Latest / The Breakfast Club / Trump Sues California Over Ballots, Charlotte Police Racist Text Scandal, UMG Cuts Jobs

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Trump Sues California Over Ballots, Charlotte Police Racist Text Scandal, UMG Cuts Jobs · The Breakfast Club

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration is suing California over thousands of ballots
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: just weeks before the midterms.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: When you actually check into it, their data is just garbage.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: And a racist police group chat could cost several officers
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: their job and raises questions about past arrests.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: That they were making comments about attempting to see who
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: could pull over the most black drivers. That's going to
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: be problematic when looking at this as well.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: And some of the biggest names in music are cutting
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: jobs despite bringing in billions of dollars. It's Friday, October 16th.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: From the Black Effect Podcast Network, I'm Mimi Brown. This
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: is Front Page, and here are the day's biggest stories.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Stay with me. The Trump administration is suing California to
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: stop thousands of mail-in ballots from being counted just weeks
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: before the midterm elections. The Justice Department filed the lawsuit Thursday.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: It claims 20,000 registered voters may not be U.S. citizens,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and it wants their ballots set aside until their citizenship
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: can be verified. California automatically mails ballots to every registered voter,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and voting is already underway. So here's how this started.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: The Justice Department sent Los Angeles County election officials a
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: list of names on a thumb drive. The password was
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: written on a sticky note. The county registrar raised concerns
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: about how secure that information was. The federal government gave
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: California 48 hours to check the names. When that deadline passed,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: it filed the lawsuit.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: They are constantly suggesting that there are these widespread problems
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: only to find out that when you actually do the work,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: when you actually check into it, their data is just garbage.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And it may be garbage on purpose, it may be
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: garbage by accident, but it's garbage. And we are three
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: weeks from this midterm election. Less than three weeks.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: California Secretary of State Shirley Weber says the Justice Department
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: has provided no evidence that those 20,000 people are not citizens.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: And she pointed to what happened in Nevada. The federal
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: government flagged nearly 16,000 people there as possible non-citizens. But
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: when Nevada checked, every single person was a U.S. citizen.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: California Attorney General Rob Bonta is also questioning the government's numbers.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: He says Homeland Security originally claimed there were 190,000 non-citizens
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: on California's voter rolls. Now that number is down to 20,000.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So he's asking what happened to the other 170,000 names.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: But here's what's important. Voting by non-citizens is illegal, but
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: there is no evidence of widespread non-citizen voting in U.S.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Elections.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: California says it will not hold ballots back without proof
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: that voters are ineligible. And six police officers in Charlotte,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: North Carolina, are losing their jobs or facing termination after
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: investigators uncovered a racist group chat. And what some of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: those officers were allegedly saying about Black people is raising
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: serious questions. The messages reportedly included racial slurs, jokes about
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: using force against Black residents, and even a competition to
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: see who could pull over the most Black drivers. One
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: message reportedly compared their conversations to a Ku Klux Klan rally.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: The group chat came to light during a separate state
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: investigation involving a former officer. Charlotte Police Chief Estella Patterson
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: says three officers have already resigned. A review board recommended
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: firing for the other three. The city's civil service board
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: still has to make the final decision. Patterson addressed the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: allegations publicly.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: As soon as we learned of this, of the involved officers,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: we immediately conducted audits of their body-worn footage, we reviewed
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: their traffic stops, their traffic stop datas, we looked at
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: their arrest records, and we looked to see if any
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: of those officers had external complaints. As of this point,
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: we have not found any evidence of this, but I
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: have asked our federal partners to look at the possibility
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: of civil rights violations.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: The police chief wants all six officers stripped of their
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: law enforcement certification. That would prevent them from working as
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: police officers anywhere in North Carolina. She also is asking
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the FBI and federal prosecutors to determine whether anyone's civil
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: rights were violated. The defense attorneys are now questioning whether
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: criminal cases involving these officers could be affected. Because if
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: an officer is accused of racial bias, that could raise
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: questions about whether people they arrested were treated fairly. And lastly,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: some of the biggest names in music are cutting jobs,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: even as the industry continues to bring in billions of dollars.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, is laying
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: off employees across record labels. We're talking about the company
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: behind Def Jam, Republic Records, and Interscope. And these cuts
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: aren't just happening in the United States. Workers in Canada,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the United Kingdom, Ireland, and other parts of Europe are
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: also being affected. Even top executives are leaving. Universal says
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the layoffs are part of a larger plan to save
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: about $ 270 million a year. The company says it's restructuring
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and bringing in new technology. Now here's what makes this interesting.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Universal also brought in about $ 3. 8 billion in revenue last quarter.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So the company is still making money, but its profit
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: margins are shrinking, streaming subscription growth has slowed, and investors
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: have been concerned about its performance. And Universal isn't alone.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Warner Music Group is also cutting jobs as part of
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: a plan to save about $ 300 million a year. Netflix
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: has announced layoffs affecting roughly 6% of its workforce. And
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: here's the bigger picture. The global record music industry business
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: brought in $ 31. 7 billion last year. That's an increase of
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: more than 6%. So the music industry is growing, but
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean the people working behind the scenes are
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: keeping their jobs. That's your Front Page. I'm Mimi Brown.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: This podcast was brought to you by the Black Effect
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Podcast Network.