Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Rep. Al Green On Disrupting The Joint Session Of Congress, Fighting For Medicaid + More
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
- 0:04Speaker 2: Everybody is the DJ en Vy Jesse, Larry Schela mean
- 0:08Speaker 2: the guy, we are the Breakfast Club. Lola Rosa is here.
- 0:10Speaker 2: We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed
- 0:12Speaker 2: if Congressman Al Green, welcome brother, thank you, thank you, brother,
- 0:16Speaker 2: thank you for joining us.
- 0:17Speaker 3: How you feeling, Yeah, well, I'm feeling quite well. Better
- 0:23Speaker 3: than I deserve is what I usually say, because candidly,
- 0:26Speaker 3: I have the gift of life. I didn't earn it,
- 0:29Speaker 3: and I'm appreciative and I try as best as I
- 0:32Speaker 3: can to appreciate the life that I have. But current
- 0:37Speaker 3: events obviously are on my mind. And notwithstanding these events,
- 0:43Speaker 3: I still say that I'm better than I deserve.
- 0:45Speaker 1: You know, I want to you don't want to say something. Man.
- 0:47Speaker 4: A couple of weeks ago, the good Brother Michael Eric
- 0:49Speaker 4: Dison reached out and he said, Congressman, I agree in
- 0:53Speaker 4: Texas wants to come on Breakfast Club. And I'm like,
- 0:54Speaker 4: I for sure connected with the producers and everything else.
- 0:57Speaker 4: So this is just divine timing because this was something
- 1:02Speaker 4: that was in the Magan a couple of weeks ago.
- 1:04Speaker 4: But then everything transpired transpired this week. Yes, sir, what
- 1:08Speaker 4: made you even want to come on a couple of
- 1:10Speaker 4: weeks ago?
- 1:11Speaker 3: I admire the way you conduct your program, to be
- 1:16Speaker 3: quite honest, But may I just step back a moment
- 1:18Speaker 3: and say a kind word about Michael. Absolutely, I think
- 1:23Speaker 3: so much of him. He's one of the great minds
- 1:25Speaker 3: of our time. Absolutely, I don't know that he has
- 1:29Speaker 3: an equal to be very honest with you, So I'm
- 1:32Speaker 3: grateful to him for reaching out on my behalf. But
- 1:35Speaker 3: I wanted to come on because I know that you
- 1:37Speaker 3: have an audience that may not have had an opportunity
- 1:41Speaker 3: to hear some of the things that I think would
- 1:44Speaker 3: merit their consideration. So this would be an opportunity to
- 1:48Speaker 3: reach out and see if we can help persons better
- 1:52Speaker 3: understand some of what's happening in Congress.
- 1:55Speaker 4: And not only do you have one of the greatest
- 1:58Speaker 4: R and B singer's name, you got an R and
- 1:59Speaker 4: B voice.
- 2:05Speaker 3: Well, I've never been acknowledged in this fashion before. I
- 2:09Speaker 3: have had people to say to me, well, let me
- 2:13Speaker 3: give you this example. I was introduced and it was
- 2:16Speaker 3: a great introduction, one of the best introductions I've ever had.
- 2:19Speaker 3: And as I was going to speak. The gentleman said
- 2:22Speaker 3: to me, before you finish, would you just please sing
- 2:25Speaker 3: one song? He knew not that I was just give
- 2:31Speaker 3: us one one song.
- 2:32Speaker 2: But I want to start from back before we get
- 2:34Speaker 2: into everything that's going on. Who is al Green? And
- 2:36Speaker 2: what made you wanted to get into serving people?
- 2:40Speaker 3: But probably started early in life when I was a
- 2:43Speaker 3: child in elementary school, my teacher, Miss Graham I believe
- 2:48Speaker 3: was her name, had the class to all assume some
- 2:53Speaker 3: office or run for some office. And I was running
- 2:56Speaker 3: for class president and my theme was go with Green.
- 3:01Speaker 3: And that meant something to me then and it continued.
- 3:06Speaker 3: President of student body, president of freshman class in college.
- 3:11Speaker 3: Once you get into this, it seems to envelop you
- 3:14Speaker 3: and you you just don't leave it immediately. So I didn't.
- 3:20Speaker 3: I didn't plan to do this. It sort of consumed
- 3:25Speaker 3: me in a sense. And here I am. So it's
- 3:28Speaker 3: not not a not a contrived thing. Now.
- 3:31Speaker 2: They said, you like HBCU so much.
- 3:32Speaker 1: You went to three of them.
- 3:34Speaker 3: Well, I went to for.
- 3:35Speaker 2: You, Howard and Duskegee.
- 3:38Speaker 3: And I also went to Texas Southern and Texas. Yes, sir,
- 3:42Speaker 3: I enjoyed undergraduates. I really did. And by the way
- 3:47Speaker 3: for everybody's edification. I have no undergraduate degree. I was
- 3:51Speaker 3: fortunate enough to get into law school. It was just
- 3:54Speaker 3: a quirk of circumstance. And so I finished law school
- 3:57Speaker 3: at Thurgood Marshall School of Law.
- 4:01Speaker 4: You know, you caused some good trouble the other night
- 4:03Speaker 4: when you stood up and spoke out at the Is
- 4:06Speaker 4: it the State of the Union. No, it was a
- 4:08Speaker 4: joint joint joint session of Joint Session of Congress. When
- 4:11Speaker 4: we sit up and spoke out of the Joint Session
- 4:12Speaker 4: of Congress. I think what was getting lost is what
- 4:15Speaker 4: you actually said. Thank you, And you said that you
- 4:19Speaker 4: have no mandate on medicare, no mandate to cut medicaid, no.
- 4:24Speaker 3: Mandate to cut literally friends. I had my coat, my cane,
- 4:31Speaker 3: and I was about to make my exit because I
- 4:34Speaker 3: really didn't want to sit through what I knew the
- 4:37Speaker 3: President would do. So as I was about to make
- 4:40Speaker 3: my exit, he made this statement about his mandate and
- 4:44Speaker 3: I said to him, you have no mandate to cut medicaid. Uh.
- 4:49Speaker 3: And by the way, I didn't come to say that.
- 4:52Speaker 3: I did not. It was spontaneity. It was just something
- 4:55Speaker 3: far movie. Yes, so I said it, and of course,
- 4:57Speaker 3: the speaker admonished me. He said that I take a seat,
- 5:01Speaker 3: but at the moment I had to make the point,
- 5:04Speaker 3: so I said it again. The speaker admonished me again,
- 5:07Speaker 3: and the speaker did his job. He said, well, you
- 5:10Speaker 3: got to be moved, removed, and so I was evicted.
- 5:13Speaker 3: And by the way, the officers who evicted me were
- 5:15Speaker 3: very kind. They didn't say anything to me that was
- 5:20Speaker 3: out of order. They were very kind to me. But
- 5:23Speaker 3: it didn't matter to me what the consequences were. And
- 5:27Speaker 3: I've shared this with other people. John Lewis and I
- 5:29Speaker 3: were friends and we talked about this notion of peaceful protest,
- 5:35Speaker 3: and a part of it is not just getting in
- 5:37Speaker 3: the way. As he put it, you have to get.
- 5:39Speaker 1: In the way.
- 5:40Speaker 3: You have to be disruptive. People are not going to
- 5:43Speaker 3: like you some But when you do this, you have
- 5:47Speaker 3: to also be prepared to suffer the consequences. So when
- 5:50Speaker 3: I did it, I was prepared to suffer the consequences,
- 5:54Speaker 3: and I'm prepared now. But that doesn't mean that I'm
- 5:56Speaker 3: going to like the consequences. You can be prepared to
- 5:59Speaker 3: suffer things that you don't agree with. I don't agree
- 6:03Speaker 3: with what happened, but I was prepared to suffer because
- 6:07Speaker 3: Medicaid means so much to so many people. One in
- 6:11Speaker 3: every five persons with insurance in this country is covered
- 6:14Speaker 3: by virtual medicaid, and if we lose Medicaid, we're going
- 6:19Speaker 3: to lose lives. The president, buying through his agents in Congress,
- 6:25Speaker 3: has that should a mandate bepast legislation to cut eight
- 6:30Speaker 3: hundred and eighty billion dollars from the committee that has
- 6:36Speaker 3: jurisdiction over Medicaid. You cannot do that. You cannot do
- 6:41Speaker 3: that without cutting into Medicaid. And if you do that,
- 6:44Speaker 3: you're going to hurt a lot of people that I represent.
- 6:46Speaker 3: So I'm standing for them because they can't stand for
- 6:50Speaker 3: themselves understanding that they need this health care.
- 6:53Speaker 4: I'm glad you explained that, but I also you said something.
- 6:56Speaker 4: You said that the speaker was doing his job. So
- 6:58Speaker 4: if that's the case, why Democratic speakers do their job
- 7:01Speaker 4: and kick out Joe.
- 7:02Speaker 1: Wilson when he yelled at at Barack Obama? You lied?
- 7:05Speaker 4: Why they didn't do their job and kick out Marjorie
- 7:06Speaker 4: Taylor Green or bol Bird Like, why don't they do
- 7:09Speaker 4: their job?
- 7:11Speaker 3: This is why I came to the program because I
- 7:13Speaker 3: would get a question like this, and I really appreciate
- 7:16Speaker 3: this question because it gets to the essence of where
- 7:21Speaker 3: we are. But a good many of us don't realize it.
- 7:25Speaker 3: There is still invidious discrimination. There is invidious discrimination in
- 7:31Speaker 3: the House of Representatives. I'm a son of the segregated South.
- 7:36Speaker 3: The rights that the Constitution recognized for me, my friends
- 7:40Speaker 3: and neighbors denied. I had to sit in the back
- 7:42Speaker 3: of the bus the balcony of the movie drink from
- 7:45Speaker 3: a colored water fountain, and my relatives who committed some
- 7:49Speaker 3: crimes were locked up in the bottom of the jail.
- 7:52Speaker 3: I know what invidious discrimination looks like. The klan burned
- 7:56Speaker 3: across in my yard. I know what it smells like,
- 8:00Speaker 3: and filthy waiting rooms, and I've been in places where
- 8:04Speaker 3: I didn't want to be, and I know what it
- 8:05Speaker 3: sounds like. I've been called all kinds of ugly names,
- 8:07Speaker 3: so I know in vidious discrimination. And when the speaker
- 8:12Speaker 3: decided that I would be removed, and then there was
- 8:15Speaker 3: this motion, this resolution to censure me, it became obvious
- 8:22Speaker 3: to me that I was not being treated as others were.
- 8:25Speaker 3: And candidly speaking, it is in vidious discrimination, harmful discrimination.
- 8:32Speaker 3: I don't agree with that, but I was willing to
- 8:35Speaker 3: suffer that because I knew that I had to get
- 8:38Speaker 3: that message to the president and put this issue before
- 8:42Speaker 3: the public, because the public has not grasped what's going
- 8:46Speaker 3: to happen if Medicaid is cut. This is not about
- 8:49Speaker 3: black people. Most of the people of the plurality, their Anglos.
- 8:55Speaker 3: Black people are smaller percentage of Medicaid. But this is
- 8:58Speaker 3: about people who need healthcare. This president is a person
- 9:04Speaker 3: who uses his incivility to take advantage of our civility.
- 9:09Speaker 3: When I left, I went home and I saw the
- 9:12Speaker 3: rest of the event on television, and I saw him
- 9:17Speaker 3: point to the Democrats and say, these people are lunatics.
- 9:21Speaker 3: He called the Democratic members of Congress lunatics. Now that
- 9:26Speaker 3: is incivility. He will not be punished for that. He's
- 9:30Speaker 3: not going to be sanctioned. He's not going to be reprimanded,
- 9:32Speaker 3: he's not going to be censured. He does this with impunity.
- 9:39Speaker 3: I believe that we have to meet incivility with incivility.
- 9:43Speaker 3: I have to be prepared to suffer the consequences. But
- 9:46Speaker 3: I'm prepared to meet his incivility that he uses to
- 9:50Speaker 3: demean people. We have to use our incivility to uplift people,
- 9:55Speaker 3: and I plan to do that.
- 9:56Speaker 4: I understand that, But why wouldn't the Democratic Speaker of
- 9:59Speaker 4: the House censure those folks, like why wouldn't she call
- 10:03Speaker 4: them out? Or he called him out when Obama was
- 10:05Speaker 4: in office? Why wouldn't Pelosi call him ol when Biden
- 10:08Speaker 4: was in office? And do to them what they did
- 10:11Speaker 4: to you when they disrupted the joint right.
- 10:15Speaker 3: My belief is that what they've done to me exceeded
- 10:20Speaker 3: what should be done, and that may be why, because
- 10:24Speaker 3: they didn't want to exceed what should be done. That
- 10:26Speaker 3: would be my guest. I can't deadly don't know, but
- 10:29Speaker 3: I know that I have been treated differently, and I
- 10:33Speaker 3: have accepted that it happened. I don't agree with it,
- 10:37Speaker 3: and I think that if you treat everybody else as
- 10:39Speaker 3: you should, and then when I show up, you decide
- 10:42Speaker 3: to treat me differently, I then protest that. And I
- 10:45Speaker 3: do that, but I would protest notwithstanding the way they've
- 10:50Speaker 3: done it, simply because I think that at some point,
- 10:55Speaker 3: even if nobody stands with you on some issues, they
- 11:00Speaker 3: are so important that if nobody stands with you, it
- 11:04Speaker 3: is better to stand alone than not stand at all.
- 11:07Speaker 4: I agree with you, but I also believe Democrats the cowards,
- 11:09Speaker 4: and that's why they didn't call out Marjorie Taylor Green.
- 11:12Speaker 4: That's why they didn't call out Joe Wilson when he
- 11:14Speaker 4: did it. And Republicans. That's what what happened the other night.
- 11:18Speaker 4: It made a weak party look weaker. You looked strong,
- 11:21Speaker 4: and I was sitting there wondering, well, why is nobody
- 11:23Speaker 4: else standing up with that brother? Why is nobody else
- 11:26Speaker 4: walking out with that brother in that moment? To me,
- 11:28Speaker 4: it just shows you how cowardly the Democratic Party is.
- 11:32Speaker 5: Did you feel did you feel like people should have
- 11:34Speaker 5: left with you?
- 11:35Speaker 2: Do you feel like if we leave, like you know,
- 11:37Speaker 2: one leave, we all leave, but together we united.
- 11:39Speaker 3: Let me give you a proper predicate before I go
- 11:41Speaker 3: to the specific point. I'm not a Democrat because I
- 11:49Speaker 3: love the notion of being a Democrat. I don't have
- 11:53Speaker 3: another option. This is the option that's available to it
- 11:56Speaker 3: the best option available to me. And I tell people
- 11:59Speaker 3: that I'm a liberate Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and unafraid.
- 12:04Speaker 1: Would I have.
- 12:06Speaker 3: Stood with someone else had they done.
- 12:08Speaker 1: This, Yes, absolutely, I would have.
- 12:11Speaker 3: And I believe that there are some Democrats who weren't
- 12:15Speaker 3: there when he said lunatic. I'm sort of pleased that
- 12:19Speaker 3: Maxine Waters wasn't there because I'm confident Maxine would have
- 12:24Speaker 3: had some choice words for him, words that I wouldn't use.
- 12:27Speaker 3: She's a master of scatology and so, but I don't
- 12:32Speaker 3: begrudge them. To be very honest, I think people have
- 12:37Speaker 3: to on some of these questions, do what your conscious dictates.
- 12:40Speaker 3: This was a dictate of my conscience, my convictions, and
- 12:44Speaker 3: I said to my friends, vote your conscious when we
- 12:47Speaker 3: got to the vote in this case, vote vote whatever
- 12:50Speaker 3: your convictions are. I'm not trying to sway you one
- 12:52Speaker 3: way or another, but I do say to you, and
- 12:55Speaker 3: I've said this before, I'm not a Democrat because it's
- 13:00Speaker 3: it was not like a religion for me. I'm there
- 13:03Speaker 3: because it's the best choice that I have. If I
- 13:05Speaker 3: had another choice, I would opt for that.
- 13:07Speaker 2: Now you talk about your sorry, you talk about consequences, Yes, sir,
- 13:11Speaker 2: what are the consequences for what.
- 13:13Speaker 3: You well, I'm about to suffer double jeopardy. They have
- 13:18Speaker 3: censured me, which was to bring me before the house
- 13:21Speaker 3: and read the statement that was a statement of censure.
- 13:26Speaker 3: But there is now a movement to strip me of
- 13:29Speaker 3: my committee assignments. I would call that double jeopardy. I
- 13:34Speaker 3: will not agree with it, but I will still say
- 13:38Speaker 3: to you, if I could do it again, I would
- 13:42Speaker 3: knowing that they would do these things because it's not
- 13:46Speaker 3: about me. It's about what Brother Charlemagne said, It's about
- 13:50Speaker 3: the healthcare. And somewhere along the way we make sacrifices.
- 13:55Speaker 3: Sixtieth anniversary, is that what it is acrossing Edmund Pettis
- 13:58Speaker 3: Bridge today, John Lewis and those folks made sacrifices. John
- 14:05Speaker 3: Lewis explained to me he thought he was going to
- 14:07Speaker 3: die on that bridge. Some people have to make sacrifices.
- 14:12Speaker 3: So if sacrificing a congressional seat is going to help
- 14:15Speaker 3: people get health care, then that's a good exchange. That's
- 14:19Speaker 3: a fair exchange to get that health care for people
- 14:23Speaker 3: who need it.
- 14:24Speaker 6: If they strip you of your committees, though, right, like
- 14:26Speaker 6: a person like you who you're not afraid, right the
- 14:29Speaker 6: committees that you're involved in financial services, homeland security, diversity
- 14:34Speaker 6: and inclusion of in housing, community development, insurance, what does
- 14:38Speaker 6: that mean for the people that you know you're doing
- 14:41Speaker 6: so much good for, Like what effect are we going
- 14:43Speaker 6: to see from that?
- 14:44Speaker 3: Well, I would hope that the person who follows will
- 14:47Speaker 3: take up the same causes and will do as well
- 14:51Speaker 3: as can be done. I don't believe that I'm the
- 14:54Speaker 3: only Al Green in the world. Well, I know that
- 14:58Speaker 3: maybe I should have said that way. There is mister
- 15:03Speaker 3: love and happiness for the good times. But I think
- 15:06Speaker 3: that there are other people who can take up this
- 15:10Speaker 3: cause and do equally as well or better. You know,
- 15:14Speaker 3: I admire brother Jamal Bowman.
- 15:16Speaker 1: Oh I love Jamal.
- 15:17Speaker 3: Yeah, I ja Maul would have stood which yeah, try
- 15:20Speaker 3: to matter fact, Jamal wouldn't even just came.
- 15:22Speaker 1: You wouldn't even show us. You know.
- 15:25Speaker 3: I was tempted not to as well. I was, but
- 15:27Speaker 3: I went to walk out. I did not go to
- 15:31Speaker 3: make the statement. I went to walk out. But when
- 15:34Speaker 3: he said he had this mandate, I had to then
- 15:37Speaker 3: counteract that because I didn't want people to think that
- 15:40Speaker 3: he would have a mandate to cut medicaid, Medicaid, Medicare,
- 15:44Speaker 3: and social security. They are the foundation of what we
- 15:47Speaker 3: call the safety net, and we have to protect them.
- 15:51Speaker 3: And with social Security, somewhere around twenty thirty five, we're
- 15:56Speaker 3: going to have a short fall, and we're gonna have
- 15:58Speaker 3: to do something to make sure that Social Security continues
- 16:01Speaker 3: to make its timely payments. I have said we should
- 16:04Speaker 3: raise the cap, meaning persons who make more than one
- 16:09Speaker 3: hundred and seventy six thousand, one hundred dollars. I believe
- 16:11Speaker 3: it's a cap. Let's make them pay into the system too.
- 16:15Speaker 3: Right now, if you make one hundred and seventy one
- 16:18Speaker 3: hundred dollars, all of your money is taxed for Social
- 16:23Speaker 3: Security twelve point four percent, six two from you and
- 16:27Speaker 3: six point two from your employer. Well, I think we
- 16:31Speaker 3: have to raise that cap so that we can continue
- 16:33Speaker 3: to have these payments. There are some people who would
- 16:35Speaker 3: raise the age, and if they raise the age, black
- 16:38Speaker 3: men will become donors, with donors right now to a
- 16:41Speaker 3: certain extent, because we don't live as long. Our life
- 16:44Speaker 3: span is shorter, So raising the age only then causes
- 16:48Speaker 3: some people just pay into it and never benefit from it.
- 16:51Speaker 3: And it's an investment not an entitlement, so they won't
- 16:55Speaker 3: collect on their investment. So I'm for raising that cap.
- 16:58Speaker 3: That's important. Medicare, We've got to make sure that we
- 17:02Speaker 3: maintain this program, Medicaid, Medicare, Social security. They benefit Americans.
- 17:09Speaker 3: We have a society where people can walk into places
- 17:16Speaker 3: typical stores, be millionaires and nobody mugs you. You know,
- 17:21Speaker 3: people who have much can visit places where people who
- 17:25Speaker 3: have little and walk away. In many societies, you have
- 17:29Speaker 3: to have armed guards with you. I may have to
- 17:33Speaker 3: have one after you know what's happened here lately, But
- 17:36Speaker 3: you have to have armed guards and you have to
- 17:38Speaker 3: be protected. But we have a peaceful society because of
- 17:41Speaker 3: the way we treat people in the dawn of life
- 17:44Speaker 3: and in the twilight of life. And I'm going to
- 17:46Speaker 3: do what I can to help them.
- 17:47Speaker 6: Your armed security, is it just you've been receiving like
- 17:51Speaker 6: threats and stuff or like well.
- 17:53Speaker 3: I don't want you to think that they started with this,
- 17:55Speaker 3: but they've increased. Yes, I have Crystal can pull up
- 18:01Speaker 3: some of those and you can hear them if you like.
- 18:02Speaker 3: But people they don't think very much of my mother
- 18:06Speaker 3: and my lineage, and they think that it would be
- 18:10Speaker 3: appropriate for me to wear a rope as a necktime.
- 18:14Speaker 3: But when you sign on, you don't sign on to
- 18:19Speaker 3: have a party or just have a great time. You
- 18:22Speaker 3: have to sign on for the times that exist, and
- 18:26Speaker 3: you have to do what's necessary to make things better
- 18:29Speaker 3: for those that you represent. And you just have to
- 18:32Speaker 3: accept these things, and we do. I don't say to
- 18:34Speaker 3: you accept them and not be judicious, not be prudent.
- 18:39Speaker 3: You've got to be prudent enough to say I want security,
- 18:42Speaker 3: and notwithstanding that, things can happen to you, but you
- 18:45Speaker 3: ought to at least do what you can to protect yourself.
- 18:48Speaker 3: But doctor King gave us some sage advice. He reminds
- 18:51Speaker 3: us that a person who hasn't found something worth dying
- 18:54Speaker 3: for isn't fit to live live, you know, so we
- 18:58Speaker 3: all have to find something.
- 19:00Speaker 4: When you say you told people to vote for their
- 19:02Speaker 4: conscience and then ten Democrats voted to censure.
- 19:05Speaker 3: You, what does that say about their conscience? Well, here again,
- 19:10Speaker 3: this is why I'm on your programer. I assure you
- 19:14Speaker 3: that question would not be put to me as you
- 19:16Speaker 3: just put it to me on most other places and
- 19:19Speaker 3: most other venues. I think that it is something that
- 19:26Speaker 3: they will have to deal with. I don't want to
- 19:31Speaker 3: say to them, here's what your conscience should have dictated.
- 19:35Speaker 3: What I want to do is be an example and say,
- 19:38Speaker 3: here's what my conscience dictates. And if you believe that
- 19:42Speaker 3: I'm a good example, then you can adjust. But if
- 19:46Speaker 3: you think not, then I have to accept you as
- 19:49Speaker 3: who you are. I let them deal with their conscious.
- 19:51Speaker 3: Conscience is something that's with us, within us, and it
- 19:54Speaker 3: causes us to have moral imperatives. This was a moral
- 19:57Speaker 3: imperative for me. If no one else has the same
- 20:00Speaker 3: moral imperative, I let them wrestle with it. I would
- 20:04Speaker 3: not feel good about myself had I not done what
- 20:07Speaker 3: I did.
- 20:09Speaker 2: Do you feel like this presidency changes the landscapes of
- 20:12Speaker 2: presidency from here on out? I don't seen things like
- 20:15Speaker 2: executive orders on the first daid a man put a
- 20:17Speaker 2: desk on in the middle and was signing and throwing
- 20:20Speaker 2: pins out. Does this change the presidency for here on out?
- 20:23Speaker 3: I don't know about that infinitum, but I do know
- 20:26Speaker 3: that for the foreseeable future there would be others who
- 20:29Speaker 3: would try to emulate him. He's growing this crop of
- 20:34Speaker 3: many trumps. But this president is a menace to dignity.
- 20:41Speaker 3: To dignity, you fire people in mass you have no
- 20:45Speaker 3: idea as to what their responsibilities are to family members.
- 20:51Speaker 3: Maybe if there's someone who's sick and they're the breadwinner
- 20:54Speaker 3: and they have to take care of this person could
- 20:57Speaker 3: have a child in college that needs these funds, these
- 21:01Speaker 3: emoluments to take care of education. You just don't know.
- 21:06Speaker 3: And to fire people in mass indicates to me that
- 21:10Speaker 3: you just don't respect the humanity and dignity of people
- 21:14Speaker 3: that you don't know. There is no due process associated
- 21:18Speaker 3: with this process. Elon Musk becomes the arbiter of due process.
- 21:25Speaker 3: A guy with a chainsaw who is worth more than
- 21:28Speaker 3: anybody else, it seems, who believes that he can make
- 21:32Speaker 3: decisions that impact people that he just does not know
- 21:35Speaker 3: in an arbitrary and capricious way. I think he's a
- 21:39Speaker 3: menace to dignity. Dignity, but he's also a threat to democracy,
- 21:44Speaker 3: a threat to democracy because the Supreme Court has led
- 21:48Speaker 3: him to believe that he's above the law. He's not
- 21:52Speaker 3: in theory, in theory, the jury, the facto maybe, but
- 21:57Speaker 3: in theory he's not. He's not above the law, but
- 22:00Speaker 3: he believes he is. He has an inordinate amount of
- 22:04Speaker 3: influence over the House of Representatives and the Senate. I've
- 22:07Speaker 3: seen people who I thought had great principles just cave,
- 22:12Speaker 3: as it were, give in to him, a succumb to him,
- 22:16Speaker 3: and they allow him to cause them to do and
- 22:19Speaker 3: say things that I thought i'd never see them do
- 22:21Speaker 3: a say. So he has the House, the Senate, and
- 22:25Speaker 3: the judiciary, and if he defies court orders, if he
- 22:31Speaker 3: defies court orders, at that moment, their brothers and sister,
- 22:35Speaker 3: he would become a dictator and we will be under
- 22:38Speaker 3: a dictatorship. He's a threat to democracy. He's appealed them,
- 22:43Speaker 3: He's appealed them, and he's a appellent process is there
- 22:48Speaker 3: when you differ?
- 22:49Speaker 4: I called I've called him a threat to democracy quite often.
- 22:54Speaker 4: But I'm sick of that talk. And the reason I'm
- 22:56Speaker 4: sick of that talk is because Democrats don't ever act
- 22:59Speaker 4: like he is.
- 23:00Speaker 1: Even when they were in.
- 23:00Speaker 4: Power the last four years with Biden, that didn't stop
- 23:04Speaker 4: the soul called fascism. So why should we ever believe
- 23:07Speaker 4: anything that comes out of Democrats' mouth ever?
- 23:09Speaker 1: Again? Well about any of this.
- 23:11Speaker 3: Thank you again for your question, sir. I have said
- 23:17Speaker 3: that we should not wait until he becomes a dictator
- 23:20Speaker 3: to try to remove him.
- 23:22Speaker 1: Now.
- 23:22Speaker 3: I understand that we don't control the House, but that
- 23:27Speaker 3: doesn't mean that we can't still bring articles of impeachment
- 23:31Speaker 3: because if the courts can't stop him and he has
- 23:35Speaker 3: control of the generals, because all of those generals that
- 23:37Speaker 3: he appointed have to place fealty to him. If he
- 23:40Speaker 3: has control of the generals, the courts can't stop him,
- 23:42Speaker 3: and the House of Representatives of Republicans won't stop him.
- 23:45Speaker 3: Then that leaves it to us. There are four hundred
- 23:47Speaker 3: and thirty five of us. We each have the authority,
- 23:52Speaker 3: the ability to bring articles of impeachment. And I'm going
- 23:57Speaker 3: to do that. Why that because I think think that
- 24:00Speaker 3: you have to go on the record even when you
- 24:03Speaker 3: can't make the change. Twice already nothing it didn't stop,
- 24:08Speaker 3: did not stop, didn't stop him. In fact, he was
- 24:11Speaker 3: voted back in the office with two impeachments and thirty
- 24:14Speaker 3: four fel in the convictions. But that doesn't mean that
- 24:17Speaker 3: I should not bring them and make the effort. I've
- 24:21Speaker 3: got to do all that I can. I grew up
- 24:24Speaker 3: with this belief from parents that when you have done,
- 24:28Speaker 3: when you can't do what you need to do as
- 24:31Speaker 3: much as you should, do do all you can, just
- 24:34Speaker 3: do all you can. And there's a song that I'm
- 24:36Speaker 3: sure many of you've heard. The song has these words,
- 24:40Speaker 3: after you've done all that you can, just stand, just
- 24:44Speaker 3: stand and I stand.
- 24:47Speaker 6: I have a question for you about how people look
- 24:49Speaker 6: at the institution of the office of the president. I
- 24:52Speaker 6: know you were a part of bringing the articles impeachment
- 24:54Speaker 6: in twenty seventeen. You said you're gonna do it again.
- 24:56Speaker 6: You got the ten Democrats that Charlottage just mentioned that
- 24:58Speaker 6: voted to send to you. Their direct quotes were basically,
- 25:02Speaker 6: you needed to learn some decorum and respect the office
- 25:05Speaker 6: of the president.
- 25:05Speaker 5: Right. So to his point, some of that is probably
- 25:08Speaker 5: gonna go out the window. People won't care.
- 25:10Speaker 6: How dangerous is it that there are Democrats or just
- 25:13Speaker 6: people in general that feel like, despite what's happening, it's
- 25:16Speaker 6: the institution of the other one person.
- 25:18Speaker 1: He's saying that about the president. They need to be
- 25:20Speaker 1: saying that about the president.
- 25:21Speaker 2: Look, people really understand, you realize how scary it is.
- 25:28Speaker 1: It ain't even that scary. Democrats cowards man and every way.
- 25:32Speaker 3: I completely agree that they should say that about the president,
- 25:36Speaker 3: especially given that he on National TV called democrats.
- 25:44Speaker 1: Raising left lunatics something like that, lunatics.
- 25:47Speaker 5: The lunatics gave quotes, but it.
- 25:49Speaker 3: Was you, I understand. I would not have said this
- 25:53Speaker 3: about them. I would not. I can only say to
- 25:57Speaker 3: you they have to live with their words. I have
- 26:00Speaker 3: to live with How do you feel though like this?
- 26:03Speaker 2: It's all as you stand and you fight, and then
- 26:06Speaker 2: when you turn your back and you think the people
- 26:09Speaker 2: behind you back there, and you look and you realize
- 26:12Speaker 2: that they're.
- 26:12Speaker 3: Not well, one slight adjustment. I didn't look to see
- 26:17Speaker 3: and I didn't have that expectation. I stood because of
- 26:22Speaker 3: the people that I represent who cannot be there to
- 26:25Speaker 3: stand for themselves. So again I would do it again.
- 26:30Speaker 3: I will suffer the consequences, and if my being evicted
- 26:35Speaker 3: can make a difference in the lives of those people
- 26:36Speaker 3: who need Medicaid, social Security and Medicare, I would do it.
- 26:41Speaker 3: The state of Texas was accorded one hundred billion dollars
- 26:47Speaker 3: for Medicaid and rejected it. Rejected it because at some
- 26:51Speaker 3: point the state of Texas would have to pay ten
- 26:53Speaker 3: percent of that the amount that was being paid, and
- 26:56Speaker 3: the federal government would pay ninety percent. There's talk of
- 27:01Speaker 3: sending money to states now rather than having the federal
- 27:04Speaker 3: government have his fingerprints on this process. If that happens,
- 27:08Speaker 3: a state like Texas will abuse it that Texas doesn't
- 27:13Speaker 3: regard poor people with any degree of respect. That I
- 27:16Speaker 3: would give them. So I have to fight to keep
- 27:19Speaker 3: it out of the hands of the leaders in the
- 27:22Speaker 3: state of Texas. And that's what this is about. There's
- 27:24Speaker 3: a fight, and I'll do as best as I can.
- 27:27Speaker 3: I don't look, I don't guarantee victory, but I guarantee
- 27:30Speaker 3: a fight.
- 27:31Speaker 4: Cats your question, did Democrats coordinate any type of real
- 27:35Speaker 4: form of resistance the other night or was everybody just
- 27:37Speaker 4: doing their own thing? Because we saw the people with
- 27:39Speaker 4: their pickleball paddles, and you know you, you said George
- 27:42Speaker 4: was spurred a moment like, did anybody have a conversation
- 27:45Speaker 4: because I know how King Jeffres was trying to get
- 27:46Speaker 4: people not to do anything.
- 27:47Speaker 2: We meant signs, not pickleball paddles, the signs.
- 27:51Speaker 4: I know how Kime Jeffreys was trying to get people
- 27:53Speaker 4: not to do any type of disruption, which which I
- 27:55Speaker 4: thought was beyond cowardly. Was there any conversation amongst y'all.
- 27:59Speaker 3: I am probably what you would call a maverick. I
- 28:06Speaker 3: tend to, as I said, I'm a liberated Democrat. I
- 28:10Speaker 3: tend to deal with my conscience and my convictions, and
- 28:16Speaker 3: I have not been engaged in those kinds of conversations.
- 28:19Speaker 3: I think most people have said that al Green is
- 28:23Speaker 3: probably going to do what he wants, so let's not
- 28:26Speaker 3: bother and they're probably right. So I'll do the best
- 28:31Speaker 3: that I can to be as good as I can
- 28:33Speaker 3: and be of service. But I think that in the
- 28:39Speaker 3: future what we're doing now I think will have an impact.
- 28:44Speaker 3: I really do. I think that people will give some
- 28:48Speaker 3: thought to how we should behave in the future. And
- 28:52Speaker 3: I have suggested that we have to meet incivility with incivility.
- 28:57Speaker 3: Ours is for a different cause, is to demean ours,
- 29:01Speaker 3: is to uplift, But I think we have to use incivility.
- 29:05Speaker 3: What I did was an active incivility. And when they
- 29:08Speaker 3: reprimanded me with the censure, we're saying we shall overcome.
- 29:13Speaker 3: Right there in the well, the speaker try to gather
- 29:17Speaker 3: us out, but we didn't stop. That was an act
- 29:20Speaker 3: of incivility, and it was really a response to the
- 29:22Speaker 3: President's incivility. So we have to use incivility. This is
- 29:26Speaker 3: another way of saying, protest.
- 29:28Speaker 1: You know it. You brought up a good question.
- 29:30Speaker 4: And if we ever get another Democrat president, if right,
- 29:35Speaker 4: when we see all of the things that Trump is
- 29:37Speaker 4: currently doing, and we see. Wow, presidents really do have
- 29:40Speaker 4: power if they have the political will and courage to
- 29:44Speaker 4: use it. I want to see a Democrat do that.
- 29:47Speaker 4: Why can't a Democrat move like that for the good things?
- 29:49Speaker 3: Yes, I absolutely agree with you. We I'll be quite
- 29:55Speaker 3: candid with you. I didn't know I'm a lawyer. Ayer. Okay, well,
- 30:04Speaker 3: I'm being candid with you. This is a candid program.
- 30:07Speaker 3: By the way, I did not realize that a president
- 30:13Speaker 3: had so few guardrails. Donald Trump, Donald Trump has pulled
- 30:18Speaker 3: the cover back, you know, He's lifted the blinds, the shades,
- 30:22Speaker 3: and we now see that a president has very few
- 30:27Speaker 3: obstacles to prevent him from doing her present prevent them
- 30:33Speaker 3: from doing whatever they want to do. Very few. This
- 30:36Speaker 3: president has decided that he will use executive orders as
- 30:40Speaker 3: opposed to using Congress, and he's issuing executive orders in
- 30:44Speaker 3: areas that we've never seen a president give us these
- 30:49Speaker 3: executive orders, issue these executive orders. He has demonstrated to
- 30:53Speaker 3: us that it is more about the will to do
- 30:56Speaker 3: things than the way. The way is there the questions
- 30:59Speaker 3: do you have the will? And my answer to you,
- 31:00Speaker 3: their brother, is yes. I would hope that a democratic
- 31:03Speaker 3: president would use this authority, not for the purpose that
- 31:08Speaker 3: he's using it. He seems to think that the very wealthy,
- 31:12Speaker 3: the plutocrats, need more to do more, and that the
- 31:15Speaker 3: poor among us can do more with less. Who can
- 31:19Speaker 3: do more with less? The wealthy need more to do more.
- 31:22Speaker 3: I would hope that a democratic president would have a
- 31:26Speaker 3: better view of what the needs of society are and
- 31:29Speaker 3: try to help uplift people who are living in the
- 31:32Speaker 3: streets of life, not to the detriment of those who
- 31:36Speaker 3: live in the suits. There's enough for all of us.
- 31:38Speaker 3: But let's look after those who live in the streets.
- 31:40Speaker 3: And there are good many who are not getting any
- 31:42Speaker 3: any help at all. Don't you admire that going a way?
- 31:44Speaker 4: Don't you admire the fact that he is willing to
- 31:47Speaker 4: do whatever he wants to do for his base. Well,
- 31:52Speaker 4: that's what anybody who supported Democrats, that's all we ever want,
- 31:55Speaker 4: do something for the base.
- 31:57Speaker 1: Keep your promises, he keeps it.
- 31:59Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, brother Charlemagne, you may I just give you
- 32:03Speaker 3: this predicate before I get to your question. There are
- 32:08Speaker 3: we've made promises. People have said that black men, as
- 32:11Speaker 3: you know, for one of the reasons, and that in
- 32:15Speaker 3: a sense, black people in general voted for Trump and
- 32:18Speaker 3: that hurt us. And they're saying that members of other communities,
- 32:23Speaker 3: the labor community didn't vote as they should have. Well,
- 32:28Speaker 3: we made promises, and you mentioned that. We said, give
- 32:31Speaker 3: us the House, the Senate, and the presidency, and we'll
- 32:34Speaker 3: pass Voting Rights Act John Lewis Voting Rights. We'll pass
- 32:39Speaker 3: George Floyd Justice in Policing. We will raise the minimum wage.
- 32:43Speaker 3: We will for the labor folk, pass the pro Act,
- 32:47Speaker 3: Protect the Right to Organize Act for the members of
- 32:50Speaker 3: the LGBTQ plus community, we would pass the Equality Act. Well,
- 32:56Speaker 3: we had the House, the Senate, and the presidency, and
- 32:59Speaker 3: we didn't do it. That's your that's your point. We
- 33:01Speaker 3: didn't do it. But here's to add to your point.
- 33:04Speaker 3: When Republicans had the House to sended in the presidency
- 33:08Speaker 3: and they didn't have enough votes to bring us to
- 33:10Speaker 3: cloture cultures where you get sixty votes, so you passed
- 33:14Speaker 3: something with fifty one votes when they couldn't get to
- 33:16Speaker 3: culture with sixty votes, they said fine, they made the
- 33:23Speaker 3: following motion, not in these exact words. When there was
- 33:26Speaker 3: a federal judge ship up, they said, we believe that
- 33:30Speaker 3: we should pass this judge ship on with fifty one votes,
- 33:36Speaker 3: and the chair overruled that and said, no, you've got
- 33:39Speaker 3: to have sixty. And I remember the person making this
- 33:45Speaker 3: motion asking this said, I appealed the ruling of the chair. Now,
- 33:51Speaker 3: when you appeal the ruling of the chair, you only
- 33:54Speaker 3: have to have fifty one votes. So the fifty one
- 33:57Speaker 3: votes then allowed them to take up the issue of
- 34:00Speaker 3: placing this person on the Supreme Court with fifty one
- 34:03Speaker 3: votes as opposed to sixty. We did a similar thing
- 34:08Speaker 3: with John Lewis voting rights, mister Schumer did. And when
- 34:12Speaker 3: we took our votes, we had forty eight Democrats to
- 34:17Speaker 3: vote with us. Two did not. Mansion and Cinema did not.
- 34:23Speaker 3: If they had, then Vice President Harris would have come
- 34:27Speaker 3: over and been the fifty. So we could have passed
- 34:29Speaker 3: George Floyd Justice and Policing, We could have passed John
- 34:32Speaker 3: Lewis voting rights. All of the things that I've said.
- 34:34Speaker 4: And no Democrat ever threw Mansion Cinema under the bust.
- 34:41Speaker 3: Hell, you know, y'all give him a speech now, but
- 34:47Speaker 3: you gave it absolutely some of the language you use.
- 34:50Speaker 3: My mother would have loved this program. She was a
- 34:54Speaker 3: master of schatology. But so they didn't pressure them like
- 34:59Speaker 3: they pressure us, you know, like they treat me in
- 35:03Speaker 3: a sense. Okay, they didn't pressure them. But here is
- 35:07Speaker 3: what happened. Now I'm getting to your question. Here's what happened.
- 35:12Speaker 3: There are two political banks in this country. There is
- 35:15Speaker 3: the Republican Political Bank and the Democratic Political Bank. Now
- 35:19Speaker 3: there's some smaller than some small institutions. If you put
- 35:25Speaker 3: your your energy and effort, your deposits, if you will,
- 35:30Speaker 3: into the Democratic Bank, you expect your return to come
- 35:34Speaker 3: from the Democratic Bank. Yes, if the Republican Bank does
- 35:37Speaker 3: something for you, you're not going to reject that. But
- 35:40Speaker 3: you put your deposits in the Democratic Bank. When the
- 35:44Speaker 3: Democratic Bank did not return give them a return on investment,
- 35:49Speaker 3: then persons lost their enthusiasm. So I don't blame people
- 35:54Speaker 3: who lost their enthusiasm because we didn't honor what we said.
- 35:59Speaker 3: If we we have the House to senate und the
- 36:01Speaker 3: presidency in twenty twenty one and we did not deliver,
- 36:05Speaker 3: I can't I see how people could lose enthusiasm. So
- 36:09Speaker 3: that's where we were. That's what happened. But my hope
- 36:12Speaker 3: is that we're learning a lesson, and my hope is
- 36:15Speaker 3: that we will be truthful about it. That's the way
- 36:17Speaker 3: I see it now. There are other people who would
- 36:18Speaker 3: blame people who didn't vote for not voting. I understand
- 36:22Speaker 3: why people didn't vote.
- 36:24Speaker 4: Do you think Hakeem Jeffries is the leader Democrat need
- 36:27Speaker 4: in this president moment?
- 36:28Speaker 3: I think that. First of all, I think very highly
- 36:31Speaker 3: of him. Let me start with this. I have had
- 36:34Speaker 3: an opportunity to see his intellect. I think that he
- 36:40Speaker 3: finds himself in a difficult position, and he's trying to.
- 36:44Speaker 4: Position in between Anthony Pelosi and Chuctionoman well repeating all
- 36:48Speaker 4: the talking points.
- 36:49Speaker 3: Well, I find him in the difficult position in that
- 36:53Speaker 3: he's trying to get two hundred and eighteen votes so
- 36:56Speaker 3: that we will have the opportunity to do some of
- 36:58Speaker 3: these things that I've called to your attention, and getting
- 37:01Speaker 3: two hundred and eighteen votes. You're probably not going to
- 37:04Speaker 3: get two hundred eighteen algreens, but you can get two
- 37:08Speaker 3: hundred eighteen with some people who will do some of
- 37:11Speaker 3: the things that I want to see done that will
- 37:14Speaker 3: be a benefit, and some who won't. So he's trying
- 37:17Speaker 3: to get to two hundred eighteen votes. The politics is
- 37:20Speaker 3: not going to work like I keep saying, ohver over.
- 37:23Speaker 3: I feel like Democrats have tried every political strategy except
- 37:26Speaker 3: for courage, and I don't know how politics gets us
- 37:29Speaker 3: out of this situation. How do regular, traditional politics, moving
- 37:32Speaker 3: by the rule of the law get us out of
- 37:34Speaker 3: a situation when you're dealing with people with that much power.
- 37:37Speaker 1: Who don't follow the rules of the law.
- 37:39Speaker 3: Well, I do think you're right about the courage, And
- 37:41Speaker 3: here's where it comes into play. When we do get
- 37:44Speaker 3: two hundred and eighteen votes, we've got to decide we'll
- 37:48Speaker 3: have enough courage to do what has to be done
- 37:51Speaker 3: even if we won't have two hundred and eighteen votes
- 37:53Speaker 3: after this. That's the decision that we have to make.
- 37:57Speaker 3: That's the decision Republicans have made. They've decided that they're
- 38:00Speaker 3: going to press their agenda, and if they lose the
- 38:03Speaker 3: House and the Senate and the presidency, they will have
- 38:05Speaker 3: done as much as they can to advance their agenda
- 38:08Speaker 3: at that time. I do think that too often we
- 38:12Speaker 3: tend to want to preserve the power and the process
- 38:17Speaker 3: lose the opportunity to make the significant change that ought
- 38:20Speaker 3: to be made. So courage is you're correct, We've got
- 38:24Speaker 3: to use it.
- 38:25Speaker 4: Who do you think is a well tupac question, who
- 38:28Speaker 4: do you think is very courageous in the Democratic Party
- 38:30Speaker 4: right now? And who do you think is the current
- 38:31Speaker 4: voice of the Democratic Party.
- 38:33Speaker 3: Well, I have a you know, I have a bias.
- 38:38Speaker 3: I work with the honorable Maxine Waters. I've known her
- 38:42Speaker 3: for many, many years. I have great respect for her.
- 38:47Speaker 3: I serve on the committee under her leadership. I think
- 38:51Speaker 3: that she is a person who voices the things that
- 38:55Speaker 3: I concur with. She's a strong leader, she's fears and
- 39:01Speaker 3: I think that if she had been there when the
- 39:03Speaker 3: President said you're a lunatic, I don't know, she may
- 39:06Speaker 3: have pulled off the podium.
- 39:09Speaker 4: The Queen Maxine legend, but she's an ol G. And then,
- 39:11Speaker 4: you know, they said the Bible says old men for counsel,
- 39:14Speaker 4: young men for war?
- 39:15Speaker 1: Right who the young? Who are the young warriors right now?
- 39:18Speaker 1: To me?
- 39:18Speaker 4: I think Jasmine Crockett, I think AOC, I think Ayana presently.
- 39:22Speaker 3: I agree with all of those, But let me just
- 39:24Speaker 3: share this with a little bit of pushback there, brother,
- 39:27Speaker 3: her mentality is not old. Yeah, she vaccine. Look, I've
- 39:32Speaker 3: celebrated my twenty fifth birthday three times.
- 39:34Speaker 1: I'm not.
- 39:36Speaker 3: I'm in my fourth twenty fifth. I still have my ponytail,
- 39:39Speaker 3: you know, my beard. But I'm in age, I'm old.
- 39:43Speaker 3: But Maxine is younger than most twenty five year olds.
- 39:49Speaker 3: She is. Yes, she's an og, but that's a thank
- 39:53Speaker 3: God for an og. She's that kind of og.
- 39:56Speaker 4: I just feel like they left you hanging another night.
- 39:58Speaker 4: And I appreciate what you did. You know, because you know,
- 40:01Speaker 4: I keep saying, if something is a threat to democracy,
- 40:04Speaker 4: if somebody is a fascist, and people got to act
- 40:06Speaker 4: like it. And when he said that about Medicare, you
- 40:09Speaker 4: stood up and you let everybody know like you you know,
- 40:12Speaker 4: you don't have a mandate to cut medicare. So that
- 40:14Speaker 4: right there shows me the urgency of the situation. Why
- 40:18Speaker 4: everybody else didn't have that sense to urgency, I don't know.
- 40:20Speaker 4: I feel like they left you hanging.
- 40:22Speaker 3: Well, thank you for your kind words, and I moved
- 40:26Speaker 3: forward saying this, we still have the opportunity to demonstrate
- 40:35Speaker 3: the courage that you've called to our attention. We still
- 40:38Speaker 3: have that opportunity. I believe, as I said that we
- 40:42Speaker 3: have to use incivility. I believe in this. There are
- 40:47Speaker 3: times when if you can't have justice, then you have
- 40:52Speaker 3: to step across the line of civility and decide that
- 40:58Speaker 3: you will not allow others to proceed with injustice. Don't
- 41:02Speaker 3: allow them to proceed with injustice. I remember miss Batty
- 41:06Speaker 3: saying something. I hope she'll forgive me for calling her out,
- 41:09Speaker 3: But she said, at a we were in a meeting
- 41:13Speaker 3: of a sort, When are we going to do something bold?
- 41:16Speaker 3: Maybe not in these exact words, When are we going
- 41:17Speaker 3: to do what John Lewis did? When are we going
- 41:19Speaker 3: to go and take over the floor of the house.
- 41:22Speaker 3: Not in these words, miss Batty, That was, well, not
- 41:24Speaker 3: your exact words, but she said that, yeah, something to
- 41:28Speaker 3: that effect. And I'm saying to you that that's where
- 41:31Speaker 3: we are. That is incivility, by the way, but we've
- 41:35Speaker 3: got to have that level of incivility. We cannot allow
- 41:39Speaker 3: them to proceed without at least knowing that they're going
- 41:43Speaker 3: to have to walk over us and walk around us.
- 41:46Speaker 3: We have to do what John Lewis said, and that
- 41:48Speaker 3: is getting the way. So we have to now get
- 41:50Speaker 3: in the way. I would hope that we would see
- 41:54Speaker 3: this as what we are called to do.
- 41:57Speaker 4: You think now is the time to bring people together.
- 42:01Speaker 4: And what I mean by that is like, you know,
- 42:02Speaker 4: you have a lot of Republicans who voted for Donald
- 42:04Speaker 4: Trump and they're going to these That's one of my
- 42:06Speaker 4: favorite things to watch now, those Republican town halls where
- 42:08Speaker 4: they go into those town halls and raising hell. And
- 42:10Speaker 4: I was sitting there wondering, and I'm like, yo, why
- 42:12Speaker 4: didn't Democrats bring some of those people to that session
- 42:16Speaker 4: the other night and let them be in there and
- 42:18Speaker 4: their MAGA gear and let them be as disruptive in
- 42:21Speaker 4: the chamber as they have been at these town halls.
- 42:23Speaker 4: That would have been a stronger message to me because
- 42:25Speaker 4: we used to hearing Democrats complain.
- 42:27Speaker 6: You think they would have done that though, because they're
- 42:29Speaker 6: so loyal to each other.
- 42:30Speaker 1: None of the Republican town they reason how they losing
- 42:32Speaker 1: their jobs.
- 42:33Speaker 5: Yeah, but they're amongst their people. I don't know. I
- 42:35Speaker 5: just feel like sometimes I feel like one.
- 42:37Speaker 6: Thing that the Republicans do well is even when they're upset,
- 42:40Speaker 6: they still they're so together.
- 42:41Speaker 4: But if you got all these protests with these people
- 42:43Speaker 4: protesting Donald Trump, protesting Elon Musk who actually voted for him,
- 42:46Speaker 4: if they get an opportunity to be in the chamber
- 42:48Speaker 4: where both of them were there.
- 42:49Speaker 1: I think they'd have made some noise.
- 42:51Speaker 3: Well, I do agree that we should make some noise.
- 42:54Speaker 3: And here's what I would have had us. Do you
- 42:58Speaker 3: remember at one point of the Republicans started to say
- 43:02Speaker 3: us a USA, and there was you know, order, but
- 43:08Speaker 3: allowed it to continue. I think if I had my
- 43:12Speaker 3: brothers in my way when they do that, we ought
- 43:15Speaker 3: to then, because I'm an og sing we shall overcome.
- 43:21Speaker 3: While they're saying US a USA. We sing we shall overcome.
- 43:24Speaker 3: I can't and and well, I understand, but but my
- 43:30Speaker 3: point is at that moment, we have to meet their
- 43:34Speaker 3: message with a message and not allow them to say
- 43:38Speaker 3: US a USA and we say nothing. So we have
- 43:41Speaker 3: to have some retort. That is my retort to sing
- 43:44Speaker 3: we shall overcome. I imagine there's some other songs that
- 43:47Speaker 3: might have more of an impact. But my point is
- 43:50Speaker 3: that we have to raise our voices when they raise theirs.
- 43:52Speaker 3: We cannot let them just have the opportunity to proclaim
- 43:57Speaker 3: themselves patriots while we sit side.
- 44:00Speaker 4: But that's why they missed a moment with you the
- 44:02Speaker 4: other night. All of them should have walked out with you.
- 44:05Speaker 1: In that moment. That would have made a hell of
- 44:06Speaker 1: a statement.
- 44:07Speaker 4: They should have been justice dis after they kicked you out.
- 44:10Speaker 4: Somebody else should have stood up and been justice disrupted.
- 44:13Speaker 3: Well, I do think that there would be additional moments,
- 44:17Speaker 3: and you have now sounded the alarm. I think people
- 44:22Speaker 3: are paying attention. I would only say I try to
- 44:25Speaker 3: lead by example. If you think I'm a good example,
- 44:28Speaker 3: then follow me.
- 44:28Speaker 4: You're a great example. Mom's right, more than I do.
- 44:32Speaker 4: But at least you gave us something to believe in
- 44:34Speaker 4: that right.
- 44:35Speaker 3: Well, you're very kind. You're very kind, and if I may,
- 44:37Speaker 3: I don't know whether we're near the end here, but
- 44:39Speaker 3: I want to thank you for bringing a degree of
- 44:44Speaker 3: clarity that is not presented in traditional fashions. You know,
- 44:54Speaker 3: you have courage. You have courage, you say what's on
- 44:57Speaker 3: your mind. It's a very difficult thing to do for
- 45:02Speaker 3: most people. Most people just are not going to say
- 45:05Speaker 3: what's on their minds. There are many people who had
- 45:08Speaker 3: on their minds what I said. And I'm not patting
- 45:11Speaker 3: myself on the back, but I know it. I'm not
- 45:13Speaker 3: the only person who thought that. But it takes courage,
- 45:16Speaker 3: and you emphasize this, and I want to let you
- 45:19Speaker 3: know this. When doctor King was at his zenith, when
- 45:24Speaker 3: he was at his zenith. There were other great orators.
- 45:29Speaker 3: He was not the only great orator. There were other
- 45:32Speaker 3: great intellectuals. But the one thing he had that they
- 45:37Speaker 3: didn't or they didn't exhibit, was courage. He had the
- 45:42Speaker 3: courage to say what others knew and would not say.
- 45:47Speaker 3: And that was what makes the difference. You've got to
- 45:50Speaker 3: have courage. You've got to have the guts, intestinal fortitude,
- 45:54Speaker 3: as Malcolm said it, you've got to have chidlings you do.
- 45:58Speaker 3: That makes the difference.
- 46:00Speaker 2: And congress congress Man now Green, we appreciate you for
- 46:02Speaker 2: joining us this morning.
- 46:03Speaker 3: Thank you, dear brother.
- 46:04Speaker 2: And anytime you need to pull up, you are more
- 46:06Speaker 2: than invited to come on through.
- 46:08Speaker 3: Well. Thank brother, Michael Eric Dicey, Sir, thank you, thank you,
- 46:11Speaker 3: dear brother.
- 46:12Speaker 2: All Right, it's congress Man now Green. It's the Breakfast Club.
- 46:14Speaker 2: Good morning.
- 46:15Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club.