Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2: Everybody is the DJ en Vy Jesse, Larry Schela mean
Speaker 2: the guy, we are the Breakfast Club. Lola Rosa is here.
Speaker 2: We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed
Speaker 2: if Congressman Al Green, welcome brother, thank you, thank you, brother,
Speaker 2: thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: How you feeling, Yeah, well, I'm feeling quite well. Better
Speaker 3: than I deserve is what I usually say, because candidly,
Speaker 3: I have the gift of life. I didn't earn it,
Speaker 3: and I'm appreciative and I try as best as I
Speaker 3: can to appreciate the life that I have. But current
Speaker 3: events obviously are on my mind. And notwithstanding these events,
Speaker 3: I still say that I'm better than I deserve.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to you don't want to say something. Man.
Speaker 4: A couple of weeks ago, the good Brother Michael Eric
Speaker 4: Dison reached out and he said, Congressman, I agree in
Speaker 4: Texas wants to come on Breakfast Club. And I'm like,
Speaker 4: I for sure connected with the producers and everything else.
Speaker 4: So this is just divine timing because this was something
Speaker 4: that was in the Magan a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4: But then everything transpired transpired this week. Yes, sir, what
Speaker 4: made you even want to come on a couple of
Speaker 4: weeks ago?
Speaker 3: I admire the way you conduct your program, to be
Speaker 3: quite honest, But may I just step back a moment
Speaker 3: and say a kind word about Michael. Absolutely, I think
Speaker 3: so much of him. He's one of the great minds
Speaker 3: of our time. Absolutely, I don't know that he has
Speaker 3: an equal to be very honest with you, So I'm
Speaker 3: grateful to him for reaching out on my behalf. But
Speaker 3: I wanted to come on because I know that you
Speaker 3: have an audience that may not have had an opportunity
Speaker 3: to hear some of the things that I think would
Speaker 3: merit their consideration. So this would be an opportunity to
Speaker 3: reach out and see if we can help persons better
Speaker 3: understand some of what's happening in Congress.
Speaker 4: And not only do you have one of the greatest
Speaker 4: R and B singer's name, you got an R and
Speaker 4: B voice.
Speaker 3: Well, I've never been acknowledged in this fashion before. I
Speaker 3: have had people to say to me, well, let me
Speaker 3: give you this example. I was introduced and it was
Speaker 3: a great introduction, one of the best introductions I've ever had.
Speaker 3: And as I was going to speak. The gentleman said
Speaker 3: to me, before you finish, would you just please sing
Speaker 3: one song? He knew not that I was just give
Speaker 3: us one one song.
Speaker 2: But I want to start from back before we get
Speaker 2: into everything that's going on. Who is al Green? And
Speaker 2: what made you wanted to get into serving people?
Speaker 3: But probably started early in life when I was a
Speaker 3: child in elementary school, my teacher, Miss Graham I believe
Speaker 3: was her name, had the class to all assume some
Speaker 3: office or run for some office. And I was running
Speaker 3: for class president and my theme was go with Green.
Speaker 3: And that meant something to me then and it continued.
Speaker 3: President of student body, president of freshman class in college.
Speaker 3: Once you get into this, it seems to envelop you
Speaker 3: and you you just don't leave it immediately. So I didn't.
Speaker 3: I didn't plan to do this. It sort of consumed
Speaker 3: me in a sense. And here I am. So it's
Speaker 3: not not a not a contrived thing. Now.
Speaker 2: They said, you like HBCU so much.
Speaker 1: You went to three of them.
Speaker 3: Well, I went to for.
Speaker 2: You, Howard and Duskegee.
Speaker 3: And I also went to Texas Southern and Texas. Yes, sir,
Speaker 3: I enjoyed undergraduates. I really did. And by the way
Speaker 3: for everybody's edification. I have no undergraduate degree. I was
Speaker 3: fortunate enough to get into law school. It was just
Speaker 3: a quirk of circumstance. And so I finished law school
Speaker 3: at Thurgood Marshall School of Law.
Speaker 4: You know, you caused some good trouble the other night
Speaker 4: when you stood up and spoke out at the Is
Speaker 4: it the State of the Union. No, it was a
Speaker 4: joint joint joint session of Joint Session of Congress. When
Speaker 4: we sit up and spoke out of the Joint Session
Speaker 4: of Congress. I think what was getting lost is what
Speaker 4: you actually said. Thank you, And you said that you
Speaker 4: have no mandate on medicare, no mandate to cut medicaid, no.
Speaker 3: Mandate to cut literally friends. I had my coat, my cane,
Speaker 3: and I was about to make my exit because I
Speaker 3: really didn't want to sit through what I knew the
Speaker 3: President would do. So as I was about to make
Speaker 3: my exit, he made this statement about his mandate and
Speaker 3: I said to him, you have no mandate to cut medicaid. Uh.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I didn't come to say that.
Speaker 3: I did not. It was spontaneity. It was just something
Speaker 3: far movie. Yes, so I said it, and of course,
Speaker 3: the speaker admonished me. He said that I take a seat,
Speaker 3: but at the moment I had to make the point,
Speaker 3: so I said it again. The speaker admonished me again,
Speaker 3: and the speaker did his job. He said, well, you
Speaker 3: got to be moved, removed, and so I was evicted.
Speaker 3: And by the way, the officers who evicted me were
Speaker 3: very kind. They didn't say anything to me that was
Speaker 3: out of order. They were very kind to me. But
Speaker 3: it didn't matter to me what the consequences were. And
Speaker 3: I've shared this with other people. John Lewis and I
Speaker 3: were friends and we talked about this notion of peaceful protest,
Speaker 3: and a part of it is not just getting in
Speaker 3: the way. As he put it, you have to get.
Speaker 1: In the way.
Speaker 3: You have to be disruptive. People are not going to
Speaker 3: like you some But when you do this, you have
Speaker 3: to also be prepared to suffer the consequences. So when
Speaker 3: I did it, I was prepared to suffer the consequences,
Speaker 3: and I'm prepared now. But that doesn't mean that I'm
Speaker 3: going to like the consequences. You can be prepared to
Speaker 3: suffer things that you don't agree with. I don't agree
Speaker 3: with what happened, but I was prepared to suffer because
Speaker 3: Medicaid means so much to so many people. One in
Speaker 3: every five persons with insurance in this country is covered
Speaker 3: by virtual medicaid, and if we lose Medicaid, we're going
Speaker 3: to lose lives. The president, buying through his agents in Congress,
Speaker 3: has that should a mandate bepast legislation to cut eight
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty billion dollars from the committee that has
Speaker 3: jurisdiction over Medicaid. You cannot do that. You cannot do
Speaker 3: that without cutting into Medicaid. And if you do that,
Speaker 3: you're going to hurt a lot of people that I represent.
Speaker 3: So I'm standing for them because they can't stand for
Speaker 3: themselves understanding that they need this health care.
Speaker 4: I'm glad you explained that, but I also you said something.
Speaker 4: You said that the speaker was doing his job. So
Speaker 4: if that's the case, why Democratic speakers do their job
Speaker 4: and kick out Joe.
Speaker 1: Wilson when he yelled at at Barack Obama? You lied?
Speaker 4: Why they didn't do their job and kick out Marjorie
Speaker 4: Taylor Green or bol Bird Like, why don't they do
Speaker 4: their job?
Speaker 3: This is why I came to the program because I
Speaker 3: would get a question like this, and I really appreciate
Speaker 3: this question because it gets to the essence of where
Speaker 3: we are. But a good many of us don't realize it.
Speaker 3: There is still invidious discrimination. There is invidious discrimination in
Speaker 3: the House of Representatives. I'm a son of the segregated South.
Speaker 3: The rights that the Constitution recognized for me, my friends
Speaker 3: and neighbors denied. I had to sit in the back
Speaker 3: of the bus the balcony of the movie drink from
Speaker 3: a colored water fountain, and my relatives who committed some
Speaker 3: crimes were locked up in the bottom of the jail.
Speaker 3: I know what invidious discrimination looks like. The klan burned
Speaker 3: across in my yard. I know what it smells like,
Speaker 3: and filthy waiting rooms, and I've been in places where
Speaker 3: I didn't want to be, and I know what it
Speaker 3: sounds like. I've been called all kinds of ugly names,
Speaker 3: so I know in vidious discrimination. And when the speaker
Speaker 3: decided that I would be removed, and then there was
Speaker 3: this motion, this resolution to censure me, it became obvious
Speaker 3: to me that I was not being treated as others were.
Speaker 3: And candidly speaking, it is in vidious discrimination, harmful discrimination.
Speaker 3: I don't agree with that, but I was willing to
Speaker 3: suffer that because I knew that I had to get
Speaker 3: that message to the president and put this issue before
Speaker 3: the public, because the public has not grasped what's going
Speaker 3: to happen if Medicaid is cut. This is not about
Speaker 3: black people. Most of the people of the plurality, their Anglos.
Speaker 3: Black people are smaller percentage of Medicaid. But this is
Speaker 3: about people who need healthcare. This president is a person
Speaker 3: who uses his incivility to take advantage of our civility.
Speaker 3: When I left, I went home and I saw the
Speaker 3: rest of the event on television, and I saw him
Speaker 3: point to the Democrats and say, these people are lunatics.
Speaker 3: He called the Democratic members of Congress lunatics. Now that
Speaker 3: is incivility. He will not be punished for that. He's
Speaker 3: not going to be sanctioned. He's not going to be reprimanded,
Speaker 3: he's not going to be censured. He does this with impunity.
Speaker 3: I believe that we have to meet incivility with incivility.
Speaker 3: I have to be prepared to suffer the consequences. But
Speaker 3: I'm prepared to meet his incivility that he uses to
Speaker 3: demean people. We have to use our incivility to uplift people,
Speaker 3: and I plan to do that.
Speaker 4: I understand that, But why wouldn't the Democratic Speaker of
Speaker 4: the House censure those folks, like why wouldn't she call
Speaker 4: them out? Or he called him out when Obama was
Speaker 4: in office? Why wouldn't Pelosi call him ol when Biden
Speaker 4: was in office? And do to them what they did
Speaker 4: to you when they disrupted the joint right.
Speaker 3: My belief is that what they've done to me exceeded
Speaker 3: what should be done, and that may be why, because
Speaker 3: they didn't want to exceed what should be done. That
Speaker 3: would be my guest. I can't deadly don't know, but
Speaker 3: I know that I have been treated differently, and I
Speaker 3: have accepted that it happened. I don't agree with it,
Speaker 3: and I think that if you treat everybody else as
Speaker 3: you should, and then when I show up, you decide
Speaker 3: to treat me differently, I then protest that. And I
Speaker 3: do that, but I would protest notwithstanding the way they've
Speaker 3: done it, simply because I think that at some point,
Speaker 3: even if nobody stands with you on some issues, they
Speaker 3: are so important that if nobody stands with you, it
Speaker 3: is better to stand alone than not stand at all.
Speaker 4: I agree with you, but I also believe Democrats the cowards,
Speaker 4: and that's why they didn't call out Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 4: That's why they didn't call out Joe Wilson when he
Speaker 4: did it. And Republicans. That's what what happened the other night.
Speaker 4: It made a weak party look weaker. You looked strong,
Speaker 4: and I was sitting there wondering, well, why is nobody
Speaker 4: else standing up with that brother? Why is nobody else
Speaker 4: walking out with that brother in that moment? To me,
Speaker 4: it just shows you how cowardly the Democratic Party is.
Speaker 5: Did you feel did you feel like people should have
Speaker 5: left with you?
Speaker 2: Do you feel like if we leave, like you know,
Speaker 2: one leave, we all leave, but together we united.
Speaker 3: Let me give you a proper predicate before I go
Speaker 3: to the specific point. I'm not a Democrat because I
Speaker 3: love the notion of being a Democrat. I don't have
Speaker 3: another option. This is the option that's available to it
Speaker 3: the best option available to me. And I tell people
Speaker 3: that I'm a liberate Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid.
Speaker 1: Would I have.
Speaker 3: Stood with someone else had they done.
Speaker 1: This, Yes, absolutely, I would have.
Speaker 3: And I believe that there are some Democrats who weren't
Speaker 3: there when he said lunatic. I'm sort of pleased that
Speaker 3: Maxine Waters wasn't there because I'm confident Maxine would have
Speaker 3: had some choice words for him, words that I wouldn't use.
Speaker 3: She's a master of scatology and so, but I don't
Speaker 3: begrudge them. To be very honest, I think people have
Speaker 3: to on some of these questions, do what your conscious dictates.
Speaker 3: This was a dictate of my conscience, my convictions, and
Speaker 3: I said to my friends, vote your conscious when we
Speaker 3: got to the vote in this case, vote vote whatever
Speaker 3: your convictions are. I'm not trying to sway you one
Speaker 3: way or another, but I do say to you, and
Speaker 3: I've said this before, I'm not a Democrat because it's
Speaker 3: it was not like a religion for me. I'm there
Speaker 3: because it's the best choice that I have. If I
Speaker 3: had another choice, I would opt for that.
Speaker 2: Now you talk about your sorry, you talk about consequences, Yes, sir,
Speaker 2: what are the consequences for what.
Speaker 3: You well, I'm about to suffer double jeopardy. They have
Speaker 3: censured me, which was to bring me before the house
Speaker 3: and read the statement that was a statement of censure.
Speaker 3: But there is now a movement to strip me of
Speaker 3: my committee assignments. I would call that double jeopardy. I
Speaker 3: will not agree with it, but I will still say
Speaker 3: to you, if I could do it again, I would
Speaker 3: knowing that they would do these things because it's not
Speaker 3: about me. It's about what Brother Charlemagne said, It's about
Speaker 3: the healthcare. And somewhere along the way we make sacrifices.
Speaker 3: Sixtieth anniversary, is that what it is acrossing Edmund Pettis
Speaker 3: Bridge today, John Lewis and those folks made sacrifices. John
Speaker 3: Lewis explained to me he thought he was going to
Speaker 3: die on that bridge. Some people have to make sacrifices.
Speaker 3: So if sacrificing a congressional seat is going to help
Speaker 3: people get health care, then that's a good exchange. That's
Speaker 3: a fair exchange to get that health care for people
Speaker 3: who need it.
Speaker 6: If they strip you of your committees, though, right, like
Speaker 6: a person like you who you're not afraid, right the
Speaker 6: committees that you're involved in financial services, homeland security, diversity
Speaker 6: and inclusion of in housing, community development, insurance, what does
Speaker 6: that mean for the people that you know you're doing
Speaker 6: so much good for, Like what effect are we going
Speaker 6: to see from that?
Speaker 3: Well, I would hope that the person who follows will
Speaker 3: take up the same causes and will do as well
Speaker 3: as can be done. I don't believe that I'm the
Speaker 3: only Al Green in the world. Well, I know that
Speaker 3: maybe I should have said that way. There is mister
Speaker 3: love and happiness for the good times. But I think
Speaker 3: that there are other people who can take up this
Speaker 3: cause and do equally as well or better. You know,
Speaker 3: I admire brother Jamal Bowman.
Speaker 1: Oh I love Jamal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I ja Maul would have stood which yeah, try
Speaker 3: to matter fact, Jamal wouldn't even just came.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't even show us. You know.
Speaker 3: I was tempted not to as well. I was, but
Speaker 3: I went to walk out. I did not go to
Speaker 3: make the statement. I went to walk out. But when
Speaker 3: he said he had this mandate, I had to then
Speaker 3: counteract that because I didn't want people to think that
Speaker 3: he would have a mandate to cut medicaid, Medicaid, Medicare,
Speaker 3: and social security. They are the foundation of what we
Speaker 3: call the safety net, and we have to protect them.
Speaker 3: And with social Security, somewhere around twenty thirty five, we're
Speaker 3: going to have a short fall, and we're gonna have
Speaker 3: to do something to make sure that Social Security continues
Speaker 3: to make its timely payments. I have said we should
Speaker 3: raise the cap, meaning persons who make more than one
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy six thousand, one hundred dollars. I believe
Speaker 3: it's a cap. Let's make them pay into the system too.
Speaker 3: Right now, if you make one hundred and seventy one
Speaker 3: hundred dollars, all of your money is taxed for Social
Speaker 3: Security twelve point four percent, six two from you and
Speaker 3: six point two from your employer. Well, I think we
Speaker 3: have to raise that cap so that we can continue
Speaker 3: to have these payments. There are some people who would
Speaker 3: raise the age, and if they raise the age, black
Speaker 3: men will become donors, with donors right now to a
Speaker 3: certain extent, because we don't live as long. Our life
Speaker 3: span is shorter, So raising the age only then causes
Speaker 3: some people just pay into it and never benefit from it.
Speaker 3: And it's an investment not an entitlement, so they won't
Speaker 3: collect on their investment. So I'm for raising that cap.
Speaker 3: That's important. Medicare, We've got to make sure that we
Speaker 3: maintain this program, Medicaid, Medicare, Social security. They benefit Americans.
Speaker 3: We have a society where people can walk into places
Speaker 3: typical stores, be millionaires and nobody mugs you. You know,
Speaker 3: people who have much can visit places where people who
Speaker 3: have little and walk away. In many societies, you have
Speaker 3: to have armed guards with you. I may have to
Speaker 3: have one after you know what's happened here lately, But
Speaker 3: you have to have armed guards and you have to
Speaker 3: be protected. But we have a peaceful society because of
Speaker 3: the way we treat people in the dawn of life
Speaker 3: and in the twilight of life. And I'm going to
Speaker 3: do what I can to help them.
Speaker 6: Your armed security, is it just you've been receiving like
Speaker 6: threats and stuff or like well.
Speaker 3: I don't want you to think that they started with this,
Speaker 3: but they've increased. Yes, I have Crystal can pull up
Speaker 3: some of those and you can hear them if you like.
Speaker 3: But people they don't think very much of my mother
Speaker 3: and my lineage, and they think that it would be
Speaker 3: appropriate for me to wear a rope as a necktime.
Speaker 3: But when you sign on, you don't sign on to
Speaker 3: have a party or just have a great time. You
Speaker 3: have to sign on for the times that exist, and
Speaker 3: you have to do what's necessary to make things better
Speaker 3: for those that you represent. And you just have to
Speaker 3: accept these things, and we do. I don't say to
Speaker 3: you accept them and not be judicious, not be prudent.
Speaker 3: You've got to be prudent enough to say I want security,
Speaker 3: and notwithstanding that, things can happen to you, but you
Speaker 3: ought to at least do what you can to protect yourself.
Speaker 3: But doctor King gave us some sage advice. He reminds
Speaker 3: us that a person who hasn't found something worth dying
Speaker 3: for isn't fit to live live, you know, so we
Speaker 3: all have to find something.
Speaker 4: When you say you told people to vote for their
Speaker 4: conscience and then ten Democrats voted to censure.
Speaker 3: You, what does that say about their conscience? Well, here again,
Speaker 3: this is why I'm on your programer. I assure you
Speaker 3: that question would not be put to me as you
Speaker 3: just put it to me on most other places and
Speaker 3: most other venues. I think that it is something that
Speaker 3: they will have to deal with. I don't want to
Speaker 3: say to them, here's what your conscience should have dictated.
Speaker 3: What I want to do is be an example and say,
Speaker 3: here's what my conscience dictates. And if you believe that
Speaker 3: I'm a good example, then you can adjust. But if
Speaker 3: you think not, then I have to accept you as
Speaker 3: who you are. I let them deal with their conscious.
Speaker 3: Conscience is something that's with us, within us, and it
Speaker 3: causes us to have moral imperatives. This was a moral
Speaker 3: imperative for me. If no one else has the same
Speaker 3: moral imperative, I let them wrestle with it. I would
Speaker 3: not feel good about myself had I not done what
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like this presidency changes the landscapes of
Speaker 2: presidency from here on out? I don't seen things like
Speaker 2: executive orders on the first daid a man put a
Speaker 2: desk on in the middle and was signing and throwing
Speaker 2: pins out. Does this change the presidency for here on out?
Speaker 3: I don't know about that infinitum, but I do know
Speaker 3: that for the foreseeable future there would be others who
Speaker 3: would try to emulate him. He's growing this crop of
Speaker 3: many trumps. But this president is a menace to dignity.
Speaker 3: To dignity, you fire people in mass you have no
Speaker 3: idea as to what their responsibilities are to family members.
Speaker 3: Maybe if there's someone who's sick and they're the breadwinner
Speaker 3: and they have to take care of this person could
Speaker 3: have a child in college that needs these funds, these
Speaker 3: emoluments to take care of education. You just don't know.
Speaker 3: And to fire people in mass indicates to me that
Speaker 3: you just don't respect the humanity and dignity of people
Speaker 3: that you don't know. There is no due process associated
Speaker 3: with this process. Elon Musk becomes the arbiter of due process.
Speaker 3: A guy with a chainsaw who is worth more than
Speaker 3: anybody else, it seems, who believes that he can make
Speaker 3: decisions that impact people that he just does not know
Speaker 3: in an arbitrary and capricious way. I think he's a
Speaker 3: menace to dignity. Dignity, but he's also a threat to democracy,
Speaker 3: a threat to democracy because the Supreme Court has led
Speaker 3: him to believe that he's above the law. He's not
Speaker 3: in theory, in theory, the jury, the facto maybe, but
Speaker 3: in theory he's not. He's not above the law, but
Speaker 3: he believes he is. He has an inordinate amount of
Speaker 3: influence over the House of Representatives and the Senate. I've
Speaker 3: seen people who I thought had great principles just cave,
Speaker 3: as it were, give in to him, a succumb to him,
Speaker 3: and they allow him to cause them to do and
Speaker 3: say things that I thought i'd never see them do
Speaker 3: a say. So he has the House, the Senate, and
Speaker 3: the judiciary, and if he defies court orders, if he
Speaker 3: defies court orders, at that moment, their brothers and sister,
Speaker 3: he would become a dictator and we will be under
Speaker 3: a dictatorship. He's a threat to democracy. He's appealed them,
Speaker 3: He's appealed them, and he's a appellent process is there
Speaker 3: when you differ?
Speaker 4: I called I've called him a threat to democracy quite often.
Speaker 4: But I'm sick of that talk. And the reason I'm
Speaker 4: sick of that talk is because Democrats don't ever act
Speaker 4: like he is.
Speaker 1: Even when they were in.
Speaker 4: Power the last four years with Biden, that didn't stop
Speaker 4: the soul called fascism. So why should we ever believe
Speaker 4: anything that comes out of Democrats' mouth ever?
Speaker 1: Again? Well about any of this.
Speaker 3: Thank you again for your question, sir. I have said
Speaker 3: that we should not wait until he becomes a dictator
Speaker 3: to try to remove him.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I understand that we don't control the House, but that
Speaker 3: doesn't mean that we can't still bring articles of impeachment
Speaker 3: because if the courts can't stop him and he has
Speaker 3: control of the generals, because all of those generals that
Speaker 3: he appointed have to place fealty to him. If he
Speaker 3: has control of the generals, the courts can't stop him,
Speaker 3: and the House of Representatives of Republicans won't stop him.
Speaker 3: Then that leaves it to us. There are four hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty five of us. We each have the authority,
Speaker 3: the ability to bring articles of impeachment. And I'm going
Speaker 3: to do that. Why that because I think think that
Speaker 3: you have to go on the record even when you
Speaker 3: can't make the change. Twice already nothing it didn't stop,
Speaker 3: did not stop, didn't stop him. In fact, he was
Speaker 3: voted back in the office with two impeachments and thirty
Speaker 3: four fel in the convictions. But that doesn't mean that
Speaker 3: I should not bring them and make the effort. I've
Speaker 3: got to do all that I can. I grew up
Speaker 3: with this belief from parents that when you have done,
Speaker 3: when you can't do what you need to do as
Speaker 3: much as you should, do do all you can, just
Speaker 3: do all you can. And there's a song that I'm
Speaker 3: sure many of you've heard. The song has these words,
Speaker 3: after you've done all that you can, just stand, just
Speaker 3: stand and I stand.
Speaker 6: I have a question for you about how people look
Speaker 6: at the institution of the office of the president. I
Speaker 6: know you were a part of bringing the articles impeachment
Speaker 6: in twenty seventeen. You said you're gonna do it again.
Speaker 6: You got the ten Democrats that Charlottage just mentioned that
Speaker 6: voted to send to you. Their direct quotes were basically,
Speaker 6: you needed to learn some decorum and respect the office
Speaker 6: of the president.
Speaker 5: Right. So to his point, some of that is probably
Speaker 5: gonna go out the window. People won't care.
Speaker 6: How dangerous is it that there are Democrats or just
Speaker 6: people in general that feel like, despite what's happening, it's
Speaker 6: the institution of the other one person.
Speaker 1: He's saying that about the president. They need to be
Speaker 1: saying that about the president.
Speaker 2: Look, people really understand, you realize how scary it is.
Speaker 1: It ain't even that scary. Democrats cowards man and every way.
Speaker 3: I completely agree that they should say that about the president,
Speaker 3: especially given that he on National TV called democrats.
Speaker 1: Raising left lunatics something like that, lunatics.
Speaker 5: The lunatics gave quotes, but it.
Speaker 3: Was you, I understand. I would not have said this
Speaker 3: about them. I would not. I can only say to
Speaker 3: you they have to live with their words. I have
Speaker 3: to live with How do you feel though like this?
Speaker 2: It's all as you stand and you fight, and then
Speaker 2: when you turn your back and you think the people
Speaker 2: behind you back there, and you look and you realize
Speaker 2: that they're.
Speaker 3: Not well, one slight adjustment. I didn't look to see
Speaker 3: and I didn't have that expectation. I stood because of
Speaker 3: the people that I represent who cannot be there to
Speaker 3: stand for themselves. So again I would do it again.
Speaker 3: I will suffer the consequences, and if my being evicted
Speaker 3: can make a difference in the lives of those people
Speaker 3: who need Medicaid, social Security and Medicare, I would do it.
Speaker 3: The state of Texas was accorded one hundred billion dollars
Speaker 3: for Medicaid and rejected it. Rejected it because at some
Speaker 3: point the state of Texas would have to pay ten
Speaker 3: percent of that the amount that was being paid, and
Speaker 3: the federal government would pay ninety percent. There's talk of
Speaker 3: sending money to states now rather than having the federal
Speaker 3: government have his fingerprints on this process. If that happens,
Speaker 3: a state like Texas will abuse it that Texas doesn't
Speaker 3: regard poor people with any degree of respect. That I
Speaker 3: would give them. So I have to fight to keep
Speaker 3: it out of the hands of the leaders in the
Speaker 3: state of Texas. And that's what this is about. There's
Speaker 3: a fight, and I'll do as best as I can.
Speaker 3: I don't look, I don't guarantee victory, but I guarantee
Speaker 3: a fight.
Speaker 4: Cats your question, did Democrats coordinate any type of real
Speaker 4: form of resistance the other night or was everybody just
Speaker 4: doing their own thing? Because we saw the people with
Speaker 4: their pickleball paddles, and you know you, you said George
Speaker 4: was spurred a moment like, did anybody have a conversation
Speaker 4: because I know how King Jeffres was trying to get
Speaker 4: people not to do anything.
Speaker 2: We meant signs, not pickleball paddles, the signs.
Speaker 4: I know how Kime Jeffreys was trying to get people
Speaker 4: not to do any type of disruption, which which I
Speaker 4: thought was beyond cowardly. Was there any conversation amongst y'all.
Speaker 3: I am probably what you would call a maverick. I
Speaker 3: tend to, as I said, I'm a liberated Democrat. I
Speaker 3: tend to deal with my conscience and my convictions, and
Speaker 3: I have not been engaged in those kinds of conversations.
Speaker 3: I think most people have said that al Green is
Speaker 3: probably going to do what he wants, so let's not
Speaker 3: bother and they're probably right. So I'll do the best
Speaker 3: that I can to be as good as I can
Speaker 3: and be of service. But I think that in the
Speaker 3: future what we're doing now I think will have an impact.
Speaker 3: I really do. I think that people will give some
Speaker 3: thought to how we should behave in the future. And
Speaker 3: I have suggested that we have to meet incivility with incivility.
Speaker 3: Ours is for a different cause, is to demean ours,
Speaker 3: is to uplift, But I think we have to use incivility.
Speaker 3: What I did was an active incivility. And when they
Speaker 3: reprimanded me with the censure, we're saying we shall overcome.
Speaker 3: Right there in the well, the speaker try to gather
Speaker 3: us out, but we didn't stop. That was an act
Speaker 3: of incivility, and it was really a response to the
Speaker 3: President's incivility. So we have to use incivility. This is
Speaker 3: another way of saying, protest.
Speaker 1: You know it. You brought up a good question.
Speaker 4: And if we ever get another Democrat president, if right,
Speaker 4: when we see all of the things that Trump is
Speaker 4: currently doing, and we see. Wow, presidents really do have
Speaker 4: power if they have the political will and courage to
Speaker 4: use it. I want to see a Democrat do that.
Speaker 4: Why can't a Democrat move like that for the good things?
Speaker 3: Yes, I absolutely agree with you. We I'll be quite
Speaker 3: candid with you. I didn't know I'm a lawyer. Ayer. Okay, well,
Speaker 3: I'm being candid with you. This is a candid program.
Speaker 3: By the way, I did not realize that a president
Speaker 3: had so few guardrails. Donald Trump, Donald Trump has pulled
Speaker 3: the cover back, you know, He's lifted the blinds, the shades,
Speaker 3: and we now see that a president has very few
Speaker 3: obstacles to prevent him from doing her present prevent them
Speaker 3: from doing whatever they want to do. Very few. This
Speaker 3: president has decided that he will use executive orders as
Speaker 3: opposed to using Congress, and he's issuing executive orders in
Speaker 3: areas that we've never seen a president give us these
Speaker 3: executive orders, issue these executive orders. He has demonstrated to
Speaker 3: us that it is more about the will to do
Speaker 3: things than the way. The way is there the questions
Speaker 3: do you have the will? And my answer to you,
Speaker 3: their brother, is yes. I would hope that a democratic
Speaker 3: president would use this authority, not for the purpose that
Speaker 3: he's using it. He seems to think that the very wealthy,
Speaker 3: the plutocrats, need more to do more, and that the
Speaker 3: poor among us can do more with less. Who can
Speaker 3: do more with less? The wealthy need more to do more.
Speaker 3: I would hope that a democratic president would have a
Speaker 3: better view of what the needs of society are and
Speaker 3: try to help uplift people who are living in the
Speaker 3: streets of life, not to the detriment of those who
Speaker 3: live in the suits. There's enough for all of us.
Speaker 3: But let's look after those who live in the streets.
Speaker 3: And there are good many who are not getting any
Speaker 3: any help at all. Don't you admire that going a way?
Speaker 4: Don't you admire the fact that he is willing to
Speaker 4: do whatever he wants to do for his base. Well,
Speaker 4: that's what anybody who supported Democrats, that's all we ever want,
Speaker 4: do something for the base.
Speaker 1: Keep your promises, he keeps it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, brother Charlemagne, you may I just give you
Speaker 3: this predicate before I get to your question. There are
Speaker 3: we've made promises. People have said that black men, as
Speaker 3: you know, for one of the reasons, and that in
Speaker 3: a sense, black people in general voted for Trump and
Speaker 3: that hurt us. And they're saying that members of other communities,
Speaker 3: the labor community didn't vote as they should have. Well,
Speaker 3: we made promises, and you mentioned that. We said, give
Speaker 3: us the House, the Senate, and the presidency, and we'll
Speaker 3: pass Voting Rights Act John Lewis Voting Rights. We'll pass
Speaker 3: George Floyd Justice in Policing. We will raise the minimum wage.
Speaker 3: We will for the labor folk, pass the pro Act,
Speaker 3: Protect the Right to Organize Act for the members of
Speaker 3: the LGBTQ plus community, we would pass the Equality Act. Well,
Speaker 3: we had the House, the Senate, and the presidency, and
Speaker 3: we didn't do it. That's your that's your point. We
Speaker 3: didn't do it. But here's to add to your point.
Speaker 3: When Republicans had the House to sended in the presidency
Speaker 3: and they didn't have enough votes to bring us to
Speaker 3: cloture cultures where you get sixty votes, so you passed
Speaker 3: something with fifty one votes when they couldn't get to
Speaker 3: culture with sixty votes, they said fine, they made the
Speaker 3: following motion, not in these exact words. When there was
Speaker 3: a federal judge ship up, they said, we believe that
Speaker 3: we should pass this judge ship on with fifty one votes,
Speaker 3: and the chair overruled that and said, no, you've got
Speaker 3: to have sixty. And I remember the person making this
Speaker 3: motion asking this said, I appealed the ruling of the chair. Now,
Speaker 3: when you appeal the ruling of the chair, you only
Speaker 3: have to have fifty one votes. So the fifty one
Speaker 3: votes then allowed them to take up the issue of
Speaker 3: placing this person on the Supreme Court with fifty one
Speaker 3: votes as opposed to sixty. We did a similar thing
Speaker 3: with John Lewis voting rights, mister Schumer did. And when
Speaker 3: we took our votes, we had forty eight Democrats to
Speaker 3: vote with us. Two did not. Mansion and Cinema did not.
Speaker 3: If they had, then Vice President Harris would have come
Speaker 3: over and been the fifty. So we could have passed
Speaker 3: George Floyd Justice and Policing, We could have passed John
Speaker 3: Lewis voting rights. All of the things that I've said.
Speaker 4: And no Democrat ever threw Mansion Cinema under the bust.
Speaker 3: Hell, you know, y'all give him a speech now, but
Speaker 3: you gave it absolutely some of the language you use.
Speaker 3: My mother would have loved this program. She was a
Speaker 3: master of schatology. But so they didn't pressure them like
Speaker 3: they pressure us, you know, like they treat me in
Speaker 3: a sense. Okay, they didn't pressure them. But here is
Speaker 3: what happened. Now I'm getting to your question. Here's what happened.
Speaker 3: There are two political banks in this country. There is
Speaker 3: the Republican Political Bank and the Democratic Political Bank. Now
Speaker 3: there's some smaller than some small institutions. If you put
Speaker 3: your your energy and effort, your deposits, if you will,
Speaker 3: into the Democratic Bank, you expect your return to come
Speaker 3: from the Democratic Bank. Yes, if the Republican Bank does
Speaker 3: something for you, you're not going to reject that. But
Speaker 3: you put your deposits in the Democratic Bank. When the
Speaker 3: Democratic Bank did not return give them a return on investment,
Speaker 3: then persons lost their enthusiasm. So I don't blame people
Speaker 3: who lost their enthusiasm because we didn't honor what we said.
Speaker 3: If we we have the House to senate und the
Speaker 3: presidency in twenty twenty one and we did not deliver,
Speaker 3: I can't I see how people could lose enthusiasm. So
Speaker 3: that's where we were. That's what happened. But my hope
Speaker 3: is that we're learning a lesson, and my hope is
Speaker 3: that we will be truthful about it. That's the way
Speaker 3: I see it now. There are other people who would
Speaker 3: blame people who didn't vote for not voting. I understand
Speaker 3: why people didn't vote.
Speaker 4: Do you think Hakeem Jeffries is the leader Democrat need
Speaker 4: in this president moment?
Speaker 3: I think that. First of all, I think very highly
Speaker 3: of him. Let me start with this. I have had
Speaker 3: an opportunity to see his intellect. I think that he
Speaker 3: finds himself in a difficult position, and he's trying to.
Speaker 4: Position in between Anthony Pelosi and Chuctionoman well repeating all
Speaker 4: the talking points.
Speaker 3: Well, I find him in the difficult position in that
Speaker 3: he's trying to get two hundred and eighteen votes so
Speaker 3: that we will have the opportunity to do some of
Speaker 3: these things that I've called to your attention, and getting
Speaker 3: two hundred and eighteen votes. You're probably not going to
Speaker 3: get two hundred eighteen algreens, but you can get two
Speaker 3: hundred eighteen with some people who will do some of
Speaker 3: the things that I want to see done that will
Speaker 3: be a benefit, and some who won't. So he's trying
Speaker 3: to get to two hundred eighteen votes. The politics is
Speaker 3: not going to work like I keep saying, ohver over.
Speaker 3: I feel like Democrats have tried every political strategy except
Speaker 3: for courage, and I don't know how politics gets us
Speaker 3: out of this situation. How do regular, traditional politics, moving
Speaker 3: by the rule of the law get us out of
Speaker 3: a situation when you're dealing with people with that much power.
Speaker 1: Who don't follow the rules of the law.
Speaker 3: Well, I do think you're right about the courage, And
Speaker 3: here's where it comes into play. When we do get
Speaker 3: two hundred and eighteen votes, we've got to decide we'll
Speaker 3: have enough courage to do what has to be done
Speaker 3: even if we won't have two hundred and eighteen votes
Speaker 3: after this. That's the decision that we have to make.
Speaker 3: That's the decision Republicans have made. They've decided that they're
Speaker 3: going to press their agenda, and if they lose the
Speaker 3: House and the Senate and the presidency, they will have
Speaker 3: done as much as they can to advance their agenda
Speaker 3: at that time. I do think that too often we
Speaker 3: tend to want to preserve the power and the process
Speaker 3: lose the opportunity to make the significant change that ought
Speaker 3: to be made. So courage is you're correct, We've got
Speaker 3: to use it.
Speaker 4: Who do you think is a well tupac question, who
Speaker 4: do you think is very courageous in the Democratic Party
Speaker 4: right now? And who do you think is the current
Speaker 4: voice of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: Well, I have a you know, I have a bias.
Speaker 3: I work with the honorable Maxine Waters. I've known her
Speaker 3: for many, many years. I have great respect for her.
Speaker 3: I serve on the committee under her leadership. I think
Speaker 3: that she is a person who voices the things that
Speaker 3: I concur with. She's a strong leader, she's fears and
Speaker 3: I think that if she had been there when the
Speaker 3: President said you're a lunatic, I don't know, she may
Speaker 3: have pulled off the podium.
Speaker 4: The Queen Maxine legend, but she's an ol G. And then,
Speaker 4: you know, they said the Bible says old men for counsel,
Speaker 4: young men for war?
Speaker 1: Right who the young? Who are the young warriors right now?
Speaker 1: To me?
Speaker 4: I think Jasmine Crockett, I think AOC, I think Ayana presently.
Speaker 3: I agree with all of those, But let me just
Speaker 3: share this with a little bit of pushback there, brother,
Speaker 3: her mentality is not old. Yeah, she vaccine. Look, I've
Speaker 3: celebrated my twenty fifth birthday three times.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm in my fourth twenty fifth. I still have my ponytail,
Speaker 3: you know, my beard. But I'm in age, I'm old.
Speaker 3: But Maxine is younger than most twenty five year olds.
Speaker 3: She is. Yes, she's an og, but that's a thank
Speaker 3: God for an og. She's that kind of og.
Speaker 4: I just feel like they left you hanging another night.
Speaker 4: And I appreciate what you did. You know, because you know,
Speaker 4: I keep saying, if something is a threat to democracy,
Speaker 4: if somebody is a fascist, and people got to act
Speaker 4: like it. And when he said that about Medicare, you
Speaker 4: stood up and you let everybody know like you you know,
Speaker 4: you don't have a mandate to cut medicare. So that
Speaker 4: right there shows me the urgency of the situation. Why
Speaker 4: everybody else didn't have that sense to urgency, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I feel like they left you hanging.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for your kind words, and I moved
Speaker 3: forward saying this, we still have the opportunity to demonstrate
Speaker 3: the courage that you've called to our attention. We still
Speaker 3: have that opportunity. I believe, as I said that we
Speaker 3: have to use incivility. I believe in this. There are
Speaker 3: times when if you can't have justice, then you have
Speaker 3: to step across the line of civility and decide that
Speaker 3: you will not allow others to proceed with injustice. Don't
Speaker 3: allow them to proceed with injustice. I remember miss Batty
Speaker 3: saying something. I hope she'll forgive me for calling her out,
Speaker 3: But she said, at a we were in a meeting
Speaker 3: of a sort, When are we going to do something bold?
Speaker 3: Maybe not in these exact words, When are we going
Speaker 3: to do what John Lewis did? When are we going
Speaker 3: to go and take over the floor of the house.
Speaker 3: Not in these words, miss Batty, That was, well, not
Speaker 3: your exact words, but she said that, yeah, something to
Speaker 3: that effect. And I'm saying to you that that's where
Speaker 3: we are. That is incivility, by the way, but we've
Speaker 3: got to have that level of incivility. We cannot allow
Speaker 3: them to proceed without at least knowing that they're going
Speaker 3: to have to walk over us and walk around us.
Speaker 3: We have to do what John Lewis said, and that
Speaker 3: is getting the way. So we have to now get
Speaker 3: in the way. I would hope that we would see
Speaker 3: this as what we are called to do.
Speaker 4: You think now is the time to bring people together.
Speaker 4: And what I mean by that is like, you know,
Speaker 4: you have a lot of Republicans who voted for Donald
Speaker 4: Trump and they're going to these That's one of my
Speaker 4: favorite things to watch now, those Republican town halls where
Speaker 4: they go into those town halls and raising hell. And
Speaker 4: I was sitting there wondering, and I'm like, yo, why
Speaker 4: didn't Democrats bring some of those people to that session
Speaker 4: the other night and let them be in there and
Speaker 4: their MAGA gear and let them be as disruptive in
Speaker 4: the chamber as they have been at these town halls.
Speaker 4: That would have been a stronger message to me because
Speaker 4: we used to hearing Democrats complain.
Speaker 6: You think they would have done that though, because they're
Speaker 6: so loyal to each other.
Speaker 1: None of the Republican town they reason how they losing
Speaker 1: their jobs.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but they're amongst their people. I don't know. I
Speaker 5: just feel like sometimes I feel like one.
Speaker 6: Thing that the Republicans do well is even when they're upset,
Speaker 6: they still they're so together.
Speaker 4: But if you got all these protests with these people
Speaker 4: protesting Donald Trump, protesting Elon Musk who actually voted for him,
Speaker 4: if they get an opportunity to be in the chamber
Speaker 4: where both of them were there.
Speaker 1: I think they'd have made some noise.
Speaker 3: Well, I do agree that we should make some noise.
Speaker 3: And here's what I would have had us. Do you
Speaker 3: remember at one point of the Republicans started to say
Speaker 3: us a USA, and there was you know, order, but
Speaker 3: allowed it to continue. I think if I had my
Speaker 3: brothers in my way when they do that, we ought
Speaker 3: to then, because I'm an og sing we shall overcome.
Speaker 3: While they're saying US a USA. We sing we shall overcome.
Speaker 3: I can't and and well, I understand, but but my
Speaker 3: point is at that moment, we have to meet their
Speaker 3: message with a message and not allow them to say
Speaker 3: US a USA and we say nothing. So we have
Speaker 3: to have some retort. That is my retort to sing
Speaker 3: we shall overcome. I imagine there's some other songs that
Speaker 3: might have more of an impact. But my point is
Speaker 3: that we have to raise our voices when they raise theirs.
Speaker 3: We cannot let them just have the opportunity to proclaim
Speaker 3: themselves patriots while we sit side.
Speaker 4: But that's why they missed a moment with you the
Speaker 4: other night. All of them should have walked out with you.
Speaker 1: In that moment. That would have made a hell of
Speaker 1: a statement.
Speaker 4: They should have been justice dis after they kicked you out.
Speaker 4: Somebody else should have stood up and been justice disrupted.
Speaker 3: Well, I do think that there would be additional moments,
Speaker 3: and you have now sounded the alarm. I think people
Speaker 3: are paying attention. I would only say I try to
Speaker 3: lead by example. If you think I'm a good example,
Speaker 3: then follow me.
Speaker 4: You're a great example. Mom's right, more than I do.
Speaker 4: But at least you gave us something to believe in
Speaker 4: that right.
Speaker 3: Well, you're very kind. You're very kind, and if I may,
Speaker 3: I don't know whether we're near the end here, but
Speaker 3: I want to thank you for bringing a degree of
Speaker 3: clarity that is not presented in traditional fashions. You know,
Speaker 3: you have courage. You have courage, you say what's on
Speaker 3: your mind. It's a very difficult thing to do for
Speaker 3: most people. Most people just are not going to say
Speaker 3: what's on their minds. There are many people who had
Speaker 3: on their minds what I said. And I'm not patting
Speaker 3: myself on the back, but I know it. I'm not
Speaker 3: the only person who thought that. But it takes courage,
Speaker 3: and you emphasize this, and I want to let you
Speaker 3: know this. When doctor King was at his zenith, when
Speaker 3: he was at his zenith. There were other great orators.
Speaker 3: He was not the only great orator. There were other
Speaker 3: great intellectuals. But the one thing he had that they
Speaker 3: didn't or they didn't exhibit, was courage. He had the
Speaker 3: courage to say what others knew and would not say.
Speaker 3: And that was what makes the difference. You've got to
Speaker 3: have courage. You've got to have the guts, intestinal fortitude,
Speaker 3: as Malcolm said it, you've got to have chidlings you do.
Speaker 3: That makes the difference.
Speaker 2: And congress congress Man now Green, we appreciate you for
Speaker 2: joining us this morning.
Speaker 3: Thank you, dear brother.
Speaker 2: And anytime you need to pull up, you are more
Speaker 2: than invited to come on through.
Speaker 3: Well. Thank brother, Michael Eric Dicey, Sir, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 3: dear brother.
Speaker 2: All Right, it's congress Man now Green. It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: Good morning.
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club.