Latest / Jess Ask / Doug Jones on Alabama's Biggest Problems | EP162

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Doug Jones on Alabama's Biggest Problems | EP162 · Jess Ask

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Yo, it's your girl, Jessica and Smith, and you already
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  Speaker 2: For another day.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Hey, hey, I know we could be another way.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a new weeknd, just as the podcast, the
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• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Deserrate Hey, rate a rate de.
• 0:49
  Speaker 5: Rate deliar rate a rate rate jeff Ja, Oh my god.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: Yes, okay, First off.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, how are you doing, Jessica? Okay, So I'm
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: over here trying to be very politically right and I'm
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: super excited right good like, So I'm just gonna tell
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: y'all now, just bucket and seat belts. I know why
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: we said this before, taut you weeks down, put your
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: new rags on, your hats, your caps, whatever you need,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: because we're about to go on a journey today, you mean,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and a different journey. It's a different We've only had
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: like two other political figures here.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: They both won.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: By the way, I'm just I just want to put
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that out there. This is a this is a winning platform,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: so we only have winners on here. But no, I'm
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: really super excited as a ray because he already came
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: came in just yea governing and and stuff.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: So I think it's just in them. It's just you know,
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: it's just it's just only right. But how you feeling,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: tell the people how you feel. No, I'm good.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I've been excited for this day, for for this opportunity
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: just to I love. I love that we get to
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: capture and tell stories. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: And also what I love is most of the time
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: what most people think will happen is not really what's
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: gonna happen, right, because we are at the at the
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: core of who we are, we are spirit led, and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: so I'm just excited for this conversation. I'm really excited
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: to dive in to really get to know the Man
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: of God that we have here today.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: And so let's go. Let's go.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Listen you guys, you already see it in the title.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I'm super excited and honored to have hopefully you make
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: this happen.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: We got to make this happen all life.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and say I have next to
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: me our next governor of the state of Alabama, Senator
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Doug Joe. You know, I was trying to see if
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I was like trying to play the you know, bias,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: what do you call it?
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: Give a give a healthy.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Version of my ideas saying that. But I just want
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: to go ahead and say this's my next governor. I
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: appreciate it, Like I just want to go ahead and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: be bold.
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: We got to make it happen to say that. It
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: ain't gonna just open. We gotta work.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: We gotta work work on those words. How you feeling?
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: Does I feel good? You know, look, I really feel good.
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: If y'all folks out there, I hope everybody that's watching
• 3:22
  Speaker 6: this voted in on May nineteenth in the primary. There's
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: a couple of runoffs coming up this coming Tuesday. Yeah,
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: but I feel really good. I'm telling you the excitement
• 3:34
  Speaker 6: that we saw going into that primary, and then after
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: you saw the votes and the number of votes that
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: we got, you know, from my candidacy, plus the number
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: of people that just turned out there is an excitement
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: out there that I haven't seen in this state since
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: really since toward the end of my race in twenty
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  Speaker 6: seventeen when we won that Senate race. Yeah, it's really extraordinary.
• 3:54
  Speaker 6: So it's all it's it's I think people are ready
• 3:56
  Speaker 6: for a change.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: You right about that, okay, because we're seeking time of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: being sick and tired. But I'm glad you brought up
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the preliminary race because I think there was some confusion.
• 4:05
  Speaker 6: By the way, I love anybody that quotes Fanny lou Hammer, Okay,
• 4:08
  Speaker 6: I love anybody that.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: Quotes Okay, this is why we're friends.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: He's really trying to come to the cookout.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: We can go out there and barbecue if you want to.
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: I'm there.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: But no, like we really are, right, And so I
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: think there was some confusion with the numbers of the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: preliminary right. So even with my you know, I'm not
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I don't consider myself very political, right, So looking at
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: it versus your candid, the opponent, your opponent, it looked
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: like more Republicans came out to vote, and it's like, okay,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: we just look on those numbers, it looks like he wins.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And it felt like a defeat defeting moment.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: How are you able to pull so much positivity.
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: Out of there? Because we got to look at history. Okay, uh,
• 4:52
  Speaker 6: and the history has been and this is I mean
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: look in in primaries, remember that we are an open
• 4:59
  Speaker 6: primary state. We don't register by a political party where
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: you register ahead of time and you go vote in
• 5:04
  Speaker 6: that political primary. You walk up to the polling place
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: and they ask you which ballot you want, republic under Democrat,
• 5:12
  Speaker 6: and then you tell them and then they give that
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: ballot to you. So that's an open primary. And so now,
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: for a long time, I mean a long time, there
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  Speaker 6: have been more Republican ballots given out across the state
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  Speaker 6: and cast than Democratic ballots. But if you look at
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: the extraordinary increase in the number of Democratic ballots that
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: came out this time, I mean we literally Democrats literally
• 5:39
  Speaker 6: doubled the number of ballots that were cast from just
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: four years ago. Now, I want to put that into context.
• 5:48
  Speaker 6: There wasn't that many races in this state that were democratic.
• 5:52
  Speaker 6: But there were only four state wide races mine the
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: Lieutenant governor, the Senate race, and the PSC race. That's
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: only four. A few local races across the state in
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: various places, but unlike the republic and in those races,
• 6:08
  Speaker 6: there was not a lot of money spent. You didn't
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: see any Democrats on TV, maybe local cable or something
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: for a local race. I didn't put any money in television.
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: Nobody else put any money, had some radio, but not much.
• 6:23
  Speaker 6: And you contrast that and compare it with the Republican side, okay,
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: where you had a ton of contested races, more particularly
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: at the top of the ticket, between the Lieutenant governor,
• 6:36
  Speaker 6: the AG the Senate race, the PSC race, Secretary of State,
• 6:41
  Speaker 6: all of those races. Auditor was even contestant. Right, There
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: was probably twelve to fifteen million dollars spent on TV,
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: on digital, ads, on radio, on billboards, But yet the
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: number of Republican votes that were cast was down by
• 6:59
  Speaker 6: twenty five. That's a big number for Republicans when they
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: are that hotly contested, when no contest on the Democratic
• 7:09
  Speaker 6: side virtually and we double those. So folks have to
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: remember that that is not to be all to end,
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: all in from a primary, but it can foreshadow things
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  Speaker 6: to come. I'll give you, you know, a good example
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: in the primary in which I won the Senate race
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  Speaker 6: in twenty seventeen, there were a lot more Republicans that
• 7:31
  Speaker 6: turned out to vote in their primary than in my
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: race in my primary race in August of twenty seventeen,
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: but yet we won that race. And that's because the excitement. Remember,
• 7:41
  Speaker 6: part of the thing is for us is getting our
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: vote out in historic numbers and trying to go into
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: these counties and just narrow the gap. I'm not going
• 7:52
  Speaker 6: to win a lot of these rural counties, but the
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: goal is not necessarily to win it. It's to get
• 7:57
  Speaker 6: our vote out, to win big where we can, and
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: then narrow the gap.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: So let me ask you why, past why you're not
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: going to win the Royal Royal areas.
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: It's just that they're more conservative. Those areas are just
• 8:13
  Speaker 6: more conservative. They've also been very very conditioned to vote
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  Speaker 6: Republican at these at this time and so and we
• 8:19
  Speaker 6: have straight ticket voting in Alabama stile where you check
• 8:22
  Speaker 6: one box, and that that hurts us in the in
• 8:25
  Speaker 6: those areas. So we're not expecting to win a lot
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: of those rural areas, there is no question. But we're
• 8:31
  Speaker 6: going to do well in those areas. And we're going
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: because we're going to them, and we're going to be
• 8:35
  Speaker 6: talking to people. We're going to talk about why they're
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: losing their hospitals in these rural areas. We're going to
• 8:40
  Speaker 6: be talking about the farmers in those areas and why
• 8:42
  Speaker 6: they're losing markets and how much it's costing them today
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: with diesel fuel and fertilizer. And so our goal is to,
• 8:50
  Speaker 6: as I said, to narrow that gap, to win as
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: many as we can, so that when we get the
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: historic turnout, when we get the turnout that we need
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: in a Jeff for some county or another place, if
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: we've narrowed the gap in the other places, then we
• 9:04
  Speaker 6: win this race. Yes, And I think we can do that.
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: There are voters out there that have voted for Doug
• 9:10
  Speaker 6: Jones before that we're going to go after to try
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: to get back out to vote. So I was really encouraged.
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: And people that follow elections around the country and in
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: the state, they know that those numbers were so skewed
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: in favor of Democrats that we all have a path
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: of winning now that a lot of people had written
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: us off.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: And I think that I was listening to you and
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Chad when y'all did y'all's interview with him. He's not
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Wrong podcast, and he was just y'all. Y'all were speaking
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: on that on how the numbers like when you don't
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: understand the numbers, they can look that way. So I'm
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: so glad we started with that just to make it
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: clear like we have a great chance to push. We
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: just need everybody to go out there and do what
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: to do and vote absolute November.
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: And the other thing too, is that these numbers are
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: also reflective of the fact that come November, we're giving
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: people choices. This is going to be the first time
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: in twenty years, since two thousand and six, that there
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: is going to be a Democrat in every constitutional office
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  Speaker 6: on the ballot. We've not done that. There's been holes
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: in the ballot.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: Is it because of the quality of people available?
• 10:24
  Speaker 6: I think it was. I think eventually it became that.
• 10:28
  Speaker 6: Initially it was like, Wow, the states turned Republican and
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: I just don't I don't want to just run and lose,
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: and so folks just didn't run. And then as time
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: went on it became kind of a fada complete that
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: people didn't run and we lost the bench. But we
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: have got really seven six other candidates that in lieutenant governor,
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: Attorney General, Secretary of State, treasurer auditor, and the Agriculture commissioner.
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: That are excellent candidates, I mean, really good, strong candidates.
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: And we're going to be running a coordinated campaign. This
• 11:03
  Speaker 6: is not a Democratic ticket, by the way. This is
• 11:05
  Speaker 6: a ticket for change. That's what we're called this is.
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: This is a change ticket. And so we're going to
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: be running a coordinated campaign where all of these candidates
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: are going to be out there with each other some
• 11:17
  Speaker 6: but certainly speaking for each other wherever we go. And
• 11:20
  Speaker 6: that's a that's a big deal that just hadn't happened
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: in this state.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I love how you said that it's not a democratic
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: thing because I'm just gonna be Can I keep it
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: a book with you? So, I, like I said, I
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: don't believe I'm political, And what I mean by that
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: is like I haven't studied politics. Some things I still
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: don't know. Somethings I'm made well, but I understand that
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: if I don't vote like change will not be made right.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: I do understand the foundation of that.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: However, I love that you're saying that because I don't
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: necessarily identify as a Republican or a Democrat, or don't
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I don't understand all that.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: It gives me anxiety thinking about it. All right, I'm probably.
• 11:58
  Speaker 6: I think it gives a lot of people what.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I appreciate about you, because I've heard you multiple times
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: speak upon.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: Is it building the table? Uh? What's the what's the
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: crowded table? A crowded table? What does that mean? What
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: does that look like for the state of Alabama?
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: It is literally what it says, and I took that.
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: There's a there's a group called the High Women, incredibly talented,
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: four incredibly talented musical artists female that got together. Brandy
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: Carlisle's one of them, Amanda Shires and Nana him It's
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: they're just amazing. And they did a song called Crowded Table,
• 12:36
  Speaker 6: and the lyrics of that song are really the theme.
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: I want a house with a crowded table, where there's
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: a place by the fire for everyone. We'll take on
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: the world while we're young and able and come back
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: together when the day is done. But the door's always open.
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: Your pictures on my wall. We're all a little broken,
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: and here we all belong. The captures. The way we're
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: going to approach governing in the state of Alabama. A
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: house with a crowded table where there's a place for everyone.
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: Everyone has a voice, not just the rich and the powerful,
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: but everyone has a place and everyone has a voice.
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: And if you look at what's going on on the
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: other side with the other candidates, whether it's Tommy Tuberville
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: or whether it's the attorney general candidates or any of
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: the others on the other side, they are house divided.
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: They put one side against the other, winners versus losers.
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: And they divide us by race, they divide us by
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: religion and importantly, and this is something that I think
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: more and poor people are realizing. They divide us by
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: economic status. They don't care about poor people, they don't
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: care about those in the middle class. They are doing
• 13:55
  Speaker 6: things for their wealthiest donors and the wealthiest one or
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: two percent in this country and in the state. So
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: we and we don't want to exclude those folks, right, right,
• 14:05
  Speaker 6: but we just want them to have a seat at
• 14:07
  Speaker 6: the table next to somebody like me and you, right
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: and and we've all got that voice. So that's what
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: I mean by that. Yeah, I would encourage people to
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: find that song. It is just a beautiful song, but
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: the lyrics to it, or I think something that all
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: of America should latch onto. Right.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I just I like how fluent and consistent that
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: your messaging is.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: Like everything I hear from you so far.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Even when I was doing my research to prepare for
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: this moment, it was all it's all of us. It's
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: not a division, it's this. But Alabama has been divided, divided.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: One of the biggest things people know about Alabama as
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a brand is racism. Right, you grew up in the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Jimpro era, right? Are you from Fairfield? Right from the Westside?
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Me too?
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: I saw you went to u A too, So.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I can only I can only ask this question because
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of the experience that we've had so far in Alabama,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: and there's a big concern with racial concern regarding like
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: redlining and and different opportunities like economically this ice stuff
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: going around like it's the minority community.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: The minority communities are.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Are frustrated and they feel like they're not heard, which
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I also think that impacts them.
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: Voting or not voting.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: How have what have you been able to do or
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: construct while you've been in your political journ, on your
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: political journey to come back those things that we fear
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: as minority well.
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: First of all, you got to stand up and speak out.
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: You got to do a little My buddy, the late
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: John Lewis said, you got to just stand up and
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: cost a little good trouble. Yeah, when folks don't expect it,
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: and they've never often expected someone that looks like me
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: coming from the Deep South to cause that kind of
• 16:02
  Speaker 6: good trouble. So, first of all, I remind of folks
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: a little bit. I mean when I was the United
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: States Attorney. I mean I did grow up in the
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: Jim Crow era, and I was nine years old when
• 16:17
  Speaker 6: two three klansmen bombed Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killed four girls,
• 16:22
  Speaker 6: wounded another. It was twenty four It was just thirteen
• 16:26
  Speaker 6: years later. I sat in a courtroom as a law
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: student and watched somebody Bill Baxley, one of my heroes,
• 16:32
  Speaker 6: prosecute Dynamite Bob Chambliss for the murder of Denise McNair
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: in that bombing. And that I saw the reaction of
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: the community. I saw good lawyering. I saw so much
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: that affected me as a law student. Twenty four years later,
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: I am the United States Attorney for the Northern District
• 16:50
  Speaker 6: of Alabama. And for your listeners, that is The Northern
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: District of Alabama is the northern thirty one counties in
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: the state. It's really more than about half the population,
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: even though we've got three districts. And so we brought
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: that case back and convicted those clansmen or two of
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: them for the murder of those four children. It happened
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: thirty seven and thirty eight years earlier, but it was
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: the right thing to do. There had been no justice
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: for so long, and we felt like it was important
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: for the community, it was important for Alabama. I didn't
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: have to do that, okay, I mean to use the resources,
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: and by the way, I had buy in from the
• 17:33
  Speaker 6: Department of Justice, and Janet Reno had buy in from
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: the FBI, which you would not get today with this group.
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: But they were fully supportive of trying to do that.
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: But it was one of those things that we felt
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: like we needed to do, had to do. But I
• 17:49
  Speaker 6: didn't have to do it in the sense that I
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: could have easily just turned that page. But when there
• 17:56
  Speaker 6: is an injustice that for so long had gone unmatched,
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: I just felt pretty strong that for the community, we
• 18:05
  Speaker 6: needed to give it our best shot in try and
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: we were fortunate that we were able to do it.
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: I used that sum obviously when I ran for the Senate,
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: people remembered that they knew I didn't have to do it.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: So the black community in particular was incredibly supportive historic
• 18:22
  Speaker 6: black turnout in that twenty seventeen race. But I didn't
• 18:28
  Speaker 6: stop there. When I got to the Senate. Here you've
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: got I was the sole white senator Democrat from the
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: Deep South, the Old Confederacy except for the two from
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: senators from Virginia, Kim Caine and Mark Warner, good friends
• 18:44
  Speaker 6: that I worked with a lot. But from there we
• 18:48
  Speaker 6: were able to do things using that voice that I
• 18:52
  Speaker 6: had in the Senate to be the voice that folks
• 18:56
  Speaker 6: in the black community and others in the state had
• 18:59
  Speaker 6: not had in a long time. So we did a
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: few things. For instance, I worked with Senator Alexander from Tennessee,
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: a good friend Republican, and together we were able to
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: get increased funding for HBCUs. Y'all may not know this, folks,
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: but Alabama's got more hbcused than any state in the country.
• 19:18
  Speaker 6: Alabama has got more hbcused in each state in the country.
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: So we worked hard and it was the first increase
• 19:25
  Speaker 6: in funding that HBCUs it had in fifteen years. We
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: got permanent funding. We did things from maternal health, we
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: did things for infant mortality, which affects the black community harder.
• 19:37
  Speaker 6: When I first got to the Senate, I went through
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: the Black Belt and some of the counties down there,
• 19:42
  Speaker 6: and I could not believe what I was seeing with
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: regard to the sewer sanitation and problems that folks were
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: having straight piping, you know, sewage into the woods, septic
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: tanks that were bubbling up in children playing all around.
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: So Terry Sewell and I work to get a lot
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: of money, millions of dollars to start working in that area.
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: Because the state of Alabama had has had in money
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: in the past, but they didn't care about those areas.
• 20:12
  Speaker 6: Those money. That money was all going to Huntsville, in
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: Birmingham and Mobile in different places. So we started moving
• 20:20
  Speaker 6: money specifically into those areas. And so I developed that
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: reputation and was, by the way, a co sponsor of
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: the First Step Act, which was Criminal Justice reform, co
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: sponsor of the George Floyd Act. And I'm going to
• 20:36
  Speaker 6: tell you I was in the middle of a very
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: difficult reelect in twenty twenty when George Floyd was murdered,
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: and you know, folks were at National people were saying, Doug,
• 20:49
  Speaker 6: it's okay if you don't want to step out on
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: this issue. You're in a tough re elect in Alabama.
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: We know Alabama's history, but that wasn't the right thing
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: to do. So I'm here. You've got a US Senator
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: from Alabama going on the Floyda United States Senate and
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: talking about black lives matter, and we've got to do something.
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: So it has been that voice. I'm not always been
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: able to be successful. You can't do that always in
• 21:14
  Speaker 6: the United States Senate, but we had an incredible amount
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: of success for being a freshman senator. But more importantly,
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: people had a voice. And that's exactly what I'm going
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: to do as governor. These communities are going to have
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: voices now that can help steer some of these dollars
• 21:31
  Speaker 6: into these communities that are otherwise going to communities that
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: are already have a lot of money and doing some things.
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: So I'm extremely proud of the record, but it just
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: shows that I think it demonstrates that I'm not just
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: giving a campaign slogan about this crowded table. I've got
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: a history of building that crowded table and putting everybody
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: at that table. So that's what we're going to do
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: as governor.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, and I'm so glad that we went
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: through that, and you're so like, you're so comfortable with
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: just talking about it, and I think people need to
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: hear that because the concern is we're not cared about
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: care for once you get in office, are you really
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: going to do this?
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: And you need evidence that you're going to.
• 22:15
  Speaker 6: Do exactly And folks forget to two things. Number One,
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: I had the first black chief of staff that any
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: Democrat in the United States Senate had ever had. Think
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: about all the Democrats that had been through, all the
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: great Democrats, Ted Kennedy and all these these liberals and
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: all like this, it took a Democrat from the South
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: to have the first black chief of staff from Birmingham,
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: Dant Aggression. And I was very proud of that. Still am.
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: We had a very diverse staff. Our staff looked like
• 22:48
  Speaker 6: Alabama and that was important. The other thing that I'm
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: extremely proud of, I mean, look the Senate, the church
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: bombing cases. And the third thing that I'm probably the
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: proudest of in my life that I've been so blessed
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: with is that in January of twenty twenty two, I
• 23:06
  Speaker 6: get a call from the White House and the call was, look,
• 23:11
  Speaker 6: Justice Bryer has retired from the Supreme Court. And you know,
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: President Biden, who I'd known for forty plus years almost
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: fifty now, is going to nominate a black woman to
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: be the first black woman on the US Supreme Court,
• 23:26
  Speaker 6: and he wants you to come help. And so I
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: took a leave of absence with my law firm. I
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: went to the White House for a couple of months
• 23:35
  Speaker 6: to help Shepherd, help the President select, and then Shepherd
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: through the confirmation and got confirmation of the first Black
• 23:44
  Speaker 6: justice on the Supreme Court, Katanji Brown Jackson. I'm still
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: close to this day, and I'm telling you that was
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: one of the most consequential things I think I've ever done,
• 23:54
  Speaker 6: because she is going to be there for a long
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: time and she is a force of nature. Yeah, and
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: we'll have a dramatic impact on that court for years
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: to come. So you know, again being there being there
• 24:08
  Speaker 6: to help with a voice, yeah, and now the voice
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: is incredibly strong. Yeah.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I think it's important people to know that though, Like
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: because if you're doing it behind the scenes, you would.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I believe that you have more tenacity and more push
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to do it as as governor, and so I want to,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: uh shift our I'm gonna say shift our conversation, but
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: I want to invite people into our conversation right now
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: because I was on my TikTok but.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: You just joined not too long. I'm so proud of you.
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: Doug got a TikTok.
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: I don't. I don't. I don't do the dancing thing.
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: But we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about this.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: We're gonna talk about it. Okay, I'm.
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: The Dougie.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, Doug, We're going to win. And when we win,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: that song has to be played. And that song can't
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: be played and you not know or do the Douggie
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: that is that that's got desil rate?
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: Do you agree?
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: I hope?
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: I mean we can't win, dum.
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: We did play at the night we won on twenty seventeen.
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: It did get.
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: Played, okay, yeah, and well I wasn't there.
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: It was played and there was confetti coming down.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: And it was but did you at least do your
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: show like this?
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: I was holding I was holding on I was holding
• 25:26
  Speaker 6: my granddaughter.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: No, no, we're gonna talk all cameraon because I'm added
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: that about this.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: We're going to day. Okay, okay.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: So I did ask my TikTok Facebook, Instagram friends if
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: they had any questions for you.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: Someone sprinkled some questions, and during our conversation, I.
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: Think this is wh you're doing that.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: This is a good one. Okay, let's start with education.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Let's start with education. So this is from Tiffany Wilcox.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: She's beautiful, meat, beautiful, underscore me on Instagram. She said
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: many educators felt disrespected by comments made by your opponent
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: who questioned whether teachers could even read and write in
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: inner city schools in Birmingham. As someone seeking to represent Alabamas,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: what specific policies would you support to recruit, retain, and
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: respect teachers while improving outcomes for students. I know I
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: don't live in Alabama anymore, but I grew up in
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the inner city and taught and taught in the inner city.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: The kids are smart and the teachers are amazing with
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: multiple degrees.
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: Well, and let me tell you that, I'm so glad.
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: Tiviny asked that question because it was stunning to me
• 26:36
  Speaker 6: to hear that, And let's just be very honest when
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: he says inner city, he's talking about black teachers.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: I'm glad you're saying that. There's no question, no question
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: about it.
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: You know, Look, this is just the old dog whistle
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: type politics. He may as well take that whistle off
• 26:55
  Speaker 6: because it's getting pretty blatant these days. But that's exactly
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: what he's talking about. It's not the last time he
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: talked about inner city youth and others in a disparaging way.
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: So I was appalled at that too. And I know better.
• 27:10
  Speaker 6: Anybody that has taught to any teacher knows better. But
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: the bigger question is about education, and I think it's
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: an issue Alabama has got to improve. We have made
• 27:21
  Speaker 6: some improvements across the state, particularly in I think it
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: is either third or fourth grade reading that has done better.
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: We have got a good program for pre K kids,
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: but it's STEM and its math and things like that
• 27:38
  Speaker 6: that I think are struggling. I want to do a
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: couple of things. Number one, I want to try to
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: try to figure out how to money. I really believe
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: part of this issue is teacher salaries. They have gotten
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: some increases under Governor Ivy, but they've not gotten enough.
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: We need at least maybe a ten percent increase across
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: the board. Know if sir Ann's or this or that,
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: just give teachers what they're due and respect. And that
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: includes making sure teacher retirement is kept up to inflationary standards.
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: I mean retire. You know, at one point the teacher
• 28:19
  Speaker 6: retirement was one of the big draws. And when that
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: started to struggle and teacher retire teachers weren't getting increases
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: to match inflation, well there's no question you're going to
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: start losing teachers. Okay, that retirement is not as good
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: for them. Same with health care. This year, the legislature
• 28:45
  Speaker 6: did not fully fund the request from the Teachers Retirement
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: Association to fund their health care that they get the
• 28:53
  Speaker 6: benefit they get as part of their retirement, and so
• 28:55
  Speaker 6: they had to go into a trust fund to pull
• 28:57
  Speaker 6: that out. I want to make sure that our teachers
• 29:01
  Speaker 6: and our retire teachers get what they deserve. It's kind
• 29:04
  Speaker 6: of like veterans to me. They give a lot, and
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: they're gonna they're likely always going to be somewhat underpaid,
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: and we need to make sure that we give them
• 29:12
  Speaker 6: them all they can't. So we're gonna find that money.
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: We may do it through a lottery if we can
• 29:17
  Speaker 6: get the lottery in Alabama, which is what I'm going
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: to really push. We may find it some other ways.
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: That's one way. The other thing that's troubling me a
• 29:25
  Speaker 6: lot is what's known as the Choose Act. The Choose
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: Act is a voucher program that allows money to be
• 29:32
  Speaker 6: given to private schools. Those teachers are not public school teachers.
• 29:36
  Speaker 6: They are good teachers. I don't question that, and I
• 29:39
  Speaker 6: have nothing against private schools in general. Now, I had
• 29:44
  Speaker 6: some problems with private schools that popped up all over
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: the state just so that the white kids didn't have
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: to go to school with mylite kids. Yeah, the segregation
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: academies had problems with those. You do well, donay, But
• 29:57
  Speaker 6: right now there are there's an income cap and look,
• 30:03
  Speaker 6: I know, instinctively, I think we all want to have
• 30:07
  Speaker 6: some choices with their kids and whatever. And I don't
• 30:10
  Speaker 6: have theoretically a problem with that. But people can afford
• 30:16
  Speaker 6: to send their kids to private schools. Yeah, they don't
• 30:18
  Speaker 6: need a government handout to them, Okay, And right now
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: there's an income limit that if you make us above
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: a certain amount, then you're not eligible for these vouchers. Well,
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: state's doing away with that. They're phasing it out so
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: that anybody it doesn't matter how much you make. Somebody
• 30:36
  Speaker 6: could be making a half a million dollars a year
• 30:39
  Speaker 6: to send and want to send one kid to a
• 30:41
  Speaker 6: private school, and they're going to get a government handout. Now,
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: tell me, well, that is fair, and it is not
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: fair to the local schools, to the local teachers who
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: are struggling every day.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: But isn't this government handout that the main thing that
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: they complain about to do like with things like medicaid
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: or medicaid knowledge of course.
• 31:01
  Speaker 6: And we'll talk about that in a minute, because it's
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: really not a handout I mean at all for those folks.
• 31:06
  Speaker 6: But but it truly would be a handout if you're
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: making a half a million dollars and you can afford
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: to send your kid to or or most you know,
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: two kids, three kids whatever, to both private schools and college.
• 31:19
  Speaker 6: So we've got to stop because I am very worried
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: that that is going to really destroy public education and
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: local schools in Alabama. And so those are those are
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: a couple of things, but it's going to be a priority.
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: We've got to make sure that when we do textbooks
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: that those textbooks are not politically designed, that they're that
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: they teach reading and writing and arithmetic, and they teach
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: history according to facts, uh and not some made up
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: crap like we're seeing coming out of Washington DC. Those
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: are a few of the things with education. It's it's
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: it's going to be, and we do the funding is
• 32:00
  Speaker 6: kind of create. It's unequal across the state. The rich
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: get richer and the poor seem to not be able
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: to excel. But there are also some good programs in
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: some counties that you wouldn't expect that are doing very
• 32:14
  Speaker 6: very well, and they're using some of their funds not
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: just with teachers, but to give teachers extra help, you know, teachers,
• 32:22
  Speaker 6: aids and tutors that are in uh these schools to
• 32:26
  Speaker 6: help boast of the scores. And I think we could
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: do that and have a lot of success.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you brought up the lottery in your statement,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and so Tarati Smith from TikTok also was wondering with
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: so many Alabama, Alabamaans driving to nearby state spending money
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: on their lotteries, what will your strategy to be to
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: address bringing the lottery to Alabama. So how how I
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: guess I'm ignorant to the idea of how hard it
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: is being and why it has been so difficult because
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: we're one of five that don't have it.
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: Well, we're one of no, yeah, one of five states nationally,
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: we're the only state in the Southeast that doesn't have
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: a lottery. We stick out kind of a sore thumb.
• 33:06
  Speaker 6: That's why people drive to Florida, to Georgia, to Tennessee,
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: to Mississippi to get lottery tickets. And that is hunt
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: literally hundreds of millions of dollars that are leaving the
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: state and not coming back. Our money, our heart earned money,
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: going to other states and it ain't coming home. So
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: we got to change that, and we need to get
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: some of this. It could help with education, it might
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: help with health care or other things. But it's difficult
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: because you do have to change the state constitution, which
• 33:34
  Speaker 6: means the legislature has got to pass legislation in order
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: to let people vote, and then you vote on it,
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: and the people of Alabama have to pass it. I
• 33:45
  Speaker 6: believe there's two main reasons why we haven't passed a
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: lottery at all. And I won't go back to the
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: one that Governor segum And tried twenty five years or
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: so ago. A lot of reasons that that was defeated
• 34:01
  Speaker 6: at the polls, But I think since that time two things.
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: Number One, you haven't had a governor or any other
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: statewide office holder that has promoted a lottery You just
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: haven't had some a champion for that lottery bill. You've
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: had legislators that promoted it, but you hadn't had a
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: governor who goes around the state with the bully pulpit
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: of the Governor's office, or a lieutenant governor or anybody.
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: And that makes a difference when it comes to the
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: legislature because that governor will have been elected by the
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: popular vote. So that legislature that's ultimately got to do
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: it is looking and say, well, wait a minute, that
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: was something this governor ran on. We need to do
• 34:45
  Speaker 6: something and get outside our little jerrymanderd comfort zone and
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: do something. So I think that's number one. The other
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: thing is that a number of lottery bills have been proposed,
• 34:57
  Speaker 6: but they end up getting proposed as a is a
• 35:00
  Speaker 6: more comprehensive gambling package, whether it's sports betting, other betting,
• 35:06
  Speaker 6: bingo in certain counties, dog tracks in certain counties, and everybody.
• 35:10
  Speaker 6: Once you start doing that, then you get a lot
• 35:13
  Speaker 6: of people that all want a piece of the pie. Now,
• 35:16
  Speaker 6: I am not opposed to a comprehensive gambling package if
• 35:20
  Speaker 6: you can do it. But what's happened is that as
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: soon as somebody says, look, i'll help you, but I
• 35:27
  Speaker 6: need this and that, well, they say fine, they put
• 35:30
  Speaker 6: that in the bill, and then all of a sudden,
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: now you've got somebody who was supporting it saying I
• 35:34
  Speaker 6: can't support that anymore, and so so many people get
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: involved that it defeats the bill. It just gets too unwieldy,
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: too much. It defeats it. Like I said, I am
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: not opposed to a comprehensive gambling package if they can
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: get it done. But if they can't, we need to
• 35:52
  Speaker 6: do a standalone lottery bill. Straight up between now and
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: the legislative session next year, we're gonna be talking to people.
• 36:02
  Speaker 6: We're gonna be doing some polling, We're going to be
• 36:04
  Speaker 6: doing some focus groups. How do you want to see
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: the money spent Alabama? And because you want to earmark
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: that money, right, you don't.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Want to don't want the lottery, and it's not bringing
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: funds to like the education that True brought up to
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: or what other other avenues that we can help.
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: We don't want to just give it to the legislature
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: and say here, here's some extra money. Do with it
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: what you want. Yeah, okay, we want to ear market
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: for something that the people want and that they need.
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: So we'll figure this out between now and the time
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: the bill gets introduced. But I think being that champion
• 36:35
  Speaker 6: will help. I think there's a couple of things like
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: the lottery, like Medicaid expansion, where you haven't had that
• 36:41
  Speaker 6: statewide office holder that was a champion that once you
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: get that, people are going to start coming and they're
• 36:47
  Speaker 6: gonna listen, and we're gonna get I predict that we
• 36:49
  Speaker 6: will have it within the first year of my administration.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: I just love how you keep referring to yourself as
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: a chah It is just Curry lends that's a cocky
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: I love it, But no, you are. You are definitely
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: a champion. Listen.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm really excited about this next question because I
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: really feel like you're going to have an answer for it.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: So I can't recall.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: The the documentary that came out last year.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Regardless of how you knew I was going there, Doug,
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: it's just because we best friends.
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: All is like that, Yeah.
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: It's because we're from the west Side. We're from the West.
• 37:35
  Speaker 6: Fairfield West west Side thing for sure.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: So most definitely Jared bud Long, he's on TikTok as
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Jared but Long, he said, what is the tangible action
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: plan to reduce the abhorrent conditions and deaths in Alabama prison?
• 37:54
  Speaker 6: Great question, Uh, And you're right. The Alabama solution did
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: something incredibly import It put a spotlight on it. And
• 38:04
  Speaker 6: the first thing that I think the governor has to
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: do is to put a spotlight and continue to keep
• 38:12
  Speaker 6: that spotlight on there. And I think that's been one
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: of the biggest issues. Okay, And remember that the governor
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: appoints the prison commissioner. Right now, we have an acting
• 38:24
  Speaker 6: prison commissioner. Most recently John Hamm, the prison commissioner retired
• 38:30
  Speaker 6: and the deputy is now the acting So the next
• 38:34
  Speaker 6: governor is going to appoint the prison commissioner. And who
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: is the head of the prisons answers to the governor,
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: and whoever the head of the prisons is is going
• 38:44
  Speaker 6: to be charged with that responsibility, and I think we
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: can do that. I think that putting a spotlight on
• 38:49
  Speaker 6: it first off, I think we've got to shed some
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: transparency and let folks know and understand, do a little studying.
• 38:58
  Speaker 6: It's not something that a governor can come in and
• 39:00
  Speaker 6: overnight change and get done. You've got to see and
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: you've got a balance. And I think I can do
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: this because I used to be a prosecutor as well
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: as a defense lawyer, so I understand prisons a little
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: bit and I understand the need for security versus transparency.
• 39:17
  Speaker 6: You can't those two kind of fight each other, so
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: but they're not inconsistent. And I think that that transparency
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: in keeping people and having independent voices that look as
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: part of the auditing process. As part of that transparency process,
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: independent examinations I think are going to be really important
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: to see what we can do. There is a training
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: element to guards, There is a pay element to guards.
• 39:43
  Speaker 6: The Parole Commission plays a big role in Alabama prisons
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: because it's the Parole Commission that either keeps people in
• 39:52
  Speaker 6: prison and increases the numbers in those prisons or allows
• 39:58
  Speaker 6: people back int to re enter into society. Everybody that
• 40:02
  Speaker 6: goes into prison, with very few exceptions, should come out.
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: Her job is to make sure when they come out
• 40:11
  Speaker 6: they have a place to go. We don't just open
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: the door and say thank you for your service and go.
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: We've helped them, We've trained them. If they needed help reading, writing,
• 40:23
  Speaker 6: if they need help with any skills, we try to
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: do some of There's some good re entry programs that
• 40:28
  Speaker 6: have come up in the last few years, and we
• 40:30
  Speaker 6: need to promote those. So we need to do that.
• 40:32
  Speaker 6: We need to make sure the Parole Commission is operating
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: at a level where they're doing their job and they're
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: giving people opportunities to be released from prison in a
• 40:42
  Speaker 6: way that they have been punished, but yet they also
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: can see the light of day.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: And that part, I think that is so important and
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: that's what's missing. And so I have another curiosity attached
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: to that. So I hear that you say, okay, once
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: they get out, giving them programs or getting them to
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: program that gives you a way to get jobs, make
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: sure you get re established with the community. And because
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: I know that's a whole mental change, being being in prison,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: But what happens inside of prison and how do we
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: make sure that they're getting that while they're doing their time.
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: I think that that is a matter of some money
• 41:20
  Speaker 6: as well. We've got to make sure the transparency part
• 41:24
  Speaker 6: of this, you know, I think will help because right now,
• 41:28
  Speaker 6: so many people in this state so pretty conservative state.
• 41:32
  Speaker 6: It's a law and order state. You want to punish
• 41:34
  Speaker 6: people that commit crimes. I get that, and they're right,
• 41:38
  Speaker 6: but we also need to show folks what goes on
• 41:41
  Speaker 6: and that that warehousing an individual is just not the
• 41:47
  Speaker 6: way to go because ultimately that warehoused individual may be
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: living next door to you or down the street, or
• 41:55
  Speaker 6: in your neighborhood, and you want that person, despite their history,
• 42:00
  Speaker 6: to be a good neighbor. And there are ways you
• 42:03
  Speaker 6: can do that. So I think inside there there are programs,
• 42:07
  Speaker 6: and there are some of these going on. I don't
• 42:08
  Speaker 6: want anybody to think that none of this is happening,
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: because some of it is happening. I think we just
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: need more of it. But we also need I think
• 42:16
  Speaker 6: some revamping of the guards and making sure that we
• 42:20
  Speaker 6: get good people, that we screen these people, we train folks,
• 42:25
  Speaker 6: because here is part of the problem that we've got.
• 42:28
  Speaker 6: Number one, that documentary that everybody saw that was filmed
• 42:34
  Speaker 6: with contraband cell phones. Okay, Prisoners are not supposed to
• 42:38
  Speaker 6: have cell phones, and there's a lot of reasons for that,
• 42:41
  Speaker 6: and I support that. But those contraband cell phones, most
• 42:46
  Speaker 6: of them were either smuggled in and Burt purchased from
• 42:49
  Speaker 6: a guard. Okay, so that guard has contributed to part
• 42:55
  Speaker 6: of the problem. Drugs coming in also part of the problem.
• 42:59
  Speaker 6: And I'm I'm not casting a brush of all guards
• 43:01
  Speaker 6: because that would be totally unfair because that's just not
• 43:06
  Speaker 6: the case. But there has been enough that the drug problem,
• 43:10
  Speaker 6: the phone problem, the weapon problem is in large part
• 43:16
  Speaker 6: because of things being smuggled in from the guards, and
• 43:19
  Speaker 6: we got to change that. The beatings all from the guards.
• 43:23
  Speaker 6: One of the things that we've got to do is
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: that we've got to make sure that our guards understand
• 43:28
  Speaker 6: that they have a certain conduct. And the State of
• 43:32
  Speaker 6: Alabama has spent millions and millions of dollars on private
• 43:36
  Speaker 6: lawyers defending the indefensible, and that's going to stop. That's
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: going to stop under my administration. We're going to hold
• 43:45
  Speaker 6: folks accountable again. Transparency will help with that, The Parole
• 43:52
  Speaker 6: Commission will help with that, and then we will go
• 43:55
  Speaker 6: from there, and I want to. I'll tell you the
• 43:57
  Speaker 6: other thing too. You cannot build your way out of
• 44:00
  Speaker 6: this problem. We're gonna We've already spent our spending a
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: billion one point two or three billion dollars on a
• 44:06
  Speaker 6: new prison that was supposed to cost about four or
• 44:09
  Speaker 6: five hundred million, okay when it was first planned and
• 44:12
  Speaker 6: first approved. Now that one prison's costing one point two
• 44:16
  Speaker 6: or one point three billion dollars, we need to figure
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: out why it's costing so much more. Yeah. Again, transparency
• 44:22
  Speaker 6: aught at that. See what's going on. See if it's
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: legitimate expenses, so be it. There's been some inflation, but
• 44:30
  Speaker 6: I don't think there's been that kind of inflation. So
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: there's a lot that can be done, but it all
• 44:34
  Speaker 6: starts with the governor and the Prisoner Commission, and that's
• 44:37
  Speaker 6: gonna change come January.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Listen, thank you so much for talking about this. There
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: hasn't been a question yet that you've hesitated to ask,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: and I can tell you that's not normal for politicians
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: in my mind, Like, that's not normal.
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: You are irregular type of guy. You are unique, and
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: I love that. So I'm curious.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: You've been in politics for a long time, a long time,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: and I wonder if there's something that you worked for,
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: worked hard for, that just keeps you up well, I
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: will say, keeps you up at night that you say, Hey,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: I would like to implement this as governor. Is there
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: something that you haven't been able to do in your
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: political candidacy.
• 45:19
  Speaker 6: I mean, I ran on this in twenty seventeen, but
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: I knew that as a US senator I couldn't do it.
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: I think the number one priority for me, even above
• 45:29
  Speaker 6: a lottery, which is a real high priority, is expanding
• 45:33
  Speaker 6: medicaid in the state. We're a very poor state. We're
• 45:37
  Speaker 6: an unhealthy state, and we are losing hospitals and rural
• 45:41
  Speaker 6: communities left and right. And when you lose hospitals, you
• 45:44
  Speaker 6: lose an economy of those rural areas. And we got
• 45:47
  Speaker 6: to connect the dots about that so that we can
• 45:50
  Speaker 6: keep these rural communities vibrant, because when they lose their hospital,
• 45:56
  Speaker 6: they're going to lose an awful lot and people will
• 45:58
  Speaker 6: not stay and they will lose population. Not to mention,
• 46:03
  Speaker 6: employers won't come in. You get better health outcomes with
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: medicaid expansion. And the thing that's been frustrating about Medicaid
• 46:11
  Speaker 6: expansion is that there are so many people in the
• 46:13
  Speaker 6: state that want it, to see the need for it,
• 46:16
  Speaker 6: but yet there has been no political will. It's just
• 46:20
  Speaker 6: like the lottery. There's been no state wide champion for
• 46:23
  Speaker 6: expanding medicaid. And they listen to the politics about the money,
• 46:29
  Speaker 6: and the other politics is the politics of race, and
• 46:33
  Speaker 6: they listen to that a lot and they say, oh,
• 46:35
  Speaker 6: these are just these are just those inner city or
• 46:38
  Speaker 6: these folks who don't want to work through their drug addicts.
• 46:42
  Speaker 6: And by the way, speaking of mental health, that's another
• 46:47
  Speaker 6: big issue for the prison system. When we got out
• 46:52
  Speaker 6: of that business, we decided, rather than the state helping
• 46:55
  Speaker 6: with mental health, we just put them in prison. That's
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: also got to change. Will give Governor I have a
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: little credit, she's done a better job. Her mental health
• 47:03
  Speaker 6: commissioners in the last few years are doing what they
• 47:06
  Speaker 6: can with the resources they've got. But back to medicaid expansion,
• 47:10
  Speaker 6: that would help with that. It would give mental health
• 47:13
  Speaker 6: resources in these rural areas and around the state. But
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: the people that would benefit from Medicaid expansion are those
• 47:21
  Speaker 6: that fall in what they call the coverage gap. They
• 47:24
  Speaker 6: make too much money, they work and by the way,
• 47:27
  Speaker 6: they're like, the majority of Medicaid recipients in this state
• 47:32
  Speaker 6: are white. They're not black. They're white folks in rural areas,
• 47:36
  Speaker 6: in poor areas, and they get Medicaid. The ones that
• 47:42
  Speaker 6: are own Medicaid makes so little money. It's incredible how
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: low the Medicaid requirements are in this state. I mean,
• 47:49
  Speaker 6: you cannot make hardly any money in order to get
• 47:55
  Speaker 6: and qualify from Medicaid. But there are people that are
• 47:57
  Speaker 6: working that make too much money to qualify for Medicaid,
• 48:02
  Speaker 6: but they don't make enough money to buy health insurance
• 48:06
  Speaker 6: to get because the cost of health insurance has gone up.
• 48:09
  Speaker 6: Even with the exchanges that we've got, the ACA exchanges,
• 48:14
  Speaker 6: it still costs money. And people that work that can't
• 48:18
  Speaker 6: provide for their families, that are doing living paycheck to paycheck,
• 48:22
  Speaker 6: can't afford and they give up health care insurance rather
• 48:26
  Speaker 6: than shoes or groceries or utilities or roof over their head.
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: And so we've got to expand medicaids that those people
• 48:35
  Speaker 6: then have the ability to get health care and that
• 48:39
  Speaker 6: helps them get to their jobs. It helps the local economies.
• 48:43
  Speaker 6: So if there's one thing that I have been the
• 48:45
  Speaker 6: most frustrated in public service over the years, and just
• 48:49
  Speaker 6: as a citizen, it's just the lack of the will
• 48:54
  Speaker 6: of our legislature, our governor since twenty ten when that
• 48:58
  Speaker 6: ACA was passed to expand Medicaid to help the people
• 49:02
  Speaker 6: of the state, and it would put a couple of
• 49:04
  Speaker 6: three hundred thousand people with good health care. And when
• 49:08
  Speaker 6: you put that kind of better health care outcomes for folks,
• 49:11
  Speaker 6: it helps everybody, and it especially helps their local communities.
• 49:16
  Speaker 6: So I want to dispel the miss about Medicaid. I
• 49:20
  Speaker 6: want to make sure people connect the dots between their
• 49:23
  Speaker 6: health and the health of the economy in their communities.
• 49:27
  Speaker 6: And that's the other thing that we're going to get done,
• 49:30
  Speaker 6: because I do believe with a new governor that is
• 49:34
  Speaker 6: a champion for Medicaid, it will get done and we
• 49:37
  Speaker 6: will see billions of dollars because here's the thing, and again,
• 49:41
  Speaker 6: connecting the dots and making sure people understand those people
• 49:44
  Speaker 6: that don't have Medicaid, that don't have health insurance, they're
• 49:49
  Speaker 6: getting cared for some and they're usually doing it in
• 49:53
  Speaker 6: emergency rooms that are required to give you health care.
• 49:56
  Speaker 6: And guess who pays for that. We do it all
• 50:00
  Speaker 6: costs more money, So let's let the federal government send
• 50:04
  Speaker 6: us some money to help with folks. It's only the
• 50:07
  Speaker 6: right thing to do.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, Thank you for sharing that. And I
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: even I want to share something with you one of
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: my frustrations with like health care. And I don't know
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: what category it goes into, but I think when we
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: talk about mental health, that's a word that.
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: Just really gets to me.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: I've had experience to where I've had to nurture and
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: take care of family members that have to navigate through that,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: and I found more headache dealing with this in the
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: state of Alabama than any other state. The best state
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I've actually dealt with is was in Florida, Like they
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: really partnered with the families there. And so I don't
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: know if you have something in the works with helping
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: the family members of people dealing with those high risk
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: mental health cases. But I'm just gonna plug that in
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: there because you brought it up and there's something that
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: you want to discuss offline, just to kind of get
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: some more details on that I can.
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: I'll I'm open today because that was very first well.
• 51:17
  Speaker 6: I appreciate it because it's a challenge and it's a challenge.
• 51:21
  Speaker 6: People think that they don't think of mental health accept
• 51:27
  Speaker 6: as isolated to an individual, and they don't and you
• 51:32
  Speaker 6: hear me use this term all the time. Connect the dots.
• 51:36
  Speaker 6: They don't go any further than just seeing an individual
• 51:39
  Speaker 6: disturbed individual, And they don't see the family members that
• 51:42
  Speaker 6: are having to deal with it and the risks that
• 51:44
  Speaker 6: many of those family members put themselves in. They don't
• 51:47
  Speaker 6: see the law enforcement piece of this that's not really
• 51:49
  Speaker 6: trained to deal with mental health issues either, or prisons
• 51:54
  Speaker 6: that is not trained to deal with mental health issues.
• 51:58
  Speaker 6: So I think if we can figure out ways to
• 52:01
  Speaker 6: get more resources, and Medicaid expansion will help that, more
• 52:06
  Speaker 6: resources into areas, whether it's through telehealth or in person visits,
• 52:11
  Speaker 6: more resource sources to family members and friends that are
• 52:15
  Speaker 6: in the community that can help with programs and do
• 52:19
  Speaker 6: things on an individual basis. We we've really got it.
• 52:22
  Speaker 6: It is a problem from one end of this state
• 52:25
  Speaker 6: to the other. And it does not just affect the
• 52:29
  Speaker 6: poor communities that don't have Medicaid. This is a problem
• 52:33
  Speaker 6: in every neighborhood, in every zip code, and it is
• 52:36
  Speaker 6: a problem in the prison system. And and and again,
• 52:40
  Speaker 6: I think that the State of Alabama has done a
• 52:44
  Speaker 6: better job. I will give the prison, the medical, the healthcare,
• 52:49
  Speaker 6: mental health commissioners that have under Governor Ivy have done
• 52:53
  Speaker 6: the best they can with the resources, and I've applaud
• 52:56
  Speaker 6: them for doing that. I think there's there's more that
• 52:58
  Speaker 6: we got to do.
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: There's definitely more.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: There's always more, one more, one more question of regarding
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: your political stance, because I want to get a little
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: bit to dougt the person.
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: Small business, small business.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: I've also heard you connect prisons, making like how when
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: the prisoners come out working with local businesses to try
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: to see how we can connect the dots there. What
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: is your what is your plan to partner with small
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: businesses of the state of Alabama and give giving, providing
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: different resources to make sure that we maintain their legacy
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: in the state.
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 53:36
  Speaker 6: I think there's a number of things that we can do,
• 53:38
  Speaker 6: and there's a small business group out there that's working
• 53:40
  Speaker 6: hard to do some of that. One of the things,
• 53:43
  Speaker 6: and this is just one thing. And and I think
• 53:47
  Speaker 6: that if we can help some folks coming out of
• 53:53
  Speaker 6: prison such that a small business is comfortable with hiring
• 54:00
  Speaker 6: those folks and giving them the chance and making sure
• 54:05
  Speaker 6: that those folks coming out understand the opportunity that has
• 54:09
  Speaker 6: been given to them. I think that could be go
• 54:12
  Speaker 6: a long way, because a lot of these prisoners are
• 54:15
  Speaker 6: going to be going back into communities and rural areas.
• 54:18
  Speaker 6: They're going to be dealing with people. So I think
• 54:20
  Speaker 6: that's something that we've got to work on as part
• 54:22
  Speaker 6: of that re entry program, and I think it can
• 54:24
  Speaker 6: help small business. The other thing I'd like to do
• 54:27
  Speaker 6: for small businesses, I'd like to develop a little bit
• 54:31
  Speaker 6: more entrepreneurship in particularly rural areas for small businesses. You know,
• 54:37
  Speaker 6: a small family business is one of the best ways
• 54:40
  Speaker 6: to grow generational wealth. And right now, too many of
• 54:44
  Speaker 6: our kids are leaving the state. They're leaving their rural
• 54:48
  Speaker 6: communities because they just don't see the opportunities. But yet
• 54:52
  Speaker 6: when they go home, they come back home, they'll ride
• 54:55
  Speaker 6: down the main street of their rural town and there's
• 55:00
  Speaker 6: a third or more of the buildings that are there
• 55:03
  Speaker 6: are vacant and not being used. We spend a lot
• 55:07
  Speaker 6: of money in Alabama. I say spend a lot of money.
• 55:11
  Speaker 6: We both spend and we forego a lot of money
• 55:15
  Speaker 6: for tax incentives for these big corporations to come in now.
• 55:19
  Speaker 6: I'm not opposed to that as long as although I
• 55:22
  Speaker 6: want to make sure that those big corporations and their profits,
• 55:25
  Speaker 6: it filters down to the people from Alabama that are
• 55:28
  Speaker 6: going to be working there. Okay, but I think we
• 55:31
  Speaker 6: need to take some of that money, more money than
• 55:34
  Speaker 6: that has been taken right now, and create a small
• 55:38
  Speaker 6: business fund that will give grants that can help those
• 55:43
  Speaker 6: small business It can help refurbish one of those buildings
• 55:46
  Speaker 6: in that rural community. It can help them get started
• 55:49
  Speaker 6: in a business that they want to have and to
• 55:53
  Speaker 6: grow and to try to build that generational wealth. And
• 55:56
  Speaker 6: not only just give them the money for the refurbishing
• 55:59
  Speaker 6: and the infrastructure, but help them with training about how
• 56:03
  Speaker 6: to do the buks, how to do the business. Be
• 56:06
  Speaker 6: there as a resource for them that they can regularly
• 56:09
  Speaker 6: check on them, not as a looking over their shoulder
• 56:13
  Speaker 6: to make sure they spent the grant money right, but
• 56:15
  Speaker 6: helping them being the mentors that We've got some great
• 56:20
  Speaker 6: businesses in this state that can help foster that kind
• 56:24
  Speaker 6: of relationship, some of which could be a vendor for
• 56:30
  Speaker 6: another bigger business in the state. There's all sorts of
• 56:33
  Speaker 6: ways I think we can do that. Big you know,
• 56:35
  Speaker 6: small businesses have a problem with employees because they really
• 56:39
  Speaker 6: have a hard time with providing the benefits. So we've
• 56:43
  Speaker 6: got to figure out ways to to get people those
• 56:46
  Speaker 6: benefits that they can afford to get a job in
• 56:50
  Speaker 6: a small business. Now that may, you know, that may
• 56:54
  Speaker 6: mean increasing the minimum wage. But if we can do
• 56:57
  Speaker 6: things where they an employee can have I earn a
• 57:01
  Speaker 6: good living, have benefits like a four oh one K,
• 57:06
  Speaker 6: like healthcare either provided or such a way where we
• 57:11
  Speaker 6: can pool benefits, those are the kind of things that
• 57:13
  Speaker 6: we have to look at long term. I think for
• 57:15
  Speaker 6: small you know, the small businesses are really what drives
• 57:18
  Speaker 6: this economy. We've got some great big businesses, okay, and
• 57:22
  Speaker 6: I love them, especially the car businesses. I'm a car guy. Yeah, okay,
• 57:28
  Speaker 6: but we it's the small businesses that are going to
• 57:32
  Speaker 6: keep this state alized. Small businesses and farms.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: For a long time, you've been You've brought up okay,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: you brought up farms like three or four times in
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: this conversation, and I was going to end on that,
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: but agriculture seems very important to you.
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: Why is that because.
• 57:45
  Speaker 6: It's important to the state. And I guess that I've
• 57:48
  Speaker 6: seen so many farmers going out of business right now,
• 57:52
  Speaker 6: I see them struggling. That is a tough business. You
• 57:56
  Speaker 6: are subject to the whims of markets, like pretty much
• 58:00
  Speaker 6: to no other commodity that's being sold. You're subject to
• 58:04
  Speaker 6: mother nature, pest, you name it. And and now, unfortunately
• 58:11
  Speaker 6: they are the victims of the trumpetministration raising tariffs and
• 58:18
  Speaker 6: closing their markets off. And now with the straight of
• 58:21
  Speaker 6: hor moves closed because of the war in Iran, their
• 58:25
  Speaker 6: diesel costs are through the roof and their fertilizer costs.
• 58:29
  Speaker 6: People forget that, and that not just affects those farmers,
• 58:34
  Speaker 6: it affects me and you. I was literally driving over
• 58:38
  Speaker 6: here today, Okay, I'm on the interstate coming from from
• 58:41
  Speaker 6: from Birmingham. It's not very long stretch interstate, but I
• 58:46
  Speaker 6: passed this big old flatbed truck and it is full.
• 58:50
  Speaker 6: It's got a big old tarp over it, and I
• 58:53
  Speaker 6: don't know how many, but there were these big bags
• 58:57
  Speaker 6: of onions. Okay, on a flatbed truck, an eighteen wheeler
• 59:03
  Speaker 6: going to wherever they're going to distribute those onions. That's
• 59:09
  Speaker 6: connecting the dots too. That truck is costing more money
• 59:15
  Speaker 6: to get from point A to point B now than
• 59:17
  Speaker 6: it did just two months ago. And when they've cost
• 59:21
  Speaker 6: more money to get there, then it's going to cost
• 59:24
  Speaker 6: us more money to buy some of those onions. The
• 59:27
  Speaker 6: farmer that raised those onions has costing more in tractor
• 59:30
  Speaker 6: and equipment and also fertilizer costs. And so when that's
• 59:35
  Speaker 6: the whole seller is going to pay more, then the
• 59:38
  Speaker 6: retailer is going to pay more than you and I
• 59:40
  Speaker 6: gonna pay more. And those are the kind of little things.
• 59:43
  Speaker 6: And I really agriculture is a huge piece of Alabama,
• 59:47
  Speaker 6: and it is everything from cotton to soybeans and corn,
• 59:52
  Speaker 6: soybeans in particular peanuts down in South Alabama. And we've
• 59:57
  Speaker 6: got to protect those farms only for the country's sake,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 6: but for the economy of Alabama. It's a huge driver
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 6: of this uh. And I don't want to see those farmers.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 6: I'd love to see more of the kids who grew
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 6: up on farms want to stay there and continue to
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 6: do the work. But we've got to give them a
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 6: more stability. And I get so angry watching the Trump
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 6: administration take those farmers for granted, just do the things
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 6: that hurt them and then say, oh, we'll bet we'll
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 6: bail you out. We'll give you a check and bail
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 6: you out. Well, farmers don't want bailouts. They want markets.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 6: They work hard, they don't want somebody to bail them out.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 6: They want they wanted. They want to do what they
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 6: do best, and that's feed America, feed the world. To
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 6: some extent, clothe America, okay, where they're cotton and other things.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 6: So I feel pretty strong. My family was not farmers.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 6: We lived in some rural areas, but you know here
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 6: in tom My dad worked out at us still most
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 6: my family did. Everybody had their gardens, but they didn't
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 6: have big farms. But I've seen the importance. I know
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 6: the importance to Alabama. Uh and just riding through this state,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 6: I think it's such a treat to ride past those
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 6: cotton fields in the fall, just before the cotton gets planted,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 6: and see those all of those cotton balls in those fields,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 6: to see the soybeans to start coming up and the
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 6: flowers come. It's an incredible just scenic view of of Alabama.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: You love Alabama, I do? Do you?
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: You you love Alabama. He's from Alabama to you guys
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: and raised, But no, you really that out of this
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: whole conversation, I heard I love Alabama.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 4: If you if you don't say anything else, I heard.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 6: I love I'll tell you. And I appreciate you say
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 6: in that because it would have been very easy. As
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 6: you know, look, United States Senators, when you leave office,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 6: it doesn't matter if you were there six months or
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 6: sixty years. You leave office, you carry with it a
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 6: certain cachet. And it would have been really easy to
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 6: hang on around up there and move up to Northern
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 6: Virginia or Baltimore, make a lot of money. But home
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 6: is Alabama and all of the incredible opportunities that people
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 6: have here, the people that are here, and it's everywhere
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 6: from the farms to all the civil rights scenes that
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 6: we have in this state, all of the civil rights
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 6: sites that I just love because I love history and
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 6: that history doesn't have to be a pretty history or
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 6: a good history to know that it is part of
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 6: where you have been, where you've hopefully moved from, and
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 6: where you can progress too. But I also love to fish,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 6: I love to hunt, and this is one of the
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 6: greatest states in the world. To those you can, you can.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 6: You can find it just about all here. And that's
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 6: just that's just phenomenal to me. And and the people
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 6: at at at their heart, at their heart that this.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 6: These are good people at their heart. They care about
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 6: each other. And we let politicians divide us. You know. Yeah,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 6: are there racists out there? Of course there are are
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 6: there are there people that don't like women out there? Yes,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 6: are there people that don't like men? Yeah, But the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 6: fact that at the heart if somebody, if something happens,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 6: Look what happens in this state when there's a tornado
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 6: that comes through or a hurricane, nobody sees a race
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 6: or a religion. They're just there to help. They're there
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 6: with chainsaws if they need them, or they're there with
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 6: food and water if they need to do that too.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 6: We are a loving, giving state, and we let politicians
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 6: divide us for their own political power. That's why we're
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 6: building that house of crowded table.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 4: Building the house of a crowded table.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: Listen, who this has been good to me that I've
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: loved every part of this conversation. Let's hear from you, sis.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: I think the one question that I have I know
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: that I know. The one question that I have, mister Doug,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: is you know you we know the history of Alabama
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: when it comes to voting rights, right, the sacrifices that
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: that people.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 4: Made to give us the ability to vote.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: But today you hear a lot of people say I'm
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: not voting because it doesn't matter anyway.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 4: Right, So why is.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: It important for people to exercise their rights to actually vote.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 6: Because it does matter? They're wrong, Okay, it does matter.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 6: And and the interesting thing is I think that you're
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 6: what you just said, the preface of the question is
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 6: absolutely correct. I've heard it for so long now, and
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 6: we've allowed that to happen. Okay, We've allowed people to
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 6: divide us and we've been jerrymandered. And so I can
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 6: understand why why people say that their vote doesn't matter.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 6: But I also want to remind them that it was
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 6: George Wallace who coined the phrase there ain't a dimes
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 6: worth of difference in any of the politicians. Okay, so
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 6: this is nothing new that people feel like they can't
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 6: make a change but their vote counts. Too many people,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 6: we think about politics too much like sports. Okay, that
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 6: if you don't win, then you don't win, you lose.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 6: That's not the case. You can actually win a lot
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 6: if you vote and participate in people recognize that you're there.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 6: But I'll also say this, given what's happened in this
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 6: state with the Voting Rights Act today, I think people
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 6: are now saying, well, wait a minute. I know I
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 6: didn't think my vote counts, but I still want it. Okay,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 6: you're taking it's my decision whether I vote or not,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 6: not yours, and not your decision that I shouldn't have
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 6: adequate representation in the United States Congress. So people are
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 6: now understanding what their vote means in counts. And I
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 6: do think people got complacent. You and I remember the
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 6: Voting Rights Act was passed sixty one years ago, So
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 6: unless you were sixty one years old or older, you've
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 6: never lived in an America and where you didn't have
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 6: the free right to vote and representation. Never lived that way.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 6: So when if you're fifty forty thirty, you can understand
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 6: sometimes why your vote might be taken for granted. And
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 6: so now though we've gone back. You know, the interesting
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 6: thing about these decisions and what the state of Alabama
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 6: has done, it was no coincidence that after that Louisiana
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 6: decision that it was the states of the Old Confederacy
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 6: that rushed in to try to change the congressional district lines,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 6: and in Alabama it's a couple of state Senate lines.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 6: It was the states, the very states that prompted the
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 6: need for a voting Rights Act, are now saying, Okay,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 6: the shackles are off of us. We can go back
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 6: to our old ways now. The interesting part of that
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 6: for me is that when I did that church bombing
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 6: case twenty years ago, twenty five years ago, now, we
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 6: never got any threats or any real strong, horrible pushback.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 6: We didn't get that, and I was pleasantly surprised about that.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 6: But what we did get was a little light push
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 6: back for more conservatives and saying that, hey, Doug, we
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 6: don't want to go back. We don't need to see
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 6: the fire hoses and dogs again. We don't need to
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 6: you know, we're sorry that those girls died, but we've
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 6: moved on. We progressed as a state and as a society,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 6: and we don't need to go back. We just need
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 6: to go forward. Where are those folks now, because this
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 6: governor and this legislature has thrown us back to the
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 6: nineteen sixties, and I don't hear those same voices saying
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 6: we don't want to go back, but they're out there.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 6: I truly believe from what we're seeing, it's not just
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 6: the black community. There are voices across the state saying,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 6: uh uh, we don't want to go back. We don't
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 6: want to be cast in the old Confederacy any longer.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 6: I don't care how many Confederate flags you see flying
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 6: around the state, you'll see those forever, but we don't
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 6: want to go back. We're better people than that. So
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 6: I think that's another reason we've seen an increase in
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 6: the votes. And I think we're going to see an
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 6: increase in November. I mean yeah, in November, on November
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 6: the third. It's another reason why we're gonna win.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 4: It's another reason why we're gonna win.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: Say Man Desire, This has definitely been a treat dog.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and y'all he gave me permission
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: to call him Doug. I just want y'all to know
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: that my parents, please don't think I'm here.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 4: He said, column Doug. Okay, okay, I'm a column Doug.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 6: Thank you my pleasure.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having no thank you for
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 4: coming and being you.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Thank you for answering our questions and our concerns, and
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: I think there are gonna be more questions, concerns come up,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: and I believe that you're gonna answer them and answer
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: them with truth and transparency. And I think that's Alabama
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: is in desperate need of a governor like you.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 6: Well, look, I appreciate that, and I will tell folks
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 6: that when they hear some of this, I'm going to
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 6: do my best. I may not answer it always the
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 6: way they want to hear, okay, but I'm going to
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 6: try to do it truthfully. If I don't know the answer,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 6: I'll try to find out or try to get an answer.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 6: But what I asked for folks to make sure they
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 6: have an open mind. If I say something don't particularly
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 6: agree with, just put it in a category, because I
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 6: think they're going to end up agreeing with me more
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 6: than they disagree. And that I think is that that's
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 6: the basis of democracy. You know, Yeah it was. I
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 6: laugh and tell folks now because you know I'm a
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 6: little older than you, but you're moving well well well,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 6: because because I subscribe to the old Mick Jagger school
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 6: of politics. Okay, you can't always get what you want,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 6: but if you try sometime.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 4: You just might find it what you come on.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 6: And so I you know, I think I think folks
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 6: have an open mind, but I've always tried to be
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 6: myself and not folks. And that goes back a long
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 6: way because I think if you need to do that,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 6: because that way you can work with people, You can
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 6: listen to people and they know you're not a perfect
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 6: human being. You're not gonna be able to do all
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 6: you want to do, but you're gonna try. Yeah, And
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 6: that's the thing. If people know I'm out there trying
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 6: for them, then I hope that they will appreciate that
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 6: because I'm gonna be their voice.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 4: I promise that I love that.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: That's actually the question I was going to ask you.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: I want to shout out my friend Carrie Boggling. He
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: submitted a question as well on TikTok. He said, how
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: will your leadership differ from what we have been seeing
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: over the past nine years? And so if you want
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: to answer that question, I'm gonna give you the floor
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: and then you can leave us with your heart and
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: then we're gonna get get out of here.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: Well, you can look directly to the people.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 6: I really appreciate the question because the difference that you're
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 6: gonna see is you're going to see a governor that's
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 6: out there. You're going to see a governor leading by example.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 6: You're going to see a governor who is out there
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 6: talking to people, not just giving speeches. We're going to
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 6: be doing things like this. We're going to be whether
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 6: it's from the governor's mansion or either I come up here, Okay,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 6: we're gonna be doing that, and we're gonna be answering
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 6: those questions, and we're gonna be holding town halls. What
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 6: we've not seen enough in this state since the since
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 6: one party took control. We don't have enough transparency, we
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 6: don't have enough people out there, we don't have enough legislators, governors,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 6: attorneys general, anybody doing the kind of town halls where
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 6: people get to interact. And so I think that's that's
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 6: the main difference you will see in a governing style.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 6: But you're also going to see, I think the ability
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 6: to sit down and talk and understand. I tell people
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 6: all the time, I want a government that has more
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 6: dialogues and not monologues. I'm not just going to preach
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 6: to somebody. I'm going to give them my views, but
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 6: I'm going to listen to theirs, and we're gonna find
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 6: that common ground. We're gonna see because I'm convinced if
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 6: we find common ground on a few issues, we'll find
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 6: someone's a few more and the next thing you know,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 6: we're really sitting around singing Tom Bay, y'all, and we're
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 6: getting this state moving forward. And that's the difference that
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 6: we're going to see. It is that house with the
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 6: crowded table.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: Hey, man to dad, y'all, listen, I don't know how
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: excited you are for our new governor, Hey, but I
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: know I'm excited Governor Doug Johns. I'm super excited. Thank
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: you so much for coming again. Thank you'all opportunity in Hey,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: And if y'all have more questions, listen, I'm a proud
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: volunteer of the Doug Johnes campaign and so I'm super
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: excited I can get y'all's questions sit directly to his
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: team and you guys, he's I'm pretty confident he wants
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: to answer them, Okay, And so listen, this has been
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: a time we'll spend.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 4: I hope you guys learn what you need to know.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: But until next time, until next week, remember life could
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: be much more simple if you just.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: Ask thank you for tuning in to this week's episode.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: Since you've made it this far, you might as well
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: connect with us on all social media.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: Platforms at the Jessica S. Smith.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: I know I won't see you back until next week,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: but until then, remember to.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: Love always yourself and always say.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 6: Thank God for one another day.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 3: Hey, hey, I know we could be another way. Hey,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 3: pray thank God for another day. Hey hey, I'm just
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 3: thankful for another day. Hey hey, another day? Oh, another
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 3: day wise, another day to get it right, another day
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 3: to rise up, another day living, another day we loved ones.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 3: I always remember hold it down for one yeh