I'm Tamika d. Mallory and the.
Ship Boy my Son in general.
We are your host of t M.
I Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration, name New Energy.
What's good my son Lennon?
Oh, you know, life, life be life, and so I'm just putting up with it.
It's crazy, Like my thoughts about what we've been discussed today, it's so different from last week to what is going on in the world today. It's really just everything. Every America is like the gift that keeps on giving. But you know, I don't know. I don't know about the gifts, but it gives all the time.
Yeah, America is very strange, man. I just try to find the little joy man that I can. You know, my my son won his championship. Shout out to Caston. You know, he plays with the Red Bulls young team and they had a tournament this weekend that was draining. It was like one hundred degrees out there. I don't even know how those kids play in these soccer games, but they was undefeated. They looked like a professional team
out there. So I want to shout out them. Shout out all the soccer parents who are out there cheering and you know, doing what we do. So it was a dope event, you know, just watching him, just seeing him just grow like when you you know, when you when you play sports, because I played sports my whole life and I played basketball, and you don't you don't really see or you don't know how you and you
know how you getting better. But I'm just watching him, like he started at five years old and he's now ten and for the last five years, just watching him grow and his skill level just increase so much because he really loves the sports. So just shout out to him and shout out to the team. So that's why I find my joy and this stuff. And then you got to come back to the real world. We're all of you know, the nonsense is happening. It's just like, Lord,
have much we can't get. We can't get it. Broke a break.
Man, Yeah, no, I mean, it's it's a lot. Put it that way. But I also had a great weekend of spending time with my family. It was my family reunion. I have terrible allergies that I'm dealing with as a result of being in that whatever they call it, I mean the heat in Alabama and I know it was hot everywhere across the country, but the heat in Alabama was like nothing I've ever felt in my life before, especially as I was leaving on the last day. It
was the hottest day. And oh man, I mean you couldn't even stand outside to put your suitcase in the car without sweating all over. It was so hot. But it was hot and it was fun. We had a great time. My family. Every two years we get together, you know, I notice. I was just thinking, like how
important it is to try to bring family together. I notice that in my family, like all the generations, even the little kids are excited because they know they're going to get an award for who graduated and you know who's done this and that and the best you know, reading scores and whatever. Ethic is so important. Like if we don't reward our children and let them feel like they are, like they're being celebrated from their family and from their community, that's like where do they go? So
I love that about my family reunion. Every two years we get together in a different state and moves around. And that also gives a young person or a person period who may not ever go out of town anywhere. The opportunity to, you know, get to go out and see things that's happening in the world. So I'll be happy about it. I get really really excited, and I make it a priority. But yes, hot is an understatement in terms of what's been going on. But let me get to my thought of the day. So this is
a topic that I think some people will. You know, people always coming after me like, oh, we have to, you know, be careful what we say right now, because you know, we don't we don't want to excuse me. We don't want to offer Donald Trump any chips. And I get that. So of course, you know, I'm anti Trump becoming president all the way. But you know, something has been giving me like a cringey feeling, and I wanted to make it my thought of the day for
others and for you to chime in. I keep seeing people say that Donald Trump is a convicted FELA, and they are like using it as you know, it's like it's like it's like when they say it, they're saying
it with a certain level of disdain. Right, and granted his charges, his his his consistent, consistent illegal activity that has been going on before he even ran for president, This is stuff that people didn't necessarily know, but it's been uncovered, the lies and his racist behavior and just just his his what I'm looking for the right word criminal activity period. He's just that's it. I mean, it's
so clear. And so I understand. I completely understand that in his case, or in the case of Donald Trump, when people say he's a convicted felon, they're really speaking to the rate charges. And you know, the colossal, if you will, of findings by the courts, jury, of his peers and others who know that he has been criminal
mind criminal activity for a long time. Got it. But there is something about me hearing people say, oh, if you want a convicted felon to be your president, you know, he's a convicted felon, and it's being used a certain way that just gives me a cringy feeling, because I don't ever want us to get into the habit of looking at people who have felonies, right, everybody who has a felony and being able to say they are not
qualified for xyz thing because they have a felony. So I was trying to figure out how to balance those two conversations, because I understand all the dangers of Donald Trump. I understand that he should not become president again of
the United States. I understand how dangerous, problematic, and the type of energy that he brings up in the country, the type of energy that he creates, the toxicness of his participation in the society that we live in, being on TV throwing out there, you know, just constantly every time you hear from him, there's something that he says that absolutely one hundred percent make lets me know and reminds me and confirms for me that this man is
not fit to be president. So I get that, and I also understand those people who say, well, in addition to that, if you have a felony and you can still run for president, then we need to look at the laws that act everyday people live under and how their lives are being impacted by having a felony conviction. Right. So I think that those things are very clear. Donald Trump dangerous, bad for the country as far as I'm concerned.
And if you are a convicted felon and Donald Trump has one set of rules, then there's to be the same rules for others. And in fact, we need to look at we need to review how people living with felonies are existing in the world in general, because we know that there is the what is it the collateral consequences that our brother Jay Jordan talks about to a person coming home with a felony. So that's those things
I understand. But I still cringe when I see certain people, especially white folks, writing convicted fela, convicted felon, because I feel like that does not just stop at Donald Trump and all the truths around him. It extends to a community of people who, to be quite clear, I would prefer to have some of my friends that had felonies to lead me any day over certain people who have none,
no felony, and I don't trust them. So I just, you know, I know that for some people it's kind of like what the fuck we're talking about, because you know what, you know why we're saying what we're saying. But I still feel a little cringey when I hear it, and.
I understand, you know, and you know, being a convicted feeling you know, I'm definitely advocating for rehabilitation right for the opportunity to show that I can be a productive member of society. I think it's about actions, right, I think it's less about words than actions. I think in Donald Trump's situation is multifaceted. Right, when we talk about him being a convicted felon, there's never been any rehabilitation
or retribution from Donald Trump. He's consistently had a lifestyle, a way in which he lived his life that is criminal rights. That's who he is. So when people say he's a convicted felam and he just got convicted yesterday, right, so what has he done to show that. Okay, I just got convicted of a crime yesterday that I did three or four years ago, and I'm still living the
same way. So when we're sitting there having this conversation about Donald Trump, it's not like the average person who has sat and done their time in prison, and during the time them during their time in prison, you've seen them grow. You've watched the evolution of that individual. They've written books, they've they've created programs within the prison system. For ten years straight, they lived their lives in a different manner outside of the criminal activity that it was
convicted of. Right, So they're showing you that they want to be rehability, they have been rehabilitated, and they want to be a productive member of society. So I think both of those things are right. I think, yeah, we need to also look at, you know, how these collateral damages affect felons and people who have been convicted of crimes. If we're gonna say that what Donald Trump did is okay, and he can still run for president if you can run for the highest position in the land. But you
can't be a barber, right, but you can't. You can't help at the basketball at the school. Right, you can't do none of these things. But you can run for where you could get the codes to the bombs, and you can raise World War. You can do anything you want to. You can rewrite the constitution, you can put justices in office. Right when you telling me that you can do all those things as a as not just
a felon, but a recently convicted individual of crimes. Right where your whole cabinet, pretty much everybody who ran in your cabinet, who is a part of your administration is locked up. Right, you use the presidency as a criminal enterprise, like U reco charge stem from being the president.
Actually in New York, what he was found guilty of is like inflating his business numbers and work his net worth or his value rather so that they get loans and all that. He's been doing that for decades now, you know what I'm saying. So these are continuous crimes.
And that's the point that I'm making. It's a hard person to choose to make the point on, right, because it's Donald Trump, and we already know again this man is a he's criminal minds like the TV show right he like you said, that was the word I was looking for, a lifestyle of crime and racism, right, So
I already I understand that. What I'm saying, though, is that when I hear people or I see people, especially white folks, writing I don't want to convicted felon that's my president, you know, convicted fell in this and convicted felling that, I just feel a little bit of cringing because if that applies to a white man, then it makes me feel like it's very possible that it could also apply to black folks, brown folks and other people. The problem is, and it does, and it does.
That's what Yeah, that's for My thing is like I came on from prison and I couldn't even travel. I was on. I came on for prison from a crime that I was convicted that supposedly happened, you know, in nineteen ninety seven, in two thousand and six, right, and I wasn't able to travel and do just do life. I wasn't able to travel to do business. I wasn't able to get my life back on you look at Bg.
BG was convicted of a crime years ago, spent about thirteen years in prison to come home to something to tell him that he can't even go perform that They got to look at the songs, right, So this is what I'm trying to look at Meek Mill, he was on paper for eleven years for a problem that he committed as a teenager. So these collateral damages have altered
meant a bunch of our lives. So how can somebody who just got convicted of a crime just be able to go to the highest court of the land and be it, I mean the highest position in the land and be able to write laws and write.
Into practice laws well not really right, get laws.
He has the ability to influence the laws that can pretty much wipe out what he did wrong, and he can influence it to say that no one did it.
With the Supreme court he did it. I mean, they now have made the decision that if he if if his actions were committed as president, then more than likely they are not seen as illegal, and you know it is permitted or permissible, and you know, and I think that the bottom line to what I was thinking is that there has to be a like America in and of itself. The layers have to be pulled open at
some point in order for us to continue. We can't keep like sweeping all of these things up, trying to push it in the corner, stick it under the rug, put it in the closet so people can come by and see us and think we're so beautiful and great. It is absolutely a country that I love, and I'm sure that you have parts about this country that you love as well. Right, But there is some deep rooted stuff that has not been addressed that we have to
get to the heart of. Because again, when I listen to people talk about Donald Trump being a convicted felon, right and them not wanting him to be president, what I understand is that what they're saying is one hundred percent right. But I also know that there are people who don't want pool to get a job because he's a convicted felon, and.
I do want to he said it, and that's that's what the thing.
Is for me, and I want to know what the standards are I wanted. I'm hoping that this opens up an opportunity to look at the standards that we're holding because if one is true, which is like you said, Poky's always been impacted and unable to work and unable. But here is a man that people are having to try to use the fact that he's a convicted felon as a way to deter folks from voting for him. Right, That's that's what they're trying to use. And meanwhile, he
just was a bad president. So listen everyone, today we are interrupting our entire show, our regularly scheduled programming, to bring a guest that is so important to us, someone who is a friend, a friend to us personally, a friend to TMI. The last time he was on, we were street Politicians, and he's here now under our new branding, but also a friend to the community, a friend to the people, and you all know him from your TV
screens over many, many, many many years. His track record and his portfolio is extensive, and so you can go and do all the research and the reminders on the great Hill Harper and all of the entertainment that he's bought us over the years. Serious entertainment, real entertainment, fun entertainment. But what he's doing right now is not entertainment. It
is serious. And we want to make sure that all of our listeners at every part of this country that you are aware that Hill Harper is a candidate for United States Senate, but especially if you are in the state of Mission, it is important that you all know that your vote is necessary. I believe it's first of August, think it's August six, but we're gonna hear that directly
from Hill in a moment. There is a lot at stake in this election, and there are a lot of big money interest groups that are attempting to snuff out the will of the people and to stop us from being able to put people in office that we have all said very clearly we want to see leading this country. We are trying to go in a new direction. But as we work hard to turn the tide, there are people who will work just as hard, if not harder, to turn it back or to keep it in a
way that is not beneficial to our communities. And so today, as I said, we've interrupted our entire show to bring Hill Harper on and allow him to talk about what's happening in his race and just why is this even important? Why even run for Senate knowing that there would be so much, so much to come against him as he attempts to uh to to become the United States Senator from Michigan. So, Hill Harper, thank you so very much
for joining TMI today. We appreciate you so much and it's good to see you.
Thank you both for having me on this. These types of conversations is so important, and it's so important to spread the word. So you are offering this platform for us to have this discussion is huge. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hill.
I just want to know, you know, just being a fan of yours and just watching you as an artist, as an actor, and just just knowing you you know a lot more personally, I want to know what made you take the lead from that to this.
You know, so many people are hurting and and and and you're talking about in every level, I mean almost every categgory, particularly when it comes to communities that have experienced generational poverty, under education, hyper mass incarceration, violence, crime, etcetera.
All of the ills that we talk about. It's getting worse.
And folks know and.
Can feel that there's a fix in that they don't have a partner in government that's actually helping. And so when we think about the United States Senate, it is the most powerful deliberative body in the world. It determines the distribution annually. One thing about this. One hundred people in this country determine how seven point two trillion dollars are allocated annually. And folks don't break it down like that. The Senate is the most powerful body in all the politics.
The President does not decide where the money goes. Let's be very clear about this. And so if we want to start to get reeces back to our communities that have been really beaten down, traumatized, choked out from multiple levels, we have to have a seat at the table. I mean, Shirley Chisham said, I you don't have a seat the table, bring a folding chair.
Why?
Because you have to have a seat at the table, and we have it. We've only had twelve black senators in over two hundred and fifty years. If we had twelve right now, we still would be underrepresented. So, you know, attending to become the thirteenth black center in the history of this country is something that's vitally important, particularly now given the we're a decade and a half into what
we're seeing happen with Citizens United, Citizens United. For those who are listening, you just understand many people think the reaction to the Obama presidency was the Tea Party. I personally believe the reaction the Obama presidency with Citizens United, which allows for unfettered, unlimited dark money to come into our politics.
And you know, we can talk about we can talk about all of that, but the point is is that if we don't get seats at the table, in in bodies like the US Senate, things were going to continue to get worse. We're seeing we're seeing that happen. And so this is an open US Senate seed in Michigan, the first truly open Senate seed in twenty four years, and so this is a this may not come again in our lifetime, So this was the time to do it. It's the time to represent folks. It's the time that
common sense, good people have to run for office. If we keep getting letting crazies occupy these seats, we're going to continue to get these crazy outcomes that we're seeing.
Absolutely, tell me, what are some of the major issues that you see in the state of Michigan. And you know our audience, and I know there's a lot of issues, and you are obviously well versed in many of the different types of the diversity of issues and challenges. But our folks that are listening here are mainly black and brown people, and we also have a high concentration of black men who follow my son, who listen to my son.
I want to know what are some of the issues that really are concerning to you that made you say I need to do this because I see.
My people absolutely well. So first of all, let's just say, I want folks to be very clear. The United States setting is a federal seat, so anything I'm able to pass will apply to folks no matter where you are federally equally as far as Michigan. So I see this seat as a as a national seat, to be quite clear.
This is about national representation, and and yes, I would be the center for Michigan and focused on issues relating to Michiganders, but that applies to everybody when we pass something federally, and so so when we talk about issues. Number One, healthcare, we have a healthcare cristis, particularly in our community. When we talk about high blood pressure, heart disease. When we talk about the impact of COVID and our community, we talk about the fact that that there are many
of our communities are experiencing food apartheid. Some people refer to as a food desert, but I choose to use the other word because I believe it's systemic and not naturally a current. When we talk about the fact that we are living in a time when resources are being pulled out of our community, we have mass incarceration. So what are the things that we want to do. We want to provide universal health care if you get sicky, deserve to doctor right now, mental health care, vision, dental,
all of these included. We also want to reduce mass incarceration. And how do you do that? You do that in multiple ways. Number One greatest and most efficient any government to make is spending on early childhood education and childcare, etc. Right it pays you back eight dollars on the backside for every dollar you spend on the front side. We also know that there's a clear tide between education rates, education achievement, and incarceration rates. Right, we know that it's there.
So we're five percent of the world's population, we hold twenty five percent of the world's incarcerated peoples. It's not right and it needs to be addressed, and we have to do that. Michigan is the epicenter for taking money
out of public educate. We underspend in Michigan along four billion dollars under spent on public education, in part because of the Devas family in the history that they were and so they're out of the west side of the state where I am right now, Grand Rapids, And so when we talk about these issues, we can go down to violence and common sense gun laws. And wanted to
make sure. I was just at the corner of Redoing and Rossini on the east side of Detroit where two young people were killed this past week, nineteen people shot. It was a mass shooting that happened on the east side of Detroit, two blocks from you know, I did a block party. Came to a block party on the east side for four two dougs, four two doug asked
me to come over there meet with the people. I was talking to three four hundred young men, and none of whom were planning on voting until I spoke with them, and I broke down why it was so important, and it blew me away how so many of these young men. Even one young guy said to me, I tell you, I got emotional. He said, man, I don't want to feel stupid. I said, well, you mean you go kill study said, man, when I get in there, I'm not going to know what names to write or how to
spell them. And I was like, man, no one's ever showed you a ballot. He's like no, I said, man, it's just like when you take a standardized test, you're just feel in a bubble. He's like, for real? And I was like yeah, man.
And I.
Had to question my assumptions because I'm like, we're asking people to vote and we never even caught them how to vote. How does that make sense? And so, yeah, you know, it's so frustrating. No one, no one's going to walk into some clerk's office not even knowing what to do when. So we have to check all of our assumptions about this and communicate to folks about why this matters. And so at the end of the day, investment in community, letting entrepreneurs get capital so they can
create businesses in our neighbors, in our communities. Detroit is an epicenter for right now, a ton of investment downtown, but the neighborhoods and the communities come complete under investment. Would folks want to open up businesses? So capital flow. I'm a small business owner. All of these things, raising the minimum wage, all of these things to a living wage, all of these things are part of it. And we can do this work, but we need representation to do it.
You've always been a motivation. You know, you're a cancer survivor. You know you are a father, you adopted a son, and we right now the political climate is very heavy, you know, And what do you think that you can do to motivate and inspire to kind of like bridge the gap in what's going on right now?
We got to remind each other of our power. And that's critical. If we actually showed up as an organized community in certainly the state of Michigan and across the country, we can control the outcome of almost every election and put people in office that will represent our communities in it. The thing is is that we've been convinced that we don't have the power, and we also don't have the
systems in place to organize turnout. And as an example, the last Democratic primary in Michigan, African American turnout was less than ten percent. If afric American turnout on August sixth for my race is less than ten percent, I will not win. It's just impossible. But if we just ratchet that up to twenty twenty five percent, meaning two and a half out of ten, we're not talking like incredible numbers, right, two and a half people out of ten voted, I win. Imagine that we got to understand
our power, understand how powerful we are. And it doesn't take you know, during the call Maan Young years in Detroit, turnout was like sixty percent. At sixty percent, we would control everything and then therefore everyone would have to come through our community to make decisions. Right now, people aren't truly checking with us and they're not coming through our
community because we haven't. We haven't exercised our muscle. And we can do that, but that's I mean a lot of factors go into that, and so part of its education part of it. I blame the Democratic Party to be quite honest, because they do not do they don't spend GOTV money for primaries because the establishment wants to pick the winner and then they want to split our community with tons of tons of money to say, get
out and vote and save the country. And so we have to understand that that's that's the fix that's going on, even within the party. And then the way we get the power is to is to win. If we don't win, if we don't start winning elections, we'll never have the power at the end of the day. And we can talk about it all we want, we can be angry about it, but winning is what dictates a voice and power.
So you know, there are people who will be like this guy was on TV. This is a ga, he's an actor. How all of a sudden did he transition into politics? Because they you know, you know, sometimes we could be a little skeptical. But I want people to know, first of all, you have a successful Korean law as well, and you were a union organizer, weren't you.
That's right. I was elected to the national board of my union where our far forfare contracts negotiated contracts against the executives. You know, as a pointed by President Obama, the President's Cancer Panel where we worked the National Institute of Health make them recommendations for cancer funding and research.
You know.
I mean, I was a national Spokespersonal Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, where we did vote to protection work. I was a national spokesperson for the Yeah waiting to raise the minimum wage fifteen dollars an hour floor. You know, the work. The receipts are there, but that doesn't even matter. I mean, you know that at the end of the day, it's about what are you willing to fight for? And I think that in this moment we can be sometimes our own worst enemy. It's like, you know, we want.
All I say is this, I say to people, listen, just look at my opponent. You don't even need to like me. Just I'm running against somebody who didn't co sponsor George Floyd Justice and Policing. I'm unning Againt, somebody who didn't co sponsor Cannabis and Sponge Act. I'm runing
against somebody who didn't co sponsor Medicare for All. I'm runing against somebody who who just ten days ago voted to not fund the State Department to confirm and the gods of health ministries death and injury injury totals, and the week before that voted in favor of sanctioning the the i c C. When they called nen Yahu's actions of war crimes and crimes against humanity. She's funded by a pack. I'm not taking one cent from a pack.
I'm not taking one send in corporate pack money. At the end of the day, you don't even need to like me. Just do research on my opponent and decide who would you like to be in the US Senate.
That's what I.
Said a lot of times. The information that we know a lot of people don't understand. So unless they listen to programs like this, because the media is often it's very difficult to get a clear, full, true examination of
all the facts and everything that's happening. And because so many in the media support, whether they want to or not, the war or the attack on Gaza, they will never really explain how serious it is that, like you said, the ICC, which is supposed to be an independent body, which is supposed to have the power to sanction those that they feel are committing a crime, and in this particular moment they are attempting to do that, and there
are people who are elected officials. So we got black folks, brown folks and others who say we want to see a cease fire immediately. We need to be able to draw the connection between those people who are working in the opposite direction and people like you who have been willing to one call for a ceasefire, which is not
an easy thing to do in this political climate. And then also to put or to I want to say, put your money where your mouth is, but it's really the other way around is to not take money from people who would who would therefore try to influence you to support something that you have been so you know, clearly against.
So I mean to your point, the same organization that just took Jamal Bowman out and spent twenty million dollars to do that, they offered me the same deal to try to target Rashida to leave here in Michigan, and I said absolutely not. They wanted me to drop out of the center race and target Rashita. They offered ten million and hard dollars and ten million and dark dollars soft money, and that's exactly what they spent to take
out Jamal Bowman. They're trying to take out Corey Bush in the same way down Missouri in summerly, et cetera. And so know that this is real. The system is allowing its citizens united is allowing the system to be worked that way. And so if even if you think about who and what your support, just the fact that I'm not taking one cent from a pack, nor would I fall for their deal, that shows we got to have more more folks that won't be bought, won't be bossed, won't be bullying.
Right, absolutely, absolutely, I know that you Yeah, my son, if you want to, because I want to ask one more question, but go ahead.
I wanted to ask one real quick. You know, we were just having a discussion prior to you coming on here about you know, convicted felons and running for president, and we're talking about Donald Trump. I want to know, do you think as a convicted feeling he should be allowed to run for presidency and a convicted sex offen And if so, what do you think a second Donald Trump president would mean? Even if you were incentive, would
you think it would empower you? Would you think that it would make it a lot harder for you like, what do you.
Think I have to stay consistent? You know, I was just speaking in jail and the gen Z count of jail on third day talking to here in Michigan. If you're in jail awaiting trial, you can vote. If you have on probation parole, you can vote fell any conviction you vote. So it's wide open voting, uh, for for you know, being involved in the system here. And so I don't believe conviction should ever inhibit you from participating fully in all things that are that that that are
in this country. And I also believe that once you serve your time, that that that your record should be sealed. We should ban the box and and sure it can be uncovered if a future situation happens. But at the end of the day, once you've done your time, no one has any business of what your history should be. And so so that's my feeling about all of those things.
Now, that's what I preserve.
That's what I said, okay here, So so the firewall has to be the US Senate, you know, and that's why being a senator, uh, we control the money.
You know.
The president can can sign executive orders and attempt to do things at the margins. But at the end of the day, the United States Senate controls the budget, you know, the House of Representatives, all those House members. They send a bill to the Senate. The Senate can amend it, send it back, change the title, do all sorts of things. At the end of the day, one hundred people control two really important things. The lifetime appointment of federal judges,
and we see how that affects us every day. And then also how the money's gone. My grandmam used to say, baby, follow the money. You won't to anything about somebody. Look at how they spend their money. Look at our country. Now we spend our money.
I'm not going.
To represent increases in the National Defense Authorization Act, even if the President wants to do that. So we have to have a firewall to fight back. And I would be able to fight back from the United States Senate, And that to me is the key. We were going to fight and represent the values of the people who send me there and and what the history is. And so no matter who's in the presidency, I'm going to
be fighting. I'm going to hold both parties accountable. I'm just to be honest with you, you know, both parties have been derelict in certain ways to our community, and so I'm going to be there holding both parties accountable for sure or who is in the executive branch.
You know, you took my next question and answered it, and that is a testament to your brilliance and to your finger being on the post, because the question I was going to ask you is will you be a Democratic? Go get along, to go along whatever the Democrats say with the president says, because you know that was one of the things that they used against Jamal Bowman and
in fact, Jamaal Bowman's election. What was that June twenty fifth, I believe June twenty fifth, the same day I was in Saint Louis, Missouri, sitting in a sports bar looking at seven screens above my head, and each one of them was it was all sports news, some Latino, different
languages every few minutes. The commercial that they ran in Saint Louis was against Cory Bush with the same exact language that they used against Jamal Bowman, and the main point was that she does not and of course that Jamal does not support the president, has voted against the president, and it is harming us when our Democrats don't work
with the president. And yet when you listen to Congressman Bowmen and Congresswoman Bush explain what's loaded into these bills and how sometimes either you can lose things that are important in our communities and sometimes there can be things in the bills that are harmful for our communities. And therefore they have used their vote as leverage in for
the Democrats and Republicans and whoever else. So just as a final word on that, and you can close it up, give us a vote tide on whether we can depend on you to be a thinker and a person who will be for the people and not just for partner.
Absolute and.
The establishment doesn't want me in this seed, you know what I'm saying, because they know I'll be independent thinker. They understand that I'm going to fight for people. I'm not going to fight you. Remember the first three words of both the Michigan Constitution and the US constitutions are saying we the people. It doesn't say we the party. It doesn't say we the politician. It doesn't say we the super pac doesn't say we the big donor. It says we the people. I'm going to fight for people
and that's why I'm running. And so at the end of the day, if something's coming down that doesn't fit for people, then I'm not going forward and I won't do it. So you know, I hope folks will go to the website Hill Harper dot com or two dollars makes the difference. We're trying to run ads, We're trying to get the word out to get people to vote. So many people don't even know what a primary is, so we're having to educate our community about August sixth
and the primary. There's nine days of early in person voting July twenty seven, August fourth. There's absentee voting going on right now, and so this is the moment where we really need people's help. Dave Chappelle just helped me out a lot by doing a big fundraiser for me this past Thursday in Detroiting, which was huge because you know him to stand up and you know he's selling out arenas and for him to come and do something for me meant so much. And so any anybody, you know,
I need both of y'all to come on up. We need to do during early voting. We need to do an event. We could we could do the show live from Detroit or live from Grand Rapid. So just any help, folks, please please, please, God bless you, and let's let's go. This is an opportunity that we can't miss.
Thank you, Hill, We appreciate you.
Hell great, we got your back. And if you need us out there and were coming.
Thank you, I need you. Say let's say, let's come on.
I'm praying for Hill. You know, I'm praying for him. I'm praying for him because I know from the years and years and years of being Hill's friend and seeing him the world, that he really has a passion for black folks.
He has everything that's necessary to leave like he.
Really should absolutely be the senator. The problem, though, is that when I think about what happened to Jamaal Bowman, and I think about how so many black people lined up behind the white man, even though the white man is one hundred percent a supporter of you know, Israel, and look at what's happening right now. And guess what.
These same black people claim that they don't that they want to cease fire and they are against what's happening in Israel, and yet they supported the candidate who with one hundred percent fund and back the assault on the people of gossip, these black folks. So it gives me, it takes away, It kind of reduces my hope for hell because I don't know about our people sometimes.
I mean, unfortunately. All we can do is fight, man, and just stand on the right side of history, stand on the right side of morality and integrity, you know. And Hill has always represented that, you know, and I just believe that we just have to convince there. Like he said, twenty percent of the people, we get twenty percent, and we know that two out of ten people want the right candidate to be in office, right. We just got to make sure that they understand what's at state.
We got to make sure that they understand when it's time to go out to vote, you know. And that's what the opposition is is very good at doing. They're good at making making their base understand that we need you to come out. We making sure that their base knows when it's time to vote, you know, And we have we have not been all the time. We have not done that the best. So I think, you know, hopefully, yeah, some people.
Do, like black voters matter. Melanie Campbell on the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation got Mary pat Hector and those that you know are down in Georgia. I mean there are groups around the nation, but I understand what you're saying. The Republicans send out like a back call when they need people to support them, and then their people are and unfortunately not all Republicans, but so many of them are motivated by ham and on on.
The niggas that they're doing. They're not just the Republicans, are funding the Democrats that lean Republican now, right, So that's what I'm saying. They got a double strategy like they Democrats. Is not fun to say, you know, we're gonna get the best Republican person that you know that we can lean a little bit, and we're gonna put money behind them so that we're on the same page.
We haven't advanced. I was that's their new strategy. Now they're pretty much putting people in our party that lean more towards them.
And it might not be new because how did Christian Cinema and Joe Manchin get there? Who are people who are older. I don't know how long Christian Cinema was in the Senate, but I know Joe Manchin was around for a while, and so you know, this is this is a strategy they've probably been using for a long time. Not to mention when you think about somebody like APAC. APAC also funds both sides, right, So you know it
is a very it's a strategy that they use. And I'm sure some people will listen to us and be like, oh, the Democrats do similar. Well, who just get me the name of the Republican that is constantly or not so much constantly, but has a good track record of leaning in the more progressive direction or more of a liberal direction. I don't know him.
I don't know him either.
I mean in the end of his you know, at the end of his time in office, I guess Mitt Romney became a little bit because Romney was like one of those Republicans that's like, y'all is MAGA is not my faith. I'm not with MAGA. But I mean when you look back over Mitt Romney's record, he also has some questionable shit. So it's like, I just don't know. I don't know anyway, moving right along.
Moving right along, which brings me to my I don't get it. There was a tenth on Donald Trump life a couple of days ago, and there's a lot of speculation of why who this, and that, you know, what party did it? Who did it? You know, I've seen
so many different things. I've heard so many different allegations, you know, And I wrote on my page, you know the day that it happened is that you know, unfortunately, you know, this is a result in my in my position, this is a result of the last eight years of the climate that the MAGA, the whole MAGA campaign has created. You know what, the level of intense and division. I haven't seen this much since slavery, before, since before civil rights. And a lot of people say, oh, America is and
I said, I'm not saying that it hasn't. I'm just saying to the level that I have seen it in the last eight years. In my personal experience, I've never had more encounters and personal encounters with family friends, had the same personal encounters with levels of racism, levels of hate. You know, I've never seen blatant, you know, unabridged, you know,
boasted hate that I've seen. And I've never seen the Proud Boys like I've read about the KKK and and I've heard that they existed, but I never seen them outside like I was seeing in the last eight years,
you know. And unfortunately, when you create that level of hate, when you foster that when you talk about beating up protesters, and when you when you talk about when you when you you incite the insurrection, you know, when you constantly talk about violence, and when you talk about the police should be able to do what they want to people, when you create.
That energy, they'll say they never said police should be able to do whatever they want.
Well, when you're saying that they have when they should have community, that means that if your immunity then you can't. Then that means you can kill her or do whatever to someone with impunity. So this is the reality of what this is. This is the energy. I've watched Donald Trump sit there and say, yeah, you should punch him a little harder, get him off the state. Yeah, just rough them up a little bit. Like I've literally watched him these things. This is not what I think he said,
you know, these are things that we watch. So the energy that he him and MAGA has created over the eight years led to this. And the reality is you don't want to see anybody get shot. You don't want anybody to be hung, but you cannot ignore that when someone creates an energy and it comes back to them how it started and where it comes from, you know, And I don't. What I don't get is how people don't get that. You know, millions of people, I mean hundreds of people on my page talking about all what
are you talking about? Youth? What are you talking about? Trump's never done any of this. This is not And it's like I'm trying to figure out am I in the twilight zone because I don't know where someone has to be to not be able to see what the climate is. I say this all the time. Every Trump supporter is not a racist, right, but every racist is a Trump supporter. You can't explain to me how all the racists follow one person and that you're saying is
unifying us, but they don't follow anybody else. You can't. You can't act like when Obama was president he wasn't and Trump wasn't even a candidate, that the level of racism and division that he caused during Obama's presidency wasn't crazy. You can't say that he didn't try to create a climent to actually have Obama hurt you. He questioned the men's legitimacy, he questioned everything about and this was a black candidate and he ran as an opposition as a result,
you know, to Obama's presidency. The whole Maga campaign was saying, y'all really let a black man run this country, and we're going to we're gonna change that ship. If we're not gonna allow shit like that to happen again. It was, you know, it was a backlash. So if you if people are blind to that, if you if you sitting there trying to act like you don't realize that you know that. I don't know what what you're watching. I don't know what part of you know, the show that
you tuned into. But this has been the rhetoric and I can say it's been for over eight years because he, like I said, he did it during Obama's presidency.
I was just gonna say, I agree with you one hundred percent. I mean, anybody who's acting like they don't know either they're dumb or they're just trying to act like they're dumb. We know. Donald Trump has said the most inciting things ever, Like some of the stuff that he says, people are like, oh my god, I can't believe it. And in fact, some of the very people who probably are telling you that he didn't you know, he hasn't he didn't do anything to deserve to be shot,
which he didn't. We're not gonna We're not gonna say that he deserved to be shot.
I didn't say that.
I'm just saying. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, those same people will be like, oh, he just did some mean to It's just mean tweets. So if you know about the mean tweets, what we've been saying is we didn't consider them to be mean tweets. We consider them to be dangerous tweets. So you word mean, we're saying they were dangerous, and
that that was our issue in the first place. Okay, when he told the police officers, like you said, you know, when you pick him up, rub them up, you know, put him in the car, bang them up a little bit, this is what he said. So of course that he's giving people a boldness. You and and and at the end of the day, my son, let's get to the simple fact so that we can stop going rigging him around. The Rosie the Man led an insurrection against the country,
the government. The man had people that he knew. He was sitting in his office in the White House, and they were begging him to call and make a tweet, do something to stop people from running up and down the side of the Capitol, from running inside the building, chasing looking for Nancy Pelosi, going into the office of these folks, hooping on their desks, taking their equipment, going to looking for chasing Mike Pence. Somebody got killed. I mean,
all of this happened under Donald Trump. And he's the one that said we're gonna walk down here. He's these were his words. He led the people. He led the people. At Clarence Thomas, who is on the Supreme Court, he votes against everything everything, almost everything that we consider to be progressive. Uh, you know, policy and or law that needs that we need for our communities. Okay. He has been an adversary for a long time. His wife helped
to pay for the insurrection. So I'm just saying, like, when people sit there and try to act like they have not created this environment, it's crap not to mention. Let's just talk about the Central Park five and then I'm done. Okay, Donald Trump took a full page add out against young boys who did not commit the crime that they were accused of, that they went to prison
for for years. Okay, when asked about it recently after he knew that those young men or those men now had been cleared, he still doubled down and did not say, well, you know, I apologize or you know this, I was misinformed or misled, right, which is what you would think that somebody who's not trying to incite violence, who is this you know, stellar individual that people keep trying to say,
Because that's the one thing about us. We don't sit up here and say that that Joe Biden is this great individual who's done like That's some people who do that, but we don't do that, right So Donald Trump ain't shit. So say that. And then when you say that, then you can say, but I still fuck with him on I rock with him on this policy, that policy to.
Say that, give me a policy, and I respect that if you give me a policy that you're telling me that this benefits me, I don't really fuck with him. I can acknowledge all the bullshit he's done, but I still this policy right here is gonna benefit me in my life, and so that's why, and I think everything else is irrelevant to me. I can respect that for somebody to say that this right here, that Joe Biden saying this was trying to tell people to kill or shoot Trump. He said, he said, I have a job,
and that's to beat Donald Trump. I'm absolutely certain I'm the best person to be able to do that. So we're done talking about the debate. It's trying to put Trump in the bullseye. And they said that meant to shoot him.
Let me get this straight. A Republican king heard Joe Biden, the Democratic president, say that and then say, well, I'm gonna be the one to go do it for you.
Yeah, okay, beat him in an election.
But none of the ship that Trump been saying about literal violence, speaking on violence and saying that violence should happen, and saying do it a little harder, and saying that, you know, all these things that were pertaining to the exact violence that was going on, he didn't really mean it. It was just mean tweets. As you said, like, we just got to stop the bullshit. Man. At some point, bullshit gotta stop. And with that, we've come to the
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