Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Ashley Allison Talks 'Watering Hole Media,' Trump's Presidency Concerns, Federal Aid Freeze +More

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INTERVIEW: Ashley Allison Talks 'Watering Hole Media,' Trump's Presidency Concerns, Federal Aid Freeze +More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Morning, everybody in stej Envy, Jess, Hilarious, Charlamagne, the gud
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: in the Bounty. Yes, indeed we have Ashley Allison.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Welcome. Yes, how are you feeling this morning?
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: Well that's a hard question. Eight days, nine days into
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump's America.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: But don't let us scratch you out. You can't think
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: about it every day. You gotta remember your serenity prayer.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: Okay, no, you know, Yeah, I'm good, but it's a
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: lot on.
• 0:33
  Speaker 5: My mind right now.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: What is your job to And I feel like I
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: know you because I watch the ann all all the time,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and it's your job, and you always have to talk
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: about these things. But I feel like they always put
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: you in the position against the white conservative male and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: cause conflict on purpose just to scratch you up.
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: No, telling the truth it doesn't stress me out.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: And I feel like that's all I do on CNN
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: is I'm gonna be a truth teller. I'm going to
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: hold you accountable and and I'm gonna.
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: Call you out. And I literally like, people like, I
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: don't know how you do it. I don't either.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: But it's like my grandmother's spirit comes in me and
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: I'm calm, cool, collected now sometimes like every once in
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: a while, but most of the time, I'm just like, no,
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: I'm not gonna I'm from you, soun Ohio.
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: So we just call a thing a thing.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it feels like they like the conflict makes
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: good television.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, well, I think the important thing that
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: they try and do is obviously a lot of people
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: think what the conservatives think because they just voted for
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump, right, and they're trying to get that viewpoint out.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: But I'm also like a lot of people still voted
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: for Kamala Harris too, and so I'm gonna try and
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: get that viewpoint out right.
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: A lot of people didn't vote at all, so we
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: got to get that argument out too, like what happened there?
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: Why did people stay home?
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: And I think there's still a lot of questions to
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: be answered about what happened.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Is we can we go back a little bit and
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: find out who Ashley Allison is and how you jumped
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: into politics. So let's start off from what got you
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: into politics.
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: I led my first protest when I.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Was in the second grade, second grade.
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: Wow, So I'm lactose intolerant. Me too, and most of
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: us are.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: We it should most people in the world are lactose intolerance,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: so we should change that name.
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: But and the nuns at my school used to make.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Us drink the milk a Catholic school.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: Yes, I'm not Catholic, but went to Catholic school.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Most of us did, yes.
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: And I used to get sick every day after lunch. Wow,
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: every day. And they used to say it's because I
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: didn't like math. Now I don't like math and I'm
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: not good at math, but I didn't make myself sick.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: And so the first was like, let me drink juice
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: at lunch and not. And so it was just like
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: when something is doesn't make sense, do something about it,
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: change it, fix it. And then my parents raised me
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: like knocking on doors when I was a little kid,
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: canvas and for candadis for city council. And then I
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: just someone like when I see something that is not right,
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: it just agitates my spirit.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: That's why you like, don't let it stress you out.
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: It's like part of who I am.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: I cannot see something that is wrong and not say something.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: And I feel like Obama came through and I was like, Oh,
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: how do you How do you work on a campaign?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: How do you?
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: I was teaching at Boys and Girl High School actually
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: at the time when Obama ran for president, and my
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: students were engaged by him in a way I had
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: never seen, and I was like, I want to work
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: on his campaign.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: And it was kind of like all she.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Wrote, do you think we'll ever see that again? Do
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: you ever think we'll see you?
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: Because he's a once in a lifetime, a lifetime generation leader,
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: and so is Donald Trump.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's a fact. I've only seen three of my
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: lifetime like that, Clinton, Obama and Trump.
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I don't know.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: I don't I honestly, I don't know if we need
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: a once in a lifetime generational leader.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: I just think we need good leaders.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: I think that the celebrity of it all is part
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: of the problem. Is like people, I want somebody who
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: cares about the quality of everybody's life and wants everybody's
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: life to be better. I don't need you to be
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: a reality show star. I don't need you to be
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: super famous. I don't even need to really want to
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: dinner with you. Honestly, I just need you to know
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: what you're doing and want to help people and get
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: this country in a better place.
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: So probably not.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, now he said something stressed you out? So what
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: stresses you out the most? Because he said what he
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: was going to do?
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: It's not like it's a surprise. He said, what exactly
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: what he's going to do?
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Right now? Right?
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: Did my eyes get real big? You know that's my tail?
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: Normally what stresses me out? I think that we.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: You know, I was one of those people, Charlot Mane
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: who called Trumpet fascists, and I still think that, and
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: I think that it is not Democracy doesn't die.
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: By one fatal blow.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: It dies by a thousand little cuts. And I think
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: the first day when he partoned January sixth folks, that
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: was fifteen hundred little cuts to democracy. I think when
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: Friday night when he fires inspector generals, that's another eighteen
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: cuts to democracy.
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: And for folks who don't know what.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: An inspector general is, it's literally the people who are
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: supposed to do the auditing of federal agencies to make
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: sure there isn't waste and fraud.
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: Like they think they need doze for it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: And I think that no is talking about an inspector
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: of general sexy and exciting. No, but is it the
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: thing that is a backstop?
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: Yes?
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: And I worry people are not paying attention and people
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: are just kind of not complacent but are so frustrated
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: with everything that they're throwing their hands up and saying
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: like I don't have anything to do. I can't engage.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: And apathy is how dictators thrive. Despair is how And
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: I worry that people are becoming apathetic and finding this
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: despair and feeling hopeless, and that that stresses me out
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: because like, if we have the numbers, I think he
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: did say what he was going to do. Some people
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: are now surprised that he kept his word. We tried
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: to tell him.
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: But it's the despair that makes me most nervous.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I was.
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: I know you said it.
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: Stress is a big part of your job, and you
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: don't mind, you don't care. You're gonna keep telling the truth,
• 6:04
  Speaker 6: you know, because that's your job to do that. But
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: at what point is the stress to the point, Like
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: have you ever had a tipping point? Like all right,
• 6:13
  Speaker 6: I'm not about to be doing this no more like
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: throwing a child type.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So okay, I'm a big yogi. I've been doing
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: yoga for twenty five years, so I'm always breathing. I'm
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: always staying grounded, connected like feet on the ground, making
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: sure you're not gonna catch me off my balance. The
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: thing about why this moment I'm okay with it is
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: because eight years ago, the first time you got elected,
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: it almost took me out, Like I was leaving the
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: White House, the relationship I was in and did I
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: felt like my whole identity I closed the White House
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: down right.
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: I had no job.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: My money was real funny, so you know, we don't
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: make a lot of money in the government, and I
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: was like, what do I doing? For six months, I
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: was just kind of like I was in a depression.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: I was in a almost hit rock bottom. And every
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: day since then, I was in therapy. You know, I
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: did a lot of the self work. I got my
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: practices back together, and every day since then, I've been
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: building for this moment.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: So it's not gonna.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to get to the point where I like,
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: I can't do this anymore, because I'm never gonna let
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: somebody else take that much power away from me.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: You know, did you ex vote for Trump?
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: I don't know my mom's listening, so I can't say
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: what I was about to do.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: You said something that's very interesting about democracy, right, and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I agree with everything you said. But I was watching
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: John Stewart last night and he presented a good point.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: He said that, you know, the thing that we need
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: to remember about Trump is this is democracy because he
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: was voted in and he has he has control of
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: all branches of government. Now, so the things he's doing,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: we may not like it, but under the constitution, he
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: has the right to do it.
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: Well, not all things.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: The Constitution still exists for a reason, right, So you
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: can sign an executive order, but democracy, we still have
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: three branches of our government. Right, So you can sign
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: an executive order, and the courts are actually supposed to
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: be a checks and balances, right, So if it goes
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: all the way up to the Supreme Court and the
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: court says no, Donald Trump can't then just override it. Right. Well,
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: that's the problem, right, That's the problem with is that
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: we were supposed to have all these checks and balances.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: I think the thing that's on the front of my
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: mind is this Fourteenth Amendment around birthright citizenship, and I'm
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: like y'all better wake up, because this is not about
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: birthright citizenship.
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: This is about being able to discriminate against all of
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: us because of equal protection.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: Okay, So I think almost every legal scholar except for
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: like the five that Donald Trump is going to find
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: to bring this case, have said that birthright citizenship is
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: in the constitution and it's not a thing. But he's
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: still on day one signed an executive order. He even
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: said in his interview Behind the Resolute Death that I
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: don't know if this is going to work, but we're
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: gonna try it out. So it's trying to like press
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: the levers of democracy to see. But the fourteenth Amendment
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: also is the amendment that prevents from you to be
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: able to be discriminated. It gives all rights to Americans
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: in this country, so black, brown women, straight, gay, and
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: it's bigger than just birthright citizenship. And so because immigration
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: is such a big topic right now, they are introducing
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: the fight through that lens as a foil, almost as
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: a distraction, so that you focus on that and not
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: on really what they're doing. And if you take one
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: piece of the Constitution away, then it start again a
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: thousand little cuts. It's a cut and so they're trying
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: to knock it down. So that's why I'm like, don't
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: get distracted, y'all. Don't be in pay attention. You know,
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: like eight years ago was when stay woke. We made
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: it like the thing that people said again and then
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: they turned it on as it's like no, like wake up.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: You know, it's like Spike Lee when it's like what
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: you know, it's like this is happening in front of
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: our face. And now it's not the time to sit
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: on a couch and be like not my.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Fao, school me on this tool. Because they say they're
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: saying that his plan in birthright citizenship is like dred
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Scott too, right? Do you think so? Well?
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: I think I don't know.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: I haven't heard them people articulate that argument, so I
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: will want to hear a little bit more.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: Again, I don't like.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: To just say something because just sounds like the smartest
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: person in the room.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: But there's an article in the New York Times.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: Okay, I think that the question is is that a
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: lot of people birthright citizenship. They said it was brought
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: through to give black people, black and save people the
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: right of citizenship, but it doesn't it's not just about
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: black people.
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: It's about all people. Again. I think that.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: Again every legal sult scholar, Republican conservative, even Scalia, most
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: of his clerks, most of the people who are scaleites
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: are like who in Scalia is one of the most conservative, Uh,
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Supreme Court justices we've ever had say that.
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: It shouldn't be able to pass a legal mustard.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: I don't even know if the Supreme Court will hear
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: the case, but we will find out. But again that's
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: the distraction over there, because today he just stopped federal
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: funding on programs like SNAP.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: So I was gonna ask, so, what is your thoughts
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: on the party right.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: And all that?
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: So the way I mean, yeah, last night he rolled
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: out starting today at five pm that federal funding and
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: grants needs to be halted. Now that means money is
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: to go to cancer nonprofits, all nonprofits, veteran services. And
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: so again it happens in the middle of the night.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: You know, stop now today why she's gonna do some
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: wild stuff. Don't focus on the distraction, Focus on the
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: trick they're trying to play on you. So we're right
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: now people are looking at it, looking at lawsuits, looking
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: at litigation that they can file to halt this. You know,
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: I woke up this morning to a text from my
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: cousin was like, who literally just had a baby yesterday,
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: and she was like.
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: Section eight.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: My snap benefits that she's she runs a real estate
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: thing and she's like, my tenants are section eight?
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: Are they gonna be able to pay? Am I gonna
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: be able to? Like this is real light? You know
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: what I mean?
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: Like I'm on CNN, but this is that's my first
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: cousin that I'm talking about here, that is like, what
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: what's happening?
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: And to truth be told, a lot of people who
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: voted for.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump are gonna now face that consequence as well,
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: which is why when it's like there is in every crisis,
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: there's opportunity if we actually could start having conversations with
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: people about the economics that are happening in this country
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: and the real working them working class people.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Sure, but that's what I was gonna ask. Do you
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: think the pardons and things that he's doing that is
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: making the press? He does that so you don't see
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: the other.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Stuff that he's doing.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: People are talking more about the pardons in the January
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: sixth rise, and they're talking about all these other things.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: But like you said, the main things that he's doing,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: that he's doing that is affecting us the most, we
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: don't see because we're more distracted with the pardons. We're
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: more distracted with this. So do you think that's his
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: way of doing this? Let me write this here so
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: the press can go this way and I can fly
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: under the radar and do this because like something I
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: seen yesterday which was all over the place was Donald
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Trump is gonna get rid of taxes, right right, yes,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: the irs right. But people were like, really that was
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: a talking point, But then he did all these other
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: things under the radar that people are not talking about.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the day, the first day he got inaugurated, you know,
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: he was sharpying it up with all his executive orders
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: and all these different locations, and everybody was talking about
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: the parties. Let me be clear, the pardons were messed up,
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: and I'm not trying to undermine them. Simultaneously, he rescind
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: it seventy eight executive orders that Joe Biden did. Do
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: you know what Some of those executive orders are capping
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: the costs on prescription drugs, making the Affordable Care Act weaker,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: making Medicaid weaker, protecting workers safety and health.
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: But nobody was talking about that.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: So I was like, wait a minute, Wait a minute,
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: I got it. But I can do two things at once.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I do think that a lot of the
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: things that he does. I mean, he is a master
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: performer and executor of a show, and he is putting
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: on a show right now.
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: But I want to see the credits.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I was reading this clause. There was a clause in
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: one of the DEI initiatives that he said he signed
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the Executive Board of that only stops the federal government
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Supplier Diversity Program and removed their requess average for federal
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: contracts to be addressing DEI issues. It includes a clause
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: that federal contractors m was certify they are not running
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: DEI programs to be eligible for government contracts. So any
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: store that offers wick is considered a federal contract that
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: any company that supplies products for whipsnap et cetera is
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: a federal contractor is that true?
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: Again? I would want to do some research on that.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: But here's the thing.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: This is not their first time at the rodeo, right,
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: and so they as someone who worked at the White House,
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: like I remember my first day and I was kind
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: of like, what is happening?
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: Like what is up from down?
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: It is a massive institution, and that at that point
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: Obama had been in office for five years, so people
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: knew how it was going.
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: It does take a lot of time.
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: So when they are writing these executive orders, they're writing
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: it so that the tentacles go in all spaces, all
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: knooks and cranny. So when they say if you if
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: you change a title, now tell on somebody that tells,
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: and then if you don't then like then you can
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: lose your job. It reminds me, honestly of what they
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: did in Texas with the abortion laws, where it was
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: like a woman can't have an abortion, and if you
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: help her have an abortion, that can be against the law.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: If you are the uber driver. It's all to evoke fear.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: It's all to ask people to comply without needing to comply.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: That's another dangerous thing, is like if if you don't
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: tell me I have to.
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: Do this because it's not the law, then I maybe
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: shouldn't do it.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: Like so to hear that, I wouldn't be surprised, because
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: they want to get you tripped up and they just
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: want you to be afraid.
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: So then you're like, I'm not.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Gonna do it.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: It's too hard. I'm just gonna step away.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And what are the guardrails? Right? Because what can be
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: done to keep these executive orders from becoming actual legislation?
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: Well, right now, the Republicans have the House and the Senate.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: But in the Senate they do not have a Philipprooster brust,
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: so they can't. They don't have sixty votes, what you
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: need in almost everything for something to become law. I
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: hate to see, but like there is an election into
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: There are elections every year actually, but there is an
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: election to take back the House in twenty twenty six.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: One way to make sure that those things don't become
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: law is to make sure that there are people who
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: will not vote for them. But you still represented, whether
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: you're a Republican or Democrat. You should still talk to
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: your elected officials. Now, I think that a lot of
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: times people just wait until the election. Is like, no,
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: if you don't want that to become law, call your
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: elected official now, have a conversation with it. A lot
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: of states are going to have to make decisions now
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: about accepting federal funding.
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: You know, people didn't vote for.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: The infrastructure bill, But they sure are getting bridges built
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: in their cities and towns from that infrastructure money. So
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: call your mayor, call your state legislature, call your governor,
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: and say, we do want these federal funds that go
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: to our school to make our roads and improve better.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: I mean that is how they don't become law is
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: to make sure that the elected officials don't vote for them.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Could Republicans get rid of shi? Yeah, they will, I
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: mean will that they will? I mean I think they will.
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: They say they won't.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: They will everything I wanted Democrats to do in order
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to properly govern, Republicans are going to do.
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: I yes, I am waiting for the day where I
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: said I told you I would you know, because something
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: will happen, and it might actually happen this year because
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: right now, you know, the Republicans went down to Florida
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: yesterday to have this conversation with Trump about what is
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: his legislative package going to look like?
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Is he gonna split up? Is he gonna do this
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: one big thing? And it's it's hard to make laws
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: right in this country. And Congress has the lowest approval
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: rating because they don't make a lot of laws. But
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: and there's gridlock right now in DC and it has
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: been made for most of our lives, right. But the
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: Republicans went down to have this conversation with Donald Trump
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: and whether or not they're going to roll out this
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: package that includes immigration, tax reform, the budget or they're
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: gonna separate it. And I think you could see an
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: opportunity where this is where he's like, get rid of it.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: I want it done, and if you don't, I'm gonna
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: primary you act.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: And they are.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: I'm not saying where's the lt you know, it's like,
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: I hear.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: You, what's your biggest fear? What should our biggest fear be?
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: You named nineteen thousand things that we should be fearful of,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: But what is the biggest fear that you're saying this
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: is gonna be fucked up?
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: I don't.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: I The reason why I'm not answering that question is
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: because I don't think we can only look at one thing.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: I think I think we have to have the discipline
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: to look at multitask right. I think we cannot just
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: be like I'm only going to activate when this happens
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: because it might be too late. So what do we
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: have like a top three.
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think if.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: I think if they get rid of the filibuster, were
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: already in trouble, right, that's good. That's so if that
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: conversation really gets activated, we should be mindful of that.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: And for folks who don't know, the filibuster requires sixty
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: votes to get something through the Senate the House, you
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: only need a majority, and right now there's only fifty
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: three Republican senators. And if there's a tie, the Vice President,
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: which is jd Vance now would break the tie. So
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: the filibuster is one. It's a backstop to make sure
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: that like actually the will of the people.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: Is becoming law.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: I do think that if that birthright citizenship case is
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: taken up and actually goes to the Supreme Court, and
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: what's the third the secret in the night, we don't know, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: because like like let's just be armed. They wrote it
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: all down like my biggest my biggest fear is twenty
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: twenty five, just boom, like all nine hundred pages come
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: in reality. But they already told us that it's like
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: some stuff I know, we don't know.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: You know, we always talk about the problems, right, what
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: are the solutions. What can people do to you know,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: to try to stop this or to try to curve it? Like,
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: what can people do because a lot of people are
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: listening and be like, we know the problems. Yeah, we know,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: we got to deal with the next four years. We
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: see it happened in the last eight nine days.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: But what can we do to stop it? What's the solution?
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: I think being in community is the most important thing, right,
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: Like sitting by yourself and spiraling and doom scrolling one
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: of the things that the coolest thing that is happening
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: right now, y'all y'all following him and talk tik talk. Okay,
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: So this is why I love Black women, Like we
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: the ninety two percent supposed to be sitting down chilling,
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: and we done created a whole HBCU online on TikTok day. Yeah,
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: so a black professor, she put a video out about
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: African American studies class for her.
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: Thirty six students.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: It is now a place where twenty plus PhDs, all
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: black folks teaching African American studies, teaching the art of resistance,
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: teaching economic power. That's self organizing, right, I think right now,
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: one of the things we have Our people have been
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: through many, many things, and one of the best things
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: you can do right now is to educate yourself on
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: how to sustain oppression.
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: Doctor Barlow, Yes, yes.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: And so they're educating us on forms of resistance on
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: so you don't just sit and say, like, well, how
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: did you know the Civil rights movement survive? How did
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: we get the Civil Rights Act? Like that did not
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: happen overnight. We tell that a lot of times. Our
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: country tells that during Black History Month. If they even
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: tell that story, that was like a fifteen year struggle
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: just to get that one piece of legislation. So find
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: yourself in community and educate yourself. You know, I'm not
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: gonna take a stance on the boycotts right now, but
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: I do think our economic collective.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: Buying power is very important. There's a lot of.
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: Conversation about boycotting, boycotting companies who are getting rid of
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: de EI. I think boycotts are hard, but boycotts can
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: be used strategically, and if we as a community really
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: put some strategy behind it, it could be effective while
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: we're still helping black businesses and entrepreneurs thrive. And then
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: I think we we got to have some tough.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: Conversations, y'all.
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And the hardest part about it is like getting
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: people motivated to do it and activating people to do it,
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying, Like is like like I'm
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: thirty two, and a lot of people in my generation
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: they don't care.
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: They care, but they don't care enough to like if
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: it don't affect them directly, like right now, they're not
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: doing nothing, you know.
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: They just I know, and I know a whole bunch
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: of people.
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: Say, oh, Trump had money in the hood, so you know,
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: we good, And then you sitting here telling me Snap
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: is gone. You know, it's you know, all the stuff
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: in the night that's happening. You don't even know half
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: of them pregnant. That's hitting me up right, Like my
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: cousins and homegirls in Barima. Trump gave us that check.
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: He ain't even get to you, you know what I mean,
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: his name anything.
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: Because of him, You got it, you know.
• 24:17
  Speaker 6: And it's just how do you properly educate, properly activate
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: people to listen and really care about their lives.
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: Why would you wait till.
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: Something happen to you when you know you can do
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: something like you said, stand with a community to like
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: to help prevent it in any.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: Type of way. Yeah, I mean I hear you and
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: you activate people. It's hard.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: If it was easy, like we wouldn't be here. Yeah, honestly, goodness,
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: like if it was. And I think that people honestly
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: deserve to have a sense of like it don't matter, right.
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: I love Obama, but I know a lot.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: Of people whose lives haven't changed over the last twenty
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: years under Democrat or Republican. So I get it. I
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: think it's the responsibility. I don't actually think it's the
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: responsibility to activate. I do think like elected officials need
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: to activate them. But I always say, you know, start
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: with not me saying this is what you should care about.
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: What do you actually care about?
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: Like if you can tell me any topic just about
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: and I can find a way to bring it back
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: to like something you should care about.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of times, like what Jess said,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: you don't realize it until it affects you.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: It's like you hear birthright, citizenship right and let's.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Say I'm fully black stopping, but like you, if you
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: don't have a family member that's from out of this country.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: It doesn't affect you. You know, same thing with the.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Medicine and pills. If you don't need medicine right now,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: it's not affecting you that way. So you're not even
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: thinking about those things. So it's hard to activate until
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: something really affects you and you see it really hit
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: close to home.
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: You know them, but it does affect you, right, but
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: it's two steps removed, right, Like half of the there
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: are workforces right now in California that are not showing
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: up to harvest crops because they're afraid they're going to
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: get deported.
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: You think that's gonna make eggs and groceries go down?
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: Right when they when they lose a whole crop and
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: now they're out of their business for the season and
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: they got to hike it up next.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: That's not gonna I know, truck I know Mexican truck
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: driver scared to drive, get pulled over?
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, how are you gonna get your Amazon?
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Yo?
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: They playing with you, playing with you, playing with me too,
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: because you believe Dominican for real, I'm black, but I'm
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: black though it's okay, shout to Dominicans, but I'm black.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: You said someone you was answering justice, I totally agree
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: with It's not people's job to activate it's elected officials
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: jobs to activate the people. And that's what I feel
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: like Democrats have failed. Yeah, and you worked for the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Biden You worked for Biden administration, and Biden has but we.
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: Was so we activated them.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: But you know, I think that, Yes, it is the
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: responsibility of elected officials.
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: It is the responsibility to do that all the time.
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: I'm not stupid.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: If somebody came to me, like if you hear I
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: win the lottery and then you want to be my friend,
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: catch me later, right, that's sometimes how people run political
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: campaign So we are not stupid. We know when people
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: are being some timing. We know when people are playing
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: in our face and coming and just get a vote.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying that's what the Vice president did. I
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: do not actually think that's what Vice President Harris did
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: at all. I think she has probably been one of
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: the most consistent folks who have showed up in our community.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: But like you should be in communities now knocking on
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: people's doors saying what did what did we not?
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: What what do you want from me?
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: I agree, I am your serv I am your public official.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: I am your public servant. What do you want from me?
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: And then listen, don't do it as like a listen
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: to what them and then go sit and think about
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: how you can do something.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom did that and I thought that was dope.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: But he, you know, he went and spoke to the
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: counties that flipped red Trump, and I just thought that
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: was smart, Like, you just go listen to people because
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: if you literally, if Democrats had just been listening to
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: people the last four years, none of this stuff would
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: surprise them. The way people felt about the border wouldn't
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: have surprised them, the way people felt about the economy
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: wouldn't surprive them. None of this stuff would a surprise them.
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: I agree, I agree, and I think, like I always say,
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: I was allowed to have hope and believe that the
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: vice president can win, like I'm allowed to dream of
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: something better than what we currently have, but we also
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: have to live in reality and people. You know, I'm
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: one of those people where I do think racism and
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: sexism played a huge role in this selection cycle, particularly
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: when she became the nominee. But I also think, like
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: some people really are struggling in this country and really
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: are just looking for.
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: An alternative and a lot of people.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: And I used to be one of those people who
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: never talk to Republicans like it was a part of
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: my like hi, I'm Ashley or you a Republican because
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: I will walk away? And once Donald Trump when I
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: was like, I gotta change this. How do I call
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: myself a political strategist? And I don't even know what
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: my opponent is doing? Like if you play sports, you
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: study tape, you watch them, you go watch them play,
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: you scout them out.
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: So I'm not gonna have an interaction with you.
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna be you are so much my enemy that
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: I can't even have a conversation. And then I started
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: having a conversation. I was like, oh, we actually agree
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: on some things. Let me see if I can actually
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: talk to you about why you're voting.
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: And I don't think we do that.
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: I'm not just saying Democrats Republicans don't do it either.
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: We are at a place in our lives where if
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: you say something that I disagree with, we just walk away.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: We don't know how to have conversations. We don't know
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: how to engage with somebody, We don't know how to
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: talk to one another. We don't know how to you know, coexist,
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: and that's a real problem.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: I agree with that, and I actually believe Republicans did
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: study Democrats and they realized how cowards Democrats are, and
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: they realized that there's a lot they realized they can
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: just run over them, and they realized they wouldn't do
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: anything about it. And I think that's where that's Democrats
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: have not learned how to treat Republicans the way Republicans,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: you know, treat them because when you look at it
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: just on the surface, sometimes it looks like Republicans and
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say good guy, bad guy, because
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: it's just politics, but sometimes it looks like Republicans are
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the ones that are doing the right thing and Democrats
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: are the ones that are, you know, fighting for the
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: wrong things. Give me an example, Oh man, I'll give
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: you an example. The example to me is is the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: border issue, right, because I remember, you know, back in January,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: just having conversations with who I believe became the new
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: hypothetical swingboater, right, which was just us black people and
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: brown people, and there was black people in Chicago, activists
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: in Chicago telling me about the issues that were going
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: on into the border. They they weren't anti immigrant, they
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: were more pro resources. Like they felt like, Yo, these
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: people are getting way more resources than us. Then you
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: had people here in New York telling me about crime
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: that was going on in their communities. These were white people,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: these were black people, spanning people telling me about MS
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: thirteen and everybody running, you know, ramp it through their neighborhoods.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: And so when I would come on the air and
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: just have those conversations on that day when Mayor Adams
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: shut the school down to let the migrants stand for
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the day, and everybody was calling in mad as hell.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: So when I would get on the radio and have
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: these conversations and just tell people what black and brown
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: people were saying about the border, MSNBC ran the headline
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: charlamage and God is spreading maga messaging. I'm like, how
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the hell is this maga messaging and it's coming from
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: our community.
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think everything has to be put in contact.
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: I agree.
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: I think that there are things that happened in this
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: selection cycle that we missed. And I'm never going to say,
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: like on the borders, I don't really see how the
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: Republicans are doing the right thing because they.
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: Also like they're just speaking with feeling. Yes, they are democratic, like,
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: it's not a problem.
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: They are hitting the emotion that people are feeling, and
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: fear and anger can be the best activator for people,
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: and that was tapped into this election cycle in various
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: different ways.
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: I do think Republicans study people.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: I don't know if they study Republicans, but they studied
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: the potential or Democrats, but they studied their voters and
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: they were like, there is some there's an emotional reaction
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: once you get triggered, you know how hard want you
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: just trigger to come back down. And they seized on
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: it and they captivated. And one of my friends, he
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: always says, Democrats are making a documentary and Republicans are
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: making a blockbuster movie because we're like fact facs fax
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: facts and they're like, I can't put food on my table,
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: and if like, if I can't put foot on my table,
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: I don't care about your facts because it's not equating.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: And we did.
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: We missed the mark on it.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: And sometimes just being seen is enough.
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: It's right, we know that. Just listen to me.
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: That's it, sne just see me, just like, sit down,
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: have a conversation with me.
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: That is so validating.
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: But I do want I want to be to be
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: more than a conversation. I want you to hear, I
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: want you to listen. Then I want you to take
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: some action if you've been put in office to do so.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: Now you work for the Harris.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: Campaign, No, no, no, I worked for Biden Harris Biden Harris
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: can yeah, yeah, not this go around there?
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: Do you think that Harris should run again?
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: I think that black woman should do whatever she want
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: to do.
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: And if she never wants to give one more day
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: of public service to this country, she has already done enough.
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: And I think she should be given the time to
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: think about what she wants to do, and the time
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: to dream about what she wants to do, and then
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: the time to actually do it.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: You talked about sexism and racism. Do you think this
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: world and this country's ready for that, because we've seen
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: what happened here?
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: Well, if they were, we've already have a female president
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: facts I mean.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And the reason I say that is because we can
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: do after factor things like the electoral college. In two
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: thousand and sixty, there's no electoral college. Hillary Clinton is
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: the President of the United States America. And we also
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: have the fact that white president Kamalahara did get the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: second most votes of any Democratic nominee aver seventy two
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: million votes. That's that's a big deal, you know, and
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: going up against a superstar like Donald Trump, that's a
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: big deal. I think that America is more than ready.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I really do.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: Well you are, I mean I said what I said.
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: If they was ready, we would we would have maybe
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: even had a Republican female president. We just haven't.
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: I think that there are still so many biases, conscious
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: and unconscious biases that we don't even know exists in
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: this country. And until we have some real tough conversations,
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: I think we're going to be stuck.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: Can Trump go for a third term? And how could
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: he make that happen?
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: No?
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: And he is? He is turned out. I'm going to everything.
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: Everything has context. There is the twenty second Amendment of
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: the Constitution. There's currently a piece of legislation that has
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: been introduced that would allow any president to run for
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: a third term. Now, you said, how do we make
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: sure these things don't become law?
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: Well, you know that was like for New York with Bloomberg.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Bloomberg was only supposed to run, right, Yes, he ran
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: like fault, Yes, yes, chase it up.
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: So you can.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: Nobody said nothing.
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: You can.
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: You can amend the constitution, and it is extremely hard
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: to amend the constitution of.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: That what you need true now, when you got that
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: political white supremacist will.
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: Right, So when you talk about how do you make
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: sure these things don't become law, that's what I'm like
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: you that should never even see the light of day now.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: Truth be told, if Trump can run for a third term,
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: so can Obama, so can Clinton, so can all the
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: other presidents that are alive that they will. But currently
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: now in the constitution their Trump could not run for.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: But the problem, the problem with that is they're not
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: going to use that power when they get it. That's
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: what pisces me off about Democrats. That's why I stink
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: on democrats neck they're not going to use the power
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: even if they get it. They want to do everything
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: they want, all these political norms when things have not
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: been politically normal since twenty sixteen.
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: I agree, I agree, we are in a new normal
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: and we have to recalibrate to that new normal, like
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: we are not operating. That's why, when you know, my
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: famous line is when they go low.
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: I'm at energy, like that's that's my thing, Like I don't,
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: I don't stay high?
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Are you mad? Michelle hasn't said anything yet. Because the
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: reason I say that is Michelle kind of said the
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: tone right when she said when they go low, we
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: go high. But then she decided to not even go
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: at all. Not.
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: I think she sometimes actually speak louder than words, that's true.
• 36:40
  Speaker 6: Felt like Obama shouldn't should have shot out of the inauguration,
• 36:43
  Speaker 6: or at least not have been cracking jokes behind.
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: I was like, what is happening? I understand why he went.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: I know you don't, but I.
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: Will say I don't think I would have been there
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: about I mean, but that's why I'll probably never run
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: for office, because I match energy.
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, Like, that's not how I rock.
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: So I understand why Democrats felt like it was important
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: to go. Here's what I will say. I think that
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: because they went, you can't just then disappear. You have
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: to provide context to people who you were ringing the
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: five alarm fire to about why you went. Because I
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: think you know, you know, you have a massive platform, right,
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: and so you do stay on democrats.
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: I think you also stay on Republicans.
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: And I think though sometimes people you know how social
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: media works, people take a clip and flip it and
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: put it out there commercials. Yeah, right, And so you
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: always just want to make sure people can't use your
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: words against you, people can't use your actions against you,
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: particularly when you're the first like a President Obama. So
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: I think that you probably will hear more from him
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: about why he felt it was we're in for him
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: to show up and be the bigger person. But I
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: think you also didn't have to still hold Trump accountable,
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: like I would not be up there, keykey and with
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump, though.
• 38:11
  Speaker 6: Even if I was just sitting there, I.
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: Got questions.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Sorry, I think you can con see the election, but
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't concede the constitution. And when when you call somebody,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: when you liken somebody the hitler, when you call somebody
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: a fascists, when you stay there and threat to democracy,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: you just simply got to act like it. Trump acted
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: like it. When Trump said the election was stolen, I'm
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: no peaceful transfer power. I'm not going to the inauguration
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: still stolen. That's right, that's right. So it's just like
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It just makes I always say Republicans
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: are more sinsarre about their lives and Democrats are about
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: their truth. When Republicans lie, sounds like they're telling the truth.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: When Democrats are staying in the truth or even trying
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: to stand on integrity, it just looks like they follishit.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: That is my first Yeah, I.
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: Mean, we are in a new normal, and I guess
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: my question I always have is like do we want
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: to go.
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: Back to what we used to have?
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I think it's over.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: It's over. Yeah, I think it is too.
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: But I wonder if when Donald Trump, if and when
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump goes away, what that means, because I do
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: think a lot of this is.
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: Wrapped around him.
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: And to your point like will there ever be another Obama?
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: Part of the challenges I think that like, if you
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: try and replicate Trump, you can't because you're not Trump.
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: If you're trying to replicate Obama, you can't because you're
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: not Obama. So who is gonna start? Who's gonna step
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: up on both sides? Right?
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: If he can't run again, who's gonna be in the field?
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: Is it jd Vance or somebody else? Jd Vance is
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: not gonna be able to hold hold it like Trump.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: But if Trump changes all this legislation, if you like
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: you're ready to feel a buster, it's gonna be. It's
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: gonna come a time. I remember I said the Constitution
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: is gonna be worse as much as this this paper
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: holes in my hand. I see all of that happening.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: So when he does that, it don't matter.
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: Who's I think it could happen.
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: I think we have to figure out how to act
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: people so it doesn't happen. The only thing that will
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: stop this is the will of the people. And I
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: think people are misreading Donald Trump's election is that people
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: don't want a democracy because he won. No, I don't
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: think that's what people are saying. People are saying I
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: had to prioritize issues and democracy wasn't the first one
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: on my issue on my list, right, So we cannot
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: let them forget that. We cannot let this new normal
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: just become. It still has to feel like we're in
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: a different age. Everything still needs to feel disoriented, agitate, like.
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: We can't just be like, oh, yeah, like that's Donald Trump. No,
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: we can never allow that to happen. That's why whenever
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: I'm on television I'm not just going to sit back
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: and just let a lie be told to him and
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: just not check it. We can't and all of us
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: have to. I can't do it by myself. You can't
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: do it by yourself.
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: We have to keep telling the truth. We have to
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: tell the whole story.
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: We have to have some tough conversations, but I can
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: we cannot allow. The Constitution can have power as long
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: as the people demand it have power.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: You said something else that made me think too, because
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, people can't do Trump, but people can't
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: do Obama either, And I think that's the problem with
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the Democrats. I look at you exactly. I look at
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama like Steph Curt meaning that he changed the game.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: But Steph changed the way people actually play. And everybody
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: thinks they can play like that, but they cannot play
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: like that. And I think you got a bunch of
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Democrats who have been trying to do Obama and it
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: does not work.
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: I agree. I think you have this in a lot
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: of industries.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: People people try and emulate something that they are not,
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: and instead of finding out who they really are, and
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: the thing about it is finding out who you really are.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: Is a lot of work.
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: It's a lot of work because you got to look
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: at the good, bad, and the ugly right and you
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: got to do the work to heal and be able
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: to say, like, what have I done wrong?
• 41:55
  Speaker 5: How can I grow? How can I You got to
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: like evaluate all all the traumas.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: In your life so you can ascend to a higher level.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: That is not easy work. That is scary work for
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: a lot of people. But I think if more people
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: did it, we would have a lot more options out
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: there for leaders in general, political leaders in this world
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: right now, and people who are sitting on the sideline
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: that probably have the potential to change the trajectory of
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: this country and they don't even know it yet.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Is it tough working in news media right now with
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Trump in office? Because I'm I mean, I don't know,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: but I feel like there might be mandates coming down
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: and people saying, hey, man, watch what you say here,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: watch what you say that? Because you see ABC settled,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: CBS is talking about settling this guy is he's a
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: too hungry guy. Does any fear about that?
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: I've never you know, I've been at seeing it now
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: almost four years. I've never been told what to say,
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: what not to say, I think we've only been in
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: Donald Trump's America for eight years or eight days, and.
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: It feels like years. Yeah.
• 42:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's not about people telling you what to say.
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: It is about the fear of being sued, the fear
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: of the hate mail, the fear of the attacks.
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: Like the Internet is like awful. People are mean, you know.
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: But again, if you don't know who you are, then
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: you listen it and let you rock you No, So yeah,
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: I think that, you know. I actually have at the
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: beginning of the year, did a lot of prayer meditation
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: about like how can you show up and stand on
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: truth and.
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: Not become afraid, not become a shrinking violet.
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: Like the seat I have I hold with great honor
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: and privilege. I don't own the seat, but I and
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: I'm sitting in it right now, and I feel like
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: I have a responsibility to people to speak the truth.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: And so the moment I used to say this when
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: I worked at the White House, the moment I walk
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: through those doors and I don't feel like it's an
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: honor and privilege to serve this country, I need to
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: stop coming.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Through those doors.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: And the day I go to CNN or sit here
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: or anything, and I can't tell the truth. I need
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: to stop going because I need to pass the tors
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: to somebody who can. Because I can't, it doesn't mean
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: I failed, It doesn't mean I just it's not my
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: time any time.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: What stories do you want to tell? What Wateringhole media?
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: Oh? Yeah, you know.
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: I just started in two thousand and nine during Obama
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: because I saw this wave of social media. I want
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: to tell the story I want to give people in
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: democracized democratized microphones. You know, there are a lot of
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: creators out there who do amazing things.
• 44:31
  Speaker 5: I start.
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: I re started Watering Hole after the infamous of Montgomery
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: Uprising with the folding chair, right, and I'll tell the story.
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: In twenty four hours.
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: I saw the trajectory of that story change in the morning.
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: I saw news media outlets starting to cover it with
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: a tint of vigilanteism and whatnot. And I saw black
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: Twitter activate, the creators activate, and we turned a moment
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: that could have been very dangerous for black people, and
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: I really sad outcome.
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: We brought joy to it, we bought.
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: A strong political analysis to it, and by the end
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: of that night, the story was being told. So I'm
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: saying how do I take how do I find those
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: talented people and give them a platform, give them money
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: to do that. That I think is how we make
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: sure some things like that don't become laws because we
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: tell we have good messengers, we have good storytellers. I
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: want to go at politics not through like, well, your
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: snap benefits and it's like no, let's talk about how
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: it really is impacting you and get you to be
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: more engaged.
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: So I think there's a lot of opportunity. I think
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: Republicans did it really really well.
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: Everyone's like, we need our own Joe Rogan and no,
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: we don't know, We actually don't. We need We need
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: to empower people who know how to connect with real
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: people and tell real stories and empower them just to
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: do it.
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: That's what we're doing there.
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: And Jo exists right right, don't try and coffee, don't
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: be a copycat, be be an original, Like just just
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: find out who you are and we got you.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: Please know, we got the Black Mothership. That's what we
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: call a breakast club, the Black Mothership. Come to the
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Black Mothership. Thank you for.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: Coming at Alice, Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: for joining us.
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: You appreciate you want to check on CNN.
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: What ten pm?
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: So hard every time you go on the panel.
• 46:23
  Speaker 5: Who's on tonight? Okay, go hand for tomorrow?
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah, this is tomorrow. This is tomorrow.
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: I don't know. It'll be some Republican. I'm sure Emmy.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Down all right, Well, there you have it. It's the
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club. It's Ashley Allison.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.