Shots Fired

go the way that we normally do it. If you were an addict to regimen, I'm gonna upset you now and just say that we'll be a bit unscripted unagendaed and unregimented because myself, along with my co host Angela Raie and Tiffany Cross, decided that we wanted to have a more I think, straightforward conversation with each other and with you about what's been happening in our country of late.

I mean, WTF. I was gonna say what it means, but I don't want Angela daddy and her godfather and my mother my mother in law coming after me, so we'll we'll just get into it. I was going to do a rundown of all the things that have happened, ladies since we last saw each other, but I think it'll probably come out through the conversation and just as

you know, things that felt strange for us. Imagine what the regular, you know, run of the mill, just trying to get up, go to work, handle your family, your business, and at the same time you're trying to make sure that you still have a country underneath you. It's been rough what's been on y'all's mind lately. First of all, welcome home.

of it. I think on this podcast, we've been saying that there's an existential threat with the Supreme Court, that there's an existential threat with what's happening in the United States House of Representatives, with the number of times they had to try to elect a speaker. It's been an existential threat. With books being banned in school districts throughout the country, it's been in exist existential threat. When you talk about voting rights being taken out by the Supreme

Court in twenty thirteen, it has been this way. It was with Dobbs. It was with the Affirmative action ruling last summer, it was with the guns ruling this summer. It has been a threat. It has been a concern. We have justices on the Supreme Court who have no ethics restrictions about what kinds of gifts they can take take. It has been a threat since two thousand, when the elector Or College ran away from what the popular vote wanted. It was an existential threat when Hillary Clinton won the

popular vote. This is where we are, and this is the alarm that many of us have been sounding for many, many years. So people are talking about Project twenty twenty five and how it's not even here yet, and how we don't have to deal with it yet because there are things that are at present. What if I told you that Project twenty twenty five was in the works in nineteen eighty four, in eighty eight, right like it has been here. This is not new to any of us.

This is something that has been planned and now it is finally coming to pass. And I think the most scary thing to me is that many of us it seems like I don't want to pass judgment on anyone watching this or hearing us it seems to me that there is no longer a clear line between what is real and what is fake. It seems to me that people have blurred the lines between reality and reality TV. Everything cannot be for our entertainment. This is not about how the story ends in the credits role when the

credits roll, So do we like? We are in the political crisis, the biggest one of our lifetimes. We say on this pod often it is not just a election an election, It is a political war. And I think whatever the next decision is before us lands us right there, and it is frightening. I deal with a lot of anxiety. I've had trouble sleeping, I've had trouble thinking through what all of this means. I can tell you what my

worst fears are. I can tell you what my highest hopes are, and the highest hopes are few and far between. I am deeply, deeply, deeply concerned about where we are.

Tiff as a as a journalist now opining politically, like, how do you sit in this moment right now?

when this, when the political violence happened on Saturday. I want to be clear that we still don't know. There is conflicting reporting about whether Donald Trump was shot or not the shooter who was firing rounds from an AR fifteen. Trump says that one of those bullets hit him and grazed his ear. Some gun experts say if an AR fifteen bullet hit him, it would not They would not have grazed his ear. His ear would be gone. There's reporting that it was actually shrapnel from the teleprompter that

actually cut his ear. But what do facts matter anymore because the media, the media immediately went to treat him with kid gloves, and both sides this idea that there is a ramped up tone of violence in both parties, which is not true. We have much evidence of Donald Trump even encouraging his rally attendees to inflict violence on other people. He's offered to pay the legal bills of

other people. And it's with that swift bullet everything that we know about the former president went out the window. And what we know is that this is a man who is a convicted felon. I don't use that as a pejorative. I'm saying those are the fast. This is a man who had Kisliak, a senior person in Putin's administration, a hostile government to the United States. He had this man Kisliak in the Oval Office. While he was in the Oval Office, he is pushing ideologies and agenda that

would benefit Putin. Do youy' all find it suspicious that he started ramping up the talk about we don't need to be spending all this money in Ukraine, and then all of a sudden, Marjorie Taylor Green picked that up, and then all of a sudden, all the Republican leaders started picking that up. And that would benefit who Vladimir putin because big Brother in the United States is sending a whole lot of money over there. We don't talk about that. We can't draw those logical connections in the media.

We don't talk about Project twenty twenty five in the media. And I want to take a moment to let our viewers, I know a lot of you all say, please talk about Project twenty five. Please talk about Projects twenty five. We did that. There is an episode available right now called Project twenty five. So I would encourage you a how to take as into stay tuned because I think that's something that will thank you. That's the title. What

is Project twenty twenty five. So you can find that as available on YouTube anywhere you get your podcasts, and that's something that the three of us will be revisiting in the coming week. So stay tuned. But I just have to say I'm absolutely disgusted. I'm watching the core democratic institutions of our country erode. And media is such an important vehicle because that's how most people get their

information and across print and broadcasts. All weekend, I saw people saying we all need to tamp down our tone. I wonder what my co host thing, because I say, we don't need to tamp down shit. We need to start being very honest and direct and speaking to people with a righteous anger that we are all entitled to about what's happening. And I want to point out what Angel was saying. We tried to tell you, like, whenever you want to see violent political violence, black folks know

about that. This ain't the first time we seen political violence. We've been the victims and survivors of political violence since we were kidnapped and had the humanity beat out of us in this country for the past four hundred years. When we try to wave our arms and say, hey, you guys are electing yet another white supremacists to the office, but this time this white supremacy is going to screw you all over too, nobody listen. So I I am just exhausted and I'm getting apathetic. I'm going to vote

in November because we have to. But I just wonder how y'all are feeling about trying to save a country that so frequently dismisses our humanity, that so often discards our warnings, that so routinely disregards our lived experience in this country. Because I'm getting a little exhausted with it.

You know, these are people who are seasoned and and and supposedly well trained and jumping to this sort of equity equality between what Democrats have been saying and what what's been coming out of Republicans, and not just Republicans, but the lead chief Republican, Donald Trump himself, and now JD. Vance, his vice president, who nominee who went directly to blame me Democrats for the political never mind, the man's got you know, the shooter allegedly has Trump signs in his yard.

Never mind, that he's a registered Republican. Uh. The only fact they wanted to throw out was that he gave fourteen dollars on on on Act Blue to some cause that that that that we don't know of. But I was disgusted, you know, watching this interview from uh, you know, I'll just say Lester Hope and Vice President Biden where he says, when when you said we've got to put the focus or put Trump at the centerfold.

their redeeming and their redeemable value. But from the Supreme Court, who just crowned a king and cemented it now in the language of the highest court in the land, to isilin Cannon summarily dismissing what I think most experts would say was the strongest case against the wrongdoing, that that this, that this former president has undertaken it, and she doesn't in her nine to whatever pages one hundred and pages

didn't once reference the case that issue. She goes after thanks to the handoff from Clarence Thomas and and and the immunity decision where he dissented and by himself decided to say that the Special Counsel's office is not constitutional, and she riffs or her Federalist society UH law clerks riffed on why it is that that is not uh, why this is illegal and therefore throwing out, you know, this case which justice is supposed to be blind and

is supposed to be fair and all that you know convicted.

do you all realize what hell we will unleash? And less than thirty days to go before a Democratic convention where white liberals who are asked on television members of Congress, do you believe that Kamala Harris then should be the next up? Well? I don't want to get in front of the nominating process. I don't want to get in front of bigfoot, the delegate decision. I'm sorry, but you're willing to quash the millions of folks who have gone out and voted for Joe Biden up to this point

in the primary. You're willing to throw all of that out. But when it comes to saying whether or not his vice president, our vice president, the next leader of the Democratic Party, should be his replacement on the ticket, all of a sudden, we want the people to decide. And I just what scares me most about this, and I've got my critiques of the administration so and so forth, is that we're just we appear willing to go head

deep over the cliff with no plan for landing. We ain't got no shoot, there ain't no you know, a trampoline at the bottom, nothing it would help that. There's just no safety. There's nothing to catch us. And the problem, the problem that fears that to me, fear feels so just on the nose is we go over the cliff, black folks gonna be the first ones end of the damn dirt. Every time, we will be the first ones

into the dirt. We're the ones who have so much to lose, and this whole you know, the Shenanigans and the games that are being played, and I just the polls have tightened. This is gonna be a race like it has been the last several presidential elections, very close up into the end. And Guys, if the president who's the only one who can make this decision, is saying I'm staying in, he's ten toes deep as you'd like

to say, Angela, and his decision here down tense. Okay, all that to say, he's not changing his mind, it appears, and he's the only one who could bow out and say I released my delegates. Then can we just stop weakening the man? Can we just stop hitting him at the knees left and right. Joe Biden has always been a gaff machine. He's been that yesterday and he's been that thirty forty years ago.

We left off talking about the myriad of things plague in the country right now. But what I want to ask you, guys, because what I've noticed a lot of conversation happening across the country is the legitimacy of this quote unquote assassination attempt. Now, you know, I was disappointed in across media, like nobody wanted to touch this, and it is a very dangerous topic to touch because if this had happened to Joe Biden, you know, we would

not be questioning was real or was it not. I only pose this question because our friend, our friend in common, Keith Boyken, posted a video of what happened when Ronald Reagan had an assassination attempt on his life at what is now the infamous Hilton Hinckley hotel right here in Washington.

lackadaisical in their response? Was it responsible of them to let this man stand there and throw his fist in the air and get his shoes and all those things that the things that happened around it seemed very inappropriate to me, And I'm curious what you guys thought about it.

I don't know anybody that gets hit gets hit by an AR fifteen and survives too. I don't know anybody that would say that it felt like a mosquito bite. Also, I'm not a ballistics forensic expert, but it also seems to me that there may have been an issue with hearing after being hit in the air with even grazed by a bullet. And it's something that if I were in a courtroom, I would probably raise on cross no pun intendative to ask that question, you know. And I'm

really struggling with this. I am not trying to delegitimize, you know, paining or harm sent in his direction, but I am questioning given how they've used it, given the timing of it. Donald Trump gets up. If you think you've been shot, do you really throw up a fist

and know it wasn't the black power fist? Let's be clear, when you are just about to pick your vice presidential candidate, when you are not in the news, because what's been in the news is who is in the Democratic Party who could take over for Joe Biden, who has been in the news more often than you. Even if negative. They say, any press is good press. So he wasn't

getting the run that he once had. The last big run he had were about criminal convictions and charges and whether or not he would still be liable after the Supreme Court ruling. In addition to all of that, the start of the RNC was a mere two days later. So pardon me for being a little skeptical about the timing of it all. I haven't been paying attention either. I had to, like you tip, tune out of the news. I was in the car with my parents here, I

was like, y'all, can we turn this off? I feel dirty like I did when I used to watch love and Hip Hop. No shade d y'all, but that's how I used to feel. I did one marathon and I was like, you know what, I can't even do it no more. Jesus is calling me onward, and so this is that. I felt the same way watching this. It felt like a trashy reality TV show, you know, And that's my truth. I cannot watch this man get lifted into like idol status because I can't. I'm like what

is it? He's not Jesus the christ Man, like what is happening? So it's it's hard and I'm I'm honestly, y'all, I'm struggling with tapping into any type of empathy here because it's like, what is this stunt? What is this craziness? You know? That's how I feel. I'm not that's not it's not reporting Tiff, It's how I feel about it.

find out what really happened? I think I'm that natural skeptic in that way.

out there who who run these networks. You know, decision makers very rarely look like us, and so I don't want to put people who look like us in, you know, to have them draw our ire because you know, but I just think it is important to point out there are black faces and there are black voices. I am so disappointed with how few black voices are on air on CNN. There are multiple Morehouse graduates who appear on that network, and I look and think, are you e

fing kidding me. We can't get the truth from Morehouse. And I'm not blaming the people who are saying it. I'm blaming the fear because Andrew has taught me to have grace for people and not expect hyenas to be lions. And people are operating out of fear. But every time when I hear these conversations Andrew, it's like we're legitimizing and normalizing this race. We're talking about polls and his

VP pick. No, no, no, no no. We need to be talking about the crisis, the existential crisis that this man is. So you have the most empathy of us all. People always stop me and say, I love Andrew's empathy. Do you believe that this man? Did you watch this and think, oh yeah, I believe everything that happened. I believe what my eyes are seeing. I believe what they're saying about it. I don't have a lot of questions.

you're not a race. We had private protection, yes, okay, but but but so I would just say I generally accept until evidence is produced otherwise that this was a legitimate attempt. Now, the questions around it are mind boggling to me. I mean, the fact that the the the the director of the Secret Service got on national television and said there was a slope in the roof and so we decided that we would put our agents inside the building rather than on the roof was insane and

asinine to me. I just for their safety, I'm sorry, What about the safety of the people that they are sworn to protect. And then that reaction afterwards, the time it took to get to him, to cover him, to get him off, and then people's people just forgetting everything that matters at the drop of Donald Trump to the floor on that stage, as if there was no pre rally Trump that matters in the context of the race that he's running for president. All of that went out

the window. It's been out the window and the only conversation that seems to be being had. And I really I'd give props to Biden who did make a call to him, who did call the now widow of the former fire chief who passed, and as of late last night it was her comment that she had yet to hear from Donald Trump.

seventieth seventy fifth anniversary. Yeah, and then took a flight down to Donald Trump met privately with Donald Trump on the heels of him just having left China meeting with she, and Russia meeting with Putin, and I just it was just such a strange thing. And I know Donald Trump, as you already alluded to, kicks people out of the room when he's meeting with foreign foreign governments, which is not standard practice for a president or former president agents

of the United States. So I just can't help thinking it's Urdawan a messenger. Is there something that's being communicated between these authoritarian leaders dictators and she putin Erduwan and now Donald Trump. I just think we deserve to know. I think we deserve to ask the questions. And I just haven't seen anybody on what the hell this is about.

That Putin is afraid that Ukraine will join NATO, and but essentially says, if you attack any NATO country, then all of it right, than all other members like Passa, than we all coming after you. So the fact that Erdowan was here, who for at least a decade has been considered a protege of Putin and flew to see Donald Trump, and no one's talking about that, and that we saw just maybe a year ago with she and Putin join hands on the world stage. Modi, the Prime

Minister of India, also met with Putin. I just think we ought to be paying close attention to some of these global alliances reshaping the world stage. And you're right, I've not heard a lot of reporting or conversations about that. And this goes to Angelo's point about when these credits roll. This is what leads up to the credits rolling on America that he is building inroads and extending olive branches to dictators and treating our friends like enemies and our enemies like friends.

of global alliances. And I know that the rest of the world just has to be, I mean, upside down about these nuclear powers Russia, China, United States of America potentially uniting against what has been frankly, the conscience of the globe for the last you know, better half of a century, in nearly a century.

building a homogeneous society of all white heterosexual people. And he is unapologetic about it when he came into office, I think he came in two ten, twenty eleven, maybe he was very vocal about that. These are the people that Trump is building in roads. So forgive us, you, guys, We did not mean to say Erdwine flew down to Florida. It is urbone president.

in America. And I just had I've been to plenty of NAACP conventions, but I felt them through the television, and I could just be fanning over the fact that finally the man you know, got up and stood deep on what he believed in and what he's done. But I wonder if y'all, if y'all think that's a salient enough message and then some to be repeated around.

to change the rules of the game, we're done. Like, I don't know how else to explain that. There's not a cute campaign ad. There's not a Popeye song that can do. There's not a rap artist they can have to do a rap There's not a cute T shirt slogan. There's not a dope blind he could drop. There's nothing that he can do besides to change the rules of the game, because the deck is stacked against us in the judicial branch, in the executive branch, in the legislative branch.

I shouldn't say the executive branch. The executive branch is the one place or we still have a little bit of space to create change, to tell accomplishments that people have not felt written large. I know we saw something extraordinarily special at Essence when folks stood up and talked about how much of their student loan that is forgiven. But what difference doesn't make it if all of the rest of your freedoms are taken away from the next

president coming. Treat this man like he is the existential threat he is. You cannot go up here and get the crowd hype and treat it like church and let us have the benediction and go back out into the world like it's business as usual. There is nothing normal about this time. And I feel like a crazy person because I've been screaming this since twenty sixteen. What do you mean? Which is it?

what should he do with those executive orders? Like what are the three executive orders that he should and could issue tomorrow?

I would work on trying to figure out how you he said that he supports term limits for the Supreme Court, try to get that pass an executive order, you know, do it?

one on affirmative action? Do want restricting legacy admissions? Do want ensuring that people have contract opportunities with the federal government? Take back with the cour said about the Minority Business Development Agency having to work on behalfa white folks too.

that is basically what the Supreme Court is authorized. Try it at least so it looks like you fought for everything that you say that you want, knowing that these things are not going to get through at least the House and probably not the Senate because there are twenty plus seats up. I think maybe it's thirty is it thirty two this year, but there's several seats open, and for folks are running for election in the Senate, so they're not willing to go and try that hard. So

you go do it. Show these folks that you know that you are in the fight of your life, the fight of our lives. You gotta do something different.

is there's a timeline on this thing. Andrew open the podcast saying, we got one hundred and ten damn days left. Act like you're in the fight of your life and get some of these things done. If they decide in the Supreme Court next term that they can't stand the election is over. You are already inaugurated for sure, So let's go. Let's go. Let's act like we know what's at stake.

on Angela. Your points being well taken on the on the courts. I'm hopeful in the next couple of days we're about to hear from this White House some bold and courageous steps that they plan to take as it relates to this court, because I think it will be by and large bipartisan agreement, because folks are pretty pissed off at what they see as a runaway Supreme Court.

it is a maga extremist court at this point. What does that look like because I'm still a little confused about the executive order of process, Like he couldn't do that via executive order because they have to be approved by the Senate. So if he did expand the court and Democrats have the Senate. That is that a realistic option to get done before November.

The President, of course, does not legislate.

know what that means? Is on the line? Like, I mean, I hate to be screaming like this, but you guys, this is major we have.

my options. I'm frustrated that I feel like my choice has been taken away from the womb to the tomb, to the poles. I feel like the people who are supposed to be representing our best interests and are paid to do so, are being negligent because they're having a regular political conversation, like they don't see the whole damn war going on like we all do. And that is my frustration. Like, just test the system, stress test the system.

If this system is broken because the Supreme Court is hell bent on breaking it, then break it for them, break it for them because it has to be repaired before next January. And there's a whole other insurrection that is far more deadly and far more dangerous and far more violent than the last one. We know what they're capable of, We've seen it before. Why are we playing like we don't know? That's my point. So I'm like, yeah, I know how the laws are made. Oh my god, what just happened?

feel more exhausted than anything about what's been happening. I feel exhausted because I think Democrats buy and large from the leadership stamdpart are we And I'm really directing that at the Congress and those governors out there. I just think we're kneecapping and doing the work of the other side when they got a not only a convicted felon, but eighty eight total counts across all the cases, and these folks are unified. They're standing behind this dude like

he is the Messiah, and we're just coming. We're coming aparts at the seams, and it's exhausting to want to channel frustration through the television at them when what they're giving you back is just hapless. So I kind of feel like a slogan is a little late. I think where we probably are is at death con. Death con that really say three five eleven fifty eleven Angela. I'm sure you probably have a thought.

Maybe it's not fair to say we need a different leader altogether, but it is certainly fair to criticize that right, Like, I.

is invincible in the face of the law. You just talked about a Biden administration court Supreme Court ruling versus a Trump rule. It's it's it is light years apart. And so we have to have someone who's up against him, who stands the the who's whoo, who has the potential to beat him. Joe Biden doesn't have the COVID pandemic on his side this time. Joe Biden doesn't have George Floyd's murder, which was the precursor for what was at least appeared to be a racial reckoning on his side.

What he has on his side now is he's slower. It's harder to understand him. He has a vice president who they have not deputized to do enough for us to see her enough. The media doesn't pick up when she's doing amazing things like what she did in Wisconsin. He's up against a media that wants the ratings of a Donald Trump and not the snooze fest of a Joe Biden. These are not things that I that I personally feel. I'm just trying to objectively say these are

the things he's up against. And then you have people, and then you have people.

money for it. Now this this, this, the same issue is going towards go ahead.

She could, I think so. Honestly, I believe part of the strategy of the CBC right now is don't undermine Joe Biden, because if they undermine Joe Biden, it undermines the entire ticket. They'll try to use that out to throw out the entire ticket. I don't support that. I'm not saying that Kamala can't do it. I think she very well could.

is that this country is vicraally divided. Yeah, half of us are in one place, and we see the country as if we live on Venus and the others on Mars, and they never intersect in between. And so if that's the case, then y'all, we've got to our bed has been made. There was a primary. All these people who are talking now, everybody got all his voice. Where were you when it was time to compete against Joe Biden

for the Democratic nomination. If you're so skilled, so talented the ability to motivate, stimulate, mobilize people, then you should have let that work for you during the process. But now we're at the goddamn twenty fifth hour of the day, and there are not twenty five hours in a day. We're at a twenty fifth hour. I'm talking about we need somebody who can do this? Is that? And the third I can tell you what Joe Biden has proven is that he knows how to win. He's done it repeatedly.

I'm not going to handicap him in that. He's got a lot of handicaps, y'all, But so does the other guy, way more than he, way more than the na Joe Biden. If we know that we got a herculean task and motivating our people every single day, we got one hundred and ten days left, y'all, if we keep meet capping this guy every day, who the hell wants to show up for a guy they already have written the obituary for that, he is going to lose.

am wide eyed open, Okay. Yeah, Like I'm very very clear. But I also understand that right now how I feel, and you guys know that we're now a de facto unofficial, very unofficial polling group. I would like to take focused group, Paul, how many of you feel very confident in Joe Biden's candidacy against Donald Trump in the fall. Right now, are you asking us?

time for this is after the convention. I think there's still time to at least talk about what has to shift. I'm not just talking about a new person on the ticket. Some things have to change. We talked about the mad nauseum earlier in this podcast, But I don't think we should be shaming people for asking legitimate questions about if he has the ability to withstand everything that's going to come at him for the next several months.

get off of it. He was battling. He was bad. He was like, come on, man, this ain't real. How are you asking me if I'm doing this? I just he was very present and I saw him fighting. I listened to him at the NAACP. He was present, He was cognitively present. His stumbles are ever present, but they

were ever present forty years ago. Right, So, so what I'm saying, if he is the nominee and Homeboy Trump is on the other side, then I just think that we do folks a disservice by saying by answering the question and ask and going down that road of is he the strongest? Is he able to compete with him? Is he able? Well, guess what he gonna have to reach into the reservoir of skills. He's gonna have to pull it from somewhere because it has to be done. It has got to be done. But he can't do

it by himself. And that's my whole point is we cannot keep fighting in the lawn on the street down they block in our block because we don't win. That way they win, they win, And I don't deny. I'm not sharing people who have questions. I'm saying, right, you goddamn question down or ask him when he's in the cloakroom or in the whatever. Stop going to national television airing all of our ship for everybody when the decision has already been made. These questions there was a time for.

that we've seen, you guys. I was on Breakfast Club with y'all, and when they asked us about if we were concerned about Joe Biden, the way that he speaks, the way that he walks, so his age, we all summarily dismissed it. When we saw him on that debate stage, we were legitimately concerned. It is understandable.

been so afraid to be in this country. I have never considered more what it might be like to leave I am afraid. I am not doing this for shits and giggles. I don't know what Joe Biden can do and what he can take. I am terrified that he is our representative right now. I want him to pivot. I want to hit whatever needs to happen. I want him to pivot. I would love for Kamaa to be at the top of the ticket. I'm also terrified for her, physically worried about her. I'm not doing I literally, I'm

pleading with you to hear my heart. This is not because I think it is wise. There is nothing about this time that is wise or safe, or normal or clear. It is confusing. I cannot I believe this is the industry that I've dedicated my entire professional adulthood to. I can't believe where we are. The second one that I took on media, I can't believe it's where it is. I think God that we have a safe space. Look looking tip, I think God that we have a safe space.

But also to be here questioning, I need it to be okay for us to do that and try to reach a result. And if we don't know, to say we don't know. I hate not knowing y'all know that, and Tiffany Hardy said, I'm controlling. I hate not knowing, but I said.

I don't even know where I feel. I definitely feel Angelo's point and like this ain't it. Whatever it is, this ain't it. But I hear Andrew's point like that, what's the alternative.

know what the alternative is, like the nominating process. I don't think we'll see a broker convention in a couple of weeks, but who knows. So then to Angelo's point about something has to change and we don't know what. I agree with that too. It's like the playbook was ripped up in twenty sixteen and we are going to war with an ill suited candidate who is playing from the twenty eight playbookage, and so it's frustrating. It's like, what like if you expect us to fight. We have

to be motivated to fight. And to Andelo's point, I do I feel apathetic? And how Angela, how you sound right now is how I feel inside when I indulge and to protect my own in insanity and mental health, I gotta check out. I gotta turn it off. I gotta read, I gotta write, I gotta go for a walk. I cannot be mired in this BS for extended period of time. So I guess my question is, Andrew, if you could consider Angelo's point, like, Okay, I hear you, something has to change. What is the one thing you

would change? And then, Angela, if you could consider Andrew's point, if this is who we got, what would you want Joe Biden to do? Immediately? You said executive orders? But I mean something tangible where he could come out like and address to the nation from the Oval Office and say Donald Trump, or who would me? Let's ride, you know, like honestly, like the rule books are thrown up, let's do it.

I hadn't considered that, and that's the value of Evangeli's many years in Washington and knowing the congressional and the executive you know side of this whole thing. I agree with you that what worked before. As they say, what got you here won't get you there? Right, what got you here Joe Biden will not get you there? And team and company and campaign, and as I listened to a lot of their talking heads, I'm like, well, that person is really you know, sounds really nice, and they

delivered that really nice flee. But I am uncompared held by the message, and so I wonder what you could say to me that would sound more real, more bitible, more digestible, that could get me moving. And right now, I don't think there's a lot of leveling. I don't mean we need to tell our business, yeah, but I do think we have to level with people's. But but I'm completely open, and I would double down on Angela's First of all, y'all need to hire her impact strategies.

the campaign cabinet. I would have a movie producer included, because he's running against a movie star, so run out this production like it needs to be run For folks who are used to seeing a big screen and used to being entertained, I would include them. I would include somebody that has significant social media background so that folks

understand what the right messages are to reach folks. I would ensure that somebody like Terrence Woodbury is at the table not just to talk about polling in focus group, but focus groups, but messaging. I'm literally laying out, by the way, some of what we have for Andrew's campaign, and they ought to pay you for this, Terrence would very way. I want to lay it all out because I want.

things that they are talking about. Utilize them. The people who are on the state and local level, who have great followings Gary Chambers, who you might be afraid of, Utilize them because they are reaching our people. Talk to the activist community, talk to Tamika and my song. Talk to these folks to figure out what is missing and what you can get right. The people who you've avoided, these college students around Gaza. Talk to them about what needs to shift so that they see your humanity again.

They need to see not just a fighter overseas. They need to see you fighting for us here the way that we turned out and fought for you. And I think that that's a big difference. Talk to congressom with Maxine Waters. She got on that stage and they didn't even catch the sneaky shade of what she said as this she said, I'm older than Joe Biden. Hell, what she's saying is and I'm the biggest and baddest out here. Run to me. Let me show you how we do this. And I think that we need We could do. All

of that is very easy. It doesn't have to just be black folks they talk to, but I certainly think they need more. The inner circle is too white. And then the last thing that I would say is, yes,

he needs to go out. If I were on Joe Biden's team, I would tell him to do a president I don't want to hear him talk, but just take the time a presidential address every single night until the election, put your secretary defense up and talk about the threats fireside check no no, no, literally the an actual they the news. Every station has to run it since the news wants to play the Lion King every day and whatever else they doing fake TV. Make it for real.

A special address from the president and his kid couldn't do that, but I'm sure there are like FEC and FCC rules around him doing that because he would completely disrupt like primetime programming, advertisers.

special announcement from the Secretary of Transportation. Every night they're talking about some crisis that is at stake, and there are they don't even have to make these up.

wrong black person. If you're listening to a black person who makes you uncomfortable, that's the person you need to be paying attention to. They more likely speak on behalf of the community. So the fact that we disproportionately uphold this democracy, and even when you look across media, we disproportionately consume media and participate from broadcast media to social media,

we take up a good space. I just wonder why it is so effing hard that we have to fight to be in these spaces and that our truth is offensive to people, So then we're silenced in sidelined. Same thing happening on a campaign, same thing happening across media, No shade to anybody. Is a hard time in media.

But literally more people listen to this podcast than they are tuned into CNN primetime when there is no breaking news now with CNN, ever, put the three of us on air on the show together, No, will they give the old get off my lawn White Man Bill Maher more time? Yes, because they are only interested in centering themselves This contributes to my apathy, where a part of me feels like, you know what, you want to turn this fucking democracy over to this fascist, go right ahead,

just do it. The only thing that stops me from saying that is because I have loved ones here, I have community here. My ancestors built this country, as Angela reminds.

just noted by that through line. I do want to ask you, because we are getting coming up on time, how are you guys managing your mental health? Because I'm Angela, I hear the tension in your voice.

that for the ancestors. I don't want that for the future generations. I'm so afraid that people are not taking this as seriously as they ought. I know there are many of us, and you talked about, you know, the two different sides that you're hearing from, Tiff, and there is a middle. There are people who are on the spectrum who change their minds. I've changed our mind to listen to Andrew and believe him and support his positions. While I was arguing my point, you know, and so

I don't really know what we do. I would say every day if I had a call to action for folks, it's remembered to breathe, to take stock of where we are. When worry is just thinking about what is to come. It's not here yet. There are some things we still have to do. I think Tiff and I have to work through both anger and apathy and then with everything that comes in between there and somewhere between that anger

and that apathy is righteous action. And I hope that we can just stay focused on what is in our hands to do. We know that we are capable, we know we are able, we know God is able. Let's get to work. Let's get to work.