I'm Tamika D.
Mallory and itshit boy my son a general.
We are your host of TMI.
Tamika and Mysan's Information, Truth, Motivation and Inspiration, New.
Name, New Energy. What's up, Family, it's your girl. Tamika D. Mallory and my son is.
Celebrating his son's birthday today, so he is not with us. Uh and I decided that rather than skipping a week, we don't have time to skip a week. We got one hundred days to an election. We are in the middle of a war for the soul, not only of this nation, but for us, for our souls, for our children's lives, for our future, and so we don't have
time to skip. We have to keep information on the air, on the air waves and make sure that there is a place that our people can go that we can receive information, we can share information, and we also are fact checking information to.
Know that we are sure that we're sure that we're sure that what we're saying is true.
Even if even if what we're saying does not sit well or make certain people comfortable, even if what we're saying goes against the audience, the crowd, the choir, still it needs to be real and true information. And so today I decided that I want to do something called Civix one oh one, and I've asked my friend to join me to talk about everything that we need to know about how the government works. I hear so many people and I read so many comments with misinformation, people
talking about things in ways that I understand. I can hold on one hand, in one hand that they are struggling, struggling with what's happening in the world, wanting to see a change, and I can hold on the other hand that there are people who are repeating information that they have received, either from people that don't know, people who don't want to know, or people who know damn well,
but they work very hard to misinform you. And so I want to make sure over the next hundred days that we have folks on our show that can talk and pinpoint and give us clear information that we all need to be armed with so that we can make whatever decision we choose to make in in November, that the decision is made because we know that we know, and not because we heard on a clip on a podcast somewhere that says something that is not the full context of what an individual is saying, so we're all
about peeling back the onion having a difficult conversations. Let me talk a little bit about Sonya Massey. You know my heart is completely broken at as an organizer. For thirty years I've been doing this work. I'm forty four. When I was fourteen, even before fourteen, I was in
the movement. But at fourteen years old, I was given my first responsibility and I have been since then receiving whether it was fifty dollars a week just to show up at a rally on every Saturday and help with the organization, all the way to me actually receiving a real salary to do real work, and of course all that you all have followed in my journey for the last several years. I've been in this work a long time.
And guess what, Sonia Massi She's in the top five of police shootings that I have ever, ever, ever witnessed to see what happened to this woman. And to be clear, I didn't even watch the point that the actual bullet was out of the gun and into Sonia Massy. I did not watch the actual shots, but I know what took place, and I have now been able to see the blown up sort of the mockups of what took
place in that apartment. And it is traumatizing to know that this sister said I'm sorry and suffered such an incredible, incredible, incredibly.
Painful, painful death.
And now her children are experiencing this because at seventeen and fifteen years old, not having their mother in their life and then finding and knowing that how she died is so graphic. And the whole world is now watching them, and the whole world is looking for them to say and leave. And thank God for Attorney Ben Krump, who is there with the family doing all that he can
to ensure that justice is actually served. Listen, the same state of Illinois, Lakwan McDonald was shot sixteen times, many of those shots while he was laying on the ground. The office a responsible receive sixteen counts. He was convicted and he only served three years. And so when people ask us, why would folks in thirty five cities as happen as happened this weekend stood together throughout the day and some will continue throughout this week to call attention
to the murder of Sony and Massy. Why would you do that when an officer has been arrested, the officer is in jail, being held without bail.
That's it. That's what we fought for. No, that's not what we fought for.
We did fight to ensure that the process to accountability is not five years and six years and some drawn out time period that allows for the people to calm down, the tension to come down, and then for the system to say that this particular officer is not charged with any wrongdoing. That's we definitely fought to change that, and it is still not a process across the country that happens the same way. In this situation, the circumstances are so clear that I don't think that this particular police
department could do anything else. But I don't trust them. I don't trust them at all. And so if we know that this officer who killed lecran McDonald received only only served three years, then I think it should be said that we have to stay on the wall for justice for our sister Sonya Massi and never go home because we know that getting justice for a black woman
is extremely difficult. Getting justice for a black woman is probably one of the hardest things that I do on a daily basis, and that does not mean again, that does not mean again that black men are receiving some some some some massive number in terms of justice in police shootings and other times when black men are being brutalized. Certainly it doesn't mean that. But there is a difference in terms of the groundswell and how you get people to stay ignited and to stay in the movement. With
black women, the poll is different. It is much more difficult. It is harder to get folks to sort of fall in line. Usually when these incidents happen, people call me. Everybody's calling me, celebrities, people calling me Sonia Massy. It was okay, but to be quite honest, it was not at the same level. And even the energy outside we had to really pump it up to let people know
you made it here. I know you're tired, but we still have work to do to shout and make sure our voice is a loud enough for people to hear us all over the world. That what happened to Sonia Massy is an abomination, and not only should the officer who shot her be held responsible, the officer who was there inside the home should be held responsible as well, because his job is to protect people from criminals, and his partner was the criminal. His partner was dishonorably discharged
from the armed forces. His partner moved around to six different police departments in four years. His partner had on his record DUIs and other major issues. His partner is charged with allegations or has received allegations of everything from lying on documents official documents to unlawfully tasing a young black boy. He was the criminal in that situation, and I believe that the other officer should have turned his weapon on him and told him drop your weapon right now,
because you are the criminal inside of this home. You are the person posing threat in his home. And it is my responsibility as an officer of the law, as someone who is here and my job is to protect against those people who would prey on the innocent. That it was his job at that time to protect Sonia Massy. Because he didn't do it, I feel I charged him with her murder as well. So those are things that we need to know about Sonia Massy. The fight continues.
There will be much more coming. There will be court dates that folks need to attend because they will absolutely say that the officer fell threatened by the pot of water and by her saying, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. And as I said at our rally this weekend, when people start talking about giving immunity to police officers, we have.
To rebuke that.
We have to rebuke that as a community and as a larger society. So we're going in the civics one oh one. That's what today is all about. And everything I just talked about, there is a way that you can apply it, whether it's be to the George Floyd Justison Policing Act and other bills that are out there where people have really been intentional about figuring out how we have less policing and more community safety measures. Much happening. Much to hear about CIVIX one oh one. We're gonna
hear right now from Bishop Leah Daughtry. Now, let me tell you why this sister is so important, because yes, she does work within the Democratic Party one hundred percent.
Y'all folks that.
Are tied of the Democrats are going to say, oh, I don't want to hear from a woman that's in the Democratic Party. But this woman's family, where she comes from, her lineage, her father for sure, and her mother. They are true black power freedom fighters. I've watched her father, Chris cross this nation fighting for black people, being one of the most intellectual, intelligent black men. He can preach, he can speak, he can teach, and his daughter comes from that.
And I know her, I've known her for a long time.
Sometimes she has to call me and say to Mi, ka, let's talk about this because I heard you, I heard what you said, and I feel you. But can we level set. Sometimes she'll call me and say, I'm just as upset as you are. Let's go harder, tell me what the people are saying. Let me get out there with you in the streets, and let me take this
information back. And so today I want Bishop Leon Daughtry to come on and talk to all of you about the actual process for how Bill's moved for the civic engagement that we all should be involved in, and civics one on one today is extremely important to me.
It's okay if you don't know.
I'm sure she'll say some things that I don't know, and I know that I need to refresh myself all the time. She talks about how she goes back to read the Constitution, so that she can be clear. So it's okay. They didn't teach us, they didn't want us
to know, but now we're going to educate ourselves. So gather around, get your children, get mama and daddy, whoever you think needs to hear this, and especially our black men who need to hear the process so that we can deal with alleviating the pain and the suffering that we see happening on the ground around this nation. All right, y'all,
bishoply A Daughterry, she's coming up right now. So as I've said, you know, Bishop Lea daughtery is a mentor, a big sister to me and someone that I have always admired, not just for her brilliance, because we're going to get into that you all will be able to see and to learn more about her brilliance, but also because of her commitment, no matter what space she's in to bridging the gap between those who may be in the streets, those who may be inside the system. Some
radical voices, some voices that are more moderate. She knows how to bring everyone together. And it's always monitoring what is happening with the younger sisters out here, and so you know, everywhere I go, I praise Bishoplyadaughtry, but I want you all to meet her so you have an opportunity to know that there are folks out here who work within the system, if you will, that do a hell of a job of fighting for us every single day and speaking true to power. And so that's where
she comes from. Like her parents would disown her if she was not doing that inside a government and outside. So Bishop Leadaughtry, thank you so much. I think it's okay for me to go ahead and call you Leah for the rest of the time that we are.
Together, but thank you for joining TMMI.
Thank you so much. To mek It is good to be with you, and you know how I love you and I so appreciate the work that you do every day on behalf of our people, and so I'm happy to be here and support you.
And Any's not with us today because he is celebrating his son's thirteenth birthday.
He left the girls to talk.
Right, okay, tell him, I said, Hey, of course, of course.
All right, So before you came on, I've already told people about Karen and Herbert Dorstry, okay, and I've already explained to them. You know, your upbringing, just being raised with two not just freedom fighters, but black power freedom fighters.
They still today to this second.
Are individuals who you will find in their elderly days in the street if you call them and ask them to show up. In fact, I needed your dad to do something for me, and he was like, I ain't gonna be able to make it because I'm going to a prison. I go to this one prison and he works with the young men in there. He at this point, how old is Revendoortree?
Ninety three?
Ninety three years old? And this was the other day. By the way, I'm not talking about something I called him two years ago. He literally is working inside of prisons today at ninety three years old. This is someone who I have heard say things that I'm like, oh
my god, cover my mouth. Is he supposed to say that in front of the governor, in front of presidents, in front of mayors, in front of all types of elected officials, business leaders, and otherwise, and calling us out sometimes when we in the movement needed to get straight
on our comings and goings and dealings. And I think that, you know, knowing that you come from someone like that, you have your own style, but you really have not departed much from the upbringing of your parents and your mama.
She keep everybody street. So that's that.
So talk about that, your upbringing, and then just take us right into how you have gone into politics. You now have assumed the position and after your father retired as the bishop of the House of the Lord Church, and that's a huge responsibility. So I guess it would be good to figure out later on. Why would you, knowing that you was in the line for succession of the church and to be a bishop, want to still be in politics dealing with the crazy stuff that goes on.
So tell us all about it.
So well, thank you. My parents are eighty three and ninety three. They are busy. We can barely keep up with them, but you know they trained us well. I have two sisters and a brother, and our first our family model is love God, love the people. Serve God serve the people, and so that has been part of our heart from the beginning. Our church is an activist church and has always been so, from the time that my grandfather founded that in nineteen twenty nine. I lead
the church now, but I'm not the first woman. I'm the second woman. We had a presiding bishop in the fifties, who was Yeah, when people weren't ordaining women. My grandfather was, and that she was the second presiding Minister. So I always tell people I am from the radical revolutionary side of Brooklyn. That's where I was born and raised. We called ourselves nationalist pan Africanness, and that's my identity. I'm
a Christian woman, i am nationalist, I'm pan African. I love my people, and even in the roles that I have been blessed to walk into, my priority is what is this going to do to my people? How to this affect my people? And you know, you walk into these spaces that everybody walks into the room bringing something with them, bringing all of who they are. And if I bring all of who I am. I am Christian, I'm Pentecostal, I am black, I am a woman, I
am a radical revolutiontionary. That's how I was raised and that's who I bring. But that is also my power because I bring the people with me, and I interpret for the room what the people want and need, and I interpret to the people what the room is saying, and so we can figure out how we can move together to help the people self actualized, to realize their version of the American dream, whatever that looks like, and to get the things they need to live full and
abundant lives. And that includes justice, that includes a freedom, that includes economic equity, that includes all the things you know, good schools and clean water and safe streets. All of those things are critically needed, particularly in our communities. And so my job is to help get that done in the rooms where I.
Am in the rooms, what would you say set you up to get in these rooms? I mean, you're a girlfriend of mine, Timmy Raspberry, who we both know, works for Mayor Adams, and she just told me that recently. She was like walking through the halls of city Hall and there was your dad, like, hey, I need to see Eric.
You know, no appointment, no, none of that. He's passed. He's beyond that.
And she said Eric was not there, The mayor was not there, but when she called him, he got on over there to city Hall to figure out what your father needs to discuss. That's the type of that's you, that's your dad, that's his legacy. So what would you say, set you up on the road to politics?
You know, our church was always a political entity. So if you were running for office, or you wanted to connect with folks, you came to the House of the Lord because that's just where or it was the center of activism in Brooklyn. And so seeing folks coming and going, and part of our theology is about how we help people to live full and abundant lines by using what we have. And so that's not simply praying. That's how do you leverage the systems that impact our community in
order to change those systems for good. There are people who say change the system and the heart will change, and there people say change the heart and the systems will change. We believe we call it the imperative for a duel. For us, you have to do both seek to change the heart, but seek to change the system. And so we were always encouraged to be politically active
to understand what was happening around us. My father made us read the New York Times when we were When we learned how to read, we didn't understand any of it. But that's okay. After a while we did, that's right, and so we knew who the elected officials are and the people in our churches. That's part of our membership process to be registered to vote and to know who
your elected officials are and how they represent you. Because that concerns our tax status, that concerns the water that comes into the building, that concerns our our real estate holdings, that concerns the schools that our children, our members children go to. All of that. So we just that was one prong of how we move systems, how we get people what they need to live the lives they want to live. Was politics. So I chose to go into politics. My sisters are educators, and I chose that level.
How many of you, how many of you are there?
There are four of us, so I'm the oldest, and then my sister Sharon runs out not for profit and my sister Dawn is a retired educator. And my brother just retired. He's an educator. He's also an attorney, was a public defender, and he said, I'm getting the kids too late. By the time I see them in court, it's too late. Let me be a teacher and try to get these boys before they even enter into the
criminal justice system. Intentionality, yes, yes, intentionality. So that's I chose electoral politics because that's where I thought that I could help make a difference. And it was quite by accident, I ended up interning for the Brooklyn Member of Congress, Ed Pounds, who then offered me a job, and so I moved to Washington, and I hated it and I wanted to be back in Brooklyn. So he and I had an arrangement where I would go back and forth quite often, and from there I went to the Democratic
Party and the rest. As they say, it's history, but it's really about how you use politics as one way to impact the lives of people, how you press those levers. Because so much of what we're dealing with in our communities goes through some sort of electoral process. Somebody's making the decisions. And to the extent that elected officials are making the decisions, then we need to engage them and force them and press them to do what's right for our people.
Forcing and pressing. We'll talk about that in a moment. But you said, and then off to the Democratic Party. Can you please folks about all of the prestigious positions that you have held within the Democratic Party.
Oh? Yes, I have been chief of staff at the Democratic Party, working under both Governor Terry mccauliffe and Governor Howard Dean. I have been CEO of the Democratic Convention. I'm the only person to have been CEO twice, and I produced the two thousand and eight Convention, which was Barack Obama's convention, and the twenty sixteen Convention, which was
Hillary Clinton's convention. And presently I'm serving as chair of the Convention Rules Committee that has put in place the rules that will govern our nomination process.
Okay, so that's going to bring me to a question about Black Lives Matter, because they put out a statement saying that they wanted to see a process, and I think I heard you say on our call that we had when we're black women, which I'm super proud, and I know you are of Joe Taka Edie and what
she's doing there. But I heard you say there is a process, and so I loved it because I know that our listeners respect the views of Black lives Matter most of them and are interested in what's the nuance there. So we'll go to that. But I just want to talk about world leaders. I really am asking you these questions because I want people to understand credentials. We have a problem, in my opinion, you didn't say, I'm saying with folks who just talk and they have no credentials, they.
Have no information, but they are hurting.
And therefore, when you feel pain, you speak out right like a baby. You feel pain, you feel hungry, you feel discomfort, you scream and I am and you have taught me to because if we surely didn't get this from a core mass is bury out our big sister.
So I lean on you for this.
A little bit, to be patient with people who don't have information, who just don't know, but they know something is wrong and they want to see a change. And so I'm just making sure when they watch this they can't.
Say, but what does she do?
You have been at the table with world leaders, you have traveled the world, you have advised presidents. That has been your background. So would you say through all of this that what we see on TV right is what you believe is very closely aligned with what goes on behind closed doors? Or do you think there's a big difference from how the media portrays elected officials. Some people are saying Joe Biden wasn't the best president. Others are
saying he was great. And I don't need you to give an opinion on that either way, But what would you say people should know about the difference between sometimes what they're reading and what's really really going on.
You know, I was talking with our friend Michael McBride about this the other day, Pastor Mike, and it always surprises me the trust that black people place in mainstream media. You know, we hate mainstream media except when it comes to black people, and then it's the Bible, right, and so what I try to check where you're getting your information from, because what is the motivation? Particularly were talking about mainstream media, who owns it? Who is who are
the news directors? Who's reporting it? Because the person on television that's reading a script is reading a script something they wrote that for them. There's a particular point of view that they are pushing and pressing. Walter Kronqoitt is dead. When I was a little girl with everybody trusted Walter to Kronkott, those days are over. Journalists I have a point of view and they are writing to prove their point of view. Very hard to get an unbiased report.
So I encourage people read two or three sources, check it, figure out who you are trusted. Cadre are including Tamika, who are of those people who can help you pass through what you're reading because it's all a game. And my best example of this is Hillary Clinton's campaign. In the aftermath, a couple of years after her campaign was over, we learned that many of the news directors weren't involved in me two lawsuits wow, were involved in sexual harassment lawsuits.
Many of them were fired. So what does that tell you? When the news directors, the person who's shaping the stories are sexual predators, who are also reporting on the candidacy of a woman running for president, it's skewing their view and you can be assured that how they are reporting it is through the len of sexual harass because they harass the people. So what is their view of women? How are they valuing or devaluing women in their everyday life.
They're bringing that to their work and they were reporting on Secretary Clinton. That's one example of you gotta be careful about who you're listening to and what's the gospel truth and the sources, because everything is not always what it appears. They spend things. The current example is the issue around Kamala Harrison and when Joe Biden was saying I'm running, I'm running, I'm running. You listen to these pundits shape the narrative about who should be the nominee.
If Biden was standing down and he was steady saying I'm standing down, but they were listing these names, Josh whatever is, Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Witt and Mapete Boudage, all of these names. They're listening and they're leaving out the sitting vice president. It's a point of view. He was at the oppressor. It's something they're putting in the atmosphere and put it so that when people start chatting, oh, there,
the vice president's not qualified, well, yeah, they set that table. Absolutely, we gotta be mindful and listen very carefully with a people's eye on what are they saying and what does this mean for us now? At the time, you know, I was agnostic on whether she should or should not be the nominee. But what I wasn't an agnostic on is she needs to be considered and if you're listening names, her name should be listed. Absolutely, not list to her.
Not list the sitting vice president. Is offensive, absolutely consultant, and it's a rature it is.
It was insulting to me, of course as a black woman, but as a woman in general, and I felt that all women should have been offended. In fact, I was having a conversation with Cora Berry, who you know as my mentor. I speak to her at least ten times a day, and she was saying, you know.
I get the black because I'm all black.
But I think you guys are on the wrong tune here because women in general, this is an intersectional issue.
It doesn't matter what kind of.
Women you are, but we should all care that as a woman we are not overlooked, and then certainly as black women. So let's talk about CIVIX one on one, because that is what this particular episode is designed to do.
I am very very stressed.
I'm not gonna I'm gonna use the word the truth right and trying to have that patience. When I see people say, why has President Obama? I mean President Biden passed past the anti Asian hate crime bill, but not in the other hate crime bill, which would be more specific to black folks African Americans. I'm like, I want to say, President Biden does not pass Bill's dummy, That's
what I want to say. But then my right mind tells me that in the spirit of love, understanding, compassion and all of those things that I have to leave the dummy off.
And so I notice it over and over.
That has been a huge talking point against President Biden for a while now, not just here in these last few weeks, but in general. And I know and I understand that the problem is when I was in school, even though I went to Catholic school, and this has been a long time now, it is twenty eight years or twenty whatever the time is, they had a little bit of something that you can learn about the government and whatever.
But now because of the efforts of people who do not want us to know, because I believe they realize that the more information we have, we will be armed with.
The ability to fight for ourselves and to determine or to have self determination here in this country, and so they would like us not to have all the information that we once had. And that's what I think is the issue. You may have a different of opinion, but there has to be in all of this discourse civics one on one back to the very very basic basics.
So I'm gonna be quiet and I'm gonna let you just go on what people need to understand about how government and process and passing bills actually works.
Okay, well, thank you, and then I agree with you. I have a bit more grace because, as you said, Civics is no longer taught in school, and so people are left on their own to figure out how government works because they just aren't like we used to have when I was in school. So here's what you need to know. First of all, I encourage you, in your spare time to go get a copy of the Constitution of the United States. You can download it free of charge on any just about any website. Just google it.
You get the Constitution and it's not long, it's about seven or eight pages, but it really helps you get a sense of how the government is formed and is structured. So what we have in the federal government are three branches of government. The executive which is the president, the cabinet, the vice president. That's one branch. The second branch is the legislative branch, which is the Congress, and the third branch is the judicial branch. Each of them, in the
Constitution are intended to operate separately but together. It's called the doctrine of checks and balances. So the president works, but the president cannot pass legislation. That's the job of the Congress. The president can nominate people to offices, he can't just appoint his cabinet. He can't just appoint Supreme Court justices. That someone has to approve that. That's called the check and balance, so that the president is not all powerful. The same thing happens in the legislative brand.
There's the House of Representatives and there's the Senate. The House of Representatives is four hundred and thirty five people, that's your congress person, and that those seats are apportioned based on the census. This is how it's all interchanges. So when you fill out your census form, it tells the government how many people live in your city in your state, and then the number of Congress people is set four hundred and thirty five, but is divided up
based on how many people are living where. Right now, it's the three biggest states of California, Texas, New York. When I was a little girl in New York was first, then californ your in Texas, and sometimes Florida would edge up in there. It shifts because people left New York and went down south. New York got less people. New York has fewer congressmen, but that's based on you're filling out the census. So when we don't fill out census,
we reduce our representation in Congress. We reduced the amount of money that's coming into our state because it's all a portioned by the numbers of the census. So you have the four hundred and thirty five members of Congress apportioned by population. Then you have the one hundred senators, two per state. So if you think about a state like Alaska, Alaska has one congressman for all of Alaska because of the population, but Alaska still has two senators.
Wow.
It was intended by the founders to be a check and balance because the House, you know, they run every two years, and they thought that that running every two years would make them beholden to donors, would make them, you know, a little flighty because you know they coming and going. So you have the Senate, they run every six years. They're intended to be a slower, more deliberative body, putting checks on the crazy people in the House who want to do all kind of stuff. So the Senate
balances that out. They passed legislation they a member of conferences can to say, I think we ought to have a law that every school are to have a blue cafeteria. So he introduces a bill that says, I want to have a law that we're gonna have every school cafeteria painted blue. He then has to get his colleagues to vote for his bill. If they vote for his bill, then that bill that was passed in the House of Representatives now goes to the Senate. The Senate has to agree.
So the Senators take it up, and they have a Senate bill that will map. Now the Senators may say, well, I think I'm good with the cafeterias being painted, but I don't want it to be blue. I wanted to be red. Now you got two competing bills, red cafeterias and blue cafeterias. Then they go to conference committee, House and the Senate designate people that sit at a table and debate and discuss and negotiate what color is the cafeteria gonna be. Sometimes they can't agree, and then the
bill dies. Sometimes they can agree and they'll say, Okay, it's not red, it's not blue, it's purple. Both sides agree. Now it goes back to the House, back to the Senate, to agree on purple. If they agree, it becomes a law. It becomes a past legislation that then goes to the president to sign. No legislation can be a law unless the president signs it. If the President says, I don't like purple, I don't know why, y'all peyt in the cafeterias, this is dumb, I veto sending it back to you.
I'm done with this. I don't agree. They then have to override the president's veto by a two thirds vote. Sometimes they have enough votes to override, sometimes they don't. If they have enough to override, they can override the president and then it's law. If they can't override it, then it's dead. So that's the legislative branch. Only members of Congress can introduce legislation. The president cannot introduce legislation, and the president has no vote in the House of
the Senate. If the president has legislation he wants to have them considered, he has to find a member of Congress to introduce it. The president has no legislative authority. And here's some people don't know. President can't even go to the House. In the Senate. He has to be invited. Wow.
So he can't just walk up there.
Can't just walk up there, can't just walk up there. For the State of the Union, the date fluctuates sometime like it did this year because the House would not extend the invitation. Wow. So the President has to wait for the House to extend the invitation for him to make the State of the Union, which is in the Constitution that the President will issue a State of the Union. So that's how they keep the balance of House and Senate and Congress and the legislative branch and the executive branch.
The third branch is the judicial branch, which is.
A Supreme Court right right right.
The President nominates the Senate, not the House. The Senate has to confirm the last justice Wastaji Brown Jackson, and we all went with that debacle and how they treated her in the Senate side. But the President nominates, the Senate confirms, and then they get an appointment, which right now is a lifetime appointment. Joe Biden this morning said he's going to try to change that so that they have term limits so that they don't have lifetime appointments.
Lifetime appointment was so it was thought that if they have a lifetime appointment. They wouldn't be influenced by money, It wouldn't be influenced by donors. But we all know Clarence Thomas, that's not happening, and they are being influenced and they are part of the political process now. So Joe Biden said this morning, and his pressurely is that the system is broken. It's not as be attended. So we need something different. And the president can nominate as
many Supreme Court justices as he wants. That's another thing. We have nine now, the Constitution does not say a number.
So he could put he could look more people, could he could nominate more justices.
But for some reason he has not. I think what was the reason why.
I think he's looking at the political calculus, because remember he can nominate. But the city happened go before congressional members, right, which is a mix of the Senate the Senate. Okay, just the Senate confirmed, and so it could have been a political calculation. I don't know, but my guess is it was a political calculation. Now do you want to have this fight? Do you have enough votes to confirm
more people? And the Democrats are on a razor's edge, with one with a one vote margin, but you got Christian senator and Joe Manchin right still still and who knows what they're gonna do, And my guests would be the day Democrats.
Well, now she's independent.
He's independent, he's independent, which narrowed our margin to one. Razors and slipper, which is why the vice president often had to go to the Senate to break the tie. And so people say we didn't see her a lot of times. If the House is in session, senators in session, she has to stay in Washington because she's the tiebreaker, so she couldn't be out, and because there's a vote, you need her to go, and she hot tailored up there and cast the tie breaking vote.
But you talked about free inch as the government.
Reading the constitution, you said you went back to it just to make sure you knew what you were talking about. What is the vice president's role?
The vice president has two jobs mentioned in the Constitution. One is to be the president of the Senate and the second is to be ready. That's all so that if anything happens to the president, and it's couched in the context of if anything happens to the president, then the vice president steps up. There's no other job description for the vice president.
It's all that the president's pleasure whatever else she does, so he would have to sign her with responsibilities, or he could say just hang out around in case I crow.
And then just be ready.
And a lot depends on what the relationship is between the president and the vice president. Some are better than others, and you're exactly right. Some presidents just say just go sit over there, don't say nothing, don't go nowhere. I don't want to see you, I don't want to hear you. Goodbye. Then there are other presidents who make the vice president more of a governing partner, and the relationship is much better in recent times, recent years, that relationship has been better.
It's never perfect, but it's been better than it was many years ago.
And we're trying not to because I don't want people to tune us out and say, oh, this was just about Kamala Harris. But you know, when people say she's not qualified, I just I have a prob I don't care. You don't have to like her, right like, I'm okay with people who say they don't like her. You have folks from California who have real stories of things that happened within the criminal justice system that they feel she
was either directly involved in or her office. And I would tell you, Leah that if I was advising them her, if I was advising her campaign, I would not go to such an extent not saying that she has to try to separate myself from any form of fault, right because if you are a prosecutor, the nature of being a prosecutor that is working with a white supremacist system, there's going to be absolutely fault and things that happen. So I would just say, you know what, I'm sure
that everybody is not wrong. You know what I mean, and so that people feel heard and seen. But to say she's not qualified to me is the most disrespectful thing to all of us because they tell us.
All we're not qualified. Would you say to two people who say she's not qualified.
Well, I approach it from the let's have a level playing field here. So was Dan Quayle qualified, Was Dick Cheney qualifying? Was our Gore qualified? Was Joe Biden qualified when they were vice president? Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. But we didn't even ask the question. Wow, people say, what does she do all day. Did you ask when dan Quayle was president? Did you ask when a'l go over? No, we didn't ask, and we didn't care what the vice president did all day? But now we care right now,
we want to know. We've had three years of I don't see her, what she do? Did you ask that before? And so I'm interested in the level play. Why do we care now but we didn't care then? Why does the media care now? But they didn't care then? When Dick Cheney was shooting people in the face, nobody asked a question about what he Why was he duck hunting in the middle of the week. Wasn't you to be
in your job? Yes? And so I want us to come to the question of her qualifications in the way that we came to the question for the other what forty six, forty seven, forty eight white men who had the job.
Mediocre white men?
I like to say, So, let's just level set right there now. If you want to get into her qualifications, then we could talk about for being a DA and being a statewide elected twice, being elected to the Senate, the legislation she's introduced when she was in the Senate, the work that she's done. We can have that conversation, but I want people to be honest about why we
are holding her to a different standard. Having seen this over many years, I can tell you that I watch vice presidents and they go on their little trips and they do whatever they're doing. They might have three four people press people following them, called the pool. We call them the pool. This woman from the day, from day one, has had a plane full forty I was just with her at the she came to the teacher's conference where I was speaking. It was a plainfull forty fifty press people.
The scrutiny is unprecedented, hardly because of the unprecedented historic nature of her vice presidency, but to have that level of scrutiny, forty fifty people following you everywhere all the time, it's unprecedented. When when when Mike Pitts had three So so of course it's generating stories of because they got to make you know, they work, and they got to come up with their stories now to justify them being on the road. So I think we have to appreciate
the unprecedented nature of her vice presidency. What it's meant in terms of scrutiny what it's meant in terms of the demand. The demand on her calendar is unlike anything any other vice president has ever had to deal with. And so I would like us to come to it with an honest, with an honest level setting, right, and then we can have a conversation about qualifications, because I'm you know, I can't recite a resume, but I know more about her qualifications than I knew about Mike Pence.
Right, absolutely, absolutely so, How did going back to the branches and the process, how did they get How did the Republicans under Donald Trump get so many federal judges and then the Supreme Court seats?
How did that happen?
Because they had the Senate Chuck Schumer was not in charge. They held the Senate. The Senate confirms judges, and so all they had to do is agree Donald Trump would not nominate whoever the Heritage Foundation or whoever they wanted, and he had control of the Senate to get them confirmed. And so they just jammed them through. And we're going to be feeling the consequences of those of that time for decades to come. Our brothers, our sisters who are
now being incrocerated at hire and higher rates. It is that as a result of the judges that Donald Trump's Senate and the Republicans and Senate were able to confirm very tall. And you see the reverse happening with Biden, who is nominated a record number of African American and Latino men and women to the Court because he has a Democratic Senate, he has someone Senate is controlled by Democrats. You only need a majority vote, and so he's able to get that through and you see that happening now.
And so it's but Joe Biden's nominated more folks to the Court than Obama did, and plenty did. He's head and shoulders above the others. And that's part of why people have a favorable view of his of his term because of some of the things he's been able to move quite quickly. So you know, the courts are, we don't know, pritically important. We've seen what the Supreme Court has done in terms of rov Wade, in terms of presidential immunity, uh, in terms of regulatory offairs, all of
these things. The Supreme Court has just decided that the president has immunity and can commit crimes in office. How they got there, I don't know. I don't. I don't know what basis that. But now we have a president who can kill stay in the over office and he's a mute or she's a mute.
That's wow, absolutely crazy, and I to go. So I want to move us through that. You're giving me some good stuff. I'm telling you.
No point when people say Joe Biden didn't pass legislation. Joe Biden can pass legislation. The House and the Senate have to pass legislature.
He can influence. He can influence.
Legislation by his position on particular issues, and more than likely a member of his own party would pick up his words, his ideas and try to draft something that would align right. That's that's generally what happens.
That's generally what happens. And in this period of time right now, where you have a Democratic Senate Chuck Schumer and you have a Republican House Mike Johnson, very little that the president wants gets done because it can't get through the House.
He can't get through the House. They will not get anyway any branch that they can.
That's right, and that's why it's important for us to vote up and down the battle. We can't do the president and not do the others. We can't do the others and not do President. I hear a lot of folk in the street saying, I'm not voting the top of ticket. I'm gonna vote for whoever they're voting for, and I'm gonna just vote for the House and Center. Here's what you need to know if you've seen Project twenty five. All of what they are proposing can be
done by executive order. The President can just sign it so and does not need the House or the Senate to do any of it. So when you vote down ballot because whatever, and you skip the top of the ticket, you are in essence endorsing what he's saying because he can just do it. There's no checking balance. Then the president could just do it by executive order.
All right.
So I asked you about the Black Lives Matter. They released the statement saying they wanted to see a process. They believe that what is currently taking place is They didn't use this language, but I would say somewhat of a coup of just like a takeover, and there is no process for the people to see transparency around how the nomination would take place.
What would you say to that, as.
The person who is literally responsible chair of the Rules Committee.
My first presidential campaign was Jesse Jackson in eighty four, and one of the things he taught us and instilled in us is you gotta know the rules. You gotta know the rules in order to break the rules creatively. You gotta know the rules in order to change the rules effectively. And so I've always made it my business to know the rules, so I know when I'm when I'm whether I'm marching, whether I'm negotiating. Knowing the rules helps me to come to the table with a demand
that is doable and achievable. So for the Democratic Party, I serve on the Rules and by Laws Committee. We start the process of the rules for a presidential cycle right after a presidential cycle, So we will start the twenty twenty eight eight rules in January of next year. We are finished with the rules by twenty this time, we were finished by twenty twenty two, so we'll be finished by twenty twenty six. Then we're just tinkering around
the edges and those. Part of those rules. To make us important for people to know is how delegates are selected, what require and something that people don't know is every state has a voting plan, a nomination plan, a delegate selection plan. We require soon the black women who are on that committee. We require that every state's delegate selection plan reflects the Democratic electorate in that state. You are
in Arizona, you better come with your plan. Better include how you're going to get Native Americans and how you're going to get Latinos, because that's the Democratic electorate. If you come with a plan, and some states try it, come with a plan like California or some of these are say we can't find black people, excuse me, plan to go back and start over, because we require that who's on the floor, who's voting for nominees, reflect the
people that vote for the party. So start there. So when this all happened with Joe Biden, Joe Biden through the electoral process January, when the primary start had a mass delegates. Thirty nine hundred delegates is what he amassed. There are I'm looking at my notes. I keep it right in front of me. There are forty six ninety nine delegates total. He had a mass, and some of
them a pledge, which means you vote for them. When I went to vote in New York, they were my delegates for my congressional district or on the ballot and click, click click. You know, I punched each one, and that's I was voting for Doe Biden all the way down.
That's as a delegate, you get to vote no the people. When I voted in the primaries, Wow, oh okay, yeah, yeah, I was about to say I thought you were saying, like, right now, we got somebody, you know.
Yeah, So I voted for my six people from my congressional district. They then become delegates. They ran on the Joe Biden line. They're pledged to Joe Biden under our rules. They're pledged to Joe Biden, and they have to come to convention and vote for Joe Biden in all good conscience. We have that phrase in there. The Republicans don't have that. They're stuck with whoever. They don't have a conscience clause.
We have a conscience clause. So as we get past the primaries, we get to a pre convention, Joe Biden walks in the door with thirty nine hundred of the forty six ninety nine that he needs, and you really only need because the super delegates. They talk about it in a minute, we don't vote. I'm a super delegate, we don't vote on the first ballot, so that we don't influence the process at all. So Joe Biden walks in with that number thirty nine hundred. Now he decides
he's stepping out. What happens to his thirty nine hundred free agents?
Free agents?
They are free agents. They can do whatever they want. They are not bound to anybody. He endorsed Kamala Harris. That doesn't mean his delegates belong to her. She has to earn them. Anybody who decides to run has to earn them, because what this earning look like, Paul, talk to him, get your tell them what you're gonna do. You get their support. You have to campaign among the delegates who are who are who are gonna be casting votes. So the sixth that I voted for, I voted for them.
So now they represent my interests. So and that's across the country. That's the system. From July twenty fifth to July twenty seventh. Anybody can file a statement of candidacy with the Democratic Party.
Anybody.
They have to pass the constitutional requirements of being aged, being a natural born citizen, and then they have to pass the Democratic requirements, which is they have to sign an attestation that says I am a Democrat and I will run, serve and serve as a Democrat. They do those, that's their statement of candidacy. They turn it and they had until the twenty seventh to do that.
And so Cornell West would never do that because he is not a registered Democrat.
He's a correct right, correct. And you even had Joe Manchin talking about I think I'll run as a but when we said, you know, you got to be a Democrat, then he was like, Okay, never mind.
And surely people thought about it.
But a part of campaigning, a part of all of the stuff that goes on in the background, they're getting phone calls from folks who are saying, hey, don't think this is a good idea. You know, I think we've got a better shot going in this direction. I think it would be good for you to step over a black woman. I don't think you can get the delegates. These people are looking at the count, the numbers, the
whole thing. This is all happening, not on Instagram, not on Facebook, not on even TV, right behind the scenes, and I want I think this is true there's some folks that is like, hey, you definitely we want you to be a part of our administration. We want to continue to talk about that think you have XYZ. You're great on this issue, that issue. If you don't run to confuse the process. At this point, we could definitely continue to work on how you can fit.
These are things that are being said because as a campaign.
You got to go figure out how to get everybody to fall in line.
That's right, that's exactly right. And so the period we're in now until the thirtieth, whoever is running and has filed their statement of candidacy now has to get three hundred pledges, three hundred delegates to say I will support you. Minimum of three hundred, no more than fifty from any
one state. And a delegate can only sign one petition because we if you can't get three hundred people to sign onto your candidacy the country from across the country, or across the pledged delegates, acrous the delegates, or actually all the delegates, you got to get three hundred, and that's less than ten percent. The total is forty six ninety nine, so it's less than ten percent of delegates.
You have to get to file their petitions. If you can't get that, you ain't got no business money for president. But anybody can do that, and we will know on the thirtieth who's met that threshold. Thirtieth at six o'clock, who's met.
They are ready. The window has closed to submit your name.
Yes, but now the taally is in process, that's right, which means that kaand La Harris is the presumed.
But not confirmed yet correct.
So the media has been doing their own tally and has by their tally decided that she's the presumptive nominee. For my purposes, none of that matters to me, because what matters to me is the actual pledges and the actual vote. Because until a delegate signs their name committing themselves to a candidate, it's not real. Purposes of tally, it's not real. So that's where we're in now, and
our voting will start August first. We'll be voting virtually, and we will in voting around August fifth or sixth, and then we will know who the nominee of the party is.
So the process was open, but we have to know the rules because there's some people that will say, well, how the.
Hell are we supposed to know that it should have been blasted everywhere. But there are some things, in my judgment, that we're going to have to go and research to figure out how to actually enter a process. But you're saying a process is in place that would address at least some of the issues that were raised in Black Lives Matters.
Press release.
And the last thing I'll say on that is, you gotta be practical in what you're at. And I have all due respect for Black Lives Matter, but there was really no way in a three week period to run a national primary across the country to allow voters to vote.
The logistics of that and who pays for that, and fifty seven state parties, and because recount the territory, recount the district, the logistics of all of that to happen while we're dealing with ballid access issues in Ohio, which requires us to certify by August seventh, with Washington State, which requires us to certify by August twentieth, with early voting starting September twentieth in Minnesota and in Democrats of Ward.
There are six million Democrats abroad. Their ballots go out September twentieth, all of.
This has to happen.
And when I say certified, I mean on a piece of paper the candidates signed in blue ink. It has to be notified and delivered to the Secretary of State's office in these various states. And that week of convention we got six states with deadlines, including California, and it's fifty four electoral votes. So all of this has to happen in the background, and it was logistically it would have been logistically impossible to not have a second primary season get all of that done, when in fact the
party has rules in place to govern a situation like this. Honestly, I'll tell you we've not had the four We've had a nominee drop out post primary, big catas right, So you have to rely on the people who we elected as Delais to represent us. And so what I would have advisors who are the delegates from the dougates.
And do a full court preson make sure that you have your own campaign behind the scenes, because the delegates actually are working for the people, so they should be engaged as well. It sounds like a lot of engagement needs to happen here. Thank you, Lead, Thank you for your service, Thank you for your service, and thank you for your sisterhood because it is real and I know you, I know what you're doing, what you're saying. I'm not
saying you're fighting every battle. But whenever we come to you with a perspective, I hear it from you later in some way, shape or form. So that's all that we can ask for. And just I love you so much, I.
Love you too to say I love you too. The last thing I'd say to people is listen, don't discount the importance of your engagement. We see people fighting us hard to get us not to be involved, to get us not to talk about issues around justice, around education, around safety, around freedom, to get us not to be involved in an electoral process, and you have to ask yourself, why are they fighting, Why they try so hard for
us to be quiet, for us to be unengaged. It's because they recognize our power more than we recognize our power. And so I just want to encourage you family to don't let them diminish you, or demean you, or dismiss you and the power and the authority that you have given to us by Creator God, but also given to us under this Constitution of the United States as amended. Be involved. It's your life, it's your children's life, it's
your community's life, it's your parent's life. And you can either be involved and help change things and make things better, or you can sit on the sideline and say I ain't got nothing to do with this saying about me, and I can't change things. You can change things. Every vote, every person matters. You are the most important person in your life, on your block, and you can make the difference. Thank you, Bishop Lea Daughtry. Thankye, sissy, So that was bishoply A Daughtry.
Hopefully you have more information about the process as the Democratic Party sees it. This is not to say that their process is the only process. I am a registered Democrat and I do work through the system. I also challenge the Democratic Party. There have been many times when I've had to have conversations with Bishop Daughtry and others. In this particular moment. The CEO of the convention is a black woman by the name of Minyon Moore, who is also a big.
Sister to me. But same with Mignon.
There have been many days and nights when I've called and I've said I don't like this, this doesn't make me feel comfortable, and they have educated me more on the system and how it actually works and how we can find ways to maneuver and also push.
For things to happen.
Sometimes it's deadlocked and there's no way, and that helps me to see and understand how much it is how important it is for us to have a viable third option. I truly believe that that should happen, and there's nothing just me being a registered Democrat does not stop me from saying that I advocate for a viable third party component, and not just one that any person can run on, but a really true progressive and liberal party that centers
black folks right like. I want to see that happen in my lifetime and I believe that it can happen. But it will only happen if we are able to have meeting of the minds to keep our at tension and the issues that we may have with one another in honest form, but behind closed doors. I do not believe that we will be able to build a party that people can truly believe in and get behind if the process to getting there is a bunch of folks just fighting on the internet and slinging shots at one another.
That's just my opinion. Others may feel it's the perfect way to get there. They may feel it's the birthing.
Of a new nation.
I don't know, but that's just not my opinion about it because I've watched in many situations how these women and others get together and work behind the scenes, through difficulties, through differences, through great critique to ensure that a Kamala Harris can become vice president and then ultimately be at the top of the ticket as a presidential candidate. I you know, watch them to help push to to for the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act and other bills,
child tax credit. I've watched them do these things, and do I think that we could all be doing a better job one hundred percent. They know I feel that way. They know that I believe there should, absolutely, one hundred thousand percent be a universal call for a ceasefire, and in fact, Bishop Daughtry is one of those who works with clergy around a ceasefire.
She sits on a calls.
With the President's staff, with the Vice president's staff, and
she advocates for ceasefire. She signed on to a letter with pastors all across this country that call for seaspire, which is which is if you know, some people will say, Okay, she signed on a letter and it was in the New York Times, So what that is very controversial for a person in her position because the way in which all people, Republicans, Democrats, all groups work, they do not want you to come out against what is happening with
the party right. They want you to side with them, support them, and just push them and talk to them about the changes that could be made on the sidelines. They believe that it is embarrassing. They believe that it is you know, it is in some ways it's a lack of loyalty to that particular party. And so let me just say it's two different things that I am saying today. I'm not saying that we can't push one another.
And if we did have a viable third party that had millions of dollars and people supporting and folks who actually vote on that particular ticket, I am not saying and there are some people who vote that way, but not in the numbers that's needed to actually accomplish putting an independent or third party candidate in the White House. And so I'm not saying that we should not be
able to push the party publicly. What I'm saying is that the development of such how we shape a party, how we get really serious people to be ambassadors and to go around this country bringing more minds, more bodies, more energy into something like that.
I believe that.
Work has to be done behind the scenes. But I've watched these women push, push and push, and they are respected in a lot of circles, and so I listen to them about the process because they know the details very specifically. But it does not mean that I don't have difference of opinion about whether the process is working, whether it's the right process, how the process needs to be changed, and so you know, I encourage you to
share your own opinions. I encourage Black Lives Matter and others, not that they need me to do so, to continue to speak out about process. But I also agree with Bishop Daughtry that we have to understand the rules and understand the process in order to be able to properly advocate.
For there to be changes. So thank you all so much.
You know, it's almost awkward to not have my song tell us today what he doesn't get. And I'm sure after these last two weeks of him being out there, you know, debating misinformation, dispelling myths, and talking about UH Vice President Kamala Harris her candidacy, that we will hear a whole bunch of things that he does not get, absolutely does not get. So we'll hear from him again
next week. And today I get the pleasure of saying that my son is not gonna always be right, and I'm definitely not gonna always be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always, be authentic.
He So check out the video version of TMO
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