Kim Klacik and the Run for Baltimore's Future

but eventually he pressed the head. She had sex with three or four dudes. He pointed, right inside that building. She'd done it for drugs. I thought he didn't have to say it. We all knew pills, marijuana, crack, cocaine. We stood together, an odd fellowship in this alley along seventy second Street, all of us looking at the vacant building. It loomed over us, a dead and empty thing with

shattered windows and yellow skin pilling from the walls. I know you gotta are hearing this, and you're wondering what movie script am I reading from right now? But it's actually a movie of my life, if you will, I was nine years old, walking to school with my uncle when this member of a gang stopped us to tell him that his sister, my mom, had sex for drugs, and apparently it was a secret that was no longer

a secret because the entire neighborhood knew. When I went to school that day, I couldn't study, I couldn't think. At times, I couldn't breathe. The fact that my mom, someone who brought me into this world, was known as someone to do whatever it took to get drugs and feed her habit her addiction was something that completely broke me. The really interesting fact of this is this isn't something that simply happened to me. It's not a mean thing.

Maybe it's happened to members of your family, Maybe has happened to someone that you know of. And especially now because during that time there was the nineties, it is happening in the suburbs and all over the country. Many individuals are having bouts with addiction and now they need our help. They need a second chance, just like we

all do. None of us are perfect. I have a sibling who was raised in the same environment as me, someone who I had the highest hopes for, the one who was gonna be on myself and make it as well. And he recently got in trouble with the law to the degree that I had to bail him out of jail and pay for an attorney for him. And in spite of him doing something that I think it's something he should never have been involved with, I still believe that he, like everyone else, has a right to a

second chance. None of us are perfect. And my hope is, especially with this podcast, is individuals who are learning about issues that they may not be aware of. We're hearing it from a different perspective, me being a conservative, or other individuals that may come one to this podcast that could be conservative or liberal, that we can all have greater empathy for life lessons that we all receive, either

knowingly or annoingly. Nothing in this world, and I do mean nothing, in my opinion, can defeat so long as we move forward to united and certainly put God first. Faith will always be the most important factor for me. And what I just read comes from my book Taken for Granted, How Conservatism can lean back the Americans to liberalism failed, And I truly believe the conservatism can be the anchor of re establishing one's life. Faith is always paramount to bringing you back to the path that you

was always meant to reach. And my next guest, this particular interview means so much to me. It means a great deal for the reason that this individual who's running for Congress right now is running in a hard hit area of a country. I'm talking about Baltimore, a city that's been ravaged by drugs, crime, and violence, and the folks who have been involved in the crime, violence, and drugs. Some of these individuals deserve redemption because they wanted for themselves.

People have to want it for themselves. And my next guest, she has some solutions to provide second chances to some of these very individuals. This is out loud with Gianno called well. I am so excited to introduce you to my next guest today. She's a rising star in the Republican Party. You know what, let's take rising out. She's a full blown star in the GOP. I'm talking about none other than Kimberly Classic. She's running for Congress in

Maryland seven District, which includes much of Baltimore. Kim has slammed the current Democratic leadership in Baltimore for continuing failed policies as she should reminds me so much of Chicago. She's offering the city's residents a more optimistic path. Kim also spoke at the Republican National Convention, and she knocked it out of the park. Kim, it is so good to be with you, my friend. I've known you for many, many years, and I'm so happy to see you blazing

a trail as you have been. And I know that you're pretty busy, so I want to jump right into it. You offered a more optimistic vision for Baltimore and what we rather would see for the people of Baltimore. Who I mean, it's been in strength. Honestly, it's not been a good situation there for many years. And everyone knows you, of course from your viral campaign that you released in August walking through the streets of Baltimore. But Americans really got to know you for the first time in July.

I remember that day. It was a Saturday. You did a bunch of videos that went viral thanks to none other than Donald Trump, who tweeted it out and kept tweeting the whole day. It was so interesting that I remember texting you, like, what the heck is going on. But any who you get in tens of thousands of followers, what was that experienced like? Yeah, So I just first want to let everybody know Gianno Codwell, it's the first person I met when entering the political arena back in

two thousand and four. Team he met me at Starbucks and introduced me to a lot of people. I don't know if you remember this GIANTO, but you were the one that got me on Roland Martin Show and it just went up from there and I will never be able to thank you enough. Um. But when the president, of course, when the President saw those tweets, you know, this was after a week of me posting those videos on social media trying to get attention from the local leaders.

So I was copying on their the mayor, the city council president, and at that time of the late Congressman Elijah Cummings. So people could see, look, we've got a problem here in West Baltimore. You know, they had trash sitting there for months. It wasn't getting picked up. There were rats everywhere. Everybody was talking about it. Um. If you look at the interviews on my YouTube channel, you'll see where people talked about the rat infestation and just

how bad it was. Um. But these are the same basically words that the President used when he went back and started tweeting, and everyone started calling him racist for using those words that he heard in the interviews. But

you know, there was a lot of confusion there. But you know, I'm glad that he said something because afterwards the local paper they did some investigation and they found out if you live in the predominant black neighborhoods like Carrollton Ridge, Sandtown in Easterwood, your trash was only getting picked up five percent of the time. If you're living in Roland Park and some of the other neighborhoods at work predominantly black, your trash is getting picked up one

hundred percent of the time. So there was a big difference there, and I'm glad they did that investigation to show that there are disparities amongst the neighborhoods. And so, you know, when I decided to run for office, I thought, you know what, maybe I can do something to make sure that there's a quality for all, not just as far as the trash and the resources, but there's disparities

to costs. Um. You know, with the education system, the crime and violence is mostly in West Baltimore, in those areas where you saw me walking in the video with the vacant houses in the trash. So know it's all correlated, and you know we're gonna do something about it. You know that. That brings me to my next question. And I really appreciate your heart on this matter. I've seen your heart for years. This wasn't you tweeting the elected

officials because you wanted to go viral. You didn't expect or anticipate the president to be tweeting you out, and in fact, none of us really would have anticipated that. But it did bring about the change in the Committee community because you had people who come up to you and said, hey, this is going on, I want to show you this or that. Kim. Before people even knew who you were, they just knew you was a concerned citizen. And that's when it took on a life of his own.

So you released this ad and you became a household name, and in August and had a not at all controversial title, black Lives No Matter the Democrats, which I've been saying for years, Black lives no matter the Democrats, Black voats matter. The Democrats, and I appreciate your mantra there, but you most recently dropped another campaign at and what you talked about some of the struggles the people in Baltimore going

through the streets of field with garbage. Thousands of homes are abandoned, and then you offered the more optimistic alternative, if you will, and you offer some plans I think have been very very interesting to a lot of people. Can you walk us through some of those? Yeah. So, you know, a big problem obviously in Baltimore City, and this is across the city, is a lack of career opportunities.

So I talk a lot about the fact that we used to be a manufacturing powerhouse right in Baltimore, and so I thought, you know what, as we saw during the lockdown from the pandemic, we had to rely on other countries for ppe. You know, we can bring that biotech industry right back to America. And what better place than the second largest port in America, which is in

Baltimore City. You know, it was underutilized. We can run a priticeship programs, job training, you know, really get people careers and opportunities that lead to having health and dental benefits that lead to be able to own your own properties. And that's another thing. You know. We have seventeen thousand vacant homes in Baltimore City alone. You know this. Those homes can be flipped. They've been sitting there for decades.

A lot of them are owned by the city. You know, we should enter those in a rent own home situation so people can rent and then own their own property. You know, when you own your own property, you take great care of it and you care about the surroundings. Another big thing is school choice. We have decent schools

in certain areas. You know, some of those schools need some competition so that those schools will hopefully get up to par And I don't think your zip code and where you live should dictate the kind of education you can receive. Um. Yeah, So I'm all about school choice and we have I even talked about we have a trucker shortage across the country. Right Amazon is kicking butt.

We have large Amazon warehouses right in Baltimore. A lot of people don't know this, but All State actually offers behind the wheel training two thousand dollars ahead to get your CDL licensing within six weeks. Why aren't we doing that?

Why aren't we doing that? You know we could have if we already have some of the warehouses right in Baltimore, Why don't have the truckers right in Baltimore, you know, going in across the country, but actually still coming back to the city and spending that money in the city, building up the tourism. You know, nobody's going to the baseball games and the football games right now, but hopefully when the pandemic is over, we can continue to do that.

We've got great teams. We got the Orioles and the Ravens, So there's things that we can do, uh, and we can do it in a matter of maybe three or four years. And then you put on top of that, when President Trump introduced, uh, you know, the economic plan of putting five hundred billion dollars into black communities. So we if we take all of these steps, Gatto, I think we can turn both tomore over in about four years.

You know what I find it the most interesting about what you've been saying, first and foremost, how the Republican Party has responded to you. I don't personally believe I've seen a response like this when it comes to a candidate in the district like this. This is one that Republicans usually give up on and say, it's not worth chasing after these voters. Who's gonna win it? And your plan and your point of view isn't some radical, extreme

right wing plan. A point of view is one that I think whether you be a Democrat or a Republican or independent, you can get behind it. You're talking about jobs and opportunity, and you're also spotlighting what we've seen in in Baltimore, which is not been good. Especially when you think about the history of Baltimore. Um, it reminds me of my hometown in Chicago in a lot of ways. It lacks opportunity and the people who mostly lose out

have been African Americans. Have you seen any response from the Democratic leadership to with with regards to your message or even your opponent who refuses to debate you, not

at all. You know, it's so interesting. We had a couple of businesses go out of business in the Inner Harbor, you know that was once the jewel here in Baltimore City, and our City Council President Brandon Scott, who was you know, going to be the mayor, probably right because he was the mayor of nominee for in the Democrat party, so he's presumably the mayor coming in and he said, well, maybe it was your service, maybe it was your prototype

for your business. He blamed the business for going out of business, rather than the fact that nobody wants to go downtown anymore because of the crime and violence. So it's almost like they are just in denial. They don't want to get it. My opponent, you know, he won the special election. He's been sworn in since May fifth and hasn't done a single thing. And you're right, he won't debate me. He hasn't been the community. You know, people are now calling him out, just as I am saying, look,

where are you? You know, you're not even on Capitol Hill trying to get that stimulus bill across, So where are you and what are you doing? And we will pick that up right after this break, because we definitely need to figure out if you're elected to a district that especially needs help, where are you? So we'll get back to that after the break. Stick with us, well,

thank you for sticking with does. Of course, we have to pay bills and we have wonderful sponsor, so I'm so excited to have Kimberly Clasy here, my friend known for many many years, and I know her hard on Baltimore and I'm so excited to see her run and see her get the recognition she deserves. We wish are well in her election. Now, you were talking about the President's Platinum Plan, which I thought is a really cool name. I wonder who came up with that. Yeah, interested myself

of ours. I don't know the Platinum Planet, so because it wasn't a goal, we we've graduated, so thank goodness

for that. But I wanted to know how does his plan compared to what you would really do for Baltimore because you mentioned his plan and how where you can really utilize at the bolster what's going on in Baltimore you've mentioned, Um, I've seen some interviews of yours when you talked about those who have been arrested for drugs, how you can use that that money can be used to level a plane field for folks in Baltimore, I think, which is really really interesting and I'm sure people really

listen to what you have to say. How would you differ from what President Trump is offering? Yeah, so what you're talking about there is a survivor to investor plan. You know, I spent the past year after I did those videos that went viral with the blight, I spent the past year just talking to people on the streets and trying to understand the issues. I met a lot of young men that ended up, you know, being cornerboys, not because they're bad kids, because it was you know,

survival mode. There's a lot of young men on the street corners that are taking care of their siblings and they are not the shooters, they are not the game members. They are non violent and they really just need a second chance at life. And so you know what you probably know with my nonprofit, that's what I was about, were force development. So we helped over two hundred women become game fully employed to be financially independent. So for me, the only way you lift anyone out of poverty is

with employment. The difference with the cornerboy is, you know, you could offer them jobs, but they're not taking a under a fifteen dollar an hour job and then getting off the streets. You know, some of these guys are making five thousand dollars a day, right, So I had to think about a way you know, how do we get them off the street? Five thousand dollars a day? Oh no, no, no, profession no no, no, about a

thousand a day. And I was talking to this one gentleman and he actually showed me all the money he had in his trunk with him, and I'm like, you're not putting this in the bank. You're up putting it anywhere. And he was like, where am I gonna put it? They're gonna ask me where I got it, you know. And so I said, Okay, here's the thing. We give amnesty to legal immigrants all the time right there in

sanctuary cities. Some people are fine with that. What if we allow amnesty for just one year for these guys to be able to take that money, invest in some of these vacant homes, flip them, revamped them. They'll have being a mentorship program. Uh. There are a lot of real estate investors that are already on board with this.

They want to mentor these young men um and have them enter into the real estate business while we enter those exact homes in a rent to own program that we offer to citizens in the community, not displacing anyone, so they really do invest in their own community. And it's those that have been you know, they're through the bad that can stay there through the good. You know, we see a lot of times, a lot of re gentrification. I don't think that that's what they want in West Baltimore.

You know. I talked to people, and they want to stay right there. So why not give them the career opportunities, give them a chance to own their own homes. Uh. I have talked to people in the administration about this, you know, they've been scrolling it around. UM. And then I've also talked to administration about, you know, the platform planned and how it goes together with what we're trying

to do in Baltimore. UM. I've actually had a conversation, I can tell you with Eric Trump and he said, you know what, I've got friends that would be willing to invest in Baltimore. Do you think we can do anything about the crime in the violence. And I said, look, if you had all these investors coming in and we offer some real deal opportunities like the survivor to invest their plan, I think people will be on board with that. I mean, I think we can get over that hump,

you know. And I think that's what it's about a lot of people just do the second chance. I'm all four second chances. I've given a third or fourth chances in some cases. You know, it's it's just about getting that person in their mindset changed and wanting to do better for themselves and their family. So let me ask you this, with that particular plan, would these young men be required to leave the how do you They would have to leave the Yeah, they would have to leave

the drug life. They would have to read it, so there would be Yeah, there would be safeguards in place, and it'll be a whole program. Um, we will probably see probation officers. There will be people within this program to make sure that they stay off of the streets and out of that life. Now, people say, you know, they asked why a whole year. I mean, we know people on the streets, right, they're not going to trust

this program family. Yeah, yeah, well they're not gonna trust this program one day one right, So we've got to give people time to know that the program does work, that they're not being arrested. You know, that they can use this money and flip it into good money to invest in the real estate. So that's why we're giving time and that amount of time. But other than that, yes, you have to leave the street life behind. But I think you know this is also a great way to

put a dent on the war on drugs. You know, we have a drug issue. I can't even tell you how many Methodol clinics we have in West Baltimore alone. We have a drug issue. We have to do something about that as well. Well. Just to switch gears a little bit, As you and I very well know, most black people in this country do not identify themselves as conservatives of Republican Well, let me rephrase. They may consider

themselves conservative, but they won't vote for Republicans. I believe in Obama's races was about nineties six percent of African

Americans voted for Barack Obama. We continue to see numbers of of African Americans voting for Democrats where we know that they have historically and currently disenfranchised African Americans with policy, especially Joe Biden, which I find to be, I mean, just wildly interesting that he is the leader of the Democratic Party and he's relying on black support when he's disenfranchised Black folks probably more than any other politician as

living today. Um, With that being the case, how significant do you think it is that Trump is departing from the norm where we see Republicans usually say I'm not going to really pursue the black vote because they're not gonna vote for us anyway. And he's being very direct about it. In spite of people calling him races and all these other things. He's been very direct and specific from a policy standpoint, and he continues to offer a new policy with the Platinum Plan. How significant do you

think this is for the party in general? Yeah, so I can I can speak from experience on this. I know when I entered this race back in last November, the RNC want had nothing to do with us. Uh, the m new GOP chairman said Jesus Christ couldn't win this race, and I was a quote, um, so we thought, you know what, we gotta make the money ourselves and just keep on pushing. We're not going to give up.

But at the same time, you know, people should understand it really is President Trump that is extending this olive branch to the minority community. And I'll tell you this my my my Adwin viral. Right. Laura Ingram was on Fox and said, we want Kim to speak at the RNC convention, but it was turned down initially by Rona McDaniel, the GOP chairwoman. President Trump then called I guess within hours and said, no Kim speaking. It is President Trump that made sure I spoke at that RNC convention. It

is President Trump. There's a reason that I have been getting more Fox News booking so I can raise more money. Do you have me speaking in Atlanta when he ruled out that platinum plan? It is President Um, that's yeah, And that was last minute I apologize. Important. Yeah, But it was President Trump that has been pushing us to the forefront. You know. He doubled down on the endorsement for my race, and some people were like, well, that's not gonna do you any good because people in Baltimore

they think Trump is a racist. And I said, you know what, it's not about doing me good. You know, it's not about this political strategy. He genuinely cares about me winning this race to make Baltimore better place. I'm all for that, you know. But it's President Trump that has embraced me. I don't want to want to get it twisted. It hasn't been the GOP. It has been President Trump and his campaign. Well, can we need to

take a break. But when we come back, I want to ask you about the Black Lives Matter movement and how to balance establishing law and order on one hand with acknowledging the concerns of the black community on the other. But first, here's a word from our sponsor. Please don't go away, Kim. I want to turn from education in the economy to RN Baltimore is on pace to surpass

three homicides for the six year in a row. According to the city police, from September six to September fourteen, just a nine day span, at least fifty two people were shot and fourteen of them were killed. That's staggering. I really can't believe what I'm reading, but that's what's

going on in Baltimore. And according to new stats released by the FBI, the city of Baltimore had a rate of one thousand, eight hundred and fifty eight violent crimes and fifty eight murders per one hundred thousand people last year, each ranking in the top four among cities nationally. If you're elected to Congress, how would you get those figures to drop? Yeah, that's a great question. I will say, you know, I have two brothers and so they had that conversation. But you know, as a black woman, I

think sometimes it's a little bit different. So I've never had that situation. But then I don't come off as aggressive in any situation, and I am a woman, which I think is treated differently. As far as Yeah, I don't know what was going on there, I don't. I don't know either, But then there's I think I think the rationale is, and you have a different life. You look how you look. Oh, Sandra Bland too, I guess that was another name that you're a very polished person.

I'm a polished person too. Maybe we get treated a little differently, but there's a lot of folks that look like us who may not be in that same place. My siblings. You know, I have a family members who been in the hood for a very long time. And you and I both know when you look in particular way, then there may be some more eyes on you because there's at least a thought that you could be doing something illegal. So knowing that that is the truth, I mean,

we've done it, We've seen people ourselves. I'm sure I can speak. Yeah, well, my little brother exactly. So you may look and you might be like, oh, hold on, I don't know. So, yeah, I think it's it depends on So we have to look at how we got to this point, right, aggressive policing. That was something that was actually put in the crime though. Yeah. Yes, and my opponent Quais and food Make co sponsored it with Joe Biden, and so this is how we got to

this situation. But um, so you know, clearing the corner, stopped and frisk, you know, taking people, you know, like you said, taking them out of their car, searching the vehicle, no warrant, no reason to do so. Um, and they do that in certain neighborhoods. That has to end, you know,

that has to end. And there's got to be more community engagement, not just coming out and playing basketball at somebody's kid, maybe having a conversation with someone, because I've seen a lot of cases, I don't know if you noticed, there's been a lot of cases where police officers are in the community and they end up in a situation where someone isn't quite mentally stable, right, and then they're

pulling out their guns on that individual. Had they been in the community and understood, you know, what that certain individual isn't mentally stable and this is how he might act irrational. Right, So I understand when they talk about reallocating funds. I don't know about the whole defund the police part, but I understand when they talk about sending

social workers into certain situations. I guess I don't love it because I also see situations in Baltimore where a cop can pull up to, you know, disturbing the peace matter, and all of a sudden guns are drawn, the cop is shot. You know, so you never know until you get there who has a gun? Um, I guess for me. You know, we talk about what's going on the community. Like you said, over that nine what was it nine days?

We had so many shootings. So we have a state's attorney who was very soft on criminal Her name is Marilyn Mosby. Her husband is actually a candidate for city council right now. The president uh, he was in office before as a city council president in the district in which I was walking in in my videos. Right. So, when you have a situation where these people are soft on criminals, you see the newspaper, we'll talk about criminals arrested, homicide,

double homicide. This is their eleventh offense. How do you are How are you an eleven time repeat offender back on the streets to shoot and kill somebody else. You know, there's gotta be some something, a kind of reity for either the State's attorney, you know, the prosecutors, the judges. You know, why are we giving murderers sentences for one year? You know? So, so there's a lot of moving parts here. Our police department is you know, had some corruptions. I

don't know if you saw our Gun Trace Task Force. Uh, they were taken down. That's how we move up under the Consett decree. So there is some corruption there, But I link it back to city Hall. You've got you know, you can't have a corrupt police department without corruption in city hall because remember the mayor still presides over that, right. And then you've got the police commissioner. We've had three different police commissioners in the past what maybe four years,

so we're never on lockstep with anyone. So we have a lot of issues in Baltimore City. It's corruption, mismanagement, uh, corrupt police officers, and then the fact that we have criminals basically running our streets. Wow, and then Democrats when it had an opportunity to work with Senator Tim Scott on training for police officers, among the number a lot of other initiatives, they said no because they wanted to keep it is a political issue for them, which is

extraordinarily sad. I know I don't have much of any more time with you, so what I wanted to say is that thank you so so much for coming on. I've known you for many, many years. I respect and appreciate your passion for people and what you do, and I wish you very very well in your race, and please come back any time and let us know what's going on in the community, because you're rock star and we're gonna be hearing from you for many years to come. So I wish you well. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Thank you Kimberly Classic for an incredible interview. I want to give a very special thank you to our sponsors as well, who continues to put us on the air week after week and ensure that this podcast is free to you. Please like us, please comment, Please rate us on Apple Podcasts or I Heart Radio app wherever you're getting your podcast from. Please rate us and let your friends and family know about us. Also, please

follow me on social media at Giano Caldwell. That's g I A n oh called Well c A L d W E L L for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Thank you to our producer Stephen Calabria, researcher Aaron Kleigman, and executive producers Debbie Myers and New Gingrich. Part of the Genglish three sixty network. Looking forward to joining you again next week at the same time see that part of the Gainers three sixty network.