Let me get right to it, because it's a lot of stuff to get into, and I'm not mad and pissed off like some people are. But I'm not going to run from subjects either, because certain things need to be broached and we're going to get started today in the world of politics and social media, where many of you I have taken issue with my takes on the political headlines, I want to say for.
The record, that's fair. I accept it, and.
It often comes with being a pundit in this business. I've accepted that a long time ago. With that being said, I want to address some recent comments from my friend Roland Martin, who took issue with my thoughts this past weekend on a Justice Department's report on the January sixth Capitol riots in twenty twenty one. In summary, I made the connection that Donald Trump appeared to be right to some degree when it came to the conspiracy theories about the FBI's involvement on that day.
At least that's how some took it.
Well, here's what Roland Martin had to say Monday about my comments on his show, Roland mart It's an unfiltered take a listen.
I have no idea what the hell steven A was just talking about. I know stephen A, I respect stephen A. Stephen A, you know sports on this, you know what the hell you're talking about? Like, I literally have no idea what the hell he was talking about there? How he's pissed off and the Democrats and Trump said stuff was rigged. And y'all Magla is running that clip everywhere. Oh they are saying, oh see, even steven the truth, the truth.
They all's knowing the truth.
Go by pad.
Associated Press Fact Focus. Inspector General's January sixth report misrepresented as proof of FBI set up. The basis of what the right has been saying is that January sixth was fine, it was great, it was wonderful.
But the FBI, it was a setup. The FBI, they were behind the whole deal. They were were agents. Now, they were the ones who was starting stuff. That's the report.
And so when stephen A is going on and all they they said here making Trump out to be true.
No, he lied.
He lied a couple of things. First off, Roland Martin, nice touch with the cowboy hat. You should wear it more often. It's fitting of you. You are from Texas. After all, uh, you're a Texas fan, if I remember correctly, so it's that's more appropot that you put on that had even more so than I do. So good look there, but nice try ain't gonna work this way. Before I get into it any further, let me show my audience exactly what Roland Martin was replying to when he said I didn't know what the hell I.
Was talking about.
This is what he was responding to that had him all up in a tizzy.
Take a listen.
The news comes amissed a bombshell report from the Justice Department that revealed the FBI had at least twenty six confidential informants on the ground when the capital was stormed on January sixth, twenty twenty one. The report says most of the informants engaged in illegal activity during the chaos. The Justice Department says only three of its twenty six informants president had been instructed to observe potential domestic terrorist
suspects on the day of the riot. The rest of the twenty three appeared to have gone to the capital on their own accord. Upon hearing news of the report, Vice President elect JD Vance posted the following on x quote. For those keeping score at home, this was labeled a dangerous conspiracy thirty months ago end quote. Didn't hear anything
about that for the election. Didn't hear anything about that when the quote unquote insurrection was broached by Vice President Kamala Harris as a Democratic nominee the belief that Donald Trump was a danger to democracy and using this as a profound, illuminating bullet point to make that case. And now here we are yet again finding even more evidence to Donald Trump's claims when he articulated that process is rigged.
My big issue is that I'm really really sick and tired of every time I turn around finding something else that the Democrats have lied about or downplayed or misrepresented along the way. I mean, I see Republicans like Megan Kelly or off of Ce Tatum or a Canvas Owens, or you know, the showing Hannities of the world that you.
Know what I'm getting tired of. I'm getting you know what I'm.
Getting to the Democratic Party, you know what I'm getting really pissed off about.
I'm getting really ticked off. And every time they open their mouth about something pertaining to y'all, they seem right to make the case that the right had a monopoly on insidious, evil tendencies, corrupt tendencies, duplicitous, hypocritical, untruthful tendencies, And every time they made those accusations, we turn around and find out that at least some of them are guilty of the same shit.
I don't know about y'all, but I'm sick of all of it. I'm sick of all of it. Dave actually made Donald Trump look like he was right instead of them. That is what Roland Martin is responding to. That is what he is saying. He doesn't understand what the hell I'm talking about and what I'm saying when he brings that up. First of all, let me say this about Roland Martin. Not hang out buddies or anything like that. But we are friends. He's a guest on this show.
Anytime I ask him to I respect his knowledge, and he is absolutely right. This is his lane, not mine.
Sports is my thing. This is what he does.
I get that, but I am alive to be an expert on what the hell comes out of my mouth and what.
I believe I said.
And that is why I clap back respectfully at my man Roland Martin, not his panelists chirping and mimicking and laughing and giggling in the sideline, like anybody know who the hell they are. I ain't talking about them, That's a waste of my time. I'm talking about my brother Roland Martin.
Here.
When you say you don't understand or you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, and you have a panel to piggyback and parrot every syllable you uttered, well, why are you doing it? If you didn't understand what I'm talking about? Why am I getting attacked if you don't he don't understand what I was saying, If it's convoluted, why not ask me to come on and clarify. Why not talk to me and say what exactly is it that you're trying to say. That is not what Roland
Martin did, lady and gentlemen. What he did instead was marry my thoughts to these extreme conspiracy theories that the MAGA Wright might have put out there about the FBI having some pivotal role in what transpired on January sixth, twenty twenty one. That's what he was doing. Look at this right here, Look at this report from the DOJ. It reads confusion and lack of coordination contributed to the FBI's inaccurate report to Congress that had canvas field offices
after January sixth. The FBI reported to Congress that then had directed its field offices prior to January sixth to canvas their CHSS for information concerning threats and connection with the January sixth electoral certification.
However, as noted, we found that.
No canvassing a field officers for source information had occurred. We found that the FBI statements to Congress were not intentionally inaccurate, and that confus usion and lack of coordinator communications contributed to the inaccurate reporting.
Why do I bring that up? It doesn't convict the FBI.
It doesn't authenticate or validate assertions from the MAGA right that somehow the FBI was corrupt and they manipulated the proceedings to invoke or provoke violence at the US Capitol that ultimately would be blamed on Donald Trump.
That's not what I was saying. What I was saying is why the hell are we hearing.
About this now? We took the report so damn long. How can we didn't hear about this before the election, And is it possible that the reason why we didn't hear about it before the election is because folks on the left wanted to marry January sixth, completely and totally and utterly to Donald Trump.
Is that clear enough?
Since y'all got people chirping, and you said you got people chirping in your studio, let me chirp to people in my studio, Brandon, is that c enough? They're clear enough, man, I think it is. But let me go a step further. I'm a registered and dependent The people aren't rolling Martin unfiltered, by the way, watch that the brother's brilliant, I got love for him, got over a million and a half subscribers. Ain't trying dissuade anybody from watching my man rolling Martin because.
I watch them.
What I'm saying is these people that were behind the scenes before they came on as your panelists. I recall one person saying I even need to know what the hell I'm talking about, or admit that I'm one hundred percent.
Mega, I got news for you. I'm neither.
I don't completely know all the intricate details, nor am I mega. I'm a registered and dependent who voted for Kamla Harris. Oh, by the way, they tried to sit up there and say I didn't vote.
For Kamala Harris. I'm sorry. I thought, y'all are about facts. I did vote for her.
I had my issues, I have my reservations, but I was unapologetic about who I was voting for, and I.
Was very transparent about it. Where's your facts?
So you get to engage in innuendo express frustration, but I can't.
Why not every time we turn around.
All I was trying to say is that something repeatedly comes up.
That gives the right fadder to say.
See look what they did when President Joe Biden decided to pardon his son Hunter.
He's got no problems with that, But I did have a problem with them lying about it for months, saying.
We're about the rule of law, We're about the rule of law, We're about the rule of law.
He said, he's knocking to pardon Hunt, about the rule of lord, the rule of lord, rule of law.
And then all of a sudden he parties them, and you hear crickets. So here come to write again. See see they're lying.
I've often joked about people like Sean Hannedy and other conservatives.
That I know that if you are a Republican and you shot somebody in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue in New York City, the first words that would come out of their mouth is the Democrats did it first, because their real salty position.
It's not about acting like they're holier than now.
It's about the Democrats always acting like they're on a higher moral ground and they're above board, when one evidence, nuggetive evidence after another always comes forth showing us they're not. That is frustrating for somebody who doesn't know all the facts, that intricate details and studies this night and day, Like Roland Martin, everybody's industry or chosen profession isn't following what's happening on Capitol Hill.
And everything associated with it.
People working nine to fives, taking care of families, getting stuck in traffic for two hours a day, preoccupy with an abundance of other things, relying on others to give them information, but also frustrated that everybody's got.
To spend That's all I was saying.
I didn't take a definitive position against anybody into perpetuity I'm simply making the point that it gets frustrating to see little nuggets of intel always leaking out, usually after the fact, incriminating one side or the other all the damn time, and Roland Lamar will come up with his facts and he'll spew them out for the world to know.
That doesn't erase the perception and rollingd On You notice better than me, Bruh.
Perceptions provoke people's attitude while they walk to the polls.
Even more so than the facts.
It's not that the facts don't matter, but that they always seem so debatable. Ultimately, it comes back to how you feel. Am I clear enough being? Am I convoluted? Now fellas ladies, I'm a frustrated voter. I watched the Democrats get their ass kicked. I watched them in the aftermath of the election literally say, well, Trump really didn't win the popular vote. I mean, he didn't get fifty percent of the vote.
Who cares.
He won a popular vote, he won an electoral college vote, he won all the swing states, he increased it practically every demographic and you got people coming on the airways. Well, it really wasn't a referendum against the Democratic Party because you know what, he didn't get fifty percent of the vote. He didn't get fifty percent of the popular vote. Really, they got the White House, the House, in the Senate.
I was speaking Macro.
I was just saying, hey, yet another thing that they can point to to stake some claim to how they've been victimized by the hands of the left.
Are they probably lying some of the help?
Yeah?
Sure, But what are the Democrats doing?
The Democrats they're for the working class, They're for the working class.
They were for the working class. Well, the working class doesn't feel that way. Then after the.
Election, we're hearing some Democrats go out there and they're talking about how too many people in the party are about catering to the elite. Well, that's what they were accusing the Republicans are doing. You see how confusing it gets. Not for you, Roland, You might know.
What about your million and a half subscribers. They know what about your boys, They know what.
About people that walk through the streets throughout America, because you're rolling around all over the damn place.
They know.
If they know so much, Roland, why were you determined for Trump's lies not to be heard? If they know so much rolling because they listen to you. Why were you so fixated on standing right there in the audience and whenever Trump spoke, you came on this show and you said you were gonna stand up and scream lies.
If they know because they.
Listening to you and other folks who think like you and know what you know that you wouldn't have to worry about doing that because they would have consumed your message and they would know he's lying, wouldn't they? You know better, and you know that most people are frustrated citizens who vote, who are mindful of the times that we're living in and want finite, definitive evidence about which side is right and which side is wrong with no
convolution in the equation. And when reports like the DOJ comes out talking about the FBI on January sixth and passing words like they weren't intentionally inaccurate, Well, why the hell had the word intentionally? You were inaccurate or you were inaccurate? Where the hell intentional comes from? That's a perception, that's an opinion, that's not a fact. That's a report that said they weren't intentionally inaccurate. How can you prove somebody was intentionally inaccurate.
That is a thought. It's just me.
I know you know what you're talking about in politics, I know what I'm talking about in sports.
I just thought that as.
Too common sense people, we could relate to one another feeling frustrated on either side. See you all away laughed. In my opinion, I'm center. I see bullshit on both sides. I know you do too better than me. The difference is you care a lot more about one side. I don't give a shit about either. I just wander as close to the truth as I can get to elevate
my level of understanding. I am sorry Roland Martin if that was such a bad thing that would get you so riled up that not only did you have to come at me, you had to throw on the cowboy had to do it. But I liked seeing it on you.
Bruh.
It looked good on you your panel. Nuh it is what it is. That's all I got to say about that. I hope I provided some clarity. I was just frustrated at the right having something in their mind to point to the left about again, and the left seemingly slipping up on providing the ammunition because of the timing of the report coming out, and whatever potential role they may or may not have played. I just thought it added fadder and fuel to a s a side that is already kicking.
The lefts behind right now. That's all. I wasn't trying to be specific. I was just expressing frustration.
As a conscientious observer, not an expert like you, Bro.
I know my lane.