Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2: Breakfast Club Morning, Everybody's teen j n V Jess hilarious,
Speaker 2: charlamage the guy.
Speaker 1: We are the breakfast club. We got a special guest
Speaker 1: in the building. Indeed, got the brother Hill harp.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good, good, good, good to be here. Man, this
Speaker 3: this is a new studio to me. This is beautiful.
Speaker 3: I haven't been in this this studio a.
Speaker 1: Year and a half.
Speaker 4: Yeah, year and a half. Yeah, it'd be two years
Speaker 4: in like January.
Speaker 3: Maybe they gotta pull pull out couch.
Speaker 4: Maybe I could just.
Speaker 3: Exactly. It's very nice.
Speaker 4: You got a bigger things to be doing, man, Yeah,
Speaker 4: Senate in Michigan. Run for US Senate in Michigan.
Speaker 3: We're gonna we got this primary August sixth, which is
Speaker 3: a huge deal. Man. It's about turnout. We it's a
Speaker 3: huge challenge to get communities out because so many of
Speaker 3: our people don't even know what a primary is.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: People come up, man, I'm vote for you in November.
Speaker 1: I got you.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna vote for you, and comlin, no, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: do this. I'm gonna do that. And I'm like dog,
Speaker 3: if you don't vote for me August six I won't
Speaker 3: be on the ballot in November. And in many ways
Speaker 3: I blame the Democratic Party for that. They show up
Speaker 3: with tens of millions of dollars in October saying save
Speaker 3: the country. Come on, come on, y'all, turn out, But
Speaker 3: they want to place their establishment candidates in the primary,
Speaker 3: so they want low turnout in the primary, so they're
Speaker 3: doing no GOTV work. So my campaign literally has to
Speaker 3: try to educate folks, this is why you need to vote.
Speaker 3: The primary is actually more important than the general because
Speaker 3: if you can't get the right candidates on the ballot
Speaker 3: in the general election, then you have a very limited choice.
Speaker 3: And therefore people keep saying, man, nothing changes.
Speaker 4: Do you think that the Democratic Party wipe their ass
Speaker 4: with democracy by not having a primary to properly appoint
Speaker 4: a new top of the ticket for president?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know about that. I don't know
Speaker 3: because the time is so tight. You know, you're talking
Speaker 3: about less than one hundred days, so you know, it's
Speaker 3: almost that thing you kind of got to get in
Speaker 3: line and get organized. And you know, it's something I
Speaker 3: say all the time about many many of us that
Speaker 3: are you know, more progressive. I say, man, we can
Speaker 3: agree on nine things disagree on one and people are like,
Speaker 3: I can't work with them. And then you know the
Speaker 3: other side, they can disagree on nine, agree on one
Speaker 3: and go storm the Capitol together. So so I think
Speaker 3: that that, you know, when you look at the reality
Speaker 3: of the situation and timing wise, you got to make
Speaker 3: a decision and go. Folks have to line up, get
Speaker 3: behind folks and and and do that in that type
Speaker 3: of process.
Speaker 4: Year though they were after for a year.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, I mean I think in hindsight, if
Speaker 3: I mean, we can even go back. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: everything is much clearer in hindsight, right, I mean, Ruth
Speaker 3: beta Ginsburg should have stepped down, you know, I mean
Speaker 3: and made that decision. Uh. And certainly, I'm sure there
Speaker 3: would have been a process of uh President Biden having
Speaker 3: being able to do it in a way that you know,
Speaker 3: he's getting celebrated and all this, and it didn't feel
Speaker 3: like it's but day man, Sometimes I just say, you know,
Speaker 3: God is going to take care of things the way
Speaker 3: it's going to happen, you know, and that's just it.
Speaker 3: So so this this process is playing out the way
Speaker 3: it should.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, But they also said it was a finance thing. Right,
Speaker 2: because Harris's name was on the ticket. It's easy to
Speaker 2: trans over, the transfer the funds over too.
Speaker 4: They said that what we're talking about last year, like,
Speaker 4: you know, because I've been saying for the longest President
Speaker 4: Biden step down, but I just didn't think he could
Speaker 4: win in November. And I thought that was a fair
Speaker 4: question to ask. Is the Biden Harris ticket a winnable
Speaker 4: ticket in November?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: So I've been asking that and people were saying last
Speaker 4: year they should primary them because everybody saw the decline.
Speaker 3: Right, they saw it, So I mean it was it
Speaker 3: is definitely apparent. The question is, you know, is was that?
Speaker 3: And obviously, I mean, come on, I mean we saw
Speaker 3: what we saw. You can't unsee what you saw, right.
Speaker 3: You know, my mother's eighty six years old, God bless her.
Speaker 3: She lives with me in Detroit and me and my son,
Speaker 3: and you know, she's not moving the way she used
Speaker 3: to move, right, and that's not her fault. And she's
Speaker 3: one of the most brilliant people. First black female Lanta
Speaker 3: sez I is one of the first black female sez
Speaker 3: I was in the country. But at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, you know, time can't be for the two
Speaker 3: yes right time is one is undefeated.
Speaker 2: That is a video of you fifteen years ago, right
Speaker 2: predicting that Kamala Harris was going to be the president.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: What did you see in her fifteen years ago that
Speaker 2: made you think that before people even knew who she was.
Speaker 3: I think leadership tenacity. You know, at that time in
Speaker 3: two thousand and seven, Barack Obama had asked myself and
Speaker 3: Kamala to go to Iowa to stump for him to
Speaker 3: help him win the Iowa caucus. He felt that if
Speaker 3: he couldn't win the Iowa caucus, there was no way
Speaker 3: to win that primary because he was going up against
Speaker 3: establishment and establishment money, et cetera. And so folks stump
Speaker 3: for him. So we became friends. She asked me to
Speaker 3: contribute to her book, which I did. Eventually, I hosted
Speaker 3: the first fundraiser for her in southern California for her
Speaker 3: Attorney general's race, and then did some other things with
Speaker 3: you know, black professionals, different things, And that's where that
Speaker 3: quote was from, I introducing her to Black professionals event.
Speaker 3: And so you talk about someone with intelligence, someone who's
Speaker 3: work ethic, someone who you know just just also very
Speaker 3: passionate about wanting to make the world better and figure
Speaker 3: out ways to do that. And so there was no
Speaker 3: you know in my mind, you know, when I went
Speaker 3: to Harvard Law School with Barack. You know, you see
Speaker 3: things in people and you can see just who and
Speaker 3: how what they're made of, and and there's you know,
Speaker 3: you talk about uh, you know, there's there's a lot
Speaker 3: of things that I think that she's going to have
Speaker 3: to do to appeal you know, from a Michigan point
Speaker 3: of view, to clean up some of the problems with
Speaker 3: the Arab Muslim community in Michigan, et cetera. But she
Speaker 3: can do that work. There's an opportunity here. She can
Speaker 3: do that work. She can, she can, I believe, get
Speaker 3: that done.
Speaker 4: I think her rhetoric around Israel and God that thus
Speaker 4: far has been stellar, I.
Speaker 3: Really do, because we're not going to the net and
Speaker 3: Yahoo speech was it was definitely a step in the
Speaker 3: right direction. That was a step in the right direction,
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, But even the lame I mean, even when she
Speaker 4: says she's like, Israel does have the right to defend itself,
Speaker 4: but we still have to work towards a ceasefire. We
Speaker 4: need a ceasefire. As well watching innocent people get killed.
Speaker 4: You know, that's right, I mean, I and to me
Speaker 4: it's so big, it's common sense rhetoric. But for whatever reason,
Speaker 4: people are afraid to say that.
Speaker 3: I say it all the time. There's no good war
Speaker 3: and there's no bad peace. I mean, that's just a
Speaker 3: simple fact. Is we want to save lives. At the
Speaker 3: end of the day. Humanity and human rights have to
Speaker 3: come first in every discussion. That's for everybody. And that's just.
Speaker 3: And the idea of if you say, you know, when
Speaker 3: I call for ceasefire, for instance, my social media got
Speaker 3: ratcheted down by ninety eight percent. And this is like
Speaker 3: last November when I called for I was one of
Speaker 3: the first US sent canons in the country to call
Speaker 3: for And the idea that if you're calling for ceasefire
Speaker 3: is some somehow that's pro terrorism or anti Israel or
Speaker 3: anti you know, human or this, it's not true. The
Speaker 3: thing is I can't stand terrorists. Terrorists, that's that's violence
Speaker 3: and malevolent and that's I can't stand hostages, that's violence
Speaker 3: and malevolence. But I also can't stand carpetbag carpet bombing,
Speaker 3: and and and and and ultimately covering places with indiscriminate
Speaker 3: bombing and killing women and children, and and and the
Speaker 3: injury and death death's toll. And so it's heartbreaking. I
Speaker 3: was in a meeting last night in Dearborn in Michigan
Speaker 3: with a number of folks from the Palestinian community, and
Speaker 3: their hearts are ripped out because they're seeing their family
Speaker 3: members and so. But at the same time, you have
Speaker 3: a whole set of folks who have you know, hostages
Speaker 3: have been taken and their hearts are broken. So there's
Speaker 3: so much pain and grief. But the idea is, how
Speaker 3: do we get to a place where we reduce the
Speaker 3: level of violence and the level of uh malevolent behavior.
Speaker 3: We can get there, but you don't get there through
Speaker 3: a bomb. We don't get there.
Speaker 4: We had Governor Whitmer up here, and I'm gonna ask
Speaker 4: you the same thing, because you know you're in Michigan.
Speaker 4: How much of an impact do you think that's gonna
Speaker 4: happen November? Because when you see these hundreds of thousands
Speaker 4: of people who voted uncommitted, you know, you know during primaries,
Speaker 4: it's like, what do you think, how are you gonna
Speaker 4: that's what you November to be like? You know what
Speaker 4: we're going to show up Now.
Speaker 3: Well, this may sound self certain, but I think if
Speaker 3: if I can come to and win this primary, we
Speaker 3: you know, at the top of the ticket in Michigan,
Speaker 3: Harris and Harper ticket there we're able to to unify
Speaker 3: those communities. Because the one thing I'm proud about, among
Speaker 3: among many things, with our campaign, as we'll be able
Speaker 3: to unify the Black community in Michigan as well as
Speaker 3: the Arab Muslim community. I have the endorsements from you know,
Speaker 3: most of the top leaders uh IN in Michigan that
Speaker 3: are from the Araban Muslim community, as well as the
Speaker 3: Arab American Political Action Committee, the Arab and Muslim Political
Speaker 3: Action Committee, but also all the endorsements from the top
Speaker 3: black political leaders, which is oftentimes communities that haven't come together.
Speaker 3: And so we have to figure out a way to
Speaker 3: unify communities. Because when you look back and you look
Speaker 3: at look at doctor King and Jim Crow, you look
Speaker 3: at Nelson Della and apartheid, we're in these types of
Speaker 3: seminal moments, chiros moments, moments that are inflection points, and
Speaker 3: this is one of them, and it's but it's reflective
Speaker 3: of a of a culture of violence in general. You know,
Speaker 3: there was two young two young kids, young people that
Speaker 3: were shot on the east side of Detroit just two
Speaker 3: weeks ago. Nineteen other people injured. And so violence is
Speaker 3: violence no matter of what happens on the east side
Speaker 3: of Detroit or if it's happening in Gaza. Death is
Speaker 3: death wherever it's happening. And are our eyeballs have to
Speaker 3: be about what how do we save humans? How do
Speaker 3: we create human rights, how we do create opportunity? That
Speaker 3: has to be our litmus test. It's not about trying
Speaker 3: to do political posturing.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you know last time you spoke
Speaker 2: about it a little bit. But for people that just
Speaker 2: tuning in now, you know, a lot of people will
Speaker 2: say they know you as an actor and a lot
Speaker 2: of the stuff that you did, But what got you
Speaker 2: into politics? What made you say? You know what, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna put this acting bag down, put it on hold
Speaker 2: for a little bit, and make sure.
Speaker 4: My community is giving a good acting bag, good doctors,
Speaker 4: and don't remind it.
Speaker 3: Don't remind you get a lot of please don't. At
Speaker 3: the end of the day, when I got into acting,
Speaker 3: I wanted to be like actors that were activists, Harrab Belafonte,
Speaker 3: Ozzie Davis. So I did, I did the movie, get
Speaker 3: on the bus with Ozzie. I got to sit next
Speaker 3: to him for you know, God rest his soul for
Speaker 3: weeks on end and him just counseling me talking about
Speaker 3: when Malcolm X would come to the house and doctor
Speaker 3: King and he did what he would do. Gil Scott Herron,
Speaker 3: you know, all this and one have impact, you know,
Speaker 3: in that kind of way that moves the meter. And
Speaker 3: it's clear that the days through that entertainment lens are gone.
Speaker 3: There is a level of collusion and corruption in our
Speaker 3: federal government through basically because of Citizens United. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, many people think that the reaction to Obama
Speaker 3: presidency was the Tea Party. I think that's the beer.
Speaker 3: The true reaction to Obama presidency was Citizens United in
Speaker 3: twenty ten that said money is speech, called corporations people,
Speaker 3: and allowed unfettered dark money to rein into our political
Speaker 3: system electropolitic. Okay, okay, so check it out. So there
Speaker 3: was a court ruling that basically said, no matter who
Speaker 3: you are, you could spend unlimited money to get somebody
Speaker 3: elected and you don't even have to report who it
Speaker 3: is and how it's that's called dark money. That's dark money.
Speaker 3: So like a foreign country could be doing it if
Speaker 3: they if they washed the money through the process, yes
Speaker 3: they could. And so you don't know every time it
Speaker 3: Just for folks out there, every time you see an
Speaker 3: ad that says paid for by Patriots for America or
Speaker 3: paid for by moving Michigan for you know, pay whatever
Speaker 3: that is, just think a dark money or think whatever
Speaker 3: that is because you don't know it's called an independent expenditure.
Speaker 3: You don't know who paid for that. You don't know
Speaker 3: what it is. And the threats that have come at me,
Speaker 3: I've called for, like, for instance, shutting down a Line five,
Speaker 3: which is an oil pipeline that runs in our Great Lakes. Right,
Speaker 3: twenty one percent of the world's fresh water supply touches
Speaker 3: Michigan shores, and and it gets most of the benefit
Speaker 3: of this oil. I want to shut it down. So Enbridge,
Speaker 3: the oil company has they have independent expenditures, right, so
Speaker 3: they want to make sure someone like me doesn't get elected, right,
Speaker 3: and they're going to spend money to do that, to
Speaker 3: smear me, smear your name, et cetera. Right, because they
Speaker 3: have an interest. Same thing with the NRA and the
Speaker 3: gun lobby, Same thing with APAK, the American Israel Political
Speaker 3: Action Committee, Same thing with big oil, big pharma, big farmers.
Speaker 3: Spent three hundred and seventy five million dollars on elections
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two. They're on course to spend over
Speaker 3: the four hundred million in twenty twenty four. So people
Speaker 3: know intrinsically that they're not being represented. They know that
Speaker 3: the big donors, the dark money is representing them. You know,
Speaker 3: seventy four percent of Michigan Democrats are in favor of
Speaker 3: sees fire, less than ten percent of the federal delegation
Speaker 3: has called for it. That's because of the money, right,
Speaker 3: that's because they've been bought. And so I'm running to
Speaker 3: show that you don't have to be bought. I say
Speaker 3: I won't be bought, I won't be lost, I won't
Speaker 3: be bullied. They offer me twenty million dollars to drop
Speaker 3: out of my Senate race and primary Rasheeta to leave. Right,
Speaker 3: they think that money that everyone's on the take, that
Speaker 3: only people just want power, and people just want money.
Speaker 3: But if you're not for sale, you can actually charte
Speaker 3: a path that represents people over politics, over party. I'm
Speaker 3: running to actually hold both the Democratic Party and the
Speaker 3: Republican Party accountable because they both have been derelict to
Speaker 3: so many community.
Speaker 2: But it seems like it seems like every party has
Speaker 2: been bought. It just seems like you could see where people,
Speaker 2: you know, whether it's it's the gun lobbying or whatever
Speaker 2: it is, it seemed like everybody's being brought.
Speaker 1: It seems like that's the thing in politics.
Speaker 3: That's right, but money, See, money doesn't vote. People vote,
Speaker 3: and that's and see, this is what the big challenge
Speaker 3: has been. How do you get people to understand they
Speaker 3: still have the power even though they look and they're like,
Speaker 3: there's something. I was at the gas pump the other
Speaker 3: day and so I drive an F one fifty. So
Speaker 3: it costs over one hundred dollars to fill it up.
Speaker 3: And so the dudes I'm up and next toe he's
Speaker 3: say like, man, this is so expensive. And I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: did you know that your tax dollars are given big
Speaker 3: oil literal tax breaks. He's like, and the price are
Speaker 3: going up? He said yeah, And I said, did you
Speaker 3: know that virtually all Chevron exce on mobile all of
Speaker 3: them are posting over one hundred billion in profits every quarters.
Speaker 3: He's like, well, how come my prices are like this,
Speaker 3: I'm saying, because there's collusion, corporate collusion between your federal
Speaker 3: representatives and big oil. Right, and so people are like,
Speaker 3: they know something's wrong. They know they're getting the short
Speaker 3: end of the stick. They just can't figure out why.
Speaker 3: Because it's dark it's dark money. And so if we
Speaker 3: don't get rid of citizens United our democracy is done.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm sorry, No, no, go ahead, go ahead. I
Speaker 4: want to go back to what you said about the
Speaker 4: because I read that or I saw that somewhere where
Speaker 4: they offered you. I know, I didn't know how much
Speaker 4: it was. You said, twenty million dollars.
Speaker 3: To go a giins receetd to me or talk no
Speaker 3: no no, to run against her. So, so the idea
Speaker 3: would be, I was, I'm running for United States Senate
Speaker 3: and I'm running against one of their CA antidates that
Speaker 3: they back. So APAC backs my opponent. Okay, so they
Speaker 3: would get a two fer Rashida to leave is the
Speaker 3: public enemy number one for them, right they you know,
Speaker 3: they just got rid of Jamal Bowman, right. So, but
Speaker 3: but she's even more.
Speaker 4: Targeted, and Corey Bush. They got to talking on court.
Speaker 3: They're going they're going after Corey Busch. And so so
Speaker 3: the guy down in Missouri took the deal, that same
Speaker 3: deal I was offered. So Wesley Bell was running for
Speaker 3: US Senate down there in Missouri. He took the deal,
Speaker 3: left the Senate race and and ran against Corey Bush.
Speaker 3: So so so what they did is they figure everybody's
Speaker 3: for sale, and they they figured with you know, there's
Speaker 3: no way ten million, ten million in hard dollars, which
Speaker 3: would be they raise the money, they bundle it for you.
Speaker 3: You know, they go out in thirty three hundred dollars increments.
Speaker 3: That's the max you can get for the primery. So
Speaker 3: they'll go out and bundle the money through through their
Speaker 3: network in thirty three hundred dollars increments. That's ten million
Speaker 3: and hard dollars and then ten million what they call
Speaker 3: soft dollars. That's a nice way of saying dar money
Speaker 3: that we talked about already, and that's unlimited. So they
Speaker 3: just they find a big donor most you know, a
Speaker 3: couple of big donors to stroke million dollar checks and
Speaker 3: then you get ten million in soft, ten million in
Speaker 3: hard much in your pocket. You know, there's none in
Speaker 3: the pocket. It's to win, right, They're they're they're giving
Speaker 3: that money to to win this camp. This is all
Speaker 3: campaign dollars, right, And so so they think that everybody
Speaker 3: wants that badge on the lapel to be in Congress.
Speaker 3: That's why you're running for office, not to actually help people, right.
Speaker 3: They think that you want power more because that's what
Speaker 3: they want, right, And that's what we're filled with. We're
Speaker 3: filled with a Congress of representatives that are more interested
Speaker 3: in power maintenance and helping people. And and that's what
Speaker 3: we as people have to realize, and we have to
Speaker 3: start electing candidates that actually want to help people and
Speaker 3: they're not interested in just powermats. That's because look at
Speaker 3: both both the Republican Democratic Party are complicit and not
Speaker 3: wanting to get rid of Citizens United. Because if you
Speaker 3: really wanted to represent people first, you'd be wanting to
Speaker 3: get rid of it. You don't, you would, you would
Speaker 3: not want to have it. It's going to take a
Speaker 3: constitutional amendment to do it, or expanding the court to
Speaker 3: get a new court ruling to get rid Oficisians United.
Speaker 4: That's my biggest issue with the Democratic Party always is
Speaker 4: that they lack courage. I believe that they try a
Speaker 4: lot of political strategies, but courage and then one of them.
Speaker 4: That's why it was, you know, refreshing to see President
Speaker 4: Biden stepped down, whether they pushed them out, whatever it was,
Speaker 4: it was just refreshing to see that. But all these
Speaker 4: things that you're described or now, it takes courage to do.
Speaker 4: It takes courage to expand the Supreme Court. It takes
Speaker 4: courage to make these constitutional amendments.
Speaker 3: I don't know if they have it. That's why we
Speaker 3: got to take it. I mean, that's that's the thing.
Speaker 3: I mean, my friend said to me the other day,
Speaker 3: Hey said, hell man, you're trying to save the Democratic
Speaker 3: Party from itself, you know, because at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, you're right, it's losing it. It's you know,
Speaker 3: it's losing its way, losing its sole and we got
Speaker 3: to bring it back because of the you know, people
Speaker 3: are checking out. I mean, when you just start to
Speaker 3: see and that's the challenge here, voter apathy. People are
Speaker 3: sole It's like that study, you know when the professor
Speaker 3: would shock the dog, the dog jumped and they kept
Speaker 3: it on the same setting and the next time a
Speaker 3: shock that the dog only jumps so high. Eventually the
Speaker 3: dog stop jumping. And that's what we've done to people
Speaker 3: in the electorate. People have seen so much corruption and
Speaker 3: they're seeing so much inaction that they've stopped voting and participating.
Speaker 3: And I'm trying to wake people up. It's like that
Speaker 3: scene out of school Days, wake up, trying to get
Speaker 3: people to say, we have an opportunity. Just in Michigan
Speaker 3: with my race, I'm running against someone who didn't co
Speaker 3: sponsor the George Floyd Justinson Policing Act, didn't co sponsor
Speaker 3: Medicare for All, actually voted to not fund the state
Speaker 3: Department to study the gods of health ministries death and
Speaker 3: injury records. I mean, I don't even know how you
Speaker 3: make that vote. I mean, obviously I do when you're
Speaker 3: getting funded from the other side, and that's how you
Speaker 3: make that vote. But the point being, we have an
Speaker 3: opportunity here to grab a US Senate seat. The US Senate,
Speaker 3: one hundred people in this country control the distribution of
Speaker 3: seven point two trillion dollars. People don't realize that. People think, oh,
Speaker 3: the president, the executive branch does not control the money y'all,
Speaker 3: it's the United States Senate. And if you if you know,
Speaker 3: if you want your money to be used for overseas
Speaker 3: violence or do you want to be used for healthcare
Speaker 3: at home? You want your money to go to the
Speaker 3: undergirding and giving tax breaks to big oil or big farmer?
Speaker 3: Do you want it to go to public education? That
Speaker 3: is directly who you put in the US Senate.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 3: And and but if we check out like like like
Speaker 3: I'm seeing so many foot man, it doesn't matter. I
Speaker 3: ain't voting. I don't even know what the primary is.
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't do this. If we do that,
Speaker 3: we have lost. Don't be the dog that stops jumping.
Speaker 3: We have a chance. This is this is an open
Speaker 3: US sendency. Now I'm only run against one person. I
Speaker 3: need one more vote than one person, and we and
Speaker 3: an activist, an activist can grab a Senate seat. It's
Speaker 3: unprecedented the opportunity we have. It's just hard to convince
Speaker 3: people to move.
Speaker 4: Have you asked the I know you're in President Obama
Speaker 4: real close friends. Yeah? Have you asked them to endorse
Speaker 4: you yet? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he said that he would not endorse. He thinks
Speaker 3: it's not right for a former president to endorse in
Speaker 3: an open uh In party race. Right, so that's a
Speaker 3: primary and an open primary. He's like, hell, you win it.
Speaker 3: Obviously I'll come in and indoors. Uh you against the
Speaker 3: Republican person. Now at the end of the day, Uh,
Speaker 3: he's always done what is the right thing, because that's
Speaker 3: actually the proper thing to do, right, that's the right
Speaker 3: thing to do.
Speaker 1: It's all because nobody on the other side.
Speaker 3: There nobody on the other side, right, And well that's
Speaker 3: the thing.
Speaker 1: Nobody on this side does the right thing too much.
Speaker 3: When you think about this, there is that thing when
Speaker 3: you say they go they go low, we go high.
Speaker 3: The problem with that is you get your legs cut off.
Speaker 4: That's the triangle offense in twenty twenty four that won
Speaker 4: a lot of championships in the nineties.
Speaker 3: Okay, no, and and so you know, all I can
Speaker 3: do is try to fight to let people know, inform people,
Speaker 3: educate people, and hopefully create this turnout. Because there's no
Speaker 3: question I got the most supporters. The question is can
Speaker 3: I convert those supporters to vote because so many people
Speaker 3: like black. Turnout in Michigan in the last Democratic primary
Speaker 3: was less than ten percent. That's like you count ten
Speaker 3: people one person voted. I mean, I can't win. I
Speaker 3: can't win with that turnout. It's impossible. But if we
Speaker 3: don't start to realize we got to start taking our
Speaker 3: power back. We gotta own our power, we gotta grab it.
Speaker 3: If we don't start doing that, I'm talking about this
Speaker 3: is not even just my election. I'm talking about across
Speaker 3: the board. I'm talking about owning businesses. I'm talking about
Speaker 3: owning our education. I'm talking about owning our vote, owning
Speaker 3: our ability to self determination, all of that. If we
Speaker 3: don't start acting like that and understanding the power in that,
Speaker 3: we truly are lost. Because you know, surely Chisham said it.
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, this is a long time ago.
Speaker 3: So she said, if you don't have a seat at
Speaker 3: the table, bring a folding chair. Why because you have
Speaker 3: to have a seat at the table. And I say,
Speaker 3: if you don't have to see the table, you're on
Speaker 3: the menu, because that means you're getting ordered rather than
Speaker 3: do an ordering. And we and that's the situation we
Speaker 3: find ourselves, and we do want to empower ourselves. That's
Speaker 3: why this, this what you're doing here is so important
Speaker 3: because it's I believe it seeps into people's minds and
Speaker 3: be like, Okay, this conversation was important. You know what,
Speaker 3: I do have power. I do have the ability to
Speaker 3: affect and have some self determination. I can actually move
Speaker 3: my household, my community, my city, my state, my country,
Speaker 3: and my vote actually matters. And it does, or they
Speaker 3: wouldn't work so hard to make sure you don't vote.
Speaker 4: Why did your opponent cancel debate?
Speaker 3: Well, she is canceled every debate. We were supposed to
Speaker 3: have five debates across the state. She's pulled out of
Speaker 3: every single one of them. It's disrespectful. It's disrespectful to
Speaker 3: the voter. It's disrespectful to be you know, because she's
Speaker 3: she's doing a runout the clock mentality where if she
Speaker 3: has all the money, she has a lot more money
Speaker 3: than I do, so she's able to run ads and
Speaker 3: she just thinks ads do it, you know. And what
Speaker 3: she doesn't want is her really problematic voting record exposed.
Speaker 3: I mean, she's horrible in so many issues, and she's
Speaker 3: been wrong. You know, she voted against student loan debt
Speaker 3: relief in twenty twenty. How do you sixty How do
Speaker 3: you even make that but sixty three percent of black
Speaker 3: wealth goes to paying down student loan debt. Student loan
Speaker 3: debt is crushing. It's a regressive tax. If you're wealthy,
Speaker 3: and this has none to do with race. If you're wealthy,
Speaker 3: you can prefund your kids' education and therefore they're not
Speaker 3: saddled with lifelong debt. If you're not wealthy and you
Speaker 3: come from poor communities, you have to take out student
Speaker 3: long debt, and then what happens is you have lifelong
Speaker 3: debt and your education costs four x five x, seven
Speaker 3: x ten x more than somebody else. It is a regressive,
Speaker 3: wrong way tax and hidden costs on someone's life. And
Speaker 3: how you're going to vote against that, I don't even
Speaker 3: know how you make that vote debt. And that's an example.
Speaker 3: She doesn't want that exposed. So that's why she doesn't
Speaker 3: want a debate.
Speaker 4: The stuff like you know, like you would be the
Speaker 4: first black US ended a Michigan indust right. What does
Speaker 4: that mean to you?
Speaker 3: It means in a state that has so much proud
Speaker 3: history of black political activism and representation, the fact that
Speaker 3: we've never had a senator is crazy. I mean, you're
Speaker 3: talking about the state that had Coleman Alexander Young, who's
Speaker 3: the pioneering mayor. I mean, you know, Atlanta would not
Speaker 3: be what Atlanta is but for Coleman Young, right, he
Speaker 3: showed Maynor Jackson the way. Right, you have a Carolyn
Speaker 3: Cheeks kill Patrick, and then you have the legend John Conyers.
Speaker 3: You know, and watch this. For the first time in
Speaker 3: fifty seven years, Michigan does not have a black Democratic
Speaker 3: representative in the federal delegation. That's out of thirteen House
Speaker 3: of Representative seats and two Senate seats. It's ridiculous, the
Speaker 3: lack of representation. So yes, I would be the first,
Speaker 3: you know, we would break that cycle and also be
Speaker 3: the first black Senator. It would be huge. And this
Speaker 3: is why got to remember, though, everybody who's listening, even
Speaker 3: if you're not from Michigan, the US Senate is a
Speaker 3: federal body that makes decisions that covers everybody. So sure,
Speaker 3: I'd be the senator from Michigan, but what I would
Speaker 3: be fighting for would cover off everybody. Let's just take
Speaker 3: I'm gonna take George full of justice and policing. It's passed,
Speaker 3: it has passed the House of Representatives, but it never
Speaker 3: got through the Senate because someone was not there to
Speaker 3: be able to champion and fight for it and demand it.
Speaker 3: And you talk about no knock. When I say this
Speaker 3: stuff is a matter of life or death, it's not hyperbole,
Speaker 3: it's not exaggeration. No knock warrants, having a national database
Speaker 3: for police who misconduct these are things that are part
Speaker 3: of that that we got to get done. And you know,
Speaker 3: and in funding, funding for public education, funding for health care,
Speaker 3: all of these different things, common sense gun laws, these
Speaker 3: are things that we can get done federally, women's reproductive freedom,
Speaker 3: black maternal health. I mean, all these different things that
Speaker 3: have to get done that covers everybody. And that's why
Speaker 3: I'm surprised and invite people in to obviously support the campaign,
Speaker 3: because this is to be a national movement to grab
Speaker 3: this seat, and then we should pick off another seat
Speaker 3: in the next cycle, and pick off another seat in
Speaker 3: the next cycle. From a national perspective, there's only been
Speaker 3: twelve black US centers in the history of the country.
Speaker 3: If we had twelve right now, we'd still be underrepresented
Speaker 3: in terms of population. Right There's been a higher percentage
Speaker 3: of black US presidents than black US senators. It's the
Speaker 3: toughest position to get in. Then yes, Wow, so it's
Speaker 3: one out of forty six. I'm not a math genius Charlemagne,
Speaker 3: but that's two point two percent, twelve out of two
Speaker 3: thousand and three. Wow, that's zero point five percent.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: Think about that and why? The reason why is the
Speaker 3: real powers in the sent When I was at Harvard
Speaker 3: Law School, my constitution law professor would say all the time,
Speaker 3: the real powers in the Senate. It's the most powerful
Speaker 3: deliberative body in politics in the world because one hundred
Speaker 3: people make the decision about two crucial things in this country.
Speaker 3: Number one, confirming lifetime appointments of federal judges. We see
Speaker 3: how that affects us down the line. And number two,
Speaker 3: deciding how your money gets spent.
Speaker 1: It's not glorified.
Speaker 2: People don't talk about the Senate as much as they
Speaker 2: talk about being president, or talk about vice president, or
Speaker 2: talk about even some of the other things.
Speaker 1: It's just not glorified.
Speaker 3: The president doesn't control the money, right, you know, My
Speaker 3: grandmama used to say, if you want to know someone's priorities,
Speaker 3: if you want to know an institution or a person,
Speaker 3: see how they spend their money. And that's what it
Speaker 3: is you know, Mark Pocan and Barber put Forth the
Speaker 3: bill called People over the Pentagon. It was one hundred
Speaker 3: billion dollar reduction in Pentagon spending. You know, we have
Speaker 3: we have people in office that keep rubber stamping the
Speaker 3: National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA two percent, raises three percent.
Speaker 3: All of that doing is fattening the pockets and Department
Speaker 3: of Defense contractors. We virtually have a US Senate of
Speaker 3: people that have been bought and this is real. They've
Speaker 3: been bought by DD contractors, they've been bought by Big Pharma.
Speaker 3: They've been bought, and they make decisions based off that,
Speaker 3: not decisions in support of the people's best interest. And
Speaker 3: that's what people have to realize. Don't check out because
Speaker 3: of that, lean in because of that, take it back
Speaker 3: because of that, And that's the energy that's happening. If
Speaker 3: we give up, we've actually lost to the money interest
Speaker 3: in the corporate collusion. We got to lean in because
Speaker 3: people vote. We still have the power if we understand
Speaker 3: our power and lean in.
Speaker 1: Grab it's new tax. What's your no new tax pledge?
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 3: Oh say, that's a pledge that the money's already there
Speaker 3: right The seven point two trillion annual budget. It was
Speaker 3: for the annual budget on Obama was four point two trillion,
Speaker 3: and that included bank bailouts, and then it went up
Speaker 3: to six point two COVID and Trump, and now we're
Speaker 3: up to seven point two. We can't just keep taking
Speaker 3: taking people's money because at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: all that money is going to, like I said, DoD
Speaker 3: contract is not going to actually solve the problems that
Speaker 3: people need healthcare, education, affordable housing. Imagine that, right, It's
Speaker 3: not going back to the people. So we're gonna keep
Speaker 3: taking the middle classes and the working classes money because
Speaker 3: that's literally the working classes and middle classes are literally
Speaker 3: who's supporting this country, right, Because if you make too much,
Speaker 3: you won't qualify for the earned income tax credit, and
Speaker 3: if you if you and then if you don't make
Speaker 3: enough to have offshore accounts and LLCs to hide your money,
Speaker 3: so you're really not paying your fair share. All of
Speaker 3: a sudden, who's really holding enough. We don't need to
Speaker 3: take more people's money, We need to spend it differently.
Speaker 4: That's the key I want to ask you, because you're
Speaker 4: a constitutional laws resident.
Speaker 3: Well, I went to Harvard Law School. I got my
Speaker 3: juris doctorate.
Speaker 4: Yes, Okay, Why aren't more people talking about the Supreme
Speaker 4: Court being an illegitimate institution? Why aren't more people just
Speaker 4: calling out the Supreme Court saying it's corrupt? Because my fear,
Speaker 4: and I've said this to every elected official that's come
Speaker 4: up here, let's just say the VP wins in November,
Speaker 4: Donald Trump challenges the results of the election in light
Speaker 4: of all the recent rulings, the wilder rulings, the Supreme
Speaker 4: Court is done from presidential community, accepting bribes, all of that.
Speaker 4: What makes us think they wouldn't overturn the results of
Speaker 4: an election and then it would be a constitutional crisis?
Speaker 4: Why not declare a constitution from crisis now while you
Speaker 4: still got Democrats in office?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I think, I think there's a couple
Speaker 3: of things. But you're absolutely right. I mean you, but
Speaker 3: but this isn't new. You go back to the Bush v.
Speaker 4: Gore.
Speaker 3: That's right, you know, our Gore. A lot of these
Speaker 3: problems we have now we probably wouldn't even exist in
Speaker 3: this country. Again, I'll Gore won that election.
Speaker 4: There's no question. I was sitting in my wife's dorm room.
Speaker 4: I wasn't even into politics, like that. But I used
Speaker 4: to always be watching CNN, and I'm watching and they
Speaker 4: announced them as the president. Right, they announced al going
Speaker 4: to the president.
Speaker 3: And the court took up. So so a couple of
Speaker 3: things have to happen. I think that there's no question
Speaker 3: we need reform. I wrote an op ed about judicial reform.
Speaker 3: We need to expand the court. When the court was
Speaker 3: said at nine justices, there were thirty eight million people
Speaker 3: in this country. Now we have three hundred and sixty million,
Speaker 3: plus tens of millions that aren't even countered in that number. Right,
Speaker 3: So we need more people. They need they need to
Speaker 3: handle a bigger case load. I want to see to
Speaker 3: expand to fifteen justices. Number one, number two. I do
Speaker 3: believe that there should be a term limit in terms
Speaker 3: of how long you're on the Supreme Court. I believe
Speaker 3: you should still get a lifetime appointment to the federal bench,
Speaker 3: because we don't We want to try to limit the
Speaker 3: corruption and we don't want it to be like Congress,
Speaker 3: where you know, the private enity say hey, you going
Speaker 3: to be out in two years. You know, rule this way,
Speaker 3: and we're going to make you a partner and pay
Speaker 3: you millions of dollars and so so. But you only
Speaker 3: serve on the Supreme Court for eighteen years and then
Speaker 3: you cycle off. And that way, if it's on a cycle,
Speaker 3: every president could appoint two justices and then you don't
Speaker 3: have the jerremandering of withholding appointments and all the stuff
Speaker 3: that we've seen happen. So the system has to change
Speaker 3: the way the appointments has to change. We can fix
Speaker 3: it by systemically. It's just like anything else. You know,
Speaker 3: what's that quote by the guy I think it was
Speaker 3: John Clear or something like that. He says, you don't
Speaker 3: rise to the level of your goals, you fall to
Speaker 3: the level of your systems. We have broken systems now
Speaker 3: in government, citizens United We have a broken system of
Speaker 3: the Supreme Court and the way the appointments happen. We
Speaker 3: have broken systems that we have to fix for our democracy.
Speaker 3: And so if we don't fix the systems, You're right,
Speaker 3: you're going to continue to see these results. And there's
Speaker 3: no question it could play out the way you just
Speaker 3: said it.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. I don't see why people don't think it will. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean he challenged it in twenty twenty, right, that's right.
Speaker 4: I just don't think in light of everything that they've
Speaker 4: done recently, I don't see why they wouldn't overturn it
Speaker 4: this year.
Speaker 3: If it's close, that's why you know it shouldn't. It
Speaker 3: can't be close, you know, and in that state by state, right,
Speaker 3: and but there's no reason to think it won't be closed. One. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but that's the popular vote. So so here's an interesting
Speaker 3: statistic about the Supreme Court. You know, only one of
Speaker 3: the Republican appointees has been appointed by a president that
Speaker 3: won the popular vote. Only one.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: That that's wild. So you're literally talking about a representation
Speaker 3: in the on the highest court appointed by individuals who
Speaker 3: won the presidency that did not win more individual votes by.
Speaker 4: Americans would be that one.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, And I'm saying Republican Clarence Thomas, right,
Speaker 3: so so so George Bush one, you know that the
Speaker 3: first one. He So you think about this, think about
Speaker 3: how the manipulation of the system has happened to create
Speaker 3: the ability to govern by a minority rule. And but
Speaker 3: that's historic too. I mean you go back to I mean, listen,
Speaker 3: we got two senators in every state, Wyoming, North Dakota,
Speaker 3: South Dakota. They got fewer people the Metro Detroit and
Speaker 3: they got two senators each. And so there's no question
Speaker 3: that there is an imbalance. And that's why I say
Speaker 3: to people, when we got an opportunity to grab a
Speaker 3: Senate seat, we need to grab at it, you know,
Speaker 3: because it's already imbalanced with with the fact that those
Speaker 3: those states like that that are solo population have two senators.
Speaker 3: I mean, California has forty million people. Niggas got two senators,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, that's wild, that's wild.
Speaker 4: If you lose, would you go back to acting?
Speaker 3: Man? Haven't I've been working so hard, I haven't eve
Speaker 3: thought about it, you know. Maybe you know, I've never
Speaker 3: been the type of person that's think anything I do,
Speaker 3: I just I go all in and and then you know,
Speaker 3: I don't do plan bs. I've never imagined plan bees.
Speaker 1: They still reaching out to you, agents to reaching out
Speaker 1: to you for parts and stuff.
Speaker 3: I don't even know. I don't even talk to them. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not it's not even that, man, it's you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, I really and this may sound crazy to y'all,
Speaker 3: but like on the show, like The Good Doctor, I
Speaker 3: was saving lives, you know, and pretend and I really
Speaker 3: feel in this world, I can save lives for real,
Speaker 3: And so I'm so being so all in on it
Speaker 3: and just working as hard as I can, meeting people.
Speaker 3: And because I truly still believe, and maybe it's a
Speaker 3: Pollyannis view and maybe I'm totally delusional, I still believe.
Speaker 3: You meet people where they are, you look them in
Speaker 3: the eye, they feel you. Ultimately, we can win. If
Speaker 3: you do the right thing, we can win. And that's
Speaker 3: why I tell my eight year old son. So if
Speaker 3: I'm telling my eight year old son that, I gotta
Speaker 3: believe it. But he did say to me the other day,
Speaker 3: he said, Daddy, are you gonna win? And I said,
Speaker 3: if more people vote for me than the other person,
Speaker 3: I win. He said, well, but are you going to
Speaker 3: I said, I don't know. But the only thing I control,
Speaker 3: I said. I can't control the outcome, but I can
Speaker 3: control how hard I work. And so that's it, just
Speaker 3: working as hard as I can and allowing people to
Speaker 3: into the process. Senators get to hire sixty tow one
Speaker 3: hundred people think about this, No one even thinks about it,
Speaker 3: and I go everywhere else. How many y'all know you've
Speaker 3: had two senators your whole life?
Speaker 4: How many.
Speaker 3: Y'all know ten people that worked in those offices. No
Speaker 3: hands go five people, no hands go, three people, no
Speaker 3: hands go, two people, one person. People don't even know
Speaker 3: it's the most powerful federal body in their life that
Speaker 3: should be giving them direct constituency services. But they never
Speaker 3: even meant anybody that they've been completely under unrepresented. And
Speaker 3: that's what we have to change. We have to rethink
Speaker 3: what the Senate is. Senate has to be service. It
Speaker 3: can't be what it's been, which has basically bought politicians.
Speaker 3: Trying to figure out how to spend your money and
Speaker 3: distribute it in a way that's not in your best
Speaker 3: interest doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4: I got one more question. What changes do the Democratic
Speaker 4: Party need to make now that they do have this
Speaker 4: new energy we've seen like over the last week and
Speaker 4: a half. You know what Vice President Kamala Harris, the
Speaker 4: way she's energized the party, the way she seemed to
Speaker 4: have bought in the party together. But what changes do
Speaker 4: the Democratic Party need?
Speaker 3: I think you said it originally courage. Courage is my
Speaker 3: favorite word in the English language etymology or the rule
Speaker 3: of the word. If you speak French, you know at
Speaker 3: me his heart you gotta get it back to the
Speaker 3: heart and not you know, everybody, you can see the fake.
Speaker 3: You can see the fake. And that's what crushed Hillary Clinton.
Speaker 3: You know, I met you know, I got invited over
Speaker 3: to her house one time in Washington and I walked
Speaker 3: in with my friend who had worked for them, and
Speaker 3: I met this woman with some jeans and a T
Speaker 3: shirt charming, smart, funny, and I literally was sitting there
Speaker 3: having a glass of wine looking at her as just
Speaker 3: the three of us, and I'm staying in my head,
Speaker 3: if this woman had run for president, she would have
Speaker 3: wiped the floor. But that pants suit over fake version,
Speaker 3: there's no I don't The person I met in the
Speaker 3: living room was completely different and so in the same
Speaker 3: thing they were doing with propping up President Biden, that's
Speaker 3: not in the best interest of people. It's very easy,
Speaker 3: open up your heart. What's in the best interests of people?
Speaker 3: It's not about over coaching somebody. It's not about trying
Speaker 3: to prop them up and figuring out the machinations of
Speaker 3: how do we win. It's about doing the right thing.
Speaker 3: And if the Democratic Party gets back to that core,
Speaker 3: then we'd win every election, because how are you losing
Speaker 3: an argument to a populace on the other side. It
Speaker 3: just doesn't make sense. People are literally voting against their
Speaker 3: own self interest because they feel more authenticity from the
Speaker 3: other side.
Speaker 4: Yeah, simple, I say it all the time, even with
Speaker 4: the Vice President's That's what I've been happy to see
Speaker 4: a lot more over the last few months, but especially
Speaker 4: over the last couple of weeks. The person that we
Speaker 4: know that we've had conversations with off the air, the
Speaker 4: heart that we see, we're starting to see that we are.
Speaker 4: And if we see that over the next hundred days,
Speaker 4: it won't it won't even be close.
Speaker 3: I completely agree. And that's why I hope someone doesn't
Speaker 3: get in your ear and starts to try to over coach,
Speaker 3: and I don't think it'll happen. You know why, because
Speaker 3: it's not like she's got meaning. It's almost like, once
Speaker 3: you're in the seat, you can relax. So, yeah, she's
Speaker 3: not trying to outcompete somebody, and so it's not trying
Speaker 3: to figure out, well, what do I do to outcompete.
Speaker 3: It's just like, just be yourself because you already got it.
Speaker 3: You already got the experience, you already have the intelligence,
Speaker 3: you already have the infrastructure. Now just listen. You could
Speaker 3: be more bold, more full of heart and bring that
Speaker 3: it's beautiful. I think we're in a great inflection moment
Speaker 3: in this country, and I'd love to be her partner
Speaker 3: in the Senate for sure.
Speaker 1: Now, if people want to support you, how can he
Speaker 1: support you?
Speaker 3: They go straight to Hill Harper dot com. And your
Speaker 3: support means so much. We are one week away from
Speaker 3: August sixth, the election, and there's early voting happening right now,
Speaker 3: and basically anything that comes in now what we do
Speaker 3: is put a right back out for voter education. We
Speaker 3: buy time on radio, we buy time on television and
Speaker 3: all of that just to say, let people know we
Speaker 3: win this thing if enough people actually go vote. You know,
Speaker 3: no question. High turnout we win. Low turnout, we lose.
Speaker 3: That's just that's the real and so we have to
Speaker 3: it was a campaign. So if you go to Hill
Speaker 3: Hopper dot com, two dollars makes a difference, y'all. That's real.
Speaker 3: He buys a yard sign, It does all this stuff
Speaker 3: that we can actually repurpose quickly.
Speaker 1: So thank you all right, Well he'll hop o.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, make sure you go out and vote
Speaker 2: August sixth in Michigan, and it's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Good morning, wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 4: The Breakfast Club