
Speaker 4: come with a plan like California or some of these
Speaker 4: are say we can't find black people, excuse me, plan
Speaker 4: to go back and start over, because we require that
Speaker 4: who's on the floor, who's voting for nominees, reflect the
Speaker 4: people that vote for the party. So start there. So
Speaker 4: when this all happened with Joe Biden, Joe Biden through
Speaker 4: the electoral process January, when the primary start had a
Speaker 4: mass delegates. Thirty nine hundred delegates is what he amassed.
Speaker 4: There are I'm looking at my notes. I keep it
Speaker 4: right in front of me. There are forty six ninety
Speaker 4: nine delegates total. He had a mass, and some of
Speaker 4: them a pledge, which means you vote for them. When
Speaker 4: I went to vote in New York, they were my
Speaker 4: delegates for my congressional district or on the ballot and click,
Speaker 4: click click. You know, I punched each one, and that's
Speaker 4: I was voting for Doe Biden all the way down.
Speaker 3: That's as a delegate, you get to vote no the people.
Speaker 3: When I voted in the primaries, Wow, oh okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I was about to say I thought you were saying, like,
Speaker 3: right now, we got somebody, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I voted for my six people from my
Speaker 4: congressional district. They then become delegates. They ran on the
Speaker 4: Joe Biden line. They're pledged to Joe Biden under our rules.
Speaker 4: They're pledged to Joe Biden, and they have to come
Speaker 4: to convention and vote for Joe Biden in all good conscience.
Speaker 4: We have that phrase in there. The Republicans don't have that.
Speaker 4: They're stuck with whoever. They don't have a conscience clause.
Speaker 4: We have a conscience clause. So as we get past
Speaker 4: the primaries, we get to a pre convention, Joe Biden
Speaker 4: walks in the door with thirty nine hundred of the
Speaker 4: forty six ninety nine that he needs, and you really
Speaker 4: only need because the super delegates. They talk about it
Speaker 4: in a minute, we don't vote. I'm a super delegate,
Speaker 4: we don't vote on the first ballot, so that we
Speaker 4: don't influence the process at all. So Joe Biden walks
Speaker 4: in with that number thirty nine hundred. Now he decides
Speaker 4: he's stepping out. What happens to his thirty nine hundred
Speaker 4: free agents?
Speaker 1: Free agents?
Speaker 4: They are free agents. They can do whatever they want.
Speaker 4: They are not bound to anybody. He endorsed Kamala Harris.
Speaker 4: That doesn't mean his delegates belong to her. She has
Speaker 4: to earn them. Anybody who decides to run has to
Speaker 4: earn them, because what this earning look like, Paul, talk
Speaker 4: to him, get your tell them what you're gonna do.
Speaker 4: You get their support. You have to campaign among the
Speaker 4: delegates who are who are who are gonna be casting votes.
Speaker 4: So the sixth that I voted for, I voted for them.
Speaker 4: So now they represent my interests. So and that's across
Speaker 4: the country. That's the system. From July twenty fifth to
Speaker 4: July twenty seventh. Anybody can file a statement of candidacy
Speaker 4: with the Democratic Party.
Speaker 1: Anybody.
Speaker 4: They have to pass the constitutional requirements of being aged,
Speaker 4: being a natural born citizen, and then they have to
Speaker 4: pass the Democratic requirements, which is they have to sign
Speaker 4: an attestation that says I am a Democrat and I
Speaker 4: will run, serve and serve as a Democrat. They do those,
Speaker 4: that's their statement of candidacy. They turn it and they
Speaker 4: had until the twenty seventh to do that.
Speaker 3: And so Cornell West would never do that because he
Speaker 3: is not a registered Democrat.
Speaker 4: He's a correct right, correct. And you even had Joe
Speaker 4: Manchin talking about I think I'll run as a but
Speaker 4: when we said, you know, you got to be a Democrat,
Speaker 4: then he was like, Okay, never mind.
Speaker 1: And surely people thought about it.
Speaker 3: But a part of campaigning, a part of all of
Speaker 3: the stuff that goes on in the background, they're getting
Speaker 3: phone calls from folks who are saying, hey, don't think
Speaker 3: this is a good idea. You know, I think we've
Speaker 3: got a better shot going in this direction. I think
Speaker 3: it would be good for you to step over a
Speaker 3: black woman. I don't think you can get the delegates.
Speaker 3: These people are looking at the count, the numbers, the
Speaker 3: whole thing. This is all happening, not on Instagram, not
Speaker 3: on Facebook, not on even TV, right behind the scenes,
Speaker 3: and I want I think this is true there's some
Speaker 3: folks that is like, hey, you definitely we want you
Speaker 3: to be a part of our administration. We want to
Speaker 3: continue to talk about that think you have XYZ. You're
Speaker 3: great on this issue, that issue. If you don't run
Speaker 3: to confuse the process. At this point, we could definitely
Speaker 3: continue to work on how you can fit.
Speaker 1: These are things that are being said because as a campaign.
Speaker 3: You got to go figure out how to get everybody
Speaker 3: to fall in line.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's exactly right. And so the period we're
Speaker 4: in now until the thirtieth, whoever is running and has
Speaker 4: filed their statement of candidacy now has to get three
Speaker 4: hundred pledges, three hundred delegates to say I will support you.
Speaker 4: Minimum of three hundred, no more than fifty from any
Speaker 4: one state. And a delegate can only sign one petition
Speaker 4: because we if you can't get three hundred people to
Speaker 4: sign onto your candidacy the country from across the country,
Speaker 4: or across the pledged delegates, acrous the delegates, or actually
Speaker 4: all the delegates, you got to get three hundred, and
Speaker 4: that's less than ten percent. The total is forty six
Speaker 4: ninety nine, so it's less than ten percent of delegates.
Speaker 4: You have to get to file their petitions. If you
Speaker 4: can't get that, you ain't got no business money for president.
Speaker 4: But anybody can do that, and we will know on
Speaker 4: the thirtieth who's met that threshold. Thirtieth at six o'clock,
Speaker 4: who's met.
Speaker 1: They are ready. The window has closed to submit your name.
Speaker 3: Yes, but now the taally is in process, that's right,
Speaker 3: which means that kaand La Harris is the presumed.
Speaker 1: But not confirmed yet correct.
Speaker 4: So the media has been doing their own tally and
Speaker 4: has by their tally decided that she's the presumptive nominee.
Speaker 4: For my purposes, none of that matters to me, because
Speaker 4: what matters to me is the actual pledges and the
Speaker 4: actual vote. Because until a delegate signs their name committing
Speaker 4: themselves to a candidate, it's not real. Purposes of tally,
Speaker 4: it's not real. So that's where we're in now, and
Speaker 4: our voting will start August first. We'll be voting virtually,
Speaker 4: and we will in voting around August fifth or sixth,
Speaker 4: and then we will know who the nominee of the
Speaker 4: party is.
Speaker 1: So the process was open, but we have to know
Speaker 1: the rules because there's some people that will say, well,
Speaker 1: how the.
Speaker 3: Hell are we supposed to know that it should have
Speaker 3: been blasted everywhere. But there are some things, in my judgment,
Speaker 3: that we're going to have to go and research to
Speaker 3: figure out how to actually enter a process. But you're
Speaker 3: saying a process is in place that would address at
Speaker 3: least some of the issues that were raised in Black
Speaker 3: Lives Matters.
Speaker 1: Press release.
Speaker 4: And the last thing I'll say on that is, you
Speaker 4: gotta be practical in what you're at. And I have
Speaker 4: all due respect for Black Lives Matter, but there was
Speaker 4: really no way in a three week period to run
Speaker 4: a national primary across the country to allow voters to vote.
Speaker 4: The logistics of that and who pays for that, and
Speaker 4: fifty seven state parties, and because recount the territory, recount
Speaker 4: the district, the logistics of all of that to happen
Speaker 4: while we're dealing with ballid access issues in Ohio, which
Speaker 4: requires us to certify by August seventh, with Washington State,
Speaker 4: which requires us to certify by August twentieth, with early
Speaker 4: voting starting September twentieth in Minnesota and in Democrats of Ward.
Speaker 4: There are six million Democrats abroad. Their ballots go out
Speaker 4: September twentieth, all of.
Speaker 1: This has to happen.
Speaker 4: And when I say certified, I mean on a piece
Speaker 4: of paper the candidates signed in blue ink. It has
Speaker 4: to be notified and delivered to the Secretary of State's
Speaker 4: office in these various states. And that week of convention
Speaker 4: we got six states with deadlines, including California, and it's
Speaker 4: fifty four electoral votes. So all of this has to
Speaker 4: happen in the background, and it was logistically it would
Speaker 4: have been logistically impossible to not have a second primary
Speaker 4: season get all of that done, when in fact the
Speaker 4: party has rules in place to govern a situation like this. Honestly,
Speaker 4: I'll tell you we've not had the four We've had
Speaker 4: a nominee drop out post primary, big catas right, So
Speaker 4: you have to rely on the people who we elected
Speaker 4: as Delais to represent us. And so what I would
Speaker 4: have advisors who are the delegates from the dougates.
Speaker 3: And do a full court preson make sure that you
Speaker 3: have your own campaign behind the scenes, because the delegates
Speaker 3: actually are working for the people, so they should be
Speaker 3: engaged as well. It sounds like a lot of engagement
Speaker 3: needs to happen here. Thank you, Lead, Thank you for
Speaker 3: your service, Thank you for your service, and thank you
Speaker 3: for your sisterhood because it is real and I know you,
Speaker 3: I know what you're doing, what you're saying. I'm not
Speaker 3: saying you're fighting every battle. But whenever we come to
Speaker 3: you with a perspective, I hear it from you later
Speaker 3: in some way, shape or form. So that's all that
Speaker 3: we can ask for. And just I love you so much, I.
Speaker 4: Love you too to say I love you too. The
Speaker 4: last thing I'd say to people is listen, don't discount
Speaker 4: the importance of your engagement. We see people fighting us
Speaker 4: hard to get us not to be involved, to get
Speaker 4: us not to talk about issues around justice, around education,
Speaker 4: around safety, around freedom, to get us not to be
Speaker 4: involved in an electoral process, and you have to ask yourself,
Speaker 4: why are they fighting, Why they try so hard for
Speaker 4: us to be quiet, for us to be unengaged. It's
Speaker 4: because they recognize our power more than we recognize our power.
Speaker 4: And so I just want to encourage you family to
Speaker 4: don't let them diminish you, or demean you, or dismiss
Speaker 4: you and the power and the authority that you have
Speaker 4: given to us by Creator God, but also given to
Speaker 4: us under this Constitution of the United States as amended.
Speaker 4: Be involved. It's your life, it's your children's life, it's
Speaker 4: your community's life, it's your parent's life. And you can
Speaker 4: either be involved and help change things and make things better,
Speaker 4: or you can sit on the sideline and say I
Speaker 4: ain't got nothing to do with this saying about me,
Speaker 4: and I can't change things. You can change things. Every vote,
Speaker 4: every person matters. You are the most important person in
Speaker 4: your life, on your block, and you can make the difference.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Bishop Lea Daughtry. Thankye, sissy, So that was
Speaker 4: bishoply A Daughtry.
Speaker 3: Hopefully you have more information about the process as the
Speaker 3: Democratic Party sees it. This is not to say that
Speaker 3: their process is the only process. I am a registered
Speaker 3: Democrat and I do work through the system. I also
Speaker 3: challenge the Democratic Party. There have been many times when
Speaker 3: I've had to have conversations with Bishop Daughtry and others.
Speaker 3: In this particular moment. The CEO of the convention is
Speaker 3: a black woman by the name of Minyon Moore, who
Speaker 3: is also a big.
Speaker 1: Sister to me. But same with Mignon.
Speaker 3: There have been many days and nights when I've called
Speaker 3: and I've said I don't like this, this doesn't make
Speaker 3: me feel comfortable, and they have educated me more on
Speaker 3: the system and how it actually works and how we
Speaker 3: can find ways to maneuver and also push.
Speaker 1: For things to happen.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's deadlocked and there's no way, and that helps
Speaker 3: me to see and understand how much it is how
Speaker 3: important it is for us to have a viable third option.
Speaker 3: I truly believe that that should happen, and there's nothing
Speaker 3: just me being a registered Democrat does not stop me
Speaker 3: from saying that I advocate for a viable third party component,
Speaker 3: and not just one that any person can run on,
Speaker 3: but a really true progressive and liberal party that centers
Speaker 3: black folks right like. I want to see that happen
Speaker 3: in my lifetime and I believe that it can happen.
Speaker 3: But it will only happen if we are able to
Speaker 3: have meeting of the minds to keep our at tension
Speaker 3: and the issues that we may have with one another
Speaker 3: in honest form, but behind closed doors. I do not
Speaker 3: believe that we will be able to build a party
Speaker 3: that people can truly believe in and get behind if
Speaker 3: the process to getting there is a bunch of folks
Speaker 3: just fighting on the internet and slinging shots at one another.
Speaker 3: That's just my opinion. Others may feel it's the perfect
Speaker 3: way to get there. They may feel it's the birthing.
Speaker 1: Of a new nation.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but that's just not my opinion about
Speaker 3: it because I've watched in many situations how these women
Speaker 3: and others get together and work behind the scenes, through difficulties,
Speaker 3: through differences, through great critique to ensure that a Kamala
Speaker 3: Harris can become vice president and then ultimately be at
Speaker 3: the top of the ticket as a presidential candidate. I
Speaker 3: you know, watch them to help push to to for
Speaker 3: the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act and other bills,
Speaker 3: child tax credit. I've watched them do these things, and
Speaker 3: do I think that we could all be doing a
Speaker 3: better job one hundred percent. They know I feel that way.
Speaker 3: They know that I believe there should, absolutely, one hundred
Speaker 3: thousand percent be a universal call for a ceasefire, and
Speaker 3: in fact, Bishop Daughtry is one of those who works
Speaker 3: with clergy around a ceasefire.
Speaker 1: She sits on a calls.
Speaker 3: With the President's staff, with the Vice president's staff, and
Speaker 3: she advocates for ceasefire. She signed on to a letter
Speaker 3: with pastors all across this country that call for seaspire,
Speaker 3: which is which is if you know, some people will say, Okay,
Speaker 3: she signed on a letter and it was in the
Speaker 3: New York Times, So what that is very controversial for
Speaker 3: a person in her position because the way in which
Speaker 3: all people, Republicans, Democrats, all groups work, they do not
Speaker 3: want you to come out against what is happening with
Speaker 3: the party right. They want you to side with them,
Speaker 3: support them, and just push them and talk to them
Speaker 3: about the changes that could be made on the sidelines.
Speaker 3: They believe that it is embarrassing. They believe that it
Speaker 3: is you know, it is in some ways it's a
Speaker 3: lack of loyalty to that particular party. And so let
Speaker 3: me just say it's two different things that I am
Speaker 3: saying today. I'm not saying that we can't push one another.
Speaker 3: And if we did have a viable third party that
Speaker 3: had millions of dollars and people supporting and folks who
Speaker 3: actually vote on that particular ticket, I am not saying
Speaker 3: and there are some people who vote that way, but
Speaker 3: not in the numbers that's needed to actually accomplish putting
Speaker 3: an independent or third party candidate in the White House.
Speaker 3: And so I'm not saying that we should not be
Speaker 3: able to push the party publicly. What I'm saying is
Speaker 3: that the development of such how we shape a party,
Speaker 3: how we get really serious people to be ambassadors and
Speaker 3: to go around this country bringing more minds, more bodies,
Speaker 3: more energy into something like that.
Speaker 1: I believe that.
Speaker 3: Work has to be done behind the scenes. But I've
Speaker 3: watched these women push, push and push, and they are
Speaker 3: respected in a lot of circles, and so I listen
Speaker 3: to them about the process because they know the details
Speaker 3: very specifically. But it does not mean that I don't
Speaker 3: have difference of opinion about whether the process is working,
Speaker 3: whether it's the right process, how the process needs to
Speaker 3: be changed, and so you know, I encourage you to
Speaker 3: share your own opinions. I encourage Black Lives Matter and others,
Speaker 3: not that they need me to do so, to continue
Speaker 3: to speak out about process. But I also agree with
Speaker 3: Bishop Daughtry that we have to understand the rules and
Speaker 3: understand the process in order to be able to properly advocate.
Speaker 1: For there to be changes. So thank you all so much.
Speaker 3: You know, it's almost awkward to not have my song
Speaker 3: tell us today what he doesn't get. And I'm sure
Speaker 3: after these last two weeks of him being out there,
Speaker 3: you know, debating misinformation, dispelling myths, and talking about UH
Speaker 3: Vice President Kamala Harris her candidacy, that we will hear
Speaker 3: a whole bunch of things that he does not get,
Speaker 3: absolutely does not get. So we'll hear from him again
Speaker 3: next week. And today I get the pleasure of saying
Speaker 3: that my son is not gonna always be right, and
Speaker 3: I'm definitely not gonna always be wrong, but we will
Speaker 3: both always and I mean always, be authentic.
Speaker 2: He So check out the video version of TMO
Speaker 3: Every single Wednesday on Iwoman dot tv