Eleven Months Later

roughly two weeks following the insurrection. I want you all to think back to January sixth, which is coming up frankly on its anniversary, and when woke f returns live, it will be the anniversary week of the one six insurrection, which of course Donald Trump right now is saying was a red flag operation or a fake flag whatever the

fuck he's making up these days. But nonetheless, in the conversation that we would have with Stacy Plasket following the insurrection, it's just amazing to me because honestly, I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that we watched as thousands of enraged, rabbit foaming at the mouth white people descended on our Capitol building with Trump flags and Confederate flags, wearing Trump hats and screaming and spewing and beating police officers, whom you know they love, love to uplift right when

they're on quote unquote their side, meaning kneeling on the necks of black people, or beating us or murdering us, then they are for the police. But when the police are in fact trying to stop a riotous insurrectionist, treasonous ass mob from taking over our Capitol building, they had no problem with using violence. Remember five people, five people ended up dead that day. It's been eleven months since

the insurrection. It's been eleven months. And asked me how many people have been arrested by the thousands that you saw descend on the Capitol building. Well, according to insider dot com, seven hundred and twenty seven people have been charged, only seven hundred and twenty seven. Eleven months later, after one hundred and eighty seven minutes of uninterrupted violence of

please coming from inside of the Capitol Building. That we now have learned through the release of former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows text messages that Republicans from inside the chamber Republicans on Fox News, his own fucking son was trying to get hold of the President of the United States on that faithful day as he was sitting, no doubt, eating popcorn and popping bond bonds and just loving the fact that his adoring fans, who he had told us

straight up that he could kill somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and watch his poll numbers increase. He told us who these people were, and before he told us, Hillary Clinton told us that this basket of deplorable people would do anything and everything and believe anything and everything because somehow this magician Donald Trump had hypnotized them with the thing that we know is the most alluring for white America, which is the return to white supremacy and

dominant rule. He waved that in their faces like stakes in front of a starved crowd, and told them that he was going to return them to their glory days.

You know, the glory days of when white people would walk down the street and black people had to bow their heads and remove themselves from in front of them where they could walk into stores, and we had to address them as black people as miss and mister, while they referred to us as boy and girl, if not just the and word, that they could return to a time when segregation was the law of the land and they didn't have to feel bad or ikey about their

thoughts right, or the fact that they would cheer on lynchings and beatings in the same way that the George Floyd challenge right took social media by storm following Derek Chauvin's disgusting act of murdering an unarmed black man in cold blood in broad fucking daylight. These are Donald Trump's people, and over the course of four years he had fed

them a bunch of fucking lies. He appealed to their worst sense of self and allowed them right to free themselves from the confines and the shackles of their hoods, where they could just march with their tiki torches and their khaki pants down city streets, declaring that they were going to take their country back, declaring that they were not going to be overtaken by the Jews or their you know lasers that Marjorie Taylor Green said they had

in space that they could fully embrace their anti Semitism, their anti Islam, their anti everything that homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, misogyny could all be welcomed back in because how dare the political correctness of the twenty first century hold them hostage. They wanted their liberty, and they were willing to use fire extinguishers and battering rams and to concoct and build a full fucking guillotine on the st up said the Capitol Building, so that they could return to the days

that Donald Trump told them they could have back. Thousands of people descended on Washington, DC that faithful day. Donald Trump would tweet at them, tweet at the world, and say that one six was going to be wild. They were organizing in broad daylight, on Facebook, on TikTok, on every social media apparatus, saying what they were going to be doing. Did the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon, did they intervened? No? And why is that? What is the excuse? We've yet to hear it eleven months later. Oh, we

didn't think it would be that bad. Oh we thought that Donald Trump was going to use the trees and act. Oh we thought that we would get in trouble. No, No, none of those things really are true. They just knew that their whiteness would protect them. You see, policing was never set up in a way that it was meant to police white people. It was meant to protect white

people from everybody else them in their property. It's why right now Kyle Rittenhouse is the most famous Republican, a murtyrer that they are celebrating and fighting over to make their new intern. Donald Trump, after one hundred and eighty seven minutes of violence and bloodshed, would finally offer to the American people a statement in which he said, we love you. To the insurrectionists. Donald Trump never came out with force to say we need the National Guard, we

need police. These people are doing things in my name that I don't agree with. You never heard that out of the mouth of Donald Trump or Rudy Giuliani or any of the members of Fox News. No, only behind closed doors and in tweets that they thought would never be discovered, did they offer their truth their fear. This

is going to make us look bad. Laura Ingram said, this isn't good for us, because once again they were more concerned with their power and the perception thereof than anything else than the actual harm that they were doing.

It wouldn't be until June of twenty twenty one that, after a battle in Congress that barely barely passing the House of Representatives, did we get at one six commission six months after the insurrection, Kevin McCarthy would pull back all of his Republicans and only two, only two would decide that they were actually going to put country ahead of party. That would be Liz Cheney and Adam Kinsinger. You see, for the entire year, people have wanted to

hail Liz Cheney as some type of savior. Oh at least she has sense, they would say, this is the same woman who minds you voted over ninety percent of the time with Donald Trump. The only thing that Liz Cheney wouldn't go along with. She was totally fine withincarcerating and locking in cages undocumented children. She was totally fine with a rise in police brutality. She was totally fine

with the criminalization of immigration and people of color. She was also fine, up until recently, with the harassment and the persecution of lgbt people, one of which her sister is her dad. Dark Vader would move quicker on the issue of LGBTQ equality than Liz Cheney did. But it doesn't take much in these American streets these days to be hailed as a hero. All you have to do is state the fucking obvious. Donald Trump did not win

the election in twenty twenties. A matter of fact, every single document that has been uncovered by the one six Commission has shown the lengths at which all of the people around Donald Trump went to to ensure a second term, or maybe a never ending term like his Powell putin.

It's been eleven months, friends, and sadly, the FBI tells us that they are still quote working on identifying all of those people who descended on our Capitol building, defecated in its whole ways, stole property, threatened to hang the vice president of the United States, and yet we're able

to go back home. Yet recent reports from the New York Times tells us about the FBI infiltrating the protests in Oregon and other places back in twenty twenty because you know, those pesky black and brown people yelling about, you know, not being murdered in the streets and treated like second class citizens and dogs. They're so pesky and

they caused so much trouble. Not at all the alerts and the reports that told you for a decade that white supremacy was rising in this country and that the threat that we needed to be paying attention to wasn't isis, But the Boogoaloo Boys, the oath keepers and others. Where was the infiltration into the insurrectionists that were organizing out in broad daylight? But you wouldn't infiltrate your own because sadly, there were too many active military that participated in the insurrection.

There were too many active or former police officers that took out their trunk flags and stormed the capital on that day. In this upcoming conversation with Congresswoman Stacy Plasket, who also was an active voice and participating in the impeachment the second impeachment of the disgrace president, former President

Donald Trump. In this episode, we will talk to her and you will be reminded of where we were, how we were feeling as a nation on one six twenty one, how shaken to the core were we and had no idea what the year ahead would look like, but we were certain that it couldn't be fucking good if this is how we were starting. Coming up next, my conversation with the brilliant Congresswoman Stacy Plasket. It is so wonderful to have you back on wik af again, a Congresswoman Plaskic.

I am excited to talk to you because so much has happened since since the last time you joined us. So first of all, how have you been, how have you been since since our since our last time. I know that you were telling me about the COVID rates and the Virgin Islands and what has been happening and whether or not folks have been able to get tested. And now we have a new vaccine, so I'd love to know how things are, how things have been progressing

in the Virgin Islands right now. Well, thanks for asking about that. We have a really dedicated team and unlike I think other places around the country, Virgin Islanders are not only resilient, but they understand disaster. And so when there are directives that come from leadership, the governor stating that the way that we saved ourselves is socially distance

and to wear a mask, people understand that. And particularly for us, we have a culture that is very, very careful of our elders and so the notion that we might be getting them sick by not doing that thing that is really very it's very heartwrenching to us. And so we have been better, I think than other places about doing that. Our issue was always with our young people who don't want to follow the guidelines in the

same way. Along with visitors coming in, we're trying to implement test taking for those who want to come as a tourist destination. Because I know that the governor is really pulled as well because he wants to keep our economy going and so much of our GDP support and our revenues come from tourism, and so being sensitive to that. Creating a safe place for people to come down while at the same time doing that cognizant of a pandemic

has been a real challenge. I will say that one of the things that we are grateful for is that in Congress's legislation, the Virgin Islands has been included. So we're really trying to get our students back to school in a safe manner. We're trying to do distribution of the vaccine and of testing we have. You know, people

are in the States have distribution and shipping issues. Well, shipping issues become even larger when you are off of the mainland, and so they've been dealing with that as well. You know, my concern is that when the Biden Harris Camp administration comes on board, that there has to be an address of lost revenues to locations, to states, governments, and to municipalities because they're going to need the support to keep teachers and you know, local officials, police on

the street. And I know that's something that we are holding our breaths as the quarters to move track along that we will have a dip in those revenues. Yeah, you know, it's it's it's incredibly hard to watch as states and different municipalities struggle, right because the idea is that we want to keep capacity down. We don't want to have as many travelers, we don't want to have as many people eating in restaurants. And here in New York City where I am, you know, indoor dining is

closed again as as the numbers continue to spike. And so it's this fine line of being able to both keep people safe, but then also safety understanding is at economics as well. Right, So we cannot be truly safe when we have communities that are economically vulnerable. And so being able to understand both the push and the pull of where we find ourselves in the midst of this pandemic.

You know, we we we are at a place right now whereas you and I are speaking, we are at four hundred thousand deaths of the coronavirus, just something that is would have been unthinkable, right because when you look at the countries that come behind us, we're almost double the amount of deaths that they have had. And you say to yourself, how, how you know, how could that be? Can you remember when it was twenty thousand and we

were I passed twenty thousand, That's what I'm saying. And this this was you know, we we were, we were talking but a few months ago, and we hadn't reached, you know, into the hundreds of thousands. And so the rapidness, the rapid descent that we have seen in this country, UM, I think it shows our moral deficit um to taking care of one another. I want to talk about January sixth and were you I mean, because you know what, I can't. I can't see it. My anxiety has been

through the roof since. UM. I have been feeling incredibly uneasy and I can't. And as as we continue to see videos come out, as we continue to see reports of your fellow your fellow members of Congress, Congresswoman Aana Pressley talking about the fact that our panic button was ripped out of her office that we are talking about how vulnerable the black and people of color members were.

I want to know how you are feeling, how you felt that day, and how you were feeling now as this continues to as the investigations just get underway and things begin to unfold. Yeah, I for the most part, have been doing really well, and I've been doing a lot of check ins of some of my colleagues. I was not on the floor at the time. I just always feel like there's some hand, the ancestors are always

watching out for me. I happened to be in my office, was watching c SPAN and getting my jacket and getting myself together to go on the floor, and just happened to be turned around a couple of times and didn't leave the office when I recognize on c SPAN that

something had gone awry. But particularly I have been reaching out to my colleagues, my friends who were in the gallery port because the members who were on the floor, I know how real that trauma was, but they were with the way much faster than the ones who were in the gallery and kind of left there for a while before the Capitol police could get to them. Because the way of exit is not the same, and I recognize that they're not doing as well as some of

the others. And you know, Danielle, we were talking earlier about my other role as a mother. Yeah, that's you know, something that I've been doing is you know, because afterwards I checked my staff. I even called particularly the younger staff who weren't here. But I know that them seeing something like that is going to affect how they operate, and that those these young people who come to Washington

are so full of hope. I know they have so much passion, and to see an assault like that on our democracy and on people was something that I tried to help them work through. You know, I had a moment yesterday. It was a hard time for me, but I have to tell you I've really thrown myself into work, and the work that I'm doing I think is so

incredibly important as an impeachment manager. And Jamie Raskin's words, I saw him on cable news yesterday when he said he lost his son in twenty twenty and he'll be damned if he loses his country in twenty twenty one.

You know, I have had the good fortune of also speaking with Congressman, speaking with Representative Raskin, and to think about how committed you know, you have to be to this country, to the constitution, to this democracy, to be able to push through the unspeakable trauma of losing a child to now working so desperately not to lose a country.

Can you talk to us about what it is like to be an impeachment manager, what you what has come up for you as as as a representative, but also as as you know, just a believer in democracy, a believer in institution. Right yeah, um, well, you know, um, my legal career began in the Bronx District Attorney's office,

which is kind of a trial by fireplace. You're given a week of training and then you're sent assigned to a courtroom and giving a stack of cases and uh, you know, people pride themselves there on being very fast paced, night court, weekend, core, complaint room, the whole bit, And so I kind of took this the same way of

just throwing myself into it. But one of maybe the things that as well comes as a Bronx district attorney is being very i have to say, unemotional about criminal trial and just getting to the facts and to justice.

And I've really tried to be this way in working through how we are going to present this case is not getting caught up in the emotion of what we all experience, but how do we prove the elements of the crime place on January and leading up to January sixth, Right, because January sixth was the fulfillment of a conspiracy or throw this government. Insurrection doesn't occur at the beginning of an individual's time and office. It occurs at the end.

And this is classic to what our founding fathers anticipated when they were drafting the Constitution and discussed impeachment while an impeachment was going on in England, while they were having the conversation about putting impeachment, because impeachment is two parts. One, it is removing that individual from the clear and present danger that they prevent they present, but it is also preventing that individual or individuals from ever being able again

to do that. It's qualification of the person from being able to run for office, from receiving the trappings of what we give those individuals who were our former presidents. That doesn't just include the tax player, social Security retirement pay staff, and the others. It includes um you know, briefings, right, say, right? Do we want this individual to continue to have access to the leavers of power? Um, knowing what he will do to retain power for himself. Um. Those are the

reasons that we are having in this drib. You know, tell me what is different between the one article that we are looking at right now, which is incitement and insurrection, correct, versus what we were looking at, which in twenty nineteen, which was obstruction of justice? Right? What are the what are the what are the impeachment one point zero and now impeaching two point zero? Right? Two point zero is always bigger, better. The differences is that we've all seen

the crime. M. The difference is that not only were we all witnesses, but that the jurors were actually victims of the crime. That is going to be the difference in how this is presented. And the issue is now for these senators, if they are able as victims and continuing ongoing victims as they are threatened right by this president and by those conspirators who are with them with him, are they able to transcend that or to be protected

from that, to be able to render a verdict? Let me ask you this question too, So, Donald Trump has what roughly forty eight hours left as president of the United States. He is signaling that he is about to pardon roughly one hundred people, including himself, his family, his friends, if he is convicted in the Senate, which we still know as an uphill battle. Are these pardons potentially reversible?

Can they be stopped? Oh? That's that's a great scholarly constitutional issue, which you know, the conviction will of course, uh, you know, just thinking logically happen after the pardons of Dick and Plays. Probably not right. But the impeachment and the conviction, as well as the disqualification does not are separate and apart from any pardons. And additionally, of course there's always state crimes for which he is to probably have to deal with once leaving office, whether he is

impeached and convicted or not. Yeah, I you know, Congresswoman say that his crimes in the past, you know. And he can only pardon himself for that which he has already done, not that for which he could potentially do or any other individual. But this trial, this impeachment, for one, for those in the House, the impeachment was a constitutional duty, fulfillment of what many members, including those bold ten individuals on the Republican side felt was a fulfillment of their

constitutional duty. You know, pray for them as well, because they as well are being threatened right now for having taken that position. This is the only time in history when there has been such a bipartisan, resounding impeachment of a president. Right and now what we are doing is you hear this notion by many people of let's just move on the rush to healing, let the healing begin.

You know, jam and Raskin uses this term. A president does not get a senior skip day to act up and do what he wants to do because it's the last couple of weeks of his presidency. And these individuals who are purporting proposing this are saying that he's supposed to get skipped weeks as a president, and you know, it is the height of Also as a black person, I feel it's the height of a privilege. When I hear white men saying that we should put us what he did, forget about it, and let him move on.

It reminds me of my time in high school in boarding school, you know, going to a prep school as one of the few black people there. When senior year. People would kind of absolve the young white boys of misdeeds because you know, they've got this bright future ahead of them at Yale or wherever they were going to go. But don't you, ever black person try and do something like that, because you should be so grateful we had

given you this opportunity before and not be healing. And this country cannot continue to condone this bad behavior, this conspiracy, this absolute rending of our constitution in our democracy. We can continue to be a shining light and the greatest country if we deal head on with the issues that

we had. You know, throughout even last summer, when people were talking about systemic racism, I was really kind of ticked off when I would hear black people saying how ashamed they were of our country in comparison to others. I think the great thing about in America is that we do confront our issues where other countries kind of sweep them under the rug. You can't be a black person and live in France and ever be considered French. That's true. That's true. Is the happiest country in the

world is Denmark. And the reason it's the happiest country in the world is because they sold my grandparents and their land to the United States and paid off their debt and came out of depression, a depression financial depression that they were in, and use that money and those resources to make themselves happy. But they don't even discuss it. They never acknowledge that that happened. They're three hundred years

of slavery. So at least in the United States, we deal with our our wrongs, and we cannot at this point, just because of the amount of trauma and that this president has caused us simply pretend we can forget it, the rape and pillage and instructure that he is not exacted on this country and think that we're going to continue to be whole people if we don't deal and

make sure that the perpetrator has to pay. You know, when you say whole people, that really sits with me, because I don't think still to this day, to this point, that white Americans really understand how adversely racism affects them, how adversely white supremacy affects them, how it has affected our entire country, every every facet of it. I think to myself, where would America be if not for the

oppression and suppression of various marginalized groups. How much would our g DPB how much would we be you know, how how how big of a beacon and like could we be if we allowed all people to to attain their American dream, whatever the version of that American dream was one of the questions that I have for you, Congresswoman, is this You know you are a member also of

the Oversight UH Committee. There are conversations right now, reports that are being had that Republican members of your House um are part of this conspiracy, and there are calls for them to be removed. Right tours that were tours or as as some have said, reconnaissance right that was done with members of Congress leading these terrorists, these perpetrators around the Capitol the day before. How are they going

to be dealt with? Because I don't see how you all, right, that are that hold up our democracy can work shoulder to shoulder with those people that purposefully put you in harm's away. And frankly, it is only through the grace of God and luck that we did not see a

procession of funerals following January sixth. I have great confidence that the Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as our leadership are going to address that that this is not something that they have forgotten, not something that will not be addressed. Neither they or the members are going to allow that. And so I think as time goes on, you'll see

a greater discussion about that. Right now, I'm just singularly focused on, you know, the preparation with my colleagues for the trial at hand, But I know that those conversations are very, very real and that that's going to happen. But you know, Danielle, as as I keep when people ask me, do I feel safe around my colleagues? I mean, what black person in America ever truly feel safe? And you know, as as I, my sons have told me, you know, I need to keep my head on a

swivel until something is done. I'm grateful that the Speaker has really instituted some of the measures that he had She has and will enforce minds and other actions against

members who do not follow them. But let's remember that these members not only you know, there are the allegations of the reconnaissance of criminal conspirators, but there was also discussion of members carrying weapons as well, members tweeting out locations to groups during the insurrection, but members also refusing to wear masks and putting other members in harm's way physically because they cannot accept the truth. They cannot accept

the truth that President Donald Trump lost the election. You know, they don't want to accept the truth that in places like Philadelphia and Detroit and black people came out and vote because they don't want those to be counted as votes because we are not people, so therefore our votes don't count. And they don't want to accept the truth about COVID and this pandemic and what it means to America as well, and therefore they won't wear a mask

on top of that. It's just a travesty, really, Congresswoman, I know, thank you so much for your time. My final question for you, as you are in preparation for the impeachment trial, what are your hopes coming out of this, knowing the kind of Senate that we're facing, knowing that in a handful of days we are finally finally switching administrations are what are your hopes moving forward? As as

we move forward? Um, you know, I am just so incredibly grateful that we have the kind of staff and team that we have just preparing for this track trial from the judiciary and oversight staffers who are not sleeping from the time that we you know, the impeachment articles were drafted by members of the team who were in hiding and writing impeachment articles to a team which is

absolutely solidified and working together. And you know Jamie Raskin as the lead manager being so masterful and guiding us as our law school professor almost in this instance. But it's my hope that not only will the American people, but the Senate be awakened to the truth, that they have the courage to act upon that truth, because this will be a time that is not forgotten. I think as more information comes out, they would be mindful of

being on the right side of history in this. We know that this president is one who does not learn his lesson, yeah, and so he has to be contained. But I think that that will show the American people that the Republic is still standing and that we can move on while that is happening, to contain to bring to justice those individuals who have tried to shaken our republic,

that the republic continues. With the first five and ten days of this administration and the great things that they're going to do, and while the Senate, which is the greatest liberative body, works not only on an impeachment, but on confirmation and on a package to bring us to economic prosperity. Again, knowing that with us having Democrats having the House, the Senate, and the White House, that we are going to try and uplift those who have been forgotten not just in four years, but for a very

long time. That there's equality and education, in wealth creation, and in healthcare, so many things that so many Americans need moving forward. Congresswoman Stacy Plaskett, I can't thank you enough for your time. I can't thank you enough for your commitment to our democracy, and I wish you well as you prepare for the impeachment trial. And I just we can't thank you enough. So please stay safe. Can you also please take care of yourself because I see

how much this is affect did you as well? Thank you as your big sis, we need you well to keep keep your strong voice and the kind of intuitive, insightful and well researched questions that you have for us. All. Thank you be well, Okay, you take care. That is it for me today, Dear folks on woke as always Power to the people and to all the people. Power. Get woke and stay woke as fun