Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Ras Baraka Addresses Recent Arrest, Newark Airport Issues, Trump Administration + More

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INTERVIEW: Ras Baraka Addresses Recent Arrest, Newark Airport Issues, Trump Administration + More · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
0:02
Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club Morning, Everybody's DJ Envy just hilarious, Charlamagne
0:08
Speaker 2: the gud we are the Breakfast Club. You got a
0:10
Speaker 2: special guest in the building, Yes, indeed got May and
0:12
Speaker 2: Ross Barako.
0:13
Speaker 1: Welcome. How you I'm good. I'm good. Little tired, but
0:16
Speaker 1: I'm good.
0:17
Speaker 3: You ain't can't get tired now, I know that long
0:19
Speaker 3: way to go.
0:21
Speaker 1: How are you man, I'm good man. Yeah, yeah, I
0:24
Speaker 1: had a rough couple of weeks, but I'm all right.
0:26
Speaker 3: You can't elaborate on that, just like the specific circumstances
0:29
Speaker 3: that led to the arrest that the.
0:31
Speaker 1: Lady or yeah, you know, we've been going down there
0:34
Speaker 1: every day. In fact, my folks are down there now,
0:37
Speaker 1: uh to uh do the inspections, uniform cold construction. Uh
0:43
Speaker 1: you know you have to get a certificated occupancy all
0:45
Speaker 1: these other things. But they came in and just was like,
0:47
Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna do what we want to do.
0:49
Speaker 1: Our folks went down there. They wouldn't let him in.
0:51
Speaker 1: I was surprised, so I have them go with y'all.
0:53
Speaker 1: I want see what's going on.
0:54
Speaker 2: So they basically they wouldn't let y'all in it to
0:56
Speaker 2: do the inspections.
0:56
Speaker 1: Yeah. So they basically was like, no, go, this is
0:59
Speaker 1: a private company. This is not the government. I it's nobody,
1:03
Speaker 1: just these guys. And so we took them to court
1:05
Speaker 1: and we're in the process of being in court and
1:09
Speaker 1: they just start putting detainees in the building while we
1:11
Speaker 1: were in court, like just total disrespect. So we go
1:14
Speaker 1: down every morning to serve them, like give them a citation,
1:18
Speaker 1: because we just wanted to show a pattern that they
1:21
Speaker 1: have been disregarding the local law. When we get in court,
1:26
Speaker 1: the Congress people went down there to do a walk
1:28
Speaker 1: through and they called me and was like, Yo, we
1:30
Speaker 1: having a press conference. We want you to be at
1:32
Speaker 1: the press conference. I said cool. So I came down
1:35
Speaker 1: to the press conference. It was protesters outside and they
1:38
Speaker 1: out there every day by the way, saying let the
1:42
Speaker 1: mayor in. I SI, they were saying when I was
1:43
Speaker 1: at the gate, so the guy lets me in the guard.
1:45
Speaker 1: He was like, come on this side of the gate,
1:46
Speaker 1: So I did. I stood there about an hour and
1:49
Speaker 1: a half and then the Specialation in charge of Homeland
1:54
Speaker 1: Security came, but ICE was already there. They didn't say
1:56
Speaker 1: anything to me. I was there for like an hour.
1:58
Speaker 1: They just looked at me, looking at them. He came
2:02
Speaker 1: approached me, started talking crazy, reckless. The congress people got
2:05
Speaker 1: in it. He said, you know he's gonna arrest me.
2:09
Speaker 1: Then the congress room was like no. I said, you
2:11
Speaker 1: know what, I'm leaving. Don't worry about it. He said, yeah,
2:13
Speaker 1: get out. So I left. I left and went on
2:15
Speaker 1: the other side of the fence. He got a phone call.
2:17
Speaker 1: They made a decision to leave the inside and come
2:20
Speaker 1: on the outside and arrest me on the city side,
2:23
Speaker 1: you know. And that's basically what happened. They took me
2:25
Speaker 1: to a real lock up somewhere in some place I
2:27
Speaker 1: didn't even know existed in North by the way Wow,
2:31
Speaker 1: in a cell, took pictures, fingerprints, charged me with federal trespass,
2:36
Speaker 1: went to hearing all the whole thing. You know, finger
2:39
Speaker 1: printed me again. I heard that.
2:41
Speaker 3: I heard you was subjected to like the second round
2:42
Speaker 3: of fingerprinting.
2:44
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
2:44
Speaker 3: Why how do you interpret that?
2:46
Speaker 1: I have no idea. Man, there was like one agency
2:49
Speaker 1: has it not the other agency. I was like, can't
2:51
Speaker 1: y'all get it from them? Like it's technology. I mean,
2:53
Speaker 1: they did this in the middle of the court, like
2:54
Speaker 1: we were leaving, the Marshalls came into the courtroom to
2:59
Speaker 1: escort me out. My lawyers started, you know, going back
3:02
Speaker 1: and forth with them, and I just said, you know what,
3:04
Speaker 1: forget it, just take me wherever y'all got to, wherever
3:06
Speaker 1: y'all going, I'm going, let's go, and I left.
3:08
Speaker 4: They took you to a place you didn't even know
3:09
Speaker 4: exist the first time.
3:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Wow, like some it's non descript factory looking place.
3:17
Speaker 1: Took me down in the basement is a Britain's like
3:19
Speaker 1: real cells in there. Yeah, it's great.
3:21
Speaker 3: You didn't know it was there.
3:22
Speaker 1: No, not at all. No, it's a homeland security spot
3:27
Speaker 1: that they have there. Did you see other people? I
3:30
Speaker 1: didn't see anybody. Had me, you know, off somewhere, you know,
3:34
Speaker 1: so I didn't know what was going on.
3:36
Speaker 3: Criticism of Trump. You think any of your criticism of
3:39
Speaker 3: Trump called them to act like that.
3:41
Speaker 1: Well, I just believed that they wanted to get the
3:44
Speaker 1: mayor of the city to you know there on this
3:46
Speaker 1: I'm gonna arrest judges, mayors whoether's like they're in charge.
3:50
Speaker 1: You just want to show that we have power and
3:53
Speaker 1: authority and you're not going to defire us and we're
3:55
Speaker 1: gonna get whoever it is, you can get it to
3:57
Speaker 1: type of thing, right, So I think that's what it was.
4:00
Speaker 1: And when they realized I was there, somebody sent them
4:02
Speaker 1: there to get me, you know. So if that's basically
4:05
Speaker 1: what happened, I don't even think it is directly about me.
4:08
Speaker 1: I think it's about them and them trying to prove
4:11
Speaker 1: to everybody that they're untouchable, and they basically do what
4:14
Speaker 1: they want to do. When they realized it was me,
4:16
Speaker 1: they sent a special agent in charge of the Homeland
4:18
Speaker 1: Security investigation of that region to come and get me.
4:20
Speaker 1: That's like the police director going downtown and the rest
4:23
Speaker 1: of somebody for shoplifting, you know. So yeah, he comes
4:26
Speaker 1: by itself and does that.
4:28
Speaker 2: So legality, right, So this is a private building, right
4:31
Speaker 2: that law enforcement should be able to come in and
4:34
Speaker 2: see what's going on. So how do they have the
4:36
Speaker 2: right to stop y'all from going in? So shouldn't in
4:38
Speaker 2: any other Like if I have a private building and
4:40
Speaker 2: I say y'all can't come in, y'all gonna kick the
4:42
Speaker 2: door then for sure, But this case, y'all can't.
4:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like the fire inspectors and the health inspectors
4:49
Speaker 1: have more rights than police officers, like police officers need
4:53
Speaker 1: like a warrant to do specific things. The health inspector
4:56
Speaker 1: and fire inspector can come in any building for safety,
4:59
Speaker 1: health and humor resources or whatever it is. They can
5:02
Speaker 1: come into the building and say, look, this building is
5:04
Speaker 1: not safe, it's not fit, so forth and so on,
5:06
Speaker 1: and they won't let them in. And that's why I
5:09
Speaker 1: was totally shocked, like this can't be real. I need
5:12
Speaker 1: to go see this myself, and it was right. They
5:15
Speaker 1: just wouldn't let it. They wouldn't let anybody in.
5:16
Speaker 2: So what's inside this building? Has anybody seen what they're
5:18
Speaker 2: doing in this building? Nobody knows.
5:20
Speaker 1: I mean, CBS was a granted entry and they gave
5:22
Speaker 1: them like a limited tour. And they keep saying it's
5:25
Speaker 1: like these criminals in their murderers, rapists, you know, the
5:29
Speaker 1: Republican talking point. But everybody knows who's in there. You
5:32
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on, who they are, where they
5:34
Speaker 1: come from. We don't know anything. And you know the
5:37
Speaker 1: building was used as a halfway house and drug rehab
5:40
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. To change the use of the building.
5:43
Speaker 1: Now you're going to change it to a place with detainees.
5:47
Speaker 1: You have to get that. You checked right, it has
5:49
Speaker 1: to be. You have to get a certificate, arguments, you
5:51
Speaker 1: have to apply for that, You have to get inspections.
5:53
Speaker 1: You may have to go to the planning board, zoning board,
5:55
Speaker 1: it depends, but you have to start that process. That's
5:58
Speaker 1: anybody has to do that special. It's not like putting
6:02
Speaker 1: undue circumstances on these people. This is what everybody goes through.
6:06
Speaker 3: That's all you say that you feel like these measures
6:08
Speaker 3: were an attempt to humiliate and degrade.
6:10
Speaker 1: You absolutely once you know, you know, they they cuffed me,
6:15
Speaker 1: threw me in a car. You know the security that
6:18
Speaker 1: well the police did was pretty decent, but you know,
6:21
Speaker 1: taking me through that process, they put me in a cell,
6:24
Speaker 1: you know, the whole fingerprinting, the interrogation piece. You know,
6:28
Speaker 1: then't doing it again. I just don't think it's necessary.
6:31
Speaker 1: I mean, the US attorney came to my hearing. It's
6:33
Speaker 1: a classic misdemeanor. Four hundred dollars fine, wow, you know,
6:39
Speaker 1: maximum thirty days in jail. She's she's at the hearing,
6:42
Speaker 1: the US attorney. I'm like, what what's happening here?
6:46
Speaker 2: You know, this is they're trying to give you a
6:47
Speaker 2: maximum obviously thirty days in prison in the fall Aliphant.
6:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this is probably what they're going after,
6:52
Speaker 1: but they don't have no I don't think they have
6:54
Speaker 1: a case at all. I mean, first of all, it's
6:55
Speaker 1: not federal property, so federal trust. But it's not even
6:58
Speaker 1: one federal employee that worked. Like all they do is
7:01
Speaker 1: all they They don't have a lease. They have a
7:03
Speaker 1: contract for them to house a few of their prisoners.
7:06
Speaker 1: That's it. It's not there's not nothing to do with
7:08
Speaker 1: the federal government at all. This is a private property
7:10
Speaker 1: with a private owner from Florida called the Geo Group,
7:14
Speaker 1: which owns hundreds of prisons, by the way, that has
7:17
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the federal government. If anything. If
7:20
Speaker 1: it was trespassing, uh, they would have to call the
7:22
Speaker 1: local police, right and if they thought it was a
7:25
Speaker 1: conflict of interest, they should have called the state police.
7:28
Speaker 1: But they didn't call anybody, by the way, because they
7:30
Speaker 1: let me in the property. Wow. Yeah, the people who
7:34
Speaker 1: called were those ice agents and everybody else who called
7:38
Speaker 1: their bosses and boss came down there and did what
7:40
Speaker 1: he did, and you got orders to do that.
7:43
Speaker 3: Have you got any like like messages like behind the
7:47
Speaker 3: scenes on some like all right, don't step out of
7:49
Speaker 3: line again, it can get worse or something, you know
7:51
Speaker 3: what I mean, Yeah.
7:52
Speaker 1: Pretty much. But I mean, you know, we were in
7:57
Speaker 1: the processes, in the process of trying to figure out
7:59
Speaker 1: the charge in that, you know, and these people are
8:03
Speaker 1: you know they serious now they committed today foolishness, you
8:05
Speaker 1: know what I mean. They're threatening to arrest the congresswoman
8:08
Speaker 1: who was there, and multiple congress women. You know, they're
8:11
Speaker 1: threatened to take us through this all the way to
8:13
Speaker 1: the end. But you know, at the end of the day, like,
8:16
Speaker 1: we didn't do anything wrong. So I mean, if they
8:19
Speaker 1: want to waste their taxpayers money, the government's money, to
8:21
Speaker 1: go through this, then let's go through it. We think
8:25
Speaker 1: we are correct, and I don't think they have any
8:27
Speaker 1: ground and stand on.
8:29
Speaker 3: What do you say to people who say they don't
8:30
Speaker 3: care about fighting for the rights of immigrants, they're.
8:35
Speaker 1: Just misinformed and because we've allowed other people to kind
8:40
Speaker 1: of dictate or control the narrative. Honestly, what we're fighting
8:44
Speaker 1: for is the due process for the fourteenth Amendment, the
8:48
Speaker 1: fourth and fifth Amendment, to be secure in your person,
8:50
Speaker 1: your papers, your property, people can't do anything till you
8:54
Speaker 1: pull you over, throw you in jail, without due process,
8:56
Speaker 1: without you going to court, without them having a warrant,
9:00
Speaker 1: all these specific things. And I think more than anybody,
9:02
Speaker 1: Black people should be concerned about that, because we're the
9:06
Speaker 1: number one victims of being searched without probable cause, or
9:10
Speaker 1: people coming to our property, our persons disregarding our constitutional
9:15
Speaker 1: rights for the for our first the Bill of Rights,
9:18
Speaker 1: the disregard for that, we should be the first ones
9:20
Speaker 1: concerned about it. And so we should stand up for
9:22
Speaker 1: people who's getting getting there is violated because we next.
9:26
Speaker 4: And I see that you also run for governor as well.
9:29
Speaker 4: Do you feel like this is a part of the
9:30
Speaker 4: plan to mess that up too?
9:32
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I think it's the part of the
9:34
Speaker 1: plan to mess everything up, you know. So I think
9:36
Speaker 1: they what they meant for evil though always turns to good.
9:39
Speaker 1: I mean, these people are they're not thinking about what
9:43
Speaker 1: they're doing. They're just reacting. Right. The person in charge
9:48
Speaker 1: of homeland security, well, the second in charge gets on
9:51
Speaker 1: TV start saying we stormed the place. It was a
9:53
Speaker 1: bust of migrants going in there. You know, we slammed
9:57
Speaker 1: ice agents like all this was fabrication. Now they just
10:00
Speaker 1: put themselves in a bad situation because now you're saying
10:03
Speaker 1: things that are not true because we have the videos.
10:05
Speaker 1: So I just start dropping the videos so people could
10:08
Speaker 1: see that I walked in there with my hands in
10:10
Speaker 1: my pocket, you know, very calm, you know, because the
10:13
Speaker 1: guy opened the gate and let us in. There was
10:15
Speaker 1: no kicking, no shoving, no pushing. I mean, they're used
10:18
Speaker 1: to lying and controlling the narrative, but this is the
10:21
Speaker 1: time they made a very grave mistake.
10:23
Speaker 3: Do you think that this will impact your bid for
10:25
Speaker 3: governor in any way?
10:27
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean, people who don't like
10:31
Speaker 1: what happened, don't like what happened anyway, they don't like
10:34
Speaker 1: they wouldn't vote for me anyway. So I don't think
10:37
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lose any votes based on what we did.
10:39
Speaker 1: I think what it does do, though, it tells people
10:42
Speaker 1: that we're willing to go all the way, that you know,
10:45
Speaker 1: we're not just talking about defending people's rights, that we're
10:48
Speaker 1: going to challenge these people at every turn.
10:52
Speaker 3: I do wonder what message do you think your arrest
10:56
Speaker 3: sense to other elected officials who might oppose the these
11:00
Speaker 3: federal polities who just opposed the Trump administration period.
11:03
Speaker 1: Well, I think these guys need to ratchet it up
11:06
Speaker 1: a little bit, need to figure out what we're gonna
11:09
Speaker 1: do in a collective way. These kind of individual things
11:12
Speaker 1: that are happening. It's not really enough. We need like
11:14
Speaker 1: collective energy here, a cooperative plan of action to push
11:18
Speaker 1: back against what's happening. Not all these separate states doing
11:22
Speaker 1: these suits. We should do a collective one. The irony
11:24
Speaker 1: is when I was going to court, the state of
11:26
Speaker 1: New Jersey was going to court with Donald Trump that
11:28
Speaker 1: same day, our ag filed the suit against this his
11:34
Speaker 1: sign of executive order undermining the fourteenth Amendment of birthright citizenship.
11:39
Speaker 1: On that day he was in court. But it should
11:41
Speaker 1: have been Donald Trump versus New Jersey, against balt against Maryland,
11:45
Speaker 1: against you know, California against Maine. It should have been
11:49
Speaker 1: like fifteen different states together. And I think we need
11:52
Speaker 1: collective action. This individual stuff is not working.
11:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've heard, you know, may and Adam say this,
11:57
Speaker 3: and I've heard a lot of other people say this
11:58
Speaker 3: to me, like there's an attack on black mayors. Do
12:01
Speaker 3: you think so?
12:02
Speaker 1: Well? I think I think black mayors having a little
12:05
Speaker 1: bit more difficult than everybody else, obviously, just like black
12:08
Speaker 1: people do. Obviously people expect more from you. You're going
12:12
Speaker 1: to be scrutinized more. They think you have a magic
12:15
Speaker 1: wand and because you're black, you're gonna make all of
12:17
Speaker 1: the black people problems disappear in five seconds. Obviously that's
12:21
Speaker 1: not going to happen. But I mean, ultimately, I think
12:24
Speaker 1: we have a harder road to tow, a heavier, a
12:28
Speaker 1: bolder to move. But you know, it is what it is.
12:31
Speaker 1: This is what you signed up for. You know, we
12:33
Speaker 1: knew this when we got into it, like this was
12:35
Speaker 1: what it was going to be.
12:37
Speaker 3: How did it feel for you when you just saw
12:39
Speaker 3: you know, the city and knew it like really come
12:42
Speaker 3: to your defense, like they was outside, like people was
12:44
Speaker 3: pulling that not even just knew people was pulling up
12:46
Speaker 3: from all over the tried state, you know the ride
12:48
Speaker 3: for you? How did you feel when you came out
12:50
Speaker 3: and saw that?
12:51
Speaker 1: It made me feel good. Irony is when I was
12:53
Speaker 1: in there, you know, the the guy locked me up
12:56
Speaker 1: after the judge said you could go, took an extra
12:58
Speaker 1: thirty forty minutes to let me out because he was
13:01
Speaker 1: trying to devise a plan to get me outside because
13:03
Speaker 1: there were so many people out there. He was like, Oh,
13:05
Speaker 1: we got to get these people from in front of
13:06
Speaker 1: the building. I said, you know how you get them out,
13:08
Speaker 1: Get me out, Let me out, They'll go. I wish
13:13
Speaker 1: it was that easy, I said, is it actually is
13:15
Speaker 1: that easy? So as I walk out of here, they're
13:17
Speaker 1: gonna walk away and lo and behold. I walked out,
13:19
Speaker 1: We walked down the street, talked to them, and everybody dispersed.
13:23
Speaker 1: I mean, people are not interested in doing nothing extra crazy,
13:26
Speaker 1: you know, they just want justice. And that's simply what
13:28
Speaker 1: it is.
13:29
Speaker 2: Now you're running for governor, what's the first thing you
13:31
Speaker 2: want to do when you become governor? Like, what's the
13:33
Speaker 2: first thing on your mind? The first thing you want
13:35
Speaker 2: to do first day, second day, third day?
13:37
Speaker 1: With well, I mean number one, I think we need
13:40
Speaker 1: to fix this budget. Our budget is, you know, is
13:42
Speaker 1: out of whack because we have given so many tax
13:44
Speaker 1: breaks to these multinationals and we need to bring that
13:47
Speaker 1: money back and fix our tax code. But ultimately, we
13:51
Speaker 1: need to be building affordable housing across the state of
13:53
Speaker 1: New Jersey. We need to be building ten twenty thousand
13:55
Speaker 1: units of affordable housing in the first two years one,
13:58
Speaker 1: it'll reduce people's costs, reduce rents, mortgage. So I would
14:02
Speaker 1: put a rent control on all rent across the state
14:08
Speaker 1: of New Jersey for the first couple of years until
14:10
Speaker 1: we get the first units of housing built in a state.
14:13
Speaker 1: That needs to happen to begin stabilizing our economy and
14:16
Speaker 1: it to make people believe we mean business right put
14:18
Speaker 1: thousands of people to work. So dealing with this affordable
14:22
Speaker 1: housing crisis is like number one on my list.
14:25
Speaker 2: That there's a lot of people in this race for governor. Now,
14:28
Speaker 2: how do you step above all those people? Because right
14:30
Speaker 2: now looking at polls, and polls mean a lot of
14:32
Speaker 2: nothing a lot of times. But how do you make
14:34
Speaker 2: sure you're ahead of those polls to make sure people
14:36
Speaker 2: come out and support you, that you're really taking this serious?
14:38
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I mean the polls are fluctuating every week,
14:41
Speaker 1: they change here and there, which means that it's like
14:44
Speaker 1: a fourth quarter game. It's going to be whoever gets
14:46
Speaker 1: there put people out to the polls to vote, and
14:50
Speaker 1: whoever wants it better than more than anybody else is
14:53
Speaker 1: the person I think that's gonna get over the line.
14:56
Speaker 1: But ultimately I think people could see my record, and
14:59
Speaker 1: we've been putting that out there, the things that we've
15:01
Speaker 1: done in the city of Newark, and we believe that
15:04
Speaker 1: if you could do it in Newark, you could basically
15:05
Speaker 1: do it anywhere. Our problem if the state has a cold,
15:08
Speaker 1: Newark has the flu. Right, so our problems are a
15:10
Speaker 1: lot more intractable and difficult, and our ability to mitigate
15:14
Speaker 1: those issues makes us uniquely qualified to deal with the
15:17
Speaker 1: issues around the state. I saw something.
15:19
Speaker 3: It was an Emerson College poll and it said that
15:21
Speaker 3: fifty six percent of voters were undecided about who they
15:24
Speaker 3: wanted to vote for in the Democratic primary.
15:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think it's that big Immocon Yeah, Emmerson.
15:29
Speaker 1: They did a text poll. Those text polls are incredibly unreliable.
15:32
Speaker 1: They're texting people, and you know they texting a small
15:36
Speaker 1: portion of people, but there is a huge undecided number,
15:40
Speaker 1: but it's not fifty six percent. And you always have
15:42
Speaker 1: to understand and I know, we know when they poll
15:44
Speaker 1: in people, it's not really us because we're not answering
15:46
Speaker 1: the phone. So we have to be a little weary
15:51
Speaker 1: of those poles, little literary of them, and really just
15:54
Speaker 1: get on the ground and keep working. I mean, the
15:56
Speaker 1: poll said that Kamala Harris was going to win right.
15:59
Speaker 1: The poll says she was gonna win New Jersey by
16:01
Speaker 1: double digits, and she only won by five percentage points.
16:06
Speaker 3: Newark Airport, Man, what the hell is going on? Man Baraka? Like,
16:09
Speaker 3: what is the problem with Newing Airport? How did they
16:11
Speaker 3: get here to way? People are saying it's unsafe to
16:13
Speaker 3: fly out the new A Airport.
16:14
Speaker 1: They don't flatter airport. I don't think it's unsafe. I
16:20
Speaker 1: don't think it's unsafe because they keep delaying in canceling flights.
16:23
Speaker 1: If they weren't doing that, then it would be unsafe.
16:25
Speaker 1: The reality is it's too many planes in the airspace
16:28
Speaker 1: air traffic controllers is not enough. Our air traffic controllers
16:31
Speaker 1: walked off because of stress. They don't want to when
16:34
Speaker 1: they losing contact with airplanes. They don't want to be
16:36
Speaker 1: the one responsible for ninety people one hundred and fifty
16:40
Speaker 1: people going down, so they walking away. The radar system
16:44
Speaker 1: in that area doesn't work. The infrastructure has broke. So
16:47
Speaker 1: but the Trump administration came in, got rid of four
16:50
Speaker 1: hundred people, blamed DEI and now they realize it's a
16:53
Speaker 1: real problem and none of that is gonna help it.
16:55
Speaker 1: So now they're trying to put money in infrastructure and
16:58
Speaker 1: hire more air traffic controllers. But they need to do
17:00
Speaker 1: that like rapidly, like an emergency, and in the meantime,
17:03
Speaker 1: we just need to slow those flights down. We need
17:05
Speaker 1: to do the same kind of patterns that happened out
17:07
Speaker 1: of LaGuardia. See LaGuardia is in the same airspace but
17:10
Speaker 1: not having this problem. They're not having this problem because
17:12
Speaker 1: they have less flights and they have more time between flights, right,
17:15
Speaker 1: the flights coming in and the flight's going as more
17:17
Speaker 1: space between those, nor to just we just fly places,
17:21
Speaker 1: flying in and out, in and out, in and out.
17:22
Speaker 1: We acting like there is no problem, right, but there
17:25
Speaker 1: is a problem. And so as we act like there's
17:28
Speaker 1: no problem, they're canceling flights and delaying flights and ultimately
17:32
Speaker 1: this need to not have those flights until they get
17:34
Speaker 1: this in order.
17:35
Speaker 3: So you said people are they were walking off whye
17:38
Speaker 3: because they.
17:38
Speaker 1: Just were stretched out? Yeah? They what were stretched out about? Like,
17:41
Speaker 1: I mean, to not have contact with an airplane for
17:45
Speaker 1: thirty seconds, for sixty seconds, for ninety seconds is a lot.
17:48
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're an air traffic controller, and you
17:50
Speaker 1: can't control what's going on, and somebody crashes and dies
17:54
Speaker 1: on your watch. I mean, obviously that's going to cause
17:56
Speaker 1: a bit of stress. Absolutely, folks walked off and Newark
18:00
Speaker 1: unfortunately add insult the entry there you fixing one of
18:04
Speaker 1: the runways at the same time. So that should be
18:07
Speaker 1: done prayerfully by the end of June. But we need
18:10
Speaker 1: more air traffic controllers and we need the infrastructure fixed immediately.
18:14
Speaker 1: We need emergency spending, emergency funding to get that stuff
18:17
Speaker 1: done like yesterday.
18:18
Speaker 3: But nobody knew that about the infrastructure beforehand.
18:20
Speaker 1: Of course they did. They knew. They knew that the
18:23
Speaker 1: infrastructure was old. They also knew that we didn't have
18:25
Speaker 1: enough air traffic controllers, not just newer but period, right,
18:30
Speaker 1: and that's why we were having incidents. Then when the
18:32
Speaker 1: Trump administration first came in, you've seen all these airline
18:35
Speaker 1: issues that were going on, which signaled that there was
18:38
Speaker 1: a problem, and instead of dealing with the problem, they
18:40
Speaker 1: began blaming DEI and continue to lay people off instead
18:44
Speaker 1: of hiring people fixing the infrastructure so we won't have
18:48
Speaker 1: this emergency situation where we are now. So they finally
18:52
Speaker 1: they've understood that this is a real problem. So now
18:55
Speaker 1: they're trying to address it, but it's not happening fast enough.
18:58
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, I would say, they need to
19:00
Speaker 1: stop some of these planes from going off the ground. Yeah,
19:03
Speaker 1: you're gonna be inconvenienced because you can't get as many
19:05
Speaker 1: flights as you could have got before. But safety is
19:08
Speaker 1: more important than anything else, I will say.
19:10
Speaker 2: Now, I wanted to ask about the congresswoman that is
19:13
Speaker 2: also going against you in this race. They said that
19:16
Speaker 2: she has supported a lot of the things that Donald
19:19
Speaker 2: Trump has has put to the table, and you've been
19:21
Speaker 2: very vocal about that. What are your thoughts to some
19:23
Speaker 2: of the things that she's trying to follow up with
19:25
Speaker 2: and that she's campaigning for.
19:27
Speaker 1: Well, you know, everybody in the primary now is progressive, right,
19:33
Speaker 1: but all of the progressive leaning organizations endorsed my candidacy,
19:36
Speaker 1: all of the progressive unions, all of the progressive organizations
19:39
Speaker 1: for People's Organization in Progress thirty too, be Jay working
19:42
Speaker 1: families because I'm a real progressive. I'm not just playing
19:44
Speaker 1: one on TV. The reality is, here's a woman who
19:49
Speaker 1: supported the border wall, right, who you know, supported four
19:53
Speaker 1: billion dollars to go towards Trump's borderwall. Right, A person
19:56
Speaker 1: that voted against immigrants while she was the congress person. Right,
20:02
Speaker 1: who is opposed to Immigrant Trust Act in New Jersey
20:05
Speaker 1: that says that we have to not ask people their status,
20:10
Speaker 1: that our police can't cooperate with ice, that we have
20:12
Speaker 1: to make sure immigrants get the same services as any
20:15
Speaker 1: other people or residents of the state of New Jersey.
20:18
Speaker 1: She voted she is opposed to that, and voted against
20:21
Speaker 1: things when she was the governor. I mean, excuse me,
20:23
Speaker 1: when she was the congress person. So the reality is,
20:26
Speaker 1: I don't think that she's progressive at all.
20:30
Speaker 2: Now, you went to her hometown of Montclair to make
20:33
Speaker 2: that statement, to make sure that the residents of Montclair
20:35
Speaker 2: know who they're voting for.
20:36
Speaker 1: What was that important to you? Well, I went there
20:38
Speaker 1: to really talk about the fact that they have a
20:41
Speaker 1: plan for everything but black people, right, that the reality is,
20:46
Speaker 1: they come up with all of these strategies and plans
20:48
Speaker 1: that they're so thoughtful about, but none of it involves us.
20:50
Speaker 1: But they keep coming in our community asking us for things,
20:53
Speaker 1: but they have no plan to help us. When we
20:55
Speaker 1: were on a panel, they asked her about the wealth
20:58
Speaker 1: gap as she started talking about third gradest reading level,
21:01
Speaker 1: and so I got upset, Right, I said something on
21:03
Speaker 1: a panel and I said something in Montclair. I said,
21:06
Speaker 1: you know, reading levels. We need to make sure that
21:08
Speaker 1: our kids can read on grade level. But don't get
21:10
Speaker 1: confused that the wealth gap has nothing to do with reading.
21:12
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, income and wealth are two
21:15
Speaker 1: different things. Income you could say that, you know, if
21:18
Speaker 1: you have a better education, you can get a better
21:20
Speaker 1: job and your income could be better. But wealth, you
21:23
Speaker 1: could be dumb as a doornail and have wealth. Your
21:25
Speaker 1: parents can pass down businesses and real estate and all
21:28
Speaker 1: the thing to you, and you can mess it up,
21:30
Speaker 1: but you still have wealth. Right. You know, Donald Trump
21:33
Speaker 1: has wealth not because he's brilliant, but because his family
21:36
Speaker 1: had wealth. I mean, this country has denied us wealth
21:40
Speaker 1: since we came here, like slaves, helped to develop wealth
21:44
Speaker 1: for other people who've passed their wealth down. And because
21:47
Speaker 1: she don't understand that, and she talks about it like
21:50
Speaker 1: in a tone deaf way, it kind of undermines our
21:53
Speaker 1: ability to destroy a wealth gap that's actually doubling in
21:56
Speaker 1: a state of New Jersey right now, that went from
21:58
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand dollars to six hundre one thousand dollars
22:01
Speaker 1: because of the lack of home ownership and business development
22:05
Speaker 1: in our state. And she and if you're going to
22:07
Speaker 1: be the governor, you should know that, right.
22:10
Speaker 2: So's she's actually supposed to be coming up here, I
22:12
Speaker 2: think this weekend next week. What's one question that you
22:14
Speaker 2: would think is the most important question that she should answer.
22:18
Speaker 1: That what's her plan for black and brown people? But
22:21
Speaker 1: more importantly black women. Right, Black women are the most
22:26
Speaker 1: committed and dedicated constituent that the Democratic Party has, and
22:30
Speaker 1: they're treated the worst in New Jersey or in this country.
22:35
Speaker 1: I mean, she's endorsed by the mainstream Democratic Party, but
22:40
Speaker 1: they have no plan for black people. They never did.
22:42
Speaker 1: They have no plan for Latinos, they never did. And
22:44
Speaker 1: they have no plan for working people. I mean, the
22:46
Speaker 1: Democratic Party is in charge of the state, and working
22:49
Speaker 1: people are struggling the most. We can't pay our bills,
22:52
Speaker 1: Our childcare is too high, right, insurance is too high.
22:55
Speaker 1: In fact, if you got the wrong credit score, you
22:57
Speaker 1: might not get no insurance. Right. Your rent is too high,
22:59
Speaker 1: your more is just too high. And we still give
23:01
Speaker 1: a tax breaks to billionaires in New Jersey and can't
23:04
Speaker 1: take care of working people, and you're supposed to be
23:07
Speaker 1: the party of working families, right, she should have an
23:10
Speaker 1: answer for those things.
23:12
Speaker 3: Is running for governor hard when you still got a
23:15
Speaker 3: governed as mayor. And the reason I brought that up
23:17
Speaker 3: is because everybody were not everybody, but they were people
23:20
Speaker 3: saying that this was a publicity stunt when you got arrested,
23:23
Speaker 3: Like you're just trying to drum up, you know, attention
23:25
Speaker 3: for your campaign for governor.
23:27
Speaker 1: What you say, I got a lot of ways to
23:28
Speaker 1: drum up attention. Corner jail ain't one of them, you know.
23:31
Speaker 1: But but ultimately, like, look, I just came from the
23:35
Speaker 1: gym that day. You know, I was going to get
23:37
Speaker 1: a shake to go back to the office. My policy
23:41
Speaker 1: advisor reminded me that they were having a press conference.
23:43
Speaker 1: I went down there for that press conference to support
23:46
Speaker 1: my congress people, right. I didn't expect that they would
23:49
Speaker 1: do that. And honestly, you know, when they started threatening,
23:53
Speaker 1: I thought they was bluffing. Like when I left the property,
23:55
Speaker 1: if I wanted to get arrested, I would have stayed
23:57
Speaker 1: on the property or I actually left right in twenty
23:59
Speaker 1: years go, I would have took flight, you know where
24:01
Speaker 1: they said they coming to wrest you. I would have
24:03
Speaker 1: been ENCE's cars everything. You know. The reality the matter
24:06
Speaker 1: is nowhere for me to go. Like, if they're gonna
24:08
Speaker 1: wrest you wherever I'm gonna go, they're gonna come. Like, so,
24:10
Speaker 1: if you're gonna do it, just do it now. And
24:12
Speaker 1: that's really what my sentiment was, like, I don't believe
24:15
Speaker 1: you got it in you that this is not gonna happen.
24:17
Speaker 1: This can't happen. What a congressman told me, they come
24:20
Speaker 1: and to rest you, I said, why, what did I do?
24:22
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything. That's exactly what my response was,
24:24
Speaker 1: What did I do? I was like, oh, come arrest me.
24:27
Speaker 1: I was saying, I didn't do anything, But how would you?
24:29
Speaker 1: How are you gonna arrest me? I'm not even on
24:30
Speaker 1: your property anymore? And they came out and did it anyway?
24:33
Speaker 3: Did that confirm to you what type of political climate
24:35
Speaker 3: were in?
24:36
Speaker 1: Oh? Absolutely, absolutely, very very dangerous. The fact they're still
24:39
Speaker 1: going through this, that my lawyers are still going back
24:41
Speaker 1: and forth with these people, it's still it tells you
24:44
Speaker 1: clearly that they're committed to this stuff. And the question
24:47
Speaker 1: becomes how committed are we and I don't believe we
24:51
Speaker 1: are as committed as we need to be to turn
24:53
Speaker 1: this thing over.
24:54
Speaker 4: At any point, were you like afraid for your life
24:57
Speaker 4: the fact that you were taken to an off site factory.
25:02
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Absolutely. I mean, I mean, I guess when you
25:05
Speaker 1: I'm a grown man now with families, So when you
25:07
Speaker 1: get arrested, all kinds of things going through your head.
25:09
Speaker 1: Who picked my children up from school? Like I got
25:11
Speaker 1: to beat you? All kinds of stuff I leave my
25:18
Speaker 1: house going through But all kind of stuff is going
25:20
Speaker 1: through your head, like you know, really fast and uh,
25:23
Speaker 1: and they're taking you somewhere you don't know, like you
25:26
Speaker 1: can hear them talking. Yeah, they followed me. They came
25:30
Speaker 1: one of the details got in a separate car and
25:33
Speaker 1: drove behind them and got and went to where I
25:35
Speaker 1: was going. But ultimately, like you don't know where they
25:37
Speaker 1: take me. If I'm not going to the county jail.
25:39
Speaker 1: Am I going to Berging County? That's this county? What's
25:42
Speaker 1: going on? And where they're gonna put me out when
25:44
Speaker 1: I get in the county jail. I mean, that's the
25:45
Speaker 1: things I was thinking about right the when I got
25:47
Speaker 1: to the place I'm like, what is this place? I mean,
25:49
Speaker 1: what are they gonna do? Do anybody know I'm here right?
25:51
Speaker 1: And all of those things are going through your head.
25:54
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, fear gets in your in your
25:57
Speaker 1: heart and you just pray that you know, fear don't
26:00
Speaker 1: turn you into a coward.
26:01
Speaker 2: There you go. Well, we appreciate you for joining us,
26:04
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you know you'll be back up here
26:06
Speaker 2: before the race actually happens.
26:08
Speaker 1: When what date is that tenth?
26:11
Speaker 2: That's right, well, ladies and gentlemen, Mayor Ross Baraka, it's
26:14
Speaker 2: the Breakfast Club.
26:15
Speaker 1: Good morning, Wake that ass up in the morning. Come
26:19
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club.