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Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome home. Y'all, this is episode sixty six.
I'm glad it's just six and six and not the other six because it's a crazy time of Native Lamppid where we give you I break down on all things politics and culture.
We are your hosts.
My sister is Tiffany Cross and Angela Rye, and of course I'm Andrew Gillam. What's up, ladies, How are you wherever you may be?
I'm Snowstorm and we had all kinds of errors today and so I am at my workspace that I rent broadcast from here on my computer.
You look good, girl.
We thank you, thank you very much.
I want to give Tip the real MVP Award today for trudging through the snow. She went to and fro and back again, and she is here and it's because she would not miss you all connecting with our Native lamppodfam as. We welcome you home and into all of the craziness that's going on right now.
So Hedrew, what are we talking about?
I want to know. I want to know.
I want to know. Well, let me just first say we've got a very special guest joining us today. I know you all are excited. I'm excited partly because from my home state, the youngest member of the United States Congress, the first gen Zier in the body, Maxwell Froz, from the great state of Florida, the tenth Congressional District.
We'll be hearing from here later. Stay stay, stay tuned.
It's gonna be a great conversation, I bet, and you won't want to miss it.
Angela, what you got.
I want to talk about this bootleg Department of Government efficiency and why it has more authority than most of the agencies in the departments in the federal government, and why this South African is running wild. So I want to talk about this and why President Elon Musk is still on a rampage. There's a new executive order granting him even more authority. And with the skirting of court orders that this administration is into, how much more authority is he gonna gain?
I tell you, it sounded a little bit like Elon Musk versus the rest of us. And I'm hopeful, Tiffany, that you feel good about these topics and unless you've got something that well.
I want to because we have so many of you guys who send in your questions and comments, and so this week I want to yield my time so we can make sure that we're responding to your questions and listening to your comments. So I'm looking forward to that because I like it being an interactive conversation with our listeners and our viewers.
I love it.
I love it, I love it. Thank you, tiff you really are the all around MVPR this week.
Your graciousness as well as your accommodations, y'all, It's about to be a great episode. Stay tuned, y'all. We have the man with the master plan. I told you at the top of the show that we were going to have a very very special guest.
And indeed we do.
Born in nineteen ninety seven, low At Tiffany Angela.
I graduated from high school and all American at everything.
A wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
The good friend and member of the United States Congress, Maxwell Alejandro Frost.
Some of you all who are in.
The state of Florida will know a bit about Maxwell, but he does represent Florida's tenth congressional district in the United States Congress. Was elected in two thousand and twenty three a member of the Democratic Party, but being in Congress was not his first foray, if you will, into politics. Prior to that, he was the national organizing director for March for Our Lives.
You all will recall that.
Organization, the Guns Safety and Regulations Organization, basically the voice of young people saying our lives matter. He was elected at the the ripe old age of twenty five years old. Y'all count at twenty five again, first generation zer in the United States Congress. And I could not think and Angela gets credit for having thought of this initially, but we couldn't think of a better person to address you. Ask questions about organizing, how do we fight back? What
should we be doing? Give us some instruction. By the way, what the hell is going on in Washington? And why isn't somebody checking President Trump and President Musk.
Well, we've got some answers for you, everybody.
Will you all please join me and welcoming the one and only Congressman Maxwell Fross.
What's up?
Brother? Hey, Hey, good to be here. Appreciate y'all having me.
Are you kidding, man, it's our treat to have you. I am curious, Congressman, as a representative from our great state of Florida, how you holding up up there? I mean, we got a dose of what autocracy, or at least a thriving autocrat look like down here Florida exactly. So I know you weren't caught off total guard. But honestly, man, can you level with our listeners? What is it felt like these past what three weeks? Four weeks, three weeks?
I mean, under this new administration as a member of Congress.
No, I appreciate the question. And you know something I told people as I traveled the country last year during the election is I said, listen, I know we're all worried about Project twenty twenty five, but I want you to know that Project twenty twenty five is Florida twenty twenty four and the things they want to do to this country we've been fighting against for many, many years under an authoritarian governor with the legislature that most of the time acts like a lap dog and will do
whatever he wants. And we've seen the political repression. We've seen our own duly elected officials taken out of office, people like Monique Worrel. She got her seat back, thank god. And so I bring this up to say that being from Florida, we're used to this and we get it, and we understand that. You know, I feel like a lot of people have taken a lot of things for granted, and now that everything is so chaotic, a lot of
folks don't know what to do and they're scared. And I understand that because there's a lot of things to be scared about. For me, I've to me it's simply seen as the battle in Florida and in the South has now been drawn out to the whole country in terms of fighting neo fascism, fighting an authoritarian leader, and making sure that we both work on the inside and the outside at the same time. To not be and
I've been saying this a lot. Decide to even though we have less seats in Congress, not be the minority and be the opposition. And I take that from foreign countries. You know, oftentimes in foreign countries and the legislature, the minority is not called the minority. They're called the opposition party. And I think we're at a point right now, especially with this president, where things aren't normal. This isn't President Mett Romney, you know, or John McCain, or this isn't
a normal Republican president. And see, this is an authoritarian leader who has invited the billionaires and big corporations to work within the White House to do whatever they see fit to make things work for them. Even more, it's the great betrayal because he traveled this country and told people he was going to shake up the system for them. But we all knew it was a bunch of bs. So a lot of feelings, but look, I'm fortified in
the stories of my district, in my home. I'm so excited to go home tomorrow to be with my people, to talk to people about the real life impacts of what's going on, to organize at home, and then come back and continue to fight.
I have to ask you, you know, there's been a lot of conversation, and this is why I reached out to you about you all being outside of the Department of Education last week. You held up your camera and it said all access entrance, and you all were blocked by some random white man with a Floristan band aid on his neck.
I still haven't seen his paper.
I feel like you should have to show papers if you go on block members of Congress who want answers for their constituents, and you all are charged with oversight, whether it's in a congressional hearing room or it is going to an agency that is supposed to report back to Ranking Member Bobby Scott and everybody else.
Who's on the Education Committee.
And so I'm curious to know when you hear folks saying like, well, when I look at these members of Congress who can't even get in, they didn't push through, they look weak, right, And that's frustrating to hear for me to hear, because I'm like, these people are my family. They went down there because they're not getting answers on the hills, so they went to the agency to figure out what's going on.
How did it feel to not get in?
And did you what do you think about that when people say that looked weak? And what do you think your responsibility is when you can't get in to an all access interance that we all should be able to get in.
One hundred percent? No, I appreciate you bringing this up because even a few days earlier, I had organized about two dozen members of Congress to go to the Department of Treasury when we heard that Elon had access to our social security numbers and all of our sensitive information. And so usually as a member of Congress, you know, we call people from the Department to come to us, right, come to a committee, come do a meeting. But it's
been crickets right because of this Elon Doge takeover. And so like you mentioned, you know, Andrew, I come from organizing. So I was like, you know what, I think we're You're just gonna have to pull up and we're gonna have to pull up with the people. And that's what
we did at the Department of Treasure. We pulled up. Yes, we were denied access by Secret Service that on that Monday, But then we went out to you know, move On Indivisible and Working Family Party, brought together about over a thousand people when we rallied in front of Treasury, and I think it showed that fight that we're looking for now. With Department of Education, there was a similar action where
we were trying to get in. I will admit, you know, I think there's a lot of videos I posted, and this is something especially from Black Lives Matter uprising that you know, you're out there and I'm just constantly taking content and posting raw content so people can see what's going on. And I guess, you know, as a politician, I need to review it a little bit more to make sure it's telling the full story, because a lot of people are just not you know, they don't fully
understand what happened there. If the doors were unlocked and it was just that skinny guy trying to keep us out, I promise you we would have gone in the building, okay. But the problem is all the doors were locked, and I don't even know why he stepped outside. He didn't need to step out. The doors were completely locked, and on the other side of those doors were like eight armed DHS officers. Okay, and so that's why we weren't,
you know, why we couldn't get in the building. And I had staff walk around the whole building check on other entrances to see how we could get in. But you know, a big part of this is being strategic too. I saw some other people saying, why didn't you throw a brick in the building, Well, I didn't, you know, I didn't throw a brick in the building for many different reasons. But I do resent people you know, who were saying, well, you're too scared to get arrested. I've
been arrested multiple times. I've been to jail, in the jail I now represent in Congress, I've been, you know, physically assaulted by police. And so these are this isn't stuff that we're it's it's not a question of whether or not you're afraid to do it. And I only speak for myself, I can't speak for everybody else. But
it's a question of strategy too. We're in a position right now where Republicans only have a two seat majority in the House, and we're about to come up to this huge budget fight that can have real implications for Medicaid, for healthcare, for Social Security, for food stamps. They just released a budget plan where they want to cut twenty percent of all food stamps. They want to cut eight hundred million dollars at a Medicaid. I mean, this is serious stuff, and so I you know, we have to
be strategic. You never know, we have to utilize every vote in the House of Representatives right now. We need to stay strong on our values, and I just don't want to be in a situation where you know, you throw a break or you do something and we end up, you know, in jail fighting something for months. I'm sure let's figure that house. Yeah, I'm sure the Speaker of the House would love nothing more than to have some young progressive members of Congress dealing with some legal stuff
and not being able to vote, you know. And then a lot of those same people on line said, well, you'd only be in for fifteen minutes, you remember of Congress, And I'm like, wait, you're saying we're at the level where I need to throw a brick in a building
that let to fight the authoritarianism. But then you think that when I get arrested, they're gonna let me out in fifteen minutes, right, So the math ain't mathin I you know, I think they're gonna use everything they can and every excuse they can to a sort to assert their authority on us, and we got to be careful and strategic. I'm not saying that there's not room for civil disobedience, So I'm not saying there's not room for
these things. I'm just saying, let's be strategic here, and let's work together and figure out what the proper way forward is. And I think there's a lot of things we can do within Congress to push back, to delay, to obstruct. You know, I heard someone tell this joke. Think about what Mitch McConnell would do if he were the minority, and then do it, you know, right, because they did this to us. That's right for so many
times and again it's about that state of mind. Are we the minority or are we the opposition?
Arisman.
I'm not grateful to you for joining us, and thank you for giving that context. I do just want to say, respectfully to you, as I completely hear your point, and I think that is really important to know that there were armed guards there and the real process. But respectfully, I do understand people saying that the Democratic Party looks weak. There are millions of people across this country who do not follow the minutia of government. They don't even know
about the standoff at the Department. They don't even know that you all were outside, which is a challenge, right because the media is so complicit in this, with this authoritarian regime. But on the other side of that, it is incumbent. I think on elected representatives to energize from the bottom up, and you need you know, grassroots organizations
to do that, you also need your elected representatives. We were having a conversation yesterday about what resistance looks like, and one of our friends was giving off the dome, was giving a list of things that should be happening, and you know, suggested holding field hearings and suggesting, you know, saying, hey, here is how these actions impact people. And there does
seem to be a communications problem. Respectfully, we have a lot of Actigurians and Cephagarians and congress and as somebody who's a gen Zer, I just wonder what your perspective is when it comes to this constant promotion of respectability politics. We've always talked about racism is bipartisan. It is not
specific to Republicans. So for the young people who don't follow the minutia of this, and they're looking to you as their peer, saying, hey, what do we do because right now, standing outside a building is not putting food on the table. We still haven't heard about the cost of eggs, which is what he's run on. And people's lives are being immediately indirectly impacted and they are looking to their representatives for more immediate relief.
So what is your response to them?
No, I appreciate it, and I want to be clear too. What I was just saying is really a reference to that specific video and that specific situation where people are saying about that. The reason I organized two dozen members of Congress to go to Treasury overnight that last one days because I saw what people were saying, Because I heard from my colleagues that people were saying, we're getting all these calls, what do we do? And I said, well, I'm gonna put on my organizer cap because we got
to organize right now. So I'm fully on board. You know, I'm not here to tell people, oh, like, calm down, chill out. No, this isn't a time for chilling out. This is a time for organizing and doing everything we can. And I think as elected members of Congress, it's incumbent upon us, especially we don't have the White House, you know, there's not a ton of leadership going on the Senate. So we are the national party per se, and so we got to provide that national leadership. So there's a
few things. Number One, believe it or not, I'm one of I think it's less than five members of Congress that do year round organizing. So what does that mean. I have an organizing director year round on my campaign. We paid three cohorts of organizers every year, and we're always knocking doors, always doing events, whether or not I have a serious race or not, or a primary or not.
Because I don't think we should be holding on to all this money and not organizing in our communities, right, and so a big call to action I have out to colleagues, but just a lot of elected officials in general, is use this moment to organize people. I think, you know, when we go back home for the next week, we've been encouraging people, do your town halls, do your events, to answer questions, to talk to people about what's going on,
what's at stake, what fights are ahead of us. And then when you come back, host those organizing events, those rallies. You know, you might have to use some of your campaign cash to hire an organizer. I know that's not normal for politicians to do that, you know this early on, but do it right to help get people energized about something. So I'm hosting a few town halls when I get home,
but we're not stopping at the town halls. We're going to be putting together our organizing launch so people in Florida tenth Congressional District can come and learn about and get plugged in with a community on how they can organize. I think a big thing here is we can't allow the energy to just live online right now. I think we have to provide leadership in person in our districts
to plug people into a political home. And we have to be willing to say it might be with me, it might be with Dream Defenders, it might be with March for Our Lives, it might be with a different organization, but however, you get involved to get involved. And I think we have to be a conduit for a lot of these folks who a lot of you know, they follow us. A lot of their advocacy is mainly stuck online.
But now they're like, tell me what to do, right and whether that's calling legislators or calling into these two special elections we have in Florida right now, or whether it's a direct action in protest, or maybe it's more mutual aid right which we need a lot of that too, especially in a state like Florida. We need direct services.
Plugging into all of that I think is really important, and I think, you know, a lot of times politicians have a very adverse reaction to the advocacy world, you know, because our feet are being held to the fire. And I get where people are coming from, but I think it's important we have to be the bridge builders. We can't be here to tear people apart. I'll give you an example as a little bit moment of vulnerability here
for myself. When I posted that video of the parment education, there were some folks who were, you know, saying, well, why don't you punch the guy and get arrest in this? And that. I made a rather irate post on Blue Sky saying like, y'all don't know anything about my past, like I used to do this stuff, and YadA, YadA, YadA, like I understand there's a time and place. I ended
up deleting it because here's my thing. We are fighting fascism right now and authoritarianism, and I don't think that we're in a position where I need to use, as an elected official a single percentage of rage or anger towards people I broadly agree with. I want to save every drop of that for the opposition and fighting on behalf of my people, even if I might have a disagreement with somebody online or something like that. And I think we really have to have that way of thinking
that we need to. Part of what makes a Democratic Party powerful is the fact that it's a coalition. I've joked with people we should change our name from the Democratic Party to the Democratic Coalition because that's what we are,
a coalition. So I think as leaders, we have to, you know, let's not be mad when people are calling our offices like they are, because a big reason why we're getting so many calls is because a lot of our organized and activists live in the blue districts, and so they're calling their member of Congress, which happens to be a Democrat. And so how do we take those calls and put them in the action? And I think we of have to be thinking about that, and that's
really important. So I appreciate the question because I don't think this is a moment for complaining. It's a moment for organizing. And I think there's there's a playbook at home, which is really important and in our districts, and then there's obviously the playbook up here. Using every single parliamentary tactic that we can you know, trying to catch them off guard. We did a motion to subpoena Elon Musk. We caught these people off guard. We only lost that
by one vote. We're very much out numbered on that committee. We should have lost it by like seven, which means we keep trying that we keep doing these things every chance that we get, and we don't stop, and we obstruct this horrible agenda at every corner.
I know you'all are enjoying this conversation with Congressman Frost, but we gotta pay some bills catch us on the other side.
You don't want to miss it.
Really quick, Andrew, I want you to chime in, but I want to just go here really quick. Because you brought it up. You broadly agree with the folks that are even offering criticism. We need to save all of this energy for the opposition. And you also talked about well, I want a reference. There are a lot of folks who are frustrated. Apparently there's reporting this is that members
are frustrated with Indivisible. You brought them up, and it is so like mind blowing to me that folks will be upset about people organizing to protect their rights, their taxpayer dollars. Can you say to your colleagues who are allegedly frustrated with the people that you're talking about coordinating to work alongside to protect what America is supposed to be, which is this democracy.
I'll be it fragile. What do you say to that?
You know?
I think the I think the important. I think what I would tell my colleagues and broadly kind of any elected who's feeling this pressure is see it as an opportunity to move angst anger. That's very much justified. I mean, we're watching this stuff happen. We're watching Project twenty twenty
five happen in front of our eyes. And move that into action, move it into something and help, you know, direct it if need be, and work with people like for me, if I'm being protested by someone my first inklin, unless it's the Proud Boys or something like that, then I just then I'll just be like, all right, we'll screw you, you know. But if it's my own people that I broadly agree with, I think the solution there is meat with them. Figure out how you can work
together to push people. I think what a lot of members are saying is they're saying Why am I getting all these calls when these Republicans in districts at Kamala Harris one that we need for the majority aren't getting calls, you know, And I think that that's like the main thing people are saying and so and I get I get that sentiment. But here's the thing complaining about isn't going to change anything. But reaching out to the organizations,
working with the people locally will will will help. Indivisible happens to have big chapters in democratic districts. Why because Democrats live in democratic districts, right, and so that's a big reason why this is happening. And so how do we reach out to those organizations, set up the roundtables,
do a power building thing on the campaign side. I'm in my offishal office, so you know, but you know, do something on the campaign side and talk about like hey, maybe I'll put together, maybe we do an organizing launch together. Maybe we we identify three Republicans that we can all
call collectively. I don't know something like that, but you know, again, my my thing is like we are a team, and the opposition wants us to all be kind of bickering with each other, and they want the elected officials to be complaining about the activists and the organizers, and I just don't. I don't think that's our place. I think our place is to to show that leadership come together
and figure out how we're going to pose this. People are rightfully scared, and they want the leadership, and they want to be pointed in the right direction, like, hey, YO, tell me where to go, tell me what to do. I want to help out For me as an organizer, I'm like, wait, this is like a pot of gold, because usually we're scratching for people to you know, Usually that's why we have to knock doors, right, We knock doors because we have to go to the people to
kind of shake them and say, yo, get involved. But now that people are coming to us, so.
They're it's they're in, They're in, They're they're angry, yes, and but they're mostly scared. Exactly that that all the foundational pieces, all of the supports we're looking up every single day. Our heads are on a swivel. Yep, And all I have to in the vulnerability of this all because I kept saying, I'm sorry, did anybody take Donald Trump seriously? Project twenty twenty five during the campaign, we went out and sold it to people like it was
the you know, the threat of our lives. And then it seemed like everybody DC on down appeared to be in shock and nobody shook off the shock over the point of transition. We came into this man's government and you know, and everybody's shock and awe when if you.
Just looked at the nine hundred pages, all of it is right there. All of it is right there.
So Congressman, I just want to give you further encouragement to help to to embolden your colleagues that when I was first selected mayor, my first big public event, I had to cut this ribbon and thousands of people who are going to run through it, and do you know, law and behold dream Defenders sat down in front of the stage where I was speaking. They shut me down from speaking and and brought the whole event to a standstill.
And this is only a few months after during the campaign of me running from mayor, that I helped get them out of jail, brought them food into the Capitol when they slept there for thirty days, and I, like you, took offense that was ego and then I realized that I'm the right person for them to shut down. I am Andrew, I'm their guy, but I'm also the mayor, which made me the head of the police department, which made me the techelar head of the city of the community.
And so if they needed to bring their issues to bear, yeah, you know what, I'm in the position that I should be taking the incoming, just as you determined that you were the right person to be taking the incoming and getting ego out of the way. And so I would just encourage you with the members, screw the ego.
We need organizing.
Yep.
And the rule book has.
Been thrown out. It's been thrown out a long time ago. And I just think I was very clear about what Democrats were not going to do, which was chase Donald Trump around and try to answer to all of his anticues. Well, I'm more interested in what we are going to do by way of a pushback against him, and less about the red lines that we're not going to cross and try not to run behind everything that he throws here
left or right. You know what, If he's going to consume the media space, y'all ought to be consuming that space, just like what I've.
Been telling people is when someone's coming up and telling you, asking you what are we going to do? What can we do? Or expressing that anger, no one wants to hear what power we don't have? Right. I think a lot of people know a lot of them they generally understand what's going on, but I think they want to hear with what power we have? What are we going
to do? And something I used to always tell people on during the Black Lives Matter uprising is when you don't have all the power you want, you best use all the power you got. Come on, and this is the moment where we have to use all the power we got again. It might not be all the levers we want, but we deal in reality, and I think, you know, we providing that leadership is going to give people the energy that they need because you know, and
I know, I know we're at time. But I think a lot of members of Congress thinking two year increments, right, you know, their thinking about the midterm, how can we get the gavels? But the fact of the matter is we don't have two years to wait, right, I mean, this is going on now, and so I think it's both the best thing to do from an organizing perspective, in terms of pushing back, in terms of hopefully obstructing. I mean, look, we've had some wins as the public.
I mean, we push back that oh PM memo the tariffs. He completely folded on the tariffs. Why because everybody, even on Fox News, they were repeating that if he did these tariffs, your prices were gonna go up even more. So this is what happens when we all sing the same chorus, when we're all together and unified, and we I think we should be, especially as members of Congress, looking for that unity and pushing for that unity. And again what you said, Andrew stepping out of the ego.
And so I always encourage people, if you're mad at an activist or something, just look at the go on Elon's Twitter and get mad at him, because these are the people we really need to be directing our anger to. And I'm honestly quite happy that there's all this energy because now we have an opportunity to build our movement. And guess what that will help us in the midterms too, Right, that work to do now helps you. Then you've got to show people the midterms only matter for y'all.
If you earn it, and if people don't see you fighting like hell right now, they're not going to be motivated to show up, stand in line and cast a vote for anybody. And Congressman, I'm going to act like a staffer now and then you know, and it's time for you to.
Go because you've got a busy job.
I appreciate it. Last thing, last thing I will say, a lot of people are taking lessons from this election, lessons from Donald Trump on like, you know, kind of how he did this whole thing. And the one thing I think people are not talking about is just how much this guy loves showing love to his base. And I think that is really something as Democrats we can't
let go of, right. I mean, look, I hate Donald Trump, but this guy held a rally before his inauguration for his people, like just for his people to raw raw, and I just I think we shouldn't. We can't lose sight of what makes a democratic party of the Democratic party. That's all I gotta say. Much love, y'all, I appreciate you'll be watching and following you.
We want to encourage you to continue to stiffen your spine and stand strong man you'll never go wrong there, and we need fighters and champions like you.
So good luck, got you, bless y'all got you, We got your back. That's for show.
Thank you.
Take care of congressman. He was, y'all, so you heard it directly.
The Congressman had a lot to get off his chest, y'all. He wanted you to know what he's been hearing, feeling, thinking, experiencing.
And I felt that. I hope y'all.
I hope y'all felt informed and also engaged by Bia his comments.
He was outstanding.
I think my favorite thing about him is he is clearly an old person in a young person's body, born in nineteen ninety seven, because the wisdom that he has, like I mean, he literally sounds like he has studied movement building. He has been a part of movement building himself as an organizer, as he referenced, And I do know exactly what that's like when there's somebody, you know, some Twitter thug who's challenging you on your chops and why didn't you do this?
Why didn't you do that?
And having been there, actually really fell bad because I was like, oh, I don't like the optics of you know, what happened with them outside of the building. I knew there was more to the story because I talked to enough of the members and then did that live with Latifa last week, Latifa Simon, who is now in Barbara Lee's old seat, And it is remarkable to me that people think so little and assume the absolute worst of their intention and of.
Their know how. He's like, I literally.
Had a staffer checking every single entry we was gonna get in that building. And he's right, like, if they get arrested, we don't know when they will get out. We know the justice system we know is not the justice system we have anymore. They couldn't go to jail and not let them out. If they're gonna divide coret orders, why would they, you know, Like for a member of Congress going against them.
I think that's a good point. But I do have to say though, like Angela, for you, that's your family. For other people, that's their elected representatives. They don't actually owe them any loyalty. They are frustrated and angry, and so I think for the lay person looking at that, their sympathies are not with Oh my gosh, the poor members were criticized it's with, Hey, my world is falling apart and I don't know wtf you guys are doing now.
I say that for one half. On the other half, I have to say to the people who feel that way to this is why it's important to be informed and know what's happening. But I'm careful to criticize those folks right now because it is so bad. Everything is so bad. I understand you have a personal relationship, but I don't have a personal relationship with the congressional black cockets, you know, like to me, they are just members of Congress.
I have a personal relationship with some people who are you know, my personal friends, but their members of Congress who I covered and for other people, they're the people whose salaries they paid to support them and to service them on the tax dollars they earn. So I just I just want to be careful with, you know, with with with criticizing people for criticizing them, and I think there is space to do that.
Y'all know I'm trying you.
I don't think, Okay, well, I know I'm talking about you saying that they're your members of family. You were frustrated hearing people saying I think that's exactly what you said that I.
Was frustrating having been in a position where there's more to the story. And I knew there was more to the story because I just talked to Latifa and that was my Instagram live, right. So I'm not I'm not covering them because I believe in my family. In this instance, this is me saying, having been in that same situation where somebody's criticizing without seeing the full ramification what's going on, that's frustrating. So this wasn't me covering them for my family.
No, no, no, no, I'm talking about what you's when the interview first started, I'm not what you just said five minutes ago, and then you said that he and people.
Criticism on both sides, and.
Then then that's the other thing I was about to say for family, just like we do here, and Andrew.
I'm sorry, I just cut you go.
Please, But on that, like to me, family has the biggest obligation to offer constructive criticism and feedback. Let me tell you what I'm hearing, let me tell you what you need to do. Let me tell you it's got a pivot. That's what I've been doing all week. So this isn't me saying like, oh, don't hit them. I'm saying, if you're gonna hit them, make sure your facts are straight.
And then I can go in with the facts and be like, this is what we're not gonna do, or this is what we should be doing, or I got people that want to help you because we can't afford for you to lose, because that means we lose.
That's where I'm as real.
I think it's a lot less about people being Yes, we are all angry, but people are acting out of hurt, fear, fear the unknown, fear of the safety net being pulled from under them, fear of I've given this government thirty five years of my life.
Is never been late, never done this, never done that. I've just done my job, and I swore an oath and I'm holding it.
And to now be threatened with a ten percent across the boards, a cut of staff, another across the across all departments, I mean, it's terrifying, and so nobody has tolerance for a woe is me congressman, for woe is me President, or for woe is me secretary? Because I'm about to lose my life and my mind. You know in the process. I just think if we check EGO, get that out of the way, and accept the fact that while you gonna be good, four hundred and thirty five members.
I'm not sure I'm gonna be good.
Yeah.
And because I'm not sure, and you look like you suited up and suited up and going to meetings and making little memes and this kind of thing, I need you to be burning the house, to turn the table over, do whatever is that you have to do to stop the madness.
Speaking of that, if we can want to talk, I want to bring in a clip from someone who said exactly that on the House floor. Let's listen to what Congressman Gwnmore had to say about the current state of America and its politics.
This is not normal.
We're not having a normal session, mister Speaker.
The House is on fire.
That's it.
The House is on fire.
There is nothing legal or constitutional that is going on. We have unelected billionaires running the country.
And this is not a political graphic power.
It's a crime.
I marched into our Speaker of the House's office to try to meet with the Treasury Secretary to ask them why they were committing crimes, why there was unchecked.
Authority over the Treasury Treasury.
Data to stop doing it, why they needed to do this, why they needed to surveil, penalize, or control this financial access.
And the speaker told me he had no idea what they were doing.
The Speaker of the House does not know what they are doing. We need to stop acting like things are normal.
That's real. It is not normal.
It is and I think that we are in the like if there was ever a time where people should be held to account, we should be held to account on what we put on the podcast. Like you said, Andrew, like people are like, what do we do I every day I'm wrestling with that every day. I'm trying to make sure that I am serving the needs of the people, that I am providing factual information that we do that
on this podcast. What Gwen Moore said struck a chord I think for so many of us, because all we're saying is like, why are we're seeing members of Congress talking about dropping bills. You don't even know if that bill gonna get passed. You don't even know if you're gonna actually be in session next week, and if the bill does pass, if this president is gonna sign it, it's a law.
That's where we are. So that I mean, I think that we do.
Tip.
I was so grateful in the conversation with Maxwell and the things that you've been saying along the way, that it is an authoritarian regime, the things that we've been questioning, if it's a clue, if it's a constitutional crisis. The answers are resounding, Yes, it is not normal. So how do you respond in a normal way to something that is not only not normal, it's very dangerous.
Well, I just I want to say, because you brought up constitutional crisis that you did a live this week.
If you all haven't checked it.
Out, it's available on our YouTube page and where your podcast of a solo pop on the constitutional crisis. But I do appreciate what you said, Andrew about ego, like get ego out the way, because it's not just like I've heard several members of Congress we were talking about this in our Chad Angela members of Congress complaining about how they're being perceived.
And I do I think that's such a piece of advice Andrew.
It's like, hey, it's not about your ego right now as dire times and people are the institution, right, you are the institution, and what are you doing? But I think what you're bringing up, Angela is this fight, Like so you're you know, in your head about like what can we do on the podcast that's doing something. I just I'm running out of advice of what to tell people who are you know, like what do we do?
Because I will be honest with you guys, and it's probably not the most responsible thing to say on this podcast, but I do think there are some areas where I
feel a bit defeated. I really don't know how to combat the world's richest people with access to all of our data, when the media is completely complicit, when the institution seems to be bending the knee, when everyone seems to be capitulating to this administration proactively, proactively, the private sector is bending the knee, and it's just the.
Only thing that coming back.
Moved.
They edited it out of the replay, but he did get booed. But I guess my only solution has been can we build insular?
You know?
And I don't know how to do that, Like can we build an ecosystem amongst ourselves, like a real live ass wakanda in America where if you ain't rock with us, if you ain't vote like us, then you can't come in here. This is our area of safety and being self sufficient. And I don't know how to do that. I think there's a way to do it, because the Black Panther did it. I just I would like to explore that because I don't have faith in this in the institution.
Angela.
You no, you didn't say this on the pile, you said this in the chat. Midterms. I don't want to hear nothing about no mid terms. Nothing got right for you.
But where we're right now, there's not about They just disbanded the election security team. There is not about to be an election if we don't fight right now. And that's the thing. I you know, we've been trained, and Andrew. I love what Andrew said to about Dream Defenders. I want to get back to that too. But we've been trained in leadership to have a long term vision, to have a long term plan. I think that we are we are ill equipped to deal with emergency and crisis
for the most part. I don't think that's everybody, but I think the fact that there has to be crisis management demonstrates right that people are never really equipped for crisis. I don't understand how we could see how fragile democracy is, whether we're talking about Bush v. Gore or now, and not realize that this is all It's all dependent upon people acting with integrity, on believing and abiding by what the constitution says. We literally elect people and hope they
will do right. There are no other checks and balances except for they will check themselves to be in alignment with the three co equal branches of government.
That's it.
So it's always hanging in the balance, you know, And that I think that is the part that is so scary to me. It's like this man has decided. Jd Vance, I'm at church. I said this on the on the on the solo body, Yes, I'm at church. Jd Vance posts a tweet that's like, who gonna check me boo?
Basically I know what the judge said, but who gonna check me?
Voo?
Make me bish?
And I'm like, oh my god, Like we know that's what they thought. But now he put it out here to digest it. And then he didn't just put out that one tweet. He put out very a few subsequent tweets making the argument by which Elon Musk, who I know we're gonna get to from Doze, which is not like a nothing entity that now has all power over the government, arguably more power than Donald Trump himself. That is the error we're in right now.
Where people think the courts are gonna save us, like the courts are not with right now. That's the front line fence. But think about it, and Joe, by the time you get the Scotus, he Scots is bought.
And so what did you.
Say about Clarence Simon Yahucci? Like they loyal to this administration. And I also have to say for for jd Vance to be so embolden and and really he's the weakest link, you know. But sure your boy told you you ain't never You're not even in the line as a sashion, right he said. And to see this press conference with President Musk and Donald Trump in that Oval office, it looks I have a theory that if the media were to pursue this idea of Elon Lusk is really the president,
then we would see this relationship fracture. Donald he did not want that. His ego is so fragile. He does not have a big ego. If you know, what I'm saying, and it's so obvious, and he couldn't handle that kind of line that he is is not really the person in charge. The same way it happened with the Santis, those who were like this, and then he didn't like it anymore. We've seen this happen over and over again. The same thing can happen with Elon Musk. And it
looked like that Elon Musk was speaking over him. He had his son all in the oval office like they should have navigated you money. That's what it looked like with with his son playing all in the death Donald Trump did not look amused, and Elon Musk was literally standing over him. Donald and and and Elon Musk looked like Ramsey Bolten Citizen the King's landon book.
But don't look.
We have to put the palls on that and come back to it because you know of a Diard game of thron.
Just smiling and not.
Well, listen, Donald Trump is reek. I will say this, Andrew, because this is one of the best lines of the series when there is a scene where two people are talking and he says, you would rather see this place burn so you could rule the ashes and we would all fall in a pit of chaos, and a guy, little Finger, responds and says, chaos is not a pit, my friend. Chaos is a ladder. And it was the way it was the music and the way that scene played out. This is this administration.
Chaos is not a pit. It is a ladder, and it is what they will use.
To climb their way to the top and rule the ashes. Because some people want to lead, others want to rule. This administration they want to.
Rule, They want to rule.
And your point around, I mean, this is why, day after day they create crisis. This is why they want our heads on a swivel. This is why they are declaring states of emergency and various parts of the United States against various people on various issues. When lord, what the hell we got to be afraid of Canada for they ain't got nuclear weapons. I mean, they're our neighbor
and our friend. But but why in the world has people have people been revved up around Donald Trump's words because he's just declared that there's a crisis here and we're overpaying in our military is being suffocated by China, and and and and and this is let me tell you, we have to yes, be discerning and and and and you know, I like Tiffany's phrase of of of covering Trump is like catching confetti. But we cannot see the ground. If I had a message to the Democrat, we cannot
seed the ground. If this man is going twenty four to seven with his message, we would we we best be there answering or at least putting the people on a new message, on a different message, interpreting what it is that they heard because they didn't hear it quite properly, because the man is a liar in chief more than
anything else, y'all. The constitutional crisis, because I think this term is put out there a lot, and for the everyday person, it's like this is necessary, Like what do I put my hands around with this whole crisis?
And wasn't mean?
And how do I survive in it and through it? I would love, Angela if you could just hit on like what constitutes this crisis? And then is there something about this crisis that is empowering to the people or is it just a tool for the.
Person in power? Angela? Before you answer that, let's pay some bills on the other side you want to hear.
Stay tuned for Angela's answer, the very simple answer for this is a constitutional crisis exists when one branch of government ignores another coequal branch of government full stop. And that's why I went into that, you know that ramble earlier about we were there and we were already just the stone throwaway, as you would say, from that, and I think with Donald Trump signing another executive order granting more authority to DOGE is exactly the problem. So you know,
folks are saying that like, oh, well, this isn't. This isn't that sign, This isn't they're focusing on the wrong things because they're looking at all of the things that provide benefits to us our safety net, but they're not looking at the Pentagon. They are about to look at
the Pentagon. And in particular, this executive order that was signed is called an Executive Order implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency DOGE Workforce Optimization Initiative, and it is they say that it's to make the workforce more efficient.
Elon Musk was on TV yesterday or I'm sorry by the time this podcast airs a couple of days ago talking about how old the people are in Social Security, like just being so disrespectful, and I mean, we know, I know we have a clip from him too, But the reason for the pressor was to announce this executive order that grants them more authority taking reducing the size of government, reducing the size of the federal workforce.
Do you understand that he about to throw us not into.
A recession, a full on depression the number of people that are that aren't going to be able to afford groceries or gas. Before I keep going down, it's like, can we please run this Elon Messk clip because I think he got it all figured out, but he really ain't gotten it figured out.
The people voted for major covet reform, there should be no doubt about that. And that's what people are going to get. They're going to get what they're voted for.
What are the checks and balances that are in place to ensure that there's accountability and transparency.
Well, we actually are trying to be as transparent as possible. In fact, our actions repost, our actions to the DOGE handle on x and to the DOGE website, you know, and the kind of things we're doing are I think
very very simple and basic. They're not you know what I mentioned brings for example about treasure, just making sure that payments that go out tax para, money that goes out is categorized correctly, that the payment is explained, that organizations on that do not play list which are takes a lot to get there, that actually are not paid. These are not individual judgment decisions. These are about simply having sensible checks and balances in the system itself to
ensure that tax payer money is spent well. So it has got length to do with like say a contract for some company of mine at all.
But if there is a conflict of interest when it comes to you yourself, for instance, you've received billions of dollars in federal contracts when it comes to the Pentagon for instance, which the President I know has directed you to look into, are you policing yourself in that Is there any sort of accountability check and balance in place that would provide any transparency for the different people.
Well, all of our actions are fully public. So if you see anything you say like wait a second, hey, you know that, doesn't that seems like maybe that's you know that there's a conflict there, I s it like people are going to be shy about saying they'l say it immediately knowing yourself.
Yes, that ain't no damn accountability.
He also is saying like that, you know the number of people who are working, they're all of these things where they're wasting money. Some of the stuff that he's throwing out there to justify these cuts are not even fact based.
They're just wrong.
I think at the end of the day, the part that I want to emphasize is that, for example, so now they're taking on the Department of Education before they even take on DoD, which of course has the largest amount of discretionary spending at over eight hundred billion dollars. But they went into the Department of Ed and have cut eighty nine contracts. He's bragging about this. By the way, y'all can follow all this on DOGE on Twitter, and they have a website. Department of Education cut eighty nine
contracts worth eight hundred and eighty one million dollars. They cut DEI training grants. That's diversity, equity and inclusion. We should make them spell it out, twenty nine grants for one hundred and one million dollars. But again they still
haven't gone into DoD. I'm going to tell you there is a place where there are folks on both sides of the aisle that talk about waste, fraud, and abuse right especially add there would have been I think bipartisan support for this if it wasn't so egregious and violating what the law said. They have overhauled federal agencies that have been legislated, signed, passed by the legislature, both chambers, signed into law, and Donald Trump's just been like the hel with.
C FPB they held with the whole Department Education, they held with this.
But I'm gonna put Doge in charge of all of you, and I'm going to give them unfettered access and power to do whatever. That is what dictatorship looks like. That is what a constitutional crisis looks like.
And guess what, there would not be a constitutional crisis if the legislative branch, the folks who were carved out in Section two of the Constitution and told that they have the obligation, the right of appropriation, if they would simply stand up and say, oh no, sir, you're treading online.
You're treading on the wrong water. Right now, this part the bill that went through Congress that created this institution or created that agency or created that department under which we then approved a budget that was eventually signed into law by the President of.
The United States. We've already told you where the money going. All you need to do is cut the check.
And unfortunately they're so efeckless, they're so weak, they're so a million miles if you will, to take a turn from my grandmama about what they're doing. They're allowing this
man to ride rush shot over them. So if the third a lot of people, and I know this feels basic, and I apologize if you're on the listening end of this and are like, duh, But a lot of folks think that the presidency is a position set above, and in some ways, the presidency is a position set above, largely because he's also.
The commander in chief of our armed services.
It allows a very powerful quiver within his responsibilities as or her responsibilities in the office in the carrying out of the office of the presidency.
But the presidency, the executive branch, headed by hold.
By the president, is one branch of government that has to then negotiate with two other branches of government, holding each other mutually accountable, which means the president can't book foot bigfoot the Congress.
The Congress can't bigfoot the president on its own. The courts can't.
Bigfoot everybody without some ability of checks and balances between the three. The checks and balances don't exist between the Senate and the House. Checks and balances refers to the check on power between the three different branches of government judicial, legislative, and executive. And guess what the first branch of government is, the legislative branch. It was the first branch that the
founders thought of. It was the first branch constituted, but for there was ever even a president selected.
I say this to say it.
I know it is in the weeds, y'all, But the reason why we ought to have umbrage for the way in which Donald Trump is going about his business is because he's not just doing it on his own. He's being allowed to do it by the legislative branch deciding to sit back seat and let him drive their let him drive their bus. And I just we wouldn't be in this place if we weren't, if we didn't have members of Congress who were so weak when it comes to their job. It used to be that it was
a non partisan issue. If you came after our branch, the branch unites against the branch that is attacking them.
In this case, we.
Should be challenging him to do like I know we're I think on our social media we're going to put up the members. There are twenty nine vulnerable Republican members in mostly democratic districts. We're gonna put those up, encourage people to call. We're gonna take a page out of Maxwell Frosts, organize and book and make sure we encourage people to do that. I know one thing that TIF really wanted to do before we get today was get to some of these questions.
So I want pivot to that.
Let's do it. The first one, no tip, what are you gonna say?
Oh, I just wanted to comment on the whole thing that you all were just talking about.
This.
Yeah, it's not situtional crisis.
And I think the second part of that question to NFL is are we at a constitutional convention. We've seen this happen in the country numerous times. There was a great piece in the Times this week about the three previous times or our constitution has been thrown into question and helped shape the government. The first time, of course, was surrounding. The second time was reconstruction, and the third
time was the New Deal. And so the writer argues that this is the fourth time that this country will be faced with a reshaping. Will we stand in place and protect this constitution or what we bend the need and let them reshape American government as we know it?
And it looks like so far that we're biding me. I just wanted to get that point in. I love that you know the way, and you.
Said that's the article, and then let's make sure Nick, we just put that in the link for the audience to see as well.
That sounds good.
I want to yeah, it was really good.
But yes, I take your point. I do want to hear from the audience. I want to hear some of these questions. So let's get to the first one, I think if I can. There was a question that came into Andrew, which I've been really eager. Yes, I have been so eager because when when I first saw this question, was like, you know, I actually have that question as well.
And so we purposely did not want Andrew because because we want your genuine.
You always get answer.
Okay, I didn't want U think or saying I don't want to talk about.
It or whatever.
Yeah, we got you.
Well come well, come, well, come, well come, welcome, welcome.
Let's roll that question so we can hear Andrew's answer.
Hey, Native Lamb Fan Oscar David, Florida's calling from New York City, Day one Fan. Two quick questions. One's more like a kind of fun question, which is that Angela Right's name came up in an episode of Southside Just rewatching the show. It's my new favorite show, and they referred to her as a woman from CNN. So I guess I wonder what each of you would like to be remembered by if someone were to reference you now.
And the easy answer is from Native Lamb podcast, But I guess I wonder what that other kind of cultural reference you'd like is. Second is for Andrew, my parents live in Florida. I am Latino. They are obviously Latinos, and I had to do a lot of education during your campaign to try to get them to vote, and
they voted for you. So my question is when are you going to run to take this Marco Rubio seat and what is your plan for that, you know, community to really see what you're doing and to try to improve the numbers because I think that especially in Florida Oceola County specifically where they are, I'm not sure that the education was there. So just interested in like your post mortem on that, and so really, when you're gonna run and take that seat.
Oh man, listen at it.
So of course I know why you all kept that. First of all, thank you, Oscar, and to also give your parents.
A shout out for me. I appreciate the support.
Ostiola County was one of the counties we carried in the race for governor, and while I have no designs on the seat that was vacated by Marco Rubio, I do have a deep, deep, deep love for the state that.
I owe it all to.
I mean, I'm I'm born and raised Florida right from the bottom to the top. Literally my day County at the very bottom of the state and where I am right now, twenty minutes from the Georgia border. It breaks my heart to see what the state has turned into under this current regime. But it's you know, DeSantis just happens to be the titular head right now. It has
been many decades in the making. What I do know as certainly what I believe, even if I don't know it on the numbers, is I believe that progressives, thoughtful, futuristic people who care about the future of their children and their families, their neighborhoods, all of that stuff, that
they are the majority. And this you know kleptocracy that you know DeSantis and Trump, you know little Baby Trump or Acolyte Trump, Many Me, Marco, all these guys, they're simply as to still you know Tiffany's phrase, bending a knee to their massive They don't bel leave with their heart and their soul and their might and what it is that they're doing this is a transaction. And what I know is is that we're better than a transaction. I said a long time ago, I say right now.
I don't have designs on public office at this time, but I am open to the ways in which God wants to use me.
To make life better for all of us. That is, in some ways through this pod it can be, you know, in other ways, I just don't know. But I do know this much.
My children are worth it. Your children are worth it, Your parents are worth it. And the people right now who are not just in Florida but all over the country who are devastated by what they're experiencing, mostly because the floor doesn't feel like the floor anymore. You know, You're like, Okay, I'm gonna fall. I'm gonna take this fall because I know that there is a landing. We don't know where the landing is right now, and all of us are terrified. There is not one amongst us,
and I count myself included. I am terrified for this moment in the future and what it will behold because I think it still depends on what we the people decide and if the majority of us want to stay sleep.
Got to help us all.
I was about to press him to girls, Yeah, press.
So two parts.
One, can we get a clear answer on your political aspirations? That includes, you're not going to run for senator the current secretary of State?
Okay.
The other part of his question, which I think is very relevant. Even I've heard that you're not running, you reserve the right to change your mind to run.
For any I reserve the right to be so moved.
Okay, moved.
But the second part of his question, which I think is very relevant to not only people across the country, but specifically to Florida, which holds a significuly large, larger than normal comparatively speaking to the rest of the country Latino population. Surely you have thoughts on what types of policies need to be introduced, even if you're not planning
on being the person to introduce them. But what would you say to the Latino community about what's happening in Florida, but also as that can extend across the country when it comes to issues facing that community specifically.
I appreciate the re emphasis of that, and I'll just say I'd love to get into some policy prescripts, but I want to say more generally, the Latino community in the state of Florida is not a monolith. And I know we use that statement about black voters are not
a monolith, and this group is not a monolith. But I mean very seriously, in the state of Florida, you cannot assume a community's politics like the Latino community because you heard it from a Cuban American, or because you heard it from a Venezuelan or a Puerto Rican hunder and a South American. From all the various countries that you know exists within this hemisphere, every one of them brings the shaping of where they came from their lived experience, and it colors how.
They experienced the world.
And I use just a really quick example, there were a lot of Latinos who fell behind Donald Trump. Men and women, but by and large Latino men in this state because while they hate a Maduro right an authoritarian strong man, many of the countries have been led. They have known nothing but strong man ty Haiti, you know, Papa dot, baby dot, you know, you name it. These were these were These were political images, but they were
also revolutionary. Think about Fidel Castro and the and and his brother and the and the people who are loyal to him on that island are definitely loyal because he changed their whole world circumstance as far as they were concerned. These were people who were treated as cockroaches because their skin was darker, or because they worked the land. And what he did is he turned the aristocrats and the
proletariat upside down. I say all that to say that while I believe folks want better for themselves and for their family, they want democracy on paper, but in real life, there are huge swaths of this community that are still choosing this sort of strong man autocratic leadership, and don't think that democracy, quite frankly, is all that it has been sold out to being.
So I would just say, please, please, please, please please, do not believe the hype.
While Republicans may talk a talk, they may talk bad about all these authoritarians, just take a step back and
then watch out they're governing. Take a step back and see if these folks are really rejecting autocracies or if they're modeling that autocracy, and that, frankly, that understanding would open up a whole gateway of opportunity for us in the state of Florida to have all kinds of conversations with the diaspora of Latinos in this state that we can't even get to right now because all they see is socialists versus quote democracy or free market. And if
you're a Democrat, you're a socialist. And if you believe an opportunity and job development and economic growth and opportunity and the fact that you ought to be able to do better than your parents did before you, then you must be a Republican. That is simply false. They've run a great ad campaign, but that's not how they govern.
Okay, Andrew I appreciate your answer, and you sound really ready to run for the Senate given that filibuster. But I want to say this, We're in a time where we're telling everybody it's all hands on deck, that courage matters, like I've never seen you back away from a fight on I have a new favorite story from you today on what happened with the Dream Defenders at that ribbon cutting.
But my favorite story during your gubernatorial race was you going to sit in with the people and not caring about what that meant for your race, because you had a bigger obligation to humanity, to your community, to the culture always. And I think that in a lot of ways, not everyone, but in a lot of ways, most people don't feel that connection to their elected officials anymore.
And so do you believe that I'm a prophet?
You may be, so God told me to.
Tell you need to read.
Oh you prolyzing?
Okay, Okay, I'm just saying, like Andrew, that is I'm gonna get in trouble with Jay probably.
I'm sorry.
Jah.
I love you and the kids, but I really do believe you are uniquely called. You are uniquely gifted. Tiff is telling you she feels checked out and afraid. I'm telling you, I'm feeling firecracker and ready for a civil war.
And somewhere in the middle you.
Exist to bring the sides together, to bring calm, to bring logic, to bring strategy. I'm not saying we're not good strategies to deff but I think that there's a way that you do it through the purview of an elected official and through diplomacy in ways where TIFFs sometimes will be like this person not in the ministry. You really got a ministry with folks to negotiate in ways that we deeply need right now because we do have to tamper down what's happening on the other side so
they understand what's at risk. You believe in this country clearly because of the ways in which you've served it, and so I just am asking you to really pray about what that looks like. Obviously, you can't run for an office right in this moment, but there is an opportunity coming and hopefully as long as the democracy can be saved, and I think that you have put a lot on the line, I'm not asking you to self sacrifice in ways that don't feel authentic to your mission
and your call. But I also would challenge you not to run from your mission and your call. I receive that because the people are still with you.
I receive.
So like I'm hijacking part of our episode because it.
Is about us.
This, this whole, everything that's happening right now is a lot, yes, And I'm saying that in order for us to win, we all have to play our parts. Absolutely, we all have to play our position. We cannot be afraid of their faces.
We have to go for what we know.
We have to go for like you are called and anointed for such a term as this, and I just want you to hold on to that fact, to that truth. I know what you don't want to do, but I'm telling you, if you search beyond that surface level what you don't want to do, it might still be in there.
Well, I want you to know, and I want everybody listening to know. One there ain't a thing out here that I'm in the in this world, in this earthly world, that I am you know, truly afraid of. I'm not afraid of public office. I'm not afraid of a hard fought race. I've done that longer than I care to count right now, And I do think that we all have roles to play, and guess what, over the arca time, those roles shifts shift from one to another, from one to another. In this moment, I think all of us
are being called to step up. If it's not painful right now, then we're not doing it right. If we are not anguished in some way right now, then we're not doing it right. If we are sleeping like sleeping beauty without a care in the damn world right now, we're not doing life right now. I wish I could. I wish I could have that right, the peace of mind.
But in truth, if you have a steady peace of mind right now, given the climate in which we exist, I'm not certain that we're doing it right right And so I have angst about all those things, and I have ideas around how we get around it. But I feel good right now being in support of the people who are there.
And who are on the.
Electoral front line. And there's another front line. There's an information front line that I hope that we're standing in the gap for. There's an organizing front line, there's a protest front line, there's an economic boycott front line right that folks all get to participating in so we all have our ways. That's not to say that God will not move me in ways that I cannot right now fathom,
but I I am open and available to that. I just asked that that you know that that he handles me as continually with care, because being handled with care in this line of work is a requirement.
Otherwise you lose.
You lose a lot, and at the end of it is your soul. And so you know, care is care is mandatory, It's not an option.
This is where the me and Tim different tips like okay, Angela and full convincing.
I'm not done either. You know it's gonna continue, I.
Know, but not on the show, I said off air.
So I think another thing that the viewer asked what I thought was hilarious south Side It's one of my favorite shows. Who It is hilarious, and I remember watching that episode where the guy is like, oh was at a party last night with Angela writes from CNN.
It was so funny.
That show is high hilarious. Shout out to the creator. Oh it's so it's off air now. Unfortunately HBO canceled it. But shout out to the creator. It's just it's a family who do the show.
But it is us. It is all day Chicago.
So if you are from Chicago familiar with Chicago. One of the lines of women was like, oh, I grew up around here. I grew up on seventy six and Damons. So all my friends from Chicago always say, oh, like, I know seventy six and Daemon.
That's all I know. So shout out to the shy Town.
If somebody were to reference me the cultural reference, I was thinking about that. Don't think I have a good answer. I may need to think about it, but I would want them to say that I was somebody who always prioritized informing the people and writing for the people.
I hope, I hope that's what they would.
Yeah, they would, they should.
And I'm gonna find I'm gonna try to find that clipp and send it to you because it is hilarious.
When he said that, Sorry, Andrew.
I definitely said, I don't want to be known for CNN. I think, yeah, that's my biggest frustration, because people got familiar with me. Is just like somebody who clapped back, and I think that that is it's just reductionists like you know, you spend your whole life learning to be just study to show yourself approved, and it just be known for a clad bag, like factual clad bag is good.
But I want to be known for much more. And I think the thing that I want to be known for, especially if you know this authoritarian regime continues and we all go down, I want to be known for courage. I want to be known for fighting for my people, no matter the cost. And I hope that we don't have to murtyr anymore. You know, I don't want to be a martyr, but if I have to be, so be it. I'll do it for Harriet, who y'all know I got on my chain. Let me show you my Harriet chain case y'all forgot.
But I want her to be proud. I want Harriet to be proud.
That's real.
I think I like to be known as a person who did it true. I also want to be known as a person when I'm not on the stage, as someone who, yeah, may be missed, but you feel in many ways reassured because you know that we've trained others behind, not for a singular leader, but for movement, right for movement, and like the phoenix out of ashes, you know, rising far past what people think is possible, And not for my sake, but as an example for others who think that.
Your worst day.
Is the only day in your life by which you'll have any real memory, that you will never Hopefully your experience won't be that you're forever judged by your worst day, or your worst decision, or your worst evening or your worst incident, but rather as a complete, imperfect human being who who.
Care and who loves. I love y'all, And with that, y'all, you got enough of us today. Never that I listen.
We wanted to get to more listener questions, but I think we all got carried into into like, Okay, we're about to sign. We're going to the spreadsheet and we're gonna sign what roles and responsibilities each of us have in this moment.
But know that we're all always going to.
Be thinking about the ways in which we can play a more impactful role, not for our sake, but for our collective's sake. As always, we want to remind everyone to please leave us a review and subscribe to Native Lamp Pod.
We're available on all platforms and on YouTube and.
New episodes drop every Thursday, with a special mini pod every Monday.
Actually, that's gonna be changing up, y'all.
Stay tuned, don't forget to follow us also on social media and subscribe to our text or email list on our website, natively pod dot com. We are She is Angel rih she over, there is Tiviany Cross and right here I'm Andrew Gillim.
Welcome home of y'all.
And even though my cohes don't want to hear it, there are six hundred and twenty eight days into the midterm elections counted down.
Thank you for joining the Natives. Attention to what the info and all of the latest Roy Gulam and Cross connected to the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank you sincerely for the faces reason for your choices clear so grateful to execute roles.
For serve, defend and.
Protect the truth in case, we welcome home to all of the Natives.
We thank you.
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