Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome to the special edition of The
Speaker 1: Stephen A. Smith Show. I know I'm usually coming at
Speaker 1: you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday over.
Speaker 2: The digital airways of YouTube, but.
Speaker 1: Special times call for special occasions, and this is one
Speaker 1: of them. My guest coming up is none other than
Speaker 1: the one and only Charlemagne to God, and I could
Speaker 1: not wait to have a conversation with him because there's
Speaker 1: so many things that are going on in the world. Yes,
Speaker 1: we know that there's an election coming up in eight months,
Speaker 1: Yes we know that. Unfortunately we're stuck with two candidates,
Speaker 1: one Charalamagna God labeled uninspiring, the other he labeled a
Speaker 1: threat to democracy. We know all of that. We'll get
Speaker 1: into that, we'll talk about why that is.
Speaker 2: But the real reason I wanted him to come.
Speaker 1: On this show is because we needed to have a
Speaker 1: real conversation about the black community. When we're talking about politics,
Speaker 1: social life issues and beyond, we're always talking about keeping
Speaker 1: it real, right, We're always clamoring for real conversation, real talk,
Speaker 1: real issues being addressed.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Well, your wish is my command. Charlamagne and God up next.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. You know what I don't think you
Speaker 1: can't either backward more in a minute. Okay, everybody, you
Speaker 1: know what time it is. It's tom for stephen A's
Speaker 1: Weekly Picks. Now everyone knows I live and breathe sports
Speaker 1: and that I have to be right in the middle
Speaker 1: of all the action.
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Speaker 2: Either way it goes. You know it's easy. Right now,
Speaker 2: Let's look at my picks for today.
Speaker 1: Okay, og Anna Noby more or less than eighteen and
Speaker 1: I have points, rebounds, assist.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen. He's going against Portland. I think I'll
Speaker 2: go with more.
Speaker 1: There are blazers, Okay, they damn sure ain't no trailblazers.
Speaker 1: We'll call them the blazers. I'm going with more Oganna Noby.
Speaker 1: Love seeing him back with the New York. NeXT's go
Speaker 1: to the number two.
Speaker 3: Please give me Josh Hart more or less than twenty
Speaker 3: six and.
Speaker 1: A half points, rebounds, assist or more.
Speaker 2: Hmmm. He's a rough rider.
Speaker 1: Gonna get his points, Gonna get about twelve thirteen points,
Speaker 1: maybe fifteen points, five rebounds whatever. I'm gonna go with more. Again,
Speaker 1: it's going against Portland. I look at the New York Knicks.
Speaker 1: How they can amp up things defensively, how they create
Speaker 1: additional opportunities for themselves on their offensive.
Speaker 2: Side of the ball. That has something to do with.
Speaker 1: Points, assist and rebounds. Is on both of the odds, whether
Speaker 1: it's offensive rebounds or defensive rebounds.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go with more for that one.
Speaker 1: Next up, Dante DiVincenzo more or less than twenty four
Speaker 1: and a half points, rebounds and assist. Again, have you
Speaker 1: seen him shooting the ball. Have you seen the way
Speaker 1: he's been playing off of Jaylen Brunton. We're going to
Speaker 1: go with more. Okay, this is what they do, Tom Thim.
Speaker 1: It ain't gonna use this bench for so much. These
Speaker 1: brothers go get the minutes. They gonna log the minutes,
Speaker 1: they gonna lodge the production. That's just the way that
Speaker 1: it goes. And last, but not least, the one and
Speaker 1: only Jalen Bruntson more or less than thirty six and
Speaker 1: a half points rebounds assists.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, that's an easy one.
Speaker 1: It's definitely gonna be more because he's probably gonna have
Speaker 1: thirty in this game.
Speaker 2: Thirty points.
Speaker 1: We don't even count rebounds and assists, So we're definitely gonna.
Speaker 2: Go with more of this.
Speaker 3: So on all Florida Ogianna, No b Josh Hard, Dante Devintenzo,
Speaker 3: Jylen Brunson. I'm telling you to go with more competition
Speaker 3: matters or lack of a lack thereof listening to your boy.
Speaker 3: When I talk to you New York Dicks, They're gonna
Speaker 3: be more and more and more tonight.
Speaker 2: Mark my words.
Speaker 1: Oh, I've been waiting to talk to this brother right
Speaker 1: here for a variety of reasons, obviously in the aftermath
Speaker 1: of the State of the Union addressed by President Biden,
Speaker 1: along with a host of other things that have been
Speaker 1: going on inside and outside the world of politics, and
Speaker 1: especially inside and outside the black community.
Speaker 2: Who better to talk to than.
Speaker 1: My man, co host the Breakfast Club, start a breakfast Sclub,
Speaker 1: an author, by the way, a best selling author, along
Speaker 1: with a bevy of other things that you've been doing.
Speaker 2: The one and only Charlamagne of God. What's going to Smith? Brother?
Speaker 4: It's good to see you, man. How's everything going. I'm
Speaker 4: blessed black and holly feelings. You made me want to
Speaker 4: lose some weight.
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 4: What it made me want to get in shape? I mean,
Speaker 4: I'm in shape, but I gotta slim down.
Speaker 2: I had to listen. Don't use me as the example.
Speaker 1: I was a nasty, disgusted, skinny fat at two hundred
Speaker 1: and eight pounds. Okay, so losing all of that fat
Speaker 1: that's all I did. And don't don't ever find yourself
Speaker 1: in a position that I was in because it was bad.
Speaker 1: So I'm at one seventy wow, thirty lott thirty eight pounced.
Speaker 2: I feel bad. I feel great. It's good on you, brother.
Speaker 2: What about you? What's been going on with you? My man?
Speaker 2: How has life been treating you? Life has been great?
Speaker 2: I mean I have no complaints. Man.
Speaker 4: Kids are great, wife is great. You know, professionally, everything
Speaker 4: is fantastic.
Speaker 2: You know. Mentally and emotionally, I'm where I need to be.
Speaker 2: So that's all you can ask for before I.
Speaker 1: Get into a bunch of serious topics. You know what's
Speaker 1: on my mind right. I was doing my research, just
Speaker 1: reading up on you and know I've known you for years,
Speaker 1: got a lot of respect and love for you.
Speaker 2: But uh, your dad.
Speaker 1: Isn't true that your dad had a tattoo right as
Speaker 1: a Cowboys fan and he was celebrated. How they you know,
Speaker 1: six time champions that's what the tattoo said, but they
Speaker 1: only got five championship?
Speaker 2: Is that drug? That is a fact.
Speaker 4: He got it right after he got it right after
Speaker 4: we won the Cowboys won their fifth championship, and he
Speaker 4: got the tattoo that said six times Super Bowl champion.
Speaker 4: On his arm, and it's been sitting there since nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety six.
Speaker 2: Now, why hasn't he gotten rid of it? I mean,
Speaker 2: what's he holding on for? That?
Speaker 1: Trying to win again? He trying to make sure they
Speaker 1: do it again, because been twenty nine years. It's been
Speaker 1: twenty nine year.
Speaker 4: You want to get number six? My daddy is a
Speaker 4: diehard cowboy fan. Like his nickname is cowboy.
Speaker 2: Like.
Speaker 4: He talks about you like he knows you, like he
Speaker 4: oh my god, like you make him angry.
Speaker 2: He watches Teles because he knows I'm laughing.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm laughing at me. Yes, well, why
Speaker 1: don't you get mad at me? Because you are cowboy fans?
Speaker 1: We ain't letting you off the hook. You love the cowboys?
Speaker 1: How come you don't get mad at me about it?
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, I don't get mad.
Speaker 4: I don't get mad if somebody says something that's true, right,
Speaker 4: and then somebody gives an opinion that becomes true right?
Speaker 2: What am I doing? Exact?
Speaker 1: He was right exactly, And I've been right for twenty
Speaker 1: nine years and counting. I mean, let's not forget that,
Speaker 1: twenty nine years and counting.
Speaker 4: But guess what what next year, We're gona win the
Speaker 4: super Bowl. Next year, We're gonna win the super Bowl. Baby,
Speaker 4: you say that, saying it for twenty nine years, Why
Speaker 4: would I stop? Now you're gonna keep. You're gonna keep
Speaker 4: you that gonna be right?
Speaker 2: How has things been? How have things been for you?
Speaker 1: When you think about you hosting the co hosting the
Speaker 1: Breakfast level of a man DJ and you who I've
Speaker 1: known for years obviously, and Jess hilarious, she's been absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 2: Major props to her.
Speaker 1: What has it been like for you in recent in
Speaker 1: recent history hosting the Breakfast Club considering the.
Speaker 2: Level of cachet that y'all have built for y'allselves.
Speaker 1: And how politicians, aspiring politicians and others come through y'all
Speaker 1: through y'all show to make sure they're validated to some degree,
Speaker 1: what has that been like for me?
Speaker 4: For me, I don't treat it any different than I
Speaker 4: treat talking to anybody man, because you know, I feel
Speaker 4: like you know, I've always said, the Breakfast Club is
Speaker 4: the people show, right, So you know, the people who
Speaker 4: listen and every day, the eight million monthly listeners that
Speaker 4: we have who tune in, who call in every day,
Speaker 4: I always feel like I'm speaking on behalf of them,
Speaker 4: and so for me, I just always keep that in
Speaker 4: the back of my mind, and I don't change my
Speaker 4: level of curiosity regardless of how big this show has gotten.
Speaker 4: I've never felt like I'm an expert anything. I'm just
Speaker 4: a person who has some experiences, and I keep a
Speaker 4: level of curiosity in regard to sitting down and having
Speaker 4: conversations with Guess. But that's how I approach it, even
Speaker 4: with political interviews.
Speaker 1: But is it just about curiosity or is it about
Speaker 1: this insatiable need to hold folks accountable, particularly when we're
Speaker 1: talking about the world of politics, because these are people
Speaker 1: that you put forth legislation and have dominion to some
Speaker 1: degree over the quality of life that a lot of
Speaker 1: us experience. What has that been like for you in
Speaker 1: terms of talking to them. Is it about accountability or
Speaker 1: is it just about being curious?
Speaker 4: It's always about accountability for me, regardless of who I'm
Speaker 4: speaking to, Like I feel like I held rappers accountable
Speaker 4: or athletes like whatever somebody got going on in that moment.
Speaker 4: If it's something that they need to be held accountable about,
Speaker 4: I'll do it, just like people hold me accountable about things.
Speaker 4: So it's the same thing with politicians. Like, actually, the
Speaker 4: exact same formula I have in regards to having conversations
Speaker 4: with politicians is the exact same formula I have in
Speaker 4: regard to having conversations with other people, because I used
Speaker 4: to be young, you know, watching TV or listening to
Speaker 4: the radio and asking myself like, why aren't they asking
Speaker 4: the most obvious question, like like, we see this person
Speaker 4: sitting there with a horn sticking out their head, but
Speaker 4: nobody's gonna say anything about the horn.
Speaker 2: So it's the same thing when I'm talking to politicians.
Speaker 4: Sometimes it's the most obvious questions that people are asking.
Speaker 4: And it's all about to follow up with politicians, right,
Speaker 4: because when you ask a politician a question, their first
Speaker 4: answer is the prepared messaging that they have from their handlers. Right,
Speaker 4: So the very next question should either be a double
Speaker 4: down or what you just asked are simple why. I remember,
Speaker 4: you know Larry King, God blessed that Larry King told
Speaker 4: me a long time ago. He said, the most important
Speaker 4: question you can ask in an interview is why. And
Speaker 4: I feel like in regards to politicians, that is such
Speaker 4: a very important question because they'll spit all of this
Speaker 4: jogging at you, all of this verbal jog and all
Speaker 4: of these prepared messaging, and then as soon as you
Speaker 4: say why, that's when you start to.
Speaker 2: See them stumble and fumble because they're like, oh, I.
Speaker 4: Didn't I didn't.
Speaker 2: Know there'll be a why.
Speaker 4: I just thought I could just lay it. I thought
Speaker 4: I could feel a buster you and it would be
Speaker 4: on to the next question.
Speaker 1: I sit up there and I look at it, and
Speaker 1: doing television as long as I've been doing it, and
Speaker 1: being a journalist for as long as I've been a journalist,
Speaker 1: you find yourself as a black man, I know I
Speaker 1: do where you feel the pressure from the community, and
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily embrace it.
Speaker 2: From this perspective, I.
Speaker 1: Don't feel any obligation to feel what other people think
Speaker 1: I should feel, absolutely, but I do feel an obligation
Speaker 1: to make sure that I articulate what a community is feeling,
Speaker 1: whether it's Black, Hispanic, or riyond. Whatever your community is feeling,
Speaker 1: make sure you ask questions pertinent to that audience.
Speaker 2: I think I owe them that, what about you, same
Speaker 2: same exact thing? Like you know I can.
Speaker 4: Black people aren't monolithic, so I could never speak for
Speaker 4: a whole community of people. But you know, I have
Speaker 4: no problem you know, crowdsourcing questions, right, Like what do
Speaker 4: you want me to ask said individual? Because I can
Speaker 4: ask a question that I may not necessarily have any
Speaker 4: feeling about, but I will ask because I know there's
Speaker 4: a large majority of people who who want that question answered.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I feel the need to ask questions for
Speaker 4: the people. But you know, you can never speak for
Speaker 4: a group of people because everybody in that group of
Speaker 4: people wants different things. But I think, for you know,
Speaker 4: the most part, just humans in America, regardless of race.
Speaker 4: Anytime we have in these conversations with politicians.
Speaker 2: We want up and mobility, right, and we want safety.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 4: People want some money in their pocket and they want
Speaker 4: to feel secure every day that they wake up in
Speaker 4: this country. So I think a lot of times, you know,
Speaker 4: we complicate these conversations about what it is black people
Speaker 4: want or what it is this group of people want.
Speaker 2: Everybody in America wants the same thing. But when you
Speaker 2: say we implicated, who's the way? I think?
Speaker 4: I think sometimes just people when they talk about these issues,
Speaker 4: because I think sometimes a lot of people come from
Speaker 4: a place of privilege, so It's like we can sit
Speaker 4: up here and have certain conversations about, you know, things
Speaker 4: that are going on in politics, and we can talk
Speaker 4: about geopolitical issues, or we can talk about the border issues.
Speaker 4: A lot of those those conversations come from a place
Speaker 4: of privilege. If you're living in you know, Monks Corner,
Speaker 4: South Carolina, or the rural area down south like where
Speaker 4: I'm from. Are you living in the inner city like
Speaker 4: New of New Jersey, a Chicago. If you can't keep
Speaker 4: no food on the table, a roof over your head,
Speaker 4: you don't care about.
Speaker 2: What's going on in other countries.
Speaker 4: All you care about is why they keep sending money
Speaker 4: all over to those other countries. And we basically we
Speaker 4: don't have our basic necessities met here.
Speaker 1: You know, That's one of the things I brought up
Speaker 1: because listen, I'm far from a political officient not or
Speaker 1: make no mistake about it. But you know, you read
Speaker 1: the newspaper, you watch television, you try to stay up
Speaker 1: on current events to the best of your ability. Even
Speaker 1: though I'm inundated by the world of sports and what
Speaker 1: have you. But I'm looking at stuff, the kind of
Speaker 1: stuff that's going on. We've got an election that's coming up.
Speaker 1: We got an eighty one year that's gonna be eighty
Speaker 1: two in November. We've got a guy that's gonna be
Speaker 1: seventy seventy years of age, and he's got ninety one
Speaker 1: He got four counts against four indictments against them, ninety
Speaker 1: one counts. And these are the two choices that we
Speaker 1: have for president. And I couldn't wait to talk to
Speaker 1: you about the subject, because anytime any of us open
Speaker 1: our mouth, if folks disagree with us, we don't know
Speaker 1: what the hell we're talking about. It's not that they
Speaker 1: disagree with us. You don't know what the hell you
Speaker 1: talk about because you don't agree with them. And even
Speaker 1: though people are gonna say that when it comes to
Speaker 1: political issues, it seems to be something that resonates far, far,
Speaker 1: much deeper when it comes to us. Do you get
Speaker 1: that impression at all?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Then why is that?
Speaker 4: I think because a lot of those political pundits, you know,
Speaker 4: a lot of those political talking heads, those academics, they
Speaker 4: don't feel like we're qualified to have these conversations, even
Speaker 4: though both of us paid millions of dollars in taxes
Speaker 4: about that, you know what I'm saying, And both of
Speaker 4: us come from those hoods that a lot of them
Speaker 4: are far removed from. You know, I don't speak for
Speaker 4: what's going on on the hill. I speak for what's
Speaker 4: going on in the hood, you know, And and I
Speaker 4: think a lot of times, when you've been on the
Speaker 4: hill too long, you know, you don't even realize what
Speaker 4: is going on with regular, everyday working class people. Which
Speaker 4: is why I love doing radio, because I get to
Speaker 4: talk to those everyday working class people every.
Speaker 2: Morning and see see what's on their mind. What's it
Speaker 2: been like for you over the last several weeks.
Speaker 1: I saw you doing you know, I text you immediately
Speaker 1: after watching you. You on this Week and you were
Speaker 1: being interviewed about your position about President Biden, and where
Speaker 1: you basically talked about both candidates. One is uninspiring and
Speaker 1: the other is obviously a threat to democracy there at
Speaker 1: least people that's what That's what they were talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, attaching to you or what have you. What
Speaker 1: was it like for you being on that platform? Seeing
Speaker 1: yourself on a Sunday Morning's one thing to be on
Speaker 1: the radio on weekday mornings.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You've been interviewed a thousand times over the year at
Speaker 1: Jones showing you got Jones Show and comedy sent you.
Speaker 1: You've written books, You've done all of this stuff. But
Speaker 1: what was it like seeing yourself talking on a Sunday
Speaker 1: morning on a political show?
Speaker 2: What was that like for you?
Speaker 4: That's that's a different audience. That's the audience that you know,
Speaker 4: that's when my mama get phone calls, you know, that's
Speaker 4: when they call it my MoMA and be like, oh,
Speaker 4: I saw you, you know, I.
Speaker 2: Saw your son on you know, on ABC.
Speaker 4: That's that's a different level of conversation. But I mean, honestly,
Speaker 4: it's the same. It's a bigger platform that enabled people
Speaker 4: to misconstrue the things that I say even more because
Speaker 4: you know what I like to say all of the
Speaker 4: time is that you know, the right right wing media
Speaker 4: does a fantastic job of pushing the narrative they want
Speaker 4: to push. Left wing media does a terrible job of
Speaker 4: pushing the narrative they want to push. Because what you
Speaker 4: just said is absolutely what I said. Donald Trump is
Speaker 4: a threat to democracy. But Joe Biden is an uninspiring
Speaker 4: candidate with no main character energy.
Speaker 2: Fox will take that right.
Speaker 4: Wing He's an uninspiring candidate, you know, with no main
Speaker 4: character energy, and they'll amplify that, and they'll talk about
Speaker 4: that all day, all day, all day. And then the
Speaker 4: CNN and the msnbcs of the world, in the left
Speaker 4: wing media, they'll talk about what Fox News is talking
Speaker 4: about instead of why don't you take what I said
Speaker 4: about Trump being a threat to democracy and amplifying that
Speaker 4: for your audience. So you know, like I said, it
Speaker 4: just a platform like that is just it just gives people.
Speaker 4: It's just a bigger opportunity for people to missgage.
Speaker 1: True, it's a conversation I'm having with you right now,
Speaker 1: Charlamagde really is about us. It's about the black community
Speaker 1: because I definitely wanted some help in terms of talking
Speaker 1: to somebody else, not just talking to myself, not just
Speaker 1: talking to my audience, but talking to somebody who talks
Speaker 1: to an audience every single day and millions of people
Speaker 1: every single day. When you look at us right now,
Speaker 1: the black community and what we have to deal with
Speaker 1: in terms of our choices, the threat to democracy or
Speaker 1: the unaspiring candidate, how should we feel about this upcoming election?
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about it just in terms of
Speaker 1: the candidates. I'm talking about what you and I both fare,
Speaker 1: which is going to be a willingness for people to
Speaker 1: go to the polls and droves the way that they
Speaker 1: once were willing to do obviously when Barack Obama was president.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, this year is all about the Republicans
Speaker 4: who are the crooks, the Democrats who are the cowards
Speaker 4: because they don't fight enough in the couch.
Speaker 2: The couch is voter apathy.
Speaker 4: And you know, in November, it feels like the couch
Speaker 4: is going to win.
Speaker 2: And you know, when it comes to.
Speaker 4: The black people, like I said, I can't speak for
Speaker 4: all black people because we're not monolithics. But this isn't
Speaker 4: just about Joe Biden and Donald Trump. This is years
Speaker 4: and years and years of neglect from government. You know,
Speaker 4: I feel like black people fall into a category that
Speaker 4: my man Tim Ryan always brings up. Well, he coined
Speaker 4: the phrase the exhausted majority. I think there's just a
Speaker 4: bunch of people in America and a lot of Black
Speaker 4: people fall into that category. We just tied were just
Speaker 4: tired of politics.
Speaker 2: It's not the rematch we want.
Speaker 4: You know, we've been promised change that we can believe
Speaker 4: in since you know, President Obama ran for president and
Speaker 4: people haven't seen that change. You know, the hood has
Speaker 4: not changed in any way, shape or form. And you
Speaker 4: can't scare people into voting, even though this is probably
Speaker 4: the first time in my lifetime that they have, you know,
Speaker 4: used the same rhetoric that they've been using. All this
Speaker 4: person is a threat to democracy is absolutely.
Speaker 2: True, and I've seen it.
Speaker 1: But that's what kisses me off, because they've been blowing
Speaker 1: into the win for so long that when you finally
Speaker 1: articulate a position that appears to be very accurate, it
Speaker 1: falls on death is because it's the same stuff we've
Speaker 1: been here in for decades. And I think that that
Speaker 1: plays a role into why somebody like a Trump can
Speaker 1: be in this position right now. And I'm wondering, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm not voting for him, I tell you that much
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: I'm not vote for him. But it's not because of
Speaker 2: his politics.
Speaker 1: It's because of his behavior, the kind of person I
Speaker 1: think he is, and the kind and I believe that
Speaker 1: he could potentially cause civil war in this country. There
Speaker 1: are people who feel that I'm ridiculous when I say that,
Speaker 1: What do you feel about that?
Speaker 4: No, I one hundred percent agree. I mean we're looking
Speaker 4: at a Republican party who's been overtaken by fascism, and
Speaker 4: it's not even close. Like, this guy already tried to
Speaker 4: lead in the tempted coup of this country on January sixth,
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one. This isn't hyperbole when we say these things.
Speaker 4: He's done these things already. Like this is a man
Speaker 4: who said we should over we should over would turn
Speaker 4: the Constitution, I mean, we should get rid of the
Speaker 4: Constitution to overthrow the results of an election. This is
Speaker 4: a man whose lawyers were in court saying, well, he
Speaker 4: never you know, he never promised to support the Constitution.
Speaker 4: I don't care if what color you are, what your
Speaker 4: sexuality is, what your genda is, if you call yourself
Speaker 4: an American, you cannot want somebody to lead this country
Speaker 4: who doesn't believe in the Constitution.
Speaker 1: So what does it say to you that there are
Speaker 1: people in this country who do apparently want that particular individual,
Speaker 1: knowing those specific positions, back in that seat, back in
Speaker 1: that White House come twenty twenty four. What does it
Speaker 1: say to you about the state of our country that
Speaker 1: you have people who have no problem with seeing him
Speaker 1: right back where.
Speaker 2: He once was.
Speaker 4: Well they've accepted fascism. And those are the people who
Speaker 4: I feel like they want they want their rights to
Speaker 4: be racist back, you know what I mean, They like
Speaker 4: they want their they want white supremacy to reign supreme
Speaker 4: over this nation. Like that's what if people can say
Speaker 4: whatever they want, that's what this country was founded on.
Speaker 4: Like when those founding fathers father sat down at their table,
Speaker 4: they were talking about you know, liberty and freedom and
Speaker 4: Joseph Faull, they weren't talking about people that looked like us.
Speaker 4: In fact, actually said we were three fifths of a
Speaker 4: human So they definitely weren't looking at people who looked
Speaker 4: like us.
Speaker 2: Are thought of thinking.
Speaker 4: About people who looked like us when they created that.
Speaker 4: So to me, those are just people who want white supremacy,
Speaker 4: you know, to be at the top.
Speaker 1: We're playing a role of Devil's advocate. You have folks white,
Speaker 1: that's that's there. You go, no problem. You do hear
Speaker 1: folks on the right saying, wait a minute, we're sick
Speaker 1: and tied of that our word being attached to us.
Speaker 1: The Democrats were once Dixie krats. You had a situation
Speaker 1: where civil rights legislation in sixty four voting rights legislation
Speaker 1: in sixty five, Lyndon B. Johnson sitting up there talking about,
Speaker 1: we'll have the Negro vote locked up for the next
Speaker 1: fifty years. We do this, but Republicans assisting bipartisan wise
Speaker 1: in terms of Republicans and Democrats both assisting and bringing
Speaker 1: that kind of legislation to the desk of the presidency.
Speaker 1: And they say to themselves, they forget what role we played.
Speaker 1: It was the Democrats that were more racist than you
Speaker 1: could ever say.
Speaker 2: About us, That's what they say.
Speaker 1: What does Charlomae and to God say when people have
Speaker 1: thrown that argument in your face? Because I know, for
Speaker 1: I've seen Larry Elder on your show along with various others.
Speaker 1: I see if the vect Ramaswami on your show along
Speaker 1: with others, and I know people allude to that. What's
Speaker 1: your argument when people throw that back at you.
Speaker 4: I think it's kind of a ridiculous talking point, because
Speaker 4: even though it's true, we're acting like the ideology of
Speaker 4: a whole party didn't change, the ideology of a party
Speaker 4: change because the base of a party change. Yes, when
Speaker 4: you know the Civil Rights Act was implemented, you know,
Speaker 4: and like that made a lot of black people vote Democrat.
Speaker 4: They voted for John F. Kennedy, then you know they
Speaker 4: supported Linda B.
Speaker 2: Johnson.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we're acting like a whole party's mindset didn't
Speaker 4: completely shift.
Speaker 2: It did, which is why I was even.
Speaker 4: Saying, you know, the Republicans are the party of the
Speaker 4: Confederate Confederacy, so I don't know how far you can
Speaker 4: take them away from that. But I always felt like
Speaker 4: this year was their year to put somebody else in
Speaker 4: position other than a Donald Trump, and people are longing
Speaker 4: for something so different, Like I would saying they should
Speaker 4: have got behind Nicki Heley because people were longing for
Speaker 4: something so different. I feel like she might could have
Speaker 4: picked up, you know, votes from both sides.
Speaker 2: Of the hours.
Speaker 1: Well that's why I disagree with you, okay, I disagree
Speaker 1: with you that with that, because we all know what
Speaker 1: politicians are about there, about maintaining power and remaining in office.
Speaker 1: And if you have a candidate that seems to have
Speaker 1: the constituency body, you know what, no one's going anywhere,
Speaker 1: no matter what you do to him, no matter what
Speaker 1: you say to him, I mean more. Campaign dollars was
Speaker 1: being raised as the indictments flowed in. This is how
Speaker 1: bad it was. And so if you see that Nicki
Speaker 1: Haley has no shot, that Ramaswami has no shot, that
Speaker 1: Chris Christy had no shot, that DeSantis didn't having a
Speaker 1: shot at all, of what have you. And you know
Speaker 1: that's the way the momentum is flowing and you're trying
Speaker 1: to survive, and this candidate is the kind of dude
Speaker 1: that'll call you out and it'll turn your own peeps
Speaker 1: against you. Nobody does that better than Donald Trump. So
Speaker 1: if you know that you might be making decisions based
Speaker 1: strictly out of fear for survival.
Speaker 2: I agree with that.
Speaker 4: But I don't know if Donald Trump can win in
Speaker 4: a general election. But I also don't know if Joe
Speaker 4: Biden can win in the general election. But I think
Speaker 4: that you know, somebody like a somebody like a Nicki
Speaker 4: Hally or anybody fresh I think would have a much
Speaker 4: much better shot in a general election than a Donald
Speaker 4: Trump is. I think Donald Trump and Biden is a
Speaker 4: toss up, and it's literally about which one of them
Speaker 4: can energize those people to get off the couch, or
Speaker 4: which one of them can go out there and capture
Speaker 4: those people who in the Republican primaries was voting for
Speaker 4: a Nicki Haley, you know, and I think whoever can
Speaker 4: do that is we're going to see who's gonna win November.
Speaker 4: And the other things people aren't factoring in coming November is
Speaker 4: voter suppression. There's going to be voter suppression that happens, right,
Speaker 4: And the only defense Democrats ever have against voter suppression
Speaker 4: is we got.
Speaker 2: To have the largest voter turnout in the history of America.
Speaker 2: I don't think they get that in twenty and twenty four.
Speaker 4: So if it's close, you know what Republicans do, they
Speaker 4: gonna steal it.
Speaker 2: So that's just a fact. So I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just felt like, you know, Nicki Haley or anybody
Speaker 4: else you know, probably gave them a better shot than
Speaker 4: Trump would. I think with Trump is fifty to fifty,
Speaker 4: with Biden's fifty fifty.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how.
Speaker 4: I'm really not sure how Trump fairs in the general election.
Speaker 1: When you look at it, the audience that's out there
Speaker 1: right now, you think about what you just said as
Speaker 1: we look at the Democratic Party. First things first, you're
Speaker 1: a Republican Democrat and an independent.
Speaker 2: What are you?
Speaker 4: I'm registered as a Democrat. I consider myself an independent
Speaker 4: because I don't know why. Honestly, as a black person
Speaker 4: in America, I don't know why we're beholding in any
Speaker 4: of these parties. I'm like, when I see these crazy
Speaker 4: black maga conservative lunatics, I don't know why they like that.
Speaker 4: And when I see these black liberal ready to cut
Speaker 4: your head off over Joe Biden, I don't know why
Speaker 4: they like that either. As a black person in this country,
Speaker 4: you shouldn't beholden to any party whatsoil. I don't think
Speaker 4: so either, because I don't think either party has done
Speaker 4: enough for us. That's totally where I'm at with it.
Speaker 4: But having said all of that, one of the things
Speaker 4: that I've.
Speaker 1: Received a lot of criticism for is that I've called
Speaker 1: out the Democratic Party more so than ever before, because
Speaker 1: I think it's an absolute embarrassment and grace that in
Speaker 1: the year twenty twenty four you the Liberal Party. And
Speaker 1: I know some Democrats don't call themselves progressives, but when
Speaker 1: we hear progressive, we associate that with.
Speaker 2: The Democratic Party. That's just the fact. So when you
Speaker 2: look at it.
Speaker 1: From that perspective, I'm sitting there and saying, how in
Speaker 1: God's name, in the year twenty twenty four. Do we
Speaker 1: find ourselves as a Democratic party begging an eighty one
Speaker 1: year old who turns eighty two in November to run
Speaker 1: for re election for four more years? To me, of
Speaker 1: all the inexcusable things I've seen Democrats do over the
Speaker 1: last several decades, this might be the worst because you
Speaker 1: couldn't find anybody that's.
Speaker 2: What I say. What do you say?
Speaker 4: I agree with you one hundred percent, And I think
Speaker 4: that when people give us a flack for pointing that out,
Speaker 4: you know, criticizing President Biden, I would have to tell
Speaker 4: them to shut the f up forever. And the reason
Speaker 4: I have to say that is because if you're telling
Speaker 4: me that there is a threat to democracy on the
Speaker 4: other side of the ticket, like somebody that is, you're
Speaker 4: you're seeing them script back all of these different rights.
Speaker 4: They implemented Supreme Court judges that are stripping away all
Speaker 4: of these different rights from us. We saw him lead
Speaker 4: and the insurrection, leading, an attempted to cool this country.
Speaker 2: We saw all of that.
Speaker 4: If we if we're not one hundred percent sure that
Speaker 4: the person on the other side can win, or we
Speaker 4: don't feel like they're doing enough to win, we don't
Speaker 4: see the sense of urgency coming from them.
Speaker 2: Why shouldn't we press them on that?
Speaker 4: Like you can look at it from at sports right
Speaker 4: if you if you I can love my Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 4: but if Dak Prescott in producing and there might be
Speaker 4: somebody else that can go out go out there and
Speaker 4: win us some games, I want that person.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that's the strongest argument that you can
Speaker 1: make them this particular day, because you started off the
Speaker 1: show talking about how we goin to the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: next year.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not I'm just saying. I'm just saying,
Speaker 2: Charlae Man, I mean, I don't know if this is
Speaker 2: this is not the time, this is not the subject,
Speaker 2: will take that out.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying, if you got a stronger player, if
Speaker 4: there's a potential stronger player that can that can win
Speaker 4: and put them on, did you.
Speaker 2: See a stronger player in the Democratic Party?
Speaker 4: I didn't this time last year when people were asking me,
Speaker 4: like they felt like the Democrats had a very weak
Speaker 4: bench this time last year. But when I heard Joe Biden,
Speaker 4: President Biden himself say very bench, because it sounded I
Speaker 4: don't wan anybody. Every time I said that, they say
Speaker 4: you say, bitch, they said. When I saw President Biden
Speaker 4: say he thinks that there's about fifty other Democrats who
Speaker 4: can beat Trump, I was like, well, who are they? Well,
Speaker 4: then you know, I think Governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: I think, No, I don't think so. Nope, I don't
Speaker 1: even stand the chance.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 4: I didn't believe in Governor Newsom at first, but I
Speaker 4: started to see him make some maneuvers that I was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I can see that.
Speaker 1: I like him in terms of how he looks, how
Speaker 1: policy is. I mean, it's almost like somebody that used
Speaker 1: to look at bit Rodney when he was running against
Speaker 1: about he really looks good in those blue suits, say
Speaker 1: he looks presidential. I looked at Gavin news and particularly
Speaker 1: when he debated Ron DeSantis on Foxers, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: he looks the part. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: if you look in California, you see the homelessness, you
Speaker 1: see the immigration issues, you see the economy, you see taxis,
Speaker 1: you see the price of gas and everything else.
Speaker 2: I think that's where Trump smokes him.
Speaker 4: That's my opiure, because you can always point to California.
Speaker 4: I think Wes Moore in the future.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, if we had a democracy, he's got
Speaker 2: a chance.
Speaker 4: You think wes Moore and Maryland. But those those are
Speaker 4: like those are like my three right now.
Speaker 2: I still I like Tim Ryan too.
Speaker 4: Tim Ryan was I think he was a congressman for
Speaker 4: in Ohio at one point.
Speaker 2: I like I like him a lot too.
Speaker 4: But you know, the light doesn't never, never, really get
Speaker 4: shined on him like that. But those those three I
Speaker 4: think have some potential. And I still believe in the
Speaker 4: vice vice president.
Speaker 1: I was going right there. That was my next question.
Speaker 1: I didn't hear you mention Kamala Harris. Vice President, Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: you still believe in her?
Speaker 4: I do, but wear in the bottom of the knife. Yes,
Speaker 4: we're in the bottom of the knife. And you know
Speaker 4: she's been in that off for over three years now,
Speaker 4: and I just wish people could see the Kamala Harris
Speaker 4: that you get when you're just having a conversation with her.
Speaker 1: That is exactly why I don't believe in her, exactly
Speaker 1: that because I'm not questioning her credentials. I'm not questioning
Speaker 1: her ability to deliver and resonate in terms of a message.
Speaker 1: My problem is you waited too long, not too and
Speaker 1: so much time has passed by, and she been taking
Speaker 1: a lot of sy You know, you vp you can't
Speaker 1: do but so much you gotta flow along with what
Speaker 1: the administration asked you to do. So I blame them
Speaker 1: more than I blame her. But in the same breath,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it and I'm saying, how could you
Speaker 1: let it get to this point?
Speaker 2: But you know what's so interesting? They gave her.
Speaker 4: There was a way for her to come in and
Speaker 4: really have like a I don't want to say a
Speaker 4: heel turn, but like a turn in her the character
Speaker 4: that we saw because you had Nikki Haley running around
Speaker 4: saying we should be we should have chills up our
Speaker 4: spine for a Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2: That's right presidency.
Speaker 4: Like you know, you had other people in Republican parties
Speaker 4: saying we should be scared to death of a Kamala
Speaker 4: Harris presidency. Well, damn while scared to death that's not
Speaker 4: even language we used for Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? You know where I think
Speaker 1: she missed it? Where Ron DeSantis in the state of Florida.
Speaker 1: The education system. They try to explain that there were
Speaker 1: benefits to slavery and they were challenging folks to debate
Speaker 1: them on this, and one of the challenges was to
Speaker 1: the Vice president. Yeah, and she passed, And if you can,
Speaker 1: if you can't debate and listen, listen, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: neutral here. You know, we're black men, we're proud black men,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna we're gonna be neutral here from the standpoint.
Speaker 1: We're gonna say it as plainly as I can without
Speaker 1: trying to be offensive.
Speaker 2: If you can't debate.
Speaker 1: A middle aged white man who is saying that there
Speaker 1: are benefits to slavery, as the vice president of the
Speaker 1: United States, as a former district attorney of San Francisco,
Speaker 1: the first black woman, as the former first black state
Speaker 1: attorney general in the state of California, if.
Speaker 2: You can't debate that subject with a.
Speaker 1: Presidential candidate at the time, to me, it was one
Speaker 1: of those things. Yeah, it might be beneath you. You
Speaker 1: might be swinging down because you're there and he's not,
Speaker 1: because he was aiming to go for the White House.
Speaker 1: But in the same breath, that issue should have been
Speaker 1: so piercing to you. That position that they took, that
Speaker 1: should have been a fight you were willing to embrace.
Speaker 4: You, and you saw when that's what Gavin Newsom took
Speaker 4: up the fight, right, so you him and Ronda Sanders
Speaker 4: actually were debating on Fox. I agree with you, like
Speaker 4: you got to go into that lions then, Like you know,
Speaker 4: I know for a fact that a lot of Democrats,
Speaker 4: you know, in her position, they feel like their words
Speaker 4: get misconstrued by Fox News. So they're kind of afraid
Speaker 4: to speak truth to power the way they want to
Speaker 4: because they feel like Fox will take.
Speaker 2: A SoundBite and run it over and over for their audience.
Speaker 4: It can be So what if you're willing to go
Speaker 4: to Fox because they can't misconstrue you when you right there.
Speaker 2: In your face everywhere? Ain't the only net that's right?
Speaker 4: President Obama used to go on O'Riley factor, like John Stuart,
Speaker 4: even though he wasn't an elected official, he used to
Speaker 4: go on. You see Gavin Newsom, he goes on Fox
Speaker 4: Now and goes with handity debates Ron DeSantis. I feel
Speaker 4: like the VP should have been doing that, especially when
Speaker 4: they were saying things like we should be scared to
Speaker 4: death of a Kamala Harris presidency. You're only saying that
Speaker 4: because she's black. You're only saying that because she's black
Speaker 4: and she's a woman, Like, there's no other thing to fear,
Speaker 4: because if she got into the White House and she
Speaker 4: became president, her policies wouldn't be any different than any
Speaker 4: other Democrat.
Speaker 2: So what is there to fear.
Speaker 4: Other than that she's a black woman. She should have
Speaker 4: took that opening and ran with it.
Speaker 1: What about the notion that as a state attorney general,
Speaker 1: as a prosecutor in the state of California, there were
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of black folks that she put in jail.
Speaker 1: What about people who make that argument against her, I
Speaker 1: don't know they answer to that question, I'm genuinely asked.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't fully know the answer to it at all,
Speaker 4: But I do know that, you know, when you talk about,
Speaker 4: you know, at the time, the way that the drug
Speaker 4: laws were set up in that state, she probably was
Speaker 4: just following the letter of the law, you know, in
Speaker 4: a lot of ways. But I mean, as the laws
Speaker 4: have changed in this country, I've definitely seen her positions
Speaker 4: on marijuana and things of that nature, you know, pivot
Speaker 4: I mean right now there, I think it would be
Speaker 4: it would serve them so well for President Biden, who
Speaker 4: can actually do this.
Speaker 2: With a stroke of a pin.
Speaker 4: He can literally free everybody who's in federal prison for
Speaker 4: a non violent marijuana offence. There's some people who feel
Speaker 4: like it should be he should free everybody who's in
Speaker 4: federal prison for a non violent drug offence, all across
Speaker 4: the board. I would like to see them do things
Speaker 4: like that. I would like to see her leading the
Speaker 4: charge on something like that and then President Biden signing it.
Speaker 4: Can you imagine if we heard that announcement tomorrow, everybody
Speaker 4: who's in federal prison for a non violent drug offense,
Speaker 4: Joe Biden's giving them a party.
Speaker 1: Especially when you know the crime Bill assistant and so
Speaker 1: many of them being in there, and to begin to
Speaker 1: begin with in the nineties. But again, but again, Biden
Speaker 1: was a senator at that time, pushing that Congressional Black
Speaker 1: Caucus was telling him to push that. We have to
Speaker 1: take into account Bill Clinton, he was in office, Hillary
Speaker 1: Rodham Clinton or a presidential candidate in twenty sixteen. Obviously
Speaker 1: she was the first lady around that time, but all
Speaker 1: of them are connected to that.
Speaker 4: Biden took credit for that, But Biden took a lot
Speaker 4: of this is the Biden crime bill.
Speaker 2: That's what he used to say, eighty.
Speaker 4: Six mandatory minimum citizen, eighty eight crack laws, ninety four
Speaker 4: crime bill, President Biden, like that was me.
Speaker 2: I did that.
Speaker 4: So yeah, somebody like that who has systemically caused a
Speaker 4: lot of black and brown people to go to prison,
Speaker 4: that's the type of stuff you literally owe black people.
Speaker 4: And you can do that with a stroke of a pen.
Speaker 4: You don't need Congress to vote that. You can say, hey,
Speaker 4: I'm pardoning everybody on a federal level who's in prison
Speaker 4: right now for a non violent druggs.
Speaker 2: But he hasn't.
Speaker 1: And because he hasn't, what about folks on the right
Speaker 1: who would say, see, that's them, that's not us.
Speaker 2: Why y'all constantly looking at us?
Speaker 1: Why not look at them and what they're not doing,
Speaker 1: because they're giving you lip surface.
Speaker 2: At least we're straight up about where we stand at
Speaker 2: who we are.
Speaker 1: That's what cond of positions they would take in terms
Speaker 1: of their policies and their politics.
Speaker 2: Per se. What do you say to that?
Speaker 4: I would say that, you know, that's never going to
Speaker 4: garner anybody black to want to vote for people. I
Speaker 4: think that there's a there's a there's a misconception that
Speaker 4: when you see, you know, President Biden losing some black voters,
Speaker 4: and there's a there's this overstated number they keep saying
Speaker 4: for Republicans, like twenty three percent of if the election
Speaker 4: was out today, twenty three percent of all African Americans
Speaker 4: were vote Republican.
Speaker 2: I don't ever see that happening.
Speaker 4: But I think just because you see people leaving the
Speaker 4: Democratic Party doesn't mean they going to be Republicans. That
Speaker 4: couch is real, y'all. So many these people are just
Speaker 4: going to stay home.
Speaker 1: But then that begs the question, who does the couch
Speaker 1: work for? We know who we could work against, but
Speaker 1: who does it work for? If you're the Republicans. Let's
Speaker 1: just say, for the sake of argument, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: some numbers say out throwing to buy you, or a
Speaker 1: percentage of votes pop party. For election year twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: ninety percent of the Democratic voters were black, one percent
Speaker 1: were Republican. Twenty eighteen, sixteen percent of Democratic voters were black,
Speaker 1: dip three percent. Still, only one percent of Republican voters
Speaker 1: were black. Twenty twenty, the presidential election, nineteen percent of
Speaker 1: the Democratic voters were black, tying to sixteen two percent.
Speaker 2: Of the Republican voters were black.
Speaker 1: And then in twenty twenty two, which they thought was
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, a red wave and didn't
Speaker 1: turn out to be that way, seventy percent of all
Speaker 1: Democratic voters were black.
Speaker 2: One percent of all Republican voters were black.
Speaker 1: So I guess what I'm looking at is I'm looking
Speaker 1: at these numbers right here, and I'm saying to myself,
Speaker 1: if you're Trump and you've got some black Naga.
Speaker 2: Republicans who are willing to support you.
Speaker 1: Bro, I'm looking at numbers here and we're talking about Okay,
Speaker 1: it's not two percent, it's not ten percent, but what
Speaker 1: if it was four percent, What if.
Speaker 2: It was five percent? That could swing the election?
Speaker 4: I don't know, because they're losing a lot of white
Speaker 4: women too, you know, and vy way, yeah, and a
Speaker 4: lot of white women are the white women really are
Speaker 4: the reason Donald Trump got into the White House the
Speaker 4: first time.
Speaker 2: But nobody ever brings that up, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: They always want to point the thing at black people
Speaker 4: and black men and black women. Know why, really black men,
Speaker 4: but really white women with the reason that Donald Trump
Speaker 4: got into the Whiteut of twenty sixteen and a lot
Speaker 4: of white women. I guess because of Roe v Wade
Speaker 4: they are moving away from the Republican Party. So I
Speaker 4: don't know how much of a difference four percent, five
Speaker 4: percent sways an election.
Speaker 1: So you're saying you don't think the black vot's going
Speaker 1: to sway the election. You think the female vote, the
Speaker 1: women vote, is going to swear the election.
Speaker 2: I can see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can see that more so than you know,
Speaker 4: the black vote, because you know, that's what I'm looking
Speaker 4: for in November, Like Roe v Wade is a big issue.
Speaker 4: I can't believe that it's not more people out there
Speaker 4: in the streets every day terrans it up because Roe
Speaker 4: v Wade got taken away, and I think that, you know,
Speaker 4: women are very strategic, right, So I think, you know,
Speaker 4: coming November, it's gonna be a lot of women that
Speaker 4: remember that because Trump is out there saying I'm the
Speaker 4: reason Roe v Wade is gone. He kind of moved
Speaker 4: away from that that rhetoric, but those sound bites are
Speaker 4: still out there, and.
Speaker 2: I don't think he cares though I think he thinks
Speaker 2: it's going to work for him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't see that working for him, because you know,
Speaker 4: you women. Yeah, that's black women, White women, Asian women,
Speaker 4: Jewish women. You got all these different women that might
Speaker 4: mobilize this a double edged sword. On one hand, here's
Speaker 4: what I believe.
Speaker 1: I think it's a situation where, Okay, you have an
Speaker 1: abundance of women out there who are pro choice, how
Speaker 1: dare you, as a man, as anybody, tell us what
Speaker 1: we have the right to do with our body right.
Speaker 1: The flip side is you have an abundance of Republicans
Speaker 1: that can say there's a whole bunch of women out
Speaker 1: here who were pro life, and they were the ones
Speaker 1: that compelled us to do this as well. So I
Speaker 1: don't know whether that balances itself out. It remains to
Speaker 1: be seen. I think that's what we find out in
Speaker 1: this election. According to what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 4: But even if you look at like like the midterms,
Speaker 4: I feel like that was an issue for them. That
Speaker 4: red wave that you spoke about was supposed to happen,
Speaker 4: that didn't. I think Rob Wade was a big reason
Speaker 4: why it did not.
Speaker 2: It did not happen. So I think in.
Speaker 4: November, yeah, I think you might see a lot more
Speaker 4: women come out then you think. But the reason I
Speaker 4: push back on what people say about the black vote
Speaker 4: is because don't blame this on us. You know what
Speaker 4: I mean when you look at the approval ratings for
Speaker 4: President Biden, Here's approval ratings are down with everybody.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying different posts, That's what.
Speaker 4: I'm saying, Young people, independence, black people, Latinos, so like,
Speaker 4: don't just put that on on black people, like you know,
Speaker 4: they got to figure out a way to energize America, period.
Speaker 4: Even after the State of the Union's approval ratings didn't
Speaker 4: move at all. And I think I read a study
Speaker 4: that said one in three, one in three people under
Speaker 4: thirty didn't even see or even hear about the State.
Speaker 1: They kept it on their TVs and they were they
Speaker 1: were doing something else while the TV was on, but
Speaker 1: they want to listen to it.
Speaker 4: But once again, Democrats do a poor job and messaging.
Speaker 4: You mean to tell me that every single network on TV,
Speaker 4: damn near was carrying the State of the Union and
Speaker 4: one in three people under the age of thirty didn't
Speaker 4: even see or hear about it.
Speaker 1: You know what nobody else brought up because you know, listen,
Speaker 1: I didn't watch it on Fox. I was watching another channel.
Speaker 1: But I think Fox carried it. And what I said
Speaker 1: to folks is Fox carried the State of the Union.
Speaker 1: That shows you how not worried they are about body.
Speaker 1: They actually carried his State of the Union. They are
Speaker 1: not phased by.
Speaker 2: Him at all.
Speaker 1: And so now let's transition to this particular subject, because
Speaker 1: it is one of the reasons that I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to you. What about black folks who have a
Speaker 1: problem with black folks who point out all of these things.
Speaker 1: You've experienced it, I've experienced it, a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: other folks have experienced it emanating from our community. What
Speaker 1: do you make of that?
Speaker 4: It makes me wonder what are they serving at these
Speaker 4: White House Christmas parties? Is the food so good at
Speaker 4: these white House Christmas parties that these people do not
Speaker 4: want to lose their access to these white House Christmas parties?
Speaker 4: So if Charlamagne says something about their good Master Biden
Speaker 4: Stephen the Smith, there's somebody they're good math bide, we
Speaker 4: got to go out there and attack them on the
Speaker 4: behalf of good math Bide. Why what am I saying wrong?
Speaker 4: Because you know what, they don't do it to David Axelrod,
Speaker 4: I'm saying the same things that David Axlelrodd is saying.
Speaker 4: They don't say it to Ezra Klein when he writes
Speaker 4: his articles for The New York Times. I'm saying the
Speaker 4: same thing that Ezra Cline is saying. But as soon
Speaker 4: as I said, all of these black people who run
Speaker 4: out to try to chop my head off or chop
Speaker 4: killer Mike's head off, and we're not.
Speaker 2: By the way, Paul killer Mike, kill Mike hasn't said
Speaker 2: nothing nothing, not kill Mike.
Speaker 1: I mean that we saw him, he was unfairly being
Speaker 1: detained and escort.
Speaker 2: It out of the day. Yes, they got nothing wrong here.
Speaker 4: The think people don't listen, right, Killer Michael's on Bill
Speaker 4: Maher and Killer Michael's on the View, and Bill Maher,
Speaker 4: you know, asked him who he wants to endorse. He's like, look,
Speaker 4: I'm not endorsing nobody. I'm focused on local politics, whatever whatever.
Speaker 4: But he said, I endorsed Bernie Sanders, right, he said,
Speaker 4: I indorsed Bernie Sanders. So I would tell you to
Speaker 4: support the candidate who's more likely to be in line
Speaker 4: with those progressive policies that Bernie Sanders was in line
Speaker 4: with that's clearly President Biden. But then Bill Maher instead
Speaker 4: of just saying, oh, that's clearly President Biden, Bill margoes,
Speaker 4: why can't you just say you want you're voting for Biden?
Speaker 2: What if so what if he don't want to?
Speaker 4: Why can't you say that, Bill bart Then when he
Speaker 4: was on Yes, and then then when he's on the View,
Speaker 4: they tried to put him in the same trick bag
Speaker 4: and kill him. He goes, look, man, I supported Keisha
Speaker 4: Lance Bottoms, Keisha LANs Bottoms was was a part of
Speaker 4: the Biden administration. I supported our mayor Andre Dickens. I
Speaker 4: got two Democratics. I helped to get two Democratic senators
Speaker 4: elected in uh in In in Georgia. So I would
Speaker 4: support the people who who I would support the person
Speaker 4: who the people I've supported are supported.
Speaker 2: That's what he said on the View.
Speaker 4: Instead of them going, oh, that's Biden, they start going, well,
Speaker 4: let me read you this list of things that Biden
Speaker 4: did for the black community.
Speaker 2: Nobody's nobody's debating that. Nobody's debating that.
Speaker 4: This is what I mean when I say the right
Speaker 4: does a better job of pushing the narrative than the
Speaker 4: left does. Because Mike was right there and instead of
Speaker 4: just amplifying, Okay, well, he's telling y'all vote for Biden.
Speaker 4: Y'all y'all want to but paint him as something he's not.
Speaker 1: But that's just one element. But that's just one element.
Speaker 1: What about the advent of social media? All these social
Speaker 1: media platforms, everybody's got a voice. And if you don't
Speaker 1: parrot the speech of what the black community believes, you're
Speaker 1: supposed to parrot, your sellout, you're.
Speaker 2: Beyond all of that. Think about what they did to
Speaker 2: ice Cube. I'm talking about us as a community. Think
Speaker 2: about what we did.
Speaker 1: Ice Cube set up there and said I have a
Speaker 1: plan for Black America that I wanted to present.
Speaker 2: Trump entertained listening.
Speaker 1: Biden seemed reluctant to do so at the time before
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty election. And this dude, a former member
Speaker 1: of NWA for crying out loud, who is as raw
Speaker 1: and as real as it gets, was crucified by.
Speaker 2: Our own What do you make of that? I think
Speaker 2: I think that, listen.
Speaker 4: I think there might be some fair criticism with everything
Speaker 4: that everybody's saying, right, I think with the ice Cube situation,
Speaker 4: there might have been some fair criticism because I'm the
Speaker 4: type person I'm not going alone because I know I'm
Speaker 4: not no expert. I may have the platform right and
Speaker 4: i may have to have the ears to the people,
Speaker 4: but I'm not the experts.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna bring the experts with me, you know.
Speaker 4: So if I was ice Cube, I wouldn't have wanted
Speaker 4: to have that meeting by myself, like, because I know
Speaker 4: he didn't help put together that plan for Black America
Speaker 4: by itself, So bring those experts with you that helped
Speaker 4: put together.
Speaker 2: That he was going by himself. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's what it seems like.
Speaker 4: I don't know if that's the case, right, Like, Like
Speaker 4: for me, I would have just amplified the plan and said, hey,
Speaker 4: these people helped me put together this plan, which I
Speaker 4: think I which if I'm not mistaken. I heard him
Speaker 4: mention a couple of names, but I don't want to
Speaker 4: say the name because I'm not sure if that's the
Speaker 4: case or not. But I think in situations like that,
Speaker 4: we have to use our I guess whatever you want
Speaker 4: to call it, access, celebrity whatever, to amplify the act expert.
Speaker 1: That's the whole objective for us to have a platform.
Speaker 1: You want to amplify an issue. You want to amplify
Speaker 1: the people that are around you, who are the experts.
Speaker 1: You want to put folks in a position where real
Speaker 1: stuff can actually get done, Real dialogue can take place,
Speaker 1: real stuff can get done. I remember I was getting
Speaker 1: CRUs five men and Joe Madison god rested soul passed
Speaker 1: away of the Black Eagle host a serious eximpt Yeah, yeah, man, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I remember years ago he called me because I was
Speaker 1: giving a speech at Vanderbilt. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that I would normally say when I was giving these
Speaker 1: speeches is I said, for one election, I wish everyone
Speaker 1: would vote Republican. And they were like, what you know,
Speaker 1: Because I started off by saying racism doesn't exist, and
Speaker 1: then I would pause and I would say, obviously, onlon,
Speaker 1: of course it does. You just don't have that as
Speaker 1: an excuse for stymying your growth and moving forward and progressing.
Speaker 1: They would cut out the part where I said obviously online,
Speaker 1: of course it exists, and just said Stephen Ay said
Speaker 1: racism does exist.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: And luckily I have my own platform, so I don't
Speaker 1: worry about making sure the voice gets heart. But in
Speaker 1: the end bringing it up because I think it's important
Speaker 1: to point this out. The only point that I was
Speaker 1: trying to make when I say stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Is flat of us.
Speaker 1: We go in situations we let you give us lip
Speaker 1: service during the election year, tell us what we've let
Speaker 1: this happen for decades and then nothing gets done when
Speaker 1: you look at the Hispanic population and the one benefit
Speaker 1: one could argue about immigration being such a fervent issue
Speaker 1: is that it's in the mind's eye of politicians, so
Speaker 1: you have to at least come across like you're doing something,
Speaker 1: whereas with us, nobody had to do that. I said,
Speaker 1: you go to Greater Car, you don't just buy it,
Speaker 1: you test drive it, got house, you walk through it,
Speaker 1: you see it.
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 1: You don't just sit up there and transparently give somebody
Speaker 1: your vote because you serve to disenfranchise yourself.
Speaker 2: On one hand, you got one.
Speaker 1: Side that knows you ain't gonna never support them, so
Speaker 1: they don't have to do a damn thing for you.
Speaker 1: And on the other side, they get to take you
Speaker 1: for granted. So there's what so much they're going to
Speaker 1: do for you. And I think that's how we've hurt ourself.
Speaker 1: That's the position that I've always taken. What about you?
Speaker 4: What you said is interesting just now because you know,
Speaker 4: I've heard plenty of people, especially for the last couple
Speaker 4: of elections, like we're just gonna hold our vote period.
Speaker 4: Let Democrats fall flat on their face. I've never heard
Speaker 4: them say, let's go out and vote Republican. But that's
Speaker 4: at the time I say that recently, but say that.
Speaker 4: But the reason I think that's interesting is because you
Speaker 4: know people will be like, you can't you cannot encourage
Speaker 4: people not to vote, which I agree. I feel like
Speaker 4: everybody should go out there and vote, But I'm not.
Speaker 2: I can't tell you who to vote for.
Speaker 4: You know, I can tell you what I feel like
Speaker 4: this candidate is doing. And I can tell you what
Speaker 4: I feel like this candidate is doing. I can tell
Speaker 4: what I feel like it's going to happen in this
Speaker 4: country if this person gets elected. I can tell what
Speaker 4: I feel it's gon happen in this country if this
Speaker 4: person gets elected. Once I lay all out on the table,
Speaker 4: you got to make your own decision. I think right now,
Speaker 4: you know where we're in a place where there are
Speaker 4: a lot of people even saying that this year, like
Speaker 4: I'm not voting them, Let let this country fall on
Speaker 4: his face, like this, Ain't this not the year to
Speaker 4: do that? Now we say that every president's election cycle.
Speaker 4: This is really not the to do that. But I
Speaker 4: can totally understand why people feel that way, and I
Speaker 4: think folks get upset when we're just listening to what
Speaker 4: the people are saying and what feeling, what the people
Speaker 4: are feeling.
Speaker 2: And expressing that to folks.
Speaker 4: I'm telling the Democratic Party, this is how people are feeling,
Speaker 4: this is what people are saying. The exhausted majority folks
Speaker 4: is just tired.
Speaker 1: What about the Democratic Party focusing on the extreme stuff?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't you know when they were You
Speaker 1: had folks on the right arguing about the economy, You
Speaker 1: have folks on the left arguing about who should be
Speaker 1: allowed in bathrooms, stuff like that. I mean some of these,
Speaker 1: some of these other arguments, I mean, it was driving
Speaker 1: me crazy. I'm like, that's not at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, that's not gonna swing folks one way or
Speaker 1: the other.
Speaker 4: No, I always say that, you know, we made a
Speaker 4: lot of micros macros. People are human at the end
Speaker 4: of the day. What did I say earlier. People care
Speaker 4: about up with mobility and security. People want to feel safe.
Speaker 4: That's it, that's it. I don't care what type of
Speaker 4: human you are on this planet. No't matter what your
Speaker 4: sexual your gender identity is, your sexuality, nothing.
Speaker 2: People just want to feel safe.
Speaker 4: Whoever is in that White House, whoever your your, your
Speaker 4: governor is or you know.
Speaker 2: Your your your your your your sentences.
Speaker 4: All we want people in those positions who can make
Speaker 4: sure that we got some money in our pocket and
Speaker 4: can make us feel safe.
Speaker 1: You know what they're gonay, they're gonna say what Trump
Speaker 1: it was the economy and national security was not something
Speaker 1: that he was shy about promoting as well. So if
Speaker 1: you got those two elements, that's about money in your pocket,
Speaker 1: that's about safety, and they'll lean on that and they
Speaker 1: say that makes him a better candidate than Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: Do you know, you know, back in January, right, I
Speaker 4: was doing an interview with Fox News Joseph who does
Speaker 4: the digital digital stuff at Fox News, and he asked
Speaker 4: me a simple question. He said, Charlamage, do you think
Speaker 4: the border is going to be an issue coming November?
Speaker 2: And I said, hell, yeah, yes.
Speaker 4: And the reason I said hell, yes, is because for
Speaker 4: the first time in my community, people are talking to
Speaker 4: me about what's happening at the border.
Speaker 2: Not because they're anti you know, immigrants, not Xenophon.
Speaker 4: No, what they were talking about it the fact that
Speaker 4: they felt like those individuals were getting resources.
Speaker 5: If we want to get black communion has never gotten
Speaker 5: Rick Adams and not his fault, Governor oak olymp but
Speaker 5: fifty three million dollar prepaid credit cards, but undocumented or
Speaker 5: illegal immigrants.
Speaker 2: Man, But when was that happening for black people?
Speaker 4: And those are just basic necessities, Yes, food and a
Speaker 4: roof over your head. There are some people in this
Speaker 4: there's a lot of people in this country who don't
Speaker 4: have that. So if you think that they're gonna look
Speaker 4: at you know, these people coming in from other countries
Speaker 4: and they're getting they're getting rewarded with those things and.
Speaker 2: They don't have it, you think they're not gonna raise hell,
Speaker 2: you think they're not gonna have a fit.
Speaker 4: Then I had people coming to me in New York
Speaker 4: City talking to me about how, you know, gangs from
Speaker 4: different countries were coming in and running through their neighborhoods
Speaker 4: like causing problems.
Speaker 2: So what are we talking about again? Money in safety.
Speaker 4: So these are real conversations that I was having with
Speaker 4: real people. This ain't nothing I was reading. Wasn't those statistics.
Speaker 4: These are people calling the phone lines and the people
Speaker 4: that I'm actually talking to. So I said that, man,
Speaker 4: do you know they ran an article, they ran an
Speaker 4: article on MSNBC that said, charlemagnea god is pushing MAGA messaging.
Speaker 2: Now they've done it to me about three times, about
Speaker 2: three times now in March. It's the number one issue
Speaker 2: the borders. Right now.
Speaker 4: You got President Biden, you know, down at the border
Speaker 4: asking Donald Trump, let's fix this together.
Speaker 2: It's like, yo, just listen to the people.
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump is three hundred miles away at the
Speaker 1: border blaming Biden.
Speaker 2: You know what's going on. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: But that just comes from me listening to people.
Speaker 4: I really think sometimes, man, we sit in our positions
Speaker 4: of privilege and we forget about, you know, the least
Speaker 4: of us in this country. But when you talk to
Speaker 4: the least of us in this country and see what
Speaker 4: the least of us in this country want, you get
Speaker 4: a really good picture of what America needs.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been more worried about the black community
Speaker 1: than you are right.
Speaker 2: Now, man, that's a fantastic question. Have I ever been
Speaker 2: more work more worried.
Speaker 4: That's a good question, man, And and and the reason,
Speaker 4: the reason that's such a good question is on my
Speaker 4: nerves every day, Steven, If I'm being totally honest with you,
Speaker 4: it just it just.
Speaker 2: Is every every.
Speaker 4: Every damn d I love us, I love us too,
Speaker 4: but damn damn.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I'm sorry. I know it's mixed company, but.
Speaker 4: What it is, I just yeah, it's just I don't
Speaker 4: know if I'm more worried because I do feel like
Speaker 4: I do feel like there's enough of us in certain positions,
Speaker 4: and enough of us with a certain consciousness that we
Speaker 4: really want what's best.
Speaker 2: For our people.
Speaker 4: And it's a lot of us, a lot of folks
Speaker 4: that I see, they're not waiting on nobody, They're not
Speaker 4: waiting on government. Like there's a lot of people using
Speaker 4: their own resources to do things, you know, for us.
Speaker 2: Like for me, I my mother's alma mater of the.
Speaker 4: South Carolina State University, I opened up, you know, a
Speaker 4: scholarship in my mother's names Stalk Carolina State University. I
Speaker 4: gave him that a quarter million dollars out of my
Speaker 4: own pockets, you know, Like I have a partnership with
Speaker 4: the food Bank in hallm because I'm sitting there talking
Speaker 4: about we got to keep people's food.
Speaker 2: We got to keep food on.
Speaker 4: These people with that by the way, Oh, they'd love
Speaker 4: to have you actually, you know. So it's certain things
Speaker 4: that I see a lot of us doing, Like you know,
Speaker 4: my nonprofit, the Mental Wealth Alliance, you know, where we're
Speaker 4: trying to get ten million black and brown people, you know,
Speaker 4: free therapy over the next five years. Like you know,
Speaker 4: every day we're making you know, strides towards those type
Speaker 4: of things. So I think that there's a lot of
Speaker 4: people who aren't waiting on anybody, a lot of black
Speaker 4: people who aren't waiting on anybody, who are taking our
Speaker 4: destiny into our own hands. So that that gives me
Speaker 4: a lot of hope. But man, when I go on
Speaker 4: this boy, it makes me hate. It makes me hate
Speaker 4: us something. And why does it make you hate? Because
Speaker 4: we we we we we tear each other down in
Speaker 4: ways like that we talking.
Speaker 2: About President Biden.
Speaker 4: Right, we give white men like President Biden so much grace,
Speaker 4: but don't give each other zero zero. You can talk,
Speaker 4: you bring up President Biden's ninety four Crime BILLD or
Speaker 4: eighty six Mandatory minimum centizen or eighty eight crack Law.
Speaker 4: They will make up all types of excuses, is why
Speaker 4: that happened. People should be allowed to change and this
Speaker 4: and that. But you don't do that with your own people, right,
Speaker 4: you don't do that with your own You know what
Speaker 4: they'll say people, They'll say, Steven, and who the hell
Speaker 4: are you to talk?
Speaker 2: Chelman? God, who the hell are you to talk?
Speaker 1: Because people come on y'all shows and y'all grill them
Speaker 1: every day. Y'all all call it like y'all see it,
Speaker 1: But y'all knock it down to black man every day.
Speaker 2: That's what they'll say. That's what they'll say about you,
Speaker 2: That's what they'll say about me. How do you respond
Speaker 2: to that.
Speaker 4: I don't think we're I don't think we're knocking down
Speaker 4: black men. I think having conversations with people is not
Speaker 4: knocking them down, you know.
Speaker 2: I think you know, if you feel if.
Speaker 1: You're calling it like you see it for stuff that
Speaker 1: they do in front of millions of people.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm not I'm not calling for somebody to
Speaker 4: be erased off the face of the earth like you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, I'm not trying to go prove
Speaker 4: their timeline and get rid of them all together.
Speaker 2: We're just having conversations.
Speaker 4: It's the same way when people disagree with things that
Speaker 4: I say, I'll listen.
Speaker 2: I don't have no problem apologizing if I'm wrong, right,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 4: I don't have no problem saying, hey, you know what,
Speaker 4: I got that wrong, my fault.
Speaker 2: I don't have any problem doing that.
Speaker 4: And I don't have a problem bringing the person I
Speaker 4: was talking about onto the platform so we can have,
Speaker 4: you know, a conversation amongst each other. I think I
Speaker 4: think that's really good for our community to see.
Speaker 1: I've cut back on that that. Let me tell you why,
Speaker 1: you too. I hear a YouTube show here. You understand
Speaker 1: I'm saying I'm on part your teammate on iHeart Radio now.
Speaker 2: And stuff like that. Love it.
Speaker 1: Here's the deal, because you can make money now doing
Speaker 1: that shit.
Speaker 2: That's what you got cats doing.
Speaker 1: They ain't whispering and saying stuff privately or or just
Speaker 1: saying something on a.
Speaker 2: Social media platform for you to see. Now. They want
Speaker 2: everybody to see it. They want it monetized.
Speaker 1: They don't have to have proof, they don't have to
Speaker 1: have literally evidence they don't have to back it up
Speaker 1: with something to facts, They don't have to do any
Speaker 1: of that. Now you're trying to act like you all
Speaker 1: up in your feelings, like you're really really conscientious, when
Speaker 1: in fact you're just trying.
Speaker 2: To get bad.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you just want you you want media respond.
Speaker 2: So then now you got more content.
Speaker 4: All you want access to the platform because I might
Speaker 4: invite you on to have the conversation, or I might
Speaker 4: go to your platform to have the conversation.
Speaker 2: You know, you're right about that, You're right about that,
Speaker 2: Like you.
Speaker 4: Know, we are in a word economy nowadays, and like
Speaker 4: nobody cares.
Speaker 2: Our world word.
Speaker 4: And nobody cares about the truth of those words. Just
Speaker 4: the lie is more entertaining, and they'll say, who the
Speaker 4: hell are y'all say that?
Speaker 1: But my response to that would be, well, we were
Speaker 1: doing this before the avent of social media, So clearly
Speaker 1: I intent as professionals, this is what we're conducting on
Speaker 1: a day in dat our basis me for over thirty years,
Speaker 1: you for at least over twenty somebody years. You understand
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So that's the way I look at
Speaker 1: it now. But again I'll come back to you and
Speaker 1: ask any hope whatsoever, silver lining, you know, a light
Speaker 1: at the end of the rainbow down, you know, down
Speaker 1: the line.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a lot of hope because, like you know,
Speaker 4: it's a double edged sword when it comes to social media, right,
Speaker 4: because the problem with social media that gave everybody a voice,
Speaker 4: but the gifts of social medias that gave everybody a voice.
Speaker 4: So when I look at brothers like ern your Lesia,
Speaker 4: you know, Rashad and Troy, When I look at brothers
Speaker 4: like nineteen Keys, when I look at brothers like you know,
Speaker 4: Wall Street Travel, when I even look at like a
Speaker 4: lot of the athletes who are you know, I love
Speaker 4: what the Pivot is doing, Like the conversations that they
Speaker 4: having over there, them brothers is helping out, helping folks
Speaker 4: heal like in a in a in.
Speaker 2: A real way.
Speaker 4: Ryan Clark, oh god, oh man. I love it when
Speaker 4: I see stuff like that. When I see people, you know,
Speaker 4: able to control their own narratives and put those kind
Speaker 4: of things out there, it gives me a lot of hope.
Speaker 4: Because Malcolm X said, you know, a person who controls
Speaker 4: the media controls the minds of the masses.
Speaker 2: And I think, right now, you.
Speaker 4: Know we do have a lot of good people that
Speaker 4: are in positions of power, you know, and with different platforms,
Speaker 4: and I think they're putting a lot of a lot
Speaker 4: of good stuff out there.
Speaker 2: So there's there's always hope.
Speaker 4: But we have to understand everybody can't go you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. That got me Some people got some
Speaker 4: people behind. Read when you read the Bible, there's a
Speaker 4: there's a couple of stories in the Bible. God told Noah, look,
Speaker 4: build up everybody, and you can tell them what's gonna happen.
Speaker 4: There's gonna be a lot of daughters. There's will be
Speaker 4: a lot of nay says. People are gonna critique you
Speaker 4: and all this and that. Don't worry about it. Whoever
Speaker 4: believes you, that's who's gonna come with you.
Speaker 2: I bet you they believe. When it started raining and
Speaker 2: those doors started.
Speaker 4: Closing and the floods, you look at a Lot, right,
Speaker 4: Lot took his family, and Lot was arguing with.
Speaker 2: God, like God, there's some good people back there, damn it.
Speaker 2: Go find go find one Lot, and you can find one.
Speaker 2: I spared the whole city. I couldn't find one. Lot's
Speaker 2: wife had to look back, turn the salt. I bet
Speaker 2: you lot.
Speaker 4: I ain't looking back with it after that, you know.
Speaker 4: So it's just like everybody can't go, and we have
Speaker 4: to understand that.
Speaker 1: So who are the people that can't go? I'm not
Speaker 1: asking names. I'm not asking names. I'm talking about classification.
Speaker 1: The cond of folks that you're talking about. Let's crystallize it.
Speaker 1: Let's crystallize it for the audience. Who are the kind
Speaker 1: of folks that got to be left behind? We gotta
Speaker 1: say they let their ask to state, we can't, we
Speaker 1: can't break down with us those people.
Speaker 4: I think anybody who's not willing to have genuine conversation,
Speaker 4: I think what you said a little while ago is
Speaker 4: very important. Like some people are just doing this for
Speaker 4: entertainment purposes, and you know, I don't feel like you
Speaker 4: know what we're going through in this country, who we
Speaker 4: are in this country. I don't think that's a joke.
Speaker 4: I don't think that should be with somebody's you know,
Speaker 4: entertainment values. So the individuals who really just want confrontation
Speaker 4: over conversation, the individuals that we know wherever we go,
Speaker 4: they're gonna cause conflict, conflict, you gotta do them, like
Speaker 4: Harriet Tell me would have did it? Shoot him right
Speaker 4: there on the spot. They can't come with every everybody
Speaker 4: cannot cannot, cannot cannot go with us.
Speaker 2: And I think, I think we know who a lot
Speaker 2: of those individuals are.
Speaker 4: That there's there's a there's a lot of us who
Speaker 4: have a long history and a long resume of just
Speaker 4: wanting to cause conflict amongst us, cause conflict amongst each other.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I think those individuals like, let them, let them go
Speaker 4: figure out something else.
Speaker 1: Last question on this subject that you consider the role
Speaker 1: that you play when you take the position that you
Speaker 1: just articulated. Is that your approach and you just keep
Speaker 1: it to yourself and you do it, or is that
Speaker 1: a message that you try to disseminate to as many
Speaker 1: people who are willing to listen, that are in our position,
Speaker 1: that have the.
Speaker 2: Ability to sort of provoke change in some way. Oh now, yeah.
Speaker 4: I have these conversations all the time, publicly and privately,
Speaker 4: you know, because like I feel like we all can
Speaker 4: create our own ecosystems with our own you know, like
Speaker 4: minded individuals, and I try to be I try to
Speaker 4: be around like minded individuals who I see, you know,
Speaker 4: doing things for our people on their own. And I'm
Speaker 4: also willing to build with the elected officials who are
Speaker 4: in these positions apart because I can't sit here and
Speaker 4: act like especially in my hometown Moncecow to South Carolina,
Speaker 4: the Low Country area, Charleston and all that. Man, there's
Speaker 4: so many great you know, congressmen like my man, my man,
Speaker 4: my man Jay Moore like people like that who help
Speaker 4: me get things done for our community. So I'm not
Speaker 4: gonna ever sit here and act like you know, government
Speaker 4: doesn't play a role, because it absolutely, positively, positively does,
Speaker 4: you know, But you just don't need government dependency. We
Speaker 4: don't need we don't need government help. Dependency is different. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we don't need government dependency until we can put those
Speaker 4: people in positions that we can actually depend on. Like
Speaker 4: there's people that we know we could depend on if
Speaker 4: they get in that position, Like if Anina Turner was
Speaker 4: an elected official, we know we could depend on, you know,
Speaker 4: somebody like her, But we don't have too many of those.
Speaker 2: So the ones that we do have, you know, in.
Speaker 4: Those positions, we got to support them. We got to
Speaker 4: support the Ayana Presley's of the world, you know, we
Speaker 4: got to support those people who are in Congress, who
Speaker 4: we know are fighting for us every day. But like
Speaker 4: I said, for me, I'm willing to work with anybody
Speaker 4: who's willing to work with me and work on the
Speaker 4: things that I want to get done, you know, for
Speaker 4: for for us as a people. And once again, man,
Speaker 4: we had these conversations about black people. Black people are
Speaker 4: human beings, just we want upward mobility and safety. How
Speaker 4: can we get some money in our pocket and be
Speaker 4: safe and be safe and free to spend it.
Speaker 2: By the way, that's free to spend it? What I
Speaker 2: having to worry about?
Speaker 4: Right, That's right, it's not it's not. It's not rocket
Speaker 4: science here, people. So when you have these when that,
Speaker 4: when you're an elected official or anybody and you're sitting
Speaker 4: around having these conversations about what black people.
Speaker 2: Want, ask yourself, what do you want?
Speaker 1: Somebody would look at us right now and accuse us
Speaker 1: of having a quote unquote black liberal conversation, either or
Speaker 1: neither you. Neither you nor I feel that way. We
Speaker 1: just having a real conversation. What are your thoughts about
Speaker 1: black conservatives? And I say that black conservatives as in
Speaker 1: Black conservatism, as opposed to the Maga Republicans. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to I'm just talking black conservatives.
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts about that? I don't I don't
Speaker 2: have a problem with black conservatives.
Speaker 4: I do have a problem with black maga because it
Speaker 4: feels like maga is so against the basic interest of
Speaker 4: black people. That's why even when you know President Biden
Speaker 4: was on Breakfast Club and he said if you don't
Speaker 4: know whether it from me a Trump and you and
Speaker 4: you ain't like that didn't insult me because I understood
Speaker 4: what he was saying.
Speaker 1: It bothered me, though, really, you know why it bothered
Speaker 1: me because he was talking to you, and you're a
Speaker 1: brother that has tackled so many issues and nobody's perfect
Speaker 1: in nobody's flaws, but you've done a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot more good than anyone could ever than anyone has
Speaker 1: ever given you credit for as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 1: and I respect the hell out of you because of it.
Speaker 1: It bothered me that he said that to you, because
Speaker 1: I'm like, who the hell are you to say something
Speaker 1: like that?
Speaker 2: Now, I wouldn't think about what he said as much as.
Speaker 1: Him, of all people saying it, because we just removed
Speaker 1: for if we can hold Trump and you know, as
Speaker 1: a landlord and as you know, as an owner, as
Speaker 1: a home order, as a landlord, more so than anything else.
Speaker 2: In the seventies.
Speaker 1: And we could hold those things against them. If we
Speaker 1: can hold the Central Park five against them, right, we
Speaker 1: can certainly hold stuff against Biden from the nineties in
Speaker 1: the crime. And so for him to be in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty saying that to you, trying to absolve himself from
Speaker 1: all that he did, and like, Yo, this ain't the
Speaker 1: dude you want, you want me and if you don't
Speaker 1: know better, you ain't black.
Speaker 2: That bothered.
Speaker 4: And I think that we got to that statement because
Speaker 4: of seventeen minutes of intense questioning about that thing about
Speaker 4: his record, and I think he was.
Speaker 2: Just you know, flustered. Listen.
Speaker 4: I don't like make an excuse for white people, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, But just in that moment, I
Speaker 4: felt like he was simply saying, if you don't know
Speaker 4: whether if you vote with Trump, you're voting against your
Speaker 4: own interest.
Speaker 2: So I just think when.
Speaker 4: It comes to MAGA in general, you're voting against your
Speaker 4: own interest.
Speaker 2: But I don't have a problem with tried and true black.
Speaker 4: Conservatives, especially when you have conversations with them, and you
Speaker 4: see why they decided they wanted to, you know, vote Republican.
Speaker 2: It's literally just all about the money most of the time.
Speaker 4: Most of the time, it's literally just about the money.
Speaker 4: That's why I go back to what I said about
Speaker 4: Nikki Haley. I feel like Republicans missed a good opportunity
Speaker 4: to have somebody in a general election who could probably
Speaker 4: get vote from both sides just because people want something different.
Speaker 4: I don't think I think there's a lot of black people,
Speaker 4: especially probably down South, who might have more conservative values
Speaker 4: than they they than they lead on, you know, and
Speaker 4: I think that she might have been able to galvanize
Speaker 4: some of those people.
Speaker 2: Election is eight months a year away.
Speaker 1: What is Charlemagne that God gonna be saying over the
Speaker 1: next eight months to the American people, specifically the black
Speaker 1: America And.
Speaker 2: What do you expect to fall out of your words.
Speaker 4: To be I'm gonna say the same thing I've been saying.
Speaker 4: I feel like, you know, Donald Trump is the threat
Speaker 4: of democracy. I feel like, you know, this is a
Speaker 4: man who led an attempt to cool his country. I
Speaker 4: can't even believe that we're talking about him like he's
Speaker 4: a normal candidate. That's the other thing that bothers me
Speaker 4: about the media. We're acting like all of this stuff
Speaker 4: that's happening right now in front of us is normal.
Speaker 4: This guy got ninety one criminal charges, foreign diatments, He's
Speaker 4: been in peace twice. He shouldn't be allowed to work
Speaker 4: at Walmart. Nonetheless, run for president and nothing wrong with Walmart.
Speaker 4: I love, by the way, But.
Speaker 1: You have people if he were convicted, because it's still
Speaker 1: possible he can be convicted of a felony, they would
Speaker 1: still vote for him. And we have nothing in our
Speaker 1: constitution that prevents him from running and continuing to run.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna keep saying that about Trump, but I'm
Speaker 4: also keep saying about you know, President Biden and his administration,
Speaker 4: especially if they're not pivoting where like right now, I
Speaker 4: still don't see the sense of urgency. And I hate
Speaker 4: when politicians put more on us, the people.
Speaker 2: They put more weight on us to show.
Speaker 4: Up and vote, as opposed to putting weight on themselves
Speaker 4: to give us something to show up and vote for. Like,
Speaker 4: yet we're here with another presidential election where the only
Speaker 4: thing they're selling people is fear.
Speaker 2: Now should we be afraid this time? Absolutely?
Speaker 4: But once again, if this is what you've done every
Speaker 4: single presidential election since I've been alive. You become the
Speaker 4: party who cried wolf. And that's what I feel like
Speaker 4: the Democrats are right now. They're a party who cried wolf,
Speaker 4: because now that the wolf is actually there, nobody believe.
Speaker 1: When you tell black folks this. They're gonna have a
Speaker 1: problem with you. Charla Man, you should have a problem
Speaker 1: with me. I have a problem with the shouldn't should
Speaker 1: have a problem with that campaign. I know they shouldn't,
Speaker 1: But but you know how we can be yes.
Speaker 4: So what you're gonna do, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep
Speaker 4: speaking truth to power because I feel like that's that's
Speaker 4: what That's what God has me here to do, and
Speaker 4: that's what I see. So until I see something different,
Speaker 4: then I'll start speaking something different. As of right now,
Speaker 4: I don't see anything different to speak on. And I hope,
Speaker 4: you know, President Biden does some really incredible things over
Speaker 4: the next couple of months to really start energizing people,
Speaker 4: and I hope that he starts to lean on his
Speaker 4: Hysarahen It's a lot more. I still want to see
Speaker 4: more VP Harris out there.
Speaker 1: I still want to see, you know, Charlemagne man, she
Speaker 1: gotta resonate, man, it can't just be excuse me, she's
Speaker 1: the VP. So if this dude ends up stepping away
Speaker 1: and at the Democratic National Convention they want somebody else
Speaker 1: instead of and they convince him to step back because
Speaker 1: he just doesn't have it. Oh excuse me, she's automatically
Speaker 1: next to line.
Speaker 2: She's gotta go get it.
Speaker 4: She would just if I promise, she's got to go
Speaker 4: get it, if she would just be herself a little bit.
Speaker 4: I'm talking about she had a little.
Speaker 2: Very supportive of her. It seems she had attitude with
Speaker 2: you when you spoke to her. I want her to
Speaker 2: have that with with you.
Speaker 4: Gotbout much, yes, And I want a mansion and I
Speaker 4: want I want I want her to have that same
Speaker 4: energy with the people who are actually threatening democracy.
Speaker 2: That's what I want.
Speaker 4: I want her to go out there and prosecute the
Speaker 4: case against Donald Trump in this country.
Speaker 1: Man, appreciate you, man, Thanks a lot. Only Charla Mane
Speaker 1: God right here on.
Speaker 2: Steven A.
Speaker 1: Smith shall back with more of my thoughts in a minute.
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Steven A. Smith Show. I really
Speaker 1: loved that interview. There's a lot that this podcast, this
Speaker 1: show is about, but none more so than what you
Speaker 1: just witnessed. One on one conversations is not going to
Speaker 1: be an operation. It's going to be pretty close to
Speaker 1: the norm as we move forward doing this show, and a.
Speaker 2: Lot of the issues that were tackled are.
Speaker 1: Going to continue to be tackled, because what I want
Speaker 1: everybody to understand is that to me, I didn't just
Speaker 1: have a conversation about politics.
Speaker 2: I had a conversation.
Speaker 1: About life, particularly life eminating from the black community, because
Speaker 1: I am a black man and I'm going to discuss
Speaker 1: issues that are pertinent to my community as well as
Speaker 1: it's pertinent to our society as a whole. I'm just
Speaker 1: not going to run from it. I'm just not going
Speaker 1: to avoid it, and I'm not going to be scared to.
Speaker 2: Address things that need to be addressed.
Speaker 1: And I love having people on this show that are
Speaker 1: just as fearless while being a substantive as Charlemagne, a
Speaker 1: God was on issues that really really resonate with us
Speaker 1: as a community and as a society. That's just the
Speaker 1: way that it is. It's just the way that it's
Speaker 1: going to be. I'm not changing. I watched People talk
Speaker 1: last week, and I brought this up on Monday Show,
Speaker 1: where you had people going off about how I didn't
Speaker 1: know much about politics because of my comments about the
Speaker 1: State of the Union address. Well, damn it, I didn't
Speaker 1: care about most of the issues that he was disgusting
Speaker 1: because I already knew what his positions were. What I
Speaker 1: cared about was how y'all tried to sell us on
Speaker 1: him being energetic for an hour and ten minutes and acting.
Speaker 2: Like that's validation that. Guess what, we ain't.
Speaker 1: Got nothing to worry about over the next four years
Speaker 1: after he turns eighty two this coming November. It makes
Speaker 1: no sense the complaints on the right and the left.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be a political officionado. I am
Speaker 1: as an American citizen who's a black man, who cares
Speaker 1: about issues that are pertinent.
Speaker 2: To our community in our society.
Speaker 1: I've never run from discussing these issues before, and I'll
Speaker 1: be damned if I'm gonna run from them now. So
Speaker 1: what you saw today with Charlemagne, expect to see more.
Speaker 2: I'm not going away now.
Speaker 1: Is he neitherre are a bunch of other people who
Speaker 1: care enough to tackle.
Speaker 2: The issues that need to be tackled. Get used to
Speaker 2: the Stephen A. Smith Show.
Speaker 1: I'm here for a while until next time. Everybody, Peace
Speaker 1: of love, be safe, God bless See in a couple
Speaker 1: of days