Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Clarence Thomas has been taking half
Speaker 1: million dollars vacations paid for by donors he never disclosed. Shockingly,
Speaker 1: there is gambling at this casino. Today's show is so good.
Speaker 1: Congressman Robert Garcia talks about waiting through the rough waters
Speaker 1: of today's Congress. Then we'll talk to doctor Yusef Salaam
Speaker 1: of the Exonerated Five on his run for New York
Speaker 1: City Council and his message to Donald Trump after his indictment.
Speaker 1: But first we have the author of the Big Lie
Speaker 1: Pod Save America's Dan fight Fer. Welcome to you Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: Dan fight Fer, Well, thanks for having me very excited.
Speaker 1: I do want to talk to you about a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff, and I first want to start by talking
Speaker 1: to you about this really stupid CNN poll that just
Speaker 1: came out. Yes, first of all, just go sorry, which
Speaker 1: stupid part of the poll are you interested in? I
Speaker 1: think we should start with basically what this poll is. So,
Speaker 1: there was a CNN poll which said a third of
Speaker 1: Americans believe that Joe Biden deserves to be reelected. According
Speaker 1: to a new CNN Paul, the majority of the party
Speaker 1: would like to see someone else as the Democratic nominee
Speaker 1: for president this year. Discuss Yes, so one, we should
Speaker 1: take all polls this early in the election with like
Speaker 1: seventeen shakers of salts, It doesn't tell you very much.
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't worry about the numbers in this poll
Speaker 1: the fifteen hundred people that were that answered their email. Yes.
Speaker 1: One thing I am very confident of is when Joe
Speaker 1: Biden announceds for re election, which I presume he will
Speaker 1: do literally any day now, and then it becomes a
Speaker 1: choice not between as Joe Biden would say, Joe Biden
Speaker 1: and the Almighty, but Joe Biden in an alternative he
Speaker 1: was just likely who's just arraigned in court two days ago. Yes,
Speaker 1: I remember it well. Those numbers are going to change.
Speaker 1: And the thing that I think is Democrats we should
Speaker 1: pay attention to is there is some work to do
Speaker 1: on our side with some of our voters to get
Speaker 1: the enthusiasm up to the level we will need in
Speaker 1: the good news of that is it is April of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. No single person is going to start
Speaker 1: voting until October of twenty twenty four, when early one's
Speaker 1: going to start a bunch of states, and so there's
Speaker 1: plenty of time to do that. Barack Obama also was
Speaker 1: at this point in the year before the election losing
Speaker 1: to a generic Republican and was facing challenges. So it
Speaker 1: doesn't tell us very much. But I think we know
Speaker 1: there's work to do, but that work is very doable,
Speaker 1: and you can very easily see a path to how
Speaker 1: it gets done over a very long period of time. Obama,
Speaker 1: if you look at US registered voters opinions of whether
Speaker 1: incumbent presidents deserve to be reelected first midterm year, you
Speaker 1: have Trump at thirty seven percent, Obama at thirty seven percent,
Speaker 1: wa at sixty percent. It is a completely ridiculous metric.
Speaker 1: But I also want to point out, like it is Thursday,
Speaker 1: so this is going to air on Friday. On Tuesday,
Speaker 1: Democrats fucking swept the you know, they elected a judge
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin, a state that Trump won in twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: by eleven points. That's right, and which I think when
Speaker 1: we talk about Trump and we think about twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: if Donald Trump is the nominee, is that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: won won election in twenty and sixteen. He then lost
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: and now twenty twenty three. His party has filled at
Speaker 1: every juncture with either him on the ballot or Trump
Speaker 1: looming over the election. And if he is on the ballot,
Speaker 1: he will enter that race as a very flawed nominee
Speaker 1: who brings to bear a ton of baggage, not to
Speaker 1: mention the very real possibility that he could be sitting
Speaker 1: in a courtroom and they run up to that election
Speaker 1: dealing with one of multiple crimes committed to multiple jurisdictions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my favorite thing right now is the few conservative thought leaders.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's an oxymoron at this point, but
Speaker 1: the few of them that are left, I actually I
Speaker 1: have to say, like a little bit I feel I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't feel for them because like they have enabled fascism,
Speaker 1: but I also do a little bit feel for them
Speaker 1: because they're like trying to make sense of it. You know,
Speaker 1: they all they want is to Santists because at least
Speaker 1: the Santists can you know, do Trumpism without Trump. But
Speaker 1: like when Trump got indicted, they're like you've made Donald
Speaker 1: Trump president, and I'm like, no, we've made him the nominee.
Speaker 1: He's not going to be president. It will be interesting
Speaker 1: to see, I think there when you look at the
Speaker 1: poland it's easy just to say right now, Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: going to be the nominee, and I still think he's
Speaker 1: a strong favorite for it. We're only in the very
Speaker 1: beginning stages of this, and we have other possible indictments
Speaker 1: coming any day now, and you I do wonder sometimes
Speaker 1: if there is a little bit of a water on
Speaker 1: stone impact here where it's just like if all we
Speaker 1: talk about are the various criminal prosecutions of the Republican
Speaker 1: front runner over time, if a Republican candidate, another Republican
Speaker 1: Canida gets traction, and that is a giant if based
Speaker 1: on RNDA Santis's initial forays onto the national political stage.
Speaker 1: But if another candidate does get it, there are enough
Speaker 1: Republican voters concerned about electability who like Trump but are
Speaker 1: to Santis curious or alternative curious, where we'll see what
Speaker 1: it means, but it's just what it just right now.
Speaker 1: It's very like my big thing for all of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, twenty four is trying to bring just a
Speaker 1: ton of humility to understanding how this is going to
Speaker 1: play out because it's completely unprecedented. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: really smart. And I mean, if we've seen anything from
Speaker 1: all of these elections is that the polls have always
Speaker 1: been wrong, and you know, they just have been regularly wrong.
Speaker 1: I think about Adam Fresh, who I had on this podcast,
Speaker 1: and everyone was like, you're crazy, You're crazy. He can't win.
Speaker 1: He can't win. He lost my five hundred votes, like,
Speaker 1: so clearly that you know, we are definitely seeing that
Speaker 1: there was just you know, and I do think there's
Speaker 1: an opportunity for pollsters to change the way they pull.
Speaker 1: They're not doing that, but you know, I mean I
Speaker 1: talked to a lot of posters, and no one really
Speaker 1: knows how to solve stipulating that the polls were actually
Speaker 1: quite accurate in twenty twenty two. Well they were and
Speaker 1: they weren't, right. I mean, they'll tell you they were
Speaker 1: accurate because they were. You know, if you take polls
Speaker 1: and aggregate, but people don't do that. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: there there are certainly wrong ones, but they were, like
Speaker 1: the high quality media polling was much more accurate in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two than it wasn't other elections. But that's
Speaker 1: not because they change methodology to adjust for the errors
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty or twenty sixteen. It's that I think
Speaker 1: the challenge we have in polling. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of posters were saying, this is the group of people
Speaker 1: were incapable of fully capturing are the Trump voters who
Speaker 1: turn out in presidential election years only, And so you're
Speaker 1: dealing with a offier electorate. That's an easier group to pull,
Speaker 1: it's the larger group. And so with that there's real Quipally,
Speaker 1: we're trying to project something with a flawed measurement tool
Speaker 1: that suggest that you know, everyone just takes a pause
Speaker 1: on the hot takes. Right, No agreed, And I mean
Speaker 1: the road to hell is paved with hot takes. I've
Speaker 1: left many of them on that road, so I know.
Speaker 1: And I mean when you're in the opinion space, I mean,
Speaker 1: part of what we do is we try not to
Speaker 1: sound too stupid. I wanted to ask you out of Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: the one of the really strong messages was that here's
Speaker 1: a state that's really a very split state. Right, but abortion,
Speaker 1: the people in this state really want women to have
Speaker 1: bodily autonomy. I was hoping you could just talk about
Speaker 1: that for a minute. Yeah, when you look at Wisconsin
Speaker 1: and prior to the dab position, I think most political
Speaker 1: consultants would have incorrectly but definitely advised candidate to not
Speaker 1: talk about abortion in a Wisconsin race, given the makeup
Speaker 1: of that state, who the larger electorate profiles to be,
Speaker 1: which is more Trump voters than likely Democratic voters. But
Speaker 1: Dabbs changed everything. It brought to bear. It did two
Speaker 1: things I think are incredibly important or at least incredibly impactful.
Speaker 1: One is, even for the people who are insulated from
Speaker 1: politics by economic, societal, privilege, race, whatever else, the Dabbs
Speaker 1: decision affects them, they had an actual constitutional right taken
Speaker 1: away from them. And so that engages people to level.
Speaker 1: People who would sit out in midterm or even an
Speaker 1: off cycle election like this one, No, it matters to
Speaker 1: them now. And the second thing it did is it
Speaker 1: brought to bear the consequent the tangible, real world consequences
Speaker 1: of electing extremist Republicans. And so you know, Salinda Lake
Speaker 1: had this quote in this really important Rebecca Traster piece
Speaker 1: in the New York Times magazine this week that the country.
Speaker 1: Based on her polling, the country is now fifteen points
Speaker 1: more pro choice since DABS than it was before. So
Speaker 1: that is all over everything now, I think, and the
Speaker 1: Democrats should aggressively run on bodily autonomy, the right to choose,
Speaker 1: codifying Roe v. Wade. Stopping these state laws will likely
Speaker 1: happen in Wisconsin because of this race, and so we
Speaker 1: should be absolutely aggressive about it. The thing to think
Speaker 1: about in Wisconsin, I think it's important is and I
Speaker 1: don't think this changes how a portion plays, but the like,
Speaker 1: think about this way, so huge turnout in that election,
Speaker 1: huge turning. One point eight million people as of last
Speaker 1: count voted in this judicial election. But think about it
Speaker 1: this way, three point two million Wisconsin. I it's voted
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty right, so before like this is why
Speaker 1: it's always hard to draw conclusions about what these things
Speaker 1: mean the long term. It's just it's a smaller sample,
Speaker 1: and Wisconsin's a state where Republicans benefit from higher turnout.
Speaker 1: It's one of the rare states where that's the case,
Speaker 1: and so the more people turn out, the closer it
Speaker 1: will get. But that should not change our approach to
Speaker 1: abortion and how we talk about it. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just such a sort of interesting moment. I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you when you think about Wisconsin, I mean,
Speaker 1: you also have to realize that the Democratic State Party
Speaker 1: is incredibly good in Wisconsin. I was wondering if you
Speaker 1: could talk a little bit about that. We had Maxwell
Speaker 1: Frost on this podcast just like this morning, and and
Speaker 1: you know he you know, he's this incredible legislator, but
Speaker 1: from a state with just a very with the state
Speaker 1: party that need that is changing now hopefully, but I
Speaker 1: was wondering if you talk about that. Yeah. Ben Wickler,
Speaker 1: who was a friend of mine, who I've worked with
Speaker 1: for years, is just an absolute political genius. He has
Speaker 1: a dynamo. I don't know how he does all the
Speaker 1: things he does. He has built an incredible machine in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: And sometimes, if you know, like we joke all the
Speaker 1: time of posin America, like we should just clone Ben
Speaker 1: for all fifty states. And that's obviously not not not
Speaker 1: as of yet, a very viable strategy. And it's hard
Speaker 1: to go to every state party and be like, be
Speaker 1: like Ben Wickler in Wisconsin because Wisconsin has a history
Speaker 1: of strong parties, it has a high civic engagement rates,
Speaker 1: one of the highest turnal states in the country. So
Speaker 1: it's hard to go to like Florida and say be like,
Speaker 1: you know, a bigger state with lower civil civic engagements,
Speaker 1: they'd be like that. But there is one lesson I
Speaker 1: would say every single party chair should do that we
Speaker 1: should take from Ben Wickler, which is after twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: what Ben Wickler did in the Wisconsin Democrats is they
Speaker 1: went to their donors and said, I don't know how
Speaker 1: much money you were planning on giving, but become a
Speaker 1: recurring donor. Say instead of giving one hundred twenty bucks
Speaker 1: a year, give ten bucks a month. And the reason
Speaker 1: why that is so important, and Ben will tell you
Speaker 1: it's why they're able to win elections like these is
Speaker 1: money spent early is exponentially more impactful than money spent late.
Speaker 1: And so if you get one hundred and twenty dollars
Speaker 1: over the course of a year, that is going to
Speaker 1: help the party hire for the long term, invest in
Speaker 1: infrastructure and technology and data in ways that are completely
Speaker 1: not possible if you just give one hundred twenty bucks
Speaker 1: in the last month. And because we have as a
Speaker 1: party about this massive grassroots fundraising machine gives us a
Speaker 1: huge advantage because our money is going to candidates. Their
Speaker 1: money is going to superpacks and dark money groups. Right,
Speaker 1: But it's a boom bust cycle for us where it's
Speaker 1: it makes it impossible for parties and candidates to plan
Speaker 1: because what happens is something happens in the news like
Speaker 1: the death of Ruth beider Kinsberg, and everyone gives money. Kats,
Speaker 1: they're pissed, right, they're worried about everyone gets money or
Speaker 1: everyone gives money at the end. But money at the
Speaker 1: end can only really be spent on TV, which has
Speaker 1: really diminishing returns at that point in the race now, right,
Speaker 1: It just in general diminishing returns is more people move
Speaker 1: away from linear television. So at what every democratic donor
Speaker 1: who gives the parties and committees and organizations do is
Speaker 1: become a recurring donor. You can give the same amount
Speaker 1: of money you would give otherwise, just do it on
Speaker 1: a monthly basis so that our leadership can plan around it,
Speaker 1: they can invest. And so that's what every state. That's
Speaker 1: how if I was giving advice to state parties, that's
Speaker 1: where I would spend my time and energy right now,
Speaker 1: trying to build up a recurring sustainable donor base so
Speaker 1: that the party can build real infrastructure. Is supposed to
Speaker 1: just blowing all the money on TV at the end
Speaker 1: and then starting from scratch the next day. I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you about Florida for another minute, because a
Speaker 1: Nikki fit. I've had her on the podcast a bunch
Speaker 1: of times, and you know, she didn't win as governor. Again.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of issues, I think the statewide
Speaker 1: issues that may have but I just was curious. She
Speaker 1: has a very kind of I don't know. I found
Speaker 1: the way she looked at things a little bit exciting. Weed,
Speaker 1: water and weapons was her slogan, and I wondered if
Speaker 1: you thought, I mean again weapons what I mean? I
Speaker 1: don't know that. I can't speak too but I thought
Speaker 1: the idea of weed and water, I thought that was
Speaker 1: pretty interesting. I found her candidacy and the Democratic primary
Speaker 1: for governor very interesting. About the way she tried to
Speaker 1: embrace the legalization in marijuana was I think that's smart.
Speaker 1: I think that's the future for the party, and I
Speaker 1: think it would allow us to build some cross ideological coalitions.
Speaker 1: Legalization Mari Wanta pulls incredibly well with a lot of
Speaker 1: voters who we should be getting but are not currently getting,
Speaker 1: and so I like, I think that is very smart.
Speaker 1: Florida is such an interesting state because the party. This
Speaker 1: is why it's so important that with her leadership, they
Speaker 1: can build a sustainable party infrastructure there is it's so expensive,
Speaker 1: it is so hard to win because of the way
Speaker 1: the demographics shift in that state. But it should be like,
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity there for us, and what we need
Speaker 1: to be able to do is build a party infrastructure
Speaker 1: in Florida that allows the presidential campaign either in twenty
Speaker 1: four or twenty eight wherever else, to make a decision
Speaker 1: when the time comes to compete or not compete because
Speaker 1: it just costs so much money, right, it is a
Speaker 1: massive investment to spend a flori because there's so many
Speaker 1: media markets and they're so expensive. But the work can
Speaker 1: be done to bring it to the cusp of competitiveness
Speaker 1: so the party can make a real decision, so they
Speaker 1: cannon can make a real decision. But that's the work
Speaker 1: that has to happen now. So I think it's exciting
Speaker 1: that she has to embrace this job in that way.
Speaker 1: And it's been a very long time since we've had
Speaker 1: someone I think with that level of commitment and charisma,
Speaker 1: and I think strategic thinking in that role in Florida. Yeah,
Speaker 1: super interesting. I just want to get back to one
Speaker 1: more thing you were talking about. We're almost at a time,
Speaker 1: but you were talking about the things that Joe Biden
Speaker 1: can do to excite the base. I want to ask
Speaker 1: you about that. But I also I just wonder Biden
Speaker 1: he keeps winning. Like I'm just saying this in general,
Speaker 1: like people may not fundamentally like him, but he has
Speaker 1: delivered so hard on these results. Oh absolutely absolutely, And
Speaker 1: I don't take too much stock and these polls that
Speaker 1: show lack of enthusiasm among Democrats, it's too early to
Speaker 1: truly measure that. The only thing that I think is
Speaker 1: important to watch is the victory in twenty twenty and
Speaker 1: then the victor in twenty twenty two is driven in
Speaker 1: large parts by huge turnout in support levels among younger voters.
Speaker 1: That is the group that in approval ratings has soured
Speaker 1: the most on Joe Biden. I don't think that's going
Speaker 1: to stay true. But I think when it becomes Joe
Speaker 1: Biden vers Donald Trump or Joe Biden, Broun de Santis
Speaker 1: and we have more conversations about the completely insane, perverse
Speaker 1: thing that Republicans are trying to do to target LGBTQ
Speaker 1: youth in like this law and Kansas they just passed
Speaker 1: to allow genital inspections of children before supporting events. I
Speaker 1: think that that will change. But that's just like if
Speaker 1: you're just doing like your punch list for the Biden campaign,
Speaker 1: that's one thing you'll watch. I think, Look, Joe Biden
Speaker 1: has been by winning in twenty twenty, he essentially saved
Speaker 1: democracy and that is a historic achievement. He achieved more
Speaker 1: than anyone thought was possible given the narrow majorities he has,
Speaker 1: and then he delivered a victory in the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two interms. He expanded the Senate majority despite a sour economy,
Speaker 1: lower approval ratings, and you would expect, and so I
Speaker 1: think we should have great confidence in his ability to
Speaker 1: do it. I think that the party is going to
Speaker 1: get very fired up about him once this campaign engages,
Speaker 1: and when it particularly, there will be two things on
Speaker 1: amount would when Joe Biden's out there campaigning for himself,
Speaker 1: when there are ads on the air and in the
Speaker 1: Internet to help communicate his message, because it's so hard
Speaker 1: to break through in this mainstream media vironmenticularly to the
Speaker 1: voters we need, but also when the stakes of the
Speaker 1: election become so high, because we see that when people
Speaker 1: not just people like H and I who consume this
Speaker 1: stuff for a living or because we're maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit off, but like regular people who do not think
Speaker 1: about politics all day, starts seeing what this Republican Party
Speaker 1: is doing, that's going to move numbers pretty quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I definitely think that's true. I also wonder,
Speaker 1: and again I have fought with many people, and many
Speaker 1: people I truly like like Sarah Longwell from The Bulwark
Speaker 1: about this, but I really do believe Ron De Santis
Speaker 1: is significantly more scary than Donald Trump because he's very skilled.
Speaker 1: I've had this argument with many many people. It's really
Speaker 1: a pick your poison, right, right, Well, like how you
Speaker 1: view the threat when you're comparing Donald Trump and Ronda
Speaker 1: Santis's president United States? Donald Trump could easily get us
Speaker 1: into a third World war, like just double ass backwards
Speaker 1: into it, right, Absolutely, I think it's high it's more
Speaker 1: highly likely that he would do that than to Santis. Right,
Speaker 1: But if you're thinking about like who could actually make
Speaker 1: real progress in reigning in our democratic freedoms and making
Speaker 1: America American more of an authoritarian country. I think Ronda
Speaker 1: Santis would be much more successful at that task than
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, who has no real strategic sense or the
Speaker 1: attention span to do those sorts of things and sods.
Speaker 1: What are you worry about? Right? Are you worried about
Speaker 1: to basically doing the planet to nuclear war or doing
Speaker 1: America to authority. It's like, it's just pick which one
Speaker 1: you were the main things. We've got to beat both
Speaker 1: of them, and we absolutely can do that. It's it's
Speaker 1: just gonna take a lot of work. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: just incredible stuff. I really appreciate you joining me. I
Speaker 1: hope you'll come back anytime. Congressman Robert Garcia represents California's
Speaker 1: forty second district. Welcome to Fast Politics. Representative Garcia happy
Speaker 1: to be here. Thank you. You came on My eight
Speaker 1: are in a pretty interesting way, can you guess, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know, beyond say, taking on George Santos, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. Yes, Well, let's talk first about George Santos
Speaker 1: and though we can get to Beyonce. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously George Santos is a total fraud and
Speaker 1: a liar, has no place to in Congress. And I
Speaker 1: take a special offense just autistic, being you know, gay
Speaker 1: and Latino myself and him being gay in Latino. It
Speaker 1: just bothers me so much how much he is to
Speaker 1: fount of the country and he's constituents, and it's really
Speaker 1: sad to see. And I mean, we know nothing about him.
Speaker 1: He's a complete fabrication, and it just Trump has created
Speaker 1: this environment where someone like George Santos doesn't feel the
Speaker 1: responsibility to resign, and so we you know, we poor
Speaker 1: put forward an expulsion resolution. It continues to gain support
Speaker 1: every week, and I'm really hopeful that at some point
Speaker 1: soon he'll he'll resigner. I think we're going to find
Speaker 1: out pretty quickly through the traditional system that he's committed
Speaker 1: massive crimes. And so I think that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: where that said, and I don't expect him to be
Speaker 1: in Congress much longer. It is incredible though, like if
Speaker 1: you think about it, you know, they have like this
Speaker 1: four vote the Republican speaker. It's a sign of where
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy is that he couldn't get it together to
Speaker 1: expel Representative Santos. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I think the problem is that Kevin
Speaker 1: McCarthy really has no government coalition. His government coalition is extreme,
Speaker 1: you know, Maga Trump loyalists and spattering over the folks
Speaker 1: across the Caucasin. So the only way he can become
Speaker 1: Speaker was essentially to pass the keys over to folks
Speaker 1: like Margor Tailor greeting George Santos, Yeah, because he didn't
Speaker 1: have the votes, and so you know, he got them
Speaker 1: on board, and god knows, he's put a Margor Tailer
Speaker 1: Green on really a key committees, some of which I
Speaker 1: sit on, which is horrific to sit on with her. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Can you say more, because I think a lot of
Speaker 1: us are curious about what that's like. It's awful. I mean,
Speaker 1: if one is. You know, I'm on the Select Committee
Speaker 1: on the pandemic, for example, a very serious committee. I
Speaker 1: you know, my mom and stepdad passed away to pandemic
Speaker 1: with a horrible experience of with mayor of my city
Speaker 1: during the time. It is really rough. So I took
Speaker 1: it very seriously. And to put someone like Marjorie Teeler Green,
Speaker 1: who was literally a vaccine denier who literally has caused
Speaker 1: harm said probably serious step to families by her discrediting vaccinations.
Speaker 1: Discrediting the pandemic is wrong. It's just so irresponsible. And
Speaker 1: to see someone like her not just be on that committee,
Speaker 1: but I also serve with her on oversight and just
Speaker 1: to have her lie and lie and try to pull
Speaker 1: stunts like she did visiting the the in directionists that
Speaker 1: you know that attacked the Capitol and pulling those kinds
Speaker 1: of kind of media stunts is what she does. And
Speaker 1: sure her bass loves her, but she's an unserious person,
Speaker 1: have no business being in Congress, And her and George
Speaker 1: Santos are two sides the same coin. Yeah, one of
Speaker 1: the things that I am delighted by it I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about is this idea that Republicans
Speaker 1: really tried to target LGBTQ Americans in ways that are
Speaker 1: really beyond the pale. I don't think it's going to work.
Speaker 1: I think that marriage equality. You guys codified marriage equality
Speaker 1: in Congress. By the way, can you talk to us
Speaker 1: about what that was like? Because that must have been
Speaker 1: pretty exciting as a game member in Congress, and there's
Speaker 1: not many. I mean there's ten in the Congress, in
Speaker 1: the House, there's two in the Senate. It's a small group,
Speaker 1: and sover for us to see the support with particularly
Speaker 1: within our own caucus, and with definitely with some Republicans,
Speaker 1: a good group of them, I think it's really is hardening.
Speaker 1: But I also don't want to just make this about marriage.
Speaker 1: I think marriage is something that's been litigated, moved beyond
Speaker 1: gay marriage. The bigger issue right now, quite frankly, is
Speaker 1: this constant attack from the far right attacking trans people,
Speaker 1: attacking gender identity, attacking books that they want to tell
Speaker 1: stories about, you know, gay people in our schools, and
Speaker 1: so there is a radical attack happening. And I don't
Speaker 1: put it past you know, any any Republican that made
Speaker 1: now support the marriage. I mean, they welcome them, we're
Speaker 1: happy about it. But that's just window dressing. I mean
Speaker 1: the real fight is trying to move the community backwards
Speaker 1: on almost every other type of right or protection, whether
Speaker 1: it's in schools, in the workplace, and certainly globally and
Speaker 1: so bacheup we're focused on right now, and marriage I
Speaker 1: think was one of a long time ago. So we're
Speaker 1: continuing that fight. Yeah, I mean, no, marriage equality is
Speaker 1: the bare minimum. But it strikes me as interesting that
Speaker 1: they are at war. It doesn't strike me as interesting.
Speaker 1: It's super disturbing that they're at war with their targeting LGBTQ,
Speaker 1: and I think ultimately they're doing that through targeting trans people.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you one of the things that
Speaker 1: you've been working, you've been urging Mary Garland my orchids
Speaker 1: to do more. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we've been working. I mean there's
Speaker 1: there's a couple a couple things here. I think. I
Speaker 1: think one is there's there's a group of us that
Speaker 1: are very focused on overall just the real kind of
Speaker 1: danger that is beginning to develop on the right, the
Speaker 1: extreme kind of this magabase that's happening. And it's no
Speaker 1: longer this loyal opposition. It's essentially crazed people. I mean,
Speaker 1: folks that are obsessed with trans people that are obsessed
Speaker 1: with attacking our institutions, are obsessed with attacking journalists that
Speaker 1: have become quite dangerous. And I think that there gets
Speaker 1: pretty clear. And it's not just me saying that people
Speaker 1: in the military, it's people at DJ that we have
Speaker 1: a serious domestic terrorism. We have a white supremacy issue
Speaker 1: in this country, We have a dost of terrorist issue
Speaker 1: in this country, and folks like Donald Trump and Marge
Speaker 1: Tiller we can continue to incite these folks. And we've
Speaker 1: seen attacks on individuals across this country, not just on
Speaker 1: social media, but really serious ones that are actually been
Speaker 1: physical and nature, and January six of being kind of
Speaker 1: the the epitome of that. And so we're really working
Speaker 1: and trying to encourage folks and especially our leaders and
Speaker 1: our cabinet secretaries at our key agencies to really focus
Speaker 1: on this issue of domestic terrorism, and during especially this
Speaker 1: time when you have Donald Trump trying to incite his
Speaker 1: base of making sure that protections are in place for
Speaker 1: the public, for schools, for volks in our government, for
Speaker 1: the media. These are really serious issues. I've been hardened,
Speaker 1: I think lately We've had some conversations and some hearings
Speaker 1: where it sounds like this is something that's being taken
Speaker 1: care taken seriously, certainly by the Biden administration. It's just
Speaker 1: unfortunate that we literally have a former president trying to
Speaker 1: incite riots. Yeah, oh, now is this completely completely crazy?
Speaker 1: Do you feel safe in Congress. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: Trump is sort of trying to do this again? I mean,
Speaker 1: what is your feelings? I mean, I feel safe personally.
Speaker 1: I'm a member that I like to walk outside. I
Speaker 1: don't take the tunnel hols like you know. I'm very
Speaker 1: open that way, and so I feel fine. But I
Speaker 1: understand that it's not exactly a safe place for everybody.
Speaker 1: And I think also that there's a lot of folks
Speaker 1: that feel unsafe. I hear it from my colleagues and
Speaker 1: uh and that's a scary thing, I think for in
Speaker 1: our seat of government to feel like they are being
Speaker 1: targeted by an extreme uh force in this country and
Speaker 1: and being incited by it former President's states. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't. I still know it's amazing, particularly rewitnessed what's
Speaker 1: going on with Donald Trump right now. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is the biggest con man ever in the history of
Speaker 1: our country. This person is a con man, a criminal, corrupt.
Speaker 1: I mean, you he epitomizes all the worst things about
Speaker 1: about America, and yet he has this kind of rapid
Speaker 1: group of supporters and internet, to a broader extension, the
Speaker 1: Republicans in Congress that basically tell them that this is okay.
Speaker 1: It's okay to inside violence, and it's okay to attack
Speaker 1: our institutions, and it's okay to support kind of this
Speaker 1: kind of racist ideology in our country, and it's quite dangerous,
Speaker 1: and so I feel safe. I think that we're not
Speaker 1: living in safe times, and I think we've got to
Speaker 1: be very careful in the months ahead, but particularly as
Speaker 1: we kind of keep more information about what these indictments
Speaker 1: are exactly about, and what the Justice Department that ends
Speaker 1: up doing and what happens at a Georgia. I think
Speaker 1: it's really important that we are careful. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: you come from a group that Democrats have been trying
Speaker 1: to win. Can you talk about a little bit about
Speaker 1: how Democrats can win over Latino voters. Obviously, as a
Speaker 1: LGBTQ plus immigrant, of being the first that have been
Speaker 1: elected to Congress, I feel like I've got a special
Speaker 1: responsibility to be a voice, particularly within our own Latino community,
Speaker 1: for you, for lgbt Q plus folks, and broadly speaking,
Speaker 1: as an immigrant, someone that came here to this country,
Speaker 1: and there's not a lot of immigrants actually served Congress.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been talking about immigration in the Forum
Speaker 1: for decades. There hasn't been real immigration in form stance
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties. And I think one thing that's been
Speaker 1: missing also is folks that have actually been to the system.
Speaker 1: And I was documented from US much of my life.
Speaker 1: I stayed past my visa. I didn't become a US
Speaker 1: citizen till I mean almost my mid twenties, and so
Speaker 1: I know what the experience is actually like and how
Speaker 1: it works and the damage it does to families. And
Speaker 1: so I think that Democrats have not led on issues
Speaker 1: around immigration. And yes, there's alignment with Latinos on education
Speaker 1: and on healthcare, and I think broadly on taxes, but
Speaker 1: on immigration, I think Latinos feel left behind. I think
Speaker 1: they feel disappointed. I think that's been that's widely I
Speaker 1: think recognize, and to President Biden's credit, on day one,
Speaker 1: he did propose an immigration it Form kind of framework.
Speaker 1: We just don't have the numbers in the Congress. And
Speaker 1: I think when we did have the opportunity that we
Speaker 1: did have the numbers, we didn't take that, you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't take that shot, you know, years ago, and
Speaker 1: I think that was really unfortunate. I think the X
Speaker 1: time that we're able to have the House back and
Speaker 1: keep hold of the Senate and the presidency, which could
Speaker 1: be in just a couple of years. Immigration reform has
Speaker 1: got to be at the top of that list. It's
Speaker 1: got to be tough. And I think that that the
Speaker 1: sale community will not and if not in a place
Speaker 1: where we're not going to demand that to be in
Speaker 1: the top to the list. Yeah, no, I agree, And
Speaker 1: I think the immigration situation in this country is so
Speaker 1: incredibly and I can curse because we're not on cable
Speaker 1: news here are fucked up. We are desperate for workers.
Speaker 1: We are a country that is desperate for so desperate
Speaker 1: for workers that some Republican governors are changing the child
Speaker 1: labor laws. Insane. Now, it's it's insane, And I agree
Speaker 1: with you, it is fucked up. And I think that
Speaker 1: and what happened to the America that welcome people, that
Speaker 1: looked at asylum seekers as folks that we could help.
Speaker 1: And you know what happened to a country that was
Speaker 1: proud of its immigrant roots, that was built in large part,
Speaker 1: huge contribution to this country has always been the immigrant
Speaker 1: and experience, and now we're at this place where there's
Speaker 1: just a demonization and attacks on immigrants constantly. I mean
Speaker 1: fueled by by by Trump and some of these stream
Speaker 1: is in the party, and it's really sad. I think
Speaker 1: I think it speaks to where we are as our
Speaker 1: values as a country. You know, this idea that patriotism
Speaker 1: is about individualism, or it's about taking care of oneself
Speaker 1: and one's family only, and this you know, America first,
Speaker 1: my family first. I think that is exactly the opposite
Speaker 1: of what this country is about. This country is and
Speaker 1: has tradition it's been about a patriotism that actually is
Speaker 1: about helping people that actually helping people within our country
Speaker 1: that come to our border around the world, and we've
Speaker 1: always had pride in that. And I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: Democrats have to retake this idea of what true patriotism is.
Speaker 1: And I think that immigrants are some of the most
Speaker 1: patriotic people that actually are in the country. They have been,
Speaker 1: particularly those that become citizens like myself and my family.
Speaker 1: We fought for citizenship, we arened citizens ship, and so
Speaker 1: we have a lot of work to do there. But
Speaker 1: I think I think Democrats need to take the lead,
Speaker 1: and I think that's something we have not seen on
Speaker 1: this issue in some time. Yeah, I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: thing I'm struck by it's not even like doing the
Speaker 1: right thing. Republicans are hurting the country because they're racist,
Speaker 1: or at least when it comes to immigration. The American
Speaker 1: economy needs people to work or will not grow. So
Speaker 1: I mean, this is not even like about doing the
Speaker 1: right thing. This is about self preservation. And that's the
Speaker 1: interesting thing. I think the only way we're going to
Speaker 1: be any type of reform package is actually an acknowledgement
Speaker 1: from Republicans that it's different the economy. And we're hearing
Speaker 1: I'm hearing all the time from CEOs now and from
Speaker 1: the business associations and chambers back home and across DC
Speaker 1: that you know, the worker shortage is real. There is
Speaker 1: real issues around around a labor the labor market. We
Speaker 1: could fix these problems, and yet we're choosing not to.
Speaker 1: Immigration is the solution to bringing in new talent, to
Speaker 1: refilling our labor pool, to bring in folks are willing
Speaker 1: to work really hard for some of these jobs that
Speaker 1: we can't find people to do in this country. Even
Speaker 1: you look at the shortages that are happening right now
Speaker 1: around mercy, around healthcare, in the education space, it haggard culture.
Speaker 1: These are serious challenges that are only going to get
Speaker 1: exponentially worse unless you're not address immigration. I think Republicans,
Speaker 1: some especially of finally getting that. And so unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 1: these some of these folks don't They don't care unless
Speaker 1: it hurts their pocketbook. And I think, I think that
Speaker 1: it's going to start hurting their pocketbook, and it has
Speaker 1: started to already, and so hopefully we'll see some season pristare.
Speaker 1: I always thought before the pandemic that while Republicans will
Speaker 1: kill their own people and it will be bad for
Speaker 1: their voters, right, I mean, it's bad to kill your voters,
Speaker 1: you would think, But a lot of Republican voters were
Speaker 1: not able to make the connection between anti vax and
Speaker 1: dying of COVID. No, that's right, and I you know,
Speaker 1: and that's that was really sad to see. I think
Speaker 1: also the truth that you look you see are repeated
Speaker 1: in like, for example, just for a lot of as
Speaker 1: we know, folks that vote for Trump and that are
Speaker 1: conservative with our Republicans are are some of the most
Speaker 1: lowest income people in some of our states that are
Speaker 1: the most low income across the country, and they, you know,
Speaker 1: they can't see that they're supporting folks that literally in
Speaker 1: some cases despise poor people and surely do not support
Speaker 1: low income volks. And so there's a huge disconnect there,
Speaker 1: and that's why sometimes they worry. Yes, like Republican business
Speaker 1: leaders and yes, Republican kind of you know, traditional Republicans
Speaker 1: understand the need for immigration, but I think the far
Speaker 1: you know that those that are on the far right,
Speaker 1: particularly those from some of these communities that are very trumpy,
Speaker 1: they're a lot of them are already living in poor communities.
Speaker 1: That doesn't seem to botany that doesn't seem to impact
Speaker 1: their voting decisions, and so I'm not sure that passing
Speaker 1: Immigration of Form bill will either. And a lot of that,
Speaker 1: as we know, it's a lot to do with race,
Speaker 1: because there is an issue there of race and of
Speaker 1: not the other end of concern about what, you know,
Speaker 1: immigrants are going to do this country, even though we
Speaker 1: literally helped build it. Come from California, California. It's about
Speaker 1: to be fire season in California, but right now it's
Speaker 1: atmospheric river season in California. Where is California on climate
Speaker 1: and how unprepared are we? I feel like this sort
Speaker 1: of devetails into our our conversation, like there's so much
Speaker 1: climate denialism. I just I wonder if we're ever going
Speaker 1: to get there. Now I wonder the same thing too.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, I think any California obviously is a
Speaker 1: model that relates to climate action. And I really support
Speaker 1: our governor and really condemn the rest of the Republicans
Speaker 1: across the country that are should take a que from
Speaker 1: what we're doing out here. I see them. We see
Speaker 1: the impacts of the climate crisis in California obviously. I
Speaker 1: mean there are we are having huge shifts and temperature,
Speaker 1: what's going on with with our drought, and then we'll
Speaker 1: have these storms that come in and so there's there's
Speaker 1: definitely a change that's happening. That's that's fit they were
Speaker 1: living through. But the bigger issue is the denialism that
Speaker 1: happening across the country and within the House Caucus. I mean,
Speaker 1: they're so focused on profits for big oil and profits
Speaker 1: for these huge you know groups that just want to
Speaker 1: you know, essentially destroy the rest of the country. They
Speaker 1: want to open up our preserved spaces, they want to
Speaker 1: get you know, drilled every piece of land that they're
Speaker 1: able to. They have no interest in cleaning up their
Speaker 1: ships or cleaning up dirty diesel trucks, and so it's
Speaker 1: like they're not even concerned about the future for their kids. Now, fortunately,
Speaker 1: I'm very much like encouraged by the next generation. And
Speaker 1: it just it seems like the sooner that you know,
Speaker 1: we cycle in all these young people that on all sides,
Speaker 1: that care about climate, that really believe in this, and
Speaker 1: we're going to be better off asive country because the
Speaker 1: older folks and then in this country and are just
Speaker 1: completely lost on this is ship. Yeah. Absolutely, thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Congressman. I hope you'll come back absolutely anytime.
Speaker 1: Doctor Yusuf Salam is a member of the Exonerated five
Speaker 1: at a candidate for city council in New York City.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics, doctor Yusuf Salam. Thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you for having me first. Why don't you talk to
Speaker 1: us a little bit about what you're running for before
Speaker 1: we talk about anything else. Yeah. Absolutely, So I'm running
Speaker 1: for city council here in Central hallm for really the
Speaker 1: chance to lead our people and to resuscitate the very
Speaker 1: soul that is dormant in Harlem. You know, I've been
Speaker 1: told that there's a lack of leadership, there's a lack
Speaker 1: of support. And as I walk around the community, that's
Speaker 1: exactly what I see. I see that we are in
Speaker 1: dire need for our tax dollars to do exactly what
Speaker 1: it says is supposed to do. You know, they say
Speaker 1: no taxation without representation, and we are not being represented
Speaker 1: at all in Harlem, and we need more support. And
Speaker 1: I think that when I think about the condition we're in,
Speaker 1: we've been pushed into the margins of life and there's
Speaker 1: no one really bringing all voices, our concerns, our ideas
Speaker 1: into the halls of power in a way that's meaningful
Speaker 1: for us. And so I'm running for city council in
Speaker 1: Central Hallow to be that voice of the people whose
Speaker 1: voices have been turned down, this desire to be heard.
Speaker 1: You come by this honestly. Can you explain to us
Speaker 1: a little bit of your origin story? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that term origin story. Thirty
Speaker 1: four years ago, I was really run over by the
Speaker 1: spike wils of justice. Yeah. Really almost a death sentence,
Speaker 1: if you can imagine it, because two weeks after we
Speaker 1: were accused of media mogul, a personality who in many
Speaker 1: ways was celebrated by a black community even though he's
Speaker 1: not black. Donald Trump takes out these full page ads
Speaker 1: in New York City's newspapers, rushing to judge us, basically
Speaker 1: calling for the death penalty to be reinstated for our case.
Speaker 1: And what that did, essentially was it whispered into the
Speaker 1: darkest unclaves of society that you can do to us,
Speaker 1: those who became known as the Central Park five. You
Speaker 1: can do to us what you have done to admit too.
Speaker 1: And if we survived, if we happen to go to
Speaker 1: prison and survive, then when we come home, we were
Speaker 1: supposed to be given a social death that we were
Speaker 1: never supposed to come out of. And that is the short,
Speaker 1: so to speak. Peace. But we were arrested for a
Speaker 1: crime we didn't commit almost thirty four years ago. The
Speaker 1: crime was the rape of the Central Park jogger. We
Speaker 1: became known as the Central Park five. We were found
Speaker 1: guilty in nineteen ninety and went to prison for a
Speaker 1: crime we didn't commit. All along, there was no DNA.
Speaker 1: You were fifteen years old, so we were fourteen, fifteen,
Speaker 1: and sixteen year old children. And what they did essentially
Speaker 1: after that ad was ran in New York City's newspapers.
Speaker 1: They also published our names, phonembers and addresses in New
Speaker 1: York Cities newspap and so as you can imagine, people
Speaker 1: began to write us hate mail, write us death threats,
Speaker 1: tell us that they were going to kill us. Even
Speaker 1: if we somehow miraculously survive twenty to thirty years from now,
Speaker 1: some people will never forget is the language that someone
Speaker 1: sent us, you know. And it was a tragedy because
Speaker 1: it made people believe that black and brown people were
Speaker 1: actually criminals and were a cry. They looked at the
Speaker 1: color of our skin and not the content of our character,
Speaker 1: and they judged us by it. And when I tell you,
Speaker 1: it was the most awful thing to go through, but
Speaker 1: I realized that kind of evil, being presented with the
Speaker 1: negativity the idea of being born a mistake at the
Speaker 1: age of fifteen, caused me to become stronger, become wiser,
Speaker 1: start planning a way forward. Because right now I'm able
Speaker 1: to stand in a manner that says I'm better and
Speaker 1: not bitter. But I'm better and not bitter because this
Speaker 1: circumstance actually made it possible for me to be here
Speaker 1: in front of you today. All of the lived experiences,
Speaker 1: the good and the bad. The fact that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: was there in front of my face thirty four years
Speaker 1: ago at fifteen, and now he became the President of
Speaker 1: the United States, and now he's back in front of
Speaker 1: the media. You know, these types of things. I think
Speaker 1: I needed to be able to see, experience and then
Speaker 1: figure how am I going to survive? You had six
Speaker 1: and a half years of your life stolen from you.
Speaker 1: You managed to somehow find peace? Yes, can you talk
Speaker 1: about that? Absolutely? A lot of the peace that I
Speaker 1: have can be attributed to a belief system. Knowing that
Speaker 1: whatever you are given in life, the challenges that you
Speaker 1: have to come up against, is not more then you
Speaker 1: can bear. And when you hold onto the faith of
Speaker 1: a mustard seed, you find out that you get the
Speaker 1: opportunity to become very strong. That life, in fact is
Speaker 1: trying to make you into a diamond, and the only
Speaker 1: way for that to happen is that you have to
Speaker 1: grow through pressure and then more pressure on top of that,
Speaker 1: in order for your very soul to be transformed into
Speaker 1: the very thing that is coveted. A life of value,
Speaker 1: a life that reflects the light in a way that's meaningful,
Speaker 1: my belief system is really everything. Yeah, so much went
Speaker 1: wrong with that case. I grew up in New York City.
Speaker 1: I was twelve years old when you guys were imprisoned
Speaker 1: and your lives were taken away from you. So much
Speaker 1: went wrong? Are you I mean, do you think that
Speaker 1: there's been some fixing in the criminal justice system in
Speaker 1: New York or do you think that's the same good
Speaker 1: thing could still happen. I absolutely think the same thing
Speaker 1: could happen. You know, as a matter of fact, when
Speaker 1: you think about my case, you know, the Center Park
Speaker 1: Jogger case and the Center Park five as we were
Speaker 1: once known, we became the modern day stots broke boys.
Speaker 1: And when you think about history and how history is taught,
Speaker 1: or rather not taught, you know, there's a concerted effort
Speaker 1: to ensure that we stay asleep, that the giants that
Speaker 1: we are, the fact that we are, our ancestors wildest dreams.
Speaker 1: There's a concerted effort for us to participate in the
Speaker 1: process of us being the oil in the machinery of
Speaker 1: systemical oppression. Because my mother says, eight years ago, she
Speaker 1: said to me, when I was fifteen and she was
Speaker 1: at the precinct, they gave her a moment to speak
Speaker 1: to me, and in that moment, she gave me my
Speaker 1: final instructions. She told me that they needed me to
Speaker 1: participate in whatever it is that they're trying to do.
Speaker 1: Do not participate, she said, refuse. And so those words
Speaker 1: guided me and continue to still guide me as I
Speaker 1: move forward in life, understanding that I am the secret
Speaker 1: ingredient to the whole thing. You know, it is absolutely
Speaker 1: on us, on us to be our best, to do
Speaker 1: our best, to challenge ourselves so that we don't become
Speaker 1: the oil in the machinery. But I think that they
Speaker 1: want us to do that. I think that the more
Speaker 1: we lack power. The fact that you know, when you
Speaker 1: think about Harlem and the Harlems of the world, people
Speaker 1: are leaving in droves. They're not really leaving in droves.
Speaker 1: They are making decisions because it's coming. It's becoming so expensive,
Speaker 1: and the cost of living has increased in such a
Speaker 1: way that the actual median income in the area has
Speaker 1: not risen to meet the cost of living, and so
Speaker 1: a lot of people are in pushed out, being forced out.
Speaker 1: In fact, and what happens to the power when people leave,
Speaker 1: The power shifts. There never been one hundred percent participation
Speaker 1: in the voting process. But imagine realizing that you were
Speaker 1: pushed into a margin of life that said you are
Speaker 1: going to be one of the disenfranchised. How many people,
Speaker 1: how many black and brown bodies, how many poor people
Speaker 1: have been pushed into that space. And I think when
Speaker 1: you think about it, you realize that if we have
Speaker 1: been pushed into that space and we accepted, and then
Speaker 1: we come out of that, we perhaps we'll never want
Speaker 1: to participate in the system. We perhaps want to just
Speaker 1: go along to get a law. But what happens with
Speaker 1: that is that our non participation is actually participating in
Speaker 1: the fact that we get nothing. We pay our money,
Speaker 1: they take our money and do with it what they want. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you think it was your faith that was able
Speaker 1: to get you through the experience of being I mean,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people who have been to jail,
Speaker 1: some of them more often than not. It is not
Speaker 1: It is not a good experience. I'm sure your experience
Speaker 1: was also not a good experience in many ways, but
Speaker 1: you know you've learned and grown from it. Oh. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: my experience was horrible, horrific, The most unfortunate of unfortunate events.
Speaker 1: I remember where we went to prison, not because we
Speaker 1: did a crime. We went to prison because they labeled
Speaker 1: us rapists. That is the worst go to prison for,
Speaker 1: you know, to be branded as a rapist is only
Speaker 1: trump by child molestation. And to hold onto my faith.
Speaker 1: I realized that what was going on for me that
Speaker 1: can really only talk about me, is that as I
Speaker 1: prayed my way through it, God put a headge of
Speaker 1: protection around me. That the that they were fanning in
Speaker 1: order to burn us alive allowed us to come out
Speaker 1: of that as the biblical figures shadrack, me shock and
Speaker 1: a bindigo. And I think, as I related all, you know,
Speaker 1: it's one thing when you're walking and marching and trying
Speaker 1: to get through hell, but the only thing to get
Speaker 1: through it is that you have to keep on going.
Speaker 1: And once you are on the other side, you get
Speaker 1: the opportunity to look back and say to yourself, Wow,
Speaker 1: look at God. Because it is only by the grace
Speaker 1: of God that I survived that with my mind intact,
Speaker 1: with my faculties intact, for me to be able to
Speaker 1: mount this new opportunity in life in terms of my candidacy.
Speaker 1: Because I looked at it and said, you know what,
Speaker 1: we should resuscitate our lives. If you know that prayer
Speaker 1: is you talking to God, you have to know also
Speaker 1: that meditation is listening for the answers. And so I
Speaker 1: prayed often, and I meditated even more. I learned how
Speaker 1: to meditate with my eyes wide open. I learned how
Speaker 1: to walk and meditate. I learned how to talk and meditate.
Speaker 1: And I think it became tremendous because I then became
Speaker 1: a vessel, a vessel with which or through which I
Speaker 1: get the opportunity to reflect the light. And we need
Speaker 1: more light. We need so much more light in this
Speaker 1: world of darkness. Because when I think about what's going
Speaker 1: on around the world, you know, in America or Prussian
Speaker 1: looks like white supremacy, white mail dominance, but in the
Speaker 1: other parts of the world, oppression looks very different. And
Speaker 1: what I realized as I traveled the world, my experience
Speaker 1: has shown that you know what we are fighting against,
Speaker 1: those people who are fighting on the side of right,
Speaker 1: on a good side of history, for human rights. We
Speaker 1: are fighting against spiritual wickedness in high and low places. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's funny because tonight is the first night to pass over,
Speaker 1: and I think of like the job of our city.
Speaker 1: And you know, I was in my early teens right
Speaker 1: when you were in your early teens and you were
Speaker 1: sent to jail for a crime you didn't commit. I
Speaker 1: don't know, it just it hits me on a very
Speaker 1: emotional level talking to you. I mean, I'm sure people
Speaker 1: have that with you a lot too. I mean, but
Speaker 1: I want to ask you. Are you close with the
Speaker 1: other members of the group of these honorated five. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we are very close as a matter of fact, on
Speaker 1: the Sacred Brotherhood because of this, you know, when we
Speaker 1: first went through this journey, and you know, in many
Speaker 1: ways I thought that it perhaps was a collected journey
Speaker 1: or the journey that we went through together. But the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is that we actually had very
Speaker 1: individual experiences. You know, we weren't always in the same jail.
Speaker 1: We definitely didn't have the same experience when it came
Speaker 1: to prison. When you think about, you know, what I
Speaker 1: had went through and what you know, my friend Corey
Speaker 1: Wise went through. Right, the juxtaposition is, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: you know when we watched when they see us, even
Speaker 1: to Renee, I never forget this, she said. While Corey
Speaker 1: was out of the room, we were preparing to watch
Speaker 1: part four, and she said, you know, gentlemen, I want
Speaker 1: you to know that this part that you're about to
Speaker 1: see is the tv ber version and to digest that
Speaker 1: after having watched part one, two and three. You know,
Speaker 1: the emotionality connected with our story being told and being
Speaker 1: told right, being given new life through young actors and actresses,
Speaker 1: very very impactful, very profile. You know. I think about
Speaker 1: that all the time. And it's one thing to experience
Speaker 1: something and you can look over at your comrades who
Speaker 1: are there with you, but it's another thing to get
Speaker 1: their take on it, to be in conversation, to listen
Speaker 1: to them as they have internalized and experienced it for
Speaker 1: themselves as well. And I think, you know when they
Speaker 1: see as gives us that opportunity because you're talking about
Speaker 1: five stories, five individuals who are not just by themselves
Speaker 1: but with their families as well, and what that meant
Speaker 1: and what it looked like, and how systemically we were
Speaker 1: torn apart, you know, even coming out of that not
Speaker 1: knowing the actual journey that we all had gone through,
Speaker 1: but then coming to a point where we were able
Speaker 1: to tell our stories to movie producers and writers and
Speaker 1: actors and actresses, and they were able to follow us
Speaker 1: and begin to become and imbibe the very soul of
Speaker 1: us so that they can tell our story in a
Speaker 1: super just an impactful way. Can you just talk for
Speaker 1: a minute about your incredible ad? Absolutely, you know my a.
Speaker 1: The ad a response of course that I had always
Speaker 1: wanted to do, because when you think about what Donald
Speaker 1: Trump did in nineteen eighty nine, two weeks after we
Speaker 1: were accused, he didn't give us the presumption of innocence.
Speaker 1: I chose rather, after he was indicted and brought up
Speaker 1: on criminal charges, to afford him what he had not
Speaker 1: afforded us, to be noble in the sight of oppression,
Speaker 1: to be able to say, you know what, Yes, for me,
Speaker 1: it was the criminal system of injustice, but perhaps one day,
Speaker 1: maybe today, I give the opportunity to call it the
Speaker 1: criminal justice system. And so the AD was a chance
Speaker 1: to show the world, with him having a front seat,
Speaker 1: that we're still here, we're still strong, that we are
Speaker 1: gifted with the grace that God gave us, and we
Speaker 1: will always be noble for that. And the encouragement that
Speaker 1: we afforded him would be an encouragement to say, look,
Speaker 1: I hope you're you hope that you get what you
Speaker 1: didn't give us, and I hope if you're convicted, that
Speaker 1: you are able to do the time in the same
Speaker 1: nobility and graceful manner that we have. Yeah, graceful nobility
Speaker 1: and graceful manner. That seems like a stretch, but yes,
Speaker 1: let's go on for him. Yes, absolutely, because you know
Speaker 1: the fact that he wasn't even handcuffed, the fact that
Speaker 1: he wasn't in let you know, leg shackles or anything
Speaker 1: like that. You know, a lot of that has been
Speaker 1: mentioned by the media, of course, but it's the juxtaposition
Speaker 1: of being in the same building net you know, back
Speaker 1: then the assenter Park five were brought into and arraigned
Speaker 1: and we had to stay and we couldn't go home.
Speaker 1: He was able to leave in his private plane, not
Speaker 1: even not even a yet. He left in a private
Speaker 1: plane to go back to be able to talk to
Speaker 1: his supporters and get more support. We didn't have any
Speaker 1: of that. We had to talk to ourselves and talk
Speaker 1: to God, and you know, finned off all of the
Speaker 1: evil that was lurking and waiting for us behind those walls.
Speaker 1: The place that most people know is the belly of
Speaker 1: the beast, the challenge of it all. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you're going to be our mayor at some point. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: And I can't wait. I've decided. I was watching on
Speaker 1: television yesterday and I thought he's going to be our
Speaker 1: mayor someday. I so appreciate you just coming on and
Speaker 1: talking about your experience and also the incredible generosity of
Speaker 1: spirit that you have after being so mistreated by as
Speaker 1: a teenager. And I just I am just like blown
Speaker 1: away by you, and I really appreciate you. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you. Appreciate this opportunity as well. Thank you as well.
Speaker 1: Jesse Cannon. Marjorie Taylor Greden is using New York City
Speaker 1: as a punching bag, the way that Republicans love to
Speaker 1: use urban areas as punching bags. And yet again we
Speaker 1: see it here. She comes to our city, she tweets
Speaker 1: about how everyone is a drug addict who's falling over.
Speaker 1: She tries to make chaos. She picks a fight with
Speaker 1: our terrible mayor that we didn't care so much about,
Speaker 1: and then she goes on Tucker Carlson to complain that
Speaker 1: our city smells. You know, she was not invited here. Really,
Speaker 1: I thought you said it, she was not, and this
Speaker 1: is the lamest pandering going and for that she gets
Speaker 1: a hearty fuck that guy. That's it for this episode
Speaker 1: of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Speaker 1: to your the best minds in politics makes sense of
Speaker 1: all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please
Speaker 1: send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Speaker 1: And again, thanks for listening.