Tired of Speeches

I am. We are seeing decreases across the country, which is amazing and amazing, even though there have been more hospitalizations than in twenty twenty and in twenty twenty one, and we are still losing roughly two thousand Americans a day to this virus, where we have a preventable way to deal with it, with the vaccine, with the boosters, even the news that there are there is a stealth variant which is according to the CDC and the WHO, a variant of interest, but not a variant of concern.

Yet they're calling it a stealth variant, which you may have heard on the news because it is hard to detect, meaning that the rapid tests that we're using, the home tests that we're using are not picking up this variant. So what we do know is that this stealth variant is one that is not easily detectable. But according to the doctors right now that if in fact, you are vaccinated and you are boosted right now, it seems that, guess what, you won't get that sick, and you won't

be hospitalized and you won't die. So again, we know this from the patterns that we've been seeing since twenty twenty through now for two years. Right that we started with the alpha. Several months later there was delta, several months later there was omicron. So we cannot just assume right now because we see these decreases happening that that

means that, oh, we're all in the clear. Follow the patterns, and the patterns show us that they will most likely be another variant at some point right in the next several months. And so what should people be doing? Get your booster If you haven't gotten your booster shot, If you have family members and friends that have still not gotten the vaccine, and you're walking around with the vaccine, haven't lost an eye, haven't lost a limb, nothing is wrong with you. Encourage them to do so. But do

not put yourself in harm's away. Do not raise your blood pressure and put yourself in fight mode in order to deal with these people. Offer the information they know where to get it if they still choose not to go with God. But I will say that when I see the green across our states, with the decrease in the numbers, I have my shoulders. You dropped down a little bit, But I got to tell you that I'm

still on edge. I had a conversation that I actually want to share with all of you with my therapist, because last week I went back into studio for two days for specials for my other podcast, Democracy Ish, and I hadn't been on the subway since late November, hadn't been around of any groups of people. I've only done one on ones in my home, and I realize that I have become a bit agoraphobic. Right leaving my house.

I realize that there are days and when I say days, three, four or five days that go by and I realize that I haven't left, And then when I do, there is this sense of fear right that the outside and outside people outside of my COVID pods, outside of all are dangerous. So my therapist said to me, you know, I have been hearing this a lot, and I want to tell you that it is becoming the norm. But in order for it to not just become a normal

part of your personality, take walks. You know. I know that it's winter, seeing I'm a huge walker, but in all of the seasons except for when it's twenty degrees outside, which it has been in New York. She's like, just go for a walk around your block and then come back in. Just take in some fresh air. You know you will feel better your body, thank you, Just so that you're not asking yourself when you're throwing out the garbage,

when was the last time that I was outside? And that is kind of where I have been, And so I offer that and share it because I know that I'm not the only one that has been feeling this way. That if you are working from home and and you're at home, if you're working from there, if you have a spouse or a partner and they're also working from home and you're just staring at each other all day, every day, there is this monotony, this feeling of groundhogs

day that becomes really overwhelming at times. And so to take those breaks to go for a walk. So I offered that to all of you as we are beginning to see the decrease because we reach such an extraordinary peak, I mean where you're looking at six and seven hundred thousand people a day we're becoming infected. So there is

good news on the horizon. But I would say, while COVID tests are back in stock in your local pharmacies and online, buy them so that you just have them at home, that while there is chlorox and things like that, just I'm not saying to hoard them. I'm saying have a supply so that when we do reach another variant and we want to be doing testing and we want to be safe, that we don't have the sense of panic that we did over the holiday season. So I offered that bit of good news and kind of a

mixed bag. I gotta tell you that the end of last week, I felt like I was living inside of an article in the Onion headlines across the screen. Joe Biden heads to Pennsylvania to talk infrastructure as bridge collapses. This country is literally crumbling. Biden was on his way to someplace in Pennsylvania and right before he gets there an entire fucking bridge collapses. Thank god, as far as reports had shown that no one died. But if you saw the pictures or the video, there were cars, buses

right that were trapped now on this collapse bridge. And I want to just you know, Biden then would give an impassioned speech last week Friday, he would give this impassioned speech where he's angry and we need to fix these things and we can do it. And I'm just like, if you're not given that speech to Mansion, right, the man who didn't want to do infrastructure, if you're not talking about these things to him and Carsten Cinema, then

what difference does it make? Right? Like, what difference does it make? I'm tired of speeches like, literally, you're seeing bridges collapse. We will see more of that. We will see roads cave in, we will see tunnels breakdown. But so long as Republicans are able to put money in their pocket and the likes of Joe Manchon and Kursten Cinema are able to do the same, who gives a fuck about the rest of America. We're supposedly right, Oh, we're this best nation and we have shit collapsing in

the area that the President is going to visit. And this, of course, as reports say, this bridge has been rusting out for years and years and years, but we haven't done anything to fix it. And so here is where we are. You know, the same pictures you could see that in the storm that hit New York caused several months ago, where again on the news you're looking inside of subway stations and it was torrential downpour and it

looks like a fucking geyser is going is happening. But that's our public transit that millions of people have to use every single day. And we've been told for I don't know how many decades, Oh, we're going to fix the subway system. The subways are fucking built here in like the early twentieth century and they haven't had any improvements. Right, we get new cars, but not new tracks, not new tunnels.

So just think about this like we are. So we were so unprepared for a health pandemic because of our bullshit healthcare system. Right, you see why Asian countries were better prepared to do contact tracing and other places like that, because they have prepared. They used stars right as their indicator of things that need to get done. But in America, all we do is react, right, and it has to happen right in front of our fucking faces in order

for anything to get done. Because you could have looked at what had been going on in China and said, you know, if that happened in the United States, we'd be fucked and you would be right, but they would do nothing about it. It's just it's so frustrating and it's so obvious. But once again, what do we do. Nope, ain't got money, ain't got money for the poor, ain't got money for bridges. But we will give the Pentagon hundreds of millions of dollars over what they ask for.

They're the only ones that are flush. Meanwhile, is the Pentagon helping support your kids? Is the Pentagon making sure that you can get to work every day? No, it's not. But that's where all your fucking money is going. It's disgusting. Coming up in the show today is a really great conversation with our friend MSNBC legal analysts and host of

Justice Matters, Glenn Kirshner. And you know, Glenn is going to break down where we are with the latest round of insurrectionists with Bill Barr apparently complying with the one six commission, and what does that actually mean? John Eastman bragging about the fact that he pled the fifth over a hundred times, and what does that mean, and whether or not we are actually getting close right to anyone at the high level of the insurrection planning, if we're

getting close to them actually going down. The funny thing in the discussion with Glenn with regard to Eastman is Eastman pulled the same shit about his PowerPoint presentation, like, Oh, I don't know why anybody's taking this seriously. It wasn't a big deal, it wasn't meant to do anything. It's just for entertainment. It's just for bullshit. Blah blah, blah,

blah blah. This is the same fucking excuse if you remember, and I'll bring it up in the interview that Fox News said when Tucker Carlson was being sued, No one considers Tucker Carlson news. He's just entertainment. And the question that I asked to Glenn, and the question that I ask all the fucking time, is then why don't we have the FCC, which loves to regulate nudity and smoking and this, that and the other thing on all of

your movies and series that we all binge watch. Why aren't they doing that with Fox News right to ensure that people recognize that the information that you were about to consume is for your entertainment, not for your education. I think that that would go a long way to all of their Fox viewers that if the federal government decides, oh, yes, this isn't real news. You mean, it's just like cotton candy for my fucking brain. Yeah, then maybe they wouldn't

listen to everything that he says and take it as gospel. Folks, this month has been the longest the first month of January. January always fine to be the longest month, but also it just feels like twenty twenty two is going to

be a really aggressive year. So as I do and say all of the time, please make sure that you were taking time for yourself each and every day, whether it's a walk around the block or walk around your neighborhood, going out into your backyard, doing a stretch of meditation, gardening, taking your dogs, grandchildren, anyone, right, but just make sure that you were taking good care of your mental emotional physical health on a daily basis, because you know, the

more that I speak with my therapist who also knows, you know, what I do for a living, obviously, she's like, you know, people are unwell, They're not well, but the good news is is that a lot of folks are seeking help. And the funny thing she said to me is just like she said, your business is busy right now, so is mine. And I'm like, what does that even say that I'm busy as I followed the news and follow politics and society and culture on a regular basis.

And she's busy because people are at their wits fucking end, feeling alone, feeling isolated, feeling all of the things. So please do make sure you take good care of yourself. Coming up next is my conversation with our friend Glenn Kirshner. Folks, you know that I am always so excited when our friend MSNBC legal analysts and the host of Justice Matters. I'm Glenn Kirshner, Jen Kershner. This is where I am today.

Glenn Kershner joins us each and every week to walk us through the tangled web of lies and criminality that the Trump administrat former Trump administration continues to weave. Glenn. You know, every week we have been talking about the insurrectionists and the one six committee. This week is not going to be any different. Tell us the latest. Where we are, if one again one of the high profile insurrectionists, but we're not at the big fish yet, We're still

at these fairly low level folks. One of them was just denied the ability to wait for his trial at home and is finally, you know, being treated like an actual criminal, one that tried to overthrow the government. Tell Us where we are with Elmer Rhodes and his prosecution. Yeah, so Elmer, of course he keeps calling himself Stuart Rhodes, but his name is Elmer Stuart Rhodes. He reportedly hates the name Elmer. So, with apologies to all of the Elmers out there, Fudd and the others, let's take a

deep dive on this guy. Why, Because one he's the head of the Oathkeepers. That's going to tell us something about the Oathkeepers organization. And two he's Donald Trump's kind of guys. So let's see what we learned in court this week about Elmer Rhodes. Now, remember he's the guy who famously is wearing the eyepad. He's like an aspiring pirate. And the interesting piece about it is, I saw some reporting that I lost j Danielley there. Yep, I'm here. Okay,

your picture just went out of me. Yeah, so if you can't see, but I'm still here, ye okay. There's been some reporting that he was like kind of a half of firearms instructor somewhere and he shot his own eye out, So you know, Ralphie from the Christmas Story would laugh at this guy. He also went to Yale, but was disbarred as a lawyer in two thousand and seven. He also hasn't paid his federal income taxes since two thousand and seven. Here's the most horrific piece of who

Elmer Rhodes is. His own wife testified against him at the preliminary hearing, saying, among other things, he is violent and tried to control my behavior using firearms. He abused the beat our six children. I am scared to death of him. And also he had a series of escape tunnels buried in his backyard. That wasn't just her saying that that was presented by the prosecutors as a matter of fact. So he's wait, I'm sorry, what tunnels from his households had a series of escape tunnels built in

underground in his backyard. Feels to me like he's also a flight risk and a danger to the community, which are the two reasons a judge can detain somebody jailed somebody pending trial. And the judge ordered that Elmer would be jailed pending trial. Here's the other. So this is the head he has no fixed addressed by the way, once is a strange wife kicked him out. This is the head of the oath Keepers, oath Keeper's leadership, and

this is Donald Trump's kind of guy. So let's just understand what we're dealing with here with respect to the foot soldiers of the insurrection. And you're absolutely right, Danielle, they're still on the lower level, but with taking down guys like the head of the oath Keepers, we are at the top rung of the lowest level criminal food chain. We're still working up. We are working up. Here's the other thing I want to just share with your viewers

about the seditious Conspiracy investigation. It's being headed up by a prosecutor named Katherine Rakozzi, an assistant United States Attorney at the DCUs Attorney's office. Kate is somebody that I brought to the homicide section when I was chief. I tried Kate's first murder trial with her. And let me reassure the American people they will be extraordinarily well represented by a USA Kate Rakozi heading up the seditious conspiracy investigation.

She's a public servants, public servant. She's fearless, she is a hammer in a velvet glove. And I am so comforted knowing that she's had up that prosecution team. Um that I just wanted to share that with everybody. So I think on the seditious conspiracy piece against the oat keepers, we are moving in the right direction. So that was

some good news. So, you know, a couple of things about Elmer Stewart Rhodes that that I want to dig into, because again, you know, Donald Trump, to your point, only surrounds himself with the best people, right, and it seems like every lawyer that he has surrounded himself with has either been this barred, is on their way to being this barred, has lost their license, or is laughed at

among their colleagues. So um, you know what was interesting is that when the media was talking initially about Rhodes Is. Of course they led with the fact that he is this scholar from Yale. Right, so you're telling me that he went to Yale. Okay, yes, um? But then he lost his law license in two thousand seven. Do we know why he was disbarked? Do we know why? Court? In the court filings and part of the judge's findings in the case seventeen page findings. I recommend everybody read

it if they have a few minutes. The judge found that he was disbarred in two thousand and seven. There is no more talk in the court papers. But I'm sure you know, if we had some good Internet sleuths out there, they could pretty easily figure out because those are generally public records when somebody becomes disbarked why he

was disbarked. And you know, and you're a lawyer, so just you know, and I know that you don't know the jurisdiction for for for every single state, But in order to be disbarred, right, like, tell me about some of the things that you would have to do in order to to lose that license. Being disbarred is a lot like getting fired from the federal government. I've often said tongue in cheek that if you kill one person the federal government puts on probation, kill another, you're in trouble.

The same holds true. The same holds true with state bar counsel. Why because attorneys protect attorneys, politicians protect politicians. Yep, it's sad, but it's state of affairs in America. So to get disbarred, there are so many lesser sanctions than disbarment. There's letters of reprimand there's a suspension from the practice of law for a period of time. There are fines

that can be imposed. There are requirements that you repay a client if you have stolen your client's money, which I have to say is the lion's share of how attorneys get in trouble. They don't have appropriate escrow accounts for client funds, or they just outright steal them, like Michael Abnati did to Stormy Daniels. So there are probably ten lesser punishments that can and often are imposed against

lawyers who do wrong before disbarment. Disbarment is like the mother of all punishment, and it takes a lot to get disbarred. So I would love to know why. I just haven't had time to go into it why he was disbarred, because I promise you it was for dramatic misconduct. Huh. Okay, all right, So moving on from Stewart, we know that he is reprimanded to jail awaiting his trial. Do we know around about when that trial will begin because we

know that everything. Oh July, okay, great summer. It's a tentative trial date, and there's a backup trial date set farther down the road. And can I just tell you, because this is not intuitive, one of the reasons these trials are going to be pushed off into the future. One that's just federal prosecution, you know, business as usual, unfortunately from my perspective. But the second is what's called

the Brady challenge. So Brady is a Supreme Court case that says the prosecutors have to give give over every piece of information that could potentially help the defendant, that is exculpatory that the defendant might want to use in their defense. And right now we have I don't know how many terabytes. I don't know what a terabyte is, lots of lots of the locks. I really don't yeh, hurts and make sure that makes your giga hurts. I don't know what that means either, I'm un joked on

this morning, Danielle. I'm sorry. So, but there's so much information that the prosecutors have that has to be provided to the defense, literally like millions and millions of data hours that they have to pour through, and so making sure they get everything, every bit of electronic information that the prosecutors have that might help the defendant defend himself in court. I welcome and embrace the Brady requirement because that's how we give people fair trials, and everybody, including Elmer,

deserves a fair trial. So yeah, it's going to take some time. These trial dates are going to be pushed off into the future. People are going to be very upset, my self included, because it's it's justice delayed. But it is also making sure that the defendants have everything the Constitution demands before they are made to go to trial. Okay, all right. Pivoting now to the one six Committee and

where they are. So News of course breaks and says that America's worst former AG Bill Barr is quote cooperating with the committee. Now, my god, Glenn, over the last two plus years. You and I have laid out multiple ways in which Bill Barr should be in federal prison. Right, Like, the man was operating as Donald Trump's personal attorney when he was supposed to be the attorney for all of America.

He created mechanisms that would ensure that whatever was coming out in the Muller Report, he was like, oh, there's nothing here, right, remember his four page press conference. I mean, jaw dropping, right. But again, the lie will get around the corner before the truth even gets out the door. And that is what Bill Barr and the Trump administration knew and used all the time. So now he's cooperating, Why, Glenn,

Why to try to save his own skin? So and I have to add to your parade of horrible, Danielle, that Bill bar corrupted the Department of Justice and weaponized it to help Donald Trump's criminal associates like Mike Flynn and Rogerstone and punished Donald Trump's perceived enemies like Andrew McCabe and Michael Cohen. So everything that man did cries out, you know, for a need for accountability and prosecution of Bill Barr. But here's what's going on. In my estimation,

we're reading he leaves a little bit. But Bill Barr is cooperating. What does that mean. Well, first of all, Bill Barr resigned on December team, two days before the draft executive order by which Donald Trump was going to direct the military to cease unlawfully sees state property, all electronic voting equipment, all voting machines that would have been unlawful. I don't care what Richard Nixon said that if the

president does it, it's not illegal. That's nonsense. Bill Barr got out right before everything was going to break really bad. And what Bill Barr did was he took all of that information about how democracy was about to be killed or there was an attempted murder plot on our democracy,

and he kept it to himself. That's Bill Barr running out of a burning building, leaving all the men, women and children inside when he absolutely could have saved them, or could have done something to save them, he didn't. He's despicable. He's an enemy of the state, period, and he needs to be held accountable, not for political reasons, but because he violated the law in any number of ways. But how Select Committee is welcoming him, welcoming him in

with open arms. Well, Bill come tell us what you know about Donald Trump. Now, I suspect that part of that is the fact that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So if Bill Barr has incriminating information about Donald Trump, I would want it as well as a prosecutor, and I'm sure the House Select Committee wants

it for purposes of its investigation. Now, they will have to keep their questioning of Bill Barr very narrow so as to avoid Bill from having to in the vocus fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, which he absolutely has in any number of ways. But I think they want that information that could incriminate Donald Trump, and they have to navigate Bill Barr in a way that allows them to get that information. And it gives the illusion like

Bill Barr is cooperating. But Bill Barr is not cooperating at a sense of civic duty or a sense of patriotism, or a desire to see Donald Trump and his criminal associates held accountable. He's cooperating if at all, to save his own skin. If I were dealing with Bill Barr as a federal prosecutor, he would be cooperating as well, because he would be indicted for all of his crimes and then I would flip him. That is how Bill

Barr ought to be cooperating. I just you know, Glenn, I still really do not understand with the mountain with the everest of mountains of documentation of Bill Barr's own words. I remember his CBS interview, right, you remember his CBS the CBS interview where he was like, well, I don't care, I'm old and I'm retiring. So basically, everybody, right, my legacy, what about your legacy? It doesn't matter, right, slide and

done a lot wrong and exactly so. So do we believe that this person who when national television instead basically I don't give a damn right. Do we think that he honestly would flip against Donald Trump to save himself from dying in prison. I do believe he would. Of course, the House Select Committee doesn't have the ability to write him in prison unless he know thumbs his nose at a subpoena and they decided to use their power of

inherent content. How likely is that we can maybe talk about New Gingrich in a minute, because he delivered a gift to the Democrats. But no, I don't believe Bill Barr is being forthcoming for any reason other than he thinks it's in Bill Barr's interest to be forthcoming. And here's the thing, Danielle, think about the people who are

not cooperating with the J six Committee. Mark Meadows, who still needs to be criminally indicted, and hopefully he will be now that the Supreme Court has shot down Donald Trump's executive privilege claim. You know Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, the cover Up Caucus, you know who they kid, Kevin McCarthy and John Eastman, a few of these other idiots. But more than four hundred people are cooperating and have

testified and have prevent that presented documentary evidence. So think about the small slice of people who are not cooperating. You know what the House Select Committee has on Bill Barr right now? From those four hundred people, they have hundreds and hundreds I suspect of electronic communications where Bill Barr was caught saying X, Y and Z to people.

And that's hard evidence that they can bring in Bill Barr and confront him with and say, okay, Bill, here's your email saying you're going to do X, Y and Z. Here's your email received from Mark Meadows, Kevin McCarthy saying X, Y, and Z, we got you. You want it, you want to cooperate, at least in a limited way. That's kind of where they are with the bill bars of the world and the handful of other people who are bucking their subpoenas, they're going to be on the losing end.

Those people are going to be on the losing end at the end of the day. So you know, I'm the last one to say be patient. I lose my patience every minute of every day, and then I try to take myself back down off the ledge and look for signs of hope. So you know, I still think we're going to get there. I know that rings hollow, and I know it feels like the voice crying wolf, but I think we're going to get there, all right.

So let's go to John Eastman, right, my favorite idiot who just goes on television, just says a lot of things, brag about the over one hundred times that he played the fifth. How is it that you plead the fifth and then you go on television, you go on podcasts and you say, oh, I did it one hundred and forty times. Do innocent people do that? No? Because the law regarding invocation of your Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, the law says you may not unless your truthful testimony

would actually incriminate. You would actually give the government, the people interviewing or interrogating or deposing you give them information that tended to show you committed a crime. Now, it's a Fifth Amendment right, we all have it. I embrace it, I support it. I'll fight for your right to invoke it. But it does tell us something, right, It tells us that John Eastman, very likely, by his own admission, committed any number of crimes. And here's what and how does

he get to go on podcasts and get away with it. Well, he hasn't been locked up for the crimes he committed. Now maybe he will be in the future. I certainly hope he will be. But that's how he gets to do all this. It is by the Department of Justice is in action at least thus far. But it's even worse because he gave a Once he got caught with that treasonous memo that he wrote how to for Fun and Profit, he went on TV and he said, my memo, my memo was a thought experiment, and anybody who took

my memo seriously is and I quote crazy. He is trashing his own legal memo. What does that tell you consciousness of guilt? He knows what treason is that memo is. It's no different than Mark Meadows saying my book is fake news. Mark Meadows went on air with Fox and when confronted with passages in his book that were critical of Donald Trump, he said, oh, that's fake news. Dude. They quoted you from your book. He's willing to emasculate

himself and say my own book is fake news. John Eastman is willing to say my own memo is crazy. But all of that is evidence that I would use to incriminate them because it shows their consciousness of guilt. Danielle, we just have to get these cases in front of a jury. This is this, but this is the same thing that essentially, you know, Fox News did when they were brought in when they were bringing in Tucker Carlson. Oh, Tucker,

that's not news, it's entertainment. So how is it, Glenn, that legally these people can continue to spread lies, write trees in its memos, go on national television say all of these things, rile up tens of thousands or in the case of the number one podcaster or in the world, Joe Rogan rile up hundred million people and then turn around and say, oh, well, no one should be listening

to me anyway. Where the hell is the FCC. If that is actually the case, if it's just entertainment, then why can't we slap stickers on their mouths that say they're clowns? It's for entertainment. And to answer the question, how can any of this this be done legally? It can't be done legally. Ask the question if a bank robber commits a bank robbery and the FEDS never bother investigating and arresting the bank robber, how could the bank robber have done it legally? The answer is the same.

They're not doing it legally. The question is when will they be held accountable for what they're doing illegally? And the FCC piece, which I love to talk about because we're so afraid of regulating, legislating, and then litigating in the First Amendment arena, right, Oh my goodness, the press has a First Amendment right that we don't want to trample on. That is what gives that fear and timidity, and frankly it's a fear of failure, embarrassment, and criticism.

That fear and timidity is why the Fox propaganda network gets to thrive because we don't do anything about it. I've been saying all along, the FCC should regulate against it, the Congress should legislate against it, and then when that regulation and that legislation is challenged, we litigate our position known that we're not going to tolerate Fox News doing things that are inherently and imminently dangerous to our people.

But if we don't regulate and we don't legislate, and then when it's attacked, we don't litigate and defend our position, then Fox propaganda wins and Americans die. But we're so afraid of criticism, and we're so timid, and we're so concerned about somebody saying we're trampling on the First Amendment.

I love the First Amendment. I'll fight like hell for your right even to stand up and spout things like, you know your white supremacist nonsense, you're Nazi nonsense, you're you know, you have the right to talk about that, even though you're a despicable human being. And I'm going to fight to make sure, you're never in power, but as long as you're not inspiring imminent violence, we get to talk, we get to speak our mind, but we don't.

If we don't regulate, legislate, and then litigate, we've already lost and we're not even in the fight. So I wish we had politicians Danielle who had the spine to do these things, you know, because I just I'm so tired, Glenn.

I got to be honest, because you know, as I'm listening to you too, I'm thinking about the fact that Sarah Palin finds herself in my city right now, right because of things that she said, the promotion that she did, a violence on her own website, and then Gabby Gifford's is shot, right, and other people are killed, and it's just like, oh, but it's an NPR made a false equivalency between what was put on her website and violence

that happened. Oh, Donald Trump can be up on a stage saying go take your country back, fight, fight, fight, and then there's an insurrection and oh, it was just words like give me a break here at this point, like do they need to be standing with the gun in their hand? Do they need to be standing next to the gallows in order for us to connect the dots here legally and hold these people accountable. We're letting the Nazis and the white supremacists and the xenophobic forces

in this country win. We're letting them win because we're not fighting the fight. Why we're not fighting the fight, I don't know. I mean embarrassment and timidity and fear of loss in court answers the question, but not fully to my satisfaction. I sure hope both parties aren't more aligned than we know. I hope that's not you know, you know, I hope that's not true. I hope it's just not about both sides keeping power. But I don't

know it. You know, we're close to giving it all away, and you and I we're fighting every day, every every day. The last thing before I let you go today. Obviously, the news of Justice Bryer deciding to retire. This does not equalize the conservative, radical Supreme Court that we have. It is just basically a swap, a democratic swap. But what do you make of the President's assertion once again that the replacement will in fact be a black woman,

that it's long overdue. Is this just you know, once again pageantry and let me pat the community on my head or does this actually have some merit? No, it's not just pageantry. And for the President to say, you know, we have ignored segments of our population for sodang Long and I am not going to allow that to continue. And so I will nominate an imminently qualified African American woman to be a Supreme Court justice that gives me a quality goose bumps. Is it enough? No? Is it?

But is it important that now for all time? And I get emotional because I have I raised five daughters, they're all grown and we got the grandchildren rolling in now. But I want to use another example of why I think this is so important. I also have a son, and I when I say things like anybody can be president, that resonates with my son. I don't believe it resonates with my daughters because they say, yeah, prove it, hold one up, show me an example of a woman president,

and I can't. But you know what, any woman, any African American woman, can be a Supreme Court Justice of the United States, and can be vice president and hopefully one day can also be president. But when we use platitudes like that and trite sayings, let's go behind it and say, yeah, prove it. Joe Biden is proving it. That is important. It's so important. Can I tell a quick story. I had a ten year old so I twenty two of my thirty years as a prosecutor, I

handled murder cases in Washington, DC. And I had a ten year old young man, his name was Chris, who was an eyewitness to a horrific murder of a guy who was kind of a local drug dealer in his neighborhood. That Chris knew. Ten year old Chris knew because he you know, he would see him on the corner hustle and every day when Chris would go to and from school. Unfortunately, Chris witnessed the murder and he was one of the

only witnesses. And it always broke my heart when it was children who got pulled into the violence in DC. The reality was I had to develop a relationship with Chris. I had to ask him about this horrible thing he saw, and then I had to prepare him to testify in a public trial. Who wants to do that to a

ten year old? So Chris's mom brought him to my office and I always, you know, because I have so many kids myself, I spend a long long time in the run up to having to ask the horrific question, now, Chris, what did you see that day? So I spent a lot of time trying to develop a relationship with him, talk about school and his friends and his activities and what he likes and how his teachers. And I have standard lines that I throw out, as most parents and

grandparents will. I'm like, you know, so, Chris, who's your who's your who's your teacher? My teacher is Miss Brown? And Miss Brown, oh I heard she's kind of mean. He's like, no, no, no, Miss I love Miss Brown. So I'm playing and we're trying to and I will tell you. He was an African American ten year old boy. This was during the Obama era administration, and he went

to a private school in DC. He was wearing like a little blazer and he had a polo shirt and he had a pair of packies on, which was the private school uniform. He also had close cut hair, he had ears that kind of stuck out. He had a medium medium complexion. And I'm looking at him and I said, and I ask everybody in DC adults and child or like, you have a nickname? Said yeah, said well, what's your nickname? He said, my friends call me Obama. And at that moment,

I get emotional, just tell the story. At that moment, I saw the resemblance like he was like a little ten year old Barack Obama. And so I asked him, I said, Chris, do you like your nickname? Because you know, sometimes kids will put a nickname on you and you're not happy about your nickname. And he like, he got really proud, and he said, yeah, I love my nickname.

And it's like, okay, If that's not a little bit of hope, a ten year old young man who saw this horrible thing, who is so proud that his nickname is the President of the United States, our first African American president, If that's not a little bit of hope, and if that doesn't show the importance of people in positions on the Supreme Court or high government officials who our kids get to look at and emulate and be

proud of and aspire to be. If that's not a little bit of hope, I don't know what is now. In the years since my hope has been walked deep into the woods and killed dead from time to time because of what we've experienced, you know, but that is a story that has always stuck with me about the importance of President Obama and the importance of what Joe Biden is about to do. You know, Glenn, I tell you that there are days when we both get off

of these interviews and I feel not that great. And I will tell you that today that story really hit me where I needed to remember where my heart and hope is because it does it. Representation does matter, Diversity does matter, and not just for diversity's sake, because the women that will be brought up to face a Senate confirmation hearing will be the best that this country has to offer. But the attention being given to the fact that they had this group black women have been overlooked

for far too long is an important one. So thank you so much for that reminder, for that story, for leaving us today with a little bit more hopefulness than we started out. I always appreciate you and the conversations we get to have. Thank you, Daniel, Thank you. That is it for me today. Folks on woke app as always, power to the people and to all the people power, get woke, and stay woke as fuck.