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Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Welcome, Welcome home everyone. This is Native Lampot. It's my solo pod day, and I'm thrilled because you all will get a window into the soul of my relationship.
With my good brother and friend.
I always call him my big little brother because he thinks he's the boss of me, and I let him do it because he's so brilliant.
I'm such an awesome strategist.
A peacemaker guy says, blessed are the peacemakers, and he is one of them. He is the executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus. Vincent Evans is joining us today. Hello Vincent, Hello Angela Raie. I'm so glad you joined me. We have been laboring for and with the people.
All week.
It sounds like we may have a sound issue. I don't think Vince can hear us. Vince, can you hear me?
I can hear you now, I could hear you.
Okay, So I think we're still live. So we're just gonna go ahead and keep rowing. This is the hood Welcome to Native Lampard The Hood Edition.
I don't know what's going on all right. I blame mercury being a retrogravance.
But I'm so glad that you're here with me today, in part because in so many ways, you know, we're always working together. We don't get paid to work together, but we are always going to do work for the culture. And one thing that's just been heavy on my spirit is, you know, watching the fallout from Target. One thing that I love about our friendship, our relationship and so many of our comrades is we have an agreement not to do harm.
And I think it's so important.
Even we disagree vehemently on tactics, vehemently on time, vehemently on what the end goal might be, it is so important that we as a community agree not to do harm. And the number of hits that I'm watching our people take who we're just trying to do something, Vince, Like whether we agree on whether the thing should end, what the thing should be called, who's doing it, who's leading why? Like we just should commend the fact that people wanted
to do something. Now, the thing I wanted to flag for you, Vince, is has Target said anything yet perfect.
But guess what, we all mad at each other?
Why?
Vin, This is the trick of the devil. It's a distraction. So I just I wanted you to be.
Here as my brother and my friend, to remind us all the most important thing that in times like this, as difficult as it may be, it is most important that we stick together. Then we figure out our path and we remember who the actual boogeyman is. The boogeyman is not just Target, it's everybody that thinks like target. It is the folks who sit in corporate boardrooms who are ending DEI saying we belong what are we belonging to?
Friends? What are we belonging to? Two friends? And Vince? That goes all the way to the ballot box.
So today you and I are talking about the Save Act, Yes, and I want to talk about that because it's the mentality that is it's a mentality that is pervasive throughout all of these corporations, throughout all of the cabinets, the cabinet secretaries, all of these agencies and departments run by the federal government, sadly all across states throughout this country. The ones that have been putting forth voter suppression measures,
as you know since twenty ten. So Vince, let's back right into this talk to us about what the Save Act is.
Well, I don't know. I see it as a law that is all about voter suppression. I don't know what the other folks out there who are pushing it seed. As you know, the first thing I say is whenever a bill's title is save America, that is a red like what are we saving America from? We need to
save America from the people who are pushing this law. Look, this is nothing more than as we first so many leaders say, Jim Crow two point zero, it is a bill that is designed to prevent people from casting their ballet.
You and I know that the franchise, the right to vote is the most sacred things we have, and this bill is set to ensure that people who get up every day, go to work every day, and want to have an opportunity to engage in their democracy, want to have an opportunity to vote for people who they believe are pushing forward the issues that are important to them, that they don't have that opportunity. So that is at
its core what the Save Act is. I don't care what anybody tells you it's a bad piece of legislation, it should not being acted, and it will do more harm than good.
And I think this is the part right.
So we know that this bill passed the House last year, and then the Senate received this bill from the House, of course, which is how this normally goes. It passed very narrow, with two hundred and twenty votes to two hundred and eight votes. And I wonder what you think is going to happen in the Senate. I think it's important people to understand it is on the Senate floor this week, starting today. This is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
So, Vince, what do you think is going to happen in the Senate?
Well, we'll see.
The Senate I think started debating this within the last couple of hours or a set to. We'll see about the debate this week. What we do know is this, the Save America Act, as the so called Save America Act, is going to make it harder and more difficult for people to be able to cast their valid If you're a woman who's ever changed your name, which a lot of women who have been married have done, it's going
to make it almost impossible. If you're an individual who does not have access to a passport, and you've got to now either go buy a passport, or you've got to go get your driver's license per plus or birth certificate. That's not always easy for folks. There are a lot of hurdles. If you're a college student who's ever moved away from home to go to college and has a new address, it's going to make it more difficult, difficult
for you. So there are a whole class of groups of individuals out there across the country who would be impacted. And you know, the Republicans are saying that this is going to ensure that there are no non citizens voting in American election. Here's the facts. We all know the facts. You know the facts, Angela, I know the fact. Everybody knows the facts. There is not widespread fraud in our elections today.
There just isn't.
Every single audit and study out there has come back and said the same thing. The amount of non citizens voting in American elections is like er point zero zero zero one percent. It's small, it's negligible. And the fact of the matter is this, it is already illegal in this country for non citizen to vote. So this is nothing more of the say back is nothing more than a stoke called set of solutions in search of a problem.
That's it.
And they've been saying that same phrase since the first version of voter ID bills, since the first version of voter ID bills, more than one hundred past House I'm sorry, state based legislatures starting in twenty ten and twenty eleven. And what I think is so important for our audience to know, Vince, is that all of this changed after two thousand and eight.
What happened in two.
Thousand and eight, What happened? What happened? What happened? You know what happened. I know what happened. I know about president.
And they said, you know, this whole idea about bipartisan voting rights, Hell with that.
Actually, we don't want to see this happen anymore.
And so what used to be the Voting Rights Reauthorization Act every Congress that would pass overwhelmingly with both sides of the House supporting, All of a sudden, it became a democratic idea all of a sudden, voting fraud.
Voter fraud was an issue, all of a sudden.
People need needed to be ID in the voting booth, and these voter ID measures have become even more restrictive because what they're saying now is that your license is not sufficient. Let's roll this clip from Representative Teresa Fernandez, who represents New Mexico's third congressional district.
Can you take out your driver's license? Mister Scott has his out. If you took your years out, I'm looking at mine. What we're talking about here is does your driver's license tell us where you were born? It does not?
Does it?
No, mister Scott, youwards doesn't either. Because what we're talking about is registration. You cannot use this ID to register to vote under your bill?
Is that correct? You could not use your ID?
That would be an accurate sayment, Chairman Styles, Do you have a passport?
I personally, do you do have a pass pas? Part of the rough Americans?
You're roughly fifty percent of Americans have a passport. Because you try, about fifty percent of Americans don't travel internationally.
They don't have that money. Is that right?
One of the reasons you have to have a certain amount of money to be able to travel internationally. To get that passport, to pay for that passport.
Is that correct?
There is a charge there.
There is a test passport. Twenty point twenty one point three million American citizens a vote in age don't have ready access to citizenship documents. This is ready access. We already discussed earlier the fact that this bill. You have changed the enactment day of this bill to go infect as soon as it is signed into law. And if that happens, then this twenty one point three million American citizens who might not be prepared for a future in
a few weeks. In terms of Texas, who might want to They're excited about the race, they're excited about the Republicans senators who are wanting to at each other. I'm battling it out. They're excited about the Democrat primaries. They want to get involved, they want to register to vote. They might be on one of the twenty one point three million Americans who don't have ready access to citizenship documents.
That's what we are concerned about, is that by rushing this into law, you were going to prevent so many people from being able to register to vote.
And that's been acceptable.
When you say how many immigrants are too many voting?
I would ask.
I'd flip the question and ask you how many eligible citizens are you worried about being turned away because you were rushing something like this into law.
You care.
So good now viz.
Twenty one point three million Americans, and I think that's probably really conservative.
I want to give you this one example.
So my mom was renewing her passport and something came up where she like however her birth certificate was initially written, it wasn't going to work. And the reason why it wasn't going to work for her to get her passport again is because her they had inverted her middle name and her so her middle name was first, her her first name was her middle name. That for whatever reason, it was fine the first time she was getting her passport.
The second reason the second time it wasn't. So we're not considering the people who may be going back to, you know, get a passport again their passports York expiration.
Normally they tell you six months out it's time to get a new passport, and Vince, we're also not thinking about the people who are terrified to go to this Department of State under this authoritarian regime, worried that if they bring a passport to get renewed, that they may not get the thing back and be stuck here or be told they're not a citizen if they don't have
the proper documentation. The other thing that I think is as jarring is I don't think folks realize for our elders in the South who are eighty and older.
In certain parts of the South and real parts of the South.
The birth certificates don't even match the standards for what you need to be able to get your passport. Vince, I have a copy now of my Social Security card. I don't know where the real one is. My mama didn't trust me with it. So how long does it take to get a Social Security card under this regime?
That's exactly right, Do you know what I mean? Yep.
There are a number of hurdles that they could throw up at any point. I used to work for someone who because of the year they were born and where they were born in the rural part of my state in Florida, it was unclear whether the birth certificate they had because it was written down in a bible. That's how they actually found out when they were born. It was unclear when they went to get documents. They always had troubble making certain that it couldn't get verified, and
they had to go to this lineage process. It was rife with complications. There are so many to the point that you just made, particularly in the South, but frankly across the country who have similar stories, who have similar stories like that of your mom, who even if they are all well intended, they do everything, they are waiting at the mercy of the government to give them the
things that they would need. So if the Department of State or or agencies across the government said, well, you know, we're gonna get it to you, but we're not gonna get it in time for you to vote, that obviously presents a problem. And again, like the congresswoman said, they're trying to do this before the November elections.
Why why would you need to rush it so fast?
And that's the thing too.
My biggest concern is because Donald Trump would like to sign an executive order where he federalizes these midterm elections, to federalizes elections period. He would then have all the power if the Supreme Court doesn't do the right thing. And it's a fifty to fifty, maybe a sixty forty if they'll do the right thing or not. If they don't take action, then that means all of that power and control all of his.
Cabinet and go to all of the departments. That is scary.
He has made clear in recent days that this is his number one priority. The President of the United States of America has said he will not sign anymore legislation until he gets the Safe Act to his debt. And as you know, Angela, this is bigger than just one bill. This is about to your earlier point, who was elected in two thousand and eight, what we've seen since then shall be the older gutting Section five of the Voting Rights ACK. Now Section two of the Voting Rights ACK
is being considered before the United States Supreme Court. We'll get a ruling, hopefully here in June. I'm worried about what that ruling will say. And all of this is an attempt to roll back progress that we've made. It's all calculated, it's all been thought out, no question about it. This is just another step and what they've told us they were going to do.
There's a video that I want you to see from Queen Latifa, and she says something that many of us say often, but I think it's important for us to remember it in this particular moment.
Let's roll that clip.
Well, if the vote wasn't worth something, they wouldn't be trying to keep you from voting. So I feel the same way about womanhood. If we weren't so powerful, there wouldn't be.
Such a push to keep us in a place.
I think that's important too right now, Vince, because one of the key groups, key constituencies that will be impacted by the Save Act, by Make Elections Great Again.
Act are women. And what's crazy about it is, what's.
The percentage of women that voted for Donald Trump?
White women?
Yeah, I bet you hadn't see this coming.
Yeah, it's gonna hurt their own voters.
This isn't a bill that's going to affect Democratic women or black women. It's going to hurt their voters. I think I heard members say earlier today that the top ten states of individuals who do not have passport are what we call quote unquote red states. So this will hurt their own voters, no question about it.
It blows me away.
I got to say that one of the things that I'm hoping for is that people will find the energy to reach out to the senator, their senators. I know it's really hard, and I'm saying this as someone who worked on the hill who has struggled to see the impacts of the calls we're making, have making a difference, because the Republican senators are so terrified of Donald Trump
that they're not seeming to do the right thing. So what is the thing that you would recommend, you know, Joe blow from down the street, or remember Joe the plumber would what would you tell Joe the plumber to do? What about let me think of John Tay, John Tata plumber. What would you tell him to do if he was making that call to his senator?
Ben.
Look, I think all of us have to pick up the phone on this one to call lawmakers and tell our very own lived experience. But we saw what two or three two days ago, and Dallas is unacceptable. I was so struck by the people who were going into the polls, trying to cast a ballot, trying to do the right thing, walking out and being told that they could not. That is not an anomaly in this country, to be clear, even without the say back, we already
have voter suppression in this country. Hundreds of bills have been passed over the last couple of years in state legislatures across this country, as you rightly point out, that are already making it more difficult for people to vote. So folks just have to call and tell their own real experience. This is one of those times where we probably all have our own experience at the voting boot where we show rowed up something wasn't right. We were told one thing, it was really another thing. So folks
really should that. There are a lot of times we tell people to call their legislation. This is one where you've got a personal story, you can pull it up really quickly and tell people how it would directly affect you.
It's so important, and Vince, I'm so grateful for you taking the time today to come and explain this. I do worry that this bill may pass the Senate, and I'm concerned, based on what we saw.
With the big hella ugly bill, that people.
Just lack courage in this moment, and so I want us to also not just call, but for those of us who pray and our spiritual people like believe that something bigger and greater can happen. Especially, my heart goes out to these tsos, the TSA workers who are at work right now.
When I was.
Traveling just this past week, Vince, I told I, try to make it a point to tell them. Sadly, I've had to do it a lot lately because it's been shut down after shut down after thak So. I told him, I said, I just want to thank you all for working. I know you don't have to. And one of them, the gentleman, looked at me and he said, I'm not going to be here much longer. I just can't afford to work and not be paid. I have to go
make money to pay my bills. So when you see one, you know, give him a love offering, and give him a love offering.
Don't just say thank you.
Maybe you got an extra hundred dollars in your passion, an extra twenty like we need to be loving on these folks.
Should it be our responsibility?
No?
But is it? Absolutely?
Because we have an irresponsible president in the White House, and I just you know, he's a He regularly is engaging in a dere election of duty, and sadly, his cabinet is a bunch of yes folks. Who will not challenge him back. So here we are in a war that is not ours. Here we are defunding people who need that paycheck, who are hourly workers. Here we are ready to snatch people's voting rights away in the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this country, returning back to
what it knows best. Jim Crow, disenfranchisement and oppression. I don't even know if we ever left that, So mint any party words before we've closed.
I appreciate you everything you just said. It's so true, and I know it comes from a place of love. We've got a lot of work to do. You know, when people say to me America is better than this these days, I say, I'm not certain that she is. I'm not certain that we are better than We can be better than this, but right now we are not better than this. So people of good will got to keep fighting. I'm keeping the faith like you are, and we just keep pushing every day. It is a fight every single day.
As Reverend Jackson would say, Vincent, keep hope.
Alive, Keep hope alive.
We got to say, well, I appreciate you, thank you. Mention.
We are going to close out our show with a woman who is brilliant. It is Women's History Month, and for that I will be celebrating black women every day.
All day.
And there is a woman who is a mentor to one of my mentors, Congressman Benny Gordon Thompson. She is the legendary and fearless Fanny lou Hamer. She reminded us of the importance of the black vote representation, ensuring that our voices were heard even in the face of difficulty and against all odds.
She will close out our show today.
Welcome home, y'all, mister Chalmer, and to the Credentials Committee. It was the thirty first of all us in nineteen sixty two that eighteen of us travel twenty six miles to the county courthouse in Innonola to try to registers to become first class citizens. We was met in Indanola by policeman.
The President Ndon Johnson. He's not afraid of Martin Luther King's testimony. He's afraid of fame this testimony, and so he decides that the country should not see her testify alive.
Johnson is in the White House and he convened an impromptu press conference to will return to this scene in Atlantic City.
But now we switched for the White House, and NBC's Robert Carewski.
Nows and gentlemen, the President of the United States on this day nine months ago.
He did it knowing that they would break away, thinking he might announce who his choice of vice president was going to be. Instead, he gets up there and he announces. Get this, he announces that it's nine months to the day since since Governor Connolly, who was there, was shot along with President Kenny. So he announced a nine month anniversary, and everybody's scratching their heads, thank you very much, and then he leaves. By that time, Vanny lou Hamer's testimony
was over. However, it backfired on Johnson because it became a story that she had been taken off television and in the news that night and for days afterwards, they replayed her testimony.
I was carried to the county jail and put in the booking room. They left some of the people in the booking room and began to place us in sail.
She had Mississippi in her bones. One of the king or the Snickfield secretaries. They couldn't do what Thanheima did. It couldn't be a sharecropper and express what it meant right, and that's Whatheima did.
And it wasn't too long for both three wife men came to myself. One of these men was stayed highway for throat.
He said, we got to make you wish.
You were dead.
I was carried out of that cell into another cell where they had two Negro prisoners. The state Highway patrolman ordered the first negro to take the black jack. The first Negro prisoner ordered me by orders from the State Highway patrolling for me to lay down on a bunk bed on my face, and I laid on my face. The first Negro began to beat, and I was beat
by the first Negro until he was exhausted. I was holding my hands behind that at that time on the left side because I suffered from polio when I was six years old. After the first negro had beat until he was exhausted, the State Highway patrolman or of the second Negro.
To take the black jack.
The second Negro began to beat and I began to work my seat and the State Highway patrolling order the first negro had beat the set on my feet to keep it from working.
My feet.
I began to scream, and one white man got up and began to beat me in my head and tell me at the hud. One white man, my dress had worked up high. He walked over and pulled my dress. I pulled my dress down, and he pulled my dress back up. I was in jail when Medica Ells was murdered. All of this is on account we want to register to become first class citizens.
And if the.
Freedom Democratic Party is not seated, now I question America. It's s America, the line of the friend in the home of the brains. While we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hook because our lives be threatened daily because we won't Callia.
It be some human beings in America.
Thank you.
I will just say, please make sure that you call the US Senate two zero two two two four three one two one. Call your senator. Call a senator where your mother or your father is. Call a senator where you have a cousin or a loved one. Call the Senator and let them know that it is so important that they vote no against the Save Act. It is mission critical. In this hour, we have seen things get worse.
We keep saying it can get worse. I keep thinking that we are testing the bounds to find out if we really believe it will get worse.
It can, y'all.
We have to act at some point, your conscience, your heart has to be pricked to act. But again, welcome home, y'all. We'll see Thursday. Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reis and Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visits the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,