In this episode, political commentator and policy analyst Shalonda Spencer offers her thoughtful insight on the 2024 election and what direction the Democratic Party, as well as the Nation, needs to go.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:06 Welcome. I'm Eric Fleming, host of A Moment with Eric Fleming, the podcast of our time.
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00:01:11 --> 00:01:16 the following program is hosted by the nbg podcast network.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:56 Music.
00:01:57 --> 00:02:01 And welcome to Another Moment with Eric Fleming. I am your host, Eric Fleming.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:07 Today, I've got a good friend that is going to be a guest.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 I say good friend because this is somebody that.
00:02:12 --> 00:02:22 I admire from afar that is up and coming and just be on the lookout for this sister.
00:02:24 --> 00:02:30 And, you know, it may not be right away, but she she's going to be one of the
00:02:30 --> 00:02:36 stars of the future in politics for whatever she decides to continue to do.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:43 She's been on the program before and hopefully, you know, we'll we'll have her on many times.
00:02:43 --> 00:02:47 But I'm glad that she's going to be a guest today.
00:02:47 --> 00:02:56 And we're going to talk about, you know, what happened in 2024 and where we need to go from here.
00:02:58 --> 00:03:02 So, you know, and then, you know, a lot of stuff has happened this week.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:07 And I'm not going to talk about everything.
00:03:09 --> 00:03:17 But first things first, we need to keep the people in Los Angeles in our prayers,
00:03:17 --> 00:03:27 find some kind of resource to help them out, whether it's GoFundMe or the Red Cross or whatever.
00:03:29 --> 00:03:34 You know, just do what you can to help those folks out. It's still early because
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 they're still going through it as we're recording this.
00:03:37 --> 00:03:43 And you always can go to FEMA.gov. I always try to direct people to that because
00:03:43 --> 00:03:50 FEMA.gov is going to screen out any of the scammers and get you to the right
00:03:50 --> 00:03:55 resources to help those folks in need.
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 It's a real, real bad situation.
00:04:01 --> 00:04:09 And we just need folks to be prayerful and do what you can for them.
00:04:10 --> 00:04:14 I have family members out there. They've all checked in. Everything's okay.
00:04:16 --> 00:04:23 But they have friends who are going through it. So just be mindful of that.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:29 And speaking of that, since that's a news story, This will be a perfect time
00:04:29 --> 00:04:30 to go ahead and get it started.
00:04:31 --> 00:04:36 And as always, we start this off with a moment of news. Good Grace G.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:43 Music.
00:04:43 --> 00:04:48 Thanks, Eric. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson was narrowly re-elected,
00:04:48 --> 00:04:54 securing his position with 218 votes after negotiations with dissenting Republicans.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:59 The U.S. Congress, in a session presided over by Vice President Kamala Harris,
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 officially certified Donald Trump's election victory.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:08 President-elect Donald Trump received a sentence of unconditional discharge
00:05:08 --> 00:05:12 for falsifying records related to hush money paid out to an adult film actor.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:18 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would resign in the coming
00:05:18 --> 00:05:22 months due to pressure from lawmakers while remaining in office until a new
00:05:22 --> 00:05:23 liberal leader is chosen.
00:05:24 --> 00:05:31 Wildfires in Los Angeles burned over 31 acres, forcing 180 evacuations,
00:05:31 --> 00:05:36 killing several people, and destroying thousands of homes. A U.S.
00:05:36 --> 00:05:40 Appeals court overturned an injunction blocking the release of a report on special
00:05:40 --> 00:05:45 counsel Jack Smith's investigations into Donald Trump. The U.S.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:49 Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court to deny Trump's request to delay
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 a law that could ban TikTok.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:57 Minneapolis's city council unanimously approved reforms and outside oversight
00:05:57 --> 00:06:03 for its police department following a federal investigation that revealed civil rights abuses.
00:06:03 --> 00:06:08 PayPal is facing a lawsuit from an Asian-American businesswoman who claims the
00:06:08 --> 00:06:12 company discriminated against her by limiting an investment program to Black
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 and Hispanic applicants.
00:06:14 --> 00:06:19 Rudy Giuliani was found in civil contempt of court for not providing requested
00:06:19 --> 00:06:24 information in a defamation case brought by two Georgia election workers.
00:06:24 --> 00:06:30 President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel's $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S.
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 Steel due to national security concerns.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:39 And a Justice Department report found Oklahoma is unlawfully committing individuals
00:06:39 --> 00:06:45 with mental illness to psychiatric hospitals and relying on police for mental health crises.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 I am Grace Gee, and this has been...
00:06:48 --> 00:06:55 Music.
00:06:57 --> 00:07:01 All right. Thank you, Grace, for that moment of news. And now it is time for
00:07:01 --> 00:07:06 our first guest, well, my only guest, Shalonda Spencer.
00:07:07 --> 00:07:11 Shalonda Spencer is a remarkable individual who has demonstrated excellence
00:07:11 --> 00:07:16 in various fields such as policy, entrepreneurship, politics and advocacy.
00:07:16 --> 00:07:20 Throughout her professional journey, she has utilized her extensive expertise
00:07:20 --> 00:07:26 and background to make a significant impact by shaping crucial social and political decisions.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:32 Furnishing invaluable policy guidance to government leaders and unwaveringly
00:07:32 --> 00:07:39 advocating for social and racial equity.
00:07:40 --> 00:07:44 With over a decade of experience in government affairs, human rights and social
00:07:44 --> 00:07:50 justice, Shalanda is an accomplished leader and a sought after keynote speaker.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:55 Her expertise has led her to facilitate roundtable discussions for international
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57 audiences and organizations and to
00:07:57 --> 00:08:01 lead national security conversations on diversity, equity and inclusion.
00:08:01 --> 00:08:06 Through her activist approach, Shalonda has marched alongside fellow advocates
00:08:06 --> 00:08:11 to end racial disparities and provided mentorship to young women.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:16 Shalonda's contributions in foreign affairs and diplomacy have been remarkable.
00:08:16 --> 00:08:23 As a former executive director of WCAPS, she raised the voice and prominence
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 of women in color in the field of international relations.
00:08:26 --> 00:08:30 In her previous role as a director of public policy and government affairs at
00:08:30 --> 00:08:34 Trying Together in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she advocated for high quality
00:08:34 --> 00:08:39 early learning education for children and families.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:45 Shalonda's expertise also extends to her role as a legislative assistant for
00:08:45 --> 00:08:49 the United States House of Representatives and as a foreign policy analyst for
00:08:49 --> 00:08:50 the Mennonite Central Committee.
00:08:51 --> 00:08:55 Shalonda has been recognized for her leadership abilities. She served as an
00:08:55 --> 00:09:00 adjunct professor at Millsaps College in Mississippi, teaching urban politics
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 within the government and politics department.
00:09:02 --> 00:09:07 As the advocacy coordinator for the ACLU of Mississippi, she focused on criminal
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 justice reform and voter rights.
00:09:10 --> 00:09:14 Shalonda's community organizing skills have been instrumental in various political
00:09:14 --> 00:09:18 campaigns throughout the southern borders of Mississippi, including federal
00:09:18 --> 00:09:20 presidential campaigns.
00:09:20 --> 00:09:25 Her dedication and expertise in public service have earned her numerous awards
00:09:25 --> 00:09:30 and accolades with recognition from the National Committee on American Foreign
00:09:30 --> 00:09:36 Policy as a 21st Century Leader Award recipient and the U.S.
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 National Security and Foreign Affairs Leadership Award.
00:09:39 --> 00:09:45 She is the founder of Politics for the Culture podcast and is currently pursuing
00:09:45 --> 00:09:50 an executive master's degree in international relations, a focus on foreign
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 policy at Syracuse University.
00:09:52 --> 00:09:58 She is a proud HBCU graduate of Jackson State University, where she earned her
00:09:58 --> 00:10:04 bachelor's of science and master's public policy degree in public policy and administration.
00:10:04 --> 00:10:11 Shalanda continues to dedicate herself to public service and make positive contributions to society.
00:10:12 --> 00:10:16 Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor and privilege to have as a guest
00:10:16 --> 00:10:20 on this podcast, Shalonda Spencer.
00:10:21 --> 00:10:31 Music.
00:10:31 --> 00:10:35 All right. Shalonda Spencer, Happy New Year. How are you doing?
00:10:36 --> 00:10:40 Happy New Year. I am awesome. How about yourself? I'm hanging in there.
00:10:40 --> 00:10:46 I'm bracing myself for the Martin Luther King holiday, which unfortunately will
00:10:46 --> 00:10:49 be inauguration day for a 47th president.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:55 So I'm kind of bracing myself for that. I am happy that they actually he's now
00:10:55 --> 00:11:00 officially a convicted felon as of as of us recording. He did get sentenced.
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 So, you know, even though he's not going to spend any time in jail, just,
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 you know, now he gets the experience with a lot of our brothers and sisters
00:11:08 --> 00:11:12 have had to deal with with, you know, being incarcerated and,
00:11:12 --> 00:11:15 you know, going through the judicial system because, you know,
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 he needs to he needed to experience that.
00:11:18 --> 00:11:20 But I'm saying that that's not you saying it.
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 So I don't just make that clear.
00:11:25 --> 00:11:30 But no, it was like the last time we had you on, it was before the election.
00:11:30 --> 00:11:31 A lot of things happened.
00:11:31 --> 00:11:36 So I just kind of want to get your viewpoint about, you know,
00:11:37 --> 00:11:43 how things turned out in your end and, you know, what you were doing during all that stuff.
00:11:43 --> 00:11:47 So let's start off the way that we normally do.
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 And here's your quote.
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 The quote is, start where you are.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:56 Whatever it is you're thinking of doing, just start.
00:11:56 --> 00:12:00 Perfection doesn't exist. What does that quote mean to you?
00:12:01 --> 00:12:06 Oh, man. So in my current role, I have a supervisor who always makes the statement,
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 never let perfection get in the way of progress.
00:12:10 --> 00:12:16 Right. And so I'm oftentimes thinking of ways how I cannot have to perfect everything,
00:12:16 --> 00:12:20 but just start, just begin whatever new journey I'm on, whatever new task.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 This past few months, well,
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 I would say probably in the last six months, I've been thinking of like new
00:12:26 --> 00:12:29 hobbies and things that I want to get into outside of the political space,
00:12:29 --> 00:12:35 because I've realized that there is more to me than just my political background
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 and the social justice and the advocacy side of me,
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 the researcher, the nerdy side of me.
00:12:40 --> 00:12:45 And so I've been tapping into more so of my, they call it the sophomore era
00:12:45 --> 00:12:52 and just doing it, you know, not thinking, not thinking twice about how to create
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 a process, but just do things as I see,
00:12:54 --> 00:12:58 go on trips, enjoy life, and just learn to bask in the moment of my existence.
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 Well, that's good because you got to have a balance.
00:13:02 --> 00:13:08 You know, when I was, I was a little older than you when I got elected and,
00:13:09 --> 00:13:13 you know, I was getting adjusted to being married.
00:13:14 --> 00:13:17 And during my first term, I became a dad.
00:13:18 --> 00:13:22 And so those were things I had never experienced. Right. It was like politics,
00:13:23 --> 00:13:24 24 seven, all that stuff.
00:13:24 --> 00:13:29 So, you know, I had to I had to make adjustments. I had to account for other
00:13:29 --> 00:13:32 people in my life because I inherited two boys.
00:13:32 --> 00:13:38 So, you know, it's it's important. But, you know, but I tried to have my fun
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 when I was going through the process.
00:13:41 --> 00:13:47 So I never really always try to maintain my balance and I always try to have
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 a level, a lot of friends that weren't in politics.
00:13:51 --> 00:13:55 So that kept me grounded. It kept me focused. But it also helped me politically,
00:13:55 --> 00:14:00 too, because, you know, things that they were dealing with every day.
00:14:01 --> 00:14:05 They were lucky to have a friend that was like, you know, could be in a position
00:14:05 --> 00:14:06 to address some of that stuff.
00:14:07 --> 00:14:14 So I get it. I don't think we called it a soft boy era, but it was it was, you know,
00:14:15 --> 00:14:21 I feel you on trying to, you know, just to be human because this the way it
00:14:21 --> 00:14:24 is now in politics, it can be consuming. So I get that.
00:14:26 --> 00:14:29 All right. So I'm going to try something. You're going to be my debut person.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:34 And this is something I'm going to try to do with people that are politically
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 oriented, not necessarily just everybody.
00:14:37 --> 00:14:42 I may try it with other folks. I'll see how it goes. But this is something we're going to feature.
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 I want to put in my interviews called 20 questions.
00:14:46 --> 00:14:51 So what I want you to do is think of a number between one and 20.
00:14:52 --> 00:14:56 OK. OK. You got to tell me I'm not a magician. You got to tell me.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:04 My number what was the number i'm sorry seven seven all right all right so your
00:15:04 --> 00:15:11 question is what do you consider the best way to stay informed about politics
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 current events health etc.
00:15:15 --> 00:15:19 Well, you know, I started out in local government and I always say local politics
00:15:19 --> 00:15:20 is your bread and your butter.
00:15:21 --> 00:15:26 It's everything that keeps, it's the glue that keeps society stuck together.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:29 And so the first thing I'll tell anybody is to get acclimated,
00:15:29 --> 00:15:35 get acquainted with your local politics. You know, whether it's your city council,
00:15:35 --> 00:15:39 whether it's attending a city council meeting or watching it on video,
00:15:40 --> 00:15:41 everything is virtual now.
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 You know, everything is also at your fingertips. So I feel like,
00:15:44 --> 00:15:48 you know, the best way to stay informed is because you have to want to be informed.
00:15:48 --> 00:15:51 You know, you have to want to understand what's going on with you.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:57 And to be honest, everything is political from your job, from go from your purchase of a home.
00:15:58 --> 00:16:04 Everything that involves your life is in a political state where someone is
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 controlling how you're able to do and live every day.
00:16:07 --> 00:16:12 So that's the best way to start. Just start local, then work your way up.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:17 I always tell people, everybody has a role to play and everybody can't protest.
00:16:18 --> 00:16:22 Everybody can't stand on the front lines. Everybody can't make public statements.
00:16:23 --> 00:16:30 So figure out your lane, figure out what you like to do, what you enjoy doing and grab it by the horn.
00:16:30 --> 00:16:34 It's like go after it and just be and make sure just aware of your everyday
00:16:34 --> 00:16:38 surroundings, because it's very important that you are aware of really,
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 truly what's going on with you in your everyday life. Yeah.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:47 Yeah. Well, that's that's the sermon I try to preach to every any and everybody,
00:16:47 --> 00:16:51 even though I'm not, quote unquote, an elected official anymore. I'm still engaged.
00:16:52 --> 00:16:58 And, you know, I always use the example that if you don't think that we need
00:16:58 --> 00:17:03 government, we don't think you need politics, then just tell me where the nearest
00:17:03 --> 00:17:07 intersection is where you live. And I'm going to pull all the stop signs.
00:17:08 --> 00:17:13 And see how that works out for you. Right. I mean, just, you know,
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 when I break it down like that, people are like, well,
00:17:16 --> 00:17:20 OK, but I said everything you do, if you if you want to build a church,
00:17:20 --> 00:17:26 you better know the county commissioner that is over zoning. Right.
00:17:26 --> 00:17:31 Because you might be buying some land and it might be deemed residential.
00:17:31 --> 00:17:33 And then you're like, well, what do you mean I can't build a church here?
00:17:35 --> 00:17:38 Everything, like you said, is related to politics and people.
00:17:38 --> 00:17:42 We don't want people to be political junkies like us, right? Not everybody.
00:17:42 --> 00:17:48 We want some good people to do that. But at the same time, people need to be engaged.
00:17:49 --> 00:17:53 You're preaching to the choir here, and I'm hoping that it's somebody.
00:17:54 --> 00:17:58 I'm glad somebody other than me is saying that out loud because people need
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 to truly understand that.
00:18:00 --> 00:18:04 All right. So now we're going to go back in time.
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08 So the last time you were on, we closed out with a prediction.
00:18:09 --> 00:18:15 I asked you and a couple other guests that were on the episode what 2024 was going to look like.
00:18:15 --> 00:18:20 So we're going to try this. This is this is this is what you said.
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 I feel like the Democrats can pull it off.
00:18:23 --> 00:18:29 I mean, they probably will because I don't think the Republicans right now surely
00:18:29 --> 00:18:33 have someone they really want to stand beside.
00:18:33 --> 00:18:36 I mean, I did see Mississippi sent out their list the other day about,
00:18:36 --> 00:18:39 hey, we're supporting Trump and all of this type of stuff.
00:18:39 --> 00:18:43 But from what I can see, that there are a lot of Republicans,
00:18:43 --> 00:18:48 because of the legalities of what's going on with Trump, they don't want to support him.
00:18:48 --> 00:18:52 And then I'm still kind of going through the Republican debates that I want,
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 you know, to see how they truly identify the person they're going to stand behind.
00:18:56 --> 00:19:00 But I do see us definitely. I do see the Democrats definitely probably winning again.
00:19:01 --> 00:19:05 I just want to see. I'm looking forward to seeing where the foreign relations
00:19:05 --> 00:19:09 and where we're going to be in the foreign policy side in the upcoming years,
00:19:09 --> 00:19:16 based on what we're experiencing with Israel and people not thinking about Russia is still a thing.
00:19:16 --> 00:19:21 And so those are some of my things I'm looking forward to seeing how Biden is
00:19:21 --> 00:19:22 going to respond in the upcoming years.
00:19:23 --> 00:19:26 But it's going to be interesting because I have heard.
00:19:26 --> 00:19:32 I know I don't like to appreciate he said, she said, but to see what four years
00:19:32 --> 00:19:37 can look like for Biden or could this be an opportunity for Conor to step up? I don't know.
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 That's going to be something that interesting to see.
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 Would she still just like to be VP? So.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:46 It would be great to have a black woman president. All right.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:51 So for the listeners, that was in December of 2023 when she made that prediction.
00:19:52 --> 00:19:54 So a lot of stuff has happened.
00:19:56 --> 00:20:00 In between that. Why I predicted that one. Okay.
00:20:01 --> 00:20:07 That was before, because I felt like Biden had a really fighting chance.
00:20:07 --> 00:20:12 This was way before they put Vice President Kamala Harris in the race.
00:20:12 --> 00:20:19 My predictions was really solely on the idea of it being between Joe and Trump,
00:20:20 --> 00:20:25 you know, and I felt like Joe really had the numbers and he had the at that time the ability to win.
00:20:25 --> 00:20:34 However, I will say this Once, unfortunately, President Joe Biden was forced
00:20:34 --> 00:20:37 to step down From the reins of being, you know,
00:20:38 --> 00:20:42 the Democratic nominee And I saw that Vice President Kamala Harris was getting
00:20:42 --> 00:20:46 ready to be the nominee When they made that announcement Then my prediction
00:20:46 --> 00:20:47 did change Unfortunately,
00:20:47 --> 00:20:52 we didn't interview between that time But I knew then once that took place that
00:20:52 --> 00:20:56 it was going to be an uphill battle for the Democratic Party,
00:20:57 --> 00:20:57 you know, unfortunately.
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 Yeah. And, you know, I shared your excitement.
00:21:02 --> 00:21:09 I kind of had the same thought process that Biden was at that time that Biden was going to run.
00:21:09 --> 00:21:14 He was going to win. And then somehow, some way during that first year,
00:21:15 --> 00:21:20 that second term, he was going to step down and let Kamala finish out the term.
00:21:21 --> 00:21:26 And, you know, that was something, you know, I didn't really put out there.
00:21:27 --> 00:21:31 But, you know, with some people that I was close to, I kind of felt that because
00:21:31 --> 00:21:36 you could see that he was he was the office was getting to him.
00:21:36 --> 00:21:43 I was looking at some footage from 2018 where he was speaking to the press club
00:21:43 --> 00:21:48 and then, you know, they showed like footage from last year.
00:21:49 --> 00:21:54 Right after he had dropped out of the race and he spoke to the same group and
00:21:54 --> 00:21:57 you could see how he had aged so much.
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 And, you know, but that's that's the burden of the position.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:07 And so, you know, he was, you know, I just kind of figured if it was going to
00:22:07 --> 00:22:10 be between him and Trump that the people would make that decision.
00:22:10 --> 00:22:15 But after that debate and God bless Vice President Harris for trying to put
00:22:15 --> 00:22:17 the best spin on it as she could.
00:22:17 --> 00:22:23 But at that point, it was just kind of like when Nancy Pelosi say you too old, you too old.
00:22:24 --> 00:22:27 You know what I'm saying? So that was kind of.
00:22:28 --> 00:22:33 You know, what I saw, but it's always good to go back and think about because
00:22:33 --> 00:22:38 things in politics, it's just a reminder that things in politics change so much
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 and it can change real quick.
00:22:41 --> 00:22:47 And yeah, so, you know, I, I was hoping, did you go to the convention?
00:22:48 --> 00:22:52 Did not. Yeah, I did. I got to go. And man,
00:22:53 --> 00:22:58 when it came, when we came out at that, you know, It was like people were,
00:22:58 --> 00:23:03 there were a lot of pragmatic people, but the excitement was real.
00:23:04 --> 00:23:11 There was some real momentum there. And then, you know, Labor Day happened and
00:23:11 --> 00:23:14 it seemed like, and, you know,
00:23:15 --> 00:23:19 after Labor Day, it just kind of seemed like everything was kind of running
00:23:19 --> 00:23:27 on fumes instead of, instead of being, maintaining the level of energy that was in Chicago.
00:23:27 --> 00:23:29 Bill, which kind of leads me to this question.
00:23:30 --> 00:23:35 You and I have been doing this kind of stuff, you know, for, for a while.
00:23:36 --> 00:23:40 One of the things I had heard, like not too long after the convention,
00:23:40 --> 00:23:44 and then, you know, now it's autopsies are being done.
00:23:44 --> 00:23:48 People are pointing out what should have been done, all this stuff.
00:23:48 --> 00:23:53 So there was a criticism that the campaign depended on the white consultant
00:23:53 --> 00:23:57 class too much and not enough on traditional black outreach.
00:23:59 --> 00:24:03 What, what, what is, what is your take on that?
00:24:03 --> 00:24:07 When, when you hear that kind of criticism that it's like, well,
00:24:08 --> 00:24:13 you know, you were listening to these Washington DC folks and you weren't out
00:24:13 --> 00:24:17 there in the street is basically what they were saying. And you didn't put the money out there.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:21 How do you respond to that as somebody that's been an activist and,
00:24:21 --> 00:24:25 and been involved in campaigns, that kind of thing.
00:24:26 --> 00:24:31 As a former person who's worked on campaigns, even some locally in Mississippi,
00:24:31 --> 00:24:34 which was my recent one when I did the governor's race.
00:24:35 --> 00:24:41 One thing I can say is I see it. I've experienced it in my own personal career
00:24:41 --> 00:24:46 where you are if you are a person of color or a black person.
00:24:47 --> 00:24:51 I like to consider myself a black woman, of course. and you're put in a position,
00:24:51 --> 00:24:56 whether if it's knocking on doors, whether if it's a policy analyst or whatever
00:24:56 --> 00:25:01 that role is, your expectation is for them to rely on your expertise.
00:25:02 --> 00:25:07 I don't just want to be your color quota person on this campaign or someone
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 you just need to fill in a gap.
00:25:10 --> 00:25:13 Because if that's the case, then you could have left me where I would, right?
00:25:14 --> 00:25:18 And so I believe that that, I believe there is some validity to that because
00:25:18 --> 00:25:22 there is a history of when Black people,
00:25:22 --> 00:25:25 especially that has been in the Democratic Party for so long,
00:25:26 --> 00:25:29 or just in the political space, and they get put on these campaigns,
00:25:29 --> 00:25:35 they don't get the roles that most senior level people of the Caucasian descent
00:25:35 --> 00:25:37 gets. And that's just been valid.
00:25:37 --> 00:25:41 And it's still happening in the political space, whether if it's on the Hill,
00:25:41 --> 00:25:42 whether it's unless, you know,
00:25:42 --> 00:25:47 depending on what official you're working with, it's always the same.
00:25:47 --> 00:25:52 And so we have to get out of the ideology that black people are only fit for
00:25:52 --> 00:25:56 these certain lower level roles because of what it requires.
00:25:56 --> 00:25:57 It requires them to go into community.
00:25:57 --> 00:26:02 And where do most Democratic parties try to target when they're running for
00:26:02 --> 00:26:04 presidential elections in the black community?
00:26:04 --> 00:26:08 So they put the Black people, of course, in those areas, whereas it's not saying
00:26:08 --> 00:26:12 that we shouldn't be there, but there's also saying that there are other roles
00:26:12 --> 00:26:17 that we can fulfill that doesn't require us to be a seller point to our people.
00:26:17 --> 00:26:21 And I think that that needs to eventually change and it's going to take some
00:26:21 --> 00:26:27 time for us for it to change because I did see the TikTok picture of our communications team. Right.
00:26:27 --> 00:26:33 And what better way in building a communications team to communities and to
00:26:33 --> 00:26:34 areas where it's not diverse?
00:26:34 --> 00:26:38 And I'm not saying have all black people on a staff or have all white people
00:26:38 --> 00:26:43 like bring a diverse perspective and bring a diverse group because it's more
00:26:43 --> 00:26:46 than black people that vote is more than Caucasian people that vote.
00:26:46 --> 00:26:50 You have your Latino, you have your Asians, you have America is America.
00:26:50 --> 00:26:54 You have African people from, you know, all across the world.
00:26:54 --> 00:26:59 Like we're not America does not look the way it used to look years ago.
00:26:59 --> 00:27:04 And we have to change these political norms and step outside of the box in order
00:27:04 --> 00:27:09 to carry the torch. Because if not, we're going to continue to put black people
00:27:09 --> 00:27:11 in these silo roles and then there is no progression.
00:27:13 --> 00:27:18 Yeah, I've personally experienced that when I was a staffer for.
00:27:20 --> 00:27:25 Well, I say people's names because they know what they did when I was with Mike Parker.
00:27:26 --> 00:27:29 Right. When Mike Parker first got elected to Congress, I was his scheduler.
00:27:30 --> 00:27:34 I was I was the one making sure he got to where he needed to be.
00:27:35 --> 00:27:40 And then once he got the nomination, then all of a sudden I was just the black guy. Right.
00:27:41 --> 00:27:45 And, you know, they tried that for about a couple of weeks.
00:27:46 --> 00:27:49 And then they realized, no, no, Eric needs to be the scheduler.
00:27:49 --> 00:27:51 He needs to be back in that position.
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54 And, you know, and he won.
00:27:55 --> 00:27:59 But I mean, I was a quota candidate. I don't know if I ever told you this story.
00:27:59 --> 00:28:02 And I don't know if you were probably too young to pick up on that.
00:28:02 --> 00:28:10 But when I ran for the U.S. Senate in 2008, my job was to be the black candidate
00:28:10 --> 00:28:11 to get the black vote for Musgrove.
00:28:12 --> 00:28:16 That's what the national folks told me my role was, because in their mind,
00:28:16 --> 00:28:18 Hillary Clinton was going to be the nominee.
00:28:18 --> 00:28:21 So it was like we need
00:28:21 --> 00:28:24 you to run against ad cochran of
00:28:24 --> 00:28:27 all people to make sure black folks
00:28:27 --> 00:28:30 in mississippi come out and vote well thank god
00:28:30 --> 00:28:34 barack obama won because then my candidacy went
00:28:34 --> 00:28:37 from just being the the the
00:28:37 --> 00:28:39 black candidate to get black people to like oh snap
00:28:39 --> 00:28:43 he might actually have a shot at winning right along with
00:28:43 --> 00:28:46 muscrow so all of
00:28:46 --> 00:28:49 us that have been in this game have been through through
00:28:49 --> 00:28:52 that and and you know
00:28:52 --> 00:28:59 it was like i think i i think that to me if if if vice president harris it was
00:28:59 --> 00:29:06 understood from day one that she was going to be the nominee and you know biden
00:29:06 --> 00:29:11 wasn't running at all and she could have picked her team.
00:29:12 --> 00:29:16 I think the fact that she was basically the, the, the, the sub,
00:29:17 --> 00:29:21 she had to inherit the team that Biden had put together and.
00:29:21 --> 00:29:25 You know, whatever deals had been cut, had been cut.
00:29:25 --> 00:29:30 And I still think she did a phenomenal job considering because I mean,
00:29:30 --> 00:29:34 I don't know any other human being that could get 226 electoral votes in a hundred days. Yeah.
00:29:35 --> 00:29:39 Now, I will say she put up a good fight. I got to give her that.
00:29:39 --> 00:29:42 And the Democratic Party, they would.
00:29:43 --> 00:29:48 And it's not just the Democratic Party. Is this the way they pitch where I've
00:29:48 --> 00:29:52 seen how corporate world does it? You know, we get black women or we get black
00:29:52 --> 00:29:56 people into certain roles and we don't have the tools. We don't have the resources.
00:29:56 --> 00:30:00 And it's like it's like cherry picking. We get what we can get and you get tired
00:30:00 --> 00:30:02 of just getting what you can get.
00:30:02 --> 00:30:05 And I did see that like she just like what you just said, you know,
00:30:06 --> 00:30:10 just to echo like she got what was left or she got what was already created.
00:30:11 --> 00:30:16 And not being able to get to choose and get to have that voice in a in a matter
00:30:16 --> 00:30:19 of like, hey, this is what I want. This is what I desire.
00:30:19 --> 00:30:21 These are the people that I wanted, because I'm going to be honest with you.
00:30:21 --> 00:30:24 The first campaign they ran, I always say this.
00:30:25 --> 00:30:28 Simone, I can't think of her last name. Sanders. Sanders.
00:30:29 --> 00:30:34 She carried that election on her back. People can say what they want to say.
00:30:35 --> 00:30:39 And kudos to her for really going off and doing great things.
00:30:39 --> 00:30:44 But from the time that election happened in 2020, I saw where she carried the
00:30:44 --> 00:30:47 election on her back, whether if it was defending Kamala, whether if it's defending
00:30:47 --> 00:30:51 Biden, like, I'm not saying that other people did not do their work,
00:30:51 --> 00:30:53 but when it came to publicly displaying,
00:30:53 --> 00:30:55 she literally carried that torch.
00:30:55 --> 00:31:00 And so, and I feel like this election cycle missed somebody who's going to carry
00:31:00 --> 00:31:02 that. It always have to be somebody.
00:31:02 --> 00:31:07 Unfortunately, nobody was able, nobody was willing to carry that election on
00:31:07 --> 00:31:09 their back and on their shoulders in the way they would have got her to the
00:31:09 --> 00:31:12 finish lunch line. And that's what she had missed.
00:31:13 --> 00:31:18 Yeah. Yeah. You got to have you got to have an effective surrogate to lay the
00:31:18 --> 00:31:20 case. And I agree with you.
00:31:21 --> 00:31:25 And, you know, like you said, she landed on her feet, but I think she could
00:31:25 --> 00:31:28 have gotten a better role than what she got.
00:31:29 --> 00:31:38 But she landed on her feet. And and like you said, she did a lot of the work publicly to to sell,
00:31:39 --> 00:31:43 people, not just Black folks, but people in general, that Biden was the answer.
00:31:44 --> 00:31:45 Let me tell you one more thing. Yeah, go ahead.
00:31:46 --> 00:31:50 They put her in a box. The Democratic Party did.
00:31:50 --> 00:31:53 When you go back and look at all her rallies, when you go back and identify
00:31:53 --> 00:31:58 some of her speeches and some of the things that she said, I don't think her
00:31:58 --> 00:32:00 wording, I don't know who a speechwriter was or whomever.
00:32:01 --> 00:32:05 They placed her in a box. They only allow her to only go so far.
00:32:05 --> 00:32:10 And I think that's where the Democratic Party always tend to want to be so politically
00:32:10 --> 00:32:15 correct, where we sometimes it's OK to say, hey, we got this one wrong.
00:32:15 --> 00:32:20 And that's just across the board. And I think until we learn as people to take
00:32:20 --> 00:32:23 acknowledgement, you don't have to play the blame game.
00:32:23 --> 00:32:26 We can say, hey, look, we didn't come at this in a strategy form.
00:32:27 --> 00:32:32 We did a lot of things last minute. Now let's go back and reassess.
00:32:32 --> 00:32:34 Let's take this loss. Let's take this ill.
00:32:34 --> 00:32:38 Let the Trump administration do whatever it is they need to do. We
00:32:38 --> 00:32:41 need to go back to the drawing board and revamp to figure out how do we come
00:32:41 --> 00:32:45 out stronger and better and creating policies that truly affect the American
00:32:45 --> 00:32:49 people and not be so social driven when there's a whole economy that's happening
00:32:49 --> 00:32:54 where people are losing jobs and cost of living is constantly increasing.
00:32:55 --> 00:32:56 Like you got to talk the American language.
00:32:57 --> 00:33:02 I always say that the Democratic Party has branded the civil rights movement
00:33:02 --> 00:33:05 and we try to align everything with civil rights era.
00:33:06 --> 00:33:12 And it's time to, I'm not saying don't address the civil issues that are happening in our society,
00:33:12 --> 00:33:19 but it's truly time for us to build a solid economic platform and groundbreaking
00:33:19 --> 00:33:21 for the American people.
00:33:21 --> 00:33:24 And I think that's the part that the Democratic Party has lost from.
00:33:24 --> 00:33:27 Did you know a guy in Mississippi named James Covington?
00:33:28 --> 00:33:34 I did. So James wrote a book called From Civil to Silver Rights.
00:33:34 --> 00:33:40 And, you know, that was the whole premise of this book that we have to get past
00:33:40 --> 00:33:45 asking for because his argument was that's where Dr. King was going.
00:33:45 --> 00:33:50 It was like, you know, when they took Dr. King out, he was organizing a poor people's campaign.
00:33:51 --> 00:33:56 He had gotten past voting rights and public accommodations. It was now time
00:33:56 --> 00:33:57 to deal with the economics.
00:33:58 --> 00:34:07 And to me, if we had more of a say-so, meaning Black folks, I think I think
00:34:07 --> 00:34:13 the campaign would have been more attuned to that as opposed to.
00:34:14 --> 00:34:22 You know, her and her discipline, as she referred to it, just trying to push these right buttons.
00:34:22 --> 00:34:25 That was all of a sudden. I mean, all the issues were there.
00:34:26 --> 00:34:29 We knew about women's rights. We knew about immigration.
00:34:30 --> 00:34:36 But people wanted to know, are you going to fix this inflation?
00:34:36 --> 00:34:40 And if you can't fix this inflation, how are you going to what strategy you're
00:34:40 --> 00:34:44 going to have to try to make it so I can live my life?
00:34:44 --> 00:34:48 Because if I'm worried about bills, if I'm worried about my job,
00:34:48 --> 00:34:54 if I'm worried about, you know, being able to have affordable health care,
00:34:54 --> 00:34:57 I'm not really concerned about what they're doing over there in Israel.
00:34:58 --> 00:35:00 Right. I could care less what they're doing in Ukraine.
00:35:00 --> 00:35:07 And so I I believe that black populism beats white populism all the time.
00:35:08 --> 00:35:13 I just do, because if anybody's going to catch it in the United States, it's us as black folks.
00:35:14 --> 00:35:19 And I think if you can address the issues that we have economically,
00:35:20 --> 00:35:23 you know, what's the old saying that a rising tide lifts all bolts?
00:35:24 --> 00:35:29 You know, I think that would have been, you know, but, you know,
00:35:29 --> 00:35:33 a lot of times when we have these kind of discussions, it's just like me looking
00:35:33 --> 00:35:37 at the Chicago Bears and like, oh, my God, if they had done this and done that
00:35:37 --> 00:35:38 in a football game, you know what I'm saying?
00:35:39 --> 00:35:43 I'm not out there. I'm just watching. I can't do anything about it.
00:35:43 --> 00:35:48 But, you know, we have ideas. And so, you know, I just.
00:35:49 --> 00:35:51 So what do you think she's going to do next?
00:35:53 --> 00:35:58 Read where she's supposed to. Well, I've read about her possibly running office
00:35:58 --> 00:36:00 back in California, running for office in California.
00:36:00 --> 00:36:06 I kind of don't know. I mean, I don't think that, you know, if you look at her
00:36:06 --> 00:36:10 career, if people have ever paid attention, she's always said how she was the
00:36:10 --> 00:36:13 first to do this and she was the first to do that and the first to break a lot of grounds.
00:36:13 --> 00:36:18 And so I think for her, it's going to be about where does she see herself?
00:36:18 --> 00:36:21 Where does she want to be? What does she want to take back from what she's done
00:36:21 --> 00:36:24 at the White House and being an attorney for all these years?
00:36:25 --> 00:36:28 What is it that she's trying to take back to California? What changes she's
00:36:28 --> 00:36:30 willing to make or what changes she even want to make?
00:36:30 --> 00:36:35 So I think it's going to be up to what she sees would be her final stamp of approval.
00:36:35 --> 00:36:38 I'm going to be honest with you. If I became the vice president, I'm clocking out.
00:36:39 --> 00:36:43 There's nothing else that I can give to America. I've
00:36:43 --> 00:36:45 given you all four years and you know even
00:36:45 --> 00:36:48 when she was a senate and sometimes and I
00:36:48 --> 00:36:53 really hope that she she goes and sometimes take a break you know we as women
00:36:53 --> 00:36:58 always feel like we supposed to be doing we suppose we have to do I don't know
00:36:58 --> 00:37:01 if it's because we want the credibility we want the stamp of approval from society
00:37:01 --> 00:37:06 but I really hope she I really hope she take a break you know that's what I,
00:37:07 --> 00:37:11 Well, I know she's going to write a book because they just gave her $20 million to write a book.
00:37:14 --> 00:37:19 So, and I'm sure she's going to use that $20 million to look at some down the road.
00:37:19 --> 00:37:23 I hope that she runs for governor of California.
00:37:23 --> 00:37:28 I would love for her to still be in the national discussion.
00:37:28 --> 00:37:31 I wouldn't run for president again if I was her.
00:37:32 --> 00:37:37 You know, you give it a shot and this was really her second shot at it.
00:37:37 --> 00:37:39 And she actually was the nominee.
00:37:40 --> 00:37:47 So, you know, I think if she could get that position in California, it'd be the governor.
00:37:47 --> 00:37:53 I think that'll give her the platform that she needs to address issues.
00:37:54 --> 00:37:56 It's the fifth largest economy in the world.
00:37:57 --> 00:38:02 And, you know, they're going through a little struggle right now with the wildfires and stuff.
00:38:02 --> 00:38:09 But I think I think if she if if she's the governor and Karen Bass is still
00:38:09 --> 00:38:14 the mayor of Los Angeles, I think that'll be an incredible story to tell.
00:38:15 --> 00:38:18 And do you do you go back, though?
00:38:19 --> 00:38:27 You go back and run for a federal seat, you know, a state seat when you became the governor.
00:38:27 --> 00:38:31 I mean, when you was the vice president. Well, I mean, I mean,
00:38:31 --> 00:38:34 the governor is like, you know, there's only 50 of them.
00:38:34 --> 00:38:41 And and, you know, it's like I don't necessarily I get what you're saying.
00:38:41 --> 00:38:47 But it's like if she was if she came from Mississippi or Louisiana or something
00:38:47 --> 00:38:49 like that. OK, no, probably not.
00:38:49 --> 00:38:58 But California, I mean, California, states like California, Texas, you know.
00:38:58 --> 00:39:02 That literally were countries at one point in the history of the world.
00:39:03 --> 00:39:07 Yeah. I mean, those are, that's, that's a big position. Just like if,
00:39:07 --> 00:39:14 you know, if, if they asked me one time, if you could be mayor of Jackson,
00:39:14 --> 00:39:16 would you take, I said, no, but I'd, I'd be the mayor of Chicago.
00:39:17 --> 00:39:20 Yeah, that makes sense. I see what you're saying. I see where you're going with
00:39:20 --> 00:39:23 that because that gives me a national platform. You know what I'm saying?
00:39:23 --> 00:39:27 I think I would do good as the mayor of Jackson. Although the minute that I
00:39:27 --> 00:39:31 get sworn in, half the folks will hate my guts just because I'm the mayor.
00:39:31 --> 00:39:34 But it's the same way everywhere else.
00:39:34 --> 00:39:39 It's just a matter of having a national platform because there's a young brother
00:39:39 --> 00:39:40 in Stockton, California.
00:39:40 --> 00:39:45 People don't talk about. I can't remember his name, but I know he's done some innovative things.
00:39:46 --> 00:39:51 But if he was the mayor of Los Angeles, people would know him because the stuff
00:39:51 --> 00:39:56 he's doing in Stockton is incredible. I mean, poor people get a check in Stockton, California.
00:39:56 --> 00:39:59 He's, he's dealing with the homeless situation there.
00:40:00 --> 00:40:03 And, you know, but if he had a bigger venue, you know,
00:40:03 --> 00:40:08 You know, I mean, it was his dream because he was he grew up in Stockton.
00:40:08 --> 00:40:13 So I'm not knocking that, but I'm just saying if he wanted to have more of a
00:40:13 --> 00:40:19 national platform, Los Angeles would have given him that as opposed to where he where he is.
00:40:19 --> 00:40:24 And so I think if she was the governor of California, she would still have a
00:40:24 --> 00:40:32 national platform and probably in lesser distress because even being vice president, you're in that D.C.
00:40:32 --> 00:40:35 Soup soup bowl and and you
00:40:35 --> 00:40:38 are privy to information that a lot of normal human
00:40:38 --> 00:40:40 beings do not get in california you're
00:40:40 --> 00:40:44 not going to get that pressure but you'll still have that prestige so
00:40:44 --> 00:40:50 but that's just you know like i said if she probably will take your advice and
00:40:50 --> 00:40:55 just like you know what it's been great i'm gonna sit out so you were kind of
00:40:55 --> 00:41:03 alluding to it in in one of your answers How do the Democrats rebound from this?
00:41:03 --> 00:41:10 How do they take that L and fix it for the midterm elections and fix it for
00:41:10 --> 00:41:12 whoever's going to run in 2028?
00:41:14 --> 00:41:19 We got to go back to the basic. We have to go back to, I'm so sorry. Hold on.
00:41:20 --> 00:41:23 Did you hear my background on it? A little bit, but it's okay.
00:41:24 --> 00:41:27 Okay. So we have to go back to the basics.
00:41:28 --> 00:41:32 We have to go back to figuring out, for one, get out of this socialism,
00:41:32 --> 00:41:34 classism type stuff with the Democratic Party.
00:41:35 --> 00:41:38 I noticed that was something that people pointed out a
00:41:38 --> 00:41:41 lot where even even
00:41:41 --> 00:41:44 being in politics I saw it you know it's it's depending on
00:41:44 --> 00:41:47 what school you went to where you graduated from before you get this certain
00:41:47 --> 00:41:53 job a specific job who do you know and all of those things and it's kind of
00:41:53 --> 00:41:57 to the point where we have to get out of that social the the socialism of politics
00:41:57 --> 00:42:02 and get back to people and until we get back to that part into whether it's
00:42:02 --> 00:42:03 a democratic party or the republic Well,
00:42:03 --> 00:42:06 I always feel like the Republican Party, they're going to talk to everybody.
00:42:06 --> 00:42:10 They don't care who you are, what it is, like your background.
00:42:11 --> 00:42:14 They create speeches. They create language for everyone.
00:42:15 --> 00:42:18 And I think that we got to figure out how do we create language and stop trying
00:42:18 --> 00:42:19 to create language barriers?
00:42:20 --> 00:42:23 How do we talk politics without trying to figure out how do we talk over people's head?
00:42:23 --> 00:42:28 How do we make how do we make foreign affairs and foreign relations relatable?
00:42:28 --> 00:42:34 How do we integrate public policies and make it to where it sticks with people?
00:42:34 --> 00:42:39 And until that happens, there's going to always be a battleground because right
00:42:39 --> 00:42:44 now we have generations who, unfortunately, they say TikTok is going to be banned this month.
00:42:44 --> 00:42:47 But there's so much information is being spewed out right now.
00:42:47 --> 00:42:49 That's beyond the classroom.
00:42:49 --> 00:42:54 That's beyond your everyday news stations and conversations where people are
00:42:54 --> 00:42:57 doing their own research, creating their own analysis.
00:42:58 --> 00:43:01 And you gotta, and honestly, you know, you said something about Nancy Pelosi,
00:43:02 --> 00:43:04 said something about big people being too old.
00:43:04 --> 00:43:10 We also have to, as a Democratic party or every party has to realize that some
00:43:10 --> 00:43:12 people, it's time for you to go home.
00:43:12 --> 00:43:17 It is okay to pack up and go home. You ran your race, you've been in Congress,
00:43:17 --> 00:43:21 you've been a Senate, you know, you've played in these roles for so long.
00:43:21 --> 00:43:23 How much more power do you think you need?
00:43:23 --> 00:43:27 And how much more power is, at this point, it's not power.
00:43:27 --> 00:43:29 It's about greed and until we get out of the greed
00:43:29 --> 00:43:32 mentality that's when we're going
00:43:32 --> 00:43:38 to continue to stay where we are and unfortunately i hope this election open
00:43:38 --> 00:43:42 up the eyes of the democratic party because if this didn't open up their eyes
00:43:42 --> 00:43:46 i don't know what will well i'm a little concerned about the eye opening because
00:43:46 --> 00:43:52 so like what's the lady's name it's a lady in minnesota and.
00:43:53 --> 00:43:56 She got elected. She they they
00:43:56 --> 00:44:01 she beat out some older members to be the ranking member on agriculture.
00:44:02 --> 00:44:08 But then when Jasmine Crockett and AOC tried to do the same thing,
00:44:08 --> 00:44:10 they got kicked to the curb on it.
00:44:10 --> 00:44:14 So I don't think they are learning the lesson. I think there are some people
00:44:14 --> 00:44:24 that are dynamic enough or don't pose a threat to some people that they've been
00:44:24 --> 00:44:27 fortunate to get up there. Akeem Jeffries is one of those people.
00:44:28 --> 00:44:34 I think, you know, he's, you know, Nancy conceded to him because she felt he
00:44:34 --> 00:44:36 was going to carry forth the agenda or what have you.
00:44:37 --> 00:44:44 But, you know, and there was pressure exerted internally that way. But I don't know.
00:44:44 --> 00:44:49 I'm one of those people that believe that leadership should evolve,
00:44:49 --> 00:44:54 but that's an altruistic view, because most of the time leadership changes through
00:44:54 --> 00:44:57 revolution instead of evolution.
00:44:57 --> 00:45:02 And, you know, I believe in mentoring people because people ask me a lot.
00:45:02 --> 00:45:04 They say, Eric, why don't you run for something?
00:45:04 --> 00:45:10 I mean, you're still young, maybe compared to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. them young, yeah.
00:45:10 --> 00:45:15 But, you know, when I was elected, that's literally been, God,
00:45:15 --> 00:45:17 that's been over 20 years ago.
00:45:17 --> 00:45:20 I mean, we're fast approaching, let's say, 99.
00:45:20 --> 00:45:23 That's a long time ago. That's almost 25 years.
00:45:24 --> 00:45:32 So, or it is 25 years. So, you know, I think it's time for people to,
00:45:33 --> 00:45:36 you know, you've got some young folks out there.
00:45:36 --> 00:45:41 You've been fortunate to get some, And maybe my generation, Generation X, you know,
00:45:41 --> 00:45:48 maybe there's one person that might get a shot at it because everybody else,
00:45:49 --> 00:45:51 the older folks have held on to it so long.
00:45:51 --> 00:45:56 You know, Kamala was literally like the first person because Obama is older than her.
00:45:56 --> 00:46:01 So, I mean, she was really like the first Gen Xer that really had a shot at winning.
00:46:02 --> 00:46:07 And, you know, so and the Republicans, like you said, they're they're they're
00:46:07 --> 00:46:11 not only messaging out, but they're pulling people from all different generations
00:46:11 --> 00:46:14 to build their leadership core.
00:46:14 --> 00:46:21 And I think the Democrats have a bench, but the folks that are in leadership
00:46:21 --> 00:46:23 don't want to give up their positions.
00:46:23 --> 00:46:26 And if they do give them up, they give them up reluctantly, which means that
00:46:26 --> 00:46:31 they still meddling in everything instead of letting folks be in charge and
00:46:31 --> 00:46:36 move the party in the direction it needs to go. Yeah.
00:46:37 --> 00:46:42 All right. So let's let's close it out with this. What is your what is your
00:46:42 --> 00:46:48 biggest concern as we head into a second Trump administration,
00:46:48 --> 00:46:55 not from a party standpoint, but just as as a black woman in the United States of America?
00:46:55 --> 00:47:00 What what is your biggest concern about a second Trump term?
00:47:02 --> 00:47:08 You know, this may sound I don't know how this is going to sound or how it's going to come off.
00:47:08 --> 00:47:15 But I really like when Trump got elected the first time I was I was shocked,
00:47:15 --> 00:47:19 but I wasn't, you know, because, you know, Hillary won the popular vote.
00:47:19 --> 00:47:22 But I was like, OK, let's see what's going to happen with this.
00:47:22 --> 00:47:23 What is this going to truly look like?
00:47:24 --> 00:47:29 And fortunately, as a black person, when we get or when we receive,
00:47:29 --> 00:47:32 we always end up with the short end of the stick.
00:47:32 --> 00:47:37 Now, I will say a lot of great opportunities came out of me attending the White
00:47:37 --> 00:47:40 House, going to a few political events during the Biden administration.
00:47:40 --> 00:47:43 And I'm forever thankful and grateful for those opportunities.
00:47:43 --> 00:47:48 And so one of my things is how the engagement, what is the engagement going
00:47:48 --> 00:47:51 to look like with the White House when it comes to bringing that back in?
00:47:51 --> 00:47:56 People who have experts, who are experts in certain fields, who've been doing
00:47:56 --> 00:48:02 the work for so long, whether it will there be any type of bipartisan support
00:48:02 --> 00:48:06 on a few issues such as health care, such as the economy,
00:48:06 --> 00:48:09 you know, like those are some of the things that I'm more concerned about.
00:48:09 --> 00:48:15 Just more so of the collaboration, the partnership, truly taking America forward
00:48:15 --> 00:48:18 in a way where we, you know, because we have suffered a lot.
00:48:19 --> 00:48:23 But also, I do know that I'm a Black person in America who,
00:48:23 --> 00:48:30 has become custom to the adversaries that we've experienced.
00:48:31 --> 00:48:36 So I just, I don't know what to expect. I don't know what to look forward to.
00:48:36 --> 00:48:40 Again, it's just going to be another four years of us being,
00:48:40 --> 00:48:44 hopefully we're going to continue to be pawns on a string as Black people.
00:48:44 --> 00:48:49 But I just hope that there's a way that the Trump administration can do better.
00:48:49 --> 00:48:53 And not just the Trump administration? How do we do better than the previous administration?
00:48:53 --> 00:48:57 How do they come in, do something greater and better with the Biden administration
00:48:57 --> 00:49:01 need, or not just do it better, what do we contribute?
00:49:01 --> 00:49:06 How do we add on instead of always trying to tear something down or apart?
00:49:06 --> 00:49:11 I remember, you know, when the Obama administration passed the healthcare bill,
00:49:12 --> 00:49:14 then the Republicans were like, hey, we want to tear this down.
00:49:14 --> 00:49:19 It doesn't work. But then you kept it because you realized there was no other plan.
00:49:19 --> 00:49:23 So let's stop trying to, and this is go for all parties, all administrations,
00:49:23 --> 00:49:24 like let's stop trying to tear
00:49:24 --> 00:49:28 everything down that was built and figure out a way, how do we build up?
00:49:28 --> 00:49:32 One thing that I did see, you know, that's been passed around is like Trump,
00:49:32 --> 00:49:37 I mean, Trump and President Obama having a conversation at President Carter's funeral, right?
00:49:37 --> 00:49:42 And what I took from that is that we got to stop trying to stand,
00:49:42 --> 00:49:46 we can stand on two sides of the aisle, but at some point we got to bridge those aisles together.
00:49:46 --> 00:49:51 And I think that's what my hope is, it's for America as a whole.
00:49:51 --> 00:49:55 How do we build this country together instead of continuing to divide it apart?
00:49:56 --> 00:49:58 Yeah, I'm all for that.
00:49:59 --> 00:50:04 You know, that's part of the reason I do what I do with this podcast is that.
00:50:05 --> 00:50:12 It's no secret what side of the aisle I'm on, but I try to give people on the
00:50:12 --> 00:50:16 other side or somebody down the hall, even what,
00:50:16 --> 00:50:22 you know, give them a viewpoint and expose people to those different viewpoints
00:50:22 --> 00:50:25 and let them make an intelligent decision which way they want to go.
00:50:26 --> 00:50:32 But the only way and just learning that from having a privilege of being in
00:50:32 --> 00:50:36 a legislative body and understanding that you've got to talk to people,
00:50:37 --> 00:50:41 because, you know, what I remind people all the time is that everybody in that
00:50:41 --> 00:50:46 in that Capitol building didn't vote for you. Right.
00:50:46 --> 00:50:48 It was like you represent your district.
00:50:48 --> 00:50:50 Right. And they're all representing their district.
00:50:51 --> 00:50:56 So you've got to go in there and convince them that this is a good idea.
00:50:58 --> 00:51:03 And, you know, it's like if you just think that just because they're Democrat,
00:51:04 --> 00:51:06 just because they're black, they're going to fall in line with you.
00:51:06 --> 00:51:08 That's that's the delusional thought.
00:51:09 --> 00:51:14 Everybody has an agenda and you've got to you've got to be able to find out
00:51:14 --> 00:51:20 where they're coming from and to have discussions, have dialogue and come up with solutions.
00:51:20 --> 00:51:29 And I would I would if if Donald Trump and Barack Obama decide to have a cordial
00:51:29 --> 00:51:33 relationship, that's going to help the nation to me,
00:51:33 --> 00:51:38 as opposed to what we've been experiencing over the last decade. Right.
00:51:38 --> 00:51:43 If if if Donald Trump will pick up the phone and just like previous presidents
00:51:43 --> 00:51:49 before and say, look, I'm in this situation, you know, what's your thoughts?
00:51:49 --> 00:51:51 Who should I need to call? Yeah, whatever.
00:51:52 --> 00:51:55 Because, you know, or I'm thinking about doing this.
00:51:55 --> 00:52:01 What would you do if if if if if we had that dialogue, what we used to have,
00:52:01 --> 00:52:04 we'll we'll make it through whoever the president's going to be.
00:52:04 --> 00:52:10 But if if if it's still going to be this combative Civil War type mentality,
00:52:10 --> 00:52:14 you know, then then then we have to buckle up.
00:52:14 --> 00:52:20 And I just and I just want my biggest criticism from what I've seen so far is
00:52:20 --> 00:52:24 that don't pick people that are your fans to be in your cabinet.
00:52:25 --> 00:52:27 Pick people like you did the first time.
00:52:28 --> 00:52:30 Pick people that'll say no to you.
00:52:30 --> 00:52:35 Right. Because none of these people that he's picking now, the biggest if I
00:52:35 --> 00:52:40 was a member of the Senate and I was doing my advice and consent duty,
00:52:40 --> 00:52:45 my main question is, like, can you look to President United States and tell held him no?
00:52:46 --> 00:52:50 If you can't do that, then you don't need to be in that position.
00:52:50 --> 00:52:53 I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's national intelligence director.
00:52:53 --> 00:52:57 I don't care if it's OMB. I don't care if it's secretary of defense.
00:52:57 --> 00:52:59 I don't care if you can't. Huh?
00:53:00 --> 00:53:04 I do agree with you on that. I do agree that we have to continue to still pick
00:53:04 --> 00:53:07 credentialed people, people who are credible, people who've been doing the work
00:53:07 --> 00:53:09 and have some background in it.
00:53:09 --> 00:53:14 You know, that is definitely something that I think the Biden administration
00:53:14 --> 00:53:19 kind of did well with picking a lot of great people who were qualified for positions
00:53:19 --> 00:53:20 and not just picking the friends.
00:53:20 --> 00:53:24 Of course, there was still some some, you know, little spot,
00:53:24 --> 00:53:26 you know, that was sprouted out here and there.
00:53:26 --> 00:53:30 But other than that, I think that there's definitely something that the Trump
00:53:30 --> 00:53:32 administration should do better in and how they pick their appointees.
00:53:32 --> 00:53:39 Yeah, I mean, just just, you know, the whole concept is this is America's house.
00:53:40 --> 00:53:41 You represent the nation.
00:53:42 --> 00:53:46 Just pick the best and the brightest people to to fill those positions.
00:53:46 --> 00:53:50 And they're not going to agree with you all the time.
00:53:50 --> 00:53:56 And you need to hear that viewpoint. And if all you want is just fans,
00:53:56 --> 00:54:03 then, you know, you'd be better off just being a celebrity and do what the ratings
00:54:03 --> 00:54:07 on the TV show than to sit in the most powerful position in the world.
00:54:07 --> 00:54:11 But that's I can go off another tangent on that. Look, Shalonda,
00:54:11 --> 00:54:14 I want to thank you for coming on.
00:54:15 --> 00:54:18 I know you've been, you know, we kind of talked about, you know,
00:54:18 --> 00:54:21 you kind of were taking a break and stuff.
00:54:21 --> 00:54:24 And you're not the first guest that told me that over the last few months.
00:54:26 --> 00:54:30 But I still I'm making a personal appeal. I need you to still be engaged.
00:54:31 --> 00:54:36 And because you're too talented, you have an incredible voice.
00:54:36 --> 00:54:37 You have an incredible mind.
00:54:38 --> 00:54:41 And this, you know, I'm going to be like the Uncle Sam poster.
00:54:42 --> 00:54:45 We need you. We need you. so I,
00:54:46 --> 00:54:52 How can people reach out to you? And I'm going to do something a little different with you.
00:54:52 --> 00:54:57 I know you have a lot of different causes that you're involved with.
00:54:57 --> 00:55:03 Name a particular cause you want the listeners to be engaged with.
00:55:03 --> 00:55:06 And then if people want to get in touch with you, how can they do that?
00:55:07 --> 00:55:12 Well, as you probably know, I've kind of pivoted my career a little bit in the
00:55:12 --> 00:55:16 cyber and national security space, which cybersecurity is considered a national
00:55:16 --> 00:55:18 security threat to our democracy.
00:55:18 --> 00:55:24 And I've been focusing more so on thinking through how cybersecurity affects
00:55:24 --> 00:55:28 our world, how it affects our country, but also mostly how it affects us personally.
00:55:29 --> 00:55:33 And I've been having a very great run with the cyber world and cyberspace,
00:55:33 --> 00:55:38 but just thinking about national security as a whole and what does that look like?
00:55:38 --> 00:55:42 And so if you there are any like national security issues along those lines
00:55:42 --> 00:55:46 of cyber or women's issues and stuff like that, I'm always a person that can
00:55:46 --> 00:55:48 talk on them and speak on them.
00:55:48 --> 00:55:51 My background is very broad, so I try not to put myself in a box,
00:55:51 --> 00:55:55 which is why I kind of stick to the national security space more so because
00:55:55 --> 00:55:57 it doesn't put you in this box.
00:55:57 --> 00:56:00 But I always say I'm not an expert in everything. I just have a lot of experiences
00:56:00 --> 00:56:06 in a few buckets and cyber and foreign policy and public affairs is something
00:56:06 --> 00:56:09 I've had my share of buckets in.
00:56:09 --> 00:56:14 And if you want to reach me, unfortunately, I don't have I'm not on social media
00:56:14 --> 00:56:16 because my Instagram got hacked because of cyber.
00:56:17 --> 00:56:20 Right. And I'm on LinkedIn. So if you want to find me, you can always message
00:56:20 --> 00:56:24 me on LinkedIn. Then it's Shalonda Spencer and you'll see a beautiful smile
00:56:24 --> 00:56:26 with a picture of me there.
00:56:27 --> 00:56:32 Well, Shalonda, Spencer, I greatly appreciate you coming on and I'm honored
00:56:32 --> 00:56:36 that you accept my invitations to come on to the podcast.
00:56:37 --> 00:56:43 Don't be a stranger. And we'll definitely try to keep tabs of what's going on with you.
00:56:45 --> 00:56:50 So thank you. Thank you for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
00:56:50 --> 00:56:53 Thank you, listeners, for listening in. I'm always here. If you ever need me,
00:56:54 --> 00:56:56 Eric, you know I'm only one call and one message away.
00:56:57 --> 00:57:17 Music.
00:57:19 --> 00:57:27 All right, and we are back. So I want to thank Jolanda Spencer for coming on.
00:57:28 --> 00:57:37 She is going to be a major factor in public policy in this country.
00:57:38 --> 00:57:44 And I don't know where or when that will happen, but it will.
00:57:45 --> 00:57:53 As you can tell, if you remember the first interview we did and this just one
00:57:53 --> 00:57:56 you just heard, she's special.
00:57:56 --> 00:58:02 And, of course, I'm biased because, you know, she's from Mississippi and she
00:58:02 --> 00:58:03 went to Jackson State and all that.
00:58:03 --> 00:58:09 But in all reality, she is she is a dynamic person.
00:58:11 --> 00:58:21 And to watch her develop and grow and continue to be or evolve to be a force is fun to watch.
00:58:22 --> 00:58:29 And I'm honored that she feels comfortable coming on the podcast to talk to me and to all of you all.
00:58:29 --> 00:58:36 And hopefully as long as I have this podcast, she'll continue to have that comfort
00:58:36 --> 00:58:44 because it's a blessing for us to know her and to, what's the word I want to use?
00:58:45 --> 00:58:49 To be in her presence. Let's put it that way.
00:58:50 --> 00:58:54 And if you think I'm laying it on thick, maybe. But, you know,
00:58:54 --> 00:58:58 when I greatly respect people, you know, that's the way I feel.
00:58:58 --> 00:59:03 And there's a lot of people like that, especially in Mississippi. Yeah.
00:59:04 --> 00:59:10 But on a national level, not so much. And so I want to close out with this.
00:59:10 --> 00:59:15 I had mentioned early in the podcast, we were talking about what was going on in Los Angeles.
00:59:16 --> 00:59:21 And that's just part of what's happening. But the negative part of this whole
00:59:21 --> 00:59:24 thing in Los Angeles is kind of a microcosm of what we're going to be dealing
00:59:24 --> 00:59:31 with unless something incredible happens, right?
00:59:31 --> 00:59:36 While the folks in Los Angeles are battling these wildfires,
00:59:37 --> 00:59:46 people have taken the time to try to turn that into something to cater their political agenda.
00:59:47 --> 00:59:51 Now, you know, I'm only so old,
00:59:51 --> 00:59:56 so I don't know if people were doing that during the Dust Bowl, right?
00:59:57 --> 01:00:03 Or people were doing that at the San Francisco earthquake. or even the Chicago Fire.
01:00:03 --> 01:00:10 But since I'm living in this time and I'm watching people do this kind of,
01:00:10 --> 01:00:16 of course, we didn't have social media either, but I'm just really, really disgusted.
01:00:17 --> 01:00:24 There's this guy that's on CNN. Now, his bona fides is that he worked for Mitch
01:00:24 --> 01:00:27 McConnell at some point in his political career.
01:00:27 --> 01:00:29 His name is Scott Jennings.
01:00:30 --> 01:00:34 And I don't know if it's an act that he feels that he has to do.
01:00:34 --> 01:00:39 I don't know if the producers at CNN feel that he's got to play this role or
01:00:39 --> 01:00:43 he's just genuinely gone off the rails.
01:00:43 --> 01:00:54 But he had the nerve to equate the hiring and firing of firefighters in Los Angeles,
01:00:54 --> 01:01:00 the city of Los Angeles, to what's going on with the wildfires.
01:01:02 --> 01:01:08 And I'm like, what in God's name does the makeup of personnel,
01:01:08 --> 01:01:14 more specifically, the makeup of the racial makeup of the personnel,
01:01:14 --> 01:01:20 have to do with the Santa Ana winds blowing 100 miles an hour and starting four
01:01:20 --> 01:01:23 wildfires that have evacuated hundreds,
01:01:24 --> 01:01:27 thousands of people?
01:01:27 --> 01:01:32 That has destroyed thousands of homes, that has actually taken some human lives.
01:01:32 --> 01:01:35 What does that have to do with anything?
01:01:37 --> 01:01:42 How are you even shaping your brain to make that a connection?
01:01:43 --> 01:01:46 And he said some other crazy stuff. It was like Jimmy Carter was being laid
01:01:46 --> 01:01:49 to rest, and he decided it was his viewpoint,
01:01:50 --> 01:01:57 his obligation to criticize everything that Jimmy Carter did wrong when he was
01:01:57 --> 01:02:02 president, okay, without acknowledging anything that he did right.
01:02:03 --> 01:02:07 So neither to say he wasn't at the funeral, nor was he going to give the eulogy.
01:02:07 --> 01:02:16 But, you know, it's just absolutely amazing to me how these people get a platform
01:02:16 --> 01:02:18 to talk about any and everything.
01:02:19 --> 01:02:25 You know, there's a whole network he could have his own show on if he wants to do that.
01:02:26 --> 01:02:32 And I guess CNN has given him kind of a co-hosting role with Abby Phillips on her show.
01:02:33 --> 01:02:38 Be this conservative viewpoint or whatever. But it's like, you know,
01:02:38 --> 01:02:43 when I used to watch shows like the firing line and the McLaughlin report and all that, and,
01:02:43 --> 01:02:49 you know, they were kind of blustery and every now and then they kind of went off the rails.
01:02:49 --> 01:02:53 But, you know, when one person in the panel went off the rails,
01:02:53 --> 01:02:56 the rest of the panel kind of got them back in line.
01:02:56 --> 01:02:58 It didn't matter what side of the argument they were on. They were like,
01:02:59 --> 01:03:02 yeah, that's crazy. Let's focus on what we know, right?
01:03:03 --> 01:03:10 There wasn't room for, you know, just trying to get soundbites and clicks.
01:03:10 --> 01:03:14 And of course, that wasn't around then, but still, you know,
01:03:14 --> 01:03:17 they still had nightly news, still had national news.
01:03:18 --> 01:03:21 And there wasn't any room for that. There wasn't any time for that.
01:03:21 --> 01:03:26 It was like, let's give some intelligent viewpoints. Let's give a liberal and
01:03:26 --> 01:03:31 conservative and even a moderate viewpoint sometimes on the issues of the day.
01:03:32 --> 01:03:38 And you pretty much could tell who was on what side, you know, but it was high level.
01:03:39 --> 01:03:46 Right. So, you know, one of the things that I learned early on was that most
01:03:46 --> 01:03:51 newspapers in America, for example, try to write at a fourth grade level,
01:03:51 --> 01:03:53 a fourth grade reading level.
01:03:54 --> 01:03:57 The New York Times and the Washington Post, whenever you would,
01:03:57 --> 01:04:03 like, when Microsoft Word came up with that word count, and then it would tell
01:04:03 --> 01:04:06 you, it used to tell you, and I think Apple used to do it too, tell you what word.
01:04:07 --> 01:04:13 Grade level that article was. You could paste it and it would read it for you.
01:04:13 --> 01:04:18 And most of the time, the New York Times or the Washington Post was at a ninth grade level.
01:04:18 --> 01:04:27 So it makes sense that people that weren't as sophisticated or exposed education-wise
01:04:27 --> 01:04:29 didn't like the New York Times or Washington Post.
01:04:30 --> 01:04:35 They would gravitate to their local paper or the USA Today once they emerged.
01:04:35 --> 01:04:41 And it was like, okay, this is simpler to read. I can handle this and digest it.
01:04:41 --> 01:04:48 And now we're in this age where we basically can mold our television watching
01:04:48 --> 01:04:55 so we can watch channels that strictly talk to us in our echo chamber as opposed to divergent views.
01:04:56 --> 01:05:02 And now we got social media with the algorithms. Sometimes it's like if you
01:05:02 --> 01:05:09 click on a certain person, then everything in your fee is going to reflect on
01:05:09 --> 01:05:10 what you clicked on, right?
01:05:11 --> 01:05:16 So, you know, Scott Jennings has an audience and all this other stuff.
01:05:17 --> 01:05:21 But at some point, we got to stop the lunacy.
01:05:21 --> 01:05:26 And we just got to be straight up and honest with people with facts.
01:05:26 --> 01:05:31 I had a co-worker tell me, you can have your truth.
01:05:32 --> 01:05:37 I can have my truth. But there's always going to be the facts, right?
01:05:37 --> 01:05:47 And so I think we have an obligation to deal with facts if you are in journalism, right?
01:05:47 --> 01:05:50 Really, if you're in public policy, you're supposed to give facts.
01:05:52 --> 01:05:57 But, you know, I mean, my podcast is an opinion podcast.
01:05:58 --> 01:06:03 Now, I'll try to give you facts when they're available, but I'm not obligated
01:06:03 --> 01:06:06 to do that because it's my podcast.
01:06:07 --> 01:06:08 And I'm being straight up with
01:06:08 --> 01:06:12 you on that because I have a certain viewpoint. I have certain truths.
01:06:14 --> 01:06:20 But I think just common sense dictates certain things, too.
01:06:21 --> 01:06:26 The racial makeup of the Los Angeles Fire Department has nothing to do with
01:06:26 --> 01:06:29 the wildfires in L.A. Nothing.
01:06:30 --> 01:06:36 So by process of elimination, people making that argument don't need to be in the discussion.
01:06:37 --> 01:06:40 People that need to be in discussion are people that understand forestry management,
01:06:41 --> 01:06:47 people that understand firefighting concepts, people that understand water rights
01:06:47 --> 01:06:50 and the science of water,
01:06:51 --> 01:06:52 you know, engineers,
01:06:53 --> 01:07:00 so that more water pressure can get to places to handle something like this
01:07:00 --> 01:07:02 if it ever happens again, right?
01:07:04 --> 01:07:09 Meteorologists. People that are in the science dealing with the climate.
01:07:10 --> 01:07:15 These are the people that need to have these discussions. And they need to be
01:07:15 --> 01:07:18 advising the people that are going to make policy.
01:07:19 --> 01:07:25 Not wild hair, I just got to get some political points this week kind of people.
01:07:26 --> 01:07:32 You know, on the eve of Donald Trump becoming the next president,
01:07:32 --> 01:07:34 he has a press conference.
01:07:35 --> 01:07:41 And he's not talking about the issues that got him elected, which is how the
01:07:41 --> 01:07:44 economy is going to be better for the average citizen.
01:07:45 --> 01:07:49 Because the economy is good if you own a business and if you own stocks.
01:07:49 --> 01:07:51 The economy is incredible.
01:07:52 --> 01:08:00 If you manage a pension plan for public employees, your job is safe because
01:08:00 --> 01:08:02 there's going to be money for those retirees.
01:08:02 --> 01:08:07 But for average everyday people who are trying to pay bills,
01:08:07 --> 01:08:10 trying to make it paycheck to paycheck.
01:08:12 --> 01:08:16 People voted for Donald Trump because they felt that he would do a better job
01:08:16 --> 01:08:20 than Vice President Harris in addressing those concerns.
01:08:21 --> 01:08:30 That's the good nature answer. Now, my thinking is that, and it is racial, but it may not be racist.
01:08:31 --> 01:08:39 My thinking is that people didn't trust a woman or a person of color to do that
01:08:39 --> 01:08:42 as opposed to a white man.
01:08:43 --> 01:08:47 That's just me. And there may be other people that feel that way,
01:08:47 --> 01:08:49 but that's the way I look at it.
01:08:49 --> 01:08:53 Because I've been that black candidate running for a major office.
01:08:53 --> 01:09:01 And that's the assessment I had, that people couldn't envision me making the
01:09:01 --> 01:09:03 kind of decisions that a white dude could.
01:09:04 --> 01:09:12 Now, whether that's racial or ignorance or lack of trust, it's on that individual, right?
01:09:12 --> 01:09:16 But instead of having a press conference to address those issues,
01:09:17 --> 01:09:21 he got up there and started talking about, we need Greenland.
01:09:22 --> 01:09:27 We need control of the Panama Canal. You decided to talk about the Panama Canal
01:09:27 --> 01:09:30 because Jimmy Carter had died, and you remembered when you were younger that
01:09:30 --> 01:09:34 Jimmy Carter was the president that gave the Panama Canal to the country of Panama.
01:09:36 --> 01:09:39 So now the Panama Canal, we've got to have control of that back because Jimmy
01:09:39 --> 01:09:43 Carter is no longer with us, even though he hasn't been president since 1980.
01:09:43 --> 01:09:47 And you had four years prior to that to deal with it.
01:09:47 --> 01:09:53 And then you want to insult Canada. You want to refer to the prime minister as governor.
01:09:55 --> 01:09:58 And yeah, there may be some political stuff going on in Canada,
01:09:59 --> 01:10:02 but Trudeau was like, yeah, y'all deal with him.
01:10:03 --> 01:10:07 I've been doing this for nine years. I've dealt with four of those years I had to deal with him.
01:10:08 --> 01:10:11 Good luck on that. I mean, I survived COVID.
01:10:12 --> 01:10:17 Somebody else can have it. You know, you got the president of Mexico.
01:10:17 --> 01:10:22 She's saying, well, if you want to rename Canada, we'll rename the United States.
01:10:23 --> 01:10:26 I mean, you know, and then the other thing, the Gulf of Mexico.
01:10:26 --> 01:10:30 Now we want to make it the Gulf of America. For what?
01:10:31 --> 01:10:35 The Daily Show was classic. Oh, yeah, that's the headline we want.
01:10:35 --> 01:10:38 Yeah, there was another oil spill in the Gulf of America.
01:10:39 --> 01:10:40 Really? That's what you want.
01:10:41 --> 01:10:47 What has that got to do with eggs and butter and milk and bacon?
01:10:47 --> 01:10:50 What does any of that have to do with that?
01:10:51 --> 01:10:54 And then you're sitting there trying to justify and say, well,
01:10:54 --> 01:11:00 if we get Greenland, you know, our national security is in place.
01:11:01 --> 01:11:06 So Denmark is not our friend. Denmark's not a member of NATO.
01:11:07 --> 01:11:10 You think if something went down, they're not going to help us?
01:11:11 --> 01:11:15 I mean, you know, of course, you don't want us to be a part of NATO,
01:11:15 --> 01:11:18 but that's a more intelligent discussion.
01:11:19 --> 01:11:23 I'm just trying to figure out why are we even dealing with that, right?
01:11:23 --> 01:11:27 Did you think that was going to distract us from the fact that a judge in New
01:11:27 --> 01:11:33 York finally finished the job and sentenced you on those 34 convictions you got?
01:11:34 --> 01:11:38 Did you think we were going to forget about that? because we were going to be
01:11:38 --> 01:11:41 so enamored about a Louisiana purchase in our lifetime,
01:11:42 --> 01:11:47 that we'd be more focused on the purchase of Louisiana, I mean,
01:11:47 --> 01:11:52 Canada and Greenland and the Panama Canal than purchasing what we're going to
01:11:52 --> 01:11:55 eat for the next couple of weeks at our house.
01:11:56 --> 01:12:02 You know, when you get elected and you're trying to say it was a mandate and you get elected,
01:12:03 --> 01:12:09 then anytime you talk from this point forward till you get sworn in and get
01:12:09 --> 01:12:13 to actually implement stuff should be about what the mandate was about.
01:12:14 --> 01:12:16 Now, it wasn't a mandate, but
01:12:16 --> 01:12:20 that's what they're saying. So if you're saying that, then act like it.
01:12:20 --> 01:12:24 Every time you get up there, just like you had that press conference and you
01:12:24 --> 01:12:29 didn't recognize a box of Cheerios when you saw it, maybe you need to go to
01:12:29 --> 01:12:30 a group. That's what you need to do.
01:12:30 --> 01:12:34 Instead of going to a McDonald's or going on a garbage truck, go to a grocery store.
01:12:35 --> 01:12:39 Dr. Oz did it when he ran for the Senate. Go to a grocery store.
01:12:40 --> 01:12:44 A farm and start talking about how we're going to do this. Go to Tyson.
01:12:45 --> 01:12:49 I mean, Sarah Huckabee Sanders will get you in. Go down to Arkansas and go to
01:12:49 --> 01:12:51 Tyson Foods. Talk about ticket.
01:12:52 --> 01:12:56 Talk about the stuff that people are concerned about.
01:12:57 --> 01:13:03 People, and I've said it on this podcast before, people are hurting. They need help.
01:13:03 --> 01:13:07 We've had an increase in homelessness in a year.
01:13:08 --> 01:13:11 People need help. They don't need games. They don't need gimmicks.
01:13:11 --> 01:13:14 They don't need a Trump guitar. They need help.
01:13:15 --> 01:13:19 They don't care if Elon Musk makes another $100 billion off cryptocurrency or
01:13:19 --> 01:13:21 SpaceX. They don't care about it.
01:13:22 --> 01:13:27 They want to know how you are going to help them.
01:13:28 --> 01:13:33 And Marjorie Taylor Greene will run after that press conference and introduce
01:13:33 --> 01:13:37 a bill to say, let's change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,
01:13:37 --> 01:13:40 but she hasn't introduced a bill to make sure that the folks in Rome,
01:13:40 --> 01:13:45 Georgia can afford their light bill, their gas bill,
01:13:45 --> 01:13:48 their car note, their house.
01:13:48 --> 01:13:54 Can we even buy a house in Rome, Georgia? Can we afford the groceries that they
01:13:54 --> 01:13:58 sell at the Publix in Rome, Georgia? Right.
01:13:59 --> 01:14:05 But you want to introduce a bill to rename a body of water that we don't even border.
01:14:05 --> 01:14:08 Georgia doesn't even border the government. We're not a Gulf state.
01:14:08 --> 01:14:11 We're an Atlantic state, not a Gulf state.
01:14:13 --> 01:14:16 That one of the Republicans from Mississippi introduced the bill.
01:14:16 --> 01:14:19 Okay, at least it's a Gulf state.
01:14:19 --> 01:14:21 Alabama, Florida, but not Georgia.
01:14:22 --> 01:14:24 Why are you even concerned about that?
01:14:26 --> 01:14:33 Because it's all about theatrics. It's not about substance.
01:14:33 --> 01:14:35 It's not about facts.
01:14:35 --> 01:14:44 All they want to do is, instead of just being mad about affording things,
01:14:45 --> 01:14:47 just being mad about your struggles.
01:14:48 --> 01:14:51 Now I'm going to give you something else to be mad about. I want you to be mad
01:14:51 --> 01:14:57 about 1% of the population because they've made a decision about their gender.
01:14:58 --> 01:15:06 I want you to be mad about black folks getting corporate jobs because of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
01:15:06 --> 01:15:11 I want you to be mad about stuff we shouldn't even be mad about,
01:15:11 --> 01:15:17 like sovereign nations that we want to take over. Why are we doing that?
01:15:18 --> 01:15:21 Because if you stay mad, you don't stay focused.
01:15:22 --> 01:15:29 And I pledge to you that the mission of this podcast in 2025 is to keep us focused.
01:15:30 --> 01:15:37 We need to have legislators at the state level and at the federal level doing
01:15:37 --> 01:15:44 what they can to make sure that our lives are better, period, end of discussion.
01:15:44 --> 01:15:50 If the mandate from the people, regardless of who they voted for for president,
01:15:51 --> 01:15:56 who they voted for in Congress, is I want my life to be better.
01:15:58 --> 01:16:05 Focus on that. If, you know, you're upset because an executive from a health
01:16:05 --> 01:16:12 insurance company got murdered in broad daylight and there are people cheering the guy who did that,
01:16:13 --> 01:16:17 then maybe we might need to find out why that is.
01:16:17 --> 01:16:22 Maybe we need to look at health insurance again.
01:16:22 --> 01:16:26 It was one thing to make sure that people had health insurance.
01:16:26 --> 01:16:33 Now the question is affordability. Now the question is, are they being good
01:16:33 --> 01:16:39 stewards of the money that they're being given and processing the claims that need to be processed?
01:16:40 --> 01:16:45 I would love to be in a world where business people can make as much money as
01:16:45 --> 01:16:51 they want, and they treated people nice, They pay their workers good wages.
01:16:53 --> 01:16:57 And everybody benefited. But we don't live in that world. We live in a world
01:16:57 --> 01:17:00 where people are run by greed.
01:17:00 --> 01:17:06 And there's only one entity that can stop greed, and that's the U.S.
01:17:06 --> 01:17:11 Government, if they're not being greedy themselves, or at least the people that
01:17:11 --> 01:17:14 are given the responsibility to be stewards of that government.
01:17:16 --> 01:17:22 We have to focus on helping people.
01:17:23 --> 01:17:29 Let's put the fire out before we start trying to figure out who started it.
01:17:29 --> 01:17:32 Because if we all burn up, it's irrelevant.
01:17:33 --> 01:17:39 Let's put the fire out first. Then we can go back and see how do we get here
01:17:39 --> 01:17:41 and how do we not get there again?
01:17:42 --> 01:17:48 And be real about it. Don't, not harebrained theories, facts.
01:17:48 --> 01:17:56 If changing the name of a body of water will make sure that I have affordable health care, I'm for it.
01:17:56 --> 01:18:05 If purchasing a sovereign nation will make sure that I have affordable housing, go for it.
01:18:05 --> 01:18:12 If making another country a state or a territory in the United States will make
01:18:12 --> 01:18:18 sure that hunger in the United States would not be a problem, do that.
01:18:18 --> 01:18:22 But until then, stop talking about that.
01:18:23 --> 01:18:33 Focus on what needs to be done to make sure that Americans are not hurting anymore. Period.
01:18:34 --> 01:18:39 That's where we got to be, because as a black man, I can tell you,
01:18:39 --> 01:18:43 if Americans are hurting, we feel in most of the pain.
01:18:45 --> 01:18:54 So let's deal with that. Even if it takes you all four years, focus, focus, focus.
01:18:56 --> 01:18:57 All right, y'all.
01:18:57 --> 01:19:48 Music.