Speaker 1: Native Lamp Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Recent Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: All right, d'all, welcome home. It's episode forty two of
Speaker 1: Native Lamp Pod. So the pod is almost as old
Speaker 1: as us, you guys, because I can't believe we're already
Speaker 1: on forty two.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, well I'm older than that.
Speaker 1: But yes, it's well, we're Angela's elders, but almost as Andrew.
Speaker 1: You look pretty snazzy and you're Miami Vice.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: I just you know, here's my hurricane outfit in case
Speaker 5: y'all find me, you know, under a break.
Speaker 3: Well, we are.
Speaker 1: Seriously concerned because there is a storm headed your way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, are you saying your direct hit here in Tallahassee?
Speaker 3: Possibly a Cat three, which would be about the strongest
Speaker 3: storm that we've had here.
Speaker 5: So I had two hurricanes when I was mayor of Tallahassee,
Speaker 5: and that was after almost fifty years of no storm.
Speaker 3: You know, it's thirty years of no storms.
Speaker 5: And now we've been you know whatever. So I'm actually
Speaker 5: we get packing the family up and they're trying to
Speaker 5: get out of here any minute now, and I'll get
Speaker 5: out when I finished some house preparations.
Speaker 1: But yeah, well, thank you for being dedicated to stick around.
Speaker 1: Welcome home, and already right exactly, angel I've already complimented
Speaker 1: you on your Shreditdnim.
Speaker 6: I just got thrown around in a garbage disposal, but
Speaker 6: don't mind me. I just don't think I was gonna
Speaker 6: wear it. So you know, in Seattle it's get a
Speaker 6: little colder. So I was like, well, I'm at home,
Speaker 6: so let me put this on before. This is not
Speaker 6: in vogue? Is this?
Speaker 1: It's the first show.
Speaker 6: I'm in Denham. I don't know what happened to you
Speaker 6: all since this photo.
Speaker 3: Shoot right down below. I can't show it right now, but.
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, okay, well so draws today to.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I counted. Trust me, I got
Speaker 1: on dental. I'm somewhere.
Speaker 6: Let me tell you to don't ever have on dinnim.
Speaker 6: Tiff By write dinhim on her hands, and I just
Speaker 6: want y'all to know again for the record, in case
Speaker 6: came from Tiffany, she is not followed.
Speaker 1: And only got those boots because Angela had them. I
Speaker 1: thought they were cute, so then I went and bottom
Speaker 1: and I probably had worn them since anyway, Angela, what
Speaker 1: are we or what are you? What are you talking
Speaker 1: about today?
Speaker 4: On boy?
Speaker 6: Well, I want to talk about Brett Farr. Tiff. I
Speaker 6: know you're a resident sports expert, so you know what
Speaker 6: NFL team this man's played for.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me just say I know this. Let me
Speaker 1: say I know this because I was reading an article
Speaker 1: on my I just landed and on a flight this morning.
Speaker 1: I was reading the Times and they did a whole
Speaker 1: article on it, so I know that he played for
Speaker 1: the Tennessee type Oh right now.
Speaker 6: About green Baka.
Speaker 1: Okay, then never mind, I was reading something about somebody
Speaker 1: who played.
Speaker 6: We were just sharing to demonstrate for you all is
Speaker 6: how easy it is for people in influential position to
Speaker 6: cover the media, uh, to be also swayed by misinformation.
Speaker 6: That was just.
Speaker 3: Exactly you're going right up.
Speaker 6: What I want to talk about? To go up your alley, go,
Speaker 6: Andrew go.
Speaker 5: And there's been a lot in the news office about
Speaker 5: Janet jackson commentary about Kamala Harris, And while that has
Speaker 5: been interesting, I'm actually much more interested in the angle
Speaker 5: love why it is that we think celebrities people in
Speaker 5: the public space are supposed to be educated and aware
Speaker 5: and knowledgeable about all things politics, and is it right?
Speaker 3: Is it fair? I love to have that conversation with y'all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that. I actually am interested in talking
Speaker 1: about this Brat Farr thing in Tennessee. Yes, yes, the
Speaker 1: former Titans player in Tennessee.
Speaker 6: And it also happens to be something happening in Mississippi.
Speaker 6: Look up Tanni Mississippi.
Speaker 1: Now that I am familiar with, so I know you.
Speaker 1: I have a lot of thoughts on that. So I'm
Speaker 1: curious how we're in covering. So my subject is kind
Speaker 1: of somber, so I definitely don't want to kick us off,
Speaker 1: but I want to talk about the death penalty in
Speaker 1: this country. You all have probably seen those posts that
Speaker 1: a man was lynched today. You saw a lot of
Speaker 1: people posting about that this week, and I just I
Speaker 1: want to talk about this because it's a challenging position
Speaker 1: for us as black folks to be in in this country.
Speaker 1: So I don't know how we're gonna kick it off first,
Speaker 1: but let's kick it off. Nonetheless, Welcome home, y'all. I
Speaker 1: don't want to kick us off because my subject is somber.
Speaker 3: And I'm on the show.
Speaker 1: But I think you should not. But see that's somber
Speaker 1: in a different way. So I think we should end
Speaker 1: with celebrities. I think Angela, you should kick us off.
Speaker 6: But that's different. All right, I'm kicking us off. So
Speaker 6: why don't we do this instead of me kicking you off.
Speaker 6: Let's go straight to the Ways and Means Committee testimony
Speaker 6: testimony that Brett Favre gave earlier this week at a
Speaker 6: hearing about the misuse of TANNIF, which temporary assistance for
Speaker 6: needy families. All of those dollars being misallocated in several states,
Speaker 6: and Mississippi is one of them. Brett Farbus found himself
Speaker 6: in the crosshairs. Let's roll it.
Speaker 7: Democrats and Republicans should agree. Rampant state misuse of TANNA
Speaker 7: funds is hurting efforts to help vulnerable families and children.
Speaker 7: And I was told Ways and Means Committee was working
Speaker 7: on this problem. So I was willing to speak to
Speaker 7: you to encourage Congress to reform this important anti poverty program.
Speaker 7: And I urge Congress to put taniff guardrails in place
Speaker 7: to ensure that what happened in Mississippi doesn't happen again.
Speaker 7: I urge Congress to pass the TANNA reforms included in
Speaker 7: the Committee member bills, Reforms designed to target funds to
Speaker 7: those truly most in need, to help low income American
Speaker 7: find and keep a job, to limit how states can
Speaker 7: spend tan of grants and reduce wasteful bureaucracy, and to
Speaker 7: protect tax fair funds from fraud and abuse. And in closing,
Speaker 7: thank you Chairmans Smith and ranking Member Neil.
Speaker 6: Now, when you hear Brett Favre here, he sounds like
Speaker 6: the model citizen. He's using all the right talking points. Waste, fraud,
Speaker 6: and abuse is something that Democrats and Republicans have agreed
Speaker 6: on for a long time when we talk about government spending.
Speaker 6: Now here's the challenge. There is a lot that was
Speaker 6: left out and a lot left to be desired. But
Speaker 6: I'm going to go to a Green Bay Packers fan.
Speaker 6: Congressoman Gynmore, who worked on tannef legislation in the state
Speaker 6: legislature and has certainly worked on it in the House
Speaker 6: as a single mother, please drow the tape.
Speaker 8: But I do want to say that I was at.
Speaker 3: The scene of the crime.
Speaker 8: When we ended welfare as we knew it in nineteen
Speaker 8: ninety six.
Speaker 9: I was in.
Speaker 8: Wisconsin, I was a state senator. I had one hundred
Speaker 8: amendments that would have addressed this problem. And what I
Speaker 8: am saying to you, I just want to repeat some
Speaker 8: of the things that have been said here already that
Speaker 8: this flexibility was deliberate it. Indeed, I agree with mister
Speaker 8: George's characterization of it is that it literally became a
Speaker 8: slush fund for states to do what they wanted to do.
Speaker 8: In our own state, we literally had people called diversion specialists,
Speaker 8: and it was their.
Speaker 6: Job to convince.
Speaker 8: You when you showed up pregnant and one baby on
Speaker 8: one arm and the other at your feet, that you
Speaker 8: didn't need welfare funds, and all of that profit could
Speaker 8: be used to pay bonuses. I even had an amendment
Speaker 8: that was directed at some of the vendors who administered
Speaker 8: welfare to say.
Speaker 6: You can't earn more than the governor of the state.
Speaker 8: Because of these salaries were so lucrative. So surprise, surprise,
Speaker 8: here we are, what twenty eight years later, discovering the
Speaker 8: fraud and waste and abuse in this program. We have
Speaker 8: the same level of poverty we have, you know, eighty
Speaker 8: percent of the people who qualified, people who live in
Speaker 8: deep deep, deep poverty, not getting the benefits people in
Speaker 8: Mississippi getting What did you say, mister Dorr two hundred
Speaker 8: and thirty six dollars a month in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 8: that that that's the truth. These data are not updated.
Speaker 8: It's not true. I just want to go on to
Speaker 8: talk about some other things that I saw on the report.
Speaker 8: You say that that. Oh and also some of your
Speaker 8: data the six hundred industries that's in Maine. So I
Speaker 8: want to congratulate you with whatever you did in Maine.
Speaker 8: Whatever happened in Maine didn't happen Mississippi.
Speaker 3: So just so okay.
Speaker 6: So what you see is Brett Farb, a former All
Speaker 6: star NFL quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, who found
Speaker 6: himself embroiled in a huge scandal in Mississippi. Mississippi is
Speaker 6: accused of misallocating ninety four million dollars in TANNE funds. Again,
Speaker 6: that's the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. It is
Speaker 6: a block grant program that exists all throughout the country.
Speaker 6: There is a lot of waste, fraud and abuse, as
Speaker 6: you just heard Congresswoman when Moore talking about in this
Speaker 6: particular program with Brett Farvre, he was working with a nonprofit.
Speaker 6: Some states utilize nonprofits to allocate these funds through varying programs,
Speaker 6: varying families who need them, and for the most part,
Speaker 6: the families that need the resources the most don't actually
Speaker 6: see these resources. So Brett Farr, for example, his accues
Speaker 6: of receiving one point one million dollars in speaking fees
Speaker 6: from Tannet funds and also helping to broker a five
Speaker 6: million dollar volleyball stadium to the University of Southern Mississippi,
Speaker 6: where his daughter attends. These are just some of the
Speaker 6: ways in which these resources have been used or misused.
Speaker 6: And I think what makes it egregious is yesterday. This
Speaker 6: is particularly for you yesterday what you see from the headlines.
Speaker 6: And I know by the time this podcast will be
Speaker 6: two day so from Tuesday, the headlines are the next
Speaker 6: day that Brett Favre tells this committee that he is
Speaker 6: suffering from Parkinson's because there was also a business who
Speaker 6: he helped get resources to in the millions that is
Speaker 6: supposed to help players who have experienced concussions. He uses
Speaker 6: this moment to disclose to the public that he's been
Speaker 6: diagnosed with Parkinson's. On the other side of giving millions
Speaker 6: of dollars to tan Of funds to this business. The
Speaker 6: woman that helped to get the resources to this company
Speaker 6: has now pled guilty. Her son has pled guilty. There's
Speaker 6: a civil lawsuit in Mississippi with with more than twenty
Speaker 6: defendants for their role in misallocating tant Of funds to
Speaker 6: everyone except for the people who need them most. So
Speaker 6: that is what this is all about. It is infuriating,
Speaker 6: especially when we talk about this handout concept. The people
Speaker 6: who need handouts are really hand ups, don't get them
Speaker 6: because they're busy patting the pockets of folks who run
Speaker 6: these organizations and are ensuring that the folks who do
Speaker 6: need assistants, who are needed families never see the resources.
Speaker 6: So Brett Favre, I am so sorry about your diagnosis.
Speaker 6: I really am, But that does not excuse you from
Speaker 6: what you knew when you look at these text messages
Speaker 6: that I know that we're gonna put up on the screen.
Speaker 6: But for those of you who are listening, he says
Speaker 6: things like if I get these resources, will people find out?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 6: He says, is the money I was paid one hundred
Speaker 6: percent legal for the radio commercials. We didn't even talk
Speaker 6: about those, and then she tells him yes. On another message,
Speaker 6: he says, I can have my CPA talk with you
Speaker 6: and get a better understanding of this and go from there.
Speaker 6: Maybe the university will figure out some things as well,
Speaker 6: as long as we can use the money any way
Speaker 6: we choose some how will the public perception be that
Speaker 6: I became a spokesperson for various state funded shelters, schools, homes,
Speaker 6: et cetera, and was compensated with state money or can
Speaker 6: we keep this confidential? This does not sound like someone
Speaker 6: who says in his testimony that he did not know.
Speaker 1: He let me just add to that. So this company
Speaker 1: that you're talking about where he funneled two point one
Speaker 1: million dollars, to be exact, is run by Jason van Landingham.
Speaker 1: So that two point one million dollars that he funneled
Speaker 1: to him. Jason pleaded guilty to wirefraud. This was in July,
Speaker 1: admitting to using those funds to pay off gambling and
Speaker 1: personal debts. Brett farre In the one point one million
Speaker 1: dollars you referenced, Angela, those were for speeches that he never.
Speaker 6: Gave, allegedly allegedly because he's saying he made the speeches,
Speaker 6: so we don't want to be caught up in the
Speaker 6: same defamation.
Speaker 1: Allegedly that he according to the reporting, right, he never
Speaker 1: gave them, but he says allegedly. I just want to
Speaker 1: point out here because why this matters to me. My
Speaker 1: mother's family is from Mississippi. A lot of folks, you know,
Speaker 1: you all know the Great Migration, A lot of us
Speaker 1: have roots in Mississippi. Mississippi is a challenge. It is
Speaker 1: the state with the highest number of black folks there
Speaker 1: and they are in the bottom ten percent of poverty
Speaker 1: when it comes to this country. There's not a single
Speaker 1: black statewide elected official in Mississippi, despite having the highest
Speaker 1: population there. The racism is literally written into the state's
Speaker 1: constitution in Mississippi. Let me just tell you a little
Speaker 1: bit about the folks in Mississippi. Then this is welfare
Speaker 1: essentially what we're talking Tana funds are another word for
Speaker 1: it will be welfare. Mississippi in twenty sixteen approved just
Speaker 1: one point five percent of applicants who are applying for
Speaker 1: these funds. That's according to reporting from Mississippi today, just
Speaker 1: five out of eight hundred and twenty four applicants were approved.
Speaker 1: This is all during the time when Brett Favre was
Speaker 1: stealing millions among other people. After the reporting came out
Speaker 1: about this, Mississippi inexplicably started approving more people, still not enough.
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, this is at the height of the scandal,
Speaker 1: Mississippi spent one hundred and thirteen million dollars in federal
Speaker 1: funds for TANA funds. This was over its allotment of
Speaker 1: eighty six point five million dollars of unspent funds. Just
Speaker 1: five percent of that cash went to needy families. That
Speaker 1: left over one hundred million dollars on the table for
Speaker 1: them to do essentially what they wanted to do. This
Speaker 1: was under Republican Governor Phil Bryant at the time. His
Speaker 1: office oversaw the Welfare Department and their goals. So, like
Speaker 1: Angela said, state and nonprofits used tens of millions of
Speaker 1: dollars in these federal funds as a playground and did
Speaker 1: pretty much whatever they wanted to do. They purchased lavish homes,
Speaker 1: they gave money to their friends and families. They propped
Speaker 1: up programs that had little to do with alleviating poverty.
Speaker 1: Millions also went to other purposes, including other pro football
Speaker 1: players who have yet to be named, wrestlers, lobbyists, expensive
Speaker 1: pr campaigns, conservative radio talk shows. The Mississippi Department of
Speaker 1: Human Services still pushes out these funds, and it's really
Speaker 1: very little oversight. And so there are real names and
Speaker 1: faces and consequences to what Brett Favre did. Now, why
Speaker 1: I got this information, Angela, is because this morning. I
Speaker 1: read the Times every day, and I read the Times,
Speaker 1: and you would think by reading the article about it,
Speaker 1: that Brett Farr was on Capitol Hill to talk about
Speaker 1: his Parkinson's diagnosed.
Speaker 6: That's right.
Speaker 1: There was no mention, no mention of the people of Mississippi.
Speaker 1: There was no reference of how impoverished the state is.
Speaker 1: There was no demographic breakdown on who was a applying
Speaker 1: for these funds overwhelmingly black folks, who was applying for
Speaker 1: these funds and who was being denied also a lot
Speaker 1: of poor white folks in Mississippi. I might add, so
Speaker 1: the fact that we are playing a violin for this
Speaker 1: man for stealing millions of dollars, and the media took
Speaker 1: that and said, we will add, we will sing your
Speaker 1: songs of sorrow with you and completely bypass the impoverished
Speaker 1: people and Andrew, you know a lot about this, because
Speaker 1: we've talked about this as if they don't deserve a
Speaker 1: song of sympathy, as if they are not the main
Speaker 1: point of this story. I find it disgusting and yet
Speaker 1: again another failure of the media who would rather center
Speaker 1: conservative white folks at the literal cost of our lives
Speaker 1: and our livelihoods when it comes to black folks.
Speaker 5: Total, total, abject failure by the media in complicity, by
Speaker 5: the way, because at this stage, when the controversy was
Speaker 5: first uncovered, you know, Brett fav was all.
Speaker 3: In the middle of it.
Speaker 5: We saw messages come out, we saw his complicity and
Speaker 5: cooperate with it, and so it isn't as if the
Speaker 5: media had no clue what he was doing on Capitol Hill,
Speaker 5: what he was there to testify about, so on and
Speaker 5: so forth. I won't name the source, I mean the
Speaker 5: media organization, but I got a text, you know, a
Speaker 5: message alert in the middle of the day about Brett Farban.
Speaker 5: It was about his diagnosis. And again we can have
Speaker 5: sympathy for his diagnosis and wish him well on his
Speaker 5: journey ahead, but also hold him fully accountable for why
Speaker 5: he was on Capitol Hill in the first place to
Speaker 5: further underscore Angela and Tiffany's points around the real need
Speaker 5: in Mississippi is that Mississippi's poverty rate is twenty percent,
Speaker 5: which is double the national poverty rate. So when we're
Speaker 5: talking about poor, we're talking about the epicenter of poverty
Speaker 5: in this country being at a state where twenty percent
Speaker 5: of the people we're out of ten people, right, two
Speaker 5: of every ten is suffering at or below the poverty level.
Speaker 3: In this state.
Speaker 5: These are resources that are desperately needed to wind up
Speaker 5: in the hands of the people who are struggling to
Speaker 5: keep food on the table and the roof over their head.
Speaker 5: But that's not what it's going to. And the shame
Speaker 5: of it all, the real shame of it all, is
Speaker 5: that these are the same elected officials who have as
Speaker 5: part of their talking points the need for people to
Speaker 5: pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Right, So that's supposed
Speaker 5: to apply to working poor people in your state, but
Speaker 5: it doesn't apply to the corporations and the moneyed interest
Speaker 5: and the former athletes whose children are at your state's
Speaker 5: schools who need a new volleyball course or some new turf.
Speaker 5: Added to this, that and the third is shameful because
Speaker 5: what Republicans know, and I have to call them what
Speaker 5: they are because they're the ones who manufacture these talking points.
Speaker 3: What they are is they're hypocrites of the greatest order.
Speaker 5: It is not that they don't believe in handouts or
Speaker 5: hand ups, it's just that they only believe in those
Speaker 5: things when it comes to other white folks and white
Speaker 5: people's companies and their white constituency who are by the way, not.
Speaker 3: Poor, but the ones who are well healed, well mented.
Speaker 5: Or in gambling debt right, who have the luxury to
Speaker 5: be in gambling a debt. So this is embarrassing for
Speaker 5: the state at a whole new level, except they'll take
Speaker 5: no embarrassment at all. And I'm confused about what the
Speaker 5: change is going to be because I was a local
Speaker 5: as a former person mented in government through.
Speaker 3: The local level.
Speaker 5: I know that there's something called categorical grants which could
Speaker 5: have gone directly to the cities, to the counties where
Speaker 5: poverty is the greatest, where there could have been much
Speaker 5: more how do you say, specific oversight by the local communities.
Speaker 3: But they didn't come down.
Speaker 5: To Mississippi that way, and they don't come to the
Speaker 5: other states that way they're coming into these states to
Speaker 5: these block grants where universally we have seen abuse not
Speaker 5: just in this not just in this area, but across
Speaker 5: the board. When you send a big old chunk of
Speaker 5: money and you say to the state that this is
Speaker 5: intended for this purpose, and the state undoubted figures out
Speaker 5: a way to undermine the system, to undermine its intentional goal,
Speaker 5: to undermine.
Speaker 3: Those policies that they disagree with.
Speaker 5: Why would you send to Florida and all these other
Speaker 5: states money for uh, the Obamacare Universal Care and then
Speaker 5: allow them to redivert that money, reallocate that money, or
Speaker 5: reduce the state's commitment in this area, supplant it with
Speaker 5: the federal government's committed commitment. So you don't get any
Speaker 5: increase in resourcing at all. All you got was a
Speaker 5: plug and play. You got You got them using federal
Speaker 5: money UH and relieving state money and then not increasing
Speaker 5: the real need, not really not increasing the the financial
Speaker 5: support into the areas that it's needed. I would just
Speaker 5: say Congress needs to take a really good hard look
Speaker 5: at itself. They are the ones that created these categories
Speaker 5: of granted and I would I would charge them to
Speaker 5: look at ways in which they can get the resources
Speaker 5: to the people who need them the most. And I
Speaker 5: know that we got to go to break, so I'll
Speaker 5: stop there.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Well, on the other side, ahead, no, i'd say
Speaker 6: if I was going to say too. On the other side,
Speaker 6: there's another little twist in this story that I think
Speaker 6: we need to get to. That is it demonstrates a
Speaker 6: failure of the courts and media combined.
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, that is a perfect segue into the death
Speaker 1: penalty that I want to talk about too, the failure
Speaker 1: of the courts and media combined. So right after this break,
Speaker 1: we'll pick it up.
Speaker 6: So as you can see, there are so much there's
Speaker 6: so much passion around this topic, and I think living
Speaker 6: in our black bodies in this country, you constantly are
Speaker 6: seeing the lack of justice. We're not asking to be
Speaker 6: able to cheat, We're asking for you to be able
Speaker 6: to play fair, and that is beyond the pale. So again,
Speaker 6: Brett Favre at this hearing says he's showing up because
Speaker 6: he doesn't want to see any more abuse when he's
Speaker 6: at the center of the abuse. He did pay back
Speaker 6: one point one million dollars in the speaking fees, but
Speaker 6: he was asked to also pay two hundred and twenty
Speaker 6: eight thousand dollars in interest, and he did not do that.
Speaker 6: Now here's the twist I wanted.
Speaker 1: He refused.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I wanted. Here's the twist I wanted to I
Speaker 6: wanted to throw out there for y'all. An Wolf, who
Speaker 6: is the Politzer Prize winning journalist who broke this story,
Speaker 6: is now facing jail time. Tiff let me tell you why.
Speaker 6: The defamation case that that she's at the center of
Speaker 6: is requiring through the courts, that she turns over all
Speaker 6: of her sources that enabled her to be able to
Speaker 6: break this story to begin with. Now they've been able
Speaker 6: to do the money trial that I mean, they could
Speaker 6: trace all of the steps. Whether Brett farre says he
Speaker 6: knew or did not know, it is indeed factual that
Speaker 6: this money came from Tanef. It was redirected money from Tanef.
Speaker 6: So the fact that she's now in the center of
Speaker 6: this defamation case being asked to turn over our sources
Speaker 6: we know is crossing a red line for journalists.
Speaker 1: Turning over your source concept is crossing a constitutional the
Speaker 1: rest but that is constitutionally protected right. It is freedom
Speaker 1: of the press in the First Amendment, case like this
Speaker 1: could go all the way to the Supreme Court, which
Speaker 1: who knows that that's helpful because that's a Republican funded
Speaker 1: place where they legislate from from the highest court.
Speaker 5: And that's and Angela, you've already pointed out the receipts
Speaker 5: are clear. They're clear that there's no need that you're
Speaker 5: not uncovering sources so that you can get to what
Speaker 5: is the source of the information, right they're uncovering sources.
Speaker 3: For retribution, for payback. Yes, for you don't get away.
Speaker 3: You don't get to get.
Speaker 5: Away with telling on us and not paying some kind
Speaker 5: of of of of costs for having done so. It's
Speaker 5: clear retribution. They're not trying to establish an order or
Speaker 5: a line of facts right here. They're not trying to
Speaker 5: get to the point. The point is the cruelty of it, well,
Speaker 5: the point the person.
Speaker 6: The point also is what Tiff raised, which is the
Speaker 6: fact that this has now gone to the miss Ssissippi
Speaker 6: Supreme Court. The editor in chief of Mississippi Today, which
Speaker 6: is of course where this story initially broke, says, with
Speaker 6: our appeal, the stakes are incredibly high. The Supreme Court
Speaker 6: can guarantee these critical rights for the first time in
Speaker 6: our state's history, or it could establish a dangerous precedent
Speaker 6: for Mississippi journalists and the public at large by tossing
Speaker 6: aside an essential First Amendment protection. So I just want
Speaker 6: to tell y'all. So, the dude who broke the law
Speaker 6: not once, not twice, but three times by receiving these
Speaker 6: tanted funds to do things he knows weren't okay, which
Speaker 6: is why he has that in his text messages, is
Speaker 6: not on the hook. But he's getting deservedly so sympathy
Speaker 6: for Parkinson's but not even being forced to answer questions
Speaker 6: about what he said in the hearing yesterday, the places
Speaker 6: where he perjured himself, where he's directly in contradiction with
Speaker 6: things that the facts tell us, and the person who
Speaker 6: broke the story is now facing jail time because she's
Speaker 6: refusing to comply with this court order as she should.
Speaker 5: So I'm just I mean, I got to give the
Speaker 5: guy because a lot of times celebrities don't even always
Speaker 5: know the details. But what his text messages show us
Speaker 5: is that he's clear that he's on the wrong side
Speaker 5: of them, clear about what the lines are that he
Speaker 5: shouldn't be crossing, which is why you asked for competens exactly,
Speaker 5: which is why you asked for these things to be
Speaker 5: done under the table, off the books.
Speaker 3: You don't ask for that when stuff is on the
Speaker 3: up and up. We all know that.
Speaker 5: Well, when we're asked to give a speech somewhere, I
Speaker 5: am not asking whether it's on the up and up.
Speaker 5: I assume that this is all being done in line
Speaker 5: with what is allowable to the source of funding, of which.
Speaker 3: I would get what's ethical, we get paid, what's what's ethical,
Speaker 3: but what's also what's it right? Otherwise you don't do it.
Speaker 6: I want to call this poor Brett Farv. I know
Speaker 6: I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't want him getting that.
Speaker 6: I want to call it poor Brett Favre. And there
Speaker 6: is there is I want to make because I want
Speaker 6: the people to see that this man benefited from resources
Speaker 6: designed for poor people, and he took advantage of it,
Speaker 6: and he did not need it. The fact that he
Speaker 6: was able to pay back the money demonstrates that he
Speaker 6: did not need the money. So you taking food out
Speaker 6: of poor children's mouths, You taking money out of the
Speaker 6: hands of people who desperately need these resources to feed
Speaker 6: these kids. That y'all's asses keep making them have.
Speaker 3: I think it is. I think he gave the money
Speaker 3: back because it was ill gotten.
Speaker 1: It was a pr camp.
Speaker 5: The reason why I don't think we ought to name
Speaker 5: it after him is one because we are a center
Speaker 5: of the dude who.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's clibait, you.
Speaker 3: Know, forget the clip.
Speaker 5: Well it may be, but you know what the truth
Speaker 5: is is that the shortcut is going to work. The
Speaker 5: shortcut about this story is is that you can get
Speaker 5: to the you can get to what it's about by
Speaker 5: knowing that he's got Parkinson's not what the substance of
Speaker 5: the matter is, but the shortcut that was just created
Speaker 5: by him yesterday, him and his.
Speaker 1: The media and the media.
Speaker 3: That the best way to bury this thing is to
Speaker 3: break other news.
Speaker 1: What about all right, we'll talk about the latter. I
Speaker 1: want to shift us to a somber story that is
Speaker 1: relevant in the news this week. Yeah, it is so
Speaker 1: Marcellus Williams. If you've not heard this name, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you a little bit about who this is. He's was
Speaker 1: fifty five years old. He was convicted in the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety eight killing of a well known journalist in Saint
Speaker 1: Louis Her name was Alicia Gale. She was a newspaper reporter.
Speaker 1: She was stabbed to death during a home invasion robbery
Speaker 1: and her suburban home. Now, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: why this conviction was faulty. Marcellus Williams was scheduled to
Speaker 1: be executed. He fought for years, for decades to stay
Speaker 1: the execution. He was successful twice. He was not successful
Speaker 1: this week. Sadly, Here's why this is a challenge. The
Speaker 1: prosecutor's office in this case admitted that it was wrong
Speaker 1: and it fought to overturn the death sentence. There had
Speaker 1: been several violations of Marcellus's constitutional rights during the investigation
Speaker 1: at trial. In the filing, we've talked about Wesley Bell before,
Speaker 1: who is recently won his Democratic primary. He was now
Speaker 1: the prosecutor at this time. He wasn't the person who
Speaker 1: bought the case, but he inherited the case. He asserted
Speaker 1: that the defense lawyer had not presented mitigating evidence that
Speaker 1: could have spared mister Williams the death penalty. The prosecutor
Speaker 1: who had the case at the time had improperly rejected
Speaker 1: potential black jurors, resulting with the jury of eleven white people.
Speaker 1: And one black member. Now let me just tell you
Speaker 1: why this prosecutor rejected some of the jurors. One in particular,
Speaker 1: the prosecutor who then was Keith Lerner. He testified that
Speaker 1: in one case he excluded a prospective black juror because
Speaker 1: he closely resembled Marcellus Williams. He's quoted as saying they
Speaker 1: look like they could be brothers. Perhaps in his mind,
Speaker 1: we all look alike. The prosecutor detailed multiple issues with
Speaker 1: credibility of two key witnesses against Marcellus Williams, and noted
Speaker 1: that mister Williams was not the source of footprints or
Speaker 1: heirs found at the crime scene, nor was any if
Speaker 1: his DNA found on the murder weapon. So he received
Speaker 1: a state of execution in twenty fifteen and twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: but neither of these led to his conviction being thrown out.
Speaker 1: The family, also, by the way, did not want to
Speaker 1: see him executed. The state Attorney General, Republican Andrew Bailey,
Speaker 1: who's facing a primary election right now Saint Louis, asked
Speaker 1: the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for
Speaker 1: Marcellus Williams. While in prison, mister Williams became a Muslim,
Speaker 1: he took the name Khalifa. He appeared in court recently
Speaker 1: with the white skull cap. You guys have seen those
Speaker 1: to signify his Islamic devotion. And I want you all
Speaker 1: to hear what his son said, uh, just days before
Speaker 1: his execution, in an act of remaining hopeful. And then
Speaker 1: I'll close us out on the other.
Speaker 4: Side, like I hope a miracle happens. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. I hope It's all I wish is to
Speaker 4: free my father from abundance, enslavement and spirit's life.
Speaker 5: What would you say to the Supreme Court if you
Speaker 5: had the opportunity to testify on behalf of your dad.
Speaker 4: I would try to make them see that this is
Speaker 4: a murder on their behalf and this is wrong, you know,
Speaker 4: And I believe my father is truly innocent and they
Speaker 4: need to take a closer look.
Speaker 3: Have you allowed yourself to even get to Tuesday right now?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I already put it inside my body that I
Speaker 4: would be a witness to it, to the execution. I'm
Speaker 4: standing firm and show my Daddy's on the loan if
Speaker 4: that's what it comes to, and I'm ready for it.
Speaker 4: My mind sat my spirit strong, like I'm doing this
Speaker 4: for my dad. It's bigger than me.
Speaker 1: I want to read exactly what happened. This is according
Speaker 1: to the at As Williams lay awaiting execution, he appeared
Speaker 1: to converse with the spiritual advisor is seated next to him.
Speaker 1: Williams wiggled his feet underneath a white sheet that was
Speaker 1: pulled up to his neck and moved his head slightly
Speaker 1: while his spiritual advisor continued to talk to him. Then
Speaker 1: Williams's test heaved about a half dozen times, and he
Speaker 1: showed no further movement. He was pronounced dead at six '
Speaker 1: ten pm at a state prison in Voluntarry, the Missouri
Speaker 1: who's run by the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Speaker 6: I want to.
Speaker 1: Say, this is not the party of pro life, This
Speaker 1: is not the party of law and order. They are
Speaker 1: liars and they are lynchers. When we look at death penalties,
Speaker 1: the way that people are allowed to bear witness. The
Speaker 1: family did not appear there. We've talked on this show
Speaker 1: about how these executions go, how they're botched, how sometimes
Speaker 1: they're torture because we don't know how to kill people properly,
Speaker 1: so we don't know if they suffer. They certainly have
Speaker 1: appeared to when we talked about the number of black
Speaker 1: people who are on death row. So this week in America,
Speaker 1: a man was lynched. And I have to say, as
Speaker 1: black people who are so excited to carry one of
Speaker 1: our own to the White House, to ascend to the
Speaker 1: highest post and government, it is quite a paradox for
Speaker 1: us to be celebratory of this moment when state sanctioned
Speaker 1: violence and murder persist. I don't know how to feel
Speaker 1: good about how we treat our people in this country,
Speaker 1: but I do know I have a lot of fight
Speaker 1: left in me. When I hear the these kind of stories,
Speaker 1: it is just heartbreaking.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: I to consider that the population in Saint Louis is
Speaker 5: almost twenty percent black and that only one of twelve
Speaker 5: jurors was black. Is malpracticed by the state by who
Speaker 5: brought the charge. This is a sentence that it sounds
Speaker 5: like if you hear from the prosecutor's office that there
Speaker 5: was a violation of rights in this process, actually multiple
Speaker 5: violations of rights in this of the accused rights.
Speaker 3: You now have.
Speaker 5: Sort of a backtracking on the fact pattern. Now you
Speaker 5: have forensics that don't put him at the scene don't
Speaker 5: have any portion of it. Again, think about forensics. We're
Speaker 5: going back now, you know, forty years and using forensics
Speaker 5: to tie individuals to crime scenes in ways that could
Speaker 5: not have been done before. And in this case it's
Speaker 5: the exact opposite. You can't you're not able to tie
Speaker 5: the individual who you've accused to the crime scene. Now,
Speaker 5: if this much malpractice had taken place, one that they
Speaker 5: should have vacated this sentence long ago.
Speaker 3: And if they thought that that that that there was a.
Speaker 5: Chance that they had the wrong person on trial here
Speaker 5: and worse over schedule for the death penalty, that that that,
Speaker 5: I don't know, common sense might prevail. And it just
Speaker 5: in this case, it just again goes to show how
Speaker 5: value lists our black bodies are in the eyes of
Speaker 5: so many and too many places. And I find it
Speaker 5: especially upsetting that it oftentimes happens in places where the
Speaker 5: black population is a significant force to be dealt with
Speaker 5: by way of by share population. Miss we just talked
Speaker 5: about a story in Mississippi, the Black and State nckdamn country,
Speaker 5: where where the black population is a significant force to
Speaker 5: be dealt with. Yet these kinds of injustices tend to happen,
Speaker 5: and I can't help but think, what a shot over
Speaker 5: the bow. This is supposed to be almost every time
Speaker 5: to us, because they don't go in places where we're
Speaker 5: not part of the population, where we're minuscule, but in
Speaker 5: places where we're significant parts of the population, where the
Speaker 5: offense just seems that much.
Speaker 3: Greater, and yet no justice can be found.
Speaker 1: We barely make up fourteen percent of the population, we
Speaker 1: make up forty one percent of the population on death row.
Speaker 6: And the thing is, in this particular case, we see
Speaker 6: something that we hear about happening all the time informant testimony.
Speaker 6: According to the Center on Wrongful Convictions, false testimony from
Speaker 6: incentivized witnesses is the leading cause of wrongful convictions, with
Speaker 6: informant testimony present in forty nine point five percent of
Speaker 6: wrongful conviction since the mid seventies. Like that is that
Speaker 6: is astronomical, especially the fact that that that that could
Speaker 6: even be the case that you could rely on informant
Speaker 6: testimony to even give someone the death penalty is beyond
Speaker 6: the pail.
Speaker 3: No, their testimony, whereas leverage not.
Speaker 6: Yes, they are incentivized, incentivized informant.
Speaker 1: And according to the Times, his girlfriend at the time
Speaker 1: was one of those people.
Speaker 6: She has the record.
Speaker 1: Precisely, but also have.
Speaker 5: Consequence on the other side of their testimony. Right when
Speaker 5: you talk about incentivized, just so folks know it is,
Speaker 5: it is you have something to gain by saying what
Speaker 5: we need you to say against this other person, and
Speaker 5: if you don't deliver it that way, you are not
Speaker 5: of value and therefore you're gonna be penalized too. And
Speaker 5: my whole point around, and I know it's y'alls too,
Speaker 5: I believe that the whole point around having diverse juries
Speaker 5: is not so that you have somebody who looks like
Speaker 5: you and therefore is going to decide in your interest. No,
Speaker 5: it's so that you've got somebody that might resemble a
Speaker 5: lived experience that you might have, who may see this
Speaker 5: thing differently, who may questions that folks who don't have
Speaker 5: that same lived experience will never ask. It'll never come
Speaker 5: to them because it never occurs to come to them.
Speaker 5: It never occurs to ask the question differently, to to
Speaker 5: inquire around a set of facts that are different than
Speaker 5: what your own lived experience has have been. So we
Speaker 5: don't conclude that having black jurors mean that you're going
Speaker 5: to get off on something that you've done not at all.
Speaker 5: In fact, I think when you have a diverse jury,
Speaker 5: it's that you get diverse experiences, diverse perspectives, diverse lived
Speaker 5: experiences that see the questions and the answers differently than.
Speaker 3: How they get boilerplate delivered.
Speaker 5: I know it to be true because I've sat on
Speaker 5: boards where had we not asked the question, the question
Speaker 5: would never have been asked. And oftentimes the question being
Speaker 5: asked becomes a difference between what whether something goes forward
Speaker 5: or it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I just I want to say our thoughts
Speaker 1: are with the family of Marcellus Williams, the man who
Speaker 1: is arguing, and the many like him, and the many
Speaker 1: who are still sitting on death row as we speak,
Speaker 1: because according to the reported evidence by the New York
Speaker 1: Times and others, it certainly points to doubt. And that
Speaker 1: is the whole point of a jury, that you of
Speaker 1: a trial, that you are convicted beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaker 1: People keep saying shadow of a doubt, but legally it
Speaker 1: is beyond a reasonable doubt, and there are multiple reasonable
Speaker 1: doubts here. Our families also go out to our hearts,
Speaker 1: also go out to Leicia Gale who was the victim here,
Speaker 1: because at this point I would say, on my own
Speaker 1: opinion is that it's quite possible that her killer remains
Speaker 1: at large or unpunished. It's been a little somber. We
Speaker 1: do have some viewer questions, and Andrew, I know that
Speaker 1: you have a topic. So what do you guys think
Speaker 1: if we play in the question now and then we'll
Speaker 1: answer it on the other side. Okay, so give us
Speaker 1: give us a question.
Speaker 10: Nick, Good morning, Native Lampid. The name is Devin from Houston, Texas.
Speaker 10: First off, I really love the pod, love the work
Speaker 10: you all are doing. Keep up the good work. One
Speaker 10: of the questions that I had for you all is
Speaker 10: shortly after Vice President Harris became the Democratic nominee, or
Speaker 10: even before that, some Republicans came out and fully endorsed
Speaker 10: her as their presidential candidate. I feel like that might
Speaker 10: cause some split ticket issues down the line, because there
Speaker 10: are some down ballot Republicans who still who still fully
Speaker 10: support the former president's platform. So, first off, first question
Speaker 10: is why isn't more attention being given to those candidates
Speaker 10: and highlighting where they might diverge from Vice President Harris's
Speaker 10: platform and could potentially put you know, be be ahead
Speaker 10: when to her efforts. Second question is is there anything
Speaker 10: that can be done from a from a political strategy
Speaker 10: standpoint to offset that?
Speaker 1: Thanks, all right, We're going to answer that question on
Speaker 1: the other side of this rank.
Speaker 10: M.
Speaker 5: Well, we just heard a question from a viewer before,
Speaker 5: right before we took a took a break, and were
Speaker 5: appreciative of you, Devin for one year support and listenership
Speaker 5: support of the show. And I think where I want
Speaker 5: to make sure we get his question clearly, and so
Speaker 5: I want to ask y'all because I may be a
Speaker 5: little confused. I understand what ballot split sort of split
Speaker 5: that ballot voting is, which is where you may choose
Speaker 5: a Democrat on one and then flip over and do
Speaker 5: a Republican on another race. But the accountability piece that
Speaker 5: he's referring to, who does he want us to hold
Speaker 5: to account of these Republicans who are running for public
Speaker 5: office who are saying that they're with Kamala on one
Speaker 5: end to get the benefit of a split ticket voting
Speaker 5: or what I could be complicating in some ways that
Speaker 5: aren't necessary to what.
Speaker 1: I understood his question. Devin, apologies if I get it wrong.
Speaker 1: But what I think he was trying to ask is, first,
Speaker 1: just because you're voting for Kamala Harris, you are still
Speaker 1: a problem. Not always is the enemy of my enemy
Speaker 1: my friend. If you're voting for her because you don't
Speaker 1: like Donald Trump, but you're still going to vote down
Speaker 1: ballot for Republican senators who are going to do everything
Speaker 1: they can to block her agenda, then you are a problem.
Speaker 1: And how do we navigate that? And why isn't there
Speaker 1: more coverage and discussion around that. That's what I understated
Speaker 1: it to me, And I just want to say a
Speaker 1: quick example of that could potentially be in Texas, where
Speaker 1: you know, Angela Colin Allred is running for Senate in
Speaker 1: a really tight race in Texas, and there are Republicans
Speaker 1: who have come out and publicly endorsed Congressman Colin Already
Speaker 1: format That's who it was. That is who played for
Speaker 1: the Tennessee Titans. I knew I read something about somebody.
Speaker 6: Was happening. I never thought about it, thought man, So.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell y'all knowing anyway, the Tennessee Titans,
Speaker 1: and now he is in Congress and he's running the
Speaker 1: unseen Ted Cruise and multiple Democrats, but there have been
Speaker 1: some Republicans, uh, to endorse him. There have been some
Speaker 1: Democrats to endorse ted Cruise. But that is a perfect example. Yeah, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: that is a mess. Call him, I know, let me
Speaker 1: find it, Let me find it, let me find it. Oh,
Speaker 1: we come back to it.
Speaker 6: I'm a I'm gonna tap in here while you find that.
Speaker 6: I just want to say quickly, I don't I'm not
Speaker 6: personally aware. Doesn't mean just like in this instance that
Speaker 6: that my personal awareness means that it's not happening. But
Speaker 6: I'm not aware of any current sitting Republican elected official
Speaker 6: who has endorsed Kamala Harris. I am aware of Trump staffers,
Speaker 6: former Trump Cabinet officials, former national security advisors from multiple administrations,
Speaker 6: former economic advisors for multiple administrations endorsing the Harris Walls ticket.
Speaker 6: That said, it could very well be that those folks
Speaker 6: too voter split ticket. It very well could be. I
Speaker 6: think that you calling it out in the question and
Speaker 6: the way that you just did, and Tiff and andrews
Speaker 6: answers are the kinds of things that we should be
Speaker 6: doing to calling it out. That's great that you're promoting
Speaker 6: and endorsing this particular agenda and platform. You do understand
Speaker 6: how politics works, and that does mean that people need
Speaker 6: to be and lockstep with them in getting that agenda passed.
Speaker 6: I'm already worried because I do know of one Democrat
Speaker 6: who's saying that he will not endorse Kamla Heyres. I'll
Speaker 6: say Democrat, and that is Joe Manchin, who said that
Speaker 6: he can't support her, and she ought to be ashamed
Speaker 6: of herself because she wants to throw out the filibuster
Speaker 6: to codify Roe. Wow, Joe Manchin, if there was ever
Speaker 6: a time to throw out the damned philibuster, you would
Speaker 6: think it'd be then. Anyway, Tip, it looks like you found.
Speaker 1: Your Democrat, I mean Joe, but I thought he officially
Speaker 1: Party independent.
Speaker 6: I understand that. But as far as I know.
Speaker 3: He's the man.
Speaker 5: The man is a legend in his own mind. He
Speaker 5: also contemplated running for president against if y'all remember when
Speaker 5: he when when when Joe Biden vacated originally, So, first
Speaker 5: of all, there is a sitting Republicans who have endorsed her.
Speaker 5: That the Republican John John Giles Arizona is the sitting
Speaker 5: mayor a sitting mayor in Arizona who has endorsed her.
Speaker 5: But your point is well taken, Angela, which is if
Speaker 5: you for Republicans who have thing to potentially lose, like
Speaker 5: their elections or re elections, they have not by and
Speaker 5: large gone to the record to say that they support
Speaker 5: Kamala Harris. I don't want that, by any means to
Speaker 5: undermine the bravity of bravery of those who have come out,
Speaker 5: including you know, somebody who I detested and really still do,
Speaker 5: mister Inron himself, you know, coming forward and throwing his
Speaker 5: support but you know, behind her.
Speaker 3: But the truth is is there are going to be
Speaker 3: ballot splitters. We've seen that.
Speaker 5: We saw that in Georgia where two Democrats got elected
Speaker 5: to the US Senate yet a Republican governor got re
Speaker 5: elected to the governorship. We've seen it, frankly, in many
Speaker 5: places around the country. And I think the only way
Speaker 5: we can extract, I think something from this is to
Speaker 5: be as loud and proud as we can by saying
Speaker 5: that Donald Trump in and of himself is not the
Speaker 5: only problem. He is a problem. He may be at
Speaker 5: the apex of the problem, but if he's got a
Speaker 5: locked step us Senate behind him, someone who is willing
Speaker 5: to carry out mass theft against the American people by
Speaker 5: not appointing or confirming democratic appointees by Democratic presidents who
Speaker 5: sit in office right now, who put people up for
Speaker 5: the courts because they don't believe a Democrat how to
Speaker 5: be able to appoint justices or judges to the federal bench.
Speaker 3: That's what's happening right now. Let's be clear about it.
Speaker 11: We have Republicans who are holding hostage, who are acting
Speaker 11: in contrary and contradiction of the contra Constitution by staving
Speaker 11: off a democratic prejudicibility to appoint the individuals of.
Speaker 3: His choice to offices that he has.
Speaker 5: Total autonomy, with the exception of advising and consent from
Speaker 5: the US Senate to a point, he's the only one
Speaker 5: who can make those appointments.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 1: But I agree with all that I think his point,
Speaker 1: which is one we all echo. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: how people are always like big up in the Lincoln project, right,
Speaker 1: you know, the wing of never Trumpers who are like,
Speaker 1: we don't rock with him, But then when you look,
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, but y'all were part of the problem
Speaker 1: that helped him get there. Like y'all are cannibalizing. So
Speaker 1: if if this is where we are, like, we're watching
Speaker 1: y'all after we get a president Harris right, because I
Speaker 1: don't really trust you like we allies for now watching right,
Speaker 1: So all these never trumpets, It's like, just remember this
Speaker 1: because you all were exactly you were. You supported the
Speaker 1: Tea Party, you supported the first Make America Great Again candidate.
Speaker 1: We ain't forgot, we know and we ain't no.
Speaker 5: Fools, Tiffany, as you know are the ones who helped
Speaker 5: to engineer Bush into office and before him breaking and
Speaker 5: so on.
Speaker 1: And Nixon and all of them. I wanted to say,
Speaker 1: the Democrat who's supporting Ted Cruz, just so y'all know
Speaker 1: in Texas, do the right thing in Texas. Make Texas
Speaker 1: purple for crying out loud is kim Ogg. She's the
Speaker 1: Democratic district attorney for Harris County. But and this is
Speaker 1: according to the New York Times. On the other side
Speaker 1: of that, uh, Liz Cheney has endorsed Colin Allred, so
Speaker 1: split party. And then when it comes to Joe Manton,
Speaker 1: he according to the NBC News this is in May,
Speaker 1: uh he said that he is leaving the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: and registering as an independent, and that at the time
Speaker 1: was raising speculation about whether he may run for another
Speaker 1: Senate term or if he's eyeing a run for governor
Speaker 1: in the fall. So, anyway, Joe Manton, can I got
Speaker 1: a question? I got I got a question for you, Andrew. Andrew,
Speaker 1: what since you're dressed like Philip Michael Thomas today, No,
Speaker 1: let me let him be geeked O my god, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: my computer is running a little right here too, exactly. Anyway,
Speaker 1: what do you think because I have some thoughts, but
Speaker 1: I know you want to talk about it, But what
Speaker 1: do you think about these celebrities.
Speaker 3: Weighing in being asked to weigh in? Being asked Oftentimes?
Speaker 5: It's not that they are They're not necessarily coming to
Speaker 5: the table trying to get their opinion political opinions out there,
Speaker 5: but are oftentimes asked and Tiff, actually, this really falls
Speaker 5: better in your court because you're often one who reminds
Speaker 5: us that why is it that the media is going
Speaker 5: to the athlete or the actor or actress to talk
Speaker 5: about politics one Likewise, they don't do the same oftentimes
Speaker 5: with white actors or white athletes or activists asking them
Speaker 5: to opine on major political questions. And by the way,
Speaker 5: this is to say that actors, actresses and athletes don't
Speaker 5: have opinions about these things that that may be well
Speaker 5: integedis absolutely they should. But but this all came up obviously,
Speaker 5: and we've we visited this on episodes before, but this
Speaker 5: all came up in light of Janet Jackson being or
Speaker 5: essentially saying that she had heard that Kamala Harris wasn't
Speaker 5: wasn't black and maybe her dad was white, and you
Speaker 5: know a lot of voices have descended upon her on
Speaker 5: that note. I got my own private thoughts about how
Speaker 5: I felt about it. But we're at the stage now
Speaker 5: where I think it's important to lift this beyond just
Speaker 5: being about her and how it is that we treat
Speaker 5: celebrity when it comes to engaging in politics and whether
Speaker 5: or not should we really be going to them asking
Speaker 5: them about their opinion about wars here and there and
Speaker 5: candidates here and there that they that's as Whoopy said,
Speaker 5: and I think we ought to roll Whoopies comments here.
Speaker 3: This ain't what they do. It's not what they do.
Speaker 1: A superstar.
Speaker 9: Jenn Jackson just did a wide ranging interview with British
Speaker 9: newspaper The Guardian, but most of the focus is on
Speaker 9: when she was asked her thoughts on VP Kamala Harris
Speaker 9: possibly become the first black female president she said. She
Speaker 9: answered by saying that she had heard that Harris's father
Speaker 9: was white, which we all know is false. Janet Jackson
Speaker 9: is not a political animal. She does She's a musician.
Speaker 9: Her life is doing this, and she's warning her brother.
Speaker 9: Sometimes I've said stuff and you know I was wrong.
Speaker 9: We all do it, so okay, a little grace for.
Speaker 5: The girl, and y'all, I mean, I think we should
Speaker 5: take those comments, you know, in the heart that they
Speaker 5: are intended, but also to ask the question of whether
Speaker 5: or not we ought to be holding celebrities to the
Speaker 5: same standards that we might hold other politicians or public leaders,
Speaker 5: public figures when it comes to, frankly, talking about things
Speaker 5: that are not in their bellywick that are not frankly,
Speaker 5: the things that they get up and look at the
Speaker 5: news and follow and so on and so forth, like
Speaker 5: we might. And moreover, if they can be infected with
Speaker 5: missus information, who will we to blame regular citizen Joe
Speaker 5: who starts, you know, retorting comments that sound ape shit
Speaker 5: crazy because they're being directly filtered toward them so that
Speaker 5: they can repeat it. I'm curious if y'all think this
Speaker 5: is a double standard. No standard should be.
Speaker 1: I just want to be clear because I definitely don't
Speaker 1: want anyone to mistake any of the three of us.
Speaker 1: I don't want you all to think any of us
Speaker 1: are saying, to Andrew's point that they don't have a
Speaker 1: right to speak. Like you are a tax paying citizen.
Speaker 1: You have every right to use your platform how you
Speaker 1: want to do it, and if you choose to weigh
Speaker 1: in on politics, great, you know, do it. I do
Speaker 1: think when you have large platforms, there comes with it
Speaker 1: a responsibility to be somewhat informed, somewhat well read on
Speaker 1: the subject you're talking about. When it falls short of that,
Speaker 1: I do think it's irresponsible to come out there and
Speaker 1: say something that's demonstrably false or googleably false. I think
Speaker 1: we have to share responsibly. I don't think it's responsible
Speaker 1: to share conspiracy theories or say things you know. And
Speaker 1: just a reminder to celebrities, like shutting up is free,
Speaker 1: Like you don't even have to weigh in on if
Speaker 1: somebody asks you a question you don't know, it's probably
Speaker 1: best to just say, you know, I don't really know
Speaker 1: about things like that, so almost keep quiet.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 1: I want to say when we look at some of
Speaker 1: the celebrity engagement here, to me, the responsibility does fall
Speaker 1: to the media. A large following does not a political
Speaker 1: operative make Okay. I do not want to hear from
Speaker 1: people like it is ridiculous to me, and Angela knows.
Speaker 1: I go off on this all the time. You will
Speaker 1: see people on these news platforms, okay, on a news show,
Speaker 1: and they are chirned as strategists. And I want y'all
Speaker 1: to start googling some of these people and tell me
Speaker 1: what campaign they ever strategized on. They are not strategists.
Speaker 1: If they work for some who gives a crap election
Speaker 1: twenty years ago for the school board that counts, it
Speaker 1: does not make you a Democratic strategist or a Republican
Speaker 1: strategist for that matter. Talking on television is not a job,
Speaker 1: you know. It is in conjunction with none of us
Speaker 1: ever just popped up out here like a fetus, and
Speaker 1: oh here we are. We have opinions. We all had
Speaker 1: decades of work that led to an informed opinion, informed thought,
Speaker 1: informed work.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry I'll just complicated, because don't We often go
Speaker 5: after political you know, celebrities to weigh in, Hey will
Speaker 5: you endorse?
Speaker 3: Will you do this?
Speaker 1: We don't. But there are some people, Well you're saying, yes,
Speaker 1: I do not, We don't. Your campaign may have camp
Speaker 1: but as campaigns yes, As a journalist, no, I don't care.
Speaker 1: And even when I did do, anytime I worked on campaign,
Speaker 1: it was from a comm's perspective. I what the data
Speaker 1: shows is it really does not matter when celebrities endorse
Speaker 1: or not. That does not if there's not any proof more.
Speaker 1: But if you're not a national campaign, yes, it can
Speaker 1: bring national attention. What matters more than a celebrity endorsement
Speaker 1: are those local community validators. That's what matters. And I
Speaker 1: also think it's a difference between a campaign going after
Speaker 1: a celebrity then it is a news outlet platforming a
Speaker 1: celebrity and presenting propping them up like they have any
Speaker 1: idea what the hell they're talking about. You can ask
Speaker 1: them about their platform, you can ask them about their show.
Speaker 1: You can ask them how they built it. You can
Speaker 1: ask them what are you hearing from people who who
Speaker 1: follow you, who watch you, who like you? Asking them
Speaker 1: what does the party need to do for these things.
Speaker 1: I just think that's a disservice to the audience and
Speaker 1: it helps to dumb down the American electorate. But Angela,
Speaker 1: it sounds like you might disagree.
Speaker 6: I just I feel very conflicted here for a number
Speaker 6: of reasons. I think, first, I just want to point
Speaker 6: out I'm not going to whoopyes thing, because I think
Speaker 6: that that's of no consequence here. I think what I
Speaker 6: really want to tap into is what the article was about.
Speaker 6: So Janet Jackson was getting profiled in The Guardian. The
Speaker 6: name of the piece is I shouldn't have listened to
Speaker 6: those around me Janet Jackson on Michael motherhood and how
Speaker 6: she's taking back control. When you read that headline, you
Speaker 6: do not, and really the entire article, you do not
Speaker 6: expect that Janet Jackson is going to somehow be used
Speaker 6: in a Donald Trump ad misinformation for why Kamala Harris
Speaker 6: is not a black woman. The journalist even says in
Speaker 6: this piece, and I'm doing this because there are a
Speaker 6: lot of people who are seeing that one quote, but
Speaker 6: it's completely out of context. Out of context or not,
Speaker 6: she is wrong. That is true. So it is on
Speaker 6: that record she's saying about joining voices in protests to
Speaker 6: social injustice and pushing toward a world rid of color lines.
Speaker 6: I wonder where she stands on the forthcoming election, after all,
Speaker 6: I say, America could be on the verge of voting
Speaker 6: in its first black female president, Kamala Harris. That's when
Speaker 6: Jana Jackson Pop said, well, well, you know what, I heard
Speaker 6: what they said. I haven't watched the news in a
Speaker 6: few days. All of that, She's not really being propped
Speaker 6: up as a political strategist here, or as someone who
Speaker 6: should be speaking, you know, for democracy and protecting it.
Speaker 6: As someone who no longer even lives here. She's being
Speaker 6: asked in the historical nature of this, just as so
Speaker 6: many other people did when we saw every single magazine
Speaker 6: covering Barack Obama, every single you know, rapper, rock star,
Speaker 6: country music artist, Bruce Springsteen, whomever, talking about the importance
Speaker 6: of Barack Obama's election in two thousand and eight. Right,
Speaker 6: those things were all welcome.
Speaker 5: Then.
Speaker 6: They were welcomed by magazines who sold more because they
Speaker 6: were included. They were welcomed certainly by Barack Obama's campaign,
Speaker 6: which I would argue was the first time in a
Speaker 6: presidential where they had a full on surrogate operation because
Speaker 6: of how important celebrity voices were in that context. That said,
Speaker 6: I think it is just as critical to know. If
Speaker 6: we know that celebrity voices could be influential as Taylor
Speaker 6: Swift's endorsement was the night of the debate, literally changing
Speaker 6: the news cycle, then we also know that they could
Speaker 6: be equally harmful, and they should be held to account
Speaker 6: for the things they do that are harmful. I have
Speaker 6: not liked the very personal attacks that have been lobbed
Speaker 6: against her for saying something ignorant, right, And I understand,
Speaker 6: like people can joke about it and all of that,
Speaker 6: but you're not shaming her into truth. You're getting her
Speaker 6: to be more cocooned in the more cocluon than she
Speaker 6: already was, which who even knew that was possible. I
Speaker 6: think that jan Jackson should be made to apologize for
Speaker 6: the misinformation. It sounds like she's not. It sounds like
Speaker 6: she's doubling down in it when you look at her
Speaker 6: manager brother's Instagram account. There's no wonder why I'll let
Speaker 6: you guys go do that for yourselves. But it is
Speaker 6: remarkably frustrating because on one hand, we'll say, these people
Speaker 6: really do matter, and on the other hand we'll be like, well,
Speaker 6: who are they? They don't know nothing. It's like we
Speaker 6: got to kind of find a place, And I think
Speaker 6: I would argue the place is they do matter, and
Speaker 6: if they don't know anything, it is the obligation of
Speaker 6: those who would teach us about sports, who would teach
Speaker 6: us about entertainment, who when we leave our or distance
Speaker 6: ourselves a little more from our normal strategy jobs and
Speaker 6: go into TV and media and into speeches and into
Speaker 6: you know, influencer deals or endorsement deals. Those say, people
Speaker 6: who coach us up on those things, we need to
Speaker 6: be coaching them up about how politics works in facts
Speaker 6: when they come into play. That's my WoT.
Speaker 2: For me.
Speaker 5: The context of why she did the interview was not
Speaker 5: important to me because at the point that she decided
Speaker 5: she was going to contradict the asker of the question,
Speaker 5: the journalists and saying how will you feel about the
Speaker 5: first black woman president, and her interjecting a set of facts,
Speaker 5: not real facts, a set of information that was not
Speaker 5: introduced through the question by saying oh, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: I heard that that that she ain't that That's when
Speaker 5: it turns for me because you're not responding to the
Speaker 5: question that was asked of you, which is by a journalist,
Speaker 5: how do you feel about the first black woman president?
Speaker 5: You've now said, oh no, no, let me give you news.
Speaker 5: They say she not black. So then it's like now
Speaker 5: we're now we're trifling into what is the irresponsible? But
Speaker 5: the reason why I tried to lift it to you know,
Speaker 5: sort of what the what the the power is of
Speaker 5: misinformation that if you can be Janet Jackson believably by
Speaker 5: most of us, to be surrounded by handlers, people who
Speaker 5: shuffle and maybe publicists who keep her, you know, to
Speaker 5: date on things that that if you can be, in
Speaker 5: fact to buy misinformation, what guard do what safeguards exist
Speaker 5: for the average citizen as to what they are?
Speaker 3: You know, what standard we then treat them to.
Speaker 5: And the truth is I think about average since I
Speaker 5: mean one, the woman has been vice president for almost
Speaker 5: four years. She's not a new entity onto the onto
Speaker 5: the onto the stage.
Speaker 6: But some people I think it is a point.
Speaker 3: Of privilege for years in the public space.
Speaker 6: But it hasn't been that sure, Andrew, But it hasn't
Speaker 6: been that public. We have to acknowledge the fact that
Speaker 6: as much work as Kamala Harris has done, there was
Speaker 6: not a lot of coverage of her until.
Speaker 3: I agree that.
Speaker 6: That's all I'm saying. So we're expecting people to go
Speaker 6: and dig I think that's a point of privilege we
Speaker 6: have because of our connection to this work.
Speaker 5: I am not saying I don't expect people to introduce
Speaker 5: facts that are not fast.
Speaker 6: Do that because they consistently do it, And I do expect,
Speaker 6: maybe this is where I have too many high hopes
Speaker 6: over media. I expect that the moment somebody says something
Speaker 6: like this, you see it going off the rails, that's
Speaker 6: not the point of the piece, Like why are you
Speaker 6: the print? Why print that?
Speaker 3: Well, but that is suggested. No, but this is the.
Speaker 6: Same publication that is like, oh there's rampant misinformation. There's
Speaker 6: rampid misinformation. If you go and then publish it, you
Speaker 6: know that's the piece that's gonna be clipped in the SoundBite.
Speaker 6: You're now feeding the very monster that you rail against
Speaker 6: that you raised money for The Guardian. And I'm not
Speaker 6: saying I'm not pointing blame at one person or one entity.
Speaker 6: Janet Jackson is at fault Randy Jackson is at fault.
Speaker 6: The people questioning her blackness are at fault. The Guardian
Speaker 6: for printing it, I think are at fault. They did
Speaker 6: not need the traffic in this they did.
Speaker 1: So that is where I would say, like, that's the
Speaker 1: hard thing I think with newsrooms, because it's all, you know, subjective.
Speaker 6: Sure, you know, like you.
Speaker 1: Can't write like you you saying that you should not
Speaker 1: have run it. You know, other people can say, well, no,
Speaker 1: that's newsworthy. She said something, I'm kind of with you, Angela, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I would have if I were
Speaker 1: the reporter in that case, I've probably would not have
Speaker 1: run it. I don't know that I would fault somebody
Speaker 1: else for making a different choice. But I personally and professionally,
Speaker 1: I think that was irresponsible, especially when you could correct
Speaker 1: her and keep.
Speaker 6: Credit to the journalists credit. She did try to correct her,
Speaker 6: and then they and it looks like there was a
Speaker 6: back and forth for some times she printed.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, correct her and not run it, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I would say, right, I get it, and and
Speaker 1: viewers and readers and all that matters. But the difference
Speaker 1: in because Angela, you were talking about oh, well, Obama
Speaker 1: came and you know, people were weighing in on that.
Speaker 1: That is very different for what I'm talking about. When
Speaker 1: I say, yeah, I would, I would think if I
Speaker 1: were a reporter covering entertainment. Yes, I want to ask,
Speaker 1: you're a woman, how does it feel to see, you know,
Speaker 1: a woman, a sense of this? What are your thoughts?
Speaker 1: You're a black person, how does it feel to see this?
Speaker 1: You can ask questions like that. To me, the problem
Speaker 1: comes when you say, what does the Democratic Party need
Speaker 1: to be doing when it comes to reaching a broader
Speaker 1: coalition of voters? Taylor Swift, Wayne, what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on that? Why are we ever asking Taylor Swift about that?
Speaker 1: Is not her area of expertise. That is a problem.
Speaker 1: The thing is they would not ask Taylors with that.
Speaker 1: They only do that when it comes to black folks.
Speaker 1: They disproportionately do that when it comes to black folks.
Speaker 1: They don't know the difference between and Isabella or Wilkinson
Speaker 1: and a Janet Jackson. To be honest, they think, oh,
Speaker 1: it's all the same thing. And I think that is
Speaker 1: not only disrespectful, it is irrespond to hear that point
Speaker 1: that these people don't have a right to weigh in,
Speaker 1: but it's irresponding for the media to elevate that.
Speaker 6: I hear that point, Tiff and Andrew, I want you
Speaker 6: to jump in. I just have one little thing, and
Speaker 6: I would say this here too. For Andrew's campaign, one
Speaker 6: of the things that I thought was really important was
Speaker 6: that we got a firm that had run ads and
Speaker 6: run successful corporate campaigns to give Andrew a different type
Speaker 6: of appeal, because we know that there are certain products
Speaker 6: that do better at appealing to broad swaths of audiences.
Speaker 6: So that was not a typical political firm, and so
Speaker 6: we're asking them, Hey, what do you think we can
Speaker 6: do to ensure broad appeal of this candidate and present
Speaker 6: him differently. I think there's no difference in asking someone
Speaker 6: with expertise in entertainment, whether they've cut ads or movies,
Speaker 6: if they do trailers or whatever, how can we present
Speaker 6: this information in a different way. We shouted out Gary
Speaker 6: Chambers on this program for presenting a political ad in
Speaker 6: a different way, and I think when we get those
Speaker 6: other voices, it's to add perspective, not because they've had
Speaker 6: fifty years of expertise in the political space.
Speaker 1: Like James you understand the difference. You're talking about a campaign,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about it.
Speaker 6: What I guess. If the newsroom is asking a question
Speaker 6: because they're curious about how a candidate could break through,
Speaker 6: I'm still not even faulting them for that. Now if
Speaker 6: they use that to say, oh, well, Mike Tyson said
Speaker 6: that this is everything. Sometimes I'm trying to acknowledge that's
Speaker 6: the point of and you're inside your point that I
Speaker 6: agree with. I am saying there's still spaciousness for allowing
Speaker 6: diverse voices to say say, these are some places where
Speaker 6: what that I know could work if they use them
Speaker 6: on me, or if they took this approach, or if
Speaker 6: they took this approach for this zip code where I'm from.
Speaker 6: I don't think there's anything wrong with that for diverse opinions.
Speaker 1: But if they I think there are there's an embarrassment
Speaker 1: of riches of people who actually do that work, who
Speaker 1: are experts. I don't understand.
Speaker 5: I get you, I get your point, Tiff, and I
Speaker 5: buy a lawge degree. I will say, I am never
Speaker 5: going to expect a newsroom to do the editing when
Speaker 5: they can quite as easily go out and ask anybody
Speaker 5: they want who they think might be a newsmaker that
Speaker 5: might give them a bigger break, that might make their
Speaker 5: story that much bigger. I don't expect that they're ever
Speaker 5: going to turn away from that person, should they be
Speaker 5: willing to answer the question and put it out there,
Speaker 5: and especially if their answer creates a whole new conversation
Speaker 5: in and of itself. And that's what happened here. This
Speaker 5: was not a gotcha question to jan Jackson. This was
Speaker 5: not a you've got.
Speaker 3: Well cinched in politics to know one way or another.
Speaker 12: This was like.
Speaker 3: And this is one of the problems.
Speaker 5: This is where identify the problem for her, which is
Speaker 5: she tried to having not watch news in the past
Speaker 5: couple of days, to introduce some facts a couple no
Speaker 5: no for her, I mean introduced information. You're right, You're
Speaker 5: absolutely right, Angela. She attempted to introduce information that she
Speaker 5: thought was new and different than what the report of.
Speaker 3: Herself was asking.
Speaker 5: And so when she took that liberty, when she took
Speaker 5: that liberty, she opened up.
Speaker 3: A different can.
Speaker 5: And that's why you know again, I think everybody is
Speaker 5: everybody can make mistakes. But I'll tell you this much,
Speaker 5: these artists know how to stay out of trouble. They
Speaker 5: spent a lifetime staying out of trouble, and so you
Speaker 5: walk headfirst into it or trying to at least make
Speaker 5: at least cover over it, at least when.
Speaker 3: We should take a break. Actually, you know what, I'll
Speaker 3: take us to the break.
Speaker 5: I'm going to finish my point, which is simply to
Speaker 5: say my point is now done, and we can go
Speaker 5: to a break. But it seems like a break is
Speaker 5: only possible when I'm in the middle of saying.
Speaker 8: And.
Speaker 1: Take a break. Take up your point on the other side, Andrew.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 5: Welcome, Welcome back, everybody. We are coming to the end
Speaker 5: of the episode that I thought end did.
Speaker 3: We're going to do it doing this today, and we're
Speaker 3: going to start. We're going to start the end by
Speaker 3: listening to one more of your question.
Speaker 12: Hi, everyone is as deeply. I grew up in Central Ohio.
Speaker 12: Now I live in Dallas, Texas, and I wanted to
Speaker 12: ask if y'all had been watching Fight Night on Hulu.
Speaker 12: It's a show about Atlanta in the sixties and kind.
Speaker 1: Of wearing getting all.
Speaker 12: What the show is called Black Vegas as a really
Speaker 12: awesome mostly black cast and I was wondering if you
Speaker 12: guys you know, had seen it, where your thoughts are
Speaker 12: and what you may think it's irrelevance could be in
Speaker 12: pop culture in terms of just seeing black stories told
Speaker 12: in a more mainstream way. Thanks for listening and chatting.
Speaker 12: And I also want to shout out a great little
Speaker 12: small business. This is Christy Rice. She's got these great
Speaker 12: shoes shirts that say wear your shoes ladies. There's a
Speaker 12: glass everywhere. Highly recommend, but thanks.
Speaker 1: We want one. We wanted t shirts.
Speaker 6: Also, Will Back, we're running some money because I don't
Speaker 6: know why you got this girl to sending this question
Speaker 6: in the show, like you didn't have to pay for advertising.
Speaker 1: You know who else is aby on that iHeart?
Speaker 6: But some money to Andrew. This is a great pot
Speaker 6: to talk about misinformation because that show is on Peacock.
Speaker 1: And I would say, I've been watching this show. It
Speaker 1: is so good. I talked to y'all about it when
Speaker 1: I was on the Vineyard and we did a Q
Speaker 1: and A with the cast. It is really good. And
Speaker 1: it started out as a podcast on iHeart. Will Packer
Speaker 1: is the executive producer on it along with Will here.
Speaker 1: Will iHeart is also an executive producer on it. But
Speaker 1: it's really have you all been watching?
Speaker 6: I need to start. I need to start.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have time because there I thought I was
Speaker 1: gonna be able to binge the whole thing, and then
Speaker 1: I got to the last episode and new episodes are
Speaker 1: dropped every week, so I didn't. I thought I was
Speaker 1: gonna be able to watch it in one sitting, but
Speaker 1: it's like five episodes in now. New episodes dropped every Thursday.
Speaker 1: Absince found out. But it is really good. It's funny.
Speaker 1: Taraji Henson is amazing, Kevin Hart is amazing, Terrence Howard,
Speaker 1: Sam Jackson, h Chloe from from Chloe and Bailey. It's
Speaker 1: really good, and it's basically about this heist Kelly, Sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: moving fast, I just wear okay, thank you. That's so bad.
Speaker 1: But it's basically some dudes planned to rob a party
Speaker 1: the night Muhammed Ali was fighting in Atlanta. That is
Speaker 1: where the story begins. And it is really good. But
Speaker 1: that is a free ass commercial for Andrew Fellow.
Speaker 6: You a slick will packer.
Speaker 1: We love you will, We love you know you, said
Speaker 1: Angela up during the DNC. We loved y'all up too.
Speaker 1: There are supposed to be your surprise. He did. I know,
Speaker 1: I'm mad about it. I wanted my surprise anyway. That
Speaker 1: was because people, you know, people were asking who was
Speaker 1: the surprise. Angela never said it was Will Packer. He
Speaker 1: was well, and he came like five seconds after we
Speaker 1: got off.
Speaker 6: Five minutes too late.
Speaker 1: Yes, about five minutes, five minutes, that's true. All right,
Speaker 1: what should we talk about before we get to CCA's
Speaker 1: what we talk about on the mini pot. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: finally Andrew's on top. I know Andrew, y'all. Andrew got
Speaker 1: an attitude right now? What you want to talk about?
Speaker 5: Andrew out of his preparation for category three hurricane hitting
Speaker 5: you directly.
Speaker 6: We should have you have a lot, right, he should
Speaker 6: have an attitude. He's trying to just say his family.
Speaker 6: He's got got a Superman shirt underneath this tight white button.
Speaker 1: No, well we can't tell because it's but.
Speaker 3: You'll never see it again.
Speaker 1: Okay, I tested campaign finance. I'd be up for that
Speaker 1: against you know. Okay, all right, skip it. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna do that. I mean, maybe like that one that
Speaker 1: you said, Angela, it was, oh you were talking about
Speaker 1: we didn't really quite flush it out, but it was
Speaker 1: like one of our more like.
Speaker 6: Spirits we need we need Jesus today too.
Speaker 1: Yes, you walked us through one. It was do you remember, Andrew?
Speaker 6: Oh, I know, I know what it was. It was about.
Speaker 6: We had this conversation. I think often, like the three
Speaker 6: of us, we are all the responsible ones in our family,
Speaker 6: shade anybody else in the family. But in doing that, Oh,
Speaker 6: Andrew's on a mission today, y'all. He is burning as
Speaker 6: he goes. He's just burning it all down. But you know,
Speaker 6: there's this idea that when you do carry that, that
Speaker 6: you have a lot to fix. You know, you're constantly fixing,
Speaker 6: You're constantly problem solving, You're constantly doing. And Tiff was like,
Speaker 6: have you ever asked people, oh, you know, if they
Speaker 6: want your help, if they want to just vent, or
Speaker 6: how they want you to engage? And I'm like, no, bish,
Speaker 6: when I hear a problem, I'm jumping. It happened this morning.
Speaker 6: I won't even say what it was, but happened this morning.
Speaker 6: I was off to the races and nobody'd ask for
Speaker 6: my help. And so I think there is something there
Speaker 6: for us in surrender, in control. You're just talking about
Speaker 6: miss Jackson. If you're nasty in learning how to show
Speaker 6: up and where the trauma might be in people not
Speaker 6: maybe showing up for us, and so we're trying to
Speaker 6: always talk about it. Okay, maybe I like that as
Speaker 6: a mini but.
Speaker 3: I can rock with it.
Speaker 1: Okay, Andrew, you're going.
Speaker 6: To start as soon as you many can only take
Speaker 6: breaks when you're talking. You're gonna start stop telling that
Speaker 6: we all ignoreak serious, Okay? Sometimes this ship fil a buster.
Speaker 6: You have made your point, and you were making a
Speaker 6: second or a third or ninth point, and we just
Speaker 6: got to go to break.
Speaker 1: They literally putting up a science say let's go to break.
Speaker 3: Let's let's break. Now it's okay.
Speaker 6: Can I just say break? You break your glasses for
Speaker 6: our viewers.
Speaker 1: Our mini pods drop every Monday, so please tune into
Speaker 1: this mini pod because it's not going to be totally political,
Speaker 1: even though I do think there's a political element to it.
Speaker 1: So I love this topic and I'm looking forward to talk.
Speaker 6: Andrew's going to start case he doesn't think that he
Speaker 6: gets to talk about how and.
Speaker 1: Why don't you start us off with your CTA.
Speaker 6: Yeah, start us off, Andrew, Please, I.
Speaker 3: Like one plan.
Speaker 5: If you're in Florida and any of the forty or
Speaker 5: sold states. I hope you are making preparation. This is Thursday.
Speaker 5: Impacts expected today and uh be safe. Everybody be safe.
Speaker 5: I like you.
Speaker 6: Mine is to please look up the names of other
Speaker 6: people who are similarly situated to Marcellus Williams TIFFs, tears,
Speaker 6: Andrew's tears, our heart Regie moments today should not be
Speaker 6: in vain. We should remember the names of these folks,
Speaker 6: and we should motivate and work to support them long
Speaker 6: before we're requesting a stay of execution. What is our
Speaker 6: responsibility to these folks who are on death row and
Speaker 6: should not be We shouldn't. I don't think we should
Speaker 6: even have death row, which is probably.
Speaker 3: Another mini pod but chet project.
Speaker 6: Oh yes, thank you AG. That's such a good shout
Speaker 6: and shout out to Barry Sheck. We love you, Barry.
Speaker 1: Yes, Barry Shack. And can we thumbtact that because I
Speaker 1: like the death row, so I think we should. Nick,
Speaker 1: if you're listening, make a note. We want to add definity.
Speaker 1: I'll be quick with mine. My CTA is President Fay.
Speaker 1: He is the youngest elected leader in Africa. He is
Speaker 1: the newly elected president of Senegal, and I was reading
Speaker 1: a profile on him. He hasn't done a lot of
Speaker 1: Western media, but I was reading a profile on him
Speaker 1: and he said something which I thought was really interesting,
Speaker 1: and that is, by twenty fifty, Africa's population will likely
Speaker 1: be nearly two point five billion, which will account for
Speaker 1: an estimated one of every four people on the planet.
Speaker 1: I just think that's a we are the global majority.
Speaker 1: I just think that is a really fascinating statistic. But
Speaker 1: he also said something else about just the world on
Speaker 1: how they deal with Africa, and he made the point
Speaker 1: that Africa is hardly responsible for climate change, yet when
Speaker 1: emissions from the developed world causes polar ice caps to
Speaker 1: mel the repercussions are felt on our shores. And he
Speaker 1: railed against the injustice of rich nations continuing to use
Speaker 1: coal while refusing the finance fossil fuel projects and developing
Speaker 1: countries on the continent. So I just, honestly, I saw
Speaker 1: him and thought he was fine, and I read the
Speaker 1: profile and I learned all this stuff and was like, wow,
Speaker 1: he's forty four, which makes him he is in my
Speaker 1: age range of dating if I.
Speaker 6: Don't know if he wants at the NB anyway, And
Speaker 6: This is what you call a shade field plug. There's
Speaker 6: not a shameless plug about this moment. This is shame.
Speaker 6: I just thrown herself to an African president on the rescue.
Speaker 3: Today. Welcome, What are the takes? How many days did
Speaker 3: the election?
Speaker 1: I think it's forty one days to the election.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's forty by the time the.
Speaker 1: Party a forty days to election. Forty days.
Speaker 6: A welcome night in a lifetime before Tip throws herself
Speaker 6: at the mercy of another big guy.
Speaker 1: Welcome, y'all.
Speaker 3: Welcome.
Speaker 13: Thank you for joining the Natives attention of with the
Speaker 13: info and all of the latest regulum and cross connected
Speaker 13: to the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank
Speaker 13: you sincerely for the patients reason for your choice is clear.
Speaker 5: So grateful it took the execute roles.
Speaker 13: Thank you for serve, defend and protect the truth even
Speaker 13: in case.
Speaker 3: We welcome home to all of the Natives. We thank you.
Speaker 6: Welcome, y'all, Welcome.
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